25. A Presumption of Death

By: Jill Paton Walsh & Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

I rated this down a little simply because I think I am starting to get burned out a little with these books. But I have to say that Jill Paton Walsh does a very good job of capturing Dorothy Sayer's voice. I sure wish she would do more of them. After a little change of pace I would be happy to revisit Lord Peter and Harriet. Below is a blurb from Barnes and Nobel.

"While Lord Peter is abroad on a secret mission, Harriet Vane, now Lady Peter Wimsey, takes their children to safety in the country. But there's no escape from war: rumors of spies abound, glamorous RAF pilots and flirtatious land-girls scandalize the villagers, and the blackout makes rural lanes as sinister as London's alleys. And when a practice air-raid ends with a young woman's death, it's almost a shock to hear that the cause is not enemy action, but murder. Or is it? With Peter away, Harriet sets out to find out whodunit...and the chilling reason why."

23. The Kingmaking

By Helen Hollick
Rated 5 Stars+

I ordered this book from Amazon's marketplace solely because I enjoyed Hollicks A Hollow Crown and Harold The King so much. I certainly wasn't all that interested in another take King Arthur since I have already read so many different ones that my eyes threatened to glaze over a little at the thought. But I do love Hollick's take on historical characters so I took the leap. Boy am I glad I did. Hollick is going to be an automatic must read author for me from here on. Below is a blurb from amazon. It pretty much agrees with my assessment:

"In this first volume of what promises to be a monumental historical trilogy, rookie British author Hollick depicts Arthur's rise from A.D. 450, when he was a 15-year-old boy of hidden parentage, to A.D. 457, when he took his place as the King Arthur of legend. The story combines private emotions and public statecraft as marriages, alliances and enemies are made and unmade to suit the politics of the era. Hollick mixes elements from fifth-century history, myth, early romances, contemporary fantasy and other novels about Arthur, adding her own inventions for good measure. The treatment of Gwenhwyfar and her love for Arthur (depicted here as star-crossed even without Lancelot's help) is especially vivid. Though the novel contains no supernatural aspects, with its exotic setting, passionate characters and epic battles and intrigue, it still should appeal to the fantasy fans to whom most Arthurian adventures are addressed. The language, too, is influenced by genre fantasy, especially in its dramatic descriptions and reliance on archaisms; but this big-hearted novel's historical speculations alone should make it of interest to the non-fantasy reader as well.
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24. The Venetian Mask

By Rosalind Laker
Rated 5 Stars

Laker has the historical romance down cold. In her sixteenth, she spins a successfully readable tale set in late-eighteenth-century Venice. The novel's central characters are three women who meet and become lifelong friends in the Ospedale della Pieta, Venice's renowned musical conservatory for orphaned girls. Against all odds, the three women suffer to preserve the lasting ties between them. Elena, betrothed to nobleman Marco Celano, is forced to marry Marco's jealous brother, Filippo, when, days before the wedding, Marco is stricken with fever and dies; Marietta later marries Domenico Torrisi, the sworn enemy of Filippo Celano, and she and Elena are forbidden to see one another; Adrianna, the oldest, is the critical link and, for years, arranges clandestine meetings between the friends. Doses of tyranny, adventure, merriment, and sentimentalism are tastefully sprinkled throughout. An enjoyable sojourn to another time and place.

22. Thrones, Dominions

By Dorothy L. Sayers & Jillion Paton Walsh
Rated: 5 Stars

When I finished reading the last page of the last Lord Peter story I was sad because it was her last book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series and since Ms Sayers had died there was no hope of there going to be anymore. So I was so pleased when I discovered that someone had picked up the story. Is Ms Walsh's writing just the same as Ms Sayers? No, of course not, but she does have a good feel for the subject,

The story picks up a few months after Busman's Honeymoon. Lord Peter and Harriet have returned to their London residence, Harriet is still trying to adjust to her new lifestyle and both are struggling with Peter's family. A murder takes place involving a young couple with which they are acquainted. Peter and Parker solve the crime with the assistance of Harriet and Bunter.

The scenes of the Wimseys' domestic life are wonderful, and well written. Harriet finally standing up to her overbearing sister-in-law is fantastic! There are many delightful journal enteries from the Dowager Duchess as well as scenes with many old friends from previous novels.

21. Lady MacBeth

By Susan Frazer King
Rated 5+ Stars

Since Dunnett's King Hereafter is one of my favorite books EVER and her Groa and Thorfinn have permanent places in my heart I was a little apprehensive about having another author mess around with the story. But Jani assured me I would like this one and since Jani's taste in books and mine always seem to agree, plus the fact that she sent me the book after she reviewed it guaranteed that I was going to read it. It's great! Here is a blurb from my library's website:

Celtic magic mixed with early Christianity weaves through this retelling of the life of the legendary, power-mad Scottish queen. All the elements of Shakespeare's famous play are present: the betrayals, the magic, the medieval setting, and the bloody rise of Macbeth from lord to king through murder. But King in her hardcover debut draws on the historical record and research done by the great historical novelist Dorothy Dunnett for King Hereafter to rework the familiar story from the viewpoint of Macbeth's lady, whose name according to an 11th-century document was Gruadh. She was of Scots royal blood, and thus it can be gathered, and as King retells it, that she was from an early age a pawn for power. T

20. The Fiction Class

By Susan Breen
Rated 5 Stars

Arabella Hicks was named after the main character in a romance novel, and this seems to lead her life in the trajectory of all things fiction. She's seven years into writing her novel, and her day job is teaching a fiction class in Manhattan. The rest of her time is taken up by her difficult mother, who's suffering from Parkinson's and living in a nursing home. Breen, a teacher at Gotham Writers' Workshop, structures her first novel as a treat for any fiction lover. Each chapter starts with Arabella's weekly fiction class and its topic, for example, "character" or "point of view." We get to sit in as she explains the subject matter and closes with an exercise for her students to work on at home. The students in the class are another set of characters, some wacky and some sweet, and one handsome older man, Chuck, flirts endlessly with Arabella. Arabella's class, her novel, a possible relationship with Chuck, and stressful visits to her mother, who might also have an interest in writing fiction, converge into a poignant, lovely read.

19. Body and Soul

Rated 4 Stars. Would have been 5+ but...

It was written for the most part in that &^$#@ *&%$!@ Stream of Consciousness style. ARGGGGGGG! I can't tell you how much I hate that. If the story hadn't been so darn good I would have wall banged this sucker. But it was a very powerful and compelling story although the basic plot was kind of predictable so I hung in there to the end.

FROM AMAZON: Thirty-one year old Anna has been cloistered in a strict convent in Wales for 13 years when she is called home to England to look after her brother's widow, children, and the family business. Already doubting her calling, Anna is thrown into a world that has changed dramatically since she left. She finds that she desperately misses the things that she will never have as a nun. Her habit starts to become a prison rather than a sanctuary. She must come to terms with her sexuality and her power as a woman and at the same time resolve her spiritual questions. Bernstein has written a very thoughtful and elegant book. Her dialog is faultless and her visual images rich. Most of the characters, especially the nuns, are well drawn and believable.

18. The Winter Rose

By Jennifer Donnelly
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

When India Selwyn Jones, a young woman from a noble family, graduates from the London School of Medicine for Women in 1900, her professors advise her to set up her practice in London's esteemed Harley Street. Driven and idealistic, India chooses to work in the city's East End instead, serving the desperately poor. In these grim streets, India meets--and saves the life of--London's most notorious gangster, Sid Malone. A hard, wounded man, Malone is the opposite of India's aristocratic fiancé, Freddie Lytton, a rising star in the House of Commons. Though Malone represents all she despises, India finds herself unwillingly drawn ever closer to him, intrigued by his hidden, mysterious past.--From publisher's description.

17. Chosen by a Horse

Rated 4 Stars

I read this book on Diane's recommendation. This is another one of those books I wouldn't have thought to read on my own. Thanks Diane!

"A new chapter opens for Susan Richards when she agrees to care for an abused horse rescued by the local SPCA." "Her life has been difficult: her mother died when she was five and she was sent to live with unsympathetic and abusive relatives; she married unhappily and was divorced; she'd been an alcoholic. Now, at the age of forty-three, she lives with three horses who keep her company: diva-like Georgia, a Morgan mare, and Tempo and Hotshot, both quarter horse geldings." "At the SPCA Susan finds twenty sick, exhausted mares, together with their foals, milling about the muddy paddock. The horse she selected by name is impossible to find among the panicked herd. So, when an emaciated bay mare stumbles up the ramp to the trailer, followed by her foal, Susan agrees to take her. The mare's name is Lay Me Down, and with her arrival, Susan finds that she has acquired more than a horse: she has found a friend whose unstinting love makes it possible for Susan, in turn, to heal from the wounds that she has suffered, and respond to love."--BOOK JACKET.

16. The House at Riverton

By Kate Morton
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

Recommended to my by Tammy this is a turn of the century mystery with a riveting plot, a touching but tense love story and a haunting ending.

At 14, Grace Reeves leaves home to work for her mother's former employers at Riverton House. She is the same age as Hannah, the headstrong middle child who visits her uncle, Lord Ashbury, at Riverton House with her siblings Emmeline and David. Fascinated, Grace observes their comings and goings and, as an invisible maid, is privy to the secrets she will spend a lifetime pretending to forget. But when a filmmaker working on a movie about the family contacts a 98-year-old Grace to fact-check particulars, the memories come swirling back. The plot largely revolves around sisters Hannah and Emmeline, who were present when a family friend, the young poet R.S. Hunter, allegedly committed suicide at Riverton. Grace hints throughout the narrative that no one knows the real story, and as she chronicles Hannah's schemes to have her own life and the curdling of younger Emmeline's jealousy, the truth about the poet's death is revealed.

14. The Commoner

Rated 5 Stars
By John Burnham Schwartz


This was a great change of pace book for me. It is a fictionalized account of the Japanese royal family as they transition from a pre WWII mindset to the more modern Japan that has been changed almost beyond recognition. I highly recommend this book.

"It is 1959 when Haruko, a young woman of good family, marries the Crown Prince of Japan, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is the first nonaristocratic woman to enter the mysterious, almost hermetically sealed, and longest-running monarchy in the world. Met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress and her minions, Haruko is controlled at every turn. The only interest the court has in Haruko is her ability to produce an heir. After finally giving birth to a son, she suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. However, determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, Haruko perseveres. Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman - a rising star in the foreign ministry - to accept the marriage proposal of her son, the Crown Prince. The consequences are tragic and dramatic." "Told in Haruko's voice, The Commoner is the story of a brutally rarefied and controlled existence at once hidden and exposed, and of a complex relationship between two isolated women who, despite being visible to all, are truly understood only by each other."--BOOK JACKET.

15. Firefly Lane

By Kristen Hannah
Rated 3 Stars

From THE LIBRARY REVIEW: "A touching story of the friendship between two very different women. Cee Cee Bloom, with her loud mouth, loud personality and flaming red hair, is determined to become a Hollywood star. Bertie White, delicate and conservative, hopes for a loving husband and family. They meet as children in 1951 in Atlantic City, and, as pen pals, keep in touch with each other. Their reunions through the years always occur at or near the beach, whether in Sarasota, Malibu or Hawaii. Their story jumps back and forth between past and present. Cee Cee and Bertie are genuine, and readers will like them and understand why they are friends. Both characters suffer much, particularly Bertie, whose life seems most unjust. Young adults will be pulled into their lives, caring greatly about them and the steady stream of tragedies that befall them. In a particularly moving ending, Cee Cee leaves a show in the middle of production to care for Bertie, who is dying of cancer."

Oh wait, this review is for Beaches, by Iris Dart. Sorry about that, I got confused there for a minute. But Kristen Hannah does a pretty good job with this story too. Change a few dates, a few names, the location and Presto, your in business. I also Liked it when she used Bob Woodward's injury in Iraq to add a little extra drama to the story. Very touching.