The wicked stepmother has been a mainstay in fiction since before the Brothers Grimm became grim. No fairy tale was complete without one, but the one in Cinderella was particularly vicious and cruel. So easy to hate. Maybe too easy? Author Rachel Hochhauser decides to remedy that in her novel, Lady Tremaine. This is not a modernization of the original story, but a recasting, a ... Read More...
Daughter of Egypt
Two young women, separated by thousands of years, stand at the center of Marie Benedict’s new novel, Daughter of Egypt. One is the daughter of a wealthy English lord in post-WWI England while the other is a pharaoh’s daughter in ancient Egypt. Only one has a life predestined by the gods, but both will have to fight to live the life they believe should be theirs. Evelyn ... Read More...
All the Water in the World
The time has come. Thanks to climate change coastal cities are being abandoned for those further inland. In Manhattan, a small group of people has stayed behind, creating an encampment on top of the American Museum of Natural History in an effort to protect and document the treasure trove of man’s history it contains. Nonie is the daughter of two of the researchers working ... Read More...
More 2024 Reading I Loved
I’m back with more books I loved in 2024. On Friday I shared the fact that almost all my 5-star favorite books for the year were backlist, but I still wanted to give a shoutout to this wide variety of new releases I thought were wonderful. Each provided me with the escape I wanted in a year that was a lot to handle. Mysteries and thrillers came on strong for me ... Read More...
July Reading Wrap-Up
Hello, lovely readers! I’m sorry for my absence at the end of July but a whole lot of life—some of it very happy, some of it not so much—got in the way of my reading and reviewing. The happy was a family wedding and the not-fun was experiencing COVID for the first time. Wow. Even being fully vaccinated I’ve been laid low. You know it’s bad when even reading is beyond me. ... Read More...
Every Time We Say Goodbye
I loved both of the novels in the Jane Austen series by Natalie Jenner so was delighted to learn it’s a trilogy with the third book newly released. Every Time We Say Goodbye follows the indomitable Vivien, the writer and intimidating brunette who was introduced in The Bloomsbury Girls. World War II has finally ended and she’s one of the many to have lost a loved one as her ... Read More...
