Any Duchess Will Do (Spindle Cove, Book Four): Tessa Dare

"What's a duke to do, when the girl who's perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can't live without?

"Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season--or any season--but his diabolical mother abducts him to 'Spinster Cove' and insist he select a bride from the ladies in residence.  Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever.  He chooses the serving girl.

"Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn't dream about dukes.  All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop.  That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week's employment.  Her duties are simple:  submit to his mother's 'duchess training'...and fail miserably.

"But in London, Pauline isn't a miserable failure.  She's a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure--a woman who ignites Griff's desire and soothes the darkness in his soul.  Keeping Pauline by his side won't be easy.  Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess--can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?"

Whoops!  I read this book out of order (which is something I HATE to do), but it was quite on accident.  I follow (wonderful) romance author Teresa Medeiros on Facebook and she sometimes advertises Amazon sales for her fellow writers' books.  This book happened to pop up and I was already in need of some new reading material (I'm currently enjoying some time off from work for once).  I purchased it and began reading right away.  I was immediately enthralled--even though I quickly realized that this was not the first book in the series.  Paulina and Griff were rich, deep characters with so many interesting facets.  Their backstories were extremely well-developed and it was impossible not to fall in love with both of them.

The beginning of the story was amusing--if a little bit out there--and I am sure I would have only appreciated it more had I read the books in order and previously been exposed to Griff.  I thoroughly enjoyed the banter and dynamics between Griff and his mother.  They certainly provided for some interesting reading.  Paulina was really enjoyable as well.  She was chipped and scuffed, but she really did shine brightly amongst the pantheon of some of my favorite female characters.  The plot managed to be whimsical, yet remain mostly believable, which is really nice.  It was filled with amusing moments and had the right amount of seriousness and depth that makes for a wonderful "for-fun" read.  It was the perfect book to read on vacation.  I'm definitely going to see if I can find more of Tessa Dare's books to read on my phone/iPad.  The idea of a "Spinster Cove" was charming.  I was definitely drawn into the plot and really cannot wait to get my hands on the first book in the series to see where this all began.  Tessa Dare really impressed me with the beauty and eloquence of her writing.  I highly recommend this book and I'm optimistically stating that the rest of the books should be along this same quality.  I'll be sure to let you know!

Tempting a Proper Lady (Brides of Nevarton Chase, Book One): Debra Mullins

"A Most Improper Alliance

"Two years ago, dashing Captain Samuel Breedlove disappeared without a word.  But he's resurfaced in London a wealthy man, only to discover his fiancee preparing to wed another.  Now Samuel needs to restore his good name and expose a villain--and tempting, temptable Cilla seems an idea accomplice.

"Priscilla Burke knows the marriage of her charge, Annabelle Bailey, to the Earl of Raventhorp must be perfect.  It would be madness for her to even consider doing anything that would mar this beautiful day and destroy her fledgling career as a wedding planner.  Why then is she so drawn to this irresistible stranger who insists she help him sabotage the impending affair?

"But a proper lady's desire is nothing to toy with.  And a man whose character has been questioned cannot allow himself to dream of happily ever after.  This not-so-innocent seduction may have unforeseen consequences..."

I'm back again after another unfortunate hiatus thanks to my massive course-load and full-time job.  I began this book about a year ago, actually.  I'm ashamed to say that it took me this long to finish it.  Those who have read my other posts know that I have a habit of devouring books fairly quickly.  Part of what took me so long to read this book was my busy schedule and the other is the fact that the story (and its characters) were a little bit unbelievable.  (The most telling thing here is that I use my busy schedule as a poor excuse, but I know deep down that nothing can really keep me from finishing a good book.)  It was pleasantly interesting, but nothing that made me salivate to read more.  I did not care nearly enough about the male lead in the story, Samuel.  This, I truly believe, is one of the things that makes or breaks a romance novel.  In order to lose herself in a book such as this one, the reader needs to fall head-over-heels for the "hero."  She has to believe that this is the most wonderful (if flawed) man in the world and she has to think he is the dreamiest and most charming and passionate person she could possibly imagine spending her life with.  She has to wish she were in the "heroine's" place.  This book did not make me feel strongly enough for Samuel and this was perhaps where it fell most short.  There was definite effort made to create sympathy for Samuel, but it was just shy of where it needed to be in order to make the book a success.  Priscilla's character was along the same lines.  I felt a bit more for her than I did for Samuel, but not by that much.  She fell a little bit flat for me as well.  Her story was a little bit sad, but could have been made tragic with a bit more effort.  The relationship between these characters was too...contrived for me to enjoy.  I feel like it was too obviously fictional for me to truly lose myself.  Lord Raventhorp was a good villain, but he wasn't in the book very much for so much of the plot to be revolving around his nefarious plans.

This is not the first Debra Mullins book I've read, but I don't recall having these issues with that one...  I just went back and checked.  I've actually read two other books by Debra Mullins and actually seemed to have really, absolutely enjoyed them...  Interesting...  Those books were fun and the characters had fire.  I think those were the things that were missing from this book.  The fire was lacking even in the most intense of scenes.  The ending itself was even a bit anticlimactic.  Overall, the characters were a bit on the shallow side, the plot was a bit unbelievable, and the ending was a bit hollow.  This won't prevent me from reading other Debra Mullins works because I've obviously enjoyed them in the past; see the following links HERE and HERE.  I realize that tastes change over the years (note that the first review is from 2009, the second from 2011), but not this drastically.

A Tryst in Time: Eugenia Riley

"THE DREAM

"Belle Fontaine was a relic of Louisiana's gracious past, a crumbling Civil War plantation house, where shadowy images seemed to flit between the shifting pools of sunlight, and haunting melodies echoed through the empty rooms.  For Sarah Jennings it was a refuge from the consolable sorrow of her brother's death in the Vietnam War, a place where she could lose herself in swirling dreams of a dark-eyed lover who called to her across the years...

"THE FULFILLMENT

"Damien, too, had lost a brother to war--the War between the States--but in Sarah's soft embrace he found a sweet ecstasy that made life worth living again.  If only he could fathom the mystery surrounding her arrival at Belle Fontaine, if only he knew whether they were to share more than a brief tryst in time."

It has been an unconscionably long time since I last reviewed a book!  I'm actually ashamed!  Well, I've made it back on here and I fully intend to do a better job.  It's going to be a real challenge because the fall semester starts tomorrow and I'm going to be pretty overloaded working full-time and going to school full-time.  This is what I get for wanting to be a college professor!

Anyway, onto the review of this book.  I'm afraid it's not going to be super in-depth because this book wasn't one of my favorites.  The biggest reason for this was the terribly, horribly unrealistic and antiquated dialogue.  It really wrecks the break from reality when the dialogue isn't believable.  A man and a woman walking around sighing, "Oh my love!" over and over again is not what I would call realistic.  Not to mention the quickness with which Sarah and Damien fell madly, deeply in love was a little bit too sudden for me.  I don't feel like I ever really loved the characters.  I don't think they had enough depth for me.  While it was sad that both main characters had lost their brothers to horrible deaths in different wars, that was about all I cared about.  I didn't feel that much empathy for either of them, which is a little bit disappointing.  While the actual time travel aspect was interesting, I wasn't entirely thrilled with the fuzzy logistics of it.  I know it was meant to be that way, but there seemed to be some contradictions throughout the plot.  What I did find interesting was the search that Sarah performed while trying to find out whether or not she belonged in the past.  It reminded me of the hunting that any good genealogist would have to go through.  That journey, in particular, was what helped me get through the latter half of the book.  Overall, the characters were somewhat flat and disappointing.  The dialogue was probably some of the most flowery, overly-dramatic, and unbelievable that I've ever read.  The plot was alright, but nothing all that special.  I doubt I'll be reading anymore books by Riley even though I'm sure I have a couple of hers on my shelves.  This book was not my cup of tea.

The House on Mango Street: Sandra Cisneros

"Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught everywhere from grade school to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero.  Told in a series of vignettes--sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous--it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become.  Few other books in our time have touched so many readers."

Yet again, this is a book that was assigned for my Multicultural American Novel course I am enrolled in at my university.  This book was an extremely quick read for me, due in part because I am such a quick reader, but probably also because it was easy.  I don't mean "easy" in the sense that it was simply written in the "poorly done" sense, but that its structure was pleasingly simple to read.  As stated in the synopses above, it is told in a series of vignettes.  While I went into reading the book knowing this, I do not think I would have appreciated it nearly as much had I not read the introduction.  If memory serves me, the author stated that she intended for the book to be accessible to someone who does not have a lot of time to read.  The book was structured so it could be picked up sporadically and at any point, and the reader would still be able to understand and enjoy it.  I tested out this theory and opened the book to a random page before I began my initial reading of the work.  It was a little one-page passage and I was surprised that I understood--and even enjoyed it a little bit--without having any backstory or context.  As an avid reader and writer, this structure was an entirely new concept to me.  I believe that it is what made this book interesting.  To be honest, I think it's what made me finish it so easily.  Here I go again sounding like I don't really enjoy multicultural literature, but I feel like I've heard this "struggling Latina girl" story so many times before.  The fact that this one was told in a new fashion made it fresh.  There wasn't really a cohesive story being told, so I don't feel right in commenting on "plot" and whatnot.  I do believe that the snippets (that seems like an excellent descriptor here) were relatable and--while they seemed to sometimes chronicle the most mundane of things--they managed to maintain my attention because they didn't linger on themselves for too long.  The fact that they were most often not longer than a page meant that a new story would begin shortly; and, if I didn't like the one that was currently being told, then something else would start in a few lines.  Esperanza appears to be the story's narrator but, because of the unorthodox way this story was told, it makes it difficult to really know a lot about the other characters and get a "feel" for them.  I had a bit of a difficult time even determining who Esperanza was, other than the Latina girl who wanted to be free of the bad neighborhood.  Overall, this was not a bad read.  To those that are apprehensive, I want to remind you that this book is a quick read.  If you don't like it, it doesn't take up too much of your time.  I didn't think it was a bad read, but I don't think it was "excellent."  I know there are many out there who would disagree with me, but I DID give this book a chance and I believe I am giving Cisneros her dues for the unique and interesting writing style.

The Help: Kathryn Stockett

"Aibileen Clark is a black main in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, raising her seventeenth white child.  She's always taken orders quietly, but lately it leaves her with a bitterness she can no longer bite back.  Her friend Minny Jackson has certainly never held her tongue, or held onto a job for very long, but now she's working for a newcomer with secrets that leave her speechless.  And white socialite Skeeter Phelan has just returned from college with ambition and a degree but, to her mother's lament, no husband.  Normally Skeeter would find solace in Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, but Constantine has inexplicably disappeared.

"Together, these seemingly different women join to work on a project that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town--to write, in secret, a tell-all book about what it's really like to work as a black maid in the white homes of the South.  Despite the terrible risks they will have to take, and the sometimes humorous boundaries they will have to cross, these three women unite with one intention:  hope for a better day."

This book was assigned for my Multicultural American Novel course.  I was excited as soon as I saw it on the syllabus, but wished we were going to read it earlier in the semester.  This past week was Spring Break, so I took advantage of the respite from my incessant homework and essays to read this book.  I had already signed up to analyze the book and compare it to the film (which I have yet to see) for my final project and told myself that reading ahead of the syllabus was only going to help me have a better final.  I picked up the book as soon as I was able and read it in a matter of only a few days.  Overall it was extremely captivating.  The characters were rich and the writing was very enjoyable to read.  I love it when it just feels natural to read a book.

The way the author chose to tell her story through the points of view of Aibileene, Minny, and Miss Skeeter was brilliant.  Rather than an omniscient narrator, the first-person narration and its limitations made the story much more interesting.  I found myself wrapped up in the characters.  It was so much easier for the reader to put herself in the shoes of the characters and fall in love with the story because of this narration choice.  The reader sees and experiences only what that singular character does.  Rather than feeling jumpy and disjointed, the story felt much more--for lack of a better description--“comfortable” and inviting.  The characters really felt alive, like the story that I was reading was brought to life by their unique personalities.  If asked who my favorite “heroin” was, I do not know if I could choose between the three main characters.  Aibileen was such a mother figure that it was difficult not to fall in love with her.  The way she cares for poor little Mae Mobley really tugged at my heart--perhaps due mostly to the way that the little girl was treated by her mother, Elizabeth.  I cannot imagine anyone I know would treat their child in that exclusionary manner.  What really hit me, though, was that--after reading this book--I’m sure it happened (even happens) a lot more than we think.  For all those children who feel smothered by their mothers, there opposite side of the spectrum seems to be an even worse alternative.  I enjoyed reading Minny’s passages as well.  She puts up such a hard façade and it was nice to see another side of her.  I found her job working for Miss Cindy particularly interesting.  Her new employer is shrouded in mystery, which only made me want to read more quickly so I could find out what was really going on with that odd woman.  The contrast of Minny’s home-life with how she behaves in public was another facet of her character that interested me.  The juxtaposition of her strength in public coupled with the way she coped with her husband felt very (depressingly) real.  In a backwards way, it endeared Minny to me.  (Having not been in a situation like Minny’s, I know it is easy for an outsider to say how easy freedom could be.  I’m a little bit ashamed to say that I am disappointed in Minny in that aspect.  I did especially loved finding out about the Terrible Awful Thing Minny did to Miss Hilly…I won’t give it away though!)  Miss Skeeter was enjoyable because she was so relatable.  I think almost every reader can relate to her in some way (being an educated woman when it’s not something that is necessarily embraced, losing love over an inability to see eye-to-eye, a pushy mother, the pressure to conform to society’s norms and what one’s friends expect of her, or even just being that awkward girl who took awhile to come into her own).  It sounds cliché, but I can see a little bit of myself in Skeeter and I think that’s what made it so much fun to read.  She was extremely easy to connect with and the fluidity of her passages was refreshing after the dialectical elements of Minny and Aibileen’s.  (That is another thing that I really appreciated about the writing:  The fact that the author took the time to make each of her characters literally sound different!)

The plot was unique and controversial.  While I do not have the authority to say that it’s never been done before, I will say that the way it was written and the brilliant characters definitely made it stand out.  Apart from the shining main narrators/characters, the “villains” were remarkably interesting as well.  They helped make the story so much more believable.  Hilly’s cruelties were numerous and shocking.  The fact that she managed to hurt or control practically everyone who appeared in the book was fascinating.  The depth of her manipulation and depravity and her lack of conscience were appalling.  I couldn’t help but hate her.  I love it when there is a character like that!  Elizabeth Leefolt, while not exactly a villain, was made cruel by her inaction when it came to her children and her maid, and her weak will when it came to Miss Hilly.  The only times she ever showed any emotion toward her children were when Mae Mobley was “bad”.  These scenes broke my heart because I know that there is some child out there that has had these experiences.  (It only solidified the resolve I already had to speak to my children the way Aibileen spoke to Mae Mobley.)

If you cannot tell from my review, I absolutely loved the book.  (I wish the ending had been a little bit more satisfying, but I think that would have made it less realistic.  There was not always a happy ending in the struggle for Civil Rights.)  I am so looking forward to watching the movie now--I’ve even made my boyfriend promise to watch it with me.  Sweet torture.  I laughed so many times while reading this book because the humor managed to lighten the piece without diminishing its dramatic impact.  Not to sound racist or uncaring, but I’ve always had a hard time staying interested while studying the Civil Rights Movement.  This book brought it to life for me in a way that history class was never able to.  Though a work of fiction, there was enough historical impact in this book to make me feel like I was being exposed to a time that I’d never before really cared for.  And I enjoyed it.  I absolutely recommend this book on so many levels and to so many different people.  This book has the remarkable ability to be read for entertainment as well as for something more sober like an analysis of Multicultural Literature (as I did).  While I would not recommend this book to someone as young as I’ve seen read it (I know some girls around thirteen who have picked up this book because of Emma Stone’s involvement in the film adaptation) purely for the reason that I do not believe they’re able to grasp all of the nuances just yet or understand why some acts of violence are described, I believe this novel is a fantastic tool for a great variety of readers to witness (and subconsciously learn) acceptance and appreciation.  I would LOVE to hear what others have thought about this book!  Please feel free to comment with your interpretations, input, and thoughts on this work.

*I will be watching this movie soon so I may be updating my review with my opinions of the movie adaptation!  Keep an eye out for it! 

A Mercy: Toni Morrison

"In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy.  Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North.  Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland.  This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm.  Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding to their lives.

"A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery.  But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and daughter--a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise the abandonment."

This was another book that I read for my Multicultural American novel course.  I can certainly see why Toni Morrison is the winner of the Nobel Prize.  Her writing has something about it that is profoudly deep and almost lyrical.  This book took me only a few days to read.  While I enjoyed parts of it, there were the passages from the point of view of Florens that really, really...baffled (is that the word I want to use...I'm not so sure) me.  I practically got to the point of actually disliking the portions from the girl's point of view.  I really do understand that the point of these passages was to breathe life into the character, Florens, and show that--while she knew how to read and write some--she was still untrained and "simple"-for lack of a better word.  The plot was extremely jumpy and was hard to follow, but I was able to catch up after re-reading passages.  It is very difficult for me to say whether or not I enjoyed the book.  I liked it better than a lot of books that I've had to read for other classes in the past, but it certainly was not my favorite.  The wrting--while rich and interesting--was sometimes difficult to follow.  I genuinely believe that the only reason that I somewhat liked the book was only because I forced myself to look deeper than the words.  I will not try to dispute Morrison's status as a well-known and widely touted brilliant author, but this book was not really the most delicious cup of tea for me.  Like I said earlier, I liked portions of the book.  The work as a whole was not bad.  I am just not sure if I will--by my own choice--choose to read a book by Morrison in my free time.  I recommend this book for the conditions under which I read it--in a classroom/educational setting.  It was a decent book with interesting situations and history to the plot, but one really has to be open to it.

Shell Shaker: LeAnne Howe

“Why was Red Shoes, the most formidable Choctaw warrior of the eighteenth century, assassinated by his own people?  Why does his death haunt Auda Billy, an Oklahoma Choctaw woman, accused in 1991 of murdering Choctaw Chief Redford McAlester?  Moving between the known details of Red Shoes’ life and the riddle of McAlester’s death, this novel traces the history of the Billy women whose destiny it is to solve both murders—with the help of a powerful spirit known as the Shell Shaker.”

As you may have guessed, this was another book that was not of my own choosing.  It was another novel for my Multicultural American Novel course.  My instructor has Native American blood, so this course has a couple of Native American books assigned.  Shell Shaker was obviously one of them.

I must say that the first chapter did a pretty good job of drawing me in.  I love historical fiction, so the portions told from Shakbatina’s and the other eighteenth century Native Americans’ points of view were interesting to me.  I was expecting to feel the same way about the “modern” portions of the story, but, unfortunately, I did not.  As much as I appreciated the unique way that the story was told—flipping back and forth between the past lives of the characters and the present—I did not feel any sort of attachment to them.  They felt very flat.  I think this is perhaps because the author spent so much time working on making connections between the characters’ past and present selves that there was not enough time to really round them out.  On top of it, the story had so many different characters and was told from several different points of view.  This hindered my creating an attachment to any one or two characters.  I felt very little sympathy for anyone other than the first character I was introduced to:  Shakbatina.  Even Auda, who has terrible things done to her and does suffer, seemed very “fake”. (I’m sure there’s a better word to be used here, but I cannot find it.  I simply mean that she wasn’t fleshed out enough for me.)  Rather than sympathy, I felt pity.  I know it is easy for me to say that it’s stupid because I have never been in such a situation, but I have a hard time connecting with female characters who allow themselves to be led on, tricked, abused, and they choose to remain in that situation.  Overall, I would have to say that I connected the most with Isaac Billy.  His kind heart and quick wit were very endearing.

I wish I had enjoyed this book more.  It was a fairly quick read, but I wish I’d relished the process.  I am not a fan of “magic” books and this was one of those.  I’m not against the supernatural, but this one was a little bit too over the top for me.  I’m sure that there are those out there who love this book—more power to them.  This one was just not for me—not terrible!  Just not for me.

The Chosen: Chiam Potok

“It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again....

“This is the odyssey from boyhood to manhood for two Jewish boys amidst the conflict between generations and religious traditions.” – courtesy of Barnes & Noble.com because my copy had no summary.

This book was an assigned reading for my Multicultural American Novel course.  I will admit that I was hesitant to begin reading it and—not to sound anti-Semitic (which I am not…I’m dating a Jewish man)—but I really did not want to read a book about Jewish children growing up during WWII.  I had absolutely no desire to read something on this topic.  As I read further, however, I did not feel as if I was reading an assigned book.  It was definitely the writing that encouraged me to continue on.  I even brought this book on vacation with me and found myself enjoying it.  The writing style was easy to read and kept me very interested.  Where I was pretty off-put by the subject matter, I grew a little more interested in the boys’ struggles as the book went on.  I even found myself asking my Jewish boyfriend for clarification on some words, teachings, and practices where my limited knowledge of Judaism failed me.  Therefore, this book exposed me to a whole new culture and made me interested without me even realizing it.

The contrast between Danny and Reuven was really what made the book.  Their characters felt so real that I couldn’t help but feel for them.  This book was truly artful and masterful.  The boys’ unlikely friendship was touching and made all the more interesting by its tumultuousness.  Some history-laden portions were a little bit slow reading, but—now that I’ve finished the book—I can see how integral they were to understanding the characters.  While I cannot say that I would necessarily choose to pick up a book on this subject, I did end up enjoying this piece.  Potok is a gifted author and one that certainly belongs in the greats of Multicultural American novels.