Solomon's Crown: what if a historical rumor was true?

Solomon’s Crown by Natasha Siegel is set in twelfth-century Europe as newly crowned King Philip of France is determined to restore his nation to its former empire and bring glory to his name. His greatest enemy, King Henry of England, threatens to end his reign before it begins, Philip is forced to make a perilous alliance with Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, the man history would know as Richard the Lionheart. Philip risks his throne as well as his heart. Richard was never supposed to be king but when family tragedy makes him heir to the English throne, he finally has the opportunity to overthrow his father. His alliance with Philip is simply a tool for his vengeful quest, he begins to question if the crown is truly worth it. As Philip and Richard face an imminent war, they must choose between their desires or their place in history.

There has been speculation among historians about Richard’s sexuality and the possibility of a sexual relationship with Phillip. Taking a historical rumor and imagining a scenario that might give truth to the rumor, with royal intrigue and betrayal, Solomon’s Crown imagines a romance between the two real-life kings faced with an impossible choice. The author does take a lot of liberties with the history. Ms. Siegel acknowledges this fact in her preface as she states her intentions was not to create an historically accurate story. Overall, the story was interesting; however, it was not the book for me. It wasn’t a bad book, the premise was intriguing but the story was slow moving and not enough to keep my attention. It just wasn't what I thought it would be. If you are interested in an alternative historical story, I recommend checking out Solomon’s Crown. 

Solomon’s Crown is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook. 

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle: during desperate times, there is strength in community and individuals

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle by Jennifer Ryan is the story of three bold women lift the spirits of homefront brides in wartime Britain where clothes rations have put a damper on celebrations, especially weddings. When renowned fashion couturier Cressida Westcott loses her home and her design house in the London Blitz, she has nowhere to go but back to the family manor. Her niece, Violet Westcott, is thrilled and awestruck that her famous aunt is at Aldhurst Manor. Life has been unbelievably dull as life is put on hold while the men fight overseas. But soon she is conscripted into service and her dull, boring routine is about to take an interesting turn. Grace Carlisle, the local vicar’s daughter, is trying to repair her mother’s wedding gown. When she meets Cressida at the local Sewing Circle, Grace asks for her help. Cressida is more than willing to help. Soon the Sewing Circle is motivated into action as they offer their services to help other brides. In a time of war, these women work hard to celebrate love. Can they even find it for themselves? 

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle was inspired by true events as Ms. Ryan grew up listening to her grandmother’s stories about life during WWII. From the very beginning, the mood and atmosphere captured me as the British people are striving to keep a stiff upper life and to carry on. I have read many stories about WWII and this book is the first in my memory that focused on the experiences on the homefront. Cressida, Violet and Grace are three very different women who strive for similar goals: love and a life that matters. I thoroughly enjoyed reading their experiences and their strength to rise to the challenges that wartime can bring. I especially enjoyed seeing Violet’s growth from a spoiled debutante to a capable woman who underestimated her own intelligence. Ms. Ryan is a new author to me and I look forward to reading more of her books in the future. At its heart, The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle is about strength in community, in individuals and strength to overall life’s challenges. I thoroughly enjoyed The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle and highly recommend it! 

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle 

is available May 31, 2022 in hardcover, eBook and audiobook

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An Ordinary Life: one woman's journey through turbulent times

An Ordinary Life by Amanda Prowse is a story of one woman’s life as she lives through World War II and settles into life after. The story opens on Christmas Eve, 2019, Ninety-four year old Molly sets to write an important letter, a letter she has put off for far too long. She wakes up in the hospital, having suffered a stroke. While she has lost the ability to speak, her mind is still active and alive with her memories. The story then transports us to London, 1940s, as a young, nineteen year old Molly tries to find an excuse not to go out with friends. Little does she know that this night will change her life forever. She meets and falls in love with a man who makes her forget everything with one dance and all is right with the world. But the realities of war forces her to make an unforgettable sacrifice and she finds herself going undercover for the French Resistance and other dangerous activities, all in the name of the war effort. As the war comes to an end and life returns to normal, Molly finds herself witnessing the ever-changing world with a heavy secret on her heart, a secret that only her sister knows. Witness a life of courage, strength and unbelievable love of a life that is anything but ordinary. 

With a title like An Ordinary Life, you know you are on a roller coaster of a life which is not so ordinary. From the opening prologue to the closing epilogue, Molly’s story is one of heartache and sacrifice as she must find a way to survive. At one part, a character tells Molly that war changes everything as time is compressed and stolen. It is so true as the rest of her story is one of compressed and stolen time. Despite the passage of time, her memories are vivid as if the events were yesterday. I loved Molly’s spunk and determination. She wanted a life more than was expected of her and boy, did she live it. An Ordinary Life is a beautiful story of courage, strength and love. A story of finding the love of your life and doing your best to fit a lifetime of love in the time you have because with war, you never know if you’ll get any more. Despite the loss and heartache she experiences, Molly is able to fill her life with love, family and experiences that anyone would consider an extraordinary life. Ms. Prowse does not disappoint for a story of high emotions, personal sacrifice and life lessons learned. I highly recommend An Ordinary Life. 

An Ordinary Life is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook. 

The Glittering Hour: a mother's story and her daughter's discovery

The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey is the story of Alice Carew, a nine-year-old girl left at her grandparents’ estate, Blackwood Park, in Wiltshire while her parents, Rupert and Selina, are on a business trip to Burma in 1936. After she writes to her mother about how lonely she is, her mother decides to have a treasure hunt in which she will leave clues in her letters for Alice to follow around the estate. When Alice finds the location of the clue, a letter her mother leaves for her, tells her a story which corresponds to that location. It is at this point the story flips to the summer of 1925 when 20-year-old Selina was a young and wild woman. Along with her group of friends, known as the Bright Young People, her escapades were front page news. As the story flips back and forth between 1936 and 1925, Alice is taken on a journey of freedom, societal expectations and love. What will Selina’s story reveal to Alice? What secret has she been hiding all these years?

The Glittering Hour is filled with discovery, heartbreak and love. There is so much about this story that I wish I could talk about; however, spoilers, I can’t. The story is told in two parts. Part 1 was a bit slow and left me wondering where the story was leading. However, Part 2 blew wide open with a story of love, sacrifice, fear and learning about real love is. Ms. Grey wove a story so intriguing that even the slow parts kept you wondering if she was hiding a clue to the mystery and you kept reading. And as I kept reading the more intrigued, I was. I enjoyed Alice as the little girl who loved her mother and wished her home. Even the characters you were supposed to dislike, like her grandmother, Lady Lennox, you begin to feel for the woman who didn’t know how to do anything else but keep a sift upper lip. As the story ended, I had tears running down my face. I highly recommend The Glittering Hour!

The Glittering Hour

is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook

Stone Devil Duke: a standard but enjoyable romance novel

Stone Devil Duke by KJ Jackson is the first book in the Hold Your Breath series. It is the love story of Augustine “Aggie” Christopherson and Devin Williams Stephenson, the 12th Duke of Dunway. Aggie is on a quest for revenge after her father is murdered and her older brother goes missing. She is on the hunt for the killers when she meets Devin, who is immediately intrigued by her. Although they resist each other, they soon find themselves drawn together by when a misunderstanding of impropriety. Soon it becomes apparent there is someone out there who wants Aggie dead. As they learn about each other’s past, still on the hunt for those who want to harm Aggie, the two began to heal from the past and fall in love. Will they find the man behind her father’s murder? Is her brother still alive?

Stone Devil Duke is a standard romance novel which was followed the typical formula. The heroine/damsel in distress is a bit unconventional which draws in the roguish man who most of society would have told her to stay away from. That being said, I still enjoyed Stone Devil Duke. I loved the interactions between Aggie and Devin. I like the drama around the mystery of who is behind Aggie’s father’s murder and who is after her. There are two other books, Unmasking the Marquess and My Captain, My Earl, in this series which feature characters we see in this book. I look forward to reading those stories as well. If you are fan of romance novels, you will enjoy Stone Devil Duke.

Stone Devil Duke

is available in paperback and eBook

Unmasking the Marquess and My Captain, My Earl

are also available in paperback and eBook

Shadow Among Sheaves: a love story inspired by the Book of Ruth

Shadow Among Sheaves by Naomi Stephens is a historical romance inspired by the love story of Ruth and Boaz of the Bible. The story opens in July 1861, Rena is an Indian woman who is traveling with her mother in law, Lady Nell Hawley after the deaths of her husband, Edric, and father in law, Alistair. Rena and Nell find themselves in dire straits as people refuse to help the women. The Indian Mutiny of 1857 is still fresh in everyone’s mind and Rena is seen as the enemy. In desperation, Rena picks up grains which have fallen on the ground when she is caught by the estate’s steward, William. He takes pity on her and allows her to gather what she can carry. When the lord of the Manor, Lord Barric, sees Rena in the fields, she allows her to take whatever she needs. Soon Barric helps the women when so many had turned their backs. As the attraction between Rena and Barric is undeniable, will they allow love to blossom? Or will society and prejudice keep them apart?

I loved Shadow Among Sheaves. It was a great story with a great twist on the story of Ruth and Boaz. Having read their story so many times, I never imagined that Ruth, as a stranger from a strange land, could have suffered the prejudice that Rena does. However, it makes sense that she would have. And Barric is the caring yet stern landlord that Boaz may have been, Their story felt very real for 19^th century England and is very relatable to today’s social and racial climate. I highly recommend Shadow Among the Sheaves.

Shadow Among the Sheaves

is available in paperback and eBook

The Gemma Doyle trilogy: magic and mystery

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray is fantasy series about a young girl at an English boarding school when she discovers a magical realm. She learns that she has a magical gifts and she must learn how to use them. She, along with her friends, must defeat the evil which is unleashed and return the balance between the world and the realm.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first book, 1895, Gemma Doyle is sent to a boarding school in England after the death of her mother in India. Once there, she begins to have clairvoyant visions as she discovers the magical secrets of the Spence Academy for Young Ladies. She soon becomes friends with Felicity Worthington, the most popular and influential girl at the school. Along wither her roommate, Ann Bradshaw and Felicity’s best friend, Pippa Cross, Gemma discovers an ancient group of women called The Order. The girls decide to start an Order of their own and discovers a magical cave which bestows magic gifts of immense power. Soon the power turns evil. Will Gemma and her friends survive?

Rebel Angels is the second book which begins two months after the events of A Great and Terrible Beauty. The magic in the caves has been released and the evil sorceress, Circe, and her allies are free to roam the realm and possibly the human world. Gemma and her friends must find the “Temple” in order to bind the magic and Circe again. New friends, teachers and mysterious men are pressuring Gemma to use her magic according to their plans. Unsure who to trust, Gemma must rely on her own instincts to battle Circe and restore the magic. Will her chosen allies help or hurt her? Will she be able to fight the growing threat from Circe?

The Sweet Far Thing is the last book in which one year has passed since Gemma arrive at the Spence Academy. She is struggling with the magic from realms and the effects on the school. When the East Wing of the school is being rebuilt after a fire from many years ago, a mysterious stone is unearthed and Gemma beings to have visions of a young girl in a lavender dress with a magical dagger. Time is running out, can Gemma find the clue to realm the wall between the realm and her world? What is this mysterious stone? Who is the girl in Gemma’s vision and can her dagger help end the Circe? Will Gemma and her friends survive?

I enjoyed this series very much. I’ve read it a couple times over the last few years and it get better and better. I enjoyed the references to classic Greek tragedies. The descriptions of the school and the grounds gives the reader the sensation of being there. The interactions between the characters, especially teenage girls, was realistic. There are many surprises in the book from the first opening page to the closing lines. This makes writing a review difficult but makes for a very good read. I highly recommend the Gemma Doyle trilogy. 

Mary, Queen of Scots: tragic hero or guilty as charged?

Today in history, nine month old Mary Stuart (also spelt Stewart) would be crowned Queen of Scotland at Stirling Castle in 1543. She would become known as Mary, Queen of Scots. She became queen at 6 days old when her father, King James, died in December 1542. She was also the great-niece of King Henry VIII of England, as her paternal grandmother of Margaret Tudor. This made her cousin to Queen Elizabeth I and a claim to the English crown. The House of Stuart gained the throne by marriage of Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert the Bruce to Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland. She would be a tragic victim in the political games of the 16^th century as many would see her as the only legitimate claim to the English and Scottish crowns.

Mary was born on the 8^th or 9^th of December at Linlithgow, Scotland. She was said to be born prematurely and was the only legitimate child to survive King James. Scotland would be ruled by regents until Mary became of age. She was first betrothed to King Henry VIII’s son, Edward, in order to untie Scotland and England. This fell through as the pro-Catholic, pro-France agenda rose to power in the Scottish regency. For her safety, Mary would grow up in her mother’s native France in King Henry II’s court. Marriage agreement would be made for Mary and King Henry II’s son, Francis. Mary was said to be vivacious, beautiful and clever. She was the favorite with everyone and was an accomplished student. She would be fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, Latin and Greek. She was tall woman at 5 feet 11 inches. She and Francis II would be married in 1558 and would remain so until his death in December 1560.

Mary would return to Scotland in 1561 where she married her first cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley in 1565. They would have one son, James, on June 19, 1566. The marriage was strained after Darnley demanded a crown equal to Mary’s and he would rule in the event of her death. She refused. Darnley would later be murdered in February 1567 when his residence was destroyed by an explosion and he was would found in the garden. Mary was rumored to have had a hand in Darnley’s murder but there was no proof. She would marry James Hepburn, 4^th Earl of Bothwell in 1567, who was rumored to be the man to actually kill Darnley. Her marriage to Bothwell would be unpopular and she would be forced to abdicate her crown in favor of her one-year old son, James.

Mary would raise an army in order to fight James Stewart, 1^st Earl of Moray, for her throne. She had expected her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I to support her. Instead, she would be taken to Bolton Castle where she begin a series of house arrests. Evidence, known as the Casket Letters, would serve as proof of Mary’s involvement in Darnley’s murder. Eight letters, love sonnets and two marriage contracts portrayed the conspiracy. Many biographers and historians believe the letters were complete forgeries or were pieces of other letters to create incriminating passages. The letters, according to historians, were poorly written for someone of Mary’s education. On August 11, 1586, she would be arrested as her letters were confiscated and revealed a plot to assassinate Elizabeth, Mary would be convicted on October 25 and sentenced to death. However, Elizabeth would be hesitate to order her execution as killing a queen would set a dangerous precedent and she feared retaliation from Mary’s son, James. February 1, 1587, her death warrant would be signed and she would be beheaded on February 8, 1587 at the age of 44.

Mary’s son would become King James VI of Scotland and James I of England. He would inherit the throne in 1603 upon the death of Elizabeth I. James had his mother reinterred in Westminster Abbey opposite Elizabeth’s tomb. Mary would be the tragic figure who could not cope with the demands placed on her. She would be a pawn in the hands of scheming men. There is no concrete proof that she was guilty of anything she was accused of. One theory is Bothwell killed Darnley in order to marry her and did so without Mary’s knowledge. She remains a popular image of a heroic victim.

The Fever Tree: a great adventure to finding one's true self

The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh is the story of Frances Irvine who is faced with two options after the sudden death of her father. Each option leaves her little freedom. She must choose either a marriage to an almost perfect stranger or became a nursemaid to her aunt’s growing brood. The story takes the reader on an adventures from the stuffy English nobility to the dangers on the high seas and the wilds of Africa.

Frances is the only child when her mother died suddenly. Her father was a successful businessman but because he was Irish, he was looked down by her mother’s proper English family. Her father provided very well for her and she lived in comfort until her father’s untimely death and she discovers that her father lost everything when the stocks of a railroad company had failed. With her mother’s family unwilling to take her in, she is given a proposal by a distant cousin, Dr. Edwin Matthews, marry him and live with him in South Africa where the diamond mines are profitable. She rejects this proposal until her aunt decides that she will come with her and help her with her youngest children. Frances chooses the lesser of two evils and journeys to South Africa. While on the journey south, she meets dashing William Westbrook, who sweeps her off her feet and awakens in her something she never experienced before. When she lands in Cape Town, will she join Edwin or will she run away with William?

I loved this story. This book has been on my list to read ever since I saw it on the bookshelf. I finally was able to get a copy after months of waiting and the story did not disappoint.  The story may sound like a typical romance where the heroine is freed from a loveless marriage to find safety in the arms of a dashing man. This story had so many twists and turns that keeps you guessing about what will happen to Frances. Who will she choose? Will she fall in love her new home or will she escape back to England? The backdrop of the story takes place in South Africa in 1880 as the tensions are building between the English and the Boers. Boers were settlers of Dutch. German or Huguenot descent who settled in the Transvaal region of Africa. I highly recommend The Fever Tree. It is a great adventure story that will thrill you and keep you turning the pages.