Mailbox Monday 05.30.11

Hosted this month by MariReads.

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Kate Sutherland always felt out of place in brash and modern Southern California. But when she comes to her ancestral home in the Shetland Islands to seek a mystical guide who may shed light on her true heritage, Kate is plagued with visions of a life from five centuries past.... A fiery young woman of royal English blood, Catriona Wells is determined to save her family from the deadly political clashes of 15th-century Britain. But Cat's cunning is no match for Scottish border lord Patrick MacKendrick. When this powerful warrior betroths her against her will, Cat must decide whether she dares to love him -- and to trust him with lives that are more precious to her than her own.

Meanwhile Kate, whose dreams rapidly take on a reality of their own, is caught between a present-day attraction to a charming Scottish historian -- and risking everything in Catriona's dangerous world of passion and bloodshed.

From Sourcebooks. Release date: August 1st.

Armchair BEA: Best of 2011

Today's Armchair BEA Daily Topic is: Best of 2011. So, here are my favorite books I've read so far this year:

  

  

I've read a lot of good books this year, so far - 38 in all. These are just a select few.

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

Vienna Waltz by Teresa Grant

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Cheri and The Last of Cheri by Colette

Charlotte and Emily by Jude Morgan

Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman

(Blog Tour) Queen by Right by Anne Easter Smith

It was nice to read a book set during the War of the Roses, which is an era I'm not well read in. I learned – from the York perspective – much about the events and people surrounding the conflict while reading Queen by Right.

The novel is shown in the point of view of Cecily Neville, the wife of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and mother of Edward IV and Richard III. We see her as a child and then through the years, all the way up to the crowning of Edward IV. I loved the child Cecily, she was very spirited and often spoke her mind – while getting punished for it later. As she grew up, she lost a bit of that, but in it's place she became tough and fearless, earning the nickname 'Proud Cis'.

Since the book was from the point of view of a woman in those times, there was a lot of 'telling' instead of 'showing' of the major events throughout the conflict. However, there were some powerful scenes, such as Cecily meeting Joan of Arc while she was imprisoned – I quite liked how Joan of Arc was incorporated into the story, although there's no proof that the two ever met. The other scene that struck me was the scene at Ludlow, as Cecily held the hands of her sons George and Richard while staring down an army. This, we know, actually happened, and the way it was written in Queen by Right was very gripping.

Queen by Right was a chunkster, and took a bit for me to get through, but at the end, I felt rewarded. A good historical fiction novel.

I received the book for review as part of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.

The Mask of Night by Tracy Grant

A great sequel to Secrets of a Lady, taking place at the beginning of 1820, a few months after the events of that novel ended.

Charles and Mélanie Fraser, one of the most fashionable couples in London, are attending a masqued ball hosted by close friends. The party, however, soon ends when a dead man is found floating in a fountain, having been stabbed through the heart.

Charles and Mélanie, having only had a few months to recover from their own stressful ordeal, are asked to help and reluctantly agree. Charles soon finds out that Mélanie already knows who the dead man is, and Charles already knows he's not going to like why.

The mystery has plenty of twists and turns, shady characters and lots of action. Everybody seems to be hiding something, and as the story goes on, the layers are peeled back and we finally learn the truth.

However, the most fascinating aspect of this story, for me, is the relationship between Charles and Mélanie. I can't say much for those who haven't read Secrets of a Lady, but let's just say their relationship is still on very shaky ground from the revelations found out in that novel. They're still feeling each other out. The fact that their relationship isn't perfect is one of the big reasons why I love these books.

Another winner from Tracy Grant!