As part of my personal goals to read more nonfiction and to read more about World War I, I decided to finally tackle this book which has been catching my eye for months only to be put aside for shiny new fiction. MacMillan has a new book out that is about the events leading up to World War I so before I committed to that, I wanted to see how I felt about her writing style in this one. Full review.
Dark Ages Lady Fiction, A+, Yes Please
Was sort of uninterested in this book, until I read this blog post by the author. Boom! Sudden interest, give it to me now. And I’m really glad I picked it up. My experience with Hild is the textbook example of why it’s a good idea to read outside your normal genres every once in a while. I don’t read very much historical fiction, and those I do read are usually the ones that have some sort of unusual hook, like TWO SOLDIERS IN WWII […]
Incest, murder and martyrdom in Italy–or is it?
Another in the series with young Roman cop Nic Costa, this one deals with the fall to his death of a man whose teenaged daughter is obsessed with an ancient Italian story from the 16th century, in which Beatrice Cenci, a girl sexually abused by her father, ends up murdering him, only to be beheaded by the Vatican as punishment. Mina Gabriel, along with her brother and mother, has a secret to hide, and it is Costa’s job to figure it out. Although the family […]
Castles, and ermines and dukes, oh my!
4.5 stars Miss Isolde Ophelia Goodnight, or Izzy, is the orphaned daughter of the author of a beloved series of adventure stories. She has barely a penny to her name, so when she is told that her recently deceased godfather has left her Gostley Castle, it seems too good to be true. Of course, her castle is a filthy ruin, currently inhabited by the scarred, bitter and extremely rude Duke of Rothbury, who’s adamant that he didn’t sell any castle, and it therefore can’t belong […]
Sherlock Holmes’ niece. Bram Stoker’s sister. They live in Steampunk London. Together they solve crime.
Miss Alvermina Holmes, daughter of Sir Mycroft and niece to the famous Sherlock, is summoned to the British Museum in the dark of night. Bored with her scientific experiments, and trying to get something to take her mind off the fact that her mother abandoned her and her father over a year ago, Mina decides to accept the invite. When she arrives, she finds that another young woman has received the same summons. Miss Evaline Stoker, the younger sister of author and theatre manager Bram, […]
The Golden Hour
The main problem is the narrator and main character, Giovanna. While early in the book, Giovanna tries to convince the reader that she is brave and courageous because of that one time she carried a hawk, at no point do her actions in 1943-45 ever make her seem any of those things. Instead she comes off as spoiled, self-centered, stupid, unrealistic, dumb and flighty. Now some of those things could be okay in a main character, especially since Wurtele uses Giovanna as a character that […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 699
- 700
- 701
- 702
- 703
- …
- 708
- Next Page »





