Thursday, July 26, 2012

Bewitching Book Tour: Her Loving Husband’s Curse By Meredith Allard



Description:

How far will you go to protect the one you love?

Finally, after many long and lonely years, James Wentworth’s life is falling into place. Together with his wife, Sarah, the only woman he has ever loved, he has found the meaning behind her nightmares about the Salem Witch Trials, and now they are rebuilding the life they began together so long ago.

But the past is never far behind for the Wentworths. While Sarah is haunted by new visions, now about the baby she carried over three hundred years before, James is confronted with painful memories from his time with the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. Through it all, the persistent reporter Kenneth Hempel reappears, still determined to prove that the undead walk the earth. If Hempel succeeds in his quest, James and Sarah will suffer. Will the curse of the vampire prevent James and Sarah from living their happily ever after?

Author:



Meredith Allard is the Executive Editor of The Copperfield Review,  an award-winning literary journal for readers and writers of historical fiction. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from California State University, Northridge. She has taught writing to students aged 10 to 60, and she has taught creative writing and writing historical fiction workshops at Learning Tree University, UNLV, and the Las Vegas Writers Conference. Her writing has appeared in journals such as The Paumanok Review,  Moondance, Wild Mind,Muse Apprentice Guild, The Maxwell Digest, CarbLite, Writer’s Weekly, and ViewsHound. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Links:




My Review:



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This novel picks up a year after the first novel.  James and Sarah continue to live life, making up for 300 years of being apart.  Their family is even completed when Grace, their re-incarnated child, finally joins them by adoption.  Everything seems to be going perfectly, except for the reporter is still out there trying to “out” vampires. 

I loved Geoffrey so much.  I know, I know, irritating vampire, the maker of James, but he is too funny.  His constant nickname for Sarah “puny human” makes me giggle, because in my head it is said with the perfect amount of love for her and disdain for her being human all mixed up together.  I also enjoy Geoffrey living in the 21st century, but not knowing names and uses of certain modern technology.  It is like he is living in a cave when he calls a blackberry a “bumbleberry” and an iPod and “iPig”.  I laughed through the whole conversation.  I think there were clues to who Geoffrey actually is in this book, and I’m dying to find out!  I think that Geoffrey will be a great character to get to know better.

Sarah is a great character, as she has grown a lot in the last year.  She has almost completely come to accept her past life as well as her current one.  She is stronger because of it and is ready to face almost any challenge.

James is a bit angsty, which makes it harder to connect to him.  What with his guilt about the past 300 years, and for being a vampire.  Actually, that seems to be his biggest regret.  But in the end, his courage is what makes this book great.  Because we all have to get over our regrets to become the person we need to be.

This book is definitely darker than the first book in this trilogy.  With the discussion of human rights with the Trail of Tears and the parallel occurrences of rights for vampires, you can be sure that this book is going to make you think.  It makes you think about our country’s history, about whether we actually have changed as humans in response to people/creatures that are different from us. 

I had a hard time when the television segments were written.  There was no real distinction to let you know that you are reading a television show the characters are watching or if the characters are thinking.  Also, the journal entries are a bit confusing.  They are separated out by italics, but there is no date, and we only have the assumption that James is the one who has written these journal entries.  All of this could have been made clearer with appropriate labels and font distinctions. 

Overall, this is a great book.  I’m really looking forward to reading the next book (2013 can’t come fast enough!).  I highly recommend it!



Other Books:


Her Dear & Loving Husband
By Meredith Allard

James Wentworth has a secret. He lives quietly in Salem, Massachusetts, making few ties with anyone. One night his private world is turned upside down when he meets Sarah Alexander, a dead ringer for his wife, Elizabeth. Though it has been years since Elizabeth's death, James cannot move on. 

Sarah also has a secret. She is haunted by nightmares about the Salem Witch Trials, and every night she is awakened by visions of hangings, being arrested, and dying in jail. Despite the obstacles of their secrets, James and Sarah fall in love. As James comes to terms with his feelings for Sarah, he must dodge accusations from a reporter desperate to prove that James is not who, or what, he seems to be. Soon James and Sarah piece their stories together and discover a mystery that may bind them in ways they never imagined. Will James make the ultimate sacrifice to protect Sarah and prevent a new hunt from bringing hysteria to Salem again? 

Part historical fiction, part romance, part paranormal fantasy, Her Dear & Loving Husband is a story for anyone who believes that true love never dies.


Click here to see the review for this book.


Happy Reading!


Cana

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

ARC Review: The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long

Description:


The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.
This book is a beautiful blending of Celtic mythology, Germanic/Norse mythology Shakespeare and Ms. Longs own ideas about how it would all work.  With heroines, mysterious fae, and truly evil Queen, this interesting fairy tale is sure to make you question and learn more about the mythologies that built this story.  Overall, it was a good book, so lets me share why.

Jenny was an interesting character.  At first, I wasn’t sure I liked her.  Actually, I was pretty annoyed with her most of the book.  She is so blooming innocent, and at 19 it is a little hard for me to take in that anyone could be that innocent after all that she saw as a child when her brother was kidnapped, let alone that she continues to be this innocent after all that happened to her in the Realm.  I mean, come on! 

Jack was a great character, a doomed hero, or so it seems.  His life split in two parts, and you wonder if he is good or bad, or so plain neutral that you can’t peg him.  The only thing that you wonder is if he will get his wish, the only wish he ever wishes.  The history of the Greenman in comparison to Jack was a great play on Celtic tradition.  And as a fan of the Greenman, I truly loved seeing Ms. Long’s ideas play out.

I loved the ending.  It was a little bit predictable, but I absolutely loved it.  It gave a beautiful ending to a good book. 

Now, not everything was perfect.  It was a little hard sometimes to get when she is switching mythologies.  In the Realm, it is all primarily Celtic mythology, with the spattering of Shakespeare, but suddenly in the Realm, she will use a term that is from the Germanic mythology.  And when she switches to a primarily Germanic mythology it catches you off guard.  Her explanation in the book that it was a different place, different magic didn’t give you a heads up about the change, and for a little bit I was thinking “What?”  On top of that, a lot of the split between mythologies become a division of “good” and “bad”, and even that is debatable. 

Overall, this is a good book, and I did enjoy it.  I recommend this for anyone, at any age. 


Happy Reading!


Cana

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday: Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle

Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is: 






Description:

Miranda has Shakespeare in her blood: she hopes one day to become a Shakespearean actor like her famous parents. At least, she does until her disastrous performance in her school's staging of The Taming of the Shrew. Humiliated, Miranda skips the opening-night party. All she wants to do is hide. 


Fellow cast member, Stephen Langford, has other plans for Miranda. When he steps out of the backstage shadows and asks if she'd like to meet Shakespeare, Miranda thinks he's a total nutcase. But before she can object, Stephen whisks her back to 16th century England—the world Stephen's really from. He wants Miranda use her acting talents and modern-day charms on the young Will Shakespeare. Without her help, Stephen claims, the world will lost its greatest playwright. 


Miranda isn't convinced she's the girl for the job. Why would Shakespeare care about her? And just who is this infuriating time traveler, Stephen Langford? Reluctantly, she agrees to help, knowing that it's her only chance of getting back to the present and her "real" life. What Miranda doesn't bargain for is finding true love . . . with no acting required.


Coming out on August 14, 2012


Why?

  1. I love Shakespeare!  Yep, and I love it in Elizabethan English!  I know, I'm so weird.  
  2. I love time traveling, and who wouldn't?  
  3. Great premise for this story.  I think that it might be a bit refreshing to other YA books going around right now.  



Happy Reading!


Cana

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Vacation Time!

I will be taking some vacation time from the blog for the month of July.  I hope all of y'all have a great month, and I'll be returning (other than a few tours that I have scheduled) in August!


Happy Reading!


Cana

Monday, July 9, 2012

What Are You Reading Monday



It's Monday! What are you reading is hosted by Book Journey . Each week we spotlight the books we are reading, planning on reading or just finished reading.


So because of my busy schedule, I'm only going to do this once a month.  :P  I know, such a slacker, but reading is more important than me doing this every week!




What I read this past month:












What I'm currently reading and will be reading for the next month!















And probably so much more... I'll check in again in August (Happy 4th of July to everyone, just a little early!)


What are you reading?


Happy Reading!


Cana

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy 4th of July!


Happy 4th of July to you and your family!  
May your day be filled with fun, food, and tons of fireworks!

Happy Reading!

Cana