Goodbye, Paris is… dare I say it? A perfectly written book*. The story dips between past and present like the natural tides of a book should. During moments of profound loss the author uses beautiful and raw words to slide a knife into the reader and turn, just so. She takes us from utter happiness to complete loss, and there and back again, as the book goes on. It felt like everything that happened to Grace was happening to me…
Ageless Beauty the French Way is not just another French lifestyle book. While I thoroughly enjoy most of those books out there, this one gives me what I actually want: How to care for myself the way the French do in an accessible way to me. After introducing all of these wonderful skin, hair, and body care tips, von Mueffling shares with you places she recommends (mostly in NYC) and in most cases gives suggestions on how to care for…
A Tale of Two Murders is a historical fiction mystery that follows a fictional Charles Dickens as a journalist in his early twenties. After being present when a young girl falls ill and ultimately dies, he starts investigating and discovers that another girl died the same way exactly one year before. He is determined to solve these murders and he has the help of his crush, Miss Hogarth, his brother, and a several others he meets along the way. As…
This book is about a really dumb girl who makes terrible choices that cause really bad things to happen. It’s a shame because aside from the main character, this is a fantastic story. Well, mostly. The world and other characters are interesting but Heloise… Heloise! There is nothing good about you. The choices she makes are so bad that if this were not a book there isn’t a chance that she would have lived to age 16. All throughout the…
I read The Paris Wife earlier this year for a book club and really enjoyed it, so when I found out the same author was writing another book about another one of Hemingway’s four wives I knew I had to read it. In addition to learning about Martha Gelhorn’s life and her relationship with Ernest Hemingway in Love and Ruin, I love that the reader also learns so much about history and the way of life at that time. Marty…
I almost didn’t get through this one. I received Unbury Carol from a giveaway at ECCC and it was one of several that I really looked forward to reading. I’m conflicted because there were several good qualities to this book but overall it really didn’t do it for me. As you can tell from the description, Carol has these spells in which she appears to be dead but she isn’t. Her husband decides to bury her alive because she makes…
Strange Practice is about Greta Helsing, descendent of the Van Helsings and doctor to the undead, and three of her friends trying to find the person (or persons) terrorizing London. Overall, I really liked this book. It has unique characters and I’ve discovered recently that I really enjoy a book with a medical or scientific theme that is written so that the non-scientifically inclined can understand and enjoy it. However, I did have several issues with the book. Until the…
When Clotilde Dusoulier announced that she was coming out with her fifth book I may have lost it a little. In a good way. I have all of her books, love her blog (Chocolate and Zucchini, which is one of the first blogs I ever read), and even hired her for a food tour of Montmartre when we were in Paris in January 2017. She has such a healthful and unique approach to food, using and combining ingredients I never…
I just finished two almost-full days of ECCC. Each year I refine my game plan based on the year before and I feel like this year went great. The first and absolutely most exciting thing I was there to do was to get my hands on an ARC (advance reader copy) of Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne. They are two of my favorite authors and I am so beyond excited that they are writing a…
I love this series. Lake Silence is a continuation of a series called The Others. The first five books took place in a town called Lakeside and revolved around a blood prophet living with the “others.” This book follows Vicki DeVine, a human woman restoring a lakeside resort she got in her divorce. Things get real when her lodger, crow-shifter Aggie, finds a body on the property and suddenly they’re rushing to find out why he was killed before anyone…