Elizabeth Blackwell has written a clever retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty story.
While Beauty Slept tells the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty from the viewpoint of the Queen's lady in waiting.
Elise Dalriss is sitting with her granddaughter telling her the story of her life, and clearing up any misunderstanding about what really happened in the castle so many years ago. This is really the story of Elise and how her world changed when she found out as a young girl, she was really the illegitimate daughter of royal blood.
Elise lives with her mother and her mean hard driven father and her brothers in a small shack. There is never enough food to feed the family and the furnishings and clothes are modest at best. But one day Elise's mother lets slip that this is not Elise's real father, that her mother was shunned by the people in the King's castle when she found herself pregnant and had to leave the life of luxury for this life of poverty. When the black plague happens and her family lays dead, Elise escapes to the city and finds herself a position at the castle. No one knows her secret, but maybe some suspect, because she rises quickly to the job of lady in waiting to the Queen. It could be just that she is a hardworking and loyal subject, or the King's angry sister, Millicent could have some dangerous magic working behind the scenes. There is also the King's other sister, Flora who tries to lessen the intensity of Millicent's power.
Of course there are princes and love at first sight and all the trappings of living in a castle. The gowns and jewelry. The balls, festivals and parades. In the end the there is a princess who is sleeping and a prince with a kiss, but though the at court believe Millicent's power is strong, Blackwell gives us a more realistic reason for the castle to be empty and all the people there to seem asleep.
This is a interesting idea for a novel. An enjoyable plot with great twists.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Murder in G Major
Alexia Gordon has created a new mystery series with a musical twist. All the books in her series are based around musical titles. Her protagonist is Gethsemane Brown, a thirty something violinist, who has given up everything to pursue a dream job with an orchestra in Ireland.
When her plans turn sour, she takes a last minute offer to teach music at an all boys middle school in a small Irish village. She is housed in a cottage that belonged to famous composer, Eamon McCarthy and his wife Orla, a well-known poet. She cannot believe she is living in her idol's cottage when things start to move around the house and noises make her realize she is living with a ghost.
This would possible make me put down the book, but as I pushed through and accepted the fun of reading about a ghost only Gethsemane can see, I really enjoyed reading how she is trying to improve the orchestra of the St Brennan's School for Boys so they will win the upcoming competition, they have not won in decades and she is also going to try and prove that Eamon McCarthy did not murder his beautiful wife and commit suicide, which is the common theory around town about his death.
Gethsemane has her hands full and the book is so entertainingly written, with snarky, clever dialogue that you can get caught up in the mystery and accept the supernatural idea of ghosts. I will admit to being fairly certain of who the murderer was before we hit the end of the book, but I am curious enough to get the next mystery in the series and read some more. This book has all the elements of a fun cozy series, clever amateur detective, handsome police detective, rival for her affections teacher, and helpful class of students. Alexia Gordon is playing beautiful music.
When her plans turn sour, she takes a last minute offer to teach music at an all boys middle school in a small Irish village. She is housed in a cottage that belonged to famous composer, Eamon McCarthy and his wife Orla, a well-known poet. She cannot believe she is living in her idol's cottage when things start to move around the house and noises make her realize she is living with a ghost.
This would possible make me put down the book, but as I pushed through and accepted the fun of reading about a ghost only Gethsemane can see, I really enjoyed reading how she is trying to improve the orchestra of the St Brennan's School for Boys so they will win the upcoming competition, they have not won in decades and she is also going to try and prove that Eamon McCarthy did not murder his beautiful wife and commit suicide, which is the common theory around town about his death.
Gethsemane has her hands full and the book is so entertainingly written, with snarky, clever dialogue that you can get caught up in the mystery and accept the supernatural idea of ghosts. I will admit to being fairly certain of who the murderer was before we hit the end of the book, but I am curious enough to get the next mystery in the series and read some more. This book has all the elements of a fun cozy series, clever amateur detective, handsome police detective, rival for her affections teacher, and helpful class of students. Alexia Gordon is playing beautiful music.
The Mangle Street Murders
What a delightful murder mystery series set on Gower Street, London in 1882. This book was presented at a Book Tasting event, where we were given books and had two minutes to read anywhere int he book we wanted to get a taste of the plot line and decide if we wanted to read the entire book. Of course I love mysteries so I figured I would read it even with the the two minute tasting. But, what a fun series, I will be reading the rest of the books because this is a fun premise.
M.R. Kasasian has created a Sherlock Holmes take off that is entertaining, tongue in cheek clever dialogue and keeps you guessing who did it until the end. Sidney Grice is an elderly private detective in London. He is an ornery curmudgeon who takes in the young, plain, orphaned March Middleton. He writes her offering to taking her in when her father dies. He says he owes her father a favor that he will repay by housing the young woman until she can get her feet under her again.
He does not realize who he is dealing with. March is a tough, opinionated young lady, who does not shrink in the face of death. In a time period where women were thought the weaker sex, March stands up to the societal norms and insists on being treated equally. She becomes Grice's right hand assistant and chronicler of his exploits. March becomes the Watson to Grice's Holmes.
In this first mystery in the series, Grice and Middleton uncover a scheme that has resulted in multiple deaths and deceit. When a man is accused of murdering his wife and his mother-in-law comes to help him escape the nooses, March takes the woman's side even Grice insists the man is guilty.
Together they inspect all the clues and in the end reach a conclusion they can both agree on. Grice decides to keep March around and she decides to stay and help him with further crime deductions.
M.R. Kasasian has created a Sherlock Holmes take off that is entertaining, tongue in cheek clever dialogue and keeps you guessing who did it until the end. Sidney Grice is an elderly private detective in London. He is an ornery curmudgeon who takes in the young, plain, orphaned March Middleton. He writes her offering to taking her in when her father dies. He says he owes her father a favor that he will repay by housing the young woman until she can get her feet under her again.
He does not realize who he is dealing with. March is a tough, opinionated young lady, who does not shrink in the face of death. In a time period where women were thought the weaker sex, March stands up to the societal norms and insists on being treated equally. She becomes Grice's right hand assistant and chronicler of his exploits. March becomes the Watson to Grice's Holmes.
In this first mystery in the series, Grice and Middleton uncover a scheme that has resulted in multiple deaths and deceit. When a man is accused of murdering his wife and his mother-in-law comes to help him escape the nooses, March takes the woman's side even Grice insists the man is guilty.
Together they inspect all the clues and in the end reach a conclusion they can both agree on. Grice decides to keep March around and she decides to stay and help him with further crime deductions.
Friday, January 4, 2019
The Family Vault
A mystery by Charlotte McLeod. This is a fun mystery series that takes place in Boston and mentions all kinds of local haunts, streets and locations that are familiar to the Boston traveler.
This particular novel in the series brings us to the cemetery on Beacon Hill.
The family of Sarah Kelling is an old Brahamin family, that lived for generations on Beacon Hill in Boston. Sarah has been married off to her old favorite cousin after her parents die in a car accident. When an Uncle passes away and his will requests that he be buried in the family vault. When they open the vault they find a missing burlesque queen has been hidden there after being murdered. Thus Sarah takes on her first murder case as an amateur detective. Assisting her in the end will be Max Bittersohn, who we never are quite sure of his background, his actual job.
Without giving away any real details of the case, I can say that this is a fun quirky mystery. Sarah is a delightfully clever but clueless detective, and sometimes you wonder if you are really reading a mystery novel because this book does not follow the formula of a cozy mystery.
In the end I do know that going forward Sarah is now on her own in a big house that she will turn into a boarding house and Max will be her assistant as she continues to solves mysteries.
This particular novel in the series brings us to the cemetery on Beacon Hill.
The family of Sarah Kelling is an old Brahamin family, that lived for generations on Beacon Hill in Boston. Sarah has been married off to her old favorite cousin after her parents die in a car accident. When an Uncle passes away and his will requests that he be buried in the family vault. When they open the vault they find a missing burlesque queen has been hidden there after being murdered. Thus Sarah takes on her first murder case as an amateur detective. Assisting her in the end will be Max Bittersohn, who we never are quite sure of his background, his actual job.
Without giving away any real details of the case, I can say that this is a fun quirky mystery. Sarah is a delightfully clever but clueless detective, and sometimes you wonder if you are really reading a mystery novel because this book does not follow the formula of a cozy mystery.
In the end I do know that going forward Sarah is now on her own in a big house that she will turn into a boarding house and Max will be her assistant as she continues to solves mysteries.
House of Gold
A great book to start off the new year. I loved this book for its historical content and the family dynamics. The story of a Jewish family who loan money and assist their country's government with their influence and power. Relatives who live in France, England and Austria where the men control the banks and the women marry distant cousins to keep the wealth and power within the family. Though as Jews, they are outsiders, they have always commanded respect. But now the world around them is changing.
Vienna born, Greta Goldbaum has been married to her English cousin, Albert and is just finding out how to be happy in her marriage and new country when her loyalty is tested by the outbreak of WWI.
In a family that arranges marriages to keep the power and financial influence within the family, Greta begins life as a young wife to a distant cousin she does not seem to like. Her brother who has been her best friend comes to try and help her adjust. Her mother in law, who also was a young Viennese bride shows her the way to happiness is to find a project of your own. Greta, like her mother in law, decides to create a garden of her own.
As the war begins and the men are sent off to battle, Greta is able to build a garden that will distract her from horrific world around her. She discovers that she can grow the kind of plants she wants and employ the women to work in the garden. As the war rages on, helps the war effort, by bringing young pregnant women to the house until they go into labor. She sets up a make shift hospital there and they young women can learn gardening to give them work experience to improve their lives after they give birth.
Using this family saga as the plot driving the novel, we are also informed of the historical significance of this time period. Increasing Russian pogroms, growing anti-Semitism, and socialist reform that all led to the First World War. Also explored in this book is the European US relationship. As the war continues in Europe, Britain and Germany are borrowing money from the US. This influx of financial stability leads us to the Roaring '20s of a time of United States economic boon. That leads us into war and then in the financial collapse and the Great Depression.
This book shows us the unavoidable dichotomy of the global shift of power.
In a family that arranges marriages to keep the power and financial influence within the family, Greta begins life as a young wife to a distant cousin she does not seem to like. Her brother who has been her best friend comes to try and help her adjust. Her mother in law, who also was a young Viennese bride shows her the way to happiness is to find a project of your own. Greta, like her mother in law, decides to create a garden of her own.
As the war begins and the men are sent off to battle, Greta is able to build a garden that will distract her from horrific world around her. She discovers that she can grow the kind of plants she wants and employ the women to work in the garden. As the war rages on, helps the war effort, by bringing young pregnant women to the house until they go into labor. She sets up a make shift hospital there and they young women can learn gardening to give them work experience to improve their lives after they give birth.
Using this family saga as the plot driving the novel, we are also informed of the historical significance of this time period. Increasing Russian pogroms, growing anti-Semitism, and socialist reform that all led to the First World War. Also explored in this book is the European US relationship. As the war continues in Europe, Britain and Germany are borrowing money from the US. This influx of financial stability leads us to the Roaring '20s of a time of United States economic boon. That leads us into war and then in the financial collapse and the Great Depression.
This book shows us the unavoidable dichotomy of the global shift of power.
Salt Houses
Salt Houses is a very interesting novel about what it is like to live as a Palestinian in the Middle East.
Author, Hala Alyan, an American Palestinian is writing about what it is like to be a middle class, well to do, educated Palestinian family having to leave Israel and move from place to place. We start as the first generation of this multilayered family, watching through the eyes of Salma, as her family leaves Jaffa and moved their family to a home in Nablus, Palestine, the year is 1963. We follow in alternating chapters different members of the family in each generation as they live trough the history of the mideast. In 1965 we follow Mustafa, Salma's young adult son, who is visiting the Mosque and handing out anti Israel pamphlets. There is violence, arrests and deaths as the family again leaves separating between Amman and Kuwait City. We see how the Palestinian Israeli conflict could lead to radicalizing a young man.
We follow Salma's daughter, Alia and her husband, Atef as the newly married couple moves to Kuwait City. Salma joins her sister and other family living in Amman.
The reader is drawn in as each of the characters experiences the upheaval and fear as historical events impact their day to day lives. We listen with the family as the news reports the Kuwait airline hostage crisis.
Later generations start a new life in the United States, returning to spend summers in either Kuwait City or Amman with family. Souad, Alia and Atef's daughter returns from life in America, as a divorcee with two children. She come back to live in Beirut.
This is a story of both Palestinian displacement and family drama. This is a novel that examines the effects of loss and displacement of a family home even for the privileged. This novel explores the way outside forces affect our family lives and connections.
Author, Hala Alyan, an American Palestinian is writing about what it is like to be a middle class, well to do, educated Palestinian family having to leave Israel and move from place to place. We start as the first generation of this multilayered family, watching through the eyes of Salma, as her family leaves Jaffa and moved their family to a home in Nablus, Palestine, the year is 1963. We follow in alternating chapters different members of the family in each generation as they live trough the history of the mideast. In 1965 we follow Mustafa, Salma's young adult son, who is visiting the Mosque and handing out anti Israel pamphlets. There is violence, arrests and deaths as the family again leaves separating between Amman and Kuwait City. We see how the Palestinian Israeli conflict could lead to radicalizing a young man.
We follow Salma's daughter, Alia and her husband, Atef as the newly married couple moves to Kuwait City. Salma joins her sister and other family living in Amman.
The reader is drawn in as each of the characters experiences the upheaval and fear as historical events impact their day to day lives. We listen with the family as the news reports the Kuwait airline hostage crisis.
Later generations start a new life in the United States, returning to spend summers in either Kuwait City or Amman with family. Souad, Alia and Atef's daughter returns from life in America, as a divorcee with two children. She come back to live in Beirut.
This is a story of both Palestinian displacement and family drama. This is a novel that examines the effects of loss and displacement of a family home even for the privileged. This novel explores the way outside forces affect our family lives and connections.
The Body in the Gallery
A Faith Fairchild mystery by Katherine Hall Page, The Body in the Gallery, is the first in this series of culinary mystery books. Faith is a young mother, who is married to a minister and is starting up her own catering service. Living in Alford, Massachusetts makes this a fun read for people who know the area. Also she has added recipes to the end of the book that are referred to through the novel, which makes it extra delicious.
Interestingly, Faith is married to a small town minister which gives her access to all the gossip and members of the community. Though she says that because her father was a minister she never wanted to marry a minister. She met her husband at a wedding and fell in love before he changed his clothes back into his minister's suit. Author, Page, also says she did not realize that amateur detectives were not supposed to have children until after she had written her first book, so Faith has to fit her detecting in between carpooling children and cooking meals.
Keeping this mystery very relevant, Faith also has to work with her husband and family as her son goes through some trouble as he starts middle school. He is making new friends with some of the wrong kids and getting into trouble on the internet.
I look forward to reading some more of this series and trying some of the recipes.
Interestingly, Faith is married to a small town minister which gives her access to all the gossip and members of the community. Though she says that because her father was a minister she never wanted to marry a minister. She met her husband at a wedding and fell in love before he changed his clothes back into his minister's suit. Author, Page, also says she did not realize that amateur detectives were not supposed to have children until after she had written her first book, so Faith has to fit her detecting in between carpooling children and cooking meals.
Keeping this mystery very relevant, Faith also has to work with her husband and family as her son goes through some trouble as he starts middle school. He is making new friends with some of the wrong kids and getting into trouble on the internet.
I look forward to reading some more of this series and trying some of the recipes.
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