This is another book I read in December for Historical Novels Review, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society.
Anchorage, 1956. Marie is looking for a future, and Lawrence has a parcel of 150 acres from the State of Alaska. Both are aching for a home, and they decide to marry with little more than that between them. As they begin to work the land to earn the deed to their homestead, there is much they must learn. They not only have to carve a homestead out of unforgiving tundra, but they must also learn to know and love each other.
This is a saga of a man and a woman fighting a frozen land to claim a home for themselves, but it is so much more than that. We watch Alaska move toward statehood, and we see the sheer size and harsh realities of the territory. As Marie and Lawrence attempt to make a home, it is evident that there are problems even greater than the snow, cold, dark days, and wolves. As we watch them fight all these things, it becomes clear that there is a territory even bleaker than Alaska, and that is Lawrence’s heart.
The writing is sublime, and the reader is instantly transported to this dangerous land. But the human struggles are where this book really shines, as Marie and Lawrence battle loneliness, numbing cold, loss, and the one big lie that threatens to destroy everything. This is absolutely remarkable historical fiction that fans of Alaskan history will enjoy.
My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no partial star option.
I received a free copy of this book from Flatiron Books via The Historical Novel Society. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melinda Moustakis was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and grew up in California. Her story collection, Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories, won the Flannery O’Connor Award, the Maurice Prize, and was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 selection. Her work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Alaska Quarterly Review, Granta, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere, and has been awarded an O. Henry Prize. She is the recipient of the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the NEA Literature Fellowship, the Kenyon Review Fellowship, and the Rona Jaffe Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. Homestead is her debut novel.
Check out the awesome book swag I got from Austenprose Book Tours for a book I’ll be reviewing soon. I got a signed book, a scented candle, chocolate, bookmarks, and more. Below is a book description and a link to To Win Her Hand on Amazon.
*The chocolate did not last long after the picture was taken.
Click on the cover below for the Amazon link.
Lord Featherstone has the world on his shoulders. Or at least his world. With two brothers and a failing estate he must make funds somehow. But what happens when he falls for a woman? Will his tactics work when the situation is so close and personal?
Everyone thinks Lady Loveluck is a wealthy widow. What they don’t know is that she is on the brink of hiring herself out as a Governess in order to pay for her next meal. The only thing keeping her from employment is a growing reputation as a matchmaker. As long as she never falls for another man, as long as she doesn’t allow herself to be fooled into marrying, she will be just fine.
But she never counted on being caught up in the beguiling tactics of London’s renowned and not-so-secret matchmaker for men.
When terrier Moll’s owner dies, she is determined to protect his widow, Suki. As Suki navigates grief, dating and men with baggage of their own, Moll tries to push her beloved owner to moving on with someone Moll has chosen, with a good sense of humour, a generous heart, and a steady supply of biscuits.
But Suki has a frustrating habit of doing things the way she wants, instead of Moll’s way. Until she meets Ted, who Moll adores almost as much as Suki. Ted, though, has demons of his own, so is he really the right choice for Suki?
With Moll getting older, and Suki still struggling, can this devoted up fulfil her promise to look after her owner, before her time runs out?
A quirky tale of second chances, told through the eyes of woman’s best friend.
This is a sweet but sad story of love and loss, told through the eyes of Suki’s terrier, Moll. It is a fascinating look at human relationships from the perspective of a beloved pet. I loved that Moll should smell feelings like anger, fear, depression, and disappointment, and I loved her complete dedication to Suki. Moll’s life mission is to be there for Suki, and she is, through thick and thin. Moll’s sensory way of looking at the world is eye-opening. Imagine if we could smell and hear as well as dogs! We might learn something. This is about love and dedication between both humans and animals, and it definitely touches the heart.
One small criticism: Although I enjoyed Moll’s description of her frequent, delectable share of human meals, I wish she hadn’t talked about eating chocolate brownie, because chocolate can make dogs sick or even kill them. Suki takes excellent care of Moll throughout the book, so it is surprising she would feed her chocolate.
I received a free copy of this book via Rachel’s Random Resources book tours. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
I live in Cornwall with my rescue dog Lainy (who features at the end of The Rescue) and is going on to have her own story in Lainy’s Tale, which I am writing now. I spend part of the week with my partner and his rescue dog, Twig, where we walk, cycle, swim and grow vegetables. When forced indoors he is addicted to shouting at politicians on the news, the perfect excuse for me to write.
When not writing or training Lainy, I sing with The Suitcase Singers, and also give talks to anyone who will pay to listen to me talking about my work. To my surprise, many have.
I am also a freelance journalist, researcher and author of five Cornish literary themed walking books – Discover Cornwall, Walks in the Footsteps of Cornish Writers, Walks in the Footsteps of Poldark Walks in the Footsteps of Daphne du Maurier and Walks in the Footsteps of Rosamunde Pilcher, all published by Sigma Press and online in our ‘Books’ section of the website.
Indie Weekend is my effort to help Indie and Self-Published auhors market their books. Indie authors have to do it all, from cover design to marketing and more. If I can help even a little with marketing, I’m happy to do it. Below is a Q&A with Jolie Tunnell, author of The Idyllwild Mystery Series, featuring the amazing main character, Loveda Brown, who finds herself running a hotel in Idyllwild, California in 1912. Below the interview is a link to the Amazon page for all 8 books.
Welcome to Bonnie Reads and Writes, Jolie Tunnell!
Q&A WITH AUTHOR JOLIE TUNNELL
Let’s go beyond the bio. Tell us something about you that we might not know after reading your bio.
I pulled a sixteen-year stint in the elementary school PTA because I had five kids attending. I built a music curriculum and organized a Fine Arts Festival each spring and when I tell you we did everything from building murals to the bunny hop to watching opera to installing gardens, you need to know that these school years are forever embedded in my family’s memory.
Such fun.
What inspired you to write the Idyllwild Mystery Series and choose the setting of Idyllwild, CA?
I’ve always been the keeper of my family trees and wrote a novel about my pioneering ancestors in the mountains of New Mexico. During my research, the year 1912 especially intrigued me. While the world was exploding with imagination and invention at the turn of the century, isolated communities were a good twenty years behind the times and not especially eager for “new-fangled contraptions”.
I transferred the setting to the California mountains, created Loveda from a composite of women, and did more research to give a history to both. Idyllwild feels like home to me and it’s important that my books convey the feeling of falling in love with a small community in the heart of a big mountain.
You weave some history of the time period into your books. Have any of your books required more historical research than others?
Absolutely! Each book pulls in a unique piece of history, and some pieces are bigger than others. Did you know Wyatt Earp went to Idyllwild? There was no way I wasn’t going to invite him into Loveda’s world, but it took me until the seventh book before I worked up the courage and research to do him a fair turn. I also wanted to do a good job representing the Cahuilla, their legend of Tahquitz Peak, and their embodiment in the character of Carlos.
The Idyllwild Inn is not only integral to every one of my books, but it’s still running today. It really was a tuberculosis sanatorium, it really did burn to the ground during an April blizzard, and the only thing they saved was a piano. I love that Mr. Lindley was a physician turned hotelier and that Mr. Hannahs was a logger turned postmaster. Poisons and explosives were easier to research than diseases and firearms. And every single character had to have a backstory.
I have a lot of research spreadsheets.
In Book One, Loveda is fleeing domestic abuse. Back in the early 20th Century (1912 in Book One), was there much a woman could do to protect herself legally?
Women could sue for divorce on grounds of cruelty in 1912, but it carried legal, societal, religious, and personal consequences and these were better or worse depending on where you lived in the United States. It wasn’t always granted. And it always carried a stigma.
If a woman found herself married to a bounder or fortune hunter, a cruel man or an abusive drunk, she had few alternatives. Women were still fighting for the right to vote, hold property, support themselves, and claim custody of children, all of which were the husband’s prerogative.
Loveda is a strong woman who runs a hotel in Idyllwild, CA. In one of the books, she claims that she is not a suffragette, but she has actually carved out independence for herself with wit and skill. Is she not the epitome of a suffragette, fighting for women’s rights?
In October 1911, women got the vote in California, only the sixth state to achieve it. Loveda embodies the determination and intelligence that carried women on to secure the 19th amendment ratified in 1920, but for now, she fights the fight on her own terms in her own backyard. She knows poppycock when she sees it and Idyllwild becomes the cause and crusade she fights for.
I would love our daughters to read these books and discover their own inner heroine. To decide that they can be confident in their own life choices, especially if they aren’t traditional ones, and that these choices are worth fighting for. To know that family is who you decide it is and not let past traumas define your future. As her papa says, “Look to the future, darling girl.”
Whether in the Edwardian era or our own, each of us can use our wit and skill to take a stand on our own two feet right where we are for a better future.
I love books set in a hotel, because new characters come to stay as guests and bring their own problems, quirks, and mysteries. Is it challenging to come up with new characters for every book?
Bringing new characters into town is one of my favorite parts of planning each book. Nobody comes to this remote place without a reason, and the reasons can be simple or complex. Characters can arrive in crowds or alone, on holiday or on business. Loveda’s hotel is small and simple compared to the sprawling Idyllwild Inn around the corner. Between them, there’s plenty of scope for a variety of shenanigans.
The challenge lies in what these characters are going to do once they arrive and how our townspeople feel about it. The residents of Idyllwild are consistent through the series and while not much changes on the mountain, they band together to protect it from the regular wash of “progress”—aka problems—and always breathe a sigh of relief once they have the town to themselves again. Very few interlopers remain in Idyllwild the way Loveda does.
You have written eight books in this series. Are there more to come?
The ninth and final installment is currently in progress! There will be a tenth book caboose following, bringing the summer of 1912 finally to an end. Other books and series are vying for attention after that, but expect to see one of the Idyllwild Mystery Series characters developed in a mystery series of her own.
Whoops. I’ve said too much!
Thanks so much, Jolie, for answering my questions today.
*Click on the cover to go to the Amazon page for all eight books.
BEFORE YOU GO
*If you read the book(s), please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books. Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.
*Please click on the “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress followers. A little bit of help from all of us will help self-published authors go a long way!
The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.
This week’s question:
My answer: Romance is not my favorite genre. If I read a romance, there has to be a lot more going on, such as a mystery, or a historical setting with a lot of historical events included. If I do choose a romance, it is usually a historical romance or romantic comedy. I don’t have a favorite trope.
Below is another review I did for the February issue of Historical Novels Review, the magazine of The Historical Novel Society.
The Last Russian Doll is a dual-timeline novel set mostly in Russia. In 1991, Rosie (Raisa) is engaged to be married and taking care of her mother in London. When her mother dies suddenly, she leaves Rosie a key and a mystery. Rosie applies for a job in Russia, hoping to take that key and answer a lifetime’s worth of questions. In 1915, Antonina (Tonya) is trapped in a loveless marriage as the Bolshevik revolution is beginning.
This is a gorgeous saga, filled with mystery and Russian fairytales. The history of 20th-century Russia is told through the eyes of two women. The story encompasses many devastating events: the 1917 Revolution, the Russian Civil War, Stalin’s purges, and the siege of Leningrad during WWII. Rosie arrives back in Russia as the Soviet Union is nearing its end, determined to make sense of her past. The weaving together of the stories of Rosie and Tonya is a perfect tapestry of tragedy, romance, and survival. Fairytales and porcelain dolls add another intriguing layer. This magical but tragic blend of history and fiction transports us straight to Russia during many turbulent periods in its past. It is an absolutely mesmerizing read.
Fans of Russian history and folklore, and anyone who just wants to read an amazing novel, should pick this one up immediately.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kristen Loesch grew up in San Francisco. She holds a BA in History, as well as a Master’s degree in Slavonic Studies from the University of Cambridge. Her debut historical novel, THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL, was shortlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award and longlisted for the Bath Novel Award under a different title. After a decade of living in Europe, she now resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and children.
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post
This was a normal week, and yesterday was completely lazy as we watched “Young Sheldon” and “Law and Order” all day. I had gotten Doug all 20 seasons of Law and Order on DVD for Christmas, and we are on Season 2. Young Sheldon is so fun. It makes me want to watch Big Bang Theory all over again.
Sometimes a book ticks me off, and I just write my thoughts down without changing them too much. That happened on Wednesday with my review of SPARE by Prince Harry and J.R. Moehringer. I was not ticked off at Prince Harry, but at the media and the way they have tried to destroy his life for money, and lots of it. They are still trying. Check out my 5-star review here.
I will participate in Top Ten Tuesday if time permits. The topic is “Debut Books I’m excited about.” I don’t know if I can think of ten. I may change it to “Future Releases I’m Excited About.”
On Friday I will participate in Book Blogger Hop if time permits.
On Indie Weekend I will review Independent and Self-Published books and provide a Q&A with author Jolie Tunnell.
NEW BOOK HAUL
Just one new book this week:
Book Blurb from Amazon:
Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses.
Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, unknowingly igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known. She flees into the surrounding mountains where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland—its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.
Indie Weekend is my effort to help promote self-published and indie books. Indie authors have to do it all, from cover design to marketing and more. If I can help even a little with marketing, I’m happy to do it. Below is a review I did of Queen of the West for the February issue of Historical Novels Review, the magazine of The Historical Novel Society. It is set in 1850s Cincinnati.
BOOK REVIEW
Annie and Max meet on the Ohio River on a steamship bound for Cincinnati in the 1850s. Annie is extremely upset about being forced to move from her beloved New York, but her mother has gotten remarried to a man in Cincinnati. She feels she is entering the wilds. Max is an immigrant who lives in Cincinnati and is returning home. Despite their differences, they begin to bond. When their paths cross again in the city, Annie is even more miserable because her feminist views are looked upon as dangerous by her mother’s new friends. She and Max begin a romance, which is opposed by Annie’s family from the start.
This book provides some great history of pre-Civil War Cincinnati as it was really growing into its name of “The Queen City of the West,” now shortened to “The Queen City.” The author uses Max to describe the city’s history as he takes Annie and the reader on a tour of its many now-historic places. This was of great interest to me as I was born and raised in Cincinnati. The character development of Max and Annie is a bit slow, but this is the first of a trilogy, so it’s possible that more character growth will come later. We are made aware of Annie’s feminist views immediately, but for much of the book they seem to be used mainly for shock value against her upper-crust family and their acquaintances. When Annie finally truly gets involved in the women’s movement, the novel takes on new life. I am looking forward to the next book in the series, which takes us to the Civil War. Fans of Ohio history and women’s fiction will enjoy this book.
My rating is 4.2 stars, rounded to 4.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Walking the historic streets of Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood inspired JR Zink to write the Queen of the West historical fiction trilogy. “I can almost hear the voices of the ambitious nineteenth-century women and men emanate from the buildings as I wander the neighborhood.”
JR Zink grew up in Ohio and earned his BBA from the University of Cincinnati. He enjoyed a successful career as a management and technology consultant and executive leader before stepping away from the business world to develop his right-brain talents as an author. In addition to writing, he coaches swimming and enjoys running, backpacking, bicycling and travel. JR and his wife raised a family and now live in Over-the-Rhine.
Click on the image below to buy Queen of the West, Book 1, and Queen of the Union, Book 2
BEFORE YOU GO
*If you buy the book(s), please leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as anywhere else you review books. Some people feel very daunted by writing a review. Don’t worry. You do not have to write a masterpiece. Just a couple of lines about how the book made you feel will make the author’s day and help the book succeed. The more reviews a book has, the more Amazon will promote it.
*Please click on the “share” buttons below and share these books with your Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress followers. A little bit of help from all of us will help self-published authors go a long way!
Prince Harry’s book Spare was a revelation to me. All of the little snippets taken out of the book and posted, mostly out of context, by the media, looked very different inside the actual book, which was extremely well written by the ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer. I listened to the audiobook, which was read by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, who did a wonderful job. It absolutely lays open Prince Harry’s life, good and bad, for all to see.
The Media’s Role in Prince Harry’s Life
The main message of Prince Harry’s book is how the paparazzi have irrevocably changed, invaded, and tried to ruin his life, all to make money for themselves. And they do it unflinchingly over and over. When the book came out, the snippets posted and spun by the media led to a lot of people saying they would never read the book. That was what the media wanted, for this book is a complete condemnation of them, and it reveals their nature and true practices. Their efforts seem to have failed, as this book sold 3.2 million copies worldwide in its first week.
The Reality lived by Prince Harry, Prince Charles, and the Royal Family
It was also really brought home to me how the royal family is a corporation first, and family comes a distant second. I learned how the royals are treated by the paparazzi, and how the courtiers work with the media and the “paps,” as Prince Harry calls them, to create stories out of thin air. I learned that different offices within the palace would sacrifice other family members to make their chosen royal look better, especially Charles and Camilla’s office. Diana used to say that Charles was outraged by her popularity and Harry says it again here. Charles and Camilla cannot bear for anyone to be more popular than they are, and their courtiers will make sure of it. Hearing this, It is easy for me to believe that Camilla is still behind the scenes pulling strings, because that’s what she did to Diana all those years ago. Diana famously said there were three people in her marriage, which Camilla had invaded and controlled before it even began.
Princess Diana
The most heartbreaking scene in this book is when Prince Harry asked for the police investigation photos of his mother’s death and was going through them. Here are his words below.
“At last I came to the photos of Mummy. There were lights around her, auras, almost halos. How strange. The color of the lights was the same color as her hair—golden. I didn’t know what the lights were, I couldn’t imagine, although I came up with all sorts of supernatural explanations. As I realized their true origin, my stomach clenched. Flashes. They were flashes. And within some of the flashes were ghostly visages, and half visages, paps and reflected paps and refracted paps on all the smooth metal surfaces and glass windscreens. Those men who’d chased her… they’d never stopped shooting her while she lay between the seats, unconscious, or semi-conscious, and in their frenzy they’d sometimes photographed each other. Not one of them was checking on her, offering her help, not even comforting her. They were just shooting, shooting, shooting.” (Prince Harry).
Harry shares his disgust that in the official investigation, the accident was blamed solely on the deceased driver, who it was reported had been drinking, and not at all on the paparazzi chasing Diana.
I really appreciated the honesty in this book. Prince Harry doesn’t flinch from revealing that he has used drugs and talks about all of the famous, negative stories about him. He refutes a lot of the stories, positive, and negative, that the media has simply made up out of thin air. He admits to the ones that are true. He apologizes for the things he did wrong.
Prince Harry talks a lot about his military service and how proud he is of his country. He praises the people he served with. The media simply says of all of his military service that he spoke about killing 25 Taliban. While he does discuss this, it is in a professional way over many chapters. The media crows that his words enraged the Taliban. It was really the media that did this with their reaction to this book, aimed at keeping people from reading it in my opinion. They completely reduced his military service to this headline, and it is an outrage. Readers will realize it at once when they read the many chapters he devotes to the military.
A Royal Family Frozen in Time
Another thing that is made evident is the control that the family has over all of its members. Charles controls the funds for both William and Harry, who had no money of his own except a sum left to him by his mother. Harry had to ask permission for even the smallest of things. He even had to ask the Queen permission to have a beard when he got married. The Queen granted his request, which became a problem between himself and William because William was made to shave his beard. Harry wasn’t allowed to choose any career he wanted. Some choices were vetoed by his father. The freedom he felt when he finally broke away must have been amazing.
Reality Versus Media Lies
The picture that the media painted of two close brothers who were torn apart by Meghan Markle is another lie. William almost always kept a distance between them and Harry always longed for them to be closer. Combine that with an unsupportive father and a mother who died too young, and that led to loneliness and mental health issues. Harry is candid about his mental health issues, how he sought out therapy, and how his memories of his mother were locked away for a long time. He talked about Meghan’s suicidal thoughts and how his family never stood up for them.
This is an eye-opening look at what it’s really like to be a royal. I encourage everyone to read it and highly recommend the audiobook version.
I read somewhere that Harry’s deal with Random House is for four books. If that is true, then I sincerely hope that one of them looks further into his mother’s death.
The opinions above are solely my own after listening to the audiobook, which I purchased on Audible.
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