This week’s topic is “Books With A High Page Count.” I often keep the books I choose to 325 pages or less, but there are some exceptions. Many of the books Jodi Taylor writes are close to 500 pages, and I’ve read them all, so I’ve listed a few here. Some of the Harry Potter books are over 500 pages. I can’t say I’ve finished War and Peace or The Count of Monte Cristo, but they are over 1000 pages. Mockingjay, Book 3 of The Hunger Games trilogy, is 400 pages. The Lord of the Rings was originally intended to be one book, which would make it well over 1000 pages! And of course, I need to end with The King James Bible, which the internet tells me can range from 1200 – 2500 pages, depending on the edition.
What about you? Can you think of books with a high page count that you’ve enjoyed?
*I reviewed this for the August edition of Historical Novels Review, the magazine of The Historical Novel Society.
1890. American Cora Beaumont has inherited her father’s dirigible, or airship, the Lady Air, with one caveat: She must be engaged. She indeed becomes engaged to the second son of a duke, Terrance Tristan, and embarks on a lavish voyage from America to London on the Lady Air with Terrance, his brother Nicholas, who is the eldest son, and their cousin Ophelia as three of the many passengers. It is an arranged marriage and Terrance has become decidedly preoccupied and detached. Then a dead body turns up, and Cora, as the owner of the Lady Air, begins an investigation to find the murderer, aided by Nicholas, who is the highest-ranking member of the peerage.
This is an excellent mystery with characters that pull you in right away. Cora is not the typical American daughter who is sold away to British lords so her family can gain prestige. She goes into the arrangement with open eyes and motives of her own. Only her engagement and marriage can secure her inheritance. She is also quite aware that the Tristans need her money. Ophelia is a delightfully feisty cousin and best friend, and Nicholas turns out to be a great investigative partner. This locked-room mystery plays out completely during the airship voyage. This novel has great twists, turns, and red herrings, but the relationships between the characters were the highlight. This was a “sit down and read to the end” book for me. Highly recommended.
My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no half-star option.
I received a free copy of this book via The Historical Novel Society. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
April J. Skelly (who also writes as AJ Skelly) is an author, reader, and lover of all things fantasy, medieval, and fairy-tale-romance. And werewolves. She has a serious soft spot for them. As an avid life-long reader and a former high school English teacher, she’s always been fascinated with the written word. She lives with her husband, children, and many imaginary friends who often find their way into her stories. They all drink copious amounts of tea together and stay up reading far later than they should. You can read more of her short stories at www.ajskelly.com
The title pretty much sums up my week. First, the integration of Opie into the family is going much better. The dogs are getting used to him–slowly, and he can be found lounging around the living room often, when he’s not in his room watching YouTube for cats!
This past week was my birthday and our 43rd anniversary. We got married on my birthday, so as we always joke, that means every year on my birthday, I have to get Doug a present! We went to Tupelo Honey in Asheville. I had my favorite–shrimp and grits. Doug got a fried chicken BLT. We also went antiquing, and I got some more jadeite for my collection. A picture of some of my jadeite collection is below. My new acquisitions are not in the picture. It was a wonderful day.
Youtube for cats is hilarious. Opie is mesmerized.
I will be posting reviews I did for the August edition of Historical Novels Review, the magazine of The Historical Novel Society, starting with Wild as the Stars by Kerry Chaput, and Those We Carry by Scott Saxberg.
I will get some Indie reviews out in the coming week. I have so many, and I get more requests every day, so I am way behind.
I will participate in Top Ten Tuesday if time permits.
“Nobody outside the village knows the orphanage exists, Celina. We’re hidden by the mountains and everyone is sworn to secrecy. Please don’t give the soldiers a reason to come here…”
In a quiet village in German-occupied France, schoolteacher Celina ushers young Jewish children into her classroom. Watching their bright smiles as they learn how to write, she and sweet, handsome Remy promise to protect them. Every day she pretends to send them home, waving at the local police roaming the streets, as instead they sneak away to hide upstairs.
But Celina can’t stop thinking about the note left on her bedside table last night. Written in the secret code used by the Resistance, it told her a baby she’s sheltering could be reunited with its mother. Will Remy ever forgive her if she attempts to take the baby home? If she’s caught, they could discover the orphanage…
New York, present day. Haunted by a loss he refuses to speak about, Rachel’s grandfather is slowly losing his memories. Then Rachel finds a name scribbled into the old children’s book he used to read to her, which leads her to a French village with a dark and dangerous past.
Nothing can prepare Rachel for what she finds behind the orphanage’s crumbling façade. But as her own future becomes entwined with her grandfather’s wartime secrets, she will learn just how much courage it takes to follow your heart.
A breathtaking, emotional historical novel that will sweep you away to World War Two France, to the dangers of Nazi occupation, and the hope that prevailed in the darkest of times. For fans of Victoria Hislop, Soraya Lane and Fiona Valpy.
BOOK REVIEW
This is an intriguing dual-timeline novel set in WWII and present-day France and present-day New York. The WWII France timeline is most compelling, and I love the premise of a secret orphanage that the Nazis haven’t discovered where Jewish children are kept safe. In the present-day timeline, Rachel is investigating her Grandfather’s secrets as his dementia sets in and memories fail. The two timelines work well together, although I feel the novel would have worked just as well without the present-day timeline. The end result is satisfying and somewhat surprising. I thought I had it all figured out, and I didn’t. I love that. Fans of historical fiction should check this one out.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barbara Josselsohn is a best-selling novelist and journalist who loves crafting stories about strong protagonists facing a fork in the road. Her newest book is The Secret Orphanage, a multigenerational novel about an American schoolteacher who becomes embroiled in the French Resistance and a present-day librarian compelled to discover her grandfather’s wartime secrets.
Her earlier historical novels include the Sisters of War series (Secrets of the Italian Island, The Lost Gift to the Italian Island, and The Forgotten Italian Restaurant). She is also the author of five contemporary novels: The Lilac House, The Bluebell Girls, The Lily Garden, The Cranberry Inn, and The Last Dreamer. Barbara has written hundreds of articles and essays in major and regional publications about family, home and relationships.
She lives just north of New York City and enjoys escaping to the beach whenever she can. Other than writing, her biggest passion is her family: her husband, her three kids, and her rescue pup, a mini-schnauzer named Albie. She is currently at work on her ninth novel.
**Indie Spotlight is my effort to help Indie authors share their books with others. You can help too by sharing this post with all of your social media followers. Together we can help Indie books succeed. Below is my review of an honest and very personal story of loss and grief by author Bill Beckett.
BOOK REVIEW
The Empty Side of Our Bed is Bill Beckett’s story of the loss of his beloved wife Bonnie to cancer, and his painful journey forward. Beckett makes it clear that there are no easy answers and no step-by-step guidelines to cope with losing the love of your life. Instead he shares his emotions from the beginning of his journey until the present. His description of heartache as an actual, physical pain is so real, and he describes the darker times when he was overwhelmed with the physical agony of it, along with the mental anguish. At the same time, he shares happy memories with Bonnie and stresses the simple moments that we should all embrace to the fullest, because they are the ones he misses the most. He shares how he has learned to live with grief, and he honors his late wife and his love for her.
This is a wonderful tribute to the author’s wife, and at the same time, a deeply honest story of experiencing grief and moving slowly forward.
I received a free copy of this book. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bill Beckett is a former IT and digital forensics professional who turned to writing after the loss of his wife, Bonnie. He is the author of Love, Family, Cancer, a heartfelt account of their journey through illness. His current project, The Empty Side of Our Bed, is a deeply personal memoir about grief, healing, and rediscovering identity. Bill writes with raw honesty, offering comfort to fellow widowers and anyone navigating profound loss. He is a father, grandfather, and storyteller who believes in the quiet power of words to help us carry on.
PURCHASE LINK
Click on the cover to purchase on Amazon
BEFORE YOU GO
**If you read the book, please be sure to leave a review on Amazon. It helps Indie authors so much. A review does not have to be a masterpiece. Just a sentence or two about how the book made you feel will make an author’s day and help their books succeed.
Emily’s heart soars as the stone cottage on the cliff comes into view – it is just as she remembered. As she pushes open the weather-beaten door, she wonders if returning to this place will be a chance to start again…
Heartbroken and searching for a new beginning, Emily is shocked to learn she has inherited her great-aunt Violet’s cottage. She remembers summers spent running through its rose garden, but she hasn’t seen her great-aunt in years… So why did she leave her Clifftop Cottage?
Deciding this is the fresh start she needs, Emily travels to the seaside village of Dovecote. Not long after she arrives, she bumps into her childhood love, Will. As he runs his hand through his chestnut-brown hair, she can’t help but think of what happened between them all those years ago…
When Will offers to help redecorate the cottage, Emily is unsure. He broke her heart once before; could he do it again? But she is soon distracted when she finds a leather diary dating back to the Second World War hidden inside an old desk. Turning the pages, she discovers a wartime romance she knew nothing about. Why did Violet keep this secret?
As Emily and Will grow closer while investigating her family history, she wonders if Dovecote could be the place she finally calls home. But can she trust Will to help her uncover a long-buried family secret? And, if she does, will this forgotten diary mend her broken heart, and give her the happy ending she’s looking for?
BOOK REVIEW
Right after enduring a breakup, Emily arrives at her great-aunt’s cottage in Dovecote, which to her surprise, she has inherited. When she finds Violet’s diary, however, everything starts to make sense.
The descriptions of the horror, loss, and heartache of the London Bltz during WWII are well done. The weaving together of the two timelines works well and makes sense. The descriptions of Clifftop Cottage completely bring it alive for the reader, and I could imagine myself there. The present-day romance between Emily and Will, however, is a bit predictable.
The secret being kept by Violet in the 1940s is one with which Emily can identify, and their stories meld together pretty well. Sometimes dual-timeline books do not work, especially if one of the timelines is in the present day, but in this case the present-day inclusion makes sense, as Emily and Violet share much in common.
The novel has LGBTQ+ main characters, but the publisher’s book description does not mention that. It is made clear, however, early in the book. Fans of WWII and LGBTQ+ fiction may enjoy this novel.
Although this is the second book in the Dovecote Cottages series, it can be read as a standalone.
My rating is 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on sites with no half-star option.
Thank you to Bookouture for a spot on the book tour and the free copy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura writes uplifting escapist women’s fiction with heart and a dash of humour. She was born in Ireland and spent parts of her childhood in France and South Africa. Laura now lives in the south-west of England, where she works in Financial Services, and is locked in a constant battle against her ever-growing to-be-read pile.
When Alice Sanborn and best friend Jerushah cross paths with a bounty hunter in rural northern Vermont, the teens stage a daring rescue for former slave Sarah Johnson—but winter weather, politics, and challenges of mountain life bring more danger. It’s March 1850 in small-town Vermont, and tempers flare over the “right kind” of Abolition. When the two fifteen-year-olds suspect Alice’s older brother William is taking dangerous risks to shelter a fugitive hiding at the inn, they see Sarah’s safety at risk. With help from the skillful but mysterious Solomon McBride, the girls head toward the wilder countryside along the Canadian border. Perils abound, including back at home. Is it all Alice’s fault? What should she do? Even a teen can take strong action—but which way is right, and how can she choose?
BOOK REVIEW
The Long Shadow is a young adult novel set in Vermont prior to the Civil War. Best friends Alice and Jerushah have also become friends with a formerly enslaved child, Sarah Johnson, who had previously escaped to Vermont and is waiting on her parents to join her. When a bounty hunter arrives, looking for a man who escaped slavery and is being hidden by Alice’s brother William, the three girls and a friend, Solomon, find themselves on an adventure aimed at protecting Sarah, but they are all soon in danger. This is Book 1 of The Winds of Freedom series.
This is a well-written YA novel that does a great job of describing what life was like in 19th Century Vermont prior to the start of the Civil War. With Alice, the reader experiences Vermont farm life, including daily chores, caring for newborn lambs, and participating in a sugaring off. But another reality of life at that time was that the United States was heading towards a civil war, and the people who had escaped slavery were seeking refuge. I loved the relationship between Alice and her friends, the growth of Alice on her journey, and the willingness of so many people to help Sarah and keep her safe. I used to think that once an enslaved person escaped to the North, they were free, but money-hungry hunters of people were allowed to capture them even in free states, and the author portrays this so well in the person of Henry Clinton, bounty hunter.
The descriptions of the wilds of Northern Vermont at that time are beautifully done, and the book is impeccably researched. There is love, danger, and heartbreaking loss woven into this story of a tumultuous and terrible time in the history of Vermont, and of the United States. Highly recommended.
My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no half-star option.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Storytelling is Beth Kanell’s native language – and she learned it from her mother, who taught her to fill in the blanks as a story emerged. As a single parent in Vermont, for years she told stories “on the side” and developed a specialty in tales for teens (always starting with something scary!). Endlessly in love with Vermont, she began bringing the most fascinating parts of its history into her narratives, and discovered that what she really likes after all is writing fiction that explores the lives of young people caught up in the force of change. She is also a non-stop mystery reader, so she grapples for new and unusual plot twists, as well as the magic of the Green Mountain state.
PURCHASE LINK
*Click on the cover to purchase The Long Shadow
**Soon I will be reviewing Book 2: The Ardent Flame, and Book 3, The Bitter and the Sweet
It was a hectic July! We had the grandkids all month, and I was busy every minute. I lost some weight just following them around. Then the last week they were here, we picked up another family member, quite unexpectedly.
Doug was mowing outside, and a teeny kitten came running up to him full-tilt, with no concern apparently for the mower or for interacting with a human. His eyes were all matted, and he was skin and bones. We recognized him as one of the kittens of a feral cat that my cousin has been feeding. We knew she had had babies and they were living in an old, unused barn. But this baby was all alone and starving, and upon checking the barn, we found Mama and the other babies had departed and ditched him.
Doug brought him in and fed him milk with a syringe, and a couple of days later, Mama and his siblings moved underneath our shed, so we tried to reunite them. Again, they all moved and left him behind, and so he became part of our family. His name is Oliver PeeWee, or Opie for short! We still need to get our two dachshunds on board, however. Hopefully, they will accept him soon. They are starting to warm up. Cautiously.
The vet said he was about four weeks old, but only weighed 9 ounces! He has quickly gained weight since then. He has his own room and a much better living situation. He’s eating solid food as well. Some eye drops are clearing up his eye condition quickly.
We are going to try to trap the mama cat and get her spayed once she’s done feeding her kittens so this doesn’t happen again. We’re hoping some shelters will take the other kittens, but who knows?
Here are photos of Opie, both when Doug first found him and after he started improving:
I’ve also been busy with my reviews editor duties for Historical Novels Review, the magazine of The Historical Novel Society. The August issue just came out, and I’ve been sharing the reviews with the authors and publishers. The next issue comes out in November. There are four issues a year, and the mission is to share recently published (and forthcoming) historical fiction novels with as many people as possible.
THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG
On Tuesday, I’ll be reviewing The Long Shadowby Beth Kanell. This is the first book of her Winds of Freedom series, which has three books so far. I’ll be reviewing the whole series. On Wednesday, I’ll be reviewing My Great Aunt’s Diary as part of a Bookouture book tour. I’ll participate in Top Ten Tuesday, time permitting. I’m also trying to get some Indie reviews out now that the hectic part of summer is over
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic is Beachy Reads. It can be books that take place on the beach, or with beachy covers, or anything else connected to the beach.
Of the ten, I’ve read six. For some of the others, I just like the covers, and I definitely want to read the Emily Henry book one day. I haven’t read her books before, but I hear they are funny.
Which cover do you like? I still like Hotel Laguna, both the book and the cover, best. My review of Hotel Laguna is here.
It’s all about the grandkids this month, as they are staying with us all through the end of July. It’s been great to see them, but I am exhausted! It’s been a long time since I’ve been this tired! Above are two of my grandchildren. The oldest is busy playing Roblox. LOL. Their Dad is picking them up the end of July, and August will be all about resting. And blogging!!!
In gardening news, my tomatoes are going crazy! I’ve been freezing them to can in August when I have time, but also eating delicious BLTs. The cucumbers aren’t doing so well, but I am getting some nice jalapenos to go in my salsa. I have a huge crop of basil, and my mint is doing well.
I did pick up some new books this week. See below
The Last Wizard’s Ball: The final book in the Gunnie Rose series. Lizbeth Rose’s sister Felicia attends the Grand Wizards’ Ball, and as one of the most powerful—and beautiful—death wizards in a generation, she is highly sought after as one of the belles of the ball.
However, war and violence are on the rise in Europe as German and Japanese wizards are also courting Felicia…and some are refusing to take no for an answer.
As the façade of genteel wizard society turns deadly, Lizbeth must learn to not only protect her sister, but also navigate the arcane world that is pulling her sister and husband into a dangerous dance with death that could change the world as they know it.
My Great-Aunt’s Diary (Bookouture book tour in August) – Heartbroken and searching for a new beginning, Emily is shocked to learn she has inherited her great-aunt Violet’s cottage. She remembers summers spent running through its rose garden, but she hasn’t seen her great-aunt in years… So why did she leave her Clifftop Cottage?
Deciding this is the fresh start she needs, Emily travels to the seaside village of Dovecote. Not long after she arrives, she bumps into her childhood love, Will. As he runs his hand through his chestnut-brown hair, she can’t help but think of what happened between them all those years ago…
When Will offers to help redecorate the cottage, Emily is unsure. He broke her heart once before; could he do it again? But she is soon distracted when she finds a leather diary dating back to the Second World War hidden inside an old desk. Turning the pages, she discovers a wartime romance she knew nothing about. Why did Violet keep this secret?
As Emily and Will grow closer while investigating her family history, she wonders if Dovecote could be the place she finally calls home. But can she trust Will to help her uncover a long-buried family secret? And, if she does, will this forgotten diary mend her broken heart, and give her the happy ending she’s looking for?
Murder in Miniature– In post-WWII Vermont, Maple Bishop has a thriving dollhouse business and a new career as a crime scene consultant for the local sheriff’s office. On the surface, she seems to be doing well, but deep down Maple is still reeling from the death of her husband. When the body of an aspiring firefighter–who was close childhood friends with Kenny, the sheriff’s deputy and Maple’s confidante–is discovered in the charred remains of a burned cabin, Maple is called in to help determine whether the fire was an accident or a case of murder by arson.
Realizing there’s more to the crime than meets the eye, she sets out to unearth the discrepancies from the scene by re-creating the cabin in miniature. The investigation leads them to Maple’s old Boston neighborhood, forcing her to confront the past she’s desperately trying to forget.
As Maple and Kenny sift through clues, they uncover dark secrets that hit close to home, unraveling in unexpected ways—and putting their lives in danger.
Next week I’ll be doing some reviews and spotlights as well, in between wrangling kids. 🙂 I’ll try to do Top Ten Tuesday if time permits.
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