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The Jane and Bertha in Me by Rita Maria Martinez
Synopsis of the book:
This spring marks the bicentennial of Charlotte Brontë’s birth. In her ambitious and timely debut, The Jane and Bertha in Me, Rita Maria Martinez celebrates Brontë’s classic novel Jane Eyre. Through wildly inventive, beautifully crafted persona poems, Martinez re-imagines Jane Eyre’s cast of characters in contemporary contexts, from Jane as an Avon saleslady to Bertha as a Stepford wife. These lively, fun, poignant poems prove that Jane Eyre’s fictional universe is just as relevant today as it was so many years ago. The Jane and Bertha in Me is a must-read for any lover of Brontë’s work.
My views:
Poetry is not easy to review. Mostly because, it is pretty personal.
Jane Eyre is one of my all time favourite novels. And taking each of its characters in the contemporary context is really very touching. The eternal feelings do not die out. The language is so beautiful that I paused a few times to savour those. The poems are as timeless and memorable as the novel. The poet has done full justice to the characters. The images she creates stays in our mind long after we finish reading the poems. I am a fan of Charlotte Bronte but one can enjoy the poems without even knowing anything about Jane Eyre or the author. The poet is so talented and imaginative. I wish I had the print copy. To simply hold it to my heart.....
I recommend......
.Author bio:
Rita Maria Martinez is a Cuban-American poet from Miami, Florida. Her writing has been published in journals
Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.
Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.
If she hadn’t been dusting the reading nook so beloved by customers, young and old, Mrs.Honoria Duchamp, owner and proprietress of Evans Books, would not have heard the cruel comments about her from some society mum shepherding her daughter to matrimonial slaughter.
Now it echoed in her mind: “Did you see that woman, Margaret? Did you? Take a close look at her and at this cramped, suffocating little shop. This is the best you can hope for if you don’t marry well. Do you think that shriveled-up mouse of a woman wanted this menial life?”
The mother’s sharp voice had grown shrill toward the end of this little speech. It just goes to show, she thought, nothing good can come of dusting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She stared back into his eyes and nodded. “Sometimes we have no choice but to sacrifice ourselves for our families, for the greater good.”
Posted for The Friday 56, which is hosted by Freda's Voice
Never Too Late by Amara Royce
Honoria Duchamp is a widow owning a bookstore. She is 40 years of age. Lord Devlin is in his mid 20s. He comes to her shop to "investigate" her role as pamphlets containing “incendiary materials” have surfaced and she is believed to be the source. He falls for her and wishes to marry her. But Honoria knows nothing can come out of it. Nora, the heroine, is in trade, and no, she is not some heiress or inherits loads from a relative from a long lost relation. Alex isn't just some bored Duke, but a Viscount who loves his family and does everything he has to do to protect his brother and mother. Alex's attraction to Nora is genuine and he is the one who keeps pursuing the possibility of a relationship. He is not a rake, or a roguewho needs to be needed to be reformed. Even though he's only 26, he knows he has something special with her and isn't willing to give it up.
Lord Devlin's mother is not averse to their relationship. I liked the way she encourages "Nora" to go for Lord Devlin. The story line is unconventional and I liked that. Nora is a do gooder for social causes.
"I almost died because a criminal with a gun shot at you and I pushed you out of the way and was hurt. Jac, please." He put his hand on her shoulders and pulled her toward him so she was twisted around, facing him again. "You can't throw us away because of something you don't even believe yourself."
~~~Posted for That's What HE Said Thursday
Title: The Collector of Dying Breaths
Author: M.J. Rose
ISBN: 9781451621532
Publisher: Atria Books/2014
Pages: 384
Sometimes, to hide your sadness, you have to cut yourself in two. That way you can bury half of yourself, the unspeakable half, and leave the rest to face to the world. I can tell you the first time I did this. I was fourteen years old, standing in a bathroom stall holding the last note I would ever receive from my friend Romina, a note consisting of a single question in furious capital letters.
After the second intermission, there should have been many empty seats as theatre goers went off to other amusements. But according to Madame Legrand, the lead actress was such a success that she kept everyone until the end. The best they could do was stools near the stage.
Madeleine,28, is a spinster, believed to be firmly on the shelf. She always avoids the ball by feigning illness. She is not all resting as her aunt assumes! She is living in secret as an actress on the London stage and is one of the best. She knows her reputation would be in shreds if she is discovered. Ferguson sees her performing and wants her as his mistress unaware that it is Madeleine. 
Ivor barely had time to register the identity of his assailant before Justin was hitting him, his fist slamming with satisfying force into Ivor's face. Justin felt bones and flesh disintegrate under his hand, and smiled savagely as he repeated the blow.
Forbidden Love by Karen Robards
~~~Posted for The Friday 56, which is hosted by Freda's Voice
Forbidden Love by Karen Robards
Megan Kinkead has always been neglected by her guardian, Justin Brant, 6th Earl of Weston. He seldom ever goes to meet her in school. In the 12 years that he had been her guardian, he has seen her only a few times.
When he sees the 17 year old Megan, he can't believe that she is same scrawny brat from hell who has now turned into a fiery, raven-haired, violet-eyed beauty. He is attracted to her but keeps telling himself that she is his ward. Now Megan has always adored Justin and feels no wrong in touching and kissing him. That is their undoing. She finds out that he is married when Alicia, his wife turns up....
Megan leaves for London with his wife to flirt with other men for revenge. Justin can't bear it. She tells him that she is getting married to a young lord. Justin does not like it and kidnaps her. On the way she tells him that she is pregnant with his child and has to marry as soon as possible. He takes her to one of his villas in a village and leaves her there and turns up to marry her after a few months. They end up fighting and she runs from him, falls down and loses the baby. Grief stricken Megan totally ignores Justin...
Karen Robards has made the story interesting despite the fact that our hero is married. Being attracted to his ward bothers him but Megan is least bothered by the fact. However, she is devastated to find him married. The novel is filled with angst. Of both the hero and the heroine. I must say, Karen Robards knows what she is doing.
Urged on by the guards, he mounted the rough wooden planks, his movements slow and awkward because of the confining chains. Over their clanking, he suddenly became aware of a swelling roar. Surprised, Matt looked around and down. A milling, unruly crowd stretched around the gallows like an endless expanse of sea around a tiny island.The sight stopped him in his tracks. He had not been aware of them before, wished he had not become aware of them now. They were staring up at him, a featureless blur made up of hundreds of faces, come to watch him die. Their mouths shouted obscenities; their eyes screamed hate.
“That’s him. That’s the one. Grayson—bloody murderer.”
Matt stared at them. Missiles thrown by the crowd began slicing through the air around him, rotten tomatoes and eggs and even rocks. The guards, as caught up in the maelstrom of refuse as he was, cursed viciously and hurried him up the stairs. Matt did nothing to hinder them. Every ounce of his concentration was suddenly focused on fighting down the terror that tiptoed icily up and down his spine. He scarcely felt the rock that bounced off his left temple, leaving a darkening bruise and a trickle of crimson in its wake.
Amanda Rose by Karen Robards
The novel is set in the 1840s. It opens with our hero taken to the gallows to be hanged. For a crime he did not commit. Matt Grayson is a ship & merchant owner from New Orleans and travels to England. During a business deal Matt was drugged, later to be woken up to police arresting him for the murder of a well known family in England. Somehow he escapes the hangman's rope but gets shot shot during the escape. He ends up on a beach down below a convent. Hungry, sick, injured.
Amanda Rose has been sent to the convent five years ago by her half-brother after their father dies. She is almost eighteen now and he has arranged her marriage and made a deal that he would get her inheritance after the marriage is thru. Amanda Rose does not wish to marry the person her half-brother has selected for but she also does not wish to end up in the convent.
Unknown to the nuns, she escapes to the beach at night to calm her troubled thoughts. That's when she meets Matt Grayson. She takes him to a hidden cave and nurses him back to health. But he is caught and shot and presumed dead. And Amanda Rose is to be married in few days time.
Matt Grayson is very much alive, rescued by his brother. And he thinks Amanda led the police to him. His brother Zeke kidnaps Amanda at the behest of Matt, who is hell bent on taking revenge. He takes her to New Orleans....
The novel started out with the scene of Matt being taken to the gallows. A very harrowing experience. When he escapes, the reader breathes easy. Amanda is a spunky heroine. A fighter. There is good chemistry between them. Yet I found Matt a jerk in the second half. Zeke, his brother is a very likable character. There were moments, I wanted to kill the hero but I couldn't put it down until I finished it. Go for if you like a forceful hero as is the norm in historical romances.
She placed a finger in the space between her nostrils and pulled her nose upward. When she saw the slight hint of a smile flash across Precious’ face, she knew it was over. She rolled her eyes back into their sockets until only the whites were visible, pursed her lips, and began making slurping noises like a pig at the trough.
“Hee, hee, hee, hee.... You’re silly.”
“And you’re precious. C’mere.”
~~~The Doctor's Secret Bride by Anna E. Ross
Dr. Erik LaCrosse needs a nanny for his daughter, Precious. When Michelle Carter arrives at his doorstep for the job, he has misgivings about her. She is too young and beautiful to be a nanny. But Michelle Carter has other ideas. She wins over his daughter in no time.
Erik is attracted towards Michelle and soon they marry each other secretly. Erik's first wife had died in an accident and Michelle seems to hold a key to that. When Erik learns of her secret, he cannot bear to be with her. Michelle leaves him easily enough as no one is aware of their secret wedding.
Michelle might be homeless and penniless but she devotes all her free time to be with underprivileged children. She and her brother turned out good despite having an abusive father. She lost her job and he stole all her money too. Her father is the cause of all her troubles.
I found Erik arrogant and self-centred. I finished the novel because of Michelle. She is strong, good and knows how to help others. I think she ought to have made Erik grovel at her feet. She gave in too easily!!
Rosemead Manor, Gloucestershire, England
Hush Little Baby by Suzanne Redfearn
We look like the perfect family, and I'm happy to pretend.
Father Kimball looks down at his parish. “Welcome my brothers and sisters in Christ, beloved children of God…”
Beside me, Drew squirms. Gordon’s firm squeeze of his knee stops the squiggling. I take Drew’s hand in mine to keep him still. No one in our small clan has an iron bladder. I slide my eyes in a sidelong glance at Gordon. His jaw is set tight. He won't be happy if Drew gets up in the middle of the sermon. Of course, he’ll be even less happy if Drew wets himself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a very long time, I finished a novel at one go as I couldn't put it down. I read it in 4 hours straight finishing at 3 AM. It is a disturbing novel about domestic violence. Something which is as old as time itself. Domestic violence does not get reported much. People do not come out in the open. The victim feels it is always her fault. That she deserves the beatings and the insults. The children are the worst sufferers.
Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham
The story starts with Sienna. Sienna cuts herself. “you want to know the reason? you want to know why someone would want to bleed in secret? it’s because i deserve it. i deserve to be punished. to punish myself. love is pain and pain is love….you think you understand me. you don’t. i bleed for you.”
This book gets right to the business of sucking you in as a reader as any good crime fiction should. Ex-detective Ray Hegarty is found in a pool of blood in his teenage daughter Sienna's bedroom. She is found covered in his blood. It looks like a clear cut case of the daughter murdering the father. The protagonist, Professor Joe O’Loughlin is made investigating psychologist on the case. Sienna happens to be his daughter Charlie's friend. When Joe starts his work of analyzing Sienna, murky details start coming up, with the murderer being someone totally unexpected.
Professor O’Loughlin is battling the onset of Parkinson’s disease, along with battling separation from his wife and daughters. Parallel to the main story, we also get to know about the trial of a boy who has been accused of burning an entire family of immigrants to death. It seems like a racial hate crime. There are many issues dealt with in the book, e.g., psychopathic murderers, child abuse, and racism all dealt in a very plausible manner.
I teach young girls like Sienna and Charlie. At certain points, the novel scared me. It does deal with teenage issues, like anguish, conflicted emotions and confusion. The novel resonated with me. Yes, I recommend this novel. To all crime fiction readers and also for teachers as well as parents. Do you really know what goes inside your child's mind?
"She died maybe a day before she entered the water. And she was thrown in the water naked," Millard repeated.
~~Page 233
Title: Cut Short
Author: Leigh Russell
ISBN: 978-1842433546
Publisher: No Exit/2009
Pages: 352
DI Geraldine Steel has been recently promoted and arrives in the town of Woolsmarsh with a lot of baggage. As soon as she arrives, she is called to investigate in Lyceum Park where a body has just been found in the bushes. The victim is Angela Waters, a woman in her early 20′s with long blond hair. She gets headlong into the case and it soon becomes obvious that the first strangled victim will not be the last, so it's a race against time.
Geraldine Steel, is part of a team and not the leader. DI Steel does not enjoy a simple domestic life but has various problems of her own. DI Steel is assigned to listen to the messages from the public responding to the appeal. Nothing offered appears to have any relevance to the murder. To add to Geraldine’s problems, she is being stalked by someone whose appearance is vaguely familiar. She is on the fast promotion track, a route that encourages jealousy and resentment. She is too new to the town and to the Murder Investigation Unit to know if the stalker is someone from her personal life or someone who wants to unsettle her in her professional life.
This is not a really a whodunnit. We get to know the killer as he hides the body of the first victim and we are let inside his head, which isn't a good place to be.
The strengths of this novel lie in the author's powerful ability to get you up into the story and produce a cast of cameo characters that feel so real. The chapters are short and we may not dwell upon each victim's family or each witness's circumstances, but what we get is enough to feel the reality of a police investigation.
"I am going to have to insist that you give me the pottery shards," Ami called out. "There's no other way to ensure the safety of your sister."
~~~Page 275
Title: The Book of Lost Fragrances
Author: M. J. Rose
ISBN: 978451621303
Publisher: Atria Books/2012
Pages: 347
Jac L'Etoile has moved away from their family business of Fragrances, House of L'Etoile, in Paris to US. She has been haunted by her past and tries to be as far away from her home. She has made a successful career as a mythologist, television personality and author. She has no plans to join the family business with her brother Robbie.
Robbie finds something in the Archives and Jac is not very keen to know more about it. Then Robbie goes missing, a body is found in their perfumery, she has to come back to find him. She doesn't believe that he committed the crime nor that he is dead.
She, along with her past lover, Griffin North, tries to find Robbie and only then she discovers a world of intrigue, ancient memories and old fragrances. She can visualize her past life, going back and forth to the ancient Egypt, French revolution and the present time Dalai Lama. Then there are people interested in the old pottery shards, in the memory tools, to look into past lives, to know about their reincarnations.
With much detailing, the novel does not move fast but we learn a lot about fragrances, ancient Egypt, Cleopatra, French revolution and also about China and Tibet, regarding Dalai Lama. It has been weaved well. All these might not gel with some but for those who like intrigue, history, suspense, this book will work fine. M. J. Rose does know how to research, before venturing into writing. This is my third book by her and I look forward to read more.
