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“In the conventional storyline, I’m supposed to be the one slaying dragons to save you, the princess in distress. So, you see, I feel odd being the rescued.”
Welcome, Reluctant Stranger! (Book 3) by E Journey
Book Description:
Every Tuesday Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where participants share the first paragraph (or a few) of a book they are reading or thinking about reading soon.
It wasn’t every day a woman lost her virginity.
This was the only justification Annalise could give herself for the way her hands trembled. Ordinary wedding day nerves and nothing more.
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.
London, England
January 1, 1815
Tucked in amongst the odors of wax and smoking wicks, lavender and musk, lurked the aura of anticipation. Faint, yet distinct, it hung like a scent itself in the heavy air of the Carstairs drawing room.
It became more than a smell. Sophie heard it in the sudden hushing of voices, saw it in the slight raising of eyebrows. Previously attentive gentlemen stiffened, and with polite nods faded away as if they had not been fluttering about her just moments before. Her nape prickled, and Sophie felt like she was a goat staked out in a tiger trap.
"It's Lucas," whispered her friend Minerva, her narrowed silver eyes tracking the movement behind Sophie's back.
Even the music stopped. Lords and ladies stood still in the blue and gold drawing room, their sly glances in Sophie's direction reflected in the mirrored wall.
"I mean, it's a lot to deal with, I know. I killed a man."
"You killed a Nazi," he corrects me. "To save your best friend."
"Sometimes it doesn't feel like that." I burst into tears.
Title: The Diplomat's Wife
Author: Pam Jenoff
ISBN: 9780778325123
Publisher: Mira Books/2008
Pages: 360
The Diplomat's Wife is a follow-up novel of The Kommandant's Girl. The war is over and Marta Nedermann is trying to pick up the pieces. Paul, an American Soldier has come to free her from the prison. They fall for each other, plan to meet in London, and then get married to each other. However, Paul dies before they can meet and Marta marries a diplomat when she discovers she is pregnant.
Her marriage is comfortable if not passionate. Two years later, there are more political changes. Communist loyalists have infiltrated British intelligence and there is one person in Marta's past who can help identify them. Marta goes back revisit her past and meets a few presumed to be dead. Her life is changed after that.
This novel speaks of times after the war, in the time of peace. People find it hard to find love and difficult to adjust. The bodies might have healed but minds and emotions still are in a limbo. I found that the novel glossed over at times and did not cover the real hardships although it touched the issues. There are surprises but that didn't do much for the novel. It covered the period after the WWII and that redeems it.
He was not going to kill her immediately. No—if there was one thing he had learned, it was to savor the moment, to be deliberate and purposeful. Like a predator in the wild, he would waste no energy. He needed to be careful, efficient, and resourceful. And above all, he needed to be patient.
“Carter, you’re freaking me out. Don’t tell me you love me. That’s just weird. Why were you at my house last night?” Something was very wrong here. She was looking at me like I was the one acting crazy.
“Justine, what are you talking about? Of course I know you, of course I love you. We live together.” I picked up her hand to give it a reassuring squeeze but before I could she jerked it away.
~~Page 12, Baby, It's Cold Outside by Genevieve Jourdin
Justine has an accident and she forgets two previous years of her life. Carter is frantic as she does not remember living with him. She knows him though. His sister is her best friend. At that time she did not even like him. She is older to him and that seems to bother her.
Carter does not know what to do. They were going to be engaged and she does not remember a thing! Slowly with his patience and love, she start remembering the past. It is narrative from the male point of view. Some might find the couple cute but it did nothing for me. And I found it quite mundane too, at some places. It is one time read and one can safely forget it after reading. I downloaded it for free. I am not going to buy anything by this author.
"Alex felt a wave of grief sweeping over her as she thought about how unjust his execution was. Why had the bashaw of Tripoli condemned him to death while his crew were ransomed and freed?"
Title: Captive
Author: Brenda Joyce
ISBN: 9780380781485
Publisher: Avon/2001
Pages: 448
One thing I will say about Brenda Joyce is that she sure knows how to involve the reader in her romance novels. We all know the romance novels have predictable endings but it is the plot and twists that can make it memorable. Joyce has the abilty to do that. I consider her one of the best romance writers of our times, even though she writes historical novels.
In this novel, Alex, a graduate student, is studying history and is drawn to a man, who lived 200 years ago. A commander of US merchantmen, he for some unknown reason has been captured by the Bashaw of Tripoli and executed. Alex is compelled to know more about him and lives for Tripoli on a whim. There is she finds herself going back in time and awaits meeting Xavier Blackwell. She has been taken for a slave and is being prepared to marry the Bashaws' son.
The plot is good but somehow Alex seems totally unfit for those times. She seems frivolous and too daring, not thinking about the consequences of her actions in those days of slavery. However, the chance encounter between Xavier and Alex changes the course of history. It does have loose ends but with a different story line it has its good moments.
Title: After Innocence
Author: Brenda Joyce
ISBN: 9780061235269
Publisher: Avon Books/1994
Pages: 422
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From the back cover
Estranged from society, wealthy and beautiful artist Sofie O'Neil finds her private world. She longs just once to taste a forbidden love—to follow the dangerous diamond smuggler Edward Delanza to paradise. but Edward wants far more from the innocent young heiress than a brief and passing encounter. For he is determined to heal her and possess her- now...and for all time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Title: Deep Freeze
Author: Lisa Jackson
ISBN: 98780821772966
Publisher: Zebra/2005
Pages: 500
I had bought it two years back but just had no inclination to pick up. I wanted to read something light, so picked it up on sunday and finished it fairly quickly despite the daunting size.
Jenna Hughes, a well known Hollywood actress has left everything behind and lives in Oregon with her two daughters, Cassie and Allie, who are none too happy about the move. They miss the lights and the popularity. Jenna tries her best to please her daughters but it is not enough somehow.
Things are not going the way she wants it and she seems to have endless bad days. She has this feeling that someone is watching her constantly. She doesn't know that there is this crazy fan of hers, who is obssessed with her and is biding his time to be with her. Unknown to her, he watches her every move. When Jenna finds a paper, where he mentions about coming for her, she gets scared and goes to the Sheriff Shane Carter. No Carter is investigating murders which seem to be from a serial killer and somehow related to Jenna. He has his suspects but he doesn't let Jenna know.
The stalker is always one step ahead. He kidnaps women, who somewhat resemble Jenna and kills them. Carter can see that and he knows he has to protect Jenna and her daughters, Cassie and Allie.
Deep Freeze has a good storyline. The obssessed fan is not revealed till the end. No one can really guess who he is. With intricate relationships with her daughters, Jenna moves forward. Her concern is not for herself but for her children. Every male seems to lust after Jenna. But she is simply not interested. For al its good points, I thought the novel was too long. It is repetitive at places. It ought to have been of lesser pages. My interest waned but as I really wanted to learn about that obssessed fan, it is what kept me going on.
After heavy reads, it does make a good light read. If you can read through 500 pages, that is.
Title: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
Author: Joshilyn Jackson
ISBN: 9780446697828
Publisher: Grand Central/2008
Pages: 308
This is one of those novels which totally takes you in from the first line. With magical realism along with a murder mystery it has all those elements which sustains the interest till the end. The ghost part of it felt more like vision to me, which works well too.
Laurel is happy enough in Victorianna, Florida along with her daughter Shelby and husband David, who is into developing codes for PC games. Laurel too is into quilting which gets her good money. One August night she finds Molly, her daughter's best friend, standing beside her bed, who leads her to the swimming pool. Molly is floating lifeless in there and no amount of revival works. Laurel's main concern are her daughter and another girl Bet, she has almost adopted from a lower strata neighbourhood.
Laurel needs her sister Thalia, with whom she had not spoken for two years. Now Laurel and Thalia have a past, which threatens to spill over the Hawthorne household. Laurel's perfect life goes haywire and she doesn't know what to do. Shelby and Bet too have a secret about Molly which they aren't willing to share. Molly's death is closed as accidental but Laurel knows it is a murder. In the midst of all this, there is supposedly a pedophile roaming about. And he is a suspect in Laurel's eyes. In their journey towards unravelling the truth, Laurel has to face a lot of unpleasantness and the explosive ending leaves us shattered.
Whatever differences Laurel and Thalia have, it doesn't affect their strong bonding. Laurel knows Thalia would stand by her always. David is not too fond of Thalia but he too realises that Thalia can go to any length to keep Laurel and Shelby safe. The ghost part too works well and as a mystery it manages to keep that alive too. With beautiful prose, it was a pleasure to read it. Thanks Joshilyn, for sending me a copy!
Henry and I dug the hole seven feet deep. Any shallower and the corpse was liable to come rising up during the next big flood: Howdy boys! Remember me?
Title: Mudbound
Author: Hillary Jordan
ISBN: 9781655126770
Publisher: Algonquin Books/2008
Pages: 324
The novel opens with a grave being dug by Henry and Jamie for their father in the farm that Henry owns. There is an atmospheric feel to it because of impending rains. Both want to finish the burial before it pours.
It is 1939 and Laura a Memphis school teacher, at thirty one years is resigned to the fate of spinster whn she meets Henry. After courtship of some months, they get married and live in Memphis where they have two daughters. But Henry McAllan buys a cotton farm in remote Mississippi without telling her and she is forced to move there. And circumstances makes them stay in a house which has no running water, no electricity and no bathroom, other than an outhouse. And come rains, the ramshackle farm is cut of from civililzation, and they are bound only with mud. Although Laura isn't vocal about it, but she doesn't like her situation one bit. She also hates the fact that Pappy, Henry's father comes to live with them.
Intermingled to their lives are the Jacksons, the black sharecroppers working on Henry's land. Florence is hired by Henry to help Laura at the house. She does it happily enough as she needs the money. Florence is a midwife too, who is much sought after. Hap, along with working on Henry's land also acts as preacher of sorts for the blacks and coloured people in that remote place.
When World War II ends, Henry's brother Jamie comes to the farm and also Ronsel, Jackson's son to returns from the very same war. Both have their own demons to kill. An unlikely friendship develops between the two, which brings forth racial tensions in that place, which brings about the inevitable tragedy. This brings more sorrow for both the families.
Told in the voices of Jamie, Laura, Henry, Ronsel, Florence and Hap, it gives us glimpses into everyone thoughts and the interactions between the families. Of all the character, Pappy has not been given a voice but that only enhances his evil persona. The racial tensions are felt by us all throughout the book. Right from the beginning, there is a sense of doom, which concludes in tragedy. And redemption comes from unexpectedly and from the unlikeliest source. Jordan's descriptions are very vivid too. People and places come out alive right in front of us.
The questions asked by Ronsel are very disturbing. A novel that grips right from the first page. And does not leave the mind long after finishing it. What I really liked is that she has given voices to blacks too. A very important aspect.
Title: The Perfect Bride
Author: Brenda Joyce
ISBN: 97803737724445
Publisher: HQN/2007
Pages: 377
Stacy of Stacy's Bookblog was giving out free books for May and I asked for it. She agreed and posted it ASAP! This is second book she has been kind enough to send to me! The first was The Pleasure Trap by Elizabeth Thornton.
From the back cover
A childhood trauma has left Lady Blanche Harrington incapable of all emotion, least of all love. Now circumstance demands she marry, and Blanche dreads choosing from her horde of fawning suitors. For one very eligible gentleman has not stepped forward...
A war hero and a recluse, Rex de Warenne has long admired Lady Blanche. Though fate and his own dark nature have robbed him of any hope for the kind of future such a lady deserves, Rex is determined to aid her--and keep his feelings to himself. But when their growing friendship leads to a night of shocking passion, Blanche's new found memories threaten their fragile love...and Blanche's very life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the age of forty-seven, I had technically broken nine of the then commandments. Although, I'm still fuzzy about the whole graven image thing.
Title: The Curse of the Holy Pail
Author: Sue Ann Jaffarian
ISBN: 9780738708645
Publisher: Midnight Ink/2007
Pages: 343
The book is set in New Power Beach, California. Odelia Grey, a paralegal and a plus size woman, gets involved in a murder when one the clients of her firm, is murdered. Sterling Price is a millionaire who collects lunch boxes. He is murdered and a lunch box goes missing. Now who would want a lunch box? But the said lunch box, known as the Holy Pail is worth a fortune.
There really are people who can go to any extreme to get hold of the holy pail. It has a curse that whoever owned it has died. Odelia takes it upon herself to solve the murder. She makes it a point to talk to everyone who has come into the periphery of Price.
With queer set of people thrown in, it is a fun filled mystery. It does keep us laughing but I found it repetitive at places. I wouldn't call it a nail biting one as I could guess the murderer somewhere in the middle. Maybe going around in circles about the purpose, cause and people did that to me. Humour is there but mystery fizzles out.
Odelia grey is a lovable character and one of the hudlums here too is likeable. Then there is a romantic angel between Odelia Grey and Greg, 10 years her junior. I found their relationship very sweet. It does have its redeemable points.
Title: The Outcast
Author: Sadie Jones
ISBN: 978099513421
Publisher: Vintage Books/2008
Rating: 4.5/5
There was nobody there to meet him. He stood in line behind three other men and watched them get their things and sign the papers, and walk out, and the all did it the same way, as if you couldn't choose how to do a thing like that after all the time you'd been waiting for it. It made the same man out of all of them.
This is about Lewis Aldridge, who is nineteen and just has been released from prison after two years of sentence. He knows he is not welcome home but he has nowhere else to go. No one accepts him into their fold. He is ignored totally. Only Kit, a fifteen year old girl, awaits eagerly for his return. He barely even notices her.
When Lewis was six years old, he had waited with his mother for his father's homecoming from the war. Lewis is a happy child who loves his mother and is also well liked by the other children of Waterford. He is in awe of his father. However, tragedy strikes. His mother dies by drowning while they had both gone for a swim. Ten-year old Lewis is unable to cope with it. And father and son instead of getting closer, drift further apart. Gilbert Aldridge marries Alice within a year of Elizabeth's death. To give her credit, twenty-six year old Alice tries to bond with the boy who is too bruised to respond. But she is too young, naive and inexperienced.
Lewis becomes prone to brooding. He harms himself with razor cuts, starts drinking and one day runs away to a London club, staying there overnight. When he returns home, punishment is waiting for him. There is no love between father and son.
Gilbert is an over-bearing father who shuts himself from his own son. He does nothing to help the boy. Instead he remarries to overcome his own loneliness. Even with Alice, he is impatient. He does not seem to appreciate that she is trying to help Lewis. He further isolates Lewis. All this deep resentment accumulates inside the mind of Lewis and one day, he burns down the church. He is jailed for two years. No one visits him while he is there.
We observe a hypocritical society in Waterford. Here people are obssessed with proper behaviour and outer appearances. What dark thing goes on is ignored. They behave as if war did not happen. They follow a routine. There has to be church on Sunday, lunch parties at the Carmichaels', which is attended by every family. Dicky Carmichael calls the shot. He is socially much respected. But only his wife Clair, daughter Tamsin and Kit are is aware of his violent ways and they keep quiet about it. Kit bears the brunt of his beatings.
Lewis has been bruised mentally by his own father and Kit has faced beatings from a violent father. Only Kit can understand Lewis. When he realises that she loves him for what he really is, he knows he has to rescue her from her violent father.
This book is powerful. Very gripping and it asks us, who is the outcast? The boy, whom no one understands or the people who made him so? Lewis too comes to understand that none of it is his fault. Only then he finds the peace he seeks. Within himself. He comes to term with the fact that he is not flawed. The people who are around him are flawed.
As a first novel, it is a wonderful work by Sadie Jones. It kind of pulls us in from page one and keeps us riveted. Even after finishing it, I was haunted by it. Dark, brooding, yet so beautifully written.
Read another review of this book here:
Mindy Withrow
Title: Three Men in a Boat
Author: Jerome K Jerome
First Published: 1889
Pages: 222
Genre: Humour
I took along this book to read while travelling. It is a re-read for me after some years. After 17 years, I think. When it was written in 1889, it was a huge success. It sold more than a million copies in 'pirated' editions in America alone. Jerome was a persistent and enthusiastic traveller. Although he was a struggling clerk in a solicitor's office, he discovered the joys of continental travelling. He became very famous after the publication of this book, which helped him in becoming a full time writer.
Three men in a Boat is about Jerome, Harris and George and their dog, Montmorency. The three are bored with their life and need a break to dispel it. So they plan a holiday together. After much discussion, they agree on travelling from Kingston to Oxford on Thames river. A boating holiday was rare in those days.
It was intended as a travel guide with humorous anecdotes. However, the comic portions took over. It became a delightful read with the idiosyncrasies of the travellers along with their dog. The friends are very much real. However, the dog is a fictional character.
The interactions between the friends is interesting. The narrater at times goes off in a tangent taking us along with him. His insights are wonderful, albeit with comic effects. They have disasters on the way but can see the humourous side of it. Maybe the author sees it more often than the other two and the dog as he continues to rib them. Certain passages are worth reading again and again. Especially about the plaster of paris trout in an inn and also the preparation of Irish Stew.
There never is a dull moment reading this book. I liked re-reading it. In the present times, Bryson fits the bill for writing great travelogues.
