This was an amusing and entertaining mystery. It's kind of a send-up of hardboiled detective fiction like the stuff written by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Set in the late 1940s, its main character is a WWII vet. He's also a bookstore owner, which is always a fun profession for a book character.
For reasons I've forgotten, a woman who wanders into his store one day mistakes him for a slightly famous detective who died recently. She's beautiful, so he pretends to be that detective, rather like Bob Hope's character in My Favorite Brunette (1947). Her husband has been murdered, and the bookstore owner is so entranced by her eyes that he can't remember her real name or any reasons why he shouldn't try to solve the mystery. Reasons like the fact that he doesn't have a detective license, has never solved a mystery, and doesn't carry a gun. But he does like to carry random books around with him -- he gleans helpful advice from them, which I found quite funny.
The story spins on a little longer than it needs to, and after a while, the stream of snappy retorts and cute metaphors gets a little tired. But the ending is satisfying and leaves open the possibility for a sequel or a series.
Particularly Good Bits:
I've never cared for kisses on the cheek. That's the sort of thing you expect from a parent, a sister, or an aunt with bad teeth. It's about as satisfying as pouring whiskey into your sock.
The road had more curves than a pinup girl.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a lot of kissing and embracing. An extra-marital affair is a plot point. There's some shooting and punching, and quite a bit of tobacco and alcohol use.
So many of you have recommended Melanie Dickerson's fairy tale retellings to me over the past few years, and I have several of her books on my to-read list. When the price for the e-book version of Dickerson's version of "Beauty and the Beast" dropped recently, I decided to give it a try. And I read the whole thing in only three days, which necessitated a couple of extra battery rechargings for my phone.
So, yes, I definitely enjoyed this book! The Beast, Lord Ranulf le Wyse, reminded me a lot of Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre, but with a less lurid past. And the Beauty, Annabel, was a sweet blend of curious and patient. She learned a good lesson about the importance of honest, and he learned not to expect others to judge him by his appearances. I liked both of them a great deal, and if I should find this book in paperback at some point, I might just buy a copy. (I infinitely prefer reading real books over battery-dependent e-books, and if I really like a book and know I will want to re-read it in years to come, I want that book on my physical bookshelves.)
I'm reading some Hemingway and Fitzgerald short stories right now too, for the high school lit class I'm teaching our niece, who is in ninth grade. And I know I've said before, here and elsewhere, that while I absolutely love the way both those gentlemen write, I don't always love the stories they tell. I bring this up, because The Merchant's Daughter was exactly the opposite for me -- the story and characters grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go, but Dickerson's writing itself was pedestrian. And that's okay -- I'm certainly no Hemingway or Fitzgerald myself. I would have liked some more subtlety in the emotional changes within both characters, but my taste is not everyone's taste.
If I have one real quibble, it's that Lord le Wyse had an almost historically impossible grasp of God's love and forgiveness, the way that his grace extends to sinners. The story is set in 1352, 165 years before the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, and while the parish priest holds the kinds of views I would expect in the pre-Reformation era, le Wyse is impossibly enlightened and Reformed in his understanding of Scriptures. Dickerson talks in her Author's Note at the end about the research she did into Medieval England's judicial system and societal customs -- it's my opinion she would have done well to research Medieval theology as well.
Particularly Good Bits:
Her servant status could almost be a blessing. This thought surprised her. She'd felt abandoned by God, but maybe He had actually been taking care of her by sending her here.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for repeated assaults against a woman's virtue, talk of women tempting men, and some discussion of feeling desire for others. Nothing really risqué, as my mother would say, but also not appropriate for children.
This is my first book read and reviewed for Heidi Pekarek's Adventure of Reading Challenge!
This is my first time participating in a "cover reveal" where an author gives us an advance look at the cover art for their upcoming release. It's very exciting! I've already read With Blossoms Gold as a part of the Once collection, but Hayden Wand is releasing it as a stand-alone work on April 2, 2017.
Before we get to the cover, here's the official synopsis:
She never wanted to leave the tower. He never wanted to rule the country.
Nella has lived quietly in her tower in the woods for over a decade. After dangerous accusations drove her and her grandmother away from their village, they escaped deep into the forest where no one would try to harm them. Now, after her grandmother's death, Nella is alone, and she is determined to stay that way. She has no patience for a world she deems judgmental and ignorant.
Or so she tells herself. In reality, her paralyzing fear prevents her from stepping foot outside of the tower.
Prince Benedict Allesandro is an adventurer- a rescuer who prides himself on saving the weak and unfortunate. When he hears rumors of a beautiful damsel trapped in a tower, he rushes to her rescue...only to find a woman who most definitely does not wish to be saved.
But when war breaks out, this reckless prince and reclusive maiden are faced with overcoming their deepest fears in order to determine not only their own fate, but that of their entire country.
Now, here's the cover:
Isn't it sumptuous? I am agog.
Here are my own thoughts on With Blossoms Gold, which I posted previously as part of my review of Once as a whole:
This is a Rapunzel retelling with some amazing twists. For one, the girl hasn't been imprisoned in a tower, she's staying there for her own safety. And for another, it tackles head-on what it's like to live with panic attacks. I have friends who suffer from panic attacks, anxiety, and depression in one form or another, and I absolutely loved the way Hayden Wand compassionately described how debilitating these can be, what a real problem they are, how they are not just imaginary things people could "get over" if they tried hard enough. Also, both of the main characters had wonderful character arcs and truly grew as people over the course of the story, facing fears, sacrificing things for each other, and ultimately learning to understand both each other and themselves so beautifully.
If you want to add this to your GoodReads list, here's a link.
And if you want to get to know Hayden better, she blogs here at A Singular and Whimsical Problem. But here's her official author bio, if you're curious: Hayden Wand is the author of the novel Hidden Pearls as well as the novella "The Wulver's Rose," which was published in the Five Enchanted Roses collection. A Christian and a 2012 homeschool graduate, she currently attends a local college where she studies history and haunts the campus library.
This week's prompt from The Broke and the Bookish is "Top Ten Underrated/Hidden Gem Books We've Read In The Past Year Or So." I've decided to follow their lead and narrow this down by only including books I've read in the past year that have fewer than 500 ratings on Goodreads.
I'm listing them alphabetically by title, and all but one of the titles is linked to my review of that book, if you want to know more about them. And I've included my movie-style rating in parentheses for those who are interested.
Ain't We Got Fun by Emily Chapman and Emily Ann Putzke -- a fun, light-hearted collection of letters between two sisters during the Great Depression. (G)
Greenwillow by B. J. Chute -- a quiet, gentle story of people living in the idyllic English countryside about a hundred years ago. (PG-13)
I, Claudia by Charity Bishop -- a fictionalized account of how Pontious Pilate and his wife Claudia married, went to Jerusalem, and were involved in Jesus Christ's trial and death. (PG-13)
Letters on an Elk Hunt by a Woman Homesteader by Eleanor Pruitt Stewart -- an enthralling collection of real-life letters from an intrepid woman in the last days of the Old West. (PG)
And Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field -- a rich, engrossing story about a deaf woman and the doctor who brings her hope of hearing once again. (PG)
Once by Elisabeth Grace Foley, Rachel Heffington, J. Grace Pennington, Emily Ann Putzke, Suzannah Rowntree, and Hayden Wand -- six fairy tale retellings with settings ranging from the Old West to steampunk to WWII to fairy tale kingdoms. (PG-13)
A Portrait of Emily Price by Katherine Reay -- a beautiful look at how love can both repair and damage people. (PG-13)
Sixguns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western by Will Wright -- an in-depth look at how western films changed as America's society changed during the 20th century. (PG-13)
Song of the Ëan by Emily Nordberg -- a high-fantasy story about a pampered young noble who becomes mixed up with guerrilla fighters and sets about righting some grievous wrongs. I'm not done reading this yet, but so far I'd rate it PG.
The World of Raymond Chandler (In His Own Words) edited by Barry Day -- Chandler is my favorite author, and this collection of his letters gave me lots of insight into his life and writing. (PG-13)
That's all for this week, friends! Have you read any of these? Did you participate in TTT this week too? Do you have some "hidden gems" you'd like to recommend to me? Please share!
This is a trio of novellas telling intertwined stories. The three Turner siblings each find love at Christmastime during World War Two, on three successive Christmases.
In "White Christmas" by Cara Putman, it's 1942 when college student Abigail Turner meets factory worker Jackson Lucas accidentally. She offers her father's lawyering services to help save the Lucas farm, and as she and Jackson meet up over and over, they become friends, then fall in love.
In "I'll be Home for Christmas" by Sarah Sundin, it's 1943, and Air Force ace Pete Turner is home on furlough in time for Christmas. He gets reacquainted with widow Grace Kessler when her little daughter Linnie decides he's the answer to her prayer asking God for a new daddy.
In "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Tricia Goyer, it's 1944, and Meredith "Merry" Turner is working as a nurse in a field hospital in the newly liberated Netherlands when she encounters the man she had loved years previously, but had suspected of being a Nazi spy.
All three stories are sweet and fun, and they were the perfect sort of light reading I like during the busy end of December. Each one had a nice message of trusting God, with characters growing and learning in believable ways. If you're a fan of Christian fiction, holiday stories, clean romance stories, or simply the WWII setting, you'll probably get a kick out of these. I read it as an e-book with my Kindle app, but I wouldn't mind owning a paperback copy.
Particularly Good Bits:
"I guarantee no woman has ever fallen in love with me after one kiss. It takes at least twenty. I happen to be quite resistible." (from "I'll be Home for Christmas")
"The thing about love," Nancy said, more serious now, "is that it's slow to fade. It's not a bad thing. Love is meant to last." (from "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas")
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for war-related things like talk about concentration camps, hiding Jewish people to protect them, people being killed, and some surgical and medical situations in the final story especially. The romances do involve kissing, but nothing more.
This is my third book read and reviewed for the Literary Christmas Challenge hosted by In the Bookcase.
I sometimes hate reading books on my Kindle app because if I don't blog about them right when I finish them, I forget to review them because I don't have a physical book sitting on the desk to remind me to write up a review. Sigh. Such is what happened with Elisabeth Grace Foley's latest novella.
This doesn't mean I didn't like this book! Because I did. It's set during Prohibition, an era I find fascinating. There's almost a little bit of a Gatsby feel to it, like some of the people at Lost Lake House could also be those hanging out at Gatsby's parties. And, of course, it's an updated version of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." That's one of my favorite fairy tales.
Lost Lake House revolves around Dorothy, teen daughter of a wealthy widower who is also a busy local politician and staunchly pro-Prohibition and anti-dancing. Dorothy is young and restless. She loves dancing, but her father won't let her attend even respectable society dances, so she sneaks out of the house night after night to go dancing at the Lost Lake House, combination nightclub and speakeasy.
Then there's Marshall Kendrick, a nice boy who works for the Lost Lake House as a groundskeeper and boatman, earning money to help his Depression-stricken parents and siblings. He gets sucked deeper and deeper into the speakeasy's illegal activities. But when he sees Dorothy in the clutches of a wolf named Sloop Jackson, Marshall has a crisis of conscience, and together the two of them try to escape the illicit whirl of dancing and alcohol that fills Lost Lake House.
This is a fun story of a glitzy era gone by, but with some serious things to say about disobedience, truth, conscience, and whether or not innocence can be protected if it rushes headlong after experience.
Particularly Good Bits:
On cloudy nights like this the lake and sky and island all melted into a uniform invisible black, so the blazing golden windows of the Lost Lake House seemed suspended in the middle of the lake like a floating fairy palace.
Did they find something there that they really liked, or were they merely part of the facade, putting on a reckless show for each other and for the quiet, unseeing wooded shores of the midnight lake?
Dorothy looked up at the moon almost with dread -- its light had never seemed so bright and revealing before. Under the lights of the Lake House she had never seen it at all.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for alcohol use and a man trying to force a girl to kiss him.
This is precisely the sort of light, cheerful fare I generally need over the holidays. Something I can read in small bits, set down often because I've been interrupted yet again, and yet still keeps me interested enough that I want to pick it up again next chance I get.
Ain't We Got Fun is a collection of letters from two sisters during the Great Depression. The older one goes to New York City to make it big and send money home to the family. The younger stays home on the farm with their parents and little brother. Both girls meet nice young men and gradually fall in love. Nothing really terrible happens to anyone. Everyone gets along quite nicely. And they all live happily ever after. It's got a little bit of the parable of the Prodigal Son going on with it, but it's applied lightly and never feels preachy.
Particularly Good Bits:
I was rather speechless. I tend to be rather speechless when I meet young men whom I assumed dead in my field at midnight.
"Love ain't a feeling, Bess. It's a choice."
"...knowing that something doesn't last forever reminds you to take nothing for granted."
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G, though there are a few tense moments involving a mugging.
I initially bought this as an e-book, but then liked it so well I went ahead and bought the paperback too. I'm finding that's what happens with me and the occasional e-book I read on my phone: if I like it a lot, I buy a "real" copy. If they're available, that is -- sometimes I read out-of-print books on my phone cuz that's the only way to get them.
Anyway! Time to discuss this book! Like Foley's earlier collection, The Ranch Next Door and Other Stories, this is a mix of several short stories and a novella. My favorite was the novella, "Wanderlust Creek," and I also liked "Single-Handed" and "The Rush at Mattie Arnold's" especially well.
"Wanderlust Creek" is about a newlywed couple trying to make a go of ranching on a small spread that butts up against a very big ranch. There are disputes over water, an attempted lynching, and all sorts of exciting goings-on.
"Single-Handed" follows a famous gunman who has returned to a town he knows well, harboring a secret he's afraid will make his acquaintances turn their backs on him. It has a splendid ending.
"The Rush at Mattie Arnold's" takes place in a little restaurant, where a couple young cowhands get accused of armed robbery, and it's up to the proprietor and her waitresses to figure out if they're innocent or not. I liked the somewhat unusual setting in particular -- not a lot of western stories set in an eatery.
Once again, Elizabeth Grace Foley has created some clean, enjoyable, highly readable western fun. I just hope she includes "Corral Nocturne" in her next collection, because that's my favorite story of hers so far!
If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for mild western violence.
I've discovered a problem with reading books with the Kindle app on my phone: I forget to review them. I read this back in February, having enjoyed Elisabeth Grace Foley's previous western stories. And then I forgot to review it. Sigh.
It's a retelling of the Cinderella story, set in the west, and it's not very long -- more of a long short story than a novella, I think, but that's a good length for this story. In it, Ellie Strickland lives on a ranch with her widowed mother and her older brother, Ed. Ed is ornery and apt to run folks off their property, so Ellie has grown up with few friends and zero prospects for marrying and moving away from her domineering brother and weary mother.
Enter Cole Newcomb, back home after attending college back East. He takes pity on Ellie when he meets her, and decides to introduce her to folks in the area by escorting her to picnics and so on. Ellie starts to make friends, and she's thrilled as can be with Cole invites her to attend the big 4th of July shindig in town with him. She makes a dress with her mother's help, and so on. There's no fairy godmother here, just a sweet prince of a suitor and a helpful mother.
Of course, things at the 4th of July shindig don't go as planned, and Ellie winds up walking home, until... well, let's just say by the end of that evening, I was utterly besotted with Cole Newcomb myself. And not just because I kept seeing Armie Hammer playing him.
If you like clean, well-told western stories with a gentle romance, read this! I've moved on to Foley's latest release, the short story collection Wanderlust Creek and Other Stories, which I'm also reading on my phone -- I'll try to remember to review it right away when I finish it :-D
Particularly Good Bits:
"No man in his right mind would want Ed for a brother," she said aloud to herself, and then added as an afterthought, "and I wouldn't want to marry the other kind."
"Don't worry about that. I'll fix Ed," said Mrs. Strickland, the determination in her voice making it sound as if she intended to do it with a hammer.
The stars themselves were bits of shattered dreams, fallen around her like glittering shards of glass in the hollow blackness of her world.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G. No violence, no cussing, nothing more than a chaste kiss.
As you may know, I'm trying to read more westerns lately. Partly because I'm writing westerns myself now, and partly because I realized it's ridiculous to love westerns and cowboys as much as I do and not read more cowboy books! So I've been delving into Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour and so on, but I'm also making an effort to read modern western writers too. One I've discovered is Elizabeth Grace Foley (read her blog here) -- I've really enjoyed two of her books, The Ranch Next Door and Other Stories and Left-Hand Kelly. So when I learned that the e-book version of her new novella, Corral Nocturne, is only 99 cents this weekend, I snapped it up. I'll read it on my phone over the next while and review it here when I'm done, but since I know some of my blogging friends also love clean western stories, I thought I'd give you a heads-up about it being on sale right now!
I really liked this book a lot. Until the final page. I found it unusual and rather thrilling, and I enjoyed it greatly. Until that last page, where Grey disappointed me so soundly I'll probably never read this again.
Before I go into why I was disappointed, I'll briefly outline the story. Madeline Hammond comes west to find her brother. She's exceedingly wealthy. She falls in love with the west, buys a ranch, and sets about making a really cool home for herself. And there's a cowboy named Gene Stewart who kind of goes from crude to awesome to crude to awesome with some regularity. Madeline is drawn to him, he's drawn to her, and everything points to them having some kind of very tumultuous life together for many years, if they can ever just get together once and for all. Also, there's an evil bad guy named Don Carlos who hates both of them with the fire of a thousand suns because... that's what bad guys do. I was always a little unclear on just why he hated them so much, but I figured it'd all come perfectly clear at the end, when he and Gene Stewart had a glorious showdown of some sort, and Don Carlos was finished for good.
Except that's not what happened. And even if, instead of a glorious showdown, Don Carlos had just gotten thrown in jail for being a stinker, I'd have been fine with that. But that didn't happen, either. In fact, nothing at all happened to Don Carlos. He didn't even get apprehended. He is still out there. Any minute, he can pop back up out of the blue and menace Madeline and Stewart again! This is all wrong, people! It isn't right, it isn't fair!
I feel like Zane Grey was so excited over the very last line of the book (which was good) that he just forgot all about Don Carlos. I also feel quite certain that, in the very next instant after that last line, Don Carlos pops out from behind a rock and shoots Gene Stewart. And I will never know because Zane Grey left me hanging for all eternity. Mutter mutter mutter.
Particularly Good Bits:
She scarcely remembered when she had found it necessary to control her emotions. There had been no trouble, no excitement, no unpleasantness in her life. it had been ordered for her -- tranquil, luxurious, brilliant, varied, yet always the same.
It was only by looking back that Madeline could grasp the true relation of things; she could not be deceived by the distance she had covered.
Once more, for the hundredth time, the man's reliability struck Madeline. He was a doer of things.
...sarcastic as alkali water...
Heedless, desperate, she cast off the last remnant of self-control, turned from the old proud, pale, cold, self-contained ghost of herself to face this strange, strong, passionate woman.
If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for western violence and a sprinkling of bad language.
This is my 18th book read and reviewed for The Classics Club.
