Happy Friday, and welcome to First Line Friday, hosted by Hoarding Books. I just finished reading the newest release from Mimi Matthews, one of my all-time favourite historical romance writers: Gentleman Jim. Goodness, I just devoured this story. It has intrigue, passion, and so much more!
A standalone novel in The Dread Penny Society set in 1865 London brimming with secrets, scandal, suspense, and romance.
From the moment Hollis Darby meets Ana Newport, he’s smitten. Even though he’s from a wealthy, established family and she isn’t, he wishes he could have a life with her by his side. But Hollis has a secret: the deep coffers that have kept his family afloat for generations are bare, so he supports himself by writing penny dreadfuls under a pseudonym. If not for the income from his novels, he would be broke.
Ana Newport also has a secret. Though she once had a place in society thanks to her father’s business, bankruptcy and scandal reduced the family fortune to nothing more than a crumbling town house. So Ana teaches music during the day, and at night she assumes the identity of the “Phantom Fox.” She breaks into the homes of the wealthy to reclaim treasures she feels were unjustly stolen from her family when they were struggling.
Happy Tuesday, reading friends. It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is Book Titles That Would Make Great Song Titles, and I found it surprisingly easy to come up with this list (thanks to my Kindle 😊). In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of these ARE already song titles. I’d love to know if you know any that are!
Happy Friday, and welcome to First Line Friday, hosted by Hoarding Books. I had the very great pleasure of reading Amy Lynn Green’s debut novel Things We Didn’t Say this week. It’s an intelligent, witty, insightful, and thought-provoking epistolary novel (meaning it’s told though letters), and I strongly encourage you to pick it up! You can read my full review here.
Headstrong Johanna Berglund, a linguistics student at the University of Minnesota, has very definite plans for her future . . . plans that do not include returning to her hometown and the secrets and heartaches she left behind there. But the US Army wants her to work as a translator at a nearby camp for German POWs.
Johanna arrives to find the once-sleepy town exploding with hostility. Most patriotic citizens want nothing to do with German soldiers laboring in their fields, and they’re not afraid to criticize those who work at the camp as well. When Johanna describes the trouble to her friend Peter Ito, a language instructor at a school for military intelligence officers, he encourages her to give the town that rejected her a second chance.
As Johanna interacts with the men of the camp and censors their letters home, she begins to see the prisoners in a more sympathetic light…
Happy Tuesday, reading friends. It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday post, thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we’re talking about non-bookish hobbies, and I have to say, this list has made me realise just how much of my life revolves around books! Nevertheless, here goes:
An Appalachian Feud Blows Up in 1912
In Carroll County, a corn shucking is the social event of the season, until a mischievous kiss leads to one of the biggest tragedies in Virginia history. Ava Burcham isn’t your typical Blue Ridge Mountain girl. She has a bad habit of courtin’ trouble, and her curiosity has opened a rift in the middle of a feud between politicians and would-be outlaws, the Allen family. Ava’s tenacious desire to find a story worth reporting may land her and her best friend, Jeremiah Sutphin, into more trouble than either of them planned. The end result? The Hillsville Courthouse Massacre of 1912.
It is AD 312. Rome teeters on the brink of war. Constantine’s army is on the move. On the Rhine frontier, Brandulf Rex, a pagan Germanic barbarian, joins the Roman army as a spy and special forces operative. Down in Rome, Junia Flavia, the lovely and pious daughter of a nominally Christian senator, finds herself embroiled in anti-Christian politics as she works on behalf of the church.
As armies converge and forces beyond Rex’s and Flavia’s controls threaten to destroy everything they have worked for, these two people from different worlds will have to work together to bring down the evil Emperor Maxentius. But his villainous plans and devious henchmen are not easily overcome. Will the barbarian warrior and the senator’s daughter live to see the Empire bow the knee to Christ? Or will their part in the story of Constantine’s rise meet an untimely and brutal end?