Just reveals please :D

This is a ARC. I really liked it!!







Silent In The Grave by Deanna Raybourn

A wholly original mystery set in the extravagant surroundings of upper-class Victorian England, and introducing the compelling, charismatic Lady Julia Grey.

"Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave."

These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, Sir Edward collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.

Prepared ot accept that Edward's death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that Sir Edward has been murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers the damning paper for herself, and realizes the truth.

Determined to bring her husband's murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.

My Book is "The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette" by Carolly Erickson



From Publishers Weekly
Historian Erickson (Bloody Mary; To the Scaffold; etc.) makes her first foray into fiction with this invented journal kept by the notorious queen who was sent to the guillotine during the French Revolution in 1793. Recounting her childhood as Austrian Archduchess Maria Antonia, her marriage to feckless Frenchman Louis XVI and her naïve pangs of conscience about hungry peasants clamoring at the gates of Versailles, Erickson delivers a spirited blend of fiction and fact. While Marie Antoinette's love affair with Swedish nobleman Axel Fersen is well-documented, other characters pivotal to Erickson's plot are pure fabrication: swarthy servant Eric, his jealous wife, Amelie, and the queen's confessor, Father Kuthibert. These inventions add color to the story of the ruler inaccurately linked to the phrase "Let them eat cake!" The novel's narrative engagingly reflects Marie Antoinette's progression from privileged adolescent to royal mother of four (though only one daughter and son survived into adulthood), and Erickson's descriptions of pomp and circumstance lend flavor and flair. While France's most infamous queen was clearly more sybarite than saint, Erickson's lively account reveals a woman whose bravery and resilience seem as noteworthy as the bloody details of her demise.

Geishabird's reveal is:



A stunning, evocative novel set in Ireland and Canada, Away traces a family's complex and layered past. The narrative unfolds with shimmering clarity, and takes us from the harsh northern Irish coast in the 1840's to the quarantine stations at Grosse Isle and the barely hospitable land of the Canadian Shield; from the flourishing town of Port Hope to the flooded streets of Montreal; from Ottawa at the time of Confederation to a large-windowed house at the edge of a Great Lake during the present day. Graceful and moving, Away unites the personal and the political as it explores the most private, often darkest corners of our emotions where the things that root us to ourselves endure. Powerful, intricate, lyrical, Away is an unforgettable novel.

Morsie's reveal:

The Floating Book: A Novel of Venice
by Michelle Lovric


Venice, 1468. Wendelin von Speyer has just arrived from Germany with the foundations of a cultural revolution: Gutenberg's movable type. Together with the young editor Bruno Uguccione and the seductive scribe Felice Feliciano, he starts the city's first printing press. While Bruno and Felice become entwined in an obsessive love triangle with a beautiful Dalmatian woman named Sosia, Wendelin tempts the fates by publishing the first edition of the erotic Roman poems of Catullus -- a move that will enrage the church, scandalize the city, and change all of their lives forever.
The Floating Book is a ravishing novel of letters and lust, intrigue and betrayal -- a chillingly beautiful debut that few readers will soon forget.

The Covenant by James Michener


Here is James A. Michener’s sprawling epic tale of South Africa. From the first Afrikaners who forged the mighty Zulu nation to the 10 generations of Willem van Doorn’s family, Covenant is a remarkable amalgam of fact and fantasy, seamlessly told and with characters and events to excite and enthrall. Exploring the endless racial conflict and relentless acts of courage, tyranny and heroism, the story of South Africa comes to dramatic and vivid life in this triumph of a novel. Highly recommended!

My reveal is:

The Rose Grower by Michelle De Krester



Amazon.com
July 14, 1789, Montsignac, Gascony. The Saint-Pierre family is caring for American artist Stephen Fletcher after he's fallen from his balloon and landed in a haystack. Jean-Baptiste de Saint-Pierre is a magistrate with three daughters. Claire, the eldest, is beautiful and married (in a way that seems to require little personal involvement) to the odious and malodorous aristo Hubert. Sophie is plain, single, intelligent, good, competent, and obsessed with growing roses. And Mathilde is 8 and entertainingly precocious: when Stephen remarks on how he adores children because "they are so ... innocent and yet so perceptive in their apprehension of the world," Matty dismisses him instantly. "'Oh no--another Rousseauist,' said the child with unconcealed disappointment. 'I'm not like that at all.'" And then there's Brutus, a dog that "only bites people whose smell he doesn't like."
But the Saint-Pierres' lives, like those of everyone else in the locality, are about to fracture as the Revolution gathers momentum and the shock waves from Paris push out into the provinces. The novel's epigraph--"Small change, small change," Napoleon Bonaparte's reaction to a battlefield full of casualties--signals it to be an exploration of small people caught up in big events. And, indeed, Michelle de Kretser takes us from the optimistic start of the Revolution as it manifests in Montsignac, through factionalization, fanaticism and Terror, denunciations and betrayals, through love and loyalty to a quiet, damaged aftermath, with a vivid cast of surprising heroes, unexpected villains, and not-quite-innocent bystanders. The Rose Grower is a hypnotically engrossing work, illuminating the biggest of issues with the lightest, most fragrant of touches. --Lisa Gee --This text refers to the Hardcover edition

The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day

Welcome to Lima (pronounced like the bean) Indiana, a town unlike other small midwestern towns in one very important respect: Here, the circus came to spend the winter months. Every fall, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, brightly painted trains would roll in, unloading animals and circus people alike into a large compound of barns, bunkhouses, cages, and paddocks on the outskirts of town. Elephants bathed in the river, big cats roared at the rain, and clowns, acrobats, and showmen drank whiskey around the campfire.

In a series of interwoven vignettes spanning three generations, Cathy Day paints a heartfelt portrait of performers both human and animal. "Jennie Dixianna" performs her trademark "Spin of Death"; Caesar the elephant is mistreated in life by his cruel trainers and misrepresented in death by those who believe their lies; and phony circus "freaks" ponder the effects of their exploitation and public humiliation.

The Circus in Winter is the story of a town where history's indelible imprint is found on modern life. While traveling shows are less common today, the impetus to wander remains, which makes Day's historically based fiction a careful yet marvelous study of human nature seen through the eyes of those who traveled with their "family" through a world in which they were always strangers.

Danes reveal:




Alive on the Andrea Doria
Pierette Domenica Simpson

Ms. Simpson was a survivor of the Stockholm - Andrea Doria collision. In this incredible documentary of that ill-fated trip she does what has not been done before. Alive on the Andrea Doria not only tells passenger and crew stories but also has explanations from nautical experts explaining how and why the collision took place.

Pierette Domenica Simpson was a child on July, 25 1956 traveling with her Grandparents to America where she was going to live with her mother and stepfather. Then her life and many others became perilously endangered when the Stockholm hit the Andrea Doria, the pride of the Italian fleet.

Ms. Simpson does an awesome job of telling the story of this catastrophic event. She tells the story through the eyes of many of the passengers that were aboard - their dreams - their hopes - where they came from - where they were going - their terror - where they are today.

Ever since that tragic night Ms. Simpson had wanted to find out why the collision occurred. She didn’t accept the overall belief that it was the Italian, Captain Calamai’s fault. It was important to be able to put this to rest and have closure. She sought out the help of nautical experts to recreate the collision paths using documented transcripts of the Bridge crew from both ships and today’s technology. In this way they discovered that the assumed guilt of the Italian crew was misplaced.

Alive on the Andrea Doria is a spellbinding tale of the “Greatest Sea Rescue in History.” Ms. Simpson did a wonderful job. Rather than making this a run-of the-mill dry documentary, it is a deep-felt account of a tragedy that should not have happened.

IGNORE THE ANDREA DORIA BOOK IT'S NONFICTION

Villette by Charlotte Bronte

Reviewer: A. Siegel - Amazon reviewer

After reading Jane Eyre I searched for another of Charlotte Bronte's novels. Villette is just as much worth reading as Eyre.
The story follows a woman, Lucy Snowe, from England to France, where she becomes a teacher at a French school for girls. Strange circumstances bring back old friends from the past, and new friends show her that she is, in fact, worthy of love.
Although the prose is beautiful, this novel is full of a sort of dark and ominous feeling that is so affecting that it is almost impossible to take your eyes off the page.
This book is really worth reading.

Shaunesay's reveal is



In the Company of the Courtesan - Sarah Dunant (TBR)

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Renaissance Italy enchants in Dunant's delicious second historical (after The Birth of Venus), as a wily dwarf Bucino Teodoldo recounts fantastic escapades with his mistress, celebrated courtesan Fiammetta Bianchini. Escaping the 1527 sacking of Rome with just the clothes on their backs (and a few swallowed jewels in their bellies), Fiammetta and Bucino seek refuge in Venice. Starved, stinking, her beauty destroyed, Fiammetta despairs—but through cunning, will, Bucino's indefatigable loyalty and the magic of a mysterious blind healer called La Draga, she eventually recovers. Aided by a former adversary, who now needs her as much as she needs him, Fiammetta finds a wealthy patron to establish her in her familiar glory. Through Bucino's sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued narration, Dunant crafts a vivid vision of Venetian life: the weave of politics and religion; the layers of class; the rituals, intrigue, superstitions and betrayals. Dunant's characters—the steely courtesan whose glimpse of true love nearly brings her to ruin; the shrewd and passionate dwarf who turns his abnormalities into triumph; and the healer whose mysterious powers and secrets leave an indelible mark on the duo—are irresistible throughout their shifting fortunes

Fantasy's reveal:



The Innocent - Posie Graeme-Evans

The year is 1450, a dangerous time in medieval Britain. Civil unrest is at its peak and the legitimacy of the royal family is suspect. Meanwhile, deep in the forests of western England, a baby is born. Powerful forces plot to kill both mother and child, but somehow the newborn girl survives. Her name is Anne.

Fifteen years later, England emerges into a fragile but hopeful new age, with the charismatic young King Edward IV on the throne. Anne, now a young peasant girl, joins the household of a wealthy London merchant. Her unusual beauty provokes jealousy, lust, and intrigue, but Anne has a special quality that saves her: a vast knowledge of healing herbs. News of her extraordinary gift spreads, and she is called upon to save the ailing queen. Soon after, Anne is moved into the palace, where she finds her destiny with the man who will become the greatest love of her life -- the king himself.

chronic's reveal

Zosime's reveal is:

The King's Touch by Jude Morgan



From the back cover:

This beautifully crafted novel brings to vibrant life an era famous for its dramatic events - the Plague, the Great Fire of London, the Dutch Wars - and notorious for its sexual license and scandal. It was an era in which the King of England became a byword for sensual indulgence - enjoying passionate affairs with women and nurturing an addiction to witty company, horse-racing, and high living - while maintaining a strong hold on his throne amidst intrigue and violence.

Yet Charles II remains, as he was to his contemporaries, an enigmatic figure. In The King's Touch, the story of this remarkable man and his turbulent times is told from a unique and enlightening perspective - that of the first-born son he loved above all others, but who would never become his heir...

(I just finished this today, and enjoyed it very much. :))

DarkPunkAngel's Reveal

The French Executioner



It is 1536 and the expert swordsman Jean Rombaud has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen - to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it...From a battle between slave galleys to a Black Mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony's Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.