After reading Victoria Christopher Murray's co authoring several books with Marie Benedict, I was interested in how shoe would write her own story. I was not disappointed in her novel about Jessie Redmon Feuset and WEB DuBois and many others involved in the Harlem Renaissance. Murray did extensive research to make the time come alive and Jessie's work as literary editor for The Crises which is very readable. She also encouraged young writers by publishing young authors in The Crisis such as Langston Hughes; however she harbors a deep secret with her relationship with DuBois which she hides from her family and co-workers. Highly recommended if you are interested in this historical period.

Thanks for the opportunity to read and review this excellent book. The title comes from a W.H. Auden poem and even after reading this novel, I cannot figure it out! The setting is Ireland, Amsterdam, New York City, and back to Ireland. The time begins at Cyril Avery's birth in 1945 and proceeds at increments of 7 years to 2008. The reader learns about being gay in Catholic Ireland and Cyril's search for meaning and happiness throughout his life and travels trying to find himself and his real mother and father. John Boyne who is an Irish gay author has written an excellent novel which is so timely now that Ireland has its first gay Prime Minister. It is very well written and is a page turner. Highly recommended!

As a white reader I do not feel adequate to review the satire, wit, humor, and irony displayed in this novel or the stereotypical behavior of black culture, politics, and entertainment which are all tackled by the author in flashbacks, other than the Prologue and Closure. I read this during MLK weekend and during the appearance of The Slants before the Supreme Court which in turn influenced my review. The setting is the "agrarian ghetto" in Dickens, CA supposedly based on actual documents from Compton, CA in which the narrator (Me or Bonbon) tries to reestablish slavery and segregated schools and buses. This white reader in Trump Nation has decided to be more open to racial references and their needs, but post- racial America is a distant dream.

This is a fine summer read with temperatures in the 90's here in the Midwest so I was able to transport myself to lovely tropical Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. The time is 1920's and 1930's at the Hooper Tea Plantation.
Besides the heat the lush flora, fauna and smells of cinnamon and jasmine helped make this lovely descriptive romance with dark secrets come alive and kept me reading with A/C. Highly recommended to learn about a new part of the world and the tea industry.

Somehow I never got to read Mary Sharratt's Illunimations, so I was thrilled to win an advance reading copy of The Dark Lady's Mask. The author has researched the life and Elizabethan times of Amelia Bassano Lanier, first Renaissance woman poet. The author takes liberties to connect her poetry with Shakespeare's plays, even has them travelling to Italy and marrying each other. I have attended several lectures by Shakespeare Scholars who do not mention this connection. It is interesting that Shakespeare wrote several plays set in Italy and even used her name or its derivative in some of his works. I recommend this for anyone wanting to know more about her poetry or life of this gifted lady, whose life was a tapestry of joys and sorrows and the complexities of being a woman and an artist, but beware the myth of her and Shakespeare.

I cannot agree with Lisa Gardner that "this is the ultimate psychological thriller!" However, I can agree it is a dark, intimate tale of a terrible crime." It is a fast, easy read told from the POV of The Reporter, The Widow, and The Detective in alternating chapters.

The setting is in Hampshire somewhere in Great Britain and uses many English terms, such as blokes, Gents, and tea. Recommended for a quick enjoyable winter afternoon.

I generally enjoy historical fiction, but "The Wild Girl" was heavy on the history which was set during the Napoleonic Wars with Austrians, Prussians, Russians, and French. This was a time of much political turmoil and extreme poverty for both the Grimm and Wild families.

Henriette Dorothea (Dortchen) Wild lived next door to the Grimm brothers for many years while Wilhelm Grimm was beginning his career of collecting and writing his books of fairy tales and folklore. He first wanted to preserve his folklore for adults and later began to collect, illustrated children's version of "Once upon a time: stories like Snow White, Hansel & Gretel, Rumplestiltskin, et. al.

Their long courtship endured physical and sexual abuse by Dortchen's father and then Dortchen's nightmares, but they were finally married in 1824 and "lived happily ever after."

If you are interested in fairy tales and the times they were collected written, and illustrated, I can recommend "The Wild Girl."

I don't usually read this genre, but am so glad I had the opportunity to read and preview Descent by Tim Johnstone!! The author used stunning, poetic prose to tell this brutal and heartbreaking story from multiple perspectives. This raw page-turner was so descriptive of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the "descent" into madness of some of the characters. It was painful and emotional to read, but glad I did! I highly recommend this book and look forward to Mr. Johnstone's next book!

If you like British historical fiction, "Girl on the Golden Coin' is highly recommended. The "girl" is Frances Stuart, one of many mistresses to King Charles II. (1661-1685) The "coin" is a copper farthing minted in 1673 in which "La Belle Stuart" is engraved on one side by Rottier and the "Merry Monarch" on the other.
The novel is set in Paris in the court of Louis XIV and moves to London where rumors of war, the Plague, Great Fire of 1666 and many trysts and intrigues are chronicled. The author gives a list of characters at the front of the book which is most helpful for the reader to decipher the royal relationship.
Frances Stuart kept her virtue and virginity above playing politics and eventually became Duchess of Richmond and Lennox. Each chapter begins with a poem or quotation exhorting her beauty and cunning.
Author Marcie Jefferson has done extensive research using letters, diaries, and memoirs so one learns about fashion, hairstyles, architecture, and food during the Restoration. And that is why I like historical fiction!

As a lighthouse enthusiast, I knew about the Stevenson Lighthouse Building Engineer Dynasty and that Robert Louis Stevenson had a sickly childhood and thus became a writer. This historical fiction focuses on Frances Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson. Just as in the author's first novel, "Loving Frank", Nancy Horan has done extensive research using Fanny's diaries and journals to detail her nomadic life with RLS. Fanny was an opinionated, tempestuous America Hoosier who meets RLS in France. Their passionate love and his fragile health (tuberculosis, consumption, pneumonia, pulmonary hemorrhaging) led them to the South Seas and Samoa where they lived with their extended family and worked until his death (cerebral hemorrhage) in 1904. The title comes from a RLS poem and is his epitaph.
"Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will."

I read historical fiction to learn something and in reading "The Drowning Guard", I learned much about the Ottoman Empire which encompassed the modern states of Romania, Hungary, "Egypt, parts of Greece including Macedonia, Anatolia, Syria, Libya, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Persia.
Although the main character is fictional, all the Sultans, and hierarchy of imperial society are historical. The role of women and the Satanic Verses are depicted, as well as, all the sights, sounds and smells of Constantinople and its Spice Bazaar.

One of the main reasons one reads is to learn and in "The Art Forger" one learns about the world of painters, dealers, curators, forgers, and copiers. Author, B.A. Shapiro, adds a clever twist with an intrigue involving Claire Roth, the Gardner Museum in Boston founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner and her contacts with Edgar Degas. After reading "Dancing for Degas" by Kathryn Wagner, this novel gave more insight to the life and times of Degas. Highly recommended.

I began reading "The Woman at the Light" as I watched an intense red orange sunset over Lake Michigan at the Grand Traverse Lighthouse in Northpport, MI where my husband volunteers as part of the Keeper Program. I know very little about the Florida Lighthouses except to know that. Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state!

This historical novel set in 1889-1883 captures the hardships of lighthouse keepers, the unpredictability of the weather and their courage. Also the reader learns about the colorful Key West history, the wrecking and salvaging industry, cigar factories, miscegenation, status of women, slavery and abolition preceding the Civil War, and the harsh life without electricity and running water. Two thumbs up for this rewarding and enlightening novel by Joanna Brady who certainly did her research. Phyllis, MI

Against the Renaissance backdrop of Rome after 1493 and the return of Christopher Columbus when Italy was not united, but was several city states who vied for power, Francesca Giordano, is the intriguing and beautiful heroine. She is a "court poisoner" for Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, which means she not only concocts poisons, but must examine all food, wine and gifts presented the the Pope and protect this important family which was featured in the TV series,"The Borgias." Author,Sara Poole, richly details this historical period and deftly weaves several threads involving romance, religion, and politics.
This is the second in a series featuring Giordano and the ending is open-ended for the continuing saga.