Reviews by Sandra H. (St. Cloud, MN)

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Lamp Black, Wolf Grey
Lamp Black, Wolf Grey
by Paula Brackston
Magic, Mayhem, and Love (6/30/2015)
Set in Wales, Paula Black's " Lamp Black, Wolf Grey" mixes the 6th century with the 21st century in a romantic and suspenseful tale that includes two love stories intertwined along with real and fictional characters. And it works most of the time.

Laura Mathews, a successful …more
Still Life Las Vegas
Still Life Las Vegas
by James Sie
Searching for "Who I Am" (5/16/2015)
"Still Life Las Vegas," has to be one of the saddest coming of age stories I have ever read. Walter Valentine Stahl, a 17-year-old has lost his mother, his sister, and cares for his father, a weak, depressed man who cannot face lpife. The story is appropriately set in Las …more
He Wanted the Moon
He Wanted the Moon: The Madness and Medical Genius of Dr. Perry Baird, and His Daughter's Quest to Know Him
by Mimi Baird with Eve Claxton
We Still Have Much to Learn (2/5/2015)
I sighed when this book arrived wondering why I had put it down as one of my choices. And then I began to read it. I finished it profoundly affected by the bittersweet life of Dr. Perry Baird.

The first 2/3rds of the book is Perry Baird's manuscript describing his life in …more
The Bloodletter's Daughter
The Bloodletter's Daughter: A Novel of Old Bohemia
by Linda Lafferty
Cluttered (1/15/2015)
Lafferty's story suffers from inflating. Too much is not always a good thing. About 1/3 of the way through I began skimming. Too bad, because a more tightly constructed story could have made this a fascinating tale.
The Last Flight of Poxl West
The Last Flight of Poxl West
by Daniel Torday
The Choices We Make (1/10/2015)
Early in Daniel Torday's novel "The Last Flight of Poxl West," Francine, Poxl's lover says "Isn't it silly... the choices we make." Poxl's life story is concocted of choices. He writes three novels that are rejected by publishers. Then he writes the book that will make him …more
The Same Sky
The Same Sky
by Amanda Eyre Ward
A Satisfying Read (11/1/2014)
Too often an author struggles to make a two-strand plot come together successfully. In "The Same Sky,"
Amanda Eyre Ward avoids that problem in two ways. First, she balances each major character's story by alternating chapters devoted to each so readers can watch them develop …more
Accidents of Marriage
Accidents of Marriage
by Randy Susan Meyers
Marriage is never simple (6/17/2014)
Randy Susan Meyers "Accidents of Marriage" is an intense and often painful look at what happens in a relationship in which the couple has lost the ability to communicate. Ben and Maddy have been married for over 15 years and have 3 children between the ages of 14 and 6. At …more
The Perfume Collector
The Perfume Collector
by Kathleen Tessaro
Delightful, well wrought and mysterious love story (3/24/2014)
Kathleen Tessaro's "the Perfume Collector" is told through the lives of two women who struggle to find their niche, their place in life.
Eva d'Orsey, an orphaned 14 year old immigrant is put into service at the Warwick Hotel by her uncle who has decided that she is old …more
House of Bathory
House of Bathory
by Linda Lafferty
A Confusing Gothic Novel (1/7/2014)
Moving from 2010 to 1610 and back in 123 short chapters with the two intertwining stories and two-dimensional flat characters, "House of Bathory" became a nightmare read for me.
Obviously the author did a great deal of research into the life of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, …more
The Daughters of Mars
The Daughters of Mars
by Thomas Keneally
The War to End All Wars (5/22/2013)
Too often novels about war are only incidentally about women or have secondary women characters. But in The Daughters of Mars Thomas Keneally puts them front and center allowing readers to see and experience what it was like to be a nurse in World War I, long before women …more
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
by Therese Anne Fowler
The Other Side of Paradise (3/7/2013)
Like most readers, "The Great Gatsby" was my Fitzgerald source. I also knew Scott became an alcoholic and Zelda ended up in a home for people with mental problems and that is pretty much it.

Therese Fowler filled in the gaps in this well-written biographical novel. At first …more
The One and Only Ivan
The One and Only Ivan
by Katherine Applegate
A wonderful Book for Middle-grade Children (2/15/2013)
Ivan is a silverback gorilla who has lived most of his life in a cage. He narrates the story. Through Ivan, an elephant named Stella, a stray dog named Bob and a young girl named Julie and a baby elephant named Ruby we learn what it must be like for animals to be captured …more
Live by Night
Live by Night
by Dennis Lehane
Live By Night by Dennis Lehane (8/10/2012)
Dennis Lehane’s This Given Day, set at the end of WWI during the turbulence of political and social unrest, introduced young Danny Coughlin and his family. Live by Night follows that novel but is not so much a sequel as an exploration of Danny’s younger brother Joe.

Early in …more
The Woman at the Light
The Woman at the Light: A Novel
by Joanna Brady
The Woman at the Light (6/24/2012)
Joanna Brady’s The Woman of the Light will take many readers into a period of time and a setting with which they are not familiar: the Florida Keys from 1829 through 1884. Her descriptions of the area, of the way of life, especially for women and slaves, give us a look at …more
Take Me Home
Take Me Home
by Brian Leung
Take Me Home by Brian Leung (4/21/2012)
Take Me Home is a historical novel about the clash between Chinese workers brought in by the Union Pacific to work in coal mines in Wyoming and the white workers who become convinced they are taking jobs from them and eventually rise up to run out the heathen Chinamen The …more
The First Warm Evening of the Year
The First Warm Evening of the Year: A Novel
by Jamie M. Saul
The First Warm Evening of the Year by Jaime M. Saul (4/20/2012)
How easy it can be for our lives to fall into a pattern, to accept the known over the unknown, and fall into a never-ending routine. We can be so accustomed to the everyday that we forget a time when life was exciting, when we welcomed the new and looked forward to the …more
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by Katherine Boo
behind the beautiful forevers by Katherine Boo (1/12/2012)
No matter where we live, whether in a middle class neighborhood, a gated community with multi-million dollar homes, or a slum, it is human nature to aspire to have a better life. Katherine Boo focuses on the poorest of the poor who live in a garbage strewn, makeshift …more
When She Woke
When She Woke: A Novel
by Hillary Jordan
When She Woke (11/13/2011)
Having taught Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" to numerous high school juniors, I bought the book as soon as I saw it advertised. And, yes, I can see the resemblance to Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" as well. But ultimately a book must be judged on its own merits. While …more
The Return of Captain John Emmett
The Return of Captain John Emmett: A Mystery
by Elizabeth Speller
The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller (9/5/2011)
While a mystery, Speller's novel also deals with the horrors of trench warfare and the relationships of officers--usually from the upper classes--and enlisted men. When Mary Emmett, sister of John Emmett, contacts Lawrence Bartram and asks him to look into her brother's …more
The Forever Queen
The Forever Queen: Sometimes, a desperate kingdom is in need of one great woman
by Helen Hollick
The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick (8/27/2011)
Most historical novels about British royalty are set later than the early Anglo-Saxon period. This one takes place during the eleventh century and features "Emma," daughter of Richard I of Normandy,whose brother Richard II marries her to King Aethelred II (also known as …more
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