Posted Saturday, 10 October, 2015 by jorielov Amy Stewart, Girl Waits With Gun, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 1 Comment
Acquired Book By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Girl Waits With Gun” virtual book tour through HFVBT: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I received a complimentary ARC copy of the book direct from the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
On why this book sparked an interest to read:
I must admit, I had regretted not being able to read The Drunken Botanist when I had initially found a copy of it at my local library – mostly, because it stood out to me as being quite altogether different than what I might usually pick up to read. For starters, I love Herbology (plants used for alternative/natural medicines) and I love how you can grow an apothecarist garden. This previous release of hers takes it a step further and dictates how plants can be used in mixology to produce different drinks and a fetching taste whilst you blend together elements you might not have felt worked well together.
When it was announced Girl Waits With Gun was going to be going on tour, I didn’t want to be sidelined again with an author who drew a line of curiosity into my brow to read!
Note on the Cover Art: Cover art by itself never leads me to reading a novel, however, snazzy sharp cover art might implore me to read the synopsis and if within those small ounces of text I find a murmuring of a focus about a story that might yield itself to being warranted to reading, odds are in favour I will do exactly that. Otherwise to me, cover art becomes another medium of art to be admired solely for that purpose. In this instance, it was the combination that intrigued me but to focus on the artwork a moment: how can this not garish interest? It’s quite catching!
Girl Waits With Gun
by Amy Stewart
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Drunken Botanist comes an enthralling debut novel based on the forgotten true story of one of the nation’s first female deputy sheriffs.
Constance Kopp doesn’t quite fit the mold. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into hiding fifteen years ago. One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks, bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. When the sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, Constance is forced to confront her past and defend her family — and she does it in a way that few women of 1914 would have dared.
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ISBN: 9780544409910
on 1st September 2015
Pages: 416
Published By: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, (@HMHCo)
Available Formats: Hardback, Audiobook, Paperback & E-Book
Converse via: #GirlWaitsWithGun
About Amy Stewart
Amy Stewart is the author of seven books. Her latest, Girl Waits With Gun, is a novel based on a true story. She has also written six nonfiction books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world, including four New York Times bestsellers: The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Bugs, Wicked Plants, and Flower Confidential. She lives in Eureka, California, with her husband Scott Brown, who is a rare book dealer. They own a bookstore called Eureka Books. The store is housed in a classic nineteenth-century Victorian building that Amy very much hopes is haunted.
Stewart has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other newspapers and magazines, and has appeared frequently on National Public Radio, CBS Sunday Morning, and–just once–on TLC’s Cake Boss. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the American Horticulture Society’s Book Award, and an International Association of Culinary Professionals Food Writing Award.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Posted Saturday, 10 October, 2015 by jorielov in 20th Century, ARC | Galley Copy, Biographical Fiction & Non-Fiction, Blog Tour Host, Book Cover | Notation on Design, Bookish Discussions, Constance Kopp, Crime Fiction, Debut Novel, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Historical Mystery, Lady Detective Fiction, Passionate Researcher, Reader Submitted Q&A, Siblings, Sisters & the Bond Between Them, Women's Rights, Writing Style & Voice
Posted Tuesday, 29 September, 2015 by jorielov Jeanne Mackin, New American Library, Penguin Group (USA), Penguin Random House LLC, The Beautiful American 0 Comments
Acquired Book By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “The Beautiful American” virtual book tour through HFVBT: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author Jeanne Mackin, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I felt I might fancy this novel:
I have a personal penchant for what I refer to as ‘Biographical Historical Fiction’ wherein the historical persons who lived are aptly portrayed through a historical treatment of their lives by a novelist who has a flaire for bringing their lives so fully to life, we feel as though we’ve met them in person. You’ll find that I have read quite a hearty array of historicals which befit this category and am always quite in full search of new writers who can lead me back through the corridors of the past and introduce me to someone who will bring history alive to me in all it’s glory and heartache. As for each life told, there is a happy balance of joy and strife, such is a well-rounded life well lived and told thereafter the person has passed on.
I personally find joy in this section of historical stories because the past becomes fiercely alive through the voices of the authors who pen these kinds of stories. We get to take an up close and personal voyage back through the tides of time whilst being caught up in the livelihood of a person who truly lived and felt every inch of the emotions we hope to catch sight of in the novel.
Note on the Cover Art: Did anyone else notice the sepia tone of hue on the cover when Lee Miller is being highlighted and how Paris in the background is a more muted reverie? I felt this was a fitting touch to the novel, especially as you become further into her folds, this novel doesn’t quite want to let you go – it stays with you, and you realise things you hadn’t seen at first glaance.
The Beautiful American
by Jeanne Mackin
As recovery from World War II begins, expat American Nora Tours travels from her home in southern France to London in search of her missing sixteen-year-old daughter. There, she unexpectedly meets up with an old acquaintance, famous model-turned-photographer Lee Miller. Neither has emerged from the war unscathed. Nora is racked with the fear that her efforts to survive under the Vichy regime may have cost her daughter’s life. Lee suffers from what she witnessed as a war correspondent photographing the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.
Nora and Lee knew each other in the heady days of late 1920’s Paris, when Nora was giddy with love for her childhood sweetheart, Lee became the celebrated mistress of the artist Man Ray, and Lee’s magnetic beauty drew them all into the glamorous lives of famous artists and their wealthy patrons. But Lee fails to realize that her friendship with Nora is even older, that it goes back to their days as children in Poughkeepsie, New York, when a devastating trauma marked Lee forever. Will Nora’s reunion with Lee give them a chance to forgive past betrayals, and break years of silence?
A novel of freedom and frailty, desire and daring, The Beautiful American portrays the extraordinary relationship between two passionate, unconventional woman.
Places to find the book:
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Find on Book Browse
ISBN: 9780451465825
Also by this author:
on 3rd June 2014
Pages: 352
Published By: New American Library (NAL)
( ) an imprint of Penguin Group (USA)
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Converse via: #TheBeautifulAmerican
About Jeanne Mackin
Jeanne Mackin’s novel, The Beautiful American (New American Library), based on the life of photographer and war correspondent Lee Miller, received the 2014 CNY award for fiction. Her other novels include A Lady of Good Family, about gilded age personality Beatrix Farrand, The Sweet By and By, about nineteenth century spiritualist Maggie Fox, Dreams of Empire set in Napoleonic Egypt, The Queen’s War, about Eleanor of Aquitaine, and The Frenchwoman, set in revolutionary France and the Pennsylvania wilderness.
Jeanne Mackin is also the author of the Cornell Book of Herbs and Edible Flowers (Cornell University publications) and co-editor of The Book of Love (W.W. Norton.) She was the recipient of a creative writing fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society and a keynote speaker for The Dickens Fellowship. Her work in journalism won awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, in Washington, D.C. She has taught or conducted workshops in Pennsylvania, Hawaii and at Goddard College in Vermont.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Posted Tuesday, 29 September, 2015 by jorielov in 20th Century, Adulterous Affair, Biographical Fiction & Non-Fiction, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Book Cover | Notation on Design, Bookish Discussions, Clever Turns of Phrase, Fashion Industry, Father-Daughter Relationships, France, French Literature, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Jorie Loves A Story Cuppa Book Love Awards, Lee Miller, Literary Fiction, Parfum Industry, Passionate Researcher, Photography, The World Wars, Trauma | Abuse & Recovery, War-time Romance, Women's Health, Women's Rights, Wordsmiths & Palettes of Sage, Writing Style & Voice
Posted Saturday, 1 August, 2015 by jorielov ChocLitUK, Middledip series, Starting Over, Sue Moorcroft 2 Comments
Acquired Book By:
I am a ChocLit reviewer who receives books of my choice in exchange for honest reviews! I received a complimentary copy of “Starting Over” from ChocLit in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
On wanting to read Moorcroft’s trilogy:
I joined Twitter in November of 2013, and one of the very first ChocLit authors who tweeted me a reply was Ms Moorcroft! It was always my intention to pick up her serial stories involving the small towne of Middledip, as you can see from this brief exchange back then how curious I was about one of the cars featured in the book trailer!
Time grew away from me, and if you fast forward to July 2015, Ms Moorcroft dropped in on #ChocLitSaturday much to my delight! I have been attempting to soak inside this RomCom since the book arrived by Post a few months ago; between then and now, my health was affected and mother nature decided to vex me something fierce with a battery of lightning storms which all but crippled my electronics and ability to blog! July blinked out of sight before I even knew how many hours I had lost watching the severe storms roll in and roll back out again!
I knew when I first read the premise of Starting Over I might enjoy a lovely reprieve inside a romantic comedy, as too oft I find myself picking up dramas; nothing wrong with that, except that I do miss a book that reminds me of the lighter sides of life and romance. It’s quite a good thing to remember to find stories that make you laugh and make you think about their characters in a way that is a pure uplift of spirit. I used to read more lighter faire in Romance but somewhere along the way, the historicals and the dramas (esp war dramas) swept me up into their epic narratives and haven’t quite let me go!
Starting Over
by Sue Moorcroft
Source: Direct from Publisher
New home, new friends, new love. Can starting over be that simple?
Tess Riddell reckons her beloved Freelander is more reliable than any man – especially her ex-fiancé, Olly Gray. She’s moving on from her old life and into the perfect cottage in the country.
Miles Rattenbury’s passions? Old cars and new women! Romance? He’s into fun rather than commitment.
When Tess crashes the Freelander into his breakdown truck, they find that they’re nearly neighbours – yet worlds apart. Despite her overprotective parents and a suddenly attentive Olly, she discovers the joys of village life and even forms an unlikely friendship with Miles. Then, just as their relationship develops into something deeper, an old flame comes looking for him…
Is their love strong enough to overcome the past? Or will it take more than either of them is prepared to give?
Places to find the book:
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Published by ChocLitUK
on 1st November 2009
Format: Paperback Edition
Pages: 336
Published by: ChocLitUK (@ChocLitUK)
Formats Available: Paperback, Audiobook, Large Print, & Ebook
Lovely interview with Ms Moorcroft | catherinegaskin.com
Read the full history on behalf of this series about Middledip!
{ the Middledip series }
No.1 Starting Over (this review!)
No.2 All That Mullarkey (Book Synopsis)
No.3 Love & Freedom (Book Synopsis)
No.4 Dream a Little Dream (Book Synopsis)
No.5 Is this Love? (Book Synopsis)
Converse via: #ChocLit, #SueMoorcroft & #Middledip
To follow her Street Team key in #teamsuemoorcroft!
About Sue Moorcroft
Sue Moorcroft is an accomplished writer of novels and short stories, as well as a creative writing tutor. She’s also the fiction judge at Writers Forum and a regular guest on Sue Dougan’s Chat Room at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
Sue’s Choc Lit novels include: Starting Over, All That Mullarkey, Want to Know a Secret?, Love & Freedom, Dream a Little Dream, Is This Love? and Darcie’s Dilemma (ebook).Love & Freedom won the Festival of Romance Best Romantic Read Award 2011 and Dream a Little Dream was shortlisted for the 2013 Romantic Novel of the Year Award.
Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Posted Saturday, 1 August, 2015 by jorielov in 21st Century, Blog Tour Host, Book Trailer, Bookish Films, ChocLitSaturdays, ChocLitUK, Contemporary Romance, Debilitating Diagnosis & Illness, England, Flashbacks & Recollective Memories, Indie Author, Life Shift, Loss of an unbourne child, Modern Day, Romance Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Second Chance Love, Singletons & Commitment, Small Towne Fiction, Trauma | Abuse & Recovery, Unexpected Pregnancy, Vulgarity in Literature, Women's Health, Women's Rights
Posted Thursday, 30 July, 2015 by jorielov Alchemy's Daughter, Lake Street Press, Mary A. Osborne 2 Comments
Acquired Book By: I was selected to be a part of the blog tour for “Alchemy’s Daughter” hosted by Italy Book Tours. Although I recently started to host for iRead Book Tours, this is my first tour with the Italian side of this duo book touring company! I received a complimentary copy of “Alchemy’s Daughter” direct from the publisher Lake Street Press in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Switching from France to Italy:
When I was first approached to host for iRead Book Tours, and their sister hosting services via Italy Book Tours, something inside me was quite keen on the idea to start reading stories set in Italy as I have been spending nearly two full years residing in the historical past of France! I love learning about different cultural traditions inasmuch as I like the angling of insight into my own heritage but sometimes I find that if I switch up the locales a bit, exchange one country for another, it keeps everything quite fresh and invigorating! Therefore, imagine my sweet surprise in finding I can start to tuck inside novels set in Italy and continue to time travel through history!?
I was quite happy to discover inside my ARC copy of this YA Historical a lovely bookmark from the publisher! Quite a keen surprise to discover and I can assure you it was used as I read the book! I love finding bookmarks in the pages of a book I am reviewing; as I am definitely a book blogger who can NEVER have too many! Laughs with mirth. Perhaps you feel the same!? Does your bookshelf have a lot of current reads and must-get-those-soon reads begging for your attention? Do you pick out bookmarks to compliment your reading queue whilst finding each book to be read has a bookmark, which leaves you a bit curious to find one to use with the current book in hand? Thus, you can see how lovely it was indeed for me to pull out a bookmark from a book I was reading as I blog my review! Quite champion of Lake Street Press!
Alchemy's Daughter
by Mary A. Osborne
Source: Publisher via Italy Book Tours
In medieval San Gimignano, Italy, daughters of merchants are expected to marry. But Santina Pietra cares only for Calandrino, a brilliant young scholar who is preoccupied with his ancient alchemical texts.
Soon Santina meets Trotula, the village midwife, who might or might not be a "strega," a witch. Trotula challenges her to forget Calandrino and become the woman she is meant to be. Some say she is a victim of the midwife’s spell, but Santina is determined to follow in Trotula’s footsteps even as calamities strike.
Genres: Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction, Midwife | Midwifery, Young Adult Fiction, INSPY Realistic Fiction, Spirituality & Metaphysics, Women's Studies Places to find the book:
Borrow from a Public Library
Add to LibraryThing
Published by Lake Street Press
on 14th May, 2015
Format: Paperback ARC
Pages: 288
Published By: Lake Street Press (@LakeStreetPress),
Available Formats: Trade Paperback only
NOTE: Alchemy’s Daughter is the PREQUEL to Nonna’s Book of Mysteries
Read more about the 1st Novel in the series
I opted to read the PREQUEL ahead of the first novel!
About Mary A. Osborne
Mary A. Osborne is the multiple award-winning author of Alchemy's Daughter and Nonna’s Book of Mysteries. A graduate of Rush University and Knox College, where she was mentored in the Creative Writing Program, Ms. Osborne is a registered nurse and holds degrees in chemistry and nursing.
Her freelance work has appeared in publications such as Hektoen International, Newcity, and the Examiner.com. Ms. Osborne lives in Chicago.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Posted Thursday, 30 July, 2015 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 14th Century, Ancient Egypt, Apothecary, ARC | Galley Copy, Balance of Faith whilst Living, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Bookmark slipped inside a Review Book, Catholicism, Christianity, Coming-Of Age, Epistolary Novel | Non-Fiction, Father-Daughter Relationships, Herbalist, Historical Fiction, History, Indie Author, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, INSPY Realistic Fiction | Non-Fiction, Italy, Italy Book Tours, Late Middle Ages (1300-1500), Life Shift, Literature of Italy, Medical Fiction, Midwife | Midwifery, Midwives & Childbirth, Naturopathic Medicine, Passionate Researcher, Philosophical Intuitiveness, Philosophy, Political Narrative & Modern Topics, Religious History, Single Fathers, Spirituality & Metaphysics, Superstitions & Old World Beliefs, the Renaissance (14th-17th Centuries), Women's Fiction, Women's Health, Women's Right to Choose (Health Care Rights), Women's Rights, Wordsmiths & Palettes of Sage, World Religions, Young Adult Fiction
Posted Sunday, 19 July, 2015 by jorielov Anola Pickett, Callahan Crossroads, Cedar Fort Inc, Sweetwater Books 0 Comments
Acquired Book By: I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort whereupon I am thankful to have such a diverse amount of novels and non-fiction titles to choose amongst to host. I received a complimentary copy of “Callahan Crossroads” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Callahan Crossroads
by Anola Pickett
Source: Direct from Publisher
Grown-ups said us kids could help our country win. Eat more corn. Give up sugar. Buy thrift stamps. Collect prune pits. But after a whole year doing this sissy stuff, we still hadn't won.
I wasn't old enough to enlist, so this summer I'd do something dangerous. Something tough and brave.
Twelve-year-old George's family won't take him seriously. He's ready to fight like a man on the front lines of the Great War, but instead he gets stuck on the home front, with nothing more exciting to do than look out for his younger sisters and elderly neighbour, Mrs. Schmitt.
But with no sign of victory in Europe, things are getting more and more tense at home, especially after George's older brother makes a startling announcement.
Set in 1918 Kansas City, this old-fashioned family drama brings you to the heart of America in World War I. Issue-driven and entertaining, it's a coming-of-age story that will resonate with readers today.
Genres: Children's Literature, Middle Grade, War Drama, Historical Fiction Places to find the book:
Add to LibraryThing
Published by Sweetwater Books
on 14th July, 2015
Format: Paperback Edition
Pages: 192
Published By: Sweetwater Books (@SweetwaterBooks),
an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc (@CedarFortBooks)
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Converse via: #CallahanCrossroads + #AnolaPickett
About Anola Pickett
Anola Pickett is a Kansas City native, and although she’s lived in Chicago, St. Louis and Massachusetts, she’s always come back home. The oldest of six children, she grew up in a family that emphasized the importance of reading and education. She began writing stories in the third grade and went on to become a teacher and school librarian. Now retired from the classroom, she devotes a big part of her day to writing and research for historical novels for young readers. She especially prizes the stories her parents and grandmother told about their growing-up years in Kansas City.
Pickett enjoys school and library visits to talk about her books and about the craft of writing. She and her husband Peter Doyle enjoy traveling, especially to Hong Kong, where they visit their son and daughter-in-law and a beautiful red-haired granddaughter!
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2015 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Posted Sunday, 19 July, 2015 by jorielov in 20th Century, Blog Tour Host, Brothers and Sisters, Bullies and the Bullied, Cedar Fort Publishing & Media, Childhood Friendship, Children's Literature, Coming-Of Age, Disillusionment in Marriage, Divorce & Martial Strife, Domestic Violence, During WWI, Historical Fiction, Indie Author, Juvenile Fiction, Literature for Boys, Middle Grade Novel, Military Families of the Deployed, Mother-Son Relationships, Political Narrative & Modern Topics, Prejudicial Bullying & Non-Tolerance, Realistic Fiction, Siblings, Small Towne USA, Teenage Relationships & Friendships, the Nineteen Hundreds, The World Wars, War Drama, Warfare & Power Realignment, Women's Rights
