The Boleyn King

For some reason I have always been fascinated with King Henry XIII and the whole Anne Boleyn story, so when I saw the library recommendation for this book, I knew that I had to read it. What was intriguing about this piece is the "What If?" scenario presented. What if Anne Boleyn's son had survived at birth and she was never executed for her adulterous crimes? Would the outcome still be the same with Elizabeth being crowned Queen in her lifetime?

This novel is seen through the eyes of several different individuals, but one seemed to stand out above the rest. Elizabeth, as written by Laura Andersen, was very well done. She had the independence and hardness that I have come to love about her. Also, her wit is still in tact within this piece, which is equally important. However, I also enjoyed the way that William seemed to be a polar opposite of Elizabeth with his love of grandeur and free spirit. Andersen tried to encompass Henry XIII lust for life within William, but I would have like to see just a little more wit and little less anger for him. Andersen does create a character that seems to be the peace keeper of the bunch. Dominic is the son of a prior traitor, but was brought into the Tudor household and trust by Henry XIII. William considers him to be more than a friend, giving a title for his service as a soldier in the king's army. I enjoyed the parts of the story through his eyes, but they read like a young man's diary in which he was writing daily about the young woman he was pining for but could not have.

The only character I don't know that I was entirely sold on was that of Minuette and unfortunately, the majority of the story is told through her eyes. She is the daughter of Anne Boleyn's servant that was born on the same night that William was and is brought up within the Tudor household. Looked upon as family, she ends up as Elizabeth's head servant and ends up in a love triangle with William and Dominic. Andersen, however, does not really do a good job of explaining why she is so sexually sought after. Some of the situations and decisions that Minuette made throughout the plot seemed a little unbelievable and that hurt the plot for me.

Andersen also added in a murder mystery to the story, which is the primary focus of her piece. Minuette's roommate appears to have committed suicide, but it turns out she was actually murdered. It is centered on a secret that could possibly take away William's birthright to be king. Without this part of the plot, I am not certain that the piece would have help my interest. It helped with establishing a genuine conflict and climax for her novel, but parts of it seemed a little farfetched with respect to Minuette's role. I don't want to put any spoilers in her, so I am going to leave this intentionally a little vague. However, I will say that apart from that there were some nice, unexpected twists that I did enjoy as evidence was brought to light.

Overall, I thought that this was a very quick and rather interesting read, especially with the added murder mystery. If it had been just another retelling of the time period, it would have been extremely boring, but Andersen did a rather good job of keeping me an active reader. There are a few historical inaccuracies along with some small editing errors, but they don't seem to deter from the story telling that Andersen is able to accomplish. It may have roused my curiosity just enough, that I may need to eventually read the other books in the series.

If you enjoy historical fiction that does not keep to the exact confines of the period and incorporates some things that may be historically inaccurate, then this book would be a good choice. However, if you are a stickler for details and those inaccuracies would keep you from enjoying the book, then I would suggest skipping this one.

Rating: 3.5 out of 4

This book was borrowed from my local library; I was not asked to do a review of this book.

Image was taken from Good Reads.

Death By the Book - Prism Book Tour

Death by the Book

by Julianna Deering

Christian Mystery

Paperback, 320 pages

March 4th 2014 by Bethany House Publishers

Drew Farthering wanted nothing more than to end the summer of 1932 with the announcement of his engagement. Instead, he finds himself caught up in another mysterious case when the family solicitor is found murdered, an antique hatpin with a cryptic message, Advice to Jack, piercing his chest.

Evidence of secret meetings and a young girl's tearful confession point to the victim's double life, but what does the solicitor's murder have to do with the murder of a physician on the local golf course? Nothing, it would seem--except for another puzzling note, affixed with a similar-looking bloodied hatpin.

Soon the police make an arrest in connection with the murders, but Drew isn't at all certain they have the right suspect in custody. And why does his investigation seem to be drawing him closer and closer to home?

Bethany House * Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Book Depository

Other Books in the Series:

 

Review:

 

Normally, I do not read kindle books. Mostly it is because I love the feel and smell of an actual book, which understandably sounds a little creepy or weird, but the electronic versions of them tend not to have the same personal connection for me. Having said that, I thought that this book was quite a charming mystery novel which I rather quite enjoyed.

 

Julianna Derring did a remarkable job of weaving a wondrous murder mystery set in England around the late 1920's. It kept me reading into the wee small hours of morning to find out if my suspicions of who the killer could be were right or not. For me, the killer was not readily revealed which I rather like. Novels that don't keep you guessing are not very good sport for an avid mystery reader such as myself. This one did not disappoint and I felt that Derring was able to stay true to the period and means of detection that were available at that time.

 

I also felt that the characters were exquisitely crafted. It was clear from the beginning that Derring felt comfortable writing about them and seemed to know them better than themselves. Usually an added romance would be something that would not work for me in a mystery novel, especially if it is one of the main story plots, but in this case it added to intrigue of the plot itself. It had kind of an Austen feel that I very much appreciated.

 

There were two main things that I had a little difficulty with overlooking, however, and they both have to deal with the editing of the Kindle version sent to me. It was strange, but for some reason all of the words that had a double 'f' in them were missing them! Words like off would be spelled "o" instead of it. If it had been intentional there should have been an apostrophe after the 'o'. The other thing that bothered me was how the book was formatted. In the version I was sent, there were not many, if any, distinctions between paragraphs. Not many indentations to signify a new paragraph and in some instances there was a space right in the middle of a sentence where the line was severed and then indented on the next line. Other than that, there were some minor editing issues with respect to missing quotations around some dialogue and some odd transitions. The main character would be chatting with someone about going to the chief inspector to relay information and in the very next sequence of sentences, the inspector was suddenly there as if no time had past.

 

Overall, I thought that this was a great mystery that keeps the reader invested in solving. If you enjoy mysteries that have a more classical feel to them, then you will thoroughly enjoy this book. However, if you will not be able to look past the formatting issues making it impossible to finish the book, than I would not recommend this one. However, it would be a great shame to pass it up since it was a delightful and light read.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

 

I was given a copy by Net Gallery at the request of the Prism Book Tours for my honest review; I was not paid to give this review.

Julianna Derring has always been an avid reader and a lover of storytelling, whether on the page, the screen or the stage. This, along with her keen interest in history and her Christian faith, shows in her tales of love, forgiveness and triumph over adversity. A fifth-generation Texan, she makes her home north of Dallas with three spoiled cats and, when not writing, spends her free time quilting, cross stitching and watching NHL hockey. Her new series of Drew Farthering mysteries set in 1930s England debuts with Rules of Murder (Bethany House, Summer 2013) and will be followed by Death by the Book (Bethany House, Spring 2014) and Murder at the Mikado (Bethany House, Summer 2014).

Deviltry Afoot

I thought that this book would be interesting to read. It was pitched to me in an e-mail blurb that I get from time to time from a company that is trying to help self published authors out. That is what makes this review quite difficult to write because I really do enjoy helping others when I can, especially aspiring authors.

The strongest thing about this book was the storyline behind it. I thought that Pritt had a unique plot that has not been written about in this way. For anyone who is very religious and knows that the Devil is real, this could be a very scary book to read at night. It is interesting to see a serial killer who was killed several decades ago comes back from the dead to start killing again. Add in a mourning mother looking for clues into who killed her daughter, you have a really good tale to be spun.

However, this book had quite a number of issues that would have been caught by a decent editor. The plot, while good, was not executed well, which brought the whole story down. Nothing was ever really developed or fleshed out because the pacing was so quick. Instead of having paragraphs, many of the pages were filled with one sentence paragraphs, which not only made it awkward, but made it read like a list of ideas instead of a cohesive story. There were many errors with grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, etc. that it was very hard to read and I almost could not finish it. This is now becoming my pet-peeve with respect to the whole publishing community. Please get someone to edit your books appropriately! Outside of all that, it unfortunately read like a rough draft and not a polished piece.

I do hope that Pritt continues writing and honing her skill set in the future. With story ideas like this one, she could become a mainstream author if she was able to successfully execute them on the page.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

I was given a copy of this book by the author through Bostick Communications; I was not paid to give this review.

Image taken from Good Reads.

Three Graves Full

This book had one of the best opening lines that I have read in a while, "There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard". It created such a wonderful image and started off the story with all kinds of questions, which I liked. However, it quickly lost my interest after a few chapters and I had a difficult time finishing it.

I think that Mason had a wonderful idea for a story with her main character killing a man, burying him in his backyard only to have the people planting flowers find two additional bodies that he did not know about. It creates a problem for him since he knows there is a third body out there in his yard that no one knows about except him. That part of the plot was strong and could have went any number of different ways. However, the path that Mason took was not as interesting and I quickly became less invested in it.

My biggest problem was the character development. Jason Getty, the main character, seemed insipid as the story went on and I wished he had a little more spine, so to speak. As Mason brought more information about him to light, I began to view him as a victim and not the ruthless serial killer I was looking for. She also had several storylines going on that did converge, but it seemed a like she may have taken on a little too much and nothing was really developed extensively. The side story of Leah looking for her dead fiancé who also happens to be stepping out on her quite often, wasn't really needed. I think it would be a much better story if Mason would have stuck to Jason, the killer of the two people found in the flower bed, and the detectives on the hunt.

Overall, I thought it was a decent novel, but not one that I will reread over and over like a good Austen novel. If you enjoy a decent caper with a few twists that are not over the top, then you may like this book. If you need something that has more action to keep your attention, then you may want to pass this book up.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

This book was borrowed from my local library; I was not asked to write a review.

Image was taken from Good Reads.

The Red Queen Dies

This book was recommended by my local library and it sounded interesting with the "Alice in Wonderland" inspired crime. It is essentially a detective novel that takes place in 2019 where the occurring theme of "Big Brother" is watching runs amuck. Bailey has created a very strong female leading detective that is working very hard to catch a serial killer that may have ties to the last victim, a Broadway star know as "the Red Queen".

Even with all of the intrigue, this book took me several days to really get into it. Especially since it started off with a press conference, which was informative, but dull. I didn't have any immediate excitement about reading the book and was concerned that it would not be eventful. However, I will say that Bailey has done a very good job a weaving a relatively okay crime tale that has some good twists and turns that the average reader may not catch on to right away. Her main characters were fairly fleshed out and they seemed like they could be real people, which for me is one of the things I need to become invested in the plot.

Outside of this though, there were several things that got in the way and made it a slower read for me. First off, there was the abbreviation "ORB", which I am not entirely sure what it stands for. It seems like it is a smart tablet/phone-like device that people are able to order/pay for items at coffee shops along with answering calls or viewing e-mail. It was not fully explained, so I envisioned it as a smarter version of the most recent smart phone...confused? In the "Author's Notes" section of the book, Bailey suggests going to her website for further explanations for the technology, history, etc. Although that was very nice of her to offer, I would much rather have been shown this in the novel then going the distance to research it. Kind of takes the fun out of reading the book and being transported somewhere new.

There were also too many twists to the storyline that made it seem a little ridiculous at the end with respect to tying it in to "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz". I wish perhaps some of that would have been cut out and a little more focus could have been given to the crimes at hand. The idea was sound, but just not well executed which made the overall readability of the book suffer.

Bailey also had a few side stories added in and I am not certain what purpose they were meant to serve. The first had to do with another case that a few detectives were working, but it didn't really tie in to the serial case that was the main story and seemed a little erroneous. Then there were several scenes in which one character was meeting with another or speaking with another on their ORB, but the identity of the other individual was never revealed. If these scenes had had an impact with respect to the story, I would have understood why they were there. But they felt like they were added in only to show that this book would be part of a series and there were still much more to come with regards to the characters in the plot.

The other thing that bothered me was the fact the book had many editing issues. It has become a pet-peeve of mine now that authors do not seem to be proof reading their manuscripts or investing in a good copy editor. There were dialogue sequences that were missing quotations. Many areas had grammatical errors that should have been caught. I was a little disappointed in that.

Overall, the book was okay. It started out slow, but in the end it made for a good story. If you can overlook some of the editing issues and wade through the extra information that was not needed, you would enjoy this book because it does have a good crime story underneath all of that. However, if you are unable to do any of that and need a story that builds from that first sentence on, then you may want to skip this one.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

I borrowed this book from my local library; I was not asked to do a review of this book.

The image was taken from Good Reads.

The Rosie Project

I am part of a reading challenge on Good Reads and this was the book that was chosen for February. This is not the genre I typically choose to read, so I was apprehensive if I would even enjoy this book let alone be able to finish it. However, I did like this book and finished it within 2 days time.

What was interesting about this book was exploring Asperger's Autism, which is something that I know very little about. It was a great deal of fun to take someone who does not understand emotions like love and place them into a situation where love or falling in love was the end result. The need for precise scheduling seemed to surprise me too, especially with the need to calculate every minute of time done to how long it should take to shop for something as simple as a scarf.

The other thing that I enjoyed was Don's need to create "projects" to accomplish goals. At first it was to find a suitable wife, so he initiated "The Wife Project". Then the goal of helping Rosie find the identity of her father, so "The Father Projected" was created. Lastly, there was "The Rosie Project", which was the main plot of the book. Since I have some science background, I felt that Simsion did a great job at showing this logical part of the scientific brain and how it relates to every day life.

I know that others felt that Simsion made his main character Don a little like Sheldon from the "Big Bang Theory", but even with the similarities there were enough differences that made Don incredibly unique. His inability to meet someone without calculating their BMI was truly humorous to me. I enjoyed the situations that he found himself in with respect to "normal" social decorum like the dispute with a student on evolution that involved a flounder well past its eat by date.

For me, there weren't too many things that I did not like about the book. It had a good flow to it and was a very easy, light read. The fact that it is only told through Don's eyes is why the book was successful for me. If there had been more with respect to the thoughts and feelings of Gene, Claudia, and Rosie I don't think the underlying meaning behind writing the book would have been as strong. However, I really wanted more from the Gene and Claudia storyline. I suppose more for my own curiosity than anything else. There was an unexpressed feeling that Claudia was not as excited about the open marriage the same way that Gene made it sound. Especially after the scene where she put chili peppers in his sandwich without telling him!

Overall, this book was enjoyable and quite different from what I would typically read. If you like romantic comedies then I think that you would enjoy this book. However, if you are not into that type of thing and would not be able to get past the similarities between Sheldon and Don, then you probably should skip this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5

I borrowed this book from my local library; I was not asked to do a review of this book.

The image was taken from Good Reads.

The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel

Because I love a good caper and have been a fan of Sherlock Holmes for quite some time, I could not resist reading this novel. It is the first Sherlock Holmes book allowed to be written by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Estate in about 125 years! Even with all the expectation that this novel would indeed disappoint to live up to Doyle's beloved character, I had to give it a try and pleasantly, I found myself unable to put it down.

Horowitz does an incredible job of capturing Holmes the way that Doyle had created him to be. I love how everything is there; the violin, the exasperation that Watson feels over the course of the investigation, and the subtle clues that reveal the killer in a way that only Holmes is privy to. It was if Horowitz had created Sherlock Holmes himself for you can feel the love that he has for this timeless character.

But beyond this, the language of the novel was exactly the way that Doyle would have written. It was as if it had been published 125 years ago with that classic literature feel. Gregarious and dripping with description that I so desperately want in the newer fiction that I have been reading these days. The plot was weaved so that the killer was not completely obvious, but you had your suspicions that could encompass several of the characters being followed by Holmes. Even I was surprised with some of the revelations of what crimes were committed by whom and why. (And that is saying something!).

There isn't much that I would have changed about this novel except a few revision/editing issues that I had. Some of the dialect seemed off and there were a few words used multiple times toward the first half that wore out there use after the second time written. However, these did not deter from the story overall and I found it no less enjoyable to read.

If you are an individual that is expecting this character to be one that mirrors the likes of Robert Downey Jr, then do not pick up this book. Sherlock Holmes in this novel is exactly the same as the one Doyle had written long ago. If you are able to disassociate yourself from the new age romantic view of Holmes then you will enjoy this book. However, if you are not able to detach yourself from the 21st century version of the most famous detective in literature, then you will probably not enjoy this book, but it would be a shame not to read it.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

I borrowed this book from a local library; I was not asked to do a review of this book.

The image was taken from Good Reads.