The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein by Antoinette May

The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein by Antoinette May
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Determined Heart reveals the life of Mary Shelley in a story of love and obsession, betrayal and redemption.

The daughter of political philosopher William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley had an unconventional childhood populated with the most talented and eccentric personalities of the time. After losing her mother at an early age, she finds herself in constant conflict with a resentful stepmother and a jealous stepsister. When she meets the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, she falls deeply in love, and they elope with disastrous consequences. Soon she finds herself destitute and embroiled in a torturous love triangle as Percy takes Mary’s stepsister as a lover. Over the next several years, Mary struggles to write while she and Percy face ostracism, constant debt, and the heartbreaking deaths of three children. Ultimately, she achieves great acclaim for Frankenstein, but at what cost?

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It's remarkable to think how young Mary Shelley was when she wrote Frankenstein. Then again, she met Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was fourteen, run away with him when she was sixteen and bore him four children of which only one survived to grow up. What a fantastic and tragic life she lived.

Mary Wollstonecraft died in childbirth so Mary and her older sister Fanny grew up with their father William Godwin who later married Mary Jane Clairmont who already had a daughter called Claire Clairmont. She had a troubled relationship with her stepmother and stepsister. She burns all the bridges when she runs away with Bysshe. Bysshe is already married with a child and a baby on its way. But they are in love and that's all that matters. The problem is that Clair is running away with them and that is the start of a love triangle since Bysshe is all for free love and even encourage Mary to sleep with another man. Still, they stay together and their love story will live on after they both are gone.

I read Passion by Jude Morgan a couple of years ago. Passion takes up the women who loved Shelley, Byron, and Keats. This book focuses on the love story between Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelly, but Lord Byron is also a big part of the story since he had an affair with Claire Clairmont and he was a friend to both Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelly. It's an often tragic book to read because despite the deep love between Mary and Bysshe couldn't he be truly faithful even though she was the woman he loved the most. Mary had to face a life with a man who truly believed that marriage wasn't necessary and they would probably never have married if he didn't want to gain custody of his children with Harriet, the wife he left behind. Also, Mary had to put up with Claire all through her marriage. But the hardest part of this book to read was the death of all the children. One after another died and it's really tragic to think that of all the children Mary gave birth to, only the youngest Percy survived.

I think this book was well written and interest to read. I already have some previous knowledge about the lives and fates of Bysshe and Lord Byron, but I didn't know that much about Mary Shelley and it was intriguing to learn more about her growing up and her life with Bysshe and after his death. Antoinette May has written a really good book and I felt enriched when I finished the book. Not only did I learn more about the characters in this book I learned more about the time they lived in and I really keen on reading more about Mary Wollstonecraft, a woman I have heard about, but not know so much about.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

#BookReview Shadow Play by Iris Johansen @Iris_Johansen @StMartinsPress

Shadow Play by Iris Johansen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Eve Duncan is the most sought-after artist in the field of forensic sculpting. Dedicated to her work ever since her daughter Bonnie was taken and killed at the age of seven, Eve feels a sense of duty to those whose lives were lost and whose bones are now in her hands. When a sheriff in California contacts her with a request for help on the reconstruction of the skull of a nine-year-old girl whose body has been buried for eight years, his intensity and investment in the case puzzle her. But when the ghost of the girl begins communicating with her, Eve finds herself wrapped up in the case more intensely than she could have ever imagined. Not since Bonnie has Eve had such an experience, and suddenly she finds herself determined to solve the murder and help the little girl find peace. Except that the killer is still out there, and he knows Eve is on the case. And he won’t rest until anything and anyone that could reveal his identity is eliminated...

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I do seem to have some weird knack to start reading the last published book in a series lately. Shadow Play is book 19 in the Eve Duncan series, but it was super easy to get into this book and get the basic fact about Eve Duncan, Joe Quinn, Margaret Douglas and Bonnie.

Eve Duncan is a forensic sculptor and she is sent the skull of a young old girl that was found buried eight years in the forest. But it seems that the killer hasn't forgotten her and soon Eve is in danger and it seems that somewhere out there is another little girl in danger and Eve must now try with the help of her friends and the ghost of the dead girl help try to find out who the killer is and who his next target is...

I really liked this book. It was fast-paced, it had an interesting story. I liked the characters and it wasn't too much romance in it. And, I loved the paranormal part of the story. The story had just the perfect blend of thriller and paranormal. And, not too much focus on sex. Eve and Joe may be a couple, but they don't have several pages of graphic sex. Sometimes I think books lose the focus and miss the fact that a good story and well-written characters are the most importing thing. Or perhaps it has something to do with that I can't stand Erotica.

Anyway, I was curious about this series and decided to give the book series a shot when I saw this book was available at NetGalley to request. The story was really engrossing and I could hardly stop reading the book. I will only read one chapter more and suddenly had I been reading an hour. I really liked the mystery of the book. I liked that it wasn't an obvious story that it surprised me from time to time.

I'm really glad that I read this book and I'm looking forward to reading the previous 19 books!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

#BookReview Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb

Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Acclaimed and bestselling author Robin Hobb continues her Fitz and the Fool trilogy with this second entry, following Fool’s Assassin, ramping up the tension and the intrigue as disaster continues to strike at Fitz’s life and heart.

After nearly killing his oldest friend, the Fool, and finding his daughter stolen away by those who were once targeting the Fool, FitzChivarly Farseer is out for blood. And who better to wreak havoc than a highly trained and deadly former royal assassin? Fitz might have let his skills go fallow over his years of peace, but such things, once learned, are not so easily forgotten. And nothing is more dangerous than a man who has nothing left to lose…

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All hail Robin Hobb Queen writer of fantasy!

Seriously this book was so amazingly good that I now sit here writing and knowing that I will never be able to put down in words how fantastic the book is. For everyone that has read Rob Hobb before and not yet read this book or the one before will I say that you will love this series, the books just keep getting better and better and Hobb still knows how to surprise her readers. To those that have never Read a Hobb book, do it, hell do it even if you are not a fantasy fan. They are well written, the story will pull you in completely. Just start with The Farseer trilogy, of course, always best to start from the beginning.

Anyway, this book is better than the first book in The Fitz and the Fool trilogy, but that doesn't make the first book bad, this one just has a lot more action it, more going ones, more Fool. And, having Fitz and the Fool reunited again was just was marvelous as in Fool's Errand (the first book in the Tawny Man trilogy) when they met again after several years apart. This book story continues the story from the first book with the Fool hurt and dying and Fitz tries to save him, but it seems futile, but you should never say never and solutions can show up where you least expect them. And, little Bee, Fitz daughter has been taken, but it will take some time for Fitz to know that, but when he does, then he will do everything in his power to get his daughter back and punish the bad people behind the kidnapping.

This book is around 750 pages long, but it could have been twice as many pages because it is so good, it is never boring, the pace is just perfect, not a single thing that happens in the book is boring, no skimming of the text, hell there are moments when I had to reread sentences because they are so good written and they go straight to my heart.

I loved this book. I have lived with the story, with Fitz and the Fool and the rest of the characters for a couple of days and now I have to leave it for a while and it is almost painful to not have more to read. Luckily for me, I still have some books written by Hobb that I still haven't read, alas no Fitz and Fool book waiting, but I can always reread the earlier books with them if I want to.

#BookReview Crimson Shore by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child @GrandCentralPub

Crimson Shore by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A secret chamber.

A mysterious shipwreck.

A murder in the desolate salt marshes.

A seemingly straightforward private case turns out to be much more complicated-and sinister-than Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast ever could have anticipated.

Pendergast, together with his ward Constance Greene, travels to the quaint seaside village of Exmouth, Massachusetts, to investigate the theft of a priceless wine collection. But inside the wine cellar, they find something considerably more disturbing: a bricked-up niche that once held a crumbling skeleton.

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I was lucky enough to get an approved on NetGalley for this book and it was a really good book. I have just one main problem with the book, I just don't like Constance Green that much. I mean I like her history, the first books with her and explanation “to her life”, but as a character in a book (especially this book) she just feels a bit to aggravating. It didn't help that Constance, in the beginning, kept on correcting a man's Shakespeare quotes. I loathe people that just know it all and must constantly show off. And, I feel that way with Constance. I have never that problem with Pendergast because he really uses his knowledge in such a great way, even though it can be annoying for those around him. Another thing, it seems that they are trying to make Constance and Pendergast a couple. There are hints about that, one scene partially in this book and I just feel no.

Alright, now that is off my chest. This little town Exmouth is close to Salem, and you know what that means...witches! Or is it? Perhaps that is just a red herring. Also, there is a ship that was lost over a hundred years ago. What happened to the ship. And, what the hell happened to all the wine?

And the ending, of course, it ends with a cliffhanger and it seems that someone is back. Someone bad and I can only think of one person, but how can that be?

I hope Corrie Swanson is back in the next book *puppy eyes*...

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

#BookReview Circling the Sun by Paula McLain @randomhouse

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature’s delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships.

Beryl forges her own path as a horse trainer, and her uncommon style attracts the eye of the Happy Valley set, a decadent, bohemian community of European expats who also live and love by their own set of rules. But it’s the ruggedly charismatic Denys Finch Hatton who ultimately helps Beryl navigate the uncharted territory of her own heart. The intensity of their love reveals Beryl’s truest self and her fate: to fly.

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Paula McLain has painted a vivid picture of this strong wild girl who grows up to be just a strong wild woman who defied the social norms for women at the time. She knew the writer Karen Blixen; both women loved Danys Finch Hatton. She was a great racehorse trainer and she loved to fly.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely. I love the movie Out of Africa and it was a great pleasure to read about Beryl Markham and get another insight into the lives of Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton and, of course, get an insight on Beryl herself. In many ways she just had a very tough life, abandoned by her mother and later on her father and her two marriages that were portraited in the book were both disastrous. And, the love of her life was she sharing with another woman and their time together was cut short.

I had a hard time reading the ending because I knew how it would end for her and Denys. That's the negative thing about reading a book about real people. You know how it all will end. Also, it was a bit hard to read about her and Denys because in my mind he and Karen have always been a couple since the first time I saw Out of Africa. I loved Beryl and Denys together, but at the same time, I felt that they were betraying Karen. It's tough sometimes to read books.

I received this copy from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review! Thank you!

#BookReview Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante by Susan Elia MacNeal @SusanMacNeal @randomhouse

Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante by Susan Elia MacNeal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this latest riveting mystery from New York Times bestselling author Susan Elia MacNeal, England’s most daring spy, Maggie Hope, travels across the pond to America, where a looming scandal poses a grave threat to the White House and the Allied cause.

December 1941. Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C., along with special agent Maggie Hope. Posing as his typist, she is accompanying the prime minister as he meets with President Roosevelt to negotiate the United States’ entry into World War II. When one of the First Lady’s aides is mysteriously murdered, Maggie is quickly drawn into Mrs. Roosevelt’s inner circle—as ER herself is implicated in the crime. Maggie knows she must keep the investigation quiet, so she employs her unparalleled skills at code breaking and espionage to figure out who would target Mrs. Roosevelt, and why. What Maggie uncovers is a shocking conspiracy that could jeopardize American support for the war and leave the fate of the world hanging dangerously in the balance.

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I read the first book in this series not so long ago and it was a good start of the series. I came to like Maggie Hope and her struggle to find her place as an American woman in Britain during the war. Well, she was born in Britain, but she grew up in America so her roots may be British, but in Britain she is American. And now she is back home and she is thrilled to be back even though it's a devastating action that has brought them to America. The attack on Pearl Harbor has just occurred and now it seems that America will finally also join the war. Also, a young black man is accused of killing a white man and is sentenced to death and Eleanor Roosevelt is trying to persuade her husband to interfere with it, to persuade the governor to stop it. I found this part of the story both sad and horrifying as always when a man is not tried fairly by a jury. But this is the 40s America.

Reading this book made me think of something I read or heard somewhere that on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked Winston Churchill wrote in his diary “we have won”! Because now he knew that America would join the war. Anyway, I was thrilled to be approved for this book since I a) like this series and I'm planning on reading the two between this one and the first and b) I like FDR very much.

Susan Elia MacNeal has done a tremendous good work in writing a novel about the meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. Also, I came to like Eleanor Roosevelt quite much in this book. There was a moment in the book, a very intense moment when I really was drawn into the story and I wasn't quite sure but hoped that it would end well and that was when Maggie traveled to the prison to the execution. This really made me think of “The Green Mile”. The electric chair is truly an awful invention. How it all ended? Well, you have to read it yourself!

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!

#BookReview Beastly Bones by William Ritter @algonquinyr @willothewords

Beastly Bones by William Ritter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've found very little about private detective R. F. Jackaby to be standard in the time I've known him. Working as his assistant tends to call for a somewhat flexible relationship with reality . . .

In 1892, New Fiddleham, New England, things are never quite what they seem, especially when Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, are called upon to investigate the supernatural. First, members of a particularly vicious species of shape-shifters disguise themselves as a litter of kittens. A day later, their owner is found murdered, with a single mysterious puncture wound to her neck. Then, in nearby Gad's Valley, dinosaur bones from a recent dig go missing, and an unidentifiable beast attacks animals and people, leaving their mangled bodies behind. Policeman Charlie Cane, exiled from New Fiddleham to the valley, calls on Abigail for help, and soon Abigail and Jackaby are on the hunt for a thief, a monster, and a murderer. 

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I was lucky enough to be granted an ARC of Beastly Bones from NetGalley and I read Jackaby just a couple of days before I read Beastly Bones and that was a wise decision since the story in this book picks up right where we left Abigail and Jackaby in the last book; A woman with an ailing cat. Well, ailing is probably the wrong word, the cat is slowly turning into a fish. But Abigail and Jackaby have a bigger fish to fry than then the catfish because dinosaur bones from a recent dig has gone missing and they together with exiled police detective Charlie Cane/Barker must find the missing bones. But odd things are happening at the site and something is attacking both animals and people.

This sequel to Jackaby was a real treat. I liked Jackaby very much, but the story was more interesting in this one. We have already got to know Abigail, Jackaby, Charlie, Jenny and Marlowe in the first book so instead of getting to know the characters as one does in the first book we get into action from page one. Of course, we get to know new characters along the way in this book like Hank Hudson a skilled trapper and Nellie Fuller a reporter, but I feel that the story in this one is better since it is more multilayered. We have the obvious bone theft, but there is a mysterious man that seems to be behind it and also the mystery of Jenny and her murder. Not everything gets answered in this book and the book ends with a cliffhanger. But that is alright, it only makes me more eager to read the next book. On a side note, there is some romance in this book, well some flirting between Abigail and Charlie, but that is just fine. It's not rushed in, it is not instalov, it's sweet, in a good way.

When it comes to YA is this the best I have read in a long while and I'm looking forward to reading more books in this series.

I received this copy from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review!

#BookReview The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne @GrandCentralPub

The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of Sarah's daughters died. But can she be sure which one?
A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcroft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives.

But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity--that she, in fact, is Lydia--their world comes crashing down once again.

As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, they are forced to confront what really happened on that fateful day.

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This is a truly intense psychological thriller; I was enthralled with the story from the beginning to the end and giving this book five stars was a very easy decision.

Angus and Sarah are trying really hard to pull their lives together and then having Kirstie claim that she is Lydia, that the daughter they thought had died was alive and vice-versa that is really making their life a hell in their new home and putting their already fragile marriage to the test.

What really happened the day their daughter died? They can't tell their daughter apart and the twins were wearing the same kind of clothing on the day one of them died.

This is a real page-turner, never a dull moment and the ending of the book, well I was afraid that S.K. Tremayne wouldn't be able to write a satisfying ending, but he did. This is without one of the best thrillers I have ever read and I recommended it strongly to anyone that likes psychological thrillers.

On a side note; I found out the real identity of S.K. Tremayne when I was writing this review. I actually though S.K. Tremayne was a woman, but it's Tom Knox, and he usually writes archaeological and religious thrillers. So, while I wait for S.K. Tremayne to publish a new book can I read Tom Knox's books and I love archaeological thrillers so it's a win-win.

I received this copy from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review!