Book Review: Hohenstein by Didi

Make sure to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of this post!

Book:  HOHENSTEIN

Author: Didi Lawson
Pages: 342
Format:  Paperback, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited
Publisher:  Xchyler Publishing
Book Source:  publisher team member
Category:  Historical Romance
Style: Sweet romance in historical setting reflecting the social mores of the early 20th century.

Synopsis:  

Anything but a typical aristocrat, young Baroness Marie-Louise is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and get to work, especially when it comes to saving her ancestral estate. Determined to shake loose the shackles of propriety and gain the warm family life her upbringing denied her, she has vowed to marry a man of lower rank. Blue-bloods need not apply.

But when she is forced to turn to a childhood friend for assistance, the handsome, debonair count may prove a temptation impossible to resist. Marie-Louise soon finds herself caught between the comfort of a middle-class doctor and the passion of a nobleman, with the future of her childhood home at stake.

Book Review: Hearts That Survive: A Novel of the Titanic by Yvonne Lehman

Book:  Hearts That Survive: A Novel of the Titanic

Author:  Yvonne Lehman
Pages:   432
Format:  Paperback, Kindle
Publisher:  Abingdon Press (March 2012)
Book Source:  Publisher
Category:  Historical Fiction
Style:  Conversational prose, engaging, original plot

Synopsis from GoodReads:

On April 15, 1912, Lydia Beaumont is on her way to a new life with a boundless hope in love and faith. Her new friendship with Caroline Chadwick is bonded even more as they plan Lydia 's wedding on board the grandest ship ever built. Then both women suffer tragic losses when the unsinkable Titanic goes down. Can each survive the scars the disaster left on their lives? . . . more

My Take: 

Although the beginning starts off like a typical Titanic novel, the story morphs into a compelling tale of regrets, hiding life-changing secrets, and love.

The story begins with Lydia Beaumont, wealthy heiress to a railroad company. She is accompanied on this trip by Craven Dowd, president of her father's company, and John Ancell, poet and maker of toy trains. The first, her unsaid intended; the second, her secret love. Craven is calm, cool, collected, and pretty much Lydia's 'keeper'.

Due to an unplanned moment of passion, Lydia finds herself pregnant. She tells John, who truly loves her and proposes marriage. They decide to get married on the Titanic—truly a wedding fit for a princess. Not knowing of the child, Craven reluctantly agrees to support the marriage, knowing that Lydia's father would never agree.

Saturday Sites: Regency Research

As any blogger knows, posting every day keeps your readers returning to keep up to date.  Blogger's wonderful little statistics charts and graphs serve as a very visible reminder of the visits you're gaining or losing, and the compulsion overtakes one to keep that trend always moving upward.

Unfortunately, to blog every day one have something to write about.  Many bloggers have specific subjects for specific days, such as Monday Mysteries or the Sizzling Kiss.  The only one I have found so far that I've embraced is Flash Fiction Friday which I picked up from my friend, Laura Besley's blog.  (Look for a guest post from her on September 4th).

Saturdays are particularly tricky for me (as I'm sure they are for bloggers and readers alike), but I've finally hit upon a solution:  Saturday Sites.  In this column, I hope to share with you the sites and blogs I have discovered this week, hopefully all with a common thread.  First up:

 Regency Research

English Historical Fiction Authors 

This very useful open Facebook group encourages participation, which the members do with gusto.  Conversations abound, as does the information shared.

Many scholars of the genre participate, so this group proves an excellent resource for  authors focused on any British era.  I have had my questions immediately answers, solutions to my quandaries solved, and friendly advice given.  This group is a treasure trove for historical writers.

They also share information about general writing, sales, dealing with difficulties, etc., and provided excellent support to one another.  The strength and camaraderie of this group recently put a pirating website out of business.

Book Giveaway: A Bride Opens Shop by Keli Gwyn

Head on over to Christian Book Reviews for Melanie's interview of Keli Gwyn about her book A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California.  (How's that for a name?)

Here's the Synopsis from GoodReads:

An ever-resourceful widow, Elenora Watkins arrives in El Dorado ready to go into partnership with Miles Rutledge. When he refuses, Elenora becomes the competition across the street. Is this town big enough for the two of them? Miles can’t help but stick his well-polished boot in his mouth whenever he comes face-to-face with Elenora. Can he find a way to win her heart while destroying her business? Miles’s mother, Maude, is bent on Elenora becoming her new daughter-in-law while Elenora’s daughter, Tildy, thinks Miles would make a perfect papa. How far will these meddlers go to unite this enterprising pair?

Note to Self: Face the Consequences

"The good ended happily and the bad ended unhappily. That is what fiction means." —Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

It happened like this:  my current work in progress, My Father's Son, has a strong backdrop of true history, but I'm not certain if it can be classified as historical fiction.  I haven't taken a real person and true circumstances and humanized them out of the history books as did MM Bennetts in Of Honest Fame, or, created characters to orbit around historical figures as in Georgette Heyer's An Infamous Army.

Rather, I've come up with my own cast of characters caught up in sometimes fictional events (a brigade of black-ops attempting to broker a treaty with French Royalists), but real events in others (the Vienna conference, Napoleon's 100 days, the battle of Waterloo).  They stumble over, evade or work with Fouche, Talleyrand, Metternich, Castlereagh and Wellington.  Does that still qualify as historical fiction?  Or, would it be more accurate to call it historical romance?

And, then there's this whole other genre that I've been hearing more and more about:  Regency romance—"Regency" referring to the era when the Prince of Wales ruled in the stead of Mad King George, his father, from 1811 to 1820.  My series of stories centers in England, begins in 1809 and stretches out from there.  Would it be accurate to classify My Father's Son as a Regency romance?  Danged if I know.

Book Review: Trail of Storms by Marsha Ward

Book: Trail of Storms
Author: Marsha Ward
Pages: 264
Format: Paperback/Kindle
Publisher: iUniverse (March 2009)
Book Source: Provided by Author
Category: Western
Style: Compelling, some violence, rare profanity

Synopsis from GoodReads:

After her sister suffers a brutal attack, Jessie Bingham and her family flee post-Civil War Virginia and endure a perilous trek to New Mexico Territory. When she hears her former sweetheart, James Owen, has taken a wife, Jessie accepts Ned Heizer's marriage proposal on the condition they wait until journey's end to wed. But then Jessie encounters James again . . . read more . . .

Spoiler Disclaimer: Unlike Ride to Raton in relation to The Man From Shenandoah, it is very difficult to review Trail of Storms without risking the revelation of key plot developments of Road to Raton. I shall do my utmost, but I can't guarantee anything. If you have not read Road to Raton, be forewarned.

My Take:

Trail of Storms is Book 3 of The Owen Family Saga.  Six years elapsed between the publishing of volumes 2 and 3, but Ms. Ward picks right up from where she left off in the powerful ending of Ride to Raton.  However, she leaves the James Owen, et al, in Colorado territory and whisks us back to the Shenandoah Valley  where the left-behind Bingham family is suffering their own misfortunes.  The Yankee occupiers continue to oppress the little town of Mount Jackson, rapscallions and scallywags carry on an unchecked reign of terror.

Book Review: Ride to Raton by Marsha Ward

Book:  Ride to Raton
Author: Marsha Ward
Pages: 222
Format: Paperback, Kindle/ebook
Publisher: iUniverse (November 2003)
Book Source: Provided by Author
Category: Historical Fiction, Western
Style: Character-driven, action, some violence

Synopsis from GoodReads:

After losing the heart of his fiancee to his brother, James Owen leaves home to make a new life for himself. The turbulent world of post-Civil War Colorado Territory is fraught with danger and prejudice that increase his bitter loneliness as personal setbacks threaten to break him. Then James's journey brings him into contact with another wayfarer, beautiful young Amparo Garces, who has come from Santa Fe to Colorado to marry a stranger. read more . . . 

My Take:

The second installment of The Owen Family Saga, Ride to Raton picks up where The Man From Shenandoah left off. It follows jilted James Owen as he storms away from the wedding of his brother and Ellen, the women to whom he had been betrothed, albeit an arrangement between parents. Not quite out of his teens, hostile and belligerent James shakes the dust from his feet as he leaves his family behind him.

His professed intent the gold fields north of Denver, James narrowly escapes not only death and marriage in Pueblo, scarcely a day's ride from his home. He then heads south in search of work and is again waylaid by a corpse and a promise. He finds one put upon young Latina patiently awaiting the opportunity to sacrifice herself to an arranged marriage, standing in the way of fulfillment of that vow.

Book Giveaway: Tracy Higley

Christian Bookshelf Reviews is sponsoring another book giveaway by author Tracy Higley.  Well-traveled and -researched, Tracy writes Christian historical fiction/romance.

Shadow of Colossus, City of the Dead, and Guardian of the Flame are all novels in a series inspired by the seven wonders of the ancient world, which I think is a pretty original concept.  Right now, she's working on a novel set in Ephesus, with Christians struggling in a city of pagans, the Apostle Paul to lead them, and, of course, romance.

I think I am going to enjoy getting to know this author. 

—A Chaotic Mind

Book Review: These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner

Book:  These Is My Words

Author:  Nancy E. Turner

Pages:  416

Format: Hardcover, paperback, audio cassette, Kindle/ebook

Publisher:  Harper Perennial (April 2008)
Book Source:  Private Loan

Category:  Historical Fiction

Style:  Gripping action, compelling romance & desperate heartbreak

“My life feels like a book left out on the porch, and the wind blows the pages faster and faster, turning always toward a new chapter faster than I can stop to read it.” ― Nancy E. Turner, These Is My Words

My friend, Ginger, showed up on my porch the other day with this book and Shanghai Girls by Lisa See in hand.  "You need to read this," she announced unceremoniously as she shoved These Is My Words at me.  "We're doing it for book club."  Shanghai Girls was an afterthought.  I could read it and pass it on to whomever wanted it.  However, These Is My Words she wants back.  I know because she wrote her name in it. 

The last book I borrowed from Ginger was Catching Fire, the second of the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.  I had picked up The Hunger Games at Sam's Club on the cheap to see what the fuss was about, finished it in the middle of the night, and was desperate to get my hands on the next installment.  As always, she came through for me.

Book Review: Paradise Unveiled by Joan Day Brady

Book:  Paradise Unveiled
Author:  Joan Day Brady
Pages:  304
Publisher:  American Book Publishing (September 2011)
Book Source:  Independent Purchase
Category:  Historical Romance
Style:  Page-turner

This, my friends, is my aunt, Joan Day Brady.  Okay, technically, she is not my aunt, but she is my mom's close-as-sisters friend since they were teenagers.  So, she's always been my Aunt Joanie.

Joan Brady is my hero, and not only because she anchors so many of my warm recollections of fun and family.  Joan is a do-er—of lots of things, but, specifically, in 2006 Cedar Fort Publishing released her cookbook, Daily Meal Planner.  It's terrific, chock full of good ideas, and bespeaks all the homey wisdom and common sense I have come to identify with her.

Joan is somewhere in the vicinity of her 80th birthday (a year or two shy, I think).   Last year (2011), she published her first novel, Paradise Unveiled.  I love that at a time of life when so many consider their adventures over and done, Joan has seized the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream.  Forget about a bucket list.  How about an onward and upward list?