Friday, December 29, 2023
Holiday Quick Reviews
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Top Ten Tuesday: Recent Additions to Henry's Bookshelves
Friday, December 22, 2023
Holiday Quick Reviews
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Can't-Wait Wednesday: Diva
The story of the scandalous love affair between the most celebrated opera singer of all time and one of the richest men in the world
In the glittering and ruthlessly competitive world of opera, Maria Callas was known simply as la divina: the divine one. With her glorious voice, instinctive flair for the dramatic, and striking beauty, she was the toast of the grandest opera houses in the world. But her fame was hard won: Raised in Nazi-occupied Greece by a mother who mercilessly exploited her golden voice, she learned early in life to protect herself from those who would use her for their own ends.
When she met the fabulously rich Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, for the first time in her life, she believed she’d found someone who saw the woman within the legendary soprano. She fell desperately in love. He introduced her to a life of unbelievable luxury, showering her with jewels and sojourns in the most fashionable international watering holes with celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
And then suddenly, it was over. The international press announced that Aristotle Onassis would marry the most famous woman in the world, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, leaving Maria to pick up the pieces.
In this remarkable novel, Daisy Goodwin brings to life a woman whose extraordinary talent, unremitting drive, and natural chic made her a legend. But it was only in confronting the heartbreak of losing the man she loved that Maria Callas found her true voice and went on to triumph. - from Goodreads
Monday, December 18, 2023
Michele's Monday Picks #36
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands
By Heather Fawcett
Expected Publication: January 16, 2024
From Goodreads:
When mysterious
faeries from other realms appear at her university, curmudgeonly
professor Emily Wilde must uncover their secrets before it’s too
late in this heartwarming, enchanting second installment of the Emily
Wilde series.
Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of
faerie folklore—she just wrote the world’s first comprehensive of
encylopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the
Hidden Folk on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar
and former rival, Wendell Bambleby.
Because Bambleby
is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on
the run from his murderous mother, and in search of a door back to
his realm. So despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not
ready to accept his proposal of Loving one of the Fair Folk comes
with secrets and danger.
And she also has a new
project to focus a map of the realms of faerie. While she is
preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when
assassins sent by Bambleby’s mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby
and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque
Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to
Bambley’s realm, and the key to freeing him from his family’s
dark plans.
But with new relationships for the
prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest
and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie
doors, and of her own heart.
I really enjoyed the first book in this series - do you think you’ll be picking this one up?
Friday, December 15, 2023
How Did My 2023 Preorders Pan Out?
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Top Ten Tuesday: My Winter TBR
Friday, December 8, 2023
Holiday Quick Reviews
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Guest Post - Indie Bookstore Spotlight: The Ripped Bodice
My husband and I recently were in Brooklyn for a family wedding and of course I had to make a stop at the newest location of The Ripped Bodice. This famous romance-centric bookstore already has a California location, but just this summer opened a store in NYC. We were there on a Sunday morning so the neighborhood was very quiet, but I could see this being a popular destination and neighborhood at any other time.
The store is bright and fresh and so pretty. The different romance genres all have their own sections (historical, contemporary, paranormal, etc.). They even have a shelf of author signed books which I’m sure gets populated after one of their many author events. For a small store, it had a huge selection – there was even an area in the back for some non-romance picks.
My husband treated me to two of my most loved Ali Hazelwood books!
If you are ever in Brooklyn, I would highly recommend checking out The Ripped Bodice!
Do you have a favorite indie bookstore?
Monday, December 4, 2023
Michele's Monday Picks #35
By Rachel Hawkins
Expected Publication: January 9, 2024
From Goodreads:
When Ruby
McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only
North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious.
The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times
over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her
family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath
of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the
complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son,
Camden.
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to
do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the
surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling
into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying
Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.
Ten
years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the
wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family
fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its
rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so
quick to leave in the first place.
Jules, however, has
other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged
family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she
is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to
have.
But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than
they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden,
questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any
truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl?
What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under
mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first
place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far
more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of
family stretch far beyond the grave.
Rachel Hawkins’ Gothic thrillers are so good and the cover is fantastic - do you think you’ll be picking this one up?
Friday, December 1, 2023
Month in Review: November 2023
The Christmas Dress // One Christmas Morning // The Woman They Could Not Silence // Faking Christmas