Saturday, January 31, 2015

Book Review: QUEEN HEREAFTER by Susan Fraser King

Margaret became Queen of Scotland after her family had been ship wrecked on the coast of Scotland; her family had been seeking refuge from England.  Her brother Edgar of England had been out lawed by their uncle after their father’s sudden death. They had secured sanctuary through Margaret’s marriage to the warrior King Malcolm Canmore of Scotland. Her mother, brother and sisters lived with her at the evolving Scottish court. Malcolm and Scotland needed to grow to become more of a stately country to be taken more seriously in the political world of their times. Margaret was the virtuous good Queen to modernize the Scottish court.  She was fully devoted to her new husband and home. Her nature was giving almost to a fault Margaret had previously wanted to enter the church but had done her duty and married Malcolm to firmly secure her families place.

Surprisingly Margaret and Malcolm’s marriage ended up being a love match. Margaret was everything that Malcolm was not. She nurtured the cultured good king Malcolm had potential to be. Malcolm reined Margaret in when she starved herself for her beliefs and when she would literally give everything they had to help the needy. Margaret was over zealous when it came to her devotions almost to a fault but Malcolm was ever watching out for her well being because they truly loved each other. Early on in her marriage she had heard it mention of a female bard that excelled at the harp in the north of Scotland. The bard was the granddaughter of the Queen of the North the notorious Lady Macbeth. The latter had been stirring up trouble for Malcolm lately which led to him demanding that Lady Macbeth surrender her grand daughter to Malcolm as a royal prisoner to his changing Scottish court. Plus it was a good way to please his new Queen.

Eva, a Celtic princess was a skilled bard and her specialty was the beautiful harp. Eva begrudgingly befriends the new young queen at first. Their relationship deepened with time as Eva and Margaret grew to know the true person they were. The closeness made Eva regrets her agreement with her willful grandmother. Eva had agreed to spy on the royal family and to gather information about a book that Malcolm was commissioning. The book was set to be Malcolm’s version on the history of the previous ruling Scottish kings that were not just Malcolm’s kin but were Eva’s and Lady Macbeth’s. Lady Macbeth’s motive was plain Eva was to find the book and prevent it from spreading historical lies about Eva’s kin. Caught between her love for the saintly Scottish Queen Margaret and love of her own kin folk Eva can not choose a side until in an ill chosen event leads to Eva’s arrest for trying to kill her best friend in the whole world Margaret. With nowhere to turn for help Eva holds out hope that the queen speak on her behalf because her rash actions might cost her everything including her life.

4/5 Fast paced and a real page-turner, mainly because you never knew what Margaret was going to do next. King beautifully portrayed Margaret as a courageous young queen that passionately cared for the people of Scotland. This was a new time period and setting for me but I would highly recommend this novel to anyone curious about Scottish history.

FTC- this novel was sent to me by the publisher for review.

PG-13 Rating for mild violence and sexual reference.

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S U B S C R I B E ~ T W I T T E R ~ F A C E B O O K ~ I N S T A G R A M ~ G O O G L E +~L I Z Z I E~

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Book Review: THE SHARP HOOK OF LOVE by Sherry Jones

A 12th century version of Romeo and Juliet, Heloise d’ Argenteuil possessed a gifted mind and a pure heart. Raised in a convent her future had been decided long before her mother had died. Her uncle Filbert had fetched her from the convent upon her mother’s death because she was to be educated in Paris by the finest scholars. Heloise was a woman ahead of her times and her uncle thought she was “gifted” for a woman. As she got to know her uncle Cannon Filbert she discovered he was committed to the church only for ambitious reasons and he had developed a violent drinking problem. Filbert spent his nights drinking himself into a stupor while Heloise avoided him at all costs.

At this time Pierre Abelard was head master at the Notre-Dame Cloister School; he had taken the position and turned his back on his inheritance to follow his dream of being a prolific scholar. He was handsome and also possessed a gifted mind that only people like Heloise could banter with. The pair had crossed paths by chance one day yet Heloise’s reputation for her keen intellect and virtue had preceded her. Abelard had heard of her this great woman scholar and he had hoped to cross her path. The pair became instantly smitten with each other. They convinced uncle Filbert to allow Abelard who was considered one of the most brilliant scholars of the time to tutor Heloise.

Heloise quickly found herself falling deeply in love with Abelard. They were like mirrored souls both in intelligence and beauty. Acknowledging their illicit love would be the beginning of a tumultuous love affair that would nearly consume them. They fiercely loved each other yet their lives had been pre-determined long before they had fallen deeply in love. Abelard was sworn to the church and Heloise was promised to the abbey. If their love affair became public knowledge it would be a scandal with dire consequences. Love or religon, this romantically tragic novel will play at your heartstrings. Sherry Jones’ vividly portrayed Heloise and Abelard as France’s own 12th century star crossed lovers.

5/5 Beautifully tragic in all the best ways a book could possibly be. This novel really grabbed me into the story of Heloise and Abelard. Sherry Jones wows with another great historical fiction novel that is just the right mixture of love and loss. I would highly recommend this novel to all historical fiction lovers.

FTC- this novel is part of my personal collection
R-Rating for sexual reference and violence.

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S U B S C R I B E ~ T W I T T E R ~ F A C E B O O K ~ I N S T A G R A M ~ G O O G L E +
~L I Z Z I E~

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Book Review: PRINCE LESTAT by Anne Rice

The vampire Lestat is finally back. This time he has a purpose he just does not know it yet. Picking up in modern times Lestat is still the pitiful self-made outcast.  Loathing himself he has refused to intergrade himself back into his vampire family. In his self-imposed exile Lestat roams the world haunted by the past that he cannot change. While wandering he does a few miraculous things, first he saves a little girl named Rose from utter destruction and becomes her uncle “Lestan”. Second he meets two unique vampires one of very ancient lineage named Seth that is the human son of the dead queen of the damned Akasha. Seth’s newly made vampire partner Dr. Fareed is a genius doctor that has quickly become a valuable asset to the “vampire tribe”. In his medical experiments Fareed has discovered a way to stop the vampire blood in the body long enough to give Margaret new eyes and Flavious a new leg.  With these medical break troughs whirling around the vampire community is on the cusp of a new era not just medically but also socially. The vampire dj Benji has taken notice of this and on his nightly broadcasts he tells all the vampires that  “we are a tribe of one” and every night he begs Lestat to come home and help the tribe. Lestat refuses to do so but Benji’s pleas do not go unheard.

The whole vampire community is still recovering in the wake of the terrible events that Queen Akasha dealt them. At the time no one knew that when she awoke she also woke up many super ancient vampires that had been sleeping for centuries and even some millenniums. As they have been coming to many have found that this mysterious “voice” has been talking to them demanding the destruction of the young vampires all across the world. Some of the ancient ones had fallen victim to incessant demands of the Voice nearly driving them to madness. Lestat has become a great vampire of interest to the Voice and loved to torment him.  The torment of the Voice had been harassing Lestat for quite some time until the burnings of the young ones began. That was Benji’s reason in vigilantly calling Lestat home to the tribe. There is only one way the vampire tribe was going to figure out what this mysterious Voice wants. They would all have to come together to and use all of their strength to find out where this voice is coming from. Only then will they discover its reasons for wanting to destroy the young ones.  The Voice must be stopped at all costs before it kills them all.

5/5 I loved this wonderful addition to the Vampire Chronicles because it almost brings every single one of the vampire characters together. The only part of this novel that I did not like was that Anne left out Tarquin Blackwood and Mona Mayfair.  The only reason it upset me that there was no mention of them was because the last two previous novels in the series were completely devoted to Lestat’s adventures with Mona and Quinn in New Orleans. I was disappointed because I felt that if everyone was coming together to be a tribe then that would include Mona and Quinn. On a really positive note there was a new feature I really found useful that none of the previous novels had and at the very end of the novel there is a full character index and an “informal” guide to the whole series. I found both of these features really helpful in jogging my memory on the previous novels events and it really helped in keeping track of all the newly awaken vampires. I would not recommend this novel as a stand-alone novel because it literally pulls the previous twelve novels together. If you really want to read this novel with out reading all twelve other novels I would recommend at least reading “The Queen of the Damned” because then you will at least get the major points in the back history.

R ~ Rating for sexual references and graphic violence

FTC ~ this novel is from my personal collection. I received no compensation for this review and it is reflective of my honest opinion of this novel.

A M A Z O N

STAY CONNECTED WITH ME: 
~L I Z Z I E~

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Book Review: OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon

Claire Randall and her husband Frank took a well-deserved second honeymoon to Scotland to celebrate their reunion. The couple had been separated for a long period of time during their years of service to the British military during WWII. Claire served as a combat nurse and Frank was fully invested in the ultra exclusive MI-6. Both had survived the war but had sacrificed the first years of their marriage to the cause. Scotland was the perfect place for a bit of rest and relaxation while Frank the once historian researched his family genealogy.

They both became quickly immersed in the quiet ways of Scottish life. Seeing all of the sights the couple had decided to venture to Craigh Na Dun, which was similar to the mysterious Stonehenge we know today. Caught by surprise they witness a secretive pagan like celebration dance that was performed around the stones by some of the local village women. Hiding from the women’s site they knew they had witness something they should not have been privy to and they went dashing off before they were discovered. Claire decided to go back the next day and investigate the stones further.

Leaving Frank behind to work on his genealogy of his ancestor Black Jack Randall, Claire decided to head to the stones alone. Standing in front of the stones Claire felt this irresistible urge to touch them as she had seen the village women do the day before.  Once her hands were upon the stones this awful sound of buzzing bee’s overwhelmed her and she was immersed in complete darkness. When she came to after touching the stones she found she was still at the stones and had no idea where the sound or darkness had come from. Deciding to venture from the stones Claire found her surroundings vaguely familiar but not exactly the same and the car was gone. Deciding to walk back to the village Claire found herself in the woods with no clue as to what had transpired. As bad luck would have it the first person she encountered was a man dressed in a military red coat and once her eyes locked on his face she instantly called for her husband Frank. After a violent introduction this man that had the same face as her husband stated his name was not Frank but instead Jonathan Randall, captain of the English Dragoons. With her mind reeling from fighting off an unexpected attack from Jonathan Randall, Claire did what her instincts told her to do and she ran. Unfortunately when she took off from Randall she ran straight into a group of rough Scottish highlanders. Having no choice in matters the highlanders scooped her up and fled from the pursuing Randall.

Now a captive of the highlander men Claire offers her medical service to the men’s obvious injuries. One of the young men in the group was a handsome man that the others called Jamie. He suffered from a dislocated shoulder, which she quickly popped back into place and wrapped up. Her skills were noted by the highlanders and decided she had valuable skills that would be highly useful back at home because they had not had a healer for some time and were in desperate need of one. The highlanders really had no other option than to take her with them because they could not just let her go they knew she was English and could very likely be a covert spy sent to watch the highlanders.  Claire was now a liability that had to be watched at all costs.

Castle Leoch eventually loomed ahead and Claire was in the worst-case scenario. She was now a captive of the Mackenzie clan and their laird Colum and his brother Dougal. With her mind still reeling from being sucked into the stones, not know when or where she was, she began to search for answers. It was a tremendous shock to discover the date it was not 1946 anymore instead the year was 1743! Shocked to the core Claire had no other option than to try and fit in at castle Leoch and bide her time until she could escape back to the stones. She must find a way back to her native 1940’s and her husband Frank. Home was always her first thought in her mind but with time it seemed to fade and she found her heart began to grow towards her highlander patient Jamie. Her heart began to open to Jamie and after a turn of awful events Claire and the band of highlanders were on the run from the evil forces of Captain Randall. Still trying to find her way back to the stones Claire was forced into a marriage that would protect her from Randall. Lucky for her it was Jamie that had offered his protection to her but they both were on the run from Randall and only time would tell if they could escape the evil Dragoons. In her heart Claire still wanted to go home to Frank but with a new love budding between Jamie and her she found she was being pulled between two lives and eventually she would have to choose one over the other.

4/5 Loved it and I know I say that about every novel I read but it is honestly how I feel. I am starting to think that I either loved it or hated it, there really is not much in-between for me.  Can I just say that I ended up picking this novel up because I watched the first part of season one of Outlander on Starz and Jamie is so smoking hot! Before the TV series I have to admit I was really intimidated by this series because there are a ton of books in it and for a Outlander newbie it is kind of scary to see eight plus novels at over 700 pages a piece but I am glad I finally got into it and it was more than worth it. I would highly recommend this novel to every historical and romance reader because it is a unique story line and is really romantic.

R ~ Rating for violence and graphic sexual references.

FTC ~ This novel is from my personal collection. I received no compensation for this review and it is reflective of my honest opinion of this novel.

A M A Z O N

STAY CONNECTED WITH ME: 
~L I Z Z I E~

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Top Reads of 2014

Hey everyone I decided to do my top reads of 2014 a little different this year because my blog has changed a bit lately. As you can see below I made a youtube video for all of you. I hope that you all get the chance to check out my latest video embedded below. I also made a list of the books I picked with links to the synopsis on Goodreads, my review on the novel, and where to buy it on Amazon. I hope you all had a lovely holiday and happy new year, and HAPPY READINGS!

In no particular order:
 A Triple Knot by Emma Campion
synopsis
my review
Amazon
 Leonardo's Swans by Karen Essex
synopsis
my review
Amazon
 The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas
synopsis
my review
Amazon
 Light on Lucrezia by Jean Plaidy
synopsis
my review
Amazon
 Blood and Gold by Anne Rice
synopsis
my review
Amazon
STAY CONNECTED WITH ME: 
~L I Z Z I E~
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