By The Book

Top 10 Tuesday — Destination Titles

Happy Tuesday! Today’s TTT prompt is Destination Titles (books with the names of places in their titles). I didn’t anticipate how quickly I could come up with 10 books! My list includes books with cities in the title. The cover art reps the cities as well. Take a close look at A Shadow in Moscow‘s cover! I have a variety of genres and time periods represented — I hope you find one to love!

For more virtual travel, check out That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Destination Titles

The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay

The Cairo Curse by Pepper Basham

Embers in The London Sky by Sarah Sundin

The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton

The Librarian of Saint-Malo by Mario Escobar

Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

The Paris Betrayal by James Hannibal

A Shadow in Moscow by Katherine Reay

Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan

The Warsaw Sisters by Amanda Barratt

Tags: Amanda Barratt, Chanel Cleeton, Hazel Gaynor, Heather Webb, historical fiction, historical romance fiction, James R. Hannibal, Katherine Reay, Mario Escobar, Patti Callahan, Pepper Basham, romantic suspense fiction, Sarah Sundin, suspense fiction

Comments 11 Comments
Categories Top 10 Tuesday

Book Review: Of Gold And Shadows

11 Nov

Michelle Griep does it again! Her newest novel, Of Gold And Shadows, is the perfect choice for fans of historical romance with a good dose of the mysterious. I loved the Victorian-era setting with a nod towards Charles Dickens. Find out more below.

The shadows hold secrets darker than they ever imagined. . . .

In 1888 Victorian England, Ami Dalton navigates a clandestine dual life. By day, she strives to establish herself as a respected Egyptologist, overcoming the gender biases that permeate academia. But with a heart for saving black-market artifacts from falling into the wrong hands, she is most often disguised as her alter ego, the Shadow Broker.

After eight years in India, Oxford’s most eligible bachelor, Edmund Price, has come out of the shadows to run for Parliament and is in search of an Egyptologist to value a newly acquired collection. Expecting a renowned Oxford professor, Edmund instead finds himself entangled with Ami, the professor’s determined daughter. As they delve into the treasures, their connection deepens, but trouble emerges when a golden griffin–rumored to bear the curse of Amentuk–surfaces, and they’re left to wonder if the curse really is at play, or if something more nefarious is hiding among the shadows . . . .

Michelle Griep has been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. She seeks to glorify God in all that she writes–except for that graffiti phase she went through as a teenager. She resides in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, where she teaches history and writing classes for a local high school co-op. An Anglophile at heart, she runs away to England every chance she gets, under the guise of research. Really, though, she’s eating excessive amounts of scones while rambling around a castle. Michelle is a member of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) and MCWG (Minnesota Christian Writers Guild).

My Impressions:

Of Gold And Shadows was the perfect choice for the longer nights of Autumn. Atmospheric in its setting, this novel’s nod to Victorian England includes the fascination with all things Egyptian and Charles Dickens. Ami Dalton is an aspiring Egyptologist set on proving that women can have expertise in the area of archeology. She teams up with the much sought after Edmund Price as she values his large haul of antiquities. Ancient curses, political machinations, scheming partners, and a thoroughly despicable villain combine to make this an intriguing and fun read. But it is Ami and Edmund’s immediate chemistry that made me love this book. The opposites attract trope was skillfully handled with these two quirky and lovable characters. The book has a twistingly good mystery as well — I thought I knew what was going on, but boy was I surprised. I liked that a lot!

So if you love a historical novel that immerses you in a long gone time and place, gives you a fun reading romp, and satisfies your desire for an HEA, then Of Gold And Shadows is for you. An added bonus is this is just the first installment in Griep’s Time’s Lost Treasure series. More great reading to come!

Highly Recommended.

Audience: Adults.

(Thanks to Bethany House for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

Tags: historical romance fiction, Michelle Griep

Comments 1 Comment
Categories Book Reviews

Book Review — Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp

9 Nov

My book club (The Interesting Women Book Club 😉 ) chose Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp as our October selection. We all knew (and loved) the musical but had no idea about the real woman behind the story. Michelle Moran did a credible job of unveiling the real Maria — her strengths and her flaws. We all recommend it!

In the 1950s, Oscar Hammerstein is asked to write the lyrics to a musical based on the life of a woman named Maria von Trapp. He’s intrigued to learn that she was once a novice who hoped to live quietly as an Austrian nun before her abbey sent her away to teach a widowed baron’s sickly child. What should have been a ten-month assignment, however, unexpectedly turned into a marriage proposal. And when the family was forced to flee their home to escape the Nazis, it was Maria who instructed them on how to survive using nothing but the power of their voices.

It’s an inspirational story, to be sure, and as half of the famous Rodgers & Hammerstein duo, Hammerstein knows it has big Broadway potential. Yet much of Maria’s life will have to be reinvented for the stage, and with the horrors of war still fresh in people’s minds, Hammerstein can’t let audiences see just how close the von Trapps came to losing their lives.

But when Maria sees the script that is supposedly based on her life, she becomes so incensed that she sets off to confront Hammerstein in person. Told that he’s busy, she is asked to express her concerns to his secretary, Fran, instead. The pair strike up an unlikely friendship as Maria tells Fran about her life, contradicting much of what will eventually appear in The Sound of Music.

A tale of love, loss, and the difficult choices that we are often forced to make, Maria is a powerful reminder that the truth is usually more complicated—and certainly more compelling—than the stories immortalized by Hollywood.

Michelle Moran is the international bestselling author of seven historical novels. A native of southern California, she attended Pomona College, then earned a Masters Degree from the Claremont Graduate University. During her six years as a public high school teacher she used her summers to travel around the world, and it was her experiences as a volunteer on archaeological digs that inspired her to write historical fiction.

In 2012 Michelle was married in India, inspiring her seventh book, Rebel Queen, which is set in the East. Her hobbies include hiking, traveling, and archaeology. She is also fascinated by archaeogenetics, particularly since her children’s heritages are so mixed. But above all these things Michelle is passionate about reading and can often be found with her nose in a good book. A frequent traveler, she currently resides with her husband, son, and daughter in the US. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

My Impressions:

There is much to love about Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp by Michelle Moran. This novel is a revealing look at the real Maria and is handled in a most credible way. Can you believe that Maria was not the saint portrayed in the Rogers and Hammerstein production of The Sound of Music? And there was much more to the love story of the Captain and Maria? Or that the singing children may not have always wanted to perform? To me, this novel presents a much more realistic view of the famous von Trapp family. But don’t worry. While Maria has more than a few warts, she is handled in a compassionate way. She brought some of her troubles on herself, but her early life explains, if not excuses, motives. The book is well-paced and is balanced by the behind the scenes look at the Broadway musical. I found Oscar Hammerstein’s story to be almost as intriguing and certainly as poignant as the title character’s. If you are a loyal fan of The Sound of Music, this book is for you. It is also a book for readers searching for a clean historical/biographical novel.

Highly Recommended.

Audience: Adults.

(I purchased the ebook from Amazon. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

Tags: biography, historical fiction, Michelle Moran

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: A Place to Land

9 Nov

My book club chose a favorite author for our October read. Lauren K. Denton’s books have always generated great conversations, but I think the discussion around A Place to Land was our best yet. It received a unanimous thumbs-up from my group.

Violet Figg and her sister Trudy have lived a quiet life in Sugar Bend, Alabama, since a night forty years ago that stole Trudy’s voice and cemented Violet’s role as her sister’s fierce and loyal protector. Now Trudy spends her days making sculptures from found objects and speaking through notes written on scraps of paper, while Violet runs their art shop, monitors bird activity up and down the water, and tries not to think of the one great love she gave up to keep her sister safe.

Eighteen-year-old Maya knows where everyone else belongs, but she’s been searching for her own place since her grandmother died seven years ago. Moving in and out of strangers’ houses has left her exhausted. After seeing a flyer on a gas station window for a place called Sugar Bend, Maya chooses to follow the strange pull she feels and finds herself on the doorstep of an art shop called Two Sisters.

When a boat rises to the surface of Little River in the middle of the night, the present and no-longer-buried past collide, and the future becomes uncertain for Maya, Violet, and Trudy. As history creeps continuously closer to the present and old secrets come to light, the sisters must decide to face the truth of what happened that night forty years ago, or risk losing each other and those they’ve come to love.

Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren K. Denton now lives with her husband, two daughters, and one fluffy dog in Homewood, just outside Birmingham. In addition to her fiction, she writes a monthly newspaper column about life, relationships, and how funny (and hard) it is to be a parent. On any given day, she’d rather be at the beach with her family and a stack of books.

My Impressions:

How do family secrets determine relationship dynamics? Can you sacrifice without losing your identity? These questions and more were asked in A Place to Land by Lauren K. Denton. Women’s fiction set in Alabama, this is truly a novel of the South. From the description of the river that runs through the town of Sugar Bend, to the small town feel, to the characters, you know you are in the South from the first page — and that’s a good thing. The story revolves around two 60ish women, Violet and Trudy, who are bound together by more than sisterhood. Their stories and those of supporting characters unfold as Denton spins a tale of lost opportunities, regret, and a glimmer of hope for a different future. I loved all the characters, but especially Violet who gave up so much for her younger sister. Should she have? That’s a question for readers to ponder. My book club talked about that a lot. The underlying mystery that is slowly revealed kept us turning the pages. We were all surprised by the ending, and by the time the book was finished we wanted much more. The author gave us clues to how the characters’ journeys would progress, and we loved putting our own spin on it, finishing with a most happily-ever-after.

I loved A Place to Land and recommend it, especially for book clubs.

Recommended.

Great for Book Clubs.

Audience: Adults.

(I read this book through the Kindle Unlimited program. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

Tags: Lauren K. Denton, Southern fiction, women's fiction

Comments 1 Comment
Categories Book Reviews

First Line Friday — Cornered

8 Nov

Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but at this time of year I want to read mystery/suspense. There’s just something about getting dark earlier that makes me want to snuggle in with a great whodunit. Cornered, a 3-novella collection by Lynette Eason, Lynn H. Blackburn, and Natalie Walters fits the bill. It releases soon — November 19 — so I am going to feature the first lines of each story for the next 3 Fridays.

Here’s the first line of In The Dark by Lynette Eason:

The September sun had barely risen over the mountain town of Lake City, North Carolina, casting a warm, golden glow that filtered through Stephanie Cross’s kitchen window.

Prepare for three times the thrills with these nail-biting page-turners from your favorite romantic suspense authors!

In In the Dark by Lynette Eason, accountant Steph Cross is cleaning out a coworker’s desk after her untimely death when she finds cryptic notes that lead her to believe her friend’s car accident was no accident at all. Detective Tate Cooper is determined to help her crack the case before someone else gets hurt. But can he protect the woman who has so quickly laid claim to his heart?

In Downfall by Lynn H. Blackburn, chef Cassie Quinn gets an offer she can’t refuse: to fill in as chef at an exclusive mountain resort. But when the kitchen is destroyed and it becomes clear Cassie is in danger, she’s forced to accept the help of her ex-boyfriend, Detective Donovan Bledsoe, to find the culprit and keep her safe.

In Perilous Obsession by Natalie Walters, teacher Lahela Young becomes the target of someone with a twisted obsession of righting a wrong. The first person she turns to is her good friend Briggs Turner. Briggs may have left his career as a police officer, but he still has the instinct to protect–especially for Lahela.

Tags: Lynette Eason, Lynn H. Blackburn, Natalie Walters, romantic suspense fiction

Categories First Line Friday

Top 10 Tuesday — Fashion Through The Years

5 Nov

Happy Tuesday! I have to admit I was a bit daunted by the TTT prompt — Cover Freebie. I just couldn’t decide which direction to go — Christmas-y Covers, Autumn Vibes, Illustrated Covers — there are just so many choices. So I decided to really reach and go with fashion through the years. I chose these covers because so many different styles of clothing and hairstyles are represented. I think the cover designers did a great job of representing the era in which the books are set. What do you think?

For more cover-love posts, please visit That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Covers with Fashion Through The Years

First Century AD

Bread of Angels by Tessa Afshar

Up From The Dust by Heather Kaufman

The Medieval Period

To Love A Viking by Heather Day Gilbert and Jen Cudmore

Valorous by Tamara Leigh

Tudor England

The Secret Keeper by Sandra Byrd

To Die For by Sandra Byrd

Colonial America

The Lacemaker by Laura Frantz

The Wood’s Edge by Lori Benton

Victorian Era

Of Gold And Shadows by Michelle Griep

The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews

World War II

The Foxhole Victory Tour by Amy Lynn Green

The Warsaw Sisters by Amanda Barratt

Tags: Amanda Barratt, Amy Lynn Green, Heather Day Gilbert, Heather Kaufman, historical fiction, historical romance fiction, Jen Cudmore, Laura Frantz, Lori Benton, Michelle Griep, Mimi Matthews, Sandra Byrd, Tamara Leigh, Tessa Afshar

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Top 10 Tuesday

Spotlight on Historical Mystery — An Ode to Poison

4 Nov

An Ode to Poison JustRead Blog Tour

Welcome to the Blog Tour for An Ode to Poison by Lisa E. Betz, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

About The Book

An Ode to Poison

Title: An Ode to Poison
Series: Livia Aemilia Mysteries #3
Author: Lisa E. Betz
Publisher: Breakthrough Christian Publishing
Release Date: October 21, 2024
Genre: Historical Mystery

What do death by poison, a ruthless senator, and a poetry party have in common?

They combine to draw Livia Aemilia into her most dangerous investigation yet. She must risk setting foot in the house of her worst enemy, Senator Tiberius Gracchus, to investigate the death of his wife. (Don’t worry, she has a plan.)

The victim’s sister is convinced Gracchus is the killer. If so, proving his guilt in Rome’s law courts could put a stop to his nefarious threats forever.

Livia is sure this investigation is God’s plan to protect her family from their malicious enemy. And maybe it will finally convince her husband Avitus that God is real.

The more Livia and Avitus dig, the more it looks like they will finally bring Gracchus to justice. Until another victim is poisoned, and everything they think they know is turned upside down.

Excerpt

Livia was not fond of poetry. Let that be stated from the start. She was not looking forward to tonight’s celebration of stuffy poetry in flowery language recited by snooty women and hosted by a friend of her sister-in-law, Hortensia, the snootiest of them all. Worse yet, their hostess had insisted every attendee pen at least one brief ode or epigram. Even Livia.

“You like flowers,” Hortensia had said when she’d invited Livia. “You can write a nice ode to a rosebush.”

Like that was going to happen.

But Livia had married into this exalted stratum of society and the sooner she got to know these women the better. She couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity to mingle with Hortensia’s peers at a function where no men were present, providing a rare opportunity to observe these women when their husbands weren’t watching.

So Livia had written the stupid poem. It wasn’t an ode to a rosebush. Or a marigold. Or a butterfly. Since poetry was a deadly bore, she’d written an ode to deadly poison (a topic intended to disqualify her from the “honor” of reciting her literary masterpiece).

The hostess gathered the women and started the recital with a brief ode to Erato, the muse whose inspiration the poets relied upon tonight (although Erato might deny responsibility for some of the poems that were offered).

The poetry was as tedious as Livia had anticipated, but Calida supplied an irreverent whispered commentary that had Livia stifling chuckles. Between poems, Salvia and Livia worked out an arrangement for communicating without their husbands’ knowledge. By evening’s end, they had a plan and a budding friendship.

The hours spent composing the deadly ode hadn’t been wasted after all.

PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop

More Books in This Series

About The Author

Lisa E. Betz

Lisa E. Betz is an engineer-turned-mystery-writer, entertaining speaker, and speaking coach. She inspires others to become their best selves, living with authenticity, and purpose, and she infuses her novels with quirky characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her Livia Aemilia Mysteries, set in first-century Rome, have won several awards, including the Golden Scroll Novel of the Year (2021). She and her husband reside outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in her novels. Lisa directs church dramas, hikes the beautiful Pennsylvania woods, eats too much chocolate, and spoils her grandsons.

Connect with Lisa by visiting lisaebetz.com to follow her on social media or subscribe to email newsletter updates.

Tour Giveaway

(1) winner will receive a signed set of all 3 Livia Aemilia Mysteries in paperback!

An Ode to Poison JustRead Tours blog tour giveaway

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight November 4, 2024 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on November 11, 2024. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

Enter Giveaway

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

Tags: historical mystery fiction, Lisa E. Betz

Comments 4 Comments
Categories What's New

November Book Club Pick — The Divine Proverb of Streusel

1 Nov

Is it really November already?! Time to plan for Thanksgiving, shop for Christmas presents, and decorate the house with holiday cheer. I am exhausted just thinking about it. LOL! What to do to escape all the doings of the holidays? Read a good book. This month it looks like my book club picked the perfect one. Take a look at The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold. Let me if you’ve read it and what you thought.

Shaken by her parents’ divorce and discouraged by the growing chasm between herself and her serious boyfriend, Nikki Werner seeks solace at her uncle’s farm in a small Missouri hamlet. She’ll spend the summer there, picking up the pieces of her shattered present so she can plan a better future. But what awaits her at the ancestral farm is a past she barely knows.

Among her late grandmother’s belongings, Nikki finds an old notebook filled with handwritten German recipes and wise sayings pulled from the book of Proverbs. With each recipe she makes, she invites locals to the family table to hear their stories about the town’s history, her ancestors–and her estranged father.

What started as a cathartic way to connect to her heritage soon becomes the means through which she learns how the women before her endured–with the help of their cooking prowess. Nikki realizes how delicious streusel with a healthy dollop of faith can serve as a guide to heal wounds of the past.

Sara Brunsvold creates stories that speak hope, truth, and life. Influenced by humble women of God who find his fingerprints in the everyday, she does the same in her life and her storytelling. Sara’s recognitions include the 2020 ACFW Genesis Award for Contemporary Fiction. She lives with her family near Kansas City, Missouri, where she can often be spotted writing at a park or library. Learn more at http://www.sarabrunsvold.com.

Tags: contemporary fiction, general fiction, Sara Brunsvold, women's fiction

Comments 2 Comments
Categories What We're Reading

First Line Friday — Of Gold And Shadows

1 Nov

Happy Friday! If you like historical fiction with elements of romance and suspense, then you are going to love Michelle Griep‘s latest novel, Of Gold And Shadows. The first line really dropped me into the story! Find out more below.

Cemeteries always smelled of earthworms and damp dog fur, especially after a rain, and Brudge rather liked it that way.

Michelle Griep in her won words: I hear voices. Loud. Incessant. And very real. Which basically gives me two options: choke back massive amounts of Prozac or write fiction. I’ve been writing since I discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. I seek to glorify God in all that I write–except for that graffiti phase I went through as teenager.

Tags: historical mystery fiction, historical romance fiction, Michelle Griep, suspense fiction

Categories First Line Friday