Read for the RIP VII Reading Challenge. In the 12th century, the overly ambitious head of the Shrewsbury Abbey has been on the look out for the relics of a saint he could bring back to the abbey to increase the pilgrims that come there. When he hears the tales of Saint Winifred, who’s buried […]
A Morbid Taste for Bones – Ellis Peters Read More »
Read for the RIP VII Reading Challenge. It’s 1861, and as the Prince Consort is dying, Queen Victoria summons a lawyer named Patrick Fitzgerald to Windsor. Within hours, the Prince Consort is dead, Fitzgerald and his ward Georgiana are run off the road in their carriage, nearly killing Georgiana, and his chambers are ransacked. It
A Flaw in the Blood -Stephanie Barron Read More »
Read for the RIP VII Reading Challenge. The Tenth Gift is one of those books that happens in parallel storylines – one in the present, where someone has found something that links to the storyline in the past. In the case of this book, Julia has just been dumped by her long-time lover (who happens
The Tenth Gift – Jane Johnson Read More »
Jack Carstares has been in exile, ever since the day that his younger brother cheated at cards, and Jack took the blame so Richard wouldn’t lose the girl he loved. Jack’s now come back to England, and taken up highway robbery. Richard has been trying to make up for his actions in the years since,
The Black Moth – Georgette Heyer Read More »
I realize I’m asking a lot when I want my Pride and Prejudice sequels to measure up to Jane Austen’s original. I mean, she is Jane Austen, and she had a very singular way with words. Now, the ones that really bug me are the stories where the author goes for High Drama, in a
Pemberley – Emma Tennant Read More »
Sir Nicholas Beauvallet, one of the favorite knights of Queen Elizabeth I, meets the lovely Dona Dominica de Rada y Sylva when he raids the ship carrying her and her father back from the New World to Spain. On a whim, he brings the two back to Spain, and vows that he will be back
Beauvallet – Georgette Heyer Read More »
I like historical fiction. I’m fully willing to admit that much historical fiction takes a somewhat rosy view of the past, and there’s quite a bit out there that glosses over some of the more unpleasant (to modern eyes at least) aspects of cultures in the past. The Tiger in the Well pretty much embraces
The Tiger in the Well – Philip Pullman Read More »
Frederica Merriville has charge of her younger sister and brothers after her parents have died, and so she decides to bring them all to London for a season. Her main aim is to see her sister Charis advantageously married, because Charis is a sweet, beautiful girl, who Frederica thinks is wasted on the country. The
Frederica – Georgette Heyer Read More »
Meggy grew up on her mother’s tavern outside of Elizabethan-era London, until one day, her father sends for her. Her mother is more than happy to send her away, as Meggy is crippled- she can only walk with crutches. So off she goes to London, where she finds that her father is an alchemist. He’s
Alchemy and Meggy Swann – Karen Cushman Read More »
In this second book of the Sally Lockhart mysteries, Sally is now settled into life in London. While she works with the photography studio that she founded with Fred and his uncle, she’s also struck out on her own, and does financial advising, mostly for other women. When one of those women comes to her
The Shadow in the North – Philip Pullman Read More »