The Siege Winter

I was very sad to learn when I picked up this book at the library that one of the authors, Ariana Franklin, is dead. I thoroughly enjoyed her Mistress of the Art of Death series, and will be sorry not to be able to read more of them. But her daughter Samantha Norman finishes this novel of 12th century England that Ariana began, and between the two of them they wrote one heck of a novel.

Told by an Abbot on his deathbed at the end of the 12th century, this is the tale of the civil war in the 1140s between King Stephen and the Empress Mathilda, rivals for the throne. But more importantly it's the story of two very strong females: Emma, the 11-year-old girl who in order to save her family, sacrifices herself to an evil monk and his band of mercenaries; and Maud, the 15-year-old chatelaine of an important castle that both Stephen and Mathilda would lay claim to.

Maud and Emma (now called Penda) eventually come to be together, but not before Penda has taken up with the honorable mercenary Gwil, who teaches her to use a bow with deadly precision, and not before Maud has found herself married to the nasty Sir John, who holds her castle for King Stephen. Then something happens to Sir John, and Empress Mathilda comes along, and well, that's where the siege in the title comes into play.

This is a wonderful historical novel, and I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it.

The Siege Winter

Lord John and the Private Matter

If you are an Outlander fan, then you will probably like this novel. Lord John is Lord John Grey of the Outlander series, and this novel started as a short story but apparently developed into a normal-sized novel of fewer than 400 pages (those of you who read Diana Gabaldon know that for her, that IS a short story).

The action of this story takes place during the time after Culloden, after Claire has gone back to the present-day. Jamie Fraser is only mentioned in Lord John's mind, he is not a part of the story. This story is really a mystery, one that Lord John must solve. When he learns something troubling about the gentleman who is engaged to his cousin, he sets out to figure out how to broach the subject with said gentleman, but along the way gets involved with investigating the death of a member of his military unit. When the clues seem to point to the death being murder - and being somehow connected to the gentleman engaged to his cousin - Lord John finds himself running all over the seedy underside of London society.

This was a very enjoyable novel, and I'm not usually a big fan of murder mysteries. But Lord John is a very engaging character, and I enjoy Gabaldon's style of writing. I highly recommend it even to non-Outlander fans.

Lord John and the Private Matter

The American Heiress

I really, really enjoyed this book! Daisy Goodwin has created an intriguing story around a very interesting group of characters in a beautifully written novel. If you're a Downton Abbey fan, this book is a must read.

Cora Cash (how great a name is that?) is a late-19th-century American heiress - very beautiful and very nouveau riche - whose mother has decided that only an English noblemen is worthy of her daughter's hand in marriage. When Cora manages to snare a desirable but impoverished Duke, in a (seemingly) love match no less, it's the coup of the year. But then Cora discovers that English society is not as upright and honorable as it appears to be, and that her husband's affections may lie elsewhere.

Okay, so the story sounds a little Jane Austen-y, and little Bronte-esque, but that's what makes it so appealing. Goodwin has managed to bring a modern sensibility to an old world style. And she tells the story from an upstairs/downstairs perspective, where we see that sometimes the servants are snobbier than their employers, and sometimes a lady's maid is a better person than a peer. There's also the juxtaposition of American forthrightness - openness, eye contact, handshakes - with British subterfuge.

This is just a delicious story, and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

The American Heiress

The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay

This is an intriguing novel. Nina is forty-something-year-old woman who has spent most of her life in a love triangle with two brothers, Paolo and Luca. She actually married Luca, but now they've separated and she's come to this tiny Greek island where they honeymooned, trying to find herself again. Following a serious accident, she is befriended by the handsome and attentive island doctor, and they share their life stories.

Despite the action of the accident, this is very much a novel of the mind. We see Nina, through the process of sharing her life story with Dr. Christos, learning that how she thinks things were, and how things actually were, are two entirely different things. Through the process of her body recuperating, Nina realizes what actually was wrong in her marriage, and comes to understand the forces that impacted her relationships with both Paolo and Luca.

This is a really beautifully written novel, and I was drawn into the story almost immediately. I highly recommend it.

The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay

All the Light We Cannot See

This is the most amazing novel I've read in some time. Anthony Doerr has managed to create a story and characters that take you through the emotional spectrum, from heartache to hope, from outrage to joy, and everything in between. I couldn't put it down, and when I finished it I felt spent.

Okay, I know that sounds over the top, but you have to believe me.

This is the story of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl living in Paris, and Werner, a brilliant German orphan living in a mining town, growing up just before and during WWII. The novel is told in a sort of chronological order, switching from Marie's story to Werner's, and sometimes going forward or backward in time as necessary. Marie's life goes from Paris to the coastal town of Saint-Malo, while Werner's goes from the Children's Home to an elite military prep school to the German army. But the reader always senses the connection between these two bright, sensitive, and endearing characters, and they do eventually come together.

Doerr uses characterization and beautiful prose to show us the dark side of war, and the bright side of humanity. He shows how there are good people who do bad things, and situations that make heroes of the unlikeliest among us. It's an amazing book, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

All the Light We Cannot See

A Sister to Honor

Wow. I had a hard time putting this book down, I was so interested in what would happen next. Much of it was surprising, disturbing, and thought-provoking.

This novel by Lucy Ferris is the story of Afia and Shahid Satar, two young Pakistanis from a good family who have come to America to study. Shahid is the squash star, Afia the smart girl who will train to be a doctor, and then go home to Pakistan to treat women. Shahid has vowed to keep his sister protected from Western immodesty and immorality, but when a picture of her surfaces on the internet - holding hands with an American boy - a chain of events is set in motion that could ruin both of them, and their family back in Pakistan.

This is an intriguing story about honor, tradition, and the changes taking place in the Muslim world. Afia is an interesting character, modest but strong-willed, obedient and rebellious at the same time. She is being torn apart by her responsibility to her family and her sense of honor, in opposition to her desire to fit in and find her place in the West. She may be one of the strongest female characters I've come across in a long time, and her story is fascinating.

A Sister to Honor

Becoming Marie Antoinette

I thoroughly enjoyed Juliet Grey's take on the young Maria Antonia, Archduchess of Austria, married off to the French Dauphin Louis Auguste at the tender age of fourteen. Grey obviously has great affection for her main character, and she turns someone who is typically a one-dimensional historical character into a three-dimensional, likeable young woman.

I admit I know next to nothing about Marie Antoinette, born Maria Antonia into the Austrian (Hapsburg) dynasty - a dynasty famous for marrying for power rather than going to war. In order to be acceptable to the French, she goes through all sorts of preparation, both educational and physical (the description of 18th century braces is horrifying). Once she arrives in France, she is overwhelmed by a French court that was almost nothing like she expected, where courtiers urinate in the hallways and fight for the honor of handing her her nightgown. That the dauphin is more interested in hunting and cabinet-making than in getting a baby on his new wife makes her even more miserable in her new home.

It takes Marie Antoinette a while to figure out the intrigues of the French court, which is so very different from the less showy and more morally upright court of Austria. But she eventually finds her way, and she and Louis Auguste come to be friends, and more.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Becoming Marie Antoinette