Lamp Black, Wolf Grey

Laura and her husband Dan move from London to the Welsh mountains, where Laura hopes to find inspiration for her art and a reconnecting to the husband she loves, but with whom her relationship is strained due to their inability to have a child. Dan is commuting back to his job in London during the week, so Laura has lots of time alone to get to know the locals, including her handsome neighbor Rhys and the wise woman Anwen. Oh, and she also runs into Merlin (yes, him) a few times.

Running parallel to Laura's modern-day story is the story of Megan at some time in the distant past. Megan grew up in the house that Laura is now living in, but she works as the nanny to the sons of the local lord and lady, each of whom use Megan for their own nasty purposes. When Merlin comes to the area and falls in love with Megan, her employers want his talents for their own.

I enjoyed this story (Wales, Merlin, what's not to like?), but I have to say I enjoyed Megan's story a lot more than I did Laura's. I just didn't find Laura and Dan to be particularly likable characters. But it was definitely a page-turner.

Lamp Black, Wolf Grey

Sisters of Shiloh

This is a lovely, heartbreaking novel about two sisters, Josephine and Libby, who pretend to be boys and enlist in the Confederate army to avenge the death of Libby's husband Arden. The novel is actually written by two sisters, Kathy and Becky Hepinstall, and they spare the reader from none of the ugliness - or humanity - of a war fought at such close range, between enemies who often weren't sure why they were enemies.

That Josephine and Libby are able to pass for several months as boys is surprising, but that they are able to withstand the hardships they endure - with differing levels of success - is astounding. Although this is a novel of war, it is ultimately a story of the relationship between the sisters, and how their relationship is formed by each of their strengths and weaknesses.

This was an excellent read, and I highly recommend it.

Sisters of Shiloh

Mean Streak

Wow - great mystery with a lot of interesting twists! Emory Charbonneau is a pediatrician and marathon runner, who disappears while on a distance run in a national forest in North Carolina. When her husband Jeff finally figures out she is missing and reports it to the local authorities, she's been gone for 2 days and Jeff is, of course, the prime suspect.

Meanwhile, when Emory wakes up she's in a remote cabin with a mysterious man who won't tell her his name, but who appears to have no desire to harm her in any way - though he's certainly dangerous looking and obviously hiding from something. As he nurses her back to health she loses her mistrust of him, and when he gets her involved in helping a desperate neighbor, she begins to see his true character.

Jeff is playing the concerned husband, but HIS true character soon comes to light. When Emory's captor/rescuer returns her - alive - and the FBI gets involved, the story takes all sorts of interesting turns.

I have to say, I didn't see the end coming at all, and I pretty much couldn't put the book down, This was a great read.

Mean Streak

A Memory of Violets

This is a very sweet historical mystery novel, and quite a good read. It's the story of Tilly Harper, who in 1912 leaves her home in the lake country of England to take a job as housemother in one of London's Flower Houses, where former flower girls live while working in a factory making realistic flowers out of fabric. In her room at Violet House, Tilly finds a keepsake box containing a journal written by Flora Flynn, one-time resident of the the room and a former flower girl who had been saved from the streets of London in the 1880's.

The novel goes back and forth between Tilly's 1912 and Florie's 1880's, chronicling Florie and her baby sister Rosie as they sell flowers with their mother until they are separated on busy Westminster Bridge. From there their lives take two very different paths, but Florie never forgets Rosie or stops trying to find her. And Tilly has some personal issues of her own, that her experiences at the Flower Houses help her come to terms with.

There are a couple mysteries in the story (that I figured out pretty quickly), and this is a really enjoyable story with interesting characters and an intriguing story line. I highly recommend it.

A Memory of Violets

The King's Curse

Nobody does British royal history like Philippa Gregory, and this final novel of The Cousins' War series does not disappoint. What is unique about this novel is that it is told, not from the perspective of a queen or major player in the action, but from the perspective of a woman who was in many ways a witness to history, although Gregory takes the license of making her much more than that.

Lady Margaret Pole is a member of the Plantagenet family, whom Henry Tudor overthrew to take over the throne of England. Her cousin is Henry's wife, Elizabeth, so Margaret is close to the royal family, and spends a great deal of time with their children. She and her husband have the care of Prince Arthur of Wales, Henry's heir. She is with Arthur when Catherine of Aragon comes to be his bride, and becomes fast friends with the new princess. Then Arthur dies from sickness, and his spoiled younger brother Harry marries his widowed bride and becomes Henry VIII shortly thereafter. With Henry's ascension to the throne, Margaret is restored to her family's titles, lands, and wealth, and becomes an important member of Catherine's household.

This novel covers the period from 1499ish to the 1540's, from Catherine of Aragon through Catherine Howard, all told from Margaret's perspective as a loyal adherent of Catherine's and a staunch supporter of the Roman Catholic church. We see her fortunes, and those of her sons, rise and fall as we see Henry VIII go from a handsome, popular monarch to an insecure, unpredictable, obese despot. Gregory makes Margaret into a player in the political intrigue of the time, and who is to say she was not? If you have any interest in British history, this novel makes for a great read.

The King's Curse

Searching for Grace Kelly

I just loved this first novel by Michael Callahan, set in the famous Barbizon Hotel for Women in NYC in the 1950's. Callahan has really captured a moment in time, and tells an entertaining story about three very different women along the way.

Beautiful Smith College undergrad Laura has come to NYC to do a summer internship with Mademoiselle. When she arrives at the Barbizon she is assigned a room with Dolly, a sunny working-class girl attending secretarial school. Soon they meet Vivian, a gorgeous Brit who loves to break the rules. The three become fast friends, and help each other through the trials of being young women in a city and a society where the rules for proper behavior are being rewritten everyday.

Callahan has a great ear for dialog and seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from Hepburn/Tracy comedies. The characters are smart, literate, and endearing. This is a wonderful and quick read.

Searching for Grace Kelly

Dark Places

I could not put this book down! This is another thriller from Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, and it does not disappoint. It's the story of Libby Day, who survived the massacre of her mother and two older sisters in 1985 in Kinnakee, Kansas, and whose testimony sent her older brother Ben to prison for life as the sole murderer.

It's now 2009 and Libby has lived her life avoiding the "dark places" of that horrible night, existing on charity and the meager revenue of a poorly-received book. But now Libby needs money, so she reluctantly accepts an appearance request from a local "Kill Club," a group that investigates old murders, and who thinks Ben is innocent. Pretty soon Libby is doubting everything she has grown up believing.

Told in turns from present-day Libby's perspective, and from the perspective of Ben and their mother, Patty, on that horrible day in January 1985, we see that not all truths are totally true, and that we believe things are a certain way because we want to believe they're that way. Like in Gone Girl, Flynn plays with our notions of reliable characters and who the reader is supposed to believe, and also with how things look isn't how things actually are.

The movie comes out in August.... with Charlize Theron as grown-up Libby. I'm looking forward to it.

Dark Places