“The Queen’s Vow: A Novel of Isabella of Castile” by C.W. Gorner

Title: “The Queen’s Vow: A Novel of Isabella of Castile”
Author: C.W. Gorner
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2012
Genre(s): historical romance
Part of a Series: No
Rating: 

Comic Con Haul

Last Sunday, I went to New York Comic Con. If you were there, I was dressed as Rainbow Brite. Let me know if you saw me! 

Anyway, one of the good things about going on Sunday is that there were a lot of deals as vendors tried to get rid of their merchandise. I made out like a bandit when it came to books. Take a look: 

Quite a load, right? 

Looking forward to a lot of reading in my future! 

“Unsolved Mysteries of American History” by Paul Aron

Title: “Unsolved Mysteries of American History”
Author: Paul Aron
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Year: 1997
Genre(s): history, non-fiction
Part of a Series: No
Rating: 

“Marrying Mozart” by Stephanie Cowell

Title: “Marrying Mozart”
Author: Stephanie Cowell
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2004
Genre(s): historical fiction, romance
Part of a Series: No
Rating: 

“The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet” by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick

Title: “The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet”
Author(s): Bernie Su and Kate Rorick
Publisher: Touchstone
Year: 2014
Genre(s): romance, contemporary, adaptation
Part of a Series: No
Rating: 

“The Typewriter Girl” by J.L. Jarvis

Title: “The Typewriter Girl”
Author: J. L. Jarvis
Publisher: Self published
Year: 2012
Genre(s): historical romance
Part of a Series: No. 
Rating: 

“Mansfield Park” by Jane Austen

Title: “Mansfield Park”
Author: Lora Innes
Publisher: Everyman’s Library (my copy)
Year: 1814 (originally)
Genre(s): romance, classics
Part of a Series: No.
Rating: 

“The Dreamer: The Kip’s Bay Affair” by Lora Innes

Title: “The Dreamer: The Kip’s Bay Affair”
Author: Lora Innes
Publisher: IDW
Year: 2011
Genre(s): historical fiction, romance, fantasy
Part of a Series: Yes, Vol. 2
Rating: 

“The White Queen” by Philippa Gregory

Title: “The White Queen”
Author: Philippa Gregory
Publisher: Touchstone
Year: 2009
Genre(s): historical fiction, romance
Part of a Series: Yes, Book 1
Rating: 

“The Exile” by Diana Gabaldon

Title: “The Exile”
Author: Diana Gabaldon, Hoang Nguyen (Illustrator)
Publisher: Del Ray
Year: 2010
Genre(s): historical fiction, romance
Part of a Series: Yes, a supplement to “Outlander”
Rating: 

“The Dreamer” by Lora Innes

Title: “The Dreamer”
Author: Lora Innes
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Year: 2011
Genre(s): historical fiction, some romance, young adult
Part of a Series: Yes, Volume 1
Rating: 

Historical Fiction

Still no new books to review. I’m working on that—promise. But in the meantime, here’s another article…


No doubt readers of this blog have noticed I review a lot of historical fiction novels. And probably gathered it’s because I read a lot of historical fiction novels.


I am a history nerd. And I’m proud of it. So I drifted toward historical novels. Well, I was pointed to them as a child. My parents asked a store clerk for books my history loving self would be interested in and he introduced me to the American Girls collection. I continued to read historical fiction from then on out, once I learned historical fiction was the genre’s name.

My Favorite Shakespeare Romance

Happy Valentine’s Day!

If you have a Valentine today, congrats. I’m jealous. If you don’t, join the club. Just don’t touch my chocolate. Here, we can focus on other romances. The ones we have laughed over, cried over and cheered for within the pages of a book.

And on stage. As much as I love Jane Austen, I also love William Shakespeare. And his plays. There are many great romantic pairings in them. If the first one you thought of is Romeo and Juliet, let me tell you there are greater ones. Ones who make it to the end of their plays! So I thought I’d spend this Valentine’s Day discussing my favorite.

Enjoy!

“Staten Island: Isle of the Bay” by Margaret Lundrigan

Title: “Staten Island: Isle of the Bay”
Author: Margaret Lundrigan
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Year: 2004
Genre(s): nonfiction, history
Part of a Series: Yes, part of the “Making of America” series
Rating: 

My Favorite Adaptations

This week’s post is going to be a bit different in that it’s not going to be a review. Mostly because it’s happened: I am still working on books to review. While I have read plenty of books in the past, I feel most are too far in the past for me to properly review. For example, the Darcy trilogy was a bit hazy to me and I realized how difficult it was to review that. So I’m going to try to build up a list to review. In the meantime, I’m going to try to put up some non-review posts to fill the void.

I’m going to start with adaptations. Why? Because of the release of the trailer for the “Outlander” miniseries. You can view it here.

“Diamonds Are a Teen’s Best Friend” by Allison Rushby

Title: “Diamonds Are a Teen’s Best Friend”
Author: Allison Rushby
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2006
Genre(s): young adult, some romance
Part of a Series: Yes, first book
Rating: 

“Seraphina” by Rachel Hartman

Title: “Seraphina”
Author: Rachel Hartman
Publisher: Random House
Year: 2012
Genre(s): fantasy
Part of a Series: Yes, first book
Rating: 

2013 in Review: Top 5 Books

It’s almost the New Year! So I thought I would rank the top 5 books I read this year.

Let’s begin!

5. “Goddess of the Sea” by P.C. Cast



4. “Queen’s Gambit” by Elizabeth Fremantle



3. “Queen of Swords” by Sara Donati



2. “Seraphina” by Rachel Hartman (Review to come soon)



1. “The Heiresses” by Allison Rushby




Happy 2014! I can’t wait to see what books I discover in the next 12 months!