Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from November, 2021

Cartier's Hope by M.J. Rose: A Book Review

Cartier’s Hope Author: M. J. Rose Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Suspense, Romance Publisher: Atria Books Release Date: 2020 Pages: 336 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: From M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author of Tiffany Blues , “a lush, romantic historical mystery” (Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale ), comes a gorgeously wrought novel of ambition and betrayal set in the Gilded Age. New York, 1910: A city of extravagant balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and poor immigrants crammed into crumbling Lower East Side tenements. A city where the suffrage movement is growing stronger every day, but most women reporters are still delegated to the fashion and lifestyle pages. But Vera Garland is set on making her mark in a man’s world of serious journalism. Shortly after the world-famous Hope Diamond is acquired for a record sum, Vera begins investigating rumors about schemes by its new owner, jeweler Pierre Cartier, to manipulate

The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr: A Riveting Untold Story of the American Revolution by Susan Holloway Scott: A Book Review

The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr: A Riveting Untold Story of the American Revolution Author: Susan Holloway Scott Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Kensington Release Date: 2019 Pages: 512 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Inspired by a woman and events forgotten by history, bestselling author Susan Holloway Scott weaves together carefully researched fact and fiction to tell the story of Mary Emmons, and the place she held in the life—and the heart—of the notorious Aaron Burr.        He was a hero of the Revolution, a brilliant politician, lawyer, and very nearly president; a skillful survivor in a raw new country filled with constantly shifting loyalties. Today Aaron Burr is remembered more for the fatal duel that killed rival Alexander Hamilton. But long before that single shot destroyed Burr’s political career, there were other dark whispers about him: that he was untrustworthy, a libertine, a man unafraid of claiming whatever he believed shoul

The Empress in the Pepper Chamber: Zhao Feiyan in History and Fiction by Olivia Milburn: A Book Review

The Empress in the Pepper Chamber: Zhao Feiyan in History and Fiction Author: Olivia Milburn Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: University of Washington Press Release Date: May 24, 2021 Pages: 233 Source: Personal Collection Synopsis: Zhao Feiyan (45–1 BCE), the second empress appointed by Emperor Cheng of the Han dynasty (207 BCE–220 CE), was born in slavery and trained in the performing arts, a background that made her appointment as empress highly controversial. Subsequent persecution by her political enemies eventually led to her being forced to commit suicide. After her death, her reputation was marred by accusations of vicious scheming, murder of other consorts and their offspring, and relentless promiscuity, punctuated by bouts of extravagant shopping.      This first book-length study of Zhao Feiyan and her literary legacy includes a complete translation of The Scandalous Tale of Zhao Feiyan (Zhao Feiyan waizhuan) , a Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) erotic novella that