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Blog Tour: Night Witches by Kathryn Lasky

NIGHT WITCHES Author: Kathryn Lasky Pub. Date: March 28, 2017 Publisher: Scholastic Press Pages: 224 Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook Find it: Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Goodreads Synopsis: From bestselling and award-winning author Kathryn Lasky comes an explosive adventure following the teen girl fighter pilots who took on Hitler's army . . . and won.      Fifteen-year-old Valya knows what it feels like to fly. She's a pilot who's always felt more at home soaring through the sky than down on earth. But since the Germans surrounded Stalingrad, Valya's been forced to stay on the ground and watch her city crumble.      When her mother is killed during the siege, Valya is left with one burning desire: to join up with her older sister, a member of the famous and feared Night Witches -- a brigade of young female pilots.      Using all her wits, Valya manages to get past the German blockade and find the Night Witches' base . . . and that's when t

Blog Tour: The Wolf Mirror by Caroline Healy

The Wolf Mirror  Caroline Healy Publication date: February 14th 2017 Genres: Historical, Romance, Young Adult Synopsis:  Changing places doesn’t always help you see things differently.      Cassie throws the first punch in a brawl at Winchester Abbey Girl’s School. Her subsequent suspension is a glitch in Cassie’s master plan; Finish School/Get Job/Leave Home (and never come back). As punishment her mother banishes her to Ludlow Park, their creepy ancestral home. In the dark of a stormy night Cassie finds herself transported to 1714, the beginning of the Georgian period.       With the help of a lady’s maid and an obnoxious gentleman, Mr Charles Stafford, Cassie must unravel the mysterious illness afflicting Lord Miller. If Lord Miller kicks the bucket the house goes to Reginald Huxley, the brainless cousin from London.   Cassie’s task is to figure out who is poisoning the Lord of Ludlow without exposing herself to the ridicule of her peers, getting herself committed to the

The Beautiful Pretender (A Medieval Fairy Tale #2) by Melanie Dickerson: A Book Review

The Beautiful Pretender (A Medieval Fairy Tale #2) Author: Melanie Dickerson Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Christian Publisher: Thomas Nelson Release Date: 2016 Pages: 320 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review.  Synopsis: What happens when a margrave realizes he’s fallen in love with a servant?      The Margrave of Thornbeck has to find a bride, fast. He invites ten noble-born ladies from around the country to be his guests at Thornbeck Castle for two weeks, a time to test these ladies and reveal their true character.      Avelina is only responsible for two things: making sure her deception goes undetected and avoiding being selected as the margrave’s bride. Since the latter seems unlikely, she concentrates on not getting caught. No one must know she is merely a maidservant, sent by the Earl of Plimmwald to stand in for his daughter, Dorothea.      Despite Avelina’s best attempts at diverting attention from herself, the margrave has taken noti

Leaving Everything Most Loved (Maisie Dobbs #10) by Jacqueline Winspear: A Book Review

Leaving Everything Most Loved (Maisie Dobbs #10) Author: Jacqueline Winspear Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery  Publisher: HarperCollins Release Date: 2013 Pages: 357 Source: This book was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: In Leaving Everything Most Loved by New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs investigates the murder of Indian immigrants in London. The year is 1933. Maisie Dobbs is contacted by an Indian gentleman who has come to England in the hopes of finding out who killed his sister two months ago. Scotland Yard failed to make any arrest in the case, and there is reason to believe they failed to conduct a thorough investigation. The case becomes even more challenging when another Indian woman is murdered just hours before a scheduled interview. Meanwhile, unfinished business from a previous case becomes a distraction, as does a new development in Maisie's personal life. Bringing a crucial chapte

Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs #1) by Jacqueline Winspear: A Book Review

Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs #1) Author: Jacqueline Winspear Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery  Publisher: HarperCollins Release Date: 2003 Pages: 305 Source: Borrowed from my State Public Library Synopsis: "A female investigator every bit as brainy and battle-hardened as Lisbeth Salander."  —Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air, on Maisie Dobbs      Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education.      The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found—and lost—an

Blog Tour: The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs #7) by Jacqueline Winspear: A Book Review

The Mapping of Love and Death (Maisie Dobbs #7) Author: Jacqueline Winspear Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery Publisher: HarperCollins Release Date: 2010 Pages: 482 Source: This book was given to me by TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: In the New York Times bestselling series, Maisie Dobbs must unravel a case of wartime love and death—an investigation that leads her to a long-hidden affair between a young cartographer and a mysterious nurse.      August 1914. Michael Clifton is mapping the land he has just purchased in California's beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, certain that oil lies beneath its surface. But as the young cartographer prepares to return home to Boston, war is declared in Europe. Michael—the youngest son of an expatriate Englishman—puts duty first and sails for his father's native country to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed among those missing in action.      April 1932. London psychologist and investig

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton: A Book Review

The Secret Keeper Author: Kate Morton Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Suspense Publisher: Atria Books Release Date: 2012 Pages: 597 Source: Personal collection Synopsis:  From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Distant Hours , The Forgotten Garden , and The House at Riverton , a spellbinding new novel filled with mystery, thievery, murder, and enduring love.       During a summer party at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is happily dreaming of the future. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and watches as her mother speaks to him. Before the afternoon is over, Laurel will witness a shocking crime. A crime that challenges everything she knows about her family and especially her mother, Dorothy—her vivacious, loving, nearly perfect mother.       Now, fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress living in Lond

The Enemies of Versailles (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #3) by Sally Christie: A Book Review

The Enemies of Versailles (The Mistresses of Versailles Trilogy #3) Author: Sally Christie Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Atria Books Release Date: March 21, 2017 Pages: 416 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: In the final installment of Sally Christie’s “tantalizing” ( New York Daily News) Mistresses of Versailles trilogy, Jeanne Becu, a woman of astounding beauty but humble birth, works her way from the grimy back streets of Paris to the palace of Versailles, where the aging King Louis XV has become a jaded and bitter old philanderer. Jeanne bursts into his life and, as the Comtesse du Barry, quickly becomes his official mistress.      “That beastly bourgeois Pompadour was one thing; a common prostitute is quite another kettle of fish.”      After decades of suffering the King's endless stream of Royal Favorites, the princesses of the Court have reached a breaking point. Horrified that he would bring the lowborn Comtesse du B

Blog Tour: Beauty of the Beast by Rachel L. Demeter: A Book Review

Beauty of the Beast by Rachel L. Demeter Fairy Tale Retellings, #1 Publication Date: March 15, 2017 Genres: Historical Romance, Fairy Tale Retelling, Gothic Romance, Adult 🌹 Buy 🌹 Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon CA B&N Kobo iBooks 🌹 Book Blurb 🌹       Experience the world’s most enchanting and timeless love story—retold with a dark and realistic twist.      A BEAST LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF HIS PAST      Reclusive and severely scarred Prince Adam Delacroix has remained hidden inside a secluded, decrepit castle ever since he witnessed his family’s brutal massacre. Cloaked in shadow, with only the lamentations of past ghosts for company, he has abandoned all hope, allowing the world to believe he died on that tragic eve twenty-five years ago.      A BEAUTY IN PURSUIT OF A BETTER FUTURE      Caught in a fierce snowstorm, beautiful and strong-willed Isabelle Rose seeks shelter at a castle—unaware that its beastly and disfigured master i