The Wild Rose - Jennifer Donnelly

Title: The Wild Rose (The Tea Rose #3)
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Pages: 623
Published: 2011
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 3.5/5

The Wild Rose is a part of the sweeping, multi-generational saga that began with The Tea Rose and continued with The Winter Rose. It is London, 1914. World War I looms on the horizon, women are fighting for the right to vote, and explorers are pushing the limits of endurance in the most forbidding corners of the earth. (via Amazon.com)

Thoughts: It was a good end to the Tea Rose trilogy that started with The Tea Rose.  The overall plot of the story was really good and was quite fascinating and intriguing and was a really good read, but it seemed that the ending really didn't really have any sort of thought to it.  It almost seems as though there were too many loose ends that were left and too many things that I was left wondering about as the book ended.  Would have loved to see more of the relationship between Willa and Seamus develop more in the later half of the book or even some sort of epilogue as to what happened to the characters that I have grown to love over the past few months, unless she is planning something else with these characters.  It was amazing to see the amount of research that she did in order to write these amazing books; the research really paid off with an amazing trilogy.

If you have read the previous two books in the series, I would recommend the read as it brings some closure to the Finnegan clan that readers have come to love.  Hope to see something from her in the near future.

15006 / 15000 pages. 100% done!

Rebel Angels - Libba Bray

Title: Rebel Angels
Author: Libba Bray
Pages: 548
Published: 2006 (first published 2005)
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical fiction
Rating: 4/5

Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy-spending time with her friends in the city, attending balls in fancy gowns with plunging necklines, and dallying with the handsome Lord Denby. Yet amid these distractions, her visions intensify-visions of three girls dressed in white, to whom something horrific has happened that only the realms can explain.

The lure is strong, and soon Gemma, Felicity, and Ann are turning flowers into butterflies in the enchanted world that Gemma takes them to. To the girls'' great joy, their beloved Pippa is there as well, eager to complete their circle of friendship.

But all is not well in the realms-or out. Kartik is back, desperately insisting to Gemma that she must bind the magic, lest colossal disaster befall her. Gemma is willing to comply, for this would bring her face-to-face with her late mother''s greatest friend, now Gemma''s foe-Circe. Until Circe is destroyed, Gemma cannot live out her destiny. But finding Circe proves a most perilous task. . . . (via ChaptersIndigo.ca)


Thoughts: I really enjoyed this one.  The book had a good pace throughout the book and there wasn't exactly anything wanting for a little action.  There were a few moments in which I got a little freaked out (aka scared) and had to put the book down and read something that was a little less freakish.  Overall it was a pretty good book and would recommend it older young adult readers (those probably those 15 years and above) and those not afraid of things getting a little frightening.

14383 / 15000 pages. 96% done!

The Winter Rose - Jennifer Donnelly

Title: The Winter Rose
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Pages: 720
Published: 2008 (first published in 2006)
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4/5

It has been twelve years since a dark, murderous figure stalked the alleys and courts of Whitechapel. And yet, in the summer of 1900, East London is still poor, still brutal, still a shadow city to its western twin. Among the reformers is an idealistic young woman named India Selwyn-Jones, recently graduated from medical school. With the help of her influential fiance--Freddie Lytton, an up-and-coming Liberal MP--she works to shut down the area's opium dens that destroy both body and soul. Her selfless activities better her patients' lives and bring her immense gratification, but unfortunately, they also bring her into direct conflict with East London's ruling crime lord--Sid Malone.

India is not good for business and at first, Malone wants her out. But against all odds, India and Sid fall in love. Different in nearly every way, they share one thing in common--they're both wounded souls. Their love is impossible and they know it, yet they cling to it desperately. Lytton, India's fiance, will stop at nothing to marry India and gain her family's fortune.

Fractious criminal underlings and rivals conspire against Sid. When Sid is finally betrayed by one of his own, he must flee London to save his life. Mistakenly thinking him dead, India, pregnant and desperate, marries Freddie to provide a father for hers and Sid's child. India and Sid must each make a terrible sacrifice--a sacrifice that will change them both forever. One that will lead them to other lives, and other places...and perhaps--one distant, bittersweet day--back to each other. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: I really enjoyed it, to put it bluntly.  It was one of those books that gripped you that made you stay up later reading than you really wanted to.  The characterizations of the characters was enjoyable, but really didn't see myself liking the youngest member of the Finnegan and felt that the author spent a little too much time with him during the final part of the book instead of focusing on the India storyline, even though I realize that Seamus' story is the focus of the final book.    I hope that the final book is just as good as the first two books.


Recommended for those that loved the first book, The Tea Rose, and for those that enjoy historical fiction.

11529 / 15000 pages. 77% done!

The American Heiress - Daisy Goodwin

Title: The American Heiress
Author: Daisy Goodwin
Pages: 468
Published: 2011 (first published 2010)
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 3/5

Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts’, suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage. (via Goodreads)


Thoughts: It was a nice summer read, as it had a fairly quick pack to the book and other than a few moments in which the story seemed to drag, it was a book that one could read large portions of the book without really getting lost.  It didn't really need to have the Bertha/Jim storyline, as it only seemed to serve really no purpose in the overall storyline and could have been easily reduced by about 50 pages and still be quite effective.  Interestingly enough, the story is believed to be based on the life of Consuelo Vanderbilt. Recommended for those that like reading historical fiction.

10809 / 15000 pages. 72% done!

Sing You Home - Jodi Picoult

Title: Sing You Home
Author: Jodi Picoult
Pages: 466
Published: 2011
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 3/5

One miscarriage too many spelled the end of Max and Zoe Baxter's marriage. Though the former couple went quite separate ways, their fates remained entangled: After veering into alcoholism, Max is saved in multiple senses by his fundamentalist conversion; Zoe, for her part, finds healing relief in music therapy and the friendship, then romantic love with Vanessa, her counselor. After Zoe and Vanessa, now married, decide to have a baby, they realize that they must join battle with Max, who objects on both religious and financial grounds. (via Goodreads)


Thoughts: This was the first Jodi Picoult book that I have finished and quite enjoyed it, but to a point.  As an evangelical Christian, I found the evangelical side a little unnerving.  The reason that I found the evangelical side a little too over the top.  I do realize that most evangelicals in the United States feel this way and it plays a larger role in the US than it does in Canada, but it was a little preechy and too over the top as to how Ms. Picoult portrayed the evangelical side and I realize why she did that.  But couldn't there have been a more moderating evangelical point of view?

Another thing that bugged me was that the music CD that came along with the book really didn't have anything to do with the book as a whole.  Granted I only listened to a few of the songs, but I felt the CD didn't really have anything to do with the book.  I would recommend the book to those that like Jodi Picoult books or those who write in a similar manner.

10341 / 15000 pages. 69% done!

Chunkster Challenge 2011

 Yes, I am joining again.  And this time I do intend on reading some pretty big books, at least four.  If you are interested, you can find the information and the sign up here.  As for me, I plan on doing the Chubby Chunkster.

1.  The Tea Rose
2.  The Book of Negroes
3.  The Swan Maiden
4.  Juliet: a novel
5.  Sing You Home
6.  The American Heiress
7.  The Winter Rose
8.  Rebel Angels
9.  The Wild Rose

The Tea Rose - Jennifer Donnelly

Title: The Tea Rose (The Tea Rose #1)
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Published: 2007 (first published 2002)
Pages: 544
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4/5

East London, 1888 - a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths. Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.

But Fiona's life is shattered when the actions of a dark and brutal man take from her nearly everything-and everyone-she holds dear. Fearing her own death, she is forced to flee London for New York. There, her indomitable spirit propels her rise from a modest West Side shop-front to the top of Manhattan's tea trade. But Fiona's old ghosts do not rest quietly, and to silence them, she must venture back to the London of her childhood, where a deadly confrontation with her past becomes the key to her future. (via Goodreads)


Why I read this book: I read this book because I had read another book of her's a few months earlier and was intrigued.


Thoughts:  I really liked this book and was the best book that I have so far read this year.  There was something special about this book that made me not want to put down the book for a number of hours a few weeks ago and incur the amount of fines that I did so that I could finish the book before I went away for a couple of weeks.  The only problem I really had with the book was that the ending seemed to be a bit rushed.

8754 / 15000 pages. 58% done!

The Book of Negroes - Lawrence Hill

Title: The Book of Negroes (international title: Someone Knows My Name)
Author: Lawrence Hill
Published: 2007
Pages: 486
Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5

Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle - a string of slaves - Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War and registering her name in the historic "Book of Negroes." This book, an actual document, provides a short but immensely revealing record of freed Loyalist slaves who requested permission to leave the US for resettlement in Nova Scotia, only to find that the haven they sought was steeped in an oppression all of its own. Aminata's eventual return to Sierra Leone - passing ships carrying thousands of slaves bound for America - is an engrossing account of an obscure but important chapter in history that saw 1,200 former slaves embark on a harrowing back-to-Africa odyssey. (via Goodreads)


Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book.  I hadn't expected for a book that was so dense to be such a page turner.  I found it to be very eloquent and spoke to the true nature of the slave trade that existed over two hundred years ago.  The words seemed to melt into my soul like a plate of really good food.  I think what was fascinating about the book is that the main character seemed to avoid death, but never seemed to avoid tragedy.  An excellent read.

7028 / 15000 pages. 47% done!

The Swan Maiden - Jules Watson

Title: The Swan Maiden
Author: Jules Watson
Pages: 540
Published: 2009
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy
Rating: 3/5

In this lush, romantic retelling of one of the most enduring Irish legends, acclaimed Celtic historical author Jules Watson reignites the tale of Deirdre—the Irish Helen of Troy—in a story that is at once magical, beautiful, and tragic.

She was born with a blessing and a curse: that she would grow into a woman of extraordinary beauty—and bring ruin to the kingdom of Ulster and its ruler, the wily Conor. Ignoring the pleadings of his druid to expel the infant, King Conor secrets the girl child with a poor couple in his province, where no man can covet her. There, under the tutelage of a shamaness, Deirdre comes of age in nature and magic…. And in the season of her awakening, the king is inexorably drawn to her impossible beauty.

But for Deirdre, her fate as a man’s possession is worse than death. And soon the green-eyed girl, at home in waterfall and woods, finds herself at the side of three rebellious young warriors. Among them is the handsome Naisi. His heart charged with bitterness toward the aging king, and growing in love for the defiant girl, Naisi will lead Deirdre far from Ulster—and into a war of wits, swords, and spirit that will take a lifetime to wage. (via Goodreads)


Thoughts: I read this book for challenge on Goodreads and it took me awhile to finish the book.  IT was slow and seemed to not move the story quickly enough for my liking, but partly the reason I felt the way I did was due to the fact that I wasn't reading the book exclusively and once I did, I was able to get into the book more quickly.  But that being said, it did feel like it took a long time to get to the crux of the book and to have any sort of significant action.  Overall, it was a pretty good book, but not something that I would read again.

5075 / 15000 pages. 34% done!

Juliet: a novel - Anne Fortier

Title: Juliet: a novel
Author: Anne Fortier
Pages: 464
Published: 2010
Genre: Historical fiction, Romance, Literary fiction
Rating: 4/5

Of all the great love stories ever told, hers is perhaps the most famous. To me, she is the key to my family's fate. To you, she is Juliet.

When Julie Jacobs leaves for Italy per the instructions of her late aunt's will, she never imagines that she'll be thrust into a centuries-old feud, not to mention one of the most legendary romances of all time. However, as she uncovers the story of her ancestor, Giulietta, whose love for a man named Romeo proved ill-fated, Julie finds herself increasingly under threat, and can't help but feel that the past and present are very much connected.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed it.  There was a time that I was struggling to get through it and really had to concentrate to be able to go back and forth, despite the fact that there was dates for the ones that when back.  Overall, I really enjoyed the book and once I got into the story, I really couldn't put the book down and didn't want it to end.  If you enjoy Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, you will find this book very fascinating, especially since you find out that the play is based on a Italian tale..... 

3533 / 15000 pages. 24% done!