Patriot Hearts by: Barbara Hambly

 I've been very neglectful of my book blog these last 2 months. I couldn't believe that the last time I had posted was July 1st. I have been reading and have added the books to my 100+ Reading Challenge list(June 6th post).
One of the stand outs that I have read is Patriot Hearts by: Barbara Hambly. She has chosen the topic of the first 3 First Ladies and Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's paramour, their interactions, and relationships with each other and their husbands. If you are anything like me I never quite put together that these ladies knew each other. I realize that Ms. Hambly's book is fiction, but as we studied about the Presidents in school it was never really touched on about their relationships with their families. What I knew about the first ladies has come from my own later reading and that was kind of sketchy. Reading this book has given me a much broader sense of who these ladies were at a very crucial time in our history. Ms. Hambly brings these ladies to life for us and as usual she is able to paint a vivid picture in words of the sounds, smells, and deep feelings of the characters in this book. It seems so funny to think of these people as young and saying how handsome and how much in love they were because I have always thought of our Presidents as old men. Past all that mushy stuff  I guess.
If you would like to get a new perspective on some strong women this would be an excellent book to read.We as women of today would have benefited from just a thimble full of these women's spunk and general living knowledge.
I became familiar with Ms. Hambly through her Benjamin January series. Again, she gave me a whole new perspective on a situation in history that is still a relevant part of our life and times today. She is an excellent author and you would definitely not be disappointed with any of her books.

Happy Reading,
Beverly G ♥

Fever Dream by: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

This is the latest in the series of books by Preston & Child. These gentlemen have included in this series of stories a little bit of everything: mystery, creepy, things that go bump in the night, psychological, I don't want to put off the faint of heart, but in some of the stories there is some gore as it pertains to the story.
They give us a fascinating hero-Special Agent Pendergast and a cast of characters that so interesting that as you read the books you feel you get to know them personally. You know you've hit upon a good author when you become invested in the characters of the tales they are spinning. I don't want to start talking about the story lines to much or that would give away your fun in discovering these very interesting authors and their books.
Preston & Child have written other books each on their own. I first became acquainted with Douglas Preston when I read Tyrannosaur Canyon. An excellent fast paced read with lots of adventure. You may have guessed by now my favorite reads are mystery, adventure, and historical. Oops, maybe I'm not as eclectic as I thought.

Happy Reading,
Beverly G ♥

The Lightning Thief/The Sea of Monsters by: Rick Riordan

I've included 2 books on this review. They are the first 2 books in the series Percy Jackson & The Olympians.
It is interesting to note that there is a movie coming out soon by this same title. It was interesting to discover that Mr. Riordan lives here in Texas also.
This is another series involving the Greek myths. Unlike the book I just read recently on the same subject you don't have to have as deep a knowledge of the myths in this series. Maybe it's just the fact that the story starts out with a bang on the first page and is exciting to the last page. Mr. Riordan has a fresh style of telling an adventure story that leads you from page to page and leaves you wanting more. So, be prepared if the movie makers do as good a job on the movie you will probably be wanting a sequel.
I have every intention of reading the rest of the series. As I can acquire each book in order they will go to top of my TBR Pile.

Happy Reading,
Beverly G ♥

Rotten to the Core by: Sheila Connolly

This is the second in this series. The first one is One Bad Apple. I read it last year some time before I started all this blogging.
A well written story about a young woman starting in a new direction in her life and of course, she finds dead bodies on her property. I'm sure we would all want to helpful to the police to get a crime solved if it happened on our property. Since she has inherited an apple orchard and is trying to revitalize it there is all sorts of neat information about apples and orchards.
That's one of the neat things I like about being an eclectic reader I'm amassing all kinds of interesting information  in the old brain cavity.

Happy Reading,
Beverly G ♥

The Shadow Thieves by: Anne Ursu

This is Book One of The Cronus Chronicles. This book is rated for Ages 8-12. I told you when I started this blog I was an eclectic reader.
Ms. Ursu used up the first third almost half of the book getting the story set up, then the story began to pick up and had an exciting ending. I understand there are quite a few books in this series. I'm a little concerned that the age group this series is geared to might not be able to follow the story that well until they did some research on Greek myths. My children have been out of school for many years now and I know for a fact that they did not learn that much about Greek mythology in public school. I hope that the parents and mentors of the people reading these books will make sure that they get some background so they can enjoy this series. I know that at a later time I will probably seek out the rest of the series, but at this time I have books already on the pile to be read.

Happy Reading,
Beverly G ♥

A Death at the Rose Paperworks (Libby Seale) by: M. J. Zellnik

This is the second book about Libby Seale, unfortunately. As I stated in the review of the first book Midnight Ink Books has declined to publish any more of these books. It's a shame because this brother, sister team had a good series going and they left us with an excellent cliff hanger at the end of this book to make you want to pick up the next one as soon as possible.
I hope they are looking for another publisher and will have success in the future. This was a good 2 book read.

Happy Reading,
Beverly G ♥

Murder at the Portland Variety (A Libby Seale Mystery) by: M.J. Zellnik

I have just finished reading another historical mystery. This one is set in Portland, Oregon at the turn of the century. Since, I am unable to travel at this time this is a good way to visit places that I would like to see in person. There is a second book in this series which I am going to start reading tonight, so that review will be up next, but in doing a little bit of research to find out if there were other books coming out I discovered that Midnight Ink Books has not opted to publish the 3rd book. I also discovered that M. J. Zellnik is a brother, sister team, Miriam and Joe. It's a real shame that Midnight Ink Books has chosen to pass on the 3rd book because this is a wonderfully written story.
The cast of characters all have very interesting personalities and Libby Seale is what I like to call a "plucky" heroine. You get an interesting take on the workings of a vaudeville theater of the time. They also included in the story about the early use of the telephone, which I found very interesting because today the telephone is something that is so taken for granted and is practically permanently attached to people's heads.
Libby with the help of her new friend Peter solve the mystery with lots of interesting twists and turns and the Zellnik team end to story with you wanting very much to follow Libby into the next phase of her life.
I don't know that much about the publishing world, but I think I'm going to do a little more research and try to find out if the Zellnik team have been able to find another publisher.
If you like "plucky" heroines and some wonderful Oregon flavor at the turn of the century, this is a 2 book read for sure.

Happy Reading,
Beverly G ♥