This is an engaging first novel, categorized as historical romance, better described as historical fiction with a strong romance element. It is the story of Landra Andrews’ growth from childhood to womanhood and her struggle against both family and a narrow society to live and love on her own terms. Set in north Florida in … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – A Woman So Bold by L. S. Young
Reading
My Reading – October 2016
His Bloody Project : Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae by Graeme Macrae Burnet The Wife's Tale by Christine Wells Hot Milk by Deborah Levy The Sellout by Paul Beatty Save
One Minute Book Review – A Test of Wills by Charles Todd
This is more like a two and a half minute review. A Test of Wills is the first in the Ian Rutledge series, written by mother and son team Caroline and Charles Todd. It begins in June 1919 with Ian Rutledge, a Scotland Yard detective, returned after five years military service in France. Prior to … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – A Test of Wills by Charles Todd
One Minute Book Review – The Wife’s Tale by Christine Wells
The Wife’s Tale by Christine Wells is a novel with dual intertwining timelines. The modern strand involves Australian lawyer Liz Jones who, under the pretence of writing a novel about the 18th century Lady Nash, goes to the Isle of Wight to discretely investigate her employer’s claim to descent from Delaney Nash. As she delves … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Wife’s Tale by Christine Wells
One Minute Book Review – His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
This book has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016 but don't let that put you off. It is presented as a series of documents relating to a brutal triple murder in 1869 on the west coast of Scotland. The murderer, seventeen-year-old Roderick Macrae, is the son of a poor crofter barely managing to … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
One Minute Book Review – The Mystery of a Handsome Cab by Fergus Hume
First published in 1886, this detective mystery set in Melbourne became an international best seller, outselling Sherlock Holmes' first appearance in A Study in Scarlet. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab follows the investigation by police detective Samuel Gorby into the murder of well-connected Oliver Whyte which takes him from the mansions of St Kilda … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Mystery of a Handsome Cab by Fergus Hume
One Minute Book Review – Angelica by Arthur Phillips
This is an unsettling novel where reality and the supernatural blend together. Set in London in the 1880s, it the story of a family on the verge of breakdown. Angelica has spent the first four years of her life sleeping in her parents’ room. When her father, Joseph Barton, moves her into a room of … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Angelica by Arthur Phillips
My Reading – September 2016
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwen The Scorching Wind by Walter Macken (There are few reviews and I was unable to a detailed review that didn't completely give the plot away.) Still she wished for Company by Margaret Irwin A Room with a View by E M Forster (Spoilers) The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do Save
One Minute Book Review – The Darkest Hour by Barbara Erskine
Barbara Erskine is one of my favourite writers of popular time-slip fiction. The modern narrative in this novel concerns art historian, Lucy Standish, who is writing a biography of wartime artist, Evie Lucas, about whom little is known. The historical narrative begins in the summer of 1940 at the start of the Battle of Britain … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Darkest Hour by Barbara Erskine
One Minute Book Review – Still She Wished for Company by Margaret Irwin
The major part of this engaging time-slip/ghost story (choose according to your own preferences) is set in the 1770s and tells of Juliana Clare, the youngest daughter of a landed English family and her initially routine life on the family estate, Chidleigh. When Juliana's father dies and her dissolute brother Lucian inherits the title and … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Still She Wished for Company by Margaret Irwin
Catherine Meyrick 