Stacking the Shelves #21

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books!

I’ve been a bit AWOL from this meme for a few weeks, but the book gathering has continued. I signed up to the blog tour for the Rising Storm serial and unexpectedly started receiving e-ARCs via InkSlingerPR. I didn’t receive the first book, so bought that myself from Amazon after the ARCs started turning up. I now have the first six in the series, and have read and reviewed three.

I also joined the mailing list for the series and received the free prequel novella, Storm Season, by Dee Davis, which tells the story of Ginny and Jacob.

While I was there, I also joined the mailing list for 1001 Dark Nights, and received the free first novella, The First Night, by Lexi Blake and M.J. Rose.

Netgalley continued feeding my addiction by granting me access to the e-ARC of The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever Made, by Jeff Strand. Love that cover!

Also from Netgalley was All That is Lost Between Us, by Sara Foster, a new-to-me author that Netgalley recommended. Looks interesting and has a pretty purple cover.

An author contacted me to read her ARC, The Marshall Plan, by Olivia Folmar Ard. It’s a sequel and I haven’t read the first book, but it looks good and features a journalist, so I’m there.

And, finally, since they were both free on Amazon, I grabbed Hide Your Heart, by local New Zealand author Tracey Alvarez, and When the Perfect Comes, by my friend and colleague, Susan Ward. Looking forward to both of these.

Whew! So that’s it for the last few weeks. When will I find time to read them all??? Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.

The Bronze Horseman movie update #4: It might be happening at last!

HUGE news from Paullina Simons overnight! She posted on her blog that the movie of her book trilogy is finally going ahead!

“Hello to my patient and wonderful fans! I know you’ve been asking me for an update on the film adaptation for The Bronze Horseman, and I’ve wished I could give one to you. And now, I finally can! So happy to tell you we’ve signed with Getaway Pictures for the series.”

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know this has been an on-again, off-again project, but after the successful adaptation of Outlander to the small screen I have high hopes something as ambitious as The Bronze Horseman can finally be filmed.

So who do you think should be cast? I have a not-so-secret wish for Henry Cavill to play Shura. Even Ms. Simons has indicated she thinks he would make a great Alexander, in an interview here. Remember, whoever plays him has to live up to this quote: “He was more beautiful than that morning sun.” *sigh*

I once suggested Mia Wasikowska for Tatiana – what do you think?

And so we must wait and hope. Keep track of developments with me on IMDB and on Paullina Simons’ website.

Passion and Propriety (Hearts of Honour, book 1), by Elise de Sallier

Format: e-book, 270 pages

Publisher: The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing House

Published: August 7, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-61213-261-7

Genre: Historical romance

Back cover blurb: A hidden beauty. A wounded beast. Can the curse threatening their happiness be broken?

There is absolutely nothing improper about Hannah Foster, the vicar of Hartley’s eldest daughter, nursing the badly wounded Viscount Blackthorn back to health—that’s if the returned officer can be saved. At twenty seven she is two years the man’s senior, a confirmed spinster, and far too sensible to develop feelings for her patient. The fact he was once her childhood friend and has grown into a fine specimen of a man—his terrible scars notwithstanding—has no bearing on the matter.

Even if the unthinkable were to happen and William was to see past her plain exterior and recognise the caring, intelligent, passionate woman beneath, he is determined to break the curse that has plagued his family for generations by letting his bloodline die out. Her best friend, Grace’s, warnings are moot. A man of Lord Blackthorn’s wealth and position would never be interested in a woman like Hannah . . . would he?

My review: I really enjoyed this, and Elise de Sallier is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. I love a good bodice-ripper, and this reminded me very much of the series I enjoy by Courtney Milan, Tessa Dare and others. It’s well-written with interesting, fleshed-out characters the reader can feel for. There is UST in spades, and it’s nicely done with lots of good showing rather than telling.

William is just lovely. The absence of love in his childhood made him prickly at the start, but Hannah’s caring brought him around. His willingness to help his fellow soldiers showed he wasn’t such an uncaring brute even in the army. I love his arc, coming to accept the curse is broken. And he’s yummy.

I cannot wait to read more in the series. Now that there are a few ex-military men at the big house there’s bound to be one to catch a girl’s eye 😉 Rawr!

My rating: 5/5

Amazon

Purchase directly through TWCS

Elise de Sallier’s Author Page

This has been part of the

TWCS Summer Romance Blog Tour, July 17-July 31

The Confectioner’s Tale, by Laura Madeleine

Format: e-ARC, 336 pages

Publisher: Black Swan

Published: May 21, 2015

ISBN: 9781784160722

Genre: Women’s Fiction, Literature/Fiction (Adult)

Back cover blurb: At the famous Patisserie Clermont in Paris, 1909, a chance encounter with the owner’s daughter has given one young man a glimpse into a life he never knew existed: of sweet cream and melted chocolate, golden caramel and powdered sugar, of pastry light as air.

But it is not just the art of confectionery that holds him captive, and soon a forbidden love affair begins.

Almost eighty years later, an academic discovers a hidden photograph of her grandfather as a young man with two people she has never seen before. Scrawled on the back of the picture are the words ‘Forgive me’. Unable to resist the mystery behind it, she begins to unravel the story of two star-crossed lovers and one irrevocable betrayal.

Take a moment to savour an evocative, bittersweet love story that echoes through the decades – perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Rachel Hore and Victoria Hislop.

My review: When I reached the end of this book, I couldn’t help but think that Jim Stevenson deserved his years of guilt and regret for what he did to Gui and Jeanne. The details of his misdeed form the basis of this fantastic debut novel, which tells the story of Gui and Jeanne’s love in Paris in 1910, alternating with investigations into the tale in 1988 by Stevenson’s granddaughter, Petra. Petra finds an old photo and a note expressing her journalist grandfather’s apologies, and must battle the clock and his nasty biographer to solve the mystery behind them. Her chapters alternate with the story of provincial Gui du Frere, who comes to Paris to work for the railway and ends up an apprentice pastry chef at the city’s top patisserie. He falls in love with the owner’s daughter, Jeanne Clermont, but their love is a huge scandal in those class-divided times.

I absolutely loved this story and was gripped by Petra’s search to uncover the truth. She loses a lot when she devotes herself to the search, but gains a love interest and there are a quite few laughs along the way. Gui’s story is heartbreaking and I’m not sure if Petra fully uncovers the horrifying details of Jim’s betrayal, as that chapter is told from Gui’s POV. The author describes the grimy backstreets of Paris in fetid detail, and captures the delicate confections of the patisserie with the knowledge of an expert baker. I was initially attracted to this book by the deliciously beautiful cover, and the content matched it perfectly. This is a great debut and I look forward to whatever Laura Madeleine writes next. Highly recommended.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 5/5

Amazon

Stacking the Shelves #7

Hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves, a regular meme hosted by Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the latest books you have added to your shelves, physical or virtual.  This means you can include books you buy in store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts, and of course e-books! Here is my haul from this week.

Approved Netgalley requests

Netgalley approved a few more of my requests this week, about which I am very excited. I received Rogue by Julie Kagawa, Broken Juliet by Leisa Rayven, and Inherit the Stars by Tessa Elwood, the latter of which isn’t published until December and doesn’t even have a cover yet.

Purchased from Amazon

Amazon sent me my pre-order of Overruled by Emma Chase, and from Audible I purchased Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn. I’m a big fan of both these authors.

Purchased from Audible

iBooks had Holly Smale‘s Geek Girl for free this week, so I grabbed that one as well. Can’t go past a freebie!

Freebie from iBooks

Not bad. Keep an eye out for my reviews of these in coming weeks. So what new books did you pick up this week? Let me know in the comments.

The Duchess of Love, by Sally MacKenzie

Format: Kindle Edition, 106 pages

Published: April 24, 2012

Publisher: Zebra

Back cover blurb:

A Duke In Disguise…

The day was as hot as the pond was inviting. It’s not as if anyone in Little Huffington was going to happen upon a secluded vale on the Duke of Greycliffe’s lands. And Venus Collingswood didn’t want to get her shift all wet. It was the perfect setting in which to plan her lovely bookworm of a sister’s betrothal to the mysterious new duke arriving seven days hence. If only she had a suitable accomplice…

Andrew Valentine, Duke of Greycliffe, never thought arriving at his own household a week early would cause so much trouble. The housekeeper thinks he’s his own cousin. Actually, the chance to not be the duke for a while is a pleasant opportunity indeed. It might even help him interrogate the delectable little nymph he’s discovered swimming in his pond—if he can manage to get a word in edgewise…

My review:

It is quite clear MacKenzie is a fan of Colin Firth diving in the pond at Pemberley… so it’s a good thing I am as well 😉 As I read this novella, I could just picture all the events of the story happening on the set of Pride and Prej – in fact, the beginning few lines had me expecting someone to cry “Netherfield Park is let at last!”.

P&P aside, I enjoyed the story, although things progressed incredibly quickly for them to be credible, particularly for the period. The cover is pretty, too, but isn’t how I imagined Venus would look. This is the prequel to a series about Venus and Drew’s sons, and I’d quite like to know what becomes of Aphrodite and Nicholas, so I may have to continue with this series.

My rating: 4/5