Novelas Romanticas Gratis

I started reading this novel, and I must confess I was a bit confused.  It seemed to start right in the middle of Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary's life.  I quickly realized there is a book before Sisi that begins with Sisi's early life and marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph, and the difficulties she had adjusting to life as an Empress in the stifling Austrian court. I recommend you read  The Accidental Empress before you tackle Sisi so that you may get the complete story of Sisi's incredible life and tragic death.   With that being said, after a quick history lesson on Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, I was ready to keep reading, and I was impressed at the research Allison Pataki put into this historical novel.  The Austro-Hungarian Empire of the mid 1800's was vast, and a powerhouse.  Sisi's husband, Franz Joseph, was born and raised to be an Emperor.  His mother, Archduchess Sophie ruled the court, and Sisi always felt like a failure,...

I recently had the opportunity to talk to a class of graduate students in library science about my blog.  This class was discussing The Hive  for that week's look at the chick lit genre, and so I took the opportunity to read the book so I could take part in the discussion.  I realized just how much I had missed reading British women's fiction that could be classified as chick lit, a genre that has evolved since the term was first coined.   I am a big geek when it comes to British authors writing about contemporary British women.  I was surprised and charmed by this novel, which centered around a group of women who all had children attending St. Ambrose school in a town outside of London. The "queen bee" of the group was Beatrice.  She somehow managed to always get everyone else to do all the work, while she took credit for everything.  And somehow, the women in the group thought she was just fantastic.  Rachel is a children's book illustrator...

First of all, I must state that I love Kathy Griffin.  As she says, she is a comedian 24/7 and doesn't know how to be anything else.  Not many people are truly their authentic selves, but Kathy is and makes no apologies about it.  It's refreshing to see a woman who has such a firm grasp on who she is and is able to laugh about herself.   Second, if you do decide to read this book, you MUST listen to the audio.  It's just not going to be the same if you read it.  Kathy's 7 disc audio book made my commute this week something I actually looked forward to and kept me sitting in my car when I got to work, reluctant to stop the CD and step out of the car.  Kathy Griffin has been part of the Hollywood scene for a long time--well over 20 years.  There is no wonder that her and Joan Rivers were very good friends. Listening to this audio made me realize that Kathy is one extremely hard working comedian; she jokes about taking every job she can; doing ...

I thought it was appropriate to review this book the night before Valentine's Day.  It's a sweet memoir about heartbreak, and the search for love--with a bit of Shakespeare thrown in to help illustrate the twisty road of love. Glenn Dixon is a high school English teacher from Canada who travels to Verona one summer to become one of the small group of people who answer letters written to Juliet Capulet of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet . People all around the world write thousands of letters to Juliet, asking for advice for their weary hearts. There is a staff of people who spend their days handwriting responses back to people and mailing them off.  They are known as the "secretaries of Juliet".   Glenn teaches Romeo and Juliet to his high school students every year, so it's easy to see why he wants to travel to Verona to stay in the city where the epic play of dueling families, forbidden love, and tragedy took place centuries ago.  Or did it?  There are some ...

I recently read Brunonia Barry's first novel, The Lace Reader , and I have to admit, it wasn't what I expected from all the reviews I'd read.  I can say, however, that The Fifth Petal was a very satisfying read and everything I hoped it would be--yay! First of all, the cover is pretty amazing.  Just absolutely beautiful, and certainly echoes the feel of the story.  Even if I hadn't been aware of this novel, if I'd been in a bookstore I would have picked it up just because of the cover.   So, on with the review.  This story picks up in late 2014 in Salem, MA.  There had been a previous unsolved crime that had happened on Halloween night in 1989 that left three young women dead, a respected scholar crazy, and the young daughter of one of the victims traumatized.  Rose, the respected scholar of Salem's witch trials, wanders the streets of Salem, talking to trees and muttering about the banshee that she contains within her to keep it from killing oth...

I always start out a new year with a whole bunch of reading rules in my head.  I look at what I read the year before, see the patterns, and decide I have to pay attention to the genres that didn't get much reading from me.  Chick lit is still one of my favorite genres, but it certainly has gone through a bit of a change since I read Jemima J by Jane Green years ago. I still love my Jenny Colgan, my Jane Green, my Katie Fforde; my fun and frothy novels.  But  I have to say, there's a new chick lit in town, and it's the woman/dysfunctional marriage/drama/maybe someone will die/oh there's a twist   sub-genre .  I think it's still chick lit, but a much darker side.  These novels are definitely written with a female audience in mind: Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, The Woman in Cabin Ten ...you get the picture.  My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry fits into that category, but it is different from the other novels I've mentioned above.  It sounded intr...

Well, I kicked off February with a fantastic tale of love and marriage during the Civil War.   I confess I might have a little crush on Gryffth Hockaday.  This was one surprisingly good read, and will probably be one of my favorites of the year.   Placidia is a young woman living on her father's plantation in South Carolina in 1863. A chance meeting with Major Hockaday, who has come to buy a horse, sparks an attraction between the two that they both seem utterly unable to resist.  Hockaday asks for Placidia's hand in marriage, and they are married a mere two days later.  Riding through the night to reach Hockaday's farm (Holland Creek), they begin their marriage tentatively. Before they can settle in, Hockaday is called away to battle, and Placidia is left to run the farm on her own, with just a few slaves to help with the crops.  Hockaday has also left his two year old son Charles to be raised by Placidia.  She's over her head...