Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran

Summary

When the British Empire sets its sights on India in the 1850s, it expects a quick and easy conquest. After all, India is not even a country, but a collection of kingdoms on the subcontinent. But when the British arrive in the Kingdom of Jhansi, expecting its queen to forfeit her crown, they are met with a surprise. Instead of surrendering, Queen Lakshmi raises two armies—one male, one female—and rides into battle like Joan of Arc. Although her soldiers are little match against superior British weaponry and training, Lakshmi fights against an empire determined to take away the land she loves.


Told from the perspective of Sita, one of the guards in Lakshmi's all-female army and the queen’s most trusted warrior, The Last Queen of India traces the astonishing tale of a fearless ruler making her way in a world dominated by men. In the tradition of her bestselling novel Nefertiti, which Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, called “a heroic story with a very human heart,” Michelle Moran once again brings a time and place rarely explored in historical fiction to rich, vibrant life.

Review

I enjoyed this book. To be honest, I love Indian culture and thought I'd like it a lot more, but I feel the ending was perhaps a bit rushed. The character has great development and I love seeing the world through her eyes. And even though I felt the ending was perhaps rushed, it does complete the story to a 'mostly' satisfactory ending.

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The Complete Persepolis by Marijane Satrapi

Summary

Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed memoir-in-comic-strips.

Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom--Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.

Review

I loved this book! It brought a lot of information from the Iran area in the 80s' and 90's, and myself being from America during this time had no idea what life was like in Iran at this time. I thought it was enlightening, showing that the regular people who live there are not all extremists and terrorists like we've been led to believe. The stories are real, and make the characters relate-able, as you can see their perspective. This was a great read and I'm sure will stay with me for a long time.

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The Origin Mystery by A.G. Riddle

The Origin Mystery series includes: Atlantis Gene, Atlantis Plague, and Atlantis World.

Summary

THE ATLANTIS GENE is a thought-provoking techno-thriller about global genetic experiments, ancient conspiracies, and the mysteries of human evolution. Its complex characters and historical and scientific details will stay with you long after you finish. This sci-fi adventure is the first book in A.G. Riddle’s Origin Mystery Series.

Review

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Delilah by Angela Hunt

Summary

This is the third in a series, called Dangerous Beauty, but is also a standalone story. This tells the story of Delilah, a foreigner in Gaza, who's life is turned upside down when her stepfather dies. This story tells her struggle over the next few years, finding safety and trying to survival in a time of the Palestine rule. During her stay she hears of Samson, the son of the Israelite who is fighting the Palestine's on his own, and decides to attempt to seek his help in her own revenge.

Review

The writing is well done, and very easy to understand. The descriptions of the world are good, especially when discussing social aspects. The world is built well, with enough history given, but without overloading with too much information or facts. Although the writing is good, the character development is mediocre. The main character never really learns her lesson until it is much too late, and is hell bent on revenge before anything else. There isn't a lot of opportunity for growth, though she struggles in the beginning, it would be more empowering to see her 'fall' be a little more dramatic as far as her standards she was used to. It's mentioned but I feel that her emotions could've been better explored. For a 'biblical fiction' I enjoyed the story and historical information.

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House of Bathory by Linda Lafferty

Summary

In the early 1600s, Elizabeth Báthory, the infamous Blood Countess, ruled Čachtice Castle in the hinterlands of Slovakia. During bizarre nightly rites, she tortured and killed the young women she had taken on as servants. A devil, a demon, the terror of Royal Hungary — she bathed in their blood to preserve her own youth.

400 years later, echoes of the Countess’s legendary brutality reach Aspen, Colorado. Betsy Path, a psychoanalyst of uncommon intuition, has a breakthrough with sullen teenager Daisy Hart. Together, they are haunted by the past, as they struggle to understand its imprint upon the present. Betsy and her troubled but perceptive patient learn the truth: the curse of the House of Bathory lives still and has the power to do evil even now.

The story, brimming with palace intrigue, memorable characters intimately realized, and a wealth of evocative detail, travels back and forth between the familiar, modern world and a seventeenth-century Eastern Europe brought startlingly to life.

Review

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Shadows of Asphodel by Karen Kincy

Summary

R1913. Austria-Hungary. Ardis knows better than to save a man on the battlefield. Even if he manages to be a charming bastard while bleeding out in the snow. She hasn't survived this long as a mercenary without some common sense.

When she rescues Wendel, it isn't because he's devilishly handsome, but because he's a necromancer. His touch can revive the dead, and Ardis worries he will return from the grave to hunt her down. Besides, a necromancer can be useful in this world on the brink of war.

A gentleman of questionable morals, Wendel drops to one knee and pledges his undying loyalty to Ardis. She resists falling for him, no matter how hot the tension smolders between them. Especially when she discovers Wendel's scars run much deeper than his skin, and it might be too late to truly save him from himself.

Review

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The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta

Summary

What if — whoosh, right now, with no explanation — a number of us simply vanished? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down? That's what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since it happened — not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children.

Kevin Garvey, Mapleton's new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin's own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence; his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne. Only Kevin's teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she's definitely not the sweet "A" student she used to be. Kevin wants to help her, but he's distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she struggles to move beyond it and make a new start.

With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta has written a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.

Review

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Inamorata by Megan Chance

Summary

American artist Joseph Hannigan and his alluring sister, Sophie, have arrived in enchanting nineteenth-century Venice with a single-minded goal. The twins, who have fled scandal in New York, are determined to break into Venice’s expatriate set and find a wealthy patron to support Joseph’s work.

But the enigmatic Hannigans are not the only ones with a secret agenda. Joseph’s talent soon attracts the attention of the magnificent Odilé Leon, a celebrated courtesan and muse who has inspired many artists to greatness. But her inspiration comes with a devastatingly steep price.

As Joseph falls under the courtesan’s spell, Sophie joins forces with Nicholas Dane, the one man who knows Odilé’s dark secret, and her sworn enemy. When the seductive muse offers Joseph the path to eternal fame, the twins must decide who to believe—and just how much they are willing to sacrifice for fame.

Review

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Under the Dome by Stephen King

Summary

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.
Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

Review

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Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman

Summary

"Two little girls banished from a neighborhood birthday party take a wrong turn down an unfamiliar Baltimore street and encounter an abandoned stroller with an infant inside. What happens next is shocking and terrible, and three families are irreparably destroyed.

Seven years later, Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, now eighteen, are released from "kid prison" to begin their lives over again. But the secrets swirling around the original crime continue to haunt the parents, the lawyers, the police all the adults in Alice and Ronnie's lives. And now another child has disappeared, under freakishly similar circumstances ..."

Review

I was a little skeptical when beginning Every Secret Thing. I was worried it would be dramatic and morbid, but was immediately drawn into the world of the characters. There are many different characters and sub-plots so that this book creates its own world with its myriad of characters. After seeing things from each characters perspective its almost impossible to not sympathize with them to some degree. The plot took a turn I did not quite expect, and I was hooked into the story so that I wanted to find out what happened. It didn't leave many loose-ends and I felt a nice resolution at the end of the book.

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