THE MARLOWE PAPERS: A NOVEL IN VERSE (ROS BARBER)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Hodder|May 7, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 9781444737394

You’re the author of the greatest plays of all time.  But nobody knows. 

And if it gets out, you’re dead.  On May 30, 1593, a celebrated young playwright was killed in a tavern brawl in London.  That, at least, was the official version.  Now Christopher Marlowe reveals the truth: that his “death” was an elaborate ruse to avoid a conviction of heresy, that he was spirited across the English Channel to live on in lonely exile; that he continue to write plays and poetry, hiding behind the name of a colorless man from Stratford – on William Shakespeare.

With the grip of a thriller and the emotional force of a sonnet, this remarkable novel in verse gives voice to a man who was brilliant, passionate, and mercurial.  A cobbler’s son who counted nobles among his friends, a spy in the Queen’s service, a fickle lover and a declared religious skeptic,  Christopher Marlowe always courted trouble.  Memoir, love letter, confession, and settling of accounts, “The Marlowe Papers” brings Christopher Marlowe and his era to vivid life. 

My Review:

As we know, on May 30, 1593, a celebrated young playwright was killed in a tavern brawl in London.  That was the “official” version of the story, however.  The “real truth” is that Christopher Marlowe’s death was an elaborate ruse to avoid his being hanged for heresy.  He was then taken across the channel to live a long, lonely exile, all the while longing for his true love and pining for the damp streets of London.  He continued to write plays and poetry hiding behind the name of a colorless man from Stratford named William Shakespeare. 

Although I loved the entire story, I was a bit put out by it being written in verse.  I understand the reasons for penning the book in this way but think I would have found it more enjoyable had it not been written in verse.  I’m not at all saying the book was unreadable, I just felt very uncomfortable with this style of writing.  I am going to give it a second read to see if I can come to accept it more the second time around. 

Thank you to Hachette UK Canada for sending me the book which I won in their contest. 

 



THE HOUSE AT THE END OF HOPE STREET (MEENA VAN PRAAG)

Story Description:

Pamela Dorman Books|April 9, 2013|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-670-78463-9

A magical debut novel about an enchanted house that offers refuge to women in their time of need. 

Distraught that her academic career has stalled, Alba is walking through her hometown of Cambridge, England, when she finds herself in front of a house she’s never seen before, 11 Hope Street.  A beautiful older woman named Peggy greets her and invites her to stay, on the house’s usual conditions: she has ninety-nine nights to turn her life around.  With nothing left to lose, Alba takes a chance and moves in. 

She soon discovers that this is no ordinary house.  Past residents have included Virginia Woolf and Dorothy Parker, who, after receiving the assistance they needed, hung around to help newcomers literally, in talking portraits on the wall.  As she escapes into this new world, Alba begins a journey that will heal her wounds and maybe even save her life. 

Filled with colourful and unforgettable cast of literary figures, The House at the End of Hope Street is a charming, whimsical novel of hope and feminine wisdom that is sure to appeal to fans of Jasper Fforde and especially Sarah Addison Allen. 

My Review:

A magical book, an enchanted house, a cast of characters who previously lived there but remain on the walls in photographs to be talked to whenever the desire strikes you.  Florence Nightingale, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath to name a few.  This whimsical house lives and breathes, the walls moving in and out like a heartbeat, the lampshades bowing to get a closer look at you.  The mysterious and magical 82-year-old Peggy who runs 11 Hope Street is a kind and wise woman. 

Fans of Sarah Addison Allen will love this novel.  I put it in the same category as Allen’s novel and the book Night Circus.  A beautifully written, happy, magical story that is a very rare treat!  A book you won’t want to see end.  Alba, Carmen, Greer, Stella and Peggy are characters I won’t soon forget.   They are all there for different reasons and the house knows exactly what each woman needs.   

I lived at 11 Hope Street from the time I read the first chapter.  I couldn’t have forced myself to leave even if I had wanted to.  I loved the happiness, the love, the caring and the warmth the house enveloped me in.  The house knows what you need.  You may think you need one thing but the house won’t give it to you unless you really do need it.  It’s the house that decides and does and provides you with what you truly and sincerely need in your life. 

I will be keeping this as part of my permanent collection and am going to read it again before I  put it away on my shelf for a while, that’s how much I enjoyed this book and I know you will too.  I highly, highly recommend this book for everyone.  If I could rate it at a one thousand, I would!  For a debut novel, this is an unbelievable story, a story you’ll absolutely fall in love with.

 

THE WISHING TREE (MARYBETH WHALEN)

Story Description:

Zondervan|May 24, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-310-33488-0

In The Wishing Tree, Ivy Marshall, a savvy, determined woman, finds out her husband has cheated on her on the same day her sister’s perfect boyfriend proposes on national television.  When Ivy’s mother asks her to return to her family’s beach home to plan her sister’s upcoming wedding, she decides to use the excuse to escape from the pain of her circumstances.  When her return to Sunset Beach, North Carolina, brings her face to face with her former fiancé, old feelings rise to the surface and she wonders if there is a future for them.  However, her husband has started tweeting his apology to her and doesn’t want to give up on their marriage.  As she helps prepare the wishing tree for her sister’s wedding, she must examine her own wishes for the future and decide what love should be. 

My Review:

Ivy Marshall worked for her father, Simon in one of his commercial real estate offices.  He was on the phone telling Ivy that he was going to have to close their Asheville office, the very one she’s worked in for four years.  Great, now she was going to be without a job.  However, she really wasn’t all that surprised because she’d just told her husband, Elliot last night during dinner.  The good thing was that it would take about two months to close the office down so they’d have time to wrap up recent projects and give employees time to find other jobs.  The bad thing was that she and Elliot wouldn’t be able to keep their house without her income. 

Lately, Ivy and Elliot haven’t communicated much, mostly about what food items needed to be replenished or what bills needed to be paid.  She wasn’t worried about telling him she was losing her job as that fell under the category of “business” and that’s the only thing they seemed to talk about – nothing personal. 

Margot, Ivy’s mother called just as she was leaving the office.  After the day she’d had she just wanted to go home and take a hot bath.  Her emotions were just a tad unstable, but now Margot was adding to her already emotionally charged psyche by telling her that her sister, Shea was going to be proposed to on national television tomorrow.  Margot want Ivy to come home for the weekend to congratulate her sister in person but that’s the last thing Ivy felt like doing.  Since tomorrow was Valentine’s Day she could just tell her mother she didn’t want to leave Elliot alone on Valentine’s Day weekend.  The last time Ivy had spoken to Shea was three months ago, their relationship was somewhat strained so Ivy wasn’t all that excited about her sister’s engagement because she was going to have the wedding she never had – at Sunset Beach. 

The following day didn’t pan out so well for Ivy either.  After having to sit through the nationally televised proposal to her sister, she also found out that Elliot had cheated on her!  What else could go wrong in this poor woman’s life?  Ivy wasn’t in the mood for talking with Elliot and thought about what she could do.  Then it dawn on her, she would go home to Sunset Beach, North Carolina and help finish up planning Shea’s wedding.  Although it was already May and the wedding was set for mid-June, there would still be lots to do.  She could also help her Aunt Leah out in her shop – Seaside Bakery.  And, by going home and helping with the wedding, she wouldn’t have to tell her family about her and Elliot’s crumbling marriage.  They all new she was out of a job and had the time to help.  She might even be able to see he ex-fiance , Michael and who knows what might strike up with him. 

Ivy drove home and went immediately to her bedroom and retrieved the suitcase.  As she was packing she heard Elliot come into the room but Ivy so not wanted to talk to him.  Of course he apologized for his transgression and said he still wanted to make it work but Ivy said nothing.  When he asked where she was going she only replied: “home.”  Elliot carried her suitcase to the car and Ivy drove off without a good-bye. 

Seeing Shea for the first time was a tad awkward, but like the two adults they are now they were amicable toward each other.   Margot immediately pulled out her wedding binder that she’d made and decided the three of them needed to divvy up the remaining items on the list.  Ivy has been put in charge of The Wishing Tree which involves mailing out tags to each wedding guest to write down ‘wishes’ for the newly married couple.  Then Ivy is to ensure that all those wishes get hung on the tree for the Bride and Groom to read later.  It’s been a tradition in their family for a long time.  But as Ivy helps ready the tree for Shea’s wedding she must look deep within herself at her own future and what she believes true love should be.  Can she reconcile with what Elliot has done?  Is she too wrapped up in thinking about her ex, Michael?  Or, will she decide true love is loving herself first and remain on her own? 

The Wishing Tree is definitely a book about forgiveness.  It’s also a beautifully written story of love, loss, betrayal, hope, grace, and finding one’s way back from the brink.  You can’t allow bitterness and situations already washed under the bridge to affect the here and now or your future.  Everyone deserves forgiveness and true grace.  We’re not perfect people but when it comes from a place of faith and a deep understanding of your true heart’s desire, then you need to accept what is. 

Marybeth Whalen has penned a most gorgeous read.  The Wishing Tree gracefully unravels how tradition, culture and sense of place affect the human heart.  Well-done!

 

THE SILENCE OF BONAVENTURE ARROW (RITA LEGANSKI)

Story Description:

HarperCollins Publishers|February 15, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-211376-4

Conceived in love and possibility, Bonaventure Arrow didn’t make a peep when he was born, and the doctor nearly took him for dead.  No one knows that Bonaventure’s silence is filled with resonance – a miraculous gift of rarified hearing that encompasses the Universe of Every Single Sound.  Growing up in the big house on Christopher Street in Bayou Cymbaline, Bonaventure can hear flowers grow, a thousand shades of blue, and the miniature tempests that rage inside raindrops.  He can also hear the gentle voice of his father, William Arrow, shot dead before Bonaventure was born by a mysterious stranger known only as the Wanderer. 

Bonaventure’s remarkable gift of listening promises salvation to the souls who love him: his beautiful young mother, Dancy haunted by the death of her husband; his Grand-mere Letice, plagued by grief and a long-buried guilt she locks away in a chapel; and his father, William, who’s roaming spirit must fix the wreckage of the past.  With the help of Trinidad Prefontaine, a Creole housekeeper endowed with her own special gifts, Bonaventure will find the key to long-buried mysteries and soothe a chorus of family secrets clamoring to be healed. 

My Review:

Well, this is the second time today I’ve posted a book that I didn’t like.  This one I tried to read many, many times, trying hard to convince myself that I was thoroughly enjoying the story.  But the sad truth was, I wasn’t, at all.  Just something about this story struck me as silly and uninteresting which came as a great disappointment to me as I’d heard so much hype about this novel.  People were raving about it, I had friends telling me about it, but sadly, I just didn’t like it at all.

Not much else to say on the matter I suppose.  I know a lot of people did enjoy it so that’s a plus.

 

 

A MIDWIFE'S TALE: A MYSTERY (SAM THOMAS)

Story Description:

St. Martin’s Press|January 8, 2013|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-1-250-01076-6

In the tradition of Arianna Franklin and C. J. Sansom comes Samuel Thomas’s remarkable debut, The Midwife’s Tale. 

It is 1644, and Parliament’s armies have risen against the King and laid siege to the city of York.  Even as the city suffers at the rebel’s hands, midwife Bridget Hodgson becomes embroiled in a different sort of rebellion.  One of Bridget’s friends, Esther Cooper, has been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to be burnt alive.  Convinced that her friend is innocent, Bridget sets out to find the real killer. 

Bridget joins forces with Martha Hawkins, a servant who’s far more skilled with a knife than any respectable woman ought to be.  To save Esther from the stake, they must dodge rebel artillery, confront a murderous figure from Martha’s past, and capture a brutal killer who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks.  The investigation takes Bridget and Martha from the homes of the city’s most powerful families to the alleyways of its poorest neighborhoods.  As they delve into the life of Esther’s murdered husband they discover that his ostentatious Puritanism hid a deeply sinister secret life, and that far too often tyranny and treason go hand in hand. 

My Review:

Okay, so I’ve had this book now for six months since it came out in January.  I have attempted to read it twice each month since that time and just cannot get into it at all.  I even selected different locations inside and outside the house to sit and read to see if it would somehow make a difference but it was all to no avail.

I don’t think it’s a bad book in any way it’s just not a book that I was interested in.  Hopefully, someone else out there might appreciate it more than I did. 

Sorry folks.

 

THE QUARRYMAN'S DAUGHTER (TRACIE PETERSON)

Story Description:

Baker Publishing Group|June 1, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7642-0620-7

Emmalyne Knox and Tavin McLachlan were destined to be together…until the tragic deaths of Emmalyne’s youngest sisters.  Family tradition mandates that the youngest daughter should remain single to care for her parents in their old age, and now that daughter is Emmalyne.  Her father unyielding, Emmalyne surrenders to her duty, heartbroken.  Tavin leaves town, equally devastated. 

Years later, Emmalyne’s family moves, and she and Tavin meet again.  Their feelings for each other are as strong as ever, but their painful past and Emmalyne’s father still stand between them.  Soon both families are in the midst of the growing conflict rising between the workers at the granite quarry that Tavin’s father owns and operates.  When a series of near-fatal accidents occur, Tavin must figure out who is behind the attacks before someone gets killed. 

Bound by obligation, yet yearning for a future together, can Emmalyne and Tavin dare to dream that God could heal a decade-long wound and change the hearts of those who would stand in the way of true love? 

My Review:

It is April of 1886 and, Emmalyne Knox, seventeen-years-old and engaged to marry Tavin MacLachlan in just two months stood at the side of the two graves.  Her two younger sisters, Doreen aged fourteen and, Lorna aged ten had been killed in a tornado.  Along with the loss of her two sisters, was the loss of their family home.  The house was now nothing but a pile of wood. 

Her mother, Rowena and father, Luthias shook hands with other mourners who had come to pay their respects.  Her father’s anger was evident to everyone present.  Emmalyne’s younger brother, Angus just barely twelve-years-old stood with his family not knowing what to do.  Luthias was a harsh and angry man and Emmalyne had grown up fearing him.  She had never witnessed or received gentleness or kindness from her father, and she seriously doubted he was capable of either. 

The MacLachlan family had been gracious enough to allow the Knox family to stay with them after the tornado.  After all, they were just about family anyway with Emmalyne and Tavin getting married.  Everyone was returning to their carriages as the grave diggers began throwing dirt atop the small caskets they had just lowered into the ground. 

Tavin spoke up to say he was going to walk Emmalyne back to his house when her father, Luthias interrupted and told him: “No, you won’t be doin that.”  He then proclaimed: “We’re movin to Minneapolis.”  Mrs. MacLaclan piped right up away and responded: “But surely nae until after the wedding…tis but a few weeks away.”  Luthias replied: “There will be no weddin.”  Emmalyne was stunned and Tavin asked: “What are you saying sir?”  Luthias said: “I’m sayin the weddin is off.  Emmalyne has a responsibility to her own family.  With her younger sisters dead and her older sisters married, it falls to her to remain and care for her mother and me.” 

Emmalyne had forgotten all about the TRADITION!  With her two youngest sisters dead, that now made HER the youngest daughter, and in the Knox family lineage that made her responsible to give up a life of her own to care for her aging parents.  It had been done that way for generations.  So, there definitely would be no wedding.  Emmalyne fought back tears and nausea as everything she planned fell to pieces in front of her.  The tornado had not only taken the lives of her sisters and destroyed their home; it had cost Emmalyne her future. 

Tavin tried to convince Emmalyne to elope that very night before her family left for Minneapolis in the morning, but Emmalyne said she just couldn’t go against her father’s word or the word of God.  Tavin was upset and angry and told her: “Your days will be long…and no doubt very lonely” and he stormed out of the room without another word.  Emmalyne cried and didn’t know what was worse, her father’s anger, God’s judgment, or Tavin’s wrath and disappointment.  Somewhere in the middle of all this were the shattered remains of her heart. 

It would be eleven years, in 1897 before Emmalyne would see Tavin again.  She was now twenty-eight-years-old yet her broken heart had never really healed, no matter the amount of time she spent in prayer or reading God’s word.  Misery and suffering were her only companions. 

Will Emmalyne and Tavin pick up where they left off, or has Tavin already moved on and married? 

The Quarryman’s Daughter was a beautiful love story and showed the power of prayer and if we put our faith in God, together we can move mountains. 

I would like to thank Baker House Publishing for sending me a copy of this book.  The opinions expressed above are purely my own and I received no remuneration for my review. 

 

A STEP OF FAITH - BOOK FOUR IN A SERIES OF FIVE (RICHARD PAUL EVANS)

Story Description:

Simon & Schuster|May 7, 2013|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-1-4516-2829-6

“Life is not lived in the long, downhill stretches of expressways, but in the obscure, perilous trails and back roads where we stumble and feel our way through the fog of our unknowing.  Life is not a run.  It is just one step of faith after another.” 

Alan Christoffersen lost his heart when his wife was killed in an accident almost one year ago.  He lost his trust when his business partner stole his advertising business.  He lost his home when the bank took his house.  So Alan decided to leave his painful memories behind and walk from Seattle to the farthest point on the map, Key West, but in St. Louis, he is forced to stop. 

Because his severe vertigo is diagnosed as the side effect of a brain tumor, Alan must go to Los Angeles for treatment.  He is surrounded by those who care most for him: his father, who is happy to have Alan back in his childhood home; Falene, who has been by his side through his most difficult times; and Nicole, who helped him recover from a mugging in Spokane.  One by one, Alan alienates them all, and he resumes his journey in angry loneliness.  The people he meets as he walks the dusty southern back roads has lessons to teach Alan about accepting love.  He just has to have faith that life can be worth living again – and that the woman he rejected will be willing to forgive him. 

My Review:

A Step of Faith is a beautiful treasure to behold.  The continuing story of Alan’s walk from Seattle to Key West, Florida is filled with beautiful imagery, historical facts, and wonderful people.  However, Alan finds himself in a couple of rather precarious and downright frightening situations in this fourth novel of the series. 

Alan, back in California for brain surgery, ends up alienating everyone who has rallied around him to support him during this terrible time.  He closes himself off and gives the impression he doesn’t care and everyone walks away thinking that is what he wants.  Alan has a lot to learn from the folks he meets on this particular part of his journey.  One of the two women is deeply in love with Alan and is disappointed and heartbroken over his behaviour and pens him a long letter.  I just hope she eventually forgives her because Alan needs her. 

I so didn’t want this book to end and when it did I was wishing it was May 2014 so I’d have the next installment.  Richard’s books are always so well-written that it’s literally impossible to pace yourself in order to make the book last longer.  Each time I pick up one of his novels I know I’m in for a rare treat. 

A Step of Faith is a marvelous story and a completely joyful read.  Thank you, Richard!