Trying to Catch Up on Reviews

 

I'm so far behind in my book reviews that I didn't know where to start until I took a deep breath and realized that the best place to begin was with the books that have been waiting the longest. 

These catch-up reviews are going to be short and sweet, but at least you'll have an idea of what pages I've been turning the past few months! (I'll also provide links to Amazon in each title if you want to learn more about any of the books.)

Let's get started!

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths

#1 Ali Dawson mystery

Rating: A

My Thoughts: Many of you know that I love Elly Griffiths' writing so much that I pre-order the UK editions of her books. In this book, she combines two of my favorites: mystery and time travel. 

A local MP sends time traveler Ali Dawson back to 1850 to answer a question about an ancestor. Good plot twists, a good sense of humor, and a good setup for the next book in the series. I loved fifty-year-old Ali Dawson with her fire engine red hair, working class roots, three ex-husbands, her son Finn, and her Siamese cat, Terry.

Bring on the next book, Elly!

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

Standalone Golden Age thriller

Rating: A

My Thoughts: Told from the point of view of Dorothy L. Sayers, five bestselling mystery writers band together against the misogynistic males of the Detection Club to prove they're every bit (if not better) than the men.

The five women: Sayers, Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Agatha Christie. I enjoyed how these women approached the investigation and learned how to play to each other's strengths. 

Yes, this is very similar to Rosanne Limoncelli's The Four Queens of Crime, but I much preferred this one.

The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice by Simon Parkin

Non-Fiction

Rating: A

My Thoughts: In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad and began the longest blockade in recorded history, one that would ultimately claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people. 

I learned so much from this book, not only about the siege of Leningrad, but also about seed banks, their importance, and the lives of the botanists who chose to risk starvation in order to preserve those seeds. Mind-boggling history that I couldn't devour fast enough. (Somehow the pun seemed inevitable. Sorry.)

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

Standalone Historical Mystery

Rating: B+

My Thoughts: Lawhon's The Frozen River was one of my Best Reads of 2024. I was so impressed that I wanted to read more of her work.

Once again inspired by a real-life unsolved mystery, Lawhon spins the tale of Judge Joseph Crater, a man who steps into a cab and disappears just as rumors of corruption begin to  circulate about him. Thirty-nine years later, his wife Stella is ready to reveal what she knows. It's a story that involves not only Stella herself, but a showgirl named Ritzi and the Craters' maid, Maria Simon.

This was so entertaining that I will be looking for more of Ariel Lawhon's books. She's one of my favorite discoveries of the past two years.

Well, I made a little dent in my list of reviews. Have you already read any of these books? Which ones? What did you think of them? Or... did I tempt you to add any of them to your own reading lists? Inquiring minds would love to know!

Ye Olde Antique Shoppe: The Edward V Coin by Margaret Brazear

 

First Line: It came as no surprise to Rachel that she would inherit everything from the last of her spinster aunts.

 

When Rachel's spinster aunt dies, her inheritance includes an unexpected addition: an antique shop that hasn't been opened for over sixty years. Rachel can't help it; she has pound signs dancing in her head. The sale of the London properties and all the contents should give her enough money to pursue her dream of having her own fashion house and designer label.

 

She takes her friend, Peter Attwood, to the shop with her, thinking that his expertise as an archaeologist and historian will help to give her an idea of what the shop's contents may be worth, but they find more than they expected. They find a coin minted at the time of young King Edward V-- a coin that's worth an absolute fortune-- but when they try to take it out of the shop, they find themselves in the year 1483, the year the coin was minted. Stepping back into the shop, Peter persuades Rachel to dress in historical costumes found in the back of the building so they can venture out into the world of the young princes in the Tower.

 

But their adventures don't go as smoothly as they'd hoped.

 

~

 

I'm one of those annoying people who'd love to step into a time machine and go on adventures, so how could I ignore Margaret Brazear's Ye Olde Antique Shoppe series? It has a wonderful premise. An antique store that's not been open for over sixty years. A coin that takes a person into another time when it's removed from the building. Period costumes aplenty to use as camouflage...

For the most part, the premise lived up to its promise, but there were two things that irritated me a bit. One was the proofreader who was unable to tell when to use "past" instead of "passed." This happened several times and is such an easy fix. The second irritation concerned the characters. Rachel is in it for the money. She's a Here & Now Girl who doesn't give a hoot about the past or anything else other than gathering up the money for her fashion house. Okay. She and I aren't going to be BFFs, but that's not the thing that bothered me the most. What really made me roll my eyes was the fact that she became all fire-breathing feminist when she went back into the past, and she refused to keep her mouth shut even when she learned what the consequences were for her verbal diarrhea. Peter was better-- but not much. For a supposed expert, he was absolute rubbish at planning ahead. This is good for getting characters into scrapes that they have to figure their way out of, but I'd rather have those scrapes be unforeseen circumstances instead of something brought on by a lack of basic logic.

Were Rachel and Peter irritating enough to keep me from continuing with the series? No, at least not enough to keep me from reading the second book. I liked the look into that period of English history, and when the two begin to learn what Rachel's uncle was up to with his magical antique shop and those historical costumes, I wanted to know more. Besides, it's still a marvelous premise, and I want to see how the author develops it.

Ye Olde Antique Shoppe: The Edward V Coin by Margaret Brazear

ASIN: B07C9W8NX4

Margaret Brazear © 2018

eBook, 157 pages

Science Fiction/Time Travel, #1 Ye Olde Antique Shoppe

Rating: B-

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Miss Blaine's Prefect & the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas

First Line: "Who shall I say is calling?"

Shona McGonagle is a self-satisfied middle-aged librarian in Edinburgh, Scotland who fully believes her education at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls has made her ready for anything-- be that an assault on the most repugnant book of all time (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which casts scurrilous untruths about her beloved alma mater) or a trip to Tzarist Russia to prevent a gross miscarriage of romance, and-- in her spare time-- to see to it that only the right people get murdered. It's a tall order, but not for the former Head Girl from Miss Blaine's.

It's been a long time since I've wanted to throw a book against the wall. Normally I've stopped reading and chosen a different book long before that feeling arises. I just don't have time to waste on books that infuriate me.

But I did this time.

It might be because I was in the mood for a book that featured a little time travel, but something tells me that wasn't really it. How Shona got from present-day Edinburgh to Tzarist Russia was never explained, and how she conducted herself was one of the things that infuriated me the most. She was given absolutely no instructions when she arrived. She had a house and a servant at her disposal, a wardrobe full of appropriate attire as well as a pair of Doc Martins and a drawer filled with "multiway bras." She was told, more or less, that she would know what she was supposed to do when she saw it. I've been told that it's unladylike for a female to snort, but I did it anyway. More than once.

Shona proceeds to flounce about from place to place, spraying 21st-century opinions about like a machine gun. She quickly decides that a beautiful young heiress recently returned from exile needs to be married off to a beautiful young man and immediately begins working toward that goal. In almost no time at all, it seems that a tidal wave of elderly, filthy rich women begin falling down staircases and dying. Yes indeed, every time Shona and the beautiful young heiress visit, an old lady dies. Within a few pages, the identity of the killer is obvious, yet Shona never considers it for a second because... it's inconceivable that anyone who's so beautiful could be a homicidal maniac. (I think it's this assumption of hers that infuriated me the most.)

It didn't take me long to realize that I was undoubtedly supposed to read this book as a farce. That in itself is dangerous because farce is pretty hit-or-miss with me. Would my reaction have been more favorable if I had knowledge of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie? Perhaps, but I'm not in the mood to take the time to find out. The real question is: why did I keep reading all the way to the bitter end if the book infuriated me? I did want to find out if Shona ever got any sort of message from headquarters, or if she ever learned what year it was there in Russia. (No and No.) The more I think about it, the more it occurs to me that I was actually enjoying the way the author was saying what she was saying-- and she does have a wonderful sense of humor. There you have it. It's all Olga Wojtas' fault.

The final question is: Do I ever want to meet Shona McGonagle again?

Not on your life.

Miss Blaine's Prefect & the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas

eISBN: 9781631941719

Felony & Mayhem © 2018

eBook, 264 pages

Amateur Sleuth

Rating: D+

Source: Purchased from Amazon. 

The Scribe of Siena by Melodie Winawer

First Line: The problem with being a neurosurgeon is that when the telephone rings, you have to answer it.

Neurosurgeon Beatrice Trovato's deep empathy for her patients has exhausted her. When her beloved brother passes away, she finds herself traveling to Siena, Italy, to settle his estate. Now she not only needs to rest, she also needs to grieve.

As Beatrice begins going through her brother's papers, she finds evidence of a 700-year-old conspiracy to bring ruin to Siena. She uncovers the journal and paintings of fourteenth-century artist Gabriele Accorsi, and when she finds a startling image of her own face in one of his paintings, she is suddenly transported to the year 1347 in a Siena that's soon to be decimated by the Plague. She meets Accorsi, and the longer she knows him and the more she learns about the city, she finds herself falling in love with both. But Siena has a deadly and inevitable date, and Beatrice is going to have to decide in which century she belongs.

I have soft spots in my heart for well-written books about time travel and the Plague. I know they're rather odd topics, but there you are. It's been a long time since I've read a serious time travel novel, and when I heard about Melodie Winawer's The Scribe of Siena, I knew I wanted to read it. Although I did find a couple of minor problems with it, I did enjoy being transported back to medieval Tuscany.

Through watching how Beatrice is with her patients, readers can immediately like her and care what happens to her. That feeling is further cemented when Winawer tells us of the wonderful relationship she had with her brother.  And when she suddenly finds herself in Siena, she doesn't blend seamlessly into the woodwork. No, she gets in trouble for the way she's dressed (she doesn't have the right undergarments for the dress she stole from some poor woman's laundry basket). But she does get a break or two so she can scout around and try to figure out how to get back to the right time period.

Winawer brings medieval Siena to life while she roused my interest in a couple of things. Why was Siena so much harder hit by the Plague than all the other cities in Italy? Was there really an inter-city rivalry between Siena and Florence? That's one of the best things about well-written time travel books: they can jumpstart your curiosity and have you learning all sorts of things.

Earlier, I mentioned finding a couple of problems with The Scribe of Siena. One was that I thought the storyline could've used a slightly larger injection of the Plague to increase tension and suspense. The second was that the book seemed to run out of gas in the last hundred pages. However, this is a debut novel and an extremely enjoyable one at that. Melodie Winawer is an author to watch.

The Scribe of Siena by Melodie Winawer

eISBN: 9781501152276

Touchstone Books © 2017

 eBook, 454 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

My Favorite Time Travel Novels

I'm still having fun sharing my lists, so here's another one. I have a few more in the pipeline, and not all of them concern books so you have that to ponder while you're taking a look at my favorite time travel novels.

Once again, I suppose this list proves that I don't always need to have both feet firmly planted on the ground when I read. Once in a while, I do like to ponder "what if..." and I think that's how I use time travel novels. They give me a chance to imagine what life was like in other eras while still keeping me tethered to the life I have now.

As in my other lists, the books are in no particular order other than the one in which they popped into my mind. Let's take a look to see if any of these are familiar to you! (Click on the caption below each cover to be taken to Amazon to read more about it.)

Originally Bid Time Return, the book is much better than the movie.

The best time travel novel about being black and a slave.

A young woman experiences life as her grandmother.

The book that started a fascination with Scotland.

The Plague? Count me in!

What would you do if you could live your life over again?

What if you had the power to change the course of history?

The book that started my love of time travel.

Three short stories by the Master of Time Travel.

Most of the books on this list have been favorites for decades. My reading in this particular sub-genre has really slackened off in recent years, although I have read and enjoyed the first book in Jodi Taylor's The Chronicles of St. Mary's series, Just One Damned Thing After Another. Speaking of which, I need to move on to the second book now, and... I recently purchased Melodie Winawer's The Scribe of Siena, so there's another time travel novel that I need to read.  When will it ever end?

So... what did you think of my list? Is time travel anything you've ever read and enjoyed? If so, is my list missing any of your favorites? Which ones? You know I'm always on the lookout for books to read! Please share!

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

First Line: There have been two moments in my life when everything changed.

Little did Madeleine Maxwell know, but when she was employed by St. Mary's Institute of Historical Research, she'd just found the perfect job. "Max" becomes a part of St. Mary's historical research team. They don't do "time travel," they "investigate major historical events in contemporary time." The historians of St. Mary's observe and document in order to find the answers to many of history's unanswered questions. But in this first Chronicle of St. Mary's, Max and the others discover that it's not just history they're fighting.

I was in the perfect mood for this book. I've always enjoyed a good time travel tale, and when Max started walking through the venerable halls of St. Mary's and seeing signs labeled "Blast Doors" and "To Sick Bay," I knew I was going to have fun. And this is the major purpose of Jodi Taylor's book-- to have fun. 

To those readers who like plausible explanations and tons of science and techno-speak, you're going to have to look elsewhere. In her acknowledgements, Taylor says, "I made all this up. Historians and physicists-- please do not spit on me in the street." I found Just One Damned Thing After Another to be filled with wit and laugh-out-loud moments. Taylor sets some very simple ground rules for her notion of time travel, and her wonderful character, Madeleine Maxwell, chews through every bit of the scenery with total aplomb. Here's how Max feels about time and punctuality:

Time is important in our organization. If you can't even get to an appointment in your own building on time, they argue, you're not going to have much luck trying to find the Battle of Hastings.

If you're in the mood for something with an intriguing premise and an entertaining mystery, something that's light and loads of fun, you may just enjoy this first Chronicles of St. Mary's book as much as I did. It won't take me long to sample another!
   

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor

eISBN: 9781681468822

Accent Press © 2015

eBook, 328 pages

Time Travel, #1 Chronicles of St. Mary's

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.  


 

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

First Line: He clenches the orange plastic pony in the pocket of his sports coat.

In The Shining Girls, a time-traveling serial killer named Harper Curtis meets Kirby Mazrachi, a young woman who refuses to die.

Stumbling into a house in Depression-Era Chicago that opens into other times, Curtis is compelled to kill young women who are shining with potential, often meeting them as children and telling them that he'll be back. After each killing Curtis simply disappears back into the house and another time period.

Kirby is the last shining girl, the shining girl who survived. She's made a vow to herself to bring her would-be killer to justice and uses her work with Chicago Sun-Times ex-homicide reporter Dan Velasquez towards this goal. The truth-- once she starts homing in on it-- is unbelievable.

I have to admit that I was drawn to this book by its conceit of a time-traveling serial killer. I wanted to see how the author would make this work. She does, but the results are very uneven.

The unevenness begins with the setting. Chicago during many different time periods (beginning with the Depression) would be a marvelous setting for this type of book, and it started out to be here. However, the various Chicago scenes soon felt like two-dimensional stage props, or like name dropping. Instead of bringing me deeper into the story, Chicago was keeping me out.

The characters did the same thing. Curtis the Killer is described as "charming" more than once, but that charm never came across to me. He remained nothing more than a creepy, scary figure in the shadows whom I would hope to face with some sort of real weapon in my hand if we were ever to meet. Kirby, as the  survivor who's trying to bring Curtis to justice, should elicit sympathy from readers, but outside of the very well-written and emotional scene where she is attacked and left for dead, she is anything but sympathetic. The experience has turned Kirby into a distrustful girl who keeps the world at bay with the liberal application of sarcasm. Although this would be a natural reaction to such a horrific event, the reader needs to be able to see past that from time to time. Since I couldn't, Kirby and her mission never really came to life.

The only characters who did in fact shine for me were the "shining girls" that Curtis dispatched so quickly. As Kirby researches what clues she can find, we are allowed to glimpse into these victims' lives and know that they would truly have been extraordinary. Along with Kirby's much-maligned dog Houdini, these are the characters who generated enough interest for me to continue to read the book.

There were also two more points in the book that didn't quite make sense to me. One, the house that allowed Curtis to travel back and forth through time needed to be explained a bit more. Readers are allowed to believe that there's something mystical going on, a strange presence of sorts. Perhaps the author felt this was needed in order to explain the time-traveling process, but I think most readers would prefer thinking the house just does it by methods unknown rather than to have the author mention something but never reveal it in more detail. The second point that bothered me was the clues that Curtis would leave behind at each crime scene. They're very distinctive clues that would stand out as "head scratchers" for certain, yet none of the homicide detectives seem to think they mean anything. I don't think seventy or eighty years' worth of detectives would completely overlook something so obvious and so puzzling.

Despite its unevenness, I did enjoy reading The Shining Girls because it's such an interesting concept, and-- as I mentioned before-- the attack scene with Kirby, Curtis, and Houdini the dog is extremely well written. The book just needed more scenes like those.

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

ISBN: 9780316216852

Mulholland Books © 2013

Hardcover, 384 pages

Standalone thriller

Rating: C+

Source: the publicist 

11-22-63 by Stephen King

First Line: I have never been what you'd call a crying man.

That's what high school English teacher Jake Epping will tell you, if you were to ask. But while grading essays, he's blown away by what GED student and janitor Harry Dunning has written. Somehow, some way, fifty years ago Harry survived his father's sledgehammer slaughter of his entire family. Jake is still thinking how life can turn on a dime when he learns of an even more bizarre secret: Al, owner of the local diner and Jake's friend, wants Jake to take over his obsession. Many years ago Al discovered a time portal in the diner's storeroom, and he's been trying ever since to prevent the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Jake allows himself to be persuaded, and when he steps through the portal, he finds himself in the era of Elvis, cheap gasoline, and almost universal cigarette smoking. Jake has plenty of time to start a new life in small town Texas, but each day draws him nearer to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. Will he be able to accomplish what Al tried and failed to do? And if he does stop the assassination of the president, what sort of consequences will there be?

I have to admit that I held off reading this book for a long time. I was in third grade when JFK was assassinated. Yes, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard the news. For reasons that don't need to go into a book review, this event hit my mother and I hard, and I was reluctant to rip the Band-aid off that particular wound, even if it had healed long ago.

I should not have worried, and I should not have waited. This book has very little to do with JFK and everything to do with Jake Epping. Stephen King's main character takes us all on a nostalgic yet honest journey through America during the end of the Eisenhower administration. Everything is brought to life in vivid and loving detail. I enjoyed reliving the era of my childhood, but as I read, I found myself thinking more about recent American history, its might-have-beens... and about love.

Few writers can immerse me in their fictional worlds so completely as does Stephen King. No matter how strange, King creates characters and backdrops that are familiar and that I can trust-- which is a very good thing because I need someone/something trustworthy at my back while I'm reading to figure out how to escape his weirdness!

If you've been postponing reading this book for the same reasons I did, you can stop. When you read 11-22-63, you're going to read a lot more about love than you will about bullets and lone gunmen.

11-22-63 by Stephen King

ISBN: 9781451627282

Scribner © 2011

Hardcover, 864 pages

Fiction, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased at Barnes and Noble

The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma

Title: The Map of Time
Author: Felix J. Palma
Translator: Nick Caistor
ISBN: 9781439167397
Publisher: Atria Books, 2011
Hardcover, 624 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: C
Source: the publisher

First Line: Andrew Harrington would have gladly died several times over if that meant not having to choose just one pistol from among his father's vast collection in the living room cabinet.

The Map of Time is a rollicking homage to the Victorian world and to H.G. Wells and the concept of time travel. When it succeeds, it has the power to transport readers to a fascinating world. When it doesn't, reader interest can rapidly wander.

The book is divided into three sections. The first deals with traveling back to the past. The second, with traveling into the future, and the third and final section with the future coming back to the past.

The first section was by far the best of the three. Andrew Harrington, the poor little rich boy who's been terrorized by the prototypical power-mad father, has decided to commit suicide. He lost the love of his life six years ago. (If I were to say "Mary Kelly" and "1880s London", aficionados of that particular time period will know where this is headed.) Andrew's best friend is not going to let him go quietly into that good night, and comes up with the only solution he can think of: Go to the man who owns Murray's Time Travel to see if they can't pay to go back in time to prevent the death of Andrew's beloved Mary Kelly. This section is full of the bustle, the smells, the sound of Victorian London. Palma also shows a deft hand at humor when describing the origins of the senior Harrington's wealth.

The second section was much less successful. I love time travel, and I'm the most willing subject to suspend my disbelief to enter a story. However, once details crop up that don't sync with that story, I can get thrown out very easily. This is what happened in the second section. Some of the jarring details were to clue the reader in on the fact that things weren't what they seemed. However, when you tell me in one sentence that the hero is flat broke, then two paragraphs later (without benefit of payday or windfall) I'm told the same hero is treating a lady to tea and sandwiches AND paying for a room in a boarding house, I get thrown out of the story and am more likely to search for other discrepancies.

I was completely hooked in part one, suspicious in part two, and by the time the time traveler from the future showed up, my interest began to wander. Badly. Partly because it was rather obvious what the time traveler was up to, and partly because the story had the feeling of a helium balloon with a slow leak.

Historical figures play a large part in this book-- in particular H.G. Wells, author of The Time Machine. The use of historical personages as characters doesn't bother me as long as it's done well, which it is in The Map of Time. I loved the premise, I loved the historical detail, I loved the characters. However, the plot just wasn't meaty enough to hold up through six hundred pages.

Learn More from Amazon.
Learn More from The Book Depository.
Learn More from an Indie Bookseller.

Both Sides of Time by Caroline B. Cooney

Title: Both Sides of Time
Author: Caroline B. Cooney
ISBN: 0440911737, Laurel-Leaf Books, 1997
Genre: Young Adult, Time Travel
Rating: B

First Line: It was Annie's agenda that summer to convert her boyfriend, Sean, into a romantic man.


Annie Lockwood is a typical fifteen-year-old girl: she wants Romance with a capital R. Trouble is, she's not going to be getting it from her current mechanics-obsessed boyfriend:

I am a romantic in the wrong century, she thought. I live in the 1990s. I should be in the 1890s. I bet I could have found true love a hundred years ago. Look at Sean. All I'm going to find around here is true grease.

When Annie pedals her bike into 1895, she does indeed find true love waiting for her, but her sojourn back in time makes things worse in both centuries. No matter the century in which she chooses to live, she's going to be forced to abandon someone she loves.

I enjoyed the characters and the plot of this book. Annie was very believable, and although she was a typical teenager, she did have a sense of responsibility. She wanted to do the right thing. Cooney's characters, both youngsters and adults, had depth to them-- and surprises. Just when I thought I had them figured out, another layer was revealed, and I had new motivations to follow.

The only thing that pulled me out of the story was my own ignorance. I couldn't quite believe that Annie could ride a 1990s bike into 1895 and no one would notice the difference. No one said a word, so I went online and conducted my own research. Just what did bicycles look like in 1895? Well, it turns out that there were so many different styles of bicycles back then (and a couple looked quite a bit like modern bikes), that the people back in 1895 probably would not have noticed anything all that odd about Annie's bicycle. So Both Sides of Time was not only entertaining but educational. I'll keep that in mind when I look for the author's other titles!

[Source: Paperback Swap.]

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

Title: Mariana
Author: Susanna Kearsley
ISBN: 978-0-7490-0706-5, Allison and Busby, 2009
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Rating: B

First Line: I first saw the house in the summer of my fifth birthday.

I've discovered over the years that some houses have the power of speech. When I first moved to Phoenix, I walked to work every morning and passed a slightly down-at-heels 1950s ranch house. Nothing about it would draw anyone's attention, but for some reason each time I walked by, I got gooseflesh-- and the feeling that the house was sad. A year later I happened to be watching the evening news and found out that police had shut down a house of prostitution specializing in S&M... in that same sad little ranch house.

At the age of five Julia Beckett had a house speak to her, and twenty-five years later she finds the house once again. Flush with an inheritance from an aunt, Julia buys Greywethers, a sixteenth-century farmhouse in Wiltshire. She moves in and finds the villagers very friendly and helpful-- so much so that she finds it difficult to get to work illustrating a book of fairy tales. Bit by bit, Julia learns the rudimentary history of Greywethers and the young woman, Mariana, who lived there three hundred years ago. It seems that Mariana has been waiting for her.

I've read two books recently that I would label romantic suspense. It's a genre that I seldom touch because the romance usually takes precedence over everything else in the story. That's definitely not the case here. Mariana is a fun read. Julia is an engaging character living in a fascinating house. Both time lines-- Julia's modern day time and Mariana's-- grabbed my attention equally. Normally one time line tends to be stronger than the other, but Kearsley avoids that completely, and the plot is not formulaic; it had more than one surprise for me.

If you're in the mood for a fast, entertaining read that has a fascinating old house, a mystery that spans the centuries, and a light touch of romance, Mariana could be just the book for you.

[Source: purchased at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore.]

Them Bones by Howard Waldrop

Title: Them Bones
Author: Howard Waldrop
ISBN: 0-441-80557-4, Ace Science Fiction, 1984
Genre: Science Fiction/ Time Travel
Rating: C+

First Line: "There's a horse in the small mound," said Bessie.

It's 1929 and archaeologists are digging in a mound in Louisiana when they find something very exciting: the skeleton of a horse. What's so exciting about that? From the skeleton's position in the mound, it was in America a few centuries before it was supposed to be. Then the archaeologists dig a little more and find something even more curious: the cause of the horse's death--a cartridge from a rifle.

Them Bones sticks to the Moundbuilder culture of prehistoric America, but the story is told from differing viewpoints: the 1929 team of archaeologists, a scout sent back to the wrong time to prevent World War III, and the group of soldiers who followed him.

The story moves quickly--too quickly--and the chapters involving the group of soldiers tend to be downright confusing. The 1929 group of archaeologists and the scout had the most interesting stories to tell, especially Leake (the scout) who became well-acquainted with the group of Indians he found himself amongst. I've visited Cahokia, the one remaining supreme example of Moundbuilder culture. It is awe-inspiring, so I enjoyed Waldrop's choice of setting and the Indian characters Leake met.

The bones were there for a wonderful book, but they just weren't fleshed out. The setting was a winner, but the pace was too fast and the characters not fully realized. I'm glad that I read the book because it encouraged me to go online and do a bit more research on Cahokia, but Them Bones left me feeling like Oliver Twist. Please sir...couldn't I have had some more?

[Source: Paperback Swap.]

REVIEW: The Dragonfly

Title: The Dragonfly: A Bury St. Edmunds Historical Time-Travel Novel
Author: Rosemary Goodwin
ISBN: 1593741022/ Whiskey Creek Press, 2007
Fiction
Rating: DNF

First Line: In the pub's parking lot, cars nuzzled into the parking spaces next to the building, like suckling pigs on the teats of a sow.

I love well written time-travel novels, and whenever I get a lead on a new one in the genre, I'll track it down every time. In this novel by Rosemary Goodwin, the main character, Cathy, suffers a head injury in a car wreck and finds herself in the area of Bury St. Edmunds during three different time periods before she finds her way back to her home. Unfortunately, I only read thirty pages of the book before I gave it up as "not my cuppa". The characters spent very little time talking to each other. Instead they called, dared, giggled, laughed, grinned, snapped, pouted and whined. (Those are just in the first two pages.) Also...Cathy first appears in an Anglo-Saxon village, and the people there seemed to have little to no reaction to her strange dress, speech or behavior, which I found odd.

I hate putting a time-travel book down, but in this instance the writing style and I just weren't getting along.

REVIEW: Kindred

Title: Kindred
Author: Octavia E. Butler
ISBN: 0807083054/Beacon Press
Protagonist: Dana, a 26-year-old black woman
Setting: Altadena, California in 1976 and a plantation in Maryland in 1815
Rating: A+

First Lines: I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.

Dana is a 26-year-old black woman. She and her new husband have just moved from a small apartment in Los Angeles to their new home in Altadena. With no warning other than dizziness and nausea, Dana finds herself in the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After the first summons, Dana is drawn back again and again to the plantation to protect Rufus. Each time the stay grows longer and more dangerous, until it is very uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end...long before it has even begun.

I've said before that I love well-written time travel novels, and Kindred certainly exceeded my expectations as far as the time travel and writing. The method of time travel is never explained, and that suits me just fine. I don't need exposition on dilithium crystals, the space-time continuum and quantum physics. As long as the author makes me believe that the person actually is in another time, I'm good to go. Butler's writing is marvelous. The plot flows like white water rapids, both time periods are utterly believable, and the characters are so vivid that I had strong emotional reactions to them.

If you like books that keep you well within your comfort zone, please stay away from Kindred. Butler's novel grabs you by the throat and shakes you over and over again. This is so much more than a mere "time travel" book! Kindred has so much to say about love, about hate, about slavery, about racial dilemmas--both then and now. It is supremely thought-provoking, superbly written, and will doubtless take a place on my Top Ten Reads for 2008. It goes without saying that Kindred will not be the last of Butler's books that I read.

REVIEW: The Man Who Folded Himself

Title: The Man Who Folded Himself
Author: David Gerrold
Protagonist: Daniel Eakins
Science Fiction/Time Travel
Setting: Los Angeles in various time periods
Rating: D

First Line: In the box was a belt.

I am a fan of well-written time travel, and when I discovered that I'd missed this 1972 classic, I couldn't wait to read the revised edition that was printed in 2003. The first thing that put me off was the introduction that told me just how great it is. I'm in the camp that believes if a book is great, let there be no fanfare--let the book speak for itself.

Daniel Eakins inherits a belt from his beloved Uncle Jim and is a tad disappointed until he finds out that it's a "time belt" that will allow him to travel through time. Daniel spends the next few decades gathering money and alternative time lines for himself. If he does something he doesn't like, he just goes back and tells himself not to do it, but all the travels and revisions create hundreds of Daniels. I was told that Daniel kept up with the news and that missing children were found, terrorists were blown up by their own bombs and serial killers didn't have a chance to rack up body counts, but these were merely comments in passing. The main action revolved around Daniel and all his self-created selves. He was a loner and rather than getting out and meeting new people, he tapped the keys on the time belt and played exclusively with himself. (The double entendre is intentional.) By the time this (thankfully) short novel wound to a close, the real identity of one of the characters was anything but earth-shattering, and I just wanted to wring Daniel's neck. This is one "classic" I wish I hadn't found.