Marie's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 24 Apr 2025 05:45:19 -0700 60 Marie's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[La pupille de Thorpe-Combe (French Edition)]]> 72091020 Frances Trollope dĂ©peint dans cet ouvrage trĂšs drĂŽle des personnages inoubliables : le sympathique et chevaleresque voisin, Sir Charles, la jolie Florence, son frĂšre l’intelligent et perspicace Algernon, le dĂ©bonnaire major Heathcote et sa femme rondelette, la malicieuse gouvernante Barnes, le mystĂ©rieux Mr Jenkins, l’opportuniste M. Brandenberry et bien sĂ»r l’inĂ©narrable pupille.
On retrouve dans cet ouvrage l’ambiance typique de la gentry anglaise : un manoir, un parc Ă  l’anglaise, des cousins Ă  profusion, le thĂ© et les scones, des domestiques Ă  la fois fidĂšles et malins, des bals entre notables et baronnets, des interminables parties de whist, etc. Une Ɠuvre fort plaisante Ă  lire et qui est le tĂ©moin fidĂšle et ironique d’une Ă©poque rĂ©volue.

Cette Ă©dition soignĂ©e est une version actualisĂ©e de l’édition française parue en 1858. L’orthographe, le vocabulaire et la ponctuation ont Ă©tĂ© revus.

Le premier livre de Frances Trollope (1780 - 1863), Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832), a fait sensation lors de sa publication. Elle a Ă©crit des dizaines de livres, parmi lesquels des romans sociaux percutants, comme le premier roman anti-esclavagiste ( Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw ) publiĂ© en 1836, qui a influencĂ© l’auteur de La Case de l’oncle Tom , Harriet Beecher Stowe, mais aussi le premier roman sur le monde industriel ( Michael Armstrong : Factory Boy ), la Veuve Barnaby et The Vicar of Wrexhill qui dĂ©nonce la corruption de l’Église d’Angleterre. Une biographie de l’auteur complĂšte cet ouvrage.

L’objectif des Éditions du Phare est de proposer des traductions fluides Ă  l’orthographe et au vocabulaire modernisĂ©s de grands classiques de la littĂ©rature anglaise, mais aussi de faire redĂ©couvrir des ouvrages et des auteurs moins connus (comme Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Fanny Burney, Anne Marsh-Caldwell, M.E. Braddon ou Frances Trollope). Certains de ces romans ou nouvelles ont Ă©tĂ© traduits pour la premiĂšre fois en français. La mise en page a Ă©tĂ© conçue pour une lecture aisĂ©e. Exigez la qualitĂ© et choisissez les Éditions du Phare !]]> 257 Frances Milton Trollope Marie 0 to-read 0.0 2013 La pupille de Thorpe-Combe (French Edition)
author: Frances Milton Trollope
name: Marie
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Flatshare 48715812 here.

Tiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met.

After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap.

Desperation makes her open-minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night-shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll be there only when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.

Of course, since they live together, sometimes they do need to share information. Tiffy and Leon start writing each other notes—first about what day is garbage day, then politely establishing which leftovers are up for grabs and debating the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Soon, they're sharing details of their lives: their work, their families, their romances. And it's amazing how much they learn about their flatmate just by sharing a space.

Even though they are complete opposites, Tiffy and Leon soon become friends. And then maybe more.

But falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea . . . especially if you've never met. What happens when you finally bump into each other?

A joyful, quirky romantic comedy, The Flatshare is a feel-good novel about finding love in the most unexpected of places—under the same roof.]]> 328 Beth O'Leary 1250295637 Marie 5 dear lord, i smiled, i cried, i laughed and i fell in love with a story, with characters and with romance

recommended by ari ]]> 3.98 2019 The Flatshare
author: Beth O'Leary
name: Marie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, crying-bc-siblings, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2020
review:
i am so emotional right now
dear lord, i smiled, i cried, i laughed and i fell in love with a story, with characters and with romance

recommended by ari
]]> <![CDATA[She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth]]> 8474660
In 1553, England was about to experience the ‘monstrous regimentâ€� - the unnatural rule - of a woman. But female rule in England also had a past. Four hundred years before Edward’s death, Matilda, daughter of Henry I and granddaughter of William the Conquerer, came tantalisingly close to securing her hold on the power of the crown. And between the 12th and the 15th centuries three more exceptional women - Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, and Margaret of Anjou - discovered, as queens consort and dowager, how much was possible if the presumptions of male rule were not confronted so explicitly.

The stories of these women - told here in all their vivid humanity - illustrate the paradox which the female heirs to the Tudor throne had no choice but to negotiate. Man was the head of woman; and the king was the head of all. How, then, could a woman be king, how could royal power lie in female hands?]]> 480 Helen Castor 0571237053 Marie 0 to-read 4.03 2010 She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth
author: Helen Castor
name: Marie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV]]> 207294465 From an acclaimed historian and author comes an epic the dual biography of Richard II and Henry IV, two cousins whose lives played out in extraordinary parallel, until Henry deposed the tyrant Richard and declared himself King of England. Richard of Bordeaux and Henry of Bolingbroke, cousins born just three months apart, were ten years old when Richard became king of England. They were thirty-two when Henry deposed him and became king in his place. Now, the story behind one of the strangest and most fateful events in English history (and the inspiration behind Shakespeare’s most celebrated history plays) is brought to vivid life by the acclaimed author of Blood and Roses, Helen Castor. Richard had birthright on his side, and a profound belief in his own God-given majesty. But beyond that, he lacked all qualities of leadership. A narcissist who did not understand or accept the principles that underpinned his rule, he was neither a warrior defending his kingdom, nor a lawgiver whose justice protected his people. Instead, he declared that “his laws were in his own mouth,â€� and acted accordingly. He sought to define as treason any resistance to his will and recruited a private army loyal to himself rather than the realm—and he intended to destroy those who tried to restrain him. Henry was everything Richard was a leader who inspired both loyalty and friendship, a soldier and a chivalric hero, dutiful, responsible, principled. After years of tension and conflict, Richard banished him and seized his vast inheritance. Richard had been crowned a king but he had become a tyrant, and as a tyrant—ruling by arbitrary will rather than established law—he was deposed by his cousin Henry, the only possible candidate to take his place. Henry was welcomed as a liberator, a champion of the people against his predecessor’s paranoid despotism. But within months he too was facing rebellion. Men knew that a deposer could in turn be deposed, and the new king found himself buffeted by unrest and by chronic ill-health until he seemed a shadow of his former self, trapped by political uncertainty and troubled by these signs that God might not, after all, endorse his actions. Captivating, immersive, and highly relevant to today’s times, The Eagle and the Hart is a story about what happens when a ruler prioritizes power over the interests of his own people. When a ruler demands loyalty to himself as an individual, rather than duty to the established constitution, and when he seeks to reshape reality rather than concede the force of verifiable truths. Above all, it is a story about how a nation was brought to the brink of catastrophe and disintegration—and, in the end, how it was brought back.]]> 576 Helen Castor 198213920X Marie 0 to-read 4.28 2024 The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV
author: Helen Castor
name: Marie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Marie 2 read-in-2025 4.62 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Marie
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: read-in-2025
review:

]]> The Glitch 217189755
What would you change if you could start all over again? From Leeanne Slade, the bestselling author of The Rebound and Told You So, and narrated by Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) and Sam Claflin (Me Before You), this summer, fall in love with Henry and Grace.

Five Years Earlier

Henry Dunne knows three things: that agreeing to host this raucous house party was a terrible idea, that he absolutely cannot show up to his nursing shift tomorrow with a hangover, and that the beautiful redhead in the corner will be sleeping in his bed tonight.

But what he doesn’t know is that Grace Monroe, the ambitious and fiercely independent chef catering this party, is about to walk a tray of cream cheese appetisers straight into his chest and turn his world upside down. Now, the work-a-holic with a reputation for keeping things casual is planning romantic dates and meeting the family. Utterly smitten, Henry now knows something else: that Grace is the one and that absolutely nothing could come between them. . .

Present Day

Grace Monroe is one day away from thirty, her restaurant has just been declared bankrupt, her beloved grandmother has been rushed to hospital, and she’s now sobbing in a packed train station. The only way life could get worse is having Henry Dunne â€� the man who showed her what true love and heartbreak feels like â€� see her like this.

And there he is, wordlessly watching her from the opposite escalator.

A bottle of wine and an erratic wish later, Grace wakes up to one hell of a life glitch: it’s five years earlier, her twenty-fifth birthday, and she’s got picture-perfect memory of the missing years. Grace’s plan is clear: save her doomed career and prevent the worst heartache she’s ever known. All she needs to do is stop history repeating. . .

Easy, right?]]> 350 Leeanne Slade Marie 5 3.87 The Glitch
author: Leeanne Slade
name: Marie
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: 10-10-gay-for-the-heroine, a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, audiobook, favorites, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2025
review:
it was heartbreaking but as the same time lovely and hopeful. it was also so well read that i am now hoping this romance will turn into a netflix romcom with Daisy and Sam as Grace and Henry.
]]> Blue Sisters 213338214 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]> 339 Coco Mellors 059387269X Marie 3 4.03 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: Marie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, crying-bc-siblings, long-live-the-gay-and-bi, read-in-2025
review:

]]> Tom Lake 175740706 In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.]]> 309 Ann Patchett 1526664283 Marie 5 3.90 2023 Tom Lake
author: Ann Patchett
name: Marie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, crying-bc-siblings, favorites, read-in-2025
review:
the nostalgia, the story telling, the characters and how much love there is in this story... such a beautiful novel
]]> <![CDATA[Unequal Affections: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling]]> 17593220
Diverging from Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice at the proposal in the Hunsford parsonage, this story explores the kind of man Darcy is, even before his "proper humbling," and how such a man, so full of pride, so much in love, might have behaved had Elizabeth chosen to accept his original proposal.]]> 352 Lara S. Ormiston 1626361002 Marie 0 to-read 4.01 2013 Unequal Affections: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling
author: Lara S. Ormiston
name: Marie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 5]]> 42264835
Teenager Usagi is not the best athlete, she's never gotten good grades, and, well, she's a bit of a crybaby. But when she meets a talking cat, she begins a journey that will teach her she has a well of great strength just beneath the surface and the heart to inspire and stand up for her friends as Sailor Moon! Experience the Sailor Moon manga as never before in these extra-long editions (about 300 pages each).]]> 400 Naoko Takeuchi 1632361566 Marie 0 currently-reading 4.55 2014 Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 5
author: Naoko Takeuchi
name: Marie
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 4]]> 41010024 320 Naoko Takeuchi 1632361558 Marie 5 4.31 2013 Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 4
author: Naoko Takeuchi
name: Marie
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Maybe This Time 211109423
Finding true love is only a matter of time in this heartfelt and hilarious romantic comedy, starring ZoĂ« Chao (The Afterparty), Noah Reid (Schitt’s Creek), and a full cast!

Romance can be a little complicated when you get sucked into a wormhole. Just ask high school English teacher June Flint. One little solar flare happens and suddenly you find yourself 85 years in the future. Eighty-five years from your dream job. Your ailing mother whose only companion in this world is you. Your favorite stuffed-crust pizza from DeLucia’s on Sunday nights.

But when June’s cell phone inexplicably picks up a signal, she’s able to call back to the present—more specifically, four weeks before she accidentally time traveled. Problem is, the phone can only call one number: her work nemesis, gym teacher Mikey Shannon.

Now future June must help Mikey befriend present-day June to keep her from disappearing. But present-day June doesn't even want to be in the same room as Mikey, let alone become besties. And Mikey isn’t exactly...talkie. Yet he’s spending hours a day with future June on the phone, and even more time trying to befriend present-day June. Volunteering with June at school, check. Facing his fear of roller coasters to make June smile, check. Adopting a puppy and letting her name it. Check.

But what does succeeding in the present mean for future June, and for the serious feelings she and Mikey are starting to catch for one another? Stopping time travel is one thing—but can they stop themselves from falling in love?

Full list of narrators: Zoë Chao, Noah Reid, Josh Hurley, Beata Pozniak, Jim Seybert, Emily Lawrence, Tina Wolstencroft, Petrea Burchard, Joel Simler, Aaron Shedlock, Christian Barillas, Eric Yves Garcia, Alex Picard, Lorrie Grant, Andy Garcia-Ruse, Dominic Russo, Ian Hackney.

Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.]]> 6 Cara Bastone Marie 5 3.84 2024 Maybe This Time
author: Cara Bastone
name: Marie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: audiobook, favorites, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2025, short-can-be-good, wine-mom-bookclub-pets-specials
review:
cara bastone's romance audiobooks are unreal
]]> The Household 193256917
In a quiet house in the countryside outside London, the finishing touches are being made to welcome a group of young women. The house and its location are top secret, its residents unknown to one another, but the girls have one thing in they are fallen. Offering refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute, Urania Cottage is a second chance at life - but how badly do they want it?

Meanwhile, a few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts, one of the benefactors of Urania Cottage, makes a discovery that leaves her her stalker of 10 years has been released from prison . . .

As the women's worlds collide in ways they could never have expected, they will discover that freedom always comes at a price . . .

The Household is the new novel from the award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Familiars , The Foundling and Mrs England. Set against Charles Dicken's home for fallen women and inspired by real figures from history, it is Stacey Halls' most ambitious and compelling novel yet.]]> 400 Stacey Halls 1838778497 Marie 0 to-read 3.85 2024 The Household
author: Stacey Halls
name: Marie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey]]> 28943771
Jane is known to history as "the Nine Days Queen," but her reign lasted, in fact, for thirteen days. The human and emotional aspects of her story have often been ignored, although she is remembered as one of the Tudor Era’s most tragic victims. While this is doubtlessly true, it is only part of the complex jigsaw of Jane’s story. She was a remarkable individual with a charismatic personality who earned the admiration and affection of many of those who knew her. All were impressed by her wit, passion, intelligence, and determined spirit. Furthermore, the recent trend of trying to highlight her achievements and her religious faith has, in fact, further obscured the real Jane, a young religious radical who saw herself as an advocate of the reformed faith—Protestantism—and ultimately became a martyr for it.

Crown of Blood is an important and significant retelling of an often-misunderstood tale: set at the time of Jane’s downfall and following her journey through to her trial and execution, each chapter moves between the past and the “present,â€� using a rich abundance of primary source material (some of which has never been published) in order to paint a vivid picture of Jane’s short and turbulent life. This dramatic narrative traces the dangerous plots and web of deadly intrigue in which Jane became involuntarily tangled—and which ultimately led to a shocking and catastrophic conclusion.]]> 400 Nicola Tallis 1681772442 Marie 0 to-read 3.98 2016 Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey
author: Nicola Tallis
name: Marie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Capture the Castle (Vintage Heroines)]]> 56679239 576 Dodie Smith 178487745X Marie 0 to-read 4.11 1948 I Capture the Castle (Vintage Heroines)
author: Dodie Smith
name: Marie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1948
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> So Thrilled For You 214868013 A terrible heatwave. A very tense baby shower. It will all end in tears...

Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi have been friends since university. Now in their thirties, life is pulling them in different directions - but when Charlotte organises the baby shower of hell for pregnant Nicki, the girls are reunited.

Under a sweltering hot summer day, tensions rise - and by the end of the evening, nothing will ever be the same. Someone started a fire at the house - and everyone's a suspect... Is it Steffi, happily child-free but feeling judged by her friends? Is it Charlotte, desperate to conceive and jealous of those who have? Is it Lauren, who is finding motherhood far, far worse than she imagined? Or is it Nicki herself, who never wanted a baby shower anyway?

In the aftermath, the police put together the facts - but the truth will shock everyone. Even you.

BIG LITTLE LIES meets REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY in the incredible new novel from Holly Bourne - it's the book you'll want to read three times, then give to every woman in your life.]]> 423 Holly Bourne 1529301645 Marie 0 to-read 4.00 2025 So Thrilled For You
author: Holly Bourne
name: Marie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Women Artists & Designers of the National Trust]]> 220553377 272 Rachel Conroy 0707804698 Marie 0 to-read 5.00 Women Artists & Designers of the National Trust
author: Rachel Conroy
name: Marie
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Holding the Reins (Silver Pines Ranch, #1)]]> 214490423 In this steamy cowboy romance, a woman returns to her family's ranch after a broken engagement and finds herself falling for her brother's best friend—the first novel in the Silver Pines Ranch series.

Take a deep breath and let go of the reins.

Cecilia “CeCeâ€� Ashby is finally escaping the toxic relationship that has consumed her entire adult life. She's returning to her hometown of Laurel Creek, Kentucky, and to her family’s equestrian ranch, unsure of what the future holds. 

Nash Carter, the newly retired superstar of the Dallas Stars, is Laurel Creek's hometown hero, local business owner, and notorious bachelor. He’s also the unofficial fourth sibling in the Ashby clan. It’s been years since his days of tormenting CeCe with her older brothers Wade and Cole. So, when CeCe needs a job, he feels drawn to help her.

Nash can’t seem to take his eyes off of his best friend's sister, and it seems she’s been staring right back, not without animosity left over from his childish teasing back in the day. Despite their initial reluctance, the fire between them ignites and it isn't long before they jump into the flames.]]> 400 Paisley Hope 0593977114 Marie 0 to-read 3.89 2024 Holding the Reins (Silver Pines Ranch, #1)
author: Paisley Hope
name: Marie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 3]]> 37913585 346 Naoko Takeuchi 163236154X Marie 5 4.32 2013 Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 3
author: Naoko Takeuchi
name: Marie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, comics-love, queens-knights-and-co, read-in-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Tame a Wild Rogue (The Palace of Rogues, #6)]]> 63138601 In Julie Anne Long’s thrilling new romance in the Palace of Rogues series, an infamous privateer’s limits are put to the test when he’s trapped during a raging tempest with a prickly female at the Grand Palace on the Thames.

He clawed his way up from the gutters of St. Giles to the top of a shadowy empire. Feared and fearsome, battered and brilliant, nothing shocks Lorcan St. Leger—not even the discovery of an aristocratic woman escaping out a window near the London docks on the eve of the storm of the decade. They find shelter at a boarding house called the Grand Palace on the Thames—only to find greater dangers await inside.

Desperate, destitute, and jilted, Lady Daphne Worth knows the clock is ticking on her last chance to save herself and her an offer of a loveless marriage. But while the storm rages and roads flood, she and the rogue who rescued her must pose as husband and wife in order to share the only available suite.

Crackling enmity gives way to incendiary desire—and certain Lorcan is everything she never dreamed she’d wanted, but he can never be what she needs. But risk is child’s play to St. Leger. And if the stakes are a lifetime of loving and being loved by Daphne, he’ll move any mountain, confront any old nemesis, to turn “never” into forever.]]> 384 Julie Anne Long 0063280914 Marie 0 to-read 4.07 2023 How to Tame a Wild Rogue (The Palace of Rogues, #6)
author: Julie Anne Long
name: Marie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 2]]> 36277211 The guardians in sailor suits return in this definitive edition of the greatest magical girl manga of all time! Features all-new cover illustrations by creator Naoko Takeuchi, a glittering holographic coating, an extra-large size, premium paper, French flaps, and a newly-revised translation!

Teenager Usagi is not the best athlete, she's never gotten good grades, and, well, she's a bit of a crybaby. But when she meets a talking cat, she begins a journey that will teach her she has a well of great strength just beneath the surface and the heart to inspire and stand up for her friends as Sailor Moon! Experience the Sailor Moon manga as never before in these extra-long editions (about 300 pages each).]]> 343 Naoko Takeuchi 1632361531 Marie 5 4.50 2013 Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 2
author: Naoko Takeuchi
name: Marie
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, comics-love, queens-knights-and-co, read-in-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 1]]> 35172730
Teenager Usagi is not the best athlete, she's never gotten good grades, and, well, she's a bit of a crybaby. But when she meets a talking cat, she begins a journey that will teach her she has a well of great strength just beneath the surface and the heart to inspire and stand up for her friends as Sailor Moon! Experience the Sailor Moon manga as never before in these extra-long editions (about 300 pages each).]]> 304 Naoko Takeuchi 1632361523 Marie 5 4.51 2013 Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, Vol. 1
author: Naoko Takeuchi
name: Marie
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, comics-love, favorites, queens-knights-and-co, read-in-2025, space-girl, wine-mom-bookclub-pets-specials
review:

]]> Tissot 52017576 32 Stéphane Guégan 208128233X Marie 5 5.00 Tissot
author: Stéphane Guégan
name: Marie
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: art-lover, read-in-2025, i-read-intelligent-books
review:

]]> Misdirected 222207397
Hattie tries to look on the positive side of all situations, but four seasons of brutal press, overly invested fans, and a cutthroat industry that’s never quite felt like the right fit would give even Pollyanna an edge of cynicism. And high on the ‘conâ€� list when it comes to her current and unintended career is having to share a set and some horrendously early starts with Anthony Rafe. Leicester Square villain. A-lister. Absolute prat.

In the new season’s scripts, it appears that her previously sane, rational character is about to lose her mind and begin an unexpected and unsettlingly graphic affair with the series villain. Forced into close—very close and very
intimate—proximity with the man everyone loves to hate, Hattie’s horror is matched only by Anthony’s drawling disdain. But when very real chemistry sparks during their scripted love scenes, Hattie begins to think the industry’s legendarily heartless Bad Guy might just have a pulse after all. And Anthony, for his part, is caught off-guard by the way his heart races when he’s around his aggravating onscreen lover.

As reality starts to imitate art a little too close for comfort, the world’s most unlikely couple might just have more in common than they thought
]]> Lucy Parker Marie 5 ]]> 3.49 2025 Misdirected
author: Lucy Parker
name: Marie
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: 10-10-gay-for-the-heroine, a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, audiobook, crying-bc-siblings, favorites, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2025
review:
lucy parker is really giving the most to girlies loving romance and daydreaming about an english tall dark sexy grumpy lover <3

]]> <![CDATA[Le Vieil Homme et Son Chat, tome 3 : Le vieil homme et son chat se frisent les moustaches]]> 48657226 176 Vincent LeFrançois 220315568X Marie 4 comics-love, read-in-2025 4.54 2019 Le Vieil Homme et Son Chat, tome 3 : Le vieil homme et son chat se frisent les moustaches
author: Vincent LeFrançois
name: Marie
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: comics-love, read-in-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Duchess Hunt (Once Upon a Dukedom, #2)]]> 56462935 ton to write why they should be the one chosen, and leaves it to his efficient secretary to select his future wife.

If there exists a more unpleasant task in the world than deciding who is to marry the man you love, Penelope Pettypeace certainly can’t imagine what it might be. Still, she is determined to find the perfect bride for her clueless, yet ruthlessly charming employer.

But when an anonymous note threatens to reveal truths best hidden, Kingsland has no choice but to confront the danger with Penelope at his side. Beguiled by the strong-willed, courageous beauty, he realizes he’s willing to risk everything, including his heart, to keep her safe within his arms. Could it be the duchess he’s hunting for has been in front of him all along?

]]> 353 Lorraine Heath 0062952013 Marie 5 read-in-2025
i love a romance hero having zero chill and being a 24/7 dramatic hoe]]> 4.00 2021 The Duchess Hunt (Once Upon a Dukedom, #2)
author: Lorraine Heath
name: Marie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: read-in-2025
review:
“Honestly, Penn, you should have seen the way he looked when he came for you. He was a knight on his way to rescue you from a dragon.â€�

i love a romance hero having zero chill and being a 24/7 dramatic hoe
]]> <![CDATA[Sibylline, chroniques d'une escort girl]]> 220065381 Avec son tout premier roman graphique, Sixtine Dano crĂ©e la surprise. Avec l'Ă©lĂ©gance de l'encre et du fusain elle dĂ©peint les questions existentielles du passage de l’enfance Ă  l’ñge adulte, l’exploration de la fĂ©minitĂ© et des rapports de pouvoir dans une sociĂ©tĂ© marquĂ©e par le patriarcat et le capitalisme. Au scĂ©nario et au dessin la jeune artiste signe un rĂ©cit terriblement moderne, Ă  la fois intime et politique : une pĂ©pite graphique rĂ©ussie Ă  ne pas manquer.
En lire moins]]> 264 Sixtine DANO 2344060049 Marie 4 comics-love, read-in-2025 4.44 Sibylline, chroniques d'une escort girl
author: Sixtine DANO
name: Marie
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: comics-love, read-in-2025
review:

]]> Promise Me Sunshine 214269328 Grieving the loss of her best friend, a young woman’s life is turned upside down when she meets a grumpy stranger who swears he can help her live again, in this heartwarming, slow-burn romance by the author of Ready or Not

Lenny’s a bit of a mess at the moment. Her best friend, Lou, recently passed away after a battle with cancer, and her death has left Lenny feeling completely lost. She’s avoiding her concerned parents, the apartment she shared with Lou, and the list of things she’s supposed to do to help her live again. The only thing she can do is temporary babysitting gigs, and luckily, she just landed a great one, helping overworked, single mom Reese and her precocious daughter, Ainsley. It’s not perfect: Ainsley’s uncle, Miles, always seems to be around, and is kind of... a huge jerk. But if Lenny acts like she has it all together, maybe no one will notice she’s falling apart.

Miles sees right through her though. Turns out, he knows a lot about grief and, surprisingly, he offers her a proposition. He’ll help her complete everything on her “live againâ€� list if she’ll help him connect with Ainsley and overcome his complicated relationship with Reese. Lenny doubts anything can fill the Lou has left behind, but she begins to spend more time with Miles, Lenny is surprised to discover that, sometimes, losing everything is only the first step to finding yourself, and love, again.]]> 416 Cara Bastone 0593595734 Marie 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Promise Me Sunshine
author: Cara Bastone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens]]> 85246848
Every queen had ladies-in-waiting. Her confidantes and chaperones, they are the forgotten agents of the Tudor court. Ever present and yet hidden behind the scenes, these women held the secrets and the hearts of some of the Tudor period's most powerful men and women. Experts at survival, negotiating the competing demands of their families and their queen, the ladies-in-waiting of Henry VIII's wives were far more than decorative 'extras': they were serious political players who changed the course of history, and four of them became queen themselves. The Waiting Game is the first to tell their story.]]> 293 Nicola Clark 1474622232 Marie 0 to-read 4.01 2024 The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens
author: Nicola Clark
name: Marie
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Five Red Herrings (Lord Peter Wimsey, #6)]]> 37922439 371 Dorothy L. Sayers 1473621356 Marie 0 currently-reading 3.37 1931 Five Red Herrings (Lord Peter Wimsey, #6)
author: Dorothy L. Sayers
name: Marie
average rating: 3.37
book published: 1931
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Queens' Play (The Lymond Chronicles, #2)]]> 112080
Though she is only a little girl, the Queen is already the object of malicious intrigues that extend from her native country to the court of France. It is to France that Lymond must travel, exercising his sword hand and his agile wit while also undertaking the most unlikely of masquerades, all to make sure that his charge's royal person stays intact.]]> 432 Dorothy Dunnett 067977744X Marie 0 to-read 4.46 1964 Queens' Play (The Lymond Chronicles, #2)
author: Dorothy Dunnett
name: Marie
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Taylor Swift by the Book: The Literature Behind the Lyrics, from Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets]]> 210041401 From name-checking Romeo and Juliet in "You Belong with Me" to The Great Gatsby allusions in "Happiness", Taylor Swift's lyrics are packed with literary connections.Make sure you're catching them all with this expert guide to the novels, poems, and plays that influenced her songwriting.Let a literature professor and a musical theater star guide you through the Swift canon—from Arthurian legend to Austen to Edward Albee. Learn what "New Romantics" has to do with the old Romantics, which Gothic novel inspired "Tolerate It," how to spot Taylor's many Great Gatsby references, and more! With full-color illustrations guiding you through the literary eras of Dr. Swift (yes, she has an honorary Ph.D.), it’s a perfect gift for the Swiftie in your life. Packed with fun facts, entertaining analysis, and recommended reading that fans will love, Taylor Swift by the Book will turn anyone from a Taylor Swift lover into a Taylor Swift scholar.]]> 256 Rachel Feder 1683694740 Marie 0 to-read 3.85 2024 Taylor Swift by the Book: The Literature Behind the Lyrics, from Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets
author: Rachel Feder
name: Marie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Work of Art (Somerset Stories, #1)]]> 46133134 An Uncommon Beauty...
Hidden away in rural Devonshire, Phyllida Satterthwaite has always been considered more odd than beautiful. But in London, her oddity has made her a sensation. Far worse, it's caught the eye of the sinister Duke of Moreland � a notorious art collector obsessed with acquiring one-of-a-kind treasures. To escape the duke's clutches, she's going to need a little help.

An Unlikely Hero...
Captain Arthur Heywood's days of heroism are long past. Grievously injured in the Peninsular War, he can no longer walk unaided, let alone shoot a pistol. What use can he possibly be to a damsel in distress? He has nothing left to offer except his good name.

Can a marriage of convenience save Philly from the vengeful duke? Or will life with Arthur put her � and her heart � in more danger than ever?]]> 392 Mimi Matthews 1733056904 Marie 0 to-read 4.19 2019 The Work of Art (Somerset Stories, #1)
author: Mimi Matthews
name: Marie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Winter Companion (Parish Orphans of Devon, #4)]]> 53094620 She needed to be seen...

As a lady's companion, Clara Hartwright never receives much attention from anyone. And that's precisely how she likes it. With a stormy past, and an unconventional plan for her future, it's far safer to remain invisible. But when her new employer is invited to a monthlong holiday at a remote coastal abbey, Clara discovers that she may not be as invisible as she'd hoped. At least, not as far as one gentleman is concerned.

He wanted to be heard...

Neville Cross has always been more comfortable with animals than people. An accident in his youth has left him with a brain injury that affects his speech. Forming the words to speak to his childhood friends is difficult enough. Finding the right things to say to a lovely young lady's companion seems downright impossible. But Miss Hartwright is no ordinary companion. In fact, there may not be anything ordinary about her at all.

During a bleak Devon winter, two sensitive souls forge an unexpected friendship. But when Clara needs him most, will Neville find the courage to face his fears? Or is saying goodbye to her the most heroic thing he can do?]]> 316 Mimi Matthews 1733056947 Marie 5 4.18 2020 The Winter Companion (Parish Orphans of Devon, #4)
author: Mimi Matthews
name: Marie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, crying-bc-siblings, favorites, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, queens-knights-and-co, read-in-2025
review:
there is a softness and an authenticity in mimi matthews' romance that is quite unique to her and oh so heartwarming
]]> Frankenstein 12974171
Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale, conceived after a nightmare in 1816 when she was only eighteen, became a modern myth. It is a disturbing and dramatic exploration of birth and death, creation and destruction, and one of the most iconic horror stories of all time.]]> 269 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0141198966 Marie 4 3.88 1818 Frankenstein
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Marie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1818
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: i-read-intelligent-books, read-in-2025
review:
read a few pages in 2022 and really picked it up again at the end of 2024. the essay at the end of this edition highlighted a few themes and now i want to read more analysis about Mary W. S.' views and thoughts on them.
]]> The Party 214397196 An irresistible novella about two sisters and a night that changes everything, from the master chronicler of our heart’s hidden desires.

‘Tessa Hadley is my favourite authorâ€� KATE ATKINSON

Evelyn had the surprising thought that bodies were sometimes wiser than the people inside them. She’d have liked to impress somebody with this idea, but couldn’t explain it.

On a winter Saturday night in post-war Bristol, sisters Moira and Evelyn, on the cusp of adulthood, go to an art studentsâ€� party in a dockside pub; there they meet two men, Paul and Sinden, whose air of worldliness and sophistication both intrigues and repels them. Sinden calls a few days later to invite them over to the grand suburban mansion Paul shares with his brother and sister, and Moira accepts despite Evelyn’s misgivings.

As the night unfolds in this unfamiliar, glamorous new setting, the sisters learn things about themselves and each other that shock them, and release them into a new phase of their lives.

‘Few writers give me such consistent pleasureâ€�
ZADIE SMITH

‘Hadley’s extraordinary skill [is] making both surface life and deep interiors come fully aliveâ€�
COLM TÓIBÍN

‘Tessa Hadley recruits admirers with each bookâ€�
HILARY MANTEL
]]> 111 Tessa Hadley 1529949300 Marie 0 to-read 3.32 2024 The Party
author: Tessa Hadley
name: Marie
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #5 218142634 Gail Simone Marie 5 comics-love, read-in-2025 4.34 Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #5
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: comics-love, read-in-2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[LOUISE D'ORLÉANS PREMIÈRE REINE DES BELGES: UN DESTIN ROMANTIQUE]]> 215966418 208 Mathieu Deldicque 2382031980 Marie 0 to-read 0.0 LOUISE D'ORLÉANS PREMIÈRE REINE DES BELGES: UN DESTIN ROMANTIQUE
author: Mathieu Deldicque
name: Marie
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Marie d'Orléans : Princesse et artiste romantique 1813-1839]]> 12102897
Préfaces / Alain Decaux, Henri Loyrette -- Biographie de Marie d'Orléans / Anne Dion-Tenenbaum -- Marie d'Orléans et son professeur de dessin Ary Scheffer / Leo Ewals -- Les lectures d'une enfant du du siÚcle / Marie-Bénédicte Diethelm -- Marie d'Orléans sculpteur / Isabelle Leroy-Jay Lemaistre -- La princesse et son héroïne / Anne Dion-Tenenbaum -- Marie d'Orléans et les arts décoratifs / Anne Dion-Tenenbaum -- Théodore Charpentier, ou l'enchantement de l'architecture / Marc Le Coeur -- L'appartement de Marie d'Orléans aux Tuileries: un écrin pour ses collections et ses sculptures / Anne Dion-Tenenbaum -- Un tombeau pour une princesse / Nicole Garnier-Pelle -- Annexes: Récit de la mort de Marie d'Orléans par le Duc de Nemours -- Liste des sculptures et meubles déposés chez Scheffer en 1848.]]> 256 2757201654 Marie 0 currently-reading, art-lover 4.50 2008 Marie d'Orléans : Princesse et artiste romantique 1813-1839
author: anne-dion-tenenbaum-marie-b-en-edicte-diethelm-mus-ee-du-louvre-marie-d-orl-eans-mus-ee-cond-e
name: Marie
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: currently-reading, art-lover
review:

]]> Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #4 217165192 Gail Simone Marie 5 comics-love, read-in-2025 4.35 Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #4
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: comics-love, read-in-2025
review:

]]> Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #3 215557239 Gail Simone Marie 5 read-in-2025, comics-love 4.36 Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #3
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: read-in-2025, comics-love
review:
rogue x logan makes me emotional
]]> <![CDATA[It Happened One Autumn (Wallflowers, #2)]]> 827412 It happened at the ball.

Where beautiful but bold Lillian Bowman quickly learned that her independent American ways weren't entirely "the thing." And the most disapproving of all was insufferable, snobbish, and impossible Marcus, Lord Westcliff, London's most eligible aristocrat.

It happened in the garden.

When Marcus shockingly—and dangerously—swept her into his arms. Lillian was overcome with a consuming passion for a man she didn't even like. Time stood still; it was as if no one else existed—thank goodness they weren't caught in the act!

It happened one autumn.

Marcus was a man in charge of his own emotions, a bedrock of stability. But with Lillian, every touch was exquisite torture, every kiss an enticement for more. Yet how could he consider taking a woman so blatantly unsuitable . . . as his bride?]]> 382 Lisa Kleypas Marie 3 2016 : lillian was so good (marcus was good enough) and st vincent can still come and do dirty rake things to me]]> 4.09 2005 It Happened One Autumn (Wallflowers, #2)
author: Lisa Kleypas
name: Marie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: 10-10-gay-for-the-heroine, crying-bc-siblings, dominant-submissive-trash-trope, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2016, read-in-2024
review:
2024 : adding one star because the sparkles between lillian and marcus are insane
2016 : lillian was so good (marcus was good enough) and st vincent can still come and do dirty rake things to me
]]> The Widow of Rose House 43263486 A young widow restores a dilapidated mansion with the assistance of a charming, eccentric genius, only to find the house is full of dangerous secrets in this effervescent Gilded Age debut novel.

It's 1875, and Alva Webster has perfected her stiff upper lip after three years of being pilloried in the presses of two continents over fleeing her abusive husband. Now his sudden death allows her to return to New York to make a fresh start, restoring Liefdehuis, a dilapidated Hyde Park mansion, and hopefully her reputation at the same time. However, fresh starts aren't as easy as they seem, as Alva discovers when stories of a haunting at Liefdehuis begin to reach her. But Alva doesn't believe in ghosts. So when the eccentric and brilliant professor, Samuel Moore, appears and informs her that he can get to the bottom of the mystery that surrounds Liefdehuis, she turns him down flat. She doesn't need any more complications in her life―especially not a handsome, convention-flouting, scandal-raising one like Sam.

Unfortunately, though Alva is loath to admit it, Sam, a pioneer in electric lighting and a member of the nationally-adored Moore family of scientists, is the only one who can help. Together, the two delve into the tragic secrets wreathing Alva's new home while Sam attempts to unlock Alva's history―and her heart.

Set during the Gilded Age in New York City, The Widow of Rose House is a gorgeous debut by Diana Biller, with a darkly Victorian Gothic flair and an intrepid and resilient American heroine guaranteed to delight readers.]]> 352 Diana Biller 1250297850 Marie 4 3.78 2019 The Widow of Rose House
author: Diana Biller
name: Marie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/04
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, blessing-and-blaming-liv, crying-bc-siblings, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2019, so-shut-me-up-already-kisses, read-in-2024
review:
2019 : how truly delightful! the story has almost every best romantic elements (siblings, a young suffragette sister, delightful servants, good banter, adorable rogue with a too tight white shirt, an heroine learning to fight for herself, the right amount of sexy times). the love story was so easy to fall in love with, it has the right amount of drama and loveliness, and some moments between them just make you smile A LOT. i actually also enjoyed the ghost story, not terrifying but quite dark, and it reminds oneself to always be aware of the ugly side of society/people and what it can lead to.
]]> <![CDATA[The Chocolate Thief (Amour et Chocolat, #1)]]> 13585501 Paris

Breathtakingly beautiful, the City of Light seduces the senses, its cobbled streets thrumming with possibility. For American Cade Corey, it's a dream come true, if only she can get one infuriating French chocolatier to sign on the dotted line...

Chocolate

Melting, yielding yet firm, exotic, its secrets are intimately known to Sylvain Marquis. But turn them over to a brash American waving a fistful of dollars? Jamais! Not unless there's something much more delectable on the table...

Stolen Pleasure

Whether confections taken from a locked shop or kisses in the dark, is there anything sweeter?]]> 303 Laura Florand 0758269404 Marie 4
2016 (2 stars) : i am still surprisingly pleased by the quality of the writing and how LF brings Paris and les francais to life. she never goes into cliches or easy representations but actually gives a true image of how we act and how our society (or truly how the parisian little world) lives. that being said, sylvain is the true image of the infuriating french/parisian male, too full of himself and so full of pride. on the other hand, cade was the true gem of the story especially during all the little moments with her grandpa.

so in short, delighful promise ruined by un parisien. sadly this can very well happen in paris...]]> 3.59 2012 The Chocolate Thief (Amour et Chocolat, #1)
author: Laura Florand
name: Marie
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: blessing-and-blaming-liv, read-in-2016, read-in-2024
review:
2024 (four stars) : i am stressed out by how much i loved sylvain this time around because that might mean i fancy parisian men now?!

2016 (2 stars) : i am still surprisingly pleased by the quality of the writing and how LF brings Paris and les francais to life. she never goes into cliches or easy representations but actually gives a true image of how we act and how our society (or truly how the parisian little world) lives. that being said, sylvain is the true image of the infuriating french/parisian male, too full of himself and so full of pride. on the other hand, cade was the true gem of the story especially during all the little moments with her grandpa.

so in short, delighful promise ruined by un parisien. sadly this can very well happen in paris...
]]> Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #1 214162216 38 Gail Simone Marie 5 comics-love, read-in-2024 4.33 Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #1
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: comics-love, read-in-2024
review:
it's confirmed that rogue remains a favorite mutant xmen girlie
]]> Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #2 215556842 Gail Simone Marie 5 comics-love, read-in-2024 4.26 Uncanny X-Men (2024-) #2
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: comics-love, read-in-2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Kiss for Midwinter (Brothers Sinister, #1.5)]]> 16116470
Jonas Grantham has a secret, too: He's been in love with Lydia for more than a year. This winter, he's determined to conquer her dislike and win her for his own. It all starts with a wager and a kiss...

A Kiss for Midwinter is a novella (38,000 words) in the Brothers Sinister series. It follows The Duchess War. Each book stands on its own, but those who prefer to read in order might want to read that book first.]]> 121 Courtney Milan 1937248100 Marie 3 3.88 2012 A Kiss for Midwinter (Brothers Sinister, #1.5)
author: Courtney Milan
name: Marie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: christmas-time, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2024, so-shut-me-up-already-kisses, short-can-be-good
review:

]]> Slow Dance 198530925
They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh’s thirty-three, and it’s been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there—and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.]]> 400 Rainbow Rowell 0063380196 Marie 0 to-read 3.63 2024 Slow Dance
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Marie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Variants (2022) #5 (of 5) 61685045 22 Gail Simone Marie 5 read-in-2024, comics-love 4.33 The Variants (2022) #5 (of 5)
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: read-in-2024, comics-love
review:

]]> The Variants (2022) #4 (of 5) 61448298 24 Gail Simone Marie 5 comics-love, read-in-2024 4.35 The Variants (2022) #4 (of 5)
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: comics-love, read-in-2024
review:

]]> The Variants (2022) #3 (of 5) 61448305 23 Gail Simone Marie 5 comics-love, read-in-2024 4.24 The Variants (2022) #3 (of 5)
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: comics-love, read-in-2024
review:

]]> The Variants (2022) #2 (of 5) 61448303 24 Gail Simone Marie 5 comics-love, read-in-2024 4.27 The Variants (2022) #2 (of 5)
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: comics-love, read-in-2024
review:

]]> The Variants (2022) #1 (of 5) 61368086 23 Gail Simone Marie 5 4.36 The Variants (2022) #1 (of 5)
author: Gail Simone
name: Marie
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: 10-10-gay-for-the-heroine, read-in-2024, comics-love
review:

]]> Un homme dans la nuit 67520727 448 Gaston Leroux 236914338X Marie 0 to-read 3.50 1911 Un homme dans la nuit
author: Gaston Leroux
name: Marie
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1911
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blue-Eyed Devil (Travises, #2)]]> 1756703
His name is Hardy Cates. He's a self-made millionaire who comes from the wrong side of the tracks. He's made enemies in the rough-and-tumble ride to the top of Houston's oil industry. He's got hot blood in his veins. And vengeance on his mind.

MEET THE HEIRESS

She's Haven Travis. Despite her family's money, she refuses to set out on the path they've chosen for her. But when Haven marries a man her family disapproves of, her life is set on a new and dangerous course. Two years later, Haven comes home, determined to guard her heart. And Hardy Cates, a family enemy, is the last person she needs darkening her door or setting her soul on fire.

WATCH THE SPARKS FLY. . . .

Filled with Lisa Kleypas's trademark sensuality, filled with characters you love to hate and men you love to love, Blue-Eyed Devil will hold you captive in its storytelling power as the destiny of two people unfolds with every magical word.]]> 336 Lisa Kleypas 031235164X Marie 3
1/ nice siblings interactions
2/ i really got attached to haven
3/ there was some wrong or uncomfortable things in the way LK wrote haven and hardy's relationship but overall it was nice

i don't think i'll read the next one though...]]> 4.18 2008 Blue-Eyed Devil (Travises, #2)
author: Lisa Kleypas
name: Marie
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/27
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: crying-bc-siblings, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, favorites, 10-10-gay-for-the-heroine, read-in-2024
review:
2015 : i read it to take my mind of everything and all the drama of the story didn't really help but

1/ nice siblings interactions
2/ i really got attached to haven
3/ there was some wrong or uncomfortable things in the way LK wrote haven and hardy's relationship but overall it was nice

i don't think i'll read the next one though...
]]> Les HĂȘtres d'or 19470571 63 Arthur Conan Doyle Marie 3 read-in-2024, solving-crimes 3.81 1892 Les HĂȘtres d'or
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Marie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1892
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: read-in-2024, solving-crimes
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Jingle Bells: A Classic Christmas Book for Kids (Little Golden Book)]]> 24041456
A bear family takes some of the village animals out for a spin in the sleigh-and ends up helping Santa deliver his toys! This merry Little Golden Book from 1964 is reissued for a new generation of children to enjoy.]]> 24 Kathleen N. Daly 0553511122 Marie 5 favorites, read-in-2024 3.98 1976 Jingle Bells: A Classic Christmas Book for Kids (Little Golden Book)
author: Kathleen N. Daly
name: Marie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: favorites, read-in-2024
review:

]]> A Christmas Spark 57401643 From the author of The Widow of Rose House comes Diana Biller's witty and romantic novella A Christmas Spark, an office romance sure to bring cheer to any season!Winnifred can’t believe her luck! She’s been hired to work for renowned scientist John Moore - which in 1843 is the next best thing to being one herself. Unfortunately, she didn’t expect to find his very presence soâ€� distracting during experiments.John thinks Winnifred Byrne is a disaster of an assistant. She makes a dreadful cup of tea and has caused not one but multiple explosions! Except...she's warm, funny, brilliant, and to make matters much worse, is probably the most beautiful woman he's ever met.As the snow falls and their friendship deepens, one thing becomes he’s met his match in more ways than one.]]> 67 Diana Biller 1250820081 Marie 5 4.24 2019 A Christmas Spark
author: Diana Biller
name: Marie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2024, short-can-be-good
review:

]]> Michka + 1 peluche 8017948 26 Colmont Marie 2081631695 Marie 5 4.50 1993 Michka + 1 peluche
author: Colmont Marie
name: Marie
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: read-in-2024, favorites, short-can-be-good
review:

]]> Le nounours de Noël 33090405 32 Nathaële Vogel 2745959891 Marie 5 4.50 Le nounours de Noël
author: Nathaële Vogel
name: Marie
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: read-in-2024, short-can-be-good
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Boule de Noël: l'histoire vraie d'un chat]]> 24847291 28 Ruth Brown Marie 5 4.14 1999 Boule de Noël: l'histoire vraie d'un chat
author: Ruth Brown
name: Marie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: favorites, read-in-2024, short-can-be-good
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Marie 4 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Marie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Un cas d'identité 57578266 Arthur Conan Doyle Marie 3 3.00 1891 Un cas d'identité
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Marie
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1891
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves: short-can-be-good, read-in-2024, solving-crimes
review:

]]> Voie sans issue 177706068 192 Charles Dickens 2264083271 Marie 4 3.17 Voie sans issue
author: Charles Dickens
name: Marie
average rating: 3.17
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/21
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: christmas-time, read-in-2024, short-can-be-good
review:

]]> Jane of Lantern Hill 149543 274 L.M. Montgomery 077106165X Marie 0 to-read 4.17 1937 Jane of Lantern Hill
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: Marie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mistress Experience (Society of Sirens, #3)]]> 199796499 The scandalous women of the USA Today bestselling author Scarlett Peckham’s Society of Sirens are back with the final stage in their fight for female rights—and this time the battle is to be waged in bedâ€�

She’s the most infamous harlot in London
and she’s up for auction.

Thaïs Magadalene is a legend. The nation’s most notorious courtesan, she sells herself once a week, for one night only, and never to the same patron twice. Until now. To raise money for the cause of women’s rights, she has auctioned herself off for one month as mistress to the highest bidder.


But the winner is not who he seems.

Lord Alastair Eden is an earl, a radical politician, and a perfectionist in all things—except one. His confidence belies an unexpected he doesn’t know how to please a woman in bed. He’s determined to change that before he marries. And who could be better than the most skilled lover in the country to teach him?

And love is never for sale.

Thaïs dreams of finding a man who will love her unconditionally, never mind her past and reputation. Eden dreams of finding a perfectly bred young lady to be his wife and helpmeet. But when a steamy month in the countryside breeds a connection both in and out of the bedchamber, the two of them must decide how much can be sacrificed for love—one’s dreams, or one’s reputation.]]> 363 Scarlett Peckham 0062935666 Marie 2 3.84 The Mistress Experience (Society of Sirens, #3)
author: Scarlett Peckham
name: Marie
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, hmph-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2024, wine-mom-bookclub-pets-specials
review:
scarlett peckham is a fabulous writer but i just couldn't connect with these characters or their storylines (i mean they didn't adopt kitten that were born in the barn next to the cottage, what kind of romance heroes does that?!)
]]> <![CDATA[The Lady from Burma (Sparks & Bainbridge, #5)]]> 61884950
In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture - The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous - and never discussed - past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Mostly their clients are people trying to start (or restart) their lives in this much-changed world, but their new client is something different. A happily married woman has come to them to find a new wife for her husband. Dying of cancer, she wants the two to make sure her entomologist, academic husband finds someone new once she passes.

Shortly thereafter, she's found dead in Epping Forest, in what appears to be a suicide. But that doesn't make sense to either Sparks or Bainbridge. At the same time, Bainbridge is attempting to regain legal control of her life, opposed by the conservator who has been managing her assets - perhaps not always in her best interest. When that conservator is found dead, Bainbridge herself is one of the prime suspects. Attempting to make sense of two deaths at once, to protect themselves and their clients, the redoubtable owners of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are once again on the case.]]> 336 Allison Montclair 1250854199 Marie 5 4.11 2023 The Lady from Burma (Sparks & Bainbridge, #5)
author: Allison Montclair
name: Marie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, read-in-2024, solving-crimes, spy-dreaming
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Chocolate Kiss (Amour et Chocolat, #2)]]> 15806994 The Heart of Paris

Welcome to La Maison des Sorcieres. Where the window display is an enchanted forest of sweets, a collection of conical hats delights the eye and the habitues nibble chocolate witches from fanciful mismatched china. While in their tiny blue kitchen, Magalie Chaudron and her two aunts stir wishes into bubbling pots of heavenly chocolat chaud.

But no amount of wishing will rid them of interloper Philippe Lyonnais, who has the gall to open one of his world famous pastry shops right down the street. Philippe’s creations seem to hold a magic of their own, drawing crowds of beautiful women to their little isle amidst the Seine, and tempting even Magalie to venture out of her ivory tower and take a chance, a taste
a kiss.

Parisian princesses, chocolate witches, patissier princes and sweet wishes—an enchanting tale of amour et chocolat.]]> 342 Laura Florand 0758269412 Marie 5
reread 12/10/19: the magic of this story, this romance and the two characters is still enchanting me. whenever i read this, it feels like complete pure happiness, it makes me smile from the inside out, it gives me comfort like only your favorite book can give...

reread 28/11/16: i will never grow tired of this book. i still laugh out loud at the funny scenes, i still feel for Magalie when she struggles to open herself, i still dream and find my way back to l'Ile Saint-Louis, i still swoon over Philippe The lion, etc etc.

2016 : truly my favorite read of the year.]]> 3.88 2012 The Chocolate Kiss (Amour et Chocolat, #2)
author: Laura Florand
name: Marie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: blessing-and-blaming-liv, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, favorites, dominant-submissive-trash-trope, read-in-2016, looking-for-marie, read-in-2017, read-in-2018, so-shut-me-up-already-kisses, read-in-2024, read-in-2019
review:
2024 : i hate it her so i will dream of laura florand's paris & romances

reread 12/10/19: the magic of this story, this romance and the two characters is still enchanting me. whenever i read this, it feels like complete pure happiness, it makes me smile from the inside out, it gives me comfort like only your favorite book can give...

reread 28/11/16: i will never grow tired of this book. i still laugh out loud at the funny scenes, i still feel for Magalie when she struggles to open herself, i still dream and find my way back to l'Ile Saint-Louis, i still swoon over Philippe The lion, etc etc.

2016 : truly my favorite read of the year.
]]> Stancliffe's Hotel 29423089 111 Charlotte Brontë 0241251702 Marie 0 currently-reading 2.54 2003 Stancliffe's Hotel
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Marie
average rating: 2.54
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Les Hommes dansants 19230512 38 Arthur Conan Doyle Marie 3 read-in-2024, solving-crimes 3.75 1903 Les Hommes dansants
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Marie
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1903
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves: read-in-2024, solving-crimes
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Levana (The Lunar Chronicles, #3.5)]]> 25357346 201 Marissa Meyer 2266259032 Marie 0 currently-reading 3.94 2015 Levana (The Lunar Chronicles, #3.5)
author: Marissa Meyer
name: Marie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Laura, Lizzie et les hommes-gobelins]]> 174158379 118 Christina Rossetti 2360121588 Marie 5 4.40 Laura, Lizzie et les hommes-gobelins
author: Christina Rossetti
name: Marie
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, crying-bc-siblings, read-in-2023, read-in-2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Reckoning (Penguin Little Black Classics, #48)]]> 24874314
Two moving stories of love, loss, desire and divorce, from one of the great chroniclers of nineteenth-century New York life.

Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937).

Wharton's works available in Penguin Classics are Ethan Frome, The Age of Innocence, The Custom of the Country and The House of Mirth.]]> 49 Edith Wharton 014139756X Marie 4 3.64 2000 The Reckoning (Penguin Little Black Classics, #48)
author: Edith Wharton
name: Marie
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: read-in-2024, short-can-be-good
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton]]> 2305
The lady's maid's bell (1904)
The eyes (1910)
Afterward (1910)
Kerfol (1916)
The triumph of night (1914)
Miss Mary Pask (1925)
Bewitched (1925)
Mr Jones (1928)
Pomegranate seed (1931)
The looking glass (1935)
All souls' (1937)]]> 303 Edith Wharton 0684842572 Marie 0 to-read 3.91 1934 The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
author: Edith Wharton
name: Marie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1934
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Voyage Home (Women of Troy, #3)]]> 59427493
Continuing the story of the captured Trojan women as they set sail for Mycenae with the victorious Greeks, this new novel centres on the fate of Cassandra -- daughter of King Priam, priestess of Apollo, and a prophet condemned never to be heeded. (When she refuses to have sex with Apollo, after he has kissed her, granting her the gift of true prophecy, he spits in her mouth to make sure she will never be believed.)

Psychologically complex and dangerously driven, Cassandra's arrival in Mycenae will set in motion a bloody train of events, drawing in King Agamemnon, his wife Clytemnestra and daughter Electra. Agamemnon's triumphant return from Troy is far from the celebration he imagined, and the fate of the Trojan women as uncertain as they had feared.]]> 320 Pat Barker 0241568269 Marie 0 to-read 3.97 2024 The Voyage Home (Women of Troy, #3)
author: Pat Barker
name: Marie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Buccaneers 1492320 The Buccaneers is the last novel written by Edith Wharton. It was unfinished at the time of her death in 1937, and published in that form in 1938. After careful study of the synopsis and notes, Wharton scholar Marion Mainwaring finished the novel, which was published by Viking Press in 1993.

Nan and Jinny St George have both wealth and beauty in generous supply. In the New York society of the 1870s, however, only those with old money can achieve the status of the elite, and it is here that the sisters seem doomed to failure.

Nan's new governess, Laura Testvalley, herself an outsider, takes pity on their plight and launches them instead on the unsuspecting British aristocracy. Lords, dukes, marquesses and MPs, it seems, not only appreciate beauty, but also the money that New York's nouveaux riches can supply.

A love story of love and marriage among the old and new moneyed classes, The Buccaneers is a delicately perceptive portrayal of a world on the brink of change.]]> 406 Edith Wharton 1857021614 Marie 5 3.59 1938 The Buccaneers
author: Edith Wharton
name: Marie
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1938
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/03
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, favorites, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, queens-knights-and-co, read-in-2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit]]> 62918242 The vivid and dramatic life of Lady Caroline Lamb, whose scandalous love affair with Lord Byron overshadowed her own creativity and desire to break free from society's constraints.

From the outset, Caroline Lamb had a rebellious nature. From childhood she grew increasingly troublesome, experimenting with sedatives like laudanum, and she had a special governess to control her. She also had a merciless wit and talent for mimicry. She spoke French and German fluently, knew Greek and Latin, and sketched impressive portraits. As the niece of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, she was already well connected, and her courtly skills resulted in her marriage to the Hon. William Lamb (later Lord Melbourne) at the age on nineteen. For a few years they enjoyed a happy marriage, despite Lamb's siblings and mother-in-law detesting her and referring to her as "the little beast."

In 1812 Caroline embarked on a well-publicised affair with the poet Lord Byron - he was 24, she 26. Her phrase "mad, bad and dangerous to know" became his lasting epitaph. When he broke things off, Caroline made increasingly public attempts to reunite. Her obsession came to define much of her later life, as well as influencing her own writing - most notably the Gothic novel Glenarvon - and Byron's.

Antonia Fraser's vividly compelling biography animates the life of 'a free spirit' who was far more than mad, bad and dangerous to know.]]> 218 Antonia Fraser 1639364064 Marie 0 to-read 3.69 Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit
author: Antonia Fraser
name: Marie
average rating: 3.69
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Victorian Lady's Guide to Fashion and Beauty]]> 37919365
Using research from nineteenth century beauty books, fashion magazines, and lady's journals, Mimi Matthews gives readers a glimpse of the social issues that influenced women's clothing and the societal outrage that was an all too frequent response to those bold females who used fashion and beauty as a means of asserting their individuality and independence.]]> 152 Mimi Matthews 1526705044 Marie 0 to-read 3.86 2018 A Victorian Lady's Guide to Fashion and Beauty
author: Mimi Matthews
name: Marie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Modest Independence (Parish Orphans of Devon, #2)]]> 41946353 He Needed Peace�

Solicitor Tom Finchley has spent his life using his devious intellect to solve the problems of others. As for his own problems, they’re nothing that a bit of calculated vengeance can’t remedy. But that’s all over now. He’s finally ready to put the past behind him and settle down to a quiet, uncomplicated life. If only he could find an equally uncomplicated woman.

She Wanted Adventure�

Former lady’s companion Jenny Holloway has just been given a modest independence. Now, all she wants is a bit of adventure. A chance to see the world and experience life far outside the restrictive limits of Victorian England. If she can discover the fate of the missing Earl of Castleton while she’s at it, so much the better.

From the gaslit streets of London to the lush tea gardens of colonial India, Jenny and Tom embark on an epic quest—and an equally epic romance. But even at the farthest edges of the British Empire, the past has a way of catching up with youâ€�

]]> 400 Mimi Matthews 0999036483 Marie 4 3.76 2019 A Modest Independence (Parish Orphans of Devon, #2)
author: Mimi Matthews
name: Marie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read, tempting-wine-mom-boocklub, a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, crying-bc-siblings, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2024
review:

]]> Elle et Lui 208431899 256 George Sand Marie 0 to-read 3.20 1859 Elle et Lui
author: George Sand
name: Marie
average rating: 3.20
book published: 1859
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Italy Ever After 57202928
Escape to the sun and head off to Italy, with the wonderfully warm and ever-so-page-turning Leonie Mack!

TV journalist Lou feels battered and bruised after her divorce from Phil, the father of her daughter Edie. Her confidence and sense of fun have steadily been drained away, and she isn’t sure who she is any more.

When the opportunity arises to accompany Edie on a music camp in Italy for a month in the summer, Lou jumps at the chance for new adventures, new horizons and new friends. The hazy warmth of the summer sun, shining brightly over the stunning Lake Garda, slowly brings Lou back to life.

Nick Romano, Edie’s music teacher, loves being home in Italy, but coaching his students for their concert in Milan, is bringing back difficult memories. His blossoming friendship with Lou is the perfect distraction, although a summer fling would be easier to conduct without the scrutiny of his mother Greta, not to mention the interference of his extended Italian family.

As the summer passes, full of sunshine and breath-taking scenery, gelato and delicious feasts, Lou and Nick get ever closer. But as the time for farewell creeps up on them, will they be able to say goodbye and leave their memories behind in the Italian sun, or can a summer romance last a lifetime?

Leonie Mack is back with a sizzling, sun-baked love story, perfect for all fans of Mandy Baggot, Jo Thomas and Carole Matthews

What readers are saying about Leonie read a lot of romance books and I have to say this book is one of the best in terms of chemistry. Readers - we’re talking red hot! "A hot and sizzling read!" An uplifting, intelligent novel with a lot of substance and of course, plenty of romance "I can't stop thinking about this book!"

Beautifully written, this is a great take on the opposites attract theme. "A delight to read with lots of fun, romance and funny bits along the way."]]> 336 Leonie Mack 1800481284 Marie 3
Lou, our modern romance heroine, travels to Italy following her daughter on her music camp and hoping this will be a journey where she finds her true self as well. She is struggling with her divorce and all the insecurities that life has given her over the years. She was a touching character, as despite feeling untalented and unworthy, she goes through life day by day and stands her own mostly for her daughter and thanks to the love they share.  Nick, the music theacher of said daughter will be there to help her see what she is unwilling to, and will be an overall sweet teacher (with a few struggles on his own).

If their romance was heartwarming (slow burn kind), i couldn't fully enjoy it. Until 80% of the story, their own personal struggles and the ex-husband being such an annoying human being stressed me out. After oh so many chapters, i was rooting for them but everytime something messed it up. They either got stuck in their own struggles or more annoyingly refused themselves any kind of bright future...

It was probably my fault for thinking this would be a breezy italian holiday romance and it turned out to be a romance with more pyschological layers. Leonie really wrote her characters feelings so well that it felt authentic and well thought but sometimes too overwhelming or too frustrating. I do enjoy reading those kind of romance as well but that was not what i needed. I was craving a romance holiday to take my mind of everything...

However, I think i will revisit this one later on when the world is right again as i really enjoyed Leonie's writing style and the authenticity of her characters and their journey.

This is a three and a half stars for me (what i enjoyed, i really loved but equally i really wasn't fond of some parts of the story).

ARC copy kindly provided by netgalley.

Merged review:

Leonie Mack brought the promise of the exquisite italian setting alive. I enjoyed reading all her descriptions so much... the convent, the lake, the moutains, the food, the market! It felt so good to travel to Italy with her words and to dream of one day going there, enjoying the warmth of the italian morning sun on my face. I also really enjoyed the passion she wrote with about music: all those scenes were some of her strongest and offered a lovely addition to the story.

Lou, our modern romance heroine, travels to Italy following her daughter on her music camp and hoping this will be a journey where she finds her true self as well. She is struggling with her divorce and all the insecurities that life has given her over the years. She was a touching character, as despite feeling untalented and unworthy, she goes through life day by day and stands her own mostly for her daughter and thanks to the love they share.  Nick, the music theacher of said daughter will be there to help her see what she is unwilling to, and will be an overall sweet teacher (with a few struggles on his own).

If their romance was heartwarming (slow burn kind), i couldn't fully enjoy it. Until 80% of the story, their own personal struggles and the ex-husband being such an annoying human being stressed me out. After oh so many chapters, i was rooting for them but everytime something messed it up. They either got stuck in their own struggles or more annoyingly refused themselves any kind of bright future...

It was probably my fault for thinking this would be a breezy italian holiday romance and it turned out to be a romance with more pyschological layers. Leonie really wrote her characters feelings so well that it felt authentic and well thought but sometimes too overwhelming or too frustrating. I do enjoy reading those kind of romance as well but that was not what i needed. I was craving a romance holiday to take my mind of everything...

However, I think i will revisit this one later on when the world is right again as i really enjoyed Leonie's writing style and the authenticity of her characters and their journey.

This is a three and a half stars for me (what i enjoyed, i really loved but equally i really wasn't fond of some parts of the story).

ARC copy kindly provided by netgalley.]]> 4.05 2021 Italy Ever After
author: Leonie Mack
name: Marie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/19
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: arc-reviews, read-in-2021, reviews-for-wr
review:
Leonie Mack brought the promise of the exquisite italian setting alive. I enjoyed reading all her descriptions so much... the convent, the lake, the moutains, the food, the market! It felt so good to travel to Italy with her words and to dream of one day going there, enjoying the warmth of the italian morning sun on my face. I also really enjoyed the passion she wrote with about music: all those scenes were some of her strongest and offered a lovely addition to the story.

Lou, our modern romance heroine, travels to Italy following her daughter on her music camp and hoping this will be a journey where she finds her true self as well. She is struggling with her divorce and all the insecurities that life has given her over the years. She was a touching character, as despite feeling untalented and unworthy, she goes through life day by day and stands her own mostly for her daughter and thanks to the love they share.  Nick, the music theacher of said daughter will be there to help her see what she is unwilling to, and will be an overall sweet teacher (with a few struggles on his own).

If their romance was heartwarming (slow burn kind), i couldn't fully enjoy it. Until 80% of the story, their own personal struggles and the ex-husband being such an annoying human being stressed me out. After oh so many chapters, i was rooting for them but everytime something messed it up. They either got stuck in their own struggles or more annoyingly refused themselves any kind of bright future...

It was probably my fault for thinking this would be a breezy italian holiday romance and it turned out to be a romance with more pyschological layers. Leonie really wrote her characters feelings so well that it felt authentic and well thought but sometimes too overwhelming or too frustrating. I do enjoy reading those kind of romance as well but that was not what i needed. I was craving a romance holiday to take my mind of everything...

However, I think i will revisit this one later on when the world is right again as i really enjoyed Leonie's writing style and the authenticity of her characters and their journey.

This is a three and a half stars for me (what i enjoyed, i really loved but equally i really wasn't fond of some parts of the story).

ARC copy kindly provided by netgalley.

Merged review:

Leonie Mack brought the promise of the exquisite italian setting alive. I enjoyed reading all her descriptions so much... the convent, the lake, the moutains, the food, the market! It felt so good to travel to Italy with her words and to dream of one day going there, enjoying the warmth of the italian morning sun on my face. I also really enjoyed the passion she wrote with about music: all those scenes were some of her strongest and offered a lovely addition to the story.

Lou, our modern romance heroine, travels to Italy following her daughter on her music camp and hoping this will be a journey where she finds her true self as well. She is struggling with her divorce and all the insecurities that life has given her over the years. She was a touching character, as despite feeling untalented and unworthy, she goes through life day by day and stands her own mostly for her daughter and thanks to the love they share.  Nick, the music theacher of said daughter will be there to help her see what she is unwilling to, and will be an overall sweet teacher (with a few struggles on his own).

If their romance was heartwarming (slow burn kind), i couldn't fully enjoy it. Until 80% of the story, their own personal struggles and the ex-husband being such an annoying human being stressed me out. After oh so many chapters, i was rooting for them but everytime something messed it up. They either got stuck in their own struggles or more annoyingly refused themselves any kind of bright future...

It was probably my fault for thinking this would be a breezy italian holiday romance and it turned out to be a romance with more pyschological layers. Leonie really wrote her characters feelings so well that it felt authentic and well thought but sometimes too overwhelming or too frustrating. I do enjoy reading those kind of romance as well but that was not what i needed. I was craving a romance holiday to take my mind of everything...

However, I think i will revisit this one later on when the world is right again as i really enjoyed Leonie's writing style and the authenticity of her characters and their journey.

This is a three and a half stars for me (what i enjoyed, i really loved but equally i really wasn't fond of some parts of the story).

ARC copy kindly provided by netgalley.
]]> La Princesse de ClĂšves 45999261 158 Madame de La Fayette 2266295918 Marie 5 3.35 1678 La Princesse de ClĂšves
author: Madame de La Fayette
name: Marie
average rating: 3.35
book published: 1678
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/24
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: 10-10-gay-for-the-heroine, favorites, j-ai-un-amour-la-france, queens-knights-and-co, read-in-2024, short-can-be-good
review:
2024 : listened to a new audiobook & it remains a favorite
]]> <![CDATA[The Marquis Who Mustn't (Wedgeford Trials, #2)]]> 198271721 372 Courtney Milan 1937248755 Marie 0 to-read 4.22 2023 The Marquis Who Mustn't (Wedgeford Trials, #2)
author: Courtney Milan
name: Marie
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Earl Who Isn't (Wedgeford Trials, #3)]]> 215511662
Then Lily Bei returns, armed with a printing press, her irrepressible spirit, and a sheaf of inconvenient documents that prove the very thing Andrew wants that he is actually the legitimate, first born son of the Earl of Arsell.

What’s Andrew to do, when the woman he’s always desired promises him everything he’s never wanted? Andrew’s track record of saying no to Lily is nonexistent. The only way he can avert impending disaster is by stealing the evidenceâ€� while trying desperately not to fall in love (again) with the woman he shouldn’t let into his life.]]> 329 Courtney Milan 1937248763 Marie 0 to-read 4.16 2024 The Earl Who Isn't (Wedgeford Trials, #3)
author: Courtney Milan
name: Marie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Miniature Needle Painting Embroidery: Vintage Portraits, Florals & Birds (Milner Craft Series)]]> 22928576 200 Trish Burr 1863514708 Marie 0 to-read 4.52 2015 Miniature Needle Painting Embroidery: Vintage Portraits, Florals & Birds (Milner Craft Series)
author: Trish Burr
name: Marie
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance]]> 177186345
In an innovative and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespeare’s England, Ramie Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the mid-sixteenth century into the private lives of four women writers working at a time when women were legally the property of men. Some readers may have heard of Mary Sidney, accomplished poet and sister of the famous Sir Philip Sidney, but few will have heard of Aemilia Lanyer, the first woman in the seventeenth century to publish a book of original poetry, which offered a feminist take on the crucifixion, or Elizabeth Cary, who published the first original play by a woman, about the plight of the Jewish princess Mariam. Then there was Anne Clifford, a lifelong diarist who fought for decades against a patriarchy that tried to rob her of her land in one of England’s most infamous inheritance battles. These women had husbands and children to care for and little support for their art, yet against all odds they defined themselves as writers, finding rooms of their own where doors had been shut for centuries. Targoff flings those doors open, revealing the treasures left by these extraordinary women; in the process, she helps us see the Renaissance in a fresh light, creating a richer understanding of history and offering a much-needed female perspective on life in Shakespeare’s day.]]> 336 Ramie Targoff 0525658033 Marie 0 to-read 3.82 2024 Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance
author: Ramie Targoff
name: Marie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire]]> 98652084 A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum comes a wildly entertaining new history of Rome that uses the lives of 21 extraordinary women to upend our understanding of the ancient world.

The history of Rome has long been narrow and one-sided, essentially a history of "The Doing of Important Things," and as far as Roman historians have been concerned, women don't make that history. From Romulus through "the political stab-fest of the late Republic," and then on to all the emperors, Roman historians may deign to give you a wife or a mother to show how bad things become when women get out of control, but history is more than that.

Emma Southon's A Rome of One's Own is the best kind of correction. This is a retelling of the history of Rome with all the things Roman history writers relegate to the background, or designate as domestic, feminine, or worthless. This is a history of women who caused outrage, led armies in rebellion, wrote poetry; who lived independently or under the thumb of emperors. Told with humor and verve as well as a deep scholarly background, A Rome of One's Own highlights women overlooked and misunderstood, and through them offers a fascinating and groundbreaking chronicle of the ancient world.]]> 416 Emma Southon 1419760181 Marie 0 to-read 4.16 2023 A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire
author: Emma Southon
name: Marie
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty & Female Creativity]]> 176443632
*A Waterstones Best Book of 2023*
*A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week*
*A New York Times Editor's Pick*

'Terrific' SARAH DUNANT

'Lively and intriguing ... You'll never look at Renaissance portraits in the same way' MAGGIE O'FARRELL

'Highlights a rich tapestry of female experience that encompasses everyone from artisans to aristocrats ...' THE TIMES

This is the story of the Renaissance, but not as you know it. Discover overlooked and silenced women from this extraordinary moment in history and how they forged opportunities for creativity, community and resistance. From the bedchamber to the court, they give us an intimate window into what life was really like - and hold a mirror up to our contemporary obsession with how we look.

'A witty and engaging history of cosmetics and beauty ... lavishly illustrated and hugely entertaining' IRISH TIMES

'A total eye-opener, I loved it' NUALA McGOVERN]]> 336 Jill Burke 1639365907 Marie 0 to-read 3.87 How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty & Female Creativity
author: Jill Burke
name: Marie
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Looking for Alibrandi 19498381 261 Melina Marchetta 0857969986 Marie 5 a m a z i n g 3.77 1992 Looking for Alibrandi
author: Melina Marchetta
name: Marie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/28
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
review:
a m a z i n g
]]> <![CDATA[The Chocolate Kiss (Chocolate, #2)]]> 18995698 353 Laura Florand 0758286112 Marie 5 3.89 2012 The Chocolate Kiss (Chocolate, #2)
author: Laura Florand
name: Marie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2016/11/28
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Save Me (Maxton Hall, #1) 35060774 416 Mona Kasten 3736305567 Marie 0 to-read 3.98 2018 Save Me (Maxton Hall, #1)
author: Mona Kasten
name: Marie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons]]> 89982174
Legendary talents Kelly Sue DeConnick, Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha, and Nicola Scott unleash a critically lauded and Eisner Award-winning reading experience the likes of which you've never seen, with unbelievably sumptuous art and a story that will haunt you. Featuring a brand-new cover by all three series artists!

Collects WONDER WOMAN HISTORIA: THE AMAZONS #1-3.]]> 232 Kelly Sue DeConnick 1779521359 Marie 2 4.50 2023 Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons
author: Kelly Sue DeConnick
name: Marie
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: 10-10-gay-for-the-heroine, comics-love, read-in-2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise]]> 212069868
'What a wonderful book this is. I loved the enchanting and beautifully written story but also the fascinating and thoughtful excursions along the way.' � Nigel Slater

‘A garden contains secrets, we all know that: buried elements that might put on strange growth or germinate in unexpected places. The garden that I chose had walls, but like every garden it was interconnected, wide open to the world . . .â€�

In 2020, Olivia Laing began to restore a walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants. The work drew her into an exhilarating investigation of paradise and its long association with gardens. Moving between real and imagined gardens, from Milton’s Paradise Lost to John Clare’s enclosure elegies, from a wartime sanctuary in Italy to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth.

But the story of the garden doesn’t always enact larger patterns of privilege and exclusion. It’s also a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams. From the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the fertile vision of a common Eden propagated by William Morris, new modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of climate change.

The result is a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens: not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.]]> 317 Olivia Laing 1529066670 Marie 0 currently-reading 4.09 2024 The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise
author: Olivia Laing
name: Marie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Sargent and Fashion 203382615 247 Erica E. Hirschler 1849768595 Marie 4 art-lover, read-in-2024 4.50 Sargent and Fashion
author: Erica E. Hirschler
name: Marie
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: art-lover, read-in-2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Waves (The Virginia Woolf Collection)]]> 63325933 Vanessa Kirby, Adetomiwa Edun, Andrea Riseborough, Tracy Ifeachor, Samuel Barnett, Johnny Flynn and Juliet Stevenson perform.
Set on the coast of England against the vivid background of the sea, The Waves introduces six characters—three men and three women—who are grappling with the death of a beloved friend, Percival. Instead of describing their outward expressions of grief, Virginia Woolf draws her characters from the inside, revealing them through their thoughts and interior soliloquies. As their understanding of nature’s trials grows, the chorus of narrative voices blends together in miraculous harmony, remarking not only on the inevitable death of individuals but on the eternal connection of everyone. The novel that most epitomizes Virginia Woolf’s theories of fiction in the working form, The Waves is an amazing book very much ahead of its time. It is a poetic dreamscape, visual, experimental, and thrilling.]]> Virginia Woolf Marie 0 currently-reading 3.75 1931 The Waves (The Virginia Woolf Collection)
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Marie
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1931
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Siren of Sussex (Belles of London, #1)]]> 55566666 Victorian high society’s most daring equestrienne finds love and an unexpected ally in her fight for independence in the strong arms of London’s most sought after and devastatingly handsome half-Indian tailor.

Evelyn Maltravers understands exactly how little she’s worth on the marriage mart. As an incurable bluestocking from a family tumbling swiftly toward ruin, she knows she’ll never make a match in a ballroom. Her only hope is to distinguish herself by making the biggest splash in the one sphere she on horseback. In haute couture. But to truly capture London’s attention she’ll need a habit-maker who’s not afraid to take risks with his designs—and with his heart.

Half-Indian tailor Ahmad Malik has always had a talent for making women beautiful, inching his way toward recognition by designing riding habits for Rotten Row’s infamous Pretty Horsebreakers—but no one compares to Evelyn. Her unbridled spirit enchants him, awakening a depth of feeling he never thought possible.

But pushing boundaries comes at a cost and not everyone is pleased to welcome Evelyn and Ahmad into fashionable society. With obstacles spanning between them, the indomitable pair must decide which hurdles they can jump and what matters making their mark or following their hearts?]]> 400 Mimi Matthews 0593337131 Marie 0 3.82 2022 The Siren of Sussex (Belles of London, #1)
author: Mimi Matthews
name: Marie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: tempting-wine-mom-boocklub, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Matrimonial Advertisement (Parish Orphans of Devon, #1)]]> 40494228 She Wanted Sanctuary...

Helena Reynolds will do anything to escape her life in London, even if that means traveling to a remote cliffside estate on the North Devon coast and marrying a complete stranger. But Greyfriar's Abbey isn't the sort of refuge she imagined. And ex-army captain Justin Thornhill--though he may be tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome--is anything but a romantic hero.

He Needed Redemption...

Justin has spent the last two decades making his fortune, settling scores, and suffering a prolonged period of torture in an Indian prison. Now, he needs someone to smooth the way for him with the villagers. Someone to manage his household--and warm his bed on occasion. What he needs, in short, is a wife and a matrimonial advertisement seems the perfect way to acquire one.

Their marriage was meant to be a business arrangement and nothing more. A dispassionate union free from the entanglements of love and affection. But when Helena's past threatens, will Justin's burgeoning feelings for his new bride compel him to come to her rescue? Or will dark secrets of his own force him to let her go?]]> 348 Mimi Matthews 0999036440 Marie 5 4.07 2018 The Matrimonial Advertisement (Parish Orphans of Devon, #1)
author: Mimi Matthews
name: Marie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, crying-bc-siblings, fake-or-forced-dating-trope, prestige-wine-mom-bookclub, read-in-2024, wine-mom-bookclub-pets-specials
review:
i should start answering the mariage proposals from the newspaper if it means i'd get a brooding-returned from war-sexy-owner of a gothic abbey husband
]]> Charles-Auguste Milverton 19221676 26 Arthur Conan Doyle Marie 3 3.62 1904 Charles-Auguste Milverton
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Marie
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1904
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/05
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: read-in-2024, short-can-be-good, solving-crimes, audiobook
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Haunting of the Desks: A Sparks & Bainbridge Short Story]]> 57330100 Sparks and Bainbridge of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau return in this short story from Allison Montclair as their expansion into a new office - and acquisition of a new desk - results in unexplainable phenomena that can only mean that their new digs are haunted!

In London, 1946, The Right Sort Marriage Agency is off to a good start and their early success means that Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge can now afford to expand into the long-empty office across the hall. And with that long closed office comes some more professional furniture - including a partner's desk from Harrod's. But something is afoot in that office - strange noises at unusual hours, some of the furniture seeming moved around and cleaned, all behind a locked door. The building's janitor is convinced that this is proof that the office is haunted.

But Sparks and Bainbridge are not so sure that's the only, or even the correct, conclusion. Instead, they suspect there's something going on related to the locked partner's desk and the long closed office. With their detective hats on, Sparks and Bainbridge are determined to uncover the truth about the mystery of the haunted partner's desk...or die trying?]]> 73 Allison Montclair 1250810272 Marie 4 3.89 2021 The Haunting of the Desks: A Sparks & Bainbridge Short Story
author: Allison Montclair
name: Marie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/05
shelves: a-plus-positiv-female-relationships, read-in-2024, short-can-be-good, solving-crimes
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion Mystery, #1)]]> 76633
Luckily for Abbershaw, among the guests is Albert Campion—a garrulous and affable party-crasher with a great knack for solving mysteries and interrogating suspects.

The Crime at Black Dudley, first published in 1929, is the first novel to introduce Margery Allingham's amiable and much loved sleuth � Albert Campion.]]> 208 Margery Allingham 0140007709 Marie 0 to-read 3.63 1929 The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion Mystery, #1)
author: Margery Allingham
name: Marie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>