Tessa's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 07 Aug 2024 10:41:59 -0700 60 Tessa's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[A Dance with Dragons 1: Dreams and Dust (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5, Part 1 of 2)]]> 13337715
Tyrion Lannister, having killed his father, and wrongfully accused of killing his nephew, King Joffrey, has escaped from King’s Landing with a price on his head.

To the north lies the great Wall of ice and stone � a structure only as strong as those guarding it. Eddard Stark's bastard son Jon Snow has been elected 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. But Jon has enemies both inside and beyond the Wall.

And in the east Daenerys Targaryen struggles to hold a city built on dreams and dust.]]>
690 George R.R. Martin Tessa 4 4.33 2011 A Dance with Dragons 1: Dreams and Dust (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5, Part 1 of 2)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

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Vrouwe van Llyn 23151673 335 Jane Watt 9044313347 Tessa 5 3.78 2004 Vrouwe van Llyn
author: Jane Watt
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/06/14
shelves:
review:
Dit was misschien wel het eerste tijdreis verhalen dat ik las, en ik ben gelijk verliefd geworden op het genre. Vond het een geweldig boek en heb het ook nog steeds in mijn boekenkast staan. In de tijd dat ik dit boek las, was ik voornamelijke historische romans aan het lezen en ik weet nog dat ik het zo fijn vond dat je hier het complete levensverhaal van de personages volgt in plaats van dat typische en ze leefde nog lang en gelukkig dat je terug vind in 'kasteelromans'. Ik denk nog vaak terug aan dit verhaal en zou het iedereen aanraden die van dit genre houdt (Wales, Llywelyn the Great, Tijdreis, liefdesverhaal) dit boek te lezen.
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Penny (Women & War #2) 23125745
It's the second year of the war. Britain stands alone. Civilians face death and destruction on a daily basis through the Blitz. Penny throws herself into her translation job in order to forget about the man that broke her heart. Yearning to do more, she convinces her bosses to drop her behind enemy lines in Northern France as a spy. Working with the resistance in the darkness of occupied France her bravery, skills and resourcefulness are tested to the limit.

Now a trained killer, she comes face to face with the man she holds responsible for the loss of everything she held dear. Will she let revenge destroy any chance of happiness the future may hold? Or will she give in to the love she has waited a lifetime to find?]]>
276 Ellie Keaton Tessa 0 to-read 4.16 2014 Penny (Women & War #2)
author: Ellie Keaton
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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Mornings in Jenin 6692041 In the refugee camp of Jenin, Amal is born into a world of loss—of home, country, and heritage. Her Palestinian family was driven from their ancestral village by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948. As the villagers fled that day, Amal's older brother, just a baby, was stolen away by an Israeli soldier. In Jenin, the adults subsist on memories, waiting to return to the homes they love. Amal's mother has walled away her heart with grief, and her father labors all day. But in the fleeting peacefulness of dawn, he reads to his young daughter daily, and she can feel his love for her, "as big as the ocean and all its fishes." On those quiet mornings, they dream together of a brighter future.

This is Amal's story, the story of one family's struggle and survival through over sixty years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, carrying us from Jenin to Jerusalem, to Lebanon and the anonymity of America. It is a story shaped by scars and fear, but also by the transformative intimacy of marriage and the fierce protectiveness of motherhood. It is a story of faith, forgiveness, and life-sustaining love.

Mornings in Jenin is haunting and heart-wrenching, a novel of vital contemporary importance. Lending human voices to the headlines, it forces us to take a fresh look at one of the defining political conflicts of our lifetimes.]]>
331 Susan Abulhawa 1608190463 Tessa 5
One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter.]]>
4.49 2006 Mornings in Jenin
author: Susan Abulhawa
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/03/10
shelves:
review:
Im giving this book 5 stars, and I don’t take that lightly. Absolutely adored it, I was ugly crying on a beach and was heartbroken by the end of it.

One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter.
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Jacob's Oath 17286827
Martin Fletcher, whoĚýwon the National Jewish Book Award for Walking Israel,Ěýproved his chops as a novelist with The List, which was selected as the One Book, One Jewish Community title for the city of Philadelphia. Now, Fletcher brings usĚýanotherĚýtouching novel of love, loyalty, and loss, set in the aftermath of the Holocaust.]]>
323 Martin Fletcher 1250027616 Tessa 0 to-read 3.83 2013 Jacob's Oath
author: Martin Fletcher
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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Promised Land 37638102 409 Martin Fletcher 1250118824 Tessa 0 to-read 3.84 2018 Promised Land
author: Martin Fletcher
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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The List 40605051 Martin Fletcher has captivated television audiences for thirty-five years as a foreign correspondent for NBC News. Now, Fletcher combines his own family's history with meticulous research in this gripping story of a young Jewish family struggling to stay afloat after World War II.

London, October 1945. Austrian refugees Georg and Edith await the birth of their first child. Yet how can they celebrate when almost every day brings news of another relative or friend murdered in the Holocaust? Their struggle to rebuild their lives is further threatened by growing anti-Semitism in London's streets; Englishmen want to take homes and jobs from Jewish refugees and give them to returning servicemen.

Edith's father is believed to have survived, and finding him rests on Georg's shoulders. Then Georg learns of a plot by Palestinian Jews to assassinate Britain's foreign minister. Georg must try to stop the murder, all the while navigating a city that wants to "eject the aliens."

In The List, Fletcher investigates an ignored and painful chapter in London's history. The novel is both a breathless thriller of postwar sabotage and a heartrending and historically accurate portrait of an almost forgotten era. In this sensitive, deeply touching, and impossible-to-forget story, Martin Fletcher explores the themes of hope, prejudice, loss and love that make up the lives of all refugees everywhere.

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354 Martin Fletcher Tessa 0 to-read 3.77 2011 The List
author: Martin Fletcher
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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And the Mountains Echoed 16115612 404 Khaled Hosseini 159463176X Tessa 2
I have the same problem with this one as so many seem to have, to many side characters taking up to much space. I tried to care, I really did, and I kept telling myself that it would probably be important in the end and I needed to read it. All I cared about was Pari and Abe, and I kept waiting for them. And waiting. And waiting. In the end I think only 40% of the book was about them, maybe even less. The worst part? Most of the side characters weren’t important at all in the end. It was frustrating.

I liked his writing style, there is no denying that the guy knows how to tell a beautiful story but I just wish more of the novel could have been focused on the two people this was about.]]>
4.06 2012 And the Mountains Echoed
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2020/05/25
shelves:
review:
I feel almost bad for rating it only two stars. I’ve been wanting to read Hosseini’s work for quite some time but I never got around to it. Until a couple of weeks ago I saw the kite runner on TV and I loved it. So when I stumbled upon this novel in the thrift store I bought it and started reading.

I have the same problem with this one as so many seem to have, to many side characters taking up to much space. I tried to care, I really did, and I kept telling myself that it would probably be important in the end and I needed to read it. All I cared about was Pari and Abe, and I kept waiting for them. And waiting. And waiting. In the end I think only 40% of the book was about them, maybe even less. The worst part? Most of the side characters weren’t important at all in the end. It was frustrating.

I liked his writing style, there is no denying that the guy knows how to tell a beautiful story but I just wish more of the novel could have been focused on the two people this was about.
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<![CDATA[Glory Over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House]]> 25813937 New York Times bestseller from the author of the beloved book club favorite The Kitchen House is a heart racing story about a man’s treacherous journey through the twists and turns of the Underground Railroad on a mission to save the boy he swore to protect. Glory Over Everything is “gripping…breathless until the end� (Kirkus Reviews).

The year is 1830 and Jamie Pyke, a celebrated silversmith and notorious ladies� man, is keeping a deadly secret. Passing as a wealthy white aristocrat in Philadelphian society, Jamie is now living a life he could never have imagined years before when he was a runaway slave, son of a southern black slave and her master. But Jamie’s carefully constructed world is threatened when he discovers that his married socialite lover, Caroline, is pregnant and his beloved servant Pan, to whose father Jamie owes his own freedom, has been captured and sold into slavery in the South.

Fleeing the consequences of his deceptions, Jamie embarks on a trip to a North Carolina plantation to save Pan from the life he himself barely escaped as a boy. With the help of a fearless slave, Sukey, who has taken the terrified young boy under her wing, Jamie navigates their way, racing against time and their ruthless pursuers through the Virginia backwoods, the Underground Railroad, and the treacherous Great Dismal Swamp.

“Kathleen Grissom is a first-rate storyteller…she observes with an unwavering but kind eye, and she bestows upon the reader, amid terrible secrets and sin, a gift of mercy: the belief that hope can triumph over hell� (Richmond Times Dispatch). Glory Over Everything is an emotionally rewarding and epic novel “filled with romance, villains, violence, courage, compassion…and suspense.� (Florida Courier).]]>
365 Kathleen Grissom 1476748446 Tessa 4 4.26 2016 Glory Over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House
author: Kathleen Grissom
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/05/16
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[1949: A Novel of the Irish Free State (Irish Century)]]> 300943 1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion
1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War
1949: A Novel of the Irish Free State
1972: A Novel of Ireland's Unfinished Revolution
1999: A Novel of the Celtic Tiger and the Search for Peace]]>
512 Morgan Llywelyn 0812570804 Tessa 0 to-read 4.13 2003 1949: A Novel of the Irish Free State (Irish Century)
author: Morgan Llywelyn
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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Trinity 42696 Leon Uris’s beloved Irish classic, available in Avon mass market.

From the acclaimed author who enthralled the world withĚýExodus, Battle Cry, QB VII, Topaz,Ěýand other beloved classics of twentieth-century fiction comes a sweeping and powerful epic adventure that captures the "terrible beauty" of Ireland during its long and bloody struggle for freedom. It is the electrifying story of an idealistic young Catholic rebel and the valiant and beautiful Protestant girl who defied her heritage to join his cause. It is a tale of love and danger, of triumph at an unthinkable costâ€�a magnificent portrait of a people divided by class, faith, and prejudiceâ€�an unforgettable saga of the fires that devastated a majestic land... and the unquenchable flames that burn in the human heart.]]>
894 Leon Uris 0060827882 Tessa 0 currently-reading 4.28 1976 Trinity
author: Leon Uris
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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Exodus 42697 Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon--the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era.]]> 599 Leon Uris 0553258478 Tessa 3 4.34 1960 Exodus
author: Leon Uris
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1960
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2020/05/05
shelves:
review:

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Waterfall (River of Time, #1) 7879278 What do you do when your knight in shining armor lives, literally, in a different world?

Most American teenagers want a vacation in Italy, but the Betarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives among the romantic hills with their archaelogist parents. Stuck among the rubble of the medieval castles in rural Tuscany, on yet another hot, dusty archaeological site, Gabi and Lia are bored out of their minds...until Gabi places her hand atop a handprint in an ancient tomb and finds herself in fourteenth-century Italy. And worse yet, in the middle of a fierce battle between knights of two opposing forces.

Suddenly Gabi's summer in Italy is much, much more interesting.]]>
369 Lisa Tawn Bergren 1434764338 Tessa 1 4.02 2011 Waterfall (River of Time, #1)
author: Lisa Tawn Bergren
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2011
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2020/04/23
shelves:
review:

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Torrent (River of Time, #3) 9935444 Would you sacrifice your future ... for an uncertain past?

Gabriella and Evangelia Betarrini are just two normal American teenagers. Normal--except for the fact that they time travel to fourteenth-century Italy, where they've lived in castles, become swept up in historic battles, and fallen in love with handsome knights willing to do anything to keep them alive.

They've returned with their mother to the present to save their father before his tragic death, and now the family travels back to the place that holds the girls' hearts: medieval Italy. But remaining there means facing great risk as the battle for territory wages on and the Black Plague looms. Will the Betarrinis truly be willing to risk it all? Or in facing death head-on, will they discover life as it was always meant to be lived?]]>
388 Lisa Tawn Bergren 143476429X Tessa 1
I have never been more disappointed in a book I picked based on goodreads reviews, I was expecting a lot because of that. I probably shouldn't have (the last mortal instrument got 4.49 -.- just looked that one up, haven't yet read it, probably will never either but judging her previous it should have never even gotten close to that) or maybe I outgrew the Young Adult genre, I don't know but Lisa Tawn Bergren just didn't deliver in my eyes.

SPOILERS

First of all the author is trying to be way to 'cool' in her writing style, since it's been a while I don't remember all the specific typical teenage girl words she used but I'll give you the one I remember; 'Duh!'. I don't even know what to say about that. This is not fanfiction lady! You can show in a different way that you are writing about a young teenage girl. The amount of time I have been rolling my eyes reading shit like this is not normal, it should have damaged them. But it didn't, luckily.

The heroine Gabriella. Bergren probably tried to write about a brave young girl who her readers could relate to but it was just laughable. Gabriella was not brave, she was stupid. Nothing more, nothing less. She throws herself in every dangerous situation she can, forcing the people who love her to risk their lifes. & If she even acknowledges that later she just shrugs it off with an; 'but I didn't ask for that' attitude. No, you didn't but you knew very well they would do it. If you don't want to think about your own safety then for goodness sake think about the safety of the people around you. Selfish entitled brat. & in the end she dares to have a mental breakdown? Your kidding me right? Do I have to feel sorry now? Nope sorry not happening...

Ok, lets talk about all those dangerous situations the characters in this novel have to face. Do you think for one moment they suffered anything worse then a broken bone? One even survived the plague, the infamous black death. You know? The one which killed 30 to 60% of all Europeans back then? Not to worry, back on his feet in a day or two... One likeable fairly major character died throughout the 3 books. One. Let's repeat that again; ONE! If you don't want your characters do die Mrs Lisa T. Bergren, i'm sure you could have found yourself a peaceful time in history, without war and the black dead knocking on your backdoor. It would have made everything a little more believable, to use your words; DUH!

The last thing im going to throw on the table is the time travel concept. Way to easy. You can cross it as many times as you want, nothing happens. You can even take someone with you, all they have to do is hold onto you really tight! Isn't that great? & wait for it, it also heals you, even if your deadly poisoned. Welp, that's certainly easy! Last but certainly not least, you just simply bring someone back from the dead by travelling back to before they died and get them the hell out of there. That way Gabriella, her sister, father and mother can be one big happy family in fourteenth century Italy. But let's not forget Gabriella shouldn't have it too easy convincing her family why they shouldn't just go right back to the safe, battle/plague free 21st century. Practical down to earth sissy falls in love too (how convenient, could have seen that one coming from the beginning) and mother and father decide that in modern times we lost the essence of life, or some stupid shit like that. I need alcohol even thinking about it, lots of it. Now let me get to bed and cry myself to sleep again that I waisted all that time reading the river of time series.]]>
4.29 2011 Torrent (River of Time, #3)
author: Lisa Tawn Bergren
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2011
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2020/04/23
shelves:
review:
I finished the first 3 books a while ago but I feel that I need to write this review. I know mine will not matter much but I need to try to get the number of stars down, because it definitely doesn't deserve an average of 4.24. I mean come on! Do you know who has around the same amount? Diana Gabaldon. Are you really going to tell me that her Outlander series is equal to this one? Let me tell you this, it's not even coming close! If you want to read a GREAT time travel novel with admirable characters? Read Outlander, it will not disappoint.

I have never been more disappointed in a book I picked based on goodreads reviews, I was expecting a lot because of that. I probably shouldn't have (the last mortal instrument got 4.49 -.- just looked that one up, haven't yet read it, probably will never either but judging her previous it should have never even gotten close to that) or maybe I outgrew the Young Adult genre, I don't know but Lisa Tawn Bergren just didn't deliver in my eyes.

SPOILERS

First of all the author is trying to be way to 'cool' in her writing style, since it's been a while I don't remember all the specific typical teenage girl words she used but I'll give you the one I remember; 'Duh!'. I don't even know what to say about that. This is not fanfiction lady! You can show in a different way that you are writing about a young teenage girl. The amount of time I have been rolling my eyes reading shit like this is not normal, it should have damaged them. But it didn't, luckily.

The heroine Gabriella. Bergren probably tried to write about a brave young girl who her readers could relate to but it was just laughable. Gabriella was not brave, she was stupid. Nothing more, nothing less. She throws herself in every dangerous situation she can, forcing the people who love her to risk their lifes. & If she even acknowledges that later she just shrugs it off with an; 'but I didn't ask for that' attitude. No, you didn't but you knew very well they would do it. If you don't want to think about your own safety then for goodness sake think about the safety of the people around you. Selfish entitled brat. & in the end she dares to have a mental breakdown? Your kidding me right? Do I have to feel sorry now? Nope sorry not happening...

Ok, lets talk about all those dangerous situations the characters in this novel have to face. Do you think for one moment they suffered anything worse then a broken bone? One even survived the plague, the infamous black death. You know? The one which killed 30 to 60% of all Europeans back then? Not to worry, back on his feet in a day or two... One likeable fairly major character died throughout the 3 books. One. Let's repeat that again; ONE! If you don't want your characters do die Mrs Lisa T. Bergren, i'm sure you could have found yourself a peaceful time in history, without war and the black dead knocking on your backdoor. It would have made everything a little more believable, to use your words; DUH!

The last thing im going to throw on the table is the time travel concept. Way to easy. You can cross it as many times as you want, nothing happens. You can even take someone with you, all they have to do is hold onto you really tight! Isn't that great? & wait for it, it also heals you, even if your deadly poisoned. Welp, that's certainly easy! Last but certainly not least, you just simply bring someone back from the dead by travelling back to before they died and get them the hell out of there. That way Gabriella, her sister, father and mother can be one big happy family in fourteenth century Italy. But let's not forget Gabriella shouldn't have it too easy convincing her family why they shouldn't just go right back to the safe, battle/plague free 21st century. Practical down to earth sissy falls in love too (how convenient, could have seen that one coming from the beginning) and mother and father decide that in modern times we lost the essence of life, or some stupid shit like that. I need alcohol even thinking about it, lots of it. Now let me get to bed and cry myself to sleep again that I waisted all that time reading the river of time series.
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<![CDATA[Hunger Winter: A World War II Novel]]> 53054976 The story of one boy's quest to find his father and protect his younger sister during the great Dutch famine of World War II.
"Sometimes you have to take a chance, because it's the only chance you have."

Thirteen-year-old Dirk has been the man of the house since his papa disappeared while fighting against the Nazis with the Dutch Resistance. When the Gestapo arrests Dirk's older sister, who is also a Resistance fighter, Dirk fears that he and his little sister, Anna, might be next.

With only pockets full of food and his sister asleep in his arms, Dirk runs away to find his father. As Dirk leads Anna across the war-torn Netherlands, from farmyards to work camps, he must rely on his wits and his father's teaching to find his way.]]>
272 Rob Currie 149644034X Tessa 0 to-read 3.98 2020 Hunger Winter: A World War II Novel
author: Rob Currie
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West]]> 76401 The New York Times called "Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking...Impossible to put down."

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. For this elegant thirtieth-anniversary edition—published in both hardcover and paperback—Brown has contributed an incisive new preface.

Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.]]>
509 Dee Brown 0805066691 Tessa 0 to-read 4.24 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
author: Dee Brown
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising]]> 18211073
On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, the first great revolution of the twentieth century began as working-class men and women occupied buildings throughout Dublin, Ireland, including the general post office on O’Connell Street. Among the commoners in the GPO was a young staff captain of the Irish Volunteers named Michael Collins. He was joined a day later by a fourteen-year-old messenger boy, Eoin Kavanagh. Four days later they would all surrender, but they had struck the match that would burn Great Britain out of Ireland for the first time in seven hundred years.

The 13th Apostle is the reimagined story of how Michael Collins, along with his young acolyte Eoin, transformed Ireland from a colony into a nation. Collins’s secret weapon was his intelligence system and his assassination squad, nicknamed “The Twelve Apostles.� On November 21, 1920, the squad—with its thirteenth member, young Eoin—assassinated the entire British Secret Service in Dublin. Twelve months and sixteen days later, Collins signed the Treaty at 10 Downing Street, which brought into being what is, today, the Republic of Ireland.

An epic novel in the tradition of Thomas Flanagan’s The Year of the French and Leon Uris’s Trinity , The 13th Apostle is a story that will capture the imagination and hearts of freedom-loving readers everywhere.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.]]>
592 Dermot McEvoy 162636561X Tessa 4 3.78 2014 The 13th Apostle: A Novel of a Dublin Family, Michael Collins, and the Irish Uprising
author: Dermot McEvoy
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/02/18
shelves:
review:
I really loved this book, I could have done without the chapters of Johnny 3 and Diane but besides that I really liked all the others characters. Eion was lovely, I adored him, same goes for micheal himself. & the parts about the squad were awesome. Although I knew how it would end I was hooked until the last page. Such an interesting part of history! 4.5 stars.
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<![CDATA[1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War (Irish Century)]]> 300942
1921 tells the story of the Irish War of Independence and the heartbreaking civil war that followed. Henry Mooney, a reporter for the Clare Champion and the Irish Bulletin , is a self-described "moderate nationalist" who struggles to see the truth in the news of the day, and to report it fairly. Lacking more radical Republican beliefs of his dear friends Ned Halloran and Sile Duffy, Henry reports the political--and later, bloody--actions of his fellow Irishman from the ashes of the failed 1916 Rising to the creation of the Irish Free State to the tragic and wide-ranging battles of the Irish Civil War.

Meanwhile, Henry feels the impact of these history-changing events in his own personal life. His friendship with Ned falters when their political beliefs diverge, and an unexpected tragedy leaves them further apart than ever. Henry struggles with his passion for a well-bred Protestant Anglo-Irish woman, Ella Rutledge, and as he dutifully reports the events in the political battle for independence, he comes to realize that the Irish struggle for freedom wil leave no life untouched--and no Irish citizen with a dry eye or an untroubled heart.]]>
560 Morgan Llywelyn 0812570790 Tessa 4 4.19 2001 1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War (Irish Century)
author: Morgan Llywelyn
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/12/20
shelves:
review:

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Treason 85790 432 Meredith Whitford 190449272X Tessa 0 to-read 4.00 2004 Treason
author: Meredith Whitford
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion]]> 300944
Through Ned's eyes, 1916 examines the Irish fight for freedom--inspired by poets and schoolteachers, fueled by a desperate desire for independence, and played out in the historic streets of Dublin against the backdrop of World War I. It is the story of the brave men and heroic women who, for a few unforgettable days, managed to hold out against the might of the British Empire to realize an impossible dream.]]>
576 Morgan Llywelyn 0812574923 Tessa 3 The ending on the other hand had a nice flow. I’m quite torn to be honest, a lot of things could have been done better but it still kept my interest and I finished it in a couple of days; 3,5 stars. ]]> 4.06 1998 1916: A Novel of the Irish Rebellion
author: Morgan Llywelyn
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2019/10/24
shelves:
review:
I really appreciated this book, from what I can tell she stayed true to the source material and the story she told was really interesting. The problem for me was that it felt a bit too clinical if that makes sense... I never really got attached to the characters. I liked them but they didnt pull you in. I should have been in shambles by the end, but I wasn’t. Not a tear was shed while reading this book and it really is the sort of story that should provoke such a reaction. At times it also dragged on quite a bit.
The ending on the other hand had a nice flow. I’m quite torn to be honest, a lot of things could have been done better but it still kept my interest and I finished it in a couple of days; 3,5 stars.
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<![CDATA[Shipbuilder (The Time Travel Journals, #1)]]> 12775778 268 Marlene Dotterer 1463695977 Tessa 5
I really appreciated how the writer made the characters suffer in the beginning, it always annoyed me that in previous time travel novels I’ve read, the main character would arrive back in time and within 5 minutes had a comfortable place to stay. She made it realistic and real, the characters were lovely and I think the only thing that could have been improved were the huge time jumps, but all in all I really enjoyed this and will check out the next one in the series! ]]>
4.33 2011 Shipbuilder (The Time Travel Journals, #1)
author: Marlene Dotterer
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/10/10
shelves:
review:
I loved this book! I’ve had trouble the last couple of years with finding books that kept me interested, but this one broke the Great Depression of me just not reading that much anymore and pulled me in right from the very beginning. Let’s hope I can keep the momentum going!

I really appreciated how the writer made the characters suffer in the beginning, it always annoyed me that in previous time travel novels I’ve read, the main character would arrive back in time and within 5 minutes had a comfortable place to stay. She made it realistic and real, the characters were lovely and I think the only thing that could have been improved were the huge time jumps, but all in all I really enjoyed this and will check out the next one in the series!
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<![CDATA[The Tiger Catcher (End of Forever, #1)]]> 31847634
Can true love ever die?

Julian lives a charmed life in Los Angeles. Surrounded by friends, he is young, handsome, and runs a successful business. Everything changes after he has a fateful encounter with a mysterious young woman named Josephine. Julian’s world is turned upside down by a love affair that takes him—and everyone else in his life—by storm. For the two new lovers, the City of Angels is transformed into a magical playground.

But Josephine is not what she seems and carries secrets that threaten to tear them apart—seemingly forever.

A broken man, his faith in tatters, Julian meets a mysterious stranger who tells him how to find Josephine again if he is willing to give up everything and take a death-defying trip from which no one has ever returned.

So begins Julian and Josephine’s extraordinary adventure of love, loss, and the mystical forces that bind people across time and space. It is a journey that propels Julian toward an impossible choice which will lead him to love fulfilled…or to oblivion.

The Tiger Catcher takes readers from the depths of despair to the dizzying heights of joy in the first novel of an unforgettable trilogy of love lost and found. For all fans of Outlander, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Jojo Moyes.]]>
464 Paullina Simons 0732294924 Tessa 2 3.12 2019 The Tiger Catcher (End of Forever, #1)
author: Paullina Simons
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.12
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/09/26
shelves:
review:
I seem to be in the same boat as a lot of other people here, I picked this series because I love the Bronze Horseman by Simons. To top it off, it had all the ingredients of a book that had my name written all over it; I love time travel and I will never turn my nose on a good love story but man this one crashed hard! It took me ages to get through it, the characters are unlikable, I found it hard to believe that the ones in the past would behave in the way that they did and it was just soooo long winded. I skipped pages, and I don’t make a habit of doing that at all. It was dreadful all around. Found a review that details the second book and I think that was quite enough, not putting myself through that again. 2 stars because somehow I finished it.
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Courtesan 80738
The Court of François I is full of lust, intrigue, and bawdy bon temps—a different world from the quiet country life Diane de Poitiers led with her elderly husband. Now a widow, the elegant Diane is called back to Court, where the King’s obvious interest marks her as an enemy to the King’s favourite, Anne d’Heilly. The Court is soon electrified by rumors of their confrontations. As Anne calls on her most venomous tricks to drive Diane away, Diane finds an ally in the one member of Court with no allegiance to the King’s mistress: his teenage second son, Henri.

Neglected by his father and disliked by his brothers, Prince Henri expects little from his life. But as his friendship with Diane deepens into infatuation and then a romance that scandalizes the Court, the Prince begins to discover hope for a future with Diane. But fate and his father have other plans for Henri—including a political marriage with Catherine de Medici. Despite daunting obstacles, Henri’s devotion to Diane never wanes; their passion becomes one of the most legendary romances in the history of France.]]>
576 Diane Haeger 1400051746 Tessa 4 3.96 1993 Courtesan
author: Diane Haeger
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/08/12
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review:

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<![CDATA[Crossroads in Time (After Cilmeri, #3)]]> 18890175 Complete Series reading Daughter of Time, Footsteps in Time, Winds of Time, Prince of Time, Crossroads in Time, Children of Time, Exiles in Time, Castaways in Time, Ashes of Time, Warden of Time, Guardians of Time, Masters of Time, Outpost in Time, Shades of Time, Champions of Time, Refuge in Time, Unbroken in Time, Outcasts in Time, Hidden in Time, Legacy of Time. Also This Small Corner of The After Cilmeri Series Companion.]]> 315 Sarah Woodbury Tessa 3 4.28 2012 Crossroads in Time (After Cilmeri, #3)
author: Sarah Woodbury
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2019/06/13
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review:

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Memories of the Curlew 9469411 268 Helen Spring 1849234906 Tessa 3
I believe that when you write about people who lived you owe it to them to stay truthful to the historical records. I searched high and low for Gwenllians supposed infidelity, but there is no evidence supporting this whatsoever. I also thought that storyline was excuted poorly to begin with. She was besothed with her husband in one chapter and all is happy and dandy, yet in the next she is talking about the passion and pleasure she had found in the bed of another which she couldnt find with her husband? Weird. I felt like it was added for the extra drama, which the story didnt need at all.

Furthermore the writing never made me feel connected to the characters, I should have been bawling my eyes out when Gwenllian died, but I didn’t. Same with Gryffud’s dead, it was almost glossed over. The book held my interest but that had more to do with the story then with the way it was told. It lacked emotion. All in all it was a decent read, but not great.]]>
4.25 2009 Memories of the Curlew
author: Helen Spring
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2019/04/25
shelves:
review:
I loved the story of Gwenllian and Gryffud, the hardship they endured to fight for something they believed was just and to die so close to achieving it is heartbreaking. Novels about the Welsh struggle seem hard to come by, which I truly dont understand, since the stories left untold are so grand and speak to the imagination, so for that I appreciate this book for introducing me to this little part of Welsh history. I do however think it had its flaws.

I believe that when you write about people who lived you owe it to them to stay truthful to the historical records. I searched high and low for Gwenllians supposed infidelity, but there is no evidence supporting this whatsoever. I also thought that storyline was excuted poorly to begin with. She was besothed with her husband in one chapter and all is happy and dandy, yet in the next she is talking about the passion and pleasure she had found in the bed of another which she couldnt find with her husband? Weird. I felt like it was added for the extra drama, which the story didnt need at all.

Furthermore the writing never made me feel connected to the characters, I should have been bawling my eyes out when Gwenllian died, but I didn’t. Same with Gryffud’s dead, it was almost glossed over. The book held my interest but that had more to do with the story then with the way it was told. It lacked emotion. All in all it was a decent read, but not great.
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<![CDATA[Als de rododendron bloeit (Deverill #2)]]> 29485733
De drie vrouwen staan voor belangrijke beslissingen in hun leven, beslissingen die hen ver weg kunnen voeren van Ierlands groene kusten en het kasteel dat hen zo veel jaren heeft verbonden. Is liefde alleen genoeg om de zware tijd die hun te wachten staat het hoofd te bieden?]]>
432 Santa Montefiore 9022574652 Tessa 2 3.94 2016 Als de rododendron bloeit (Deverill #2)
author: Santa Montefiore
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2016/09/08
date added: 2019/04/08
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<![CDATA[Galway Bay (Of Irish Blood #1)]]> 4554304
But when blight destroys the potatoes three times in four years, a callous government and uncaring landlords turn a natural disaster into The Great Starvation that will kill one million. Honora and Michael vow their children will live. The family joins two million other Irish refugees--victims saving themselves--in the emigration from Ireland.

Danger and hardship await them in America. Honora, her unconventional sister Máire, and their seven sons help transform Chicago from a frontier town to the "City of the Century." The boys go on to fight in the Civil War and enlist in the cause of Ireland's freedom.

Spanning six generations and filled with joy, sadness, and heroism, GALWAYBAY sheds brilliant light on the ancestors of today's forty-four million Irish Americans--and is a universal story you will never forget.]]>
551 Mary Pat Kelly 0446579009 Tessa 3 4.14 2009 Galway Bay (Of Irish Blood #1)
author: Mary Pat Kelly
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2019/03/23
shelves:
review:
Not sure what to think of this book, I liked it well enough, it kept me going but it didnt move or touch me in a way that it should have done. I didnt shed a tear with the deaths or the hardships of the family, some other review said it just moved from event to event and thats exactly what it did. I do really appreciate the (true!) story of two sisters escaping with their children and building a life for themself and their family, without husbands helping them. This book could have been awesome, it had the story for it but in the end it fell a bit flat. A 2.5 star book for me.
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The Fountains of Silence 43220998 A portrait of love, silence, and secrets under a Spanish dictatorship.

� Madrid, 1957 �

Under the oppressive dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, Spain is hiding a dark secret. Meanwhile, tourists and foreign businessmen flood into Spain under the welcoming promise of sunshine and wine. Among them is eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, who arrives in Madrid with his parents hoping to connect with the country of his mother's birth through the lens of his camera. Photography—and fate—introduce him to Ana, whose family's interweaving obstacles reveal the lingering grasp of the Spanish Civil War, as well as chilling definitions of fortune and fear. Daniel's photographs leave him with uncomfortable questions amidst shadows of danger. He is backed into a corner of difficult decisions to protect those he loves. Lives and hearts collide, revealing an incredibly dark side to the sunny Spanish city.

Master storyteller Ruta Sepetys once again shines light into one of history's darkest corners in this epic, heart-wrenching novel about identity, unforgettable love, repercussions of war, and the hidden violence of silence—inspired by the true postwar struggles of Spain.

Includes vintage media reports, oral history commentary, photos, and more.]]>
495 Ruta Sepetys 0399160310 Tessa 0 to-read 4.30 2019 The Fountains of Silence
author: Ruta Sepetys
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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Beneath a Scarlet Sky 32487617 Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours.

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.

In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders.

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.

Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love.

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509 Mark T. Sullivan 1503943372 Tessa 2
I really wanted to like this. Its right up my alley, I love resistance novels. The underdog fighting the big bad guy. But it just wasn't that great in my opinion. I felt like certain parts should have gotten more attention and other way less. I really liked the parts were he was getting jewish people to safety, would have loved to read more about that. While his time with Leyers was 9/10 times, them driving around with nothing happening. I felt like that could have been edited more.
Also had a hard time getting into the story, none of the characters were that relatable to me. It just didn't draw me in at all.

Was going to give it 3 stars but after writing this I realized it wasn't a 3 star book for me. Dont really have that much good to say about it. It was just ok.]]>
4.33 2017 Beneath a Scarlet Sky
author: Mark T. Sullivan
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/03/16
shelves:
review:
What is it with me, not really liking such highly praised books that much? I think I just expect to much, and get disappointed.

I really wanted to like this. Its right up my alley, I love resistance novels. The underdog fighting the big bad guy. But it just wasn't that great in my opinion. I felt like certain parts should have gotten more attention and other way less. I really liked the parts were he was getting jewish people to safety, would have loved to read more about that. While his time with Leyers was 9/10 times, them driving around with nothing happening. I felt like that could have been edited more.
Also had a hard time getting into the story, none of the characters were that relatable to me. It just didn't draw me in at all.

Was going to give it 3 stars but after writing this I realized it wasn't a 3 star book for me. Dont really have that much good to say about it. It was just ok.
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Dark Rosaleen: A Famine Novel 25362989 288 Michael Nicholson 1845888707 Tessa 4
I do have to say that the change in Kate was too sudden, it only took maybe a chapter for the young naive and egocentrical girl that only cared about herself to change in what she became. Yes 6 months pass, but you don't see the change, just all of the sudden it's there. I also found it strange that the well bred english girl was allowed to wander the countryside. All in all I think the book would have benefitted from a couple more pages, especially in the end as well. I would have liked to read a bit more about them settling in America and maybe reuniting with Una and her guy (forgot his name), and finishing the story on the findings of the doctor that the sickness was caused by lice and not what was previously thought.

All in all, I still really liked the book and I would recommened it to anyone interested in learning a bit more about Ireland and the hardships they went through. 3.5 stars. ]]>
3.96 2015 Dark Rosaleen: A Famine Novel
author: Michael Nicholson
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/02/20
shelves:
review:
I really liked this book, the story was gripping, infuriating and emotional and right up my alley. I read it within a day, and it gave me a new understanding on a part of history that I had heard about but didn't really know a lot about.

I do have to say that the change in Kate was too sudden, it only took maybe a chapter for the young naive and egocentrical girl that only cared about herself to change in what she became. Yes 6 months pass, but you don't see the change, just all of the sudden it's there. I also found it strange that the well bred english girl was allowed to wander the countryside. All in all I think the book would have benefitted from a couple more pages, especially in the end as well. I would have liked to read a bit more about them settling in America and maybe reuniting with Una and her guy (forgot his name), and finishing the story on the findings of the doctor that the sickness was caused by lice and not what was previously thought.

All in all, I still really liked the book and I would recommened it to anyone interested in learning a bit more about Ireland and the hardships they went through. 3.5 stars.
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What the Wind Knows 40407141 In an unforgettable love story, a woman’s impossible journey through the ages could change everything�

Anne Gallagher grew up enchanted by her grandfather’s stories of Ireland. Heartbroken at his death, she travels to his childhood home to spread his ashes. There, overcome with memories of the man she adored and consumed by a history she never knew, she is pulled into another time.

The Ireland of 1921, teetering on the edge of war, is a dangerous place in which to awaken. But there Anne finds herself, hurt, disoriented, and under the care of Dr. Thomas Smith, guardian to a young boy who is oddly familiar. Mistaken for the boy’s long-missing mother, Anne adopts her identity, convinced the woman’s disappearance is connected to her own.

As tensions rise, Thomas joins the struggle for Ireland’s independence and Anne is drawn into the conflict beside him. Caught between history and her heart, she must decide whether she’s willing to let go of the life she knew for a love she never thought she’d find. But in the end, is the choice actually hers to make?]]>
418 Amy Harmon 1503959600 Tessa 4 4.37 2019 What the Wind Knows
author: Amy Harmon
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/02/17
date added: 2019/02/17
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<![CDATA[The Reckoning (Welsh Princes, #3)]]> 119825 592 Sharon Kay Penman 0345378881 Tessa 4 4.44 1991 The Reckoning  (Welsh Princes, #3)
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1991
rating: 4
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date added: 2018/12/26
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<![CDATA[Falls the Shadow (Welsh Princes, #2)]]> 77448 580 Sharon Kay Penman 0345360338 Tessa 5
I was first introduced to her when I picked up Here be Dragons, for years I was unable to start her other novels because I was afraid I would find myself hating her other work. How would she ever be able to top my all time favorite book? But eventually I did, and while I admit that up until now she was never able to top it, she came close. Her other work in this series is still well worth a read, but this one takes the cake.

I absolutely adored Falls the Shadows, I loved Simon and his family but most of all I admired them. Their love and loyalty to each other seems so be a rarity in their time, and the end had me in shatters. I ugly cried and needed time before I could continue, and Bran, my god did I feel bad for him. As much as I admire her research and ability to stay to the truth while still writing an interesting novel, I so wished that just for once she could have written an alternative ending. If anyone deserved it, it was Simon and his family. & if anyone didn’t deserve his happy ending it was Henry. What an absolute disgrace it is that so many good men had to die to preserve his pride and kingship.

This book is so worth the read and as always leaves me sad that it ended. If you are questioning if you should read it, all I can say is to do it, you will not regret it. Now excuse me as I am going to binge read Wikipedia and spoil the next book for myself because I really just need to know what happened to his surviving sons. ]]>
4.39 1988 Falls the Shadow  (Welsh Princes, #2)
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/10/13
shelves:
review:
I didn’t think anything would ever be able to top her novel Here be Dragons but god damn she did it again. Penman is my absolute favorite writer, she is able to spin such an utterly beautiful story that always leaves me in awe. She is far beyond her colleagues in that regard, nobody had been able to draw me into their writing as ms Penman has.

I was first introduced to her when I picked up Here be Dragons, for years I was unable to start her other novels because I was afraid I would find myself hating her other work. How would she ever be able to top my all time favorite book? But eventually I did, and while I admit that up until now she was never able to top it, she came close. Her other work in this series is still well worth a read, but this one takes the cake.

I absolutely adored Falls the Shadows, I loved Simon and his family but most of all I admired them. Their love and loyalty to each other seems so be a rarity in their time, and the end had me in shatters. I ugly cried and needed time before I could continue, and Bran, my god did I feel bad for him. As much as I admire her research and ability to stay to the truth while still writing an interesting novel, I so wished that just for once she could have written an alternative ending. If anyone deserved it, it was Simon and his family. & if anyone didn’t deserve his happy ending it was Henry. What an absolute disgrace it is that so many good men had to die to preserve his pride and kingship.

This book is so worth the read and as always leaves me sad that it ended. If you are questioning if you should read it, all I can say is to do it, you will not regret it. Now excuse me as I am going to binge read Wikipedia and spoil the next book for myself because I really just need to know what happened to his surviving sons.
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<![CDATA[Uneasy Lies the Crown, A Novel of Owain Glyndwr]]> 16142292 but is this reluctant warrior prince the answer to those prophecies?

In the year 1399, Welsh nobleman Owain Glyndwr is living out a peaceful gentleman’s life in the Dee Valley of Wales with his wife Margaret and their eleven children. But when Henry of Bolingbroke, the Duke of Lancaster, usurps the throne of England from his cousin Richard II, that tranquility is forever shattered. What starts as a feud with a neighboring English lord over a strip of land evolves into something greater—a fight for the very independence of Wales.

Leading his crude army of Welshmen against armor-clad columns of English, Owain wins key victories over his enemies. After a harrowing encounter on the misty slopes of Cadair Idris, the English knight Harry Hotspur offers Owain a pact he cannot resist.

Peace, however, comes with a price. As tragedies mount, Owain questions whether he can find the strength within himself not only to challenge the most powerful monarch of his time, but to fulfill the prophecies and lead his people to freedom without destroying those around him.]]>
434 N. Gemini Sasson 193934400X Tessa 3 3.77 2012 Uneasy Lies the Crown, A Novel of Owain Glyndwr
author: N. Gemini Sasson
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2018/08/19
shelves:
review:
I’ve been reading a bit about the Welsh revolts in the last years and since so little is written about this particular prince I decided to give this book a try. I’ve been spoiled. Having read the amazing work of Sharon Kay Penman about some of the previous revolts this one did let down a bit, I really shouldn’t compare because it isn’t fair but I do wonder what mrs Penman could have done with the characters, they are so interesting but with this one it fell a bit flat. Can’t really put my finger on where it went wrong exactly. Character development was one, since Owain was the only one you could say got developed a bit. Glossing over major events that should of gotten more time as well. It was ok but never great. The ending was heartbreaking though, that such a larger then life man had to end his days like that. At least he wasn’t captured, that’s something, especially in Welsh history. All in all I would say it was a 2.5 star book, but decided to give it three because two didn’t feel like enough.
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<![CDATA[From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation (World War II Liberator #1)]]> 376643 ]]> 464 Tricia Goyer 0802415547 Tessa 1
The characters where bland and their stories less then inspiring. Maybe it would have been better if she had showed more instead of telling us about life altering events. Really? We are going to jump from Michaela hating her betrayer in one chapters to having already forgiven and accepted him back into her inner circle once the next started? My little black heathen heart would have never found that believable but at least try to sell it. This was just awful.

& don’t get me started on Helene, in the end she was mad at her husband for leaving her above anything else? After everything he’s done? Really? & again it ends in forgiveness. Yawn. But the worst part was her wanting him to find Jesus so he can access heaven!? If heaven exists he has no place in it whatsoever, utterly disgusting. And poor Peter, he was the true victim, that character was used solely for the author to sell her Christian message, him falling in love with Michaela and then Helene so quickly after each other made me roll my eyes and truly that story line was one of the only ones that could have worked in my opinion, if only the author had sold it better but again she told us of their feelings, instead of showing it, it was just there one day.

I regret not liking this book, because I was planning on reading the rest of this serie and the Spanish civil war one, amazing topics but if this one is any indication the execution will be bad. So I’ll pass, and I’ll drag my little heathen heart away from Christian fiction again. ]]>
4.13 2003 From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation (World War II Liberator #1)
author: Tricia Goyer
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2003
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2018/08/19
shelves:
review:
Should have read some reviews. Didn’t know this was Christian fiction and once that became clear it was already to late with my annoying habit of having to finish a book I started. Well at least it was short but my god it was dull.

The characters where bland and their stories less then inspiring. Maybe it would have been better if she had showed more instead of telling us about life altering events. Really? We are going to jump from Michaela hating her betrayer in one chapters to having already forgiven and accepted him back into her inner circle once the next started? My little black heathen heart would have never found that believable but at least try to sell it. This was just awful.

& don’t get me started on Helene, in the end she was mad at her husband for leaving her above anything else? After everything he’s done? Really? & again it ends in forgiveness. Yawn. But the worst part was her wanting him to find Jesus so he can access heaven!? If heaven exists he has no place in it whatsoever, utterly disgusting. And poor Peter, he was the true victim, that character was used solely for the author to sell her Christian message, him falling in love with Michaela and then Helene so quickly after each other made me roll my eyes and truly that story line was one of the only ones that could have worked in my opinion, if only the author had sold it better but again she told us of their feelings, instead of showing it, it was just there one day.

I regret not liking this book, because I was planning on reading the rest of this serie and the Spanish civil war one, amazing topics but if this one is any indication the execution will be bad. So I’ll pass, and I’ll drag my little heathen heart away from Christian fiction again.
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<![CDATA[Devil's Brood (Plantagenets #3; Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine, #3)]]> 2859559
Devil’s Brood , a breathtaking and sweeping epic of a family at its breaking point, shows how two monumental figures once bound by all-consuming love became the bitterest of adversaries.]]>
736 Sharon Kay Penman 0399155260 Tessa 4 4.36 2008 Devil's Brood  (Plantagenets #3; Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine, #3)
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/06/05
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Time and Chance (Plantagenets #2; Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine #2)]]> 234560
In When Christ and His Saints Slept, acclaimed historical novelist Sharon Kay Penman portrayed all the deceit, danger, and drama of Henry II's ascension to the throne. Now, in Time and Chance, she continues the ever-more-captivating tale.

It was medieval England's immortal marriage--Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II, bound by passion and ambition, certain to leave a legacy of greatness. But while lust would divide them, it was friendship--and ultimately faith--that brought bloodshed into their midst. It began with Thomas Becket, Henry's closest confidant, and his elevation to be Archbishop of Canterbury. It ended with a perceived betrayal that made a royal murder seem inevitable. Along the way were enough scheming, seductions, and scandals to topple any kingdom but their own. . . .

Only Sharon Kay Penman can re-create this truly tumultuous time--and capture the couple who loved power as much as each other . . . and a man who loved God most of all.


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544 Sharon Kay Penman 0345396723 Tessa 5 4.29 2002 Time and Chance (Plantagenets #2; Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine #2)
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2018/05/15
date added: 2018/05/15
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<![CDATA[When Christ and His Saints Slept (Plantagenets #1; Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, #1)]]> 43841
Sharon Kay Penman's magnificent fifth novel summons to life a spectacular medieval tragedy whose unfolding breaks the heart even as it prepares the way for splendors to come—the glorious age of Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Plantagenets that would soon illumine the world.]]>
784 Sharon Kay Penman 0345396685 Tessa 4
Felt so bad for stephen though, never heard about the guy either and I thought I had some basic knowledge about every English king. He just seems to have been forgotten a bit. & from everything I have read he was a pretty decent guy. Too good for his own good really. Good thing he didnt excecute William Marshall, should atleast get credit for that... Anyway i'm rambling, really good book. Highly recommened.]]>
4.25 1994 When Christ and His Saints Slept (Plantagenets #1; Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, #1)
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/04/12
shelves:
review:
Penman did it again, I really enjoyed this book. Loved the characters and the story. Such an interesting time in history and for once I read so little about it that I was actually in suspense about what was going to happen. Getting in muddy water now because I already read Here be dragons, which 'spoils' the end of Henry's and Eleonors story but I know so little of the in between that it still feels new. The only person that I didnt like in this book was Eustace. I felt he was to black and white. She did such a terrific job in her other work with redeeming her character even when they did terrible things. Eustace just didn't have a nice bone in his body and just felt to 'evil', if that makes sense...

Felt so bad for stephen though, never heard about the guy either and I thought I had some basic knowledge about every English king. He just seems to have been forgotten a bit. & from everything I have read he was a pretty decent guy. Too good for his own good really. Good thing he didnt excecute William Marshall, should atleast get credit for that... Anyway i'm rambling, really good book. Highly recommened.
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La reina descalza 17237141
«Canta hasta que la boca te sepa a sangre…»� En enero de 1748, una mujer negra deambula por las calles de Sevilla. Atrás ha dejado un pasado esclavo en la lejana Cuba, el hijo al que nunca volverá a ver y un largo viaje en barco hasta las costas españolas. Caridad ya no tiene un amo que le dé órdenes, pero tampoco un lugar donde cobijarse cuando se cruza en su camino Milagros Carmona, una joven gitana de Triana por cuyas venas corre la sangre de la rebeldía y el arte de los de su raza.
Las dos mujeres se convierten en inseparables y, entre zarabandas y fandangos, la gitana confiesa a su nueva amiga su amor por el apuesto y arrogante Pedro García, de quien la separan antiguos odios entre ambas familias. Por su parte, Caridad se esfuerza por acallar el sentimiento que está naciendo en su corazón hacia Melchor Vega, el abuelo de Milagros, un hombre desafiante, bribón y seductor aunque también firme defensor del honor y la lealtad para con los suyos.
Pero cuando un mandato real convierte a todos los gitanos en proscritos, la vida de Milagros y Caridad da un trágico vuelco. Aunque sus caminos se separan, el destino volverá a unirlas en un Madrid donde confluyen contrabandistas y cómicos, nobles y villanos; un Madrid que se rinde a la pasión que emana de las voces y bailes de esa raza de príncipes descalzos.
Ildefonso Falcones nos propone un viaje a una época apasionante, teñida por los prejuicios y la intolerancia.
Desde Sevilla hasta Madrid, desde el tumultuoso bullicio de la gitanería hasta los teatros señoriales de la capital, los lectores disfrutarán de un fresco histórico poblado por personajes que viven, aman, sufren y pelean por lo que creen justo. Fiel reflejo de unos hombres y mujeres que no agacharon la cabeza y que alzaron la voz para enfrentarse al orden establecido.]]>
752 Ildefonso Falcones 0345805291 Tessa 4 4.00 2013 La reina descalza
author: Ildefonso Falcones
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/12/27
shelves:
review:
This was such a great read. I loved it. The characters were wonderfull, especially Melchor. The story about the gypsies was something I knew little about, and I felt drawn into it from the beginning. The heartbreak they went through and the joy. I was glad Caridad found happiness in the end. Even if it was short lived. I would have liked some more information about Milagros and Ava at the end. & I feel like Milagros name should have been cleared and Pedro should have died known by everyone for the bastard he was but all in all, I am happy with how everything went down.
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<![CDATA[Shadow on the Crown (The Emma of Normandy Trilogy #1)]]> 15752152 Determined to outmaneuver her adversaries, Emma forges alliances with influential men at court and wins the affection of the English people. But her growing love for a man who is not her husband and the imminent threat of a Viking invasion jeopardize both her crown and her life.
Based on real events recorded in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," "Shadow on the Crown" introduces readers to a fascinating, overlooked period of history and an unforgettable heroine whose quest to find her place in the world will resonate with modern readers.


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416 Patricia Bracewell 0670026395 Tessa 3 3.84 2013 Shadow on the Crown (The Emma of Normandy Trilogy #1)
author: Patricia Bracewell
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/12/07
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Ashes of Time (After Cilmeri, #7)]]> 21403900
Meanwhile, facing war at every turn and still haunted by his decision to leave Cassie and Callum in the modern world, David chooses a dangerous path forward, one that will either change the course of the future forever--or burn his world to ashes.]]>
350 Sarah Woodbury Tessa 2 10/10 its just another half attempt to get more modern people mad at them, so they can get kidnapped into the future again, to have another overused storyline for the next book. Oh and ofcourse another rebellion.

Lots of info dumps. & another thing that annoys me, is when characters use modern day phrases, they have to explain what it means. Woodbury is aware we know exactly what is means right?

Also incredibly selfish that they keep the stranded people hostage. It would take them all but a day to jump of a cliff and return. We have to believe that the time travel doesn't always work? You know what the problem is with Woodbury's concept? That it only works when she wants it too. Lazy writing.

The 'Avalon' excuse is getting old as well, if you want to use cars and busses to get your character back into the past, atleast try to sell it. Shes taking us and her historical characters for damn fools.
This series really doesn't deserve the ratings it gets. Outlander has similar ratings and is a much better time travel series.

I would like to say that I am making a stand here and stopped reading but I know myself well enough, I cant really leave a series unfinished.
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4.37 2014 Ashes of Time (After Cilmeri, #7)
author: Sarah Woodbury
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2017/11/18
shelves:
review:
Really? A double-decker bus? Of all things? Couldnt they have just walked next to the buildings when they collapsed? I cant take this serious.
10/10 its just another half attempt to get more modern people mad at them, so they can get kidnapped into the future again, to have another overused storyline for the next book. Oh and ofcourse another rebellion.

Lots of info dumps. & another thing that annoys me, is when characters use modern day phrases, they have to explain what it means. Woodbury is aware we know exactly what is means right?

Also incredibly selfish that they keep the stranded people hostage. It would take them all but a day to jump of a cliff and return. We have to believe that the time travel doesn't always work? You know what the problem is with Woodbury's concept? That it only works when she wants it too. Lazy writing.

The 'Avalon' excuse is getting old as well, if you want to use cars and busses to get your character back into the past, atleast try to sell it. Shes taking us and her historical characters for damn fools.
This series really doesn't deserve the ratings it gets. Outlander has similar ratings and is a much better time travel series.

I would like to say that I am making a stand here and stopped reading but I know myself well enough, I cant really leave a series unfinished.

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<![CDATA[Island in the Sea of Time (Nantucket, #1)]]> 99702 608 S.M. Stirling 0451456750 Tessa 2 4.01 1998 Island in the Sea of Time (Nantucket, #1)
author: S.M. Stirling
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1998
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2017/11/14
shelves:
review:
It took me quite a while to get through this. Had to put it down multiple times because I was either bored or the plot irritated me too much. I am a bit disappointed because I had high hopes, I love time travel and this really could have been something great but it was nothing more then a mere ok. Too bad.
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<![CDATA[Assassin's Fate (The Fitz and the Fool, #3)]]> 30688013
Fitz’s young daughter, Bee, has been kidnapped by the Servants, a secret society whose members not only dream of possible futures but use their prophecies to add to their wealth and influence. Bee plays a crucial part in these dreams—but just what part remains uncertain.

As Bee is dragged by her sadistic captors across half the world, Fitz and the Fool, believing her dead, embark on a mission of revenge that will take them to the distant island where the Servants reside—a place the Fool once called home and later called prison. It was a hell the Fool escaped, maimed and blinded, swearing never to return.

For all his injuries, however, the Fool is not as helpless as he seems. He is a dreamer too, able to shape the future. And though Fitz is no longer the peerless assassin of his youth, he remains a man to be reckoned with—deadly with blades and poison, and adept in Farseer magic. And their goal is simple: to make sure not a single Servant survives their scourge.]]>
847 Robin Hobb 0553392956 Tessa 5
I have to say that I feel this book - or rather trilogy as a whole - felt a little drawn out. Maybe it's because I haven't read the Liveship or the Rain Wild trilogy but I just couldn't really care that much for all those characters that got 'introduced' to me (which is probably my own fault since I didn't read them), I just wanted to read about Fitz and the Fool, who I absolutely adore.
Especially Fitz his chapters felt long for me in this book, I was waiting for Bee the whole time, while in the last one it was the other way around. But his last chapters were so powerfull, that I can forgive everything else. I ugly cried. Hard. I felt heartbroken and sad but also happy that they were together again and it was everything I hoped it to be. I wish it wouldn't end but it did give me closure, it was the perfect ending to an overall awesome series.]]>
4.61 2017 Assassin's Fate (The Fitz and the Fool, #3)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/09/26
shelves:
review:
How can I give this anything but 5 stars after that ending?

I have to say that I feel this book - or rather trilogy as a whole - felt a little drawn out. Maybe it's because I haven't read the Liveship or the Rain Wild trilogy but I just couldn't really care that much for all those characters that got 'introduced' to me (which is probably my own fault since I didn't read them), I just wanted to read about Fitz and the Fool, who I absolutely adore.
Especially Fitz his chapters felt long for me in this book, I was waiting for Bee the whole time, while in the last one it was the other way around. But his last chapters were so powerfull, that I can forgive everything else. I ugly cried. Hard. I felt heartbroken and sad but also happy that they were together again and it was everything I hoped it to be. I wish it wouldn't end but it did give me closure, it was the perfect ending to an overall awesome series.
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<![CDATA[Fool's Quest (The Fitz and The Fool, #2)]]> 23157777 Acclaimed and bestselling author Robin Hobb continues her Fitz and the Fool trilogy with this second entry, following Fool’s Assassin, ramping up the tension and the intrigue as disaster continues to strike at Fitz’s life and heart.

After nearly killing his oldest friend, the Fool, and finding his daughter stolen away by those who were once targeting the Fool, FitzChivarly Farseer is out for blood. And who better to wreak havoc than a highly trained and deadly former royal assassin? Fitz might have let his skills go fallow over his years of peace, but such things, once learned, are not so easily forgotten. And nothing is more dangerous than a man who has nothing left to lose…]]>
768 Robin Hobb 0553392921 Tessa 4 4.48 2015 Fool's Quest  (The Fitz and The Fool, #2)
author: Robin Hobb
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/09/24
shelves:
review:

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The Lost Wife 11010251 368 Alyson Richman 042524413X Tessa 3 4.20 2011 The Lost Wife
author: Alyson Richman
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/08/30
shelves:
review:
The story itself was beautiful but the ending was too abrupt, I had been waiting from the very beginning for them to be reunited at the end, as that is what the first chapter promises and then in the end, nothing more happens then what already was told.
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Before We Were Yours 32148570 Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.]]>
342 Lisa Wingate 0425284689 Tessa 3 4.38 2017 Before We Were Yours
author: Lisa Wingate
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2017/08/29
date added: 2017/08/29
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The Alice Network 32051912
1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.

1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, code name Alice, the "queen of spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.

Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.]]>
503 Kate Quinn 0062654195 Tessa 4 4.30 2017 The Alice Network
author: Kate Quinn
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/08/20
shelves:
review:

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The White Mare (Dalriada, #1) 698939
It is AD 79 and Agricola, the ruthless governor of Roman Britain, is turning his attentions to the last unconquered territory in Britain - Alba, Scotland. Rhiann is a courageous and beautiful Scottish princess and priestess scarred by her violent past. Of noble blood, she faces what for her is the ultimate sacrifice - a forced marriage - to protect the freedom of her people.

Eremon is an enigmatic Irish prince in exile, who must seek an alliance elsewhere to regain his throne. Will he prove himself to be the man who can unite the squabbling Celtic tribes against the more ominous threat of Rome?

With war and chaos looming for her people, Rhiann finds herself drawn into an unexpected journey of the spirit and heart, which will reveal the true purpose of her life.]]>
480 Jules Watson 1585677507 Tessa 4 3.84 2004 The White Mare (Dalriada, #1)
author: Jules Watson
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2016/07/25
date added: 2017/08/18
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review:

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The Sunne in Splendour 119829
In this beautifully rendered modern classic, Sharon Kay Penman redeems Richard III - vilified as the bitter, twisted, schemingĚýhunchback who murdered his nephews, the princes in the Tower - from his malignedĚýplace in history with aĚýdazzling combination of research and storytelling.Ěý

Born intoĚýthe treacherous courts of fifteenth-centuryĚýEngland, in the midst of what history has called The War of the Roses, Richard was raised in the shadow of his charismatic brother, King Edward IV. Loyal to his friends and passionately in love with the one woman who was denied him, Richard emerges as a gifted man far more sinned against than sinning.Ěý

This magnificent retelling of his life is filled with all of the sights and sounds of battle, the customs and lore of the fifteenth century, the rigors of court politics, and the passions and prejudices of royalty.]]>
936 Sharon Kay Penman 0345363132 Tessa 4
Sharon Kay Penman is such a great writer, everything she did in the name of creative license was utterly well done and logical. One that truly stood out for me was the reason why Edward executed George, after all those years for such a minor offense while having overlooked much worse over time. I have to stop myself from taking that at face value.

This book has also once and for all swayed me from firmly going over to Richards side in believing that he was not the monster they portrayed him to be, far from it. It just really doesn't add up. Him killing his nephews while it doesn't benefit him in any way. He was loyal to his brother to the end, never gave any indication of wanting the crown let alone kill for it. The final piece that should put it all to rest is Elizabeth trusting him with her remaining children.

Speaking of which, Elizabeth Woodville. How can you have been so sure of yourself that you felt like you could alienate everyone!? Her decision to work against Richard after Edwards dead baffles me, she should have put her energy in getting her hands on that priest! Look at me rambling on, while it isn't even sure that was how it played out. I guess it shows how amazing of a writer Penman is.

I hate the star system, I want to give this book 5 stars but I think Here be Dragons (by Penman as well) is the better book. If only slightly, but this one deserves better then only 4 stars... Let me just say that this is one of the only books that deserve all the praise it gets, most of the time I am disappointed by such highly recommened books but Penman delivered on every aspect. I can't recommend the Sunne in Splendour enough!]]>
4.39 1982 The Sunne in Splendour
author: Sharon Kay Penman
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/08/17
shelves:
review:
I struggled at the ending, not because the book was bad or poorly written but because I knew how it would end and by delaying me reading it I could somehow stop it from happening. I never knew he charged at Henry Tudor at the ending of the battle and by god did I wish he succeeded.

Sharon Kay Penman is such a great writer, everything she did in the name of creative license was utterly well done and logical. One that truly stood out for me was the reason why Edward executed George, after all those years for such a minor offense while having overlooked much worse over time. I have to stop myself from taking that at face value.

This book has also once and for all swayed me from firmly going over to Richards side in believing that he was not the monster they portrayed him to be, far from it. It just really doesn't add up. Him killing his nephews while it doesn't benefit him in any way. He was loyal to his brother to the end, never gave any indication of wanting the crown let alone kill for it. The final piece that should put it all to rest is Elizabeth trusting him with her remaining children.

Speaking of which, Elizabeth Woodville. How can you have been so sure of yourself that you felt like you could alienate everyone!? Her decision to work against Richard after Edwards dead baffles me, she should have put her energy in getting her hands on that priest! Look at me rambling on, while it isn't even sure that was how it played out. I guess it shows how amazing of a writer Penman is.

I hate the star system, I want to give this book 5 stars but I think Here be Dragons (by Penman as well) is the better book. If only slightly, but this one deserves better then only 4 stars... Let me just say that this is one of the only books that deserve all the praise it gets, most of the time I am disappointed by such highly recommened books but Penman delivered on every aspect. I can't recommend the Sunne in Splendour enough!
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Wildflowers of Terezin 6761608
Challenged by his evangelical brother and swayed by his own attraction to Hanne, Pastor Steffen abandons his formerly quiet, uninvolved life and hesitantly volunteers to help smuggle Denmark’s Jews out of the country before a Nazi roundup. Steffen finds that helping his Jewish neighbors is the most decent, spiritual thing he has ever done. As he actually does God’s work, rather than just talking about it, Steffen’s faith deepens and he takes greater risks in his sermons.

When things go terribly wrong and Hanne is sent to Terezin, Steffen finds his heart fully engaged. He undertakes protests and rescues that are more and more dangerous, never imagining where it will lead him, or the ultimate cost of his decision to get directly involved.]]>
352 Robert Elmer 1426701926 Tessa 2
You hear a lot about how that generation fought because it was the right thing to do, the novel Charlotte Grey got a lot of heat from real life people and those around them who lived through it all and who said that love was not the reason they did it. It was honor and duty and a clear sense of right and wrong. As you may guess it was love that made Steffen start giving a shit about what was going on around him, a love so strong and all consuming that it developed in what maybe 30 pages? Yeah sorry, if you want to sell me that I really need more then that.

It also irritated me that Hanne (his love interest) only thought about herself when she decided to stay behind and put everything and everyone in jeopardy but when the nazi's finally catch up to her nothing happens, am I supposed to believe they would just let Steffen go? Oh you don't know any names of people who helped you? No hard feelings mate! Said no gestapo agent ever but here they did and they let him walk out the door, never checking up on him again for the rest of the war.

Also Aron, WTH happened to him? I going to suppose he died during the failure of his and Hanne's escape but nobody mentions him again. The man Hanne thought she was going to marry all through her teenage years and the poor bastard doesn't even cross her mind once?

The ending was too abrupt and to be honest only revolved around Steffen and Hanne, I wanted to know what happened to the others. Also the cleaning lady was dealed with off page, doesn't make sense to me at all. One of the only saving grace's of this story was Steffens brother, the only sensible one in the book.

It's an easy book to read but don't think about it too much because most of what happens doesn't make any sense.]]>
3.92 2009 Wildflowers of Terezin
author: Robert Elmer
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2017/07/31
shelves:
review:
While starting this review I was going to give it three stars but thinking about it again made me realise the story doesn't deserve that, the book was ok but had the potential to be great yet it never was. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places but there doesn't seem to be much written about the danish struggle during WWII, so the author really had the chance to make this his own but to be honest the motivations of the main character was weak at best.

You hear a lot about how that generation fought because it was the right thing to do, the novel Charlotte Grey got a lot of heat from real life people and those around them who lived through it all and who said that love was not the reason they did it. It was honor and duty and a clear sense of right and wrong. As you may guess it was love that made Steffen start giving a shit about what was going on around him, a love so strong and all consuming that it developed in what maybe 30 pages? Yeah sorry, if you want to sell me that I really need more then that.

It also irritated me that Hanne (his love interest) only thought about herself when she decided to stay behind and put everything and everyone in jeopardy but when the nazi's finally catch up to her nothing happens, am I supposed to believe they would just let Steffen go? Oh you don't know any names of people who helped you? No hard feelings mate! Said no gestapo agent ever but here they did and they let him walk out the door, never checking up on him again for the rest of the war.

Also Aron, WTH happened to him? I going to suppose he died during the failure of his and Hanne's escape but nobody mentions him again. The man Hanne thought she was going to marry all through her teenage years and the poor bastard doesn't even cross her mind once?

The ending was too abrupt and to be honest only revolved around Steffen and Hanne, I wanted to know what happened to the others. Also the cleaning lady was dealed with off page, doesn't make sense to me at all. One of the only saving grace's of this story was Steffens brother, the only sensible one in the book.

It's an easy book to read but don't think about it too much because most of what happens doesn't make any sense.
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The Heretic Queen 2897258
The winds of change are blowing through Thebes. A devastating palace fire has killed the Eighteenth Dynasty’s royal family—all with the exception of Nefertari, the niece of the reviled former queen, Nefertiti. The girl’s deceased family has been branded as heretical, and no one in Egypt will speak their names. A relic of a previous reign, Nefertari is pushed aside, an unimportant princess left to run wild in the palace. But this changes when she is taken under the wing of the Pharaoh’s aunt, then brought to the Temple of Hathor, where she is educated in a manner befitting a future queen.

Soon Nefertari catches the eye of the Crown Prince, and despite her family’s history, they fall in love and wish to marry. Yet all of Egypt opposes this union between the rising star of a new dynasty and the fading star of an old, heretical one. While political adversity sets the country on edge, Nefertari becomes the wife of Ramesses the Great. Destined to be the most powerful Pharaoh in Egypt, he is also the man who must confront the most famous exodus in history.

Sweeping in scope and meticulous in detail, The Heretic Queen is a novel of passion and power, heartbreak and redemption.


From the Hardcover edition.]]>
383 Michelle Moran 0307381757 Tessa 3 4.21 2008 The Heretic Queen
author: Michelle Moran
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/06/30
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora]]> 15808671
In sixth century Constantinople, one woman, Theodora, defied every convention and all the odds, and rose from being a common theater tart to become empress of a great kingdom, the most powerful woman the Roman Empire would ever know. But the woman whose image was later immortalized in glittering mosaic was, in fact, a scrappy, clever, conniving, flesh-and-blood woman full of sensuality and spirit whose real story is as surprising as any ever told�

When her father dies suddenly, Theodora and her sisters face starvation on the streets. Determined to survive, Theodora makes a living any way she can—first on her back with every man who will have her, then on the stage of the city’s infamous amphitheater in a scandalous dramatization of her own invention. When her daring performance grants her a back-door entry into the halls of power, she seizes the chance to win a wealthy protector—only to face heartbreak and betrayal.

Ever resilient, Theodora rises above such trials and by a twist of fate, meets her most passionate admirer yet: the Emperor’s nephew. She will thrive as his confidant and courtesan, but many challenges lie ahead. For one day, this man will hand her a crown. And all the empire will wonder—is she bold enough, shrewd enough, and strong enough to keep it?]]>
448 Stephanie Marie Thornton 045141778X Tessa 5 4.07 2013 The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora
author: Stephanie Marie Thornton
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/06/18
shelves:
review:
What a remarkable women Theodora was! Such strenght and courage and her dry sense of humor put a smile on my face more then once. I read the book in less then a day and curse myself for finishing so soon, I couldn't put it away. The writer did an amazing job if you ask me, she did seem to dwell on details a couple of times and I have to admit I skimmed through a few of them but for the most part I couldn't get enough. The only other thing I can fault this novel with is Cosmito, I found her behaviour at the end unbelievable. She hated her sister for over 30 years and all of the sudden she gets sentimental? It was odd to say the least but all of that wasn't nearly enough to give this book anything less then 5 stars, I would recommend this book to anyone!
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<![CDATA[A Song of Sixpence: The Story of Elizabeth of York and Perkin Warbeck]]> 25051111
In the aftermath of the Battle of Bosworth, a small boy is ripped from his rightful place as future king of England. His Sister Elizabeth marries the invading King, Henry Tudor.

Years laterĚý when the boy returns to claim is throne, Elizabeth is torn between love for her brother and duty to her husband.Ěý

As the final struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster is played out, Elizabeth is torn by conflicting loyalty, terror and unexpected love.Ěý

Set at the court of Henry VII, A Song of Sixpence offers a new perspective on the early years of Tudor rule. Elizabeth of York, often viewed as a meek and uninspiring queen, emerges as a resilient woman whose strengths lie in endurance rather than resistance.]]>
404 Judith Arnopp Tessa 4 His story was really compelling too, I always believed that perkin was the real deal and if that is the truth it makes his ending all the more heartbreaking. All in all a really good read that was hard to put down!]]> 4.17 2015 A Song of Sixpence: The Story of Elizabeth of York and Perkin Warbeck
author: Judith Arnopp
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/06/15
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed this book, it is the first one I read about Elizabeth and by this author. She seems to hold true to historical accounts of the people she writes about, especially Elizabeth. Which is all the more frustratring because at times I wanted to slap her into action. How can you be so forgiving of all the wrongs done to you and your family? And then when confronted with her brother act the way she did? Not even a damn hug! That was the only thing that really bothered me, her behaviour towards her brother, he already told he wasn't going to act anymore.
His story was really compelling too, I always believed that perkin was the real deal and if that is the truth it makes his ending all the more heartbreaking. All in all a really good read that was hard to put down!
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The Sisters of St Croix 26002106 A gripping story of love, death and danger in Nazi-occupied France from the bestselling author of The Throwaway Children.

When Adelaide Anson-Gravetty finds out her father is not the man who raised her, she is both shocked and intrigued. Determined to find out more about her new family, she travels to the convent of Our Lady of Mercy in France to meet her aunt, the Reverend Mother.

But when France falls to the German army, Adelaide and the nuns are soon in the thick of a war that threatens both their beliefs and their lives. Collaborating with the Resistance, sheltering Jewish orphans, defying the rulings of Vichy France: these are dangerous activities in dangerous times.

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461 Diney Costeloe Tessa 3 4.29 2009 The Sisters of St Croix
author: Diney Costeloe
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/05/25
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Once We Were Brothers (Liam Taggart & Catherine Lockhart, #1)]]> 17834834 The gripping tale about two boys, once as close as brothers, who find themselves on opposite sides of the Holocaust.

Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist, is attending a fundraiser when he is suddenly accosted and accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, the Butcher of Zamosc. Although the charges are denounced as preposterous, his accuser is convinced he is right and engages attorney Catherine Lockhart to bring Rosenzweig to justice. Solomon persuades attorney Catherine Lockhart to take his case, revealing that the true Piatek was abandoned as a child and raised by Solomon's own family only to betray them during the Nazi occupation. But has Solomon accused the right man?

Once We Were Brothers is Ronald H. Balson's compelling tale of two boys and a family who struggle to survive in war-torn Poland, and a young love that struggles to endure the unspeakable cruelty of the Holocaust. Two lives, two worlds, and sixty years converge in an explosive race to redemption that makes for a moving and powerful tale of love, survival, and ultimately the triumph of the human spirit.]]>
378 Ronald H. Balson 1250046394 Tessa 5
'The music beckons, Ben. Enjoy the dance.']]>
4.33 2010 Once We Were Brothers (Liam Taggart & Catherine Lockhart, #1)
author: Ronald H. Balson
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/05/15
shelves:
review:
Just finished this book and by the end I was crying my eyes out, both stories engrossed me, past and present, and that doesn't happen very often, most of the time one is slacking. While I haven't been reading a lot this year this one was my favorite and will be hard to top. Can I have Hannah's and Ben's love one day?

'The music beckons, Ben. Enjoy the dance.'
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Bellewether 25094955
It’s 1759 and the world is at war, pulling the North American colonies of Britain and France into the conflict. The times are complicated, as are the loyalties of many New York merchants who have secretly been trading with the French for years, defying Britain’s colonial laws in a game growing ever more treacherous.

When captured French officers are brought to Long Island to be billeted in private homes on their parole of honour, it upends the lives of the Wilde family—deeply involved in the treasonous trade and already divided by war.

Lydia Wilde, struggling to keep the peace in her fracturing family following her mother’s death, has little time or kindness to spare for her unwanted guests. French-Canadian lieutenant Jean-Philippe de Sabran has little desire to be there. But by the war’s end they’ll both learn love, honour, and duty can form tangled bonds that are not broken easily.

Their doomed romance becomes a local legend, told and re-told through the years until the present day, when conflict of a different kind brings Charley Van Hoek to Long Island to be the new curator of the Wilde House Museum.

Charley doesn’t believe in ghosts. But as she starts to delve into the history of Lydia and her French officer, it becomes clear that the Wilde House holds more than just secrets, and Charley discovers the legend might not have been telling the whole story...or the whole truth.]]>
414 Susanna Kearsley 1501116541 Tessa 0 to-read 3.89 2018 Bellewether
author: Susanna Kearsley
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Last Embrace 25025837
August 1940 and 16-year-old refugee Addie escapes Fascist Italy to live with her aunt and uncle in Atlantic City. As WW2 breaks, she finds acceptance and love with Charlie Connelly and his family.

But war changes everything: secrets and passions abound, and when one brother’s destructive choices lead to the tragic death of another, the Connelly family is decimated, and Addie along with them.

Now 18, she flees, first to Washington and then to war-torn London where she is swept up with life as a correspondent. But when Charlie, now a paratrooper, re-appears, Addie discovers that the past is impossible to outrun. Now she must make one last desperate attempt to find within herself the answers that will lead the way home.]]>
378 Pam Jenoff Tessa 0 to-read 3.80 2015 The Last Embrace
author: Pam Jenoff
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Castaways in Time (After Cilmeri, #6)]]> 18331642
Castaways in Time is the seventh novel in the After Cilmeri series. Other books in the series include a novella, Winds of Time, and six novels: Daughter of Time, Footsteps in Time, Prince of Time, Crossroads in Time, Children of Time, and Exiles in Time.]]>
350 Sarah Woodbury 1492162914 Tessa 3 It took some effort to remember who everyone was and what had happened but I got into it pretty quickly again. I also remembered pretty quickly why I stopped reading. The ease with how they travel between the 21'st and the 13th century irritates me, l feel time travel should be perminent, what is the point with having to deal with the hardships when you can just go back when it becomes life threatening? Deathly infections? Lets visit a hospital! No, just no. & also that you can just take people with you, it feels weird and cheap. Diana Gabaldon handles this much better, you can travel back but only if you have the gene and she doesn't use it every other chapter, from what I remember they travelled back and forth in every book, it's just feels weird. All in all it entertained me enough and I wont say I wont read the next one but I think need another break, again. ]]> 4.32 2013 Castaways in Time (After Cilmeri, #6)
author: Sarah Woodbury
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2017/01/17
date added: 2017/01/17
shelves:
review:
2.5 stars. After promising myself last year to stop reading this series I read the next one anyway, what can I say, I love time travel and I just can't help myself and I seem to love to hate something!
It took some effort to remember who everyone was and what had happened but I got into it pretty quickly again. I also remembered pretty quickly why I stopped reading. The ease with how they travel between the 21'st and the 13th century irritates me, l feel time travel should be perminent, what is the point with having to deal with the hardships when you can just go back when it becomes life threatening? Deathly infections? Lets visit a hospital! No, just no. & also that you can just take people with you, it feels weird and cheap. Diana Gabaldon handles this much better, you can travel back but only if you have the gene and she doesn't use it every other chapter, from what I remember they travelled back and forth in every book, it's just feels weird. All in all it entertained me enough and I wont say I wont read the next one but I think need another break, again.
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<![CDATA[Song of Erin: Cloth of Heaven/Ashes and Lace (Song of Erin Series 1-2)]]> 2298439
In her own unique style, Hoff spins a panoramic story that crosses the ocean from Ireland to America, featuring two of her most memorable characters. In this tale of struggle and love and uncompromising faith, Jack Kane, the always charming but sometimes ruthless titan of New York's most powerful publishing empire, is torn between the conflict of his own heart and the grace and light of Samantha Harte, the woman he loves, whose own troubled past continues to haunt her.

Originally published to strong sales nearly a decade ago, this new edition combines two of BJ's best novels into one saga-length volume.

"The Song of Erin contains some of my favorite characters. This story--and its people--hold a very special place in my heart." BJ Hoff]]>
560 B.J. Hoff 0736923527 Tessa 3 4.08 1997 Song of Erin: Cloth of Heaven/Ashes and Lace (Song of Erin Series 1-2)
author: B.J. Hoff
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/01/11
shelves:
review:
Should have done more research on this book, I liked most of the story, characters were likeable enough (most of them, looking at you Brady!) topics discussed were - for the most part - really interesting but god dammit how is it that I always end up with christian fiction!? I hated the ending because of that, miracle makes sure that main guy turns to his heavenly father... Can someone give me a bucket to puke in? Oh and one more thing, if your god replies to you in italic letters, go see a doctor, a couple of pills and you should be fine and dandy again.
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<![CDATA[Dollanganger Boxed Set: Flowers in the Attic / If There Be Thorns / Petals on the Wind / Seeds of Yesterday / Garden of Shadows(Dollanganger, prequel-4]]> 2270120 V.C. Andrews 0671967800 Tessa 4
A lot of people complain that the writing isn't very good and the story much of the same over and over (they have a point) but for me it didn't ruin the books the first time and I have to say, it still didn't. Maybe it's nostalgia for me, these are the books that started my love of reading. I'm pretty sure they where the first - of many - that I read. I never had a dirty feeling associated with the books either, my parents had no problem with me reading this... probably because they had no idea what I was reading, pretty sure they created a bigger buzz in the US then it did in my part of the world and even if it did, they would have been glad with me reading, not restricting what I was reading. Anyway i'm getting of topic; the rest of this review will contain spoilers:

[spoilers removed]

I've only reread the first four books, so my review only covers those ones and while I had some problems with the books I still feel like they deserve the four stars I gave them.
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4.20 1979 Dollanganger Boxed Set: Flowers in the Attic / If There Be Thorns / Petals on the Wind / Seeds of Yesterday / Garden of Shadows(Dollanganger, prequel-4
author: V.C. Andrews
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/05
shelves:
review:
I think I first read this series when I was still in elementary school and I started rereading them in the last week or so. I have to admit that they still fascinate me and the story pulled me right back in again, me being aware of the rumors of the first one being a true story only making it more fascinating to me.

A lot of people complain that the writing isn't very good and the story much of the same over and over (they have a point) but for me it didn't ruin the books the first time and I have to say, it still didn't. Maybe it's nostalgia for me, these are the books that started my love of reading. I'm pretty sure they where the first - of many - that I read. I never had a dirty feeling associated with the books either, my parents had no problem with me reading this... probably because they had no idea what I was reading, pretty sure they created a bigger buzz in the US then it did in my part of the world and even if it did, they would have been glad with me reading, not restricting what I was reading. Anyway i'm getting of topic; the rest of this review will contain spoilers:

[spoilers removed]

I've only reread the first four books, so my review only covers those ones and while I had some problems with the books I still feel like they deserve the four stars I gave them.

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The Raven Queen 8524910 Ěý
She was born to be a pawn, used to secure her father’s royal hold on his land. She was forced to advance his will through marriage—her own desires always thwarted. But free-spirited Maeve will no longer endure the schemes of her latest husband, Conor, the cunning ruler of Ulster. And when her father’s death puts her homeland at the mercy of its greedy lords and Conor’s forces, Maeve knows she must at last come into her own power to save it.

With secret skill and daring, Maeve proves herself the equal of any warrior on the battlefield. With intelligence and stealth, she learns the strategies—and sacrifices—of ruling a kingdom through treacherous alliances. And to draw on the dangerous magic of her country’s oldest gods, Maeve seeks out the wandering druid Ruan, whose unexpected passion and strange connection to the worlds of spirit imperil everything Maeve thought true about herself—and put her at war with both her duty and her fate.]]>
544 Jules Watson 0553384651 Tessa 3 3.72 2011 The Raven Queen
author: Jules Watson
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/11/20
shelves:
review:
2.5 stars. It was interesting enough but it took me forever to finish. I found it to long during a lot of parts of the story and the magical elements which you do expect in a book like this to much in your face, she did a better job with that in her other novels. All in all I wouldn't directly recommend this one, I would however recommend the author, read the Dalriada trilogy before writing her off because of the Raven Queen.
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<![CDATA[Under the Eagle (Eagles of the Empire, #1)]]> 578428
It is 42 AD, and Quintus Licinius Cato has just arrived in Germany as a new recruit to the Second Legion, the toughest in the Roman army. If adjusting to the rigours of military life isn’t difficult enough for the bookish young man, he also has to contend with the disgust of his colleagues when, because of his imperial connections, he is appointed a rank above them. As second-in-command to Macro, the fearless, battle-scarred centurion who leads them, Cato will have more to prove than most in the adventures that lie ahead. Then the men discover that the army’s next campaign will take them to a land of unparalleled barbarity - Britain. After the long march west, Cato and Macro undertake a special mission that will thrust them headlong into a conspiracy that threatens to topple the Emperor himself...]]>
256 Simon Scarrow 0747266298 Tessa 0 to-read 4.11 2000 Under the Eagle (Eagles of the Empire, #1)
author: Simon Scarrow
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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Lily Cigar 23340457 She was a beautiful young innocent, driven into the sins of that womanhood by the dark desires that ruled men's hearts.
You will never forget Lily -- as a child watching her mother die in want...as an orphan struggling to protect her reckless brother...as a teen-aged innocent discovering the power of desire...as a fear-filled young girl learning to sell her body in the most elegant brothel in the wickedest city on earth...as a captivating beauty whom men would pay any price to possess...as a mother desperately trying to keep the truth from her daughter...as a woman forced by love to return to the city of her shame and seek to conquer it..

And you will never forget Lily's story -- as it moves from the Hell's Kitchen squalor and Fifth Avenue splendour of old New York..to the rolling decks of a great clipper ship...to the brawling streets, the fantastic pleasure palaces, the magnificent Nob Hill mansions of San Francisco, through storm and earthquake and fire in a breathless saga of love, intrigue and illicit passion....]]>
665 Tom Murphy Tessa 0 to-read 3.88 1979 Lily Cigar
author: Tom Murphy
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1979
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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Sashenka (Moscow Trilogy #1) 3929671
Beautiful and headstrong, Sashenka Zeitlin is just sixteen. As her mother parties with Rasputin and her dissolute friends, Sashenka slips into the frozen night to play her part in a dangerous game of conspiracy and seduction.

Twenty years on, Sashenka has a powerful husband with whom she has two children. Around her people are disappearing, but her own family is safe. But she's about to embark on a forbidden love affair which will have devastating consequences.

Sashenka's story lies hidden for half a century, until a young historian goes deep into Stalin's private archives and uncovers a heart-breaking tale of passion and betrayal, savage cruelty and unexpected heroism - and one woman forced to make an unbearable choice.]]>
544 Simon Sebag Montefiore 1416595546 Tessa 0 to-read 4.02 2008 Sashenka (Moscow Trilogy #1)
author: Simon Sebag Montefiore
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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Bright Sword of Ireland 891220 Her focus this time is the great warrior queen Medb of Connaught. Beautiful. Bold in battle . . . and in bed. A legend among her people, she lusts for the Brown Cow of Cuailnge for the power and the glory that it would bring to her. And she will use anyone, do anything, to reach her goal. Who should stand in her way? None other than the fabled hero Cuchulainn, thought to be not quite of this world and who is said to able to use the spirits of the forest and glen to conquer his enemies. Noble tales, ignoble deeds.
But sometimes the biggest part of an epic tale comes not from the biggest players on the stage. What happens to those who have grown up in the shadow of greatness? And who pays when the game of power calls for sacrifice?
Young Finnabair is the daughter of mighty queen Medb. Not a beauty. Not a warrior. And one who is seen as a pawn for her mother to use as she will. But Finnabair rebels when she sees that her part in her mother's schemes for power has caused pain and shame to her people.
In doing so, Finnabair will embark on a journey that will change two kingdoms . . . and bring her love and loss so great as to break the hearts of the gods.]]>
288 Juilene Osborne-McKnight 0765306980 Tessa 0 to-read 3.89 2004 Bright Sword of Ireland
author: Juilene Osborne-McKnight
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Angels Watching Over Me (Shenandoah Sisters, #1)]]> 817379 320 Michael R. Phillips 0764227009 Tessa 0 to-read 4.03 2003 Angels Watching Over Me (Shenandoah Sisters, #1)
author: Michael R. Phillips
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Dreaming the Eagle (Boudica, #1)]]> 1309025
Boudica means Bringer of Victory (from the early Celtic word “boudeg�). She is the last defender of the Celtic culture in Britain; the only woman openly to lead her warriors into battle and to stand successfully against the might of Imperial Rome -- and triumph.

It is 33 AD and eleven-year-old Breaca (later named Boudica), the red-haired daughter of one of the leaders of the Eceni tribe, is on the cusp between girl and womanhood. She longs to be a Dreamer, a mystical leader who can foretell the future, but having killed the man who has attacked and killed her mother, she has proven herself a warrior. Dreaming the Eagle is also the story of the two men Boudica loves Caradoc, outstanding warrior and inspirational leader; and Bàn, her half-brother, who longs to be a warrior, though he is manifestly a Dreamer, possibly the finest in his tribe’s history. Bàn becomes the Druid whose eventual return to the Celts is Boudica’s salvation.

Dreaming the Eagle is full of brilliantly realised, luminous scenes as the narrative sweeps effortlessly from the epic -- where battle scenes are huge, bloody, and action-packed -- to the intimate. Manda Scott plunges us into the unforgettable world of tribal Britain in the years before the Roman a world of druids and dreamers and the magic of the gods where the natural world is as much a character as any of the people who live within it, a world of warriors who fight for honour as much as victory, a world of passion, courage and spectacular heroism pitched against overwhelming odds.

Dreaming the Eagle stunningly recreates the roots of a story so powerful its impact has lasted through the ages.]]>
465 Manda Scott 0385336705 Tessa 0 to-read 4.07 2003 Dreaming the Eagle (Boudica, #1)
author: Manda Scott
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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For Such a Time 18008080 430 Kate Breslin 0764211609 Tessa 0 to-read 3.88 2014 For Such a Time
author: Kate Breslin
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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Soldier X 484143 227 Don L. Wulffson 0142500739 Tessa 0 to-read 4.16 1996 Soldier X
author: Don L. Wulffson
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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City of Women 13593526
It is 1943 - the height of the Second World War - and Berlin has essentially become a city of women.

Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model German soldier's wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. Her lover is a Jew.

But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets.

A high ranking SS officer and his family move down the hall and Sigrid finds herself pulled into their orbit. A young woman doing her duty-year is out of excuses before Sigrid can even ask her any questions. And then there's the blind man selling pencils on the corner, whose eyes Sigrid can feel following her from behind the darkness of his goggles.

Soon Sigrid is embroiled in a world she knew nothing about, and as her eyes open to the reality around her, the carefully constructed fortress of solitude she has built over the years begins to collapse. She must choose to act on what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two.

In this page-turning novel, David Gillham explores what happens to ordinary people thrust into extraordinary times, and how the choices they make can be the difference between life and death.]]>
392 David R. Gillham 039915776X Tessa 0 to-read 3.77 2012 City of Women
author: David R. Gillham
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Dangerous Talents (Vinlanders' Saga, #1)]]> 15753350 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B007QQ1CDK

Celia Montrose has been trained to deal with any emergency—except being thrust into another world. Nothing has prepared her for meeting the Viking descendants of the lost Vinland colony, or coping with kidnapping, murder, and magic.

Lord Dahleven is trying to avert a war when he rescues a strange and beautiful woman in the drylands. Though he fears Celia may be Fey-marked, Dahleven can't resist the powerful attraction he feels for her. But is Celia in league with the enemy, or will she provide the key to saving his people?

Alone and off-balance, Celia finds herself falling for Lord Dahleven. But dangerous forces are at work, and one of them is offering Celia a way home—for a price.]]>
394 Frankie Robertson Tessa 0 to-read 4.05 2012 Dangerous Talents (Vinlanders' Saga, #1)
author: Frankie Robertson
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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Green Darkness 36254 591 Anya Seton 1556525761 Tessa 0 to-read 3.95 1972 Green Darkness
author: Anya Seton
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1972
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Healer of Carthage (The Carthage Chronicles, #1)]]> 18143978
A twenty-first-century doctor. A third-century plague. A love out of time.

First-year resident Dr. Lisbeth Hastings is too busy to take her father’s bizarre summons seriously. But when a tragic mistake puts her career in jeopardy, answering her father’s call seems her only hope of redeeming the devastating failure that her life has become.

While exploring the haunting cave at her father’s archaeological dig, Lisbeth falls through a hidden hole, awakening to find herself the object of a slave auction and the ruins of Roman Carthage inexplicably restored to a thriving metropolis. Is it possible that she’s traveled back in time, and, if so, how can she find her way back home?

Cyprian Thascius believes God called him to rescue the mysterious woman from the slave trader’s cell. What he doesn’t understand is why saving the church of his newfound faith requires him to love a woman whose peculiar ways could get him killed. But who is he to question God?

As their different worlds collide, it sparks an intense attraction that unites Lisbeth and Cyprian in a battle against a deadly epidemic. Even as they confront persecution, uncover buried secrets, and ignite the beginnings of a medical revolution, Roman wrath threatens to separate them forever. Can they find their way to each other through all these obstacles? Or are the eighteen hundred years between them too far of a leap?]]>
416 Lynne Gentry 1476746338 Tessa 0 to-read 4.01 2014 Healer of Carthage (The Carthage Chronicles, #1)
author: Lynne Gentry
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Language of Flowers 10032672 Ěý
Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.]]>
323 Vanessa Diffenbaugh 034552554X Tessa 0 to-read 4.09 2011 The Language of Flowers
author: Vanessa Diffenbaugh
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Midwife 1501802 559 Gay Courter 0395294630 Tessa 0 to-read 4.03 1992 The Midwife
author: Gay Courter
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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The English German Girl 11323818 340 Jake Wallis Simons Tessa 0 to-read 3.94 2011 The English German Girl
author: Jake Wallis Simons
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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Sister of Mine (Georgia #1) 29465425 When two Union soldiers stumble onto a plantation in northern Georgia on a warm May day in 1864, the last thing they expect is to see the Union flag flying high—or to be greeted by a group of freed slaves and their Jewish mistress. Little do they know that this place has an unusual history.

Twelve years prior, Adelaide Mannheim—daughter of Mordecai, the only Jewish planter in the county—was given her own maid, a young slave named Rachel. The two became friends, and soon they discovered a secret: Mordecai was Rachel’s father, too.

As the country moved toward war, Adelaide and Rachel struggled to navigate their newfound sisterhood—from love and resentment to betrayal and, ultimately, forgiveness.

Now, facing these Union soldiers as General Sherman advances nearer, their bond is put to the ultimate test. Will the plantation be spared? Or will everything they’ve lived for be lost?

Revised edition: Previously published as Slave and Sister, this edition of Sister of Mine: A Novel includes editorial revisions.

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482 Sabra Waldfogel 1503990362 Tessa 0 to-read 4.30 2014 Sister of Mine (Georgia #1)
author: Sabra Waldfogel
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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Daughters of Castle Deverill 30980928 The sweeping new novel from number one bestselling author Santa Montefiore.
It is 1925 and the war is long over. But much has been lost and life will never truly be the same again.
Castle Deverill, cherished home to the Deverill family in the west of Ireland for hundreds of years, has burned to the ground. But young and flighty Celia Deverill is determined to restore the sad ruin to its former glory. Celia married well and has the wealth, after all, to keep it in the family and she cannot bear to see it stand neglected.
But dark shadows are gathering once more, as the financial markets start to shake. And everything that felt so certain is thrown once again into doubt.
A compelling story of family and history, from the author of the top ten bestseller Songs of Love and War.]]>
435 Santa Montefiore 147116098X Tessa 2 Jack was the only one who had something interesting going on and she wrote maybe 10 pages about him, such a shame, instead we got that stupid love triangle which was just plain ridiculous and the ending was another frown moment. [spoilers removed]

No this one was not for me. Being invested in the storyline i'll probably read the last one regardless. I am never good with not knowing how somethings ends. I do hope she finds something interesting to write about this time around. ]]>
4.14 2016 Daughters of Castle Deverill
author: Santa Montefiore
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2016/09/04
shelves:
review:
After the first book I maybe expected to much from this one. The war of independece drew my attention to the first one and gave it life, if you ask me it should have ended with that. I suppose this one was wel written but it feels drawn out. Kitty had nothing going on for her, Bridie is for the most part a bitter little sod, I get her anger; I do but it's tiresome and frankly she should look into the mirror and ask herself if maybe she has some blame in that mess. Gosh I hated her. Harry was slighly interesting but it was not enough to carry this 400 page book. Celia storyline got interesting towards the end, I grand you that but she was so out of touch that I could barely tolerate to read the first half of her story.
Jack was the only one who had something interesting going on and she wrote maybe 10 pages about him, such a shame, instead we got that stupid love triangle which was just plain ridiculous and the ending was another frown moment. [spoilers removed]

No this one was not for me. Being invested in the storyline i'll probably read the last one regardless. I am never good with not knowing how somethings ends. I do hope she finds something interesting to write about this time around.
]]>
King Hereafter 958158
Dunnett depicts Macbeth's transformation from an angry boy who refuses to accept his meager share of the Orkney Islands to a suavely accomplished warrior who seizes an empire with the help of a wife as shrewd and valiant as himself.]]>
721 Dorothy Dunnett 0375704035 Tessa 0 to-read 4.26 1982 King Hereafter
author: Dorothy Dunnett
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

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Songs of Love and War 28604245
Born on the ninth day of the ninth month in the year 1900, Kitty Deverill is special as her grandmother has always told her. Built on the stunning green hills of West Cork, Ireland, Castle Deverill is Kitty’s beloved home, where many generations of Deverills have also resided. Although she’s Anglo-Irish, Kitty’s heart completely belongs to the wild countryside of the Emerald Isle, and her devotion to her Irish-Catholic friends Bridie Doyle, the daughter of the castle’s cook, and Jack O’Leary, the vet’s son, is unmatched—even if Jack is always reminding her that she isn’t fully Irish. Still, Jack and Kitty can’t help falling in love although they both know their union faces the greatest obstacles since they are from different worlds.

Bridie cherishes her friendship with Kitty, who makes her feel more like her equal than a servant. Yet she can’t help dreaming of someday having all the wealth and glamour Kitty’s station in life affords her. But when she discovers a secret that Kitty has been keeping from her, Bridie finds herself growing resentful toward the girl in the castle who seems to have it all.

When the Irish revolt to throw over British rule in Southern Ireland, Jack enlists to fight. Worried for her safety, Jack warns Kitty to keep her distance, but she refuses and throws herself into the cause for Irish liberty, running messages and ammunition between the rebels. But as Kitty soon discovers, her allegiance to her family and her friends will be tested—and when Castle Deverill comes under attack, the only home and life she’s ever known are threatened.

A powerful story of love, loyalty, and friendship, The Girl in the Castle is an exquisitely written novel set against the magical, captivating landscape of Ireland.]]>
0 Santa Montefiore 1471135853 Tessa 4 3.82 2015 Songs of Love and War
author: Santa Montefiore
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/08/31
shelves:
review:
I really liked this book. I could have done without the supernatural parts and Hazel and what's her name. Those two were incredibly annoying and halfway through the second book I still don't see what they add to the story? Other then those small 'complaints' I really enjoyed everything else. I love Irish history, before reading this I always read about earlier times, this sucked me in to the more recent events. Such courage and bravery the Irish have! I hope to visit the country one day and i'll remember this book fondly when I do.
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<![CDATA[Where the Birds Never Sing: The True Story of the 92nd Signal Battalion and the Liberation of Dachau]]> 618551
As part of the 92nd Signal Battalion and Patton's famed Third Army, Joe and his buddies found themselves at the forefront of the Allied push through France and Germany. After more than a year of fighting, but still only twenty years old, Joe had become a hardened veteran. Yet nothing could have prepared him and his unit for the horrors behind the walls of Germany's infamous Dachau concentration camp. They were among the first 250 American troops into the camp, and it was there that they finally grasped the significance of the Allied mission. Surrounded by death and destruction, the men not only found the courage and will to fight, but they also discovered the meaning of friendship and came to understand the value and fragility of life.]]>
336 Jack Sacco 0060096667 Tessa 4 4.31 2003 Where the Birds Never Sing: The True Story of the 92nd Signal Battalion and the Liberation of Dachau
author: Jack Sacco
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/08/20
shelves:
review:
I read bits and pieces, to be honest the only thing I really wanted to read was the libertion of Dachau, which I did. Well written from what I read, I cried at the end.
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The Dawn Stag (Dalriada, #2) 298524 552 Jules Watson 1585678805 Tessa 4 4.01 2005 The Dawn Stag (Dalriada, #2)
author: Jules Watson
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/08/14
shelves:
review:

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Gracianna 17355195
Gracianna is inspired by true events in the life of Trini Amador's great-grandmother, Gracianna Lasaga. As an adult, Amador was haunted by the vivid memory of finding a loaded German Luger tucked away in a nightstand while wandering his great-grandmother's home in Southern California. He was only four years old at the time, but the memory remained and he knew he had to explore the story behind the gun.

Decades later, Amador would delve into the remarkable odyssey of his Gracianna's past, a road that led him to an incredible surprise. In Gracianna, Amador weaves fact and fiction to tell his great-grandmother's story.

Gracianna bravely sets off to Paris in the early 1940s--on her way to America, she hopes--but is soon swept into the escalation of the war and the Nazi occupation of Paris. After chilling life-and-death struggles, she discovers that her missing sister has surfaced as a laborer in Auschwitz. When she finds an opportunity to fight back against the Nazis to try to free her sister, she takes it--even if it means using lethal force.

As Amador tells the imagined story of how his great-grandmother risked it all, he delivers richly drawn characters and a heart-wrenching page-turner that readers won't soon forget.]]>
277 Trini Amador 1608325709 Tessa 0 to-read 3.78 2013 Gracianna
author: Trini Amador
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/08/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8)]]> 29056083
It was always difficult being Harry Potter, and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and a father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son, Albus, must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is the complete and official playscript of the original, award-winning West End production. This updated edition includes the final dialogue and stage directions, a conversation piece between director John Tiffany and playwright Jack Thorne, the Potter family tree, and a timeline of events in the wizarding world leading up to "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."]]>
343 J.K. Rowling 0540027340 Tessa 2
All in all it was a quick read, it wasn't great but it wasn't all that terrible either but for the life of me I really don't understand all the 5 star reviews. I gave the original books that rating, let's be honest, it really isn't coming close...]]>
3.42 2016 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2016/08/05
shelves:
review:
I would say 2 and a half stars... As a massive Harry Potter fan I couldn't just let this one slide by without me picking it up. I don't regret doing that, it was nice diving back in a semi official wizarding world but it could have been so much better. I think part of me not regretting it is me being a sentimental mess and just enjoy being able to read something about this world again, something with Rowling's name on it. The truth is she didn't write this and it shows. It felt a tad too much like fanfiction. The most massive ones; [spoilers removed]

All in all it was a quick read, it wasn't great but it wasn't all that terrible either but for the life of me I really don't understand all the 5 star reviews. I gave the original books that rating, let's be honest, it really isn't coming close...
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<![CDATA[The Black Widow (Gabriel Allon, #16)]]> 27213121 A web of deceit.
A deadly game of vengeance.

Legendary spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon is poised to become the chief of Israel’s secret intelligence service. But on the eve of his promotion, events conspire to lure him into the field for one final operation. ISIS has detonated a massive bomb in the Marais district of Paris, and a desperate French government wants Gabriel to eliminate the man responsible before he can strike again.

They call him Saladin �

He is a terrorist mastermind whose ambition is as grandiose as his nom de guerre, a man so elusive that even his nationality is not known. Shielded by sophisticated encryption software, his network communicates in total secrecy, leaving the West blind to his planning—and leaving Gabriel no choice but to insert an agent into the most dangerous terrorist group the world has ever known. Natalie Mizrahi is an extraordinary young doctor as brave as she is beautiful. At Gabriel’s behest, she will pose as an ISIS recruit in waiting, a ticking time bomb, a black widow out for blood.

Her perilous mission will take her from the restive suburbs of Paris to the island of Santorini and the brutal world of the Islamic State’s new caliphate, and eventually to Washington, D.C., where the ruthless Saladin is plotting an apocalyptic night of terror that will alter the course of history. The Black Widow is a riveting thriller of shocking prescience. But it is also a thoughtful journey into the new heart of darkness that will haunt readers long after they have turned the final page.]]>
528 Daniel Silva 006232022X Tessa 0 to-read 4.23 2016 The Black Widow (Gabriel Allon, #16)
author: Daniel Silva
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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Night of Flames 1308042 384 Douglas W. Jacobson 1590131363 Tessa 0 to-read 3.89 2007 Night of Flames
author: Douglas W. Jacobson
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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Damn Rebel Bitches 1739221 Damn� Rebel Bitches takes a totally fresh approach to the history of the Jacobite Rising by telling fascinating stories of the many women caught up in the turbulent events of 1745�46. Many historians have ignored female participation in the �45: this book aims to redress the balance. Drawn from many original documents and letters, the stories that emerge of the women � and their men � are often touching, occasionally light-hearted and always engrossing.]]> 192 Maggie Craig 1840182989 Tessa 0 to-read 4.21 2000 Damn Rebel Bitches
author: Maggie Craig
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Death of Kings (The Saxon Stories, #6)]]> 11734251
For the Viking-raised but Saxon-born warrior, Uhtred, whose life seems to shadow the making of England, this presents him with difficult choices. King Alfred is dying and his passing threatens the island of Britain to renewed warfare. Alfred wants his son, Edward, to succeed him but there are other Saxon claimants to the throne as well as ambitious pagan Vikings to the north.

Uhtred's loyalty - and his vows - were to Alfred, not to his son, and despite his long years of service to Alfred, he is still not committed to the Saxon cause. His own desire is to reclaim his long lost lands and castle to the north. But the challenge to him, as the king's warrior, is that he knows that he will either be the means of making Alfred's dream of a united and Christian England come to pass or be responsible for condemning it to oblivion.

This novel is a dramatic story of the power of tribal commitment and the terrible difficulties of divided loyalties. This is the making of England magnificently brought to life.]]>
335 Bernard Cornwell 0007331789 Tessa 0 to-read 4.28 2011 Death of Kings (The Saxon Stories, #6)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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After You (Me Before You, #2) 25041504
Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.]]>
353 Jojo Moyes Tessa 3 3.68 2015 After You (Me Before You, #2)
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/07/24
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Exiles in Time (After Cilmeri, # 5)]]> 17469805 333 Sarah Woodbury 1482644207 Tessa 3
Spoilers ahead for this book and the ones before that:

After Cilmeri is good enough, I gave all the books 3 stars (except for daughter in time, which ironically I liked the most but has the lowest rating on goodreads), at first I was interested enough to keep reading but it just never really grabbed me. I had the feeling that I was constantly reading about the same thing. Everything was quiet for a time, until a rebellion came along, someone close to Llewelyn and his family would betray them, they would overcome it ofcourse and for a short time there would be peace... Until everything began again. Also the writing style was rather blank. When someone died, they just died. I felt nothing. The author was never really capable to bring the character and especially their emotions to life for me.

I also didn't like the modern influences. I just can't really take a story seriously if cars are driving around 13th century Wales, it just feels more like fan fiction to me. I liked the characters well enough except for Cassie, who was introduced in this book. How can you be such a simple soul as to expect full democracy and women being able to vote in Scotland of 1285? How can you even think that, let alone suggest in the present of a 13th century man? & Woodbury expects me to believe that James Stewart calmly talks it out of her head instead of bursting in hysterical laughter? I just couldn't take Cassie seriously, I really couldn't.

Exiles in Time will be last one I read in this series, I read the summaries of the last two books and it was what I expected, yet another rebellion. Enough for me, i'm not checking into the next ride.]]>
4.30 2013 Exiles in Time (After Cilmeri, # 5)
author: Sarah Woodbury
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/07/19
shelves:
review:
I love series, I love to know what happens next to characters and I hate the 'and they lived happily ever after' endings. I want to know what happens next, I want to know the childrens children names. Yes i'm that kind of person. Having said that I wished the author would have left more to the imagination in this series, I probably wouldn't have grown tired of it.

Spoilers ahead for this book and the ones before that:

After Cilmeri is good enough, I gave all the books 3 stars (except for daughter in time, which ironically I liked the most but has the lowest rating on goodreads), at first I was interested enough to keep reading but it just never really grabbed me. I had the feeling that I was constantly reading about the same thing. Everything was quiet for a time, until a rebellion came along, someone close to Llewelyn and his family would betray them, they would overcome it ofcourse and for a short time there would be peace... Until everything began again. Also the writing style was rather blank. When someone died, they just died. I felt nothing. The author was never really capable to bring the character and especially their emotions to life for me.

I also didn't like the modern influences. I just can't really take a story seriously if cars are driving around 13th century Wales, it just feels more like fan fiction to me. I liked the characters well enough except for Cassie, who was introduced in this book. How can you be such a simple soul as to expect full democracy and women being able to vote in Scotland of 1285? How can you even think that, let alone suggest in the present of a 13th century man? & Woodbury expects me to believe that James Stewart calmly talks it out of her head instead of bursting in hysterical laughter? I just couldn't take Cassie seriously, I really couldn't.

Exiles in Time will be last one I read in this series, I read the summaries of the last two books and it was what I expected, yet another rebellion. Enough for me, i'm not checking into the next ride.
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Prince of Thieves 1292495
Charlestown, a blue-collar Boston neighborhood, produces more bank robbers and armored car thieves than any square mile in the world. In this gripping, intricately plotted thriller, Claire Keesey, the branch manager for a Boston bank and one of an influx of young professionals chipping away at the neighborhood's insularity, is taken hostage during a robbery. She is released, but Doug MacRay, the brains behind the tough, tight-knit crew of thieves, can't get her out of his mind. Tracking her down without his mask and gun, Doug introduces himself, and as soon as he and Claire meet, their mutual attraction is undeniable -- as are the risks of a relationship.

Meanwhile, Doug's crew pulls off another audacious, meticulously planned job. Frustrated by their ingenuity and brazen ambition, FBI Agent Adam Frawley begins to zero in on Doug and his pals -- and against his own better judgment, he, too, develops more than a professional interest in Claire.

Under pressure from Frawley's ever-closer investigation, Doug imagines a life for himself away from bank robberies and Charlestown. But before that can happen, the crew learns that there may be a way to rob Boston's venerable baseball stadium, Fenway Park. It's a magnificently dangerous and utterly irresistible opportunity -- yet for Doug, pursuing his former hostage may be the most dangerous act of all...

Chuck Hogan's brash tale of four men -- thieves, rivals, friends -- being hunted through the streets of Boston by a tenacious FBI agent, and the woman who may destroy them all, is a spectacular, stylish, heart-pounding thriller.]]>
364 Chuck Hogan 074326455X Tessa 0 to-read 3.97 2004 Prince of Thieves
author: Chuck Hogan
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]>
382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 Tessa 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/06/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Sunrise in the West (Brothers of Gwynedd, #1)]]> 3410852 340 Edith Pargeter 074723003X Tessa 3 3.93 1974 Sunrise in the West (Brothers of Gwynedd, #1)
author: Edith Pargeter
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1974
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/06/22
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Burning Land (The Saxon Stories, #5)]]> 6489529 At the end of the ninth century, with King Alfred of Wessex in ill health and his heir still an untested youth, it falls to Alfred’s reluctant warlord Uhtred to outwit and outbattle the invading enemy Danes, led by the sword of savage warrior Harald Bloodhair. But the sweetness of Uhtred’s victory is soured by tragedy, forcing him to break with the Saxon king. Joining the Vikings, allied with his old friend Ragnar—and his old foe Haesten—Uhtred devises a strategy to invade and conquer Wessex itself. But fate has very different plans.ĚýĚý

Bernard Cornwell’s The Burning Land is a new chapter in his story of the birth of England and the legendary king who made it possible.

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336 Bernard Cornwell 000721975X Tessa 3 4.29 2009 The Burning Land (The Saxon Stories, #5)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/05/19
shelves:
review:
I'm starting to get a bit sick of the fighting for the christians instead of doing what you want, as in taking Bebbanburg... Don't complain to me again when you feel like they don't appreciate you Uthred because I won't feel sorry for you again, I will cheer when Brida beats the shit out of you, you deserve it. Don't blame faith either, this has nothing to do with faith (probably the greed of Cornwell in wanting to stretch this succes). I'll pray to Thor he will remember who his friends are and remember what his destiny really is.
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<![CDATA[Sword Song (The Saxon Stories, #4)]]> 1297150 314 Bernard Cornwell 0060888644 Tessa 4 4.30 2007 Sword Song (The Saxon Stories, #4)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/05/19
shelves:
review:

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The House by the Lake 27256096 256 Ella Carey 1503934152 Tessa 0 to-read 3.63 2016 The House by the Lake
author: Ella Carey
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/05/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Lords of the North (The Saxon Stories, #3)]]> 68526 317 Bernard Cornwell 0060888628 Tessa 4 4.34 2007 Lords of the North (The Saxon Stories, #3)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/05/09
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Children to a Degree: Growing Up Under the Third Reich: Book 1]]> 19140981
Karl Veth, the oldest of three children, was born in Berlin, Germany in 1930. By the time he was old enough to start school and begin his education, Hitler had already established a firm death-grip on the country. Children were fed a steady diet of Nazi propaganda and were often encouraged to turn on their family and friends but contrary to popular belief, not all of them bought into it.

Karl is an intelligent young boy who strives to excel in his studies, but he questions everything. Dangerous questions during a time when people are closely monitored. Karl’s father and grandfather are not blind followers and they have their own opinions about Hitler and his regime. The lessons they teach Karl often contradict what he is taught in school, yet they also inspire him to think on his own and form his own opinions.

German law mandates that all children must become members of the Hitler Youth and at the age of 10, Karl enters the Jungvolk, the junior branch of the Hitler Youth. He must wade through the propaganda and everything he is taught to decide for himself what is right and what it wrong. Little does he know at the time, but many of his grandfather’s predictions about the future of the Third Reich will eventually come to pass. The lessons he learns now and the opinions he forms will determine his fate in dangerous times ahead.

Children To A Degree is the first book in a four-book series. Karl's incredible story continues in:

Loyal To A Degree
Trust To A Degree
Partners To A Degree]]>
191 Horst Christian Tessa 0 to-read 3.83 2013 Children to a Degree: Growing Up Under the Third Reich: Book 1
author: Horst Christian
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/04/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Spider and the Sparrow 27428165
Warren Flynn is a Canadian airborne hero, and dogfights with the Germans are all in a day’s work. Second only to his love of flying is his fascination with Claire Donovan, the daughter of an American munitions manufacturer living in Paris. Warren flies Julian into Germany and soon receives orders to post the Allies� newest operative—an attractive peasant woman named Evette—in Claire’s home.

As a dangerous ring of spies and saboteurs threatens to turn the war against the Allies, Julian discovers goodness in his enemies� hearts. But even if he survives, will he ever be reunited with the woman whose memory he can’t erase? Will Warren survive the war, and will Evette unearth the infiltrator in her own territory before it’s too late?]]>
291 A.L. Sowards 1680479385 Tessa 0 to-read 4.15 2016 The Spider and the Sparrow
author: A.L. Sowards
name: Tessa
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Royal Nanny 26795367
April, 1897: A young nanny arrives at Sandringham, ancestral estate of the Duke and Duchess of York. She is excited, exhausted—and about to meet royalty. . . .

So begins the unforgettable story of Charlotte Bill, who would care for a generation of royals as their parents never could. Neither Charlotte—LaLa, as her charges dub her—nor anyone else can predict that eldest sons David and Bertie will each one day be king. LaLa knows only that these children, and the four who swiftly follow, need her steadfast loyalty and unconditional affection.

But the greatest impact on Charlotte’s life is made by a mere bud on the family a misunderstood soul who will one day be known as the Lost Prince. Young Prince John needs all of Lala’s love—the kind of love his parents won’t…or can’t…show him.

From Britain’s old wealth to the glittering excesses of Tsarist Russia; from country cottages to royal yachts, and from nursery to ballroom, Charlotte Bill witnesses history. The Royal Nanny is a seamless blend of fact and fiction—an intensely intimate, yet epic tale spanning decades, continents, and divides that only love can cross.]]>
0 Karen Harper 006242064X Tessa 0 to-read 3.77 2016 The Royal Nanny
author: Karen Harper
name: Tessa
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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