Twilight of Avalon: A Novel of Trystan and Isolde by Anna Elliott

If you pick up this novel expecting a story along the lines of the 2006 film Tristan and Isolde, or the Wagner opera by the same name, you may be surprised to find that this one is nothing like a courtly medieval romance despite the cover blurb that mentions friendship turning to love.  Elliott returns [...]

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Twelve by Jasper Kent

Voordalak, voordalak, voordalak . . . ah, yes! Vampire. Hmm, even the Dragon is getting a little burned out on the vampire spin, but at least Kent does vampires right in his debut novel, Twelve.
The Grande Armée of Napoleon Bonaparte is poised on Moscow’s doorstep in the autumn of 1812. In a desperate bid [...]

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A.D. 62: Pompeii by Rebecca East

It’s no secret that I like time travel themes (see my reviews of Mary Modern and The Mirror).  This one sends bookish Harvard grad Miranda back to the first century Roman empire, and lands her in the ocean near the doomed city of  Pompeii.  Caught in a fishing net, she is soon sold to a wealthy slave owner, Marcus [...]

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City of Thieves by David Benioff

Lev Beniov is a grandfather who recounts for his grandson his memories of enduring World War II in Russia, but within the culmination of Beniov’s experiences, there was one week in 1942 that stands above all others.  Leningrad is under siege, and like the rest of the city’s residents, seventeen year old Beniov is starving [...]

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Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland

The death of her father and the disappearance of her white stallion set the stage for Louise de la Valliere (1644-1710), or Petite as she is affectionately called, to become a maid of honor in the glittering court of the Sun King, Louis XIV (1638-1715).  Petite is pretty, athletic, pious and loveable and soon draws the [...]

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The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

On a dark night in long-ago 17th century Persia, a comet streaks across the sky.  This event foretells bad luck for a young girl in a small village.  When her father passes away unexpectedly, she and her mother must move to the city of Isfahan and throw themselves on the mercy of their father’s half-brother [...]

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The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent

Kathleen Kent’s first novel covers familiar territory, the hysteria and superstitions surrounding the Salem witch trials.  What sets this effort apart, though, is the fact that Kathleen Kent is directly descended from Martha Carrier, who was hanged in Salem as a witch in 1692.  After hearing family stories and researching for five years, Kent wrote this debut [...]

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Grendel by John Gardner

Books, books, boxes of books, glittering my world are books and in this great accumulation are jewels, gems of such rare note and beauty that I read them again and again.  Grendel is one such book.
We all know the fabled story of Beowulf, greatest of Geats and hearth-companion of King Hygilac, but here is the [...]

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The Outlander by Gil Adamson

This book grabbed me from the very first page with the description of the protagonist.  “Nineteen years old and already a widow.  Mary Boulton.  Widowed by her own hand.”  What drove Mary, or “the widow” as Adamson refers to her throughout the book, to murder her husband and flee West?  We find out in brief [...]

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The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

It’s 1917 in the waning years of the romantic old west, when farmers and ranchers still used horses for work and transportation and automobiles and tractors were only just becoming commonplace.  19 year old Martha Lessen arrives in Elwha County in eastern Oregon looking for work breaking horses for families whose sons have left to [...]

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