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Elizabeth the First Wife by Lian Dolan

Book review:  ELIZABETH THE FIRST WIFE

Lian Dolan
Prospect Park Books 

Paperback $15.95

• 304 pages
• Formats, paperback, various e-readers

Blurb from the author:

In Elizabeth the First Wife, Elizabeth Lancaster, an English professor at Pasadena City College, finds her dull but stable life upended with an out-of-the-blue visit from her ex-husband, A-list action star FX Fahey. While her high-profile family sniffs its disapproval, Elizabeth heads to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to protect FX from public humilia­tion in an avant-garde production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. During her summer in Ashland, Elizabeth adopts a dog, attracts the attention of a handsome political operative, and proves that the immortal Bard knew something about modern relationships. The course of true love never did run smooth…but it is definitely worth the trouble. 

My thoughts:  


I thought Lian Dolan's ELIZABETH THE FIRST WIFE is an interesting, and new take on the  fantastically popular theme of blending modern women's fiction with old school, classic literature. Some don't always work, however in Dolan's newest book, it works! 

Dolan has written a multi-dimensional character in Elizabeth, she's modern, clever and her actions and reactions are spot on for today's young woman.  The inclusion of a wildly popular ex husband, who also happens to be right out of the movies is a smart plot device for Dolan to use. It's cute and different.

The writing is well paced and nicely done, mixing it up by placing some of the action at an actual Shakespearian festival could have been a awkward move, but Dolan cleverly made it work.

ELIZABETH THE FIRST WIFE is a perfect summer beach read, it's a fast read and keeps your attention. Enjoy this one, share it with friends, I can see this being a hugely popular book club read!


3 1/2 out of 5 stars.


**This book was provided to me by the publicist in exchange for an honest review.

His Majesty's Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal

Book review:  HIS MAJESTY'S HOPE

Susan Elia MacNeal

Publisher: Bantam,  368 pages
Paperback: $15.
Formats: paperback, various e-readers, Audible



Publisher's blurb:

For fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Laurie R. King, and Anne Perry, whip-smart heroine Maggie Hope returns to embark on a clandestine mission behind enemy lines where no one can be trusted, and even the smallest indiscretion can be deadly.

World War II has finally come home to Britain, but it takes more than nightly air raids to rattle intrepid spy and expert code breaker Maggie Hope. After serving as a secret agent to protect Princess Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, Maggie is now an elite member of the Special Operations Executive—a black ops organization designed to aid the British effort abroad—and her first assignment sends her straight into Nazi-controlled Berlin, the very heart of the German war machine. Relying on her quick wit and keen instincts, Maggie infiltrates the highest level of Berlin society, gathering information to pass on to London headquarters. But the secrets she unveils will expose a darker, more dangerous side of the war—and of her own past.

My thoughts on this 4 star winner up next!

TIM POWERS nominated for 2013 LOCUS AWARD

Congrats to one of our favorite authors here at Novel Chatter: TIM POWERS!  For his 2013 Locus Award   nomination for HIDE ME AMONG THE GRAVES!!

Click here to go to the LOCUS site for the entire list of nominees.

2013 Locus Awards Finalists

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the top five finalists in each category of the 2013 Locus Awards.

Winners will be announced during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 28-30, 2013.  Connie Willis will MC the awards ceremony and judge the annual Hawaiian shirt contest. 

 FANTASY NOVEL

• The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

• The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)

• Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)

• Hide Me Among the Graves, Tim Powers (Morrow; Corvus)

• The Apocalypse Codex, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)

LIFE AT THE MARMONT by Raymond Sarlot and Fred E. Basten

Book review:  LIFE AT THE MARMONT 


Raymond Sarlot and Fred E. Basten

Publisher: Penguin Books - Reprint edition, April 30, 2013
Paperback: $16.00, 368 pages
Formats: paperback, various e-readers, Audible

From the publisher:
Back in print after two decades, the story of Hollywood’s most exclusive hotel and its star-studded guest list  Raymond Sarlot bought the Chateau Marmont in 1975, but what was originally a business purchase became a love affair as he delved into the hotel’s incredible history. From its perch overlooking the Sunset Strip, the glamorous Marmont reigned for decades as the spot for artists, writers, musicians, and actors of every stripe and remains a home-away-from-home for A-listers like Scarlett Johansson and Johnny Depp. Here, Sarlot and coauthor Fred E. Basten share a wealth of scandalous and intriguing tales about them all, from the stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era like Jean Harlow and Grace Kelly to idols of the sixties and seventies like Jim Morrison and John Belushi (who tragically died there in 1982).  Whether your obsession is Hollywood history or celebrity gossip, Life at the Marmont has plenty of gripping, juicy stories to fascinate.

My thoughts: 

LIFE AT THE MARMONT STILL SHINES!

OK I admit it, I'm a junkie of the "golden" days of Hollywood. When stars looked like stars and there was a sense of glamour and fantasy. And that's as it should be, they were, after all, selling illusions, pretending to be someone they weren't, living fictional lives that were projected on huge screens in places that used to be called movie "palaces."

So I was destined to lap up every page and every story that authors Raymond Sarlot and Fred E. Basten told.  And just for the record, I've stayed at the Marmont many times, on various floors, in various sized rooms, and once, just once, in a poolside bungalow. I got upgraded for that treat!  And it was swell!  So I know the hallways, the back doors, the infamous lobby and the little cubby that's the front desk.

Now, about this fantastic book! Starting in 1977 then whooshing you back to the beginning in 1926, it's gossipy and dishy and full of details, and that's what you want in any book about Hollywood. This book was first published back in 1987, co-author Basten has included a really great afterward that brings more recent thoughts about the Marmont into the mix.

One of favorite parts is when you find out HOW the dishy gossip was getting into the press, back when the hotel was newer. Word of warning that's still true today, never assume. People are never who they say they are. I was intrigued to read the dish about the late Grace Kelly and her uh... friendliness towards men. That blonde bombshell Jean Harlow had a super protective "stage mom," who was also a Christian Scientist and didn't want her daughter hospitalized for surgery.  

Over the years since it first opened it's doors, film and theater stars, producers, directors, as well as writers and always the incredibly wealthy, which in more recent time included rockers and TV people, were covered in this book. The sad death of Jim Belushi is tastefully covered too. 

This book won't be for everyone, but if you love old Hollywood or want to read about the way people lived and how Hollywood grew, these are the stories for you. LIFE AT THE MARMONT is told through brief bits and snags, tidbits and quick glimpses, but those are enough to tell the story of the castle on the hill, about LIFE AT THE MARMONT.  

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.


I'll be adding this to my book shelf about Hollywood, you should too!

**This e-galley was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

FIVE DAYS by Douglas Kennedy

NOVEL CHATTER SPOTLIGHT ON:

FIVE HOURS
Douglas Kennedy

• Paperback: 336 pages, $16.00 (book price)
• Publisher: Atria Books, April 30, 2013
• Formats: Paperback, various e-readers, audio, CD

Info from the publisher:

Laura works in a small hospital on the Maine coast, scanning and x-raying many a scared patient. In a job where finding nothing is always the best result, she is well versed in the random unfairness of life, a truism that has started to affect her personally. Her husband Dan has become a stranger since losing his job. With a son in college and a daughter set to leave home, she wonders how the upcoming empty nest will affect the disconnected state of her marriage.

Still, Laura jumps at the opportunity to attend a conference in Boston where she meets a man as grey and uninspired as her drab hotel. His name is Richard. He’s a fifty-something salesman, also from Maine, also in Boston for the weekend. When a chance meeting brings them together again, Laura begins to discover a far more complex and thoughtful man behind the flat faÇade. Like herself, Richard ponders his own life and wonders if the time has come to choose desire over obligation.

Five Days is a moving love story that will have readers reflecting about the choices made that so shape all our destinies. Featuring Kennedy’s trademark evocative prose and his brilliant ability to delineate life the way it is truly lived today, it is a novel that speaks directly to the many contradictions of the human heart.

The Edgar® Winners 2013!

WOO HOO!

Here's just a sampling of a couple of the categories, to read all of the nominees and the winners of this year's Mystery Writers of America's Edgar® Awards go here to THE EDGARS offical award site.

The Edgar^® Winners and Nominees    
Winners are indicated in maroon bold text. 

Best Novel

      

The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins (Penguin Group USA - G.P. Putnam's Sons)
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye (Penguin Group USA - Amy Einhorn Books/G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn (Crown Publishers)
Potboiler by Jesse Kellerman (Penguin Group USA - G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Sunset by Al Lamanda (Gale Cengage Learning - Five Star)
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane (HarperCollins Publishers - William Morrow)
All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley (Penguin Group USA - Riverhead Books)

Best First Novel

     

The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay (Random House Publishing- Ballantine)
Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman (Minotaur Books - Thomas Dunne Books)
Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal (Random House Publishing- Bantam Books)
The Expats by Chris Pavone (Crown Publishers)
The 500 by Matthew Quirk (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown and Company - Reagan Arthur)
Black Fridays by Michael Sears (Penguin Group USA - G.P. Putnam's Sons)

There's more nominees and winners, so be sure to chere here  http://www.theedgars.com/nominees.html

THE EDGE OF THE EARTH by Christina Schwarz

Book review: The Edge of the Earth


Christina Schwarz
Atria Books, 288 pages

Hardback, $25.00, various e-readers, audio

Blurb from the publisher:  

 Trudy is a polished, college-educated young woman from a respectable upper middle-class family, and it’s only a matter of time before she’ll marry Ernst, the son of her parents’ closest friends. All should be well in her world, and yet Trudy is restless and desperate for more stimulation than 1897 Milwaukee will allow. When she falls in love with enigmatic and ambitious Oskar, she believes she’s found her escape from the banality of her pre-ordained life. Alienated from Trudy’s family and friends, the couple moves across the country to take a job at a lighthouse in the eerily isolated Point Lucia, California. Upon arriving they meet the light station’s only inhabitants—the Crawleys, a family whose plain appearance is no indication of what lies below the surface. It isn’t long before Trudy begins to realize that there is more going on in this seemingly empty place than she could ever have imagined.

Gorgeously detailed, swiftly paced, and anchored in the lush geography of the remote and eternally mesmerizing Big Sur, "The Edge of the Earth" is a magical and moving story of secrets and self-transformation, ruses and rebirths, masterfully told by a celebrated and accomplished author.

Trudy led a well ordered life, her future had been laid out before her, with her life plans as clearly structured as the roads on a map.  Until she decides to marry the "unknown factor" in her life,the cousin of her fiance, Oskar Swann.   They quickly pack up and move to Point Lucia in northern California, just so you know, as a reference, Point Lucia is now known as Big Sur. 

Pay attention to the first chapter, as author Christina Schwarz gives us a few bits from the world of 1977, as elderly Jane, and her grandson Danny, visit a lighthouse because of Danny's interest in marine biology.  It's a great reader "grab" and I think it's a perfectly brilliant first chapter!  All of the elements are there, you are drawn into action, both current and past, and the characters' story provide enough intrigue that you want to keep reading the mystery of how the story of Trudy Swann and Jane, and her family, the Crawleys, are woven into this story from so long ago.


Schwarz's descriptions and details of the area are just gorgeous!  And they are spot on! I love a book that is clearly placed in a spot the author somehow knows. I know the area and the history of the lighthouse and Schwarz did their legacy proud. I know the smells and sounds of the area, and Schwarz brought them all to me.

In a desolate area the personalities, strengths and weaknesses of those who live there, quickly come to the surface.  Schwarz wastes no time showing the reader the truths and the shadowy areas of these people. Her subtle shading of the traits of Oskar, Trudy and the other adults become clear when all are given the option to do the right thing and decisions are made.

I could go on and on about The Edge of the Earth, I think it's a well layered and intriguing story. People aren't always as they appear and there's enough of a mystery to make you keep turning the pages. I really loved it, it's one my favorite reads so far this year. I'll buy it, it's one that I'll give as a gift.


The Edge of the Earth is about people, opportunities and the choices they make. In other words, it's about life. The placement of the story close to 100 years ago doesn't change the moral and human choices, it just brings home the fact that we all must respect people's lives and their choice of how to live in their own world.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars.  That's about as high as I can rate a book. Go read it. Now.

**This book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

The Great Gatsby - new trailer and featurette

THE GREAT GATSBY...in theaters May 10.

Crikey, I sure hope they haven't thrown the 60's song "Happy Together" into the sound track.  You jump right out of the 20's era...spoils the suspension of disbelief...

THE APPLE ORCHARD author Susan Wiggs offers chance to win a getaway for 2 to Sonoma, CA!

Click here to go to Susan Wiggs' site for more information

Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners. People like Annelise Winther, who refuses to sell her long-gone mother's beloved necklace—despite Tess's advice. To Annelise, the jewel's value is in its memories.

But Tess's own history is filled with gaps: a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter. So Tess is shocked when she discovers the grandfather she never knew is in a coma. And that she has been named in his will to inherit half of Bella Vista, a hundred-acre apple orchard in the magical Sonoma town called Archangel.

The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen. A half sister she's never heard of.

Against the rich landscape of Bella Vista, Tess begins to discover a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family, of the warm earth beneath her bare feet. A world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep. A place where falling in love is not only possible, but inevitable.

And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her: if you don't believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you've not made the right kind of memories.

From one of America's most beloved writers, The Apple Orchard is a story of family ties—both old and new—and of the moments that connect our hearts.