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writerrhiannon's Reviews (1.1k)
In a prequel to Ghost on Black Mountain, Ann Hite follows Nellie Pritchard's family tree back to three slaves girls on Georgia's Sapelo Island. Whether in the field or the kitchen of the sea island cotton plantation, each girl possesses her own form of magic. A marsh witch appears to Emmaline, Celestia and Liza individually. She protects women and girls... but at a price. In a neo-slave narrative with magic realism,this e-novella starts to unravel hidden stories and touches on the too common question of paternity among slave children. Transitioning from North Carolina to Black Mountain at the end of the novella, Hite provides the stories of the rest of the three girls' lives but not the full link to Nellie Pritchard. There is ample opportunity to expand this connection and I hope that this novella becomes a full prequel to Ghost on Black Mountain.
Title: The Perfume Collector
Author: Kathleen Tessaro
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 9780062257833
Pages: 456
How I Got It: SheReads
Stuck in an unhappy marriage and uncomfortable social settings, Grace Monroe is depressed. The options for women in her situation in 1955 are bleak. As her best friend Mallory states "Face it, a woman has to be very rich indeed to change husbands the way one changes clothes and get away with it." Although Grace is of a comfortable standing, when she receives "an inheritance from a mysterious stranger" her life takes a new direction. Curious to know the full background of her benefactor she takes off for Paris and unravels the mysterious connection between her and Eva D'Orsey.
The settings are absolutely delicious whether author Kathleen Tessaro is describing New York, London or Monte Carlo, you will sigh as a reader and wish that you were at that cafe, this office or that hotel. When Valmort walks into the Hotel Hermitage in Monte Carlo, Tessaro provides my favorite descriptive sentence of the book: " Guests were checking in and out, flowers were being delivered, and valets were scurrying to procure tickets for luggage and dinner reservations while exquisite women lounged on the rose silk settees, pulling lazily at the fingers of their white gloves and smoking gold-tipped Russian cigarettes behind the veils of their hats." Lovers, mistresses, and prostitutes were kept in grand style in the 1920s. Hotels were places of entertainment both public and private and there is just as much going on behind the scenes with the servants as there is in the ballroom with the guests. The decadence pours off the page.
Read my full review here: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-perfume-collector.html
Author: Kathleen Tessaro
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 9780062257833
Pages: 456
How I Got It: SheReads
Stuck in an unhappy marriage and uncomfortable social settings, Grace Monroe is depressed. The options for women in her situation in 1955 are bleak. As her best friend Mallory states "Face it, a woman has to be very rich indeed to change husbands the way one changes clothes and get away with it." Although Grace is of a comfortable standing, when she receives "an inheritance from a mysterious stranger" her life takes a new direction. Curious to know the full background of her benefactor she takes off for Paris and unravels the mysterious connection between her and Eva D'Orsey.
The settings are absolutely delicious whether author Kathleen Tessaro is describing New York, London or Monte Carlo, you will sigh as a reader and wish that you were at that cafe, this office or that hotel. When Valmort walks into the Hotel Hermitage in Monte Carlo, Tessaro provides my favorite descriptive sentence of the book: " Guests were checking in and out, flowers were being delivered, and valets were scurrying to procure tickets for luggage and dinner reservations while exquisite women lounged on the rose silk settees, pulling lazily at the fingers of their white gloves and smoking gold-tipped Russian cigarettes behind the veils of their hats." Lovers, mistresses, and prostitutes were kept in grand style in the 1920s. Hotels were places of entertainment both public and private and there is just as much going on behind the scenes with the servants as there is in the ballroom with the guests. The decadence pours off the page.
Read my full review here: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-perfume-collector.html
The premise of this book caught my attention as soon as I read the back cover. The whole idea of "what if" when applied to life after death is fascinating and I was interested to see what Mott's moral was going to be. In what could be described as the opposite of the "Left Behind" series, The Returned forces us to ask ourselves what we would do if a long dead loved one suddenly "returned"? As Mott layers in the government forces and growing unrest of the small town's citizens, he exposes the ugliness of humanity. It is not difficult to draw parallels to Japanese internment or Nazi concentration camps. The novel proves the point of not knowing someone's true character until pressure is applied. Previously harmless women and men incite riots and carry out vigilante justice, while others protect and provide for others.
Read my full review here:
http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-returned.html
Read my full review here:
http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-returned.html
Gone South
It's hard not to love Tish McComb. Following her heart and taking a chance on a new beginning in an ancestral home is a decision not taken lightly. But you have to respect a woman who acts on her desires (no matter how irresponsible.) With little savings, Tish is need of a job. This proves difficult due to the McComb name being mud in the small town of Noble. But in a perfect example of "someone always has it worse than you" Tish finds herself aligned with a teen runaway returning to town, outcast by the town and her own family.
To read my full review: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/08/gone-south.html
** I received this book in exchange for an honest review**
It's hard not to love Tish McComb. Following her heart and taking a chance on a new beginning in an ancestral home is a decision not taken lightly. But you have to respect a woman who acts on her desires (no matter how irresponsible.) With little savings, Tish is need of a job. This proves difficult due to the McComb name being mud in the small town of Noble. But in a perfect example of "someone always has it worse than you" Tish finds herself aligned with a teen runaway returning to town, outcast by the town and her own family.
To read my full review: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/08/gone-south.html
** I received this book in exchange for an honest review**
"In this collection, Bender’s unique talents sparkle brilliantly in stories about people searching for connection through love, sex, and family—while navigating the often painful realities of their lives. A traumatic event unfolds when a girl with flowing hair of golden wheat appears in an apple orchard, where a group of people await her. A woman plays out a prostitution fantasy with her husband and finds she cannot go back to her old sex life. An ugly woman marries an ogre and struggles to decide if she should stay with him after he mistakenly eats their children. Two sisters travel deep into Malaysia, where one learns the art of mending tigers who have been ripped to shreds."
I appreciate Bender's style and tried to keep an open mind, but I personally did not like the stories. Billed as a collection of grown-up fairy tales, I was hoping for something racy and dark but with a lesson. Like last year's release of Philip Pullman's Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm but for adults. I found the stories unsettling and vague. To be truthful, I only read the first four stories and then gave up. I love a non-conformist style (House of Leaves is one of my favorite books) but this just left me scratching my head.
I appreciate Bender's style and tried to keep an open mind, but I personally did not like the stories. Billed as a collection of grown-up fairy tales, I was hoping for something racy and dark but with a lesson. Like last year's release of Philip Pullman's Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm but for adults. I found the stories unsettling and vague. To be truthful, I only read the first four stories and then gave up. I love a non-conformist style (House of Leaves is one of my favorite books) but this just left me scratching my head.
Just as the above summary states, this novel is a perfect fix for those of us who loved Gone Girl. I was initial drawn to this novel for the fact that the main character is an overwhelmed mother. Lisa Kallisto runs the local animal shelter, is mother to a teen girl and two young boys, and wife to the local taxi driver. She is relatable. She forgets ingredients her daughter needs for a class and feeds her family chicken nuggets, chips, and cereal. She admits she is jealous of the other mothers who don't work outside the home. Being so busy, she misses one phone call and her world falls apart. What parent's mind hasn't gone to the worst scenarios? But Lisa finds herself in the middle of a worst scenario situation. Where is her daughter's friend? What is really going on behind the closed doors of this community?
Paula Daly draws you into a "this only happens to other people" scenario. The story doesn't contain any loose ends, outlandish twists or slow chapters. "Just What Kind of a Mother Are You?" is a pageturner that feeds on a mother's insecurities and peels away the polished exterior of the local perfect family.
READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE:
http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/09/just-what-kind-of-mother-are-you.html
It is difficult not to compare Amy Grace Lloyd's The Affairs of Others to Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking. The main character, Celia, possesses a raw grief for her husband. Remembering small details and constantly wrapping herself in the past. Just as Didion wove poetry into her memoir, Lloyd gives Celia's thoughts poetic slants. Her realization of distance and street names in a particular scene when she is walking between Atlantic and Pacific streets perfectly encompasses how one can suddenly look at something they have seen many times before, and now look at from a new perspective.
Read my full review here: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-affairs-of-others.html
Read my full review here: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-affairs-of-others.html
Set in 1845, Frances Sargent Osgood has been taken in, along with her two young daughters, by the Bartlett family after being abandoned by her philandering husband. Determined to provide an income from her writing, Frances is advised by a newspaper editor to transition from writing for ladies and children to instead focusing on "shivery tales" like Edgar Poe. The Raven is all the rage and newspapers are trying to duplicate its success. Desperate for inspiration Frances focuses on Poe during local salon gatherings. Fawned over by all of the ladies, and praised by his readership, Poe dismisses and degrades a majority of his peers causing many rivalries. Suspicions arise when he praises Frances and rumors begin to circulate that they are lovers. As this friendship grows so does the suspicion of Mrs. Poe. Married for ten years, since Virginia was thirteen and Edgar was twenty-three, the marriage has become strained by Virginia's consumption and Edgar's long hours at the paper. Aware of her husband's change in demeanor and lack of drinking since meeting Frances, Mrs. Poe desires a friendship with Frances as well. Out of guilt, Frances caters to Mrs. Poe's requests but Virginia's social ineptness and provoking demeanor unsettle her. Virginia's constant need of praise and sharp tongued judgements become too much t bear. Believing she is contributing to Virginia's decline in health, Frances vows to stay clear of the Poes and cuts off all correspondence. Unhappy with this turn of events, Mrs. Poe and her mother begin calling on Frances at the Bartletts as well as Poe himself, under the pretense of conversing with Mr. Bartlett. Strange coincidences become more common as Frances and Poe's friendship progresses to an affair. This love triangle between Poe, his wife and his mistress becomes more complicated as Frances attracts a suitor, her husband reappears and Mrs. Poe's health deteriorates.
Read my entire review here: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/09/mrs-poe.html
Read my entire review here: http://www.ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2013/09/mrs-poe.html