The Linen Queen by Patricia Falvey

genre: adult fiction

Scraping by on a linen worker's wages is not the kind of life that Sheila plans on living for much longer.  Her grandest wish is to escape from Ireland as soon as possible, away from her demanding and unappreciative mother and the ghost of the father that left when she was a child.  Her story begins on the cusp of the second World War in a small village in Northern Ireland.  Confident and aware of her good looks, she hopes to be chosen as the Linen Queen so she can get her chance on the prize money - her ticket out of town. 

If only those Yankee soldiers didn't come to town to complicate things - or if her childhood friend Gavin could just keep their relationship the way it's always been.  And then when a refugee from Belfast ends up at her house, it seems as though she may never get without some serious determination and no small amount of selfishness. 

Sheila has a lot to learn about herself and what she wants to stand for at this really challenging point in Irish history (does Irish history have a point that's NOT really challenging?).  Of course there is still that rumbling of Irish history and pride - as Northern Irish they are on England's side of the war, but Free Ireland to the south has to be on the side of whomever is fighting the devil British, there is no small amount of political talk in this book.  It is, however, woven throughout this interesting and romantic story, with enough twists to compensate for the fairly predictable conclusion.
If you like Irish historical fiction, this is as authentic as anything else I've read and certainly as good, if not better, than Falvey's first novel The Yellow House.

note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com

Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson

genre: adult fiction
for the Great Book Bloggers Swap

Miss Pettigrew, righteous and dowdy governess, is on the verge of landing in the workhouse. When Miss Pettigrew arrives at the door of Miss LaFosse, she is anticipating a job interview. What she gets instead is an absolute whirlwind of a day among the charming and worldly Miss LaFosse’s friends – and somehow Miss Pettigrew just keeps getting things RIGHT. She saves the day, over and over, using her own good sense and the breadth of her romantic film knowledge.

Following Miss Pettigrew through this most astonishing day is wonderfully charming, to say the least. As a character she’s so cleverly conflicted, between her strict and upright upbringing and the excitement and thrills of a wicked life. Her common sense is a breath of fresh air that you can’t help but fall in love with.  I found myself chuckling more than once at her own wonder at finding herself in situations she'd only seen in the movies.  SEEING people KISS?  Shameful and almost too thrilling.

I want to hand this book to people I like, it’s so much fun. I just want them to give it back when they’re done.


note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com

TLC Book Tour Stop: Irma Voth by Miriam Toews

genre: adult fiction

When Irma Voth decided to marry someone who wasn't a Mennonite, her father's strange faith in a ruthless God required him to shut her out of his life.  Having spent her early years in Canada, Irma has lived in Mexico since she was a teen and her life as a very young wife is harsh and unpredictable. She knows her husband Jorje is probably doing something illegal but he keeps going away and she really wants him to stay, so she doesn't push it.  During one of Jorje's long absences, nineteen-year-old Irma's life suddenly takes a dramatic turn when a crew arrives to film a movie on the Mennonite compound and she's hired as a translator for the director.  The movie crew's arrival creates a crack in the fragile balance of Irma's life and sends her on a path she'd never have dreamed.

This book was a dichotomous read for me.  The writing is so delicate and purposeful, sometimes poetically beautiful.  Irma is absolutely coming of age and as we read her thoughts, sometimes circular, sometimes astonishingly beautiful, you can tell she is working through some serious issues.  But then other times, she frustrated me with her inability to be purposely a part of her own life.  I wanted her to make decisions and act like she KNOWS something but her languidness really separated me from appreciating her as a character.  I admit, the ending of the book helped to alleviate that somewhat, I think I understand her more now than I did in the middle, but I still sometimes felt like I was having an out of body experience as I read.  Like it was real life, but not - a movie about Mennonites in the Mexican desert?  It stretched me to believe it sometimes.

It certainly was a different kind of story, a heartbreaking story that takes you to the brink of redemption and just to the other side.  Those who are sensitive to coarse language should be forewarned. I will say that I appreciated how it ended and found myself feeling very sympathetic for Irma by the time I closed the book.


note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com

A Long Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

genre: young adult

Imagine Sleeping Beauty with a sci-fi/dystopian twist.  That's the basic plot of A Long Long Sleep, with some extra elements added in, of course.  When Rosalinda is awakened with what she thinks is a kiss, as far as she knows she's only been in a chemically induced stasis-sleep for maybe a few months.  A year at most.  But it's been sixty-two years.  And things have changed dramatically from the world she knew.

As the daughter of the owner of the solar system's largest conglomerate, Rose is suddenly thrust into the lime-light and figuring out who she can trust is only one of her problems.  Her body is a wreck from her long stint in the stasis tube and relationships with peers are just as tricky as ever.   As she slowly falls for the boy who woke her up,  she's terrorized by dangers, both real and in her nightmares, and the trouble of navigating this new life makes staying out of the peaceful stasis tube harder than ever.

I really liked the premise of this story.  It was just enough Sleeping Beauty and the spiral of sci-fi technology and time-bending was really fun.  I wasn't totally thrilled with the execution.  Rose's self-depreciation felt overdone and her vacillation between completely helpless and fighter-chick didn't flow for me as well as I'd wanted it to.    Sometimes conversations felt so dull and awkward - but other times, especially with a character named Otto, it felt more authentic.

In all, it was a good enough read, teens might appreciate it more than I did.  There's certainly a great structure there, I just needed a little different dressing on it.


note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com

Warped by Maurissa Guibord

genre: young adult fantasy

When Tessa's father buys an ancient-looking tapestry, she immediately senses a connection to it - strange dreams begin to disturb her sleep and visions of forests and fear haunt her when she's awake.  On the day that she takes a singular thread from the tapestry and gently pulls, not only does the world as she know it begin to unravel, but she is suddenly smack in the middle of a battle between the Fates, one tapestry-weaving witch and a young man from the Middle Ages whose own story seems inexplicably entwined with hers.  It's up to Tessa to sort through the mess before it's too late and everything she loves is lost.

Warped is a romantic, time-bending fantasy romp.  It's a good versus evil story with some interesting twists - I liked how she used the idea of weaving our life threads into tapestries and how the Fates can control the things that happen to us. I also have a childhood love of unicorns which does come into play in this story.  While sometimes the romantic scenes and the dialogue feel flat and a bit unrealistic, I still found myself eager to pick it up and finish it.


note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com

The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

 genre: historical fiction

Things are just fine in the Rivenhall residence.    Dull perhaps - not particularly pleasant, maybe, but within the bounds of propriety, surely.  That is, they were, until their cousin Sophy (who has been traipsing about the continent) comes to stay.  Sophy has a habit of shaking things up in a rather alarming fashion and soon Charles, the eldest of the Rivenhall cousins, is quite sure that Sophy will bring them all to ruin.

Sophy!  Grand she is.  She's a delight in every way.  A pot-stirrer to the nth degree but with only the best intentions and quite good results.  She wants everyone to be happily in love with the right person and rescued from whatever scrapes they've gotten themselves into.  Cool-headed and certainly rash, Sophy's antics kept this book moving right along.  I was laughing outloud more than one - the final scene, especially, was funny enough to have me still laughing after I'd shut the book.

I have no complaints about it save one, tiny one: there are a LOT of characters to keep straight.  Maybe the problem is just a result of my very full brain. But their abundance was their only flaw - the characters themselves were well-defined and, in some cases, wonderfully and hilariously characterized.  The dreamy poet!  The hypochondraic nobleman! 

Really.  I think it's my favorite Heyer I've read.  Her female main characters are some of the funnest in historical fiction, hands down.


note: if you're interested in the content of the books I read, please go to http://ratedreads.com