Week 3

Dark Lady by Maire Claremont *

Dark Lady is a brand new Historical Romance by Maire Claremont.  Lord Ian Blake returns to England from India to make amends to his first love Eva.  He finds that she has been placed in a asylum by her brother-in-law after the death of her infant son.  He breaks her out and sets out to prove that she is not crazy like her brother-in-law says.

 

It was an okay book.  I was interested in what happened to the two main characters to lead them where they ended up.  Even though I was interested it was very drawn out and there were many times I wanted to smack both main characters for being idiots.  The main storyline has been done before in better ways.  The brother-in-law has her committed to keep questions from being asked about the little accidents her son encountered before is untimely death.  Over all there were interesting aspects to the book but by the time the book ended I was more than ready for it to be done.

 

Spoiler!!!!

 

The part I had the hardest time believing was towards the end when it is revealed that her son wasn’t actually killed but was whisked away by a couple of the servants who knew of the plotting and wanted to protect the child.  While the thought is noble they let her be put away into an asylum when they knew her child was a live.

 

Presidential Pets by Julie Moberg ****

 

This is a cute children’s picture book.  For each president there are little facts about the different animals the president kept while in office.

 

The Pictures were caricatured but well done.  There were facts about the president, his office, and family.  The best part was the facts about the pets.  There were cows, horses, elephants, cats, parrots, and alligators.  This is an amazing book for children and adult alike.

 

Blizzard of Glass by Sally M Walker ****

 

This Nonfiction Young Adult book is a story about the Halifax explosion of 1917.  On December 6 1917 two ships collided in Halifax Harbor.  Two towns were leveled, Halifax and Dartmouth and killed over 2000 people.  While relief aid was immediate the help was constrained due to a blizzard.  This story is told through the perspective of each member of 5 different families.

 

This was not a story I had heard of previously but was very interested in it when I read the description.  It lays out the timeline of what lead up to the boat explosion and what happened to the people who were affected by it. 

 

How to Tame a Willful Wife by Christy English *

A Historical Romance that is likened to Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.  Anthony Carrington, Earl of Ravensbrook is former military and demands obedience.  Caroline Montague is promised to the Earl by her impoverish father.  Montague’s parents have allowed her to do as she wishes.  It is a battle of wills to see who will win.

 

When I read the description of the book I couldn’t wait to read this book.  Probably about a third of the way through the book I wanted to put it down and not finish it.  The male protagonist pissed me off so much.  It was his way and only his way.  At one point in the book he went into Caroline’s room and is inappropriate with her and then blames her for it.  The female protagonist was even worse.  She was the independent free spirited woman until her father marries her off to Earl of Ravensbrook.  She falls in line and turns into a completely different person.  I understand that there were rules she had to adhere to but to go from one extreme to the other was just unacceptable.