Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 36

Spotlight on Omphalos by Mark Patton

Please join Mark Patton as he tours the blogosphere with HF Virtual Book Tours for Omphalos, from December 5-19.

Publication Date: December 5, 2014
Crooked Cat Publications
Formats: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 312
ISBN: 978-1-910510-06-3

Genre: Historical Fiction




SIX EPOCHS, TEN LIVES INTERSECTING AT A SINGLE PLACE. 2013: Al Cohen, an American in search of his European heritage.

1944-1946: Friedrich Werner, an officer of the Wehrmacht and later a prisoner of war. His wife Greta, clinging to what remains of her life in war-torn Berlin.

1799: Suzanne de Beaubigny, a royalist refugee from revolutionary France.

1517: Richard Mabon, a Catholic priest on pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his secretary, Nicholas Ahier.

1160: Raoul de Paisnel, a knight with a dark secret walking through Spain with his steward, Guillaume Bisson.

4000 BC: Egrasté, a sorceress, and Txeru, a man on an epic voyage.

Transgressions, reconciliations and people caught on the wrong side of history.

Omphalos. A journey through six thousand years of human history.
Praise for Omphalos"Omphalos is a powerful word, a powerful connotation, as are the stories focused on in this excellent collection. The author leads the reader from one story to the next like an easy progress through the chambers of La Hougue Bie, followed by a reverse journey of revelation. To say too much of how this is cleverly achieved through the excellent use of letters, prose and poetry, I feel, would spoil the enjoyment of a potential reader. The skilful writing techniques used make it a thoroughly engrossing read. I have no qualms in recommending ‘Omphalos’ to the lover of historical fiction and to those who enjoy a well-crafted tale." - Nancy Jardine
Pre-Order the Book


Amazon UKAbout the Author Mark Patton was born and grew up on the island of Jersey. He studied Archaeology & Anthropology at Cambridge and completed his PhD at University College London. He has taught at the Universities of Wales, Greenwich and Westminster, and currently teaches with The Open University. He is the author of two previous historical novels, Undreamed Shores (Crooked Cat, 2012) and An Accidental King (Crooked Cat 2013).

For more information please visit Mark Patton's website and blog. You can also connect with him on Twitter and Goodreads.
Omphalos Blog Tour ScheduleFriday, December 5
Review at Back Porchervations

Monday, December 8
Guest Post & Giveaway at Words and Peace

Wednesday, December 10
Spotlight at CelticLady's Reviews

Thursday, December 11
Spotlight at Book Babe
Guest Post at Just One More Chapter

Monday, December 15
Review at Book Nerd

Tuesday, December 16
Review at Svetlana's Reads and Views

Wednesday, December 17
Spotlight at The Writing Desk

Thursday, December 18
Spotlight at Historical Fiction Connection
Guest Post at What Is That Book About

Friday, December 19
Review at Diary of an Eccentric
Spotlight at Let Them Read Books

A Christmas Reunion by Susanna Fraser

Please join Susanna Fraser as she tours the blogosphere with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for her Historical Romance Novella, A Christmas Reunion, from November 24-December 12, and enter to win a $50 Gift Card to Amazon, Barne & Noble, and Powell's.
Publication Date: November 24, 2014Carina PresseBook; ASIN B00MTGFB9S
Genre: Historical Romance

READ AN EXCERPT.
Lady Catherine Trevilian and Gabriel Shepherd met in the Earl of Edenwell’s household, he the earl’s bastard nephew adopted as an infant, and she the countess’s highborn niece taken in after being orphaned as a young lady. Though not a suitable match by society’s standards, they fell hopelessly in love – but everything ended when they were caught kissing under the mistletoe. To protect Cat from Gabe’s lowborn charms, the earl bought him an army commission and shipped him out of the country. Catherine eventually accepted an arranged engagement, but never stopped scouring casualty lists for Gabe’s name.
Five years later, Gabe is home on leave for Christmas. Catherine and Gabe quickly learn their feelings have not dimmed – and a forbidden kiss confirms they’ve deepened into passion. But with Cat due to be married in eight days and Gabe still far below her social station, it will take a Christmas miracle for the star-crossed lovers to find happiness...
*****REVIEW*****
It's been awhile since I've read a historical romance. Susanna Fraser is a new author to me. I liked her writing style. It was easy to read and kept my attention. 
This is a shorter story - roughly 27,000 words. The story felt complete and well written. No details were left out and I felt like I got as much detail as I would a full length.
This is a second chance story, which is a favorite trope of mine. Lady Catherine's first taste of love is with Gabe, however, he isn't anyone in her ranks. So he is sent away and she spends a few years trying out different suitors. Finally Anthony comes in to her life and he's someone she can live with. They are due to be married when Gabe comes back into her life.
The moment the two see each other, the chemistry is back. The conflict comes in when Lady Cat says she won't back down from her engagement since Anthony has been left at the alter before.
There is a nice twist to the story that made me smile. This was a entertaining read and perfect for a quiet evening when you want to get lost in a good story.
I'd recommend this book to my friends who enjoy historical romance. If you're not a big Christmas reads fan (like me), then this one is pretty tame. You will forget you're reading a holiday novella. 
Lacey's Rating



About the Author Susanna Fraser wrote her first novel in fourth grade. It starred a family of talking horses who ruled a magical land. In high school she started, but never finished, a succession of tales of girls who were just like her, only with long, naturally curly and often unusually colored hair, who, perhaps because of the hair, had much greater success with boys than she ever did.

Along the way she read her hometown library’s entire collection of Regency romance, fell in love with the works of Jane Austen, and discovered in Patrick O’Brian’s and Bernard Cornwell’s novels another side of the opening decades of the 19th century. When she started to write again as an adult, she knew exactly where she wanted to set her books. Her writing has come a long way from her youthful efforts, but she still gives her heroines great hair.

Susanna grew up in rural Alabama. After high school she left home for the University of Pennsylvania and has been a city girl ever since. She worked in England for a year after college, using her days off to explore history from ancient stone circles to Jane Austen’s Bath.

Susanna lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter. When not writing or reading, she goes to baseball games, sings alto in a local choir and watches cooking competition shows.

For more information please visit Susanna's website and blog. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

A Christmas Reunion Blog Tour ScheduleMonday, November 24
Review at Romantic Historical Reviews
Spotlight at Literary Chanteuse

Wednesday, November 26
Review at Laurie Here
Review at Let Them Read Books
Guest Post at Ramblings From This Chick

Thursday, November 27
Spotlight at The True Book Addict

Monday, December 1
Review at By the Book Reviews

Tuesday, December 2
Guest Post at SOS Aloha

Friday, December 5
Spotlight at Historical Fiction Connection

Tuesday, December 9
Review at Historical Romance Lover

Wednesday, December 10
Review at Book Babe
Mistletoe Madness Guest Post at The Book Nympho

Friday, December 12
Review at The Christmas Spirit

GiveawayTo enter to win a $50 Gift Card to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Powell's, please complete the Rafflecopter giveaway form below.

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Post WWII Female Secret Agent TV Show Coming to ABC In January

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No, I'm not being paid for this. As someone who watches only period dramas, an occasional documentary, and sometimes a Mysteries at the Museum, my TV pickings are really low. Matter of fact, because I seem to only watch PBS on Sundays, and nothing else, my husband has been threatening to get rid of cable.

"You can't do that!" I screech at him. "You never know when something really awesome is suddenly going to air on like, History channel or something."

Well, even if he takes that leap and cancels our Direct TV packages, thankfully a period drama is coming to ABC in January. I figure some of you would like to know about it. I only found out about it because my husband heard of it somehow.

So, to get to the point, Marvel's Agent Carter is premiering on ABC January 6th. I was already able to set my recorder to record the series. You should be able to as well. If not, mark it on your calendars or put a note/reminder in your phone.

And here's the 411 as well as a trailer:

From Wiki:

"Marvel's Agent Carter, or simply Agent Carter, is an upcoming American television series created for ABC by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, inspired by the films Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the Marvel One-Shot short film of the same name. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise.

The series features the Marvel Comics character Peggy Carter, with Hayley Atwell reprising her role from the film series, as she must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark while trying to navigate life as a single woman in 1940s America. Several characters from Marvel Cinematic Universe films appear throughout the series. It is produced by ABC Studios and Marvel Television, with Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas serving as showrunners.

The series was officially ordered on May 8, 2014, and is scheduled to debut on January 6, 2015, during the season two mid-season break of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Spotlight on Die I Will Not

Publication Date: November 4, 2014
Poisoned Pen PressFormats: Hardcover, PaperbackSeries: John Chase Mystery SeriesGenre: Historical Mystery/Regency



Unhappy wife and young mother Penelope Wolfe fears scandal for her family and worse. A Tory newspaper editor has been stabbed while writing a reply to the latest round of letters penned by a firebrand calling himself Collatinus. Twenty years before, her father, the radical Eustace Sandford, wrote as Collatinus before he fled London just ahead of accusations of treason and murder. A mysterious beauty closely connected to Sandford and known only as N.D. had been brutally slain, her killer never punished. The seditious new Collatinus letters that attack the Prince Regent in the press also seek to avenge N.D.’s death and unmask her murderer. What did the journalist know that provoked his death?

Her artist husband Jeremy is no reliable ally, so Penelope turns anew to lawyer Edward Buckler and Bow Street Runner John Chase. As she battles public notoriety, Buckler and Chase put their careers at risk to stand behind her while pursuing various lines of inquiry aimed at N.D.’s murderer, a missing memoir, Royal scandal, and the dead editor’s missing wife. As they navigate the dark underbelly of Regency London among a cast driven by dirty politics and dark passions, as well as by decency and a desire for justice, past secrets and present criminals are exposed, upending Penelope’s life and the lives of others.
John Chase Mystery SeriesBook One: The Rose in the WheelBook Two: Blood for BloodBook Three: Die I Will Not
Buy the Book


Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository

About the Author S.K. Rizzolo is a longtime Anglophile and history enthusiast. Set in Regency England, The Rose in the Wheel and Blood for Blood are the first two novels in her series about a Bow Street Runner, an unconventional lady, and a melancholic barrister. An English teacher, Rizzolo has earned an M.A. in literature and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.

For more information please visit S.K. Rizzolo's website. You can also find her on Facebook and Goodreads.

Die I Will Not Blog Tour ScheduleMonday, November 17
Review at Back Porchervations
Tuesday, November 18
Spotlight at Passages to the Past
Wednesday, November 19
Interview at Back Porchervations
Spotlight at Flashlight Commentary
Thursday, November 20
Interview with Curling Up With a Good Book
Friday, November 21
Review at Book Nerd
Monday, November 24
Review at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Tuesday, November 25
Interview at Oh, For the Hook of a Book
Wednesday, November 26
Review at Buried Under Books
Spotlight at Layered Pages
Friday, November 28
Spotlight at Just One More Chapter
Monday, December 1
Review at WTF Are You Reading?
Tuesday, December 2
Spotlight at Historical Fiction Connection
Wednesday, December 3
Interview at Caroline Wilson Writes
Thursday, December 4
Review at A Chick Who Reads
Spotlight at What Is That Book About
Friday, December 5
Review at The True Book Addict
Monday, December 8
Review at CelticLady's Reviews
Tuesday, December 9
Review at A Bibliotaph's Reviews
Spotlight at Book Babe
Wednesday, December 10
Review at The Lit Bitch
Review at Griperang's Bookmarks
Thursday, December 11
Review at Jorie Loves a Story
Friday, December 12
Interview at Jorie Loves a Story

Chicken & Cookies for Christmas: Recipes from Judith Whitmore

Please welcome author Judith Whitmore as she shares some Christmas memories and recipes you can enjoy this holiday season. She has a fabulous new cookbook and hey, it's something to keep in mind for that hard-to-buy-for person who just maybe loves to cook. The proceeds go to charity, so you'd actually be giving twice.
I used to keep my two grandmothers’ and my mother’s recipes in a kitchen drawer.  Year by year they became more faded and fragile, until one day I took out my Grandma Blanche’s recipe for Crisp Chicken and realized if I didn’t take some action, the recipe would be lost forever.   My cookbook began as a way to preserve these recipes for my children.  It took on a new life with the addition of recipes, personal photographs, and stories from my family and friends. Some of the recipes in the book have been handed down from great-grandmothers, while others are most likely from cookbooks long forgotten. 
This recipe for Crisp Chicken is one my favorites.  Whenever we had dinner at my grandmother’s house, we would always request that she make this.Crisp Chicken
½ pint sour cream
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. Worcester Sauce
1 tsp.  celery salt
½ tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. paprika
Stir together the above ingredients.Chicken pieces (breasts, thighs, legs)
Kellogg’s Corn Flake Crumbs
Image courtesy of Mister GC at FreeDigitalPhotos.netDip chicken in sour cream mixture, then in corn flake crumbs. Put chicken in a casserole.  Drizzle a little melted butter over chicken.  Bake uncovered in 350̊ oven until done.                                         *   *   *   *   *One of my favorite Christmas activities is hosting a cookie exchange.  In case you haven’t participated in one and would like to host one, here is how it works.
       
1. Invite 10-12 friends over who like to bake.
2. Before arriving, each guest will bake a dozen of one type of cookie for every attendee, plus an extra dozen for serving at the get-together.  3. All cookies should be baked from scratch...no store-bought slice and bake.
4. Make a pot of coffee and open some wine...enjoy your guests and the fact you will have dozens of fabulous homemade cookies.  And you only had to bake one type!Here are two of my favorite holiday cookie recipes:The Best Sugar Cookies - Ever!1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
4 1/4 cups unsifted flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
½ tsp. salt
colored sugar crystalsIn a large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed, cream butter and sugars.  Beat in eggs one at a time until mixture is light.  Add oil and vanilla.  Beat until well blended.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.  Gradually add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat until blended.  Wrap dough and chill for several hours.
Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Flatten dough to 2" circles with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar crystals.  Sprinkle more on top if desired.
Bake at 325° for 8 to 10 minutes, just until set.  Let stand on the cookie sheet for 2 to 3 minutes before removing.  Makes about 7 dozen.Granny’s Double Cookies½ lb. salted butter (8 oz)
½ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ cup flour
1 tbsp. cream
powdered sugar
jelly (homemade raspberry jam)Mix butter and sugar well.  Stir in flour.  Stir in cream (may need to add additional cream to make the dough workable).  Roll very thin.  Covering rolling pin with wax paper helps.   Cut out with a cookie cutter a little larger than a silver dollar.  Bake until light brown.
Place 2 cookies together with jam & sprinkle with powdered sugar.Note: You can cut a shape out of the “top” cookie so that jam shows through when cookies are assembled.  I use an hors d’oeuvres cutter.
If you enjoy these recipes, please check out my cookbook, “All Time Favorite Recipes.” All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to The Dream Street Foundation, http://www.dreamstreetfoundation.org/ a charity my brother and sister launched 25 years ago to raise money for summer camps for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.




JUDITH WHITMORE has been a theater producer, a jet pilot, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and now a writer. While attending college, she sang background vocals for Capitol Records. For the last seven years she has been a makeup artist during the summer for the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. She loves to cook and play the piano.

To learn more about Judith or her books visit www.judithwhitmore.com

Searching for Grace Kelly by Michael Callahan

"One lovely night doesn't mean you should go arse over tit for the first man who takes you dancing."

I must give this author major points for a masterpiece of a prologue. In the first 3 or 4 pages we meet a girl, a girl who has been living in the famous Barbizon Hotel--an exclusively female hotel for the up-and-coming lady in NYC, at least until it began admitting men in the eighties. She feels her life is ruined and she has only one option left: suicide.

Then the story starts. We meet three girls who live at the Barbizon, all with vastly different personalities but all who want the same thing: to be loved. Yet...which girl was about to jump off the roof in the beginning? What a way to keep us reading! Though I admit I enjoyed the story enough to read regardless. I just had to mention that because I thought it was brilliant.

Back to the girls... Laura wants to be a writer, yet rarely picks up a pen. She's constantly being sidetracked by her social life, with two beaus. She also needs to learn to live her life her way, not her mother's. I felt like the moral of her story was, "Don't postpone your dreams and goals, for anything."

Dolores...we have all been a Dolores at some point, desperate for love and afraid of being alone. She'll do just about anything for approval. I guess the moral here is to not be so insecure with being alone that you end up making yourself more miserable. Don't force things, especially relationships. Her story had me on the edge of my seat as I tried to figure out what was going on with the man in her life.

Vivian. Ok. This is where the story disappointed me. This line was way too predictable. I saw it all coming from a quarter in. I don't like figuring everything out that fast. I really don't. But there was a moral here too: don't alienate yourself.

We simply follow all three of of these young ladies as they live their lives, fight their hearts and heads, and come to learn the above morals in their own time and in their own ways, and perhaps not quite in time. There are fancy NYC nightclubs, abusive men, murder, lies, secrets, broken hearts, and breakfasts and gossip.

And it's all in a fabulous fifties' setting.

I received this via Amazon Vine.

Cattle Kate: A Historical Western That Corrects Misconceptions and Educates While Causing an Occasional Rip-Roaring Laugh

I'd spent most of my life working with Pa and my brothers, so I knew how to work with men to get things done. First thing, you can't be bossy. They don't like that. They'll do something the wrong way rather than take a bossy command from a woman.

First a little background...Cattle Kate was a real woman. She immigrated with her family from Canada to Kansas and then left her family to strike out on her own in WY Territory where she became the first female homesteader and cattle owner. She merely wanted to have land and raise cows, but back in those days, the cattle barons, though already filthy rich, couldn't get enough and when Kate refused to sell her land for their grazing purposes, they saw to it she was lynched.

She was then labeled an outlaw and whore.

This novel corrects that misconception, shows us the real Kate, who while not necessarily squeaky clean (keeping her marriage to Jimmy a secret in order to double their land is a bit sneaky), does not deserve the outlaw label. The novel follows her life from Canada to Kansas to WY, from childhood to abused married woman, to cattlewoman and pie-maker. We meet a woman with big dreams who is a bit naive. (I'm not all that certain Jimmy really loved her. I think he wanted to use her to double his land all along, but at least he was nice about it.)


I became very wrapped up in this woman's life in the wild west. I also learned an amazing amount about cattle laws, about grazing, about the "war" between the cattle people and the homesteaders, about the fights over water, about Cheyenne and WY history, even about the different cattle brands and how to read them. I wish I'd read this book before driving through Rawlins many years ago. I'd have appreciated where I was at a lot more and perhaps would have looked for a museum or something, and most def would have visited Independence Rock.

I also picked up things like the town of Oskaloose being run by women and was inspired to look up more about Esther Hobart Morris, the first female justice of the peace and WY's mother of the suffragette movement. (Someone, write a novel about this gal, please!)

And I suppose you're wondering how I got any rip-roaring laughs out of such a tragic tale... There is humor all over in this story. From her ranchhand telling jokes (the cowboy from Texas who had to walk) to just bits in the narrative told in a funny way: That wrangler stood there with a mouth so open, flies thought they'd found themselves a hotel. I love how the author did this, kept us smiling and laughing despite the tragedy we knew was coming.

My only complaint is Ella dies too soon in the story. At about 66% we start reading about the aftermath, when her good name was tarnished for the sake of the murdering cattlemen. I realize why this is here, but it was hard for me to read as I felt like I was reading about the debasement of a good friend at this point. It also lost me around this point because it began to read like a biography rather than a memoir. Kate's voice was gone.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Revolutionary: An Independent Woman In The War of Independence

I am a particular fan of the historical fiction sub-genre dealing with women who disguise themselves as men.  In most historical societies pretending to be a man was the one way a woman could gain control of her life.    These women were lone feminists who camouflaged themselves because they had no social support. 
Revolutionary was my Thanksgiving Day read.  I was thankful for the fact that Alex Myers, the author of Revolutionary, sees his ancestor Deborah Samson the same way I do.   
                                             
                                                                                                    

Deborah Samson was an actual 18th century American woman who disguised herself as a man to become a soldier in the American Revolution.   Myers portrays her as having self-determination as her number one priority.  Whenever she loses self-determination, she seeks to regain it.  It may seem ironic to modern readers that a woman who seeks independence would subject herself to military discipline, but for Deborah Samson there was no better life and she excelled at it.  Her comrades and superiors considered her a hero. 
There are other novels devoted to this woman warrior, but this one stands out due to the perspective of the author.  When I read in his bio that Alex Myers is a transsexual, I wondered if he would be giving us a transsexual version of Deborah Samson.  It turned out that this wasn’t his intention.  What he has to offer us is his keen insight into gender.   He understood that someone in Deborah Samson’s position might be engaged in an internal struggle over gender identity.  I found it even more interesting that this question of gender was never one that she ever permanently resolved.   Her androgynous nature caused her to have a very fluid sense of herself depending on her circumstances.  I have never seen a historical woman engaged in passing as a man portrayed with such complexity. 
Another historical personage who intersects with Deborah Samson is John Paterson.  Paterson was Deborah’s commanding officer toward the end of her military career.   Myers portrays him as a rather unusual man.  I was interested in finding out more about him.  I learned that there were two American Revolutionary generals with the surname of Paterson, and that John Paterson should not be confused with William Paterson.  William Paterson was a very prominent Federalist while John Paterson was a member of the opposition party founded by Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic-Republicans.   The Wikipedia article about the Paterson who was a character in Revolutionary can be found at John Paterson.  After the American Revolution, he became a U.S. Congressman representing the state of New York.   The Library of Congress has a full biography of John Paterson in its collection by Thomas Egleston.  A digitized version can be downloaded at Archive.org.  

John Paterson's statement in the novel that America needs strong women as well as strong men made as big an impression on me as it did on Deborah.  Alex Myers bestows Deborah with the strength to fight both physical and psychological battles which gives us a winning novel.

                                                                                           

Moon at Nine by Deborah Ellis Shows Turbulent Iran in the 80s

"Men have run this world long enough, and they have made a mess of it."

I'm somewhat on the fence about this book. I liked it. I found it very enlightening about the situation girls faced in Iran in the 80s, that period after the Shah and the revolution, before Desert Storm. Girls are permitted to go to school but so much is yet forbidden: music, movies, etc, and they must only wear certain clothes. We meet a headstrong young teenager in a household of secrets and she has one of her own. She likes other girls, or at least thinks she does. I'll get to that.

I really liked her character and especially her friend's. They long to be independent, free to make their own choices, and even though they both have crappy home lives, they make the most of their situations and find joy in their lives--with each other. Farrin certainly doesn't get much love at home.

"Now I know she looks like a bit of a monkey, with that dark skin of hers. That's what I get for marrying into a family of desert-dwellers. But look beyond that ugliness, if you can..."

Her mother says that. To hear that from one's own mother and yet face each day with optimism and strive to get good grades and all...that's amazing. This is not a weak girl.

But at the same time, while I admired her pluck, I also thought her a bit stupid. What her and her friend do, how they get caught, I was sitting there going, "How could you smart girls--girls at the very top of your school--be so very dumb? You just saw a man hanged not long ago and now you do this, here, with the situation being what it is in your country? You couldn't wait?" And then they rebel as much as they can with their protesting and shouting and frankly, it doesn't help their situations. They went from being brave and spunky to TSTL. On the other hand, would I have acted any different? Haven't we all been wrapped up in the feeling of the moment?

This is based on a true story and if that's how it went down...then that's how it went down. The ending--sad and yet realistic--as cruel as this will sound, got the story back on track. It's not how I WANTED it to end, but after the unrealistic behavior of the girls that I found hard to fathom, I was expecting a cheesy, unrealistic HEA and was surprised. This is followed by a lovely author's note that is truly educational. I had no idea that 4,000 gay or lesbian Iranians have been executed since 1979.

I also felt while I was reading that the girls were not really lesbians. I felt like they were just very good friends, wonderful friends, that loved each other, and perhaps were confused due to lack of experience otherwise. I did not feel the chemistry, basically. However, this is a YA novel, so this is understandable.

But this is a strong read, well written and thought evoking.

I received this via Netgalley.

A Memory of Violets: An Absolutely Lovely Historical Read

They've shown me that there is always an opportunity to display fortitude in the face of adversity, that it is not up to society to provide us with a sense of belonging and acceptance but rather up to each of us to allow ourselves to belong, to allow ourselves to be accepted.

I thought this an absolutely lovely read. At first I worried it would be a difficult read due to the grammar of Florrie, but she doesn't narrate the entire story and once I became adjusted to the whats in place of thats, I realized the narrative suited her and her situation and that it also served to make her and Tilly's parts immediately distinguishable. So I advise readers who are often deterred by poor grammar to keep reading.

There's so much going on here, so many stories that will either make you sad, angry, or happy. There's a myriad of emotions within these pages. It's heartbreaking to read about the flower sellers and the extreme poverty of 1800s London. It's uplifting to learn about John Groom (Albert Shaw in the story) and how he saved so many orphans, crippled, and blind flower sellers and gave them homes and a purpose: the making of fake flowers. The whole Queen Alexandra day really happened and it's an inspiring thing to read about. It's infuriating to read about a woman who though her intentions were good, her reasons were selfish, when she deprives another of the only person they have in the whole world.

But what I enjoyed the most about this story is how Tilly goes to work with the crippled and blind and at first distinguishes each one by their handicap. As the story continues, she sees the error in that way of thinking and no longer sees their handicaps, but who they are individually. Many people today should take such advice to heart. I also appreciated the difference between Esther--a handicapped child with no purpose in life, coddled, pitied--and the flower girls--handicapped but self-reliant as much as possible and happy to have a purpose each day. It's so important and her story line served to show us this.

I have failed to mention the story itself...a quick bit: There are two story lines, the late 1870s and 1912. In 1912, Tilly leaves her home in Northern England to work in Albert Shaw's home for orphaned flower girls, where she overseas and cares for handicapped young women who work in a flower-making factory. She finds a journal from a previous resident, Florrie, who lost her beloved sister in 1876. While Tilly tries to track down the missing sister, she also comes to find out some truths in her own family life and learns to forgive herself for a past misdemeanor.

Loved the writing, the characters (except Mrs. Ingram. Grrr.), the story itself, and the morals within. My quibble has to be that there were far too many coincidences. Though they mostly tied up very nicely with a beautiful ending, I thought there were a bit too many. Perhaps the final revelation from Tilly's life could have been left out as it was a coincidence that added nothing to the tale really. (I'm trying to avoid spoilers)

I received an ARC via LibraryThing.