Month: November 2023

Fiction, Historical Fiction, Reading Wrap Up, Romance, Series & Collections, Suspense, Women's Fiction, Young Adult

November 2023 Reading Wrap Up!

Kristie

Twenty one books for November, not bad! Lots of Christmas-themed books, lots of historical romance, some rom-coms and YA. I feel like I’ve stayed fairly up to date on reviews, so I won’t repeat myself here. I will say that my best new author discovery has been Caroline Fyffe, who wrote An American Duchess and Heart of Eden. These are both parts of a series that I plan to continue and have been really excellent. They are available on Kindle Unlimited with audio. On to December! (Seriously, how did that happen? Wasn’t Halloween, like, yesterday?)

Fiction, Kindle Unlimited, Mystery

A Storm of Infinite Beauty, by Julianne MacLean

Kristie

As I’ve become more involved with the booktok community (slang for the bookish people on TikTok,) I’ve been intrigued with the different reasons people give high ratings. Naturally, we all want high quality writing, but that is very subjective. Sometimes we love a certain plot, sometimes we connect with the characters, sometimes we identify with an event because it mirrors something in our own lives. And sometimes it is all of those things.

Which brings me to A Storm of Infinite Beauty, by Julianne MacLean. I went into this book with high hopes because the previous book I’d read by this author was also excellent. She did not disappoint. Aside from the things I love to see featured in a book, she also touched upon another favorite: a story that is much overdue to be told. (Think Radium Girls and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.) This book is fiction, but it reminds one of the fact that 1. Every person has amazing things that happened to them, 2. Every person has life chapters unknown to many, and 3. Sometimes it takes the right person (or people) to put all the pieces together to create a cohesive biography.

A Storm of Infinite Beauty focuses on the niece (Gwen) of fictional famous actress, Scarlet Fontaine, who is approached by a writer (Peter) about providing information and filling in some holes in his research. He hopes to set the record straight about the enigmatic movie and style icon, who died years ago, and to explore a period in her life that has never been written about before. We are taken back and forth between the present day and the past, meeting pre-fame Scarlet and learning about how her life decisions and a cataclysmic natural disaster created ripple effects that lasted for decades.

I listened to 60% of this book through Kindle Unlimited and read the last 40%. The author has a talented way of putting you right in the story, keeping your attention, and giving you characters who feel like real people. This was a good one. Add it to your reading list. I was very impressed.

9/10 Stars

Fiction, Romance

The Ace of Hearts, by Ashtyn Newbold

Kristie

Oh, that age-old dilemma of feelings versus finances. In this newest read by Ashtyn Newbold we follow Alice Rosemeyer and her sister, Louisa (MC in the next book) as they flee their home and take refuge at Larkhall, the estate of their close friend, Bridget. With no prospects, no dowry, no parents (except a stepfather who wants to marry them off to the highest bidder,) they hope against hope to find a match.

Yes, this sounds like the premise to so many regency romances: the woman must marry or go into a life of service and spinsterhood, but The Ace of Hearts has unique additions that made this an especially enjoyable read. Alice, with the help of her hostess’s rich aunt, devises a Hail Mary approach to earn some money and become independent. In secret, she becomes the “Ace of Hearts,” adviser of all things romance to gentlemen trying to woo certain ladies.

Of course, there is mixed company at Larkhall. It’s summer and there are many visitors. So Alice, who is trying to secure a future over which she has some control, must also monitor her feelings to a young man who is all wrong for her.

There are some books that you can see play out in your mind’s eye. This is one of them. There is wit, emotion, tension, that “humble rise” (a term I recently learned for the first time,) and all of it works seamlessly. This is my third book by Ashtyn Newbold and each one has been a delight.

9/10 Stars