“Clorinda” battles (and enchants) her guardian
REGENCY BUCK by Georgette Heyer is one of her most famous historical novels, and pretty much invented the genre of Regency Romance. But what is so refreshing about Ms. Heyer’s heroines is how they break the mold of what a society miss is supposed to be. They are extremely intelligent. They are athletic. Sometimes they […]
His friends call him “Satanus” ~ THESE OLD SHADES by Georgette Heyer
The Duke of Avon has a Reputation, one that causes his friends (and others) to call him Satanus. Now 40 years old, he has never married and his family consists of a slightly younger sister (a lady in her thirties) and a much younger brother (Lord Rupert, who is around 20.) One day, His Grace […]
A modern-day twist on an ancient tale ~ ANTIGONE by Rhea Karvanis
This book was an unexpected surprised. I expected it to be about the moral dilemma that Antigone faces in the Sophocles play, whether she should obey divine law and give her father an honorable burial, or whether she should obey earthly law and not bury him. Instead we meet “Ann” on a plane going to […]
DEVIL’S CUB is about a crack shot and expert swordsman with a tendency to murder
Georgette Heyer’s DEVIL’S CUB is the second volume of the Alastair-Audley Book Series. (Volume One THESE OLD SHADES concerns the protagonist’s father and mother.) So who is this protagonist? His name is the Marquis de Vidal, he is 24 years old, he is a perfectly proportioned handsome young man. Needless to say, he is a […]
Influential power players struck from history
In the Middle Ages, influential power players were struck from history with the word FEMINA (woman) put beside them. Naturally the “weaker” sex was not worthy of (male) attention. But now it is 2021, and Oxford historian Janina Ramirez is determined to set the record straight. And so we learn about Bertha of Kent (565-601), […]
British-Indian relations simmer just before the end of the Raj
I had never heard of Dinah Jefferies before, but when I was visiting England and enjoying myself perusing a bookshop in Marlborough, her title caught my eye, maybe because the cover was so beautiful. (I am a very visual person.) In any event, I have now finished this remarkable novel and can whole-heartedly recommend it. […]
Were the princes murdered? Or spirited out of the country?
My sister contacted me recently, telling me I had to read this book, by Philippa Langley, about the Princes in the Tower. For those who do not know, Philippa Langley was the inspiration behind the project to find the remains of King Richard III, which was eventually found beneath a car park in the City […]
A gem of a memoir, with so much left unsaid
I LIVE AGAIN is the memoir of Princess Ileana of Romania (1909-1991), daughter of Marie of Edinburgh (1875-1938) who was Queen of Romania due to her marriage to Ferdinand I of Romania. In 1931, Ileana married Archduke Anton of Austria (1901-1987), becoming an Austrian Archduchess. The bulk of I LIVE AGAIN deals with Ileana’s war […]
Three Bright Young Things amidst the Rumbling Approach of World War II
Even though the structure of Marie Benedict’s THE MITFORD AFFAIR is to rotate voices amongst Nancy, Diana and Unity, three of six eccentric sisters who flourished during the inter-war years, the protagonist is really Nancy Mitford. This volume starts strong with Nancy Mitford’s well-known charm, wit and acute observations of society around her. But as […]
A Postcard from Lockdown on the Galápagos ~ or is it?
This is the first novel I’ve ever read about the COVID-19 crisis, and in Jodi Picoult’s hands those now far-distant-almost-forgotten-bad-memories become real and vivid. Jodi Picoult does what every great author does ~ puts her characters into impossible situations to give the reader the pleasure of watching them escape. So we have two ambitious millennials […]
