Say Yes to the Marquess (Castles Ever After #2) by Tessa Dare

Summary from Goodreads:
Your presence is requested at romantic Twill Castle for the wedding of Miss Clio Whitmore and . . . and . . . ?

After eight years of waiting for Piers Brandon, the wandering Marquess of Granville, to set a wedding date, Clio Whitmore has had enough. She's inherited a castle, scraped together some pride, and made plans to break her engagement.

Not if Rafe Brandon can help it. A ruthless prizefighter and notorious rake, Rafe is determined that Clio will marry his brother—even if he has to plan the dratted wedding himself.

So how does a hardened fighter cure a reluctant bride's cold feet?

● He starts with flowers. A wedding can't have too many flowers. Or harps. Or cakes.

● He lets her know she'll make a beautiful, desirable bride—and tries not to picture her as his.

● He doesn't kiss her.

● If he kisses her, he definitely doesn't kiss her again.

● When all else fails, he puts her in a stunning gown. And vows not to be nearby when the gown comes off.

● And no matter what—he doesn't fall in disastrous, hopeless love with the one woman he can never call his own.

Clio Whitmore, fully in possession of Twill Castle (none of the that sketchy lawyer-selling-Ransom's-castle-from-under-him nonsense in this book), intends to escape from her very, very long engagement and set up her own household.  To do that, she needs control over her dowry and to do that, she needs her intended to sign the papers releasing her from obligation to their engagement without financial penalty.  Since her intended is not even in England (and hasn't been for years) she needs his younger brother - scandalous, sensual Rafe Brandon - to sign them as proxy.

Rafe, for his part, is intent on preserving Granville's respectability - the marquess is, after all, a respected diplomat.  Rafe is haunted by his father's disappointment in him, in that he wasn't his older brother and that he rejected his haute ton roots to support himself in the bare-knuckle boxing ring (polite gentlemen box at Gentleman Jackson's saloon).  He will not allow scandal through a broken engagement fall on his family again, not on his watch.  But Clio is undeterred.  She will not marry Granville so Rafe sets out to prove just how nice it would be to have a lovely wedding - by showing Clio how he thinks Granville would treat her if her were Granville which, let's just come out and say it, is exactly how Rafe would treasure Clio every day of her life.  And that is a very big problem for Rafe.

Say Yes to the Marquess is a lovely novel. The opening is a bit rocky.  I couldn't quite see where Dare was going with her hero and heroine - there was a lot of impasse having to do with the papers Clio wants Rafe to sign so she can break her engagement and Clio's mostly-horrible sister and brother-in-law getting in the way - until one very pivotal scene.  Now, I have a historical-accuracy quibble with this scene (the wedding preparations are on a modern preparation scale with food, and flowers, and cake, and dresses, and so on that just weren't a thing in the Regency period) but it is such a good scene.  I don't want to spoil it but we are given such a beautiful, heart-breaking backstory for Clio.  It had me in tears (in a good way!) and then I got all teary again at the end (of course) so a lovely romance to ring in the new year.  And Rafe is simply yummy - any time you give a hero the surname Brandon, he has some big shoes to fill (Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility looms large in my mind).

Now I wonder who our other two heroines-who-inherit-castles-from-Uncle-Humphrey are and whether all four couples will meet up.  That was one thing I missed greatly in comparison to the previous Spindle Cove series - I didn't see any connection beyond the castle set-up to connect Rafe and Clio to Ransom and Izzy from Romancing the Duke (review).  I hope everyone will come together later - When A Scot Ties the Knot is due out August 2015.

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller

Summary from Goodreads:

A working father whose life no longer feels like his own discovers the transforming powers of great (and downright terrible) literature in this laugh-out-loud memoir.

Andy Miller had a job he quite liked, a family he loved, and no time at all for reading. Or so he kept telling himself. But, no matter how busy or tired he was, something kept niggling at him. Books. Books he'd always wanted to read. Books he'd said he'd read that he actually hadn't. Books that whispered the promise of escape from the daily grind. And so, with the turn of a page, Andy began a year of reading that was to transform his life completely.

This book is Andy's inspirational and very funny account of his expedition through literature: classic, cult, and everything in between. Beginning with a copy of Bulgakov's Master and Margarita that he happens to find one day in a bookstore, he embarks on a literary odyssey. From Middlemarch to Anna Karenina to A Confederacy of Dunces, this is a heartfelt, humorous, and honest examination of what it means to be a reader, and a witty and insightful journey of discovery and soul-searching that celebrates the abiding miracle of the book and the power of reading.

If you want to know one of my "reading kryptonites", it's books about someone's reading life.  Was it a project? So many books in one year? A particular genre? Books they read as a child?  Sold.  So I jumped all over an email from HarperPerennial offering an advance copy of Andy Miller's The Year of Reading Dangerously.

Miller, at the time in his life depicted in The Year of Reading Dangerously, was in his mid-to-late thirties, a father, husband, editor, and writer.  He was busy, but he wished he could read books.  To clarify, read books for pleasure, since he read plenty for work.  He even had a work commute by train that would be long enough to allow him to read but he didn't take advantage of the opportunity.  So Miller decided that he would create a "List of Betterment" - 50 "great books" (and possibly not great) books that he ought to read or re-read.  He blogged under the pseudonym Leonard Bast, which was kind of hilarious, and even though he didn't turn into a prolific blogger he did keep reading book from his List, starting with Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, which I've read (in fact, I've read most of the books Miller put on his list).

This was a very fun book to read.  We all read - or don't read - for very different reasons.  What Miller did was take that perennial complaint of "I wish I read more books" and do something about it.  He read on his commute instead of dinking around or doing a crossword or working.  He read with his wife.  He even read a few things I would not have put on anyone's "reading betterment" list.  Like A Confederacy of Dunces, which I read cover to cover and honestly cannot determine why people love it (Ignacious T. Reilly is gross and when he takes his girlfriend's braid in his "paw" and smells it....ugggggghhhhhhhhh). 

Although The Year of Reading Dangerously is not a prescriptive for the reader's reading life (even though my store inexplicably chooses to shelve this in "Self Improvement" - I'm giving the buyer a side-eye on that one), Miller makes some changes based on what he realized about himself over the course of his reading project. There's some light-hearted fun and excellent footnotes.

Dear FTC: I received a finished copy of this book from the publisher.

Episode 15 - #Unboxing Riot Read #6!

Riot Read #6 came while I was running around the store in full bookstore-retail-at-Christmas mode! Surprise packages are so fun to come home to after a long day.

Unboxing Book Riot's Quarterly Box #5!

So I've been getting the Book Riot Quarterly box for about a year now.  It's 50 dollars every three months and I love it.  Because if there's anything I love more than getting books it's getting a surprise box of books and bookish stuff.

Jane Austen's First Love by Syrie James (Holiday Blog Tour and Giveaway)

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

In the summer of 1791, fifteen-year-old Miss Jane Austen is determined to accomplish three things: to do something useful, write something worthy, and fall madly in love. While visiting at Goodnestone Park in Kent for a month of festivities in honor of her brother's engagement to Miss Elizabeth Bridges, Jane meets the boy-next-door—the wealthy, worldly, and devilishly handsome Edward Taylor, heir to Bifrons Park, and hopefully her heart! Like many of Jane’s future heroes and heroines, she soon realizes that there are obstacles—social, financial, and otherwise—blocking her path to love and marriage, one of them personified by her beautiful and sweet tempered rival, Charlotte Payler.

Unsure of her own budding romance, but confident in her powers of observation, Jane distracts herself by attempting to maneuver the affections of three other young couples. But when her well-intentioned matchmaking efforts turn into blundering misalliance, Jane must choose between following her own happily-ever-after, or repairing those relationships which, based on erroneous first impressions, she has misaligned.

In September 1796, Jane Austen wrote in a letter that she has passed by the estate of Bifrons, "the abode of him, on whom I once fondly doated."  "Him" is Edward Taylor and Syrie James has taken this mysterious nugget and spun a tale of fifteen-year-old Jane Austen and her first crush in 1791.

Seventeen-year-old Edward Taylor, heir to Bifrons, makes a favorable impression on the young Jane when he and his friend Tom Payler stop to rescue Jane, Cassandra, and their brother Charles when their carriage becomes stuck in the mud.  Edward is cosmopolitan, cultured, educated, good-natured, and handsome, all qualities perfectly designed to entrance an intelligent, ambitious, and sheltered young woman.  Their paths cross frequently with all the fêtes, balls, and visits held in honor of Jane's brother and his fiancée (and her sister and that sister's fiancée, who got unexpectedly engaged....).  Jane also sharpens her powers of observation (and her tongue) by observing the self-aggrandizing, unimaginative Lady Bridges and her daughters, the gregarious Sir Brook, various other neighbors, and, frustratingly, Miss Charlotte Payler - Tom Payler's younger sister and Jane's rival for Edward Taylor's affections.

Syrie James effortlessly captures the sweetness of teenage crushes - the uncertainty, the wish to impress, jealously, and the sudden certainty that, yes, this person above all others is destined to be your one-and-only.  But readers know, simply by the introduction to the novel, that this teenage love is destined to be bittersweet.  Jane herself tells us that she "once" was fond of Edward Taylor and James does a remarkable job giving the reader an engaging romantic plot while staying true to the biographical history of her very famous protagonist.

In addition to the marriage plot(s) Janeites and sharp readers will delight in picking out lines, scenes, and characters that James has borrowed from Austen's novels.  Sir Brook is an analogue to Sir John Middleton, from Sense and Sensibility.  Lady Bridges is a bit like a more-aware version of Lady Bertram from Mansfield Park.  Jane horses around by climbing a high wall to impress Edward Taylor, much like Louisa does to impress Captain Wentworth in Persuasion (don't worry, Jane is quite all right).  She even suffers from a combination of Elizabeth Bennet's prejudicial first impressions and Emma's blind but well-meant match-making.  These are lovely distractions from the separation we know comes at the end of the novel.

Jane Austen's First Love by Syrie James is available now, wherever books are sold (Penguin and BN).

AUTHOR BIO:

Syrie James, hailed as “the queen of nineteenth century re-imaginings” by Los Angeles Magazine, is the bestselling author of nine critically acclaimed novels that have been translated into 18 languages. Her books have been awarded the Audio Book Association Audie, designated as Editor’s Picks by Library Journal, named a Discover Great New Writer’s Selection by Barnes and Noble, a Great Group Read by the Women’s National Book Association, and Best Book of the Year by The Romance Reviews and Suspense Magazine. Syrie is a member of the WGA and lives in Los Angeles. Please visit her at syriejames.com, Facebook or say hello on Twitter @SyrieJames.


GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Grand Giveaway Contest

Win One of Five Fabulous Jane Austen-inspired Prize Packages

To celebrate the holidays and the release of Jane Austen's First Love, Syrie is giving away five prize packages filled with an amazing selection of Jane Austen-inspired gifts and books!

To enter the giveaway contest, simply leave a comment on any of the blog stops on the Jane Austen's First Love Holiday Blog Tour.

Increase your chances of winning by visiting multiple stops along the tour! Syrie's unique guest posts will be featured on a variety of subjects, along with fun interviews, spotlights, excerpts, and reviews of the novel. Contest closes at 11:59pm PT, December 21, 2014. Five lucky winners will be drawn at random from all of the comments on the tour, and announced on Syrie’s website on December 22, 2014. The giveaway contest is open to everyone, including international residents. Good luck to all!

Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah MacLean (The Rules of Scoundrels #4)

Big, big note: If you have not read the three previous books in Sarah MacLean's The Rules of Scoundrels series - A Rogue By Any Other Name, One Good Earl Deserves a Lover, and No Good Duke Goes Unpunished - you are warned that this last book in the series is a bit of a game-changer.  So if you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading this review now, go get the first three books in the series, read them, and then come back and read this review.  Actually, just buy this new fourth one, too, while you're at it.

So, you've been warned.

Summary from Goodreads:

She is the most powerful woman in Britain,
A queen of the London Underworld ...
But no one can ever know.

He is the only man smart enough to uncover the truth,
Putting all she has at risk . . .
Including her heart.

The fourth book in New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean’s incredible Rule of Scoundrels/Fallen Angels series. These four dark heroes will steal the hearts of their heroines and the readers alike! This is the last in the Rules of Scoundrels series—Chase’s story

By day, she is Lady Georgiana, sister to a Duke, ruined before her first season in the worst kind of scandal. But the truth is far more shocking—in London’s darkest corners, she is Chase, the mysterious, unknown founder of the city’s most legendary gaming hell. For years, her double identity has gone undiscovered . . . until now.

Brilliant, driven, handsome-as-sin Duncan West is intrigued by the beautiful, ruined woman who is somehow connected to a world of darkness and sin. He knows she is more than she seems and he vows to uncover all of Georgiana’s secrets, laying bare her past, threatening her present, and risking all she holds dear . . . including her heart.

The very last paragraph of No Good Duke Goes Unpunished blew speculation of Chase's identity wide-open.  We see what we wish to see and, in Chase's case, readers of Sarah MacLean's The Rules of Scoundrels series assumed that Chase was a man given that the three previous heroes, Chase's fellow owners of the Fallen Angel, were all male.  Very, very male.  Instead, Chase "smoothed her skirts."  Boom.

The mysterious Chase is Georgiana, first introduced to us as a frightened teenager in Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord from the Love by Numbers series.  It is now ten years later and Georgiana is determined to re-enter Society, the same nest of vipers who turned on her and who willingly spill dreadful secrets for the chance to try their luck at the Angel's tables, all for the sake of her nine-year-old daughter, Caroline.  A titled husband would help Caroline to find a husband with a rank worthy of a duke's niece so Chase puts aside her breeches (yep!), dons a proper corset and evening gown, and steps into the harsh glare of the ton.

And it is harsh indeed.  A gossip rag has previously published a cartoon of Georgiana as Lady Godiva - and included Caroline.  At the first ball, Georgiana overhears a hoity, snotty ton miss putting her down.  When the vicious girl oversteps and brings the subject of Caroline into the conversation, the lioness in Georgiana rises up and pounces.  Chase decides she will ruin the girl, as she has so many of the ton over the last decade.

Duncan West witnesses the tongue-lashing Georgiana has doled out.  Lady Georgiana is far more woman than the secluded, ruined, woeful young lady Society has expected.  The newspaper magnate is intrigued - he offers to make amends for damage the cartoon has caused.  With the help of his Society papers, he can help Georgiana to find the type of titled husband she requires, the type who won't ask any questions (because, secrets) and the type very unlikely to require many "wifely" duties.  Georgiana, who has previously interacted with Duncan in her guise as "Anna," the madam of the Angel, agrees.  Duncan, of course, has no idea she lives a double, even triple life.

The well-defined layers of Georgiana's life now begin to twist and shift.  By happenstance, Duncan's curricle is directly behind Georgiana's carriage when it leaves the ball and heads straight for the Fallen Angel, also Duncan's destination.  He is stunned to see the glittering Anna emerge from Georgiana's carriage and breeze through the Angel's entrance.  Armed with what he thinks is Georgiana's secret, he presents her with a second bargain: get him truly damaging information on a certain aristocrat (he won't tell her why) or he will unmask her.

Thus begins the back-and-forth dance between a man and a woman who each have secrets, damaging, potentially life-threatening secrets, and a taste for vengeance.  Can Georgiana trust Duncan with her true identity?   Can Duncan trust Georgiana with the truth of his origins?  Neither is willing to come clean and engage in outright confession.  Each time a layer of disguise is lifted away, Duncan and Georgiana are drawn closer together.  So close, they might unwittingly bring disaster upon themselves.

Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover is a brilliant conclusion to the Scoundrels series.  Chase is such a multi-dimensional character, with a life is so compartmentalized - ostracized single mother, guilty parent, breeches-wearing casino owner, alluring courtesan, brilliant social engineer - that she steps right off the page.  We, the readers, know all her secrets from the beginning and that makes us her allies.  We can watch with relish as Duncan makes wrong assumption after wrong assumption until we just want to shake him because the truth is staring him in the face...then turn around and shake Georgiana for denying herself true happiness.  We can laugh as Bourne, Cross, and Temple needle Chase about her attraction to Duncan and chuckle as Caroline adroitly puts all the adults to shame.  We can sigh when...well, that one is too good to spoil but there's a pool....  The conclusion to the novel is a parallel to Chase's favorite casino game - roulette, the only game that is truly a game of chance and cannot be predicted.

I cannot say enough good things about Never Judge a Lady or the Scoundrels series as a whole.  They are four of my favorite historical romance novels with unique, vibrant heroes and heroines.  So I conclude this review with one word: perfect.

Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover is on sale today, November 25, from your favorite retailer!

Dear FTC: I received access to a digital ARC via Avon Romance and Edelweiss.

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

Summary from Goodreads:

Following a scalding row with her mother, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: a sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as “the radio people,” Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life.

For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics—and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly’s life, affecting all the people Holly loves—even the ones who are not yet born.

A Cambridge scholarship boy grooming himself for wealth and influence, a conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting from occupied Iraq, a middle-aged writer mourning his exile from the bestseller list—all have a part to play in this surreal, invisible war on the margins of our world. From the medieval Swiss Alps to the nineteenth-century Australian bush, from a hotel in Shanghai to a Manhattan townhouse in the near future, their stories come together in moments of everyday grace and extraordinary wonder.

This is my second-ever outing with David Mitchell (the first being, of course, Cloud Atlas) and I'm not exactly sure where to begin.

Do not mistake hesitancy for dislike: I liked this novel a lot.  A. Lot.  But where to begin a review....

The Bone Clocks feels very much like two novels working in tandem.  One is a realist novel centered around a working-class protagonist, Holly Sykes, who may or may not have heard voices and whose little brother disappeared the weekend that Holly ran away from home.  The second novel is that of an epic battle between good and evil played out on the metaphysical world that exists under our own reality, but centered around Holly and the "radio people" she heard as a child.  It's like the magic trick with the two rings - they appear separate but through sleight-of-hand they intersect.

The characters in this novel are vividly drawn, starting with Holly herself.  If she had seemed like a stock character, or one that could have been replaced with a "sexy lamp" (to borrow from film criticism), this novel would have failed in spectacular fashion.  Because Holly, even though she is difficult and mouthy, takes no shit off anyone, least of all Oxbridge poseurs and psychic body-snatchers.  Even when she wasn't the narrator I kept reading in the hopes that I would get back to Holly's voice.

I am in a bit of a quandary, though.  I read an ARC copy of The Bone Clocks (and started out with a DRC) but I have heard that the advance manuscript differs from the finished edition in a number of ways (particularly those characters from other books who make cameos).  I don't have time for a re-read now, but do I go back later, after I've read more of Mitchell's backlist to see if I can recognize changes or meta-fiction elements I hadn't seen on this read?  Decisions, decisions.

Dear FTC: I started with a DRC of this novel via Edelweiss then finished reading with a paper ARC that was sent to my store.

The Penguin Book of Witches edited by Katherine Howe

Summary from Goodreads:
Chilling real-life accounts of witches, from medieval Europe through colonial America

From a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to newspaper coverage of a woman stoned to death on the streets of Philadelphia while the Continental Congress met, The Penguin Book of Witches is a treasury of historical accounts of accused witches that sheds light on the reality behind the legends. Bringing to life stories like that of Eunice Cole, tried for attacking a teenage girl with a rock and buried with a stake through her heart; Jane Jacobs, a Bostonian so often accused of witchcraft that she took her tormentors to court on charges of slander; and Increase Mather, an exorcism-performing minister famed for his knowledge of witches, this volume provides a unique tour through the darkest history of English and North American witchcraft, never failing to horrify, intrigue, and delight.

Penguin is not kidding when they say "real-life" accounts.  Katherine Howe has collected primary source documentation on the persecution of suspected witches,  The transcripts of trials and interrogations are chilling - one was guilty of being a witch simply by accusation. The incidents occurred primarily in Colonial America but a few from England are included. Howe has a doctorate in this exact period of United States history - as well as being descended from accused witches on both sides of her family tree - and provides excellent introductions to each piece of material.

The Penguin Book of Witches is an excellent short anthology of court records and testimony.  However, it does not read smoothly.  Howe did not re-write the accounts simply to make the reading experience easier, which I appreciate because there is no reason why the testimonies cannot be read in the original rather than in a "modernized" edition (cf. my least favorite question at the bookstore: "Do you have an English translation of [insert English language classic like Jane Eyre here]?").  But the layout of the actual text makes for difficult reading.  Unintelligible or missing writing was noted in the transcripts as [torn] or [illegible], right in line with the text and was confusing.  I would be reading along and read [torn] as something actually stated and have to back up to re-read.  In future editions, Penguin should add a few spaces around the lacunae and perhaps place the text in italics - this is a short book so a few more pages could be spared for ease of reading.

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this book through the Penguin First to Read program.

Darling Beast (Maiden Lane #7) by Elizabeth Hoyt

Summary from Goodreads:
A MAN CONDEMNED . . .

Falsely accused of murder and mute from a near-fatal beating, Apollo Greaves, Viscount Kilbourne has escaped from Bedlam. With the Crown's soldiers at his heels, he finds refuge in the ruins of a pleasure garden, toiling as a simple gardener. But when a vivacious young woman moves in, he's quickly driven to distraction . . .

A DESPERATE WOMAN . . .

London's premier actress, Lily Stump, is down on her luck when she's forced to move into a scorched theatre with her maid and small son. But she and her tiny family aren't the only inhabitants—a silent, hulking beast of a man also calls the charred ruins home. Yet when she catches him reading her plays, Lily realizes there's more to this man than meets the eye.

OUT OF ASH, DESIRE FLARES

Though scorching passion draws them together, Apollo knows that Lily is keeping secrets. When his past catches up with him, he's forced to make a choice: his love for Lily . . . or the explosive truth that will set him free.

At the end of Duke of Midnight, we were introduced to the men running Harte's Folly, a London pleasure garden and theatre that is now a smoking ruin.  Also at the end of Duke, we find out that Apollo Greaves, falsely accused and imprisoned-in-Bedlam-but-now-escaped Viscount Kilbourne, has taken refuge there while hiding from his sister Artemis's husband (Maximus, Duke of Wakefield, was not entirely convinced that Apollo in insane, so he kept Apollo in his basement after breaking him out of Bedlam.  Go read Duke of Midnight - it makes far more sense if you do).

A few months later, when Darling Beast opens, the garden is under re-construction and has gained another set of inhabitants: Lily Stump, celebrated actress under contract to Harte's Folly, and her son Indio and their housekeeper/nurse/dresser/old friend Maude.  Their small savings have dwindled.  No theatre means no income to pay her and her contract burned a lot of bridges in the London theatre community.  When Indio and his little dog Daffodil (aka Daff) make the acquaintance of the enormous, mute gardener (Apollo) Lily finds herself dangerously attracted to him.  It seems the regenerating garden holds many secrets: Apollo's identity, his location (which involves Artemis as well), Lily's past, and the secret to her success.  Only two of these secrets might prove to be fatal.  An opportunity for Lily to earn extra money at a country house party brings everything out into the open.

Elizabeth Hoyt has delivered another excellent installment of the Maiden Lane series. It's a beautiful story for Apollo and Lily in another cross-class romance with a bit of shading for Trevillion and Phoebe, who will be featured in the next book, Dearest Rogue (due in May or June 2015, I think).  The inclusion of a curious little boy and his energetic dog (Hoyt says in her acknowledgements that Daffodil was inspired by someone else's Italian greyhound but I see a lot of her Miss Puppy Pie in Daff; I'm still rooting for a series of picture books inspired by Miss Puppy Pie's exploits) provide many opportunities for laughter as does Apollo's insistence on calling Maximus "His Grace the Ass" (Apollo has his reasons).

My new favorite addition to the cast of Maiden Lane is Valentine Napier, the 7th Duke of Montgomery, who is a sort of silent partner in Harte's Folly.  Dry, witty, nattily dressed, and canny as all hell, he's the Hoyt answer to Eloisa James's Leopold Dautry, Duke of Villiers, from the Desperate Duchesses series.  I wonder if the mysterious Miss Royle will end up with Montgomery (in my head he sounds EXACTLY like Tom Hollander in his Lord Admiral role from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies; if they ever adapt these - because who knows - he better be on the casting list).  Although before we get to Montgomery, we'll have a book for Asa Makepeace first, in Sweetest Scandal, I think, who is a completely different sort of personality from his younger brother, Winter (Thief of Shadows).

#Readathon Wrap-Up Fall 2014

Hello all!

Just a short Readathon wrap-up post!

I didn't get as much read this time around as I have in past years (the total page count is a bit down) due to work and I just couldn't get that "reading groove" going.

But I did finish four books and start a fifth:

So that's 992 pages and I read for 10 hours and 41 minutes total.  That's still really good!!

Thanks to all the organizers at Dewey's Readathon and I'll be ready to read-it-up in the spring!

It's time for #Readathon! Dewey's 24-hr Readathon Fall 2014 edition

It's October and that means Readathon!  I'll be reading most of today, Saturday, October 18, except for the 12-6 block because I have to work at the bookstore.  Boo.

But I have a nice stack of books:

Authority by Jeff Vandermeer
The Penguin Book of Witches edited by Katherine Howe
Age of License by Lucy Knisley
People I Want to Punch in the Throat by Jen Mann
The Mathematician's Shiva by Stuart Rojstaczer
Field Notes on Democracy by Arundhati Roy
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by AS King
The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
California by Edan Lepucki
On the nook: Darling Beast by Elizabeth Hoyt and Gutenberg's Apprentice by Alix Christie
On the iPad: First Impressions by Charlie Lovett, The Human Body by Paulo Giordano, and a DRC that I kind of can't tell you I have (but it will be amazing!!!)

(I made a video of my stack and a few readathon tips for my BookTube channel if you want to watch)

In a goofy departure from my norm, most of my stack is comprised of library books and DRCs.  Go figure.

Righty-ho, then.  My coffee will be brewing, my scones are baked, my brownies are baked, my Excel spreadsheet is ready, and with any luck I will be awake for the kick-off at 7am CDT.

But if I'm not, my post will be up then.  Haha.

Get ready, get set, READ!!

Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming

Summary from Goodreads:
In his unique and engaging voice, the acclaimed actor of stage and screen shares the emotional story of his complicated relationship with his father and the deeply buried family secrets that shaped his life and career

A beloved star of stage, television, and film, Alan Cumming is a successful artist whose diversity and fearlessness is unparalleled. His success masks a painful childhood growing up under the heavy rule of an emotionally and physically abusive father—a relationship that tormented him long into adulthood.

When television producers in the UK approached him to appear on a popular celebrity genealogy show in 2010, Alan enthusiastically agreed. He hoped the show would solve a family mystery involving his maternal grandfather, a celebrated WWII hero who disappeared in the Far East. But as the truth of his family ancestors revealed itself, Alan learned far more than he bargained for about himself, his past, and his own father.

With ribald humor, wit, and incredible insight, Alan seamlessly moves back and forth in time, integrating stories from his childhood in Scotland and his experiences today as a film, television, and theater star. At times suspenseful, deeply moving, and wickedly funny, Not My Father’s Son will make readers laugh even as it breaks their hearts.

I first noticed Alan Cumming as an actor in the movie Circle of Friends (he plays the skeevy clerk who bamboozles Minnie Driver's mother into thinking he's helping the family business).  He then popped up as the manager in Josie and the Pussycats, among other things, and right now he can be found performing on Broadway in Cabaret and introducing Masterpiece Mystery in his delightful Scots accent.  I knew little about his personal life - not surprising since he's not one of those A-listers being stalked by the papparazzi - but after reading the promotional copy (which was similar to the summary above) I knew this was a memoir I should read.

At minimum, Not My Father's Son is a well-structured and well-written memoir about the crazy summer that Alan Cumming spent shooting an episode of the British geneaology series "Who Do You Think You Are?" - learning about his maternal grandfather and undergoing severe emotional upheaval from his abusive father. Cumming has a great writing style (he does not appear to have a co-writer) and while many parts of the book, particularly episodes from this childhood, are upsetting and sad, he doesn't let the reader dwell or wallow in the past. There's a fantastic digression about the insanity that is the Eurovision Song Contest and another digression about his hair since he had just started appearing regularly on The Good Wife and was during this time period going au naturel with his natural salt-and-pepper color. And another short digression centered on the BS women put up with in clothing, nails, and hair removal (he was shooting part of a miniseries at the same time as all the "Who Do You Think You Are?" stuff where he played a transvestite).  The story of Cumming's journey into his family's past was so compelling.  Well done.

(And he calls his mother Mary Darling - because Darling is her maiden name and she's also a darling. It makes her seem like a distant relation of the children from Peter Pan. Isn't that sweet?)

Dear FTC: I received access a digital review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.