Love on a Dime by Cara Lynn James

In 1899 Rhode Island, Lillian Westbrook, has a secret that will scandalize society if found out – she writes dime novels under the nom de plume of Fannie Cole. But, she doesn't write just any dime novels. Hers are extremely popular for their riveting plots and morally inspiring undertones. The books are top-sellers and she earns good money, not only for publishing house, but for herself which she donates to a women's charity.

Just as she is about to announce her engagement to the son of a wealthy tycoon, Jackson Grail, her brother's friend and former love, arrives to spend the summer with her family in Newport, Rhode Island. Lillian's world is thrown into turmoil because she learns he is the new owner of the publishing house that publishes her books and that he is still in love with her. Lillian walks a fine line in trying to keep him from learning the identity of his most lucrative author. His search for the real Fannie Cole intensifies when Lillian falls into a blackmail scheme initiated by the owner of the gossip magazine/newspaper Talk of the Town.

Love on a Dime is an easy-going, tender Christian romance novel set in the gilded age of America's high society. At the heart of the story is an endearing heroine who with a quiet strength and high moral values who finds herself trapped between being a dutiful daughter and maintaining her family's social and financial status or and indulging her true passions and finding true love.

Love on a Dime is Cara Lynn James' debut novel. Although Love on a Dime is considered a Christian novel, it is very light in this aspect and will appeal to a greater audience outside of Christian readers. With its beautiful cover and simple, uncomplicated prose, this novel makes for an easy summer read.

Another Way to Heaven by David Bye

Set in Italy during the High Renaissance, the story opens with Isabella di Francavilla, Marchesa of Termoli, who is condemned to live out her days in a convent cell where she must confess her sins by order of a Papal Inquisition. And so begins her journal and the story of her life.

The unattractive Isabella is forced to marry a handsome young man named Alphonso, the handsome and dashing son of a wealthy Marchese. It is a political marriage arranged to unite their two powerful families. Although Isabella has loved Alphonso from childhood, her love is unrequited. Alphonso finds her unattractive and barely tolerates her. He regularly abandons her for years at a time to engage in war and womanizing.

Isabella yearns for a child, and their families wait impatiently for an heir, but she remains barren. Alone and pining for the husband she loves, Isabella befriends a woman named Tullia who acts as her governess for a short time. Unbeknownst to Isabella, Tullia is a former runaway wife turned prostitute and fortune teller. Yet she imparts to Isabella her love of Dante and Petrarch and her dream of a better life for women; one without the restrictions and loss of freedom. Through Tullia, Isabella learns of the idyllic world of Sappho's Lesbos. When Tullia moves away, she continues to correspond with Isabella. Her letters ignite a longing for freedom and love within Isabella, enhancing her unhappiness.

Isabella tries to be a dutiful wife, but all her attempts to produce a child come to nothing. Soon, she learns of her husband's numerous affairs and betrayals. Slowly, they drift apart and begin to lead separate lives.

Alfonso is a valiant warrior known for his military prowess, surviving numerous battles including the ones at Ravenna and Marignano. He is therefore promoted in rank and gains respect and entry into the opulent courts of Ferrara and Mantua, where he is able to indulge himself into more intricate sexual affairs.

After years of absence, weary of waiting for Alphonso, Isabella secretly departs to spend some time with Tullia who is an independent woman running a fortune-telling salon and a girls' school in Milan. From Tullia, Isabella learns the art of the Tarot. Their affection or each other soon turns physical, and shortly thereafter, becomes bitter and Isabella returns home. But it is not a joyful homecoming. Alphonso is eager to repudiate her so he can marry his mistress whom he has impregnated, but Isabella refuses. Alphonso forewarns he will get his way. Soon, members of the Inquisition arrive to question Isabella about her involvement with Tullia, claiming knowledge of her sins. Isabella finds herself trapped with no alternative but to enter a convent.

This is a magnificent, epic story of a noblewoman's life during the height of the Italian Renaissance. Beautiful prose, colourful descriptions, and plenty of historical detail breathe life into this poignant story of one woman's search for love and acceptance. Author David Bye spent a great deal of time in Italy. He gained his inspiration from this story after visiting the Island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples where there exists a rocky islet with the remnants of an ancient castle, a cathedral, a crypt and a convent remain to this day.

The main character of Isabella is portrayed through deep introspection and first person narrative, which gives the story power and impact. The point of view of Alphonso is related through third person narrative and helps maintain continuity while allowing the reader insight into his perspective. Clearly, the author has done years of research and has a strong understanding of this historical period including its art, literature, and political turmoils.

As an avid reader of Italian historical fiction, this novels stands with the best. I enjoyed reading every page and has all the qualities needed to catapult it into fame – passion, tragedy, and forbidden love. This is a terrific book filled with enduring characters, outstanding prose, breathtaking descriptions, and an intriguingly poignant plot. A true pleasure in every way.

Giveaway Scout

Recently, I learned about Giveaway Scout - a free service that helps promote prize giveaways on various blogs.

What a wonderful way to publicize our giveaways on this blog. 

There's a terrific widget which I've added to our sidebar, so if you're looking for a freebie, check the widget for the latest offerings. 

May you all have good luck and win!

What is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman

What is Left the Daughter
By Howard Norman
Reviewed by L. Gregory Graham

Why do some families appear to attract an unusual share of bad luck and woe while others sail through life piling achievement upon achievement? The author tries to answer that question in the rocky wind swept village of Middle Economy in Nova Scotia during World War II when German Uboats patrol the waters of Eastern Canada sinking what boats they can.

What is Left the Daughter is a story of a boy marked for life by the suicides of his parents on the same day. Both jump to their deaths from separate bridges in Halifax, Canada. The story is the interplay between the heart and the mind when disaster is heaped upon disaster in the course of one young life.

Does one recover from something like that? In this case, the answer is no. His life is colored by the sepia tones of that tragedy. Wyatt Hillyer, the protagonist of the story, moves to the village of Middle Economy to live with his aunt and uncle. It is a village where the women are emotionally stronger and saner than the men. It is also a village where anyone who leaves to improve their lot in life fails. He starts a new life, makes friends, falls in love with Tilda, the adopted daughter of his aunt and uncle, is spurned, and foolishly helps his uncle dispose of the body of his murdered brother-in-law.

When he returns to Middle Economy after prison, he fathers a child named Marlais by Tilda. He loves them dearly, but Tilda and Marlais move to Denmark to live with the parents of her murdered husband.

The book takes the form of a long letter to Marlais who has decided to return to Canada now that her mother has died. Wyatt tries to explain himself, and why he has not tried to visit or even contact her for twenty years.

Self-reflection is not a strong point in Wyatt. He catalogs his long days working as a detritus collector in Halifax Harbor. He accepts his lot in life. He lives in transient hotels, goes to movies, and lives a small careful life devoid of self-improvement or ambition. Wyatt loves his daughter, but never makes any attempt to see her or contact her.

We are left with the question why? Wyatt tells us that he thinks the ghosts of his parents are with him always. They whisper in the static on the radio. Does he fear that his bad decisions will imprint on Marlais if he contacts her the way his parents’ decisions imprinted on him? Or is he merely content with the small rut of a life he has carved for himself in the rocky damp soil of Nova Scotia? Has he judged himself in some cosmic balance, and deemed that this is the only life he deserves? We never know for sure.

This book asks some tough questions, and then supplies only incomplete answers. Is Wyatt a hero in the sense that he refuses to pass on the legacy of his parents and his own bad decisions? Or is he so self absorbed in penance for his own misdeeds that he cannot reach out to his own daughter? And finally, why does he feel it necessary to contact her now that she has decided to return to Canada? Does he wish to tell his side of the story now that Tilda can no longer filter it, or before she hears it from the folks of Middle Economy?

In the end, what is left to Marlais? Her legacy appears to be a very long letter and a very timid father.

The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod Eagles

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles ‘Dynasty’ series was first published in 1980, and book number 35 is now available. Sourcebooks has gone back to the beginning and reprinted the first books and being a CHE fan, I jumped at the chance to re-read an old favourite.

The Dark Rose is the story of French Paul, Eleanor Morland’s great grandson and the founders of the dynasty. Paul runs the Morland properties, but struggles with jealousy of his half-siblings and dislike of his wife. King Henry VIII has finally become tired of his wife, Catherine of Aragon and has fallen in love with Anne Boleyn.

Paul’s niece, Nanette Moreland, becomes lady in waiting to the King’s favourite, and is beside her as a beloved intimate when she becomes his ill-fated queen.

Nanette is also struggling with the fact she is in love with her uncle Paul and feels to be at court will diminish her feelings for a relationship frowned on by the church.

However the church is changing, and the country’s sense of right and wrong divides families, among them Paul’s. His son, Amyas, a harder taskmaster than Paul, clings to the ‘Old Religion’ and is prepared to make his feelings known in a rebellion against the dissolution of the monasteries that threatens to bring the King’s wrath down on Moreland Place.

Nanette’s fate, so closely tied in with Anne Boleyn’s, is destined to change when her mistress is executed. She returns to Moreland Place and marries Paul, a union Amyas abhors. Nanette is safe under Paul’s protection, but then his long lost son returns. Adrian is the son of the beautiful Ursula who died of the sweating sickness that took Paul’s own wife and Nanette’s parents and brothers. Although he loved Adrian Paul rejected him out of duty for his legitimate son, an act Adrian can never forgive.

Adrian begs his father to let him come home, but when he is rejected again, this proves a tragic decision for Paul, and the outcome leaves Nanette at the mercy of the new master of Moreland Place.

CHE’s portrayal of Anne Boleyn is masterful, and one I always compare with other interpretations. She is portrayed as coquette, child, lover and schemer all in one, and goes to her death as an innocent victim, mourned by few but her beloved Nanette.

Nanette herself is a little too perfect, whose exposure to the betrayal, lies and murders at the Tudor Court, leaves her as innocent as the day she arrived and with apparently no ill feelings towards the King, who murdered her beloved mistress. The only person she appears to resent is the ‘honey scorpion’ Jane Seymour.

The style of writing is different to historical fiction being published today, maybe a little romanticised, less gritty and true to life. However, the author’s research cannot be faulted in its detail and subsequent effect on the Morlands, whom CHE is not afraid to kill off in multiple numbers if it suits the plot. Together with her great characterisation, this fast moving story will keep you reading to the end.

The Ladys Slipper by Deborah Swift

Deborah Swift's debut novel, published by the Macmillan New Writers Scheme aimed to publish new authors, is set in Westmoreland in 1660. King Charles II has returned to his throne, but strong religious differences threaten the fragile peace and the growing Quaker movement especially is viewed with hatred and suspicion.

Alice Ibbetson, a young wife mourning the loss of a beloved younger sister, is passionate about painting wild flowers. When Richard Wheeler, a local Quaker who was once a member of Cromwell’s New Model Army shows her a rare orchid, the Lady’s Slipper, growing in his wood, Alice is so obsessed with preserving and cultivating the flower she tries to convince Wheeler to give it to her.

When the Quaker insists the flower must grow where God intended, Alice creeps out of her house one night and steals it.

Wheeler comes looking, and Alice senses he knows what she has done, but he has no proof. However others are interested in the flower - the local cunning woman, Margaret Poulter wants to use its medicinal powers, and the unpredictable Geoffrey Fisk, Alice's patron, sees it as a way to cure his debilitating skin complaint and revive his fortunes.

Alice quickly learns that her action has set in motion a chain of events that have little to do with posterity and more about greed, corruption and betrayal. Alice’s actions make her vulnerable to those who would happily use her for their own ends, so her well-intended crime becomes her downfall, and poor Alice goes through torment due to her guilty secret.

The fact Alice confided her ‘crime’ to the odious Geoffrey Fisk seemed a strange choice bearing in mind the man’s character and his behaviour when he sees the flower. Her intentions are pure, well sort of, she did steal it after all, but his are entirely self-interest.

It left me wondering why a simple girl like Alice would associate with such an awful man, let alone put herself in his power. Even Alice’s maid, Ella, has nothing but contempt for both her employers and uses knowledge of her mistress’ deceit against her.

At first, I imagined Richard Wheeler to be the villain of the piece, with his uncompromising attitude, but he proves to be the hero of the story. Tall, broad and with penetrating dark eyes and hair, his character proves the most honourable and brave amongst a society where the rich and influencial are still allowed to run roughshod over the less fortunate.

As I became immersed in Ms Swift's prose, the story became less about a flower, and more about how obsession can ruin lives and make people lose perspective. The persecuton of Quakers is brought out vividly, and there is some surprising eroticism in the latter chapters which I didn’t expect and which, for me, brought nothing to this already atmospheric story.

Deborah Swift’s writing style, combined with her knowledge of mid 17th Century life is masterful in her portrayal of a crueller and less tolerant time, where suspicion is enough to condemn the innocent and women were regarded as the cradle of all evils. Alice’s spell in gaol was particularly chilling and I was glad to finish that chapter.

If you enjoy reading about life and attitudes of the 17th century, Ms Swift's sequel, using some of the characters in her first book is something to look forward to.

Casa Braccio by F. Marion Crawford - A Scandalous Book

One of my all time favourite classic novels is Casa Braccio by F. Marion Crawford.  This book has everything to make it an ultimate read and a very, very scandalous book.  Forbidden love, unrequited love, passion, murder, vengeance, dark secrets, and plenty of emotion.  The setting takes place in Rome and a nearby village and the characters are ones you will never forget.

I've lovingly recreated this classic novel and have included plenty of beautiful art and graphics to keep you interested and enjoying the book from start to finish.

This rendition includes the complete story - both Volume 1 and Volume 2!

Click Casa Braccio to download a free copy of this sinfully good Scandalous Book!