#SOURCEBOOKS Landmark

[expendablemudge]

THE WITCHES AT THE END OF THE WORLD is a supernatural novel set in wintry, beautiful Norway via Sourcebooks Landmark's Chelsea Iversen. Perfect #Booksgiving read: atmospheric, beautifully written revenge story. My #BookRecommendation is here:

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

Review: The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

Author: Stuart TurtonPublisher: Sourcebooks LandmarkReleased: May 21, 2024Received: Own (Aardvark)Find it on Goodreads | Aardvark | More Sci-Fi Book Summary: The world has shrunk to one small island for all intents and purposes. On this island are the last survivors on earth: twenty-two villagers and three scientists. It may not sound like much, but they have hope for the…

[bargainsleuthbooks]

Book Reviews: Life in the Key of G; Katharine, the Wright Sister; Mademoiselle Eiffel; Manga Classics: Sherlock Holmes Vol. 1; #NetGalley #Edelweiss #ARCReviews #NewBooks #BookReviews

Another week, another round of #Bookreviews. This week: Mademoiselle Eiffel--historical fiction Life in the Key of G--Kenny G Memoir Katharine, the Wright Sister--historical fiction Manga Classics: Sherlock Holmes a Study in Scarlet #ARCReview

I’m cruising along and getting through all my Advanced Reader’s Copies from NetGalley. In order to keep up with blogging about them all, I’ve decided to do more roundups like this. These books have either recently been published or will be published in the near future. Most books can be found at the affiliate links below or try your local library when they are released! (Amazon US) (Amazon CA)…

[lilibetbombshell]

[ispeakbooknerd]

Now Available - The Witches at the End of the World by Chelsea Iversen

Now available for purchase! #Books #BookRecommendations #Fiction #Fantasy #HistFic #Witches #MagicalRealism #Bibliophile #Bookish #Reading #BookReviews

Do you believe in magic? Well, I do after reading The Witches at the End of the World, a mystical debut novel by Chelsea Iversen. Thank you Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for making this available for me. My opinions are mine alone. Set between an enchanted forest and a fishing village in 1677 Norway, Iverson’s tale of sisterhood is transportive. Kaija and Minna were young girls when their…

[prose-mortem]

Book Review: The Clinic by Cate Quinn

Rating: 3.75 stars rounded up to 4

Meg, who works in a casino as undercover security, finds out that her sister Haley has passed away at The Clinic where she went to receive mental health support. The Clinic helps recovering addicts detox and find their footing again. However, Meg discovers that The Clinic is hiding some big secrets, and that her sister's death is not as straightforward as it seems. Meg decides to check into The Clinic as a patient to find out what happened to her sister. A Hollywood actress with Haley's strong will choosing to commit suicide so randomly just doesn't make sense. As notes warning Meg to get away from The Clinic start appearing in her pockets ,and she is forced to submit to treatments that are… unique… to say the least, Meg realizes that she must hurry to uncover what happened to her sister and what secrets The Clinic is hiding deep inside the premises.

Things I loved about the book:

Exploration of trauma that is relevant to the author's experience. Those stories need to be told. So many people will find comfort in flawed and recovering characters.

Quirky characters that I couldn't quite pin down personality-wise (they kept me guessing)

Murder mystery

Main character's (Meg's) development and growth throughout the story

The setting at The Clinic and all the atmospheric "villain-scientist" vibes

Validation that neurodivergence (ASPD) does not always equate to violence or intrinsic personal corruption

Things I didn't like:

The story really dragged on in the middle and could have been a teeny bit shorter

I have mixed feelings about all the chaos near the end… I love twists, but it was a bit much at times… loved the ending overall though. The common thread of unresolved trauma will most likely speak to many readers.

The Clinic is a worthy thriller if you love institutional deception mysteries! It is so clear that Cate Quinn took her time to really care about her characters and give them each a distinct, yet fluid, personality that evolves and reveals itself throughout the story. This is very character-driven, and I loved it. Thank you to the publishers at NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an e-ARC for review!

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons

Summary:

This is a twist on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet from Rosaline's point of view. Rosaline Capulet is on the precipice of being sent away to a nunnery for good, so she decides to take life by the reins while she can. In doing so, she meets Romeo and has a brief affair with him. But when Romeo's true colors are revealed and he turns his wandering eye on her cousin Juliet, Rosaline has no choice but to stop him.

Review:

So all the sex that takes place in this book is when Rosaline is under the age of 18— I thought this was worth putting out there right off the bat. This is also not a historical romance; it's closer to historical fiction, and really well-written historical fiction at that. The descriptions are lush and lyrical, and you really get a fuller sense of the Verona Shakespeare might have imagined (he was very taken with Italy as a setting, but never visited, according to Natasha's author's note).

I loved the characterization of Rosaline. Rosaline's mother has just died, and she's faced with being sent to a nunnery rather than being married off. For a relatively outspoken and forthright teenager (she's fifteen? or sixteen?), it's a difficult situation to accept, so her decision to take these twelve days before she's sent away and throw caution to the wind totally makes sense. I also really liked her relationship with Juliet as well as Tybalt. Natasha humanized both of them, and even if Rosaline/Tybalt as a concept was a little jarring to read, I was on their side.

What was a little more difficult to read was Romeo's characterization: He is written as a sexual predator. Like sure, he's smooth and charming in a way I never quite got into in Shakespeare's original work, but it did come across here (at first at least), but you read the way he behaves with Rosaline and it's textbook predatory behavior: the love bombing, the manipulations, plying her with alcohol before sex, "forbidding" her from seeing family, promising he'll marry her, etc.. I was shocked when Rosaline described him up close as having a few grey hairs, and I was like, how old is this man??

Romeo's sins don't end there either. His trifling with girls is actually a part of a wider, more horrific conspiracy. And Friar Laurence is involved 😬. By the end of the story, a lot of the events are carried out similarly to the original text, with Rosaline watching it all go down, but she's no longer a passive observer.

Overall:

I read Romeo and Juliet in 9th grade and didn't think much of it, but reading Fair Rosaline actually made me revise my stance on a lot of the actions characters in the book took. Now, I'm more inclined to give them some grace because they were teenagers. That too, teenagers facing some very grown-up decisions. Remember, Juliet was going to be betrothed to Count Paris, a much older man, in the original text. No wonder she took the leap with Romeo! Similarly in this book, Rosaline had just lost her mother, and was likely going to be sent to a nunnery for the rest of her life by her father. It actually makes sense she'd meet and sleep with a guy she just met because again, teenagers.

All that being said, it was.... definitely a Choice for Natasha to write Romeo a) as old as he was (we don't know how old he is in the original but he's definitely on the older end of the spectrum here) and b) turn a character that seems fuckboy-ish at worst in the original play into an absolute monster, one who knows exactly what he's doing. It's an interesting interpretation, because it turns a cautionary tale into one with an outright villain and his victims. I'm reserving my judgement on exactly what this sort of interpretation means in the broader context of Romeo and Juliet adaptations as a whole, but by itself, I can't deny it was a pretty great book.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.

[readingwithwrin]

Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn | Book Review

Title: Cradles of the Reich Author: Jennifer Coburn Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Published Date: October 11, 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction, WWII Source: Library Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ Goodreads Summary: Three women, a nation seduced by a madman, and the Nazi breeding program to create a so-called master race. At Heim Hochland, a Nazi breeding home in Bavaria, three women’s fates are…

[whatsheread]

Novel Nuggets - November 2022 Releases Part 2

Novel Nuggets – November 2022 Releases Part 2

Well, folks. I did it. By the end of this post, I will be caught up on reviewing the almost eighty books I’ve read since March of this year. I didn’t think it would be possible because whenever I tried to do it at other times this year, something always came up that prevented me from being able to write. Whew. It’s a good feeling. The Choice concludes Nora Roberts’ Dragon Heart Legacy trilogy,…

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

The Thirteenth Husband by Greer McCallister

Okay….mixed feelings and thoughts:

* Truth weirder than fiction – yes

* Mother without motherly feelings – yes

* Earthy? Yes

* Naïve? Yes, in the beginning but way too savvy later in life

* Privileged offspring with money – hedonist? More than likely

* Wrote her own autobiography – I believe, so…why read a novelized version?

* Into occult/spiritualist and anything else that came her way? Yes,,and so of the times with spiritualists abounding

*  Willing to keep status/face by toeing the line? Not so much

* Did money liberate her? Yes and no

* Did she reconnect with self or her children? Not sure because I gave up on the book at 16% and read about this unusual and interesting woman online and got the gist of the book that was based on her life in this book…till I quit

* Writing and storytelling was wonderful and drew me in but…not enough to make me keep reading

Did I finish the book No

Would I read more books by this author? Yes…enjoyed two previous books by her

NOTE: The author said that she adjusted and adapted, switched things around, and probably found this woman fascinating but, as other reviewers have mentioned…why put time and effort into the life of a woman long gone and perhaps not relevant to the present? I cannot relate to Amy…though I have seen her ilk in other women of the era or even now… I did not finish this book but might revisit it in the future because It was well written and it could be ME and not the Story.

Thank you to NetGalley and SourcebooksLandmark for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3 Stars

BLURB

"A whirlwind…A truly wonderful read."

—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Spectacular

From the acclaimed author of The Arctic Fury:

Based on a real woman from history, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets The Haunting of Hill House in this fictional tell-all narrated by the glamorous Aimee Crocker, revealing everything from her mischievous days in German finishing school to dinners with Hawaiian royalty to lavish Astor parties in Manhattan. But behind Aimee's public notoriety, there's private pain.

When Aimee is ten years old, as the night dips into the witching hour, the Woman in White appears to her. Minutes later, Aimee's father is dead—and Aimee inherits a fortune. But the Woman in White never really leaves Aimee, appearing as a sinister specter before every tragedy in her life. Despite Aimee's wealth, her cross-continental travels, and her increasingly shocking progression through husbands, Aimee is haunted by the unidentifiable Woman's mysterious motivations.  

Tearing through millions of dollars, four continents, and a hearty collection of husbands, real-life heiress Aimee Crocker blazed an unbelievable trail of public scandal, private tragedy, and the kind of strong independent woman the 1880s had never seen. Her life was stranger than fiction and brighter than the stars, and she whirled through her days as if she was being chased by something larger than herself. Greer Macallister brilliantly takes us into her world and spins a tale that you won't soon forget.

[expendablemudge]

THE WITCHES AT THE END OF THE WORLD is a supernatural novel set in wintry, beautiful Norway via Sourcebooks Landmark's Chelsea Iversen. Perfect #Booksgiving read: atmospheric, beautifully written revenge story. My #BookRecommendation is here:

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

Review: The Resort by Sara Ochs

Author: Sara OchsPublisher: Sourcebooks LandmarkReleased: February 6, 2024Received: Own (BOTM)Find it on Goodreads | BOTM | More BOTM Reviews Summary: Cass has been running from her past for a very long time. Yet she’s finally found a place to call home – where nobody knows her real name – or what she’s accused of doing. So she made a new life on a remote little island in Thailand, and things…

[bargainsleuthbooks]

Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen by Sarah James #BookReview #NetGalley #ARCReview #historicalmystery #LGBTQ #hollywood #Sourcebooks

When a playwright's nemesis, a gossip columnist, is found murdered in the same way as one of her murder mystery plays, all eyes turn to her as a suspect. #lastnightatthehollywoodcanteen #sourcebookslandmark #bookreview #ARCReview #netgalley #bargainsleuth

Perhaps the best place in 1943 Hollywood to see the stars is the Hollywood Canteen, a club for servicemen staffed exclusively by those in show business. Murder mystery playwright Annie Laurence, new in town after a devastating breakup, definitely hopes to rub elbows with the right stars. Maybe then she can get her movie made. But Hollywood proves to be more than tinsel and glamour. When despised…

[howdidthatbookend]

Ashley Winstead | In My Dreams I Hold A Knife

The Book:  In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley WinsteadPublished August 3, 2021 by Sourcebooks LandmarkDate read: May 5, 2022 The Characters:  Jessica ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon This page contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site. The Plot (from Goodreads): Six friends.One college…

[lilibetbombshell]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Richard Luscombe at The Guardian:

Six major book publishers have teamed up to sue the US state of Florida over an “unconstitutional” law that has seen hundreds of titles purged from school libraries following rightwing challenges. The landmark action targets the “sweeping book removal provisions” of House Bill 1069, which required school districts to set up a mechanism for parents to object to anything they considered pornographic or inappropriate. A central plank of Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s war on “woke” on Florida campuses, the law has been abused by rightwing activists who quickly realized that any book they challenged had to be immediately removed and replaced only after the exhaustion of a lengthy and cumbersome review process, if at all, the publishers say. Since it went into effect last July, countless titles have been removed from elementary, middle and high school libraries, including American classics such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Contemporary novels by bestselling authors such as Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume and Stephen King have also been removed, as well as The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank’s gripping account of the Holocaust, according to the publishers. “Florida HB 1069’s complex and overbroad provisions have created chaos and turmoil across the state, resulting in thousands of historic and modern classics, works we are proud to publish, being unlawfully labeled obscene and removed from shelves,” Dan Novack, vice-president and associate general counsel of Penguin Random House (PRH), said in a statement. “Students need access to books that reflect a wide range of human experiences to learn and grow. It’s imperative for the education of our young people that teachers and librarians be allowed to use their professional expertise to match our authors’ books to the right reader at the right time in their life.” PRH is joined in the action by Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks. The 94-page lawsuit, which also features as plaintiffs the Authors Guild and a number of individual writers, was filed in federal court in Orlando on Thursday.

The suit contends the book removal provisions violate previous supreme court decisions relating to reviewing works for their literary, artistic, political and scientific value as a whole while considering any potential obscenity; and seeks to restore the discretion “of trained educators to evaluate books holistically to avoid harm to students who will otherwise lose access to a wide range of viewpoints”. “Book bans censor authors’ voices, negating and silencing their lived experience and stories,” Mary Rasenberger, chief executive of the Authors Guild, said in the statement. “These bans have a chilling effect on what authors write about, and they damage authors’ reputations by creating the false notion that there is something unseemly about their books. “Yet these same books have edified young people for decades, expanding worlds and fostering self-esteem and empathy for others. We all lose out when authors’ truths are censored.” Separate from the publishers’ action, a group of three parents filed their own lawsuit in June, insisting that the law discriminated against parents who oppose book bans and censorship because it allowed others to dictate what their children can and cannot read.

Six major publishers sue Florida over book ban law HB1069.