Whip Smart: Lola Montez and the Poisoned Nom de Plume

Visit Book Beginnings by Rose City Reader for this weekly Friday meme.

Title: Whip Smart: Lola Montez and the Poisoned Nom de Plume by Kit Brennan
Published October 1, 2013; Astor + Blue Editions
Genre: historical fiction

The main character in the series is based on the real life Victorian character, Lola Montez.

Book beginning:

The Return - 1844
Teeth chattering, arms clasping my body for warmth, I gazed out the window at snow and more snow. I seemed to have spent my whole life sitting motionless in freezing cold post-coaches, rumbling along! At least we were now headed south. Fool that I am.
What a ludicrous idea it had been, trying to get to St. Petersburg in the depths of winter. I'd convinced myself that Imperial Russia would become my spirited style and flamboyant nature, that perhaps I could talk my way into a dancing engagement at the largest, most prestigious theatre in the city - a venue that would attract royalty, exalted military types, and the creme de la creme of Russia's dancer and artists...

Goodreads book description:
Kit Brennan’s second in the Whip Smart series opens with the ever-headstrong Lola Montez careening around Europe, on the run from the haunting memories of Spain and the wild adventure that nearly cost her life.

It is 1844. Lola encounters celebrated pianist and composer Franz Liszt, who encourages her to set her sights on Paris to establish her dancing career. The night that Lola performs her racy Spider Dance at the Paris Opéra, she meets quite possibly the man of her dreams: Henri Dujarier, co-owner of La Presse newspaper.

Lola seems on the verge of breaking Victorian tradition and actually having it all, but forces are at work to keep Lola and Henri apart. Deadly threats and rumors turn into reality, as shadowy figures stop at nothing to sabotage Lola’s new endeavor (unheard of for a woman): to pen an adventure novel, using a nom de plume, about a feisty female character.

Visit the author's website for more about her books.

First Chapter: The Whole Cat and Caboodle by Sofie Ryan

First Chapter, First Paragraph is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea.
Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B; choose two teaser sentences from a random page of your current read.

Title: The Whole Cat and Caboodle: Second Chance Cat Mystery #1 by Sofie Ryan
Published April 1, 2014; Signet
Genre: cozy mystery

First chapter:

Elvis was sitting in the middle of my desk when I opened the door. The cat, not the King of Rock and Roll, although the cat had an air of entitlement about him sometimes, as though he thought he was royalty. He had one jet-black paw on top of a small cardboard box - my new business cards, I was hoping.
"How did you get in here?" I asked. 

Book description:
Sarah Grayson is the happy proprietor of Second Chance, a charming shop in the oceanfront town of North Harbor, Maine. At the shop, she sells used items that she has lovingly refurbished and repurposed. But her favorite pet project so far has been adopting a stray cat she names Elvis. Elvis has seen nine lives—and then some. The big black cat with a scar across his nose turned up at a local bar when the band was playing the King of Rock and Roll’s music and hopped in Sarah’s truck. Since then, he’s been her constant companion and the furry favorite of everyone who comes into the store.

 But when Sarah’s elderly friend Maddie is found with the body of a dead man in her garden, the kindly old lady becomes the prime suspect in the murder. Even Sarah’s old high school flame, investigator Nick Elliot, seems convinced that Maddie was up to no good. So it’s up to Sarah and Elvis to clear her friend’s name and make sure the real murderer doesn’t get a second chance. (goodreads)

What do you think? Would you keep reading? I would, as long as Elvis was not a talking cat!

Book Review: Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear

Title: Leaving Everything Most Loved (Masie Dobbs #10) by Jacqueline Winspear
Published March 26, 2013; Harper
Genre: police procedural, British mystery

London, 1933. Two months after Usha Pramal’s body is discovered in the waters of a city canal, her brother, newly arrived in England, turns to Maisie Dobbs for help. Not only has Scotland Yard made no arrests, but evidence indicates they failed to conduct a full investigation. Usha had been staying at an ayah’s hostel, a refuge for Indian women. As Maisie learns, Usha was different from the hostel’s other residents. But with this discovery comes new danger, as a fellow lodger who was close to Usha is found murdered.

As Maisie is pulled deeper into an unfamiliar yet captivating subculture, her investigation becomes clouded by the unfinished business of a previous case, and by a growing desire to see more of the world. At the same time, her lover, James Compton, gives her an ultimatum she cannot ignore. Bringing a crucial chapter in the life and times of Maisie Dobbs to a close, Leaving Everything Most Loved signals a vital turning point in this remarkable series. (publisher)

My comments: Winspear tackles discrimination in the London of the 1930s and has her detective Maisie Dobbs investigating the death of an Indian immigrant, a former ayah with a British family. The woman, Usha Pramal, branched off on her own after she was dismissed by the family, living in a hostel for other ayahs.

This historical mystery novel is fairly plot driven and makes you anxious to know about Usha's circumstances and her past, things that may have led to her death and that of another Indian woman in London. A clear departure from the usual Maisie Dobbs novels in the series, and an interesting one! I recommend this latest in the series!


Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Leaving Everything Most Loved, Elegy for Eddie, A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, and An Incomplete Revenge, as well as four other Maisie Dobbs novels. Originally from the United Kingdom, she now lives in California.
Visit her website, www.jacquelinewinspear.com, and find her on Facebook.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for a review copy of this book.
Visit the tour schedule for more reviews of this book.

It's Monday: What Are You Reading? Upcoming New Releases

Welcome to It's Monday: What Are You Reading? at Book Journey. Also visit Mailbox Monday, hosted by Vicki, Leslie, and Serena.

Here is what's on my desk and in my mailbox this week, with the publisher book descriptions:

Set in the "Chop Suey Circuit" of San Francisco right before World War II. In 1938, Ruby, Helen and Grace, three girls from very different backgrounds, find themselves competing at the same audition for showgirl roles at San Francisco's exclusive "Oriental" nightclub, the Forbidden City. Grace, an American-born Chinese girl has fled the Midwest and an abusive father. Helen is from a Chinese family who have deep roots in San Francisco's Chinatown. And, as both her friends know, Ruby is Japanese passing as Chinese. At times their differences are pronounced, but the girls grow to depend on one another in order to fulfill their individual dreams. Then, everything changes in a heartbeat with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly the government is sending innocent Japanese to internment camps under suspicion, and Ruby is one of them. But which of her friends betrayed her? (To be published June 3, 2014; Random House)

August is Ghost Month in Taiwan-a time to commemorate the dead: burn incense, visit shrines, commemorate ancestors, and avoid unlucky situations, large purchases, and bodies of water. Jing-nan, a young man who runs a food stand in a bustling Taipei night market, doesn't consider himself superstitious, but this August is going to haunt him no matter what he does. He is shocked to the core when he learns his ex-girlfriend from high school has been murdered. She was found scantily clad and shot in the chest on the side of a highway where she was selling betel nuts to passing truck drivers. Beyond his harrowing grief for this lost love of his life, Jing-nan is also confused by the news: "betel nut beauties" are usually women in the most desperate of circumstances; the job is almost as taboo as prostitution. But Julia Huang had been the valedictorian of their high school, and the last time Jing-nan spoke to her she was enrolled in NYU's honor program, far away in New York. The facts don't add up. Julia's parents don't think so, either, and the police seem to have closed the case without asking any questions. The Huangs beg Jing-nan if he can do some investigating on his own-reconnect with old classmates, see if he can learn anything about Julia's life that she might have kept from them. Reluctantly, he agrees, for Julia's sake; but nothing can prepare him for what he learns, or how it will change his life. (To be published July 29, 2014; Soho Crime)

More Than 1,000 Goddesses and Heroines from around the World. Scholar Patricia Monaghan spent her life researching, writing about, and documenting goddesses and heroines from all religions and all corners of the globe. Her work demonstrated that from the beginning of recorded history, goddesses reigned alongside their male counterparts as figures of inspiration and awe. Drawing on anthropology, folklore, literature, and psychology, Monaghan’s encyclopedia covers female deities from Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, Asia and Oceania, Europe, and the Americas, as well as every major religious tradition. (To be published May 6, 2014; New World Library)

In the year since he was elected, Pope Francis’s simple message of mercy, service, and renewal has spread to every corner of the world. Collected from Pope Francis’s speeches, homilies, and papers presented during the first year of his papacy, The Church of Mercy is the first Vatican-authorized book detailing his vision for the Catholic Church. Named TIME Magazine’s 2013 “Person of the Year,” Pope Francis encourages followers to... revitalize the Church. (To be published April 25, 2014; Loyola Press) 

What's on your desk this week?

Sunday Salon: Welcome Spring, Happy Easter!

Welcome to the Sunday Salon!

The first bright yellow in the garden. Spring is finally here !

Happy Easter!

Book Beginning: Dear Lucy by Julie Sarkissian

Friday 56 Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice.

Also Book Beginnings by Rose City Reader.

Dear Lucy

Title: Dear Lucy: A Novel by Julie Sarkissian
Publication date: April 22, 2014; Simon and Schuster

Book beginning:

Everyone is asleep but me.
I look quick in every room to see that nobody is missing and nobody is. That is good because if someone is missing I have to leave to go find them and then who would get the eggs? Because they have never known a girl who was as gentle with the eggs. 

Page 56:

But the moon is winking and winking and I try to keep my legs heavy but they float up like fog above the river and carry me above the floor and out down the stairs and into the coop.

Book description:
Deserted by her vivacious, social-climbing mother, Lucy has been taken in by an older couple, known only as Mister and Missus, to work on their farm. There, she befriends a pregnant teenager named Samantha who tells conflicting stories about her past, but who finds an unlikely rapport with Lucy.
When Samantha gives birth and the baby disappears, Lucy arms herself with Samantha's diary--and a talking chicken named Jennifer--and embarks on a journey to reunite mother and child. A story of love, family, and loyalty. (goodreads)

What do you think? Is this a book you'd read based on the excerpts and description? Lucy sounds like an unlikely and unusual main character.

Book Review: When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon

Title: When the Cypress Whispers by Yvette Manessis Corporon 
Published April 1, 2014; Harper
Genre: fiction, historical fiction
Objective rating: 4.5/5

About the book: Daphne grew up in the 1990s on the small Greek island of Erikousa and, a widow with a young son, now lives and works as a successful restaurant owner in New York. She returns to Corfu to prepare for her wedding to Stephen Heatherton, who will join her in about a week from New York.

Daphne's reunion with her cousin Popi in Corfu and her grandmother Yia-yia in Erikousa reawakens her memories and her traditional home values. She learns more about her grandmother's life and sacrifices during the war, when Greece was occupied in the 1940s, about secrets her Yia-yia had never shared with her. Daphne soon comes to reevaluate her beliefs and questions her life in ultra modern New York, especially after meeting the mysterious but alluring Yanni.

My comments: What seemed at first to be a straightforward story of a woman who returns to her roots soon becomes one much more involved. The life of the Greeks on the islands during wartime occupation and the story of Yianni, a survivor, and his connection to Daphne's grandmother, add an important and fascinating historical component to the book.

A poetic touch is the grandmother's message to young Daphne, which she states again when Daphne has returned to the island. Listen to the island's cypress trees, whose whispers in the wind will impart truth and wisdom.

I thought this was a wonderful read. I wasn't too keen on the ambiguous ending of the novel, however, though it stressed that many aspects of life, including the romantic, are not at all predictable.

Yvette Manessis Corporon is an Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and author. She is currently a senior producer with the syndicated entertainment news show Extra. Yvette has received a Silurian Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the New York City Comptroller and City Council’s Award for Greek Heritage and Culture. She is married to award-winning photojournalist David Corporon. They have two children and live in New York.

Find out more about Yvette at her website, follow her on Twitter, and connect with her on Facebook.
Purchase links: Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
Click here for the tour schedule.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for a review ARC of this book.