Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron: Book Beginnings

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

Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas

Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas: Being a Jane Austen Mystery by Stephanie Barron
To be published October 28, 2014; Soho Crime
Genre: mystery

Book beginning:

Saturday, 24th December, 1814

Steventon Parsonage, Hampshire

"Jane," said my mother over the lolling head of he parson slumbering beside her,"be so good as to shift your bandbox and secure my reticule. I cannot manage the hamper with one hand, to be sure."

"No, indeed," I pressed my bandbox - already crushed from the confines of the stage, which was crowded beyond bearing - into my friend Martha's lap, and seized my mother's purse. She had netted it from silk, an effort demanding considerable invention and time; none of us should hear the end of it if Mrs.Austen's work were ruined well before it could be universally admired. I braced my booted feet against the unsteady coach's floor and cradled the reticule as tenderly as a newborn babe.

Book description:
Christmas Eve, 1814: Jane Austen has been invited to spend the holiday at The Vyne, the ancestral home of the politically prominent Chute family. Jane and her circle are in a celebratory mood: Mansfield Park is selling nicely; Napoleon has been banished to Elba; British forces have seized Washington, DC; and on Christmas Eve, John Quincy Adams signs the Treaty of Ghent, which will end a war nobody in England really wanted.

Jane, however, discovers holiday cheer is fleeting. One of the Yuletide revelers dies in a tragic accident, which Jane views with suspicion. With clues scattered, dark secrets coming to light, and old friendships returning to haunt the Christmas parties, whom can Jane trust to help stop the killer from striking again?

This latest novel in the mystery series will be released next month. I am looking forward to reading this as a stand-alone novel, and my first in this series. 

Book Review: Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb

Becoming Josephine

Becoming Josephine by Heather Webb
Published December 31, 2013; Plume
Genre: historical fiction

Becoming Josephine uses historical facts to weave a personal story about Rose Tascher of the island of Martinique who traveled to France, married, entered French society and later became the Empress Josephine, ruling France with Napoleon after he declared himself Emperor. I enjoyed the facts behind the imagined inner life of a girl who rises to undreamed of heights, at times a bit unwillingly.

The novel was easy to read presenting the facts of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon from Josephine's point of view and imagining her feelings and personal reactions to the monumental changes around her.

The novel was informative and entertaining. I only wish it had finished the story about the future that Napoleon faced after Josephine, and not ended quite so abruptly, as I felt the novel at the end was almost as much about Napoleon as it was about the Empress.

I rated this excellent read 4 out of 5 stars.

Heather Webb is the author of historical novels BECOMING JOSEPHINE and the forthcoming RODIN’S LOVER (Plume/Penguin 2015).  A freelance editor and blogger, she spends oodles of time helping writers hone their skills—something she adores. You may find her twittering @msheatherwebb or contributing to her favorite award-winning sites Writer Unboxed and Romance University. In addition, she is a member of The Historical Novel Society.

Connect with Heather

Website | Twitter | Facebook

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

First Chapter: Embrace the Whirlwind by Laurel-Rain Snow

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

Embrace the Whirlwind

Embrace the Whirlwind by Laurel-Rain Snow
Published March 19, 2007; BookSurge
Genre: fiction

First chapter, first paragraph: 

She hadn't trusted in the myth of "happily ever after" for a very long time, but, despite herself, she had trusted that he was going to be the love of her life. After all, the two of them had been hanging out pretty regularly now for a couple of months. He came to the roadhouse where she worked, usually right after she finished up with his construction crew, and they had fallen into the habit of leaving together after her shift ended. But tonight had been different, right from the start.

Book description: 

Coming from a deeply troubled family, Amber finds herself making more and more misguided choices. Pregnant and subsequently abandoned, she becomes obsessed with a man who can't seem to commit to her. Hopelessly addicted to his love, Amber whirls more and more out of control until she meets a retired social worker whose kindness and caring guide Amber toward understanding and self-fulfillment.

Based on the opening paragraph and the book description, would you keep on reading?

Sunday Salon: Books Set in Warm Places

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week.Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer; Also visit It's Monday: What Are You Reading hosted by Book Journey and Stacking the Shelves at Tynga's Reviews.

Fall seems to be here as the temps have plummeted, though I am hoping for some Indian summer days in the future. Most hummingbirds have gone south, so it seems, though one of them has been kept away from the feeder by small wasps landing on the feeder mouth. Don't know how to fix that.

A few books came in while we were away on vacation. Had a great time whale watching off the Long Beach, CA coast and visiting the LA art museums and botanical garden. Even saw the retired Endeavour space shuttle and the Pompeii Exhibit at the California Science Center. I recommend seeing it if you are there.

Two ARCs from Poisoned Pen Press, due to be published October 7, 2014, came in for review:

Sons of Sparta

Sons of Sparta: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kalkis Mystery by Jeffrey Siger

Did the warriors of ancient Sparta simply vanish without a trace along with their city, or did they find sanctuary at the tip of the mountainous Peloponnese? That stark, unforgiving region's roots today run deep with a history of pirates, highwaymen, and neighbors ferociously repelling any foreigner foolishly bent on occupying this part of Greece. 
Special Crimes Division Detective Yiannis Kouros is summoned from Athens by his uncle. Kouros fears his loyalty to his boss, Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis, is about be to be tested by family pressure on the detective to act in some new vendetta in the region involving his uncle. (publisher)

Desert Rage
Desert Rage: A Lena Jones Mystery by Betty Webb

Ferociously ambitious U.S. Senatorial candidate Juliana Thorsson has been keeping a secret. The horrific slaughter of a prominent doctor, his wife, and their ten-year-old son inside their Scottsdale home brings Thorsson to Private Investigator Lena Jones. The slain family s 14-year old, Alison, and her boyfriend, Kyle, have confessed to the murders. Thorsson wants to hire Lena to discover if Alison is telling the truth, but before accepting the job, Lena demands to know why a rising political star wants to involve herself with the fate of a girl she s never met. (publisher)

And a few cozies:

A Midwinter's Tale

Murder Off the Beaten Path

One Potion in the Grave

What's new on your desk? Don't you just love these covers?
Click on the covers or the blue titles under the covers for more details about the books.

Book Reviews: Dark Spies by Matthew Dunn; and Dog Beach by John Fusco

Brief reviews of two excellent thrillers:

Dark Spies (Spycatcher #4) by Matthew Dunn
To be published October 7, 2014; William Morrow

I've enjoyed all Dunn's Spycatcher thrillers. The action is superb though a bit violent in parts but the plot is excellent. 

Intelligence operative Will Cochrane is hunted by his former bosses, the CIA, for having disobeyed orders on a mission, even though he did so to save the life of another CIA operative under fire.  There is more going on, however, and Will is determined to find out what, as he risks his life to get back incognito to Washington D.C. and the mysterious Project Ferryman files. 

I rated this 4.5 stars on goodreads
I received a review ARC/galley from the publisher. 

Dog Beach by John Fusco
Published September 9th 2014 by Touchstone
Genre: action, thriller

Story of an aging Hong Kong stuntman being chased by the Chinese triads in California reminds me of Jackie Chan, who could play the part if this were a film. This thriller set in Malibu is written by a screenwriter who has written the sequel to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

I rated this 4 stars on goodreads. 
I received a review ARC/galley  from the publisher.

The Stone Wife by Peter Lovesey

 First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea. 

The Stone Wife

The Stone Wife (Peter Diamond #14) by Peter Lovesey
To be published September 16, 2014; Soho Crime
Genre: crime fiction, police procedural

First chapter, first paragraph:"Will somebody start me at five hundred?"
A card with a number was raised near the front.
Thank you. Five-fifty. Six hundred. Six-fifty. Seven. Seven-fifty at the back. Eight."
The bidding was keen by West Country standards. Morton's auction house in Bath was used to lots being knocked down almost at once. This had a sense of energy even though the faces were giving nothing away. (from an advance uncopyedited edition; final copy may differ)

Book description: At a Bath auction house, a large slab of carved stone is up for sale, but  three masked robbers shoot and kill the highest bidder, a professor who has recognized the female figure carved in the stone as Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. The masked would-be thieves flee, leaving the stone behind.  Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond and his team are assigned to investigate, and the stone is moved into Diamond’s office so he can research its origins. The carving causes such difficulties that he starts to think it has jinxed him. (publisher)

Based on the opening paragraph and the book description, would you keep reading? 

Book Review: Nightmares Can Be Murder

Title: Nightmares Can Be Murder: A Dream Club Mystery by Mary Kennedy
Published September 2, 2014; Berkley
Genre: mystery, cozy

"Fire is an important element in dream work," Ali said. "It's open to interpretation, but it can mean passion, love, or danger." (ch. 10)

 Publisher description: 
Business consultant Taylor Blake has returned to Savannah, Georgia, to help her sister Allison turn her dream of running an old-fashioned candy store into a reality. Allison is also interested in dream interpretation and invites Taylor to her Friday night Dream Club, where members meet once a week to share and analyze their dreams.

When a local dance instructor, Chico Hernandez, is found dead in his studio, and the murder scene has an eerie resemblance to one of the dreams shared at their meeting, Taylor can’t help but be intrigued. And when her sister, who was briefly involved with the dance teacher, becomes the prime suspect, Taylor and their fellow club members can’t be caught napping. It’s up to them to dream up a solution to the murder before Allison faces a real-life nightmare.

My comments: I was interested to read about some of the possible meanings of dreams, such as being lost or dreaming of significant persons. I thought it was clever to combine dream analysis and meaning with a cozy mystery, having a "dream team" of ladies discuss the details of a murder case and give their interpretation as well as reveal what their own dreams may tell about the case.

This is a new mystery series featuring the Dream Club of ladies in Savannah, Georgia. It comes with a brief dream symbol guide. You can't go wrong reading this cozy!

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book for their book tour.