Imprint Friday Monday: While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth Blackwell

Welcome to Imprint FridayMonday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by most weeks to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

I know it isn't Friday but I wanted to write about Elizabeth Blackwell's wonderful While Beauty Slept sooner than later. Although this novel has been described as a fairy tale retelling, I'd say it was inspired by Sleeping Beauty rather than being a variation on the familiar story.

Here are my thoughts in a Bullet Review.

• What's it about? The first thing to know about While Beauty Slept is that it doesn't include magic in the ordinary sense. The novel is set in medieval times and involves a king and his brother, two aunts, his wife, and his daughter. In a time of superstition, unexplained illnesses, and political unrest, King Ranolf goes against tradition and declares his only child, Rose, the heir to the throne. This unleashes the fury of his great-aunt Millicent, who curses the girl, predicting that Rose and her kingdom will be destroyed just as she reaches the peak of her beauty.
•  Structure. The story is told in retrospect by Elise, who was first the queen's personal maid and later a companion to Rose. When the elderly Elise overhears her granddaughter telling the story of a beautiful princess who was cursed to sleep in a tower until awakened by true love's kiss, she decides it's time to reveal what really happened within the castle walls.
• Medieval life. As Elise moves between the servants' halls and the queen's rooms, she is privy to much of what happens in the castle and is witness to how Millicent's threats were able to undermine the stability of the court. Through Elise's eyes, we learn about everyday life in the castle, the conflict between romantic love and personal ambition, and the great contrast between expectations above and below stairs.
• Playing on fear. In Blackwell's view, the true power of the curse was the fear it instilled in the king and queen. The threat to their daughter colored every decision they made and biased their interpretation of everything from losses on the battlefield to smallpox epidemics. No magical witch is needed when superstition will do the work for her.
• The making of folk tales. The anthropologist in me loved Blackwell's exploration of the origin of folk tales. Take the truth, remove the science, add fifty years, mix in some romantic notions of court life, and you'll likely end up with Sleeping Beauty waiting for her Prince Charming.
• General thoughts. Elizabeth Blackwell's While Beauty Slept was a Indie Next pick for March 2014, a Bloggers Recommend pick, and the recipient of much deserved praise. If you haven't read this yet, I bet you are put off by either the fairy tale tie-in or the historical fiction label. My advice is to forget all that. You won't find witches and poisoned spinning wheels, and there isn't a Tudor in sight. While Beauty Slept is that perfect sort of novel that transports you to other places, other times and introduces you to characters that soon feel real. Isn't that a classic description of a great book?

To learn more about Elizabeth Blackwell, visit her website, like her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter. Don't miss the Kirkus interview, in which Blackwell talks about one of the primary difference between court life and modern life (hint: not the current lack of tiaras).

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, 2014
ISBN-13: 9780399166235
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by most weeks to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Deborah Johnson addresses a number of sensitive issues in her new novel, The Secret of Magic, the most obvious being race relations in the Deep South during the postwar years, just before the civil rights movement took on a powerful life of its own. I was initially attracted to Johnson's novel because it is loosely based on real events.

Here's the publisher's summary:

In 1946, a young female attorney from New York City attempts the impossible: attaining justice for a black man in the Deep South.

Regina Robichard works for Thurgood Marshall, who receives an unusual letter asking the NAACP to investigate the murder of a returning black war hero. It is signed by M. P. Calhoun, the most reclusive author in the country.

As a child, Regina was captivated by Calhoun’s The Secret of Magic, a novel in which white and black children played together in a magical forest.

Once down in Mississippi, Regina finds that nothing in the South is as it seems. She must navigate the muddy waters of racism, relationships, and her own tragic past. The Secret of Magic brilliantly explores the power of stories and those who tell them.

Although Regina's initial interest in the murdered veteran is based on her fond memories of Calhoun's children's book, she soon becomes determined to learn the truth of Joe Wilson's death. Thus, against Marshall's advice, she travels to Mississippi to begin an investigation. Once there, she discovers the darker side of the South and the seemingly unbridgeable gap between black and white.

Johnson's strength is in creating an interwoven, multilayered story that connects complex characters and deals with difficult truths. She perfectly captures an era, a season, a people, and a town, telling it as it was, for better or worse. It is clear that The Secret of Magic is personal story for Deborah Johnson, whose grandfather fought in World War II and held Thurgood Marshall in high esteem. That passion shines in her writing.

I love books that evoke strong emotions, and The Secret of Magic fills the bill. Because of this, it would make a fantastic book club pick. The major discussion topics are prejudice, social change, cultural norms, the power of stories, and the courage it takes to stand up for one's beliefs. The Penguin website includes eleven questions, in case you need more ideas.

To learn more about Deborah Johnson, visit her website, where you can learn about her writing and where she'll be touring this spring. You can also find Johnson on Facebook. For more on the background of The Secret of Magic, see Johnson's interview with Chatelaine.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, 2014
ISBN-13: 9780399157721
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Stacked-Up Book Thoughts: The Polar Vortex Edition

Stacked-Up Book Thoughts are my random notes about books I've read, movies I've watched, books I'm looking forward to, and events I hope to get to.

Freezing temperatures have kept me inside and away from my walks. Although I'm getting cabin fever, I've had plenty of time to listen to books, tackle some house projects, watch some teleision, and do some baking. Here's what caught my attention . . . or not.

Audiobooks

Although I'm picky about the quality of my audiobooks, I usually have pretty good luck in my choices. Of course, luck usually doesn't have much to do with it, I know the narrators and the genres that will hold my attention. Unfortunately, I abandoned two audios this month. The good news is that I finally found a good one and could barely stop listening.

The Lion and the Rose by Kate Quinn (Penguin Audio) is historical fiction about the Borgias, a family and time period that I like. The plot and the writing, however, didn't hold my attention, despite the multiple viewpoints and cast of narrators (Leila Birch, Maria Elena Infantino, Ronan Vibert). I had high hopes for The Savage Fortress, by Sarwat Chadda (Listening Library), which is set in India and involves ancient legends coming to life in modern times. Sadly, I didn't connect to the brother and sister protagonists and felt that the plot was going to be predictable (read by Bruce Mann). Thank goodness I decided to switch from print to audio for North of Boston by Elizabeth Elo (Pamela Dorman Books), which kept me glued to the page and then to my earbuds (I'm giving away a copy of this novel). A lot of action and contemporary environmental issues to boot (Blackstone Audio, read by Marguerite Gavin).

Print

I'm falling a bit behind on my print reading because I have declared 2014 to be my year of decluttering the house. So while I sift through drawers and closets and bookshelves, I'm listening to an audio instead of reading in print. Nevertheless, here are three books I finished recently.

After completing all the Jack of Fables spin-off books, I gave the Fables series a rest. Now I'm back to what's left of Fabletown and the Fable farm. Fables: The Great Fables Crossover, by Bill Willingham (Vertigo) and a host of artists, was not my favorite in the series. I'm glad that the Literals seem to be dealt with and Jack is no longer the star. I can't wait to get back to more of Bigby and Snow. I loved Karen Perry's The Innocent Sleep (Henry Holt), a mystery/thriller that will keep you guessing about the reliability of the narrators and the nature of a marriage. The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson is another winner from Amy Einhorn. It's set in the South after World War II; the world is not necessarily a pretty place for returning black veterans. Look for an upcoming Imprint Friday about this one.

Movies and TV

I have a ton of movies to review because we went on a marathon earlier this month and watched about a half dozen good ones. We have also been watching some great television. The first two we streamed, the third we're watching weekly

We were late to jump on the Longmire (A&E) bandwagon, but once it became available for streaming, we were hooked. We raced through season one and are looking forward to the day that season two is released for streaming. The setting, the story lines, the characters, the actors: all will draw you in. We just finished season one of The Vikings (History Channel). Wow! We love everything about this show. Fortunately we have to wait only a couple of weeks before season two starts up live. Finally, if you haven't been watching True Detective (HBO), then you've been missing out on some of the best television there is. I can't begin to summarize this mesmerizing miniseries (a mystery within a mystery set in the South), but Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are simply outstanding.

In the Stacks

The first quarter of the year is filled with so many great books, I hope I can put aside my decluttering for some quiet reading time. Here are just three that are near the top of my list.

Elizabeth Blackwell's While Beauty Slept is a fairy tale retelling, one of my favorite genres. It's gotten nothing but rave reviews and I can't wait to see for myself. Because it's an Amy Einhorn book, you'll see this in an Imprint Friday. This Dark Road to Mercy is Wiley Cash's latest (William Morrow) and involves children, hard times, and a questionable father. What I Had before I Had You by Sarah Cornwell (Harper) is about families and loss and is set on the Jersey Shore. I have the audiobook of this all set to go.

What's on your read, watch, listen, or review list?

Click for more

Imprint Friday: The Last Dead Girl by Harry Dolan

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Because I loved the first two David Loogan books--Bad Things Happen and Very Bad Men--by Harry Dolan, one of the books I was most looking forward to this month was The Last Dead Girl, the third novel starring the mysterious Loogan. Before I tell you what I thought (hint: I wasn't disappointed), take a look at the publisher's summary:

David Loogan’s dark past is revealed in this prequel to Bad Things Happen—the critically acclaimed mystery that Stephen King called a “great fucking book.” On a rainy night in April, a chance encounter on a lonely road draws David into a romance with Jana Fletcher, a beautiful young law student. Jana is an enigma: living in a run-down apartment and sporting a bruise on her cheek that she refuses to explain. David would like to know her secrets, but he lets them lie—until it’s too late. When Jana is brutally murdered, the police consider David a prime suspect. But as he sets out to uncover the truth about Jana, he begins to realize he’s treading a very dangerous path—and that her killer is watching every move he makes.

Harry Dolan is a master of suspense, twists, noir, and creepy. Seriously, keep your shades drawn, don't talk to strangers, and never get in a car with someone you don't know.

The Last Dead Girl takes us to Rome, New York, where David Loogan still went by the name of David Malone. Only twenty-six and self-employed as a real estate inspector, David has trouble in love: His fiance cheated on him and the beautiful young woman (Jana) he then turned to was killed just ten days after he met her.

Driven not so much by a need to clear his name, David is instead obsessed with finding out who Jana was and why someone would want to kill her. The story switches among a few viewpoints and two time periods, as Dolan builds the tension steadily and carefully, planting clues and throwing us off track until David (and we) finally discover the murderer . . . just as he is about to strike again.

I loved this look at a younger Loogan and how he was swept up in danger, love, heartbreak, and death--by increments and without intention. Harry Dolan brilliantly filled in some of the missing back story of one of the coolest, darkest protagonists out there. Put the The Last Dead Girl on your must-read list and hope that Dolan has many more Loogan stories yet to tell.

If you're an audiobook fan, don't hesitate to pick up the unabridged edition (Tantor Audio; 12 hr, 53 min), read by Michael Kramer. Although I'm often thrown off when a series changes narrators (the first two Loogan novels were read by Erik Davies), Kramer did a great job capturing Dolan's style, both the humor and the noir.

To learn more about Harry Dolan,visit his website, where you can learn more about him and his Loogan books. You can also find Dolan on Facebook and Twitter. And don't miss his latest GoodReads interview.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, 2014
ISBN-13: 9780399157967
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

About eighteen months ago, I raved about Lyndsay Faye's Gods of Gotham, noting that she "brilliantly captures the heart and soul of the seedier and more dangerous side of New York in the 1840s." This month, Faye's second Timothy Wilde book, Seven for a Secret, was released, and I can't wait to finish this fabulous novel.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Six months after the formation of the NYPD, its most reluctant and talented officer, Timothy Wilde, thinks himself well versed in his city’s dark practices—until he learns of the gruesome underworld of lies and corruption ruled by the “blackbirders,” who snatch free Northerners of color from their homes, masquerade them as slaves, and sell them South to toil as plantation property.

The abolitionist Timothy is horrified by these traders in human flesh. But in 1846, slave catching isn’t just legal—it’s law enforcement.

When the beautiful and terrified Lucy Adams staggers into Timothy’s office to report a robbery and is asked what was stolen, her reply is, “My family.” Their search for her mixed-race sister and son will plunge Timothy and his feral brother, Valentine, into a world where police are complicit and politics savage, and corpses appear in the most shocking of places. Timothy finds himself caught between power and principles, desperate to protect his only brother and to unravel the puzzle before all he cares for is lost.

Although I haven't yet finished Seven for Secret, I'm completely caught up in Timothy's conflicted emotions in this novel. Despite being loyal to the fledgling police department and respectful of the law, he has his own ideas of what is morally and ethically right. This can be a problem for a copper of any era, but for Timothy, the dilemma is particularly difficult and personal.

I can also assure you that Faye has avoided the all-too-common sophomore slump. Seven for a Secret once again brings New York—its people, sounds, and smells—to life, allowing me to easily visualize the characters and setting. I am particularly fascinated with the political and social climate of the pre–Civil War city; for example, some people found it easier to talk the talk of abolition than to expend energy helping their black brethren.

Fans of the Wilde brothers will be happy to know that the relationship between Timothy and Val is still central to the plot. In addition, Faye reveals details about their background and gives some of the recurring secondary characters more page time.

I don't know how the novel ends or how all the plot lines come together, but I love being in Timothy's world. Faye's writing is so evocative of the times, with its spot-on dialogue and vivid period details. Here's Timothy describing the behavior of some of the political big-wigs they were charged with protecting:

My chief's voice was thunder-dark and thick with worry. I didn't blame him. Vices in and of themselves are almost badges of honor amongst the scoundrels of the political machines—you whored down the Bowery like a kitchen maid doing the marketing, you gambled away hundreds in rooms with locked doors and then earned it back in bribes the next morning, you drank enough champagne for your brains to feel they were melting come daybreak and then drove off the tremors with a hot mug of rum. (p. 239; uncorrected proof)

Makes you wonder if anything has changed over the last 170 years, doesn't it?

Lyndsay Faye's Seven for a Secret will appeal to a wide range of readers, from mystery lovers to fans of historical fiction and literary fiction. I have no doubt Seven for a Secret will end up being one of my top reads of 2013.

To learn more about Lyndsay Faye,visit her website, where you can see her tour schedule and discover her full range of writing. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter. Beer and cooking enthusiasts won't want to miss her Beer Meets Food blog.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399158384
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Australian author Liane Moriarty has a reputation for writing smart books featuring realistic, contemporary women. When I heard Amy Einhorn had acquired a new Moriarty novel, I couldn't wait to read it. The Husband's Secret, out just this week, lived up to my expectations.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .

Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

Acclaimed author Liane Moriarty has written a gripping, thought-provoking novel about how well it is really possible to know our spouses—and, ultimately, ourselves.

Moriarity builds the tension exquisitely slowly, as the novel switches among the stories of the three women, who are only loosely united by their church and local parochial school. As we get to know them, waiting for the moment when Cecilia will no longer be able to resist reading her husband's letter, our loyalties shift and sway. We have so much to try to put together: What's in the letter? How are these women's lives going to converge? Can there be a happy or peaceful ending for any of them?

Because The Husband's Secret most obviously refers to John-Paul Fitzpatrick, Cecilia and her family grab the majority of our attention. But Tess's and Rachel's husbands also have secrets, and their stories tug at us too. Rachel, still grieving over the murder of her seventeen-year-old daughter decades earlier, wins our sympathy—not because she is a sad case but because she tries so desperately to keep her daughter's memory alive, even though very few of her friends feel comfortable talking about Janie. I found Tess to be the most distant of the three women, but her actions after her husband makes his confession (almost as soon as we meet him) are understandable and mostly reasonable.

One interesting device Moriarity employs in the novel is what I think of as "what-if interludes." These take on several different forms, including Rachel's imaginings of Janie's life if she had lived, Cecilia's thoughts about what might be in her husband's letter, and the novel's epilogue that ties together many of the characters. Who hasn't indulged in what-ifs?

Liane Moriarty's The Husband's Secret touches on the themes of betrayal, loss, secrets, moving on, forgiveness, acceptance, motherhood, marriage, and fate. With such realistic characters and believable situations, the book will be a sure winner for book clubs around the world. Besides the topics I've just listed, the most discussed question might be the one Cecilia asks herself in the first chapter: Should she open that letter? Would you?

To learn more about Liane Moriarty, visit her website, where you can read the first chapter, discover the inspiration behind the novel (it indirectly involves the Loch Ness monster!), and download a reading guide. Don't forget to check out her blog and subscribe to her newsletter.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, July 30, 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399159343
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: Freud's Mistress by Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

When I first heard about Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman's new novel, Freud's Mistress, I realized I knew little about Sigmund Freud's personal life. I was aware of only the basics: He was Jewish, lived in Vienna, and escaped to the UK as Hitler rose to power. He was married and had children. But that's it. So the title of the novel caught my attention. Freud, who thought sexual issues were the basis for neuroses, had cheated on his wife? I had to read this book!

Here's the publisher's summary:

It is fin-de-siècle Vienna and Minna Bernays, an overeducated lady’s companion with a sharp, wry wit, is abruptly fired, yet again, from her position. She finds herself out on the street and out of options. In 1895, the city may be aswirl with avant-garde artists and revolutionary ideas, yet a woman’s only hope for security is still marriage. But Minna is unwilling to settle. Out of desperation, she turns to her sister, Martha, for help. Martha has her own problems—six young children and an absent, disinterested husband who happens to be Sigmund Freud. At this time, Freud is a struggling professor, all but shunned by his peers and under attack for his theories, most of which center around sexual impulses. And while Martha is shocked and repulsed by her husband’s “pornographic” work, Minna is fascinated. Minna is everything Martha is not—intellectually curious, engaging, and passionate. She and Freud embark on what is at first simply an intellectual courtship, yet something deeper is brewing beneath the surface, something Minna cannot escape.

In this sweeping tale of love, loyalty, and betrayal—between a husband and a wife, between sisters—fact and fiction seamlessly blend together, creating a compelling portrait of an unforgettable woman and her struggle to reconcile her love for her sister with her obsessive desire for her sister’s husband, the mythic father of psychoanalysis.

Mack and Kaufman focus on the first couple of years after Minna moved in with the Freuds, when her relationship with Sigmund changed from companionable to something more. Without forgetting that Freud's work was important to the lives of the principal players, the authors do an excellent job shifting our attention to the less-well-known domestic side of the famous psychoanalyst and his family.

Although Freud may have been brilliant, he wasn't a particularly attentive husband, father, or lover. His research and practice were all-consuming, and if you couldn't discuss his theories, you were likely going to be dismissed as not worth his time. Minna was not only pretty but intellectually starved, and she loved talking about a variety of issues with her brother-in-law. They were in many ways a perfect match, but their relationship did not come without pain.

Freud's Mistress paints Martha, Freud's wife, in a fairly unflattering light and it's no wonder that Sigmund was attracted to the more easygoing Minna. I found it interesting that the Freud children seemed to have a number of developmental and behavioral problems, yet neither of their parents bothered to take an active part in their upbringing. It was Minna who soothed their nightmares and negotiated their arguments.

Readers who are interested in historical issues won't be disappointed. The story touches on anti-Semitism, women's repression, scientific theories for mental illness, and class differences in Vienna. At the same time, the scope of the novel is quite narrow, and Hack and Kaufman do not transport us to the Austria of a hundred years ago. Instead we are invited into Freud's apartment and office, where we are given a glimpse of the private side of the man behind the Oedipus complex.

From the first chapter of Freud's Mistress, you'll be taken in by Minna's story. Is she to be pitied? Or was she content with her choices? You'll also wonder about Martha. Did she know about her husband and sister? And more important, did she care?

No need to take your place on the couch, unless it's with a glass of wine in hand and a sachertorte on the plate. In that case, you and your book club will be debating this triangular relationship, as well as the questions in the Reading Guide, long into the night.

To learn more about Karen Hack and Jennifer Kaufman, visit the Freud's Mistress website, where you can see photographs of Sigmund, Martha, and Minna and read an excerpt from the book.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, July 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399163074
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: No One Could Have Guessed the Weather by Anne-Marie Casey

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Can I admit that I was a little nervous about reading this week's Imprint Friday pick? I was afraid that I would have trouble relating the women in No One Could Have Guessed the Weather by Anne-Marie Casey because their lives are so different from mine. I should have known that I could trust Amy Einhorn to find a novel that offers a smart, sharp look at contemporary marriage, motherhood, women's choices, and friendships.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Sometimes what you want in your twenties isn’t what you want or need in your forties. . . .

When Lucy Lovett’s husband loses his job, she is forced to give up her posh life in London and move their family to a tiny apartment in Manhattan, where her husband has managed to secure a lowly position. Lucy finds herself living in the center of cool and hip. Across from their apartment is a trendy bar called PDT—whenever Lucy passes by, she thinks, Please Don’t Tell anyone I’m a middle-aged woman.

Homesick and resentful at first, Lucy soon embarks on the love affair of her life—no, not with her husband (though they’re both immensely relieved to discover they do love each other for richer or poorer), but with New York City and the three women who befriend her.

There’s Julia, who is basically branded with a Scarlet A when she leaves her husband and kids for a mini nervous breakdown and a room of her own; Christy, a much older man’s trophy wife, who is a bit adrift as only those who live high up in penthouses can be; and disheveled and harried Robyn, constantly compensating for her husband, who can’t seem to make the transition from wunderkind to adult.

Spot-on observant, laugh-out-loud funny, yet laced with kindness through and through, No One Could Have Guessed the Weather is a story of what happens when you grow up and realize the middle part of your story might just be your beginning.

Although No One Could Have Guessed the Weather is a novel, the sections could almost stand on their own as snapshots of four New York City women whose lives intersect in various ways. Their friendship is solidified after they decide to take a weekend "equine assisted learning course," which promises to help them with their emotional growth. Let me be quick to reassure you that this is no sappy, feel-good novel; the women's struggles are genuine, but the humor keeps the story from getting bogged down in heavy issues:

It doesn't matter whether you can ride or not," said Christy firmly. "The course is psychological. Lianne says you spend time with the horses and you learn life lessons. Then, when you find yourself in a crisis situation, you think, What would a horse do?" (p. 134; uncorrected copy)

Through alternating chapters, we learn each woman's present situation and how she came to be there (economic troubles, idealized love) as well as a bit about their childhoods and families. Once they go to the equestrian program, the story is carried into the present and beyond as Lucy, Julia, Christy, and Robyn learn to accept the past and look to the future.

All women everywhere have to face questions about motherhood, career, and relationship status while keeping an eye on their birth family (aging parents, siblings in trouble). Is it any wonder why we often find ourselves pulled too thin? As the women in No One Could Have Guessed the Weather discover, no one should feel shackled to a single path. Change may require sacrifice, pain, and courage, but it can be done and often should be done.

Anne-Marie Casey's debut novel is an astute look at contemporary life. You may not be like any of the protagonists, but you know women just like them. I couldn't be more different from Lucy and Julia, yet I understood their pain, rooted for their happiness, and accepted their ultimate solutions. Add No One Could Have Guessed the Weather to your summer reading list; you can thank me later.

To learn more about Anne-Marie Casey, visit her website, where you can see the UK cover and title. Check out her tour schedule there or on her Facebook page. Book club members will appreciate the thoughtful reading guide, which covers the major themes of the novel. And don't miss the fabulous interview/conversation with Adrianna Trigiani!

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, June 13, 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399160219
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Before I turned the first page, I knew nothing about Suzanne Rindell's debut novel, The Other Typist, except that it took place in the 1920s and it was an Amy Einhorn book. Because I started the book with no preconceived notions whatsoever, I was totally unprepared to be so completely knocked over the head by its impact.

First, the publisher's summary:

Rose Baker seals men’s fates. With a few strokes of the keys that sit before her, she can send a person away for life in prison. A typist in a New York City Police Department precinct, Rose is like a high priestess. Confessions are her job. It is 1923, and while she may hear every detail about shootings, knifings, and murders, as soon as she leaves the interrogation room she is once again the weaker sex, best suited for filing and making coffee.

This is a new era for women, and New York is a confusing place for Rose. Gone are the Victorian standards of what is acceptable. All around her women bob their hair, they smoke, they go to speakeasies. Yet prudish Rose is stuck in the fading light of yesteryear, searching for the nurturing companionship that eluded her childhood. When glamorous Odalie, a new girl, joins the typing pool, despite her best intentions Rose falls under Odalie’s spell. As the two women navigate between the sparkling underworld of speakeasies by night and their work at the station by day, Rose is drawn fully into Odalie’s high-stakes world. And soon her fascination with Odalie turns into an obsession from which she may never recover.

Deep breath. Gather thoughts. How to talk about The Other Typist without spoiling things for you. Let me address about the structure of the plot and the time period and hope my infatuation with this book comes shining through.

Rindell sets up the plot of The Other Typist very carefully, pulling us in by subtle increments until we're hooked before we realize it. Soon after we're introduced to Rose and then to Odalie, we are told that something happened that involved one or the other or both of them. We don't know the particulars, but we begin to form some opinions. Then, as we read, the story shifts beneath us, like sand, and we begin to second-guess Rose, Odalie, and even our own thoughts.

We have questions, and we can't stop reading until we find the answers. We recognize turning points in the plot and Rose specifically spells out others, but we can't quite grasp the significance of these events. We need to learn more. And so it is that we--like Rose--are dragged deeper and deeper into the world of Odalie. We are never completely comfortable there, but we can't help but want to stick around.

Have I confused you? Have I caught your attention? I hesitate to tell you more than what you get from the publisher's summary because I think this is a book that is best experienced blind. I'm even reluctant to give it a genre label; tags such as psychological thriller, historical fiction, and character study simplify The Other Typist and don't covey the almost creepy emotional depth and compelling story arcs that keep the reader so fully invested in Rose and Odalie's relationship.

To say that The Other Typist is historical fiction is only part right. Yes, it takes place over the course of almost a year, starting in 1924. And, yes, flappers, speakeasies, bobbed hair, and rum runners all solidly place the novel in its time period. But Rindell didn't write what I would call traditional historical fiction. The time and place are utterly important and necessary for the story to work, yet the real focus is on the dynamics between Odalie and Rose and how they react to the somethings that happened.

Suzanne Rindell's The Other Typist is a hard-hitting novel that you'll mull over for days and weeks. You'll leaf back through the book, searching for the hints and clues you missed, dissecting conversations, and reassessing your thoughts about the characters. Oh and that epilogue . . . yeah, that's a section that requires a reread or three. Book club members should start planning their next meeting right now. The Other Typist will keep you talking long after the meeting should have ended.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Buy The Other Typist at an Indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, May 7, 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399161469
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

I've always had a soft spot for stories that take place in Africa. I guess many of us have a fascination with the continent that is known for its exotic animals and often-harsh environment. Perhaps it's some primordial instinct that makes us want to learn about the place of our origins. In any case, The South African setting of Jennifer McVeigh's The Fever Tree called to me.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Having drawn comparisons to Gone with the Wind and Out of Africa, The Fever Tree is a page-turner of the very first order.

In London she was caged by society.
In South Africa, she is dangerously free.

Frances Irvine, left destitute in the wake of her father’s sudden death, has been forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Southern Cape of Africa. 1880 South Africa is a country torn apart by greed. In this remote and inhospitable land she becomes entangled with two very different men—one driven by ambition, the other by his ideals. Only when the rumor of a smallpox epidemic takes her into the dark heart of the diamond mines does she see her path to happiness. But this is a ruthless world of avarice and exploitation, where the spoils of the rich come at a terrible human cost and powerful men will go to any lengths to keep the mines in operation. Removed from civilization and disillusioned by her isolation, Frances must choose between passion and integrity, a decision that has devastating consequences. The Fever Tree is a compelling portrait of colonial South Africa, its raw beauty and deprivation alive in equal measure. But above all it is a love story about how—just when we need it most—fear can blind us to the truth.

If I'm going to be perfectly honest, then I have to admit that by a third of the way through The Fever Tree, I was beginning to wonder if McVeigh had written a historical romance, minus the detailed sex scenes. But soon thereafter I realized that, although some aspects of the plot follow a familiar pattern, the novel is decidedly not what it first appears.

The Fever Tree is instead the tale of Frances's maturation and transformation from a Victorian London society girl to a South African homesteader. And, yes, there is a love story too.

Three aspects of the novel stand out for me. First is the character of Frances, whose personality was carefully and skillfully developed. It would have been so easy for McVeigh to have made Frances a spoiled rich girl or a somewhat dim-witted socialite. But Frances's behavior and choices are rendered compelling because she's a product of her times and upbringing. She isn't spoiled, just properly sheltered. She isn't stupid, just naive and lacking womanly guidance.

So while we may cringe at what she does or doesn't do, we understand that Frances is a victim of her circumstances. Alone in Africa with no personal resources, utterly unprepared to run a household, and lacking all domestic skills, it's no wonder she dreams of a prince who will save her from all her misery.

I also loved McVeigh's descriptions of life in colonial Africa, especially the wilderness. For example:

She discovered that if you look closely at the veldt it transformed itself into a living, breathing thing. The black, lichen-covered rock gleamed green and flickered out a tongue. Two small bushes, indistinguishable from the surrounding scrub, quivered then blew across the plain—ostrich chicks. A clump of brown and yellow soil stirred, thrust out a leathered neck, and ambled, undeniably tortoise-like towards the dam. And the silence resolved itself into the checkered sound of insects, the beating of wings, the wind feeling its way through the grasses. (p. 208; uncorrected proofs)

More than just pretty descriptions of nature, The Fever Tree reveals the harsh life of European settlers and doesn't shy away from how whites treated the darker-skinned people who were native to the land.

Finally, The Fever Tree was inspired by true events recorded in a doctor's diary McVeigh found in the British Library. The doctor described the diseases, especially smallpox, and horrible working conditions he witnessed at the diamond mines. Frances's husband, a young physician with no social connections, tries his best to do the moral and ethical thing, caring for all who need medical attention and attempting to prevent outbreaks of smallpox. Unfortunately, in the book and in the historical record, the diamond kings decided to ignore the signs of an epidemic. After all, they didn't want to scare off their manual laborers and lose their income. The results of their inattention were disastrous.

Other issues addressed in The Fever Tree are diamond smuggling, conservation, women's issues, marriage, and South African politics. These and other aspects of the story I didn't discuss here make the novel a great book club choice.

Do not be fooled by the love story or by the somewhat predictable plot. The Fever Tree, Jennifer McVeigh's debut novel, is a tightly written story of a young woman's awakening from the confinements of Victorian society to discover the beauty of a wild continent and the independence won by hard work.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Buy The Fever Tree at an Indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, April 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399158247
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: Above All Things by Tanis Rideout

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

I know I'm not alone in my fascination with Mount Everest. Long before Jon Krakauer brought the power of the mountain to life in his riveting Into Thin Air (1996), I followed news of the climbers each spring. Then in 1999 the world once again remembered the 1924 expedition to conquer earth's tallest peak when the body of George Mallory was found by a climbing team. The question remains, however: Was Mallory the first known person to have stood at the top of the world?

In Above All Things, Tanis Rideout takes us up the mountain with George Mallory, not only re-creating that tragic adventure but letting us see something of the private life of the man behind the myth through his own thoughts and through the eyes of his wife, Ruth, who remained in England with their children, waiting for news from across the globe.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Tell me the story of Everest,” she said, a fervent smile sweeping across her face, creasing the corners of her eyes. “Tell me about this mountain that’s stealing you away from me.” 

In 1924 George Mallory departs on his third expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Left behind in Cambridge, George’s young wife, Ruth, along with the rest of a war-ravaged England, anticipates news they hope will reclaim some of the empire’s faded glory. Through alternating narratives, what emerges is a beautifully rendered story of love torn apart by obsession and the need for redemption.

Tanis Rideout bases her story of Mallory's last trip to Everest on solid research, filling in the details to create a historical novel that is difficult to put down. As Rideout herself says (see the video embedded below), in essence the Mallorys' story is almost a love triangle. No matter how deep his passion for Ruth, George could not walk away from the pull of the mountain. And no matter how proud and supportive Ruth was, she still wished her husband home with her.

Although I was interested in the day we spend with Ruth, the time on the mountain that held my attention more. It's difficult to conceive of what the climbers went through. Remember, they had no modern equipment, no subzero special clothing, no accurate weather reports, no GPS, and no previously successful route to follow. Few people would have had the determination and bravery of Mallory and Irvine.

Rideout's descriptions of the men's last push to the top is particularly emotional. She perfectly captures the internal debate between wanting to stay alive and the feeling that success can be had with only a bit more effort. Two hours behind schedule and knowing that they would have to return to camp in the dark, Mallory and Irvine made decisions that were based on a multitude of factors.

We still don't know the truth of Mallory's success (his camera has not yet been found), but Rideout's version is one that I'd like to believe. She presents those last harrowing hours in vivid detail but mixes the drama with respect for men who died on that windswept peak. Tanis Rideout's account of the 1924 expedition to the top of Mount Everest will likely be with me for years to come.

In the following video, author Tanis Rideout discusses Above All Things and Mallory and Ruth's relationship.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Buy Above All Things at an Indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, February 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399160585
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde by Rebecca Dana

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Admit it, just the title of this week's book caught your attention. I was curious about what would bring two such different people together and whether they would connect. In Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde, Rebecca Dana recalls the nine months she shared an apartment with a Hasidic rabbi in the Lubavitch neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Here's the publisher's summary:

The ultimate fish-out-of-water tale . . .

A child who never quite fit in, Rebecca Dana worshipped at the altar of Truman Capote and Nora Ephron, dreaming of one day ditching Pittsburgh and moving to New York, her Jerusalem. After graduating from college, she made her way to the city to begin her destiny. For a time, life turned out exactly as she’d planned: glamorous parties; beautiful people; the perfect job, apartment, and man. But when it all came crashing down, she found herself catapulted into another world. She moves into Brooklyn’s enormous Lubavitch community, and lives with Cosmo, a thirty-year-old Russian rabbi who practices jujitsu on the side.

While Cosmo, disenchanted with Orthodoxy, flirts with leaving the community, Rebecca faces the fact that her religion—the books, magazines, TV shows, and movies that made New York seem like salvation—has also failed her. As she shuttles between the world of religious extremism and the world of secular excess, Rebecca goes on a search for meaning.

Trenchantly observant, entertaining as hell, a mix of Shalom Auslander and The Odd Couple, Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde is a thought-provoking coming-of-age story for the twenty-first century.

To say that Jujitsu Rabbi is not your usual memoir is a bit of an understatement. Rebecca Dana writes for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, she's covered Fashion Week and has met Kelsey Grammer, and that was all  before she was thirty years old. But don't expect to read a memoir about fabulous parties and back-stage access to the latest designer clothes. Instead, Jujitsu Rabbi is about an unlikely friendship between two people who were both going through a sort of crisis.

The pair met when Dana was desperate to leave the Village apartment she had shared with her perfect boyfriend who turned out to be not all that perfect after all. She answered an ad and took a room in a kosher-kitchen apartment about as far from Bleecker Street as she could get. Her new roommate was Russian-born Cosmo, who was waiting for his green card, working at a copy shop, and beginning to second-guess his decision to embrace Judaism. What could a liberal Reform Jew from Pittsburgh have in common with such a man? Quite a bit, as it turns out.

Besides telling us about Cosmo and her own struggles to move past her breakup, Dana also writes about adjusting to New York, learning the truth about Fashion Week, and getting to know her Brooklyn neighbors. Ultimately, though, Rebecca Dana's Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde is a story of friendship and of two young people trying to untangle idealized dreams from true desires.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Buy Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde at an Indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, January 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399158773
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more

Imprint Friday: The Best of 2012

Welcome to this special edition of Imprint Friday in which I highlight my top picks from the imprints featured on Beth Fish Reads. When I decided to limit myself to only two books from each imprint, I hadn't realized that almost all of my most memorable reads of 2012 were published by this group. As a result, I can't tell you how many "But what about this book?" moments I had. In the end, though, the following books have stuck with me. (For my thoughts and more information, click on the links.)

From Algonquin Books

When I reviewed Jonathan Evison's The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving I called it "a thought-provoking story about two men trying to do their best in a world that doesn't play fair." I noted that that B. A. Shapiro's The Art Forger was "an engaging and successful literary thriller that will quickly rise to top of the genre."

From Amy Einhorn Books

Here's what I wrote about these novels: "From the very first line ('Always, there was music') to the very last, Alex George's A Good American had my heart in its hands. It still does." "Be prepared: When reading [Dianne Warren's] Juliet in August, your physical world will seem to have disappeared; you won't be conscious of anything except what's happening in Juliet on a sunny August day."

From Ecco Books

I opened my post about Roger Rosenblatt's Kayak Morning: Reflections on Love, Grief, and Small Boats this way: "Every once in a while I run across a book that is so full of truth and beauty, I want to underline every passage." I said this about Richard Ford's novel: "Canada is one of the best books I've read this year . . . hell, perhaps this decade." (Here's a link to my review for AudioFile magazine.)

From Harper Perennial

I wrote: "Unlike lighter books about women's relationships, [Thrity Umrigar's The World We Found] takes a more realistic look, highlighting what the friends cannot share as much as what they can." This edition of Louise Erdrich's The Antelope Wife is a complete reworking of an earlier, successful novel. I noted that "Erdrich's writing style is beautifully poetic, sometimes sparse, but always vivid."

From Picador

The art of the personal essay is alive and well: In Alibis, André Aciman "savors his journeys, sometimes pondering the impossibility of recapturing the past, and sometimes celebrating the special moments that do just that." In Some of My Lives: A Scrapbook Memoir, Rosamond Bernier's "intelligence, charm, and kindness shine through her stories, which just happen to be about Picasso, Henry Moore, and the Rothschilds."

From Riverhead

Ann Brashares's My Name Is Memory asks, "If you had the ability to remember all your past lives—millennia of deaths, lives, tragedies, and joys—would you consider it a blessing or a burden?" I reviewed both the print and audio editions of Laura Moriarty's The Chaperone. Over at the SheKnows Book Lounge I predicted "The Chaperone, like the young Louise Brooks, is clearly destined to be a star." (Here's a link to my review for AudioFile magazine.)

Click for more

Imprint Friday: The Trial of Fallen Angels by James Kimmel Jr.

Welcome to Imprint Friday and today's featured imprint: Amy Einhorn Books. Stop by each week to be introduced to a must-read title from one of my favorite imprints. I know you'll be adding many of these books to your wish list.

Do you ever wonder if you'll ever really be accountable for all your actions--big and small, good and bad--to some higher power? If so, you've probably imagined some version of standing at the pearly gates arguing your case to St. Peter (details depend on your religious beliefs). In James Kimmel Jr.'s The Trial of Fallen Angels, Brek Cuttler is faced with a completely different scenario.

Here's the publisher's summary:

Brek Cuttler has it all: a husband she loves, a daughter she adores, a successful law practice. And then one day everything she has ever known disappears. Brek finds herself standing on a deserted train platform, covered in blood. As she tries to comprehend what is happening to her, a man from her past approaches and explains that she has been chosen to join the elite team of lawyers charged with prosecuting and defending souls at the Final Judgment.

As Brek struggles to find her way back to her husband and daughter, she will discover that her first client holds the shocking secret of her fate. That seemingly disparate events during her life have conspired to bring her to a single moment in time that will determine her eternity. And that every act of kindness and cruelty sets in motion things beyond our wildest imaginations.

Let me be honest here. All I really want to say about The Trial of Fallen Angels is this: I loved it. I read the novel before I read the summary and before I knew the first thing about it. So let me reassure some of you from the start. This isn't a religious/Christian book, this isn't an inspirational story, and Kimmel isn't pushing a personal spiritual agenda.

The story of Brek Cuttler's afterlife is part mystery and part philosophy and can be read on either level or both. We know only what Brek knows, and at first that's not much. For Brek, death temporarily blocks her memory, especially of the last few hours of life, and restores it only in bits. Eventually, she is able to piece everything together to see a broader picture of the interconnected events and acts that ultimately set her fate. Only when she sees the entire web, through time and place, can Brek understand what happened to her and why.

The other aspect of the novel has to do with the trials, the lawyers, the defendants, and the judges. This is the meat of The Trial of Fallen Angels and the part that will spark conversations in book clubs and among readers. What can I say that won't lead you or give away the crux? I'll put it this way. It's all about making a choice. You'll wonder if there is a right or wrong option, you'll imagine what you'd do in Brek's place, and you'll think about whether Kimmel's vision matches your own. I found similarities to a particular question Shakespeare asked; others may find a more strictly religious interpretation.

I don't want to leave you with the idea that The Trial of Fallen Angels is heavy with sadness, deep intellectual thought, or no plot. In fact, Kimmel teases us with hints of Brek's fate both in life and in death. His descriptions of the central Pennsylvania landscape and way of life are spot on. And the action scenes have you reading as fast as you can. Those who don't want to dwell on questions of fate or the afterlife can read the novel as a unique and engaging story. This was my principal approach to the story.

I have a feeling The Trial of Fallen Angels will provoke strong feelings in readers, depending on individual expectations and beliefs.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

Buy The Trial of Fallen Angels at an Indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, November 2012
ISBN-13: 9780399159695
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

Click for more