Illusions of Happiness by Elizabeth Lord

Illusions of Happiness by Elizabeth Lord
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Note: This post contains possible spoilers.

I didn't get very far in this book, but I don't feel that I can describe why I abandoned it without including some detail of the plot. You've been warned.


This book is about Madeleine Ingleton, an 18-year-old who graduates finishing right at the beginning of World War I. Her parents have arranged for her to marry a man that she likes as a friend but doesn't love. Maddie embarks upon a secret affair with the local milkman's son. With our innocent and naive heroine, you can imagine where this is going. Yes, she gets pregnant and her paramour tells her to get an abortion or fend for herself. Maddie refuses to take that course of action; in fact, she doesn't take any course of action (which is the first thing that annoyed me). She just keeps going on chaperoned dates with the man her parents have picked for her until one day she faints. The doctor is called and the parents discover she is with child. Her father, an unfeeling authoritarian, sends Maddie to a home for unwed mothers the very next day and tells her to never come back or contact them again because they no longer have a daughter.

I read up to the 28% mark and then skimmed it after that. Another Goodreads reviewer called this "a dark novel of near constant unhappiness" and that is a perfectly succinct description of how I felt about this novel. I've read books where bad things have happened to the heroine in the past or even in the first chapters of the book, but then there was a turnaround where her life improves. I kept waiting for that to happen with this book but it felt like it was never coming.  Even when Maddie marries a wealthy man and is able to move out of the tenement she was living in, she doesn't seem to be happy. That was when I decided to give up on the book. I couldn't bring myself to keep devoting my limited reading time to this book when I had a romantic comedy waiting on my Kindle that was part of a series that has already proven to bring me joy.

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Review: Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Genre: Christian historical romance
Format: Free digital ARC via NetGalley, offered in exchange for an honest review
Publication date: 01 Jul 2017
Heat level: None

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The full title of this book is Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection: Nine Stories of Poverty and Opulence During the Gilded Age, and that mouthful gives the reader a good idea what she is getting. For those not familiar with the term "Gilded Age", it refers to the 25-year-period of US history (give or take a few years) following the American Civil War that is characterized by the extremes of booming economic growth and widespread social injustice. These novellas take the reader back to the days when inventions like the railroad and the automobile were new and exciting, but there were also people trying to escape poverty and disease.

I've mentioned in the past on this blog that I am a fan of Barbour Books' novella collections, and this one lives up to the standard of the others that I have read. The Gilded Age is one of my favorite eras for historical romance, and these stories didn't disappoint me. There were a few stories that I wished were fleshed out more, but only because I enjoyed the characters and premise so much that I wanted to spend more time with them.

As I have come to expect from Barbour Books, there is nothing in this collection (such as sexual content or violence) that would make me hesitate to hand it to a conservative relative. Some romance fans object to stories where the heroes are overly macho or where the main couple seems to fall in love instantly, but there isn't any of that in these stories, either. I don't think secular readers would find the Christian content intrusive.

Picking a favorite story from the collection was impossible because there were several that appealed to me. Even though I am not a sports fan, I enjoyed the fact that "The Right Pitch" was centered around a female baseball team. "Win, Place, or Show", a story about a socialite falling in love with her riding instructor, was written well enough to make me forget it was a novella; nothing felt rushed or left out. "The Gardener's Daughter" was an intriguing story about a resort town caught up in a trend of intellectual self-improvement that made me wish that the author had been given a few more pages.

A novella collection like this is good to have on hand for those times when you want to start and finish a romance in an afternoon. If you've had your fill of Regency romance and want a different setting, give Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection a try.

Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection on Overdrive
Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection on Book Depository

The Wives' Revenge by Lindsey Hutchinson

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Genre: Women's Fiction

Format: Free digital ARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for honest review

Expected publication date: 01 Jul 2017

Heat level: None

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The Wives' Revenge by Lindsey Hutchinson is the story of the Wednesbury Wives, a group of friends living in a poverty-stricken English village in 1884. This small group is an informal mafia of sorts who can be counted on by the other women of the village to help in situations that the police of that time usually ignored, such as a husband beating his wife. The book spans many years, from the time Violet, the daughter of one of the Wives, was in elementary school until well into her adult years.

I don't know the official term used in the publishing world for this type of book, but I would call it a slice-of-life novel or perhaps a family saga. It doesn't focus on one big problem that needs to be resolved. Instead, there is a series of anecdotes in chronological order that show how the Wednesbury Wives gain power and respect over time. It has a rhythm of showing the reader a problem, telling the reader how the Wives solved the problem, then moving on to the next problem. 

Hutchinson's writing style was troublesome for me at first because I didn't feel like I was there with the characters; it was like someone describing a movie to you instead of you watching the movie yourself. Somewhere around the 30% mark, however, the story became more engaging. I believe the inclusion of more dialogue was the key. I would rather read what the characters actually said than to have the narrative text just tell me that they talked.

While some of the topics that this book touches on (rape, wife beating, abortion, poverty) are pretty serious, there is a simplicity to it that may or may not appeal to certain readers. There wasn't much to set the Wives apart from each other except for their names; the dialogue made them sound almost interchangeable. The ease with which they came up with a solution for every problem may strike some readers as unrealistic. I was able to accept all of that, but there were certain punishments the Wives administered that I had trouble overlooking. 

Despite the flaws I mentioned, this wasn't too bad for a weekend read. If you want to indulge in some escapism that doesn't involve magic or superheroes yet the bad guys still get their comeuppance, you may want to give this a try.

The Wives' Revenge on Amazon

Heart on the Line by Karen Witemeyer

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Series: Book 2 of Ladies of Harper's Station series
Genre: Christian historical romance
Format: Free digital ARC obtained via Netgalley in exchange for honest review
Heat level: Sweet -- kisses only

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. If you click through and buy something, I will get a few coins to support my caffeine habit. Thanks!

Five-star ratings are a rarity, coming from me, but I felt this book deserved one. Even after a night to sleep on it, I still can't find anything I disliked about this book. What more can a reader ask for? Anyway . . .

Heart on the Line by Karen Witemeyer takes place in America in 1894. It tells the story of Grace Mallory, a telegraph operator who has gone into hiding after her father's murder. One night she receives word that her father's killer has found her and is on his way. This message is also heard by Amos Bledsoe, another telegraph operator that Grace has struck up a friendship with under the name of Miss G. After months of correspondence, Amos finally summons up the courage to go meet Miss G just as her life is in danger. He must figure out if he has what it takes to be her hero.

This story had everything I could ask for in a historical romance. The hero and heroine have a fun, light banter with each other in a more formal style than is found in contemporary language. The side characters are interesting and populate a town that I want to revisit. The plot was suspenseful but not so fraught with tension that I wanted to put the book down (that has happened a lot with me; I don't read to be stressed out).

As is customary in inspirational fiction, the physical contact is kept at the kisses-only level. I think it conveyed the passion between the hero and heroine in a way that wouldn't make Grandma blush.  The faith-based content is more upfront that in other inspirational romances I've read recently, but there are no conversion moments. It consists mainly of characters who are already believers calling on God to give them strength.

I missed out on the first book of the series and the novella that came after, but you don't need to read either one to understand what is going on in this book. Of course, now that I've been reminded of how much I like Witemeyer's writing, I will go back and read the other books.

Heart on the Line on Book Depository
Heart on the Line on Amazon

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, adapted by Nick Bertozzi

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Genre:  Classic, historical fiction
Format: Free digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for honest review; no monetary compensation
Heat level: Subtle -- the result of liaisons is mentioned, but not the act itself
Expected publication date: 04 Jul 2017

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. If you click through and buy something, I will get a few coins toward the butter that goes on my bread. Thanks for contributing!

I want to read classics -- in theory. The practice has been more difficult. Perhaps if I had given more time to reading classics when my brain was young and fresh, I might not have so much trouble understanding them now. Maybe they all need to be turned into graphic novels. Anyway . . .

The Good Earth is a Pulitzer Prize winner written by Pearl S. Buck and originally published in 1931. It is the life story of a poor Chinese farmer named Wang Lung, starting with the day that he goes to the richest man in the village to get a wife from the slaves in his house. This is a review of a new graphic novel adaptation by Nick Bertozzi.

I read this novel in high school as many people did, but the only thing I remembered about the plot after all these years is that a woman gives birth and goes immediately back to work in the fields. So I basically approached this graphic novel with fresh eyes. That didn't stop me, however, from wondering what was discarded from the original text to create this adaptation. After reading it, I went back to the novel and made a few spot comparisons. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the illustrations, though spare, accurately replaced the words and conveyed the emotions from many sections.

Speaking of illustrations, don't be misled by the beautiful cover. This is not a full-color graphic novel. The art style throughout the book is somewhat minimalistic but it gets the point across effectively. There aren't even the traditional comic-strip boxes bordering each scene, yet I had no trouble following the flow of the text and illustrations. I have had trouble following black-and-white graphic novels in the past because I couldn't tell the characters apart. Even though Bertozzi doesn't draw each character with the same look consistently, it is always clear who is in the scene.

The Good Earth is a sweeping family saga. The reader follows Wang Lung as he deals with all that life hands him, as well as a few messes he steps in himself. As the title suggests, the one constant is the land, the earth that sometimes withholds its bounty but more often than not provides a good living for those who are willing to put in the work, as Wang Lung does. Although the book is set somewhere in the early 1900s (Buck doesn't give specific dates, but a few events suggest that time frame), its story of feast and famine and familial strife is something that modern readers can understand.

I think the graphic novel format makes this an obvious choice for a high school student who has The Good Earth on her required reading list. I doubt you could get away with passing a test just from reading this, but it makes a good introduction to the material and may help a reluctant reader get through the original novel.

The Good Earth on Book Depository
The Good Earth on OverDrive
The Good Earth on Amazon

The Saturday Evening Girls Club by Jane Healey

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Genre: General adult fiction, women's fiction
Format: Free ARC through NetGalley (no compensation for review)
Expected publication date: 25 Apr 2017


Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. If you click through and make a purchase, I will get a few coins and my coffee budget will thank you. However, if you are skint and have to borrow the book from your library, I understand.

The Saturday Evening Girls Club by Jane Healey is a historical novel set in 1908 and based on a real organization by the same name. It follows four young women -- Caprice, Ada, Maria, and Thea -- who are daughters of Italian and Jewish immigrants in Boston's North End. Each of them is trying to reconcile their families' traditional ways with their own American-born ambitions. Caprice wants to open a shop, Ada is hiding her aspirations for higher education from her father, Maria's desire to protect her family is leading her down the wrong path, and Thea makes a choice to stick with tradition despite the disapproval of her friends.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book because I had forgotten what genre it was by the time I started reading it. For three-quarters of the book, it read like a novel for 12-year-old girls. I'm talking about books handed to girls when I was 12, not the angst-ridden YA novels that are aimed at that age group now.  The usual types are represented: Maria is the head-turning beauty, Ada is the crazy smart one, Thea is the plain and chubby one (although Healey avoids saying it), and Caprice is the one who keeps them all together. It was all about the four main characters being friends to the end, a bit like a historical Babysitter's Club book. Despite reading young, the book occasionally has a melancholy tone because the women all realize that they are on the cusp of changes that will limit their time together. There were also some references to organized crime and domineering men in the last fourth of the book that almost made it read like an adult book, but not quite.

Healey says that she wrote this book after doing research on Paul Revere pottery, which was created by members of the actual Saturday Evening Girls Club and currently is considered a collector's item. I wish there had been more of the club's workings in the book.  Instead, it was used mostly as the location for conversations. At the opening of the novel, the main characters have already been members of the club for seven years, so the reader doesn't get a sense of how the club has helped them in their lives, even though the characters are often saying thank you to the women who run it.

Overall, the book is fine. It is the kind of book that sits right in the middle. Healey gives us a slice of life in the 1900s in the tenements, but it is the sanitized version. Characters mention things like hunger and prostitution in passing, but the reader doesn't feel the sting of them. I can't really say that the book ends on a cliffhanger, but the reader says goodbye to the characters at the start of some major decisions and doesn't get to see them through. I would say that if you want a light historical to cleanse your reading palate between other books, this would be it.


The Saturday Evening Girls Club at Amazon
The Saturday Evening Girls Club at Book Depository

Behind the Scenes by Jen Turano

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Series: Book One in the Apart from the Crowd series
Genre: Christian historical romance
Format: Free ARC obtained through NetGalley
Expected publication date: 04 Apr 2017
Sweet or hot?: Definitely sweet

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. If you click through and make a purchase, I will get a few coins and my coffee budget will thank you. However, if you are skint and have to borrow the book from your library, I understand.

Unlike many readers, I don't have a list of "auto-buy" authors, but if I did then Jen Turano would probably be on it. I've never been disappointed by any of her books. That is why I jumped at the chance to get an ARC when I found out she was writing a new series, even though requesting ARCs is not a regular part of my book blogging life. Anyway . . .

Behind the Scenes is set in 1883 and follows the romance of Permilia Griswold and Asher Rutherford. Both characters were introduced in the free novella that started the series, At Your Request. Permilia is a wealthy young woman whose forthright manner and late debut have relegated her to the wallflower section at events. Since wallflowers are generally ignored, this allows her to secretly write about the fashionable set as gossip columnist Miss Quill. Asher Rutherford is the owner of a highly popular department store and the subject of a death threat that Permilia overheard at the society event of the year. Unfortunately, she didn't see the faces of the assassin and his client. As they say, hijinks ensue when Permilia and Asher try to stay one step ahead of the killer while trying to figure out who he is.

I hope my summary doesn't make this sound like a thriller because it isn't. It is closer to a cozy mystery than a thriller, except there is no body. This book, like all of Turano's novels, is light fun. It is a romance, after all. We know the hero and heroine will make it to the end of the book; the mystery is a reason for them to keep getting thrown together so we can enjoy their delightful dialogue, which I can hear clearly in my head as I read.

Turano's style isn't preachy, so she doesn't beat the reader over the head with the messages in her books. Asher questions whether he should be more "masculine" like the alpha males around him. Permilia wonders why she couldn't keep working with her father in his mining business instead of being sent to the city to be turned into a lady. Gender equality, being who you are, finding God's path for your life -- these concepts are all worked into the story naturally. Although I am a Christian, I do appreciate reading a "clean" book that doesn't feel like a Bible study.

As is customary with romance series these days, this book does not end in a cliffhanger. There are a few minor loose ends that will draw you to the next book in the series for more information, but the main plot of this book is definitely wrapped up at the end. If you pick this up when it is released 04 Apr 2017, it would make a lovely spring break read.

Behind the Scenes at Amazon
Behind the Scenes at Book Depository

"At Your Request" by Jen Turano

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Part of a series?: Yes, Book #0.5 of the Apart from the Crowd series
Genre: Christian historical romance
Format read: Free e-book from the publisher
Sweet or hot?: Definitely sweet

Disclosure: “Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.”

I found out about this book from an ad on Facebook. How Facebook's algorithm knew that I liked Jen Turano is beyond me, considering that I haven't done a search or read one of her books in about a year. Anyway, I was happy to see the ad and clicked through for the free novella, only to find a slightly complicated set of instructions for downloading it directly from the publisher. I was all prepared to relay those instructions to you, dear reader, only to find that it is available for free on Amazon. Why would the publisher make it so hard on me? Must have been a tracking thing.

At Your Request is a novella that is the first title from Jen Turano's new Apart from the Crowd series. It is set in New York in 1883 and features Wilhemina Radcliff, a socialite whose family fell on hard times when her father suffered a financial setback. Just a few short years after her dazzling debut, Wilhemina has fallen from grace due to the fickle nature of the upper crust and is now relegated to the wallflower section of society events as a paid social secretary. To her chagrin, Edgar Wanamaker, a childhood friend who has been away for many years, shows up at one of these events. Since she rejected his proposal of marriage rather callously the last time they saw each other, she is not looking forward to seeing him again.

Turano is great at putting a funny scene right at the beginning of her books, and this novella is no exception. The scene where Wilhemina and Edgar first meet again is like classic screwball comedy. The witty banter and almost tongue-twisting wordplay that these privileged characters engage in is almost Austenesque and makes a refreshing change from the simple language in the farm-based historicals that I often read. The overall tone of Turano's work makes me think of the tinkle of a piano and the sparkle of a bubbly beverage.

This is a Christian romance, which means it is sweet. I have a feeling that there are some Christians who will object to a couple of sentences where one of the characters uses a necklace to point out her "charms", but that is as hot as it gets. There aren't any references to the Bible or church in this introduction to the series; if I was a new reader and didn't already know that Bethany House was a Christian publisher, I wouldn't know this book was Christian at all. I did read a sneak peek of the next book and there was a mention of God and prayer, but Turano's writing style is more stealthily inspirational that up-front preachy.

There's usually a caper in which the hero and heroine try to locate stolen goods or some such in Turano's books. That wasn't present here, but I'm not surprised since the word count of a novella doesn't leave room to do that type of plot justice. The main function of At Your Request is to introduce the reader to characters that will be featured in future books. Two of the wallflowers are already set to be featured in upcoming books, the first of which is set to be released in April. In the meantime, the novella is still available for free on Amazon.

"Love by the Letter" by Melissa Jagears

"Love by the Letter" by Melissa Jagears

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Part of a series?: Yes, Book #0.5 of Unexpected Brides

Genre: Christian historical romance

Format read: Free e-book from Amazon

Sweet or hot?: Definitely sweet; only two kisses in the entire story

Disclosure: “Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.”

I've had this book on my iPad for almost four months because I kept waiting to carve out time for it. When I finally opened it, I realized that it was a novella with an estimated reading time of only 90 minutes. Note to self: remember that if the book number has a decimal, it is probably a novella and not a full-sized novel. Anyway . . .

Love by the Letter is a novella introducing the Unexpected Brides series. I read the first book, A Bride for Keeps before I realized there was a prior story and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm glad that I backed up to read this one because it was a nice little break in my day and gave me the sweet historical fix that I had been missing.

In this story, we meet Dex and Rachel. It is 1858 in Missouri and Dex is finishing up preparations to make the trek west with a wagon train. He doesn't want to do this alone but there aren't any compatible women in town so he writes for a mail-order bride. Well, there is one woman, Rachel, but she is one of the smartest women in town and Dex feels that he isn't worthy of her because he has trouble reading and writing. When he finally gets a response from a woman who makes fun of his spelling, Dex decides to swallow his pride and ask Rachel for some help so he can write a new letter. Little does he know that Rachel has spent three years trying to get Dex to notice her.

This novella is well written and doesn't suffer from the issue of feeling rushed, which happens often with stories of this length. The author managed to drop the reader into a situation -- Dex's departure date is only a week away at the start of the story -- without making it feel like the book was missing pages. The description of Dex and Rachel's first kiss was stirring yet I don't think it would raise the hackles of the devout Christians who think all romance is trash. As a Christian who no longer attends church, I didn't find the Christian elements of the story to be as overwhelming as in, say, a Lori Wick book. However, they do take up a good bit of the second half of the story and are indicative of the level of Bible quoting a reader would find in the next book.

As of this writing, Love by the Letter is still available for free on Amazon. The e-book includes a healthy three-chapter sneak peek at the next book, which takes place 18 years after the events of the novella. I say give it a try if you would like a sweet story to go with your evening tea.

"The Edge of Town" by Dorothy Garlock

The Edge of Town is set in 1922 and it follows the residents of a small Missouri town. The main family, the Joneses, is pretty much being held together by the eldest daughter Julie. She is a 20-year-old who quit school at 16 to take care of the household for her father and her siblings when her mother died. She has a budding romance with Evan, the son of the local foul-mouthed drunk. There is a subplot involve a man who has been raping young girls in the town for years and getting them pregnant.

I tried hard to stick with this book, but I finally gave up. I've read that there is also a murder in the plot which I didn't get to because having romance and rape in the same book was jarring for me. I don't consider myself a prude, but reading a scene about happy family life on the farm and then having it followed by a character expressing his sexual preference for little kids in rather crude language was a bit much for me. When the book switched back to the sweet scenes, I couldn't enjoy them. Having the mystery of the rapist still hanging out there cast a shadow over the romance for me.

While it is fun for a book to have some surprises, I like to have a feeling for what type of book I'm reading from the start. Although I read a lot of Christian historical romances, I also sprinkle in modern romances, magical realism, literary fiction, memoirs, and lots of other genres. Foul language and difficult subject matter isn't quite as unsettling if I chose to read that kind of book.