Laura Kinsale - Flowers From the Storm

He is London's most notorious rakehell - a charming, irresistible seducer possessing a brilliant mind and reckless passions. Until, in the wake of a shocking tragedy, he is condemned to a world of shadows...and madness.
An innocent beauty of modest birth and simple faith, once she feared the dashing nobleman who awakened within her feelings she had never known. Now she has come to free him from his solitary torment - never dreaming her warm, healing touch will eternally bind them together in need, in desire...and in love.

Comment: This was one of my favorite books of last year and the best historical without a doubt. The book is translated into Portuguese but I never paid much attention to what people here said about it. I also never went and read opinions in other places although I always had the idea it had difficult scenes to read.

I got this book as a Christmas gift..from two year ago....shame on me....but I thank my friend Hannah for her wonderful insight and idea lol

This year I've decided to read it as part of the challenge I participated in. It's the read of December, something offered.

The book tells us the story of the Duke of Jervelaux and how dashing and brilliant and a rake he is. One day he has a kind of stroke and his life changes. Before nowadays medicine and diagnostics when people changed like that they were considered mad and so was the duke.

However, Maddie decides to help him because he had been kind to her father, a blind mathematician who shared work with the duke. Maddie realizes the duke isn't mad, he's just changed and tries her best to help him and to make him regain what he is losing...

I liked this book a lot, to be honest and once again I asked myself why it took me so long to get to it...

The story is powerful, intense and makes you glued to its pages until the very last...I had much difficulty to put the book down because of real life demands, I wanted to read the book in my little cocoon and pretend there wasn't an outside world.

I thought the author was very clever in writing this story from the two main character's point of view. I liked seeing what the duke was thinking even in his worst days. It seems she's done quite the research on patients who had the same problem to make her story more plausible.

Interesting also was Maddie and her religious group, Friends. I've never read a book where one of the characters belonged to this religious group and I learned quite a lot.

By mixing the two we see the duke forced to understand his life won't be the same but if he surrounds himself with people who care about him, things will become easier. And Maddie sees the duke is only like that temporarily, she believes in him and has faith his sickness will be over one day.

I liked the romance of it all, the faith and the hope and the miracles that seem to happen. Maddie gives up a lot of her life to help and care for the duke and I loved, absolutely LOVED seeing them together and believed in their developing feelings for each other.

The book starts when the duke and Maddie's father are going to present a paper and we see Maddie isn't very fond of the duke, something that made me even eager to see them happy, I like it when they don't seem to connect at first. Some scenes were very strong, hard to read...to imagine..but I think the author did a good job in making the reader feel empathy towards them and even the harsher moments didn't seem so bad when we consider the HEA in the end.

This was the first book by the author I've tried but I think it won't be the last. I still have in my head after all these weeks, how the duke convinced Maddie she was the one for him and how perfect she is...*sighs*...

I feel like reading it all over again!

I really recommend it to everyone who likes historicals.

Christa Wolf - Accident

An East German writer, awaiting a call from the hospital where her brother is undergoing brain surgery, instead receives news of a massive nuclear accident at Chernobyl, one thousand miles away. In the space of a single day, in a potent, lyrical stream of thought, the narrator confronts both mortality and life and above all, the import of each moment lived-open, as Wolf reveals, to infinite analysis.

Comment: I've picked this book for the reading challenge I'm in this year. I had it in my shelf, it was part of a collection of four an uncle gave me but I have to be honest I never paid much attention to it, except I knew it was a short book (only 90 pages) and it suited precisely November's theme for a book less than 200 pages and considering I had to read something, I chose this one, knowing nothing about it. I've read the synopsis in the back cover and I guessed it would be more literature than fiction but I wasn't aware it was about such a decisive moment in current history.

The book is about a female writer, she's doing her daily chores and wondering, thinking about what it meant the Chernobyl disaster to the world, to herself, to the ones close by. It's like she's having a conversation while debating things, all done in a monologue.

This book hasn't got many pages, but they're full of symbolism, of references to the Chernobyl disaster.

This book is narrated in the first person but as the protagonist is having a monologue and she's talking to someone I'd say it's one of the few books done in the second person that I've read so far. It looks complicated but it really isn't.

The protagonist is doing her daily routine, her house chores and she's talking about the impact of the disaster to those around, to her and her family, to those who only hear it in the news. It's a very philosophical approach about what it means and the consequences it will have. The thing that still stuck to my head about it is when she says so many food is going to the garbage because she doesn't know it the fumes didn't reach the place where she lives and how dangerous it would be to just gamble that.

The protagonist talks about many more details and the decisions taken afterwards for those involved. It was an interesting summary of what it meant, socially, politically and morally for sure.

Now, it is interesting to know about it, but I have to confess many times the way things are said seemed a bit boring to me. I get it that it's meant to be philosophical, to make the reader think and imagine the author doing such mundane things while so many miles away many people suffered so much, it's meant to make us ponder the dichotomy of that reality, but I had to stop reading many times to find the will to keep reading. Many passages were very long, graphically, and made the reading boring and tiring at times.

So, in the end, a thoughtful reading but not very exciting. It makes its point, though. I've never thought about that disaster (I was too young at the time) but the consequences are still devastating.

Interesting book for its theme but not very seductive in terms of writing.

José Saramago - Claraboia

Dawn breaks over Lisbon one mid-20th century morning. The novelist looks out the window in a neighborhood; there is nothing to indicate this day will be any different: Silvestre, the shoe-maker, opens the door to his workshop, Adriana leaves for work while in her home three woman begin another full day of sewing, Justina is looking at another long bout of fighting with her brutal husband; Lidia, the kept woman, and Carmen, the Spaniard, lost in nostalgic thoughts.
Discreetly, the novelist's gaze travels downward. Suddenly, he stops being a humble witness to become each one of the neighborhood's characters. With each chapter he jumps from one house to the next, from one person to another, to reveal a world ruled by need, by great frustrations and small illusions, by a longing for a time that wasn't any better than this one. Everything is cloaked by the dreary silence of the dictatorship, Beethoven's symphonies, and a question from Pessoa: Should all of us be married, futile, and taxable?
Saramago finished writing Claraboia when he was 31 years old. He delivered the manuscript to an editorial only to receive a response forty years later, once he was an already established and renowned author. The patient and highly-detailed writing masterfully portrays an era marked by despair. Claraboia anticipates the dazzling elements of Saramago's universe and the virtuous mind that will later give birth to a wealth of masterpieces. In these pages we hear Jose Saramago's voice, recognize his characters, and identify the clarity and compassion that, according to the Swedish Academy, distinguish his work. 

Note: Claraboia = skylight

Comment: The 5th book I've read by this fellow citizen of Portugal. José Saramago has won a Nobel Prize back in 1998 and is still one of the most known Portuguese authors of all times.

The book is said to have been written when he was young but he never published it. Actually it's rather obvious while reading because of the way it's written and the more light theme. Although set when my country was still under a dictatorship, the book doesn't focus on that, except by a sign here and there. The focus is more on the characters and their lives. This is the story of six families, they all live in the same building, and most likely in one of the most ancient neighborhoods of Lisbon.

In the book, the author jumps from house to house to tell a bit of the life story of each family and what they are going through at the time. It's like we get to spy on them through a lens, something like a skylight... But in the end, I think it's more of a tale of fate and choices.

To be honest, I've had this book since last year, when a friend gave it to me as a Christmas present. I postponed its reading for a while because it's a big book (my Portuguese edition has 398 pages) and I feared it would be like some of his most heavy works, which have so many little details one has to be very focused while reading and also because of the lack of punctuation, a trait know to be one of the author's trademarks.

But I've decided it was time and I'm very glad I did.

The book, lie I said, tells us the lives of six families, and although we don't have any special highlight about the character's physical descriptions, page after page we get to understand how all of them are and what drives them. We see in their lives the motivation and the issues and the illusions and the way of life of so many people back in the 50s in Portugal. I wouldn't say the six families are a stereotype of everyone in Portugal at the time but it gives us an overall idea of how people would act and think. From the dreamers and the hopeful to the despaired and resigned ones.

Some of them made me think and others were just characters on the page. Funny how an action of a comment by one of them would start a set of occurrences and from there, the rest of the story. I think the end was rather abrupt to some of the families, but I really enjoyed the story,

Actually, I liked it so much it took me only one day to read the whole book. This book was easy to read, it was fluid, it had a better punctuation than some of his other books which, I think, it's the most obvious proof of when it was written. The tone of the story was lighter too, because despite the author has put some words in his characters that are clearly his ideas and thoughts, he managed to make a story like a soap opera but with so many darker and philosophical tidbits in no way can it be seen as cheap literature. It's just that, by the way it develops and how it's presented, graphically, it gets easier to be read. At least to me.

I really liked the book. i think it's wonderful, especially for those who haven't tried the author and want to but fear something too heavy. This book is perfect for beginners in Saramago's work. And it's in no way a lesser work, at that.

Georgette Heyer - The Convenient Marriage

When the most eligible Earl of Rule offers for the hand of the Beauty of the Winwood Family, he has no notion of the distress he causes his intended. Miss Lizzie Winwood is promised to the impoverished Edward Heron but the Earl of Rule wants her as his wife. Lizzie's sister Horatia conceives a dazzling plan to avert a nuptial disaster, and offers herself instead.

When dazzling Horatia married the powerful Earl of Rule, she was only saving her sister from a loveless match, rescuing her family fortune, and providing herself with a life of ease. Hers was a marriage made not in heaven but in the coolly logical mind of a very self-possessed young. Everyone knows she's no beauty, but she'll do her best to keep out of the Earl's way and make him a good wife.

Not until Horatia was deep in dangerous intrigue with her husband's vengeful rival, the dashing and arrogant Lord Lethbridge, did she suddenly find -- to her own tremulous surprise -- she had fallen deeply in love with the man she had married for money. But was it too late, now that she was but a heartbeat away from betraying both him and herself? And then, Sir Robert, sets out to ruin her reputation... 

The Earl of Rule has found just the wife he wants, unbeknownst to Horatia, the Earl is enchanted by her. There's simply no way he's going to let her get into trouble. Overcoming some misguided help from Horatia's harebrained brother and a hired highwayman, the Earl routs his old enemy, and wins over his young wife, gifting her with a love that she never thought she could expect.

 Comment: I'm trying to finish the books I have by some authors and Georgette is one of them. Also, this book suited the theme for this month in the book challenge I've joined.

This is the story of Horatia and the earl Rule. Rule proposed to Lizzie, Horatia's older sister, but Lizzie is in love with someone else, someone poor but she's accepted the proposal because she feels it's her duty to her family. Horatia knows this and decides to attempt to save her sister's happiness by approaching Rule and saying that if he marries her, he'll be doing her sister a favor and he would still marry someone from her traditional and dignified family.

Rule accepts and they get married but there's an age difference between them and Horatia thinks he's to old to concern himself with her, so she tries to stay away from his life and does what she pleases. However, some people don't seem to accept the couple could be together happily and they set to show how such a difference proves Rule and Horatia should be apart. Besides, Horatia is only 17 and she lives a carefree life, which provokes a certain reckless side of her. In the end, Rule has to find a way to show Horatia how to be more steady on her behavior and to see there's a real relationship between them.

As always, the author wrote a great story, full of details and proper language to best feel the time of the story. The reader can easily understand the rules of the time and how society would react and behave in those days because everything has a sense of propriety and rightness. My favorite thing in her books is how the characters can do some adventurous thing and everything is told in a funny but disciplined way. It's like the reader can see the characters and how they dealt with the paradox of behaving badly but always with grace. At least, it feels like it.

The story was funny, specially the end offered some scenes I couldn't stop laughing at. I enjoyed seeing Rule trying to control Horatia and teaching her the lesson she needed. She acted without care but her husband was there to catch her and help. It was very subtle how they fell in love and despite the fact part of me wishes they could be more passionate about it, it wouldn't be the same thing, so...

One thing bothered me, how mistresses were portrayed in the book, I know they existed and how they would accept a married man and how a man would consider having one as normal and expected but to my modern eyes it still feels like a rock in my shoe.

In the end I was happy to have read the book and spent a great time with it. Despite this, I still think Sylvester to be a much better one.

The last one I have to read is Cottillion, I hope it's a good one too.

Mary Balogh - A Masked Deception

The handsome, dashing, wealthy Richard Adair, the seventh Earl of Brampton, was caught in a most devilishly difficult tug-of-war. Claiming his hand was shy and demure Mrgaret Wells, who became his bride in an icily arranged marriage designed to produce an heir in a boringly proper alliance. Claiming his heart was a nameless charmer who concealed her face behind a mask and displayed her body in a daring gown as she made the Earl give himself over to a scandalously improper passion. Both of them desperately wanted Richard Adair - and both dreaded to think what would happen should he discover that they were one and the same two-faced lady ..

Comment: August's theme for my 2012 challenge was to read a book published in the year you were born. As I was born in 1985, I've looked for many authors and came across this one. I have another of her book's in my TBR list but once I saw she had a book from that year, I thought it was a good way to start reading her stuff.

This story was written for Signet Regency, so it I was expecting a certain type of plot, even with the creative parts. In this I didn't get wrong, there are some aspects that are rather obvious in terms of development. I still saw how the author attempted to bring some creative details but in the end I have to admit it felt very "constructed" instead of natural, but I believe it was just a matter of experience and that if she could have written the story all over again, she would use her experience of so many years to make it more vibrant.

The story starts with the Earl of Brampton proposing to miss Margaret Wells because he knows it's time and she has an excellent family although she seems too shay and lacks initiative. In fact, he still has feelings for a masked lady he met years before but who disappeared and now life forced him to marry so he can have an heir. He says often he doesn't feel attracted to his wife and their first time together couldn't be more faraway from romantic. While we meet more characters and see them play their parts and get into their schemes to reach love, we also learn that the masked lady is the same woman he married but he ends up being the last to know.

As it's to be expected, there are several situations that follow the usual clichés to work...how the masked lady is very daring vs the demure wife, how the man stats feeling guilty to use his wife and cheats on her but with time falls for her, how the best friends seem to just enjoy the other's company but actually falling in love foe each other, how a secret can make the most unimaginable troubles between everyone...well, it's nothing we haven't seen, but it's important to bear in mind this is a book from 85, so these aspects were new then, although too seen today. I think the best way to look at this book is to think about the writer's talent for writing, that is where one can distinguish the same old from the freshness. If I think about this, then I remember that the author made her characters alive and interesting...for the most part. there were things that bothered me, especially in lord Brampton because he didn't feel remorse on cheating on his wife at first...I think despite being the way things were in those days added to him not loving his wife yet it can be sot of excused, but in romance we want out heroes to know better right away, right?

In the end, the story was fun and offered many interesting moments but even though I appreciate the effort, the fact I've read so many books with the same type of plots kind of adds up in one's head, and I couldn't put that aside even with the author's talent in sight. I liked the book but I can't say it's really something I wouldn't forget, in fact details are already slipping my mind after less than a week. But I have hopes for the other book I have of hers to read. Time had passed and we learn.

Jude Morgan - An Accomplished Woman

As a young woman, clever, self-reliant Lydia Templeton scandalized Regency society by rejecting the county’s most eligible bachelor. Years later, although Lydia would prefer to avoid entanglements of the heart altogether, her godmother begs her to help her young ward make a suitable match. Though the prospect fills Lydia with horror, she can scarcely refuse, but things turn out even worse than she fears when her ward proves surprisingly tricky to manage and the confirmed spinster begins to suspect that her own heart may not be the closed book she thought it was.

Comment: I've decided to read this book because of the blurb, which was very interesting due to the fact the heroine isn't young for the time when the action takes place and because she had already rejected a suitor and wasn't interested in love. I was very curious about how the author would make Lydia fall in love.

The book tells us the story of Lydia Templeton, a 30 year old woman who refused a marriage proposal 10 years before and now she's independent and self reliant. She is a very smart lady and very fond of her position in life where she doesn't depend on anyone. She also stayed friends with the man she refused because they're neighbors and she doesn't see any reason why they couldn't remain cordial.

One day, her godmother asked her to help a young lady, Phoebe Ray, to deal with her situation...the thing is, Phoebe fell in love and accepted the courtship...of two men. Lydia is asked to go along with Phoebe to Bath - a place Lydia detests - so Phoebe can see her suiters again and make a decision.
In Bath is also Mr Durrant, Lydia's suitor, because he wants to find a bride to make his nephew find an occupation instead of spending all the money only because he is Mr Durrant's heir.
These two things might seem simple facts but Lydia finds out nothing is as simple and while helping Phoebe she discovers her impressions might not be as clear and objective as she thought and sometimes what she took for granted can show her she was wrong.

This author is very similar to Georgette Heyer. Not the same of course, but similar, specially in style. It's a romance to read and not to see. I mean, it's not the romance itself that moves the book along, it's the story that shows us what's happening, nothing is explicit in here. The author's writing is very proper and straight which makes the story more seriously toned than what we might expect. But in my opinion this is what distinguish it from any others.
Lydia is an independent woman trying to help others with her solid and reliable advice but trying to make decisions for other, trying to influence them according to our points of view instead of what the other person is actually feeling can turn back on you and this is what happened to Lydia. She learned a great lesson and as a reader I liked that. I actually liked seeing Lydia facing the reality of her influence. As a human being I felt sorry for her, for the result she make possible but she wasn't aiming for.

Lydia also refused a proposal and these days she lives like she doesn't care, like it was something she doesn't regret. For a while I was convinced of that but during the book little details in several scenes made me believe she wasn't as peaceful with that decision as she appeared. The truth is, sometimes we react impulsively but then we think it's too late to turn back the time...in Lydia's case she learned a great lesson in being too proud and free because not always things work out that well. I was surprised by the end, it was quite emotional considering the tone of the whole book..but I was happy with the way it ended because I was convinced of the truth in their actions.

Another thing in there, by the end of the book, most characters seem shocked but Mr Allardyce's behavior. This characters understood something wrong and acted on it and most characters later decided he wasn't a true gentleman for thinking that. I don't agree..he proposed marriage to someone he thought was reciprocating. I can see why the others were surprised he acted on it when he was inclined to someone else at first but to me he simply...changed his mind. I didn't felt his actions were that wrong.

In the end I enjoyed the book a lot, I was happy with the way it ended and I had some good laughs because of one of the characters, mrs Vasser, how amusing she was while trying to be superior.
I also liked how Lydia, apparently an accomplished lady in everything, had something to learn, to live and to gain as well.

Stephen King - The Green Mile

Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold Mountain's electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working the Mile. But he's never seen anyone like John Coffey, a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. In this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about Coffey, a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefs...and yours.

Comment: When I decided to do the book challenge of this year and saw that June was the month to read a book made film or adapted or whatever I immediately thought about this one.
Why? Because in this particular case I did watch the movie before and it was stunning. I've watched it many years ago and still today I remember it, it was so great, touching, moving and poignant.
I decided I must try the book to see if, once again, filmmakers had gone to exaggeration and not fidelity.
And it actually is. So I have to say yes, the movie was a good adaptation of the book.
The facts: The book is divided in 5 sections, because at the time the author published them independently and only later they were all published together. In each section we have several chapters described from Paul's POV and the first chapter is always about Paul's current days and his memories of those times and the friends and the people that were part of his life in the year 1932, where the main action took place.
The scenes have a continuous development but the narrator - Paul - makes references and allusions to things that will happen or to feelings some things might evoke in the future like when they imagines something might happen and it did but we only see it when it does happen.
The story...well, I won't tell. I have to keep the mystery here because the story is so moving and emotional it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. There were times I actually felt like jumping into those pages and do something, specially to help avoid certain things that I felt were too much, too hard to bear, emotionally speaking.
If you can't read the book, fine. Just watch the movie because...I just don't know how anyone can't help but enjoy it, by being touched by it, death penalty opinions notwithstanding.
This is truly a beautiful story. The movie has images and strong acting to help us feel, but the book has the talent of a writer most known by his horror stories. In this case, it's simply magical what he accomplished. I just don't know how a writer can hold writing certain scenes and in Mr King's case even more so.
This is a story about believing in miracles, about helping others, about injustice and unfairness. It's about drama yes, but also beauty in the simple things. I hope someone might feel the will to try it in the future because it is, indeed, beautiful.

Stacia Kane - Sacrificial Magic

When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss -- who also happens to be her drug dealer -- to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess's boyfriend, Terrible, doesn't trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess. Plus there's the little matter of Chess's real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead -- and if Chess doesn't watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks. As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she's not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

Comment: This is the 4th book in the Downside Ghosts by the author. Once again we return to the world where ghosts are evil and can come back to terrorize the living. And of course, to our protagonist, without self esteem and a drug addict. In this new book, Chess has a new case to work and at the same time her drug dealer requests her help to deal with a little problem of black magic and obviously she can't say no.

The storyline is very interesting. The author writes in a fluid way and it's intriguing how the little clues get in the middle and sometimes we only notice them because of other clues and it's very good to understand where the story is leading. The case is interesting and like always, it's not a random occurrence that the other case Chess has to deal with for Bump is connected to her Church case. She just has to find a way not to mix them. I never find an issue with the way the author works and solves the cases Chess has and it's fascinating to see every step until it's everything is there for the reader to understand the whys and the hows.

Now...about Chess herself... In this story she has a love life..well, a loving and more stable one...but she keeps thinking when will be the day her boyfriend - sort of - tells her he's done. Some people might think this is nuts because love is strong, we have to trust the other person, etc... but this isn't easy for someone with a low or non existing self esteem. When we convinced ourselves no one can really understand us or that there's no reason for others to like us or even that we feel impostors in this world and everyone else will see us for what we are not, then...
I have to confess I understand Chess's thoughts. I understand her reasons to be an addict. I don't think she took the best decision when she turned to drugs but in this book we see it wasn't as easy as we might think and we have even more little tidbits about the why. She has an horrible childhood and youth. Horrible. But sometimes we don't have to be treated badly to not like ourselves. Sometimes we just are.
Chess also has options to make in this book about herself. I don't think of her as weak anymore after her choice. In a "normal" world thinks aren't like this but there are many people out there who aren't confident and who don't feel worthy even if rationally they know they are. So, I love chess as a protagonist because she personifies all of those who can't be what they deserve because it's not that easy, or that simple to just change. It takes time and sometimes it's too hard even to try. I hope she redeems herself in the future. I really do because I'd like to see her happy, to feel loved and worthy at last. I just hope she accepts it for real when it does.
So, this book, in terms of emotions and feelings is awesome because in real life people have problems and I like seeing a heroine who doesn't become perfect just because she is in love - like Chess is - but has a lot to work on before admitting she needs help and she deserves to have it. The title is very appropriate too, in my opinion. I recommend this series to everyone who can accept a protagonist who doesn't love herself that much...

Elizabeth Peters - Crocodile on the Sandbank

In Victorian England, A Woman Wasn't Supposed To Be An Archaeologist Or A Detective.
Amelia Peabody Was Both.
Thirty-one-year-old Victorian gentlewoman, Amelia Peabody has inherited her father's strong will as well as his considerable fortune. On her way to Cairo to indulge her passion for Egyptology, she picks up Evelyn Barton-Forbes as a traveling companion. Evelyn has a tarnished past, but both she and Amelia believe that it won't come back to haunt her. That belief is shattered when Evelyn is attacked by a walking, homicidal mummy.
Amelia enlists the aid of Radcliff Emerson, a prominent Egyptologist, to help unravel the plot against her friend and decipher the clues left by the mummy. Between grave digging and academic sparring, she manages to save his life. But with the threat of an ancient curse closing in, Amelia must resort to outrageous methods to prevent the mummy from making corpses of them all.

Comment: I had this book in my TBR list for a long time I'm not even sure why I guess it was because the protagonist is a spinster (I usually like stories with this topic) but well, it's been there for ages and now that I decided to so a challenge it fit perfectly in one of the themes and finally it was its turn.
Amelia is a very determined person. She wants to travel to Egypt because it fascinates her and because she has the means to do so. On the way she finds and helps Evelyn and the Emerson brothers..and a mummy. All the characters find a way to have some importance in what happens during the story and the mystery gets more complicated in every page.
Well, Amelia's practical and she knows always what to do. Although I wanted to see a bit more of her vulnerabilities and we could see them here and there, still I think it wasn't enough to make me feel connected to her, to feel more empathy than the one needed. I mean, she was everything I think a woman should be but i wanted to see her admitting vulnerabilities and work on them and see some effort and somehow it didn't happen like that and I feel that, in the end she wasn't that appealing to me because of that. She was too focus to be a more agreeable character.
The rest of the characters was interesting but then the story...I know it was set in Victorian times so some rules had to apply and on that level I found the story enjoyable but the whole feel of the writing didn't seduce me. I actually thought some parts were rather boring. The mystery was interesting but, to me, not enough to make me eager to see it solved, I wasn't that interested in seeing who the villain was because I knew who was it and although I didn't see how, knowing the who and the why made me uninterested in knowing the rest.
The romances in the story were funny, but Amelia's not really...I expected more emotion, ok, it's historical, but still, it all felt so....aloof, too practical.
In the end I can't say I really liked the story, some parts were good but others not really and I don't think I will read more. I don't mean to say it's a bad book, it's just not something I enjoyed that much, I've read better both in historicals and in mysteries. But I recommend it for those who enjoy Egyptian stuff and light mysteries.

Jayne Castle - Harmony

Harmony is a planet in the far future, aglow with an amber light and the psychic energy of its inhabitants. It is here that Jayne Castle casts her spell-over the men and women brave enough to love in a world unlike any we have ever seen before. In this unforgettable volume are two very enchanting tales set on Harmony... After Dark...The New York Times bestselling novel of romantic suspense with a paranormal twist. A para-archaeologist and one of the most dangerous men on the planet heat up a murder investigation with a passion that cannot be extinguished-or denied... Bridal Jitters...From the national bestselling anthology, Charmed. An official marriage-of-convenience between paranormal business partners is almost called off-because of love.

Comment: This is another book for the challenge. But the first reason that led me to it was the fact I won book #6 in the series in Nalini Singh's blog last year. Ha. I wasn't aware it was book #6, so I had to get book #1 to see if there was any chance I might reach book #6.
With two goals in mind because of this book, finally I got the chance to try it.
This book is an omnibus, it has two stories inside, the short story "Bridal Jitters" that's apparently the introduction to the series, and After Dark, which is the official full length book in the series. I was glad I could get both in one volume.

First of all, the world. I confess I don't read much sci-fi, it's not a genre I look for and especially if it doesn't have romance. So, to enter a new world with different rules..well, it can be an adventure so this was why I wasn't discouraged from the start. The author has written a note available in her website where she explains a bit the history behind the series, so I'll spare anyone who's not (yet) interested and leave only the link: http://www.krentz-quick.com/harmony/history.html
After reading this it's obviously so much easier to follow some information in the stories.
To summarize, action takes place in a different planet, in the distant future, after a disaster that separated Earth from the new planet. People there descend from colonizers from Earth and they started showing some affinity to amber, a stone prolific in the planet, Harmony.
This aside, the stories focus more on romance and storyline than the environment around them but it shows, so I think sci-fi is an adequate label.

The two stories I've read were interesting and full of information and even with the author's note I found myself confused a bit but that's normal because it's such a different set of rules and dealings, then the fact people there have some sort of paranormal power or close connection to something paranormal also makes it more rich but I was able to enjoy things more because of that too, it's a fulfilling world.
"Bridal Jitters" is about Sam and Virginia, they're going to get a marriage of convenience in order to gain some profit after selling a house, but after all they want more than just that...
After Dark is the story of Emmett and Lydia and how he asks her to help him finding a piece of furniture that has been in his family since colonization and he wants it back but they find themselves in the middle of a mystery and developing feelings.
Like I said, it's hard to get used to things at first but after some chapters we get to understand things more and to be honest the writing style is the same as her writing as JAK and Amanda Quick. This helped a lot to process the information about the world because the writing style can ease out understanding of things. Besides the fact it focus the romance helps too, we want the couple to be together. I have to be honest, the secondary characters weren't that interesting, but they played their part well.
I liked the book, the two stories and will read more, especially to know more about the world, because after a while we just want to understand Harmony and its secrets better.
In the end of the bigger story I was left wondering how the couple would do next and was satisfied with the mystery solving. All in all, a good attempt and I'm glad I enjoyed reading it.

Amanda Quick - Seduction

Townsfolk called him devil. For dark and enigmatic Julian, Earl of Ravenwood, was a man with a legendary temper and a first wife whose mysterious death would not he forgotten. Some said the beautiful Lady Ravenwood had drowned herself in the black, murky waters of Ravenwood Pond. Others whispered of foul play and the devil's wrath. Now country-bred Sophy Dorring is about to become Ravenwood's new bride. Drawn to his masculine strength and the glitter of desire that burned in his emerald eyes, the tawny-haired lass had her own reasons for agreeing to a marriage of convenience. One was vengeance, and in its pursuit she would entangle Julian in a blackmail plot, a duel at dawn, and a dangerous masquerade. The other reason was dearer to her heart, but just as wild a quest. Sophy Dorring intended to teach the devil to love again.

Comment: After asking for recommendations for this challenge I was immediatly eager to read this one as the february theme. For one, I loved all the books I've read so far that the author has written with this pen name, and for other, the story intrigued me.
Sophy refused a marriage proposal because she fears the man who might become her husband wouldn't accept her small demands while entering the marriage. She wants freedom enough to pursue revenge for her sister but it wouldn't be soemthing she could accomplish if her new to be husband would forbid her to be in london.
Julien, the earl, wants to marry her because he thinks, as she's 23 years old, she's more mature and he wouldn't have to worry she might be reckless like his first wife.
After the marriage both think they know what to expect from the other, but feelings start to happen between them and nothing goes as expected.
I liked the book a lot, the story is fluid and as always, the dialogue is witty and full of sarcasm, something I just love in these books. The idea of marriage isn't as easy as they both thought and they have to learn to cope with the challenges the other means to both their lives and hearts. I liekd the tomance a lot, like in most cases in this author's books, the romance storyline is slowly developped, but feels better because of that. It's not only the regency time that stops everythign from happening too fast, it's the whole characterization of the protagonists, I liked reading about them and to learn things, one step at a time,about them.
The story ends up a bit predictable but I knew what to expect and to be honest I wasn't disappointed; I was actually quite happy with it and had a great time reading the book. This wasn't the first book I've read by the author, my favourite so far remains The River Knows, but all the books I've read are fun and interesting to see, so always a good bet for me.
All in all, a good story, a good time and I want to read more in the future, for sure.

Agatha Christie - And Then They Were None

Ten strangers are gathered together on an isolated island by a mysterious host. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they die...

Comment: This was a re-read. I've read this book along time ago, years ago to be more exact.
I've re-read it for both the portuguese book club and the challenge I'm participating in this year as the author is obviously from Europe.
The book tell us the story of ten people, all invited to stay in an island, and somehow they all start showing up dead. There's no connection between them, they don't know any of the others and there's no reason why anyone might want to kill anybody else. It's a mystery full of litle details and all the answers are, as always, in the characters themselves.
This a clever book by the author, one of my favourites by her, a book whose plot is the most amazing onea nd the end is completely unimaginable.
But more than the way everybody dies or why, there's the how on one of the deaths, the last one, that really made me think, even after a second reading. I can't explain it without spoilers, but it's surprising how one's inner guilt can be a powerful weapon.
I recommend this book to everyone. It's a classic of how the psycological can be the main reason to do something instead of only the circunstance.
I don't have many things to say about this without spoilers, but the author is indeed an expert in the human mind and actions leading the motifs. A great book.

2012 Book Challenge

Yes, yes, yes, I've said I wouldn't participate in any chellenge this year, but apparently it's something that just pops up and tricks one to get into it.
The thing is, I really didn't want to get myself into anything because I wanted to read without pressure, besides I already have my portuguese book club. Anyway, it's exactly because of the book club I'm getting into this.
Some friends in the book club have a goodreads account and I believe this idea comes from there but I can't know for sure where it did come from originally.
It's a challenge for one year and part of the fun is to find out books to fit each month's theme.
Here they are:

January - Something from an european author
February - Something with a character whose name starts with the same letter as mine, an "S" (tricky)
March - Something with a red, blue or green cover
April - The action has to be set in Africa or Asia (or part of it)
May - Something that is part of a series
June - Something adapted to a movie
July - Something with more than 350 pages
August - Something published in the year I was born
September - Something from an already deceased author
October - Something from an author from our country
November - Something with less than 200 pages
December - Something that has been a gift

I'll have to think of several things, but February, April and June are the ones I'm most concerned about...
When I have my ideas I'll create another page on top and give my progress's report there. I hope it's fun, at least!