Review: The Solitary House

Title: The Solitary House
Author: Lynn Shepherd
Length: 340 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Suspense
Source: Publisher as part of Early Bird Reads
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): London, 1850. Charles Maddox had been an up-and-coming officer for the Metropolitan police until a charge of insubordination abruptly ended his career. Now he works alone, struggling to eke out a living by tracking down criminals. Whenever he needs it, he has the help of his great-uncle Maddox, a legendary “thief taker,” a detective as brilliant and intuitive as they come.

On Charles’s latest case, he’ll need all the assistance he can get.

To his shock, Charles has been approached by Edward Tulkinghorn, the shadowy and feared attorney, who offers him a handsome price to do some sleuthing for a client. Powerful financier Sir Julius Cremorne has been receiving threatening letters, and Tulkinghorn wants Charles to—discreetly—find and stop whoever is responsible.

But what starts as a simple, open-and-shut case swiftly escalates into something bigger and much darker. As he cascades toward a collision with an unspeakable truth, Charles can only be aided so far by Maddox. The old man shows signs of forgetfulness and anger, symptoms of an age-related ailment that has yet to be named.

Intricately plotted and intellectually ambitious, The Solitary House is an ingenious novel that does more than spin an enthralling tale: it plumbs the mysteries of the human mind.

My Review: The Solitary House was a gripping, if somewhat confusing, novel of suspense. Lynn Shepherd did an excellent job of making her reader feel as if they were a part of 1850's London. While reading this book I felt transported which always makes for a better read. As dreary a place as London in the 1850's could be, I enjoyed being there, feeling it, smelling it.


I found Charles to to be a bit naive/brash on occasions which caused me to feel a little upset with him at times. This, however, only took away slightly from the overall feel of the book. I loved how Shepherd used perspective in her writing. Writing as if we were an audience watching the story with her. The feeling that we were "in the know". I don't think I've ever read a book from that perspective before.I also must admit that Inspector Bucket became quite  favorite at the end!


The sub-plot was introduced and played out in a very intriguing way. The ending was a surprise to me and I felt as if there were a few loose ends that weren't tied up. That being said, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in suspense, mysteries, historical London, and an overall good story.  I am looking forward to reading Ms. Shepherd's first book, Murder at Mansfield Park!

Review: The Bungalow

Title: The Bungalow
Author: Sarah Jio
Length: 290 pages
Publisher: Plume
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): A sweeping World War II saga of thwarted love, murder, and a long-lost painting.
In the summer of 1942, twenty-one-year-old Anne Calloway, newly engaged, sets off to serve in the Army Nurse Corps on the Pacific island of Bora-Bora. More exhilarated by the adventure of a lifetime than she ever was by her predictable fiancé, she is drawn to a mysterious soldier named Westry, and their friendship soon blossoms into hues as deep as the hibiscus flowers native to the island. Under the thatched roof of an abandoned beach bungalow, the two share a private world-until they witness a gruesome crime, Westry is suddenly redeployed, and the idyll vanishes into the winds of war.
A timeless story of enduring passion, The Bungalow chronicles Anne's determination to discover the truth about the twin losses-of life, and of love-that have haunted her for seventy years.

My Review: I was very hesitant to pick this book up. Sarah Jio's first book had come very highly recommended and I hate to say it but I really didn't like it. The secondary story held me enthralled for most of it but it ended up falling flat for me. I won't go into why, as this is not a review of The Violets of March. Now a new Sarah Jio book was being talked up, The Bungalow. Well if you knew me you would know that I would not be able to automatically pass by a book with a cover as beautiful as The Bungalow's. That cover is where I want to be! This book was literally "love at first sight". I think that it could have been about anything and I would not have been able to resist! Luckily the storyline also sounded very interesting.


I started reading this book while I was also reading two other books. I switched back and forth for about the first half of the book. I found myself always waiting anxiously until it was time to return to The Bungalow. Anne, Westry, and the beauty of Bora Bora, which you couldn't help but feel transported to, had captured me. I wanted to be in the bungalow and part of the mystery and romance. Once I got to the halfway point I just couldn't put it down anymore! I finished it in one sitting! The beauty, romance, loss, tension, and yearning that was The Bungalow stayed with me long after I closed the book and put it down.


This book is what Sarah Jio started to show me she could do in The Violets of March. I highly recommend The Bungalow! If you've read it I'd love to hear your opinions!

Review: The Book Thief

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Length: 552
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis: (from Goodreads): It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery....

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

My Review:  This was a very interesting book.  It took me awhile to really appreciate it. I started reading and thought "It's good, but I don't really understand all the hype." I'm not sure exactly when I began to really appreciate this book but appreciate it I did.  

This book is unique in a few different ways. First, it is the only book I've read where the main character was a non-Jewish German child.   This does not mean that the war didn't change her life drastically but it was not your typical story of the persecuted Jew. There is a character that fits that description in this book but I don't feel that his story was stereotypical either.  Second, the narrator is Death or the Grim Reaper, whichever you prefer. He, once again, is not what you might expect. He feels almost benevolent while adding a global view to a story centered around one young girl.  Through him you see not only her story but are able to feel the horrible impact of the war on a larger scale while not being intimately acquainted with it. Death's imagery, his voice, is comforting and haunting all at the same time. Third, it is a story told through a procession of books, through a love of books.

I found this to be a story of childhood, friendship, rebellion, bravery, loss, books, words, and most of all love in the midst of WWII Germany. This is a beautifully written story. A book that is worth your time to get to know.

Review: The Snow Child

Title: The Snow Child
Author: Eowyn Ivey
Length: 389 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Literary fiction, Fantasy
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

My Review: I read this book about a month after it came out. As soon as I read the description I ordered it. It promised to have historical fiction, mystery, magic, love, and a Russian fairytale all rolled into one. I couldn't resist. The truth is that it did have all of these and the writing was beautiful. I devoured the story.  However, once I was finished I had the feeling that I missed something, that there was something I didn't understand. Soon after I came across a version of the fairytale this story was based on, Little Daughter of the Snow .  I picked it up hoping that it would help me understand the ending of The Snow Child. This didn't help me feel any clearer, as this version had been mention in  The Snow Child. but I enjoyed it's story and beautiful illustrations.  I will hopefully have time to re-read this story and find what I was missing so I can say I loved this book as I felt I should.

If you've read it or happen to read it, as I would recommend, I would love to hear your impressions. 

Review: Sarah's Key

Title: Sarah's Key
Author: Tatiana de Rosnay
Length: 378 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Fiction/Historical fiction
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
A young girl.
A fateful key.
A woman searching for the truth…
Experience the novel that has touched millions.
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten-year-old girl, is taken with her parents by the French police as they go door to door arresting Jewish families in the middle of the night. Desperate to protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in a bedroom cupboard—their secret hiding place—and promises to come back for him as soon as they are released.
Sixty Years Later: Sarah’s story intertwines with that of Julia Jarmond, an American journalist investigating the roundup. In her research, Julia stumbles onto a trail of secrets that link her to Sarah, and to questions about her own future.                                                                                                       
With more than five million copies in print and over two years on the New York Times bestseller list, Sarah’s Key has made its way into the hearts and minds of readers everywhere. Now, with this beautiful new hardcover edition, the gift of powerful storytelling can be shared with the ones you love.

My Review:  I bought this book based on some good reviews and my current like of  WWII historical fiction.  This book was well written and engaging, at least for the first 2/3rds of the story.

I loved the chapters which described Sarah's experiences.  They were riveting, emotional, and horrifying all at the same time. I had not previously been aware of this incident in France during WWII and was glad to read it's history.  I became involved with this character.  Each time her story was paused I waited for it to be Sarah's turn again.  Unfortunately Sarah's story ended too soon and then we are left with just Julia's.

I never really liked Julia's character but also didn't dislike her, at least in the beginning.  I was able to follow along, patiently, with the parallel stories, waiting for them to intersect.  I could understand both her professional and personal reasons for pursuing Sarah's story. However, at some point, her continued pursuit goes beyond reasonable and becomes completely selfish.  It was at this point that issues with her character in the beginning of the book could no longer be overlooked, because the underlying story was so good, but combined with her selfishness and made her completely unlikable in my eyes. I'm afraid if I say much more it will fall into the spoiler realm so I'll leave it here.

If this had been Sarah's story alone this book would've been great.

Review: Prague Fatale (Bernard Gunther #8)

Title: Prague Fatale (Bernard Gunther #8)
Author: Philip Kerr
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: A Marian Wood Book/Putnam
Genre: Historical fiction, Mystery, Political thriller
Source: ARC from Goodreads Giveaway
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): September 1941: Reinhard Heydrich is hosting a gathering to celebrate his appointment as Reichsprotector of Czechoslovakia. He has chosen his guests with care. All are high-ranking Party members and each is a suspect in a crime as yet to be committed: the murder of Heydrich himself.
     Indeed, a murder does occur, but the victim is a young adjutant on Heydrich’s staff, found dead in his room, the door and windows bolted from the inside. Anticipating foul play, Heydrich had already ordered Bernie Gunther to Prague. After more than a decade in Berlin's Kripo, Bernie had jumped ship as the Nazis came to power, setting himself up as a private detective. But Heydrich, who managed to subsume Kripo into his own SS operations, has forced Bernie back to police work. Now, searching for the killer, Gunther must pick through the lives of some of the Reich’s most odious officials.
     A perfect locked-room mystery. But because Philip Kerr is a master of the sleight of hand, Prague Fatale is also a tense political thriller: a complex tale of spies, partisan terrorists, vicious infighting, and a turncoat traitor situated in the upper reaches of the Third Reich.

My Review: I'll start off by saying that I enjoyed this book. If possible I would actually give it 2.5 instead of 2. I have not read any previous Bernie Gunther novels but did not feel as if I had to to read this book. There was obviously some history I was missing between Heydrich and Gunther, but it did not really detract from the story. 

The mystery was an interesting one with some good twists and turns.  There is also a side romance involving Gunther and a woman named Arianne.  However that is all it was, a side story.  I didn't feel that it added much to the story though it did serve as a means to help tie up some loose ends.


This story kept me interested but not "on the edge of my chair" interested. I also felt that the story was a little uneven in it's pace. With that said I would definitely say that this book was worth my time and I would be willing to try reading something else by Philip Kerr. 

Review: Winter Garden

Title: Winter Garden
Author: Kristen Hannah
Length: 391 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Fiction, Historical fiction
Source: Purchased
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane and True Colors comes a powerful, heartbreaking novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the present and the past.

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard: the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time - and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya's life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother's life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

My Review: This book was a little slow to get started. I would say I was at least 1/3 of the way through before I became invested. The three women were leading completely different lives and though we would get pictures of them there was nothing that united them in the story. The three individual stories were not enough by themselves to engage me.  In fact, Meredith actually irritated me a little with her self-sacrificing manner and her refusal to deal with her immediate family problems.

Once Nina finally came home and the fairy tale was being told in it's entirety I didn't want to put the book down.  It's such an overwhelming story that I find it hard to believe that there is anyone who could not be moved by it.

It is interesting to watch the relationship change and evolve  with the three women but that is definitely a secondary story line.

If you are interested in WWII, fairy tales, and are a sucker for a good tear jerker than definitely give this book a try.   I haven't had a book make me cry like that in, well I can't remember when.