Icon Tag: Historical

Pet Lions & Well-Dressed Elephants by Donna-Lee Dicksson

Pet Lions & Well-Dressed Elephants by Donna-Lee Dicksson on June 1st, 2022 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 312 Format: ARC Source: Reedsy Discovery Buy on Amazon Goodreads Follow the fascinating lives of two people born and raised on opposite shores of Lake Ontario when the U.S. had but twenty-nine states and Canada was yet to become a country. Accompany them through American history as they become key players in the birth and success of “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Historically accurate nuggets of history emerge as Charley, at age fourteen, joins a traveling circus. How did his experiences prepare him to be a leader and quickly advance in rank during the American Civil War? How did he evolve into a legendary menagerie manager? Meet Annie, a child born in Canada West to Irish immigrants. At eighteen she married an acrobat and embarked upon her own circus journey. How did this diminutive woman (who became a widow and single mother) not only manage to provide for her child, but rise to become the highly respected wardrobe mistress of the fledgling “Greatest Show on Earth?” Annie and Charley were brought together when the Barnum, Coup and Castello show prepared for its first season […]

Posted July 18, 2022
7 Comments

Throwback Thursday #12 – Froelich’s Ladder

Greetings you guys! Yes, I know we’ve promised to do a throwback Thursday more regularly, but books tend to get in the way of that. Last week Thursday, we were busy planning our Throwback Thursday post and just quickly wanted to make sure that we have all our previous Throwback Thursday posts updated on the WordPress site. While updating 11/22/63, we remember we still have The Pink Suit on our TBR and well, the rest is history. But welcome to our version and latest edition of Throwback Thursday! The Chocolate Lady’s #Throwback Thursday takes place on the Thursday before the first Saturday of every month. Yes, there is a linky and it will remain open until she uploads the new one. Thank Goodness. My first and last sometimes gets very confused. Your post must highlight one of your previously published book reviews and Davida encourages other participants to do the same. Add the link to your post and remember to link back to The Chocolate Lady’s Book Blog And do not forget to #ThrowbackThursday! The 12th review my Mommy has written, was on a book she enjoyed ever so much and she is actually quite sad to see that it never really took […]

Posted July 14, 2022
8 Comments

Close your Eyes: A Fairy Tale by Chris Tomasini

Close your Eyes by Chris Tomasini on May 2022 Genres: Fiction Pages: 256 Format: ARC Source: Netgalley, Reedsy Discovery Buy on Amazon Goodreads Set in early 1400s Europe, Close Your Eyes is a sincere, yet light-hearted and lustful, ode to love. As Samuel, the court jester, struggles to describe why his friends, Agnieszka the cook, and Tycho the story-teller, fled the King of Gora’s service, he learns that love was the beating heart behind everything that happened in the castle. He learns as well that more ghosts than he knew of walked the midnight halls, and that the spirit of Jeanne d’Arc haunted his friend, and once slid into bed with Tycho, daring him to leave – to take to the cold roads of Europe, where he had once wandered orphaned and alone, and find his destiny there. In the Kingdom of Gora, in early 1400s Europe, the King of Gora has assembled a collection of entertainers, scholars, cooks, and others, to care for and educate his young children, the Prince and Princess. Tycho, the children’s storyteller, and Samuel, the court jester, are happy in Gora, yet it becomes apparent that the children’s cook, Agnieszka, was lured to the castle […]

Posted June 23, 2022
10 Comments

The Scarlet Oak: Murder, Spies and Spirits by Jerry Aylward

The Scarlet Oak by Jerry Aylward on July 4th, 2022 Genres: Mystery Pages: 324 Format: ARC Source: Reedsy Discovery Buy on Amazon Goodreads The bodies of two high school sweethearts are discovered beneath a venerable scarlet oak tree in a vacant horse pasture on the posh north shore estate of J. Barrington Cook, a wealthy, Oyster Bay, Long Island landowner. With no forensic evidence to support his suspicions of a double murder, other than a hardened cop’s intuition, Finn embarks on an unsanctioned homicide investigation that soon exposes a long but skeptic thread of unexplained deaths dating back two-hundred and thirty-eight years, mixing with an enigmatic and beguiling apparition of a young woman residing in the same Revolutionary home of all his victims. Finn’s is mysteriously transported back to colonial Oyster Bay at the height of the American Revolution to the home of one of General George Washington’s covert Culper spies. It is here he must discover the motive for all the unexplained deaths along with the mystifying reason they have remained undetected. Finn’s life takes an unexpected turn when he meets the beautiful but cryptic Sally Townsend, forcing him to abandon a self-imposed protective shell of indifference to solve […]

Posted June 13, 2022
11 Comments

Blog Tour and Review: Dolly Considine’s Hotel by Eamon Somers

Dolly Considine’s Hotel by Eamon Somers on July 8th 2021 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 320 Format: ARC Source: Travelling Pages Tours Buy on Amazon Goodreads Dolly Considine runs a late-night drinking establishment catering to the needs of thirsty politicians and theatricals in Dublin’s legendary drinking area, the Catacombs. Julian Ryder (aka Paddy Butler) is an eighteen-year-old aspiring writer in need of shelter from his bullying older brother. As the new live-in lounge assistant at Dolly Considine’s Hotel, Julian soon embroils himself in the shebeen’s gossip – and the guests’ bedsheets – and turns Dolly’s entourage into fodder for his literary ambitions. Reality quickly becomes difficult to separate from fantasy… Set against the run-up to the Pro-life Constitutional Amendment of September 1983 and moving fluidly between the 1950s of Dolly’s youth and Julian’s Summer of Unrequited Love, the hotel becomes a stage for farce and tragedy. Between Julian’s fictions, Dolly’s Secrets, and narrow party politics – and featuring a papier-mâché figure of Mother Ireland giving birth and clashing sword-wielding dancers – this rich cocktail threatens to blow them, and even Ireland itself, wide apart. Greetings! Welcome to our stop on the blog tour for Dolly Considine’s Hotel by Eamon Somers. This tour is […]

Posted June 11, 2022
4 Comments

Drawn by the Current by Jocelyn Green

Drawn by the Current by Jocelyn Green Series: The Windy City Saga #3 on February 1st , 2022 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 384 Format: ARC Source: Netgalley Buy on Amazon Goodreads A birthday excursion turns deadly when the SS Eastland capsizes with Olive Pierce and her best friend Claire on board. Hundreds perish during the accident, and it’s only when Olive herself barely escapes that she discovers her friend is among the victims. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Olive returns to her work at an insurance agency and is soon caught up in the countless investigations related to the accident. But with so many missing, there are few open-and-shut cases, and she tries to balance her grief with the hard work of finding the truth. Is she just overwhelmed, or is someone trying to impede her investigations? When clues surface that impact those closest to her, how deep will she dig? Newspaper photographer Erik Magnussen begins helping Olive with her cases, and they develop a fast friendship. Just when Olive begins to unravel the secrets, more setbacks arise. It will take everything she’s got to find the truth and stay ahead of those who want to sabotage her progress. […]

Posted May 2, 2022
6 Comments

Cragside: A 1930’s Murder Mystery by M.J. Porter

Cragside: A 1930’s Murder Mystery by M J Porter on April 14th, 2022 Genres: Mystery Pages: 258 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads From the author of The Erdington Mysteries, a classic 1930s murder mystery house party. Lady Merryweather has had a shocking year. Apprehended for the murder of her husband the year before, and only recently released, she hopes a trip away from London will allow her to grieve. The isolated, but much loved, Cragside Estate in North Northumberland, home of her friends, Lord and Lady Bradbury, holds special memories for her. But, no sooner has she arrived than the body of one of the guests is found on the estate, and suspicion immediately turns on her. Perhaps, there are no friendships to be found here, after all. Released, due to a lack of evidence, Lady Ella returns to Cragside only to discover a second murder has taken place in her absence, and one she can’t possibly have committed. Quickly realising that these new murders must be related to that of her beloved husband, Lady Merryweather sets out to solve the crime, once and for all. But there are many who don’t want […]

Posted April 15, 2022
6 Comments

Kaspar, Prince of Cats by Michael Morpurgo

Kaspar, Prince of Cats by Michael Morpurgo on January 7th, 2010 Genres: Middle Grade Pages: 207 Format: Paperback Source: VCS Buy on Amazon Goodreads A heart-warming, colour-illustrated novel about Kaspar the Savoy cat, from the award-winning author of Born to Run and The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips Kaspar the cat first came to the Savoy Hotel in a basket – Johnny Trott knows, because he was the one who carried him in. Johnny was a bell-boy, you see, and he carried all of Countess Kandinsky’s things to her room. But Johnny didn’t expect to end up with Kaspar on his hands forever, and nor did he count on making friends with Lizziebeth, a spirited American heiress. Pretty soon, events are set in motion that will take Johnny – and Kaspar – all around the world, surviving theft, shipwreck and rooftop rescues along the way. Because everything changes with a cat like Kaspar around. After all, he’s Prince Kaspar Kandinsky, Prince of Cats, a Muscovite, a Londoner and a New Yorker, and as far as anyone knows, the only cat to survive the sinking of the Titanic… Today marks the 110 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Every […]

Posted April 15, 2022
4 Comments

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont Published by St Martin’s Press on February 1st, 2022 Genres: Fiction Pages: 320 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Nina de Gramont’s The Christie Affair is a beguiling novel of star-crossed lovers, heartbreak, revenge, and murder—and a brilliant re-imagination of one of the most talked-about unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. Every story has its secrets. Every mystery has its motives. “A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman. It’s a particular feeling, the urge to murder. It takes over your body so completely, it’s like a divine force, grabbing hold of your will, your limbs, your psyche. There’s a joy to it. In retrospect, it’s frightening, but I daresay in the moment it feels sweet. The way justice feels sweet.” The greatest mystery wasn’t Agatha Christie’s disappearance in those eleven infamous days, it’s what she discovered. London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches, socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie. The question is, why? Why destroy another woman’s marriage, why hatch a plot years in the making, […]

Posted April 4, 2022
11 Comments

Lucifer’s Game by Cristina Loggia

Lucifer’s Game by Cristina Loggia Published by Lume Books on October 14th, 2021 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 340 Format: ARC Source: Netgalley Buy on Amazon Goodreads Rome, 1942. Cordelia Olivieri is a young, determined hotel owner desperate to escape Mussolini’s racial persecution. But as Fascist leaders gather in Rome, Cordelia is suddenly surrounded by the world’s most ruthless and powerful commanders. In an effort to keep her Jewish heritage a secret and secure safe passage out of Italy, Cordelia forms a dangerous alliance with the British army who want to push the Axis out of North Africa once and for all. Going undercover, Cordelia begins obtaining and leaking military intelligence to a British agent, hoping the intel will secure her freedom. But the more Cordelia uncovers, the greater the risks – especially for one handsome German Afrika Korps officer. How far must Cordelia go to protect her identity and secure passage out of Rome? Spies, military secrets, and a personal crusade for freedom… don’t miss this utterly gripping World War II thriller. Italy 1942. The world is at war and not even the ancient city of Rome and its citizens are spared from the fear and devastation. Cordelia Olivieri, a […]

Posted March 28, 2022
6 Comments

Icon Tag: Historical

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