Anyway, a while ago, I found a book that sounded interested but the problem was is wasn't out yet - like it was still two month away from being released. Sigh. So, instead of per-ordering it from Amazon, I reserved it at my local library (only because there's been a few times I've done this and been disappointed in the book.) So, when the book became available I jumped at the chance to drive down there and scoop it up.
I read it in a day. Oops.
It was good. Like really good. And, the BEST part - it was a stand alone novel! It's so hard to find a great new novel, read it and then find out at the end of the book, that there are at least two more books in the series. AND you'll have to wait two years between books. It's totally a let down. So, on that note - if you hear of a GREAT book, BUT it's a trilogy and the second and third books aren't out yet, my advice would be don't read the first book until at least book two comes out...seriously - unless you can't wait, and then never mind. Read it anyway.
So, then after I read this book, another book I had reserved a couple months ago came in the library as well, and as I returned the first, I picked up the second.
And folks, I cried.
I
I remember the first time I cried, I was young, probably fourteen and I had borrowed a copy of "The Man In the Iron Mask" by Alexandre Dumas. Sadly, I never finished the book, and actually only read like five chapters or something like that, BUT, the way Dumas described the prisoner looking at the sun was beautiful.
Alright, you've read long enough about these great books I've just finished reading, so without further adieu, here they are:
Here is the Amazon blurb:
A remarkable and utterly inventive novel bursting with intrigue and romance, from Sharon Cameron, acclaimed author of THE DARK UNWINDING, which USA TODAY called "spellbindingly imaginative."
Centuries after a shifting of the Earth's poles, the Sunken City that was once Paris is in the grips of a revolution. All who oppose the new regime are put to the blade, except for those who disappear from their prison cells, a red-tipped rook feather left in their place. Is the mysterious Red Rook a savior of the innocent or a criminal?
Meanwhile, across the sea in the Commonwealth, Sophia Bellamy's arranged marriage to the wealthy René Hasard is the last chance to save her family from ruin. But when the search for the Red Rook comes straight to her doorstep, Sophia discovers that her fiancé is not all he seems. Which is only fair, because neither is she.
As the Red Rook grows bolder and the stakes grow higher, Sophia and René find themselves locked in a tantalizing game of cat and mouse.
Daring intrigue, delicious romance, and spine-tingling suspense fill the pages of this extraordinary tale from award-winning author Sharon Cameron.
Here is the Amazon blurb:
In this stunning new novel, the acclaimed author of The Plum Tree merges the past and present into a haunting story about the nature of love and loyalty--and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most.
Ten years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now seventeen, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloging items at a long-shuttered state asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of unopened letters, a decades-old journal, and a window into her own past.
Clara Cartwright, eighteen years old in 1929, is caught between her overbearing parents and her love for an Italian immigrant. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash, he can no longer afford her care--and Clara is committed to the public asylum.
Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning, Clara's story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally ill, could something else explain her own mother's violent act? Piecing together Clara's fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices--with shocking and unexpected results.
Illuminating and provocative, What She Left Behind is a masterful novel about the yearning to belong--and the mysteries that can belie even the most ordinary life.
Alright - if you're looking for a couple of good books to read, check these out. You won't be sorry!