Jessi

Welcome to the forum! I am another who loves historical fiction

Hi Shyora, welcome to the forum!

The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefore and Doctor Turners Casebook by Stephen McGann - both come out tomorrow!

A Study In Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4/5) This was my first re-read of the year and I enjoyed it as much as I did first time around! I love the way Conan Doyle draws his characters and brings them to life. I love the way the plots wind together. I love the way London itself becomes a character within the books. A Study In Scarlet doesn’t overwhelm us with information about the characters and what’s ahead, being pretty short, but gives us enough to stay hooked in for more. it sent me right on to ‘The Sign of Four.’

Congratulations on your new job Frankie!

I am still working my way through North and South and also reading The Sign of Four!

Great review of The Victorians! I have it on my TBR - may have to try and get to it this year!

Really hope you continue to feel better! Pride and Prejudice is a definite comfort read for me - Mr Darcy indeed! <3

Thats very true! Thank you

A Royal Match - Tyne O'Connell (2/5) So… 2/5. The lowest book score to date yet this year. I don’t know what it was – this book is written for a teenage audience, not that I think that means much as a rule. I’ve read and loved books in the last few years meant for kids. Yet this just didn’t appeal – why I kept going to the end, I don’t know. The characters were unlikable, I didn’t care for the ‘heroine’ and the plot just got more ridiculous as time went on. There were some threads which were never resolved and yeah… I just didn’t enjoy it.

I think I am going to go to Mrs Jordan's profession next... then maybe on to Dickens! You too

I am hoping to read another chuck of North and South by Gaskell today! I have read about 65% so far!

Thank you - you too, Poppy! The contrast to what our lives are like and what Qurntin and Flora's was is just massive - the risk they faced kinda jumped off every page of the war chapters! It is! Its heartbreaking to think of what that generation could have done if they lived. I had this moment when I realized I am older now than Quentin was when he died - and I still feel so young! He certainly had to face more responsibility in his years than I ever have... or, to be honest, likely will. Flora lived on - she married once in the early 20s to an aviator who Quentin knew, but Bishop and the sources agree it was more a marriage of desperation than anything else - maybe she was marrying the man she hoped Quentin would be? Anyway, they were incompatible and divorced five years later after having two children. She married a second time in the beginning of the 1930s - that was a long and happy marriage, thankfully, after all she had already been through! She had another two children. She was also really active in the Whitney Art Museum in New York, so she lived a very full life Not at all, I'm glad you did! He he, it is like you guys can read my mind - on my train to and from work I have been reading Tomalin! I can see why she is a favourite of yours - she is a wonderful writer and I am thoroughly enjoying The Invisible Woman! I am very nearly at the end and don't want it to finish lol, so I will be reading more of her biographies in the future! This year I am hoping to get to at least 5 of those you've listed! That seems like a great recommendation : ) I can seeing The Count of Monte Cristo being one of my summer reads this year!

Quentin and Flora – Chip Bishop (4/5) This historical biography was always going to break my heart – I knew it the moment I picked it up. The fate of these two young sweethearts is the devastating story of so many young couples of the First World War – that being of the solider fiancée leaving… and not returning. Out of the fourteen months of their engagement, Flora Payne Whitney and Quentin Roosevelt spent two together and the rest pining for a reunion that was sadly never to come due to the death of the young aviator. I thought Bishop did the story justice and there is something wonderful to me about their story being told and remembered hundred years after the events. Just at the end, Bishop lets himself down a bit as he begins to jump around too much and loses the flow he created so beautifully in earlier chapters. Nevertheless, a solid read.

I hope you enjoy The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes! I am just re-reading A Study in Scarlet and want to get to more Canon Doyle this year!

Thanks - the reading circle must have been fun I liked your answers to the questions. Totally agree with you about the pace picking up at the end of the book and Milady's imprisonment going on just a little too long! Ohh, I definitely want to read it! May have to see if I can get about to it this summer! It's really enjoyable - a great read How are you doing with it? I really like it, but for some reason I feel as if I am reading it fairly slowly (though that may be because I keep on picking up all my half read books from last year to finish them at the same time!) My only complaint is how long the paragraphs become at times.

And here is my review! The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas. (4/5) I really enjoyed reading this book – it is a brick but what an adventure. I was inspired to read it after having seen The BBC’s The Mucketeers so I came to the book with ideas about it and characters already formed in my head. There was some things that stayed the same – others that have turned out very differently, which I was expecting having read reviews. Nevertheless, like I say, I really enjoyed the books, getting to know the original Musketeers and their story. It was a real adventure, great characters mixed in with a great deal of history – right up my street! I will definitely be reading more Dumas in the future!

Thank you Kylie - you too! Finished! I started it way back last spring and finally got to the end this week - I really enjoyed it. I should have tried to read it in a shorter time span though, I am convinced I dropped a few of the threads as I went along! It has gone straight back on the re-read list lol!

Good luck for the reading year ahead!

The dark turn took me by surprise too, I must admit - pretty sure it is the darkest of the three if I remember rightly!

Thanks Frankie Same to you!!! I am hoping to get to nearly all of those this year! 303 is quite the number, isn't it? I am hoping to finish with less than 275! Good luck to you getting the number down too!

I adored The Mammy! O'Carroll's books are great!

Days 50 – Greg Meng. (4/5) So – my guilty secret. I am a soap opera fan and Days of our Lives is one of my shows. Thus, when they released a book for their fiftieth anniversary last year I had to get it. It was a really fun read and had some beautiful pics! I learned a bit about the history’s of my favourite characters so – big thumbs up!

Thanks Frankie!!!

Thank you - nice to met you! I do enjoy it - I'm still a relative newbie, so am learning lots all the time! It is indeed the Gaskell novel. I am enjoying it a lot! I am just about half way through now Thank you both - its really good to be back!!!