In The Winter Sea, historical fiction author, Carrie McClelland visits her friend and agent in Scotland. On her way, she drives by Slains Castle and feels an instant connection to it. In hopes of curing her writer’s block, she rents a cottage in the nearby village of Cruden Bay and her novel practically writes itself. Carrie writes the story and then does her research only to find what she has written was true.

In Carrie’s story, Sophia Paterson travels to Slains Castle to stay with her aunt the Countess of Errol. Slains Castle is the headquarters of the Jacobite movement. Plans are being made to return James to Scotland and soon Sophia becomes sympathetic to the cause. She is drawn to John Moray one of the major players in paving the way for the would-be king. Since Moray is a wanted man, he is forced to stay at the castle instead of rallying his fellow Scots to his cause. While at the castle Sophia and Moray form a bond, but they both know that their time is short and Moray will soon return to France to serve his king.

At first, I thought the plot device of having an author as a main character was going to be a bit gimmicky, but I was drawn into the story right away. Carrie is likable and her friend’s in Cruden Bay made it hard for me to put this book down. Jimmy Keith and his sons, Stuart and Graham, are never far away. I’m definitely a sucker for a Scottish accent and some of Jimmy’s speech had me searching for a Scottish glossary. And Graham, what can I say? How is it possible to fall in love with a character when he is only on the page for a moment giving another character directions? I’m not sure, but did I mention he has a dog named Angus?

With most books that move from the past to the present, I usually find myself preferring one time period over another. With The Winter Sea, I was pretty much satisfied in either time. I must confess to knowing very little about Scottish history, so I enjoyed learning about the Jacobites. Being of Scottish descent, though woefully ignorant of most things Scottish, I always enjoy learning a little more about my heritage. I changed my banner in tribute. My husband is desperate to visit the above castle that bears the name of my family’s clan. Of course, no Scots inhabited the castle after the 14th century, but my husband must tell everyone who will listen about the castle and that it is on Loch Ness. Kidnapped is one of his favorite books, so I think he’s jealous.  It is odd that the head of my clan lives in New Orleans, but I digress.

The Winter Sea is one of my top picks for 2010. It’s the kind of historical novel that I love. There are lots of historical details but the story doesn’t focus on the major historical events, rather the everyday people involved. Kearsley’s characters are unique and the secondary characters often shine as much as the main ones.  The scenery is spectacular. I found myself trying to invent an excuse to rent a cottage near a Scottish castle myself!

Anna Oliphant has been sent away to boarding school in Paris. She misses her mother, younger brother, best friend and potential love interest all back in Atlanta. Her writer father who sent her to Paris – not so much. Anna is a budding film critic with a website where she posts her reviews. Her life takes a turn when she walks straight in to Etienne St. Clair an American with a French father and a British accent. Swoon worthy, too. It sounds like a recipe for one inflated ego, but St. Clair is nice. He’s annoyed by the fawning girls and friendly to the unpopular. St. Clair helps Anna overcome some of her insecurities about Paris and enables her to be more independent. But, Mr. Perfect does have a few faults like a girlfriend named Ellie.

I was smitten with Anna from the first paragraph. She’s a strong character, smart and funny but with enough flaws to make her easy to identify with. Plus, it’s Paris! If I had read this book as a teenager, my brain would have exploded! I would have been begging my parents to send me to SOAP. It’s hard to write much more without spoiling and gushing, so I’m just going to give you a list instead of reasons why I felt such a connection to the book. I’m sorry it’s so “all about me,” but I’m hoping it will be a little teaser without ruining the experience of reading Anna.

8 Connections to Anna and the French Kiss

1) I was obsessed with all things French as a teenager. Every report in my European History class was about France.

2) I had a poster of Napoleon on the front of my bedroom door (see #1). I’m not kidding. I actually think that I took down a door-sized poster of James Dean to put it up much to my mother’s chagrin.

3) Instead of insuring my parent’s Jeep so that I would have a car to get around, I spent my savings on a second school trip to Paris. I went almost 20 years without driving as a result.

4) I love the books that Anna reads in her English class. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto is one of my favorite books and one of the few I’ve read more than once.

5) I love books where they talk about food a lot. Kitchen is the book that really opened my eyes to that.

6) What librarian wouldn’t get excited about a book with a girl who loves the OED. I have always dreamed of finding one at a yard sale for cheap. Hasn’t happened.

7) Neruda is one of my favorite poets (and a lot of other people’s, too!). My husband and I each read one of his love sonnets at our wedding, including the one quoted in this book! It’s a good one.

Finally,  Etienne was my favorite boy name in French class.

“Rain falls or snow, I don’t know,
only I must stumble along, grope a long,
find my way; but believe me,

I have much to sustain me…”

To say Alice Ibbetson is a lover of plants is an understatement. Her father was a connoisseur and she paints botanical specimens with incredible accuracy. Since her younger sister died, Alice has locked herself in her summer house to garden and paint. When Richard Wheeler, her newest neighbor, hears of her love of plants, he shows her the rare lady’s slipper that is blooming on his property. Alice becomes obsessed. She urges him to transplant it, so that no one will steal it and to propagate it. Wheeler refuses. For him, the orchid is there by the will of God and he will not remove it. Contrary to her nature, Alice steals the orchid from under Wheeler’s nose. That act sets in motion a whirlwind that will change both of their lives.

Restoration England is a time period that I have not read much about and it sent me looking to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of history. The author does a great job of creating the atmosphere of tension during that time. As an American, I tend to think of Quakers as being American. So, it was interesting to see them before they came to this country and the trouble the faced both in terms of their religion and their politics.

Alice was a character that I was drawn to right away. She loves plants. I love them, too! I was totally jealous of her summer house and I love botanical prints, so it was just wonderful to think of her painting there. To see Alice, who I was sure was the kind of person who is normally honest and caring do such a rash thing and suffer such terrible consequences was heartbreaking. There are some pretty nasty, selfish characters just lying in wait to tangle her in her own web of deceit. While some books make me dream that I had a housekeeper to take care of me, this book scared me right off that ridiculous notion! Overall, it had all of the things that I would hope for in a historical novel, great characters and a well-developed world, plus a good storyline, too. It made one turbulent plane ride much more enjoyable.

I was excited to see that Deborah Swift has another novel in the works that is a companion to The Lady’s Slipper called The Gilded Lily. While this next book centers around a character I would have hoped to never see again, I have to admit after I read the description, I changed my mind and I look forward to reading it.

Title: The Lady’s Slipper
Author: Deborah Swift
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
I Got My Copy From: The Library
Rating: Very Good

True to it’s title, The Four Stages of Cruelty is not a book for the faint of heart. Kali Williams is a Corrections Officer at the Ditmarsh Penitentiary, a maximum security prison in Minnesota. Even though Kali works in the prison, as a female CO, she provides the perspective of an outsider looking in. When Kali is given the mission of bringing inmate, Josh Riff, to his father’s funeral, she is furious. She feels that she is being setup or somehow punished. Josh, who was convicted of manslaughter for killing his girlfriend, is only nineteen and while Kali abhors him for what he has done, she can’t help but feel sympathetic towards him after his father’s funeral.

Before they head back into the prison, Josh shows Kali a comic that his friend Crowley asked him to smuggle out of the prison for safekeeping. Confused and not one to do favors for inmates, Kali gives it back to him. After seeing the comic, Kali begins to sees things in the prison that she never noticed before.

A few days after Josh’s trip, Crowley is involved in a big brawl on the prison grounds and is sent to a disciplinary unit, from which he disappears. Using clues from the comic, Kali finds Crowley’s body in an abandoned part of the prison three days later. Kali expects to be rewarded for her investigative work, but instead finds herself in the middle of a hornet’s nest.

Hollihan’s novel is the best cross of literary and adrenaline fiction. While at it’s heart, the novel is about the relationships between inmates and COs, it often feels like reading a thriller. Hollihan’s writing is of the sort that will make you want to send your loved ones into exile until you reach the 304th page. He has a way of ending a chapter with a single sentence that makes it impossible not to read on.

It’s hard not to feel sympathy for the main characters, despite one’s better judgment and the secondary characters are a sea of the best cons and thugs mixed with a handful of potential good guys. Part of what makes this novel so good, is that you can never tell who to trust, what character is on what side or what character is trading favors with another. Kali’s labyrinthine journey through the hidden dark places in Ditmarsh is riveting. But, you have to wait until that last page for a final resolution.

Now that’s my kind of tree. Of course, I do not have the time nor the patience for something like this. According to the article where I saw this tree, “Librarian Jennean Kabat spent six hours with a couple of coworkers carefully assembling the decoration the day before Thanksgiving. It was an idea she gleaned from the Internet.”

You know you are looking to see what books are in the pile! Reference librarians in particular will recognize some of those titles.

1. The cover. Of course. It’s gorgeous. I love the deep velvety blue. If I could have hair just like that up in a chignon, I would right this minute. The beautiful necklace worn on her back. I’ve never seen anyone do that. Smitten.
2. Kayleigh George from HarperCollins said that reading this book was like eating chocolate. Need I say more.
3. It’s about a ballerina. Unlike a lot of girls I knew, surprisingly, I wanted to be a ballerina for a couple of years. If Mary Lou Retton never came along, I might still be dancing!
4. It’s about Russia. There’s just something about Russian novels and Russian history that I find fascinating.Okay, so it’s not actually a Russian novel, but I’d never read a book about Russia during this particular time period.
5. Jewelry. I don’t have or desire much in the way of fine jewelry, but I do appreciate unique pieces. And none of the jewelry featured in this book is run of the mill.

So, on to the review:

Retired Bolshoi ballerina, Nina Revskaya, has decided to auction off her famed jewelry collection and donate the proceeds to the Boston Ballet. While cataloging her collection for the auction house where she works, Drew Brooks  meets Russian translator, Grigori Solodin who claims to have an amber necklace that matches the earings and bracelet that are part of Revskaya’s collection. Nina refuses to talk about the past and any possible connection between the amber pieces. Through Nina’s flashbacks to her life in the Bolshoi during Stalin’s reign and Drew and Grigori’s investigations into the amber, Nina’s story and the betrayal and secrecy surrounding her defection begin to unfold.

Russian Winter is historical fiction at it’s best. The story alternates between Boston at the beginning of this century and Moscow in the forties and fifties.  She expertly weaves the historical information into the story.  Both locations felt authentic to me. Nina may not be a very likable character at the beginning of the book, but I couldn’t help but fall in love with her as a young dancer.  Nina shows such a naivete about government workings – spying and informing – because she is so focused on her work as a ballerina. It makes her seem a little like an outsider.   As she becomes more aware of what is going on around her, she has trouble negotiating that  new world. The tension, hope and increasing distrust of even those she loves the most illustrate the climate of fear in the Soviet Union at the time.

I was lucky enough to see Daphne Kalotay give a  great presentation about the extensive research she did for this book. It took almost 10 years to write from inkling to finish. She read countless biographies and memoirs of ballerinas and opera singers just to be able to get the little details right. She does it so well. No information dump here.  As it normally does in historical fiction, those details combined with the atmosphere of the location drew me into the story.

One of my favorite scenes was when Nina meets her future husband Viktor. They meet at a party as it is breaking up. Nina had noticed Viktor earlier in the evening and as she is savoring the smell of a tangerine, he appears. They share the tangerine. The two have an immediate intimacy that is carried over to a joy ride they share with several other people. While the car is jam packed full of raucous passengers, Viktor manages to make Nina feel like they are completely alone without anyone else noticing. It feels somehow dangerous. It encapsulates their relationship in which they carve out something beautiful for themselves  while they are surrounded by a  world filled with  hunger and suspicion.

I know some people who had a hard time getting into this book, but I think regular readers of historical fiction will love it. It broke my heart twice over, yet there is a bit of redemption as well. My only criticism was that the ending was a little abrupt. I would have loved maybe a page or two more.When I finished reading I couldn’t stop thinking about the story and how the tiniest detail might have changed the course of Nina’s life.  I also feel a pretty strong desire to go see the ballet.

Russian Winter is on my top ten list of books for the year.

Have a look at these other gorgeous covers for the book:

Jane Borodale’s, Book of Fires made me want to love fireworks. Here is a review I posted for work:

The life changing events in Agnes Trussel’s life seem to occur by chance. She has a knack for either being in the right place at the right time or vice versa. When she accidentally comes upon some money, she flees to London to avoid facing the consequences of her unwanted pregnancy. While it may seem like a misfortune when she loses the address for possible lodgings given to her by a pretty young woman she meets on the way, many a reader may heave a sigh of relief.  Soaking wet and bedraggled, she knocks on the door of one Mr. Blacklock a purveyor of pyrotechnics, only to find that the position posted for a housekeeper has been filled. Seeing something familiar in Agnes, Blacklock agrees to take her in and make her his apprentice. Though Blacklock may be gruff and his staff is less than welcoming, Agnes comes to enjoy learning her new trade. Pleased with her work, Blacklock gives her more and more responsibilities. This allows him to work on his quest to create colored fireworks. But, for Agnes, time is running out before her employer discovers her secret.

Borodale captures an atmosphere of fear, in The Book of Fires, where hangings are a common occurence. It quickens the pace when the reader realizes Agnes might suffer the same fate, if she can’t come up with a reason to explain her predicament. Agnes was a character that I really empathized with and it was upsetting to see her settling into a life that she might not be able to maintain. Blacklock’s appearances were too few, but he never failed to leave an impression. Borodale’s secondary characters were memorable from the horrible kitchen staff to the flamboyant gun powder dealer.  But, it was the fireworks that gave this story a sense of magic. The reader learns alongside Agnes the dangers of making pyrotechnics and gets to feel the wonder of seeing the fruits of her labors in a spectacular fireworks display.