Blog Tour Review: The Turning of Anne Merrick by Christine Blevins

From the Back Cover:

She spies for General Washington, betrays the Redcoats and battles for America's independence...

It's 1777, and a fledgling country wages an almost hopeless struggle against the might of the British Empire. Brought together by a fateful kiss, Anne Merrick and Jack Hampton are devoted to each other and to their Patriot cause. As part of Washington's daring network of spies, they are ready and willing to pay even the ultimate price for freedom.

From battlefields raging along the Hudson, to the desperate winter encampment at Valley Forge and through the dangerous intrigue of British-occupied Philadelphia, Anne and Jack brave the trials of separation, the ravages of war and an unyielding enemy growing ever more ruthless.

For love and for country, all is put at risk-and together the pair must call upon their every ounce of courage and cunning in order to survive.

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed the first novel in this series, The Tory Widow, and I was excited to have the chance to be part of the blog tour for the follow-up. I ended up enjoying The Turning of Anne Merrick even more. It begins right in the thick of things, with Anne, Jack, and the rest of the gang covertly working for the patriot cause on the eve of the Battle of Saratoga. The synopsis gives a nice overview of the story and I won't go into the plot for fear of spoiling anything from either book, but I will say that I'm a big fan of the American Revolution and pretty much anything related to it, and The Turning of Anne Merrick is a welcome and satisfying addition to my collection. It encompasses everything I like in a book: lots of history, a historical setting that comes to life, memorable characters, a great love story, some action and adventure, some tears and laughter, and a plot that keeps me turning the pages and guessing at the outcome.

I really only have one quibble. Blevins does a wonderful job of bringing the time period to life, but I found the historical description to be too much at times, slowing the momentum of the story. In some places I appreciated the in-depth detail, but in others I found myself skimming to get back to the action. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that so many of the secondary characters were based on historical record. They are woven seamlessly throughout the story with the fictional characters. I think that's helped along by the subject matter, and it's part of what I love so much about the American Revolution; so many of the patriots we still honor today were just regular, everyday people. At that time, America consisted of two million regular, everyday people stretched out over 1500 miles of coastline, and against all odds a large portion of that population was able to unite in a common cause, create a nationwide system of communication, compliance, and defense, and oust an oppressive government--not too mention the mightiest military power the world had ever seen--

(Cue Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man here :)

Anyway, all that is to say that I'm amazed at what the Americans were able to accomplish, and Blevins does a great job of bringing that point home, of portraying every fighting American as a hero in his or her own way. This series fits right in with Sara Donati's and Beverly Swerling's early American novels, and should please fans of both. The first two books have covered New York and Pennsylvania, and I'm looking forward to the continuation of the story in the southern theater of the Revolutionary War.

My Rating:  4 Stars out of 5

The Turning of Anne Merrick

is on a blog tour!

Christine Blevins will be here on the 7th with an interview and a really cool giveaway! Click here to view the rest of the tour schedule. And check out Christine's website too!

Blog Tour Guest Post: The Book of Lost Fragrances

Please join me in welcoming author M.J. Rose

to Let Them Read Books!

I've been fascinated with lost fragrances since long before I started writing The Book of Lost Fragrances... since I found a bottle of perfume on my great grandmother's dresser that had belonged to her mother in Russia. Here is one of those lost fragrances that stirs the senses and the imagination... (reasearched and described with the help of the perfume writer Dimitrios Dimitriadis)

PAQUIN - GOYA 

The fashion house of Jeanne Paquin flourished on Paris' fashionable Rue de la Paix, but unfortunately closed in 1956. Prior to its closure, Paquin was responsible for creating a handful of perfumes, one of the most notable being Goya, presented in a weighty, ribbed Baccarat flacon. A lavish floral with soft aldehydes and ambery notes, Goya would have been quite the head-turner in its day. An enduring trail of light woods and mosses slowly fade on the skin, and - much like the perfume itself - simply become but a distant memory.

Blog Tour Guest Post + Giveaway: The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy

Please join me in welcoming

debut author Nelle Davy

to Let Them Read Books!

The Legacy of Eden is on a

Blog Tour with a Scavenger Hunt.

Click here for all the details.

Check out Nelle's guest post on the publishing process

and then enter to win your own copy of

The Legacy of Eden!

(Click here to read my review.)

Review + Giveaway: Ride for Rights by Tara Chevrestt

From the Back Cover:

In the summer of 1916 women do not have the right to vote, let alone be motorcycle dispatch riders. Two sisters, Angeline and Adelaide Hanson are determined to prove to the world that not only are women capable of riding motorbikes, but they can ride motorbikes across the United States. Alone.

From a dance hall in Chicago to a jail cell in Dodge City, love and trouble both follow Angeline and Adelaide on the dirt roads across the United States. The sisters shout their triumph from Pike’s Peak only to end up lost in the Salt Lake desert.

Will they make it to their goal of Los Angeles or will too many mishaps prevent them from reaching their destination and thus, hinder their desire to prove that women can do it?

Blog Tour Review: The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

From the Back Cover:

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra--and lost for 2,000 years.

Jac L'Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances--and of her mother's suicide--she moved to America. Now, fourteen years later she and her brother have inherited the company along with it's financial problems. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing--leaving a dead body in his wake--Jac is plunged into a world she thought she'd left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother's disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend the House of L'Etoile has been espousing since 1799. Is there a scent that can unlock the mystery of reincarnation - or is it just another dream infused perfume?

The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra's Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet's battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac's quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

Blog Tour Scavenger Hunt: The Legacy of Eden

Each day in February, a section of the first chapter of The Legacy of Eden will be featured on a book blog!

Check out the Scavenger Hunt Guide and visit each blog to get your sneak peek! In addition to the scavenger hunt, you’ll find reviews, author Q&A sessions, guest blog posts, and giveaways throughout the blog tour. (I gave The Legacy of Eden 4-Stars, click here to read my review!

It was a path that swung down to a sloping mound on top of which stood a house so impressive that seventy years ago, when it was first revealed to our neighbors, it caught the eyes of every guest carrying their various dishes of dessert and dressed salad and forced them to stop.

The old house where my grandfather had been raised, the one that had been just like their own, had been torn down. In its place, built in a mock colonial style, was a tall square building. What struck them first when they gazed up at it was the color: it was white. Even before they entered it they knew on sight that it was a place of polished woods with the smell of tall flowers in clear vases.

No, my sister did not see this and I knew she would not have cared to do so even if she had.

She did not see the rose garden with American Beauties puncturing the trellis walkway or the grove with the fountain of the stone god blowing water from his trumpet.

Read the next excerpt tomorrow at Curling Up By the Fire! 

Review: Grave Mercy by Robin Lafevers

From the Back Cover:

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

Blog Tour Guest Post + Giveaway: At the Mercy of the Queen

Please join me in welcoming author Anne Clinard Barnhill to Let Them Read Books! Anne's new novel is a sweeping tale of sexual seduction and intrigue at the court of Henry VIII, a rich and dramatic debut historical about Madge Shelton, cousin and lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn.

Check out this guest post from Anne as she talks about where she finds writing inspiration, and then enter to win your own copy of
At the Mercy of the Queen!