Books, Books, Books, and a Cat

  I Am Cleopatra was a fictional retelling of Cleopatra's life that will immerse the reader into ancient Egypt and ancient Rome.  Cleopatra is a fascinating woman and this book does a great job telling her story.    This story starts with Cleopatra as a girl and takes us through her love affair with Julius Caesar.  It does not go into Cleopatra's later years or her death.  I thought the author did an excellent job with her research and I liked how she brought the historical figures to life.  Cleopatra was a force to be reckoned with.  She was smart, ambitious, and didn't let herself be completely ruled by men in a patriarchal society.  The amount of bravery and courage to do what she had to do to rule Egypt is impressive and even more so when you think about the time period.  This story did a great job showing her ambitions but also her vulnerable side.  Her friendship with Charmian was not something I had ever read before when read...

  Cape Fever is a story about a creepy old house, ghosts, a manipulative older woman, and a girl just trying to help her family get by.  Set in the 1920s in South Africa, Soraya is a maid to an English woman who lives in a large but dilapidated home. She has a son who provides for her but he is in London.  He fought in WWI but has not been home in a very long time. Soraya at first doesn't mind her job but is upset because her employer, Mrs. Hattingh won't let her live at home.  As time goes on Mrs. Hattingh increasingly restricts Soraya from leaving the house.  Soraya wants to quit but she needs the money and can't risk losing her job.  Mrs. Hattingh does let Soraya write letters to her fiance.  Soraya pretends that she can't read or write so Mrs. Hattingh is the one writing the letters.  Soraya is extremely grateful as she has not seen her fiance in a long time.  However not all is as it seems. This book was a shorter novel, less than 250 pa...

  This was an excellent futuristic fantasy story.  Selena is escaping from her past and winds up in Quartz Creek in an attempt to reconnect with her aunt.  When she gets there she finds that her aunt died about a year ago.  Selena has very few options so she ends up taking residence in her aunt's house.  While there, strange things begin to happen and she starts to see spirits and monsters.  Luckily her neighbor, Grandma Billy, has a plan to help her.  Selena must overcome her past so that she can forge a new path and claim her future.   There was so much that I loved about this book.  Selena is a character who has been beaten down in life and has been in several abusive relationships.  Throughout the story she grew so much and I found it incredibly inspiring.  There were also great supporting characters that I fell in love with like Grandma Billy and  Father Aguirre.  The fantasy elements kept me guessing so that I w...

This was an excellent thriller!  You will especially love this book if you are a married woman, a mother, or just a fan of anything Real Housewife related.  5/5 Stars This story follows the lives of four women who live on Hawthorne Lane.  Each of the women are dealing with marital issues, children, and secrets.  On the outside some of their lives look perfect but unfortunately just like in real life that is not the case.  On Halloween someone is murdered so the entire book you are trying to figure out who died and who did it.  The story flashes back so that you get the full background on the women as you try and figure out what could have happened. Trying to figure out who was murdered and by who was interesting but I really cared more about all the drama behind the scenes.  What makes this book excellent are the characters and of course the twists. The women are characters that you truly care about and want to come out on top.  This is the kind o...

  It's Different This Time is a second chance romance that will have you wanting to be a Broadway star while falling in love with an amazing chef.  June and Adam randomly meet at a book store and end up renting a brown stone together in New York City.  Both of them have huge plans in store for their future.  June wants to be a famous actress and Adam wants to become a chef with his own restaurant.  The two of them are extremely attracted to each other but somehow their relationship never actually takes the next step.  June eventually moves to LA and Adam moves out of the brownstone.  Fast-forward several years and they find out that they have inherited the brownstone.  Now June must figure out what she is going to do and if things were really meant to be with Adam.  The book alternated between the present and the past.  I really enjoyed June and Adam's romance in the past.  These two characters were great to read about and I really ...

  This was a fantastic romance novel!  I can't believe this was the author's debut novel.  I need to read more by her.  5/5 Stars   I loved the two main characters, Samantha and Austin.  Samantha  has a difficult past and she ran to New York City to get away from the loss of her father and drug addicted mother.  When a chance for a promotion comes up she heads back to her hometown, Rock Island, Florida to help move forward plans for a new resort. It has been 6 years since she has been back and not only did she run away from her mother but she left behind a best friend, Lexi, that she hasn't spoken to in years.  While in town she also runs into Lexi's older and hot brother, Austin.  Austin is the ferry boat captain and is still healing a broken heart from when his fiancee cheated on him with his best friend.  When he sees Samantha sparks fly.  Both Samantha and Austin have a lot of baggage but sparks begin to fly the more time t...

  Have you ever wanted to right a wrong that you made or wish you had the ability to time travel and make a different choice?  In this mysterious and magical book Eve lives with guilt everyday that she is the reason that her sister, Bella died.  She feels haunted by her sister and even has an octopus tattoo that moves on her body.  One day Eve meets an old man named Max Everly who tells her to go back to the hotel.  Eve knows a Max Everly, a famous composer, but he has been dead for years.  Eve decides that she will find this hotel and when she does she discovers that she has been there before.  The only hitch is that the hotel closed in 1935 and Eve was not even born yet.  There is so much to this book.  The more I read, the more I had to keep reading to try and figure out how everything is connected.  There are so many great elements to this book including time travel, mystery, historical fiction, and romance.  But it is also a st...

  The Last of Earth transports you to Tibet in the late 1800s. The setting and problems the characters faced were fascinating and I learned a lot, but I wanted more from this novel.  The two major characters are Balmram and Katherine. Balram is an Indian guide for the Captain, an English surveyor who is trying to map a river in Tibet.  Balram has ulterior motives and wants to rescue his friend, who he believes has been imprisoned in Tibet as a spy.   Katherine is trying to reach Lhasa, a city that is forbidden to people from England.  She is trying to impress the Royal Geographical Society into accepting her as a woman.  She is also happiest when she is traveling.  These two characters face many trials and tribulations and each must find a creative way to solve their issues in order to reach their goals.  I did struggle at the beginning of this book trying to get used to all of the names and places.  I did find it a little hard to follow...

  This was a really good thriller/horror novel.  It takes place in the fictitious town of Paynes Hollow outside of Syracuse, NY on the shores of Lake Ontario.  I grew up visiting Lake Ontario as a kid as I lived only twenty minutes from the lake, so I had an instant connection with this novel.  Sam witnessed the unthinkable as a teenager, her father killing a teenage boy at their lake house.  Her grandfather refuses to believe that her father is guilty of the crime even though her father committed suicide and left a note.  Upon her grandfather's death, 14 years later, he forces Sam to stay at their lakefront property for a month in order to inherit the valuable property.  Sam agrees since she is in desperate need of the money to take care of her mother who has early onset dementia.  Once Sam is on the property weird and gruesome things begin to happen. Sam begins to remember back to that trying time.  Things go from bad to worse though when h...