• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (January 10, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 0553808125
• Source: Publisher

Varvara (Russian for Barbara) is the daughter of a book binder.  When her mother and father pass away within a year of one another, Varvara is taken under the employ of the Empress Elizabeth and finds a home in her court.  With Count Bestuzhev as her mentor, Varvara becomes an all-seeing eye to all the things that take place before her.  She’s waiting for a better opportunity, something to give her the life she’s long desired.

When a young princess Sophie arrives from Zerbst, Varvara has new hope.  Sophie is destined to marry the Empress’ nephew & eventually become Catherine the Great.  Sophie needs an insider, someone to be her confidante, protecting her against those who would like to see her fail. With Varvara by her side, Sophie/Catherine becomes a legend, surviving trials, tribulations, and the coup that allows her to rise and assume the throne of all of Russia.

The Winter Palace is a beautifully written, dramatic glimpse inside the world of Catherine the Great. With the intensity of a suspense novel, readers get a unique view of Catherine’s youth, from a young, shy girl to an incredibly strong leader.  Stachniak’s writing is so detailed, the reader will feel as though they are walking the halls of the palace themselves, a witness to all the (often cruel) actions. Most importantly, this isn’t merely a novel about Catherine the Great, but one about the confidant who was by her side as she rose to power.  Varvara was a truly impressive character. Despite having a difficult start, she evolved into a truly powerful woman.

To some, the pacing may be slow.  Personally, I thought it was perfect, allowing the growth of these two great women to be revealed slowly, rather than rushed. Fans of history, particularly Russian, will enjoy this fine novel. Highly recommended.

Review: The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Original edition (December 20, 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0062041193
• Source: Publisher

When Chelsea’s grandmother passed away she was devastated.  She was incredibly close to Gran and can’t seem to fathom how she and her mother are going to survive without her. Despite this closeness, Chelsea is surprised to learn that she has inherited Gran’s cottage in the Adirondacks, a cottage that has been closed for decades. 

In a letter left for her, Gran urges Chelsea to visit the cottage to find out what was so special about this property. She ends up staying the entire summer, discovering a past her grandmother had literally buried years ago.  War-time romances, pain, loss, so much she never knew about her grandmother. In the months she spends in that serene cabin, in rediscovering her grandmother, Chelsea also experiences a bit of an awakening herself.

In addition to her grandmother’s journal, she comes across a journal full of her wartime recipes; a true legacy passed on from one generation to another. The recipes are named after influential individuals, including war leaders, actors and more. They range from MacAurthuroni and Cheese to Roosevelt’s Roast, Eisenhower’s Eggs Benedict, and more. (The recipes themselves are included in the bonus material at the back of the book)

The past she uncovers isn’t one that she initially believed should be kept hidden from her family, but with the help of local townspeople and her attractive doctor neighbor, Chelsea learns that some secrets, if they don’t change the present, are better left alone.

Admittedly, the budding relationship that forms between Chelsea and her neighbor, Brandon Yale, is a little too “Nicholas Sparks” for me.  That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy this book; I really did. Not for the romance, but for the story, the legacy, that Chelsea uncovers in her grandmother’s cottage.  As she reads the journal entries, the storyline flashes back to Gran’s youth as the beautiful young bride, Brooke, and that fateful summer of 1942. Like other readers, I found similarities between this book and Sarah Jio’s Violets of March. Fans of multi-generational family sagas will be drawn into this novel, just as I was. Recommended.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to participate in this tour. Be sure to check out the other stops along the way:

Tuesday, December 20th: Sara’s Organized Chaos
Wednesday, December 21st: A Cozy Reader’s Corner
Thursday, December 22nd: Teresa’s Reading Corner
Monday, December 26th: Ted Lehmann’s Bluegrass, Books, and Brainstorms
Tuesday, December 27th: Amused By Books
Wednesday, December 28th: BookNAround
Thursday, December 29th: Reflections of a Bookaholic
Friday, December 30th: Wandering Thoughts of a Scientific Housewife
Tuesday, January 3rd: Hospitable Pursuits
Wednesday, January 4th: Library of Clean Reads
Thursday, January 5th: Diary of an Eccentric

Review: More than Words Can Say by Robert Barclay is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Paperback:320 pages
• Publisher:Plume; 1 edition (December 27, 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0452297672
• Source: Publisher

The summer of 1942, young Anne Calloway sets off to the Pacific island of Bora-Bora to serve as a nurse for the Army Nurse Corps.  She’s engaged to get married; this venture is her last bit of adventure before becoming a married woman.  She goes to Bora-Bora with her best friend, Kitty, a flirtatious, free-spirited young woman.

Once they reach Bora-Bora, an island full of military men who haven’t seen women in ages, it doesn’t take Kitty long to find a few potential love interests.  Anne, still questioning her engagement, yet also feeling guilt for “abandoning” her fiance to embark on this adventure, soon forges a friendship with a soldier named Westry. They find solace in one another at an abandoned bungalow, leaving notes to one another using fictitious names. Soon, their friendship blooms into something much more.  A horrible murder & the ravages of war threaten their budding romance.

The reader “meets” Anne decades later, an elderly woman now.  As she ages, she can’t help but look back upon this time spent in Bora-Bora, wondering “what if.” She’s taken back in time when she receives communication from the island that forever changed her.

Spanning not only time but location, The Bungalow is a breathtakingly beautiful look at undying, endearing, true love. Those that know me well know that I’m not really a fan of love stories, yet for some reason the power of Jio’s writing envelopes me, takes me away to a completely different time and place. She did so with The Violets of March and succeeded and doing it again with The Bungalow.  The love that is shared between Anne & Westry is a genuine one, not over the top or forced. The setting, despite taking place in the midst of World War II, is a beautiful one. It adds to the romance shared between these to young individuals.

Bottom line: The Bungalow is a book that will completely engage you; don’t be surprised if it forces to be read in one sitting. It’s a story of love in the midst of death, love that continues despite the passing of time. Highly recommended!

Review: The Bungalow by Sarah Jio is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Paperback:256 pages
• Publisher:Signature Editions (September 1, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 1897109431
• Source: Publisher

When a work crew at an abandoned villa in a small Italian town uncovers a body, an investigation begins to determine the identity. It is revealed that the body is that of Vito Santoro, a man whose family believed to be living in Argentina for the past several decades.  Due to a family strife, no one had spoken to Vito in years.  That is, except for Piera, the matriarch of the Santoro family.

As the family reunites, Piera locks herself in her room, refusing to speak with anyone but her nephew, David, currently living in Canada.  Piera is the only one who knows the secrets behind Vito’s death and eventually reveals the sordid past to her nephew, taking the reader on flashbacks to post-war Italy.   The truth that is revealed is a disturbing one, full of family secrets, including incest.  Bloodlines David long believed to be accurate are retraced and he is forced to reckon with an almost unacceptable truth.

Don’t let the description above detract you from reading this powerful novel; it is rich with family history, deeply moving and passionate. The reader learns a great deal about Vito, the child of an impoverished family, always the black sheep among his siblings.  As a child, he was routinely sent away to live with other family members, to join the military, etc. as an attempt to control his wild streak.  Each time he returned, he seemed less and less a part of the family.

The Santoro family is riddled with family issues, going back for decades.  The strife among family members continues with the current generation, Piera’s siblings angry for her keeping this secret for so long. Gunn does a tremendous job of detailing the lives of this family: 7 children, a strict, almost abusive father, and a passive mother. The only characters I found to be sympathetic at all were David and Piera, but I still questioned just how much I could trust them, Piera in particular. Her memories seemed to be jaded due to her own feelings toward Vito.

Gunn’s descriptions of the Santoro family’s history and traditions allow the ready to become easily immersed in the Italian culture. The novel is evenly paced, allowing the reader to become immersed in the rich historical detail while trying to simultaneously solve the family’s mystery. As mentioned above, the theme of incest exists, but is not overpowering. Fans of novels with rich characters as well as fans of historical fiction will be impressed by this novel, long-listed for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize, an award recognizing excellence in Canadian fiction. Recommended.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a special guest post by the author, Genni Gunn.

Review: Solitaria by Genni Gunn is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover:368 pages
• Publisher:Arthur A. Levine Books (August 1, 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0545221307
• Source: Publisher

Cleopatra VIII Selene, Princess of Egypt, is the only daughter of Cleopatra VII and Marcus Antonius. She’s grown up in luxury in the regal city of Alexandria.  However, when Egypt goes to war with Rome, her entire world and everything it has ever stood for is pulled out from underneath her. Her family is shattered, all at the hands of the emperor of Rome, Octavianus.

Cleopatra Selene and her two brothers are forced to move to Rome, an existence much different than the life they had in Alexandria. Forced to live in the home of their enemy, they are constantly bombarded with threats of death and torture each time they walk outside the walls of the compound.

Like her mother before here, Cleopatra Selene must gather all the strength and power she has to regain claim over Egypt once again.  She’s forced to chose between two men, and two very different destinies.

While technically a young adult novel, Cleopatra’s Moon is most definitely a novel that would appeal to readers of all ages.  We have all read about the powerful Celopatra and Marcus Antonius, but not much has been written about their daughter.

This novel is full of rich and detailed characters. Cleopatra Selene herself starts out as a young and naive princess, but is forced to evolve into quite the strong woman. She is not passive in her feelings about their “imprisonment,” she risks her life on several occasions to protect her siblings and their family name. Additionally, one can’t help but love Cleopatra Selene’s youngest brother, “Ptolly.” Barely out of the toddler stages when he loses his parents, he’s too young and naive to really understand what has happened.

Potentially the most compelling part of this novel is the rich description of the settings of both Egypt and Rome.  It was interesting to see how differently woman were treated in each of these settings.  In Egypt, with Cleopatra as the queen, women were powerful and regal figures. In Rome, on the otherhand, they were mostly confined to the castle, not free to roam and explore. In Egypt, the women of royalty had individual and unique names while in Rome the women generally shared the same name. A part of history I admit to not being very familiar with, I believe in reading this book I gained a much stronger understanding of this important time in history.

The character list in the beginning of the book was essential; with so many characters with similar names it was hard to keep the characters straight at first. Additionally, the “Facts Within the Fiction” section at the end broke down which aspects of the book were based on fact and which were fictionalized in the writing of the novel.

My only complaint would be the ending.  Throughout the novel, Selene’s character was built up as a strong and powerful one. She chose power rather than love, but in the end, this seemed to be forgotten.  That said, this is just a minor issue I have, not really taking away from my overall opinion of the book.

Fans of historical fiction can’t afford to miss out on this book! Highly recommended.

Review: Cleopatra’s Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Paperback:368 pages
• Publisher:Harper Perennial; Original edition (July 19, 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0062065092
• Source: Publisher

Fifteen year old Cat Rozier, once a star pupil, is now a murderer. She admits it to the reader within the first few pages of the book:

I’m a murderer and it’s not just my fault. I can blame the Germans, and I can blame my parents, and I can blame my parents’ parents.  Don’t you see?  Once you know your History, it does explain everything.  It turns out I was a murderer before I was born (p. 5).

Cat lives with her mother on the small island of Guernsey.  She’s often picked on at school; she has no true friends.  That changes when the beautiful Nicolette befriends Cat when she moves transfers to the school in 1984.  The two become inseperable; never before has anyone been willing to put up with Cat’s “quirkiness.”  They do the typical teen rebellion sort of things: go to parties, drink, and shoplift.  But one apparent act of betrayal causes a rift in their friendship and they go their separate ways.

Cat has long been obsessed with her recently deceased father’s “research;” he dedicated his adulthood to finding the truth behind Guernsey’s occupation by the Germans during WWII in order to repair the reputation of his older brother Charlie, accused of working for the Germans and killing his own father.  Through her father’s letters and tapes of Charlie, recorded before his death, Cat reveals secrets buried within the roots of the island, and in her own family.

The novel alternates between Cat’s retelling of the murder of her best friend and the retelling of Charlie’s saga of imprisonment and torture. At times, the shift in narration is jolting, seemingly misplaced.  Eventually, however, the reader begins to notice a similarity in Charlie and Cat’s lives. The only difference is that Cat seemingly gets away with murder.

Cat’s character is extremely difficult to trust and believe.  While she states up front she committed a murder, it was hard for me to believe anything she said.  It was also extremely difficult to like her; she seemed to be able to lie at the drop of a hat.  She’s full of cynicism, and the typical teenage attitude. For these reasons, it was impossible for me to like her character. 

Charlie’s character, on the other hand, was a bit more sympathetic.  He himself was betrayed by someone he trusted and sent to a concentration camp to be tortured.  His explanations for what happened are unvalidated, they seem as flimsy as Cat’s reason’s for killing Nic.  Yet, Cat is able to get away with it, Charlie is not.

Ultimately, it is Horlcok’s gift for writing that made me adore this book, despite my feelings about Cat’s character.  Historical fiction has always been a favorite genre of mine; not one I often get to enjoy.  I appreciated the historical bits spread throughout the novel.  I admit to not knowing much about Guernsey, other than things I’ve read in other pieces of fiction.

I did find Cat’s footnotes (backing up claims she makes throughout her portion of the novel) a bit distracting, ultimately not referring to them much at all.  I understand the point; her father was quite the researcher, documenting all sorts of facts, and it was just natural for Cat to pick up on her father’s practice.  That said, many of the footnotes were quite entertaining, adding an element of Cat’s wicked sense of humor to the storyline.

The early parts of the book were difficult to get into, perhaps this is because it takes some time to get used to the shifting of the characters and time period. Once I got over the early chapters, however, I was truly engrossed in this book.  The overall theme of the book, lies, is quite an interesting one. We all tell lies for various reasons: to protect ourselves and others. But this small island is so riddled in lies, it’s difficult to believe they have remained hidden for so long.  Definitely a thought-provoking book, I can definitely see The Book of Lies as a book club selection.

 I highly recommend this to fans of historical fiction, noting that it tends to be a little on the dark side. Considering two of the characters are murderers, it would be hard not to be!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to review this book. Please be sure to check out the other stops:

Tuesday, July 19: Life In Review
Wednesday, July 20: Book Hooked Blog
Thursday, July 21: Book Addiction
Friday, July 22: Iwriteinbooks’s blog
Friday, July 22: Diary of an Eccentric
Tuesday, July 26: StephTheBookworm
Tuesday, July 26: Life in the Thumb
Thursday, July 28: Rundpinne
Monday, August 1: Crazy for Books
Tuesday, August 2: Peeking Between the Pages
Wednesday, August 3: Sara’s Organized Chaos
Thursday, August 4: I’m Booking It
Friday, August 5:  Savvy Verse & Wit
Friday, August 5: In the Next Room

Review: The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Other Press (June 21, 2011)
ISBN-10: 1590514440
Source: Publisher

One spring morning in 1885, the body of a young pregnant woman is found floating in Richmond’s city reservoir. At first glance, her death appears to be a suicide, but evidence points toward murder.

The young woman identified as Lillie, a young woman with a troubled family history.  The prime suspect in her murder is her own cousin, Tommie.

Tommie is a young lawyer, the source of pride for his family.  His brother, Willie, was his polar opposite.  A quiet farmer, he was initially the one who was courting Lillie. But Tommie & Lillie were drawn to one another, their love could not be stopped.

Despite the fact that Tommie took his love from him, and is now on trial for her murder, Willie remains by his side, doing whatever he can to make his brother’s time in prison comfortable.  This becomes more and more difficult as the evidence against his brother mounts.

The Reservoir is southern Gothic fiction at its finest; John Milliken Thompson does an outstanding job of portraying the society of Richmond post-Civil War. The setting, much as the scene of Lillie’s death, is dark, cold & dreary.

It’s more than just a murder mystery, adding compelling scenes of courtroom drama as well as psychological suspense to the mix.

Through the majority of the novel, the reader is left questioning Tommie’s guilt, or innocence.  Tommie’s own behavior doesn’t help the situation: one minute he’s proclaiming his innocence, the next he admits his guilt. It isn’t until the reader is able to remove the veil Tommie uses to shield himself from the world that they can truly see inside the mind of this seemingly perfect young man.

Thompson based The Reservoir on a true case in Richmond’s history, “T.J. Cluverius v. the Commonwealth.”  While Thompson added most of the pre-and post-courtroom drama, the actual court scenes are taken directly from the trial transcripts.  The fact that the author was able to add these details so seamlessly really indicates the talent in his writing.

The Reservoir is a book unlike any I have read in some time.  The mystery, the drama, and yes, even the love-triangle, held my attention from page one.  Fans of Southern Gothic or historical fiction will find a real winner in this one!  Highly recommended!

For more information on the author, and the story behind The Reservoir, be sure to check out his Web site.

For more reviews of The Reservoir, check out:

The Book Lady’s Blog

Review: The Reservoir by John Milliken Thompson is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

Emma Cunningham is a young widow with two daughters.  She meets Harvey Burdell, a wealthy dentist.  Burdell promises her many things, including land, marriage, a home on New York’s Fifth Avenue.  Based on these promises, and prior to marriage, she moves in to Burdell’s home at 31 Bond Street. 

After moving in, Burdell fails to follow through on many of these promises, including marriage. While many in the community assume they are wed, Emma obviously wants it to be legal.  But instead, she’s forced to deal with Burdell’s secretive life and play overseer of his home & its servants.

One morning, Burdell is found brutally murdered.  The entire house, including the servants, Emma & her daughters, are held as captives in their own home by the local authorities.  When Emma indicates she is Burdell’s wife, his surviving family accuses her of killing him for his money and she is forced to go on trial to protect her name, and her life. Henry Clinton, a lawyer, risks his reputation to defend Emma’s name.

31 Bond Street is set in Manahattan in the 1850s. Land sales & real estate is booming.  Horan did an outstanding job of pulling in aspects of society into the story.  We not only learn about the crime, but of prevailing social issues, including a corrupt government, living conditions of the poor, and the Fugitive Slave Act. It is obvious that Horan is well-versed in the politics and social life of this age as these two themes almost become characters themselves.

Through Horan’s deep & well-developed characters, the readers learn what may have happened that fateful morning Burdell was found dead.  The chapters alternate between past & present, starting with the moment that Burdell & Emma met, leading up through their “courting” and his eventual death.

31 Bond Street is based on an actual murder case & many of the characters are based on real people. Horan’s detailing of the story leaves the reader facilating between who is guilty of the crime, never really knowing until the end. There’s never a dull moment with this book, starting from the first page, leading to the shocking conclusion!

I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Emma, despite the claims against her.  She entered into a relationship with Burdell to secure a hopeful future for her daughters, just entering the society world and in hopes of finding a good husband for each of them. Instead, her life is literally torn apart with the death of Burdell; not just because she loses economic stability but because her relationship with him is put on trial alongside the murder trial.

I don’t think I could despise Burdell’s character any more than I do!  It’s obvious that he married Emma for his own personal gain.  He took advantage of her, physically, emotionally, financially. 

31 Bond Street is a fasinating historical crime fiction that I can’t recommend enough.  Perfect for a book discussion due to the many themes & social issues discussed. Book clubs will appreciation the added material in the back of the book, including an interview with the author & information on the murder trial on which this book was based.

I was quite suprised to learn that this is Horan’s debut novel & look forward to reading more!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to be a part of this tour. I learned about this book when it was released in hardback and couldn’t say “yes” fast enough when I was invited to participate in this tour. 

Be sure to check out the other stops on this tour:

Tuesday, March 1st: Bibliophiliac

Thursday, March 3rd: The Lost Entwife

Wednesday, March 9th: Rundpinne

Monday, March 14th: We Be Reading

Tuesday, March 15th: Wordsmithonia

Wednesday, March 16th: A Bookish Way of Life

Thursday, March 17th: The Book Faery Reviews

Monday, March 21st: Book Reviews by Molly

Tuesday, March 22nd: Books Like Breathing

Wednesday, March 23rd: Eclectic/Eccentric

Thursday, March 24th: Man of La Book

Tuesday, March 29th: Redlady’s Reading Room

Review: 31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

In Amsterdam in 1972, a teenage girl discovers an ancient book and papers in her father’s office. The pages of the book are empty except for the image of a dragon.  She confronts her father, Paul, who reluctantly admits its source.  Twenty years ago, his mentor, James Rossi, disappeared.  Rossi was known for his fascination with Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula.  Rossi believed that Vlad still existed.  In an attempt to find his mentor, Paul (with the aid of Rossi’s daughter, Helen) trapses all over Eastern Europe in the hopes of locating Rossi…and Dracula.

The storyline is split into three parts: 1930 when Professor Rossi begins his search for Dracula, 1950 when Paul, Rossi’s “student” takes up the search for his professor, and 1972, which is the main storyline.  While this might seem confusing & distracting, the multiple narrators in this audio helped keep the storylines separate and unique.

Told from a series of letters (Kostova honored Bram Stoker’s DRACULA by mimicking the same format) The Historian is a blend of several genres: horror, history & literary fiction.  This is one of the few books I can recommend to anyone, for this blend of genres would make this book appealing to a wide audience.

Despite my many attempts, I’m unable to truly put into words just how much I enjoyed this novel.  While I read it when it was originally released and enjoyed it, I had the desire to see what it would be like as an audiobook.  I am forever thankful I made this decision. This is one of those books that must be listened to, to savor the characters voices, listen to the letters as they are read aloud.  The narrators (Joanne Whalley, Dennis Boutsikaris, Rosalyn Landor, Martin Jarvis, Robin Atkin Downes, & Jim Ward) portrayed each of the characters in a completely unique & memorable way.

In order to prevent further gushing, I’ll wrap up this review with this line: I loved it, now go & buy it!

Review: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Unbridled Books (May 4, 2010)
• ISBN-10: 1936071614
• Source: Publisher

Admittedly, I don’t have that great a knowledge of Mexico’s history.  It might as well be galaxies away.  C.M. Mayo’s The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire changed all of this for me.  It opens in Washington D.C., a city near (literally) and dear to my heart.  Young Alice Green meets & falls in love with Angelo de Iturbide, a member of the Mexican delegation.  They eventually marry and Angelo carries Alice away to Mexico.

Alice experiences a bit of animosity from parts of Angelo’s family (a situation I can easily sympathize with) but eventually Angelo & Alice are able to conceive, giving birth to a son, Augustin.

Mexico is in turmoil; led by Napoleon, the French invade the country & install Maximilian von Habsburg (Archduke of Austria) as the emperor. Maximilian & his wife are childless.  Desperate for an heir, they obtain custody of a child, the grandchild of the first emperor of Mexico.  That child is Augustin de Iturbide.

Augustin’s parents, Angelo & Alice, really don’t have much say in the situation so they reluctantly agree.  They are promised that Augustin will live a life of wealth and luxury.  But when they lose contact with their young son they understandably become desperate to retrieve him.  This “custody” battle becomes an international scandal, further tainting Maximilian’s empire.

The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire is a fantastic retelling of this bit of unknown Mexican history.  It is obvious that Mayo did a TREMENDOUS amount of research to write this book.  The characters become alive on the pages; I felt the pain and anguish Angelo & Alice felt upon losing their son.

The cast of characters is long and complex, permitting the reader to get viewpoints from all sides of the story.It was incredibly interesting to me to get a glimpse of this bit of Mexican history.  Mayo’s knowledge and familiarity of Mexico really added to the story.  She was able to describe the setting and events as if she were there herself, providing a side to this story not often seen.

Fans of detailed historical fiction will gain from reading this book.  It is full of historical detail, tinged with a bit of fiction to intrigue the reader.  Highly recommended!

Review: The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C.M. Mayo is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.