Tranquil Reader

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2015 Genre: Historical Fiction; Romance Blurb: Set in China in the late 1800’s, The Secret Language of Women tells the story of star-crossed lovers, Zhou Bin Lian, a Eurasian healer, and Giacomo Scimenti, an Italian sailor, driven apart by the Boxer Rebellion. When Lian is seventeen years old, she accompanies her Swiss father, Dr. Gianluca Brasolin, fluent in Italian, to tend the Italian ambassador, at the Summer Palace of Empress Dowager, where she meets and falls in love with Giacomo. Through voyage and adventure, their love intensifies, but soon is severed by Lian’s dutiful promise as the wife to another. Forbidden from pursuing her chosen profession as a healer, and despised because she does not have bound feet, she is forced to work in a cloisonné factory while her in-laws raise her daughter, Ya Chen. It is in Nushu, the women’s secret writing, that she chronicles her life and her hopes for the future. Rebelling against the ...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2017 Genre: Paranormal Blurb: Having left the ordeals of his mortal life, Lucan has survived immortality for over a thousand years. His losses and victories, enemies and allies all have a unique role to play in this unwilling journey to the true fount of vampires and werewolves. His ties to the banshees, the animosity between him and werewolves, and his bond with Hadea; all is revealed in this incredible saga.  Sometimes the end is just the beginning. About the Author: I have been writing stories all my life, ever since I learned how to write at the age of six. I cannot imagine my life without writing. It is part of me, it is who I am. I will never stop writing.  I live in the beautiful Baja California peninsula in Mexico. It is a wonderful, inspiring place with incredible landscapes and breathtaking sunsets.  When I am not writing, I take care of my dogs and cats, look after my plants and trees, and enjoy m...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2012 Genre: Historical Fiction; Paranormal; Young Adult Blurb: It's 1920s New York City. It's flappers and Follies, jazz and gin. It's after the war but before the depression. And for certain group of bright young things it's the opportunity to party like never before. For Evie O'Neill, it's escape. She's never fit in in small town Ohio and when she causes yet another scandal, she's shipped off to stay with an uncle in the big city. But far from being exile, this is exactly what she's always wanted: the chance to show how thoroughly modern and incredibly daring she can be. But New York City isn't about just jazz babies and follies girls. It has a darker side. Young women are being murdered across the city. And these aren't crimes of passion. They're gruesome. They're planned. They bear a strange resemblance to an obscure group of tarot cards. And the New York City police can't...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2014 Genre: Historical Fiction Blurb: In Pit of Vipers, the second book in the Sons of Kings trilogy, the lives of Alfred of Wessex and Eadwulf of Mercia continue to unfold against the ever increasing threat of Danish raids.  Now back in his homeland, Eadwulf sets out on his determined quest for revenge, whilst Alfred’s leadership skills develop at the courts of his successive brothers. Before long, those skills will be put to the test . . .  The Danish invasion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in 865 is merciless and relentless. Every year more Norse ships come to join their comrades in a quest to plunder for wealth and gain domination over the people.  The Wessex king is now Aethelred, Alfred’s last surviving brother, and Alfred becomes his trusted second-in-command. Whilst the Danes take kingdom after kingdom, the brothers wait with baited breath for them to set their sights on Wessex.  By 869 their wors...

Book Cover Year Published: 2015 Genre: Historical Fiction with a little bit of romance Blurb: Willis Hancocks is a bright, ambitious young man who wants to break out of his small-town existence and make a difference in the world. When WWII breaks out, he rushes to enlist, despite his parents' disapproval. As the world falls apart, Willis finds a way to forge through and finds solace in an incomparable friendship and a surprising, brief encounter with a love that takes hold and eventually threatens to jeopardize the life he strives to build while battling his post-war demons. While Willis is set on building a new world for himself with a single-minded goal for personal success-a lucrative, purposeful, easy lifestyle-obstacles are continuously thrown in his path, and he must embrace, overcome, or dodge them entirely. In the course of the choices he makes, and the destiny that is chosen for him, he unwittingly drags the people who are closest to him down into the darkne...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2017 Genre: Paranormal, Historical Fiction Blurb:  Reclusive Lucan now tells it all. There are no more secrets; and his past is no longer shrouded in mystery. We are introduced to his wife, Althea, and his beloved sister, Claudia. The tragedies that plagued him in mortal life are now out in the open, unleashed from his cross of burden.  Lucan´s story takes us to ancient Rome and introduces us to Commodus, the emperor of Rome. On the run from Commodus´s wrath, circumstances separate him from his family and he is caught by Penelope, fount of the vampires, who turns him into an immortal. Lucan has only his family and their safety on his mind, but he understands that to keep his family safe from the dangers of immortality, he has to leave them.  His journey takes him and Althea to Morgan, the banshee, who lives among the mysterious Forest People, and to his first encounter with a werewolf. Lucan and Althea take the reader...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction; Political Blurb: St. Petersburg, New Year's Eve, 1916. Marina Makarova is a young woman of privilege who aches to break free of the constraints of her genteel life, a life about to be violently upended by the vast forces of history. Swept up on these tides, Marina will join the marches for workers' rights, fall in love with a radical young poet, and betray everything she holds dear, before being betrayed in turn. As her country goes through almost unimaginable upheaval, Marina's own coming-of-age unfolds, marked by deep passion and devastating loss, and the private heroism of an ordinary woman living through extraordinary times. This is the epic, mesmerizing story of one indomitable woman's journey through some of the most dramatic events of the last century. About the Author: Janet Fitch was born and raised in Los Angeles, a third generation Angelino. She attended Reed Colleg...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2015 Genre: Historical Fiction; Mythology Blurb: By the mid ninth century, Danish raids on Anglo-Saxon kingdoms have escalated. Several bands even dare to overwinter on the coastal islands, particularly those at the mouth of the Thames, where the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia border each other.  The kings of these lands must put past enmity- aside and take the first steps towards unity; steps they see as vital in the face of this newfound threat to their lands . . .  Alfred of Wessex and Eadwulf of Mercia are the sons of kings, whose futures have been determined since birth. But the turbulent events in their childhood years change the natural progression of things – and shape the characters of the men they will become.  Their roads to manhood follow vastly different routes, but both learn crucial lessons along the way: lessons that will serve them well in future years.  Discovering that the enemy is not alway...

Book Cover Year Published: 2017 Genre: Romance; Historical Fiction Blurb: Sadly ever after . . . unless some dreams really do come true? Elinor Burkenstock never believed in fairy tales. Sure, she's always been a fool for love-what woman isn't? But Elinor knows the difference between fiction and truth. Daydreams and reality. True love and false promises. . . . Until the unthinkable happens, and Elinor's engagement is suddenly terminated and no one, least of all her fiance, will tell her why. Sir Michael Rollins's war-hero days seem far behind him when, after one last hurrah before his wedding, he gets shot and his injuries leave him in dire shape. He wants nothing more than to marry Elinor, the woman of his wildest dreams. But Elinor's father forbids it . . . and soon Michael is faced with a desperate choice: Spare Elinor a life with a broken man or risk everything to win her heart-until death do they part? About the Author: A.S. Fenichel (Andre...

My Copy of the Book Year Published: 2015 Genre: Chick Lit/Historical Fiction/Humor  Blurb: Tudorphile Dolly thought that the night she spent on an astral plane with Henry VIII's six wives, learning their heretofore unknown secrets, was a one-time thing. Not so! In "Seven Will Out", Dolly finds herself back in the ether with the women of later Tudor times: Elizabeth I, 'Bloody' Mary, Bess of Hardwick, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Anne Hathaway Shakespeare, to name a few. They too have secrets that will turn history on its head, and comic sass that will keep you laughing. And if that isn't enough, there is even a cameo appearance by Anne Boleyn. You've read all of the traditional, serious and romantic takes on the legendary characters of the English Renaissance. Why not try your Tudors and your Shakespeare with a new and different twist? About the Author: JoAnn Spears couldn't decide whether to major in English or History in college...