The Witch's Trinity
Erika Mailman
Three Rivers (crown), Oct 2008, $13.95
ISBN: 9780307351531
In 1507, the villagers of Tierkinddorf are hungry and angry as this is the “second year of no harvest” that follows several poor harvests. They begin to believe a witch has cast an evil satanic curse on them causing nasty weather that led to poor harvests and now just about no crops.
A Dominican friar traveling from town to town to expose witches arrives to the rejoicing of most of the villagers who believe he will uncover the identity of the culprit. He points the finger at Kunne the healer who swears to God she is innocent. Her dismayed best friend elderly Gude feels helpless as she watches Kunne burned at the stake. She also is concerned with her nightmares about witches, the devil and her late husband. Thinking one less mouth to feed, Gude’s resentful daughter-in-law Irmeltrud begins a campaign when her spouse is away desperately hunting that accuses her widowed mother-in-law of witchcraft.
The atmosphere that leads to cynicism, paranoia and witch hunts is incredibly thick as Erika Mailman provides a deep look at a small early sixteenth century German village blaming famine on witches cursing the villagers. The Friar’s presence quickly leads to neighbors pointing the fingers at one another. Although Gude as the narrator at times is hard to understand because of her mental instability that adds to the feel of the era in which a bit of craziness means witch. Fans will enjoy this engaging look while wondering whether Gude’s “visions are supernatural or deranged in origin.
Harriet Klausner
Friday, October 17, 2008
With Violets-Elizabeth Robards
With Violets
Elizabeth Robards
Avon, Nov 2008, $13.95
ISBN: 0061579122
In 1868 Paris, they have seen one another at the Louvre; they have nodded hello in passing, but not talk. She knows who he is as he is perhaps the most famous painter in the world while she is a novice in comparison. Finally a few weeks later his friend Monsieur Fantin introduces artist Rosalie Reisener and impressionist painter Berthe Morisot to the great artist Edouard Manet, who invites the latter back to his studio.
Over the next few years he paints several portraits of her including her in a black hat WITH VIOLETS. They become friends and lovers although he is married. Their affair is risky until it is finally exposed.
This is an engaging historical biographical fiction of Berthe Morisot whose contemporaries thought nothing of her work and more of her modeling for Manet; her work is now considered some of the best of the French impressionists. However, WITH VIOLETS focuses on her relationship with Manet and not much on her art. Still this is a well written enjoyable fictionalized account of Berthe Morisot starting from the moment she first saw Manet.
Harriet Klausner
Elizabeth Robards
Avon, Nov 2008, $13.95
ISBN: 0061579122
In 1868 Paris, they have seen one another at the Louvre; they have nodded hello in passing, but not talk. She knows who he is as he is perhaps the most famous painter in the world while she is a novice in comparison. Finally a few weeks later his friend Monsieur Fantin introduces artist Rosalie Reisener and impressionist painter Berthe Morisot to the great artist Edouard Manet, who invites the latter back to his studio.
Over the next few years he paints several portraits of her including her in a black hat WITH VIOLETS. They become friends and lovers although he is married. Their affair is risky until it is finally exposed.
This is an engaging historical biographical fiction of Berthe Morisot whose contemporaries thought nothing of her work and more of her modeling for Manet; her work is now considered some of the best of the French impressionists. However, WITH VIOLETS focuses on her relationship with Manet and not much on her art. Still this is a well written enjoyable fictionalized account of Berthe Morisot starting from the moment she first saw Manet.
Harriet Klausner
Sinner-Ted Dekker
Sinner
Ted Dekker
Thomas Nelson, Sep 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 97815955540089
In 2034 in most of the world, tolerance is the byword in regard to religion. It is frowned up to discuss sectarianism, ethno slurs, or public preaching. Billy Rediger, the product of the failed Project Showdown, is a lawyer who has never forgotten that what he wrote in The Books of History is made flesh in the real world.
Marsuvees Black is the personification of evil still out in the world causing trouble. He is behind the lynching and race riots that are polarizing America. Billy connects with Darcy Lange who also let evil into her life when she abetted Billy in writing that infamous tome. They discover Billy can hear the thoughts of everyone as long as he looks into their eyes and her voice can compel people to do what she asks. When a cabal of Washington powerbrokers brings them out from the cold, they agree to make the undecided power brokers pass a constitutional amendment that would make racial bigotry and religious freedom crimes. The amendment passes but in Paradise, Colorado Johnny Drake who fought against evil and won refuses to deny his religious beliefs.
Ted Dekker has written a fabulous supernatural thriller that brings to a close his terrific Paradise trilogy (see SHOWDOWN and SAINT). There is a lot of symbolism in this saga. Black can be considered Lucifer and Johnny is John the Baptist risking his life for his belief. There is plenty of action as the future United States is a place of no freedom as the Bill of Rights has been burned at the stakes. Readers will enjoy SINNER as it is a crime to openly worship God.
Harriet Klausner
Ted Dekker
Thomas Nelson, Sep 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 97815955540089
In 2034 in most of the world, tolerance is the byword in regard to religion. It is frowned up to discuss sectarianism, ethno slurs, or public preaching. Billy Rediger, the product of the failed Project Showdown, is a lawyer who has never forgotten that what he wrote in The Books of History is made flesh in the real world.
Marsuvees Black is the personification of evil still out in the world causing trouble. He is behind the lynching and race riots that are polarizing America. Billy connects with Darcy Lange who also let evil into her life when she abetted Billy in writing that infamous tome. They discover Billy can hear the thoughts of everyone as long as he looks into their eyes and her voice can compel people to do what she asks. When a cabal of Washington powerbrokers brings them out from the cold, they agree to make the undecided power brokers pass a constitutional amendment that would make racial bigotry and religious freedom crimes. The amendment passes but in Paradise, Colorado Johnny Drake who fought against evil and won refuses to deny his religious beliefs.
Ted Dekker has written a fabulous supernatural thriller that brings to a close his terrific Paradise trilogy (see SHOWDOWN and SAINT). There is a lot of symbolism in this saga. Black can be considered Lucifer and Johnny is John the Baptist risking his life for his belief. There is plenty of action as the future United States is a place of no freedom as the Bill of Rights has been burned at the stakes. Readers will enjoy SINNER as it is a crime to openly worship God.
Harriet Klausner
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Forbidden Fruit-Eden Bradley
Forbidden Fruit
Eden Bradley
Delta (Dell), Oct 28 2008, $13.00
ISBN: 0553385119
San Francisco State University Professor Mia Rose Curry teaches a class on alternative sexuality that allows her to fantasize without doing as she trusts no one. Her class is extremely popular as students enjoy learning about fetishes, bondage, and voyeurism, oh my. Although several students have come on to her, Mia knows better than to mix with a pupil; instead she conceals her desires from everyone behind an academic façade.
However, this term she has a problem when hunk Jagger James enters her classroom. From the moment she sees the Golden One she wants him, but tries to pretend indifference. Jagger knows she is his food fetish and plans to dine on his teacher just like he demands she feast on his banquet.
This is an entertaining erotic romance starring a professor and the student who makes her deepest hottest fantasies come to life. Though their pairing seems on the surface wrong (even Mia Rose knows that) due to the nature of their academic relationship, Eden Bradley makes it seem right. Sub-genre fans will relish dining on this FORBIDDEN FRUIT as Jagger teaches Mia Rose “ain’t nothing like the real thing” (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell) when love is involved.
Harriet Klausner
Eden Bradley
Delta (Dell), Oct 28 2008, $13.00
ISBN: 0553385119
San Francisco State University Professor Mia Rose Curry teaches a class on alternative sexuality that allows her to fantasize without doing as she trusts no one. Her class is extremely popular as students enjoy learning about fetishes, bondage, and voyeurism, oh my. Although several students have come on to her, Mia knows better than to mix with a pupil; instead she conceals her desires from everyone behind an academic façade.
However, this term she has a problem when hunk Jagger James enters her classroom. From the moment she sees the Golden One she wants him, but tries to pretend indifference. Jagger knows she is his food fetish and plans to dine on his teacher just like he demands she feast on his banquet.
This is an entertaining erotic romance starring a professor and the student who makes her deepest hottest fantasies come to life. Though their pairing seems on the surface wrong (even Mia Rose knows that) due to the nature of their academic relationship, Eden Bradley makes it seem right. Sub-genre fans will relish dining on this FORBIDDEN FRUIT as Jagger teaches Mia Rose “ain’t nothing like the real thing” (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell) when love is involved.
Harriet Klausner
One Perfect Day-Lauraine Snelling
One Perfect Day
Lauraine Snelling
Faithwords, Nov 2008, $13.99
ISBN: 0446582107
Nora wants the perfect Christmas for her family. She looks forward along with her twins Charlie and Christi to the return of her spouse and their father from Germany. However the Riverbend police arrive at Nora’s home to inform her a tragedy occurs when Charlie is in a car accident and is in the hospital’s ICU only kept alive by a ventilator. His dad, delayed in Germany, rushes home to try to be at the side of his son.
Jenna is a single mother praying for a miracle for her daughter, Heather. If the child fails to get a heart transplant by Christmas she will be dead. A miracle occurs when a heart is found for Heather. Though Jenna rejoices, Nora mourns.
This is a poignant emotional tale of two families connected by the organ transplant. Both families come across as real especially their reactions to what is going on. Besides making a strong plea for the organ donation program, ONE PERFECT DAY points out that for each life saved, someone else mourns the loss of a life. Lauraine Snelling provides a deep inspirational novel.
Harriet Klausner
Lauraine Snelling
Faithwords, Nov 2008, $13.99
ISBN: 0446582107
Nora wants the perfect Christmas for her family. She looks forward along with her twins Charlie and Christi to the return of her spouse and their father from Germany. However the Riverbend police arrive at Nora’s home to inform her a tragedy occurs when Charlie is in a car accident and is in the hospital’s ICU only kept alive by a ventilator. His dad, delayed in Germany, rushes home to try to be at the side of his son.
Jenna is a single mother praying for a miracle for her daughter, Heather. If the child fails to get a heart transplant by Christmas she will be dead. A miracle occurs when a heart is found for Heather. Though Jenna rejoices, Nora mourns.
This is a poignant emotional tale of two families connected by the organ transplant. Both families come across as real especially their reactions to what is going on. Besides making a strong plea for the organ donation program, ONE PERFECT DAY points out that for each life saved, someone else mourns the loss of a life. Lauraine Snelling provides a deep inspirational novel.
Harriet Klausner
A Good Woman-Danielle Steel
A Good Woman
Danielle Steel
Delacorte Press, Oct 2008, $27.00
ISBN: 0385340265
The Worthington family is at the top of Fifth Ave and Newport society. The patriarch is an affluent banker; his wife is a leader of the upper crust; and their two children are highly regarded. Everything changes when the Titanic goes down in 1912 as the patriarch and the son die in the tragedy leaving behind nineteen years old Annabelle and her mom to grieve their loss.
A banking colleague of her late dad Josiah Millbank kindly offers marriage to Annabelle; she accepts. Two years later having never made love, Josiah informs his young wife that he has syphilis and demands a divorce because he wants to be with his male lover. Annabelle says no so Josiah files for a divorce on the grounds of adultery. Everyone assumes the kind banker is the victim leaving Annabelle a pariah. She goes to Paris to start over hoping to become a doctor based on her volunteer work at Ellis Island.
Annabelle makes the historical tale fun to read as her strength shines through even when her reputation is unfairly destroyed. The plight of women in high society just prior to WW I comes into deep focus by the way Annabelle’s peers react to first the Titanic tragedy, then her marriage, and finally the accusations. Fans will enjoy Danielle Steele’s fine early twentieth century saga of a woman who could quote Sinatra’s That’s Life because Annabelle knows that “Some people get their kicks, Stompin' on a dream” but she also would sing “Each time I find myself, flat on my face, I pick myself up and get back in the race”.
Harriet Klausner
Danielle Steel
Delacorte Press, Oct 2008, $27.00
ISBN: 0385340265
The Worthington family is at the top of Fifth Ave and Newport society. The patriarch is an affluent banker; his wife is a leader of the upper crust; and their two children are highly regarded. Everything changes when the Titanic goes down in 1912 as the patriarch and the son die in the tragedy leaving behind nineteen years old Annabelle and her mom to grieve their loss.
A banking colleague of her late dad Josiah Millbank kindly offers marriage to Annabelle; she accepts. Two years later having never made love, Josiah informs his young wife that he has syphilis and demands a divorce because he wants to be with his male lover. Annabelle says no so Josiah files for a divorce on the grounds of adultery. Everyone assumes the kind banker is the victim leaving Annabelle a pariah. She goes to Paris to start over hoping to become a doctor based on her volunteer work at Ellis Island.
Annabelle makes the historical tale fun to read as her strength shines through even when her reputation is unfairly destroyed. The plight of women in high society just prior to WW I comes into deep focus by the way Annabelle’s peers react to first the Titanic tragedy, then her marriage, and finally the accusations. Fans will enjoy Danielle Steele’s fine early twentieth century saga of a woman who could quote Sinatra’s That’s Life because Annabelle knows that “Some people get their kicks, Stompin' on a dream” but she also would sing “Each time I find myself, flat on my face, I pick myself up and get back in the race”.
Harriet Klausner
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Life After Genius-M. Ann Jacoby
Life After Genius
M. Ann Jacoby
Grand Central, Oct 29 2008, $24.99
ISBN: 0446199710
Theodore Mead Fegley grew up in High Grove, Illinois under the thumb of a martinet mom and an indifferent dad who was too busy running a funeral parlor and furniture store. Being a genius, Mead faced bullies and unfair physical comparisons to his older athletically gifted cousin as if brawn supersedes brain every time although Perry is his only friend. At fifteen he accepts a scholarship to attend Chicago University on a three year track.
At school, he focuses on solving Riemann Hypothesis while flourishing under the mentoring of Dr. Alexander. However, as he succeeds at math, he fails at personal relationships. Now on the verge of graduating at eighteen, Mead must give his presentation even as his long time college rival and enemy math major Herman Weinstein tries to destroy his research; instead feeling emotionally deceased he flees for home.
Though the key characters seem to come out of typecasting 101 boy genius, contemporary readers will enjoy this well written character study that looks at the down side of being the brain. Mead is an interesting protagonist whose intelligence without an emotional anchor leads to his shutting down his brain. Readers will appreciate his struggles to belong as LIFE AFTER GENIUS can prove disconcerting.
M. Ann Jacoby
Grand Central, Oct 29 2008, $24.99
ISBN: 0446199710
Theodore Mead Fegley grew up in High Grove, Illinois under the thumb of a martinet mom and an indifferent dad who was too busy running a funeral parlor and furniture store. Being a genius, Mead faced bullies and unfair physical comparisons to his older athletically gifted cousin as if brawn supersedes brain every time although Perry is his only friend. At fifteen he accepts a scholarship to attend Chicago University on a three year track.
At school, he focuses on solving Riemann Hypothesis while flourishing under the mentoring of Dr. Alexander. However, as he succeeds at math, he fails at personal relationships. Now on the verge of graduating at eighteen, Mead must give his presentation even as his long time college rival and enemy math major Herman Weinstein tries to destroy his research; instead feeling emotionally deceased he flees for home.
Though the key characters seem to come out of typecasting 101 boy genius, contemporary readers will enjoy this well written character study that looks at the down side of being the brain. Mead is an interesting protagonist whose intelligence without an emotional anchor leads to his shutting down his brain. Readers will appreciate his struggles to belong as LIFE AFTER GENIUS can prove disconcerting.
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