My Lady Gisborne

My Lady Gisborne, A Love Story is a follow up book to The Tempest by the same author.  In The Tempest, Guy of Gisborne and his wife Cassia are deeply in love and they have four children together.  In My Lady Gisborne, several years have passed and their children are much older.  Guy and Cassia have been married for 18 years.  After so many years of marriage Guy and Cassia are still deeply in love and their family is a very close knit one.  

The storyline revolves around their daughter Evelyn Elizabeth Gisborne.  When Evelyn was  a baby Guy promised her hand in marriage to the son of a dear friend and fellow nobleman, Basil Jean-Carre.  When Evelyn is fifteen years old she finally meets her betrothed Simon Jean-Carre'.  It had been arranged that Evelyn would marry Simon the day after her sixteenth birthday.  Now remember this is a medieval love story so marrying at 16 is common.    Evelyn is now 15 years old and it is time for her to meet the 23 year old young man that she is betrothed to.  However, Evelyn also meets Rene' Jean-Bastien who is a nobleman turned rogue.  Which man will Evelyn choose to marry?

I did not care for Rene' from the start.  I thought he was immature, way too arrogant and selfish.  I was not happy when Evelyn started to fall for Rene'.  Simon Jean-Carre' is a handsome and decent man of noble birth, but he is a bit cold and believes that his duty to the Crown is most important in life.  Having a wife was good but he only saw that as a backdrop to life.  Being under the same roof with the Gisbornes changes all of that.  Simon truly falls in love with Evelyn and he wants to have a close knit family of his own like the Gisborne's.

Even though I did not care for the Rene' Jean-Bastien character, it did add immensely to the storyline.  Rene's feelings for Evelyn forced Simon to realize the depth of his love for her.  For a man who was not used to expressing the tenderness of love in words and emotions the threat of Rene' forced Simon 's raw feelings to surface and remain there.

I cherished Guy of Gisborne even more in this book.  Guy's love for his children is so strong.  The day that Guy had to give Evelyn away in marriage touched me deeply.  I could feel Guy's emotions as he had to let go of his daughter to a life of her own.  

I really enjoyed this book by Charlotte Hawkins so much.  It was a great continuation of a wonderful love story.  I will forever love the Gisborne's through this author's books.

4 Stars     

   

Italy: Rediscovering the Art of Vacation

I just finished reading this book and it did take me longer to read it than I thought it would.  I enjoyed it very much but here and there it was just a tad bit tedious.  This book is about Chris Brady taking a month long vacation-sabbatical with his family.  The Brady's head for Italy which is a country that Chris has been to before and drawn to.  I love Chris's sense of adventure.  When I get married that is the type of husband I want to end up with.  I don't see taking a month out of one's life to spend in Italy or anyplace you ever dreamed of impossible.  You can make anything happen if you have the burning desire to do so.  If you think something is not possible then you don't want it badly enough. 

Chris, his wife Terri and four children head for the Amalfi coast first.  The Brady's first rent a villa apartment that overlooks the Mediterranean sea.  Their adventures in that part of the region pulls me in and keeps me reading. After a week or so the family heads to another region of Italy and rent a villa called La Contea in Tuscany.  I found their adventures there equally interesting and I want to visit Italy now more than ever.  Throughout the entire book Chris spices it up with humor.  Having a sense of humor is another great personality trait to have in a spouse. 

What sticks out clearly is the love and closeness of this family and I think that added to the wonderful time they had in Italy.  I admire the Brady family.  Terri is a very supportive wife.  Another person who reviewed this book saw that as a weakness and wrote that Terri seems like a person who just goes along with everything her husband wants.  There is a difference between being a doormat and being supportive.  Terri is loving and supportive.  How wonderful it would be if we all had spouses who loves us enough to want our dreams to come true and participates in it.  Terri, who loves to cook, goes off on her own in Italy one day to take a cooking class.  I enjoyed reading about that.  Chris Brady is a father who takes part in his children's raising and does not leave it all to mommy, even though Terri does most of it being a full time mom.  Chris clearly loves and appreciates his wife and children.  He never takes any of them for granted and the entire family has a strong spiritual base.

The Bradys visit so many historical places that most people just read about in books.  Chris made them all come alive ofr me and I would stop to Google many of them.  I cannot wait to visit the Vatican, the Temple of Neptune, etc.

Chris Brady clearly spent thousands of dollars on this trip and I would have liked to know how much it cost him.   The books contains lots of advice and tidbits that are good to know.

4 Stars

Believe In Love

I just finished reading this book on my Kindle and enjoyed it very much.  It is a contemporary romance story that is a fast read.  The storyline kept me engaged and moved along at a good steady pace.  The hero is Carson Waverly, a very handsome and wealthy architect and owner of luxury hotels in Hawaii called The Waverly.  Carson is a womanizer who because of his past does not believe in love; at least not for himself.  Carson has dated many beautiful women, including international models, but none were able to keep his interest until he meets Molly Carson, a very pretty but dowdy, naive and inexperienced nurse from Idaho.

Molly travels to Kauai to sprinkle the ashes of her best friend Roger into the ocean in Hawaii.  It is one Roger's last requests before he passed away.  On Molly's first day in Kauai she meets Carson Waverly and from there this beautiful love story unfolds.

There is an element of intrigue that gives the storyline the right amount of lift.  

The only thing that I raised my eyebrows a little about the story is that Carson Waverly was deliberately planning to sleep with someone (Molly) who is a paying customer in his hotel.  That element just did not seem professional to me.  Carson Waverly is obviously a very smart man who takes his business seriously so that part did not match his personality, even though he was a self proclaimed womanizer.

This book also contains intimate acts of making love between Molly and Carson so if you are offended my that this is a warning for you.  Yes, I was blushing.  

4 Stars  

 

The Tempest A Guy of Gisborne Story

 A Richard Armitage fan on Pinterest highly recommended that I read this book The Tempest A Guy of Gisborne Story.  Since the Kindle version is only $3.99 I decided to pucrhase it.   I started reading it the next day and I literally could not put the book down until I finished the story.  It is written by Charlotte Hawkins.

I really enjoyed reading this book.  A couple of people on amazin hated it but I don't get that at all.  I found the storyline to be very engaging.  It was nice to see Guy of Gisborne find the true love of his life and I was glad that it was not Marian.  It was also nice to see Guy's transformation from a man who was wicked and cruel to a man who deep down had a good decent side to him and was really ashamed of the way he acted and the lives he ruined.  

Cassia DeWarren is the woman who loved Guy of Gisborne and was able to see through him to his soul.  She saw that deep down there was goodness in him and with her love she brought that aspect of Guy to the fore.   At the start of the story Guy is still obssessed with Marian, but after he is injured and left unconscious, his body was found by Cassia and her father Robert DeWarren.  Cassia and Robert managed to bring Guy's body to the house and from there worked on his injuries which were very serious and life threatening.  As Cassia's unwilling patient Guy gets to know Cassia who is of peasant birth.  Being in constant close proximity with Cassia, Guy is forced to get to know her better.  The more Guy gets to know Cassia the more he is drawn to her as a person.  Guy is also physically drawn to Cassia.  She is a dark beauty just as Marian was but instead of having green eyes Cassia's eyes are dark.

 In the BBC Robin Hood series Richard Armitage plays Guy of Gisborne and you can easily recognize Richard's protrayal of the character in this book.

 

 

Over time Guy of Gisborne realizes that he is in love with Cassia and that his love for Marian paled in comparison.  Cassia inspires Guy to want to be a better person and he is ashamed of the misery and heartbreak that he caused in the past.          

Guy of Gisborne is extremely amorous in this book and it does contain detailed lovemaking scenes.  Some people do find this sort of thing uncomfortable, but I don't as long as it is written tastefully and is connected to love and not base lust.  For being such a formerly cruel person Guy is a very sweet, tender, considerate and passionate lover who has no problems expressing himself in the bedroom.   I was blushing as I was reading the love scenes.

 

If I am not mistaken the author of this book based Guy of Gisborne on Richard Armitage's portrayal of him in Robin Hood.  In the book Guy had the same way of smirking that Richard brought to the character.  They have the same brooding and arrogant temperament.    

 

 



Thank you Richard Armitage and thank you Charlotte Hawkins for a great book.  Click HERE to go the the author's blog.  This is the first and only book I have read by her.  Miss Hawkins does wrote "adult" books.  I enjoyed this one and was not offended but I am not sure about the others.  Some people may consider her books soft porn which I am not into either.  I may give another one of her books a try since I enjoyed this one so much.     

5 Stars

Mindful Journeys: Paris and Other Illusions

I really enjoyed this book very much.  I love travel essays but not everyone can write about their travels in a way that keeps me engaged.  This book kept me engaged.  I also loved the photos and web-links.  It brings a new spin to eBooks that I really appreciate and think is fun.  Since I am working on a book I now have an idea of how I can make it more interesting. 

After reading this travel essay Prague is now on my list of places that I MUST visit.  There is balanced writing about food, museums, the people, and the general take on living in the various places.  I do get a sense that Europe has been a bit spoiled by all the tourists with Paris being a MAJOR tourism spot.  I would have loved to know Paris before that happened.  I think I would love to visit these places during off season.

This book is also a fast read.  I could have finished in one day but you know life intrudes sometimes.  This is the second book that I read by E, Journey and both did not disappoint. 

You can visit E. Journey's website by clicking Here.        

Cinderella's Wedding Wish

This book was very sweet.  It was predictable and cliche but I enjoyed it never the less.  I really liked the hero and heroine.  It was a bit of a breathe of fresh that the heroine was not your cliche perfect drop dead gorgeous female that are in most romance books.  Romance writers tend to convey the message that a handsome man with all the best qualities could never fall deeply in love with a women who is not a "perfect" physical specimen.  I remember once reading a romance novel where the hero fell in love with the heroine who was attractive and full figured.  Women of all shapes, sizes and beauty is worthy to be loved.  Jessica Hart writes very nice romance stories that are easy and quick to read.

3 Stars

Newlyweds of Convenience

A lovely romance story that I could not put down until I finished reading it.  The fact that it included a castle in the Scottish Highlands made it all the more romantic.  I loved the hero Torr McIver.  As much as he tried to hide the depth of his love for the heroine you could still sense it.  I loved the businessman side of him as well as the part of him that could find happiness in the Scottish countryside.  I find that quite a sexy combination.

   I found Mallory the heroine quite frustrating.  Her former fiance was a con-man yet she continued to pine after him for quite some time after he walked out on her leaving her in huge debt and her career shattered.  Mallory was also constantly arguing with Torr for no good reason.  After what Torr did for Mallory she should have been more respectful to him.  Granted their marriage was approached as a business arrangement, but Mallory had to be totally self absorbed to not, at least, suspect that Torr had real feelings for her.   

The ending is precious and I wanted it to be a little longer.  This book is a cute and fast read.

4 Stars

 

Captain Wentworth's Diary

I probably would not have read this book without reading about its recommendation in the Jane Austen group on Goodreads.  I am so glad I read it.  I loved it!  It is so nice to read Persuasion completely through Captain Wentworth's eyes.  The author Amanda Grange did a wonderful job.

Captain Wentworth is so mature and only wants to marry for love.  The Captain's love for Anne is constant.  Regardless of his pride and doubts the Captain continues to move forward to regain the love of his life.  I love Captain Wentworth more than Mr. Darcy.  This book is a very easy read too because it is written in diary style.

5 Stars     

Tout Sweet: Hanging Up My High Heels for A New Life in Rural France

The best part about this book is the dilapidated old house in the French countryside that Karen restored all on her own.  I have done the same thing myself but here in the states instead.  As a single woman it is very satisfying knowing that I could take on such a huge project like that.  There are couples who would run from it, but I did it.  It took me longer than a year though to restore my brownstone.
 

Deep heartbreak from a broken relationship prompted Karen to buy an old house in rural France and leave behind her life in London.  In the year that it took Karen to restore the house she grew so much as a person.  I was overjoyed when she finally was able to move on from Eric.  I am very proud of Karen Wheeler.  I just wished that every darned relationship afterwards would not turn sour.

It was challenging trying to keep straight all the people Karen met in France and all the shenanigans of their personal lives.  Karen seemed to be surrounded by a bunch of weirdos.  

It wish that Karen included some photos of her beautiful home in rural France.  I would have liked to see some before and after pictures.  

The ending of the book throws out some promise.  I enjoyed Tout Sweet enough to make me want to read Karen Wheeler's other books.  I am rooting for her.

3 Stars

        

Shanna

I read this book when I was 19 years old, still a virgin and naive as all heck.  I had no idea that it contained intimate love scenes.  I was so shocked when I got to the first one...LOL  It was written very well and I was not in the least offended.  I loved reading this book and found it hard to put down.  It was the very first romance novel I ever read.  I read it that one time and have not read it since.  So I am giving it 5 stars based on what I thought and felt about the book when I was 19. 

I am much older now, and I have a feeling that Shanna would not affect me as it did when I was 19 even though I think I could still enjoy the story.  Shanna who is basically a good person is also a very spoiled brat.  I don't think I could stomach Shanna today.  The hero Roark Beauchamp (pronounced Bee-chum) is a dream.  He is just about everything a woman could want in a man and strikingly handsome to boot.  As a 19 year old it never occurred to me that the hero deserved someone better than a spoiled rich brat.   A lot of females reading Shanna today cannot stand her and it is easy to understand why.  The only flaw that I could detect in Roark is that his love for Shanna seemed to be primarily based on the fact that she is extraordinarily beautiful which is shallow.  Somehow through Shanna's bad behavior Roark can see that she is really a wonderful person. 

After reading Shanna I read every book that Kathleen Woodiwiss wrote up until my mid twenties. I could not stomach "bodice ripper" novels today, but Kathleen Woodiwiss will always have a special place in my heart for putting me on the path to romance novels.  I love them, I am proud to admit that I read them and always will.  

5 Stars

I just may read Shanna again and see how I would rate it now as a woman over 40..

Paris My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light

Last week I purchased the Kindle edition of the book Paris My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate).  The author is Amy Thomas.  Miss Thomas is an American Francophile.  Her love of France began when she went to Paris for three months as a college student.  From that time on Amy Thomas dreamed of living in France.  It was an obsession that was manifested into reality because of her strong desire for it.  At age thirty six Amy accepted a job offer with the company she worked with that entailed moving to France and working for Louis Vuitton.  

Amy Thomas spent two years living and working in France.  Paris My Sweet chronicles Amy's first year of living in the City of Light.  I read much criticism about this book in Amazon.com, but I found it to be a delightful read.  Some reviewers said the author talked too much about herself.  Well, what does one think writing about your year living abroad is about?  Is it not about you and your own personal experiences?  I never perceived the book as being self indulgent at all.  I wanted to read about the author's experiences as a single woman who moved to France by herself at age 36.  That is exactly what the book is about and what you will get.  So what is the problem?  Amy Thomas did something that I have dreamed of doing myself for years but have not done....yet

The author has an extreme love of sweets, especially dark chocolate.  Miss Thomas writes a lot about chocolate, pastries, breads, donuts, truffles, you name it and Paris My Sweet has it.  There is so much talk of sweets that I started to wonder if the author had to visit the dentist more than most people.  I also wondered if she was fat from eating so much sweets and searched online for what she looks like.  Miss Thomas is quite thin.

I loved that the book includes the names, addresses and sometimes the websites of all the places that Amy Thomas frequented in Paris and in New York City to but sweets, breads and pastries.  As far as I am concerned it is a valuable listing....(smile)  

The book ends at the author's first full year in France.  I now wonder what her second year was like.  After living in Paris for two years would she make it her permanent home?  Did she ever find the love of her life either in France or America?  Amy Thomas, I really would love an update.

When I decide to move abroad I would live in either France, England or Italy.  I have not decided yet which of those countries to choose from.  

I offer my love and thanks to Amy Thomas for sharing with us all her experiences living in France . 

Here are the links to Amy Thomas's blogs:  Sweet Freaks and God, I Love Paris
  

Goodreads

Two weeks ago I found a social network for people who love to read.  It is called goodreads and apparently it has been around for a few years already.  I never heard of it until just two weeks ago.  I love it!!!  I so much love to read that I can call it an addiction at this point.  Goodreads is for people like me who enjoy reading immensely.  When anyone tells me that they don't like to read I cannot comprehend that.  Not liking to read is a foreign concept to me that I don't even want to understand.  Reading enriches my life.  

Click the goodreads button to join goodreads.

There are many things about goodreads that I love.  First off you are in the online company of other people who feel as you do about reading.  It doesn't make any sense to join if you are not a book lover.   Secondly, you get to interact with some of the authors of the books you are reading.  Many self published authors are on goodreads.  Thirdly, you can rate, review and recommend the books you read.  Fourthly, goodreads is great for keeping track of books that you read.  There is a really fun goodreads challenge that you can enter into each year.  Another great benefit is that you can join any number of groups focusing on genre's, authors, etc.  I have met some wonderful people already just by joining groups.

If you are a book lover and not already a member of goodreads I invite you to check it out.