ShellieLovesBooks

  My featured book for Can't Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings is.... King Alfred's Daughter by David Stokes. It caught my eye immediately at NetGalley because although I'm seeing a lot more books in recent years about King Alfred and the Viking Era, I've not seen one dedicated to his daughter, Aethelflaed. This one is not a mystery, or a romance based book but rather the type of historical fiction I love best: the real facts woven with fictional drama to represent what probably happened, what people probably said, and what they probably did. It should be both entertaining and informational. Can't wait! March 28, 2023 Historical Fiction Book description courtesy of NetGalley: King Alfred is dead and the achievements that made him great are in jeopardy. Rebels challenge the succession of his son Edward to the Wessex throne, and his old ally in Mercia is sick. The Vikings in the Danelaw sense the time has come to complete their conquest of England.

  Today is the day to see which number I got for the Classics Club Spin!  Drumroll...... 18 ! I am very excited because number 18 on my list is Now, Voyager by Olive Higgins Prouty.  I have meant to read this book for YEARS as it is in the top five of my all time favorite classic movies. It is my favorite Bette Davis movie after All About Eve and I had no idea there was a book until years after I'd fallen in love with the movie. This spin will finally get me moving to read the novel that inspired it. So April is looking like a lot of fun! I will post my review on my Classics Club page when I am finished with it, by April 30th.  Publication Date:  January 1, 1941 Length: 284 pages   Book summary courtesy of Goodreads: Boston blueblood Charlotte Vale has led an unhappy, sheltered life. Lonely, dowdy, repressed, and pushing 40, Charlotte finds salvation at a sanitarium, where she undergoes an emotional and physical transformation. After her extreme makeover, the new Charlotte tests h

Publication Date: 1988 Length: 592 pages My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ I originally was not going to write a review for this book until I'd written one for Here Be Dragons, book one of the Welsh princes trilogy. But I read that one two years ago and I've honestly forgotten a lot. So I decided to go ahead and finish this one, book two, and give my thoughts on it. Sharon Penman is one of my favorite authors and I always look forward to starting a new book of hers. While this one was not as engaging for me as I'd hoped it would be, it nevertheless is still a masterpiece of the time period she's covering.  I really felt like this story was two timelines in one. Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and Llewellyn of Wales both take center stage, with de Montfort monopolizing most of the book. It is part of the Welsh princes trilogy but it felt more like Simon's tale. When it begins, he has gone to try to reclaim his inheritance from his cousin, the Earl of Chester, who has no heirs a

  For this week's Can't Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at  Wishful Endings , I am looking forward to The King's Pleasure by Alison Weir. She is one of my favorite non-fiction authors and this is sure to be a solid fictional account of the life of Henry the Eighth. It's only natural that she'd write this one after her bestselling novels about his six wives. Hoping this one will be entertaining.  May 30, 2023 Historical Fiction Book description courtesy of NetGalley The New York Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series explores the private side of the legendary king Henry VIII and his dramatic and brutal reign in this extraordinary historical novel. Having completed her Six Tudor Queens series of novels on the wives of Henry VIII, extensively researched and written from each queen's point of view, Alison Weir now gives Henry himself a voice, telling the story of his remarkable thirty-six-year reign and his six marriages.  Young Henry began his ru

  Classics Club Spin #33 I am joining the Classics Club challenge this month to read a book from my list according to the number given to me on Sunday, March 19th. It is titled "33" because it is the 33rd time the club has had this challenge. This will be my very first spin. I am a little nervous about this as I like to have total control over what I feel like reading each day. But I made a goal to read these classics and this will help get me moving. I am already feeling waayyy behind! So wish me luck and I'll post on Sunday which book number I am tasked with reading. Here is my list of twenty random books from my Classics Club page: 1. Anna Karenina 2. Northanger Abbey 3. Jamaica Inn 4. North and South (Gaskell, not Jakes!) 5. The Man in the Brown Suit 6. Strangers On a Train 7. Emma 8. The Age of Innocence 9. 1984 10. Breakfast At Tiffany's 11. The Circular Staircase 12. Devil Water 13. This Side of Glory 14. Waverly 15. The Woman in White 16. Vanity Fair 17. The

Publication Date: October 11, 2005 Length: 320 pages My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ This is a long running series with seventeen books. Her new one is set to be published this fall and has yet to even have a description summary yet. I wanted to start with this book because it is the first in the series. Each book features Lady Emily as the main character as she solves a mystery, often in different locations around the world.  Lady Emily has been recently widowed and hardly knew her husband, the Viscount Phillip of Ashton. She only accepted his proposal in the first place to escape her life with her overbearing mother and had no real connection to Phillip. They weren't together long as he went to Africa on safari and died there. Emily at first revels in her widowhood and new found freedom that was given to her upon his death and inheritance of plenty of wealth to keep her comfortable but soon she begins to read his journals and finds herself falling in love with him. He clearly was in love with h

This week's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl , is to list something related to "Bookish People I'd Like To Meet." Of course there are a million fictional possibilities but I thought I'd list my favorite authors (those living!) that I'd love to meet if I could. What authors would you like to meet if you had the chance? 1. Anne Perry - The queen of historical mysteries set in the Victorian Era. 2. Diana Gabaldon - My favorite time travel author. 3. Ben Kane - Great author of historical fiction set in Ancient Rome, Medieval England, and now the Napoleonic Era with his upcoming novel. 4. Verity Bright - This is actually a husband and wife couple who write the cute Eleanor Swift mysteries .  5. Janette Oak - Much loved writer of Christian fiction. She has written a huge, inspirational volume of stories. 6. John Jakes - My go to author for Civil War and founding of America fiction series.  7. Michael Phillips - His Christian Stonewycke  series reall

Publication Date:  February 23, 2021 Length:  560 pages My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ This book is part two of a three part series on Medieval Queens. Book one deals with the conquest period and book three covers the age of chivalry. I already had purchased this one awhile ago when it was on sale and so that is why I started in the middle. Also, loving the Crusader period, I wanted to learn more about the wives of the Kings involved during this time. Alison Weir is known for being a solid researcher and her books cover her chosen subjects with depth and fidelity so I know I'm getting the facts, not embellished with her opinions.  There are five sections: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Berengaria of Navarre, Isabella of Angouleme, Alienor of Provence, and Eleanor of Castile. Each queen either participated in the Crusades and, or, was Queen during the period of the Crusades. Some had husbands who joined the march to the Holy Land themselves but not all. Of course the most famous of them, Eleanor of Aquita