King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn (Ladies in Waiting, Book One)

author: Sandra Byrd

genre: historical fiction

published: ARC/ August 2011

pages: 332

source: Historical Fiction Book Tours

first line: There are many ways to arrive at the Tower of London, though there are a few ways out.

rated: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars









blurb:

Meg Wyatt has been Anne Boleyn's closest friend ever since they grew up together on neighboring manors in Kent. So when twenty-five-year-old Anne's star begins to ascend, of course she takes Meg along for the ride.


Life in the court of Henry VIII is thrilling...at first. Meg is made mistress of Anne's wardrobe, and she enjoys the spoils of this privileged orbit and uses her influence for good. She is young and beautiful and in favor; everyone at court assumes that being close to her is being close to Anne.


But favor is fickle and envy is often laced with venom. As Anne falls, so does Meg, and it becomes nearly impossible for her to discern ally from enemy. Suddenly life's unwelcome surprises rub against court's sheen to reveal the tarnished brass of false affections and the bona fide gold of those are true. Both Anne and Meg may lose everything. When your best friend is married to fearsome Henry VIII, you may soon find yourself not only friendless but headless as well.


A rich alchemy of fact and fiction, To Die For chronicles the glittering court life, the sweeping romance, and the heartbreaking fall from grace of a forsaken queen and Meg, her closest companion, who was forgotten by the ages but who is destined to live on in our hearts forever.

About:

Best friends Meg Wyatt and Anne Boleyn grew up together in Kent. When Anne is sent to live at King Henry VIII's Court, Meg follows soon after.




Meg herself lived a difficult life at home, her father having been a harsh man and often beating her. She falls in love with Will Ogilvy, but when he is sent off to become a priest, her heart is shattered.


Not before long, Meg's father arranges a marriage for her, to a man who is decades older and whom she could never possibly love.


Life at court is tantalizing as well as dangerous, and when Anne gets herself into trouble, Meg follows her best friend in her downward spiral.






My thoughts:


The Tudor period is my favorite era. What historical fiction I've read concerning the Tudors has been by Philippa Gregory. I am so glad to have had the chance to read Sandra Byrd. She is a fantastic storyteller and superb writer and I enjoyed reading To Die For from start to finish. I was instantly transported to England in the 1500's and could easily envision King Henry VIII's court, with its luxury, scandal and drama. We all know how the story of Anne Boleyn plays out, but here we get to see her best friend alongside Anne. Meg's story takes a life of its own and I was really interested in what would become of her.


Meg and Anne were very close, and I could imagine the two of them living life in the King's court.

The first young man trained his eyes on me and smiled flirtatiously. I was unused to courtly manners. Did he intend to pay me such intense attention? Or was this a part and parcel of the illusory world of the court, where nothing was as it seemed?

p.56, To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn

Meg is truly heartbroken over Will. You can feel her pain as you read. Her heart breaks when Will tells her his plans to join the priesthood.

"I loved him to the point of anguish."





I liked seeing some well known people in this story; George and Mary Boleyn, Jane Parker and King Henry himself.


I recommend this one to fans of historicals and Tudor fiction, or to anyone looking to get swept up in a great story with plenty of drama, glitz and heartache.
Actually, I think To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn is a must read for Tudor fans.





On a final note, I really like the cover on this book. It suits it perfectly.
To Die For: A Novel of Anne Boleyn (Ladies in Waiting, Book One) will be on my top reads for 2011.











Special thanks to Historical Fiction Book Tours for making this possible.




Links of interest:


This has been a part of Historical Fiction Book Tours.





Click Here for the Tour schedule.

title: Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV

author: Karleen Koen

genre: historical fiction

published: 2011

pages: 460

first line: Intelligent, virile, handsome, a man who made himself master of all he surveyed, Louis XIV was the foremost figure of his age.


source: TLC Book Tours


rated: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Louis XIV is one of the best-known monarchs ever to grace the French throne. But what was he like as a young man—the man before Versailles?


After the death of his prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, twenty-two-year-old Louis steps into governing France. He’s still a young man, but one who, as king, willfully takes everything he can get—including his brother’s wife. As the love affair between Louis and Princess Henriette burns, it sets the kingdom on the road toward unmistakable scandal and conflict with the Vatican. Every woman wants him. He must face what he is willing to sacrifice for love.

Before Versailles centers around the first four months of Louis XIV's reign. You get to read about the women in the king's life and his decision making, as well as palace life in general. The story of a young Louis XIV was an interesting one.


The mystery, the romance and the going's on at the French court all kept me entertained.
Within the first pages there's a boy in an iron mask and a musketeer, my attention was captured instantly.


This is my first time reading about King Louis and I enjoyed author Karleen Koen's captivating storytelling. I felt like I was right there at the King's court. One thing I love about historical fiction is getting to learn a bit as you read. I now want to visit the Gardens of Versailles!

There was a certain listlessness to the evenings with Madame still absent. On this particular one, ladies were spread out near the queen on rugs and cushions, and the queen was content to sit in the suspended garden while her dwarves irritated courtiers by stealing fans or other trifles and dropping them into the water of the carp pond. Louis and his friends were on the water racing gondolas again.

p. 215

Special thanks to Lisa over @ TLC Book Tours.
Click here to see the rest of the tour stops.



About Karleen Koen:




Karleen Koen is the author of Now Face to Face andThrough a Glass Darkly, which was a New York Timesbestseller and featured a much older Alice Verney (known in that novel as the Duchess of Tamworth). The author lives in Houston, Texas.


Connect with Karleen at her website, karleenkoen.net, and on Facebook.

title: Trace of Fever

author: Lori Foster



genre: contemporary romance/romantic suspense



pages: 393

published: May 2011


source: ARC sent by Book Trib/Book Tour


first line: Arms crossed and his shoulders propped against the wall outside the elaborate, corner high rise-office, Trace Rivers considered his options.


rated: 3 out of 5








book blurb:

Caught in the crossfire of vengeance and desire...



Undercover mercenary Trace Rivers loves the adrenaline rush of a well-planned mission. First he'll earn the trust of corrupt businessman Murray Coburn, then gather the proof he needs to shut down the man's dirty smuggling operation. It's a perfect scheme—until Coburn's long-lost daughter saunters in with her own deadly plan for revenge.


With a smile like an angel and fire in her eyes, Priscilla Patterson isn't who she seems to be. But neither is the gorgeous bodyguard who ignites all her senses. Joining forces to plot Coburn's downfall, Priss and Trace must fight the undeniable heat between them. For one wrong move, one lingering embrace will expose them to the wrath of a merciless opponent.

About:


Trace of Fever is the second book in Lori Foster's Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series.

In this book we have hottie Trace Rivers working undercover as a bodyguard for a corrupt wealthy businessman named Murray Coburn. Coburns runs a human trafficking business and Trace wants to gain his trust so he can bring him down.


One day the beautiful and seemingly innocent Priscilla Patterson walks into Coburns place of business claiming to be his long lost daughter. Priss has an agenda of her own. Trace can't help but notice the beauty has something up her sleeve, and is not as innocent as she claims to be.


When Coburn has Trace keep tabs on Priss, he more than willingly obliges. Trace and Priss end up having some hot sexual tension as Trace actually begins to care for her and doesn't want to see Priss come to any harm.




My thoughts:


I read the first in this series, When You Dare and enjoyed it. In that book I got to learn a bit about Trace, and I was eager to read his story in this second installment.


The tension between Priss and Trace was nice, it slowly developed and I was eager to see how these two would get together.

Author Lori Foster creates another likable heroine with Priss. She is no damsel in distress and has a mind of her own.
I also liked Trace's character, since I do enjoy alpha males in romance books.



I also like seeing Dare McIntosh from the first in this series, When You Dare, pop up in this book.



I found Murray Coburn's wife, Helene a.k.a. Hell, to be a bit over the top. I found her too obnoxious and too willing to throw punches to take her seriously.





All in all, I enjoyed Trace of Fever. It was a juicy read on these hot summer days.










Book three in this series is called Savor the Danger.



About the author:




Since first publishing in January 1996, Lori Foster has become a Waldenbooks, Borders, USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly and New York Times bestselling author. Lori has published through a variety of houses, including Kensington, St. Martin’s, Harlequin, Silhouette and Samhain. She is currently with Berkley/Jove.


Lori believes it’s important to give back to the community as much as possible, and for that reason she ran special contests in conjunction with a publisher, facilitating many first sales for new authors. She routinely organizes events among authors and readers to gather donations for various organizations.


quoted from the author's website



Special thanks to Tricia over @ BookTrib for making this possible!

title: Queen By Right

author: Anne Easter Smith

genre: historical fiction

published: May 2011

pages: 494

source: Historical Fiction Book Tours

first line: A scream pierced Cecily's dreamless sleep.

rated: 4 out of 5 stars








About:

Cecily Neville is duchess of York and is also known as Rose of Raby and Proud Cis.
As a child Cecily was betrothed to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York and married by age thirteen. Although the marriage is arranged, the two actually fall in love.


They become involved in what is known as the War of the Roses, a period where the York family and Lancaster family are fighting for the throne of England. This was also known and the Cousins War, since cousins and in-laws were fighting on opposite sides.

As Richard fights for the throne, he has Cecily's support.
The story is told from the viewpoint of Cecily as she reflects back on her life right after her beloved Richard dies.




My thoughts:

I love it when I read a book and am immediately swept into a storyline filled with descriptive passages and interesting characters. That's exactly what happened when I picked up Anne Easter Smith's Queen By Right.



This was my first time reading about Cecily and I enjoyed getting to know her.
As a child she'd dress up as a boy and go out riding with her father, which was really frowned upon and considered a sin for a female to dress as a male. Cecily had a mind of her own from the start. Richard takes a liking to her as soon as he meets her and astonishingly enough, the two actually fall in love.



There was plenty going on within this story, but it never got overwhelming and I found no dry spots and I stood up late into the night reading. I felt like author
Anne Easter Smith took history and blended it with fiction perfectly bringing these characters to life. I liked both Cecily and Richard. And I must mention again, the setting and time period, I was perfectly swept away into the story.


I can definitely imagine this one being made into a mini-series.




This is a book to sink your teeth into and I highly recommend it, especially to fans of this genre. Romance, history, love and war all make for a juicy read!
Anne Easter Smith has become a new favorite author.

She stared into the darkness of her curtained bed, seeing again the magnificent hall and reliving that special day in her life. All her senses were satisfied that night by the delicious taste of delicate dishes, the pungent aroma of roasted meat mingled with the heaved scents liberally applied to the throats and wrists of the ladies, the myriad of colors of silks, satins, damasks, and the velvets adorned with every precious gem known to man, the sweet sounds of gems-horns, viols, lutes and recorders. And then there was the touch of Richard's hand as he led her out to dance.
p.76

Queen By Right is on a virtual book tour. For a complete list of tour links, click here. You can check out reviews as well as other guest posts, interviews and book giveaways.




Special thanks to Historical Fiction Book Tours for making this possible.

title: When You Dare

author: Lori Foster

genre: contemporary romance/romantic suspense

source: ARC sent by Book Trib/Book Tour

published: May 2011

pages: 448

first line: Midnight came and went with only the quiet buzz of meager traffic along the beach.

book rated:

4 stars

Every woman dreams of landing an Alpha male. With chiseled cheek bones and tan skin, his strong physique gives off a powerful, masculine vibe. But he saves his quiet, romantic side for his soul mate.

About:

When You Dare is the first in Lori Foster's new Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series.

Dare Macintosh is a professional mercenary who rescues Molly Alexander while she is being held captive in Tijuana, Mexico. Dare is there to rescue his best friends sister, but in the process he releases all the women who are being held there. He also takes Molly with him, since she is in no physical condition to save herself.



Dare cares for Molly sho has been drugged for a week, and soon finds out her identity. She is a successful paranormal romance writer and has no idea who would hire someone to kidnap her. Molly hires Dare to help her find out who is behind her abduction. Dare takes the job after making her promise to do everything he says, without question.


As the story flows, and Molly recovers from her kidnapping and mistreatment, the two fall for each other. Dare takes Molly to his private lakeside home to keep her safe while he does some investigating.
Finding out who is behind Molly's abduction becomes a personal mission for him.





My thoughts:

I found When You Dare hard to put down, it was a nice dose of contemporary, suspenseful romance. Dare is pure alpha male, yet he does have a soft side and can't help falling for Molly once he rescues her. He made for a great hero.


Molly is no heroine in distress, despite being held captive and mistreated, she manages to hold it together.
I like that Molly is a writer, it made for an interesting storyline as she wondered if one of her readers might have it out for her.



Molly and Dare's characters were interesting, and I enjoyed getting to know them a bit more as the story went on.

Dare lives in a lush home, has two Labrador retrievers and a male housekeeper. He's made a comfortable living for himself after years of hard work, and now works mostly for the thrill of it.
Molly's latest book is being made into a film starring Ryan Reynolds. She comes from a wealthy family, yet she ventured off and made her own small fortune with her books despite her fathers disapproval. I liked that Molly was no supermodel type, she was your average every day girl.






The romantic scenes between Molly and Dare were great, especially in the beginning when they were taking it slow, nothing was rushed and there was some nice sexual tension between the two. I like a believable romance and attraction between characters, and author Lori Foster does an excellent job at writing just that. I also smiled at the flirtatiousness between these two.

Her gaze skimmed up to his throat, his shoulders. He had the most remarkable chest, wide, strong, sculpted with obvious strength. Even relaxed, his abs remained defined. And a very sexy trail of dark brown hair led from his navel down into his snug boxers.


Beneath the soft cotton material she saw the bulge of his sex.

"Want me to lose the boxers for you?"

She jerked her gaze up to his. His slow smile showed more satisfaction than humor.

p.146

When they finally get together the sex scenes were nice and juicy. Dare has become a new favorite hero. He says things like:

"Once we're in that bed together, we're going to be in there for a few hours, maybe all damn night."

If you enjoy a good dose of romance, with a kick ass hero and a smart, sassy heroine, I recommend When You Dare. This would also make a great beach read for those lazy summer days.
This is my first time reading Lori Foster, and it won't be my last. I will be reading and reviewing the next book in this series, Trace of Fever.




I usually don't drool over men on book covers, but this is the male model used on the cover of When You Dare. I had absolutely no trouble envisioning this man as Dare while reading. Thank you very much.






Special thanks to Tricia over @ BookTrib for making this possible!

Today I'd like to welcome author Anne Easter Smith as she kindly stops by my little corner of the web to do a guest post. Anne is the author of Queen By Right, which I will be reviewing on May 26th.



About the book:

From the award-winning author of A Rose for the Crown, Daughter of York, and The King’s Grace comes another masterful historical novel—the story of Cecily of York, mother of two kings and the heroine of one of history’s greatest love stories.

Read on for Anne Easter Smith's interesting take on Protagonists in her novels....








Guest Post by Anne Easter Smith

Protagonists in AES Novels


While I was writing Queen By Right, people would ask me whether Cecily Neville was anything like my other protagonists. Certainly all of them were not afraid to speak their minds, except perhaps for Grace, until she was pushed. I like my medieval women feisty, history tells us they were--to a point. I confess my ladies are probably a little too contemporary in their behavior for the academic medievalist, but that’s why fiction is such fun.



Studies of the texts from the period tell us that men thought we had a greater desire for sex, that we were easily led, prone to unfaithfulness--especially sexually. That’s why men felt the need to control us. Fathers, priests and husbands thought it was their duty to keep us virtuous and threatened our reputations if we were not. A sullied reputation often meant no one would marry you, and that was a disaster.



Bold-speaking in women was a vice, so the men said, and there was nothing worse than being a “clatterer”! (Magpies, jays and women were dubbed the three clatterers, so droned on the men.) You could be punished for gossiping or scolding by being put on the cucking stool barefoot with your hair hanging down (very humiliating). It was a chair to which a woman was tied and left outside her door or in a public place, and some even had wheels so the clatterer could be clattered over the cobblestones around the neighborhood. (It is similar to a ducking stool, but no water is involved.) I know Kate Haute should have been put on one for sure! Margaret and Cecily were royalty, so I expect their husbands chastised them in private instead.



Another question I am asked is which of my “heroines” I like the most. Of course, I love them all, but here is what I love about them individually.

• Kate Haute because she was my first and, I thought, my only (and because I wasn’t expecting to write another book). I grew as a writer with her, so she’s special. And she is modeled on my younger daughter, Kate, who in puberty and teenage years mostly definitely would have been on the cucking stool a lot!

• Margaret of York is the one I related to the most as I was living with her. She was a rebel at heart, she was her father’s favorite, and she left her homeland for a new life (just like I did). She was also tall for a woman (like me) and loved books (like me).

• Grace is probably my antithesis. Petite, quiet, gentle, but I loved that she gave her heart in the wrong place at first (like me). I admired her tremendously for rising above her convent upbringing, being a bastard, being invisible at court, and yet managing to find herself among her beautiful and strong-minded siblings. I loved her loyalty to Elizabeth Woodville and John of Gloucester, and I loved the way she gently kept the peace and sorted out the mystery of who was Perkin Warbeck.

• Cecily is the woman I admire the most, and whereas I’d love to sit down to lunch with Margaret and have a natter, I’d be a bit intimidated by Cecily. This is no simpering miss! I am in awe of her strength, amazing health (she lived until she was 80), and her political savvy. She was lucky enough to experience one of the love matches of her century with Richard, duke of York, and her story is so colorful and dramatic it took me two years to tell. Cecily was in Rouen when Joan of Arc was tried and executed, she gave birth to a dozen children, she had a passionate marriage, she watched her husband fight his way to the throne to claim his right which eluded him in the end with his death at the Battle of Wakefield. And she watched her son, Edward, crowned in June 1461--550 years ago.

I invite you to dive into Cecily’s world with Queen By Right. I have been told by the wonderful woman who owns our local bookshop that this is my best book and she could not put it down. And Michelle Moran, author of Madame Tussaud, said “it kept me up for most of one night needing to know how it all wrapped up." It is my hope you will all be up nights reading it.



For more information please visit Anne Easter Smith’s WEBSITE and FACEBOOK PAGE.

*photo above is from the authors website*







“Thank you Naida, for hosting me here at The Bookworm”.


– Anne Easter Smith






Thank you so much for stopping by Anne! Queen By Right does have me up into the night reading, I'm finding it hard to put down.

I enjoyed reading a bit about your other heroines and where the inspiration for them came from.
It really is hard to believe that women were put on a 'cucking stool' in order to punish and humiliate them. How far we have come!


That is one of the reasons I enjoy historical fiction so much, you learn as you read and are very much entertained in the process.





Blog visitors Queen By Right is on a virtual book tour. For a complete list of tour links, click here. You can check out reviews as well as other guest posts, interviews and book giveaways.












Special thanks to Historical Fiction Book Tours for making this possible.

title: A Creed in Stone Creek

author: Linda Lael Miller

genre: contemporary romance/western

pages: 384

published: February 22, 2011

source: ARC from BookTrib

first line: Some instinct—or maybe just a stir of a breeze—awakened Steven Creed; he sat up in bed, took a fraction of a moment to orient himself to unfamiliar surroundings.

rated: 4 out of 5

When single attorney Steven Creed becomes the guardian of an orphaned five-year-old boy, he trades his big-city law firm for a ranch near his McKettrick kin in the close-knit community of Stone Creek, Arizona. Taking care of little Matt and fixing up his run-down ranch house with its old barn loosens something tightly wound inside him. But when Steven takes on the pro bono defense of a local teen, he meets his match in the opposing counsel—beautiful, by-the-book county prosecutor Melissa O’Ballivan. It’ll take one grieving little boy, a sweet adopted dog and a woman who never expected to win any man’s heart to make this Creed in Stone Creek know he’s truly found home.

A Creed in Stone Creek is the first book in the contemporary 'Creed Cowboys' trilogy.

Steven Creed becomes the guardian of five year old Matt, the orphaned son of his best friend. Steven moves out to Stone Creek to raise Matt. There he meets the beautiful county prosecutor Melissa O’Ballivan. Being such a small town Melissa notices Steven right away and finds out his story.




The story starts off slowly, with the characters in this small town being introduced.
Steven is the perfect hero. He's sexy, smart, sweet and his raising his best friends child as his own.

I liked Melissa also. She's independent with a mind of her own. No whiny damsel in distress here.



Their romance slowly blossoms and when they do get together it's sweet. The love scenes are well written. They were sexy without being vulgar.

"Let's get you out of that dress," he said next.

And he simply whisked the whole thing right off over her head, without any sort of wasted motion.

Melissa had been undressed by a few men before, of course, but never in such a deft and matter-of-fact way. The yearning, strong before, pressed on her like a weight now, making it hard for her to breathe.

"That was -direct," she gasped, as a flush moved from her hairline to her toes. Goose bumps rose in its wake.

"I'm nothing if not direct," Steven said.


p.203

With a great plot, plenty of romance and interesting characters, A Creed in Stone Creek is a keeper. I will be reading the next two installments in this series.





A Creed in Stone Creek is the perfect book to cuddle up with during a few lazy afternoons, which is just how I read it.


And I'd also like to mention, the cover on this one is droolworthy. Hellooooo cowboy!






Linda Lael Miller's cowboys have their own site:
Take A Cowboy Home.

It’s a great new site that Harlequin put together for Linda that features the book trailer, a behind-the-scenes video of the cover photo shoot, webisodes and a sexy photo gallery.








About the author:

The “First Lady of the West” returns with her highly anticipated new series set in Arizona ’s rugged ranch lands. Linda Lael Miller, bestselling author of more than 100 sought-after Western novels, brings readers A CREED IN STONE CREEK (HQN Books; March 2011; $7.99), the first in the contemporary “Creed Cowboys” trilogy.


Miller knows her characters so well because this self-confessed barn goddess who raises horses on her ranch in Spokane, Washington, grew up the daughter of a town marshal. Like some of her characters, she had a wanderlust that she needed to indulge before she could return home. She sold her first novel, FLETCHER’S WOMAN in 1983. Since then, Linda has successfully published historicals, contemporaries, paranormals, and thrillers before coming home, in a literal sense, and concentrating on contemporary and historical novels with a Western flavor. The Romance Writers of America awarded her their prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

Special thanks to Tricia over @ BookTrib.

title: The Lotus Eaters

author: Tatjana Soli


published: 2010

pages: 389

genre: fiction

source: received for review/part of a book tour

first line: The city teetered in a dream state.


rated: 4 out of 5

In the final days of a falling Saigon, The Lotus Eaters unfolds the story of three remarkable photographers brought together under the impossible umbrella of war: Helen Adams, a once-naive ingenue whose ambition conflicts with her heart, over the course of the fighting.; the mysterious Linh, the Vietnamese man who loves her, but is torn between conflicting loyalties to his homeland and his heart; and Sam Darrow, a man addicted to the narcotic of violence, to his intoxicating affair with Helen and to the ever-increasing danger of his job. All three become transformed by the conflict they have risked everything to record.


In this much-heralded debut, Tatjana Soli creates a searing portrait of three souls trapped by their impossible passions, contrasting the wrenching horror of combat and the treachery of obsession with the redemptive power of love. Readers will be transfixed by this stunning novel of love, duty and ambition among the ruins of war.

I started reading The Lotus Eaters at around 10 o'clock one night after I settled into bed figuring I'd wind down my day with about 20 minutes of reading, instead I read for the next two hours unable to put down this intriguing book.





The Lotus Eaters opens up with thirty something American journalist and photographer Helen Adams living in Vietnam. It is 1975 and a war torn Saigon is falling.


Linh is the Vietnamese man who is the love of Helen's life, he too is a photographer.


Sam Darrow is an American photographer, whose passion for his work Helen can relate to. All three of these peoples lives are intertwined.



Author Tatjana Soli captures the setting perfectly, I felt like I was walking the streets in Saigon, witness to the sights and sounds she described.

She stood by the window drinking tea, looking at the overcast sky, roiling clouds in varying shades from light pewter to the muddy, brownish gray of scorched earth. The breeze had turned sharp, the smell of rain and thunder promising a strong monsoon shower. Saigon was loved precisely because it was so unlovable-its squalor, it biblical, Job-like misfortune, its imminent, hovering doom.
p. 19

I liked Helen's character right away, it was easy to imagine her drive and passion.
The story had everything I enjoy in a book, interesting plot, passionate well-written characters and beautiful prose.




As the story unfolds you get a glimpse into a warn torn Vietnam. Helen uses her camera to capture the beauty and violence of this country. She has come to love Vietnam and its people, her nickname being 'Helen of Saigon' among her fellow journalists. Helen is also struggling to make it in a dangerous and male dominated line of work. The death of her own brother in the line of duty drives her even more.
In the midst of all this chaos, she does not want to leave the country she has grown to love.

Outside, the plunged into a stream of people and were carried along. The ruttish noise deafening. Families argued over which direction to go, children cried, dogs barked, and on top of it all was the impatient blaring of horns as vehicles tried to force their way through. Far in the background, like the steady thrum of a heart, the sound of bombs exploding. The image of a bloodthirsty army approaching close and close made each person jog instead of walk, push instead of wait. Like a fix, Helen ached to pick up her camera and start shooting. What was the point of living though history if you didn't record it?
p. 26

I highly recommend The Lotus Eaters. I really enjoyed this one and was captivated from start to finish. This will be on my top favorite reads for 2011.











About the author:

Tatjana Soli is a novelist and short story writer. Born in Salzburg, Austria, she attended Stanford University and the Warren Wilson MFA Program.


Her stories have appeared in StoryQuarterly, Confrontation, Gulf Coast, Other Voices, Nimrod, Third Coast, Carolina Quarterly, Sonora Review and North Dakota Quarterly among other publications.


Her work has been twice listed in the 100 Distinguished Stories in Best American Short Stories and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She was awarded the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Prize, the Dana Award, finalist for the Bellwether Prize, and received scholarships to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.


She lives with her husband in Orange County, California, and teaches through the Gotham Writers’ Workshop.


Visit Tatjana’s website HERE.





Special thanks to Lisa over @ TLC Book Tours.
Click here to see other blogs on tour.