Review - The Kingmakers Daughter

The Kingmakers Daughter by Phillipa Gregory

Plot:  Spies, poison, and curses surround her...

Is there anyone she can trust? 

The Kingmaker's Daughter is the gripping story of the daughters of the man known as the "Kingmaker," Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick: the most powerful magnate in fifteenth-century England. Without a son and heir, he uses his daughters, Anne and Isabel as pawns in his political games, and they grow up to be influential players in their own right. In this novel, her first sister story since The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory explores the lives of two fascinating young women.

At the court of Edward IV and his beautiful queen, Elizabeth Woodville, Anne grows from a delightful child to become ever more fearful and desperate when her father makes war on his former friends. Married at age fourteen, she is soon left widowed and fatherless, her mother in sanctuary and her sister married to the enemy. Anne manages her own escape by marrying Richard, Duke of Gloucester, but her choice will set her on a collision course with the overwhelming power of the royal family and will cost the lives of those she loves most in the world, including her precious only son, Prince Edward. Ultimately, the kingmaker's daughter will achieve her father's greatest ambition. 

Characters:   Anne Neville

                        Isabel Neville

                        Kind Edward

                        Richard

                        George

                        Queen Elizabeth Woodville

I’m a huge Historical Fiction fan, ever since I read The Other Boleyn Girl by Gregory, she’s made me fall in love with the English court. I've read a couple of her books, and also enjoyed the rest of the Cousins War series such as The White Queen, The Red Queen and The Lady of the Rivers.

This one did not disappoint. The Kingmakers Daughter is the story of Isabel and mostly Anne Neville, the daughters of the Earl of Warwick, nicknamed The Kingmaker. Warwick had put Kind Edward of York onto the throne, Warwick actually being the more powerful man, but then Edward goes and marries the widowed Elizabeth Woodville in secret, messing up some of the plans Warwick had.

                       

Warwick still has much ambition and still wants to put one of his daughters in the position to be queen or to have a grandson on the throne. So he uses his two daughters as pawns in his game to become the ruler of England.

Isabel marries the brother of the King, second in line to become ruler of the country and her father hopes to keep it that way, but the Queen is very fertile and seems to have a new baby every year. Warwick then had his daughter Anne marry Edward, the son of King Henry VI, whom she had grown up believing was the “bad ones”. But Edward dies and she gets sent to live with her sister Isabel, whose husband is their mothers favorite and along with his mother spreads rumors that his brother the King is a bastard.

Also there are the rumors that the Queen is a witch who used sorcery to get the King to fall in love with her. Strange things start happening and when Isabel and her young infant son die Anne is sure it is the Queen’s doing. But her new husband is the youngest brother of the King, Richard, and he is the faithful brother who does not want to believe such accusations against his brother. But when George gets more and more suspicious believing that it is the Queen who poisoned his wife Richard starts to question it too.

In the event George is arrested for treason against the King, and is set to be executed for his allegations. Richard becomes worried that the Queen wants to put her extensive family in all the favorite spots of the court, placing them all in high positions, creating a court with her family. When the King dies, Richard becomes the new ruler after placing the Queens sons in the Tower of London, with Anne as his Queen, just as her father had always wanted. But there is a new uprising, that of the Tudors.

The story is told from another side of the cousin’s war, with the first parts being told in The White Queen and The Red Queen. You see the side of the York’s, not from that of Elizabeth Woodville and her King, but more of his brothers and their wives, the Nevilles.

I really enjoyed the book and found Anne to be a great character. It is of course only fiction based on the truth, but of the series and the women who tell their stories in it, she is by far my favorite  We get to know her (and Isabel) as a child, see her grow up and become only a player in her father’s game. She grows from a fearful child to a formidable young woman, who finds love and then grief.

All I can say is well done to Gregory for another fine novel.

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Review - Hornet's Nest

The Hornets’ Nest by Patricia Cornwell

Plot:   It's a city of ambition and pride, a city long ago dubbed "the hornet's nest of America." A swarming symbol dominates the badge of the police department that protects it—the image of a darting, restless fighter: the whirling dervish of a hornet. Like the violence that swirls around Charlotte during a long, hot summer, the hornet traces a dark, anfry path, touching down unexpectedly, bringing stings of surprise wherever it lands.

Patricia Cornwell's brilliant new novel carries its own surprises. The creator of Kay Scarpetta, the most fascinating character in contemporary crime fiction, now cunningly reveals the heart and soul of a metropolitan police department. With Charlotte as her simmering background, she propels us into the core of the force through the lives of a dynamic trio of heroes: Andy Brazil, an ambitious young reporter forThe Charlotte Observer and an eager—sometimes too eager—volunteer cop; Police Chief Judy Hammer, the professionally strong yet personally troubled guardian of Charlotte's law and order; and her deputy chief, Virginia West, a genuine head-turner who is married to her job. To walk the beat with Hammer, West, and Brazil is to learn the inner secrets of police work—the tension and the tedium, the hilarity and the heartbreak, the unexpected pump of adrenaline and the rush of courage that can lead to heroics... or death.

Like no one else before, Patricia Cornwell strips away the façade of the badge to lay bare the lives and motives of ordinary mortals in extraordinary circumstances. Hornet's Nest is as real as tonight's police blotter and as page-turner as Cornwell can be.

Characters:   Virginia West

                        Andy Brazil

                        Judy Hammer

I love a good crime drama, and Patricia Cornwell just never disappoints. I’ve read most of her Scarpetta books and had this one lying about. The Hornets’ Nest isn’t part of that series, so I’ve been leaving it on the shelf the whole time. Very glad I finally picked it up.

The story is basically about the 3 main characters in the book, namely Virginia West, the tough Deputy Chief of the Police force, Andy Brazil, the young and talented reporter who also happens to volunteer for the police force, and Judy Hammer, the beautiful yet Steel Magnolia type Chief of Police.

Andy Brazil is a reporter for the local paper, but he is also a police volunteer, who gets teamed up with West to get some stories first hand. The two of them have a strange relationship, I don’t know if one can really call it a brother sister relationship or what. Anyway, so Andy gets to drive along with West, who is not impressed by this as she’s a deputy and no longer does street patrols.

West is a tough as nails deputy who admires her chief of police, not because she’s also a woman, but because she’s tough too, she gets what she wants and knows how to do it. West is single, living alone with her neurotic cat Niles. She doesn’t let anyone get too close to her, but Andy is something else, he seems to get under her skin, even when she tries really hard to keep him out.

A relationship of sort’s forms between them and West finds out that Andy still lives with his mother, who happens to be an alcoholic. He is also being harassed by a women phoning him and leaving steamy messages on his phone. The two of them are together when West gets a call about a murderer that has struck again, leaving an obscene orange “hour glass” figure on the genitals of his victims, who all happen to be middle aged men. Andy digs right in on writing the story, promising West that he would only release such stories on the following day, but then for some reason the stories always get out before this. This is where they uncover that there is an informant in the police leaking things to the press.

To me there wasn’t really a true story line to the book; it was more of a “get-to-know-the-characters” kind of book. You get to see what kind of person Andy Brazil is, caring for his mother, but knowing that he needs to get out before she ruins him. West, the tough deputy with a soft side when it comes to her cat Niles and it seems when it comes to Andy, and then Chief Hammer, who seems to have everything under control, yet no one knows what her life is like when she goes home to her obese husband whom she doesn’t love anymore. Tragedy strikes and you get to see how wrong she really was.

All in all a great book, I really enjoyed it as a stepping stone into the series, I feel that I really know these characters now so the rest of the series should be a fun read.

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Review - The Hobbit

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Plot:    Bilbo Baggins was a hobbit who wanted to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf came along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo was drawn into their quest, facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders, and worse unknown dangers. Finally, it was Bilbo-alone and unaided-who had to confront the great dragon Smaug, the terror of an entire countryside . . .

This stirring adventure fantasy begins the tale of the hobbits that was continued by J.R.R. Tolkien in his bestselling epic The Lord of the Rings

Characters:   Bilbo Baggins

                        Gandalf

                         Thorin

                         Smaug

              

The Hobbit has always been one of my favourite books that I read at school, it was far more interesting to me than The Lord of the Rings (which I just could not read for it was utterly boring to me).

I was lucky to receive a copy of this favourite from a dear friend of mine, Lauren Smith, for my birthday. I therefore started reading it again, seeing as the movie too would be making its appearance soon.

The first parts went well, I could remember reading it about 13 years ago at school, but as it progressed, it unfortunately became more boring.

So Mr Bilbo Baggins is a little hobbit living in the Shyer, a relaxing life without any excitement, just as he likes it. But one day he is overwhelmed with dwarf visitors, and the great Wizard Gandalf. Gandalf has tricked Bilbo into accompanying the dwarves on their journey to the Misty Mountains to retrieve their stolen treasures from Smaug the Dragon. How was he tricked? Well by a clever little note upon his door declaring that he was a wonderful thief, exactly what the dwarves needed.

So they set off on their adventures and meet a great deal of people, goblins and trolls and humans and elves.

I am not going to retell the whole story, but I will give my humble opinion on it. I’m not sure why I loved it so much when I was still at school, but the book didn’t grab me this time. It gave me nothing, I couldn’t feel excited to read it even if I tried, and I’m so sorry to say this as JRR Tolkien is a great writer. There is nothing wrong with the way the book is written, he had immense talent, I will admit, but the book comes across as a bit childish to me now, and with too many details that I do not care to know.

Even with this said, I am looking forward to seeing the movie, although I do not know how they can manage to make a trilogy out of this book when it is a much smaller book than even one of the LOtR books.  

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Review - Petals on the Wind

Petals on the Wind by Virginia Andrews

 

Plot:    For Carrie, Chris and Cathy, the attic was a dark horror that would not leave their minds, even while they built bright, promising new lives. Of course mother had to pretend they didn't exist.

And grandmother was convinced they had the devil in them.

But that wasn't their fault. Was it? Cathy knew what to do.

She now had the powers she had learned from her beautiful mother. She knew it in the way her brother still yearned for her, in the way her guardian touched her, in the way all men looked at her.

She knew it was time to put what she knew to the test. To show her mother and grandmother that the pain and terror of the attic could not be forgotten... Show them.

Show them—once and for all.

Characters:   Cathy

Christopher

Carrie

Paul

Henny

Mother (Corrine)

Grandmother

                        Bart

                        Julian

So, for those of you who regularly read my reviews, you would know that I read the first instalment of this series in two days and could not put the book down! So naturally I had to go to my local bookstore immediately and get the second book so that I could find out what would happen to these children.

The second book, Petals in the Wind, did not disappoint at all. Again I could not put the book down and was intrigued by everything that took place.

The last book ended with the escape of Cathy, Chris and Carrie from the horrible Foxworth Hall where they were kept captive by their own mother and grandmother. Their mother had married again, her father had died and she would inherit a fortune, but for one thing, she could not reveal that she had children with her first husband (who also had been her half uncle) and could not have children with her second husband, Bart Winslow, either. So she kept her “darlings” locked up, her youngest son had been poisoned, and the siblings decided they had to escape.

Petals in the Wind starts with the children being outside, searching for their escape, trying to figure out what they had to do. They find their salvation in a big black women called Henny, whom happens to be a mute, but also the housekeeper of a doctor, Paul. Paul helps the children and cares for the ill Carrie, who has the same poison in her body as her late brother.

The story progresses with the children blossoming under the care of Dr Paul and Henny, Cathy attending a dance school, Chris achieving his goals of becoming a doctor, but Carrie never growing taller. Cathy starts having an affair with Dr Paul, but eventually marries her dance partner Julian, becomes pregnant, but he dies before she has given birth to their son.

But in the back of Cathy’s mind there is always the revenge she wants to inflict on her mother for the terrible things she had done to them. She goes to great lengths to achieve this, although her beloved brother Chris, does not want any part in this, this only fuels Cathy to go ahead with her plans.

She sets out to ruin her mother by making her mothers’ new husband fall in love with her. She begins an affair with Bart Winslow and becomes pregnant with his child before revealing her true identity at a Christmas party being held by her mother. The night ends in tragedy with a fire breaking lose, killing her grandmother and dear Bart.

Cathy eventually marries Paul, but he suffers a great stroke and shortly after dies. In the end she ends up with the one man who has always loved her unconditionally, her brother Chris.

The story is very strange, with incest always peeking through. Although Cathy has relationships with various people, her brother Chris can never get over her, begging her to marry him instead because he has never stopped loving her.

Cathy as a character also to me is a bit strange, I don’t know if I should hate her or love her. She is filled with hatred and seems to think of herself more beautiful than any other women; she uses this against men who truly love her, out of spite and wanting revenge on her mother. She herself realizes how much she actually is like her mother, and grandmother, nothing like her gentle father. I know that her circumstances from the past has made her what she is, but it still gets a bit much when she uses her sexuality all the time, it makes me think of her as a bit of a whore.

I feel terribly sorry for Carrie, who gets described as beautiful but her head being too large for her body. I found this hard to imagine without thinking of something in the alien realm. Carrie has not grown because for 3 years she did not receive any sunlight. She also is in ever depression because of the death of her twin brother, Cory.

The story is truly a great one, I feel for these children, but sometimes it does sound a bit far fetched to me. But that being said, I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

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Review - Flowers in the Attic

Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews

Plot:    Such wonderful children. Such a beautiful mother. Such a lovely house. Such endless terror!

It wasn't that she didn't love her children. She did. But there was a fortune at stake--a fortune that would assure their later happiness if she could keep the children a secret from her dying father.

So she and her mother hid her darlings away in an unused attic.

Just for a little while.

But the brutal days swelled into agonizing years. Now Cathy, Chris, and the twins wait in their cramped and helpless world, stirred by adult dreams, adult desires, served a meager sustenance by an angry, superstitious grandmother who knows that the Devil works in dark and devious ways. Sometimes he sends children to do his work--children who--one by one--must be destroyed....

 'Way upstairs there are

 four secrets hidden.

             Blond, beautiful, innocent

             struggling to stay alive....

Characters:   Cathy

Christopher

Carrie

Cory

Mother (Corrine)

Grandmother

Grandfather

Father

Let me just tell you all that I've been wanting to read this book so much since the day I came across the many reviews of it on Goodreads. I was searching through book recommendations that the site generates when I stumbled across the reviews, and they intrigued me so much, yet I never actively went out to look for a copy of the book.  Only recently when I was doing some Christmas shopping did I notice a copy of “Flowers in the Attic” at my local bookstore, and I grabbed a copy.

The book kept me so interested that I finished it within 3 days (and I didn't even read that much per day), I probably would have finished it sooner if I wasn't too busy. The fact is that the book had so much going for it that I didn't want to put it down!

The story starts out pretty normal, with a happy little family living in ordinary suburbia, a handsome father, beautiful mother, older brother and sister and twin boy and girl rounding it all out. We meet Cathy, Christopher, Cory, Carrie and their parents and they all seem so loving towards each other, the mother seeming eternally in love with the father, the children adoring their parents.

But tragedy strikes and with Corrine having no other way of getting her family out of their dire situation they leave in the night to end up at Corrine’s childhood home of Foxworth Hall, where her mother is a cruel old women, and her father is an ailing old religious man. But there is one catch. Corrine’s parents are stinking rich, but the only way for her to get her hands on these riches are to pretend that her children do not exist! So she lets her mother lock them in a single room with steps to the attic, and this is where the horrors begin.

Cathy and Chris grow up in this place, but the twins seem to be stagnating while the other two bloom. Shut up in an old dreary attic for about 3 years, no sunlight, no wind brushing against their cheeks, no feeling of the rain tumbling down onto their heads. The children receive rich gifts from their doting mother, until this too stops and she becomes less interested in her children.

Secrets are exposed, lies are told and terrible things happen to the children. The book is filled with fear, drama, horror, intrigue, love and beauty. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy read, although it being rather intense, it still is easy to read.

Next I’m purchasing the follow up to this one called Petals on the Wind…

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50 Shades of Grey

Finally, I'm going to blog about Fifty Shades of Grey...



It's been a while since reading the book, but I've been seeing a lot of posts about it and comments flying around all over the place, so I thought I'd put in my two cents too.

Let me start by saying I wasn't all that keen to read the books in the first place, but I'd heard so much about it that I did eventually get intrigued, and in the end I got copies of the books (yes all 3) from a friend of mine...

The first book read very quickly. I entered into the second book and finished that in a bit more time than the first, and currently busy with the third. I would just like to add that I'm not sure why people are comparing these books to the Twilight series, as there are no vampires etc involved at all.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Synopsis:

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.
 
Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

This book is intended for mature audiences.

So Anna is this young student, very conservative etc, and she gets to interview Christian Grey, whom is a gorgeous, rich mogul... mmmmmmm sounds just right doesn't it?
Of course Mr Grey falls in love with Anna, and she feels very unworthy as she's not as attractive as her friend and not as talented, blah blah blah... but still they end up together, and Grey ADORES her...

The thing is that this book wasn't really a literary power house, you only read it to get to the "kinky" bits... you didn't really care about how he would buy her gifts and do things for her. I totally just read it because of what people have said about the book. And I must say that this book did NOT dissapoint!! I read it at work on a pdf and had to get up a couple of times just to "cool" off lol. It makes you want to do things with someone, whether it's your partner or not! It really does. I've recommended this book to so many of my married friends and they LOVED it, telling me how it's really spiced up their love life.

So for that, the book was great, story line? Not so much. You can see on my review that there wasn't much to say about the literature part of the book. (A little like Twilight I must admit)
I'm just also going to mention that I've read the other books, but the first one was much more exciting than the others. Will post my reviews as soon as I'm done :)

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