Legacy by Danielle Steel

I was sent this book as I'm part of the Transworld book group (see here for details)

I have to say right here that I chose this book purely because of who the author is, I have read many Danielle Steel novels and have loved each and every one of them and being given the opportunity to read this one as part of the book group was not something I could pass up.

A tale of love, courage and family, interweaving the lives of two extraordinary women - a writer working in the heart of modern academia, and a daring young Sioux on an unforgettable journey in the eighteenth century.

Someday is Brigitte Nicholson's watchword. Someday she and the man she loves, Ted, will clarify their relationship. Someday she'll have children. Someday she'll finish writing her book. Someday she'll stop playing it so safe... Then something happens that changes Brigitte's life completely.

Struggling to plot a new course, Brigitte agrees to help her mother on a genealogy project - and makes a discovery that reaches back to the French aristocracy. How did Brigitte's ancestor, Wachiwi, a Dakota Sioux, travel from the Great Plains to the French court of Marie Antoinette? How did she come to marry into Brigitte's family? Brigitte decides to travel to South Dakota and Paris to follow the path of this exceptional young woman who lived so long ago. And as she begins to solve the puzzle of Wachiwi's journey, her quiet life becomes an adventure of its own.

A chance meeting and a new opportunity put Brigitte back at the heart of her own story. And with family legacy coming to life around her, someday is no longer in the future. Instead, someday is now.

As with all her other books this is a novel about overcoming adverse situations, about being totally knocked out of the life you're living and overcoming the odds that have mounted against you, doing your best to rise to the challenge and seeing where life takes you next.

When everything in her life changes Brigitte is a lost soul, not knowing what she wants to do nor being as engaged in writing the book she was so passionate about before. With this lack of enthusiasm and motivation she goes home to her Mother who enlists her help with tracing back how their family arrived in the America's and who came. After visiting the Mormon Family History Library she discovers Wachiwi in her ancestors and so begins her fascination with this young Sioux woman and how she came to go to France and seem to live out her life there.


Part of this book shows Brigitte's travels and how she finds out about Wachiwi and changes the course of her own life in the process and alongside this we also get to read about Wachiwi and how she came to go to France and what her life had been like all those years ago. We follow these two strong women who forge their own destiny once their formerly safe lifestyle is stripped away from them, the similarities between these relations separated by many generations is striking but maybe this courage to keep going is a family trait that Brigitte inherits from Wachiwi.

Even though I am slightly biased due to loving all of Danielle Steel's books I really have to say this one is amazing, such a strong storyline and as well written as all of her novels are. You easily get swept away with the plot, eager to see where the next twist will take you and hoping always for the happy ending which doesn't always come for the characters in her books and I'm not going to spoil anything by saying if either of the women in this story get their happy ending!

Nothing but Trouble by Rachel Gibson

I was sent this book as I'm part of the Transworld book group (see here for details)

This is the third of the books I have chosen to review and I was so happy to receive this one, I've not read any by this author before but I've really grown a passion for these frothy chicklit books over recent years which has made quite a difference to my previous favourite of gruesome horror novels!

Chelsea Ross knows she's a great actress. Which is lucky, as she's just got the toughest role of her life!

Washed up from Hollywood and in serious need of some cash, Chelsea jumps at the $10,000 opportunity to act as 'carer' to famous hockey player Mark Bressler, currently injured after a car crash. After all, how hard can it be to play nice and pick up after an incredibly hot invalid in need of her tender loving care?

Just three months of playing nurse and the cash is hers.But Mark Bressler doesn't need help. The moody hockey player's glory days may be over, but he has no intention of letting anyone aid his recovery, least of all the maddeningly cheerful Chelsea. He's determined to get her to quit – and Mark isn't the type to give in. But then again, neither is Chelsea...

I picked this one out mostly because it sounded like a fun read and it was, infact it was that good that once I started it I hardly put it down and had read it in a day, thankfully I didn't have much I had to do that day and my Fiance enjoyed the P&Q to watch his sports on TV!

The story flows well and you get to see different parts through both Chelsea's and Mark's eyes with the narration switching between both characters so you get to understand both sets of issues and the characters motivations throughout the book. 

Hearing how Mark is coping with the enormous changes to his life, dealing with the shock of his accident and the ending of his career. Enjoying his tricks and schemes as he tries to get Chelsea to quit and also understanding her motivations in dealing with all that he throws at her and keeping on going back day after day. Her driving need to complete her contract and gain the bonus so she can get something she desperately needs to be able to feel better about herself and who she is. There are also some wonderful secondary characters around these two which give the story a lot of colour and keep the plot moving ever forward onto the climax.



Yes there are those who criticise this type of book, yes a lot of them are based on the Mills&Boon style (man & woman meet, fall in love, split up, work it out & live happily ever after) but there is so much more to them than there used to be. The characterisation and style of writing in this one is superb, the side stories which fill out the battles between Mark and Chelsea and make for a whole story rather than just a romance. That we have a strong female lead must be the biggest break from the traditional romance that we see in this genre these days. Gone are the swooning, simpering females and income the women who know how to enjoy their life and get the most out of it but are still prepared to compromise when they can see it will get them a boon.

I really loved this book and would encourage anyone and everyone to read it, even if you think you don't like Chicklit books, give this one a go, you might just surprise yourself!

The Colour of Death by Michael Cordy

I was sent this book as I'm part of the Transworld book group (see here for details)

When I was selecting the books I would read as part of this group I decided to pick a favourite author, 1 from each of my favourite genres and the last would be something new to me but which appealed in some way and this is that book.

In a residential neighbourhood of Portland, Oregon, an unknown young woman uncovers a shocking crime scene by inexplicably sensing the evil within its walls. To the police, she is a mystery. She can’t even tell them her own name. They christen her Jane Doe.

Suffering terrifying hallucinations, Jane is assigned to Nathan Fox, a forensic psychiatrist struggling with his own demons. Together they must piece together the jigsaw that is Jane’s identity.

Then a sequence of brutal killings terrorizes the city and Fox learns Jane is the only cryptic link between the unrelated victims. To solve the murders, Fox must discard his black and white preconceptions, look beyond the spectrum of normal human experience and confront the dark truth of her past…and his own.

Having read this book I found a lot of similarities in the plotlines between this and another book I have reviewed this year, Ultraviolet. They both deal with a young woman suffering from memory loss and synaesthesia who has been admitted to a mental health facility (People who have synaesthesia sense things in a different way to the rest of us, words can have a taste or smell, letters and numbers can have different colours even when all written with the same pen) but from this similar starting point the two books vary greatly.

The heroine, Jane Doe presents with not just one form but ALL forms of synaesthesia and even one that has not previously been documented. As we travel with Jane in her journey of discovery it's easy to understand just how terrifying the world around us could be should we suddenly loose our self in the way she has. We see Fox struggle to deal with his own personal demons which re-surface from this case as well as his inability to let anyone close to him again while also trying to keep what little family he has left safe. And then on top of all this is the horrific fact that there is a killer in the city who seems to be fixated on Jane.

I really don't want to give anything away from this book at all, I found it to be an amazing story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story moved along at a good pace, there were lots of details to make it easy to follow along from scene to scene and to understand the characters and their motivations. The writing flows so well that I am going to look at getting some more books by this author very soon.

Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll

I was sent this book as I'm part of the Transworld book group (see here for details)

So lets start up by showing you the blurb that made me pick this book out as my first choice to read and therefore the one I was most interested in

New York jeweller Garet James has her fair share of problems: money, an elderly father, a struggling business. One day she comes across an antiques shop she’d never noticed before. The owner possesses an old silver box that’s been sealed shut. Would she help an old man and open it, perhaps? She does...and that night strange things begin to happen. It’s as if her world – our world – has shifted slightly, revealing another, parallel place that co-exists without our knowledge: the world of the Fey…

Garet learns that one of her ancestors was 'the Watchtower': an immortal chosen to stand guard over the human and the fey worlds – a role that she has, it seems, inherited from her mother. But the equilibrium between these two existences is under threat. The 16th-century magician and necromancer Dr John Dee has returned, the box has been opened and the demons of Despair and Discord released. In a race against time and impending apocalypse, it is Garet who must find Dee...and close the box.

It sounded fascinating to me having read that and I'm so pleased to say that it hasn't disappointed me at all. In fact it has been a far better read than I could have hoped for. The description that I've copied in above does give a little of the basis to the storyline but there is so much more to it. I've found it to be a wonderful fantasy adventure set in the real world but also in a world where there are many more possibilities than most people suspect.

How would you cope if you suddenly found out that the world around you wasn't  what you always believed it to be? What about if you discovered that your Mother had kept the biggest of secrets from you? And that in that revelation the past, and even the very distant past, show just how much of an influence they have had over your life, to the extent that events that had happened were not only what they seemed to be at the time but also a portent of what was to come.


All these secrets Garet seems to take in her stride, she accepts so many new ideas in such a short time that it's so easy to get caught up with all her new experiences as well as discoveries about the past and the people around her, both new and old. The writing is very expressive and descriptive, allowing you to follow the story easily, eagerly awaiting the next development in the tale and enjoying the depth of storytelling that kept me riveted until the last page was turned. I have to say I did enjoy that the climax happened and then we got to see what happened to most of the characters for a while afterwards as well, so many books end with a climax and leave you wondering what happened next, was everyone really OK. Black Swan Rising is not one of those books, you're left at the end knowing a little of what happened after all the drama while the storyline is set up magnificently for book 2 (which I really cant wait for I just need to order my copy now!)


It is worth noting finally that "Lee Carroll" is actually a pseudonym. This wonderful book was actually written by award-winning novelist Carol Goodman and her poet husband Lee Slonimsky. After reading this, I'm eagerly anticipating getting my hands on the second book and I've also added a few Carol Goodman books to my wish-list in the hope that I find them as absorbing as I have this one.

I’m part of the Transworld Book Group!

I've just heard that I'm being included in the Transworld Book Group and I'm so excited! I know some of you wont understand what that is but it's like any book group, you read books and talk about them. The difference with this one is that it's all online and those lovely people over at Transworld actually send you the books! To identify ourselves as being part of this reading challenge/book group there is this logo which you may have noticed on the right of my blog as well. Anywhere you see this image means someone is a part of this group as well.

 

So basically over the next 3 months I will get sent a series of 4 books which I have chosen from the 15 they have on offer, I read them and then will review them on here and Amazon. Once I've reviewed one, they'll send me the next. It really does sound too good to be true doesn't it? Free books but it's real and if you want to get involved too, here's where I found out about it and applied myself. It took a few days for me to hear back, I'm guessing they have quite a few applications to go through and reply to so good luck if you decide to do it as well. 

I cant wait to get my first book!

EDIT:

Here are the reviews I've completed through taking part in this (links will appear once written)

Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll

The Colour of Death by Michael Cordy

Nothing but Trouble by Rachel Gibson

Legacy by Danielle Steel