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Review: A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
Arthie Casimir is the owner of Spindrift — teahouse catering to society’s elite by day, and bloodhouse illegally serving White Roaring’s vampire underworld by night. Having clawed her way up through society by her own means, Arthie now has a place to call her own, and a lucrative business trading in tea, blood and secrets. But when all of it threatens to come crashing down overnight, Arthie and her crew must band together to pull of a masterful heist which just might be enough to save Spindrift — and earn them some coveted power along the way. But as long-held secrets come to the surface and loyalty is questioned, threats…
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Review: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
A series of unfortunate circumstances and unfaithful friends combine to cause the bright and promising young Edmund Dantes to be thrown into prison just as the best part of his life is about to begin. Confined to a dank dungeon cell, Dantes loses everything: his prospects, his family, his fiancée, and even his name — he becomes only prisoner 34. Despite his dire position, Dantes makes an unexpected and valuable friend: Abbé Faria, the prisoner in the cell beside his, a wise and knowledgeable old man from whom Dantes learns much — including the location of a secret treasure. Many years later, when he emerges from the prison, the positive…
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Review: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
The outlaw Robin Hood and his band of merry men dwell in Sherwood Forest, stealing from those who have too much and helping those who have little. Their lives are filled with rollicking adventures, fights, fairs and feasts, all the while dodging the danger of getting caught by King Henry or the vengeful Sheriff of Nottingham. This book recounts some of those adventures, including how Robin met his right-hand man Little John, his minstrel Allan a Dale, and the jolly Friar Tuck, who all join his band; how he rescues some of his men from out of the clutches of the sheriff, and dodges all the agents sent to catch…
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Review: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Two men who bear a startling resemblance to one another — Charles Darnay, a frenchman, and Sydney Carton, an English lawyer — have their lives collide and intertwine between their two countries in the years before and during the French Revolution. The two meet by chance during Darnay’s treason trial in England, and both fall in love with the same woman — Lucie Manette, the daughter of a French doctor called to witness at the trial. Years later, the chaos of the French Revolution threatens their doorstep, and they each make a difficult decision that sets them on the path to their ultimate fate. This book has made me tear…
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Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
In 1943, an undercover operative working for the British is captured by Germans in nazi-occupied France. Subjected to repeated and horrible torture, she eventually agrees to tell her story — despite knowing that death awaits her regardless. Even in the light of her capture and torment, her biggest regret remains the loss of her best friend Maddie — the girl piloting the plane that carried her here before crashing, and who comes alive in the pages of her story as she writes. Slowly, the account of how she came to be here unfolds — as well as another, deeper story; one of friendship and family, loyalty and love. As her…
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Review: Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris
Cilka Klein spent years as a prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, forced to do terrible things in order to survive. When Russian soldiers arrive to liberate the camp, instead of being set free, Cilka is sentenced as a nazi collaborator, and soon finds herself the inmate of another prison camp— this one a Russian gulag. Experienced in prison life, Cilka quickly figures out the rules of survival in this new nightmare, and attempts to help others adapt to the hard life. She faces both hardships and opportunities, both within the camp and within herself; after this dreadful ordeal, will she ever be able to allow herself to hope and…
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Review: The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Lale Sokolov is a Slovakian Jew; one fateful day in 1942, he finds himself packed in with other passengers in a train car, on the way to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. With no idea of his destination, Lale is horrified by the cruel surroundings he finds himself in; but from the very start of his time at the camp, his objective is to survive. He is clever, resourceful, and fluent in several languages, and he soon puts his skills to good use to help himself and his fellow inmates as best he can, hoping to make it to a day when this nightmare is no longer their reality. Lale soon…
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