Good Reads!!!

You know how they say that you cannot judge a book by its cover.  WELLL sometimes I think that is crap.  I ALMOST always judge a book by its cover.  If I hate the cover...I leave it at the library. This time my TIME HONORED test of picking books by their cover SERIOUSLY paid off.   I found a WHOLE series of books that I like. 

First off, THE TEA ROSE by  Jennifer Donnelly. 

 There is no REAL way to summarize this book because it has SOOO much going on in it, but here is a wee bit about it.  It is about Fiona, who is POOR and lives in Whitechapel, England (during the time of Jack the Ripper), in the early 1900's.  She works at a tea factory, but saves some of her earnings to SOMEDAY own a tea shop with her boyfriend Joe.  Sadly, things start to go badly and Fiona loses just about everything and everyone who is important to her.  She is forced to flee to America with her little brother and begin a new life.  Things start to look up in America, but I don't want to ruin it for your:) 
Keeping with my new RATING system from last year...this would not be a G-rated book.  I am thinking it would be pushing the PG-13.  There are a couple of reasons....1.  These people are poor, working class, Irish and English folks.  They use the typical OLD SCHOOL working class, PUB typle language.  Got me???  There are also a few parts where you might need to cover your eyes...AKA skip a few paragraphs.  ORRR not...UP TO YOU:)  I knew that going into this book, so I was not surprised or turned off by the writing, but YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

 I guess I forgot to mention that I LoVeD the TEA ROSE.  LOVED!!!  There were parts where I was LIKE...Nuh UH, they did not just kill him off!!!...BUT all in all I loved the story and the suspense. SOOOO I read the second book in the series...THE WINTER ROSE.  I also loved it and could not put it down...although I must asmit that the cover didn't do as much for me:)  This book focus MORE on Fiona's brother and Doctor Indiana Selwyn Jones.  India is a lady doctor (one of the first...when things like that were JUST NOT DONE).  She leaves her RICH parents, goes to medical school, and decides to work in Whitechapel helping the poor.  She meets Sid Malone, a notorious criminal and instead of hating his guts she....kinda likes him.  He is sort of a Robin Hood...stealing from the rich and helping the poor.  Some of my favorite parts of this book...their travels through Africa, mountain climbing on Kilimanjaro, and of course the suspense.  AGAIN....Not a G-rating...just sayin. 
If you are a Historical Fiction fan and if you like a little romance mixed into your History...AND you don't mind a little RISK-AY in your reading then I recommend this (even though I swore off RISK-AY in 2011...shhh!!). 

My last read of 2011 was THE WINTER SEA by Susanna Kearsley.  I REALLY liked this book too.  AND it was PG, so I guess I redeemed myself.  This book is HARD to explain, so here goes.  There are TWO different stories told.  Story One is told by Carrie in modern day.  She is an author who is drawn to a Scottish castle as the setting of her next book.  She begins to feel VERY connected to the story, almost like the caracters are TELLING her what to write.  Story TWO is about Sofia (the main character in Carrie's book).  She is living in 1706, IN the Scottish castle.  Get it????  The stories are very intertwined and JUST when you get drawn into one character's story....you get switched back to the OTHER.  This was a GREAT book....I LOVED the history, the romance, AND the Scottish accents:)

I am toooooo tired to sludge through last years book and whip up my LIST of 2011 completed books, so that will be a post for another day...Hopefully tomorrow!!!