Source: TLC Book Tours

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#TLCBookTours: The Other Windsor Girl

November 26, 2019 Uncategorized 5 ★★

#TLCBookTours: The Other Windsor GirlTitle: The Other Windsor Girl: A Novel of Princess Margaret, Royal Rebel
Author: Georgie Blalock
Source: TLC Book Tours
|Goodreads
Rating:two-stars

Summary: The setting wasn’t vibrant enough and the characters weren’t realistic enough to make this period drama engaging.

“Post-war Britain isn’t glamorous for The Honorable Vera Strathmore. While writing scandalous novels, she dreams of living and working in New York, and regaining the happiness she enjoyed before her fiancé was killed in the war. A chance meeting with the Princess changes her life forever. Vera amuses the princess, and what—or who—Margaret wants, Margaret gets. Soon, Vera gains Margaret’s confidence and the privileged position of second lady-in-waiting to the Princess… But while Margaret, as a member of the Royal Family, is not free to act on her desires, Vera soon wants the freedom to pursue her own dreams. As time and Princess Margaret’s scandalous behavior progress, both women will be forced to choose between status, duty, and love…” (source) Read more »

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#TLCBookTour Review: America For Beginners

August 13, 2019 Uncategorized 2 ★★★★

#TLCBookTour Review: America For BeginnersTitle: America for Beginners
Author: Leah Franqui
Source: TLC Book Tours
|Goodreads
Rating:four-stars

Summary: This was heart-warming read, without being overly neat.

“Pival Sengupta has done something she never expected: she has booked a trip with the First Class India USA Destination Vacation Tour Company. ..Traveling thousands of miles from Kolkota to New York on a cross-country journey to California … she hopes to uncover the truth about her beloved son, Rahi. A year ago Rahi devastated his very traditional parents when he told them he was gay. Then, Pival’s husband, Ram, told her that their son had died suddenly—heartbreaking news she still refuses to accept.” (source) She will make the trip accompanied by first-time guide Satya and a companion hired to protect Pival’s modesty, aspiring actress Rebecca. The experience will cause all three of them to see themselves, their countries, and their families in new ways.

Read more »

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#TLCBookTours: The Gown

January 17, 2019 Uncategorized 15 ★★★★★

#TLCBookTours: The GownTitle: The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding
Author: Jennifer Robson
Source: TLC Book Tours
|Goodreads
Rating:five-stars

I’ve loved both of the previous books of Jennifer Robson’s that I’ve read (Somewhere in France and Moonlight Over Paris), so I jumped at the chance to review her latest novel. Set in post-WWII Britain, the story focuses on two women who helped embroider Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding gown. In a secondary story, we also follow the granddaughter of on one of these women as she discovers more about her grandmother. In the historical setting, Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin face the challenges of daily life with rationing and cold winters. Simultaneously, both most figure out how to build  lives for themselves. Miriam struggles with her past suffering during in occupied France, while Ann must decide how to react to tragic events in her own life. Read more »

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#TLCBookTours: My Dear Hamilton

April 23, 2018 Uncategorized 15 ★★★★★

#TLCBookTours: My Dear HamiltonTitle: My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton
Author: Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie
Source: TLC Book Tours
|Goodreads
Rating:five-stars

Summary: A delightfully detailed and emotionally engaging read, solidly grounded in the historical record.

This is the story of Eliza Hamilton, wife of Alexander Hamilton and a founder of the US in her own right. As the daughter of a general, she grew up engaging in politics; comfortably exploring the outdoors; and contributing to the fight for independence. Her eventual marriage to Hamilton was tumultuous, putting her at the center of the founding of the US but also embroiling her in the nation’s first sex scandal. When her husband is killed, she must face another betrayal and decide if and how she wishes to continue fighting to preserve Hamilton’s legacy. Read more »

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#TLCBookTours Review: The Other Mother

April 5, 2018 Uncategorized 2 ★★★

#TLCBookTours Review: The Other MotherTitle: The Other Mother
Author: Carol Goodman
Source: TLC Book Tours
|Goodreads
Rating:three-stars

Summary: This was a fun read, but the ending was a bit of a stretch and it was otherwise a pretty average thriller.

“When Daphne Marist and her infant daughter, Chloe, pull up the gravel drive to the home of Daphne’s new employer, it feels like they’ve entered a whole new world. Tucked in the Catskills, the stone mansion looks like something out of a fairy tale, its lush landscaping hiding the view of the mental asylum just beyond its border. Daphne secured the live-in position using an assumed name and fake credentials, telling no one that she’s on the run from a controlling husband who has threatened to take her daughter away.” (Source) However, it turns out the assumed identity she borrowed from a friend may come with perils of its own. Read more »

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#TLCBookTours Review: Meet the Frugalwoods

March 21, 2018 Uncategorized 6 ★★★★

#TLCBookTours Review: Meet the FrugalwoodsTitle: Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living
Author: Elizabeth Willard Thames
Source: TLC Book Tours
|Goodreads
Rating:four-stars

Summary: This wasn’t a book that included much specific advice for saving, but it was a relatable story told in an authentic and self-aware way.

Blogger Elizabeth Thames and her husband Nate were following a conventional path to success in their 20’s, but they weren’t happy. Despite being married and succeeding at their careers, they felt worn down except for their weekly hikes. This led them to commit to a dream of achieving financial independence and purchasing a homestead in Vermont as quickly as possible. Although they’d always lived fairly modestly, they immediately started saving in a more extreme way. Within three years, they were able to quit their jobs. This is the story of that process. Read more »

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#TLCBookTours Review: In Praise of Difficult Women

March 14, 2018 Uncategorized 18 ★★★★★

#TLCBookTours Review: In Praise of Difficult WomenTitle: In Praise of Difficult Women: Life Lessons from 29 Heroines Who Dared to Break the Rules
Author: Karen Karbo
Source: TLC Book Tours
|Goodreads
Rating:five-stars

Summary: An engaging, inspiring collection where I enjoyed learning about amazing modern women and was left wanting to learn more.

This beautiful book, with its gorgeous cover, delightful illustrations, and scalloped pages, is an ode to women author Karen Karbo admires for being ‘difficult’. She defines a difficult woman as someone who believes her own desires and aspirations matter and who doesn’t let social expectations confine her. Something that made this book stand out from the many other wonderful collections about women in history is that the women were all from recent history. I don’t think any of them were born before the 1900s and quite a few are still alive today. While there is value in knowing that women have been doing awesome things since long before they were getting the credit, there was something special and inspiring about seeing these women celebrated for achievements that are so relevant today. Read more »

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Nonfiction Review: Forty Autumns

September 4, 2017 Uncategorized 7 ★★★★★

Nonfiction Review: Forty AutumnsTitle: Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall
Author: Nina Willner
|Goodreads
Rating:five-stars

“At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom—leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home—was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own. Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna’s daughter, [author] Nina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives—grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin, Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team—a bitter political war kept them apart.” (Source) Read more »

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TLC Book Tours: Epic Measures

April 10, 2017 Uncategorized 3 ★★★★

TLC Book Tours: Epic MeasuresTitle: Epic Measures: One Doctor. Seven Billion Patients.
Author: Jeremy N. Smith
|Goodreads
Rating:four-stars

Today, the idea of being able to rank countries based on their healthcare and to know the main causes of death around the world seems normal to me. Amazingly, this was nearly impossible a decade ago. Chris Murray was shocked to find that WHO estimates of deaths from different causes added to more than the total of deaths. Many countries didn’t officially track births and deaths and many records reported immediate cause of death but not the ultimate cause of death (head injury, but not that it was from a car crash, for example). Murray’s intensity and expertise equipped him to solve this technical challenge, but his sometimes abrasive personality made the politics of getting his results adopted equally challenging. Read more »

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TLC Book Tours: One Part Plant

March 8, 2017 Uncategorized 10 ★★★★★

TLC Book Tours: One Part PlantTitle: One Part Plant: A Simple Guide to Eating Real, One Meal at a Time
Author: Jessica Murnane, Lena Dunham
|Goodreads
Rating:five-stars

Summary: Fantastic! Everything I made from this book was easy, delicious, and relatively healthy.

Author and podcaster Jessica Murnane advocates particular eating one plant-based meal a day and begins this cookbook with some suggestions for pantry staples to help you achieve that goal. She also recommends particular recipes as ‘gateway meals’ to bring reluctant family members on board with plant-based cooking. Personally, that’s not why I picked up her book. My husband and I already cook a lot of vegetarian meals and very rarely eat red meat, so I was primarily looking for more healthy, vegetarian meal ideas. It turns out, that’s a great reason to pick up this cookbook!  Read more »

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