Review: The Devil’s Queen, by Jeanne Kalogridis

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Historical Fiction, Magical Realism

Goodreads

The Devil’s Queen tells the story of Catherine de Medici, a controversial figure whose reign marked her as a bloody and heartless queen. From her early orphan years to the fateful St. Bartholomew’s Massacre, this book is a fascinating fictionalized telling of a most fascinating queen who loved astrology.

I saw this book in a museum bookstore, right after having my brain hammered with Renaissance paintings and thought – this is great?! I love a good historical drama, and so far I’d mostly read Tudor and World War II stories – and I’m always on the lookout for other interesting times in history. So I simply had to have this.

Review: Bitter Orange, by Claire Fuller

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Historical Fiction, Drama, Mystery

Goodreads / Amazon

This kind of story is such a recipe for success for me – it’s dark and twisty and feels so personal, with how close you get to the characters. It gave me Tender is the Night vibes and also a bit of Tangerine. I think if you enjoyed either book, you’ll like this one too!

It’s a hot summer, and Frances is moving into a grand but decadent house to write a report. This is going to be her home until late August – and then she meets her neighbors. Gorgeous and dark-haired Cara, and Peter, so very handsome. It is 1969, and Frances is excited for her new life after taking care of her mother for 10 years. Cara and Peter are incredibly charming, and she is drawn by their magnetism and their offer of friendship. But there are dark secrets between them and Frances doesn’t know what she got into…

Review: Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

From the book’s

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Fiction, Drama

Goodreads / Skoob / Amazon

I saw this book being hyped all over Goodreads and also at the The Washington Post and New York Times, which got me really curious. I am quite into family drama stories, and this one follows the Keating and the Cousins families through five decades of the life of 4 adults and 6 children.

It all starts with the christening party of one of the children, Franny, Beverly and Fix Keating’s second child. Bert Cousins, trying to escape his pregnant wife and three small children at home on a Saturday, shows up at the party uninvited and with a bottle of gin as a gift. He and Beverly tipsily kiss during the party, and that changes everyone’s lives, settling in motion the dissolving of marriages and entangling of families, which will bring decades of resentment, frustration and unlikely bonds.

Review: As Good As True, by Cheryl Reid

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Family Drama, Literary Fiction, Historical Novel

Goodreads / Amazon

In this debut novel, Anna waits in the dark, terrorized, as her abusive husband yells for her at night with increasing rage, and then dies of a heart attack. As she tries to hide her relief, she now has to deal with the consequences of his death and make peace with her past. As a daughter of Syrian immigrants living in segregated US in the 1950s, her white neighbors were not too fond of her, and once suspicion arises of her having something to do with her husband’s death, Anna is in great danger.

ARC Review: The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin

Rating: ★★★★☆

Genres: Drama, Magic Realism

Goodreads  / Amazon.com

I have received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up The Immortalists thinking it would be a magical realism story which focused on the magical side, especially since it’s classified as fantasy on Goodreads. But really, it’s focused a lot more on the realism side, with small hints of magic here and there, and a gorgeous family epic at its core.

ARC Review: Girl in Snow, by Danya Kukafka

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Drama

Add it to your TBR: Goodreads

I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book will be published on August 1st 2017.

I was curious about Girl in Snow after seeing a review from Jay about it, and it seemed to me that the book was a study of human relationships and the complexity of personalities, with a death of a girl as its background. And yes, that is exactly what the story was like. It’s a mystery with characters full of secrets, and it starts with a 15-year-old girl dead in the snow, but it’s not a thriller.

Review: Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff

Rating: ★★★★★

Recommend: Yes, with restrictions

Genres: Contemporary fiction, drama

Add to your TBR: Goodreads

---

Let me just start by saying that I could stare at this book’s cover the whole day. How gorgeous is that? Also, I added this book to my TBR* because I thought I had read somewhere that Michelle Obama recommended it, but actually it was Barack Obama’s recommendation instead.