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Jennifer Daniell (108 KP) rated Mistress of the Ritz in Books

Jun 9, 2019

Mistress of the Ritz

Melanie Benjamin | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

9.5

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

After marrying Claude, Blanche quickly settled into her role as Mistress of the Ritz, dressing in only the
most fashionable clothing, befriending the elite and living in a beautiful suite at the hotel. But now the Nazis have taken over Paris and the Ritz has become their headquarters. Claude and Blanche now spend their days catering to and rubbing elbows with their conquerors, and their nights doing their part for the resistance. Living in such close quarters with the enemy Blanche finds a false sense of security, and grows more reckless as she becomes more restless.

A story of switching perspectives, this one is different in that it stays in a tight timeline, between a married couple instead of strangers. I really enjoyed this book and was delighted to find that Claude and Blanche were real people.

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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2346 KP) rated City of Darkness and Light (Molly Murphy, #13) in Books

Mar 9, 2018

When a case Daniel is working on turns dangerous, Molly and Liam leave New York to join Sid and Gus in Paris. But when her reception is not what she expected, is Molly in more danger now than she was before?

More than any other book in the series, I felt this one had a large number of real people popping up in Molly's fictional world. The plot was good with some twists I didn't expect and the characters are so real by this point I just love visiting them. All told, it was a great trip back to 1905.

NOTE: I was sent an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2014/03/book-review-city-of-darkness-and-light.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.

Kudos

Milleen (47 KP) rated How to Stop Time in Books

Nov 14, 2018

How to Stop Time

Matt Haig | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

8.0

(21 Ratings)

Book Rating

Matt Haig has written a variety of books for children and adults as well as a memoir that topped the bestseller list for almost a year. Now he has delved back into adult fiction and delivered a delightful novel that will leave you pondering. Tom Hazard may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been aging slowly over centuries. From Elizabethan England to 1920s Paris and further afield, Tom is forced to change his identity to stay alive. He is forced to abide by one rule, to not fall in love. Tom finally gets the ‘ordinary’ life he craves and finds work as a history teacher in a modern London comprehensive but how much longer can he keep this secret? ‘How to Stop Time’ is a bittersweet story about life, loss and change.

Kudos

Awix (3310 KP) rated The King in Yellow in Books

Aug 12, 2019 (Updated Aug 12, 2019)

The King in Yellow

Robert W. Chambers | 1895 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Romance

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Much-mentioned but seemingly little-read collection of short stories by Robert Chambers. The anthology owes most of its fame to the fact that HP Lovecraft was sufficiently impressed by some of the stories to retroactively incorporate them into his own mythology, something Lovecraft's disciples built upon with more energy than finesse.

The best of these stories do have a sense of subliminal encroaching madness and unease, as symbolised by the mysterious play mentioned in the title and its associated motifs, which is very impressively created. However, much of the remainder is a set of essentially interchangeable tales of rich young Americans studying art in Paris and swooning over beautiful young mademoiselles; they are quite heavy going and possibly not worth the effort of reading. The opening few fantasy stories are very good, on the whole; the rest not so much.