Darke

by Angie Sage

I have really enjoyed the Septimus Heap series.  Septimus is the seventh son of a seventh son in a line of wizards.  In Magyck, the first in the series, Septimus is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead.  That same night the boy's father comes across a bundle in the snow containing a new born baby girl.  The following books reveal who this baby girl is and what happens to Septimus and, eventually, the adventures they share together.

As with the five earlier books, there are sinister forces at work in Darke. One of the characters has been Banished and Septimus must enter the Darke in hopes of retrieving him.  The Darke Domaine finds a way to enter the Castle and eventually engulfs it.  And a threatening Darke dragon is on the loose.

The covers of the books in this series are fun and creative, too - each cover looks like a locked book.  This picture shows the books in the correct order.  I haven't read them in order and I feel like I've been able to follow along quite well, but it would probably be best to read them order.  

I applaud Angie Sage for the wonderful, magical world she has populated with quirky, lovable characters.  Even thought the books are written for a 9 to 14 year old audience they held the interest of this 60 year old.  I enjoyed the writing, the suspense, the humor, the setting and, most of all, the characters.

Warner Bros. is working on a movie of the first book which I look forward to with great anticipation.

Dolce di Love

by Sarah-Kate Lynch

Let me first share the write-up on the back cover of the book:

Corporate star Lily Turner abandons the boardrooms of Manhattan for the steep streets of Montevedova when she discovers her "perfect" husband, Daniel, has another family tucked away in the hills of Tuscany.  Once there, her plight attracts the attention of the Secret League of widowed Darners, an all-but-invisible army pulling strings behind the scenes to create happy endings.  Soon, founding members Violetta and Luciana are scheming to mend Lily's broken heart--and to enlist her help for their struggling pasticceria.

The part of that write up that urged me to read this book was the League of Widowed Darners.  I had recently watched Return to Me which featured the most delightful group of four old men that I fell in love with so I thought the idea of old women helping Lily with her love life would be every bit as delightful.

The old ladies didn't capture my heart in quite the same way but they were indeed a fun part of the book.  The love story with its' unexpected twists and turns was the real highlight of the book.  Lily faced several large scale obstructions to her future happiness and here chances for ever getting things resolved with Daniel but she also met a handsome, attentive man that could help her forget Daniel and his other family.

The girl should have just stayed at home in New York and left that cheating Daniel to his other family and left things alone, but she felt so compelled to find out what and why Daniel had betrayed her so badly.  Without her compulsion to face the problem this story would not have happened.

Very fun read, great for summer, for the beach, vacation, or plane ride and highly recommended to the romantic in us all.

Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution

by Michelle Moran

I loved this book!  Best book I've read so far this year!

You may be familiar with Michelle Moran's earlier novels: Nefertiti, The Heretic Queen, and Cleopatra's Daughter.  All very good, enjoyable reads, took me to places and introduced me to people from history, and were well researched and well written.  Madame Tussaud does all that and more.  In my opinion this is Moran's best work so far.

Perhaps it was the backdrop of the French Revolution that made me love this book.  I feel like I knew so little about that period, though I did read (and love) The Scarlett Pimpernell.  Perhaps it was the main character that I liked so well. Though she is quite different from me, I was able to understand her motives and to sympathize with her roles as daughter, girlfriend, niece, teacher, and her devotion to her work.

The characters in this book are complex.  I think Moran did a superb job of progressively revealing more dimensions to the characters, mainly Madame Tussaud and Robespierre, as the story unfolds.  And the story!  Excellent!  I liked how we see the French Revolution from a different slant than is presented in The Scarlett Pimpernell.  I felt compassion for the Royalty as well as anger.  The progression of Robespierre from an activist to a villainous madman was portrayed with finesse.

I am not doing this book justice with my choppy review.  I need to have my daughter read it and discuss it with me.  Then I could write what I feel but what she can help me express.  I wish I had her gift for putting into words the things she feels about a book.  Suffice it to say in my own befuddled way that I think you will enjoy this book and I hope you love it as much as I do.  I may need to start going to book club again so I can recommend this book.