Becoming Mrs. Lewis

 Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan 435 Pages

Summary: From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.” When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.

In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice—and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had.

At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story—a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.

My Thoughts: I read this book for my book club and I really enjoyed it. I didn't know much about C.S. Lewis and his life. I am not a religious person and while this book was centered on christianity and belief, it was not so over the top and it was still enjoyable for me to read. My book club ladies and I agreed it was kind of slower paced, but it worked with this book. I laughed, I cried, I truly enjoyed reading it. When I finished this I went into a deep dive on one of Joy's son, Douglas, and read an article featuring him about his life and the secret of his other brother and I found it so interesting. He also stated he approved of this book that the author wrote!

The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenje

 

The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenje 368 pages

Summary: The library is under lock and key. But its secrets can't be contained. 1896. After he brought her home from Jamaica as a baby, Florence's father had her hair hot-combed to make her look like the other girls. But as a young woman, Florence is not so easy to tame—and when she brings scandal to his door, the bookbinder throws her onto the streets of Manchester.

Intercepting her father's latest commission, Florence talks her way into the remote, forbidding Rose Hall to restore its collection of rare books. Lord Francis Belfield's library is old and full of secrets—but none so intriguing as the whispers about his late wife.
Then one night, the library is broken into. Strangely, all the priceless tomes remain untouched. Florence is puzzled, until she discovers a half-burned book in the fireplace. She realizes with horror that someone has found and set fire to the secret diary of Lord Belfield's wife–which may hold the clue to her fate…
Evocative, arresting and tightly plotted, The Library Thief is at once a propulsive Gothic mystery and a striking exploration of race, gender and self-discovery in Victorian England.

My Thoughts: What I truly enjoyed about this book was learning about bookbinding. I enjoyed the main character being a female bookbinder in a male dominated Victorian England 1896 world. I'm not going to lie, I only gave this book 3 stars on Good Reads because when we get to the heart of the whole story, it just got to a point where it seemed too much to be true. The characters were excellent and flamboyant, but it felt like the author was trying to shove in too many things into the novel at once. I loved the fact that this book explored race, gender and self-discovery during this time period. 

A COTSWOLD KILLING by REBECCA TOPE

 A COTSWOLD KILLING by REBECCA TOPE (PGS 351)  

Nestled in the fertile hills of the Cotswolds, the village of Duntisbourne Abbots is a well-kept beautiful, timeless and quintessentially English. When recently widowed Thea Osborne arrives to house-sit for a local couple, her only fear is that three weeks there might prove a little dull. Her first night’s sleep at Brook View is broken by a piercing scream outside but she decides such things don’t require investigation in a sleepy place like this. At least not until a body turns up... In calling on her neighbors to get some answers, Thea uncovers more tragedy and intrigue than she thought possible behind the peaceful Gloucestershire village. The first in a new series of thrillers to be set in the Cotswold area, A Cotswold Killing takes the reader on a tense journey along winding roads and muddy paths towards a dramatic and unexpected denouement.

DEVIL'S DELIGHT by M.C. BEATON

 DEVIL'S DELIGHT by M.C. BEATON (PGS 256)

Agatha and her assistant, Toni, are driving to their friend Bill Wong’s long-awaited wedding, thinking of nothing more than what the beautiful bride will be wearing when a terrified young man comes running down the country lane towards them wearing…nothing at all.

The encounter leads them to become embroiled with a naturist group, a disappearing corpse, fantasy games, witchcraft, an ice cream empire, intrigue and murder. In the meantime, Agatha’s hectic life swirls along at dizzying pace, her private detective agency as busy as ever and her private affairs in turmoil, with old loves to contend with and a new suitor on the scene.

But when she begins to close in on a suspected murderer, she finds herself in deadly peril, as the sinister nature of the ice cream business leads her to a chilling conclusion…

AN UNHALLOWED GRAVE by KATE ELLIS

 AN UNHALLOWED GRAVE by KATE ELLIS  (PGS 240)

When the body of a middle-aged woman is found hanging from a yew tree in Stokeworthy Churchyard, the police suspect foul play. But the victim is an unlikely one. Pauline Brent was the local doctor's receptionist, respected and well liked. She seems to have no real enemies-and yet someone killed her.

Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson, a black detective recently transferred to the quiet, West Country English village, is determined to discover the truth and, once again, it is history that provides him with a clue. For Wesley's archaeologist friend, Neil Watson, has excavated an ancient corpse at a nearby dig: a woman who had been buried at a crossroads, on unhallowed ground. It appears that the body is that of the same woman whom local legend has it was publicly executed in the churchyard centuries before.

A chilling echo of the fifteenth-century lynching, Pauline Brent's death forces Wesley to consider the possibility that the killer also knows the tree's dark history. Has Pauline been "executed" rather than murdered-and if so, for what crime?

To catch a dangerous killer, Wesley has to discover as much as he can about the victim. But Pauline Brent appears to have been a woman with few friends, no relatives, and a past she has tried carefully to hide...

THE TALE OF APPLEBECK ORCHARD by SUSAN WITTIG ALBERT

 THE TALE OF APPLEBECK ORCHARD by SUSAN WITTIG ALBERT Pgs 292

Out of spite for having his haystacks burnt, Mr. Harmsworth barricades a common path through his orchard-and Tabitha Twitchet and her Cat Council want answers. Reliable witnesses, including some Big Folk, say the arson was the handiwork of a lantern-wielding specter. The mournful ghost has a message-and Miss Potter, for one, hopes to figure it out.

Meanwhile in Sawrey, romance buds between the schoolmarm and a confirmed bachelor; Hyacinth Badger hopes to be the first female to earn the Badger Badge of Honor; and a rumor has Beatrix and the solicitor practically betrothed. But the matter of the barricade involves everyone-and Miss Potter and her friends might have to take matters into their own hands-and paws.