Susan's 2012 Book Log

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Sun April 8th, 2012, 9:22 pm

11) Mariana by Susana Kearsley; finished on 4/8/12; LOVED it! Great twist at the end!

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Sun April 8th, 2012, 10:45 pm

[quote=""Susan""]11) Mariana by Susana Kearsley; finished on 4/8/12; LOVED it! Great twist at the end![/quote]

I did not see that coming. No way. No how.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue April 17th, 2012, 11:20 pm

12) The Flower Reader by Elizabeth Loupas; finished 4/16/12; Interesting book! The fictional protagonist and her floramancy were intriguing and seeing a young Mary, Queen of Scots before her troubles started was different.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Sun May 6th, 2012, 8:00 pm

13) The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick; finished 5/6/12; got some Anglo-Saxon history put together in my head with this novel.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Sun May 13th, 2012, 7:27 pm

14) I Serve: A Novel of the Black Prince by Roseanne E. Lortz; finished 5/13/12; There was way too much historical narrative (which seemed well researched) and not enough of a plot, setting, and details to make me feel like I was in the 1300s.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Sat May 19th, 2012, 7:50 pm

15) Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips; finished 5/19/12; I've always been a Greek mythology geek and I really enjoyed this one. The ending was predictable, but it was a fun read.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Mon May 28th, 2012, 10:09 pm

16) Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey; finished 5/28/12; 4/5 stars; Marie Antoinette is often thought of as that French queen who lost her head in the French Revolution. It was refreshing to go back to her childhood when she was Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and see her living in Vienna and then to follow her progress to France. Even though I consider myself a student of royal history, I find that historical fiction about royal figures often humanizes them and makes me see them as a real person. This novel did that for Marie Antoinette.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Tue May 29th, 2012, 1:58 am

After the awful mistakes Leslie Carroll (aka Juliet Grey) made in a book of hers I was trying to read (Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, aka Queen Mother, was turned into a Mary), I haven't touched any of her books again.

SM

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Tue May 29th, 2012, 10:48 pm

[quote=""SonjaMarie""]After the awful mistakes Leslie Carroll (aka Juliet Grey) made in a book of hers I was trying to read (Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, aka Queen Mother, was turned into a Mary), I haven't touched any of her books again.[/quote]

Which book was that, Sonja? I am assuming it was one of the non-fiction books. She doesn't have the background I usually like for my non-fiction royal history authors. This is the first book I've read by that author (and it is a novel) and while I am not a Marie Antoinette expert, I did not notice any glaring errors.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Wed May 30th, 2012, 2:37 am

"Royal Affairs: A Lusty Romp Through the Extramarital Adventures That Rocked the British Monarchy" by Leslie Carroll

If it had just been a typo I might have pushed on, but there had been other errors before I got there (can't remember what they were now), and so it got wall banged.

The line was "Mary Boleyn's twentieth-century descendants include Winston Churchill; Mary Bowes-Lyon (the mother of Elizabeth II);...." How she could've missed named Elizabeth II's mother, is WAY beyond me.

AND she had this excerpt on her website and NO correction.
http://www.lesliecarroll.com/carroll-af ... xcerpt.htm

SM