Tag: fiction

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Three Muses

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Martha Anne Toll

Three Muses is a love story that enthralls: a tale of Holocaust survival venturing through memory, trauma, and identity, while raising the curtain on the unforgiving discipline of ballet. In post-WWII New York, John Curtin suffers lasting damage from having been forced to sing for the concentration camp kommandant who murdered his family. John trains to be a psychiatrist, struggling to wrest his life from his terror of music and his past. Katya Symanova climbs the arduous path to Prima Ballerina of the New York State Ballet, becoming enmeshed in an abusive relationship with her choreographer, who makes Katya a star but controls her life. When John receives a ticket to attend a ballet featuring Katya Symanova, a spell is cast. As John and Katya follow circuitous paths to one another, fear and promise rise in equal measure. Song, Discipline, and Memory weave their way through love and loss, heartbreak and triumph

NOTE: Thank you to Netgalley and Regal House Publishing for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. This review may contain spoilers. 

Three Muses takes you on a journey through time. It’s also a journey through the lives of Katya Symanova and John Curtin, both broken, both haunted, seeking to find their place and purpose in their worlds. 

This book starts out as two separate stories. We meet Janko, later known as John, a small boy given up by his mother to the Nazis hoping his talent for singing saves his life. As he sings for those who killed his family, a chasm forms deep in his heart separating him from his love for song. Upon rescue, he travels to America where he is placed in the care of a family who recently lost their son in the war. They become his replacement family and he becomes their replacement son. He adopts the name of John Curtin and becomes a psychiatrist. 

John was my favorite character in this story. I loved how his first patient really was himself. He’s shy and courageous and respectful and so kind and he’s all these things while dealing with PTSD from WWII. I love how we get to see his transition from a scared little boy to a young man trying to please his new American family and finally, into an adult. John struggles to understand the meaning of love in all its selfless facets until he meets Katya, who helps him understand that to love is to sacrifice. 

The other story is Katherine Sillman who is gifted with ballet lessons after her mother’s death. As she grows into a proper ballerina, she catches the eye of the choreographer/composer, Boris Yanakov, who changes her name to Katya Symannova, putting the curtain up between her and everyone else in her life but him. As he grooms her, she becomes entranced with him and by him. 

Katya is probably my least favorite character in this story. While we do see a beautiful character arc and wonderful development, I cringe at the idea of any woman losing herself in a man to the degree Katya did. She allowed him to rob her of everything, her friends, her family (in a way) and finally, her relationship with John. He literally chains her to him for the duration of her life. It was sad to me to see her disregard warnings from her friend, Maya, and completely forget she even had a father. She only remembers him when he gets hurt and needs help. 

I also found her to be a little self-serving in her relationship with John. He said she gave him a lot when he said she gave him back his Papa. However, I can’t really see where she gave more than he did. The deception of it all was upsetting also in light of her relationship with Boris. John was too sweet to hurt that way. 

I will always always love when authors take their time telling a story. It’s a gift to be able to do this without making the book too long or causing it to lag in places. I didn’t have any fault with the pace of this book. It picks you up and takes you on this lovely, very visual, highly emotional yet gentle ride. I felt all the feels. And the language, the imagery was simply stunning. 

I loved how the two stories converged and then disconnected with only the very smallest tether left at the end. Wonderfully written. 

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Memory Keeper of Kyiv

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Erin Litteken

It’s the 1930s and Stalin’s troops have invaded Ukraine and inflicted a man-made famine that claimed millions of lives. Katya is a young girl in a small village affected by the famine. She watches as friends and neighbors disappear until it finally hits closer to home than she ever dreamed. What starts out as something the village hopes will eventually go away if they just yield to government demands turns into a fight to survive as food initially becomes scarce and then non-existent. Through it all, love holds Katya and her family steadfast to themselves and to each other. 

Years later, a young widow named Cassie travels with her daughter to live with her grandmother hoping for a new start. She discovers a journal belonging to her grandmother which takes her on a journey to the past. 

This book broke my heart in a thousand pieces. It was so well written and so beautiful and so sad – I read it in on. 

I’m ashamed to admit that I had no clue the Holodomor ever happened. I knew atrocities were committed under Stalin but I had no clue of the total brutality of it. This was a bit of a history lesson for me and boy, was it hard to read. The choices people had to make and just the total definition of survival was so painful to read. 

My dad lived through WW2 while in Italy under Mussolini. He’s told me stories of how my grandmother and him struggled to survive. They lost their home and if it weren’t for the fact that my grandmother was a master seamstress, they wouldn’t have eaten. Like one of the characters in the book, my dad still doesn’t let food go to waste and will eat anything. As a young girl I used to ask if there was any food he didn’t like and he would say no because he remembers not knowing when he was going to eat next. So part of me was thinking about that knowing the author took from her own family history to build the story. Somehow, we are all a part of our family history and I loved how well this was honored in this story. 

There are two stories being told simultaneously. 

Cassie is still reeling from her husband’s sudden death, as is her daughter. One year into her grief journey and she still struggles with immediate loss, how to cope and move forward and how to help her daughter as she grieves. Her mom suggests she move in with her grandmother, who is beginning to have some dementia-type symptoms. Cassie agrees hoping the change will elevate her from a grieving widow to some sort of functional human being again. 

While there, she find’s Bobby’s (her grandmother) journal. The journal chronicles Bobby’s life in Ukraine starting at the time of Stalin’s invasion. 

The story transport you back in time where we meet young Katia and we learn of the Holodomor. Katya’s story is a story of survival but it’s also a story of love – not the mushy kind of love full of long, slow kisses (although there is that) but the kind of love that’s hard where choices to love and survive make you want to hate those closest to you.  

I fell completely in love with Cassie and Katya. Both women are strong survivors of life’s circumstances. Neither had a choice but to go forward in the best way they knew how. I really loved how Cassie grew and healed as she read Bobby’s journal. I felt like she was forever changed, taking a chance on new love and the idea of life beyond loss. 

Katya’s story was heartbreaking in the extreme. I felt each tear and tear of her heart. Katya is a heroine of the past whose story should not ever be forgotten as though she were more than a fictional character. History tells us this character was based on many such survivors. 

For the beauty of this story, the history behind it and all the emotions this book puts you through, I highly recommend it! So very well done! 

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: 

NOTE – Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Missing Girls of Alardyce House

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Heather Atkinson

This book was…..weird. And not in a good way. 

Amy Osbourne’s parents are lost at sea prompting her to move from London to Edinbugh to live with her aunt and uncle at Alardyce House. The house is depressing and her aunt has mega control issues along with her son, Henry, who is a failed attempt at a broody Mr Darcy only meaner. Amy does get along with her uncle and the other son, Edward. Both men seem amiable and reasonable. Also, for added fun, there’s rumors of a serial killer on the loose with a taste for local, young girls and it would seem, has eyes on Amy for their next victim. 

Intrigued? I sure was. 

Set in Edinburgh in the 1880s, this story spans about 10 years, making both the story and book longer than it should have been. I usually like my stories to start with a jolt and then settle into the story – sort of like an espresso before my coffee kicks in. Unfortunately, there was no espresso and no coffee. Just lots of watered down tea. 

And lots of missed opportunities for trigger warnings. So let me include those here. This book deals with lots of torture, mental illness issues, rape, BDSM and sexual addictions. I’m sure I’m missing a couple. 

If you haven’t guessed it yet, I did not like this book. I’d never heard of this author before but, as this book was labeled as historical fiction and mystery, it never occurred to me there would be so much sex in it. Not a fan at all. Nevertheless, as I skimmed over those very unnecessary scenes, I found this story really wasn’t all that mysterious. 

I gave it two stars for the writing style. The descriptions of the era and time were well done and nicely researched. I didn’t get lost in the language so while it was appropriate for the times, it was easy to read. The book also held a nice pace, for the most part. No lagging or sagging anywhere. 

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD – YE HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

For the characters, I couldn’t really find one with any redeeming qualities. Amy never really grew on me. I had a hard time seeing her as a heroine of any kind. Edward and Matthew turned out to be less than stellar men (and that’s putting it mildly), Lenore was a total witch, Arthur was a wet mop of a man and Henry really was so noodly that I couldn’t believe him at all as a hero. 

Ok, for the story itself, much of it was predictable. Like, the quarterback-letting-everyone-know-the-play-before-he-ever-throws-the-ball predictable. For example, the second Amy mentioned being nervous about getting pregnant, I knew she would wind up pregnant. I also knew who the killer was before the killer was ever revealed so no surprise there. 

What I wasn’t prepared for, outside of the all the sex, was the torture. It went beyond the extremes of human suffering and the level of detail was unnecessary. I had to skim over those parts as well as it was too disturbing. 

As for the storyline itself, I couldn’t really understand what story was being told. The whole idea of a serial killer really was more of a backstory than a major part. Until the killer was revealed, which was half-way through the book, it really was more about Amy and how she was going to escape. So not a lot of mystery at all. 

I also wasn’t a fan of how it ended. I would say more but it’s completely unbelievable to me that it could possibly end on the cliffhanger that it did. Unfortunately, as this was the first in a trilogy, I won’t be reading on to see what actually happens. 

Overall, I felt like this has all the ingredients of great mystery and even a good ghost story but too many triggering elements plus all the sex and torture ruined it for me.

My rating: :star: :star:

NOTE – Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

A Spell of Rowans

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By Byrd Nash

Raised by a narcissistic mother, the Rowan children’s magical talents were twisted to fit her needs. When Rachel dies, her children must confront the past to have a future.

Rachel Rowan could sniff out secrets and her antique shop, Rosemary Thyme, was a front to torment the residents of Grimsby. When she dies, her children are faced with the deadly fallout of blackmail, murder, and magic.

Victoria, whose empathic talent knows everyone’s hidden feelings; Philippa, whose glamour can bewitch; and Liam, the brother who touches objects to reveal their secrets, all find themselves in danger.

When her autistic brother is arrested, Vic needs to discover the truth to set him free.

A successful art restorer in the big city, Vic’s made a career of ignoring her past and hiding her strange powers. But with Rachel’s death, she must gamble away her secrets to face down forces determined to destroy her and her siblings.

And that hometown boy she dumped way back? He’s in Grimsby, and knows the truth about her.

This is a story of three siblings with magical abilities, an abusive mother and a father who turned a blind eye. There’s also a murder mystery, a former beau, old debts and new debts to settle as well as some sibling relational healing. All in all, it’s pretty power packed. 

I didn’t love this book but I didn’t hate it either. I grabbed me and kept my interested until the very end. The storyline was tough to read at times due to the subject matter but the plot was well-thought out and the characters were very well written. 

I went into this hoping for more of the magical element. There’s a touch here and there but the main theme in the story really is family relationships. Victoria is a strong woman carrying a huge secret and a fair amount of guilt over her past. Her brother and sister also start out as very flawed, broken people each in their own way. By the end of the story, there is a lot of healing and growth that happens which was really good to see. I like a good ending. 

The murder mystery, to me, felt like more of a subplot than the main plot. It was still cool to figure out who did it but I found myself so involved in the relational aspects of the story that I didn’t even try. I almost didn’t care who did it. That was a bit of a let down for me. 

Overall, it was a fast paced, decent read. Not sure I would recommend it to a murder mystery or fantasy fan but if you’re looking for a good story about twisted and damaged family relationships with some magic on the side and a bit of murder, this book is for you. 

My rating: :star: :star: :star: 

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Lost Ones

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By Anita Frank

Some houses are never at peace.

England, 1917

Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham welcomes the opportunity to stay with her pregnant sister, Madeleine, at her imposing country mansion, Greyswick – but she arrives to discover a house of unease and her sister gripped by fear and suspicion.

Before long, strange incidents begin to trouble Stella – sobbing in the night, little footsteps on the stairs – and as events escalate, she finds herself drawn to the tragic history of the house.

Aided by a wounded war veteran, Stella sets about uncovering Greyswick’s dark and terrible secrets – secrets the dead whisper from the other side…

I loved this book!!! Gothic, ghostly, horrific, mystery….all the pieces were there for me. 

Stella is a grieving woman who goes to stay with her sister at Greyswick, a house full of terrible secrets. She finds her sister terrified. Her maid, Annie, talks with ghosts in the house and soon, it’s apparent that the house is harboring a deadly past and is looking for revenge. 

The main character of Stella is stubborn and strong. Still suffering from the loss of her fiance, she fights against the doctors and her parents who want to hospitalize her for “hysteria”. Upon arriving at Greyswick, she finds her bright, jolly sister frightened of every shadow. Stella delves into the mystery of the house, much to the dislike of the lady of the manor, her companion and the house manager. 

I absolutely loved her. I also loved little Annie, Stella’s maid with a gift for seeing and communicating with ghosts. She’s spunky, truthful and endearing. 

There were times when I, eager to get to the meat of the story, thought the story lagged. However, I actually discovered an appreciation for the author who took her time telling the story. It’s not really a who-dun-it as much as a what-happened. I found myself tumbling head-first into this story and didn’t let go until it was done. 

The ending was well done and again, not rushed through. Anita Frank does a great job of leading us through each and every step of the climax of the story, giving the reader time to recover before introducing the next twist. 

For a gothic ghost story lover, this book had all the goods. Creepy mansion. Weird housekeeper. Crabby old lady. Nice but mysterious companion. Babies crying in the night. Walls that whisper secrets. 

Absolutely brilliant. 

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: