Wojtas’ debut is every bit as lighthearted, levelheaded, inventive, hilarious, and altogether enchanting as its heroine, who...
A middle-aged Edinburgh librarian is sent back to 19th-century Russia with orders to complete an unspecified mission within a single calendar week of a year she can’t determine. Say what?
It’s no wonder that Shona McMonagle styles herself the crème de la crème. Not only does she do yeoman work at the Morningside Library, but as a restless alumna of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, she’s honed such diverse skills as knife throwing and accordion playing. So Miss Blaine, suddenly appearing at the library, has no hesitation in dispatching her to an unnamed Russian town a hundred-something years ago to perform an important task that she’s sure Shona will recognize on her own. Naturally, Shona, whisked over the miles and decades, decides that her brief is to rescue novice socialite Lidia Ivanovna Chrezvychainodlinnoslovsky from the elderly general whom she seems fated to wed and match her instead with Sasha, the beautiful serf and protégé of a thoroughly irritating countess. Shona matter-of-factly accommodates herself to her new identity as Shona Fergusovna, aka Princess Tamsonova, and her own serf, a coachman named Old Vatrushkin who adamantly resists her efforts to raise his consciousness, but still faces several obstacles. Lidia Ivanovna is shy and retiring; she’s never so much as met Sasha; as Shona makes the rounds of the society hostesses most likely to organize parties that might bring them together, the hostesses develop a disconcerting habit of falling down staircases to their deaths; and Lidia Ivanovna turns out to have been on the scene of several of these fatalities. As if that weren’t bad enough, Shona, despite her finely honed research skills, just can’t figure out what year it is.
Wojtas’ debut is every bit as lighthearted, levelheaded, inventive, hilarious, and altogether enchanting as its heroine, who richly deserves another jaunt through time and space.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63194-170-2
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Felony & Mayhem
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
There are few surprises, but it’s still satisfying to travel with these characters toward their more-than-well-earned happy...
The witch Diana’s and the vampire Matthew’s quests to discover their origins and confront the threats to their star-crossed union tie up as neatly as one of Diana’s magical weaver’s knots.
In the resolution of the All Souls trilogy, Diana’s impossible pregnancy with Matthew’s twins advances as various forces seek the couple’s separation, their destruction or both, mainly due to the covenant against liaisons across supernatural species lines. While Matthew searches for genetic answers to how he and Diana could be cross-fertile and what that will mean for their children, Diana seeks magical revelations from the missing Ashmole 782 manuscript, the fabled Book of Life. Figures from their pasts also resurface, injecting additional danger and urgency into their search. The novel lacks the sweep of the previous book (Shadow of Night, 2012), which offered a vivid immersion into the daily life and court intrigue of late 16th-century London and Prague. But, as in the previous two installments, there are healthy doses of action, colorful magic, angst-y romance and emotional epiphany, plus mansion-hopping across the globe, historical tidbits and name-dropping of famous artworks and manuscripts.
There are few surprises, but it’s still satisfying to travel with these characters toward their more-than-well-earned happy ending.Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-670-02559-6
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
PROFILES
Then comes the fire storm and "It is so short and jumbled and jangled" . . . because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre but it is precise jumble and jangle, disconcerting and ultimately devastating.
Pub Date: March 21, 1969
ISBN: 0385312083
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1969
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