Tagged: julia
The Courtesan Duchess by Joanna Shupe
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
How to seduce an estranged husband—and banish debt!—in four wickedly improper, shockingly pleasurable steps…
1. Learn the most intimate secrets of London’s leading courtesan.
2. Pretend to be a courtesan yourself, using the name Juliet Leighton.
3. Travel to Venice and locate said husband.
4. Seduce husband, conceive an heir, and voilà, your future is secure!For Julia, the Duchess of Colton, such a ruse promises to be foolproof. After all, her husband has not bothered to lay eyes on her in eight years, since their hasty wedding day when she was only sixteen. But what begins as a tempestuous flirtation escalates into full-blown passion—and the feeling is mutual. Could the man the Courtesan Duchess married actually turn out to be the love of her life?
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
This was a book I requested as a guilty pleasure read that actually turned out to be quite a wonderful story that was not only well-written but emotionally resonant.
Julia has been neglected by her husband for eight years since her wedding at the age of 16 (which wasn’t even consummated). Now with no heir her inlaws are furious with her and the manager of the estate that her husband appointed is hinting that she may have to do more than beg to get even a livable allowance. With her husband ignoring any letters she sends pleading with him to rectify the situation, he leaves her with no choice but to resort to drastic measures: seduce him under an assumed name to become pregnant. She knows it’s wrong to dupe him and throughout the whole affair she feels incredibly guilty but justifies it to herself by remembering the circumstances in which he left her.
By the time Julia met her husband in Venice I was personally ready to strangle him for leaving her in such circumstances and not caring at all about her. But as Julia and Nick grow closer under the courtesan-patron relationship, they start to actually develop feelings for one another which leads to us readers learning a lot more about Nick. I don’t want to spoil too much if you do decide to read this book, but needless to say Nick had some genuine reasons for wanting nothing to do with Julia (none of which were her fault at all). What I loved about The Courtesan Duchess is that both characters are so well developed. They each have their own baggage from their childhoods and they have very interesting, unique personalities. And Joanna Shupe doesn’t go for a straightforward romance; she recognizes that love is way more complicated than that and throws many, many twists and turns into Julia and Nick’s relationship.
The romance in this book is absolutely sizzling and the sex scenes were actually sexy instead of absolutely ridiculous. Not only that, they actually advanced the plot, which was quite fast-paced for a romance. I honestly wanted to find out what happened next and instead of reading a few chapters ended up reading the whole book in a single sitting. Joanna Shupe’s writing style is very descriptive without being overly boring and she really makes you as a reader feel the emotions of her characters. When I read romance books I often can’t emotionally click with one or even both characters but that was definitely not the case here. I wanted Julia and Nick to hash out their problems and get back together! I wanted their love to be real and not just a fake fling in Venice that happened because of entirely selfish reasons on both their parts. It was quite a refreshing change.
As I’ve said previously, I’m not a huge romance reader but I can’t deny that I absolutely loved this book and want to read more of Joanna Shupe’s work. It’s both guilty pleasure and serious novel with a great mixture of romance, intrigue and three dimensional characters. Really, what more can you ask for?
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Curse by Jennifer Brassel
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
His search for her has been timeless, eternal, and ultimately thwarted. Until now…
Seth Almose has spent countless lives trying to break the curse that robs him of his soul mate. Each time the cycle begins anew, he meets it with hope, and each time he is left with heartbreak. But as the cycle dawns again, with yet another incarnation, Seth can’t help himself. She is extraordinary; is she the one?
Julia Morrow has reason to be wary of men. After restarting her life to escape an increasingly dangerous stalker, she has no reason to believe Seth and his stories of reincarnation and curses. But his face haunts her dreams, and her canvasses. He claims that it is a matter of life and death — her death. Can she find it in herself to trust again, or will the cycle turn once again, leaving them both broken and alone?
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I really debated requesting The Curse on NetGalley but in the end my curiosity got the better of me. Despite the cliché-filled blurb I thought I’d give this one a chance and approach it with an open mind. After all, I did the same thing to Echo Prophecy by Lindsey Fairleigh and it turned out to be a great book. The Curse isn’t a great book, though. Don’t get me wrong—it’s far from a bad book. It’s simply an average novel with nothing really to distinguish it from similar reincarnation curse stories.
The characters were very well developed. I really felt for Julia having to move and change her name after being stalked for months before the story started. Her behaviour is obviously affected by this incident but with the help of Seth she does seem to recover at a natural pace. She’s strong and brave but at the same time isn’t an unrealistically kick-butt protagonist. Seth was surprising for a male lead in that he isn’t the type of guy to rush out immediately when his beloved is kidnapped. No, he called the police, something that normal human beings would do in that circumstance. That was probably the biggest surprise of the whole novel but in hindsight it fits with his character.
Other than some surprises with the characters, there weren’t really all that many plot surprises. The Curse followed a pretty typical reincarnation story arc where girl starts having dreams, meets boy, they get together after some initial misunderstandings and circumstances or evil forces try to pull them apart. I wish Jennifer Brassel had put more of a spin on the old story arc but she really didn’t. Her story is well-paced and the world-building is relatively good but it’s really just the same old thing I’ve read before.
I would have liked far more backstory not only for the villains of the story but also for Seth and Julia’s past lives. We get flashes of it so we know the basic sketch of the story but I personally would have liked more details. That’s probably just me so I can’t really fault the author for that, though. The only real criticism I have about the backstory is that we didn’t really know very much about the villains and their motivations. I wish the villains had more complex motives than they were presented as having because it would have made the climax far more exciting. Oh well.
So like I said this isn’t a great book but it’s not a bad book either. It’s somewhere in between and if you generally like this kind of stuff I’d recommend The Curse. It’s just that it’s not all that unique.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
Harem by Colin Falconer
(Cover picture courtesy of History and Women.)
He had everything a man might dream of; wealth, power and the choice of hundreds of the most beautiful women in his Empire.
Why then did the King of Kings, Possessor of Mens Necks, forsake his harem for the love of just one woman, and marry her in defiance of the centuries-old code of the Osmanlis?
This is the astonishing story of Suleiman, the one they called the Magnificent, and the woman he loved. From medieval Venice to the slave markets of Algiers, from the mountains of Persia to the forbidden seraglio of the Ottoman’s greatest sultan, this is a story of passion and intrigue in a world where nothing is really as it seems.
This is more the tale of three very different women than the tale of Suleiman, but the thought is definitely there. We hear not only from him, but from the three women the story focuses on: Hürrem, Gülbehar and Julia.
First off we get the story of Hürrem’s rise to power within the harem. Since Suleiman truly loved Gülbehar, she used every trick in the book to steal him away from his favourite. Like so many stories that take place in the harem, the ladies in here are not necessarily sympathetic, but they are interesting. No one can deny Hürrem is a forceful person that will do anything, including kill, to gain power. Most of the book is from her perspective, although we do see things from Gülbehar’s perspective as she watches as she’s displaced as Suleiman’s favourite, knowing she can do nothing about it.
While Hürrem’s story was the main focus and it was fascinating, the story of Julia, the Italian who is captured and taken to the harem as a concubine is my favourite. We don’t see her until the last part of the story, but she is my absolute favourite character and couldn’t be a more stark contrast to the scheming, sometimes sadistic Hürrem. Her story and that of poor, poor Abbas are inexplicably entwined and how their story is resolved is both heartbreaking and happy.
I can’t and certainly won’t comment on the historical accuracy of Harem. In his author’s note, Colin Falconer admits that the three main women in the novel and their actions are pretty much pure speculation but that Suleiman was of course a very real person. Seeing as I know essentially nothing about Suleiman’s empire, I also won’t comment on the day-to-day minor historical details either. I will note that I don’t think Colin Falconer’s main objective with this novel was to be as historically accurate as possible, meaning he likely gave himself a little wiggle room when it came to details.
My only real complaint about the novel is that for such a good book, the proofreading was not so great. There were your vs. you’re mistakes sometimes and simple proofreading errors that looked like typos (lanbguage instead of language). There weren’t so many that it detracted from the story, but just keep in mind that they are there.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
1984 by George Orwell
(Cover picture courtesy of Sanjee’s Book Nook.)
Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. when Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities. Despite the police helicopters that hover and circle overhead, Winston and Julia begin to question the Party; they are drawn towards conspiracy. Yet Big Brother will not tolerate dissent—even in the mind. For those with original thoughts they have invented Room 101.
1984 is probably one of the toughest (if not the toughest) book to review. It has become a cultural phenomenon and is referred to in everything from movies, news and talk shows to everyday conversation. Before even reading the book, I knew the basic plot of the story, knew the terms doublethink, Big Brother, Room 101 and Thought Police. For someone who tries to not even read reviews (unless that’s how I discover a book) before reading a book, this makes reviewing 1984 nearly impossible. But I’ll try to talk about the book on its own merits, not on what it has become in our culture.
Frankly, 1984 is a terrifying picture of a possible future in which everyone’s actions, even thoughts are under strict control. Enter Winston Smith, a man who remembers the first days of the Revolution and the Party’s rise to power. But he can’t talk about it because the Party now has complete power over everything, past, present and future. The past is malleable and can be changed in an instant, which is part of Winston’s job in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth. After being oppressed for so long, Winston is the kind of person you would expect. He’s terrified of being found out, yet rebels in small ways by writing in his diary and loving Julia.
Yes, Winston is a hero in some respects, but he’s not your traditional hero or even your traditional anti-hero. He’s just a man struggling through life in an oppressive regime, knowing that there is no hope of change. He doesn’t join the rebels in actively fighting against the Party and Big Brother, he doesn’t become a high-ranking official of the Inner Party to sabotage their efforts, he doesn’t distribute pamphlets denouncing the government and he certainly doesn’t do any other traditional hero-in-a-dystopia things. Maybe I’ve been reading too much YA lately, but 1984, depressing as it is, is quite a nice change. It’s not a hopeful or uplifting story; it’s a warning.
I wouldn’t exactly call 1984 fast-paced by modern standards, but it’s not like I fell asleep reading it either. There’s an atmosphere of doom that hangs over the whole novel and it sucks you in, forcing you to keep reading even though you know the ending. The best part of George Orwell’s book? You can interpret it how you like. You can interpret it as a warning against big government, a tirade against socialism (or, conversely, praise of socialism), a cautionary tale about what happens when people stop questioning their leaders, etc. It’s easy to see how the term ‘Orwellian’ worked its way into the vocabulary of not only our politicians, but the general populace.
I give this book 5/5 stars. I mean, really, this is one of the few classics that should be studied in school.