Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Feature and Giveaway: THE GILDED LILY by Deborah Swift

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on September 28, 2012
Posted in My Past Giveaways  | 16 Comments

Thanks to Amy Bruno of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, I am giving away one print copy of The Gilded Lily.


Book Description:


Winter 1661

Timid Sadie Appleby has always lived in her small village. One night she is rudely awoken by her older and bolder sister, Ella, who has robbed her employer and is on the run. The girls flee their rural home of Westmorland to head for London, hoping to lose themselves in the teeming city. But the dead man’s relatives are in hot pursuit, and soon a game of cat and mouse begins.

Ella becomes obsessed with the glitter and glamour of city life and sets her sights on flamboyant man-about-town, Jay Whitgift. But nothing is what it seems – not even Jay Whitgift.

Can Sadie survive a fugitive’s life in the big city? But even more pressing, can she survive life with her older sister Ella? And when an altogether different danger threatens Ella’s life, will Sadie run to the rescue, or turn the other cheek?

Set in London’s atmospheric coffee houses, the rich mansions of Whitehall, and the pawnshops, slums and rookeries hidden from rich men’s view, The Gilded Lily is about beauty and desire, about the stories we tell ourselves, and about how sisterhood can be both a burden and a saving grace.

About Deborah Swift:

DEBORAH SWIFT, a set and costume designer for the BBC, lives in Windermere, England. THE LADY’S SLIPPER, shortlisted for The Impress Novelists Prize in 2007, was inspired by her own discovery of the rare orchid during a summer walk.  For more information on Deborah Swift and her novels, please visit her website at www.deborahswift.co.uk.


This giveaway is open internationally and ends on October 12, 2012.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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Giveaway:The Indigo Pheasant by Daniel A. Rabuzzi

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on September 28, 2012
Posted in My Past Giveaways  | 2 Comments

Thanks to Beverly Bambury Marketing Manager of ChiZine Publications, I am giving away one eBook copy of The Indigo Pheasant.


Book Description:


London 1817. Maggie Collins, born into slavery in Maryland, whose mathematical genius and strength of mind can match those of a goddess, must build the world’s most powerful and sophisticated machine—to free the lost land of Yount from the fallen angel Strix Tender Wurm. Sally, of the merchant house McDoon, who displayed her own powers in challenging the Wurm and finding Yount in The Choir Boats, must choose either to help Maggie or to hinder her. Together—or not—Maggie and Sally drive to conclusion the story started in The Choir Boats—a story of blood-soaked song, family secrets, sins new and old in search of expiation, forbidden love, high policy and acts of state, financial ruin, betrayals intimate and grand, sorcery from the origins of time, and battle in the streets of London and on the arcane seas of Yount.


About Daniel A. Rabuzzi:


Daniel A. Rabuzzi studied folklore and mythology in college and graduate school, and keeps one foot firmly in the Other Realm.  


ChiZine Publications published his first novel, The Choir Boats: Volume One of Longing for Yount, in 2009, and in 2012 brought out the sequel and series conclusion, The Indigo Pheasant: Volume Two of Longing for Yount. 


Daniel’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in Sybil’s Garage, Shimmer, ChiZine, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Abyss & Apex, Goblin Fruit, Mannequin Envy, Bull Spec, Kaleidotrope, and Scheherezade’s Bequest.  He has presented at Arisia, Readercon, Lunacon, and the Toronto Speculative Fiction Colloquium. He has also had twenty scholarly and professional articles published on subjects ranging from fairy tale to finance.


A former banker, Daniel earned his doctorate in 18th-century history, with a focus on family, gender and commerce in northern Europe. He is now an executive at a national workforce development organization in New York City, where he lives with his wife and soulmate, the artist Deborah A. Mills (who illustrated and provided cover art for both Daniel’s novels), along with the requisite two cats.


This eBook giveaway is open worldwide and ends on October 12, 2012.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Set in depression era, Key West Florida, Mariella Bennet has even rougher than most.  She is only 18 years old and her fisherman, father recently died, leave her mother, two younger sisters and herself.  Her mother, still greiving is unable to care for the family, she just sits in her chair day after day smoking.  It is up to Mariella to care for and feed the family.


At first she was taking odd jobs on the docks and some of the fishermen who knew her father would give her a fish to feed the family.  However, her luck changed when she went to a boxing match at the area bar, Slopy Joes, dressed as a boy.  That was when she first met Ernest Hemingway.


He told her that he always wanted a daughter and that she should call him Papa.  They started going out together, he at 35 years of age but she also meets one of the boxers, Gavin from that night’s match.  Will she end up with either of them?


Finally, Mariella gets up the nerve to ask Hemingway for a job and starts working at his family estate.  His wife, Pauline isn’t too happy about it because she know her husband has his sights on Mariella.  However, now Mariella is bringing home pay every week and can better care for the family.


Full with a cast of both regular and eccentic charicters Erika Robuck makes use of a hurricane to build tensions in this book.  She examines Hemingway, the man in his habitat and shows though he did appear larger than life, he was just a man.  With warts and all.


I really enjoyed this book for the laid back summer read it was and warmed up to it more and more as I read more.  The story was written is an easy to read style.  I would have like the author to delve a bit deeper but like I said, I still enjoyed it.


3.5/5


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I received a copy of this book for my honest review.
Thanks to Heidi Richter Senior Publicist at Penguin Group ( USA), Inc., I am giving away one copy of Hemingway’s Daughter.  This giveaway is open to Canada and the U.S. and ends on October 11, 2012.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.