Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Her Name Is Rose by Christine Breen


Thanks to Sarah Schoof of St. Martin’s Press, I am giving away one print copy of Her Name Is Rose by Christine Breen.

Her Name Is Rose by Christine BreenDescription of Her Name Is Rose by Christine Breen


When Irish gardener Iris Bowen could not conceive a child, she turned to an Irish adoption agency.  There she found a young American exchange student who wanted the best for her infant daughter, but had one request:  that the child be named Rose.  Now, Rose has grown and is stepping out on her own at the Royal Academy of Music in London. 

Although a gifted violinist, she questions her talent as she struggles to meet the impossible demands of her brilliant but harsh teacher.  Meanwhile, Iris has yet to fulfill her late husband’s last request that she find Rose’s birth mother, so that if anything happened to Iris, Rose would not be left alone in the world.  However, when Iris receives some worrisome results on a breast scan, her husband’s words become hauntingly urgent. Without telling her daughter, she embarks on a voyage to find Rose’s birth mother with surprising results.

Praise Her Name Is Rose by Christine Breen


“In this emotional debut, Breen creates a poignant tale of love and loss between an adoptive mother and daughter as secrets come to light…Breen’s characters immediately invite the reader to go on a heartwrenching journey that’s enhanced by her skillful plotting and authentic, lyrical descriptions of the Emerald Isle. A moving first novel.” -starred Publishers Weekly

“Making her debut, Breen has created a warmhearted and poignant story…[a] witty story of family, acceptance, and the power of belonging.”-Booklist

 “A lyrical debut with characters who live and breathe and teach each other how to love.” – Christina Baker Kline author of Orphan Train

About Christine Breen


Her Name Is Rose by Christine Breen

Photo Credit: John Kelly

CHRISTINE BREEN was born in New York and educated in Boston and Dublin, where she received an MA in Irish Literature. She is an artist, homeopath, and garden designer whose columns on travel, gardening and health have appeared in newspapers and magazines in Ireland and America.

She currently lives in Kiltumper, Ireland with her husband, the novelist Niall Williams, in the cottage where her grandfather was born. HER NAME IS ROSE is her first novel.

Giveaway Her Name Is Rose by Christine Breen


This giveaway is open to Canada and the U.S. only and ends on August 19, 2016 midnight pacific time.  Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Loving Eleanor by Susan Wittig AlbertLoving Eleanor by Susan Wittig Albert


There are some public figures that I have admired all my life and Eleanor Roosevelt is one of them.  It doesn’t matter that she had already past a year before I was born.  I admire her for all that she did for the U.S. and especially did to progress women’s rights!

‘Loving Eleanor’ is a fictionalized account of Eleanor Roosevelt and the female reporter, Lorena Hickok (nick name: Hick)  assigned to  cover her during FDR’s run for the presidency.   Yes, it covers the affair the two females had with each other and their love letters but in a tasteful way.  It also showed how much Eleanor grew into her role as first lady, a role that she did not want but finally embraced.

Lorena Hickok, one of few female reporters of the time, was assigned to cover the 1928 election. She primarily covered Eleanor Roosevelt and they grew a fast rapport and friendship that became romantic, for a time.  Hick is the narrator and seems to want to make sure people know about their relationship and the love she had for Eleanor.

There are a lot of details about the Great Depression and the era of FDR’s presidency.   It also talked about FDR’s love interests.  Yes, they both had affairs, plural.  However, his were mostly accepted while Eleanor’s were not.  That double standard is still alive today.

In the pages, we also get to know Hick, who I had heard of but didn’t know much about her other than she was a female reporter.  The book is writing like an autobiography by Hick and I really enjoyed getting to know her and researching what was true and what was fiction.  From my research, it looks like Susan Wittig Albert stuck mostly with the facts and filled in the back story to make it entertaining.

The book dragged in a couple places for me but overall I really enjoyed it and it compelled me to find out more.  I was thrilled to see some further reading recommendations at the end and the author note also talked about what was fact and what was fiction. I always look for an author’s note at the end of historical fiction.  It make a historical fiction novel more credible to me.  I highly recommend ‘Loving Eleanor’ to historical fiction lovers!

4/5

I received the ebook version for my honest review.

About Susan Wittig AlbertLoving Eleanor by Susan Wittig Albert


Susan Wittig Albert is the award-winning, NYT bestselling author of the forthcoming historical novel Loving Eleanor (2016), about the intimate friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok; and A Wilder Rose (2014), about Rose Wilder Lane and the writing of the Little House books.

Her award-winning fiction also includes mysteries in the China Bayles series, the Darling Dahlias, the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, and a series of Victorian-Edwardian mysteries she has written with her husband, Bill Albert, under the pseudonym of Robin Paige.

She has written two memoirs: An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days and Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place, published by the University of Texas Press.

Her nonfiction titles include What Wildness is This: Women Write About the Southwest (winner of the 2009 Willa Award for Creative Nonfiction); Writing from Life: Telling the Soul’s Story; and Work of Her Own: A Woman’s Guide to Success Off the Career Track.

She is founder and current president (2015-2017) of the Story Circle Network and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.

For more information please visit www.susanalbert.com and www.LovingEleanor.com, or read her blog. You can also find Susan on Facebook, Twitter,Google+, Goodreads, and Pinterest. Like the Loving Eleanor page on Facebook.

Angel's Share by J.R. WardAngel’s Share by J.R. Ward


Thanks to Loren Jaggers of Berkley Publishing Group/New American Library, , I am giving away one print copy of Angel’s Share by J.R. Ward

Description of Angel’s Share by J.R. Ward


#1 New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward delivers the second novel in her Bourbon Kings series—a sweeping saga of a Southern dynasty struggling to maintain a façade of privilege and prosperity, while secrets and indiscretions threaten its very foundation…

In Charlemont, Kentucky, the Bradford family is the crème de la crème of high society—just like their exclusive brand of bourbon. And their complicated lives and vast estate are run by a discrete staff who inevitably become embroiled in their affairs. This is especially true now, when the apparent suicide of the family patriarch is starting to look more and more like murder…

No one is above suspicion—especially the eldest Bradford son, Edward. The bad blood between him and his father is known far and wide, and he is aware that he could be named a suspect. As the investigation into the death intensifies, he keeps himself busy at the bottom of a bottle—as well as with his former horse trainer’s daughter. Meanwhile, the family’s financial future lies in the perfectly manicured hands of a business rival, a woman who wants Edward all to herself.

Everything has consequences; everybody has secrets. And few can be trusted. Then, at the very brink of the family’s demise, someone thought lost to them forever returns to the fold. Maxwell Bradford has come home. But is he a savior…or the worst of all the sinners?

Praise for The Bourbon Kings by J.R. Ward


“Breathless fun! J. R. Ward moves her trademark dark and sexy from the world of warrior vampires to the halls of the Kentucky elite, where the family members’ claws are just as sharp and the consequences just as deadly. I couldn’t stop turning the pages!”New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner

 “With more devious characters than DynastyThe Bourbon Kings is juicy soap opera at its finest.”The Philadelphia Enquirer 

“Soapy elements abound in this Dynastyesque tale, from lavish wealth to feuds, dirty secrets, and forbidden love…Ward is a master of pacing and world building, and readers will love that the cliff-hanger ending guarantees at least a second helping of the Bradfords.”Booklist (starred review)

About J.R. Ward


Angel's Share by J.R. Ward

JR Ward with her dog – Photo by Andrew Hyslop

J.R. Ward is the author of more than twenty previous novels, including those in her #1 New York Timesbestselling series, The Black Dagger Brotherhood. She is also the author of the Black Dagger Legacy series, and The Bourbon Kings. There are more than fifteen million copies of Ward’s novels in print worldwide, and they have been published in twenty-five different countries around the world.

Giveaway of Angel’s Share by J.R. Ward


This giveaway open to the U.S. only and ends on August 12, 2016 at midnight pacific time.  Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway