“my misery is reaching epidemic proportions.”

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritualworld—lead to?
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers andability to see into the spirit world.

It’s the end of the year, and Gemma’s looking forward to living it up in London. Balls, fancy gowns and dancing with the handsome Simon Middleton beckon. Best of all, it’s time away from Spence Academy—and from the Realms.
But the lure of the enchanted world is strong, and the magic flows freely. Gemma’s visions intensify—visions of three girls dressed in white, suffering horror and menace. Clearly, all is not well in the Realms—or out of them.
Set against the backdrop of Victorian London, a place of shadows and light, in a time of strict morality and barely repressed sensuality, this compelling gothic sequel reveals that inside great beauty can lie a rebel angel…

It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father alaudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite certain peril, Gemma has bound the magic to herself and forged unlikely new alliances. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds.
The Order—the mysterious group her mother was once part of—is grappling for control of the realms, as is the Rakshana. Spence’s burned East Wing is being rebuilt, but why now? Gemma and her friends see Pippa, but she is not the same. And their friendship faces its gravest trial as Gemma must decide once and for all what role she is meant for.

the gemma doyle trilogy

“Shall I tell you a story? A new and terrible one? A ghost story? Are you ready? Shall I begin? Once upon a time there were four girls. One was pretty. One was clever. One charming, and one...one was mysterious. But they were all damaged, you see. Something not right about the lot of them. Bad blood. Big dreams. Oh, I left that part out. Sorry, that should have come before. They were all dreamers, these girls. One by one, night after night, the girls came together. And they sinned. Do you know what that sin was? No one? Pippa? Ann? Their sin was that they believed. Believed they could be different. Special. They believed they could change what they were--damaged, unloved. Cast-off things. They would be alive, adored, needed. Necessary. But it wasn't true. This is a ghost story remember? A tragedy. They were misled. Betrayed by their own stupid hopes. Things couldn't be different for them, because they weren't special after all. So life took them, led them, and they went along, you see? They faded before their own eyes, till they were nothing more than living ghosts, haunting each other with what could be. With what can't be. There, now. Isn't that the scariest story you've ever heard?”

“there are no safe choices. only other choices.”

all in all i would have to give this trilogy 3 and half stars with the first two books getting four stars and the last one getting 3 stars...

i enjoyed the time period alot and loved the gothic setting and the spence academy for girls...
it had a cool creepiness that i love in books like this.

it reminded me alot of
"the fallen series"
that we read last fall...

thanks penny for the recommendation...
it was alot of fun:)

bye...
more later...

“It's a terrible thing, isn't it, the way we throw people away?”

“But it is human, is it not, to long for that from which we are barred?” 
― Kate Morton, 

The Secret Keeper

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the following information was taken from

here

THE SECRET KEEPER 

This picture of a Tunbridge Wells farmhouse was one of a few that sat on my pin board while I was writing The Secret Keeper

1961: On a sweltering summer's day, while
her family picnics by the stream on their
Suffolk farm, sixteen-year-old Laurel hides out
in her childhood tree house dreaming of a boy
called Billy, a move to London, and the bright
future she can't wait to seize. But before the
idyllic afternoon is over, Laurel will have witnessed
a shocking crime that changes everything.

Dorothy and Vivien, as imagined for the endpapers of the Mantle, UK edition

2011: Now a much-loved actress, Laurel finds herself overwhelmed by shades of the past. Haunted by memories, and the mystery of what she saw that day, she returns to her family home and begins to piece together a secret history. A tale of three strangers from vastly different worlds--Dorothy, Vivien and Jimmy--who are brought together by chance in wartime London and whose lives become fiercely and fatally entwined...

i loved this book...
it was so good...

here is my review from goodreads

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I listened to the audible version of this book and I thought the narrator was fantastic! At times I thought the long way was taken to get to the point but at the end realized that was the perfect way to tell this story. It reminded me of those old WWII movies. The pacing of the end was brilliant and I absolutely loved Jimmy. He was so unbelievably lovely and heroic. Vivian was mysterious and fragile and Dolly was so likable and frustrating and at times so hard to read. I loved it! It will make a great movie!

View all my reviews

i would have loved to get together and talk about this one...

i would have served...

Discussion Questions
1. Each of Kate Morton's four novels are securely anchored in their strong sense of time and place. In The Secret Keeper, World War II is a rich and realistic environment–close enough for memory but a long way from our twenty-first century lives—which allows the author to show both the frailty and courage of human nature. Discuss.

2. The rusted-on loyalties of family members to each other are key in this novel. Do you think Dolly's feelings of unease about her own family contribute to her love of playing make-believe?

3. Laurel had never thought to ask her mother about her life before Dorothy met Stephen Nicolson. And it's impossible for Dolly to imagine Lady Caldicott being young and beautiful wearing those glorious dresses now going musty in the dressing room. And Jimmy's dad loves to tell his stories of the past. How is ageing portrayed in The Secret Keeper?

4. Many readers have commented on how extremely likeable Jimmy is–how has Kate Morton developed his character to make him so?

5. Do you think that The Secret Keeper's characters live the lives they deserve? Were you satisfied and surprised at their various outcomes and their influences on each other?

6. Once you understood Dorothy's reasons for committing that violent action at the end of chapter one, did you find any moral ambiguity in her behaviour? Did she really have a choice?

7. Everyone has their secrets. The Secret Keeper, some more than others! Do you think Laurel is justified in upturning her mother's carefully laid secrets? When is keeping a secret within a family justified?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

maybe had some of these while we talked 

drank

blood orange tea...

mom...

you will love this book!

p.s.
on baby watch for baby boy thomas:)

bye...

more later...

"the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice."

"what will come from the briar but the berry."

i made this wonderful blackberry jam from blackberries i bought at costco...

it cost $14...

(the weck jars are available at

crate and barrel

and

williams sonoma

they are a little pricey but so so cute) 

it took about 2 cartons of berries and i followed the recipe on the pectin box...

about 20 minutes later i had this...

the possibilities are endless:)

i am enjoying it on my toast this morning while not watching conference...

(probably going to hell)

our book is so good!

at the beginning, the murder is committed with 

"the special occasion cake knife"

so the food theme is 

"special occasion cake"...

show me what you got:)

bye...

more later...

black and white and read all over

“A woman who can threaten your life before breakfast is the only sort of woman worth having.”

black hills
by nora roberts 

“Necessity is often the mother of balls”

:)

Black Hills

by Nora Roberts

Black Hills 4.01 of 5 stars 4.01  · 

 A summer at his grandparents' South Dakota ranch is not eleven-year-old Cooper Sullivan's idea of a good time. But things are a bit more bearable now that he's discovered the neighbor girl, Lil Chance, and her homemade batting cage. Even horseback riding isn't as awful as Coop thought it would be. Each year, with Coop's annual summer visit, their friendship deepens from innocent games to stolen kisses, but there is one shared experience that will forever haunt them: the terrifying discovery of a hiker's body.

As the seasons change and the years roll, Lil stays steadfast to her aspiration of becoming a wildlife biologist and protecting her family land, while Coop struggles with his father's demand that he attend law school and join the family firm. Twelve years after they last walked together hand in hand, fate has brought them back to the Black Hills when the people and things they hold most dear need them most.

Coop recently left his fast-paced life as an investigator in New York to take care for his aging grandparents and the ranch he has come to call home. Though the memory of his touch still haunts her, Lil has let nothing stop her dream of opening the Chance Wildlife Refuge, but something ... or someone ... has been keeping a close watch. When small pranks and acts of destruction escalate into the heartless killing of Lil's beloved cougar, recollections of an unsolved murder in these very hills have Coop springing to action to keep Lil safe.

Lil and Coop both know the natural dangers that lurk in the wild landscape of the Black Hills. Now they must work together to unearth a killer of twisted and unnatural instincts who has singled them out as prey.



my review from goodreads

Black Hills by Nora Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I always love Nora Roberts:) She has a way of bringing you back to what matters. Relationships. I love venturing out into other genre's but always love coming back to a good old fashioned love story. Thanks Nora, for reminding me of why I love to read and always bringing me back home:)

View all my reviews

in honor of finishing my book i decided to have a black and white cookie:)

they both made me smile...

so did this little monkey

benny blue:)

i love him so much!!!



bye...

more later...

the winter sea

 

"it wasn't chance.

there wasn't any part of it that happened just by chance."

 Basic Plot:

A well know historical fiction writer, Carrie McClelland, travels to Scotland to research the material for her book in progress and to get a feel for the area where the main action will take place. Her main character is Sophia Patterson, named for an ancestor who, coincidentally, had lived in Scotland in the early 18th century and had been an relative of the Duchess of Slains castle. The Duchess was an instrumental figure in the times of the Jacobite rebellion and, Sophia resided with at Slains Castle at this time.


The book is really two stories in one: the 'old 'story playing out during 1708 and the Jacobite rebellion, the 'new' in present day Scotland.


Carries rents a small cottage from a local man , Jimmy Keith (who retains the decided burr of the local dialect) who has two sons, Stuart and Graham. Both sons begin to fall in love with Carrie - although only one of the sons 'feels right'. As Carrie's research intensifies, and her need for for more information increases, she calls on her father to fill in details about their ancestor's story. Gradually as her research and writing, as well as her love interests, progress, Carries finds herself swept up in more than just words on on paper. She finds herself caught in a time warp of sorts. Her flashes of insight feel more like memory than writing and her love for one of the brothers feels more compelling than just a present day love interest. As Carrie writes her book she finds that she is, in fact, recounting her own story - a story that began during the Jacobite rebellion and a love that has lasted through time. Her flashes of deja vu are more than just images - they are images that are filled with remembrance and as real to her as her present day life as a writer.

this was a "book within a book" and i found myself equally invested in both stories.

i loved graham...

i would love to know what you thought:)

slains castle in its prime

slains castle now

here is my review on goodreads...

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved it! So romantic and tragic and beautiful!

View all my reviews

thanks for the pictures of all the fun

"scottish"

things you made last month.

we will try some

"lucky"

ones this month:)

bye...

more later...

"surely as cometh the winter, I know, there are spring violets under the snow."

The Winter Sea

by Susanna Kearsley

from goodreads

In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.

But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her

“Men who watch, and say little, very often are much wiser than the men they serve.”
― Susanna Kearsley, The Winter Sea

~~~~~~~~~~

we are here finally...
february...

as you all know
i hate january...
getting to february is monumental.

 

i am excited for our new book and
robyn helped me find some great food to along with it.
she is the only one who has already read the
"the winter sea"
and had a little insight. since it happens
"across the sea"
i am going to make grandma j's
clam chowder
and rolls
and i will highlight some scottish tea and treats...
also since it's february and
love is in the air,
i picked some romantic movies that take place
"across the sea"
i hope you like them...
also dallys has started the book and says it is a great followup to
"the other boleyn girl"
and continues the drama of court life
but in the scottish court...

i hope you like it:)

we are still on baby watch
and anxiously waiting for spring...

my latest painting on paperby53

bye...
more later...

fresh new books!!!

here is a look 

at what's to come:)

here is a look at what i have come up with so far...

january

february/march

april

may/june

july/august

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this puts us through august

these choices are based on some of your recommendations and some of mine.

you will notice that i have some of the books going for two months...

this is for a couple of reasons.

some of the books are a little long or have more books in the series...

i wanted to make sure that people had time read the others if they wanted or to be under less pressure to finish so fast or wait at the library.

it also helps me and leaves room if we decide to change a book...

as always, i will be happy to switch out any book or add some more of your recommendations...

i love getting your ideas and hope that you like my choices...

here are some of the others i am considering for the fall...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beautiful-creatures-kami-garcia/

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68428.Mistborn

 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7824322-between-shades-of-gray

( this is NOT 50 shades of gray)

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13158800-the-light-between-oceans

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12704827-the-house-of-velvet-and-glass

http://deborahharkness.com/all-souls-trilogy/frequently-asked-questions/

i'm still looking and deciding but if you want to click on the links provided and see if any of these look interesting and let me know if you have a preference or give me some of your ideas for the fall...

i love you all and had a really fun year!

i will post some of my favorite books from last year tomorrow...

bye...

more later...