Hugh and Bess - Susan Higginbotham

Hugh and Bess
By Susan Higginbotham

After reading The Traitor’s Wife, and loving it, I was excited to read more from Higginbotham. I actually finished Hugh and Bess at the end of last year but somehow my review got lost on my computer and never found its way to a post. So long overdue, here it is. Basically, if you enjoyed The Traitor’s Wife, but haven’t read Hugh and Bess what the heck are you waiting for?

Hugh and Bess continues in time with Hugh the son, filling in how he went from being the crown’s prisoner to a decade later marrying 14 year old Bess. We see Bess learning to overcome her fears of marriage and facing the trials of her time.

The story is captivating and wonderfully written. At times I felt the issues Hugh and Bess faced were almost wrapped up a little too neatly but I’m a pessimist, I can’t help it. I loved the relationship Hugh and Bess had and the strength Bess showed when faced with losing everyone she held dear.

This is a wonderful story and a great follow-up to The Traitor’s Wife. Higginbotham creates a beautiful story laced with some moments that had me chuckling to myself.

A woman cackled to her companion, “Pretty little chick, but not ready for our lord to bed, I’ll wager!” Bess, whose mouth had been fixed into a smile, forgot herself and glared daggers at the woman. She sat up straighter and thrust her chest forward a bit, trying to create the illusion of a bosom.

Although the book covers a great deal of time, many of the details were passed over so the book was over too soon. A lot of this was because it was detailed in The Traitor’s Wife. There were parts at the end I want to know more about. I would have kept reading and reading but unfortunately the pages ran out.


Also check out:
Susan Higginbotham's website
My review of The Traitor's Wife


**Source: Personal copy I purchased with my own sweet loot.

A Book Signing & A Giveaway

Well it has been a crazy week around here lately, but in between all the craziness I did manage to make it to Borders in Apex yesterday to see Susan Higginbotham.  I read Hugh and Bess at the end of last year, wrote up my review and somehow it never made it to a post (I have no idea how that happened), so I will be posting that review Tuesday and then I will have my review up for The Stolen Crown (the short version: read it).  I did, however, successfully post my review for The Traitor's Wife last year.  Check it out.

Susan was nice enough to not only sign a copy of The Stolen Crown for me but also a copy to give to one of you (details below).  This was my first book signing and I was so nervous, my husband Mike was laughing at me because it was so obvious.

Susan was really nice and she didn't even laugh at me when I talked.  At one point this is how my side of the conversation went:

You're books are...(me trying to think of a word that makes me sound intelligent) awesome (damn that's not what I was going for).  Thank you for writing them.  (okay Jess stop talking now because you sound like an idiot).

By the way, I was also laughing nervously because I was holding back the excited giggles.

Seriously, I shouldn't be allowed out in public. I felt a little better when we got out the door and I turned to Mike with what I'm sure was an excited goofy grin on my face and he said "I waved to her on the way out and she waved back."  See it wasn't just me that was excited, apparently my excitement rubbed off on Mike and a wave goodbye was all he needed. 

Moral of the story is I have to work on my game face.

Now on to the sweet loot...

Giveaway details:

You can have up to 3 entries:

• 1 entry just by leaving me a comment on this post with your email address.
• 1 additional entry if you subscribe to my rss feed or follow me via blogger (new or current subscribers).
• 1 final entry for blogging about this giveaway (in your sidebar is okay).

Open to entries from US and Canada only.

The deadline to enter is May 2nd.

Good luck!

The Girl Who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen

The Girl Who Chased the Moon
 By Sarah Addison Allen

Oh this book, this sweet, delicious book. I have to admit that when I first picked it up I didn’t really know what it was about. I had skimmed the summary as I posted it under my "Waiting On" Wednesday but that was it. I didn’t need to know because it’s Sarah Addison Allen and I love her. Besides, summaries don’t do her books justice, so I didn’t pay much attention. That is until I opened to her dedication page and went “huh?”

To the memory of famous gentle giant Robert Pershing Wadlow (1918-1940). At the time of his death at age twenty-two, he was eight feet eleven inches tall—a world record that has never been broken.

So yes, there is a giant in this book, and the wallpaper changes to suit your mood, and baking a cake may do magical things. Do these things matter? Sure they do, but you would know about them just by reading the summary, the truly magical parts are within. Seriously…just go read the book.

Do I love this book even more because it is about North Carolina and all the things I actually love about North Carolina and will miss desperately when I leave but refuse to think about because I’ll be sad so I focus on the things I can’t stand? Maybe. But it is also because this book is filled with everything sweet and magical you could wish for.

The only issue I had was with the ending. It was one of those “I’ll lead you right up to the point of what you know is going to happen so you know how it's going to end but that’s it. I’m not going to write out that final scene because you know how it goes, you can see it in your head right now. You have been playing it out for the last two pages.” Unacceptable! I want to see it on the paper. What if Armageddon hits at that very moment and the ending I’m imagining never happens? It’s too risky; I need to see it on paper just to be safe. But then I thought...really Jess, could she have written it any better than I am imagining it? (well duh yes, but…) No, because I am imagining it in my perfect world with all the emotion and moments that I need, so it’s my ending. So…okay Sarah, I’ll allow it…just this once.

I will leave you with one of my favorite parts. It is one of my favorites because I have lived it. I grew up in California and barbecue was what you did on a nice summer day. It consisted of meat on a bun, there were no fancy sauces, just ketchup and mustard...if you were lucky, if not, it was still delicious. When I came to the east coast, I was enlightened…and confused.

“This isn’t barbecue,” Emily said. “Barbecue is hot dogs and hamburgers on a grill.”
Vance laughed, which automatically made Emily smile. “Ha! Blasphemy! In North Carolina, barbecue means pork child. Hot dogs and hamburgers on a grill—that’s called ‘cooking out’ around here,” he explained with sudden enthusiasm. “And there are two types of North Carolina barbecue sauce—Lexington and Eastern North Carolina. Here, look.” He excitedly found a container of sauce and showed her, accidentally spilling some on the table.

Mailbox Monday

Thank you to Marcia at The Printed Page for putting on the weekly Mailbox Monday, a place where I discover so many wonderful new books.

Check out her blog and post all the new books you acquired last week.

I missed last weeks Mailbox Monday so today is for the last two weeks.

The Lotus Eaters: A Novel by Tatjana Soli (from LibraryThing Early Reviewers)

From Amazon:

A unique and sweeping debut novel of an American female combat photographer in the Vietnam War, as she captures the wrenching chaos and finds herself torn between the love of two men.

On a stifling day in 1975, the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As the fall of the city begins, two lovers make their way through the streets to escape to a new life. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must take leave of a war she is addicted to and a devastated country she has come to love. Linh, the Vietnamese man who loves her, must grapple with his own conflicted loyalties of heart and homeland. As they race to leave, they play out a drama of devotion and betrayal that spins them back through twelve war-torn years, beginning in the splendor of Angkor Wat, with their mentor, larger-than-life war correspondent Sam Darrow, once Helen's infuriating love and fiercest competitor, and Linh's secret keeper, boss and truest friend.

Tatjana Soli paints a searing portrait of an American woman’s struggle and triumph in Vietnam, a stirring canvas contrasting the wrenching horror of war and the treacherous narcotic of obsession with the redemptive power of love. Readers will be transfixed by this stunning novel of passion, duty and ambition among the ruins of war. 

 Keeper by Kathi Appelt (ARC from Simon and Schuster via Shelf Awareness)

From the publisher's website:

To ten-year-old Keeper, this moon is her chance to fix all that has gone wrong...and so much has gone wrong. But she knows who can make things right again: Meggie Marie, her mermaid mother who swam away when Keeper was just three. A blue moon calls the mermaids to gather at the sandbar, and that's exactly where she is headed -- in a small boat, in the middle of the night, with only her dog, BD (Best Dog), and a seagull named Captain.

When the riptide pulls at the boat, tugging her away from the shore and deep into the rough waters of the Gulf of Mexico, panic sets in, and the fairy tales that lured her out there go tumbling into the waves. Maybe the blue moon isn't magic and maybe the sandbar won't sparkle with mermaids and maybe -- Oh, no..."Maybe" is just too difficult to bear. Kathi Appelt follows up to her New York Times bestseller, The Underneath, with a tale that will pull right at your very core -- stronger than moon currents -- capturing the crash and echo of the waves and the dark magic of the ocean.

She's So Dead to Us by Kieran Scott (ARC from Simon and Schuster via Shelf Awareness)

From the publisher's website:

Perfect, picturesque Orchard Hill. It was the last thing Ally Ryan saw in the rear-view mirror as her mother drove them out of town and away from the shame of the scandal her father caused when his hedge fund went south and practically bankrupted all their friends -- friends that liked having trust funds and new cars, and that didn't like constant reminders that they had been swindled. So it was adios, Orchard Hill. Thanks for nothing.

Now, two years later, Ally's mother has landed a job back at the site of their downfall. So instead of Ally's new low-key, happy life, it'll be back into the snake pit with the likes of Shannen Moore and Hammond Ross.

But then there's Jake Graydon. Handsome, wealthy, bored Jake Graydon. He moved to town after Ally left and knows nothing of her scandal, but does know that he likes her. And she likes him. So off into the sunset they can go, right? Too bad Jake's friends have a problem with his new crush since it would make Ally happy. And if anyone deserves to be unhappy, it's Ally Ryan.

Ally was hoping to have left all the drama in the past, but some things just can't be forgotten. Isn't there more to life than money?

Spring is here, spring is here, happy happy spring is here

(what you don't know is the title of this post should actually be sung not read and there is even a little dance I do with it)

It is crazy that on January 31 I was posting pictures of my snow day and we just had March 31 and it has been in the 80s. Only 2 months later and things have completely changed. I mean, I am actually sunburned!! I love it! Not the burn, just the sun getting/absorption.

It also blows me away how things can literally change over night. Two weeks ago my husband came home saying that he heard on the radio that "everything bloomed today." He was like "uhh things just don't all bloom overnight." Well apparently they do because let me tell you those dogwood trees had exploded into beautiful white flowery goodness and they were boring buds the day before. (Photo courtesy of my husband who snapped it while we were driving around and I started yelling at him "It's so beautiful, take a picture, take a picture, you know I would but I can't because I'm driving, bust out your phone and take a picture, quick")

Here we are 2 weeks later and again overnight things have changed. I had been watching the dogwood blossoms slowly fade with the sadness that I wouldn't be here next year to see them and when I woke up yesterday and looked outside, my car, along with every other car in the area, was covered by the yellow-green pollen that is so bright it almost looks toxic. It's a good thing I was planning on washing my car this weekend and not yesterday.

I will admit that I was an overachiever yesterday and washed my car the moment I got off work, fully aware that the pollen probably hadn't settled and would be covering my car again. I was laughing when I noticed that a light dusting had settled before I even had the chance to finish drying it. Oh well, it wasn't so much removing the pollen that was the final goal, I just knew it needed a good wash and I was all wound up so I was excited to have something to do outside.

LOTR Readalong - Two Towers: Ends - Return of the King: Begins

Well, we have finally come to the last transition in the Lord of the Rings Readalong. Teresa at Shelf Love has been a great host for The Two Towers and now Maree at Just Add Books has stepped up for the final book of our journey.

I have to admit I really missed the rest of the characters in book 4 but I love Gollum (I know I say this every post but it doesn't get any less true) so the focus on Frodo, Sam and Gollum didn't slow the story down for me. I actually thought it was going to slow it down but I really enjoyed book 4.

I will admit it started off a bit rough. I was annoyed with Sam right off the bat because he was so whiny. I threw a little post-it in to mark the spot (even though I didn't need to because it was the second page of book 4) and moved on. Then, before I knew it my little book was flooded with ripped post-its marking all the things I LOVED (see picture). I guess if only one out of all these marks something I was annoyed with we are doing all right. One of my favorite parts is when Gollum (of course it's about Gollum) promises on the ring and then becomes excited after Sam releases him from the rope:

At once Gollum got up and began prancing about, like a whipped cur whose master has patted it. From that moment a change, which lasted for some time, came over him. He spoke with less hissing and whining, and he spoke to his companions direct, not to his precious self.

I love it. I imagine Gollum frolicking around flapping his arms in a ridiculous way. Another time I love Gollum is when he is leading them across the marshes:

He went on again, but his uneasiness grew, and every now and again he stood up to his full height, craning his neck eastward and southward.

I know I'm crazy but here I am imagining a meerkat popping its heaad out of a hole and peeking around in that way they do (yes I also love meerkats and watched Meerkat Manor). My last piece of Gollum obsessiveness is when he is arguing with himself:

'No, sweet one. See, my precious: if we has it, then we can escape, even from Him, eh? Perhaps we grows very strong, stronger than Wraiths. Lord Smeagol? Gollum the Great? The Gollum! Eat fish every day, three times a day, fresh from the sea. Most Precious Gollum! Must have it. We wants it, we wants it, we wants it!'

Lord Smeagol...how can you not love that? Ok I am over my I heart Gollum ramblings. I think you get the point. It broke my heart when he finally turned on Sam, even though I knew it was coming but I can't wait to see what kind of joy and heartbreak The Return of the King brings me. Yes I have seen the end of the movie and therefore know the basics of the ending but I just know it is going to be harder for me to read it.

It killed me to wait but I haven't started reading ROTK yet because I wanted to get this post up before I started. I was worried that if I started reading I would lose sight of anythign else and this would never be written. Now that it is done...it's reading time!

When the shock wears off I'm buying a book

Holy mother....I was playing the evil little game/reality check hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, how much $$$ did I spend on books!!!

Oh it's bad folks...it's really bad.

I went into this thinking that I would be impressed with myself. I mean honestly I didn't start buying books until March 1st. I had a deal with my husband about that and I actually kept it!!! It was a big deal for me. I had March 1 circled on every calendar I own. So imagine my shock when I added up everything and the total was.....


$92.30

In one month!!!! One month where I completely held back on my book buying madness!

What's worse is I was just at Bibliophile by the Sea and Diane has only spent $91.88 all year! Oh Diane you are so much smarter with your money. You have spent less than me (barely) but you have bought more books...so many more books! I need to take a lesson from you. My goal for this month is to spend less than you.

I just need to get over the fact that on every day off I have I find myself at the bookstore. It is the only place I enjoy in this town. And what do I do when I go to the bookstore, look around, and know that I can't leave with anything? Panic, hyperventilate, cry. I go home in a deep lonely hole of depression and sit on the couch looking at my bookshelf knowing that my books know they won't have any new company so they are sad and I am sad that they are sad and all of this sadness can only be healed by one thing...a new book. So I go to the store and buy one and it's painless and all is right in the world and suddenly I realize that I am such a drama queen. Next time I'm not going through all this "oh I'm saving money bull" because I know in the end I will break down and buy the stupid book so I may as well skip all the dramatic wallowing/rationalizing and just buy the book to begin with.