Waiting on Wednesday (7)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine that highlights upcoming books that you are excited to read!  This week, the book I want to talk about is Cinders and Sapphires by Leila Rasheed due at January 22.  This book first piqued my interest when I heard it compared to Downton Abbey, a show I absolutely love and reading further, it sounds like just the type of historical novel I can't put down.  Feisty and smart heroine, circumstances beyond her control, an impossible love interest, and of course characters who will probably try to get in her way.  Beyond that, we also get to see the other side of the household with the maids, butlers, cooks, etc. also telling their stories.

Here is a summary from Amazon:

One house, two worlds...

 

Rose Cliffe has never met a young lady like her new mistress. Clever, rich, and beautiful, Ada Averley treats Rose as an equal. And Rose could use a friend. Especially now that she, at barely sixteen, has risen to the position of ladies’ maid. Rose knows she should be grateful to have a place at a house like Somerton. Still, she can’t help but wonder what her life might have been had she been born a lady, like Ada.

For the first time in a decade, the Averleys have returned to Somerton, their majestic ancestral estate. But terrible scandal has followed Ada’s beloved father all the way from India. Now Ada finds herself torn between her own happiness and her family’s honor. Only she has the power to restore the Averley name—but it would mean giving up her one true love . . . someone she could never persuade her father to accept.

Sumptuous and enticing, the first novel in the At Somerton series introduces two worlds, utterly different yet entangled, where ruthless ambition, forbidden attraction, and unspoken dreams are hidden behind dutiful smiles and glittering jewels. All those secrets are waiting . . . at Somerton.

 

Doesn't it sound excellent?  I think so and I can't WAIT to read it come January!

Book Review: Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein

This is a harrowing, fictional account of a Scottish young lady captured and tortured by the Nazi’s in occupied France. It is in her own words as she writes her story while in prison detailing all of the secrets she’s been giving away in order to keep herself alive.  She is Queenie, Eva, Julie and Verity and through it all we must figure out who the real her is.  She’s an unreliable narrator of the highest order and while we try to unravel the truth or la vérité we come to understand her, love her and ache for her and what she is going through.

I wish I had better to words to describe this novel to you and give the story all its due, but I don’t.  I don’t want to give anything away so what I will say is that I loved it.  The writing was exceptional and the story original and the characters – their strength, hope and courage above all else was heartbreaking and inspiring.  It’s one of my favorite World War II books that I’ve read since The Book Thief.  You must read it!