Amazon/Barnes & Nobles/Kobo/Goodreads Review written by: Jessica C. One of the most refreshing things to find in a YA novel is a character that the reader can relate to, and an author that writes characters near her age. It was a pleasant surprise after reading Kody Keplinger’s biography that she was a girl in her…
Review of The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg
Amazon/Barnes & Nobles/Kobo/Goodreads Review Written by: Jessica C. The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg is the story of George Sand’s life. For those not as familiar with George Sand here’s a brief biography on her. George Sand is but a pseudonym for Amantine-Lucille-Aurore Dupin. However, Aurore is better known by her pseudonym as much as she is…
Review of Jeanne Gassman’s “Blood of a Stone”
Amazon/Goodreads In my post-religion days, having been a very happy agnostic (haunted by healing from scrupulosity) now for four years and counting, the greatest, single blessing of my fourth year as an agnostic is that I can freely enjoy the best elements or features of the Jesus story with a peaceful, guilt-free mind. Just in…
Review of “Shadow Study” by Maria V. Snyder: Maria V. Snyder Wednesday
Amazon/Barnes & Nobles/ Kobo/Goodreads As promised to fans of Maria V. Snyder’s books (who also happen to be devoted readers of this blog), here is my review of the highly anticipated start of a new series in the worlds of both Ixia and its neighboring country of magic Sitia. But this time around, Maria V….
Tea Time at Reverie: Teasenz’s Fujian Silver Needle White Tea
Few white teas are as well-known as China’s Silver Needle. Consisting almost exclusively of silky, unopened buds, Silver Needle leaves are plucked by hand during a few select days in the spring harvest. This tea is so prized in China that locals often save their reserves for weddings, the New Year, and other special occasions….
Steampunk Month:Interview with Becket & Review of Becket’s Key The Steampunk Vampire Girl and the Dungeon of Despair
Amazon (Kindle)/ Amazon (Paperback)/Barnes & Nobles/Kobo/Goodreads Fitting with both the Steampunk aesthetic of the book, along with the prevailing mood of the story, here is a techno-violin piece from independent musician/writer Emilie Autumn Review: With the deftness of a skilled storyteller, Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl excels in having much to say, while being written first and foremost as…
Dani Hoots’ Review of Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg Amazon/Barnes&Noble Published by: Arthur A. Levine Books Review by: Dani Hoots Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg follows a teenage boy named Rafe who wants to leave his life in Colorado behind him and go to an all boys school on the east coast. Why does he want to do that?…
Review of Mary Doria Russell’s “Epitaph” & Literary Tea Feature
Amazon/Barnes & Nobles/Kobo/Goodreads One historic incident in the lively, rich history of our country has never been as deeply scrutinized, debated over, and pondered like the infamous O.K. Corral gun fight that occurred in October, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona. This gunfight, and this city that is arrayed in legends and sordid Hollywood grit and glitz…
Review of Scarlet Tides by David Hair
Amazon/Barnes & Nobles/ Kobo/Goodreads Review Written by: Jessica C. The second book of the Moontide Quartet takes off running, with no lengthy drag on or recap of Mage’s Blood. It is a bit refreshing that Hair has managed to leave behind the tediously long, drawn out portions of the predecessor in the Moontide Quartet to take…
Review of Little Black Lies by Sandra Block
Amazon/Barnes & Nobles/Kobo/Goodreads Review Written By: Jessica C. The nightmare is always the same. Bloodstains on my hands, red as finger paint. So begin the nightmares that introduce the reader to Zoe Goldman. The story of Zoe Goldman is one of a heroine working in a psychiatric ward who deals with the problems of her…
Review of “The Buried Giant” by: Kazuo Ishiguro
Amazon/Barnes & Nobles/Goodreads “To die, to sleep – To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub, For in this sleep of death what dreams may come…” –William Shakespeare: Hamlet- In my undergrad years (my idealist, wanderlust years as an English undergrad), I wrote a Shakespeare essay, analyzing the dichotomous relationship between “light” and “dark,”…
Tea Time At Reverie: Yezi Tea’s Yi Fu Chun Black Tea
Remember last time when I mentioned I was battling the winter blues? Well, the weather hasn’t improved much since then, so I’m craving a good ol’ black tea this time. Since it was time to rotate back to my Yezi Tea samples, I went straight for their Yi Fu Chun Black Tea. Yi Fu Chun…
A Bibliophile's Reverie 