Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book :A knife in the Fog Author: Bradley Harper ISBN: 978-1-63388-486-1 Publisher: Seventh Street Part of a Series: Prequel to Queen's Gambit Type of book: Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes prototype, Arthur Conan Doyle, England, 1888, Margaret Harkness, Joseph Bell, mystery, immigration attitudes, history, murders, friendship, mentoring, observation Year it was published: 2018 Summary: Physician Arthur Conan Doyle takes a break from his practice to assist London police in tracking down Jack the Ripper. September 1888. A twenty-nine-year-old Arthur Conan Doyle practices medicine by day and writes at night. His first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, although gaining critical and popular success, has only netted him twenty-five pounds. Embittered by the experience, he vows never to write another "crime story." Then a messenger arrives with a mysterious summons from former Prime Minister William Gladstone, asking him to come to London i...

Name of Book: Eternally Artemisia Author: Melissa Muldoon ISBN: 978-0-9976348-7-7 Publisher: Matta Press Type of book: Italy, 17th century, reincarnation, 1930s, modern times, art, creativity, sexual harrassment, painting, space, Artemisia, Judith Beheading Holofernes, friendship between women, connections, fashion Year it was published: 2019 Summary: They say some loves travel through time and are fated to meet over and over again. For Maddie, an art therapist, who wrestles with the “peculiar feeling” she has lived previous lives and is being called to Italy by voices that have left imprints on her soul, this idea is intriguing. Despite her best efforts, however, proof of this has always eluded her. That is, until one illuminating summer in Italy when Maddie’s previous existences start to bleed through into her current reality. When she is introduced to the Crociani family—a noble clan with ties to the seventeenth-century Medici court that boasts of ancestors with...

Name of Book: Burton Blake Author: Robert Tucker ISBN: 978-1-944056-91-9 Publisher: Wise Words Part of a Series: The Revolutionist was prequel Type of book: 1940s-modern times, company, Blake corporation, father/son relationships, family, friends, power play games, politics, housing, money, wealth Year it was published: 2018 Summary: In this sequel to The Revolutionist, the American journey of three generations locks the neophyte company president, Burton Blake, in a vicious struggle with corporate intrigue, financial greed, and social corruption. Born to a taxi dancer at the beginning of the Second World War, Burton’s father, Elias Blake, never knows his natural father, who is killed in the South Pacific. He is raised by his mother and stepfather from her second marriage who makes his fortune during the post war real estate boom of the 50’s. Their untimely death by his business partner leaves the boy Elias in the guardianship of his mother’s best friend and her ...

Name of Book: The Revolutionist Author: Robert Tucker ISBN: 9781944056520 Publisher: Wise Words publishing Part of a Series: Prequel to Burton Blake Type of book: 1890s to 1900s, corruption, escape, Chicago, race, racism, getting ahead, philosophy, socialist, immigrants, lessons Year it was published: 2017 Summary: Two different families escape from the political tyranny of their respective homelands, the Josephsons from Sweden and Matias and Kurt Bauman, brothers from Germany and Austria Hungary, with the aid of a Viennese opera diva, Sophie Augusta Rose, and Jean Guenoc, a former Jesuit priest, family friend and protector and partisan of the French underground. Their journey brings them to America in the throes of the industrial revolution during the 1890s and early 1900s. Ingrid and Olaf Josephson settle on a small wheat farm in North Central Minnesota to raise their children, Newt and Julie. Among the Jewish entrepreneurs forced to leave Germany and Austr...

Name of Book: The Storyteller's Secret Author: Sejal Badani ISBN: 978-1542048279 Publisher: Lake Uniion Type of book: 1930s-1940s India, secrets, castes, fertility, miscarriages, time-slip, choices, storytelling, modern India, British Raj, Gandhi, freedom, school, Year it was published: 2019 Summary: From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream. Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi—her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant—who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Ja...

The last few months I have been struggling a lot with my mental health, mostly in trying to see the bright side of life as well as growth of apathy and depression. While I will lack book tours, I will not lack awesome reading material be it for my blog or Fresh Fiction. I also will try to write more personal writing in my journal beyond that of reviews. Without further ado, here are my reading plans for July 2019. I also apologize in advance that I'm pretty late in some of the reviews. Book Tours/Spotlights: (Unfortunately I didn't yet finish these books when they are due, therefore I will review them for month of July.) Burton Blake by Robert Tucker Eternally Artemisia by Melissa Muldoon The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani Possible Reviews: (I have finished the books, and have loved a lot of them, therefore not sure what is holding me back from reviewing them...) Alice and Gerald; a Homicidal Love Story by Ron Franscell Wunderland by Jennifer...

The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani SR: June 5th, 2019 FR: July 13th, 2019 A House Divided-Pearl S Buck SR: March 11th, 2016 FR: N/A The other Mrs. Miller- Allison Dickson SR: July 13th, 2019 FR: July 15th, 2019 Like water for chocolate- Laura ESQUIVEL SR: July 26th, 2019 FR: The republic of uzupis- Hailji SR: July 15th, 2019 FR: July 18th, 2019 Eternally Artemisia-Melissa Muldoon SR: May 30th, 2019 FR: July 9th, 2019 The sister's of the winter wood- RENA ROSSNER SR: July 21st, 2019 FR: July 26th, 2019 120 Days by Ronald L. Ruiz SR: July 18th, 2019 FR: July 21st, 2019 Milady-Laura L Sullivan SR: July 1st, 2019 FR: July 8th, 2019 Burton Blake-Robert Tucker SR: July 1st, 2019 FR: July 7th, 2019 Nonfiction: Tree of Souls-Howard Schwartz SR: February 10th, 2014 FR: N/A The Shame Factor; Heal your deepest fears and set yourself free-Stephan B. Poulter, PhD SR: July 1st, 2019 FR:  July 23rd, 2019 The last outlaws; the lives and legends of B...