Bentornati ad un nuovo appuntamento con Libri delle mie brame, ecco i romanzi scoperti questa settimana.
Daughters of the Witching Hill
di Mary Sharratt
352 pagine, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2010
TramaDaughters of the Witching Hill brings history to life in a vivid and wrenching account of a family sustained by love as they try to survive the hysteria of a witch-hunt.
Bess Southerns, an impoverished widow living in Pendle Forest, is haunted by visions and gains a reputation as a cunning woman. Drawing on the Catholic folk magic of her youth, Bess heals the sick and foretells the future. As she ages, she instructs her granddaughter, Alizon, in her craft, as well as her best friend, who ultimately turns to dark magic.
When a peddler suffers a stroke after exchanging harsh words with Alizon, a local magistrate, eager to make his name as a witch finder, plays neighbors and family members against one another until suspicion and paranoia reach frenzied heights.
Sharratt interweaves well-researched historical details of the 1612 Pendle witch-hunt with a beautifully imagined story of strong women, family, and betrayal. Daughters of the Witching Hill is a powerful novel of intrigue and revelation.
E' nella mia wishlist perché..Scoperto grazie ad un Teaser di Clody del blog
La locanda dei Libri, da quelle due righe che ho letto mi ispira molto.
The River of no Return
di Bee Ridgway
452 pagine, Dutton Adult 2013
Trama“You are now a member of the Guild. There is no return.”
Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott, soldier and aristocrat, wakes up in a hospital bed in modern London. The Guild, an entity that controls time travel, showers him with life's advantages. But Nick yearns for home and for one brown-eyed girl, lost now down the centuries. Then the Guild asks him to break its own rule. It needs Nick to go back to 1815 to fight the Guild’s enemies and to find something called the Talisman.
In 1815, Julia Percy mourns the death of her beloved grandfather, an earl who could play with time. On his deathbed he whispers in her ear: “Pretend!” Pretend what? When Nick returns home as if from the dead, older than he should be and battle scarred, Julia begins to suspect that her very life depends upon the secrets Grandfather never told her. Soon enough Julia and Nick are caught up in an adventure that stretches up and down the river of time. As their knowledge of the Guild and their feelings for each other grow, the fate of the future itself is hanging in the balance.
E' nella mia wishlist perché..Viaggi nel tempo. Quando leggo queste parole mi si illuminano gli occhi e non capisco più niente. DEVO leggerlo. Libro scoperto grazie al blog
Dolce Bellezza.
Born of Persuasion
di Jessica Dotta
Saga Price of Privilege, Libro 01
400 pagine, Tyndale House Publishers 2013
TramaThe year is 1838, and seventeen-year-old Julia Elliston’s position has never been more fragile. Orphaned and unmarried in a time when women are legal property of their fathers, husbands, and guardians, she finds herself at the mercy of an anonymous guardian who plans to establish her as a servant in far-off Scotland.
With two months to devise a better plan, Julia’s first choice to marry her childhood sweetheart is denied. But when a titled dowager offers to introduce Julia into society, a realm of possibilities opens. However, treachery and deception are as much a part of Victorian society as titles and decorum, and Julia quickly discovers her present is deeply entangled with her mother’s mysterious past. Before she knows what’s happening, Julia finds herself a pawn in a deadly game between two of the country’s most powerful men. With no laws to protect her, she must unravel the secrets on her own. But sometimes truth is elusive and knowledge is deadly.
E' nella mia wishlist perché..Sto iniziando ad appassionarmi ai romanzi vittoriani, spero di non esagerare e prendermi delle cocenti delusioni. Scoperto grazie al blog
Historical Novel Review
Billy and Me
di Giovanna Fletcher
402 pagine, Penguin 2013
TramaSophie May has a secret.
One that she’s successfully kept for years. It’s meant that she’s had to give up her dreams of going to university and travelling the world to stay in her little village, living with her mum and working in the local teashop.
But then she meets the gorgeous Billy – an actor with ambitions to make it to the top. And when they fall in love, Sophie is whisked away from the comfort of her life into Billy’s glamorous – but ruthless – world.
Their relationship throws Sophie right into the spotlight after years of shying away from attention. Can she handle the constant scrutiny that comes with being with Billy? And most of all, is she ready for her secret heartbreak to be discovered and shared with the nation?
E' nella mia wishlist perché..Sembra il romanzo perfetto per staccare un po', il classico romanzo estivo fresco, leggero e simpatico.
Raven Girl
di Audrey Niffenegger
80 pagine, Harry N. Abrams 2013
TramaOnce there was a Postman who fell in love with a Raven.
So begins the tale of a postman who encounters a fledgling raven while on the edge of his route and decides to bring her home. The unlikely couple falls in love and conceives a child — an extraordinary raven girl trapped in a human body. The raven girl feels imprisoned by her arms and legs and covets wings and the ability to fly. Betwixt and between, she reluctantly grows into a young woman, until one day she meets an unorthodox doctor who is willing to change her.
One of the world’s most beloved storytellers has crafted a dark fairy tale full of wonderment and longing. Complete with Audrey Niffenegger’s bewitching etchings and paintings, Raven Girl explores the bounds of transformation and possibility.
E' nella mia wishlist perché..Sembra una bella fiaba dark, oltretutto mi è piaciuto così tanto The Time Traveller's Wife che non posso non leggerlo. Per di più sono solo 80 paginette...
Doll Bones
di Holly Black
244 pagine, Margaret K. McElderry Books 2013
TramaZach, Poppy and Alice have been friends for ever. They love playing with their action figure toys, imagining a magical world of adventure and heroism. But disaster strikes when, without warning, Zach’s father throws out all his toys, declaring he’s too old for them. Zach is furious, confused and embarrassed, deciding that the only way to cope is to stop playing . . . and stop being friends with Poppy and Alice. But one night the girls pay Zach a visit, and tell him about a series of mysterious occurrences. Poppy swears that she is now being haunted by a china doll – who claims that it is made from the ground-up bones of a murdered girl. They must return the doll to where the girl lived, and bury it. Otherwise the three children will be cursed for eternity...
E' nella mia wishlist perché..Anche in questo caso è l'autore ad attirarmi: di Holly Black ho infatti letto Le cronache di Spiderwick, una saga davvero carina e originale che mi fa ben sperare.
The Summer I Became a Nerd
di Leah Rae Miller
267 pagine, Entangled Teen 2013
TramaOn the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl's body isn’t just unknown, it's anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way.
Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever.
E' nella mia wishlist perché..Dalla trama deve essere troppo carino e oltretutto il libro giusto per me perché anch'io sono una nerd sotto copertura... spero che il fatto che sia un romanzo per teenagers non lo penalizzi troppo.
The Reincarnationist
di M.J. Rose
The Reincarnationist Serie, Libro 01
451 pagine, MIRA 2007
TramaPhotojournalist Josh Ryder survives a terrorist's bomb, only to be haunted by near hallucinatory memories of a past life in Rome as a pagan priest whose dangerous congress with Sabina, one of the Vestal Virgins, poses a transgression so serious the lovers will face a certain death if exposed. Scents of jasmine and sandalwood and images of furtive liaisons and violence descend on Josh at will, pulling him to an ancient yet strangely familiar Roman burial chamber harboring the remains of a woman clutching a wooden box.
A trail of present-day murders takes us deeper into a labyrinth at whose heart lies the enigma of a collection of ancient gems or memory stones whose origins trace back to both ancient Egypt and India. The stones' promise to "assist the wearer in reaching his next incarnation" sets the ancient and modern worlds on a collision course.
The questions of who we are cannot be asked without first asking who we were. And I've tried to answer that using my own research into reincarnation theory - as well as the tenets and writings of those who have studied and believed in reincarnation over thousands of years.
E' nella mia wishlist perché..La trama è promettente, purtroppo è un'altra serie ma ormai ho capito che non c'è scampo.
