Top Ten Book Covers of 2011

Out of a field of 212 books I've read this year, here are the ten best covers:

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

 The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

 Though I love both, the first is both the one I own and my favorite. Gorgeous cover for a gorgeous novel.

2. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

 Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

 Another gorgeous cover for one of my favorite reads of the year, I have the first (the U.S. edition). I utterly love the U.K. edition as well; both are very appropriate for the story Laini Taylor has so expertly crafted in this novel.

3. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

 A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst Castle, a great but moldering old house, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted 50 years before as a 13 year old child during WWII. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941.

Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in ‘the distant hours’ of the past has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.

 I loved this book so much I still can't articulate my thoughts enough for a real review. Almost matching my love for the novel itself is my love for the (left and the one I won) cover: detailed, intricate and showcasing the Milderhurst Castle.

4. The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.  When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love.  When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead.  His girlfriend Adriane, Nora's best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora's sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

This is due to be published in early 2012 so there is only the one cover so far. I love the detail of the eye: you can see the reflection of Prague in Nora's (? I'm guessing) eye. The setting is so alive and vibrant in this novel I love that it is hinted at right on the cover.

5. Embassytown by China Mieville

 In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak.

Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language.

When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties—to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her.

The first is the hardback edition, the latter the paperback version. I own and prefer the hardback, with the dark background and the letters being light. The cover definitely underscores the importance of words and language in life and in the novel itself.

6. The entire Iron Fey series (as one, it's unfair otherwise!) The Iron King, Winter's Passage, The Iron Daughter, The Iron Queen, Summer's Crossing, The Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

 Summary from book one, The Iron King:


Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

The whole series, novellas included, really hits it out of the park where covers are concerned. I would say The Iron Knight is my favorite, mostly because the scheme used is blue/white/silver and I love those colors together. Ash doesn't hurt though, either. ;)

7. Blood Rights (and sequels) by Kristen Painter

 

Summary from book one, Blood Rights:

The lacy gold mapped her entire body. A finely-wrought filigree of stars, vines, flowers, butterflies, ancient symbols and words ran from her feet, up her legs, over her narrow waist, spanned her chest and finished down her arms to the tips of her fingers.

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle’s body bears the telltale marks of a comarré—a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world…and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.

Now Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.

Though I've only read book one, I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning to this series. Plus, they look GREAT on a bookshelf. An eye-catching cover for a magpie-like eye like mine.

8. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

 

 

And a look at the type of artwork by Arthur Rackham in the inside cover over the first version:

 

A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery. The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton.

Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra's life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.

Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace - the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century - Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself.

How gorgeous is that illustration? I loved this novel, though not as much as The Distant Hours, and Arthur Rackham's whimsical illustrations are perfect. 

 

 

9. The Butterfly Clues by Kate Ellison

Penelope (Lo) Marin has always loved to collect beautiful things. Her dad's consulting job means she's grown up moving from one rundown city to the next, and she's learned to cope by collecting (sometimes even stealing) quirky trinkets and souvenirs in each new place--possessions that allow her to feel at least some semblance of home.

But in the year since her brother Oren's death, Lo's hoarding has blossomed into a full-blown, potentially dangerous obsession. She discovers a beautiful, antique butterfly pendant during a routine scour at a weekend flea market, and recognizes it as having been stolen from the home of a recently murdered girl known only as "Sapphire"--a girl just a few years older than Lo. As usual when Lo begins to obsess over something, she can't get the murder out of her mind.

As she attempts to piece together the mysterious "butterfly clues," with the unlikely help of a street artist named Flynt, Lo quickly finds herself caught up in a seedy, violent underworld much closer to home than she ever imagined--a world, she'll ultimately discover, that could hold the key to her brother's tragic death.

I loved this: very visually striking but still true to story of the novel. I wish that this was a series in fact: more covers like this and more time with Lo would be much appreciated by me.

10. Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

 

 "Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

 I honestly love both versions. I like the hazy background of the first and the starkness of the second. I don't own a copy of this yet (I read a digital ARC) but can't wait to see which one I come across first,

Honorable Mentions:

Broken by Kelley Armstrong

The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegan

Angelfall by Susan Ee

The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

Review: The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

A note about my netgalley reviews: as these are typically books that are due to be released soon, I try to be pretty spoiler free. I'd hate to ruin a book for someone who has been looking forward to its publication. Unfortunately, that kills a lot of my snark and humor, especially with this particular series. So, if this review feels a bit "off" from how I normally go about things, that would be why.

Days after it was promised, my reviews:

Title: The Wild Rose

Author: Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: historical fiction, romance novel-ish

Series: The Tea Rose #3

Pages: 640 (Nook; netgalley ARC)

Published: August 2011
Source: publishers via NetGalley

Rating: 4.5/5

A great, sprawling epic of a novel, The Wild Rose concluded the fantastic (and fantastically outrageous) Tea Rose series exactly as it began: outlandish, touching and utterly compelling to read. In this series, I started out just merely liking the introductory novel The Tea Rose, and absolutely loving the second The Winter Rose; the middle of those two emotions is how I feel about the finishing tale of the Finnegans and their extended, varied family. There were parts I utterly loved, as well as parts I wanted to kill every character upon the page. In this woeful tale of Seamus Finnegan and Willa Alden, there are: German spies and spy networks, Lawrence of Arabia, women's suffrage in England, extramarital affairs aplenty, World War I, the Spanish flu, Turkish prisons and torture, and the hardly-worth-mentioning now, star-crossed lovers.

This novel had a slower start than the previous two. In the other novels, the plot shot out like a rocket from the first chapter. In this installment, there is a lot more buildup, more tension added to the atmosphere of the story. Told expertly in third person omniscient, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to get into the mind of whatever POV character (and there were quite a few!) was narrating.  It almost feels like the author took the first hundred and fifty pages to simply set up the scenario, and the characters in minute detail.  However, once the war starts, the book really begins to move along and becomes an enthralling, heart-wrenching novel. While it was nice reading all the back story of Sid, Fiona, etc. of the intervening years between the books, I found myself impatient for the outlandishness to begin. The narrative once again jumps many years in between parts. I for one, find these time lapses occasionally jarring; I'd personally much rather prefer a more linear story.

As Fiona's tale was told in The Tea Rose, and Sid's was in The Winter Rose, The Wild Rose tells the long-winded and often tragic story of Seamie Finnegan, the last of the Finnegan children met in the first book.  Seamie is a daredevil and a rogue, full of charm and warmth. Possessing a permanent wanderlust and itchy feet, Seamie meets his match in the strong, fiercely independent Willa Alden. Though they've both loved each other since they were children, time and circumstance (and their own dumb decisions) have conspired to keep them apart. While Seamie and Willa were climbing Kili in The Winter Rose, Willa fell from the peak of the mountain, losing her leg and (to her) the meaning of her life. Unable to cope with the loss of climbing and her freedom and Seamie's unwillingness to let her die on the mountain, Willa abandoned Seamie in Mombasa at the end of the Winter Rose.

 Willa is a difficult woman and character. She's a hard and driven person, and utterly believable in her determination and competitiveness. Her love of the wild and the untamed is the fire inside her; a passion that is matched by only one person: Seamie Finnegan. At the same time, her "poor, poor me" routine wore thin after a couple hundred pages. Unlike India and Fiona, who though lacking Willa's exterior ferocity, were irrepressible and always fought for themselves and who they loved, Willa is more self-pitying and self-destructive.  I eventually was won over by her bravery and depth of feeling, but for most of the novel I was not a huge fan of the character for which I should have had the most sympathy. The evolution of Willa's character was handled beautifully: growing from a self-centered, destructive girl into a protective, loving, mature woman.

With World War I looming in the background, Willa's loss of her leg is a well-planned foreshadowing of the damage this war would wreak on England and its people. Mirroring the destruction of the world around them, throughout the course of the novel both Seamie and Willa do their damnedest to tear themselves apart at any chance they get. The World War I storyline was by far the most affecting and moving part of the novel. The terror of battle fatigue and misunderstanding of the depth of the horror of those battlefield atrocities show Willa's attitude over her leg and Seamie as what it is: shallow self pity. Once that period of Willa was over, my enjoyment of her story increased greatly.

Donnelly does a much better job of restraining herself from going overboard with historical figure camoes and appearances. Focusing more on her actual charismatic actual cast of characters strengthens the plot and does wonders for originality. There are a few token appearances (King Edward, various Prime Ministers, Lawrence of Arabia) but compared to the previous novels, it's a marvelous reduction in superfluous characters. One thing that did not benefit was the recapping. Once again ridiculously prevalent and long-winded, the recaps failed to add anything to the new story. Possibly added for those readers who haven't read the first two in order to catch up, they're more distracting than helpful in the long run. And once again, Donnelly truly succeeds at creating marvelously rich atmospheres for her charters. From the lush, brace Bedouins in the Arabian desert to the stark horror of a medical hospital for battle fatigued soldiers, each scene sparkles with richness and depth.

The ending, though riveting and full of unseen surprises that left my jaw on the floor, wasn't entirely satisfactory. A lot of questions and plotlines were left unresolved or haning. I'm of two minds about this: either Ms. Donnelly has left the door open for another Finnegan family yarn, or I am too nitpicky. I very much enjoyed this novel as well as this series. Maturing from the Mary Sue character Fiona began as, Donnelly has created a vivid novel peopled with strong, flawed, believable women in a time period where women were much maligned and repressed. I have to say, if Donnelly were to write another (Katie Bristow as the main character?!!) I would be first in line to read it.

Review: The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

Title: The Winter Rose

Author: Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: historical fiction, romance novel-ish

Series: The Tea Rose #2

Published: January 2008

Pages: 710
Source: bought

Rating: 4/5

As before with my previous Jennifer Donnelly novel, this one was an interesting read, and I might get a wee bit spoilery. And looooooong. After finishing the first, the question inquiring minds [me] want to know was if the author could top the sheer spectacle of The Tea Rose? That answer was a resounding YES, yes she can.  We've got illegal drug trades, unwitting use of said drugs by innocent persons, women's suffrage, the emergence of female doctors in the workplace, dirty cops and politicians, a modern-day [1900's] Robin Hood, Africa, amputations, TWO escapes from jail, a serial killer, more star-crossed lovers (two couples this time! 100% increase in Angst Opportunity over last time!), women being hunted by lions and hyenas AND the most repellant antagonist I've read this year.

If I liked The Tea Rose and enjoyed its amount of sheer ridiculousness, then I loved The Winter Rose. This second story focuses on a female doctor, India, the quietly fierce, determined and oh yeah, disowned heir to the Selwyn Jones fortune, and the brother of the protagonist from the first, Fiona Finnegan's brother Charlie/Sid Malone. Instead of a Fiona-like righteous revenge driven plot like the first, this story focuses on the redemption of morally deficient, damaged Sid Malone.

The story blends the action and melodrama together much better than its predecessor. There is a believable mix of the outrageous (Joe Bristow personally knew Jacob Riis the American muckraking photojournalist?), and the touching when Sid and India are reunited for the [FINAL] time in the epilogue. But where Donnelly truly excels is the same as before: in creating a believable, gripping, and rich atmosphere for her characters. (I may or may not have walked around using a 'orrible Cockey accent after finishing each book. I admit nothing.) Whitechapel is such a huge part of both these novels and the characters within them: the poverty and deprivation each suffered here marked them for life, in ways they're constantly discovering. Fiona, Charlie, Seamie, and Joe might have left Whitechapel behind, but they will never escape it.

I enjoyed the wit in this novel immensely. For instance when a crooked politician tells Sid that "crime doesn't pay", Sid's aside: "Not like politics does, that's for sure". In fact, I laughed a lot in this novel, during the lighter moments that were few and far between. Fiona, tea magnate extraordinaire, names her two dogs "Twinning" and "Lipton" because "they are forever at her heels." The humor was a nice and apropos touch against such a bleak backdrop for the characters.

One of the less-well executed elements in this novel was the constant and loquacious recapping of the first book.  This happened nearly every other chapter and it got old, fast. It were heavy-handed when a light touch was need. For instance it was, "Fiona remembered back to that dark day when she learned her father died, and then had to flee to America, save her friend from ruin with a 10 year sham marriage, all the while creating the biggest tea empire in the world and pining away for her true love," instead of "Fiona remembered." Also, the foreshadowing was awful at creating suspense. The author would just ominously state something like: "Fiona thought she'd be safe. She was wrong" or "The past will always come back to bury you". If you're going to go that route, you might as well type DUN DUN DUNNNNN after "you".

I honestly believe the Charlie/Sid story arc from the first novel was superbly and tragically done. It continued to be the best element of this story; India and Sid's struggles to make a life for themselves anew held me attention far more than the Seamie/Willa story. It was sad, and oddly riveting to watch a promising and caring young man get sucked so far deep into London's underbelly that he became someone else entirely: Sid Malone. It's quite telling that until a serious threat is levelled to Fiona in Charlie's domain without Charlie helping her, Fiona refuses to call her brother Sid, referring him to constantly by his given name. Besides India, there was only one person who truly believed in Charlie and that was his sister Fiona. Fiona also seems to work best as a secondary character. MAybe I'd just read another 500+ page tome focusing on Fiona Finnegan Soames Elgin Bristow and a I needed a POV break. Either way, she was much less abrasive in this.

Let's talk about Charlie Finnegan/Sid Malone. I love him. LOVE. HIM. Donnelly made him so compelling, I couldn't help but love his character the most and genuinely care what happened in his life. He is funny, and obviously a rogue with a tender side. He falls for India, a do-good brand-new doctor who dreams to open a free clinic in Whitechapel. Slowly but inevitably, he came one of my favorite male leads this year.

India was also likable, a nice change from the immediate fierce, in-your-face attitude of Fiona. She is much more quiet and unassuming, but she posses a hidden fire and an unflinching will that was remarkable. The novel acquires its name from Sid's description of her: a woman as rare as a rose blooming in winter. While she begins as a brash know-it-all, and sweeps into Whitechapel assuming broccoli and porridge are going to cure all the slum's ills, Sid shows her how deep the problems are within Whitechapel and its people. Driven unto further action by the horror and despair of the slum, India becomes determined to do good in her city. En route, she falls in love with Sid, with this "bad man trying to do a good thing" and decides to leave her life for a new one with him in America.

India begins the novel freshly graduated from med school and engaged to childhood friend, Freddie Lytton. Freddie, from a broke noble family, is a slug that slowly reveals his slimy nature each time he appears within the pages. He does not love India since she dared to love someone else (before she knew of his feelings), and is using India to try and divert her inheritance towards a political campaign. He is a turncoat both politically and personally. He is shown as having a difficult childhood with his noble and abusive father. Accidentally killing his father when he was just 12, Freddie beings a dark slope that becomes truly despicable. He manipulates India's first love into prison and death, he out-right murders India's cousin Wish when he attempts to help her with the free clinic and he murders Sid's former girlfriend when Sid falls in love with India. Then the places the blame on Sid so Sid cannot runaway with the now-unbeknownest-to-him pregnant India.

All in all, this was just as crazy as book one. I just cared way, way more about the characters. I actually got a little teary when Sid and India were separated in London and Africa, and then Africa again and then America. Perhaps because Sid was more complicated and damaged than Fiona, he wasn't perfect, and therefore easier for me to love. Perhaps because India seemed more relatable to me, and so fierce for who and what she loved. I don't know what it was exactly, but I was hooked by these two characters and their story. Job well done, Donnelly.

Review: The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

 

Title: The Tea Rose 

Author: Jennifer Donnelly

Genre: historical fiction, romance novel-ish

Series: The Tea Rose #1

Published: April 2008

Pages: 620
Source: bought

Rating: 3.5/5

This is going to be an interesting review. But that is entirely fitting since this was an interesting book. I went back and forth on the rating of this as well. It's truly not good enough for more than a 3.5 star rating and yet, in the end, I sped through it and loved it. This also might end up being a tad bit more spoilery than I usually try to be; I honestly couldn't help it.

This was part daytime soap-opera distilled into book form, part historical fiction set in London/New York in 1880s/1890s, The Tea Rose is one hell of a fun, epic melodrama. We've got truly star-crossed lovers, decades-long revenge plots, sham marriages, murder plots, dockworker's union strikes, crooked politicians, Jack the Ripper, falling in love with New York millionaires, famous celebrity cameos, and of course, betrayal and redemption.

There is a LOT of story going on here. I might sound critical, and I should; this book is not without a myriad of faults. Fiona, the main character, though likable, starts out as a bit of a Mary Sue cliche. She can be irritatingly overemotional and jealous in the beginning and especially with her bloke, Joe Bristow. Those annoying traits are stamped out quickly, however. Once she loses her father and her innocence and naivete, Fiona can finally find her own strength. Her enemy, the ruthless tea merchant behind her father's death, William Burton is chilling, though one-dimensional.

Regardless of the sheer outrageousness of the plot, shallowness of various characters and all the deux ex machinas, I loved this novel. It does have several things going for it: Donnelly spent numerous years researching her time period and culture of the Whitechapel area of London. Her descriptions of bleak and beautiful London were vivid, well-written and best of all, authentic. There was definitely the feel of 19th century present throughout the book. Ms. Donnelly managed to create an enthralling, absorbing atmosphere I had a hard time pulling myself away from. 

Everything in this novel is done on a grand scale. Ms. Donnelly certainly does not believe in half-measures with her storytelling. Fiona needs hardship? Check - half her family is murdered (all, eventually it turns out at the machinations of Jack the Ripper!). She needs an epic love that is tested? Check - Joe and Fiona are separated FOR TEN YEARS. With NUMEROUS and frequent near misses between while they were actively searching for the other. It's comical.. Fiona wants to have a business to furnish her revenge? Check - she has the BIGGEST tea business in the United States.

While the over-the-topness can be fun and work for the novel (such as getting Fiona out on her own and develop into a real character instead of a Mary Sue), it can also detract from the essentials. For instance, in this novel our intrepid heroes/heroines meet: Jack the Ripper (and have personal business with), the Crown Prince of Wales of England (Albert Edward), Paul Gaugin, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and numerous other famous personages frequented Nick's idyllic life in Paris. Fiona's closest friend Nick, in addition to being the heir of the bank controlling Fiona's nemesis's company (though Nick and Fiona are unaware of this the entire time [10 years!!] they're friends) ends up being Viscount Elgin, firstborn son of the Duke of Winchester. That was all a bit much, really.

Fiona has ridiculous, extremely unlikely luck once she arrives in America (Nick gets her on the boat, a famous New York millionaire steps in o help her, falls in love with her, she "invents" iced tea and tea packets, etc); she has to in order to set her revenge against the men who killed her father. This made the book seem a bit rushed once Fiona and Seamie fled England. Also not helping the narrative were the random jumps of time between the three parts. Part Two to Part Three had an intervening nine years, in which crucial events to the story happen. Instead of showing Fiona build her business, her marriage, her revenge, it is simply "told" away in the beginning of the next part. I couldn't help but feel a bit cheated at that, and wish for more depth and exposition on Fiona's early struggles to make The Tea Rose salon a success.

Sadly, parts of the novel, though fun and campy, were entirely too predictable. Michael's recovery from alcoholism so rapidly and easily, Will McClane's swooping in to save Fiona's shop and proposing, his crooked son politician plotting against Fiona, the list goes on. I laughed a lot and often at this book. The only problem was that I was not sure I am laughing at the author/book or with them, where and as intended. 

Straining credulity, and poetic license aside (William Burton, Fiona's own personal foe was really Jack the Ripper? Really? That's where you went with that superfluous plotline?), I enjoyed this novel. It is not perfect, not even close. It's a melodramatic, over-the-top, romance-novelish tome of crazy. It's also a lot of fun. And the cover is pretty.