NetGalley Review: The Lister Sisters

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Thank you NetGalley and Pen and Sword Books for the advance review copy of “The Lister Sisters” by Rebecca Batley.


Anne Lister is such an interesting figure in history. She was a landowner in a time when women were generally not permitted to own any property, as well as an architectural and landscaping designer, invested in railways, and owned two coal mines. Most shockingly to her time, she was also an out lesbian who essentially married her partner, Ann Walker. Their marriage was never legally recognized but was formally noted by the women’s families and regarded as such. Her sister Marian led a much quieter life, staying closer to home, caring for their father and aunt in their old age, and forming close bonds with cousins. Marian never married or had children of her own, but the love she gave her younger cousins was rewarded by love returned, and they cared for her in her own late years.


While Batley’s book is very informative, parts of it reads rather like a timeline of events. Batley gives the principal actors their due, but it feels like the writing in some places is stilted, like there could have been more detail. Overall, though, this was a good book and gives readers a clear view of the Lister sisters and their lives.

NetGalley Review: Eve by B. K. O’Connor

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A huge thank you to NetGalley and Histria Books for the review copy of B. K. O’Connor’s beautiful book “Eve.” It is very appreciated!


I initially rated this book four stars on Goodreads, but I am revising that to a full five; this book was so good it deserves all of the stars. Some years ago, I read Mark Twain’s “Eve’s Diary,” in which he was so close to almost understanding a woman’s point of view that I wonder if Livy advised him. B. K. O’Connor obviously needed no assistance in bringing Eve to life in a spectacular fashion. O’Connor gives us Eve as she was meant to be, the Mother of All, brilliant, curious, fearless; she challenges the status quo by her very existence. O’Connor’s Eve dares to challenge God. She refuses to be meek. She refuses to accept “this is how it is.” When she is not given answers, she seeks her own, traveling the known world to find the answer to humankind’s purpose on the earth. She becomes the beloved daughter of a multitude of goddesses, learning from each land she visits. She is a teacher, divine in her own human femininity.


B. K. O’Connor gives readers a fierce, strong, independent female lead with the ability to touch your heart. She loves, she laughs, she weeps for her loved ones, fights to survive and seeks to learn. This Eve is no simple companion. She is a woman as woman is meant to be.

NetGalley Review: Veilmarch by Hallie Pursel

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Thank you NetGalley and Cariad Publishing House for the review copy on Hallie Pursel’s fantastic “Veilmarch”!

This book was amazing! Pursel’s characters and their world pulled me right in. Pursel creates a world where Death is a real, quasi-living presence in the world, served by “Veilwalkers,” executioners who cull the sinful by order of the crown. Ilys is trained from childhood by her mentor Grim, whom she grows to look on as a father, and while he doesn’t say it, Grim cherishes her as the child he isn’t permitted to have. Ilys grows up believing the Veilwalker’s cause is holy, sanctioned by both the crown and the gods, but when the king orders her to execute someone as der to her as Grim is, her devotion turns to vengeance, and she plots to kill Death himself. Her first Veilmarch reveals an ages-old plot she never dreamed of, and her revenge takes a new focus, one which may cost her everything she is still able to love.


This was an edge-of-my-seat read. I wasn’t able to put it down and I read it in a day (seriously). This was such a great book. Fantasy fans, Gothic lit fans, fans of great writing, read this. I cannot wait to see what Hallie Pursel gives us next.

NetGalley Review: She Made Herself a Monster

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Thank you NetGalley and Mariner Books for the review copy of Anna Kovatcheva’s “She Made Herself a Monster.” It is very appreciated!

I have been on the hunt for really good fiction, the kind that grabs me with the first paragraph and keeps me in its teeth until the end. Sadly, I am often disappointed. However, Anna Kovatcheva does NOT disappoint! From the grisly opening scene in a dank basement to the open road, the wonder of childbirth, revelations about murder, and a dance with death, all spattered with the blood of monsters, “She Made Herself a Monster” is a rollercoaster of suspense.


I loved this book. I rarely give a full five stars for books, but this one absolutely earned it. This is a dark, Gothic tale heavy with folklore and superstition. Modern science vies with Old-World traditional beliefs in a village that believes itself to be cursed. A monster hunter rides into town one day and sets off a domino-fall of events that lead to an edge-of-your-seat ending.


“She Made Herself a Monster” is Kovatcheva’s debut novel, and I cannot wait to see what she gives us in the future.

NetGalley Review: The Abundant Kitchen

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Thank you NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing for the ARC of Niva and Yotam Kay’s “The Abundant Kitchen!”

For a long time now, I have wanted to learn how to can my own vegetables and make my own jams and kombucha, but I am terrified I am going to give my family botulism. This book almost has me convinced I can make my own fermented and preserved foods. The instructions are step by step and include tips on what to look out for to prevent spoilage (or worse). Also, the recipes sound delicious! Rose-Honey Dairy-Free Yogurt? Yes, please. Rose-Lavender and Apple-Mint Kombucha? I’ll take two. And my whole household will appreciate homemade ginger beer. (Don’t even get me started on the mead!)


There is a recipe for pickled butternut squash…I have never heard of that. In fact, I wasn’t aware that you could pickle butternut squash. Beans, cucumbers, beets, onions, even watermelon rind I knew of. And of course, cabbage as sauerkraut and kimchi, both family favorites. At present, the only fermentation I am comfortable with is sourdough. I tend to have a sourdough starter in my refrigerator for a year or so, then end up killing the poor thing by not feeding it. (I take much better care of my cat, I promise.) The Kay’s Sourdough Honey Challah will be the first recipe I try with my new starter.


When I got to the section on making your own miso I knew I had to get a printed copy of this book. Trying to follow a recipe on a Kindle is tricky at best, and I like to add Post-It notes to my cookbooks with my thoughts (or notes on what I did wrong…). This book even has a section on curing meat, which my husband will love. In fact, I may need to buy two and gift one to my sister the chef.


This book is fantastic and will absolutely be added to my cookbook collection. Maybe I’ll even be brave enough to use it!

NetGalley Review: the witch doesn’t drown in this one

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Thank you very much NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC of Amanda Lovelace’s newest collection “the witch doesn’t drown in this one”!

Amanda Lovelace has done it again (as if that is a surprise): she has plumbed the deepest parts of her heart and shared her pain, her anger, her hope, and her love with the world. Her poems tell the stories of women: our struggles, our fears and heartbreaks, our triumphs. She speaks so we can be heard: “if she were a wolf, no one/ would ignore her howls.”


Lest you think women are irrational, or overreacting, know this: “She is not angry/ about the state of/the world anymore/ She is/ simply filled/ to the/ f*cking/ brim/ with sorrow. –but don’t worry, the witch doesn’t/ drown in this one”


She reminds her readers of their strength, even when they are at their breaking point: “If you’re going to cry, then cry/ once you’re finished, / come back to shore and get back/ on the battleground / there is still a war to win, witch.”
Keep fighting sisters, she says. Keep raging, and nurturing, and creating. We will not be pushed aside.

NetGalley Review: The Boundless Deep

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Thank you NetGalley and Pantheon for the review copy of “The Boundless Deep” by Richard Holmes. It is greatly appreciated!

I have read some of Tennyson’s poetry–it’s kind of a requirement if you major in English literature–but I had never read a biography of the poet. Richard Holmes’ “The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science and the Crisis of Belief” is excellent. Holmes discusses Tennyson’s early home life fraught with uncertainty under the shadow of an increasingly violent alcoholic father; Tennyson’s school years where his creative genius struggled to shine from behind curtains of depression; his footloose, untethered early writing years that found Tennyson still struggling with depression and trying to find his footing as a poet; and finally his successful middle age as the Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Baron Tennyson of Freshwater, Isle of Wight.

Holmes’ study of Tennyson and his work sent me searching for two of his pieces I have never read, “In Memoriam,” written in the memory of Arthur Hallum, a dear friend, perhaps even soulmate of Tennyson (or twin spirit?) that dies too young; and “Maud: a Monodrama,” hailed by some as a brilliant portrayal of a tortured mind and reviled by others as absolute trash.

Reading Tennyson in college I never considered the mind behind the poems. Richard Holmes presents a brilliant writer that had a deep fascination with astronomy and geology; one who sought to understand the foundations of faith while he struggled with his own. Holmes gives readers a living portrait of an artist that could never have believed that his work would continue to inspire people 124 years after his death.

NetGalley Review: We the Women

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Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC of “We the Women” by Norah O’Donnell and Kate Anderson Brower, it is much appreciated!
“We the Women” offers fascinating snapshots of women history has tried to forget. Some of these women were familiar to me from my Women’s Studies classes in college as well as my own reading. Other women, such as the Revolutionary-era wax sculptor and spy Patience Lovell Wright; Civil War heroine Dr. Mary Edwards Walker; Susan and Susette La Flesche, advocates for First Nation Peoples; and the female teams of telephone switchboard operators of World War I, were completely new to me.
How is it that these and many other women featured in this book are missing from history books? I minored in Women’s Studies and never heard of some of these women. What is wrong with this society where the work of women–some in service to this country–is completely passed over so we only learn about men and their achievements (or failures and wrongdoings)? Women make up more than half of the human race globally, and yet we and our foremothers continue to struggle to be seen in the shadows.
Read this book, learn the names, and give these women their due. They helped to make this country, they helped win wars, they made lasting change.

NetGalley Review: Morning Leaves

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Thank you NetGalley and Red Hen Press for the ARC of Laing Rikkers’ lovely book “Morning Leaves.”
I thought this was a beautiful book, though I would hesitate to call it poetry. It gave me more of an impression of being a collection of affirmations, which I do not think took away from the overall message of the book. Two pieces in particular struck me with the overall feel and imagery. “Plum Tree” and “Dogwood,” while not haikus, carry the same essence of those spare verses, the same graceful manner. One verse resonated quite deeply: “The breaks and stretch marks heal and scar, but they are still there. I know where they are.”
“Black-Eyed Susan” is especially pertinent to women’s experiences everywhere: “You thought you could keep me down by/ covering me with inches of concrete. / I will crack your confidence and rise up/ right through the middle of your nonsense.” Well said, indeed. From “Cantaloupe: “I may appear dull. / There is nothing to prepare you for the splash/ of color, light, and love you will discover within.”
The artwork by Kelly Leahy Radding is exquisite. Her illustrations bring to mind Edith Holden’s “Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.” Really, this is a lovely book, very enjoyable.

NetGalley Review: The House of Splinters

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Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the review copy of Laura Purcell’s “The House of Splinters,” it is very appreciated.
I have never read Laura Purcell’s writing before, and I can honestly say that I think she is a fantastic writer. She is very descriptive and writes really great scenes. The ancestral house The Bridge is described in perfect haunting detail and Purcell creates plenty of suspense as the story progresses. I did not expect the plot twist close to the end at all. I expected that was the explanation for all of the events surrounding the family, but then the unexplained supernatural events stepped back in, so I’m not sure exactly where the author was intending to take the story, and possibly decided to meld both paths?
There is some brief dialogue regarding an ancestor executed for witchcraft whose story appears to be relevant to the plot, but there is no detailed explanation of her story other than what another character says she reads in a diary. I found myself wanting to her more of this woman’s story as I feel it might have made certain occurrences clearer. I felt that there were inconsistencies in the story, but overall it was a good book with plenty of suspense and action.