Miss Goodhue Lives for a Night (Winner Takes All #2.5) by Kate Noble

  Miss Goodhue Lives for a Night (Winner Takes All #2.5) by Kate Noble

Blurb:

Cecilia Goodhue is a schoolteacher with a past, living with her sister and her husband in a tiny English village. Resigned to a quiet life, Cecilia is surprised when she finds out that her young cousin has run off with a man of no means.

Cecilia had once been a teenaged girl who also fell for a young man’s charms—only to be devastated by his betrayal. Determined to not let her cousin meet the same fate, she heads off to London to but is shocked when her investigation leads her right to the front door of the very man who broke her heart: Theo Hudson.

Together, they reluctantly embark on finding her cousin and returning her to her family. During their searching in London, it soon becomes clear that they both remember their short-lived romance differently and perhaps now, years later, they have a fresh chance at love.


As I really enjoyed reading the "Lizzie Bennett Diaries" by Kate Rorick, I was curious when I found that the author has already published quite a number of historcal romance novels under the name of Kate Noble. When I got the chance to read this story about Miss Cecilia Goodhue and Theo Hudson I found that I thoroughly enjoyed it and I found that the author's unmistakeabe style can be found in here as well.

In constrast to most of the other historical romance novels that I've read, the whole tone is much lighter and despite the sometimes harsher realities described in the book there is a rather carefree atmosphere to be found which makes it a bit different than the majority of the books of this genre.

It is easy to read and at first I wasn't sure if it wasn't a bit too carefree and a bit too light like some fluffy marshmallow lacking substance but beneath all the fluffyness, there is a really nice story with very likeable characters and I loved to accompany them on their quest to find Cecilia's cousin and their love for each other.

As a reader you just have to be know that the style is rather unique and different from what you are used to in a historical romance, if you don't mind that, I can definitely recommend this book.

★★★★

 

 

When you're abroad.... ~In English~

...many things happen and there's much to see.

After having told a lot about where I was traveling, I think it is time to start telling about the things that I've seen and the people I've met. Actually, I have to admit that I spent a teeny tiny bit more time in bookshops and other places like that than in real museums - is that a problem?

"Somehow" the one or the other book found its way to me as well:

It just happened, you see? So many great bookshops and second hand bookshops, it was really amazing and so we just had to take a closer look at them. All of them. *oops* Some of them were special because of their size, some of them were very unique and amazing to look at and others...well, you get the meaning. I made photos of some of the shops which I'm already looking forward to share with you.

I must admit that at some time it became a bit crowded, we were four people and a dog, traveling in a car with a trailer tent after all. (And to make things worse - two of us were teenaged girls and their luggage... ;) )

Taking the ferry from Calais to Dover, we spent our first nights on a nice camping site in Folkestone. From there we drove over to Canterbury where we spent a very busy afternoon.

Obviously we just had to visit Canterbury, because wuite a number of books are situated there and after having done some research on Canterbury for a book presentation on my blog for a german book, I was curious and wanted to see it. Of coures there are lots of books situated in Canterbury but I think one of the most famous (though probably not many have actually read it, me included...) is

 The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. Another book that I found when I was looking for books and Canterbury it the book The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright, which I haven't read yet but it is definitely on my wishlist.

Having spent the afternoon in Canterbury we went back to Folkestone from where we left
for Dorset the next morning:

In Dorset we were looking forward to the
Jurassic Coast with its fossiles but even more we wanted to see

Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis? Well, most Austen-Fans probably remember Lyme Regis and its harbour, the Cobb as the place where Louisa Musgrove from Jane Austen's Persuasion did the fateful jump that changed everything. Jane Austen herself spent time in Lyme Regis as well and obviously enjoyed her time there but she wasn't the only artist who was drawn to this place.

Another author who lived here for a long time and who was also the curator of the Lyme Regis Museum for some time, was John Fowles, whose book The French Lieutenant's Woman is set in Lyme Regis. This book and its movie adaption with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons playing the lead roles, made Lyme Regis famous.

This book found its way to me as well - but you already guessed that, didn't you?

I must admit that I'm very curious because usually a melodrama is not exactly my cup of tea but being there in Lyme regis and there at the museum, well, I couldn't leave without the book!

The museum itself is dedicated mainly to Jane Austen and Mary Anning. Mary Anning herself as one of the first professionnel collectors of fossiles, is a very interesting character but at first sight she doesn't have much to do with literature - BUTthen there was Tracy Chevalier, whose book Remarkable Creatures, tells the story of Mary Anning. As I've loved Girl with a Pearl Earring, Burning Bright und Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier I'm really looking forward to this book as well!

 Apart from the museum there was a lot to see not just the cafés (where you could even buy wheat free and gluten free brownies and such nice things that were absolutely delicious) and the beach but also a small book shop where you could have spent ages and still you wouldn't have seen everything, I think. A bit rustic, small, crammed, somewhere under the books there was also a piano but with a certain charme that made it rather special.

Having spent the whole day in Lyme Regis we drove back to our camping site because we wanted to be off early the next morning. The next morning we left for .... ?

~To be continued~

Wenn einer eine Reise tut....

~English Version follows~

...dann kann er - oder sie - was erzählen.

Und nachdem ich so groß verkündet habe, wo ich überall hinfahre, muss ich doch gleich einmal ein bisschen mehr erzählen.

Ich muss allerdings zugeben, dass wir irgendwie viel mehr Zeit in Buchläden und dergleichen verbracht haben, als in Museen - schlimm? 

"Beute" habe ich natürlich auch gemacht:

Öh, ja, das kam irgendwie so - und irgendwann wurde es auch vom Platz her ein wenig knapp, muss ich ja zugeben, immerhin waren wir zu viert mit Hund im Pkw und mit einem Zelttrailer unterwegs. Aber auf unserem Weg fanden sich etliche, wirklich schöne Buchantiquariate und andere Buchläden, die wir einfach näher inspizieren mussten. Von einigen besonders schönen Läden, habe ich auch Fotos gemacht, die ich in den nächsten Tagen hier auch zeigen werde.

Zuerst führte uns unser Weg über Calais mit der Fähre nach Dover und von dort nach Folkestone, von wo aus wir einen Ausflug nach Canterbury machten.

Canterbury war ja allein schon ein "Muss",  weil ich vor einiger Zeit doch im Rahmen einer Blogtour ein bisschen was dazu rausgesucht hatte, da ja unter anderem die Canterbury Serenade dort spielt.
Natürlich gibt es auch noch etliche andere Bücher, die man mit Canterbury in Verbindung bringt, wie etwa die Canterbury Tales von Chaucer oder die Canterbury Sisters von Kim Wright, die ich auch noch unbedingt lesen möchte.

Hier waren wir auch sehr neugierig auf die Stadt, wobei wir in Canterbury selbst nur einen Nachmittag Zeit hatten, weil es am darauffolgenden Tag dann ja auch gleich wieder weiter gehen sollte, immerhin hatten wir uns noch den einen oder anderen Ort vorgenommen.
Von Canterbury aus, ging es dann nach Dorset.

Hier zog es uns nicht nur zur Jurassic Coast mit ihren Fossilien, sondern mehr noch nach

Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis? Tja, der Ort ist zumindest Austen-Kennern vermutlich ein Begriff, war es doch hier am Cobb in Lyme Regis, wo Louisa Musgrove in Persuasion ihren verhängnisvollen Sprung tat. Jane Austen selbst war auch mindestens einmal hier in Lyme Regis zu Gast, wobei sie längst nicht die einzige Schriftstellerin oder Künstlerin war, die es an diesen Ort zog.

Ein anderer Schriftsteller, der hier lebte und auch lange Zeit Kurator des Lyme Regis Museums war, war John Fowles, dessen Buch The French Lieutenant's Woman, bzw. Die Geliebte des französischen Leutnants in Lyme Regis angesiedelt ist. Das Buch, sowie die Verfilmung mit Meryl Streep in der Hauptrolle, trugen dazu bei, dass Lyme Regis international bekannt wurde.

Das Buch fand natürlich auch seinen Weg zu mir...

...und ich muss gestehen, dass ich schon sehr gespannt bin, Melodramen sind normalerweise ja nicht so ganz mein Fall, aber wenn ich schon mal in Lyme Regis bin und im Museum dort, dann ...na, da musste das Buch doch einfach sein! Das Museum ist übrigens in der Hauptsache Jane Austen und Mary Anning gewidmet. Mary Anning selbst, als eine der ersten professionellen Fossiliensammlerinnen, hat erst einmal ja nicht wirklich viel mit Literatur zu tun, ABER dann gab es da ja noch Tracy Chevalier, die sich in ihrem Buch Remarkable Creatures, bzw.  Zwei bemerkenswerte Frauen der Geschichte von Mary Anning gewidmet hat. Da ich mit Girl with a Pearl Earring, Burning Bright und Falling Angels mittlerweile bereits drei unwahrscheinlich tolle Bücher von Tracy Chevalier gelesen habe, freue ich mich auch auf dieses Buch sehr.

 Außer dem Museum gab es noch einiges zu sehen, nicht nur Cafés, die sogar weizen-, bzw. sogar glutenfreie, absolut leckere Brownies und dergleichen anboten, was mindestens eine von uns sehr erfreute, sondern auch einen Buchladen, in dem man auch viel Zeit hätte verbringen können. Urig, eng, vollgestopft, irgendwo war auch ein Klavier unter den Büchern vergraben, aber mit einem gewissen Charme, der vielleicht auch auf diesem Foto schon ein wenig zu erahnen ist:

Nachdem wir einen Tag lang dann Lyme Regis erkundet hatten, ging es zurück zum Campingplatz, weil wir am nächsten Tag schon wieder weiter wollten. Diesmal ging es weiter nach .... ?

~Fortsetzung folgt~

Slow Dough: Real Bread: Bakers' secrets for making amazing long-rise loaves at home by Chris Young

Slow Dough: Real Bread by Chris Young

Blurb:

Making bread is an ancient craft and a fulfilling experience, a skill that is learnt by touch and feel. There is nothing more satisfying than kneading, pulling, stretching and punching the dough, using a little yeast and sugar to transform its lumpen beginnings, as if by alchemy, into a loaf. But it's not all hard work. To get a truly wonderful bread, you can use a starter to do the work for you and it does wonders for the texture, flavours and aromas of the final bread. The Real Bread Campaign has been running since 2008, encouraging people to get baking and raising awareness of the additives that exist in most shop-bought loaves. In Slow Dough: Real Bread, learn secrets from the campaign's network of expert bakers to make a huge array of exciting slow-rise breads at home. Whether you want to make a Caraway Seed Rye Bread, a Fougasse Flatbread or an All-Butter Brioche, in these recipes you'll learn how to make different starters for different breads, as well as the fundamental processes (many of which you can just sit and wait for): fermenting, kneading, first proof, last rising, and baking. In a world of mass-production and redundant additives, bread being among the worst offenders, this book, about real craftsmanship, is like a breath of fresh air.


Due to food intolerances, I've been baking all our bread for quite some time now and I've read a fair number of books about bread and baking and everything around it as well. When I got the chance to read this book, I was really curious and eager to try new recipes. And I must say that this book is simply amazing! In here you will find everything you need to know about bread and the different kinds of bread whether it be pre-ferment, long-ferment or sourdough.

You will learn how to make them from scratch, how to nurture your own sourdough and much more.
Then you get the chance to use this new knowledge to bake a bunch of delicious breads, some simple but savory, some intriguing, some sweet, some tart, some...no matter what, they all look and sound delicious. I couldn't try all of them yet but up to now I was never disappointed. The recipes are easy to follow and the photos are just gorgeous.

All recipes are donated by Real Bread bakers who are also part of the Real Bread Campaign.
So...if you want to bake your own bread or want to try other recipes, other varieties of bread, this is the book to turn to. Oh, and don't worry if you tried too many recipes at once, there's a whole section with recipes for leftovers, be it leftover bread or leftover sourdough.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book and if you still wonder if it is worth all the work - yes, it is. My family loves the freshly baked bread and even the kids from the neighbourhood come in when I am baking, hoping to be in time for a slice of fresh bread.

★★★★★

 

 

 Another romance set in Wales and 

the amazing wilderness of the mountains of Snowdonia:

The Bride Price by June Francis

Blurb:

She was Welsh, he was English. They had been brought up as enemies and taught to hate each other, but Cadfael needed a guide into the wild mountains of Snowdonia. Sioned seized the opportunity to escape from the marriage about to be forced on her by her treacherous brother. She also had her own quest in the mountains and had no intention of falling in love with a man she suspected of being a spy, but once in his hands she had no choice but to follow wherever he led.

 
I enjoyed reading this book but - and it is a big "but" - in the end I felt as if there hadn't been any real action at all. Or rather there had been action but on the whole it felt as if it was all a bit forced and just meant to prolong the story instead of a real development. They meet, they ride around, problems arise of course every now and then but then it just goes on and on and on until all is settled and fine.

Don't misunderstand me, the story is entertaining and I really liked the characters and of course I was happy to see Sioned flee from her betrothed who is indeed horrible and not at all desirable and I hoped for a better future for her. Cadfael is also an interesting character but some of his actions, well, I didn't always agree with him but well, all is well that ends well, isn't it?

All in all "The Bride Price" is a nice and entertaining story but it didn't keep me glued to the reader and it won't become one of my favorites.

★★★

Destined for a King (The Bastard Brotherhood) by Ashlyn Macnamara ~Review in English~

  Destined for a King (The Bastard Brotherhood #1) by Ashlyn Macnamara

Blurb:

Though she is intended for the king, Calista Thorne picks up a crossbow to defend her ancestral home, Blackbriar Keep, from a gang of landless knights. She even manages to sink a poison-tipped arrow into their commander, who survives long enough to conquer the Keep and claim Calista for his own. Now, with her father's life at stake, Calista must nurse the brigand back to health, and the strangest thing happens: She finds herself fascinated by his tautly muscled body, and enthralled by his hotly whispered demands.
Ever since his father's death, the fearsome warrior they call Torch has been consumed by his quest for revenge. Taking Blackbriar Keep is the first step in that plan, and—by the three gods—it won't be the last. But after taking one look into Calista's smoldering gray eyes, Torch discovers a passion nobler than retribution. He will fulfill his destiny and take her from the usurper king, even in his weakened state. For with Calista's love, no man has ever felt more powerful.

I've already read several books by Ashlyn Macnamara that were set in the Regency Era and loved them. "Destined for a King" takes the reader back to very dark times when a keep could be lost in less than a day and a man's life was easily lost to a sword's stroke. Times, when women were considered spoils of war and marriage often was a means to an end.

Calista has to witness the loss of her father's keep to the enemy. In a last attempt to fight them off, she shoots their leader, Torch. When the keep is taken, Torch falls ill and as it was her bolt that hit him, it is up to her to nurse him back to health otherwise the consequences will be rather dire...
Nursing Torch, Calista gets to know him and suddenly his outrageous order to marry him doesn't sound that outrageous anymore. Of course, she was always destined to marry a king - was she? And - which king is her destiny?
Fate brought them together, will men tear them apart?

I loved how Torch, the seemingly bad and dishonorable nobody, proves that honor is not a question of money or riches but of character. Reading about him and his interactions with his men and those around him, you easily understand why his men (and not only them) trust him and follow him.
Oh, I shouldn't forget those amazing characters! Calista is a great character, of course, I always love strong heroines and she is authentic, strong and, well, I'd love to have her as a friend. Torch is also amazing as well as complex, honorable, strong, stubborn (very!) and courageous but the minor characters are also well developed, interesting and complex.

I really enjoyed reading this book and have already reread it. It is a nice mixture of some authentic, somewhat dark (but never too dark, too drastic or too graphic) medieval scenery and some mystic elements and of course, it has a well written and well plotted story that keeps the reader captivated from the first page to the last.

The book was even more enjoyable as it describes the happenings and the heavy fighting but never too detailed or too drastic. It's not like some books (or movies) where you better keep a tally to be able to keep track of the number of deaths (or the number of people left). We are talking about the really dark times, even though the book is set in a fictional country, it hints at Scotland and medieval Britain and we all know that it was a time where a man's life meant nothing and many horrible things happened. All this is implied and sometimes hinted at, the ffeling of danger is there but the reader never really gets confronted with the gruesome details. It's not like some books where you feel that somewhere you must have taken a wrong turn and ended up in a slaughterhouse. You get the feeling but it is told in a way that you can still thoroughly enjoy the nice story and the wonderful love story.

Okay, to cut a long story short - I really enjoyed this well written and imaginative book and will definitely read it again.

★★★★

The New England Orchard Cookbook: Harvesting Dishes & Desserts from the Region's Bounty by Linda Beaulieu

  The New England Orchard Cookbook by Linda Beaulieu

Blurb: 

A classic regional cookbook filled with recipes from iconic orchards and cider mills throughout New England. Many of the featured farms grow more than just the beloved apple––pears, peaches, berries, and more––and the 100 recipes included in this book reflect that bounty. From sweet desserts to savory dinners, the recipes in The New England Orchard Cookbook are designed for the home cook and pay homage to the abundance of the local farm. Throughout are features about life and work at the orchards alongside gorgeous photography.


This book is a combination of a cookbook and a kind of storybook with its many informations about the different kinds of fruit that can be found in the different orchards and about the orchards themselves. I really enjoyed browsing through it, reading here and there, checking out the one or the other recipe and watching all those amazing photographs.

Everything you ever wanted to know about orchards and fruit in New England - and much more than that - can be found in this book. Most of the recipes look and sound great and I look forward to trying them,  whereas some other just give inspirations for own ideas but I love the variety and all those new ideas alongside more traditional recipes be it jam, pies, cake, biscuits or turkey or a crockpot apple cider beef stew or...well, a bunch of other delicious things. The recipes themselves are easy-to-follow and look rather foolproof to me with detailed information and good instructions.

For those who want to visit those orchards that are portrayed here in this book, there's a long list with adresses and websites at the back of the book. All in all a wonderful book if you are interested in orchards or cooking and baking or looking at gorgeous photographs.

★★★★★