Philippa Gregory, The White Queen

Description: Brother turns on brother to win the ultimate prize, the throne of England, in this dazzling account of the wars of the Plantagenets. They are the claimants and kings who ruled England before the Tudors.

The White Queen tells the story of a woman of extraordinary beauty and ambition who, catching the eye of the newly crowned boy king, marries him in secret and ascends to royalty. While Elizabeth rises to the demands of her exalted position and fights for the success of her family, her two sons become central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the missing princes in the Tower of London whose fate is still unknown. From her uniquely qualified perspective, Philippa Gregory explores this most famous unsolved mystery of English history, informed by impeccable research and framed by her inimitable storytelling skills.

While I think Gregory is an excellent story teller, I found this book to be a little over romantic. But overall a very good book about a women who is not written about all that much. I hope to see more books about her. 4 out of 5

C.S. Harris, When Gods Die

June, 1811. On a summer's evening at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, the beautiful young wife of an aging Marquis is found dead in the arms of the Prince Regent himself. From her back protrudes a jeweled dagger that once belonged to Bonnie Prince Charlie. Around her neck lies an ancient blue stone and silver necklace said to have been worn by the Druid priestesses of Wales. Legend credited the necklace with mysterious powers—until it was lost at sea with its last owner, the mother of Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin.
Second book in a series about a Nobel man with a heart. The story digs deeper into the mystery surrounding the hero's mother whom Devlin thought drowned off the coast of Brighton. It's now looking as if she lives, that she sailed away from her family. Leaving behind an 11 year old boy to a father that may not be his. The most interesting thing about Harris's writing to me is her layers of mystery that she is slowly building up to. She has created like able characters who are true to their time period. I did skip a few pages though but overall a good story. I keep reading because I care for her characters and want to know how the mysteries within will end. 4 out of 5

Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold

Blurb: At the end of her life, Catherine, the cast-off wife of Charles Dickens, gave the letters she had received from her husband to their daughter Kate, asking her to donate them to the British Museum, "so the world may know that he loved me once." The incredible vulnerability and heartache evident beneath the surface of this remark inspired Gaynor Arnold to write Girl in a Blue Dress. Arnold brings the spirit of Catherine Dickens to life in the form of Dorothea "Dodo" Gibson – a woman who is doomed to live in the shadow of her husband, Alfred, the most celebrated author in the Victorian world.
This book made me very thankful of what time period I live in. To have a husband set a wife asside as Dickens did is just so unimaginable to me. Gaynor does an excellent job of bringing the overly self involved Dickens to life. I read a great deal about Dickens before reading this book so I could see how Gaynor would weave fact with fiction. I only wish she would have had Dickens and the fictional Gibson's childhoods more the same. It would have made Dickens to be more understood of some of the things he did in life, how obsessed he was with work and providing for his family, and in some ways it would have made him even more selfish for casting off his unwanted wife. Overall and excellent first author book with a story that moves right along with well written characters. Gaynor lets us view through Victorian era window to visit with a family with a full range of emotions. 5 out of 5

Charlaine Harris, From Dead To Worse

Blurb: After the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina, and the manmade horror of the explosion at the vampire summit, Sookie Stackhouse is safe but dazed, yearning for things to get back to normal. But her boyfriend Quinn is among the missing. And things are changing, whether the weres and vamps in her corner of Louisiana like it or not. In the ensuing battles, Sookie faces danger, death…and once more, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood ceases flowing, her world will be forever altered.Book 8 in the series. We just love the HBO series True Blood, so I wanted to listed to one of the CD books. Overall the story is very good but some of the characters are a little different from the show, this is the only fault I have. Book has excellent flow and well developed characters. 4.5 out of 5