I am not at all into makeup, cosmetics, & only the most basic of skin care. When I was asked to review this book, I agreed because Mary Kay is a household name, but what did I know about the history of the company? I didn't even know that there was an actual Mary Kay, let alone anything else.

The story starts in the beginning, of course, with the author, Jackie Brown, meeting Mary Kay for the first time, and goes on from there. The book reminds me of a badly written soap opera (not that the book is badly written, that's not what I mean), with so many one-sided, narcassistic characters, drama on every other page, lies, deceit, twists & turns, people being sued & killing themselves, and did I mention the drama? I was absolutely horrified that people treated each other the way people did in this book. I've never bought Mary Kay cosmetics, and I sure as heck won't buy them now; even if half of the things are true, I wouldn't want to support that company.

If you are at all interested in cosmetics, how to successful run & grow a business, or interested in soap operas *smile* then add this book to your TBR pile!

(I received a copy to review for free)

I've been reading this book now for 3.5 weeks, when it really should have only taken me a day or two. The action is very slow, there's not a lot of time for development of the characters. I could not get emotionally invested in any of the three main characters telling the tale. Each chapter is incredibly short, and this drove me nuts throughout the book.

I love Mary, and I love anything vaguely Tudor, so I've been wanting to read this book for a while. I wasn't crazy about the back-and-forth taking-turns-telling-the-story in the Boleyn Inheritance, and I was so disappointed when I realized that this book was more of the same.

The story moves so slowly, that I was bored throughout most of the book. Only my stubbornness & love for Gregory's other books, made me force myself to continue.

As others have said, if you are really interested in the history or Mary, or if you are in general a Gregory fan as I am, then the book is absolutely worth reading. It's not a good book to try, if you've never read one of hers before.

I wanted to read this book because as much as I love history, I tend to read European history & what I know about American history is probably lacking. Though I had read the blurb about the book, what I hold in my hand wasn't what I had pictured, either. I'm not really sure what I had pictured - I think more a traditional book with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and this book isn't it.

You get a one page blurb about each day in the calendar - and each page has a few paragraphs about one particular event, and then a few, one liners about other events also taking place that day.

It's the type of book that, though very interesting, isn't really one you'd sit down & read for a few hours at a time. I found myself picking it up, and reading a few pages at a time. After I read the first couple of months, I jumped around a bit & picked out dates from my own personal history: May 6 (my mother's birthday): the first time Bob Hope performed for the military (ironically, my mother loved Bob Hope, and always thought it was nice he performed for them, though nice isn't quite the right word). September 30th (our wedding anniversary) actually talks about a few events in 1948, leading up to the end of airlifts to help the Berliners cut off from supplies. My grandfather & husband's grandfather bought fought in the war. Each date, that was personal to me or my family, could be tied in to another personal aspect of my life, making the book all the more interesting to read.

As a knitter & crocheter, naturally I enjoy reading about the subject, whether a non-fiction or a fiction book. This book is a memoir about Kyoko's life, starting with her childhood & a personal tragedy. She grows up, moves to America, gets married, and lives her life. The stories about her life, are intertwined with stories about learning to knit, making her first sweater, discovering circular knitting & Elizabeth Zimmermann. I'm a huge fan of EZ, so whenever someone talks about discovering her for the first time, I get a big thrill.

I am giving this book four stars for two reasons: one, I had difficulties keeping track of time. She goes back to her childhood so often, that I often couldn't tell if she was talking about the past or the present. Towards the end, she was retelling a story involving her husband that I thought took place in the past, until I realized after rereading it, she actually meant the present.

Two, I felt the story moved along slowly - I guess I just like more action in my books.

Again, these are just my personal opinions, just because I felt the book moved slowly doesn't mean someone else wouldn't greatly love the pacing.



I received a copy of this book for free from netgalley.com

An interesting & different look at vampires - quite a few things are definitely different in this book, then in traditional vampire folklore.

There are some very interesting characters in the book, but the main character is way too naive, and often contradicts herself. One of the more interesting characters in the book you never actually meet, and when she finally does show up, she's dead. For example, throughout the book, she kept telling herself she didn't believe in vampires, she didn't believe in vampires - over & over again. But then when she finds out the guy she likes really is a vampire, she accepts this very matter of factly, without needing any proof whatsoever that he was a real vampire, and not a vampire wannabee.

There's some romance in the book, nothing terribly compelling about any of the scenes. The cops are complete idiots, which drove me a little crazy.

I admit, I did read this book very quickly, I think mainly because I was waiting for the book to pick up speed. What you think is just an introduction & character development, is basically the actual plot. I kept reading because I was waiting for that final big bang that comes at the end of a great book - and there really wasn't anything.

Even with all those negatives, I did still enjoy the book. It's not anything I'll ever read again, but I don't consider it wasted time reading it, either.

With a foreword from Jessica, one of the co-owners of the "facebook for knitters" site ravelry.com, I jumped at the chance to get a copy of this book to review from netgalley.com. While the galley was very rough (there were notes back & forth in between the actual text, and I had a few dozen pages of garbage to skip through), the true light of the book shown through. Different designers shared a project, something that was suggestive of the designer's usual style.

The book comes with 26 patterns, divided up into different sections that's the usual for knitting books. There's a good variety of projects in different skill sets. Each one starts with a little biography about the designer & their blogging history/background, before one dives into the pattern. There were a couple of projects that caught my eye especially, including "Working all the Angles" blanket & the Lubov Scarf.

A very disappointing book. Being a crafter, & growing up always making homemade presents because that's just what we did (and of course a lack of money, too) I had really high hopes for this book. But I didn't see one idea that was original in the book. Everything was way, way too basic/simplistic - hang up Christmas lights! Reuse your Christmas cards! Buy a real tree or get a used fake one (what does that have to do with a *homemade* Christmas, anyway? Last I knew, I didn't make my own tree).

And even if you came across an idea that you liked, that was new to you (it's possible, if the person who bought the book doesn't go online at all), there are no real instructions to guide you on your way, and no photographs to give you an idea of where you were headed, either.

I picked up this book to read following the only other Scott book I've ever read, Royal Harlot, and in preparation for the Royal Mistress challenge that I am doing next year (library copy). I greatly enjoyed the first book, finding it well written, paced well, though I couldn't attest to how historically accurate it was, not knowing much about the time period.

This book is written about much the same time as Royal Harlot, being about another of King Charles II's mistresses, Louise de Keroualle. Some historical events actually take place during both books (most significantly the meeting between Charles & his beloved sister, who lived in France), but are told from two very different point of views. The book starts with Louise's life long before she ever meets the King of England; in fact, she doesn't officially become his mistress until page 278. I think for this reason, the book really drags. Louise does seem to really love the King, so she does have that going for her. I couldn't get into Louise's character at all, even at the end of the book I just couldn't like her.


So this is another one of those books that I will only give 4 stars, because though I greatly *liked* the book, I didn't love it.

Received review copy, but declining review. Book is too full of errors to get through.

I enjoyed this book, for the most part, and would recommend it to other fans of historical fiction, especially other Tudor fans like I am.

That being said, though I did love the main character, Jane, I felt the "big mystery/secret" was very obvious, from the very first time it was hinted about. The series being called "Secrets of the Tudor Court", I was looking for secrets, plural, and the only other "secret" was a pretty silly, no one really cares kind of secret. I was definitely disappointed in that aspect.

My other big disappointment is from all of the reviews I had read about this book (reviews read after I bought the book), I was really expecting to get swept away in the historical narration & details, and I actually found them extremely lacking. If it wasn't for the historical names thrown about & the names of various castles/locations, you wouldn't have had any idea that the book took place during the Tudor court.

Otherwise, the book was a fast read, and I mostly likely would read the next book in the series, but I wouldn't rush to read it, either.