I was hoping for another Maise Dobbs. Not even close. Almost gave up in the early pages because the 1940s slang was just overwhelming. Throwing in period slang in every sentence does not make it a "pitch perfect period novel" But maybe that's just me.
The mystery never really came together and in the end, it was a wee bit ridiculous. Not a series I'll be continuing with.

Really charming book about a girl heading west on the oprhan trains. Plenty of fun characters, and Rodzina herself is a gem. I love that she uses the word "radishes" as a fake curse word. Great historical details that didn't feel forced.
Of course, everyone ends up all right in the end, but I think I'm okay with that.

The other night, I picked up this book and realized I had about 150 pages to go. So I said to myself: "Melissa, you should not finish this book tonight. You need to read until 11:15 and turn the light out and go to sleep like a good girl."
Umm, yeah. That worked really well--at 12:30, I closed the book in complete and utter satisfaction.
I loved the premise and loved Katsa. There were a few moments about midway that I said "really?" but then I got over it. I fell completely in love with Bitterblue, and I might have stopped breathing during their journey across the mountains.
Highly recommended and looking forward to the next one! It doesn't quite compare to my love of Robin McKinley, but it's up there nad definitely made me think of Aerin.

A couple of months ago, I was standing in the clearance section of Half-Price books with a friend. We were talking about books (of course!) and suddenly an older woman approached me and said "If you want a great book, read this." and handed me The Thirteenth Tale. So, expectations were high.
And they remained high for the first 50 pages or so and then plummeted. It was all just too much. I know it was a sort of homage to Jane Eyre and Rebecca, but it felt a bit more like V. C. Andrews. I finished it, but was not satisified.

I confess that I didn't read every page--the fishing descriptions got a little old. And it's such a big book that I did get overwhelmed at times.
But the writing is the kind that you can wrap yourself up in. Mitchell's character studies can't be beat, and it's a wonderful slice of New York and American history.
I only wish I had discovered him in smaller pieces!

The first Ibbotson I've read.
The story of a struggling historic house, or rather castle, hit a bit close to home, though I'm not aware of any ghosts we can recruit to help out.
The characters were charming, though the Blackscar Island plot seemed a little bit too much.

If I was being objective, this would be 2.5 stars. But it's about a murder in a museum! How can I be objective about that?
I don't read a lot of cozy mysteries, so not sure how to judge based on that, but for the museum nerd in me, I loved:
--the very frank discussion of how hard it is to raise money
--the extreme backlog of cataloging and keeping track of things
--the smarmy director
--the aggravating until you love her board member
--the nerdy archivist (who is the one that gets killed)
--the museum gossip chain
Lots and lots of inside jokes that I found hysterical, though I don't know if non-museum folks would. However, this book will totally make the rounds among my Dallas museum friends. She gets an amazing number of things right about working in museums, other than the whole murder/theft scam thing. . .
Is it a great book? Not really. But it was fun! Will definitely keep an eye out for the rest of the series. The only thing missing was a charming, fabulous director of education. . .

I can't even count the number of times I've read this book, but I do know it's been years since I've read a LMM cover to cover. Emily is darker than Anne, but truly a wonderful book. Perfection actually. It was so much fun, I think I'll be rereading quite a few old favorites in the year to come.

Re-reading, again, December 2010.

Re-read in December 2010.
One of my favorites--how I wish I had met Emily earlier in my life!