Please visit me at my new historical romance book review site, Historical Romances, Reviewed, a place strictly for historical romances.
THE GNOME FROM NOME, BUTTERMILK BEAR, GRAMPA-LOP, KARTUSCH- OLD CHILDREN'S BOOKS BY STEPHEN COSGROVE
TITLE: THE GNOME FROM NOMEPUBLISHER: Price/Stern/Sloan Publishers, 1974
READ FREE: link
MY GRADE: B
SYNOPSIS: A gnome in Alaska desperately tries to find a way to get warm from the inside out.
MY THOUGHTS: The unnamed gnome meets an unnamed otter in Alaska. Looks like later publications of this book have given the gnome a name. Neither can get warm and they think if they meet humans they can learn from them the secret to how to get warm. They do something that draws humans to where they are and a kind man helps them. He tells them that the secret to warmth is something they've already got in each other. That's not necessarily true because the gnome and otter have just met so couldn't have really developed what it is the human told them they have already. My favorite illustration from the book is here.
PUBLISHER: Price Stern Sloan, Inc, 1987
READ FREE: link
MY GRADE: A
SYNOPSIS: A bunny and a bear want to be friends but each set of parents is prejudiced against the other animal group.
MY THOUGHTS: Buttermilk, a female rabbit, encounters a few creatures in the woods when she goes searching for 'smelly, old bears' that her parents said moved into the neighborhood- a beaver, skunk, and a bear cub named Jingle, who's gender is told, who tells her they're trying to find the rabbits their parents were talking about. This book isn't to be confused with another one from this series called 'Buttermilk.' It's a really sweet story but the ending isn't positive in the way you think it will be. That's why it doesn't get an A+ from me. The illustrations are colorful and beautiful. My favorite one is here.
PUBLISHER: Price Stern Sloan, 1981
READ FREE: link
MY GRADE: A
SYNOPSIS: Despite the disapproval of their parents, the young rabbits flock to hear old Grampa-Lop tell his magical tales every afternoon.
MY THOUGHTS: There's really no moral to this story. The older rabbits, not their parents like the synopsis says, really dislike the baby rabbits listening to stories told by Grampa-Lop, who turns into the Wizard of the Wood while telling them. He's old and his fur has turned gray but when telling the stories, it turns silver. They don't like the 'lies' he tells the baby rabbits and won't let them go into the woods to listen to his stories anymore. The baby rabbits get depressed and can't get any work done so at the suggestion of the babies, they all go to the usual spot in the woods to hear stories told by Grampa-Lop. It's no surprise that the older rabbits like the stories and they all go into the thicket each day to hear his stories. The best part is that Grampa-Lop has bangs. My favorite image is here.
PUBLISHER: Price Stern Sloan, 1978
READ FREE: link
MY GRADE: A
SYNOPSIS: The Furry Eyefulls are so busy trying to see everything beautiful, that they can't even enjoy it! It takes a little blind snake named Kartusch to help them really experience the beauty of their surroundings.
MY THOUGHTS: The Furry Eyeballs are little creatures who never close their eyes or sleep for fear of missing out on seeing something. They encounter blind Kartusch, who teaches them to 'see' with their other senses and they become fast friends. The images in this book are so classically 1970s and I love every one of 'em but this one's my favorite.
LADY BETH by Anonymous
PUBLISHER: Grove Press, 9/1984GENRE: Fiction/Historical Erotica
SERIES: Grove Press Victorian Library
SETTING: Africa/Sudan, late 1880s
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B
FROM PUBLISHER: The terrifying, sanguinary account of a young lady's abduction into slavery. No sooner does the lovely virgin meet her betrothed-- a British officer stationed on duty outside of Khartoum--than she and her entire entourage are captured in the desert by fierce nomads. Prized for her beauty and golden tresses, Lady Beth is forced to endure the erotic demands of feared and virile leaders. Stalwart throughout, and cunning enough to execute one of her captors, Lady Beth caters to their whims until the day arrives for her own escape.
MY THOUGHTS: Nineteen-year-old Lady Beth is traveling with her cousin Pamela and their two servants, Kitty, 23, and Rose, 18. Another servant was sent to help Beth, a very young girl named Zohara. They all get captured in the desert by a group of men and there is plenty of rape, most of which is anal, and murder. One of the ladies meets a gruesome end. There are a few vile things that happen that I'm not comfortable even mentioning, they're that foul. Once the ladies are sold at auction, things tame down quite a bit when they settle in at their new home. They seem happy despite the situation.
Excessive brutality's the name of the game. There was so much violence in the first 138 pages that it almost ruined the book. All but the last 70 pages or so are very brutal. Time span is a year.
This old series from the 80's is pure erotica and this one is hardcore. It's the only one I've ever seen (I think) that has an illustrated cover and I do love this cover.
THE FLAME AND THE FLOWER by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England & South Carolina, USA
WIKI: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C
SYNOPSIS: Doomed to a life of unending toil, Heather Simmons fears for her innocence — until a shocking, desperate act forces her to flee... and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger.
A lusty adventurer married to the sea, Captain Brandon Birmingham courts scorn and peril when he abducts the beautiful fugitive from the tumultuous London dockside. But no power on Earth can compel him to relinquish his exquisite prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed lovely his woman... and to carry her off to far, uncharted realms of sensuous, passionate love.
MY THOUGHTS: Heather is petite, with black hair and dark blue eyes. She's one month from her eighteenth birthday when the story begins in England in June 1799. Her parents are dead. I enjoyed the beginning with Heather living with her verbally abusive aunt Fanny and uncle John Simmons. John is Heather's fathers brother. She goes to stay with Fanny's brother William Court and that's when her life takes a different course. She's left to wander around outside, ends up near the waterfront at night and her life, which just got worse that night, worsens even more when she meets the hero.
Brandon Birmingham is thirty-five with curly black hair, green eyes, and a beard. He's captain of his own ship. His British parents died in America and left him a plantation and land. He has a younger brother, Jeff, who was left a warehouse and money. Brandon's your typical arrogant bodice ripper hero. He raped Heather twice and once the next morning and made no apologies and showed no remorse. He even laughed at her struggling at one point. He says of another character toward the end of the book that they deserve death for attempting to rape Heather yet he did rape her himself months before.
Heather hates Brandon for over half the book for what he's done and Brandon is angered by her. Even after they've married they don't get along for a good portion of it. They're attracted to each other but for no reason Brandon stays away from Heather and they never attempt to have sex with each other. His borderline hatred for her is do to sexual frustration which comes out as anger. Then all of a sudden they get along and act as a normal married couple.
Louisa Wells is a thirty-two year old blonde woman who Brandon's to marry. She's made out to be a slut. He's marrying her to get her land and she's marrying him for financial support. He does her wrong by marrying Heather while in England without letting her know via letter so Louisa wants revenge. Not a whole lot goes on with her but she definitely adds to the plot line and I like her character. He ends up buying her land from her, which he could have just done in the first place and not plan to marry her to gain it.
The beginning of the book was very good and the last eighty-four pages were too but all the story in-between was quite boring. The story spans about eighteen months. The first half takes place in England and the second half, in the USA. The story went from R-rated to PG then back to R-rated. I like the happenings at the end that involved a minor character from early in the story, one you'd never expect to see again.
Heather gives birth to a son named Beau. He gets his own story in the 1998 novel The Elusive Flame, published twenty-six years after this one. Brandon's brother Jeff has his own story in A Season Beyond a Kiss, published twenty-eight years after The Flame and the Flower. Though that book was published two years after the one about Beau, it's considered the second in the series and Beau's, the third. Though a likable character, I have no interest in reading about Jeff.
Here's a nice article on the novel.
DEVILS IN CANDY HOUSES by William Wall
PUBLISHER: Papillon Books, 1974GENRE: Fiction/Suspense/Horror
SETTING: Possibly Michigan, USA
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B
FROM PUBLISHER: Gwendolyn and Charles Karfax were a gentle old couple, serenely sweet and touchingly in love. For amusement, they toasted marshmallows over burning pages of the Bible and practiced sadism. Soon, their attention focused on Kevin and Pam, two children in the neighborhood, for whom, along with the little girl's young mother, they had frightening plans...
MY THOUGHTS: This was a very odd 192 page book that I saw listed on GoodReads. Gwen and Charles are an older couple. His age is sixty but her's is never given. They both have white hair and dentures. They're both described as being "pink and white" with light blue eyes. They look enough alike to be siblings, according to Charles. We aren't told how long they've been married but they have a sexless marriage. I'm under the impression they've never had sex with each other, and she's never had it with anyone. They think of themselves as actual children.
Charles is a rapist of multiple women, only one of which takes place in the book. He has plans of some sort for Kevin, an almost thirteen-year-old boy in the neighborhood, and I never got the sense that it was sexual. Based on something that happened, I think he just wants to do bodily harm to him. Charles tries hard to be a 'gentleman', considers himself one, but I can't see how he could think that.
Gwen has thoughts of pedophilia towards almost-ten-year old Pam, the little blonde girl across the street who's new in town, and wants to see her "without clothing." Charles has nefarious plans for her mother, Patricia. Gwen, I think, is made out to be the crazier one in this relationship. She's got a penchant for castration, of both cats (which arouses Charles sexually) and stuffed animals.
I like the ending with Charles and Gwen but I'd have liked some reasoning/explanation for why it happened and why then and not at some later date. What happened to make them decide to do what they did? I do not like what happens with Kevin and Pam. Looks like it was a set-up for a sequel.
The one complaint I have for this book is that it was too short and we didn't get any backstory on Charles and Gwen and I definitely needed some. I need to know how these two nuts found each other. I also thought the burning of pages out of the Bible to be odd, random, and unexplained.
The title of the book comes from Charles thinking their house looks like a house made of candy, like the witch's house in Hansel and Gretel.
I cannot find any information on this author no matter how hard I Google. This doesn't appear to the the Irish William Wall, which is the only one by that name that shows up. If you know who this one is, please let me know!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)