SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE by Sarah Schmidt

PUBLISHER: Atlantic Monthly Press, 8/2017
GENRE: Historical Fiction/Retelling
SETTING: Massachusetts, USA, 1892
MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to her maid: Someone has killed Father. The brutal ax-murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, leaves little evidence and many unanswered questions. While neighbors struggle to understand why anyone would want to harm the respected Bordens, those close to the family have a different tale to tell of a father with an explosive temper; a spiteful stepmother; and two spinster sisters, with a bond even stronger than blood, desperate for their independence.

As the police search for clues, Emma comforts an increasingly distraught Lizzie whose memories of that morning flash in scattered fragments. Shifting among the perspectives of the unreliable Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the housemaid Bridget, and the enigmatic stranger Benjamin, the events of that fateful day are slowly revealed through a high-wire feat of storytelling.

MY THOUGHTS: This is a fictionalized retelling of an infamous unsolved true crime case. I know about the case so it was easy to follow along and I knew who the characters were ahead of time. I didn't like the constant shifting around from the day of the murders to various times in the past and the story did drag a bit. Chapters alternate between the points of view of Lizzie, Emma, Bridget, and Benjamin, and I liked that.

I didn't like the addition of Benjamin, a character not part of the true case, and cohort of her uncle John, or what Uncle John was up to with him. It didn't really make any sense for John to plan what he did, he had nothing to gain by it, and what didn't eventually happen was too coincidental to be believable. I do like how the author made it seem like each character except Emma could have been guilty and presented situations /reasons why they'd want to off them. I wanted to see what she did with Lizzie at the end, make her guilty or innocent, so it was exciting to see where it was leading.

Lizzie was made out to be odd and at times, childlike, and she did some gross things like peeked under the sheets the bodies were under and licked blood of her finger at other times, as did another character. She was made to be excited somewhat by the deaths and I don't think I liked that.

FORTY WHACKS: New Evidence in the Life and Legend of Lizzie Borden by David Kent

PUBLISHER: Yankee Books, 1992 

GENRE: Nonfiction/True Crime 

AUTHOR PHOTO: link 

MY GRADE: A 

SYNOPSIS: The Fall River, Massachusetts, murders of well-to-do Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby, are as fascinating to the audience of today as they were to those who followed the trial of Lizzie Borden -- the daughter accused of the murders. This vivid account gives a detailed picture of the nightmarish murder scene, the suspects, and the frenzied days when the nation hungered for news of the trial. Combining newly released evidence and extensive court transcripts, the author shows why there was insufficient evidence to prove Lizzie's involvement -- and why her jurors had no choice but to free her. 

MY THOUGHTS: I don't have much to say about this. It's a well-written and very thorough account of the circus that was the Lizzie Borden trial in 1893, the year after the murders. It's comprised of a whole lot of trial transcripts, which I appreciate having in book form but I did get bored reading them. There are also newspaper transcripts from the time. Are are ten pages of photos of Lizzie's family, including her birth mother, and the crime scenes. This was published in 1992 and I don't know if all of these photos were available at the time but I'm sure they're all online now.

The author seems appalled that Lizzie was even arrested, let alone tried for two murders for which there's no evidence against her and set out to showcase the lack of evidence. Lack of evidence doesn't mean she's innocent, Mr, Kent! The author died before this could be published. I don't like him saying that Abby Borden was unattractive. It was very unprofessional.

THE CRY OF THE OWL by Patricia Highsmith

PUBLISHER: Harper and Row, 1962
GENRE: Fiction/Contemporary Suspense
SETTING: Pennsylvania, USA
WIKI: link
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: This "extraordinary story" (Julian Symons) begins with an act of naive voy­eurism. Robert Forester, a depressed but fundamentally decent man, liked to watch Jenny through her kitchen window, a harmless palliative, as he saw it, to his lonely life and failed marriage. As he is drawn into her life, however, the recriminations of his simple pleasure shatter the deceptive calm of this small Pennsylvania town. With striking clarity and horrible inevitability, Forester is caught up in a series of deaths in which he is the innocent bystander, presumed guilty.

MY THOUGHTS/SPOILERS: It's a good thing things picked up almost 100 pages in else this would have gotten just two stars. I think most of the main characters are poorly written and just awful because of it. The time span may be five or six months.

Robert is almost thirty. He's passive and pretty bland. He's depressed with a past suicide attempt, from New York but moved to Pennsylvania the year before to work as an industrial engineer. He's separated from his wife, Nickie, but they divorce about a month after the story starts. She's incredibly immature, unstable, and out to make his life miserable for absolutely no reason. She teams up with another bad character later on. She's a character who needed backstory.

Jenny is twenty-three and works as a bank teller. She's got serious mental issues. She breaks up with her boyfriend, Greg, who's five years older, and he turns into a stalker who's out for blood. The story begins to revolve around him for over half the book. It's somewhat interesting finding out what happened to him after getting into a fist fight with Robert but was sort of predictable.

There are too many stupid and unbelievable things happening in this book that cause it to get a C rating from me: Jenny befriends Robert after catching him spying on her in her yard one night. She tells her parents she's seeing a married man. He's not interested in dating her but later does. For no reason that I can see Jenny breaks up with him though she's become obsessed with him. She does something bad after that and again, I don't know why. An idiot neighbor makes someone, at gunpoint, give a gun back to a bad guy. What?!

The ending was very abrupt right after awful things happened and you're left puzzled and to draw your own conclusions.

THE BUTCHER'S HOOK by Janet Ellis

PUBLISHER: Two Roads, 2/2016
GENRE: Historical Fiction
SETTING: England, 1763
MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: London, summer 1763. At nineteen, Anne Jaccob is awakened to the possibility of joy when she meets Fub, the butcher's apprentice, and begins to imagine a life of passion with him.

The only daughter of well-to-do parents, Anne lives a sheltered life. Her home is a miserable place. Though her family want for nothing, her father is uncaring, her mother is ailing, and the baby brother who taught her to love is dead. Unfortunately her parents have already chosen a more suitable husband for her than Fub. But Anne is a determined young woman, with an idiosyncratic moral compass. In the matter of pursuing her own happiness, she shows no fear or hesitation. Even if it means getting a little blood on her hands.

MY THOUGHTS: This story took just over 200 pages to get going but boy did it get going. The author took her time, too much so, detailing the boring, mundane life of Anne, starting when she was twelve. The synopsis says she's nineteen but I don't think that was mentioned in the book. Her father doesn't seem to like her much and I don't know why. Her mother is always in bed recovering from some miscarriage or such, and she seems like a decent parent, though absent.

The synopsis says Anne is from a well-to-do family but I never sensed that she was. I don't know why but I imagined her in a typical house that lower middle class people lived in that as isolated from neighbors. The only staff was one cook, Jane, and one housekeeper, Grace, though they are only a family of three so maybe two employees was normal for only three well-off people back then. Nothing in the house was ever described, nor was the outside of the house, so I never felt any opulence. The author was very descriptive about most things, especially gross things, which I appreciated. The atmosphere felt gloomy but not quite Gothic to me, but maybe it was. Like a lot of books, all the action took place right at the end.

Anne meets Fub (Frederick) Warner, who works for the butcher, Titus Levener. He's beneath her station in life and he thinks they can't be together because of it so they have to be secretive in their affair. She's taken with him and will do what she can to have him. We don't know how old he is. I like his character. I like too when he told her twice to bring money with her when they meet to go to the fair. He wanted her to pay for it all.

Every bad thing that happened in the last 70 pages or so involving Anne, and that's how long it took for anything to really happen, I really liked, especially the bell tower incident. That'll teach ya to try blackmailing someone. I didn't realize what was about to happen until right before it did. And the fire scene? Great and dramatic, just like out of a horror movie. I have mixed feelings about the ending, as in the very last page. Where on earth was Anne going? It seems like a possible set-up for a sequel, but I just don't think that was the plan. It just shouldn't have taken over 200 pages of a 340 page book to see Anne's bad deeds in action and I wish incidents had been peppered throughout the story.

LEMONADE by Nina Pennacchi, Translated by Scott P. Sheridan

PUBLISHER: AmazonCrossing, 7/2015
ORIGINAL PUB: 2011 in Italian
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1826
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: As a young woman in Victorian England, Anna Champion knows all too well the social mores that value prettiness over sense, and etiquette over honesty. But when she stands up to the boorishness of dashing Christopher Davenport at a summertime ball, Anna unwittingly attracts his wrath—and becomes entangled in his malicious scheming.

After a lifetime of harboring shame and resentment, Christopher, a ruthless con artist, wants revenge, and unfortunately for Anna, he’s decided that she will be the perfect pawn in his terrible plot. With a fierceness of spirit uncommon in well-bred young ladies in the nineteenth century, Anna will have to use her intelligence and courage to protect her loved ones. But can she also save herself?

MY THOUGHTS/SPOILERS: I've finally read the worst anti-hero ever. I think this is the only romance novel where I wished the main couple didn't have a happily ever after. It should have been titled, "How to Survive a Madman" instead. Spoiler about the book's title; it comes from someone spilling lemonade on someone and someone else getting lemonade dumped on them.

Christopher is twenty-five and out for blood. He's tall, has dark hair and blue eyes. He's a wealthy financier and land owner. He grew up in a brothel for his first five years of life, then he hit the streets for awhile until a family that knew his mother took him in. The subplot is about him seeking revenge on his biological father, with help from his cousin Matthew, for causing his young prostitute mother's suicide twenty years previous. His plan is twisted and plays out at the very end. That part was my favorite of the whole story.

Christopher is a very violent, ugly person, and rotten to the core, like his father. To call him damaged would be an understatement. He rapes Anna multiple times and hits her repeatedly in the face for about nine pages (p. 133-142) during the same incident. He shoves her into a bookcase on page 65 and on page 68 he grabs her by the wrists and shoves her back into the same bookcase. Later on in a carriage he sits next to her and grabs her by the back of her hair to make her look up at him. Another time he grabs her by the nape of the neck and pulls her hair. She smacked him twice too at other times, one of which is before the rape. He practically forces her to marry him and threatens her throughout the marriage with various things, using her family has leverage. She's truly trapped.

Anna is maybe twenty, I'm not exactly sure, has brown hair and amber eyes. She's very strong in this situation and is really stuck with Christopher, who's terrorizing her. She lives with her father and is the oldest of four siblings. Her father is practically dying and thinks the world of Christopher, not knowing he's abusive. We don't know anything about Anna's background or where her mother is. I supposed she died.

The only reason this book didn't get an A from me is because it's a bit slow-moving and Christopher needed to do more groveling throughout the book, not just at the very end. That could have made him an even better character, and I feel he was a great anti-hero. The story, both with Anna and the subplot, is very interesting to me but it fails miserably as a romance, but that's alright with me. Christopher and Anna are just the type of characters I love to read about. He's a disaster and she's got a very strong constitution. I like that the prologue starts out with a gruesome scene. That scene is what sets five-year-old Christopher off on a deadly mission twenty years later.

There are a couple mistakes in the print book, like a couple of sentences are missing a word, a word is misspelled, and once instead of calling Daniel Chris' half-brother, he's called his step-brother. This isn't self-published. It's professionally published/edited through Amazon imprint AmazonCrossing so mistakes like that shouldn't happen.

MY STORYBOOK OF FAIRIES & ELVES: A Collection of 20 Magical Stories by Nicola Baxter

PUBLISHER: Armadillo, 11/2018
GENRE: Children's Fiction
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: This captivating collection presents a score of stories from a mysterious kingdom of fantastical creatures in an anthology of 20 tales about fairies, princesses, dragons, mermaids, unicorns and wizards. Explore the mysterious world of the fairies and elves; follow the adventures of the dreamland fairies, whose task it is to choose the right dream for everyone; then discover the secrets of the princess fairies have palaces and pretty dresses, but they can also do magic! Find out more about these fascinating creatures and how they use their special powers to help make the world a wonderful and beautiful place.

Enjoy irresistible stories such as the Blossom Ball, Princess Rose's Secret and The Butterfly Babies. This enchanting illustrated storybook is sure to engage all young readers, being perfect for reading aloud to small children, or for more confident readers to enjoy by themselves. The cover of the book is decorated with shiny silver foil and glittery stars.

SUMMARY: This book was previously published by the same publisher in 2012 under the title My Treasury of Fairies & Elves and it has a different cover. I think all of these stories have been published previously in either their own books or in compilations. Her book The Magical World of Fairies has some of these stories in it. There's a section of stories in here called "The Dreamland Fairies" and those appear to be from her book "Dreamland Fairies." There's a section of stories in here called "The Fairy Princesses" and those six stories are from "Storybook of Fairy Princesses", also known as "Fairy Princesses." The first section of stories are called "The Magical World of Fairies & Elves" and contains eight stories, some of which I know are in other compilations. I haven't seen a fairies compilation of hers that has more stories in it than this one.

MY THOUGHTS: This is a large and heavy 240 page hardcover without a dust jacket. It has a built-in ribbon bookmark, but I didn't use that. The page edges are silver. It's fully illustrated in full-color. The illustrations are beautiful and very colorful. Most characters have the same face and they're ugly so that's really the only negative in this whole book. Images from the title pages of all twenty stories are here. Random images from the book that I like are here. Click on all images to enlarge them.

All but a couple of the stories are cute and/or interesting and are appropriate for small children. There are only a couple stories where everyone in it isn't blonde. There aren't many elves in this either.

I'm going to summarize the twenty stories below.

THE TIME OF BEGINNINGS- It's almost spring and Queen of the Fairies visits the realm to check on everyone. They fill her in on what's going on. Vernal is a female fairy and she's in charge of making sure things get done. The other fairies tell her about problems involving all the creatures in the woods and streams, such as a baby duck getting stuck in the mud and eggs in a nest that are unattended. Since the sun shone on Vernal's face and warmed it, she announced to the fairies that it was time for everyone to fly for the first time since winter (fairies can't fly in the winter.) The story ends with a baby fairy being born. This is a really cute story about helping others out.

THE ROYAL FLYING RACE- A group of fairies, Leafe, Bramble, Azure, Swift, Barley, live in Fairyland. Someone gets the idea to have a race, young fairies versus older. The Queen is to attend, making it a royal race, and she gives out prizes at the end.

THE BUTTERFLY BABIES- This story is really cute. It's about two young fairies, Catkin and Rosebud. They find butterfly eggs, keep it a secret so only they can tend to them themselves. They don't understand that butterflies come from caterpillars, so when they see black things wiggling around in the web, they're very scared and think they're black monsters. Another fairy, Silverbark, explains what they're seeing. Here's my favorite image from it.

THE BLOSSOM BALL- It's a midsummer party where the youngest fairies decide what their final names will be, if they decide to change it. They serve drinks made from honey, buttercup bread, cowslip cake, pollen pudding. Their dresses are made from flower petals, feathers, berries, seeds, and cobwebs.

THE FRUITS OF THE FOREST- Fairies meet at the Gathering to discuss what they're going to do during harvest time. The Fairy Queen overseas everything. She sends everyone out to gather grains, berries, nuts, to name just a few things. An unnamed fairy who shows up late to help ends up helping the Fairy Queen make things for the upcoming party.

THE UNINVITED GUEST- The image on the book's cover is from this story. This is basically part two of the previous story, The Fruits of the Forest, where they were about to begin a party to celebrate the end of harvest. Musicians are playing instruments made of acorn drums, snail-shell horns, and seed-pod shakers. Strix, an owl, is the uninvited guest. The Queen of the Fairies invites him to the party since he's already there. He tells them a storm is coming and invites them to have the party inside the hollow base of an oak tree.

A WINTER'S JOURNEY- This is about how all the fairies have to find places to live for the upcoming winter season. They don't like to be outside in the winter and are unable to fly because their wings are too stiff from the cold. The Queen gets sick. A fairy named Merrydown takes a sunbeam they'd caught over the summer and on foot goes looking for the Queen. She finds her, releases the sunbeam into the room and the Queen gets better. Merrydown is invited to stay there for the winter.

THE SECRETS OF THE SNOW- This is an imaginative story. The fairies can't go out in the snow because they could get buried in, since they're so small. Shimmer, Shine, and Glitter live in a tree trunk. They get the idea to dig connecting tunnels in the snow so they can go outside. One tunnel leads to another tree trunk with another family living in it. They all play together until the snow begins to melt, then they have to go back to their own trees to wait out the winter.

A DREAM FOR EVERYONE- Some fairies from Dreamland help animals have happy dreams. The dream requests come to the fairies in the sky via a bubble that bursts. We meet Mrs. Matilda Rabbit and her five babies, Great Aunt Phoebe Frog and her great-nephew, Glurgle, Mr. Benjamin Bird, and a fish named Sammy. Fairies visit each one and help them dream. A fairy named Bluebell helps a rabbit dream of a pirate rabbit named Captain Thunderthump and he's got a peg leg!

A DREAM FOR DRAGONS- A fairy named Snowflake has to consult with the Dreamland Fairy to help her give good dreams to three dragons who live in a cave under a volcano. A wizard named Longbeard shows up out of nowhere to help Snowflake. They travel together on his magic carpet. They travel to a castle where a small green dragon named Ashe lives. He agrees to help them come up with dreams for the three dragons, then flies them both home on himself!

A DREAM FOR MERMAIDS- Marina is a water fairy and has no wings because she doesn't fly. She sees a mermaid crying tears of pearls and asks her what's wrong. She's crying because she misses her family. Marina travels up to the clouds to talk to the Dream Counsil. She tells them she wants to send the mermaids family a dream so they'll dream of her but that's not allowed. You can only send someone a dream if they've asked for it. Marina travels on a dolphin until she finds the mermaid's family. She overhears them talking of their sister so she asks them about it. Since their sister is on their minds, they send dream requests which are granted. Though they can't see their sister, they can at least dream about her.

A DREAM FOR UNICORNS- A fairy named Serena got a dream request from a unicorn, which is odd since unicorns never sleep. Children have stopped believing in unicorns, which is causing them to get sleepy. Serena and another fairy, Starlight, send unicorn dreams to children who've not asked for any specific dream.

A DREAM FOR A WIZARD- This story was very boring. It's about a male wizard named Moonbeam. He's an inspector and he wants to watch Marigold and Emmelina as they help others with their dreams requests.

A DREAM FOR YOU- A very boring story. We're told that we can do anything and be anything we want in a dream.

PRINCESS ROSE'S SECRET- Princess Rose has three sisters. She prefers to be outside as much as possible. She walks through a portal which is a floral archway, to follow a singing bird. She's shrunk in size and is sitting on a branch with the bird and she's now a fairy. She has the ability to hear all the animals and insects in the woods. Her sisters come to find her and the bird tells her she has to leave but can come back through the portal whenever she wants, so she reluctantly goes home. Her mother, the Queen, is sick. Only the juice from the petals of the Evening Star flower can cure her but the flower is nowhere to be found. A white dove, though it's yellow in the illustration, brings the flower to Rose's window, so she's able to cure her mother.

PRINCESS MAGNOLIA'S MAGIC- She's a little girl and she learns that like her mother could do at her age, she can do magic. The birds and flowers on her wallpaper come alive. A bird tells her he can lead her into a magic world whenever she wants, just come and find him. She was able to do good with her magic by turning a town that had been ruined by volcanic ash back to normal.

PRINCESS DAISY'S DARKNESS- Daisy and her dog Thor were out walking and heard a bird singing. The dog ran off and suddenly Daisy could fly. She had shrunk in size. She wished the approaching winter would skip them this year, so it did. Animals became sick and confused and plants died. Daisy and to find the singing bird to help her turn it back to winter.

THE PRINCESSES PRESENTS- Each of seven sisters thinks of which country they want to send their father, the King, to for his birthday. He apparently dreamed he'd traveled them all, which caused him to lose sleep. He told him what he really wanted for his birthday was to have a portrait painted of all of them together.

PRINCESS NERINA'S PROBLEM- She's a fairy princess, which means she can do magic. One day she's out riding her horse and decides to change her hair to black and her horse to black. Prince Aveme sees her and wants to marry her. He goes to her home one day and tells her parents he wants to marry her. Nerina comes out but she's not black-haired and her horse is back to white. She tells him about her magic and he's put off by it. He tells his mother. He then accepts Nerina's magic and they plan to get married.

MANY KINDS OF MAGIC- This is about the wedding of Nerina and Aveme, from the previous story. On the day of the wedding, it snows, causing guests, food, and musicians to not be able to get there. The princesses from The Princesses Presents are invited. They all worked their magic to clear the snow so the guests could arrive.