Almost a Princess by Karen Hall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Almost a Princess is a fun story about Prince Phillippe who is deep trouble. He is in danger of losing the kingdom he has been raised to lead all of his life to a second cousin who has nothing but bad intentions for the country. He is required to be at least engaged within 30 days of his father's death and his father is suddenly very ill. I received a copy of Almost a Princess from NetGalley in exchange for a review. I am a sucker for stories where the prince needs a princess. This story has a quirk in it that makes it a bit different from royalty marrying a non-royal. In this case, there are some pretty strict rules, which likely are designed to keep the throne within the original royal or titled families of their country. The prince must marry someone who is the member of one of these families and his intended must be at least 21 years of age. He has always been expected to marry a woman from one of these families but she is not yet 21 and she is off studying to be a nurse and traveling. Jordan, who lives in Tennessee, happens to be a descendant of one of these families and she is courted as an emergency to fill in the gap. Perry is sent to speak with Jordan and convince her to help. They immediately have an attraction to one another and it becomes a story where the reader becomes a bit torn in how they hope things will turn out.

Almost a Princess tells a great story about loyalty, friendship and having a family be not only from those you are related to by blood but, also with those are close to you emotionally and physically. It does a good job of developing these relationships. The characters are interesting and the story has a way of keeping this from being the dreaded love triangle. The ending has a huge surprise that the reader does not see coming or even guess it was even in the works.

Disposable Asset by John Altman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disposable Asset is a difficult book for me to review. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for review. It had so many of the things I love in a book. There was a ton of action, a smart protagonist, who reads as extremely flawed, and real and a decent story line. Disposable Asset is the story of a teenage girl that is homeless and taken from the streets and trained as a government asset. This in itself is problematic because she is, in essence, a child. It is bad enough that she is homeless and felt she had no other options but to live on the streets after having such a wonderful background. Terrible circumstances combined to see her living the life of a homeless teenager. This is a life that is dangerous for adults so having a teenager living through it alone is very hard to digest and consider that this actually is happening in real life. But, this gritty part of the book is one of the things that make the story stand out.

Cassie is sent out on what appears to be her first assignment that is successful but, the assignment itself appears to have been extremely controversial. Cassie was betrayed and as she realizes it she is chased by multiple dangerous groups across Russia. This part of the story depicts how skilled she is and how great her instincts are as an asset. Despite her age she is highly aware of how her opponents might think and can respond quickly. She also has the ability to plan quickly and use everyday items to her advantage. This makes the book very exciting and has you cheering for Cassie at the same time you start to dislike her character for what she does to survive. It reads as almost barbaric but, the huge question the reader has to ask themselves is what were her other options given what capture would mean to her, barbaric torture and even possibly death. So, the reader is put into this conundrum of not knowing how to feel about Cassie, especially as she uses innocent people, some more innocent than others, to try and survive. It has to be instinct but part of what makes the reader challenged in their feelings for Cassie is being in tune with her thoughts. But, her trainer took her from the streets because he expected her to be tough and the reader does not truly know if what Cassie is told about her father is the truth. But, one thing we know is that Cassie is a perfect example of being a product of her environment and how circumstances can change a person. The reader is privy to her memories of when she had her parents in her life and the drastic shift in which she has become is something the reader gets to witness. The story definitely is all shadows with no light ever shown, but, I will have to follow, despite all of the darkness I have to see what happens to Cassie.


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Next Stop: Love by Miranda J. Fox
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Next Stop: Love was a good read. I received a copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Next Stop had a wonderful beginning. It was full of barbs and bites between Sophia and Luca on the train ride into Berlin. It created a wonderful start to this book. The give and take between them was funny at times. After they arrived in Berline the reader meets Lisa, Sophia's great friend. She was entertaining and a complex character though we do not know much about where she comes from and who she is, we get a good feel for the type of person she is based upon their conversations. Sophia seems to be a person that draws people to her and also due to her relationship with her mother she is unaware of her own qualities. She becomes friends with Aileen, a co-worker and seems to blend in well at her new job, and to her surprise, with her new boss, the man from the train. Sophia has a lot of work to do to overcome her relationship with her mother which was so negative she had to make a break from it like a thief in the night. Luca is also a wonderfully drawn character that has issues with his father that appear to be a bit like those of Sophia and her mother. Unfortunately for everyone, Luca's father is still actively involved in Marc's entertainment, the company they own and the one that now employs Sophia.

The story was full of fun nights out with the girls, great interactions between the people that work for Marcs Entertainment and tying up of loose ends, even if they were only in the mind of the people involved. The only issue I had with Next Stop: Love was that it took place in Berlin and there was nothing in the story that gave me the feeling that the characters were in Berlin. Nothing that described the setting. It would have been great to get more of that feel from the book, especially with the author being from Berlin. But, the story hit its mark with being a modern romance with a bit of action, it was translated well and I will definitely look for more from this author.

They Call Me Alexandra Gastone by T.A. Maclagan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

They Call Me Alexandra Gastone is a story filled with more twists and turns that keep the reader seriously engaged. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for review. I love espionage stories and this story fits nicely into that label. It has something for all readers, a bit of romance, a bit of action and a lot of intrigue and mystery. Milena is a girl whose father abandoned her to a group called Perun in the country called Olissa where they live in what looks like it is in the Middle East based upon the descriptions. It is a city that has been torn apart by war and continuously being invaded by the countries that surround it because it is not strong enough to protect itself on its own. The U.S. stepped in many years ago and have been there supporting and helping to protect them for 10 years. Perun is a group of underground freedom fighters that wants to oust the current ruler and oust the U.S. who they believe has overstayed its welcome.

Perun has created what amounts to a sleeper cell of children raised to infiltrate the highest levels of the U.S. government through family members of individuals that are powerful in the government. Milena is assigned to become Alexandra Gastone, whose immediate family died in a car accident but, she has a living grandfather that is powerful in the CIA which is where they hope she will grow to be placed when she goes to assume Alexandra's life at the age of 12. Milena goes through major reconstructive surgery and intense training to become ready for her assignment. She assumes Alexandra's place and literally becomes Alexandra to the point that when she is called to active service and the plan is changed from her to infiltrate the CIA and pass on secrets that will help Perun to overthrow Olissa's government to something drastic will Milena do her duty or has she lived as Alexandra so long that this is the life she chooses? There is a serious surprise at the end that really threw me and finding out where this goes next is going to be excellent!

The Collector by Anne-Laure Thiéblemont
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I could say one thing immediately after finishing The Collector I would say "good grief! where on earth is this going?" I received an early release copy from Le French Book (that arranged for NetGalley to provide me with a copy and I love this publisher). Marion works for an auction house and investigates stolen art. She works closely with the police, so closely that she has a weekly meeting with an investigator that specializes in art theft for the police in Paris, France. Marion has developed close relationships with many people in the art world, with one exception, the person who left her a very large art collection in his will, that is, if she can meet the conditions of the will, adding to her role in the art role as that of a collector.

The Collector has some pretty colorful characters from her mother to her best friend, Chris. The people she runs into in her attempt to meet the conditions of the will run the gamut from friendly and helpful to what appears to be quite evil. No one's motive is apparent. Just when you think someone is on Marion's side it turns out they are against her. There is a huge mystery and we are getting to know the person that left the collection to Marion, her own father, Magni, at the same time as she is learning about him. Just when you hope that he left her this huge windfall it seems that possibly it might have been all a game to him. The only issue I had was that the mystery was rolling along at a nice pace and all of a sudden I felt like the police had the answers and we don't know how they got them. Maybe we will find out in the next book. I would not say it exactly ended in a cliff hanger but there was definitely a huge mystery left and so many ways this can go. Is Marion a good person? Is she a bad person? What happens to the art collection she was left if she met the conditions of the will? Having questions at the end of a book that the reader know is the first in a series is okay, especially when the initial story line has given the reader some closure to the story they were invested in with the current book and The Collector definitely does that and I look forward to seeing where the author goes next!

Press Release

Excerpt from The Collector by Anne-Laure Thiéblemont

 

One evening, I sat Beauty in my lap. And found her bitter. And I cursed her.

—Arthur Rimbaud

1

The collection is this way.
His tone was dry and not particularly welcoming.

Standing before her in the parlor, he gave her the chills. His gray reptilian eyes showed no emotion, and his long face seemed cut from ivory. His right hand was sunk deep in the pocket of his night-blue blazer and refused to budge—not even to greet her.

George Gaudin had been Edmond Magni's personal assistant until a week ago, when, somewhere in Peru, Magni had mysteriously dropped dead—for the second time in Marion's life.

The first time, her mother was the one to announce the news. He died in a plane crash, she had told Marion. It was a lie. In truth, her husband had abandoned his family and his given name, Jean Spicer, and had assumed a new identity.

From the age of three, Marion had gotten by without him, believing all those years that her father was dead, without so much as a photo to cling to. Not a single picture of him could be found in their home. And every time she asked her mother to share a story, an anecdote, a memory, the woman would retreat into a silence or fly into a fit that could only be remedied if she isolated herself in her bedroom and slept.

Marion stopped asking questions.

Now, thirty-three years later, out of the blue, an executor had informed her that her father hadn't been dead all those years. He had just made a new life for himself, and she would be inheriting—among other things—one of the greatest collections of pre-Columbian art in the world, valued at over forty million euros. Of course, the inheritance had certain stipulations. Nothing came that easy for Marion.

Gaudin crept to the other end of the room and gestured for her to follow. She had hoped to linger in the immense space. Perhaps it would rouse the memory of a scent, an image, a feeling of deja-vu—anything to fill the void. But she couldn't find the slightest personal connection.

She hadn't seen so many in one place since watching Barry Lyndon in a Stanley Kubrick retrospective. She surveyed the Louis XV-style furniture with its Rococo curves, the brocade fabrics, the brass, the redwood marquetry, the Boulle-work drawers, the Venetian mirrors, and the chandeliers dripping pendants of rock crystal. A world so unlike her humble childhood.

This way.
The assistant's directive dripped with arrogance. Without any further formalities, he disappeared behind a copper-colored silk wall hanging. She followed and discovered a reinforced door that opened to a narrow staircase. She hurried down the steps just as the door closed behind her. It made surprisingly little noise, considering its weight.

Marion stopped at the bottom of the stairs. The space was cold and devoid of light, sound, colors, and smells. She peered into the darkness. It seemed like an unknown abyss, and she had the disturbing sensation that she was being watched.

Gaudin flicked on the lights. A shiver traveled up Marion's spine, and she gasped. In the faint illumination provided by the bulbs, literally hundreds of clay sculptures and vessels took shape. Floor-to-ceiling shelves were lined with odd-looking creatures. Some had hollow eyes, stunted bodies, and swollen arms and legs. Many looked sickly and tormented. They stared at her with lifeless eyes.

Marion's mouth went dry, and her legs began to shake. Eventually she inched closer and examined the sculptures one by one. She knew that some of the pieces were pre-Incan portrait vases. She had never cared for these indigenous works. And in such large numbers, she found them disturbing. Certainly there was nothing aesthetically pleasing about the frozen assembly of cripples in this place.

A second room was equally disquieting, filled as it was with oversized phalluses and female genitalia in every possible position and depiction—pimple- covered erections, clitoris-shaped noses, pumas copulating with toads, skeletal women being sodomized. By the looks of it, Magni had relished the world of sexual obsession. Marion just stared at the impassive expressions on the faces of the silent participants.

Thousands of years, and these bodies are still here for us to see and touch. Isn't that fascinating? Gaudin said from behind her.

Marion didn't respond. She could barely breathe. This space was a shrine to her father's obscenity, negotiated at the cost of gutted tombs and stolen memories. And for what? A dark and irrational desire to claim ownership over the souls of the dead? An attempt to give them a second life? Or to extend his own? Was he afraid of something? Or of someone?

 

Excerpt from The Collector by Anne-Laure Thiéblemont , translated by Sophie Weiner (First published in French ©2006 Editions Liana Levi. English translation ©2015 Sophie Weiner. Published by Le French Book).