Book Review: Outlander

Claire Randall is in Scotland, celebrating her second honeymoon with her husband after the "official" end of World War 2.  Both Claire and her husband were involved in the war effort and have seen each other only occasionally over the seven years that they've been married, and this is their first opportunity in a long time to spend some serious time getting to know one another all over again.

Claire is an amateur botanist, and she has taken advantage of her time in Scotland to find out more about the native flora and fauna, and spend time with the people of the area, learning more about the healing properties of these herbs. She finds some particularly fascinating herbs up around a stone circle.  After one trip up with her husband, Claire goes back a second time to gather more herbs.  Through some strange twist of the cosmos, Claire is flung 200 years into the past - back into Scotland in the years immediately preceding the Jacobite Rebellion.

As Claire struggles to come to grips with her new reality, she finds love - a love so strong and so deep that it crosses the boundaries of time.  Surrounded by intrigue and uncertainty at every turn, Claire struggles to find her way back to her husband and her own time.  But if she ever finds the portal back to her own time, will this love keep her in this strange world?

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Book Review: The Underground Railroad

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Cora is a slave on a plantation in Georgia.  The life of a slave is difficult, but life has thrown her some unexpected complications over the years.  Her mother ran away - and was never seen again - when she was 10 years old.  Cora was left to fend for herself in a hostile environment, where even the strong don't last long.

Image: Amazon

Cora finally reaches her breaking point and escapes with her friend Caesar, hoping that she is a good luck token that will help them escape like her mother did. Unfortunately, as they are making their first break for freedom, they are confronted by a gang of bounty hunters, and in the ensuing struggle, Cora kills a young boy.  Knowing that death - and an ugly death at that - will be her ultimate punishment, Cora becomes desperate to escape to freedom.

Forget what you have learned about the Underground Railroad.  In Cora's story, this is an actual railroad, on tracks, that exists in tunnels bored throughout the south. 

As Cora and Caesar search for the peace that has been denied to them, they find themselves wrapped up into places and situations where the chains that bind them are not the visible ones they had on them in Georgia, but they are every bit as real and deadly.  With the specter of the murdered white boy behind them, the fugitives struggle to settle in to new identities with the hope that they will not be recognized.

Unfortunately, they are pursued by the most determined of bounty hunters - the same man who was assigned to find Cora's mother.   Haunted by this one failure, he is determined to track down the fugitives and return them to their plantation.

Join Cora in her desperate race to Freedom as they journey through several stops along the Underground Railroad and find perils both unexpected and unseen.



The Underground Railroad is Historical Fiction at its very best - well researched and thought provoking.  This haunting tale will reel you in within the first 50 pages, and keep you reading until the very last word.

Book Review - The Accidental Empress

Pataki, Allison.  The Accidental Empress.  2015.   Howard Books, New York, New York.

image: amazon.com

Hardcover, $26, ISBN: 978-1-4767-9022-0.


Book Review:
Sisi is the wild and carefree daughter of a nobleman, who has grown up in Bavaria.  Her mother is the sister of Queen Sophie, the reining queen of Hapsburg family, of Austria.  Even with this noble connection, Sisi has been raised away from Vienna, and is happily unaware of the intrigue and turmoil that embroils the empire.

When Sisi's mother announced the engagement of Sisi's older sister, Helene, to the Emperor of Austria, the family's life changes forever.  Sisi, Helene, and their mother travel to the Hapsburg court to announce the formal engagement of Helene and Hans.

Things take an unexpected turn when Hans decides that he prefers the younger sister.

Fighting for the love of his life, Hans takes on his formidable mother, and breaks his engagement with Helene and pronounces his intention to marry Sisi.  The unexpected young girl is thrust into the limelight of the empire, along with the maze of court protocol and the depths of court intrigue.

Shrouded by the protocols that rule her every waking moment, Elisabeth struggles to keep the interest of her husband, fight her mother in law for possession of her children, and become her own woman.

My Note:
This fascinating tale is based upon the life of Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria.  She was beloved by her people, and considered to be the most beautiful woman of her time.  The author has done endless research into the intrigues of the Hapsburg Court at this time, and it shows in the rich attention to detail: from the court protocols, to the clothing, to the descriptions of the castle and the countryside.  You will find yourself swept into 19th century Vienna.

It's interesting to note, that while I was reading this, I frequently found myself reminded of Princess Diana of Wales.  There were many similarities between the two stories.

Author's Web Site: http://allisonpataki.com/about/
(And hey, I noticed on her website that she's releasing a second book about Sisi that starts right where this book stops, and will take us through the Hapsburg Family declaring the start of World War 1. I can't wait to read that... I'm a history junkie, too.)

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