The River of No Return
Bee Ridgway, 2013
Penguin Group (USA)
464 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780142180839
Summary
Devon, 1815. The charming Lord Nicholas Davenant and the beguiling Julia Percy should make a perfect match.
But before their love has a chance to grow, Nicholas is presumed dead in the Napoleonic war. Nick, however, is lost in time. Somehow he escaped certain death by leaping two hundred years forward to the present day where he finds himself in the care of a mysterious society, the Guild.
Questioning the limits of the impossible, Nick is desperate to find a way back to the life he left behind. Yet with the future of time itself hanging in the balance, could it be that the girl who first captured his heart has had the answers all along? Can Nick find a way to return to her? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1971-72
• Where—Amherst, Massachuesetts, USA
• Education—B.A., Oberlin College; Ph.D., Cornell University
• Currently—lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In her words
I was born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts, in a parsonage made from three stuck-together old cottages. I attended Oberlin College. I worked for a year in features at Elle Magazine, then went to Cornell for a doctoral degree in English literature. After several years spent chasing research materials and true love around the UK, I settled down to teach American literature at Bryn Mawr College. I live with my partner in Philadelphia. The River of No Return is my first novel. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
[A]n accomplished if sometimes slow-going literary mash-up. In the midst of battle, Lord Nicholas Falcott suddenly jumps 200 years into the future. Finding himself in 2003, Lord Nicholas forges a new life as “Nick Davenant."... Ridgway offers a well-crafted blend of science fiction, romance, mystery, and historical fiction, but stumbles with overlong explanations that, while helpful in untangling the story’s convolutions, stall the plot.
Publishers Weekly
A highly entertaining romp; [Ridgway’s] historical details are accurate, and the characters are believable. Fans of Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” series should enjoy this time-traveling romantic adventure, which may also attract readers who like historical fiction with a twist.
Library Journal
In her stellar debut, Ridgeway manages the permutations of the time-travel trope with originality and aplomb. Lord Nick Falcott was an early nineteenth-century aristocrat, until he unexpectedly “jumped” into the twenty-first century while engaged in bloody battle.... [T]he entire premise and plot capture unwavering attention. Recommend this engaging, nuanced read to fans of A Discovery of Witches.... —Julie Trevelyan
Booklist
Literate time-travel exercise by English professor and debut novelist Ridgway.... [Nicholas Falcott is in] Napoleon’s dragoons one minute and recovering in a London hospital nearly two centuries later.... [He] goes with the flow anyway. Not much happens for all that, but Ridgway’s talky narrative is smart and often funny.... It’s not especially distinguished, but bookish fantasy fans who make it a point to keep up with Doctor Who will like this one
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Throughout the novel, Nick struggles to reconcile his knowledge of the future with the tide of the past. What do you think he finds to be the most difficult adjustment and why? What would be the greatest challenge for you, personally?
2. When do Nicholas Falcott and Nick Davenant seem to be the most similar? How much of Nick’s personality is determined by his location in time and space?
3. After learning that she is the talisman, Julia worries over the different meanings of the word and even fears for her life. Do you agree with the choice Ignatz made to keep her in the dark about her origin and her powers? In what sense of the word do you think Julia most embodies the talisman?
4. Nick’s return to his natural time affects his sisters in many ways, limiting certain freedoms while affording them power. What do you make of Clare’s idea for a model community and Arabella’s desire for education? Are these women trapped in their historical context? Or in what ways, if any, are they able to swim against the tide of history?
5. Time travelers harness emotions in order to travel up and down the river of time, and yet despair repels them. What implications does this have for human history, and why does Mr. Mibbs seem to be able to use despair to his advantage?
6. At the Guild compound in Chile, Nick becomes close friends with Meg and Leo. But when Meg and Leo grow suspicious of The Guild, they decide to leave Nick behind, reasoning that he is not ready, and leaving him to assume they are dead. What do you think motivated their decision to desert Nick? What would you have done in their position?
7. This novel presents many strong female characters, each of whom does what she can within her historical perspective. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of characters like Clare, Arabella, Alva, and Peter. As a time–traveler who has yet to travel in time, where do you think Julia fits within this spectrum? In what ways do you think she’ll continue to grow?
8. Throughout the novel, various characters rely on objects to keep them emotionally grounded, or even to stay rooted in time. What symbolic differences do you see between the Guild members’ rings, Nick’s acorn, and Julia’s box of trinkets and fairings?
9. At the end of the novel, Julia and Nick jump forward in time, and Nick sees a new version of the future. Castle Dar is standing, and so is the couple’s special oak tree. What else do you imagine is different, and what effect do you think Julia ultimately has on the past, present, or future?
10. How do you imagine Nick and Julia will resolve the problem of the encroaching Pale? Can you see the Ofan and The Guild working together to save the future?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
The Lost Girls of Rome
Donato Carrisi, 2013
Little, Brown and Co.
4342 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316246798
Summary
A grieving young widow, seeking answers to her husband's death, becomes entangled in an investigation steeped in the darkest mysteries of Rome.
Sandra Vega, a forensic analyst with the Roman police department, mourns deeply for a marriage that ended too soon. A few months ago, in the dead of night, her husband, an up-and-coming journalist, plunged to his death at the top of a high-rise construction site. The police ruled it an accident. Sanda is convinced it was anything but.
Launching her own inquiries, Sanda finds herself on a dangerous trail, working the same case that she is convinced led to her husband's murder. An investigation which is deeply entwined with a series of disappearances that has swept the city, and brings Sandra ever closer to a centuries-old secret society that will do anything to stay in the shadows. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 25, 1973
• Where—Italy
• Education—law and criminology
• Awards—Premio Bancarella; Prix Livre de Poche; Prix SNCF du polar;
Premio Letterario Massarosa; Premio Camaiore di Letteratura Gialla;
• Currently—lives in Rome, Italy
Donato Carrisi studied law and criminology before he began working as a writer for television. The Whisperer (2009), Carrisi's first novel, won five international literary prizes, has been sold in nearly twenty countries, and has been translated into languages as varied as French, Danish, Hebrew and Vietnamese. Carrisi lives in Rome. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Carrisi takes an unsparing look at the nature of evil and guilt in this fascinating, if meandering, thriller. Sandra Vega, a forensic photographer with the Milan police, refuses to believe the official ruling that her photojournalist husband David Leoni’s death five months earlier was accidental.... [S]hifts between past and present make the complex plot, which moves at a halting pace, hard to follow.... [A] surprising climax.
Publishers Weekly
Multiple story lines weave a complicated web in this psychological thriller from Italian author Carrisi. Forensic analyst Sandra Vega...receives a phone call insinuating that her photographer husband's death may not have been the unfortunate accident she believes it to be.... Verdict: With a lot of separate subplots, intricate details, and twists, this novel has plenty for readers to follow, but those who can keep up will be rewarded with a satisfying conclusion. —Madeline Solien, Deerfield P.L., IL
Library Journal
.
Masterful. With each chapter, THE LOST GIRLS OF ROME jumps from one plotline to the next, back and forth between the present and one year ago. Carrisi uses this device to full advantage, building suspense to almost unbearable (and perhaps supernatural) levels, all the way to a truly surprising ending.
Bruce Tierney - BookPage
A secret sect worthy of a Dan Brown novel, the penitenzieri are a group of rogue Catholic clergymen who...mete out justice on their own.... Could this be the story that forensic analyst Sandra Vega’s journalist-husband was working on when he died?... This multilayered thriller was a best-seller in the author’s native Italy, but, while it may attract attention here, readers are likely to come away something short of satisfied. —Karen Keefe
Booklist
(Starred review.) With references to the Monster of Florence, a medieval serial murderer, and a secret Vatican sect, Carrisi's second literary thriller draws readers into a labyrinth of evil. In his derelict Rome villa, Jeremiah Smith lies comatose, "Kill Me" carved in his chest. The emergency responder physician begins working and then sees evidence that Smith is her twin sister's killer. With that, Carrisi's noir narrative descends into surrealism, soon drawing in Sandra Vega, police forensic analyst.... A powerful psychological drama.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.
The Dance of the Spirits
Catherine Aerie, 2013
Aurora Press
335 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780989690928 (print)
9780989690911 (ebook)
Summary
A youthful US army lieutenant and a female Chinese surgeon from opposing fronts of the Korean War are forced to endure the hardship and the suffering around them as their fates intertwine. Through a chronicle of merciless battles, freezing winters, and the brutality and hypocrisy of human nature, the two find themselves weaving through the twists and turns of fate and destiny while in the pursuit of love and liberty.
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Raised—Shanghai, China
• Education—M.A., University of California, Irvine
• Currently—lives in southern California, USA
Catherine Aerie, a graduate from the University of California, Irvine with a master degree in finance, grew up in China as the daughter of a Shanghai architect. She was inspired to write The Dance of the Spirits while researching a family member’s role in the Korean War, deciding to revive an often neglected and overlooked setting in fiction and heighten the universality of resilient pursuit of love and liberty. Her debut novel was finished after about two years of research. She currently resides in southern California. (From the author.)
Book Reviews
During the Korean War, a young American officer is overwhelmed and captured, while a young female Chinese doctor struggles to heal the wounded in the Chinese Communist army. These two have several brief encounters with each other and eventually develop a love that is stronger than all the horrors that war can throw at them... believable and compelling...poignant, and her love with Wesley sensitive and beautiful... The story came to a satisfying (although emotional) conclusion and left me feeling thoughtful and more compassionate about those who endure the devastation of war.
San Francisco Book Reviews
Adversaries in the Korean War find love in Aerie's debut novel. The story starts in the middle of a firefight... Out of the rubble, two characters emerge: an American officer, Wesley Palm, and a Chinese military doctor, Jasmine Young. Their paths cross again and again.... Aerie keeps readers on their toes with the twists and balances her relatively weak portrayal of Communist hacks with fleeting but intense moments of camaraderie between grunts.... An often engaging tale of a flickering moment of love during a forgotten war.
Kirkus Reviews
An Interview with Roland Merullo |
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Where the Moon Isn't
Nathan Filer, 2013
St. Martin's Press
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250026989
Summary
While on vacation with their parents, Matthew Homes and his older brother snuck out in the middle of the night. Only Matthew came home safely.
Ten years later, Matthew tells us, he has found a way to bring his brother back...
What begins as the story of a lost boy turns into a story of a brave man yearning to understand what happened that night, in the years since, and to his very person. Unafraid to look at the shadows of our hearts, Nathan Filer's rare and brilliant debut Where the Moon Isn't shows us the strength that is rooted in resilience and love. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Nathan Filer is a writer and a mental health nurse. He has worked as a researcher at the academic unit of psychiatry at the University of Bristol and on in-patient psychiatric wards. Filer graduated from the prestigious Bath Spa University creative writing program with an MA in 2011, and Where the Moon Isn’t is his first novel. He lives with his family in Bristol. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
...Matthew, 10 years later, still blames himself for his brother’s death. Although the moon that was Simon’s face now isn’t, Matthew continues to hear his voice where he is being kept in an acute psychiatric ward. For Matthew is schizophrenic.... The story Filer tells is deeply affecting and insightful in its account of mental illness. And Matthew is a character the reader won’t soon forget. —Michael Cart.
Booklist
[Matthew is] 19, quirky, lives in Bristol, England, and comes with a lot of baggage that he's happy to share in his own way and at his own pace. Matthew is also bipolar....haunted by the fate of his older brother who years ago went missing on a family seaside holiday.... [This book] will appeal to anyone looking for a serious (but not ponderous) story that's impossible to put down. —Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO
Library Journal
A fatal accident forever marks the life of a young British man struggling with his own demons.... [T]his debut novel by mental health nurse Filer is a startlingly authentic portrayal of the rigors and tribulations of navigating the modern health care landscape while struggling with mental illness. The novel's protagonist is Matthew Holmes, a fairly typical 19-year-old lad living in Bristol under the shadow of terrible grief.... This is a terribly unsettling novel, but it works on many levels--as family drama, as a searing indictment of Western health care and as a confession. A haunting story about how to mourn when the source of your grief will never go away.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss Matthew’s relationship with his parents. How does it change throughout the novel?
2. Why does Matthew need to tell his story? Is the act of writing a cathartic process?
3. How does Matthew portray life in the psychiatric ward? Were you shocked by any of the
descriptions?
4. What is Nanny Noo’s role in the novel?
5. Discuss Matthew’s comment on page 275, ‘I guess there’s a Use By date when it comes to
blaming your parents for how messed up you are’.
6. In Matthew’s invitation to Aaron and Jenny, he writes ‘I’m really sorry if I’ve got your name
wrong. Part of me thinks it’s Gemma. Please forgive me if I got it wrong. Not making excuses, but
I am a schizophrenic.’ Is this an indication that Matthew has come to terms with his illness? Why
does he joke about it?
7. How did the novel make you feel? Would you recommend it?
8. Did you have much of an insight into schizophrenia before reading the novel? Has it made you
want to find out more about mental illness?
(Questions issued by publisher.)