Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the exciting books that came into their house last week via post. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists!
Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page, and is currently being hosted by Laura Library of Clean Reads for the month of February.
I hope you have all had a wonderful start to your week! Last week was a bit crazy with this nasty cold that's going around, but my mailbox did not fail in brighting the days.
I received three exciting novels for review:
by Priya Parmar
Publish Date: January 4th 2011
Format: Paperback 446pp
"While selling oranges in the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, sweet and sprightly Ellen "Nell" Gwyn impresses the theater’s proprietors with a wit and sparkle that belie her youth and poverty. She quickly earns a place in the company, narrowly avoiding the life of prostitution to which her sister has already succumbed. As her roles evolve from supporting to starring, the scope of her life broadens as well. Soon Ellen is dressed in the finest fashions, charming the theatrical, literary, and royal luminaries of Restoration England. Ellen grows up on the stage, experiencing first love and heartbreak and eventually becoming the mistress of Charles II. Despite his reputation as a libertine, Ellen wholly captures his heart—and he hers—but even the most powerful love isn’t enough to stave off the gossip and bitter court politics that accompany a royal romance. Telling the story through a collection of vibrant seventeenth-century voices ranging from Ellen’s diary to playbills, letters, gossip columns, and home remedies, Priya Parmar brings to life the story of an endearing and delightful heroine."
by Margaret Irwin
Publish Date: April 1st 2011
Format: 336pp
Synopsis (From the Publisher):
" First published in 1946, Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain continues the “vivid, psychologically brilliant” (Times Literary Supplement) journey begun in Young Bess and Elizabeth, Captive Princess. Philip, Prince of Spain, the unwilling bridegroom of Queen Mary, has been warned about the young Elizabeth. According to all reports, she is a heretic, a rebel, and a potential enemy—but she’s also alluring. Accused of treachery by Mary, Elizabeth finds herself teetering between Mary’s vengeance and Philip’s uneasy ardor, with her life in the balance."
by Sara Bower
Publish Date: March 1st 2011
Format: 544pp
Synopsis (From the Publisher):
" Violante isn’t supposed to be here, in one of the grandest courts of Renaissance Italy. She isn’t supposed to be a lady-in-waiting to the beautiful Lucrezia Borgia. But the same secretive politics that pushed Lucrezia’s father to the Vatican have landed Violante deep in a lavish landscape of passion and ambition. Violante discovers a Lucrezia unknown to those who see only a scheming harlot, and all the whispers about her brother, Cesare Borgia, never revealed the soul of the man who dances close with Violante. But those who enter the House of Borgia are never quite the same when they leave—if they leave at all. Violante’s place in history will test her heart and leave her the guardian of dangerous secrets she must carry to the grave."
What intriguing novels arrived at your door?
