#fiona davis

[gcantread]

June 2026 reads

[loved liked ok nope dnf bookclub*]

The Count of Monte Cristo* • Summers at Castle Auburn • The Unicorn Hunters • The Tainted Cup • A Psalm for the Wild-Built • Cinder House • Samantha: the Next Chapter (first 6 chapter sneak preview) • Borne

June was an incredibly busy month in which I did a frankly insane amount of traveling, with the result that I managed to be in both Paris and Chicago for two separate heat waves (and not to be patriotic, but. That American air conditioning, man. Fuck the Star-Spangled Banner, that's what our national anthem should be about.) So I didn't get to a tonnn of reading but what I did read was mostly pretty interesting. I also managed to read 3 books off the Bella's Book Club summer reading list, so we'll call it a win.

The Count of Monte Cristo, vols 1-2* ★★★★☆ - So glad BBC picked one of my faves to read in June! I slightly prefer the second half of the book (which we'll read in September) but had a blast rereading this first chunk. Franz is such a hilarious POV character.

Summers at Castle Auburn ★★★★☆ - Did not expect this book to stick with me the way it did! I like that the fantasy elements are almost incidental to the coming-of-agey-ness of it all. Where of course the two most important lessons are 1) men ain't shit and 2) get radicalized by witnessing the injustices around you, idiot

The Unicorn Hunters [GR review]★★★1/2☆ - Hmm. I think if I wasn't such a fan of Anne of Brittany/Breton stuff in general I would have found this just okay, but I happen to be both of those things and also in my Unicorn Era. The day after I finished this book, I went to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries at the Musée de Cluny and it was awe-inspiring. ily medieval and early modern fiber arts <33

The Tainted Cup ★★★1/2☆ - Glad I finally got around to this one! The mystery was well-crafted and the fantasy world building very cool. Also enjoyed this particular take on the Holmes/Watson dynamic between an autistic GILF and her faithful Jared, 19. Will definitely read the next two in the series.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built ★★★☆☆ - Becky Chambers books are usually either profoundly beautiful to me or leave me out in the cold. This one was more like... lukewarm. The character arcs and dynamic weren't quite interesting enough to drive a story with so little conflict, imo.

Cinder House [GR review]★★★1/2☆ - Very cool take on Cinderella! Marske's writing as she described this amalgam of person + house was fascinatingly original. We really thought outside the bibbidi bobbidi bun here

Samantha: the Next Chapter ★★★☆☆ - I didn't read the whole book, just a sneak peek consisting of the first six chapters (the whole book does not exist in ARC form yet.) They seem solid, with Samantha getting a good grade in Suffragette while the conflict begins to appear in the form of her grandmother getting dementia. The vibe feels a little juvenile (I'm assuming the AG brand defenders instructed the author not to have Samantha do shots and hook up with strangers at a speakeasy or anything) but it's possible that's due to the short chapter format that mirrors the original kids' books. The accompanying American Girl retrospective panel I attended was incredibly fun! I had no idea Valerie Tripp was such an engaging speaker.

I'm not even like, THAT much of an American Girl fan, I just find the idea of adult books featuring grown-up versions of the characters cool. But Samantha schmamantha, gimme some Josefina ones!

Borne [GR review]★★★★☆ - Can't believe it took me this long to get around to Borne when Jeff Vandermeer is one of my favorite authors and bears are some of my favorite animals. I appreciated what an intimate, character-forward story this was despite its buckwild post-apocalyptic setting. And those plot twists got me good!

DNFs: None.

June superlatives: here!

Next up:

July is once again gonna be Try To Finish All These ARCs Month. I'm currently reading Immortal Game and would love to get around to Taipei Story, The Felicity Complex, and maybe Dreamland. There's something so urgent and motivating about physical ARCs!

previous months:

2024 2025

2026: january february march april may

[lakecountylibrary]

Book Rec: The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

Published 2025. 335 pages.

1978: Charlotte Cross leads a quiet but fascinating life as the associate curator of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Egyptian Art.

She is currently absorbed by her research into a Hathorkare, a female pharaoh considered minor and unimportant by other Egyptologists. She is also caught up in creating the King Tut exhibit, famous worldwide. But Charlotte is haunted by a tragedy in her past when she was an archaeologist in Egypt.

One night at a gala, one of the museum's precious Egyptian artifacts related to Hathorkare goes missing. Nineteen-year-old Annie, who helped set up the gala exhibit, feels responsible. Can the two women team up and find the precious work of art while repairing their own lives?

This author features iconic New York buildings in her work including Radio City Music Hall, the New York Public Library, and Grand Central Station. She always includes a fascinating mystery involving the unique features of the location she is writing about.

I appreciate the strong female characters. While relationships were a feature in this story, romance was not the main point.

Check out The Stolen Queen

See more of Susan's recs

[ckmstudies]

The Address - Fiona David

Short review:

A very interestingly designed novel. It tells two stories at the same time during two different time periods. I loved this approach and especially getting to see details from the past become important in the future. My one complaint was that it is pretty difficult to tell two stories in only 350 pages. There where times when I would've appreciated the story to be flushed out more instead of being told something happened and then jumping forward in the story by a week. I did really appreciate how this book wasn't a romance. There was nothing romantic about the main character and the love interest getting together, in my opinion. I would have given it a half star rating except for the ending reveal, which I did not see coming at all. Overall, this book was griping and mysterious as it compares living in New York during very different time periods.

Rate: 4/5

[foreverlostinliterature]

11/4 Book Deals

Good morning (hopefully?), everyone! I hope you’re all hanging in there! If you need some relief from, well... everything going on right now, here’s a nice variety of books on sale to check out to maybe help provide a distraction. :) The only ones I’ve read are The Graveyard Book and The Orphan’s Tale, but I’d highly recommend them both! 

I really hope you’re all doing well and having as good a week as you can. :) I know it’s crazy times, but we’re gonna get through them. Have a wonderful day and happy reading, everyone!

Here is the link to find resources on how you can help out with the BLM movement! Keep the momentum going!

Today’s Deals:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - https://amzn.to/34T1Hbg

King's Cage (Red Queen #3) by Victoria Aveyard - https://amzn.to/3jYGGQA

The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff - https://amzn.to/34WeJEU

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland - https://amzn.to/3p4uodx

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg-Young Readers' Edition by Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik - https://amzn.to/3ersAWQ

The Siren by Kiera Cass - https://amzn.to/34Vrhw5

The Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar - https://amzn.to/38cdqE0

The Address by Fiona Davis -  https://amzn.to/3oZh89J

The Cactus by Sarah Haywood - https://amzn.to/3oYbCnO

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli - https://amzn.to/34XFUPE

Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson -  https://amzn.to/2I31bhQ

Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly, Isabel Roxas - https://amzn.to/364A3Y1

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanha Lai - https://amzn.to/3oX4ZSQ

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick - https://amzn.to/3esD3RK

NOTE:  I am categorizing these book deals posts under the tag #bookdeals, so if you don’t want to see them then just block that tag and you should be good. I am an Amazon affiliate in addition to a Book Depository affiliate and will receive a small (but very much needed!)  commission on any purchase made through these links.

[theawkwardadorable]

Shelfconfidence BPC

Day 14- Uptown Girls

[theresabookforthat]

#FRIDAY READS: HOTEL LIT

This summer, readers and reviewers are loving A Gentleman in Moscow and The Dollhouse which set us thinking about the sub-genre of hotel lit… books where the hotel setting is so prominent and intriguing that the hotel, or Inn, becomes another character.  Whether these establishments are historical or fictional, we give the authors of the following titles a five-star rating for transporting us into their stories. It’s not all vacation either!

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by Amor Towles

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin.  Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

THE DOLLHOUSE: A NOVEL by Fiona Davis

Fiona Davis’s stunning debut novel pulls readers into the lush world of New York City’s glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women, where a generation of aspiring models, secretaries, and editors lived side-by-side while attempting to claw their way to fairy-tale success in the 1950s, and where a present-day journalist becomes consumed with uncovering a dark secret buried deep within the Barbizon’s glitzy past.

HIGH DIVE: A NOVEL by Jonathan Lee

One of the Best Books of the Year The Wall Street Journal • The Washington Post • San Francisco Chronicle  One of The New York Times “Critics’ Top Books” of the Year

A moving and darkly funny novel, set around a bustling seaside hotel that’s poised to become ground zero for the assassination of a political leader: In September 1984, a bomb was planted at the Grand Hotel in the seaside town of Brighton, England, set to explode on the day Margaret Thatcher and her entire cabinet would be staying there. In High Dive, Jonathan Lee takes us inside this audacious assassination attempt, and into the hearts and minds of a group of unforgettable characters.

THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by Amanda Quick

At the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel on the coast of California, rookie reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool…The dead woman had a red-hot secret about an up-and-coming leading man, a scoop that Irene couldn’t resist.

HOTEL DU LAC by Anita Brookner

In the novel that won her the Booker Prize and established her international reputation, Anita Brookner finds a new vocabulary for framing the eternal question "Why love?" It tells the story of Edith Hope, who writes romance novels under a pseudonym. When her life begins to resemble the plots of her own novels, however, Edith flees to Switzerland, where the quiet luxury of the Hotel du Lac promises to restore her to her senses.

HOTEL WORLD by Ali Smith

Five people: four are living; three are strangers; two are sisters; one, a teenage hotel chambermaid, has fallen to her death in a dumbwaiter. But her spirit lingers in the world, straining to recall things she never knew. And one night all five women find themselves in the smooth plush environs of the Global Hotel, where the intersection of their very different fates make for this playful, defiant, and richly inventive novel. 

LIFE AT THE MARMONT: THE INSIDE STORY OF HOLLYWOOD'S LEGENDARY HOTEL OF THE STARS--CHATEAU MARMONT by Raymond Sarlot, Fred E. Basten

Raymond Sarlot bought the Chateau Marmont in 1975, but what was originally a business purchase became a love affair as he delved into the hotel's incredible history. From its perch overlooking the Sunset Strip, the glamorous Marmont reigned for decades as the spot for artists, writers, musicians, and actors of every stripe. Here, Sarlot and Basten share a wealth of scandalous and intriguing tales about them all.

OCEAN SEA by Alessandro Baricco

At the Almayer Inn, a remote shoreline hotel, an artist dips his brush in a cup of ocean water to paint a portrait of the sea. A scientist pens love letters to a woman he has yet to meet. An adulteress searches for relief from her proclivity to fall in love. And a sixteen-year-old girl seeks a cure from a mysterious condition which science has failed to remedy. When these people meet, their fates begin to interact as if by design. 

THE HOTEL CAT by Esther Averill; Ages 5 to 9

One wintry day a lonely stray cat wandered into the Royal Hotel. He chased mice so well that he was given the job of Hotel Cat. Tired of always spending time in the cellar Tom ventured upstairs and met the gentle Mrs. Wilkins, a longtime hotel resident who had the ability to communicate with cats. She encouraged Tom to keep an open mind about the hotel guests…

 For more on these and related titles, visit the collection Hotel Lit

[foreverlostinliterature]

10/29 Book Deals

Good morning and happy Thursday, all! Sorry for the lack of posting (of any kind) this week, it’s been a super busy few days and I just haven’t had as much time as I’d like to get on here. But anyway, I’m back with some great-looking books that are on sale today, so hooray for books! 

There are a few spooky-looking books mixed in there, so if you’re still looking for something to read for October you can check those out. :) I’ve only read a couple of Mary Renault’s historical fiction books from this list (Fire from Heaven) and they’re some really beautifully written ones! I’ve been wanting to read The Butterfly Garden, The Masterpiece, Survivor Song,  Kitchen, and uh... probably a lot more of these, so it’s cool they’re on sale (even though I probably won’t be grabbing any :( )--have you guys read any of these books yet? Anyway, I hope you’re all having a great last week of October! In case I don’t post tomorrow--Happy Halloween!

Here is the link to find resources on how you can help out with the BLM movement! Keep the momentum going!

Today’s Deals:

Kingdom of Ash and Briars by Hannah West - https://amzn.to/3eerM7F

The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter - https://amzn.to/37Qg7dY

The Last Wife by Karen Hamilton - https://amzn.to/3851ML9

Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird - https://amzn.to/31UviPF

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin - https://amzn.to/2Jhzvqe

Ten by Gretchen McNeil - https://amzn.to/2HF6uE1

Broken Harbor by Tana French - https://amzn.to/2TBrfDe

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay - https://amzn.to/37SCuiU

The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis - https://amzn.to/3kA5WOl

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison - https://amzn.to/3jBIC1j

Full Throttle by Joe Hill -  https://amzn.to/31Sj8a7

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto - https://amzn.to/3e7Of6d

Meadowlark by Melanie Abrams - https://amzn.to/2TxCf4H

The Novels of Alexander the Great (Fire from Heaven, The Persian Boy, Funeral Games) by Mary Renault - https://amzn.to/35J9vM2

NOTE:  I am categorizing these book deals posts under the tag #bookdeals, so if you don’t want to see them then just block that tag and you should be good. I am an Amazon affiliate in addition to a Book Depository affiliate and will receive a small (but very much needed!)  commission on any purchase made through these links.

[foreverlostinliterature]

7/27 Book Deals

Happy Monday to you all! Can you believe it’s the last week of July?? Honestly, I’m kinda giving up on pretending like I can follow time anymore, but it’s still pretty crazy how fast/slow/etc. everything feels lately. Fortunately, we have books to escape into and ignore everything else with! Not sure if that’s considered super “healthy,” but I think it keeps me sane (well, sane enough). :)

There’s some awesome books on sale today! I really enjoyed The Adventurer’s Son by Roman Dial, though it was definitely a bit heartbreaking at times. I’ve not yet read any of the others, but The Calculating Stars is high on my list! I’m also pretty intrigued by The Winters because I’m a huge fan of Rebecca. Anyway, I hope you all have a great start to your week! :D Stay safe and healthy!

Here is the link to find resources on how you can help out with the BLM movement! Keep the momentum going!

Today’s Deals:

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal - https://amzn.to/2Bxasf8

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal - https://amzn.to/30V9Ngc

The Adventurer's Son by Roman Dial - https://amzn.to/2P2iYpA

Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan - https://amzn.to/2Efosev

Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan - https://amzn.to/3jKb3LN

The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee - https://amzn.to/30K8zEo

Far From the Tree by Robin Benway - https://amzn.to/3jKrMPa

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - https://amzn.to/3f22acP

The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis - https://amzn.to/303oleF

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates Jr. - https://amzn.to/3jDRkgV

A Bend in the Stars by Rachel Barenbaum - https://amzn.to/30K8hNO

The Winters by Lisa Gabriele - https://amzn.to/2OWU1fi

Sunshine by Robin McKinley - https://amzn.to/3jJcaeL

NOTE:  I am categorizing these book deals posts under the tag #bookdeals, so if you don’t want to see them then just block that tag and you should be good. I am an Amazon affiliate in addition to a Book Depository affiliate and will receive a small (but very much needed!)  commission on any purchase made through these links.