Review: The Robber Bridegroom

The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Robber Bridegroom is a southern inspired retelling of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. Set along the Natchez trace, three shady men, Jamie Lockhart, Clement Musgrove, and Mink Fink meet along their respective trails. Enter Musgrove's beautiful daughter Rosamund and her ugly stepmother Salome. One tells lies and the other plots the daughter's demise.

This was a cute, quick story and the first time I have read Welty. I'll likely check out some of her longer novels.

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Review: Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A great classic. Rebecca is a gothic story about a woman who falls in love with an older gentleman Maxim De Winter, the owner of Manderley estate in England. De Winter is a new widower who meets the "new Mrs. De Winter" while on holiday as a way to grieve for his departed wife. After a honeymoon in Italy, Maxim and his new wife return to Manderley where she has to learn to fit in. Once at the estate, the true origins of her predecessor's demise begins to come to light and life at Manderley is far what she had ever imagined.

This story has some twists, that were somewhat predictable, but it was a great story nonetheless. It seems a little "Hitchcock" like to me, but I enjoy that. I thought it was a page turner from the start.

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Review: Deadly Brew

Deadly Brew by Karen MacInerney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fall has arrived in the little town of Buttercup, Texas and once again a killer is loose. Buttercup is the home of novice farm girl Lucy Resnick who is struggling to maintain her grandmother's farm, now facing a water shortage. While attending the local Witches Ball at the home of Serafine Alexandre, one of the local residents turns up dead after having an argument with the evening's host. It seems as though Bug Wharton, co-owner of a new exotic game ranch had an enemy or two and Lucy is determined to figure out the mystery and keep her friend Serafine out of jail.

I generally don't read many mysteries but I thoroughly enjoy all of Karen MacInerney's cozy mystery series. I especially enjoy her Dewberry Farm Mysteries for the Texas references and setting. I am looking forward to further adventures in Buttercup, Texas.

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Review: Margaret Fuller: A New American Life

Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is the story of Margaret Fuller who was a pioneer in the Women's Rights movement. Margaret grew up in the early 1800s in the New England area. She was the daughter of a stern man who was her source of early education. Fuller was a good friend of the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and was heavily involved in the Transcendentalist movement. She went on to be a teacher and a journalist. She was the first woman international correspondent reporting from Italy during a tumultuous time of revolution and the establishment of a Roman Republic. It was in Italy that she met and married Giovanni Ossoli who she secretly married, a very different outcome than what even she expected of her life.

This was a well written and researched book. I thought that it began to drone on a bit in the middle but found her life in Italy to be interesting. Her life ended in a very sad way and I was hopeful for her til the end. I would have like to have seen what she might have become upon coming home to America.

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