Hey everyone! I thought I'd put up a list of the books I'm planning on reading this winter and a little synopsis of them. If you're interested in reading them with me, let me know! Here are the books in no particular order (and all synopsizes are from Goodreads).
1.
The daughters of a
ruthlessly ambitious family, Mary and Anne Boleyn are sent to the court
of Henry VIII to attract the attention of the king, who first takes Mary
as his mistress, in which role she bears him an illegitimate son, and
then Anne as his wife.
#1 New York Times
bestselling author Philippa Gregory weaves witchcraft, passion, and
adventure into the story of Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford, a woman who
navigated a treacherous path through the battle lines in the War of the
Roses.
Descended from Melusina, the river goddess, Jacquetta has
always had the gift of second sight. As a child visiting her uncle, she
meets his prisoner, Joan of Arc, and recognizes her own power in the
young woman accused of witchcraft. They share the mystery of the tarot
card of the “wheel of fortune” before Joan is taken to a horrific death
at the hands of the English rulers of France. Jacquetta understands the
danger for a woman who dares to dream.
Married to the Duke of
Bedford, English Regent of France, Jacquetta is introduced by him to a
mysterious world of learning and alchemy. Her only friend in the great
household is the Duke’s squire Richard Woodville, who is at her side
when the Duke’s death leaves her a wealthy young widow. The two become
lovers and marry in secret, returning to England to serve at the court
of the young King Henry VI, where Jacquetta becomes a close and loyal
friend to his new queen.
Drawing on years of research, Philippa
Gregory tells the story of the Woodvilles who achieve a place at the
very heart of the Lancaster court, though Jacquetta can sense the threat
from the people of England and the danger of royal rivals. Not even
their courage and loyalty can keep the House of Lancaster on the throne.
Henry the king slides into a mysterious sleep; Margaret the queen turns
to untrustworthy favorites for help; and Richard, Duke of York
threatens to overturn the whole kingdom for his rival dynasty of the
House of York.
Jacquetta fights for her King, her Queen, and for
her daughter Elizabeth Woodville, a young woman married to a neighbor
for whom Jacquetta can sense an extraordinary and unexpected future: a
change of fortune, the throne of England, and the white rose of York.
A sweeping, powerful story based on history and rich in passion and
legend, The Lady of the Rivers tells the story of the real-life mother
to the White Queen. Philippa Gregory is writing at the height of her
talent.
3.
Evie O’Neill has been
exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling
streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926,
and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish
pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will
and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.
Evie worries he’ll
discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought
her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded
with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her
gift could help catch a serial killer.
As Evie jumps headlong
into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that
never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A
chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named
Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and
evil has awakened.
4.
Had anyone told Alice
Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and
the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to
ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a
breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.
Her father was right. The monsters are real….
To
avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she
must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole
has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might
just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….
I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.
5.
A captivating novel of rich spectacle and royal scandal, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow spans fifteen years in the fateful reign of Marie Antoinette, France’s most legendary and notorious queen.
Paris,
1774. At the tender age of eighteen, Marie Antoinette ascends to the
French throne alongside her husband, Louis XVI. But behind the
extravagance of the young queen’s elaborate silk gowns and dizzyingly
high coiffures, she harbors deeper fears for her future and that of the
Bourbon dynasty.
From the early growing pains of marriage to the
joy of conceiving a child, from her passion for Swedish military attaché
Axel von Fersen to the devastating Affair of the Diamond Necklace,
Marie Antoinette tries to rise above the gossip and rivalries that
encircle her. But as revolution blossoms in America, a much larger
threat looms beyond the gilded gates of Versailles—one that could sweep
away the French monarchy forever.
6.
Historian Diana Bishop,
descended from a line of powerful witches, and long-lived vampire
Matthew Clairmont have broken the laws dividing creatures. When Diana
discovered a significant alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian
Library,she sparked a struggle in which she became bound to Matthew. Now
the fragile coexistence of witches, daemons, vampires and humans is
dangerously threatened.
Seeking safety, Diana and Matthew travel
back in time to London, 1590. But they soon realise that the past may
not provide a haven. Reclaiming his former identity as poet and spy for
Queen Elizabeth, the vampire falls back in with a group of radicals
known as the School of Night. Many are unruly daemons, the creative
minds of the age, including playwright Christopher Marlowe and
mathematician Thomas Harriot.
Together Matthew and Diana scour
Tudor London for the elusive manuscript Ashmole 782, and search for the
witch who will teach Diana how to control her remarkable powers...
7.
I am now a condemned traitor . . . I am to die when I have hardly begun to live.
Historical expertise marries page-turning fiction in Alison Weir’s
enthralling debut novel, breathing new life into one of the most
significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the
story of Lady Jane Grey–“the Nine Days’ Queen” –a fifteen-year-old girl
who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil
unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the
sixteenth century.
The child of a scheming father and a
ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with
the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent
period between Anne Boleyn’s beheading and the demise of Jane’s
infamous great-uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of
Jane’ s adolescent cousin, and Henry’s successor, King Edward VI, comes a
struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal
religious fervor.
Unabashedly honest and exceptionally
intelligent, Jane possesses a sound strength of character beyond her
years that equips her to weather the vicious storm. And though she has
no ambitions to rule, preferring to immerse herself in books and
religious studies, she is forced to accept the crown, and by so doing
sets off a firestorm of intrigue, betrayal, and tragedy.
Alison
Weir uses her unmatched skills as a historian to enliven the many
dynamic characters of this majestic drama. Along with Lady Jane Grey,
Weir vividly renders her devious parents; her much-loved nanny; the
benevolent Queen Katherine Parr; Jane’s ambitious cousins; the Catholic
“Bloody” Mary, who will stop at nothing to seize the throne; and the
protestant and future queen Elizabeth. Readers venture inside royal
drawing rooms and bedchambers to witness the power-grabbing that swirls
around Lady Jane Grey from the day of her birth to her unbearably
poignant death. Innocent Traitor paints a complete and compelling
portrait of this captivating young woman, a faithful servant of God
whose short reign and brief life would make her a legend.
8.
Anne Boleyn is the odd
girl out. Newly arrived to the court of King Henry VIII, everything
about her seems wrong, from her clothes to her manners to her witty but
sharp tongue. So when the dashing poet Thomas Wyatt offers to coach her
on how to shine at court—and to convince the whole court they’re
lovers—she accepts. Before long, Anne’s popularity has soared, and even
the charismatic and irresistible king takes notice. More than
popularity, Anne wants a voice—but she also wants love. What began as a
game becomes high stakes as Anne finds herself forced to make an
impossible choice between her heart’s desire and the chance to make
history.
9.
Elizabeth Tudor's
teenage years are hardly those of a fairy-tale princess. Her father has
beheaded her mother; her jealous half sister has her locked away in the
Tower of London; and her only love has betrayed her in his own quest for
the throne.
Told in the voice of the young Elizabeth and ending when
she is crowned queen, this is the second novel in the exciting Young
Royals series.
10.
Young Catherine de'
Medici is the sole heiress to the entire fortune of the wealthy Medici
family. But her life is far from luxurious. After a childhood spent
locked away behind the walls of a convent, she joins the household of
the pope, where at last she can be united with her true love. But, all
too soon, that love is replaced with an engagement to a boy who is cold
and aloof. It soon becomes clear that Catherine will need all the
cunning she can muster to command the respect she deserves as one of
France's most powerful queens.
11.
Mary Stuart was just
five years old when she was sent to France to be raised alongside her
future husband. But when the frail young king dies, eighteen-year-old
Mary is stripped of her title as Queen of France and set adrift in the
harsh world, alone. Determined to reign over what is rightfully hers,
Mary returns to Scotland. Hopingthat a husband will help her secure the
coveted English throne, she marries again, but the love and security she
longs for elude her. Instead, the fiery young queen finds herself
embroiled in a murder scandal that could cost her the crown. And her
attempts to bargain with her formidable “sister queen,” Elizabeth I of
England, could cost her her very life.
12.
Tamsin Greene comes from
a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most
Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen,
Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But
when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented
sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The
search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first
appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that
will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her
family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all.
This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate,
enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.
13.
HOW DID AMERICA BEGIN?
This
simple question launches acclaimed author Nathaniel Philbrick on an
extraordinary journey to understand the truth behind our most sacred
national myth: the voyage of the Mayflower and the settlement
of Plymouth Colony. As Philbrick reveals in this electrifying new book,
the story of the Pilgrims does not end with the First Thanksgiving;
instead, it is a fifty-five-year epic that is at once tragic and heroic,
and still carries meaning for us today.
14.
London. 1880. In the
slums of Spitalfields apprentice blacksmith Luke is facing initiation
into the Malleus Maleficorum, the fearsome brotherhood dedicated to
hunting and killing witches.
Luke’s final test is to pick a name
at random from the Book of Witches, a name he must track down and kill
within a month, or face death himself. Luke knows that tonight will
change his life forever. But when he picks out sixteen-year-old Rosa
Greenwood, Luke has no idea that his task will be harder than he could
ever imagine.
