A Multitude of Dreams by Mara Rutherford

Posted on by lynndellwatson

Retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque of the Red Death!
18yo Seraphina lives trapped in Eldridge Hall with the Royal Family, servants and courtiers since the plague began three years ago. Seraphina masquerades as Princess Imogen after the real princess died four years ago. The Royal sisters were terrified of how the king would react if he discovered Imogen’s death so the sisters found a look alike Jewish girl, Seraphina, and took her away from her family. She’s been Imogen ever since. 19yo Nico goes to Eldridge Hall to see if there are any survivors. He soon discovers that the man who saved him from the mori roja plague years ago, and who claims to be helping plague survivors, is really a monster. Now Nico is compelled to save everyone he can in and around Eldridge Hall.

Likes/dislikes: I love retellings and this is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque of the Red Death with added supernatural and historical elements. The author shares her background and reasoning for creating this story and I’m impressed with her forethought and hindsight. Wonderful characters bring the book to life.
Mature Content: PG for kissing
Language: R for 43 swears and no f-words.
Violence: PG-13 for deaths.
Ethnicity: Royal family falls to white. Jewish descendants Seraphina and Dalia have olive skin. Lord Greymont has bronze skin. Elisabeth has olive skin. A dark skinned man is mentioned. Colin has brown skin.

Assassin’s America: Four Killers, Four Murdered Presidents, and the Country They Left Behing by Jessica Gunderson and Joe Tougas

Posted on by lynndellwatson

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A must for American history buffs! Thanks to NetGalley and Capstone for the opportunity to read and review Assassin’s America: Four Killers, Four Murdered Presidents, and the Country They Left Behind by Jessica Gunderson & Joe Tougas. The true story is told in four parts, one for each president, describing the assassin and how our country may have been different without the assassination. A detailed report of each assassin and each president is followed by the description of the killing and the state of America and, finally, a timeline. I have read about the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy many times but never Garfield’s or McKinley’s. It saddens me to think the last two could have lived with better medical care. Very tragic. Informative and laid out in an interesting way, this book is a must for history buffs, 5 stars!