Prairie Wife

Fourth grade is a school year that is burned into my mind.  That September, when we had been in school for less than a month, was the attack on the Twin Towers in New York.  My teacher had a son in New York, and he was scared.  For a nine year old, it sticks in your memory.

That was also the year that we read the Little House books.  We didn't get through the whole series--and I still don't know what happened after Silver Lake--but I remember listening to my teacher read the books to us.  I don't know why I never went and read them myself, but one of these days I will. 

Around the middle of last year, I discovered Sarah Miller's book, Caroline, which tells the story of Little House on the Prairie from Ma's point of view.  Ma is, of course, Caroline Ingalls.  If you haven't noticed, I love a book that takes on a character from another book and retells the story.  It could be that there were things that were done and needed a bit more explanation.  In the case of Caroline, it's really fascinating to see the story that Laura remembered told by an adult, and an adult who has such a different world view from her mother.  Laura was much like her Pa, Charles.  They were adventurers through and through, but Caroline was much more of a homebody. 

In Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls is five years old.  In reality, she was only three when the family moved from Pepin, Wisconsin, to Kansas.  When she was four, the family moved back to Wisconsin.  Historically, the reasons were twofold--their homestead in Kansas was built on Osage Indian land, despite the Ingalls' being told otherwise, and partially because the man who was making payments on their Wisconsin house was unable to make payments and reneged on the deal.  After a long and dangerous journey West, the family returned to the East.  In the Little House books, Laura and her siblings were aged because, according to a letter from Laura's daughter, the publisher didn't believe a two and three year old could have such vivid memories.

But Caroline is not Laura's story. It's Caroline's, and it brings to life the story of a woman who not only learns about what she is capable of, but how to support her family the best way that she can.  It's definitely not a children's book, like Little House is.  Caroline (pictured to the left with Charles) is forthright about her body and it's functions, and towards the end about sex, but it is still clouded in euphemism.  I think that the sex only comes in towards the end of the book because Caroline is pregnant, then recovering from childbirth, through the first three quarters.  It tells of the preparations for their journey West, and the journey itself.  Things that seemed magical through Laura's eyes we see fully through Caroline's as well as the danger behind them.  If anything had happened to Charles, Caroline, Mary, and Laura would have been on their own and dependent on the charity of others.  They could have drowned, or the could have been killed.  They could have all died of sickness.  There was a lot more peril than seems in a child's recollections.

What Caroline ultimately learns is what home is.  Home, simply, is where the heart is.  It's where your family is, it doesn't matter if that's in Wisconsin or Kansas.  I was really able to connect to the character of Caroline here, not because I'm married, pregnant and about to start a several hundred mile journey in a covered wagon, but because I've left home not knowing what was in front of me.  It was terrifying, but you make each mile a part of you, and you look forward.  You also look back at the fond memories.  Sometimes they're tinged with a bit of sadness, but you get over it.  And no matter what, you can make home wherever you are.

#caroline #carolineingalls #charlesingalls #maandpaingalls #littlehouseontheprairie #littlehouseinthebigwoods #pepinwisconsin #bigwoods #kansas #indianterritory #montgomerycounty #osageindians #home #homeiswheretheheartis #westwardbound #coveredwagon #readabook #sarahmiller 

Dating the OG Bada**'s Daughter

Hey guess what?  My favorite Bluegrass author Kathleen Brooks has a new release!  I'm sure that you are all super surprised I'm here writing about it.  It's not like I don't inform you, the general public and my valued readers, every time she releases a new book or anything....

Anyway.  Today's release was Forever Notorious, a book we've all been waiting for with bated breath.  Forever Notorious will hold a special place in my heart because I know what Kathleen went through as she was writing it.  One of Kathleen's greatest supporters was her father, and he, unfortunately, passed away last year.  During his final illness, Kathleen pushed off Forever Notorious' release date from early January to today, and it's the first book she's written that her father didn't read.  That doesn't make the book any less amazing, but knowing the story behind it makes in even more special to me.

My favorite book of the original generation of Keenestonites is Final Vow, the story of Ahmed Mueez and Bridget Springer.  Ahmed is the original badass--people are terrified just looking at him.  He has an interrogation technique named after him for goodness' sake!  And you had better not get between him and his puppy, Nemesis, who he.... carries around in a baby sling?  Okay then, Ahmed.

  

Now, every one of the Davies' clan men has had to deal with a daughter dating and they've all been hilarious with their daughter's boyfriends'.  But we all knew that it would take a strong man to get Abigail Mueez-- Ahmed's only daughter.  She's an incredibly frightening person in her own right and absolutely deadly, but it would take a man with balls of titanium to take Ahmed on.  But first we nee to learn a little bit about Abby and what she's been doing for years, because it's not private security.

Abby is truly one of a kind.  She is the first female CIA SOG team member.  What's SOG?  It's the Special Operations Group of the CIA.  Basically, Abby is a freaking badass.  I thought Layne was fun, with her murder-by-spoon abilities, but hot damn.  She takes out her entire training cohort AD her instructors with fake tears and a bench after 30 hours of torturous interrogation.... and that's just at the end of her TRAINING.  Can I be Abby when I grow up?

Anyway, after the frustration of being turned down for an Alpha team again--simply for being the proud owner of a va-jay-jay--Abby gets a personal call from Birch Stratton, the sitting president.  And we know him from the Web of Lies series!  We had a few crossover characters in this book and it was lovely to have the check in on their lives.  Birch needs a quiet favor from Abby, one where she doesn't have too much support.  It seems easy enough:  Go to a beach resort in Costa Rica, toss some money around and get invited to a party.  Sweet.  Oh, except the party you're infiltrating is being hosted by someone who is potentially funding terrorists.  Okay then.  Maybe it's a little more complicated.  But Abby pulls it off easily and heads home for Christmas. 

Then she gets another call from Birch.  There's another party she needs to get invited to, and she'll need a little help.  The only issues this time is that the invite is going to be handed out at the Daughters of Elizabeth ball, a charity event filled with Keenstonites as the charity is run by Sydney Davies McKnight.... who had her own book a few novels back.  She manages to survive with her cover intact, somehow, then she and her date are off to Costa Rica once more.  This time, everything goes to Hell in a hand basket, and Abby needs a bit of help not being killed in the aftermath.

She gets Blank.  I'm going to pull a Kathleen here and NOT SHARE HIS NAME.  It's been torture in the Cafe, for all of us wanting to know.  It's been central to debates and arguments.  And I know the secret!  It's rather late in the book it feels like when you find out who it is.  Abby and Blank finally admit that yes, they have feelings for each other, but Abby is worried about her father.

There's only a small explosion in Ahmed's world when he realizes that Abby is dating.  He sets Blank five challenges to win his approval for dating.  Most of it seems possible. 

1.  Take the babies, Cricket and Ash, to Mommy and Me.  Easy.  

2.  Keep Abby safe and take down the bad guy.  Duh.

3.  Beat Ahmed one-on-one.  Doable, but it's gonna hurt.

4.  Give Abby a gift that will make her cry.  That one made me cry.

5.  Teach Aniyah to shoot someone in the chest.  F*cking. Impossible.

Nice knowing you, Blank.

I really don't want to divulge more.  but this is such an awesome book.  We get an answer to the panty droppers, we learn a bit more about Father Ben.  What has Abby been up to?  Does Lucas Sharpe really fight polar bears (and who is Bertha)? Who are the panty droppers?  AND WHO IS PREGNANT THIS TIME?

Read and find out.  I'm off to reread, I do believe!

#keeneston #broomspoonandskilletwanted #theblossomcafe #abbymueez #ahmed #cia #badassinaction #badass #iwonttell #blank #davies #ashton #aniyah #weboflies #foreverbluegrass #forevernotorious #bluegrassbooks #nemesis #bigmanwithababy #fatherben #cults #terrorism #crazypants #presidentstratton #whoisabbydating #errrrrwhoisabbymarrying #pantydroppers #morethanone #talonbainbridge #lucassharpe  #readabook #queenvicsbookshelf

The Devil's Back

My favorite book of Lisa Kleypas' Wallflowers series is Devil in Winter.  It might be because Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent is so supremely confident before Evie pops around and changes his whole world.  It might be that Evie, despite her stammer, wins the heart of the calm and collected Sebastian.  Either way, the two incredibly stubborn people find their happily ever after with each other.

I was incredibly excited when I found that Kleypas was going to be revisiting Sebastian and Evie and their children within her new series, the Ravenels.  It began just a little bit in last year's book, Devil in Spring, but this year we were solidly in the world of the Challon family again with Devil's Daughter.

Now, I got a bit of a surprise last night as I was waiting for another book to download when Devil's Daughter showed up on my Kindle!  It was wicked exciting.  I read the other book I was waiting on first, but then I stayed up super late last night to read this one as well, and it was 100% worth it.

In Devil in Winter's epilogue, Phoebe is born with her mother's red, red hair and Sebastian remarks that it appears to be his destiny to be surrounded by red haired women.  Phoebe and her father certainly have a very special relationship that's seen through the whole book.  Phoebe is also as unique a heroine as her mother was.  While Evie had a stammer, Phoebe is a young widow with two children.  It's a first in historical romance for me, quite frankly.  There have been young widows before, but they don't usually have children.  The addition of young Justin and Stephen make the book a lot of fun.

When Gabriel, Lord St. Vincent, married Pandora Ravenel in Devil in Spring, we never saw the actual wedding.  That's because it forms a gorgeous setting for Devil's Daughter.  Everyone descends on Eversby Priory for the nuptials, but if there's one person that Phoebe absolutely doesn't want to see is West Ravenel.  Her husband, Henry, Lord Clare, had known West at boarding school as a child, where West was a bully.  He made Henry's life miserable.  Phoebe isn't ready to forgive this man, whom she's never met, but she also isn't quite ready to be back in Society after the death of Henry.  It's been two years since Henry died, but Phoebe loved him   There's was a sweet love that stemmed from childhood friendship, and, although ill all his life, Henry's passion was really Phoebe. 

West has spent the last few years at Eversby Priory, working with the tenant farmers and learning how to manage estates.  It's pulled him from the life of debauchery that might have killed him if he'd continued on that path, which would have been a real shame.  Through the last few books, West has proven himself to be a kind and caring man, although he may be the only one who doesn't see it.    His first introduction to Phoebe is when young Justin runs off at the Priory.  He falls instantly, although he fights it just as much as Phoebe does.  But it's almost as if Sebastian, now the Duke of Kingston, knows something and is trying to engineer a relationship between them.  It's actually rather funny when he does a bit of gentle banging of heads together.

It doesn't take much for the pair to fall for each other, but they both fight a relationship.  West doesn't believe that he's a good man or has the ability to be a good father because of how he grew up.  He was beaten by his father and wasn't wanted by anyone else.  Phoebe made a promise to her dying husband, and wants what's best for her children.  But West gives her enough to think about so that when she returns to her husband's, and now her son's, estate in Essex, she starts to take control of her destiny, and right when she needs help she reaches out to West. They try having a casual relationship while West is sorting out what exactly has been going on on the Clare estates.  But it's just too much for them and they break it off, with Phoebe staying in Essex and West running off to London where he receives the great advice from Sebastian that I mentioned earlier.

Phoebe made a fabulous heroine to me.  She's a wonderful mix of her parents, with all of her mother's stubbornness, and her father's sense of humor and ability to know when change is a good thing.  Sebastian ended up learning about Jenner's in Devil in Winter when it became his responsibility.  Phoebe learns all she can about estate management when she finally decides that the Clare estates, her son's inheritance.  There's something comforting in the kind of dedication that the Challon family brings to everything they do.  I can't wait to see who is up next in the series (My guess is going to be Cassandra, as she is the only unmarried Ravenel left....) but we have no news on that yet!

#wallflowers #phoebechallon #ladyclare #westonravenel #sebastiandukeofkingston #evieduchessofkingston #singlemother #devilinwinter #devilinspring #devilsdaughter #hesnotreallyadevil #hessweet #goodadvice #takecharge #readabook #queenvicsbookshelf #lisakleypas #canibeawallflower