5 reviews found

I have had Kate Quinn’s debut novel, Mistress of Rome, on my to-read shelf since January 2010! And I totally forgot about it—this is why I love my to-read shelf. I don’t remember how I learned about it, so it’s serendipitous that I found Daughters of Rome, which has whet my appetite even more for Mistress. I saw this book on the “New Books” shelf at my library and decided to “give…

Sometimes truth is more interesting than fiction. Sometimes fictionalizing the truth—books based on a true story, if you will—helps highlight true stories that have yet to receive their due. History is seldom boring. The Rose Code is that type of historical fiction. Set primarily in Bletchley Park during the Second World War, this book is not about the genius of Alan Turing or Dilly Knox. It’s about love and sex and betrayal. Kate Quinn follows…

This is my last review of 2022, albeit not the last book I read in 2022 (I am quite behind on writing reviews). But this is a high note to end this year’s reviews on. Last year, I read The Rose Code and fell in love with Kate Quinn’s lush historical prose. Or should I say fell in love again? I didn’t mention this in my review of The Rose Code, but I…

New Kate Quinn just dropped? Um, yes please. The Briar Club is yet another historical installment in Quinn’s quest to tell the stories of women as they live through and participate in parts of history usually relegated to the heroics of men. In this novel—standalone from the others, though with some notable, subtle connections to reward her longstanding readers—Quinn weaves together the complicated narratives of six women living in a boardinghouse in Washington, D.C., at…

With just a few historical novels, Kate Quinn has skyrocketed to the top of my list of contemporary authors to buy. The Astral Library came as a very welcome surprise to me. It’s quite different fare from Quinn’s other work—more fantasy than history, though with a few historical elements, to be sure. It didn’t impress me as much as I was expecting, yet that’s because Quinn has done so well for me in the past;…