Please enable JavaScript
Historical Fiction | Page 11 | LitPick Book Reviews
Historical Fiction
84 Ribbons: A Dancer's Journey (Ballet Trilogy-Book 1)
84 Ribbons: A Dancer's Journey (Ballet Trilogy-Book 1)
The Debut novel by award-winning author Paddy Eger 84Ribbons-FrontCover-WebMed A young dancer's realizes her life long dream, if only for a while. Seventeen year old Marta Selbryth realizes her dream of becoming a professional dancer when the Intermountain Ballet Company in Billings, Montana invites her to join their 1957 season. As Marta's new life unfolds, she must learn to face not only the successes of dancing in the corps de ballet, but the challenges and setbacks that might crush the dream she's had for so long. After a couple of mishaps, Marta settles into life in a boarding house located near the ballet company. Her landlady, Mrs. B., is friendly, reduces her rent when Marta's offers to bake for the boarder and later allows her to use the basement as a practice studio. The two male boarders are supportive; Carol, a fellow boarder, ignores her. Marta spends her free time practicing when she's not spending time with her new friends Lynne and Bartley,her fellow corps dancers. Their time together becomes an important lifeline through their first year. Madame Cosper, the artistic director, is a demanding woman. Marta begins their association poorly when she makes a disastrous choice. Expecting expulsion, Marta receives a second chance in the form of dancing the unpopularcharacter roles during the fall and winter performances.Marta determines to dance every role with confidence in hopes of proving to Madame that she's up for every challenge. Steve, a young college man and a reporter, spots Marta when he's assigned to write an article about ballet for the local paper. He's attracted to her and begins his pursuit.Over the months ahead, he becomes her tour guide of the area and attempts to convince Marta to be his girl. But her steadfast focus is ballet and some of her adventures with him lead to problems with Madame Cosper. Shortly after Christmas, everything changes for Marta, Bartley and Steve. Significant events permanently influence their lives. Each mustdeal with exhilaration and heartbreak as well as frustration and changes that test their ability to cope.

Book Details

From the Publisher

When the Music Stops: Dance On (Ballet Trilogy-Book 2)
When the Music Stops: Dance On (Ballet Trilogy-Book 2)
The Story Continues in When the Music Stops: Dance On Martas life: Part Two. Marta struggles to regain her ability to dance. As she finds a job to support herself, her dance and her personal life takes several unexpected and harrowing turns. Will she be able to find a deeper well of strength to meet these new challenges head-on? Eighteen year-old Marta Selbryth remained in Billings, Montana until she realized she'd need an extended recovery time before she'd be able to return to dancing. As the story begins, it's May, 1958 and Marta's returned to her family home in Bremerton, Washington. Her plan: work on her recovery and make decisions about her future as a dancer as well as her relationship with her boyfriend, Steve Mason. It's true, it is hard to go home after being on your own, but Marta's mother welcomes her and lets her discover her own way forward. However, Marta feels displaced by her mom's special friend, Robert. Being alone and lonely, she wanders aimlessly through her days and nights. When she takes a job with the local community theatre, her energy returns. Her enthusiasm further reignites when her former ballet teacher, Miss Holland, invites Marta to teach at her dance studio. Over the fall, winter and into spring, a series of unexpected events at the dance studio and in Marta's romantic relationships throw her life in chaos. She must rethink what and who she wants and needs in her life as well as how much she's willing to forfeit to achieve her goals. Read the first chapter...

Book Details

From the Publisher

Letters to Follow: A Dancer's Adventure (Ballet Trilogy-Book 3)
Letters to Follow: A Dancer's Adventure Ballet Trilogy Bk 3
Top Choice
Lynne struggles to find her place in the world of professional ballet while her own world is turning upside down. Lynne Meadows has a chip on her shoulder. Her two best friends are gone. Bartley had died, and Marta left the Intermountain Ballet Company after breaking her ankle. Now Lynne s alone and a perpetual thorn in the directors lives. An accident and a string of sabotages disrupt the career she s always wanted, and she wonders how long she ll be welcome at the company. Damien Black, the artistic director, suggests she represent her fellow dancers on an injury committee. If that goes well and her attitude improves, he and Madame Cosper, the company director, promise to recommend her to a summer dance troupe performing across France. He even asks her to introduce his new ballet, An American in Paris, in France. However, they do not promise even a limited contract once she returns. Because the cost of the trip is beyond her means, her mother asks Lynne s Uncle Leo for help. He offers to pay for her ship s passage and give her the car he plans to buy while there if she will drive him around Europe for a month after she finishes performing. The free trip and new car excite her; she agrees to the arrangement despite his legendary lack of dependability. After the Intermountain Ballet season ends, she works feverishly with Damien Black to learn the choreography for the trip as well as his new ballet. Her aunt sells the property where Lynne s lived for two years, so she must pack up and store her possessions, then find a new home once she returns. Two weeks before departing, she meets Noel Elijah, a rancher, who captivates her interest. Very different from the guys she s dated in the past, he s a perfect gentleman. But she s leaving. The coveted tour in France stands in the way of their budding romance. Her summer begins on the ship to France, where Lynne meets Lucia, a dancer who is also part of the troupe; together they are invited to perform on the ship. Once they reach Paris, Lynne is assigned to share housing with Arty, another troupe dancer; and the girls form a friendship with fellow dancers Wallace and Karl. Cheryl, the dance director, approaches their practices with enthusiasm, passion, and a positive attitude that encourage Lynne to renew her love of dancing. One day during their rare free time, the girls visit a fortuneteller, who predicts their futures. Lynne scoffs at the whole idea, but is taken aback when hers start to come true. The prediction about two men coming and going in her life unnerves her: she hopes the one leaving is not her father with new heart problems and that Noel is the one stepping into her life. The dancers complete the tour, as well as extra performances, and are well received at an invitational waltz festival. Then they go their separate ways. Lynne must gather up the energy to stay another month with her Uncle Leo while she longs to return home to Noel and rejoin the Intermountain Ballet Company if they will take her back. Uncle Leo returns a day late to pick her up in a tinny mini car instead of the plush one she expected. Next, he changes their plans daily to accommodate his own whims and sleeps while she does all the driving. Then he loses their money, leaving them nearly destitute. Her final and most devastating disappointment comes when he strands her in Portugal with no car, no return ticket, and only thirty dollars to make her own way over a thousand miles back to Paris and then home to Montana. She walks, hitchhikes, works for meals, and sleeps in hostels, sheds, and bus stops along the way. Through the kindness of strangers and Noel, she finally returns to Billings, only to discover Madame Cosper has had a stroke.

Book Details

From the Publisher

Devil's Playground
Devil's Playground
Sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Winters may be a witch, but she doesn't know the first thing about magic--unless you count accidental bouts of spontaneous combustion. Elizabeth's father, a wizard himself, has forbidden the use of her powers for her own protection, but when accusations of witchcraft start flying through Salem Village, she wishes she was more prepared. Despite her lack of magical knowledge, Elizabeth appoints herself to save innocent women from the demise the village has in store for them. Elizabeth finds, however, that she is not the hero Salem needs her to be. She meant to save them. She cursed them instead.

Book Details

For Love and Honor
For Love & Honor
Jody Hedlund
A wealthy noblewoman. A desperate knight. A dangerous secret that threatens their love … and their lives. If you’re looking for a good, clean read that combines the setting and mood of a medieval fairytale with the heat of historical romance—you’ll find it in For Love and Honor!Lady Sabine is harboring a skin blemish, one, that if revealed, could cause her to be branded as a witch, put her life in danger, and damage her chances of making a good marriage. After all, what nobleman would want to marry a woman so flawed?Sir Bennet is returning home to protect his family from an imminent attack by neighboring lords who seek repayment of debts. Without fortune or means to pay those debts, Sir Bennet realizes his only option is to make a marriage match with a wealthy noblewoman. As a man of honor, he loathes the idea of courting a woman for her money, but with time running out for his family’s safety, what other choice does he have?As Lady Sabine and Sir Bennet are thrust together under dangerous circumstances, will they both be able to learn to trust each other enough to share their deepest secrets? Or will those secrets ultimately lead to their demise?For Love and Honor:A historical YA romance novel from bestselling author Jody HedlundTold in alternating chapters of first-person narrationIdeal for fans of Melanie DickersonPerfect for readers ages 14-18 who enjoy clean fairy-tale romance; and readers ages 13-35 who enjoy the same

Book Details

Calamity Jane: How The West Began
Calamity Jane: How the West Began
Gold, gunfire and horseplay make for a dangerous and exciting mix for Jane, a newcomer to frontier Montana.The neglect of her parents gets her labelled “Calamity,” but her fearless nature and skill at the gambling table makes her the toast of the town. At the same time, robbery and murder escalate, resulting in the loss of a friend.Jane knows who leads the gang. But can she rally the town and bring the killers to justice?"The details of life in the 1860's Montana mining town are rich, and the quick-moving tale is well-situated in the tradition of 20th century frontier town novels, such as Jack Schaefer's Shane..." - Kirkus ReviewsFINALIST, 2016 WISHING SHELF BOOK AWARDSFINALIST, 2016 ROSSETTI BOOK AWARDS

Book Details

Shame the Stars
Shame the Stars
Eighteen-year-old Joaquin del Toro's future looks bright. With his older brother in the priesthood, he s set to inherit his family s Texas ranch. He s in love with Dulcena and she s in love with him. But it s 1915, and trouble has been brewing along the US-Mexico border. On one side, the Mexican Revolution is taking hold; on the other, Texas Rangers fight Tejano insurgents, and ordinary citizens are caught in the middle.As tensions grow, Joaquin is torn away from Dulcena, whose father s critical reporting on the Rangers in the local newspaper has driven a wedge between their families. Joaquin s own father insists that the Rangers are their friends, and refuses to take sides in the conflict. But when their family ranch becomes a target, Joaquin must decide how he will stand up for what s right.Shame the Stars is a rich reimagining of Romeo and Juliet set in Texas during the explosive years of Mexico s revolution. Filled with period detail, captivating romance, and political intrigue, it brings Shakespeare s classic to life in an entirely new way."

Book Details

Leaving Kent State
Leaving Kent State
A new young adult novel, Leaving Kent State (Harvard Square Editions), by debut author Sabrina Fedel, brings to life America's political and social turmoil as it ushered in the new decade of the 1970s. Throughout the harsh winter of 1969-1970, Kent, Ohio, became a microcosm of the growing unrest that threatened the very nature of democracy. On May 4, 1970, the campus of Kent State University became the final turning point in Americans' tolerance for the Vietnam War, as National Guardsmen opened fire on unarmed student protesters, killing four and wounding nine. It was one of the first true school shootings in our nation's history. Told from the viewpoint of seventeen-year-old Rachel Morelli, Leaving Kent State explores themes of the day that are strikingly similar to our own: terrorism, war, racial injustice, and gender inequality. As Rachel struggles to convince her dad that she should go to Pratt University in New York to pursue her dream of becoming an artist, Kent slips ever further off of its axis, in step with the growing discord across the nation. Caught between her love for her next door neighbor, Evan, a boy who has just returned from Vietnam, and her desire to escape Kent, Rachel must navigate a changing world to pursue her dreams.

Book Details

Ashes (The Seeds of America Trilogy)
Ashes
Laurie Halse Anderson
Return to the American Revolution in this blistering conclusion to the trilogy that began with the bestselling National Book Award Finalist Chains and continued with Forge, which The New York Times called “a return not only to the colonial era but to historical accuracy.”As the Revolutionary War rages on, Isabel and Curzon have narrowly escaped Valley Forge—but their relief is short-lived. Before long they are reported as runaways, and the awful Bellingham is determined to track them down. With purpose and faith, Isabel and Curzon march on, fiercely determined to find Isabel’s little sister Ruth, who is enslaved in a Southern state—where bounty hunters are thick as flies. Heroism and heartbreak pave their path, but Isabel and Curzon won’t stop until they reach Ruth, and then freedom, in this grand finale to the acclaimed Seeds of America trilogy from Laurie Halse Anderson.

Book Details

Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science
Finding Wonders: Three Girls Who Changed Science
Jeannine Atkins
A gorgeously written novel in verse about three girls in three different time periods who grew up to become groundbreaking scientists.Maria Merian was sure that caterpillars were not wicked things born from mud, as most people of her time believed. Through careful observation she discovered the truth about metamorphosis and documented her findings in gorgeous paintings of the life cycles of insects. More than a century later, Mary Anning helped her father collect stone sea creatures from the cliffs in southwest England. To him they were merely a source of income, but to Mary they held a stronger fascination. Intrepid and patient, she eventually discovered fossils that would change people’s vision of the past. Across the ocean, Maria Mitchell helped her mapmaker father in the whaling village of Nantucket. At night they explored the starry sky through his telescope. Maria longed to discover a new comet—and after years of studying the night sky, she finally did. Told in vibrant, evocative poems, this stunning novel celebrates the joy of discovery and finding wonder in the world around us.

Book Details

Pages



RECENT BOOK REVIEWS