Scandalous Women

Everyday women are inundated with advertisements promising to remove fine lines, miracle creams to make skin youthful and dewy, to turn back the hands of time.   We all know that there is no miracle cure for aging, but we continue to buy, and to seek out new beauty treatments like Botox, chemical peels and fillers.   But none of this is new; women (and men) have been seeking the fountain of youth since the dawn of time.   However, in the 19 th century, with the advent of daily newspapers and the increase in literacy, a new way was found to reach the masses, advertising.   And no one did it better than Madame Rachel, a con artist who operated a prominent beauty salon, from which she personally guaranteed her clients who used her fabulous preparations, everlasting youth.   Among the money items for sale were magnetic rock water that was allegedly from the Sahara desert and water from the River Jordan in Israel.   For almost ten years, Madame Rachel had Victo...

Title: The Ashford Affair Author:   Lauren Willig Publisher: St. Martin's Press Publication date: 4/9/2013 I have to preface this review by saying that I have had the privilege of getting to Lauren over the past five or six years through RWA conferences and Lady Jane’s Salon. I’m also huge fan of her Pink Carnation series, particularly A Very Turnip Christmas which for some reason she insists on calling The Mischief of the Mistletoe .   She’s not only a fantastic writer, but she’s also an extremely nice person, witty and intelligent.   And if that weren’t bad enough, she wears ridiculously cute dresses.   Seriously, even at eight months pregnant, she’s still adorable. Oh and she bakes as well. It’s absolutely too, too sick-making as Lady Beatrice Gillecote would say. So when I had the opportunity to read Lauren’s first stand-alone historical novel, I couldn’t say no.   Especially once I learned that the book was set during the 1920’s in England and Kenya. ...

Title:   Royal Mistress Author:   Anne Easter Smith Publisher:    Touchstone Publication Date:   May 7, 2013 How Acquired:   Through Net Galley What it’s About:   Jane Lambert, the quick-witted and alluring daughter of a silk merchant, is twenty-two and still unmarried. When Jane’s father finally finds her a match, she’s married off to the dull, older silk merchant William Shore. Marriage doesn’t stop Jane from flirtation, however, and when the king’s chamberlain, Will Hastings, comes to her husband’s shop, Will knows King Edward will find her irresistible. Edward IV has everything: power, majestic bearing, superior military leadership, a sensual nature, and charisma. And with Jane as his mistress, he also finds true happiness. But when his hedonistic tendencies get in the way of being the strong leader England needs, his life, as well as those of Jane and Will Hastings, hangs in the balance. Jane must rely on her talents to survive as the n...

The story of Florence Maybrick in the late 19th century fascinated Victorian audiences.  Was she a vile poisoner or a Victorian victim? Because she was an American by birth, the case ended up involving the US press as well as the US government, as her lawyers worked frantically to get her sentence either commuted or overturned. The suspect:   Name:   Florence Elizabeth Chandler Born:   September 3, 1862, Mobile, Alabama. Parents:   William George Chandler, a banker and one-time mayor of Mobile, and the Baroness von Roques. Background:   Florence’s father died when she was a baby.   Her mother married twice more, the final time to a German baron. Florence grew up in Europe, educated privately by governesses, spoke French and German fluently. She was pretty, vivacious and sophisticated.   The Victim: Name:   James Maybrick Born:   October 25, 1838, Liverpool England Parents:   William and Susanna Maybrick.   Profession:...

Title:   The Creation of Anne Boleyn Author:   Susan Bordo Publisher:   Houghton Mifflin Pub Date:   April 9, 2013 How Acquired:   Bought What it's about:  Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne’s life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really look like? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: neither.) And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne’s death more than her life. How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and critical analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history’s most infamous relationships. Bordo also shows how generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers imagined and re-imagined Ann...

Title:   Black Venus Author:   James MacManus Publisher:   Thomas Dunne Books Pub Date:   May 7, 2013 How Acquired:   From the publicist What it’s About:   A vivid novel of Charles Baudelaire and his lover Jeanne Duval, the Haitian cabaret singer who inspired his most famous and controversial poems, set in nineteenth-century Paris. For readers who have been drawn to The Paris Wife, Black Venus captures the artistic scene in the great French city decades earlier, when the likes of Dumas and Balzac argued literature in the cafes of the Left Bank. Among the bohemians, the young Charles Baudelaire stood out—dressed impeccably thanks to an inheritance that was quickly vanishing. Still at work on the poems that he hoped would make his name, he spent his nights enjoying the alcohol, opium, and women who filled the seedy streets of the city.   One woman would catch his eye—a beautiful Haitian cabaret singer named Jeanne Duval. Their lives would remain...

Title:   A Spear of Summer Grass Author:   Deanna Raybourn Publisher:   Harlequin/Mira Pub Date:   April 30, 2013 How Acquired:   Through Net Galley What it’s About:   The daughter of a scandalous mother, Delilah Drummond is already notorious, even among Paris society. But her latest scandal is big enough to make even her oft-married mother blanch. As punishment, Delilah is exiled to Kenya and her favorite stepfather's savanna manor house, Fairlight, until gossip subsides. Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded African dream, a world where dissolute expats are bolstered by gin and jazz records, cigarettes and safaris. Against the frivolity of her peers, Ryder White stands in sharp contrast. As foreign to Delilah as Africa, Ryder becomes her guide to the complex beauty of this unknown world. Giraffes, buffalo, lions and elephants roam the shores of Lake Wanyama amid swirls of red dust. Here, life is lush and teeming—yet fleeting and oft...