A Light on the Veranda by Ciji Ware

I received a galley of this novel from NetGalley for review. This in no way affected my opinions.


A Light on the Veranda is a sequel to Midnight on Julia Street.

I just didn't connect with this book: the characters, the setting, even the historical story. The character Daphne has these flashbacks of sorts to her ancestor and namesake who lived two hundred years before. I guess these flashbacks were triggered by music, but sometimes she had them when there wasn't any music around, so I don't know.

The historic flashbacks were so random and oddly spaced out, and there weren't many of them. I could barely get a grip on any of the characters. And by the end of the book, I wondered what the point was of them. In Midnight on Julia Street the historic story was more affecting on the present day story. That wasn't the case here.

The present day story, well, dragged. A lot. The romance between Daphne and Simon... I just didn't feel the sparks.

Needless to say, about halfway through, I was wondering where the heck the story was going. I started skimming and speed reading from then on and I didn't really miss much. There were pages and pages of useless dialogue that really didn't serve any purpose to the story.

I like Ciji Ware's books, but this one was a miss with me. Actually, I really love her straight historical novels like A Race to Splendor and Wicked Company. So far, the time-slips novels are hit and miss.

If you read Midnight on Julia Street and want to find out what happens to Daphne, (which was my reason) then, I don't know, give this a shot.

Midnight on Julia Street by Ciji Ware

I received a review copy of this novel from Sourcebooks. This in no way affected my opinions.

A pretty good time-slip novel. It was slow going at first, and I wasn't sure it was going to hold my interest the whole way through, but after 100 or so pages, it finally started to get good.

The current day story is of Corlis McCullough, a native Californian and television reporter living in New Orleans. There she meets up with King Duvallon, who was a classmate of hers at UCLA, and who she loathes more than life itself. But, of course, feelings change. The current day story was focused not only on the relationship of Corris and King, but on a race to preserve old 19th century buildings which are threatened to be turned into dust.

In the midst of all this, Corlis finds herself having 'visions', if you were, of New Orleans in the late 1830s, early 1840s. There she sees her ancestor and namesake, but also the ancestors of practically all the people she's come across in New Orleans. The way that Corlis sees these events happening in the 19th century was a bit more believable than The Cottage by the Sea. I won't give it away, but it's interesting.

The story of the past I found very heartbreaking. I know virtually nothing about the history of New Orleans – being a 'Yankee' and all – so it was nice to learn about a new place and time period, and I felt that Ware captured it very well.

One of the reasons why I was so engrossed with both the current day story and the story of the past was that the two were so connected. The trials and tribulations of the current folk were solved with a little help from their ancestors.

I look forward to reading the sequel A Light on the Veranda.

A Race to Splendor by Ciji Ware

I received a review copy of this novel from Sourcebooks. This in no way affected my opinions.

Give me a book about an strong, independent woman fighting against prejudice to fulfill her dreams and be treated as an equal, then I'm most likely going to love it.

So, yes, I loved A Race to Splendor, which is the story of a fictional architect named Amelia Hunter Bradshaw. It's 1906, and upon her grandfather's death, Amelia returns to San Francisco to claim her inheritance: the Bay View Hotel, only to find her drunken father has gambled it away to a one Mr. James Diaz Thayer.

After then eventually losing to Thayer in court, Amelia is frustrated that her late grandfather's legacy has practically been handed over to a scoundrel. Accepting it, for now, Amelia sets out to find employment, and does, from architect Julia Morgan. It is while she is working there that she experiences the devastating earthquake that ended up killing thousands.

In the aftermath, employed by Morgan, Amelia finds herself involved in the reconstruction of the Bay View, which is in a race to be the first hotel opened by the first anniversary of the earthquake. Fighting her feelings of deep distrust for Thayer, she pushes them aside to help her grandfather's famed hotel rise again.

Ciji Ware has managed to created an amazingly strong character in Amelia. When I felt annoyed every time a man would patronized her or talk down to her, I realized that Amelia was annoyed, as well, and let said man know what was on her mind. Her voice for equality ran true to many of the women at the turn of the century - the 'new woman,' as it were, who put aside marriage and child-bearing for a career, despite the prejudice from the opposite sex.

I could barely put A Race to Splendor down once I would pick it up to start reading. The story moved effortlessly with amazing detail. No doubt explicitly researched, A Race to Splendor was a top notch novel that showed the aftermath of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 through the eyes of a determined woman.

Wicked Company by Ciji Ware

I received a review copy of this novel from Sourcebooks. This in no way affected my opinions.

I jumped at the chance to read and review this. I am a geek for old-time theatre and love stories of women busting through the gender restrictions of their time.

Jumping from Edinburgh to London to Bath and everywhere in between, this is the story of Sophie McGann, a young woman who has more of her share of hard times, trying to fight for a voice in the theatre. She suffered through an annoying censor who was one of many who had their opinion that the theatre was no place for 'petticoat playwrights,' and other road blocks such as her work being stolen and having to choose between her work and love.

It amazed me how this little Scottish woman persevered through every hardship that came her way, and believe me, there was a lot of hardship. It seems every time she turned around, there was something there to take her down. I wondered if Sophie was going to ever get any type of happy ending.

Wicked Company blended both fiction and real historical figures. I loved the focus on the women playwrights, who have been largely forgotten. Sophie came across a few of them at Drury Lane, such as Kitty Clive and Elizabeth Griffith. This book opened my eyes to their work, which I plan to further explore in the future.

Wicked Company was right up my alley. I loved. it. It was a thick historical novel set in the 18^th century with a wickedly strong heroine and with a great view of the gritty world of the theatre. The descriptions and characters were spot on. I know this sounds cliché, but I felt like I was right there with Sophie, experiencing her frustrations.

This is one of my top books read this year!

A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware

I received a review copy of this novel from Sourcebooks. This in no way affected my opinions.

When I finished with A Cottage By the Sea, I realized that I had just finished my first time-travel book. The time traveling was interesting, here. Blythe would put her finger on a name on a genealogy tree and say the name and... BOOM! She was back in time, 200 years ago, seeing things from that person's perspective.

Let me tell you how Blythe got to this genealogy tree. First of all, her scumbag husband cheated on her, with her own sister! The present day story opens with Blythe divorcing her husband and then heading across the Atlantic to Cornwall. She rents a cottage on the land of Barton Hall. Blythe heads here because she has heard for years from her grandmother that she (Blythe) was descended from these Cornish Bartons. The owner of Barton Hall is Lucas Teague, a descendent of the cousin of the Bartons, who inherited it 200 years before.

The original Blythe Barton of the 18^th century literally vanished off the face of the earth 200 years ago. A question mark sits by her name on the genealogy tree. Her husband, Christoper 'Kit' Trevelyan, who inherited the Hall upon his marriage died that same year and with his brother Ennis dying the year before, the Hall went to a cousin – Garrett Teague. 20^th century Blythe, through the spiffy time traveling and being hypnotized by a local doctor, witnesses this 18^th century soap opera with all the characters I just named. She uncovers centuries old mysteries all why trying to realize what her feelings are for her landlord Lucas.

A Cottage By the Sea was a enjoyable, solid story that kept me entertained. Not surprisingly, I loved the chapters taking place in the 18^th century more and wished that we spent more time there. Nonetheless, this novel wickedly blended past and present.