Bibliophile Support Group

Princess of the Midnight Ball is a YA fairytale retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Jessica Day George. After the twelve year war, soldiers are returning from battle to their home country. Galen is one of these. On his journey to find his mother’s sister, the only family he has left, he meets a mysterious elderly woman on the side of the road gives him magical items and declares he will need them soon… Meanwhile, in the palace, Rose is the eldest princess of twelve and is faced with a problem. Each morning she and her sisters slippers are becoming terribly worn – and no one call tell the king why. The ordinary flood of balls in their father’s kingdom is not the cause… Instead, Rose and her sisters are being forced to travel deep into the earth to the malicious King Under Stone’s realm where they must dance with his twelve sons. It is a curse. And it is not one with an ending any time soon. Or ever. Once Galen becomes a gardener at the palace and learns of the myst...

Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron is the tenth historical mystery in the Jane Austen Mystery series by Stephanie Barron. As I said last week regarding Jane and the Barque of Frailty , these are really books best read in order to get the full impact and understanding of relationships and such. However, I believe they could potentially work as stand-alone stories, as well. When Henry’s adored, animated wife Eliza passes away from illness, Jane and Henry mourn her deeply. Calling on the recuperative, distracting power of the ocean and sea air, the pair head to Brighton to enjoy the teeming, dazzling resort life favored by so many. It is not long before Jane’s path crosses with the famous, possibly mad, undeniably magnetic poet and seducer of women: Lord Byron. His reputation is known to Jane, but even she cannot help but be shocked by the circumstances in which she meets him. So, when a beautiful young girl barely out in society is found murdered and placed in Lord Byron’s be...

Jane and the Barque of Frailty is the ninth in Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen Mystery series. I thoroughly recommend reading this fantastically imagined, Regency whodunit series from the beginning. You would want to start with Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor . I’ve been a huge enthusiast of this series from the beginning as a fan of both Jane Austen and mysteries! It’s 1811 in London and Jane Austen is enjoying a month-long visit with her brother Henry and his lively wife Eliza. She’s awaiting publication of her first novel, Sense and Sensibility and spending her free time socializing during the height of the Season. When a mysterious, exiled, lovely Russian princess is found dead outside of the abode of a notorious Tory minister, though – even Jane is surprised. The determination of self-murder does not sit right with Jane, and she is happy to investigate further. What is more surprising, however, is that Jane and Eliza manage to thrust themselves into the ca...

A Million Miles Away is a YA contemporary novel by Lara Avery. High school senior Kelsey’s life changes when her identical twin sister, Michelle, dies in a car accident. Her other half is gone. There’s an emptiness inside of her that she can only see reflected in her parents grief-filled eyes. When Kelsey accidentally intercepts a broken Skype call from Michelle’s boyfriend Peter, deployed in Afghanistan and unaware of Michelle’s death, he thinks he’s seeing Michelle. Immediately, Kelsey tries to correct him – but the call is so broken he cannot hear her. Soon she realizes that thinking of Michelle is one of the only things keeping Peter going and she finds the truth stuck in her throat the next time she has an opportunity to tell him. So, she pretends to be Michelle. Emails, chat, written letters. Initially she tries to write like Michelle – finds an odd comfort and connection to her twin by identifying with everything that made her who she was. But it doesn’t take long b...

My Dear, Lovely Fellow Bibliophiles : The time has come to make some changes to how many reviews I post weekly. This has happened before, as any longtime readers knows. I used to post reviews 3 times a week and for a short period I even posted reviews 5 times a week! Wow - the good ol' days! However, now I am an adult with a full-time job, which already makes it a struggle to read as much as I used to. Now I am also adding another big time consumer to my life: college classes . Yes, I am now going to be pursuing higher education! It's wonderful but also carries with it some sobering realities - I will not have even as much free time as I have now, which has already decreased dramatically from my early years with this blog. As I do not want to put too much pressure on myself to read when I just may not be able to - only 1 review will post per week at the Bibliophile Support Group for the foreseeable future. This will be every Wednesday. This has an impact on a...