REVIEW: HIS LAST LETTER by Jeane Westin

HIS LAST LETTER BY JEANE WESTIN

• aperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade; 1 edition (August 3, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451230124

First of all I want to send a HUGE THANK YOU to Penguin Publishing or sending me a copy of this book so many months ago.  Believe it or not historical fiction is my preferred genre, I absolutely hands-down love it.  And His Last Letter does not disappoint. 

Before picking up this book I knew absolutely about Elizabeth the 1st and not to mention the Earl of Leicester.  Nary a clue.  

Here is the product description courtesy of Amazon.com:

One of the greatest loves of all time-between Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley-comes to life in this vivid novel. 

They were playmates as children, impetuous lovers as adults-and for thirty years were the center of each others' lives. Astute to the dangers of choosing any one man, the Virgin Queen could never give her "Sweet Robin" what he wanted most-marriage- yet she insisted he stay close by her side. Possessive and jealous, their love survived quarrels, his two disastrous marriages to other women, her constant flirtations, and political machinations with foreign princes.

His Last Letter tells the story of this great love... and especially of the last three years Elizabeth and Dudley spent together, the most dangerous of her rule, when their passion was tempered by a bittersweet recognition of all that they shared-and all that would remain unfulfilled.

THis book easily grabs you from the very first paragraph, and the story keeps you riveted with the lusty magnet that holds Elizabeth and her beloved "Rob" together.  It is the classic unrequited love, and really is there any other story element that will keep you turning the pages as quickly? Nay, I say.. NAY!  

The only thing I had trouble with, and this is just ME and my puny little brain, is every time a new chapter started and there was a new year at the top, I had to flip back to the previous chapter to see which direction in time we had travelled.  I know it seems obvious, but sometimes it was only a matter of a few years, and other times it was into their much younger years. 

There is definate swooniness all over the pages of His Last Letter, and set against a backdrop of corsets and draped beds and tapestry covered walls, you will be swept away to that delicious time where social morays dictated how much passion or affection had to be hidden and secretly carried out.  SWOON!

RATING:  4/5

TEASER TUESDAY!

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading, and anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read
• flip to a random page and select 2 teaser sentences from anywhere on that page
• try not to include any spoilers
• Don't forget to include the name of the book and the author so we can all add it to our ever growing TBR piles!
• If you do not have a blog, you can certainly leave your TT in the comments section!

My teaser this week is from:

HIS LAST LETTER by Jeane Westin:

"Robert wondered how Bess could bear the cold even under lap furs.  But when she looked back for him, as she did often, her face shone with all the joy she had been denied for her twenty-five years of life."

For more teasers click here!

MAILBOX MONDAAAAYYYYY!!

Mailbox Monday is a weekly bookish meme that was originally hosted by Marcia over at The Printed Page, but then she graciously developed it into a lovely blog tour, and this month it is Rose City Reader's turn!

Hello all!  And HAPPY NEW YEAR and all that good stuff.  This Mailbox Monday is going to include some awesomeness I got for Christmas as well as a couple of little ditty's I picked up for myself.. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO MEEEEEEEE!!!!

First off, though, the best news E-V-E-R is that my Mom was released from the care centre and is now home for good and doing FANTASTIC!!!  Life is slowly returning to normal and she is thrilled to be back at home watching football and hockey with my Dad. Life is GOOD!

ANYway, I am looking forward to jumping back into the book blogosphere as I have missed everyone!

Back to my holiday loot:

Here is what I recieved from my family:

This was top on my list and I was thrilled to get it!  At Dog Town they use positive reinforcement training as well as clicker training!  WOOT!  This is  a great book for any dog owner and very user friendly!

If you are familiar with Dog Town and the Best Friends Society at all, you will know that they have rehabilitated some of the worst known cases, such as 21 of the Vick dogs, some of which were adopted to loving homes, and others who will remain at dog town for the rest of their lives. 

I am hugely obsessed with this place, and I am an outreach volunteer, and will hopefully will be travelling down to Utah this summer with my family to volunteer with the dogs and critters at the sanctuary!

Are you sensing a theme here?  I was also super excited to get this little number, and it is full of stories of some of the dogs from the show.  Excellent! 















I also got Oogy from my daughter.  Here's the thing, I really really wanted that book and told her many times.  She was only happy to oblige!  I wanted to like it, even love it, but I couldn't.  It was one of the worst written books I have ever read.  Brutal.  The story itself is sweet, and could have been told in about a paragraph, but the "author" (and I use that term very loosely) chose to blather on with inane details about making coffee in the morning, waking his teenage sons up, an ENTIRE CHAPTER on his sons adoption which, as it turns out, had very littlel to do with the general story other than his sons related to Oogy as another adopted member of the family.  Really really bad.  And people are just loving it, according to his facebook page, so maybe it's just me, but the writing is painful to read.  The guy is a lawyer, and probably a really great one, but he should have had a co-writer or hired an outright writer and left them to do what they do best.  I never did share with my daughter my thoughts on the book, as I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I just told her it was a cute story.   0/5 stars.

On to books I purchased for myself recently: 

KINDLE:     My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Talory Ph.D.
                   This book was FASCINATING!!  And I read it in about 3 days.  Jill Taylor is a neuroanatomist who suffered a stroke and was completely incapacitated by it.  Her book is a riveting tale of her stroke from the inside of a neuroscientist, and her insight is incredible! 











The Lost Dogs by Jim Gorant

So, this book is everything that Oogy isn't.  This is a BRILLIANTLY written book by Jim Gorant who makes his living as a writer and editor of Sports Illustrated.  Some people have shied away from this book as they think it might be too disturbing.  While I will admit that some parts will make you cry, enraged, and want to throw Michael Vick's ass in jail AGAIN as fast as your arms can toss him, the majority of the book is a tale of redemption and the utter glowing spirit of these incredible dogs. 

This book is written so well that you are left hanging on the edge of your seat most of the time as the investigation is rolled out page by page, and simultaneously weaving it together with stories of the dogs themselves, sometimes from their own perspective.  Just a georgous GEORGOUS read.  I am just over halfway done and I have to say I kind of do not want it to end!  I HIGHLY recommend this book to any and all animal lovers, and I can guarantee you that once you read it, you will be INSPIRED by what you will find among it's pages, and you may even be MOVED to action.  Dog fighting is A CRIME and a hideous one at that.  Here is the trailer:

I am also about halfway through His Last Letter by

Jeane Westin.  I have had this book for quite awhile, it was sent to me this past summer by the publisher.  It has been sitting in my huge stack of TBR's from publishers/authors, and when I realized how long it had been sitting there I pulled it out and immediately dove in.  What a fantastic read! 

I can't wait to post my final thoughts when I'm done.






Have a wonderful day, and for more Mailbox Monday click here.

SUNDAY SALON - NOVEMBER 14TH

Today has a lovely Sunday "feel". Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode where Elaine, George and Kramer are all discussing the days of the week and how they "feel"?  Did you ever wake up one day and you have to keep reminding yourself it's a Thursday when it feels like a Friday?  That happens to me all of the time.

First off - reading-After finishing The Distant Hours I have been meandering through various reads trying to decide which one to dive into.  I have no deadline on any of them, but there are a few freebies I have on the roster and I want your opinion on which one I should read next, here they are in no particular order:

The Secret Eleanor by Cecelia Holland

OR

His Last Letter by Jeane Westin

OR

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Any insight on any of these titles would be greatly appreciated!

Also, the pic of the adorable little pooch from wordless wednesday was our little foster from Mexico we had for just over a week.  Yesterday we took him to the Pawsitive Match adoption fair and when we arrived we were given a little "Adopt Me" bandana to put on him and as we were tying it around his little tiny chicken neck a lady and her adult daughter came up and "ooohed" and "awwwed" over him.  They had seen him on the website and took him in their arms immediately and an hour later my oldest daughter and I were saying our tearful goodbye to our beloved BJ.  He was such a fantastic dog, and we all miss him so much, but we are beyond happy that he has found his forever home with such a lovely family.  In fact, when the daughter came up to say goodbye he was over her shoulder snuggled into her neck fast asleep! 

Here is me getting one last kiss and snuggle:

Have a wonderful day!