Tag: history

I Am You by Victoria Redel

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I Am You is a passionately heartbreaking, complex love story set in the 1600’s in which two women’s lives one whose social status is higher, evolve and revolve around each other. Their need to be together prevails on so many different levels and yet they sometimes appear to be like oil and water, a desperate need to be separate. But in the end, they can’t resist the love and need they each feel which will last their whole lives. This wonderful story although fiction, is based on the real Maria van Oosterwijck, who was the only female painter at the time.

In Amsterdam, back in the 1600’s a young woman must disguise herself as a boy in order to survive in the house she is a servant. An orphan, she has nowhere to go. Her name is Gerta Pieters, but they all know her as Pieters, a young boy. Except for one person. The young daughter of the esteemed family suspects what Gerta is doing. Her name is Maria van Oosterwijck and she is a painter.

When it is decided that Maria must move for her career, she insists that Gerta accompany her as her servant. And thus begins the story of these two women as they try to exist in a male dominated society with Maria attempting to break through the men’s monopoly in art as a painter.

But their lives will become even more tangled as Maria treats Gerta as her servant but also her teacher and shows Gerta how to use colors and paint. But teacher and student become entangled even more so as they begin to get closer and fall in love.

As time goes on and Gerta’s progress in art begins to shine, Maria begins having physical problems which make her unable to work without Gerta’s help. But this must be kept hidden, as is most of their relationship. Gerta must hide her talent for the sake of her employee as well as their love story. Unfortunately, jealousy is a silent green-eyed monster.

Gerta finds it difficult to maneuver all the moving pieces of their complicated lives which is made even more complicated by Maria’s nephew who Gerta is resentful of and dislikes. But Maria too is envious as Gerta begins to become known in the art world.

I Am You is a mesmerizing love story, set in a time when this love could never be known, when a woman painter was unheard of and whose relationship was so much more than what anyone would ever have suspected. Where one of them begins, the other will be there with love and their secrets for an eternity.

Thank you #NetGalley #SJPLit #VictoriaRedel #IAmYou for the advanced copy.

Pre order now. Book comes out September 30.

You Know What You Did by K.T. Nguyen

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You Know What You Did will leave you breathless! From the first page until the thrilling unexpected ending, this psychological thriller will grab you in an unimaginable, yet completely satisfying way. The story, which is told in different pieces throughout the character’s life, will have the reader surprised by the twists and turns the narrative takes.

Annie (Anh Le) Shaw had a very difficult childhood, we will learn. The daughter of a single mother (Me) with mental illness who abused her in so many heartbreaking ways. But even after all that when Annie married and had her own daughter, she had her mother live with them in a house on their property where her mother continued the emotional abuse.

But, when her mother dies, it throws Annie into a tailspin. She knows her husband who adores her and understands her and whom she relies on loves her, but she feels her daughter who is fifteen now seems to hate her. Of course, Annie does not want to repeat the pattern of abuse she endured, but her daughter seems to be distancing herself from Annie and will not tell her why. And Annie is jealous of her husband’s relationship with their daughter which seems so special.

Annie’s career as an artist was one bone of contention with her mother. She felt Annie was doing nothing with her life, even though she had a good career. So, when Me dies, she takes on a large project first to take her mind off Me’s death, but also to prove to herself she is worthy of her career.

But she soon begins to notice differences in herself almost immediately. She reverts back to her old ways, with her anxiety and severe OCD. She also thinks she is hallucinating and begins to not remember events. She sees the bond with her daughter deteriorate further.

Then the benefactor whom she has been working for disappears and Annie thinks she may have done something wrong. But the worst happens when Annie wakes up one morning in a bed in a hotel next to an injured man who is not her husband. Her life begins to explode.

She then starts to relive experiences she had while living in Japan with her then boyfriend, now husband. Those odd memories make her realize, perhaps she did do these other things. And when the police get involved, and her husband is away on assignment, things go from bad to worse.

Why can’t she remember? All the while she begins to alienate her daughter as she starts to feel as if she is now beginning to act just like her mother. Did she do something back in Japan and now? How does she reconcile her life, with her daughter and without her mother? What did she do?

You Know What You Did is a sharp, twisty story about complicated relationships, love, fear and death. It will mesmerize and shock and you will love every horrifying minute!

Thank you #NetGalley #Dutton #YouKnowWhatYouDid #K.T.Nguyen for the advanced copy.

A Murder in Hollywood by Casey Sherman

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True Crime investigator/writer Casey Sherman has written an awe-dropping account of movie star Lana Turner’s life and what led up to the death of her boyfriend, mobster Johnny Stompanato, as well as the effect it had on both her and her 15-year-old daughter Cheryl.

Sherman intricately delves into the history of both Lana Turner, her life prior to Stompanato’s death which occurred in her bedroom as he was allegedly beating her, which sadly was nothing unusual. When her daughter heard the commotion, she allegedly came into the room and stabbed Stompanato in the stomach. He also gives a history of the rise of the mob and how they were able to not only manipulate the Hollywood studios, but how they were able to manipulate her.

Ms. Turner’s life unfortunately was filled with trauma, abuse and abandonment from men in her life, including her own father. It covers how she became famous by infamously being “discovered” in a diner at a very young age.

Sherman also takes the reader into the lives of mobster Mickey Cohen as well as Johnny Stompanato and in great detail writes to what led up to the killing and the effects it had after the fact on Turner, her daughter and even Cohen.

Lana Turner’s life story is heartbreaking. Married many times, she seemed to always pick someone who would physically or mentally abuse her (or her young daughter) or steal her money. Because of her fame, she put her daughter on the backburner as she tried to live up to her bombshell image, which after a while began to fade. She then had to try and reinvent herself over and over again as new younger bombshells came on the scene.

Of course, the most riveting account was the story and facts of her relationship with Stompanato and how she was unable to get away from him and how he continually abused and threatened her. Sherman takes the reader step by step of not only their relationship but what is said to have occurred during the killing and smoothly moves into what happened next as well as the trial and Mickey Cohen’s hatred of Lana Turner after the death of his friend.

A Murder in Hollywood is a juicy can’t put down tell-all of a beloved, beautiful yet tortured movie star whose introduction to stardom was too fast and as she naively believed all the men who ran the studios had her well-being and would take care of her. Unfortunately, that would never happen, and her life was filled with abuses and overwhelming sadness. Yet, because of the actress she was no one would have ever guessed she lived her life practically walking on eggshells.

Thank you #NetGalley #Sourcebooks #CaseySherman #AMurderinHollywood for the advanced copy.