Getting By, Dreaming Big

So I’m still working on my book and hopefully by next Monday you will have a book review to read!  I’m slowly but surely getting back to it folks.  These holiday happenings have had a serious affect on my reading (as well as other parts of my life!)  So in going back to my Top 10 (er…11) post I thought I would provide an author/book recommendation.

Back when I was in high school my Dad read “Here Be Dragons” by Sharon Kay Penman.  He loved it, and passed it on to my mom, who loved it, and passed it on to my friend Katie’s mom, who loved it and passed it on to my Katie, who loved it, who tried to pass it on to me.  I was having none of it – 13th Century England and Wales, NO THANK YOU!  I was not interested, I was also on a reading hiatus, so unless it was assigned in school I wasn’t reading it. 

Fast forward to after college (I was reading again at this point) I’m on the phone with my mom, whining that I need a book recommendation, I just didn’t know what to pick up next.  She suggests (for the hundredth time) that I read “Here Be Dragons”.  In order to get her to stop talking about it I pick it up…and…you guessed it…LOVED IT!  I passed it on to my friend Amy in OKC, who loved it and returned it to me.  I then passed it on to my sister, who loved it and passed it on to our sister-in-law, who loved it.  I also passed it on to my husband’s grandmother, who of course, you guessed it, loved it!

I know, I know, you’re saying, really 13th Century England and Wales, but I’m telling you this story is so captivating.  You will be swept up almost immediately and be transported to this war-torn, violent, manipulative time filled with deception, passion, marriages, families and deceit and you will not want to leave even when the book ends.  This book is historical fiction at its finest.  I took my time in getting to Falls the Shadow, because I didn’t want to rush through the series and have to leave these people/characters.  Falls the Shadow was my favorite of the trilogy.  When it ended I literally cried for 30 minutes, Jon came upstairs from our basement because he was convinced I had just received some awful news, imagine his surprise when he discovered I was crying over a book.  To me though that shows just how strong a writer Sharon Kay Penman is, that I felt that strongly about her characters, the entire book/trilogy was very real because of how she wrote it.

The third book in the trilogy is The Reckoning, which really ties all the stories from the first two books together.  You will not be disappointed, I promise, I can practically guarantee it (if you enjoy historical fiction…).  I mean of the 200 people on Amazon who collectively reviewed all three books, each book averages 5 stars, that’s saying something.  So what are you waiting for, run to your library or local book store, pick up Here Be Dragons and be transported back in time!  What am I waiting for, I think it’s time I pick up the first book in her next trilogy….

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What is your favorite series?  I think you know mine!