Started 9/21 Finished 9/26 I read plays with my class when I was teaching. I’ve gone to see them, but I’ve never read one for fun, until now. I didn’t like it at first – it was out of my comfort zone. I thought I’d read it once, but I found myself hooked by the story, by the two boys and their fathers – so I read it again. One boy is the son of Harry Potter. The other is Draco Malfoy’s son. Each one is trying to figure himself out, his father, and his friend. This is a play, but it’s also a great story of love, friendship, family, and most of all – MAGIC! Quotes That Caught My Attention: 1. “People say parenting is the hardest job in the world – they’re wrong – growing up is. We all just forget how hard it was. (Draco Malfoy) I disagree. I don’t think it’s easy on either side of the fence! Each one has its own challenges. 2. “I think you have to make a choice – at a certain point – of the man you want to be. And I tell you that at that time you need a parent or a friend. And if you’ve learned to hate your parent by then and you have no friends . . . then you’re all alone. And being alone – that’s so hard. I was alone. And it sent me to a truly dark place. (Draco Malfoy) I was surprised by Draco. He became more than I ever thought possible. This quote truly explains how our dark sides grow and develop. Shining light into darkness can brighten anyone, even Draco. 3. “Losers are taught to be losers. And there’s only one way to teach a loser – and we know that better than anyone – humiliation. We need to humiliate him. So in the second task that’s what we do. (Albus Severus Potter) Albus and Scorpio both failed at Hogwarts. They were bullied and humiliated. If you read the story, you’ll find out how humiliation also changed Cedric Diggory, from the Triwizard Tournament, in a way I never, ever, could have imagined, but it makes sense. 4. “We have both tried to give our sons not what they needed, but what we needed. We’ve been so busy try to rewrite our own pasts, we’ve blighted their present.” (Harry Potter) That quote fits the story of Albus and Scorpio. Their fathers gave them what they needed as children, but not what Albus and Scorpio needed. Sometimes sins, wants, and needs are generational, whether it’s Harry Potter or the Bible. Amazon’s Description: The official playscript of the original West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It's been nineteen years since Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger saved the wizarding world, and now they're back on a most extraordinary adventure, joined by a brave new generation that's only just arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son, Albus, struggles with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present collide, both father and son are locked in a race through time as they battle mysterious forces, all while the future hangs in the balance. Based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the complete and unabridged playscript of the award-winning West End production. This edition includes the final dialogue and stage directions of the original, two-part play, a conversation piece between director John Tiffany and playwright Jack Thorne, the Potter family tree, and a timeline of key events in the wizarding world leading up to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Started 9/19 Finished 9/21 This short story started as a gift from the author to her readers. It takes place after the 3rd book in the original series, The Arbella Stuart Conspiracy, but before its epilogue. Like the other books, The Weeping Lady Conspiracy is historical fiction based on real characters and events. It focuses on Margaret, daughter of Katherine de Valois and Owen Tudor. She became a nun, and her brother Henry became King of England. Margaret returns from Henry’s wedding, and a body has been found. Everyone thinks it’s St. Adwenna, but Margaret knows the truth. That it’s not the real saint. You’ll have to read for yourself to find out who the lady was, and why she’s weeping. Amazon’s Description: Christmas has come to Marquess House and, with it, an unexpected mystery for Perdita and Piper to solve. Will they be able to help devoted sisters from the past find each other again? The Convent of Llyn Cel Island, 1486 . . . Mother Superior, Sister Non, returns from a family wedding to discover the bones of a saint have been revealed during a storm. As her ecclesiastical superiors make plans for a Holy Shrine to be erected, Sister Non knows she must stop them before her bitter secret is revealed. Present Day, Marquess House, Pembrokeshire . . . Perdita and Piper Rivers are spending their first Christmas at Marquess House but when lightning strikes the ancient tower at the heart of their manor revealing a hidden reliquary they are unexpectedly drawn into a ghost story. With Kit Mackensie and Callum Black, Perdita and Piper delve deep into the past to help a centuries old story finally reaches its conclusion. Started 9/11 Finished 9/19 When Lexie meets a house-sitting tourist at dinner, she sets up an interview the next day, but the tourist is a no-show. The mystery – no one at the restaurant remembers seeing her, even though she was sitting beside Lexie. The best part about these books – the mix of paranormal, mystery, and details about the newspaper business. Add in a reference to Agatha Christie in Book 4, and you’ll find the key to solving the Case of the Vanishing Visitor. Enjoy! Quotes That Caught My Attention: 1. “The lesson here was to never piss off an English teacher. They read enough to know how plots work.”(Lexie) I would never have thought of this line, but it’s so true . . . English teachers really know their plots! 2. “Desperation really does make people do dumb things, doesn’t it? I’ve always been so critical of characters in books and movies when they do dumb stuff, but now I think I get it. I must have completely lost my mind.” (The Vanishing Visitor). I giggled! Now when a character does something dumb, I’ll know why, and I won’t blame the author. Amazon’s Description: Is she missing, or was she ever there? As a newspaper reporter, Lexie Lincoln knows a good story when she sees one, and when a source doesn’t show up for an interview and doesn’t answer her phone, Lexie feels certain there’s something wrong. This woman is a visitor to town, on her own and vulnerable, and Lexie may be the only person to realize she’s gone missing. The weird thing is that nobody else remembers seeing this woman, even though Lexie met her during a busy night in her friend Margarita’s restaurant. That makes it hard for her to convince anyone that there’s a problem. After all, Lexie can see ghosts most other people don’t. The woman Lexie talked to might not even have been alive. Sure of her instincts, Lexie sets out to learn more about the woman and what might have happened to her. The plot thickens when the woman’s car is found abandoned. Now Lexie knows she didn’t imagine the visitor, but where is she, and what happened to her? As the clues line up, Lexie starts to worry that they’re just a bit too neat, too much like a good story. Now that the police are seriously investigating the woman’s disappearance, Lexie’s credibility may be in danger if she got the story all wrong in the first place. She has to find the truth before the police do—and before her next issue goes to press—if she doesn’t want to be the editor who cried wolf. Started 8/29 Finished 9/11 Whenever I get a new book, I always read it twice. The first time I get a sense of the plot, and I just enjoy the story. The second time details pop out at me. That’s when I see things, I didn’t see the first time. I go deeper into the story, and that’s when I fall in love with it. The most interesting part of that first read was the author’s note to the reader, after the story. Alexandra wrote about her research for this book. It’s odd – this is a Tudor Conspiracy Thriller, but that’s what makes this book so unique . . . research forms the bare bones to the plot. One of the amazing things is that the main character was supposed to be Elizabeth Boleyn (Anne’s mom) but the research said it should be Jane Seymour. That’s story magic – when your research, your characters show you what to write, and how to do it. One of the things that allowed Alexandra to create this plot – all the gaps in Jane Seymour’s real life. What really happened – no one will ever know for sure. A biographer will draw conclusions to connect those gaps. Someone writing a Tudor Conspiracy Thriller will do the same thing. Here are some of the details I’ve read before . . . 1. Jane wanted to be a nun. 2. Francis Bryan was the relative who got Jane to Henry VIII’s court. 3. Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour served as ladies-in-waiting for Katherine of Aragon. Then Jane served as Anne’s. 4. Elizabeth Barton, The Maid of Kent, really warned Henry against marrying Anne. Eliza’s reward – she was hanged. I knew about these historical details, but I’ve never seen them put together like this. It reminds me – the winners in history – they tell the story. Amazon’s Description: Marquess House is under threat… London, 1527 Nineteen-year-old Jane Seymour arrives at court to take her place with Queen Katherine of Aragon. Discovering a court already beginning to divide into factions between Katherine and Jane’s second cousin, Anne Boleyn, Jane finds herself caught between the old world and the new. Determined to have a son, the king appears to be prepared to take whatever steps he deems necessary to secure the Tudor dynasty. When King Henry VIII finally succeeds in his pursuit of Anne, Jane witnesses the slow unravelling of his interest in the new queen as she, too, fails in her task to deliver a son. Having watched both Katherine and Anne fall from grace, Jane has no ambition for the throne, but when the king begins seeking her out, Jane realises the decision may be out of her hands… Pembrokeshire, 2020 When a set of papers called The Pentagram Manuscript makes its way to Perdita and Piper at Marquess House, they find they have a new mystery to unravel. The manuscript is the tale of five women on a quest to find true love, written while Anne Boleyn was queen. As Perdita begins to unravel the text, she discovers a code that leads to a whole new outlook on Henry’s relationship with Jane Seymour. But before they have a chance to reveal all, the twins find themselves under threat from a different source. Their second cousin, Xavier Connors, is determined to wrest Marquess House from them. As Marquess House must be passed down through the female line, and Perdita and Piper do not have children, Xavier sees his twin daughter as being next in line. And when Piper is nearly driven off the road, they realise he will stop at nothing to get what he wants… What really happened to Henry VIII’s Tudor queens? Why was history rewritten? Will Piper and Perdita be able to unravel all of the secrets before it’s too late…?
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AuthorWhen I write, I can only have one voice in my head, mine. A little noise is fine. But too much, or worse yet, WORDS, and I must change rooms or pull out headphones. Then I can write on! Categories
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