A Beginning

I am the type of person who starts stories time and time again. I rarely know where they are heading and I don't think I have ever completed a story. Yet today I bring you the start of a new story which I hope you actually finish. Although I am not sure what will happen (oops).

The lights were slowly plucked, one by one, from the room and darkness drifted in, like a shroud buoyed up by the breeze as it sank to the ground. But one light remained and promised never to go out. Here I could be a thousand versions of me. If I could but reach through the screen and clasp in my hands this world I had made. Then I could be her; then I would be her.

Sometimes I sit back and wonder at what life has stored up for me. I seem to wonder a lot about everything and, perhaps, I am letting life slip past because I am too pre-occupied with observing it. But surely the man who sits beside the river sees more of it than the fish, which are dragged to and fro by its currents, ever see. Besides, life has a tendency to be overwhelming and maybe it is safest just to stand back and let it flow past.

That is what I tell myself, anyway. But if I really didn’t care, I am not sure I would dedicate so much time trying to pursue normality. It is difficult for the staunchly abnormal to try to pursue normality. Normality is inanimate and thus cannot fully be obtained. But then when it is so close and everyone around you seems to embody it, you just want to feel it.  

I hope you enjoyed it and I would love to hear any advice. 

Book Related Facebook Finds

Firstly, I am sorry I haven't posted in a long time; secondly, I think we can all agree that Facebook provides and inexhaustible wealth of literary related memes. One of my favourite pages are Literary Memes from where I have gathered most of these pictures.
I hope you enjoy and I would love to hear which picture is your favourite.

Introducing: Her Grace In Disgrace

Being the ultimate bad person, I am being totally honest here - please don't hate me (I was young and foolish), I have kept the lovely Claudia Harbaugh waiting some time for a review of her book 'Her Grace in Disgrace'. So, I have only just got round to starting this book as I have been crazily busy and have only been reading for college as it is my final year and I need to focus in order to get good grades.
Nonetheless, I have decided to introduce this book to you as I think it is worth a read and I will be doing a full on review later on once exams are over and I can focus, once again, on reading for fun.

So, this is the story of the widowed Duchess of Warwick who finds out her late husband had another family who inherited everything from him. She is now tainted by scandal and must start anew without any wealth or connections. The book follows her endeavours to integrate back into society and perhaps even learn to love again.

This is what Amazon introduces the book as...

Reginald Aiken, Duke of Warwick is dead and his young widow is not grieving…until the will is read. Isobel Kennilworth Aiken, Duchess of Warwick spent 6 years of her young life in a loveless marriage. Now, at the age of 24, Isobel is a widow. As Isobel awaits the reading of her late husband’s last will and testament, she feels no grief, but in fact is quite hopeful. She is eager to start her life anew. But, as the droning of the solicitor’s voice washes over her detailing the bequests to various servants and family members, a shock awaits her. The "other woman" was not his mistress, but his lawfully wedded wife and together they had a son. Six year old Reggie was now the Duke of Warwick, displacing Reginald’s brother Charles. There is a collective gasp as the revelation is made that instantly displaces Isobel and Charles and dashes their hopes for the future. Isobel must indeed start anew, but not as a titled, influential and wealthy widow, but as plain Miss Kennilworth, tainted by scandal. Can she get past the disgrace and humiliation she has endured and fight her way back into society? Will she find love again with her childhood sweetheart, Andrew Stafford, former vicar, now Lord Saybrooke? Or perhaps she will rekindle the flame with Jeremy Ingles, Lord Westcott, who had caught her fancy at her come out six years earlier, but had not been ready to be leg shackled. But before Isobel can find true love, she must come to grips with her past mistakes and the people she has hurt along the way. She must discover who she is without the title of duchess to her name.

This wonderful story is set in the Regency period and, from what I have read, it very nicely written and draws you in. More of this later in my full review.

I hope you will go and check out Claudia Harbaugh's Twitter page and blog and say a big hello to her and learn more about the book on Amazon.