Katherine ~ Anya Seton

Katherine, first published in 1954, is considered one of the greatest love stories of all time. I can see why.

At sixteen years of age, Katherine de Roet, a peasant girl (whose sister was lady-in-waiting to King Edward III's queen, Philippa), married Sir Hugh Swynford, a knight in King Edward's court. She bore Hugh two children, Thomas and Blanche, before Hugh died several years into the marriage. The years she was married to Hugh, she also bore an intense love for John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and the King's third son. With Katherine now a widow, she and John give in to their desire for each other and embark on a long-term love affair, which produced four children. And this is a love story with a happy ending; after years spent apart in the aftermath of a painful rift, John and Katherine reunite and are married.

With the backdrop of England in the 14th century, Katherine is a beautiful novel about an enduring love. At 500 pages long, the novel is filled with a plethora of medieval history. Katherine and John of Gaunt were real people, which makes this breathtaking tale of love all the more fascinating. Anya Seton did such an amazing job, not only in describing the horrors of the Plague and the peasant revolts, but also in conveying 14th century court life and the feelings of the characters. She wrote one heck of a love story!

As with all historical novels, the reader isn't sure exactly what is factually based and what isn't. But from the small bit of research I've done on Katherine and John since finishing the book, I've discovered that Katherine is indeed a well-researched, accurate novel.

And I loved it.

5/5

Remember Me? ~ Sophie Kinsella

After crashing her car, Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital and discovers that she's 28 years old (three years older than she is in her last memories) and has retrograde amnesia. Not only has she lost all memory of the last three years of her life, but she now has new friends, a new body, a new home, and a gorgeous multimillionaire husband, none of which she remembers. Her old friends hate her and call her "Cobra," a nickname she's earned as a highly ambitious--and mean--corporate boss.

As Lexi strives to regain her memory, she comes to realize that she doesn't like her new life, at all. Sure it seems like the perfect dream life on the surface, but the "new" Lexi just doesn't seem like her. She wants her old life back, the one she remembers. When her husband's partner at work offers Lexi some shocking information about her life, it may be just what Lexi needs to discover what went wrong.

This was my first foray into Sophie Kinsella. While I didn't love Remember Me?, I didn't dislike it. In fact, I thought it was pretty good. I read it quickly because it was interesting--Lexi having amnesia was fascinating and I wanted so badly to find out if her memory would come back, as well as what would happen in her personal life--but I was disappointed with the way the book ended. Okay, let me rephrase that. I was a bit disappointed with the way the book ended. I was happy for Lexi, of course, but frustrated that she didn't get the one thing she really wanted.

Oh, and about the book cover... I didn't really understand why a book about a woman with amnesia would have a sunflower on the front. But, yes, the sunflower is significant! Ahh, of course, it is, I thought to myself when I reached the point in the book where the sunflower was explained. It's nice to know that it actually has some meaning.

By the way, the f-word is used quite prevalently in this book, as are other profanities, so be warned. I'm not easily offended by things like that, but wanted to put it out there anyway.

3.25/5