Everything I Read This Month: February 2023

Set in 1518 Strasbourg, The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave revolves around the dancing plague that took over the city for a time. The novel focuses on the protagonist, Lisbet, and her immediate family and friends, with the dancing plague and religious fervor as a compelling backdrop.

Well-researched and emotive, The Dance Tree is a wonderful piece of historical fiction. It is a must-read for anyone interested in this mysterious plague, and a page-turner for general historical fiction lovers.

Read more of my thoughts on The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave here.

The Dance Tree is available for pre-order from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Like Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu Rising is a fast-paced novel with an ensemble cast. A book with so many characters should not be so easy to follow, but Reid has a mythic talent for orienting her reader and leading them through a tangled web of family and social drama.

The book follows the Riva siblings, four close-knit twenty-somethings continuously dealing with the fallout from major family losses. It is realistic in its emotions, dramatic without being over the top. All in all, a great, quick read.

Malibu Rising is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Circe had been on my TBR list for some time, and I finally picked it up from the Oxford Exchange bookstore the other month. And let me tell you, it didn’t take more than a few pages to realize why this book has been so popular.

Madeline Miller’s mythic retelling follows Circe, the unloved daughter of Helios, god of the sun. Circe is the child of a god and goddess, but not powerful or alluring like them. She is immortal, but largely powerless. That is, until she discovers her talent for witchcraft. This talent leads to her banishment, from which her story truly unfolds. Bringing in familiar figures like Odysseus and Penelope, Miller’s novel is heartfelt, gripping, and powerful from start to finish.

Circe is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

I ordered The Song of Achilles immediately after I finished Circe by Madeline Miller. Like Circe, this novel is very easy to get lost in.

Set in Greece during the age of heroes, the novel follows Patroclus and Achilles. The former is an awkward youth without any special talents (not unlike Circe), whereas the latter is the golden youth who would become “the best of all the Greeks.” The novel follows the boys’ youth and adolescence, their love and friendship, ultimately bringing the story into the Trojan War.

The Song of Achilles is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Described as a must-read for fans of Madeline Miller, Clytemnestra is a stunning debut novel by Costanza Casati. This mythological historical fiction novel follows the lesser-known sister of Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, whose story is known as one of vengeance and violence.

Clytemnestra is no shrinking wallflower, but a powerful ruler in the ancient world, ruling in place of her warring husband during the Trojan War. She is dealt a cruel hand by the fates, and she responds in calculated kind.

Read more of my thoughts on Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati here.

Clytemnestra is available for pre-order from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Book two of the Bridgerton saga, Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me tells the story of the eldest Bridgerton son, Anthony. Fans of the show will recognize this story as the plot for season two, but I was surprised at how different the book was from the series. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but I found the novel a bit more compelling, plot-wise, than the show (and I did enjoy the show!).

Quinn has a talent for social world building in this series, not unlike Taylor Jenkins Reid. The cast of characters is large, but not unwieldy, and it’s fun to see how favorites from book one/season one appear here and there in the Anthony/Kate storyline.

The Viscount Who Loved Me is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Book three of the Bridgerton book series, An Offer from a Gentleman by Julia Quinn tells the Cinderella story romance of the second eldest Bridgerton son, Benedict, and Sophie Beckett.

Sophie, the illegitimate daughter of an earl, is mistreated by her step mother and relegated to the role of a servant in her own home. She meets Benedict Bridgerton at a masquerade ball, which she assumes will be the one night of luxury in her life. Fate has other plans, though, and the pair are brought together in the most unusual of circumstances. All in all, a fun read, especially for any major fans of Benedict from the show.

An Offer from a Gentleman is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.