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review 2020-07-31 21:27
The Favourite by Ophelia Field
Sarah Churchill Duchess of Marlborough: The Queen's Favourite - Ophelia Field This is an interesting biography of a woman I can’t help viewing as the Hillary Clinton of turn-of-the-18th century England: Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, was a prominent, divisive, highly political woman closely connected to her country’s leader, but not naturally suited to her supporting role. Opinionated, partisan, determined, self-righteous and stubborn, even today Sarah Churchill remains a colorful figure often portrayed in a highly negative light. Churchill is best known for having a very close relationship with Queen Anne, up until their dramatic falling-out largely due to political issues: the queen leaned conservative while Churchill was a committed Whig, and after decades of friendship Churchill seems to have assumed too much in terms of her influence once Anne ascended the throne. During the course of their friendship, Anne sent Sarah a lot of letters that today come across as highly romantic in tone and vocabulary, leading many to assume that the two were lovers. Author Ophelia Field looks at both sides of that question, but without spending too much time on speculation, preferring to focus on known facts. It’s pretty hard to figure out centuries later whether people were sexually involved, but we do know that many of the female courtiers at that time wrote each other letters like this, perhaps in part due to overheated epistolary conventions and in part because friendships were prioritized more at the time than they are now. It’s also worth noting that certain words simply had different connotations at the time (people declared their “passion” for their parents and children as well as their friends). On the other hand, while Anne dutifully got pregnant with her husband an astonishing 17 times (none of which resulted in a child surviving to adulthood), she did not have quasi-romantic relationships with male courtiers in the way other queens of England did, and Sarah evidently saw something untoward in Anne’s letters, as after falling out of favor she used them to blackmail the queen. This book though is a rather exhaustive chronicle of Sarah Churchill’s life, of which the Queen Anne episodes were only a part. There’s a lot about her relationship with her husband and his military victories, a lot about political maneuvering, and a lot about various satires and attacks against the Churchills in the press at the time. I also appreciated the final chapter dealing with the various portrayals of Churchill since her death. I don’t disagree with the reviewers who say the book goes on a little long, in perhaps too much detail, with the letters, politics and press attacks. It’s interesting stuff, but it may not need to be quite so granular and as a result the book takes a little while to get through. In my view Field does an admirable job of remaining balanced: Churchill was clearly a difficult person in a lot of ways, prone to strong opinions and long-running arguments (though perhaps not quite as contentious as some of her detractors portrayed her). She doesn’t seem to have been an attentive mother and was controlling toward her grandchildren, using the fortune she amassed through clever investments to keep them in line. At the same time, her willingness to step out of the standard role of a woman of her time is admirable, and she was clearly tough, committed, charismatic and intelligent. She wrote a lot, and was very concerned with how posterity would view her, so we get many excerpts in her own words. Overall, this is an interesting and at times dramatic biography of a strong personality, though at times it does drown a little in detail, while there were a few areas (such as Churchill’s children) that I would have liked to see fleshed out more. This book is a good choice for those interested in the topic.
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review 2019-08-31 03:59
5 Star Inferno
Inferno (Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters #10) - Ophelia Sexton

 

While fighting a wildfire in New Mexico, Kayla Swanson is trapped but lucky for her a tall, ruggedly handsome shifter comes to her aid. Pete Langlais is trying to redeem himself as a volunteer inmate firefighter and during a massive wildfire, he meets beautiful, courageous Kayla, he knows he must risk everything to save her… and claim her as his mate.

 

This shifter romance is one that starts off with an adrenaline spike first meeting that results in an accidental mating. The characters are strong, compelling and have a lot of sizzling chemistry but the relationship is one extremely star-crossed romance that could leave this hero and heroine mateless. Lots of emotional turbulence in regards to Pete and his past as he struggles to overcome his past and rebuild his life by convincing Kaya to give him a chance and by building a relationship with his son and in regards to Kayla, she is being torn between wanting her mate and her own family but facing being disowned by her family due to the events of the past.

 

The story is original, fast paced and keeps readers on tender hooks throughout as the suspense and tension builds. But it has several heartwarming moments and lots of passion throughout the turbulence to cheer and delight readers as well, while the charming and intriguing supernatural community ensures that readers enjoy their visit to Bearpaw Ridge and the wonderful characters that inhabit it.

 

 

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review 2019-01-29 08:55
Cover Reveal: Fool’s Errand by Ophelia Bell
Fool’s Errand
Ophelia Bell
(Fate’s Fools, #4)
Publication date: March 19th 2019
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance

You never know what you’ve got until it’s gone. In my case that was literal – I had Ozzie West’s soul and didn’t know it, but now it’s been torn from me and I will never get him back.

My heart is broken.

My three mates may try to fill that void, but they don’t understand what he meant to me. They can’t see the memories unlocked by Fate.

Only one man can help, but he’s the one man I can never trust again.

 
 

Author Bio:
Ophelia Bell loves a good bad-boy and especially strong women in her stories. Women who aren't apologetic about enjoying sex and bad boys who don't mind being with a woman who's in charge, at least on the surface, because pretty much anything goes in the bedroom.

Ophelia grew up on a rural farm in North Carolina and now lives in Los Angeles with her own tattooed bad-boy husband and four attention-whoring cats.

If you'd like to receive regular updates on Ophelia's publications, freebies, and discounts, please subscribe to her mailing list: http://opheliabell.com/subscribe/

 
 
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review 2018-08-01 04:26
The feminist Zombie Book you didn't know you were missing
Ophelia Immune - Beth Mattson

We come into this world sometime into the Zombie Apocalypse -- or at least Outbreak, it's tough to say. Most of our information is given to us second or third-hand through the narration of a young girl. Actually, it's probably more like 52nd or 53rd-hand. North America (who knows what the rest of the world is like) is filled with people traveling from camp to camp trying to make it just another day. Some families drive from camp to camp, others have to risk walking.

 

These camps, by the way, have fences around them -- including overhead. Because at night -- the Zombies come. And if you aren't in a camp, you'd better hope you're at least in a car, because you've got nothing else to stop them than whatever weapon you might have.

 

Ophelia lost an older sister to the infection, and then her parents had a couple more kids (for people who never leave their car, this is quite the interesting proposition) that she has to look after. At some point, her family is able to get pretty far north (Canada somewhere), where at least in the cold winter, the infected can't move. They have a house, they start to make a life for themselves -- and then disaster strikes.

 

The title of the book is <b>Ophelia Immune</b> and there's really only one way to find out if she's immune, so this isn't really a spoiler -- she gets bitten. But she doesn't become a mindless people-eating machine. She gets the strength, she gets the ability to carry on while wounded (details are in the book), but she keeps her brain, her personality. Sadly, anyone who looks at her won't see that unless they get to talk to her.She runs from her family, finds her way to a city and tries to survive. Along the way, she encounters people selling young women -- girls -- to join polygamous families "for their protection." She finds corrupt Rangers, who are to protect people from the infected. And much worse. She also finds some scientists, who are happy to experiment on her blood -- actual infected blood is hard to find, blood of an immune person? Priceless.

 

I told Mattson that I didn't like Zombie stories -- by and large it's the truth, too. And I didn't like most of this book, because it was a really good Zombie story. It had all the elements and was downright creepy and disturbing. At a certain point, the tenor and focus of the book became something more -- it was still creepy and disturbing with mindless ex-humans wandering around eating humans, don't mistake me -- but it shifted. I liked a lot of that.

 

Next to M. R. Carey's Melanie, Ophelia is the most interesting Zombie I've ever encountered (well, maybe Gwen Dylan . . . ). She's naive, she's innocent -- which is just strange to say -- and idealistic. If you give her half a chance, she'll win you over. It's hard to judge the other characters -- because Ophelia's perspective is pretty strange, and you only see them from hers. But there are some good people, and some horrible humans in this world. So many horrible ones that you start rooting for the infection, really. But the rest of them, like Ophelia, give you hope.

 

Mattson's writing itself is clear, strong and effective. I'd prefer if she buried the ideology under a couple more inches of narrative, plot and character - but that could just be me. I would definitely check out her next offering.

 

I'm the wrong person to ask really if you should read this book. If you like Zombie stories, yeah, give this one a shot -- I doubt you've read anything like it. If you don't? Ehhhh, think about it anyway, you probably haven't read anything like it before.

 

<i><b>Disclaimer:</b></i><i> I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion -- and I warned her ahead of time that this was an uphill battle. </i>

Source: irresponsiblereader.com/2018/07/31/ophelia-immune-by-beth-mattson-the-feminist-zombie-book-you-didnt-know-you-were-missing
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review 2017-10-23 00:00
Ophelia
Ophelia - Caroline Clemmons Ophelia - Caroline Clemmons The town of Tarnation, Texas has no single females of marriageable age. The single men of the town are threatening to move to larger towns to find a wife which would cause Tarnation to die out. Young widow Lydia Harrison travels to her home state of Virgina where she places an ad in the newpaper and interviews several young women who are interested in moving west to marry. Seven young women ultimately head west with Lydia and her friend Sophie; each girl escaping something or someone and looking for acceptance and love.

A well written series with interesting characters. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series as well.
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