book club

Thanks, Katie & Heather!

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay



Set in both modern-day Boston and post-WWII Moscow, RUSSIAN WINTER tells the story of Bolshoi ballerina Nina Revskaya as she becomes a member of Stalin's cultural elite before escaping to the West following a terrible betrayal. Decades later, she has decided to auction off her famed jewelry collection—including the rare set of amber that a Boston professor, Grigori Solodin, translator of the works of Revskaya's late poet-husband, believes may hold the key to a long-kept secret. The literary mystery Grigori sets out to solve—with the help of Drew Brooks, a young associate at the Boston auction house—reaches much deeper: to the cost of making art and trying to live and love under circumstances of enormous repression.
(thanks to her website)

This one took me awhile to finish,nothing major was roping me in and it wasn't that exciting. Nothing terrible but not great either. The main character and overall story had promise but it was confusing at times when it went back and forth between decades. I also thought that the ending was rather abrupt,it felt rushed. I give it a C.

Nora Roberts' Chasing Fire










There's little as thrilling as firefighting-at least to Rowan Tripp. The Missoula smoke jumpers are in Rowan's blood: her father is a legend. She's been fighting fires since her eighteenth birthday. At this point, returning to the wilds of Montana for the season feels like coming home-even with reminders of the partner she lost last season still lingering.
Fortunately, this year's rookie crop is one of the strongest ever-and Gulliver Curry's one of the best. He's also a walking contradiction, a hotshot firefighter with a big vocabulary and a winter job at a kids' arcade.
Everything is thrown off balance when a dark presence lashes out against Rowan, looking to blame someone for last year's tragedy. Rowan knows she can't complicate things with Gull-any distractions in the air or on the ground could mean the end-but if she doesn't find someone she can lean on, she may not make it through the summer.
(thanks to her website)

A bit rough/abrasive at times but still a unique character(s) and setting. I loved the relationship between Gull and Rowan and I loved how the guys treated Rowan like one of them. A fast read, I give it a B.

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Happy Reading!