Library of Clean Reads: Beatriz Williams

Showing posts with label Beatriz Williams. Show all posts

Friday, February 10, 2017

The Wicked City by Beatriz Williams (Review)

The Wicked City was such an absorbing tale that I fairly raced through it to see how it would all come to an end.

Book Details:

Title: The Wicked City by Beatriz Williams
Publisher: William Morrow
Category: Adult Fiction, 384 pages
Genre: Women's Fiction / Historical
Published: January 17, 2017
Content Rating: PG+13 (This book deals with mature subjects. There is sexual abuse, adultery and a partial rape scene. There are f-words, profanity and explicit sexual content.)

Book Description:

New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams recreates the New York City of A Certain Age in this deliciously spicy adventure that mixes past and present and centers on a Jazz Age love triangle involving a rugged Prohibition agent, a saucy redheaded flapper, and a debonair Princetonian from a wealthy family.

When she discovers her husband cheating, Ella Hawthorne impulsively moves out of their SoHo loft and into a small apartment in an old Greenwich Village building. Her surprisingly attractive new neighbor, Hector, warns her to stay out of the basement at night. Tenants have reported strange noises after midnight—laughter, clinking glasses, jazz piano—even though the space has been empty for decades. Back in the Roaring Twenties, the place hid a speakeasy.

In 1924, Geneva "Gin" Kelly, a smart-mouthed flapper from the hills of western Maryland, is a regular at this Village hideaway known as the Christopher Club. Caught up in a raid, Gin becomes entangled with Prohibition enforcement agent Oliver Anson, who persuades her to help him catch her stepfather Duke Kelly, one of Appalachia’s most notorious bootleggers.

Headstrong and independent, Gin is no weak-kneed fool. So how can she be falling in love with the taciturn, straight-arrow Revenue agent when she’s got Princeton boy Billy Marshall, the dashing son of society doyenne Theresa Marshall, begging to make an honest woman of her? While anything goes in the Roaring Twenties, Gin’s adventures will shake proper Manhattan society to its foundations, exposing secrets that shock even this free-spirited redhead—secrets that will echo from Park Avenue to the hollers of her Southern hometown.

As Ella discovers more about the basement speakeasy, she becomes inspired by the spirit of her exuberant predecessor, and decides to live with abandon in the wicked city too. . .

Purchase Links: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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My Review:

Reviewed by Laura Fabiani

This is the third book I read by Beatriz Williams. The first one was Overseas which had a rocky start for me, and the second was A Hundred Summers, which I really liked. It seems that Williams' writing gets better and better. The Wicked City was such an absorbing tale that I fairly raced through it to see how it would all come to an end.

Beatriz Williams has the talent for weaving alternating stories from the past to the present so that the reader is trying to figure it all out as the clues unfold the story before us. I love this technique because it builds suspense, mystery and intrigue. In The Wicked City, we begin with Ella's story in 1998, a forensic accountant who catches her husband cheating on her. She leaves him and moves into a building she later discovers used to have a speakeasy in its basement. A speakeasy is a saloon or nightclub that used to sell alcoholic beverages illegally, especially during Prohibition.

Then we move on to Geneva "Gin" Kelly's story in 1924, a flapper who frequents the said speakeasy until it's raided. She ends up in jail and then takes up the offer from the straight-arrow Revenue agent Oliver Anson to catch her stepfather Duke Kelly, who just happens to be the man she ran away from and who is known to be a notorious bootlegger.

I liked Gin's story because she is such a great and complex character. She tells her story from her point of view, talking straight to the reader with her wry sense of humor and witty observations. She's a survivor and one can easily overlook her faults because she is also vulnerable and there's a softness to her hard edge. I loved the setting of course, during the Roaring Twenties, such a dynamic time in history. And the clever dialogue and repartees! Think Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Gin is a smart-mouthed, independent and modern 1920s woman.

I like stories with dual timelines, and this was no exception. I liked both Ella and Gin's story, although this time, the connection between the past and the present was tenuous. I was waiting for it, the connection that would tie it all together but there wasn't much. As a matter of fact, if the present story had been left out, it would not have made a difference to that of the past.

So the ending...well, it left me wanting more. It left me with questions. I felt that there were some unresolved issues, some plot threads left hanging. I don't know.

Despite all this, I really enjoyed this novel. The author kept me engaged throughout and I was so into Gin's story that I was disappointed when it ended. I look forward to seeing if Williams will write another period piece with a dual timeline, as I am eager to read more.

Disclosure: Thanks to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

About the Author:

A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA from Columbia, Beatriz Williams spent several years in New York and London hiding her early attempts at fiction, first on company laptops as a communications strategy consultant, and then as an at-home producer of small persons, before her career as a writer took off. She lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore.

Find out more about Beatriz at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Friday, July 5, 2013

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams (Audiobook Review)

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
Penguin Audio
Released May 30th, 2013
Narrated by Kathleen McInerney
Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
Unabridged

After reading the synopsis I knew I wanted to read this book even though I didn't know what to expect since, Overseas, the first book by this author had been a little disappointing to me. Well, the author has redeemed herself in my eyes because I really liked this one! It was a perfect summer read. I listening to the audio version and was hooked from the beginning. More on the fantastic narration later.

The story opens in 1938, when New York socialite Lily Dane returns with her mother and six year-old sister Kiki to the familiar community of Seaview, Rhode Island. It's a place Lily has been coming to since childhood and it was her refuge after her heartbreak in 1931 with Nick Greenwald. But this summer, Nick shows up with his new wife, Budgie, who had been Lily's best friend since childhood. They are restoring Budgie's family's old house. The Seaview community do not welcome Nick and Budgie because of what happened in the past. A past that we slowly discover as the story alternates between 1931, when Lily and Nick met and fell in love, to the present 1938, as the true story of Nick and Budgie's marriage unfolds.

I have to say that Beatriz Williams has the talent for weaving alternating stories from the past to the present so that the reader is trying to figure it all out as the clues unfold the story before us. I love this technique because it built suspense, mystery and questions in my mind even as I enjoyed the plot and character developments. The love story between Lily and Nick was beautiful. Both Lily and Nick have big hearts and there are those that took advantage of that. Specifically Budgie and Graham. Budgie was sensually charming and, oh so manipulative! I wanted to strangle her throughout the story. Williams does know how to build interesting and unforgettable characters!

Kathleen McInerney's narration was absolutely wonderful. She captured the intimacy, passion and intensity of the story and of Lily Dane who tells the story in the first person point-of-view. She skillfully brought to life Lily, in essence becoming her. And her voice perfectly changed pitch and tone for the manipulative Budgie, the cute little Kiki, the daring older aunt and, of course, Nick. I have now added McInerney to my list of great narrators.

I loved the setting of 1930s, the oceanfront community, and the old-fashioned chivalry that Williams assigns to the heroic male main characters in her novels. Romance lovers will devour this one up, I'm sure.

Note: This book is rated P = Profanity and S = Sexual content. While William's last book was riddled with f-words, this book only had a few. There are many religious expletives however. There are explicit sex scenes in this book, one of which I would have preferred had much less details.

Reviewed by Laura

Disclosure: Thanks to Penguin and Audiobook Jukebox for sending me this audiobook for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

Sound Bytes is hosted by Devourer of Books, a weekly Friday meme where you can link up your audio book reviews.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Overseas by Beatriz Williams

Overseas by Beatriz Williams
G.P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN: 978-0399157646
Published May 2012
Trade paperback, 464 pages

After reading a few rave reviews, I was excited to dig into this novel. It has all the elements I love in a story—time travel, historical fiction, suspense and romance. I was hooked as I started reading the first atmospheric scene which takes place in the early morning shadows in France during WWI, until I got to page 6 and was jolted back to the present where f-bombs began raining down so hard I didn't know where to run for cover. After chapter two, I stopped counting. Some of the characters used the f-word in almost every sentence. C'mon, was that really necessary? I can easily skim over a few f-words, but this was excessive. Thus began my struggle with this book. Apart from the profanity, I had a few other issues with the story.

Kate Wilson is a Wall Street analyst who meets the dashing British billionaire Julian Laurence at a business meeting. He is attracted to her, falling in love with her almost instantly. This baffles Kate until she discovers that he is actually Julian Ashford, a celebrated war poet and infantry officer who mysteriously time-travelled from France of 1916, where he supposedly died at war. But Julian is keeping a dangerous secret from the past from Kate and is overprotective of her, until it all comes to a head and Kate believes she must travel back to the past to save him.

The premise is wonderful, with a love that transcends time and space, and actions that Julian and Kate take to keep it alive when there are factors that threaten their very existence. The problem is that the danger or threat was never too real to me because the secondary characters were underdeveloped and overshadowed by the romance. Yes, the romance. I felt like I was reading a Harlequin romance novel where the hero and heroine just can't get enough of each other and every scene is permeated with kissing and sex talk. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy romance as much as the next girl, and I loved Julian's old-fashioned chivalry, but if the editors would have cut 100 pages and reduced it to 350 pages, I think it would have been less romance-laden and felt more like I was reading fiction published by Penguin. It is said that less is more. And it certainly would have made their timeless love more powerful rather than cloying at times.

Williams is a good writer, though, and one could easily mark the difference between the modern men and their speech versus Julian and his poetic expressions of love to Kate. The story alternates between the past and the present, a technique which really worked for this story. It initially builds the suspense, but then midway it lags in the present and finally merges with the past toward the end. I would have liked more scenes in the past (they were the ones I enjoyed the most) and more on Kate's impressions with being hurtled back to France during WWI. The whole time travel aspect was okay, but I feel it could have been explored a little more.

I had high expectations for this book, and I was disappointed. I felt the story could have been so much more, with a better developed plot. However, I know that there are other bloggers who loved it, so you may want to check out their reviews as well.

Note: This book is rated P = profanity for lots of f-words and religious expletives. Rated S for sexual content and sex scenes.

I will count this book toward the following challenges: Time Travel Reading Challenge

Reviewed by Laura

Disclosure: Thanks to Penguin Canada for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.