I have a morbid fascination with Jack the Ripper. Movies and books on the subject are intriguing but I tend to keep my fascination on the lighter side, if that’s possible. I enjoy the mystery and horror of it, but I don’t memorize the details or pour over pictures and documents for clues, so while I’m interested in Jack the Ripper, I am certainly no scholar. My gory curiosity drew me to Whispers in the Wind: The Search for Jack the Ripper by Del Garrett.

Whispers in the Wind is another fictional take on what happened in those darkened alleys of Whitechapel, London. The story follows Chief Inspector Diggins of Scotland Yard as he becomes increasingly obsessed with solving the gruesome murders of at least five prostitutes. Chief Inspector Diggins is a month away from retirement and spends his days drinking away the sorrow of his wife’s death; he is a wonderfully noir hero.

The characters are interesting, the plot twisting and the events intriguing. Mr. Garrett weaves popular theories into his winding tale, including the royal conspiracies and an appearance by the artist Walter Sickert, at the same time throwing in a thrillingly macabre plot line of his own. However, I was easily distracted. There was no set point of view and voice of the story changed throughout, which continually pushed me out of the story.

There is nothing like a good historical to point out to me that if I'd lived a few hundred years ago, I'd have probably had my throat cut at a young age. Having no lands to my name, nor any attribute to draw the attention of a suitable husband, I'd have been in a world of hurt. Luckily for Lady Prudence, she is not a poor young lady. With her beauty, her fiery temper and her holdings, she has much to offer a man in My Lady's Will by Marjorie Jones. Too bad she doesn't want to be offered!

Lady Prudence is to be given into the care of a guardian until King Henry can arrange for a suitable husband to take her in hand. Having no such desire in her heart to be given to anyone, Lady Prudence plots her escape. She's spent too many years watching her unfaithful father crush her mother's spirit day by day and wants nothing to do with any man. Then she meets her guardian, Will Barnett

I picked up A Study in Red: The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper, the cover hinting at the dark secrets contained between the covers. But, the cover didn’t warn of the depth of travel into the mind of a madman.

Brian L. Porter’s words grab the reader and won’t let go as he describes Robert Cavendish’s reading of the secret journal of the notorious Jack the Ripper. The man’s life changed as he discovered an ancestor’s place in Jack’s life, the workings of The Ripper’s mind, and the terror the mad man invoked.

This book is not one I could sit and read at one time. I would read a section, shiver, and lay the book aside. I had to return to its pages, though. I could not stay away. Part by part I delved into the horror that Porter portrayed in his novel. I can’t say I enjoyed the book, because the uneasy feelings it left in my mind were not enjoyable, but the book held my attention.

I'm a history fan without the head for dates. I don't care about the exact date and time something happened; I'm more interested in the human story behind it. When I picked up Smoke Around The Moon by T.K. Sheils, I was excited to jump headfirst into a time and story I knew little about.

The end of an empire, and the rise of another. This is when we meet Piyo, an Incan farmer that Spanish conquistadors call The Ear. Because of his gift for languages, Piyo is recruited by Hernando de Soto to act as translator for the Spanish. In Smoke Around The Moon, Piyo also acts as the eyes for the reader, giving us a glimpse into the life and times of the Incan empire. The twelfth Sapa-Inca, God-Emperor, has just died. According to a prophecy, he will be the last and the Incan empire will be brought down by white-skinned god-people soon after. Piyo is witness to the events that turn this prophecy into history.

I have to admit that one of my pet genres is historical romance. It’s my literary potato chip. My popcorn. My brain candy. There's a time in my life when my nearest and dearest family members would not have been remiss to have an intervention to get me away from my historical romance library and remove me to some kind of reader's anonymous facility to break the habit. I sucked down more than a book a day for years (and that's a modest estimate.) It's up in the air whether or not all that reading may have helped (or hurt) my writing, editing and reviewing skills, but any way you look at it, it is certain that it has affected my taste and expectations. I know the romance hero intimately. The hero is strong beyond strength, and has a sense of innate nobility and justice, no matter how the world turns, no matter how obvious he is, or how he hides his true nature from himself. The heroine may be naive, flawed, perfect or have low self-esteem, but no matter what she is, she holds the possibility of becoming a true and honorable partner in all things.

I can honestly say I've never had a desire to be locked in a dank dungeon until I read Secrets Revealed by Katrina Strauss. Ms. Strauss presents a vivid picture of what it is like to be a young woman who enjoys her pleasure fueled by pain.

And yes, I mean that literally. This is your warning that Secrets Revealed is not a vanilla erotic romance. You will find BDSM and other treats in the pages of this steamy opener to the Eldridge Legacy trilogy. Know thyself and steer clear of this book if it isn't your cup of tea.

In the opening scenes of Secrets Revealed, we are introduced to Inga as her aunt lay dying in front of her eyes. Inga is blessed with the abilities of the Magi, but use of such skills is forbidden in the lands patrolled by Lord Eldrige. She hesitates to do anything fearing her life would be in danger and her aunt dies as a result. Inga bravely decides that she can't stand by and watch others die when they could be helped, no matter what Lord Eldridge and the king have to say.

Inga begins to heal her townspeople and becomes bolder in her use of the gift of magick. As it often does when we tempt fate, her luck runs out and her home is raided in the night. She is taken by the iron masked Lord Eldrige himself to the king's castle. Thrown into the deepest stone cell once used to torture prisoners, Inga finds herself restrained and forced to submit to the Lord's every whim.

As a follow up to his very widely read book, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini provides us with a book that I hope many, many women will read: A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I am probably one of the few people who did not enjoy The Kite Runner. I honestly could not even get past the first dozen pages. This is no reflection on Mr. Hosseini's writing; it was just not a book for me. Because of this, I make no comparisons between Mr. Hosseini's first and second books. I can only judge A Thousand Splendid Suns on its own merit – and it is indeed a meritorious book.

Ever wonder what life was like in the early pioneer days? Did living on the land make you closer to the land? Did the love between a people grow stronger because they depended on each other for survival? Mary Jean Kelso answers these and other questions in her riveting tale of life on the frontier in her newest novel, Kat’s Cradle.

Katie Marie Sturdivant, better known as Kat, regrets her visit to the fortuneteller. Life is hard in the lawless town of Bodie. With her brother gone and her mother dead, it’s just Kat and her father Dutch. All she wants is something to look forward to, a little light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of being told she will meet her true love soon, the seeress predicts travel and tragedy. For that depressing bit of forecasting, she spent all her money.

Given a choice between sterile isolated life in a prison or the rough and tumble filthy life of the thirteenth century, what you would pick? Isobel of the far future, a condemned murderess, has chosen the past. She can stay alive there, avoid erasure, and the whole time period as well, on one condition. All she has to do is track down a young docile boy with naive ideas of the Crusades and bring him home to Mommy. Seems his seed is needed to establish a future dynasty on the throne of France. Once done, her life will be her own.

The historical novel is experiencing a great resurgence. With the works of Phillipa Gregory, Elizabeth Kostova and Diana Gabaldon topping the best-sellers list, the genre is enjoying grand popularity. This new release by Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife, is another engrossing mix of the historical and the fictional.

During difficult times, people want and need someone to blame, someone upon whom they can ply their anger and frustration. In French history, the greatest accusation has always been the one made against Marie Antoinette. In some works, it would actually appear as if this Austrian woman alone was the impetus for the French Revolution of 1789 when, in fact, the seeds of unrest had been planted a hundred years earlier, under the reign of Louis XIV. It was from this Louis’ wife that the words “Let them eat cake” actually came. In Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette, Naslund proposes an opposing contention: the defense of Marie Antoinette in her own words.