It's Monday! What are you Reading? - A Dangerous Invitation by Erica Monroe

This is a meme hosted by Book Journey.

It's been about a month since I did one of these posts.  When last I shared what I was reading I had started to read Tea with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson.  I finished that book and have a review for you this week and I'll be sharing the new book I'm reading ... or should I say devouring.

Book Review:

Tea with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm a tea lover and a Jane Austen fan. That being said I've never noticed how much tea was mentioned in her books until I started reading this book. "At the center of almost every social situation in her novels one finds tea" (Wilson pg 11).

This book was a brief historical look at tea and it's entrance into homes of the English. Wilson provides the reader with a look at the historical and social influences that made tea the staple that it is today in many of our lives.  She intersperses the historical notes with quotes from the works and letters of Jane Austen.  Each chapter includes a few recipes to go long with the theme of the chapter.  The last chapter of the book teaches the reader how to brew the perfect cup of tea...I'll admit I have been doing it wrong.

My favorite part of the book was when she was describing what a trip to Twinings to purchase tea would have been like for Jane. Jane was the one who controlled the tea in her family.  It was kept under lock and key and Jane was in charge of the key.  It was also her job to brew the tea each day before the family awoke for breakfast.


What I'm reading now:

A Dangerous Invitation by Erica Monroe

Welcome to London in 1832.  This isn't the London we normally read about, Erica Monroe takes the reader into the Rookeries. Kate had been a respectable lady, just on the lower fringes of society, before her father's business crumbled after his death.  Now she lives in the Ratcliffe rookery and fences stolen goods to survive.  She thinks she's doing well for herself until her former fiance, Daniel O'Reilly returns.  Daniel and Kate had been engaged three years earlier (you can read this story in the novella A Wayward Man). Daniel had been wrongly accused of murder and with the help of a friend escaped.  He's returned to London now to clear his name and win Kate back.

I have not been able to put this book down. I've been drawn into the hunt for who set Daniel up and to see how he goes about winning Kate back.  Kate wants nothing to do with him, but she can't help herself for feeling all those things she felt three years before.

You have a chance to win this book over at Goodreads.  You have until March 1st to enter to win a copy of A Dangerous Invitation!