Mundie Moms

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Twitter Tuesday - Kim Harrington



We love October, too, Kim. All the Halloween decorations, fall festivals, the smell of pumpkin spice lattes and that fresh feeling in the air that doesn't require heavy winter layers, at least not yet.  Check out Kim's post on things she loves about October, and then take a look at her upcoming novel, Clarity.

Here's the synopsis:
In Eastport, a tourist town on Cape Cod, lives a family of freaks. My family. I'm a psychic. My brother's a medium. My mother's a telepath. Tourists love us. Townies scorn us. We live in a grand Victorian house with no permanent ghosts, and we use the first floor for our family business: readings. Not the bookstore kind.
Are you like me? Yes, I read the synopsis and ran over to click on pre-order. The release date is March 1, 2011 and I can hardly wait. Here's another synopsis in case you want just a little bit more. Looks really good, doesn't it, MMs??


Book Review- The House Of Dead Maids

By Clare B Dunkle
Published by Henry Holt & Company, LLC
Released On September 14th, 2010
Source- The Publisher
3 stars- It's A Good Read


Young Tabby Aykroyd has been brought to the dusty mansion of Seldom House to be nursemaid to a foundling boy. He is a savage little creature, but the Yorkshire moors harbor far worse, as Tabby soon discovers. Why do scores of dead maids and masters haunt Seldom House with a jealous devotion that extends beyond the grave?

As Tabby struggles to escape the evil forces rising out of the land, she watches her young charge choose a different path. Long before he reaches the old farmhouse of Wuthering Heights, the boy who will become Heathcliff has doomed himself and any who try to befriend him (quoted from Amazon).

Have you ever wondered what Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff was like as a child? Pick up The House of Dead Maids and you'll find out. Clare B Dunkle does a great job at bringing an Emily Brontë like voice to The House of Dead Maids. It reads as though Clare came from the early Victorian/ Emily Brontë's time. The style and language is very similar to Emily's and can, in my opinion can be read as a prequel to Wuthering Heights. You don't need to read Wuthering Heights to understand what's going on in this story.

Clare did a great job at introducing us to Heathcliff via the eyes of his young maid, Tammy Aykroyd. Tammy was brought to Seldom House to be a nursemaid and playmate to the young master. If the house wasn't already creepy enough, Tammy sees the ghost of the young maid who lived there before her. As Tammy and Heathcliff (which we learn how he received that name at the end of the book) explore Seldom House together, they uncover some truly startling and very gruesome discovers. Despite the lack of indepth characters, which wasn't big in Victorian Literature, I walked away understanding Heathcliff a little more, via Tammy's telling of what happened at Seldom House.

This small book was packed full of creepiness. If the cover already didn't add enough to the creepy, gothic feel, than the illustrations at the start of each chapter definitely will. Don't let the size of this book fool you. If you want a good scare on a dark and stormy night, pick up The House of Dead Maids.

Clare B Bunkle will be visiting with us later in the week, via her The House of Dead Maids blog tour. You can find out more about her writing and The House of Dead Maids here http://www.claredunkle.com/ and you can find out more about her blog tour here http://www.claredunkle.com/Design/maidsjacket.html

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