Phoebe’s Picks: Armchair Travel Edition
One of the things I love most about reading is being taken away, escaping, traveling to places I may never see except in the pages of a book. And time travel! Until a time machine drops into my lap, books are my ticket to other times and places. Here are three books that transported me and made me momentarily forget I was a suburban housewife with three children.
Bitter Spirits
by Jenn Bennett
I keep hearing that paranormal is dead and doesn’t sell. Publishers are only looking for something new and fresh. Well, here it is. Bitter Spirits is set in 1920’s San Francisco (Chinatown) during Prohibition. The heroine, Aida, is a spirit medium who parlays her gift into a stage show. The hero, Winter Magnusson, is a bootlegger with a ghost problem. The setting, the clothes, the language – it all worked to whisk me away. I can’t wait for book two.
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The Chocolate Thief
by Laura Florand
Paris. Gourmet chocolate. Paris. An arrogant but sexy chocolatier. And did I mention Paris? Florand weaves a tasty tale set in the world of expensive, handmade chocolate. The scenes where the hero, Sylvain, was making chocolate were some of the sexiest scenes in the book – even more so than the actual sexy times. Maybe that says something about me? Not sure, but this was a lovely read and I’m salivating to read the rest of the series.
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Bollywood and the Beast
by Suleikha Snyder
An American-born actress moves to India to pursue her dream of making it in Bollywood in this fun take on the Beauty and the Beast story. I loved the characters in this book. More so than the physical setting, the characters, particularly our heroine, Rakhee, gave me a sense of place. Rakhee has an American mother and Indian father and she navigates the two cultures very well, except for her Hindi. The language barrier only added to my feeling of being transported when she moves into our hero’s home and spends time with his grandmother learning Hindi. I was swept away in the world of Bollywood too. Very enjoyable read. This is the third book in Snyder’s Bollywood Confidential series but can be read alone.
*Comment of this blog post with a place you’ve read about that you would love to visit and one lucky winner will get all three BOLLYWOOD CONFIDENTIAL e-books courtesy of the author!*
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