The Wing Tiara by J'nell Ciesielski

 I've enjoyed everything that I've read by J'nell Ciesielski and The Wing Tiara is no different. She writes historical fiction that makes you feel like your there. Jasper Truitt is a jewel thief with a a heart of gold, Esme Fox is a rival jewel who also happens to be Jasper's estranged wife. He married on whim at the end of the great war. Now they are looking for fabled Valkyrie tiara.  However for both of them there's more at stake than he tiara.  I have to say that this one gave me slight Mr and Mrs. Smith vibes though without the assassin’s for hire. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

First Line Fridays

 Hosted by Reading my Superpower

The Fall 

Poenari Castle, Wallacha 

December 1917

"The Earth was cold, frozen, and slick." 

The Riser 

Ten Years Later 

"The Frozen air is black as it scratches the night." 

Chapter one 

London 1927

"From her rooftop perch high above moonlit Whitehall, Ivy shucked off her blood-crusted blouse and skirt and dropped them into a pile to be incinerated." 

To Free the Stars by J'nell Ciesielski review

 

Title: To Free the Stars

Author: J’nell Ciesielski

Ch: 33 plus epilogue

Pg: 400

Series: Jack and Ivy book 2

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 5 stars

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

I loved To Free The Stars as much as I did The Brilliance of Stars. I do have to say though J’nell did not make Jack and Ivy’s journey easy. But they do say the course of true love never was smooth. This one picks up ten years after the first book. And let’s say Ivy’s had a hard ten years. But despite what others have told her she’s held on to hope. Jack on the other hand has given up.

To Free The Stars is indeed more suspenseful and stressful than the first one. And you feel the emotions that both Ivy and Jack feel. Despite being a spy Ivy does wear her heart on her sleeve. I finished this one in two days. One of which had me saying up late to finish because I had to know what happened.

And there ended up being a character that I should have hated. But despite what they did I couldn’t hate them. Because of what they went through.

This is a two book series that you really need to read in order. I do suggest caution to readers because there is mentions of trauma and mind control. As well PTSD on the page even though for the time period that wasn’t the term at the time.

Though it all J’nell Ciesielski still manages to give us a romance that won’t die. And I still got to say she gave me what the MCU wouldn’t do she gave me a Winter Soldier Black Widow love story.

 

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

 

The Brilliance of Stars by J'nell Ciesielski review

 

Title:  The Brilliance of Stars

Author: J’nell Ciesielski  

Ch: 28 plus prologue and epilogue

Pg:  400

Series: Jack and Ivy book 1

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Rating: 5 stars

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

 

“She kissed Jack hard on the mouth, then aimed her Beretta over his shoulder and fired a round of shots down the medieval corridor of Dobruzov Castle.”

This first line gives me Black Widow and Winter Soldier vibes. So, if that’s what the author was going for, it worked. I normally don’t include first lines in my reviews but this one needed it because I feel like it adds to my review. Because that first line hooked me from the get-go, and that rare.

Ivy is a woman of her time but she’s also quite capable. And Jack knows this doesn’t overstep. Which in my book makes him the perfect hero?. And it doesn’t hurt that books play a part. As both are readers. It’s rare to get a hero in historical fiction that’s a reader who has a balance of intelligence and strength. A sniper needs both. And that’s what we get in Jack. I do believe Jack Vale has become my new favorite historical hero.

The Brilliance of Stars gave me everything I love in historical fiction spies, Russia, Eastern Europe war. Loved that this one takes place during WWI which we don’t have enough of.

In The Brilliance of Stars J’nell gave me something the MCU failed to give me. A chance for the Winter Soldier/ Bucky has a chance to fall in love. She gave me the Winter Soldier and Black Widow vibes that was missing.

 

 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.

First Line Friday

 Hosted by Reading is my Superpower

Prologue

Dobryzov Castle, Russia

January 1917

“She kissed Jack hard on the mouth, then aimed her Beretta over his Shoulder and fired a round of shots down the medieval corridor of Dobryzov Castle.”

 

This first line gives me Black Widow and Winter Soldiers vibes. So, if that’s what the author was going for it worked.

The Ice Swan by J'nell Ciesielski review

 Title:  The Ice Swan

Author:  J’nell Ciesielski

Ch: 33 Plus epilogue 

Pg:  400

Genre: Historical fiction, Historical romance   

Rating: 4.5 stars

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

 

The Ice Swan is the newest book by J'nell Ciesielski and is set in Paris during The Great War though we get one chapter in Russia.  Sventlana Dalsky is a Russian Princess who's also a Ballerina who has fled to Paris to escape the Red Army and the Russian Revolution with her sister and mother.  She ends up needing help, help that comes in the form of Doctor Wynn MacCallan and a a marriage of convenience.  She accepts.

This is the second book of J'nell's that I've read, and I haven't been disappointed yet.  She knows how to thread romance through a story without it being too much.   The Ice Swan to me was a bit of an Anastasia retelling but with a happier ending more like the animated movie from the 90s Though I wanted a little more Russia I understand why we only got a chapter. But I loved the Paris and later Scottish setting.    Not mention it had one of my favorite historical romance tropes marriage of convenience or as I like to call it marriage of necessity a trope I only recently discovered I loved and now I can't get enough of books with it.  The Ice Swan like most of J'nell's Ciesielski lean more towards main stream historical but they are clean no language and any implied steamy scenes are off the page and not mentioned.  The Ice Swan was a wonderful read and I look forward to J'nell's next book The Brilliance of Stars that proposes the question of What if the Winter Solider fell in love, what can I say that tagline has me hooked.



 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.