Betrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots; Fire and Blood; The Address

First up, a book about Mary, Queen of Scots and how literally everyone in that poor woman's life screwed her over. She was sent to France at a young age to marry the dauphin, and when he died France sent her back to Scotland, where her half-brother was ruling in her stead and quite content to keep on doing so. Mary tried to wrest control away from the lords who had held it for the last 18 years with no luck. She married Darnley, who was universally despised, and bore him a son named James. Darnley was murdered, and Mary rightfully feared for her life and fled, only to be captured by Bothwell and raped. Mary was forced to marry him, became pregnant and miscarried. She ran to England, hoping her cousin Elizabeth would help her, but Elizabeth was shaky on her own throne, and had no use for her Catholic cousin. She locked her up and tried to forget about her, until her own advisers bullied her into executing Mary. It was a sad tale of a tragic life.


Instead of finishing "Winds of Winter", George R. R. Martin has decided to go backwards and write about how the Targaryens got their start in the Seven Kingdoms. He only got halfway through in this one, which leads me to believe there's going to be a second one. Seriously, can you just finish Ice and Fire first?! Then I'll happily read whatever fan fiction you produce. Don't get me wrong, it was very interesting (if not a bit confusing, after all, there are a lot of characters who only stick around for a sentence), but c'mon. I'm not going to live forever, and I would love to know how the damn series ends. Sigh.

I was a bit disappointed with "The Address" by Fiona Davis. It sounded interesting, about the Dakota in New York, but it ended up being very predictable. It's one of those books I won't remember six months from now. Sara works as head of housekeeping at a posh London hotel when she's offered a job at the new Dakota apartment home in New York. Sara moves across the Atlantic and starts a forbidden relationship with a married architect. Meanwhile, a hundred years in the future, Bailey is out of rehab and looking to get back on her feet when her adopted cousin, Melinda offers her a job redesigning the Dakota apartment her great-grandfather left her.