Book Review: The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray is a historical fiction novel that spans many years and tells of the friendship between former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. I don't know if I would have picked up this book if it hadn't been the August selection for one of the book clubs I belong to in my area because I don't read a lot of historical fiction. However, I am so glad that I read it and was able to learn many things I hadn't learned about in any of my history classes.  I don't recall learning anything about Mary McLeod Bethune, and she is an important part of American history. The things she helped spearhead to provide African American people equal rights is quite impressive. One of the things I was horrified to learn about is Franklin D. Roosevelt's resistance to stop lynchings because he was afraid of losing the Southern Democrats backing for his New Deal Bill. Another thing that I fo...

Book Review: Three Bedrooms, Two Baths, One Very Dead Corpse (Amanda Thorne Mysteries, #1) by David James

Three Bedrooms, Two Baths, One Very Dead Corpse (Amanda Thorne Mysteries, #1) by  David James takes place in Palm Springs, California. Realtor Amanda Thorne is having the worst morning. Her car won't start, so she decides to ride her bike to her showing, only to crash into a cactus. Her day gets worse when she finally arrives at her listing to find a dead body in the house.

This book, although entertaining enough, fell a bit flat for me. I liked the book well enough to continue reading to find out what would happen. However, there were quite a few things that bothered me.
 
Amanda Thorne's responses to certain situations were a bit of a stretch in believability as she was overly dramatic and emotional. I feel like the main character shouldn't have been written from a woman's perspective. On top of that, the amount of cursing in Three Bedrooms, Two Baths, One Very Dead Corpse was over the top, which typically doesn't bother me. However, I felt like it could have been done better. I didn't care for the way the Lithuanian grandmother was written or the obvious disdain for people who were into new age practices.
 
Despite my complaints, I will give David James another chance and read the next book in the series. I gave Three Bedrooms, Two Baths, One Very Dead Corpse (Amanda Thorne Mysteries, #1) 2.5 stars out of 5 stars but rounded it up to 3 stars on Goodreads.com. If you enjoyed this book, I recommend The Bounty (Fox and O'Hare, #7) by Janet Evanovich and Steve Hamilton.


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