So if some of this sounds familiar please forgive me. Here is an updated batch of books for your Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, independent bookstore, library or wherever you may get reading materials.
Here are some suggestions of newer books published in 2008:
The Winter Rose, by Jennifer Donnelly is another great read by the author of The Tea Rose, this saga traces a young aristocratic English woman's life as she chooses to attend medical school and then practice at the turn of century in London. She chooses to address the problems of poverty and ignorance both in the slums and among her colleagues. How she manages romance with a peer with whom she has a childhood friendship but no adult chemistry and the "unsuitable" thief/underworld crime lord with whom she falls in love makes for a wonderful story. It continues the story line of a Tea Rose and again brings to life the sights and sounds of turn of the century London.
The Heroines by Eileen Favorite a debut novel about a young teen and her mother whose B&B is host to a cast of literature's finest (and most tragic) heroines from Ophelia to Hester Prynne and Scarlett O'Hara. THe narrator is ordered to play with Hester's daughter Pearl (can we say "let's play pillory?") so the two young unwed mothers can share notes. This B & B is a house of secrets with the big one being don't tell anyone you see the heroines (albeit they are garbed in modern clothing and the biger secret is to never tell the heroines the rest of their story otherwise they would not go back to meet their dreadful fates.) No wonder the teen narrator ends up accidentally in the psych ward. An interesting take on an odd situation. I hoped for a bit more... kind of an adult "Inkheart"...with a tad less drama, a lot less fantasy and slightly more heart.
