The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip... A Review

The Nine Fold Heaven by Mingmei Yip is the allure of Shanghai, with a twist of funny. Sexy and passionate painted upon a canvas of Chinese folklore, ghosts and dreams. This is all you can expect and more from Mingmei Yip's most recent book, The Nine Fold Heaven. The story centers around Camilla, and her quest to find her lost lover and baby. A baby that she thinks may be alive, even though she was told he died in childbirth. But her baby visits her in her dreams and gives her cryptic messages, and so her quest begins. But Camilla is no ordinary Chinese girl, she's been trained many years to be a sly covert spy by one of the most powerful gang leaders in Shanghai. She is beautiful, a woman who knows how to seduce any man, a talented singer,  pretty good with a knife and funny. Camilla will lead you on a journey through the exotic underworld of Shanghai, to an adventure that will surely grab you and have you turning those pages faster than a cherry blossom fades.

I am never disappointed with Mingmei Yip's writing. It is simply wonderful. Her stories are always an adventure, with exotic settings, and with a heroine that is so real, with flaws & feelings that the reader can always relate to. AND her stories are fun! Her female protagonists always have a fiery independent attitude graced with the humility to manipulate her situations.

Camilla, is from her previous book, Skeleton Women, where we first meet her as an orphaned girl living in Shanghai. She is adopted and brought up in luxurious surroundings, but as she finds out later, there is a cost to everything. And as she develops into the beautiful and talented woman she was meant to be, she finds out what that cost will be. And I just love that Mingmei brought Camilla back in another story! Don't you wish more authors would do that with great characters?! But even though Camilla's origins are in a previous story, you do not have to read the previous book to thoroughly enjoy this book. The Nine Fold Heaven is a stand alone read. (But if you like Camilla as much as I do, you'll want to read more of her anyway!)

What more can I say except that I loved The Nine Fold Heaven!  I want to thank Mingmei Yip for sending along a copy of The Nine Fold Heaven for review! It is always a pleasure to crack the spine on any of her books.

The Nine Fold Heaven is available on Kindle, Nook and in Paperback , all published by Kensington Books. (BTW, Skeleton Women is at a Kindle Bargain price of $2.99 right now if you wanted to read Camilla from her start.)

Here are a couple of links to my first interview with Mingmei Yip in April 2011, and my review of her book, Song of the Silk Road.

The Sunday Salon... Books with Buzz, a Bit about Birding, and author happenings in Connecticut

Spring has finally sprung and broken some records here in Connecticut! When average temps are usually in the 50's this time of year, this week we broke 90 degrees!

It was a great week to peak at the garden and see how things look (not too bad), but need to start weeding already (ugh), and maybe check out some new gardening books. My gardening is for the birds... literally. I dug up a small patch of lawn in my backyard and started planting a bird & butterfly garden. It's a long term project, changing as I see what works and what doesn't. A great basic book for learning about bird gardens, with lots of ideas and information, is Attracting Birds to Your Backyard by Sally Roth. And I would love to hear about your gardening ideas too!

For my bookish endeavors this week I've had my head in Ken Wheaton's The First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival and the smell of Cajun food practically waifs off the pages! I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this book. Light, funny and original. Check back this week for my review of Ken Wheaton's book! Also coming this week... a review for Bernice McFadden newest book, Glorious. It's filled with Bernice's signature great characters. And a review and giveaway for a copy of Forget Me Not by Vicki Hinze. Forget Me Not is suspense with romance and plot twists that will have you turning those pages! And I've held off a bit so no one would get over iPadded, but I'll post my review this week about the iPad. (just a hint though... I really love it!)

If you are anywhere in Connecticut, there are a few author events... Books on the Common is hosting Pete Nelson whose new book, I Thought You Were Dead, is coming out this week. In a nutshell it's about a down-on-his-luck guy and his faithful dog Stella, who just happens to be able to talk him through his problems. The Date & Time is April 16th @ 7:30pm, and Books on the Common is located in Ridgefield, Ct. The New Canaan Library will be hosting Lisa See, who wrote one of my all time favorite books, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. She'll be talking about Shanghai Girls. The Date & Time is April 14th @ 7:30pm. Reservations are necessary, but you can call the library to make them.

I did manage to pick my head up off the page and check out some interesting books this week... here are some other Books with Buzz...

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli... On a stifling day in 1975, the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As the fall of the city begins, two lovers make their way through the streets to escape to a new life. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must take leave of a war she is addicted to and a devastated country she has come to love. Linh, the Vietnamese man who loves her, must grapple with his own conflicted loyalties of heart and homeland. As they race to leave, they play out a drama of devotion and betrayal that spins them back through twelve war-torn years, beginning in the splendor of Angkor Wat, with their mentor, larger-than-life war correspondent Sam Darrow, once Helen's infuriating love and fiercest competitor, and Linh's secret keeper, boss and truest friend. This has gotten so much great press. I downloaded this book (My first iPad Book) and began reading a bit and all I can say is Tatjana Soli's writing is poetic and the story wrapped itself around me from page one. The images are vivid & haunting. She paints a beautiful picture of war-torn Vietnam and at the same time creates this love story. This is going to be big once more people discover it... *P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready! And priced at $11.99

The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw... A heartbreaking affair, an unsolved murder, an explosive romance: welcome to summer on the Cape in this powerful debut... Seven summers ago, Marcella Atkinson fell in love with Cecil McClatchey, a married father of two. But on the same night their romance abruptly ended, Cecil's wife was found murdered—and their lives changed forever. The case was never solved, and Cecil died soon after, an uncharged suspect. Now divorced and estranged from her only daughter, Marcella lives alone, mired in grief and guilt. Meanwhile, Cecil's grown son, Jed, returns to the Cape with his sister for the first time in years. One day he finds a woman's bathing suit buried in a closet—a relic, unbeknownst to him, of his father's affair—and, on a hunch, confronts Marcella. When they fall into an affair of their own, their passion temporarily masks the pain of the past, but also leads to crises and revelations they never could have imagined. This book is sure to be a summer break-out book. Lots of great buzz. Holly writes with such a wonderful easy style, but this is not your typical beach read. This book has got a gripping plot with plenty of suspense. Just published by Doubleday, I have a copy sitting on my nightstand waiting to dive into! And I can't wait! *P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

Something Missing by Matthew Dicks... From Publishers Weekly, An expert thief unexpectedly finds himself aiding his victims in Dicks's charming if rambling debut. During his hours off, barista Martin Railsback burgles the houses of folks he calls his clients, taking only what they won't notice is missing: for instance, three boxes of long grain rice... two rolls of toilet paper (in Martin's estimation, the Gallos had excellent taste in toilet paper), three cups of olive oil and, on occasion, something really valuable. The system works beautifully until the day Martin drops a client's toothbrush into the toilet and feels compelled to replace it. This act of simple decency sets him on an entirely different course, and pretty soon he's breaking into houses to improve the lives of their occupants. A fun light-hearted read, it's gotten great reviews so far. I have a friend (Steve) who is really enjoying it! (He offered, but I let him take the last copy at the bookstore). I think the premise is great, and I look forward to cracking the spine on this one. *P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready! At a "bargain" price of $9.99.

What are you reading this week!? Share some of your books and let us all know! Have you tried out the iPad? And what do you think about eBook pricing? In the meantime, have a great week!

Happy reading... Suzanne