About Deanne

I was born and raised out on the fringes of the rainy Pacific Northwest on fishing boats and cold beaches with only a dog and kittens for company, and so my love of reading and creating stories started very early. My dad would illustrate my early stories and I would listen to him ramble about European history and warfare, eagerly asking questions about Kings, Queens and our own family history. In my adult life I am wife to a brilliant and hilarious web designer and mother to two wonderfully weird children whom I am trying to pass on to my love of learning about the world. I'm an amateur genealogist, amateur photographer and amateur history major haha. I'm good at doing amateur stuff lol. During the last couple years I finally turned my life-long urge to write into a serious endeavor and finished my first novel called (for now) The Stone and the Stars, about a dying dystopian society, and one girl trying to escape it before it collapses. While I finish cleaning up the edges on my novel for the umpteenth time, and before I send it out into the world, I've lately begun a novel about utopia, this time on Earth. I'm finally living up to the nerdy book-worm title my family 'lovingly' pinned on me from the time I was small, and finally doing that one thing I feel like I was born to do. Cliche and silly? Yes!

The Emperor (Morland Dynasty 11): by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

The year is 1705 and Napoleon is in full force, charging here and there across Europe with that monstrous combination of arrogance and skill that the man displayed. As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, both England and France are in upheaval as one might well imagine, and the Morland … Continue reading

The Tangled Thread (Morland Dynasty 10): by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

The story moves to France for the duration of the French Revolution, a bloody and terrible time in France’s history. We became acquainted with Henri in the last book, a hopeless womanizer who at last meets the love of his life but lost her before her realized it. His daughter, … Continue reading

Out of Egypt: by André Aciman

Egypt in another world, Alexandria in a time that will never come again. André Aciman lays down an intricate web that covers four generations of a family that truly belongs nowhere, and struggles for identity as cultural and racial worlds collide. The term Jewish diaspora simply means the scattering of … Continue reading

Daughter of the King; Growing up in Gangland: by Sandra Lansky and William Stadiem

Well well well, I’ve finally read a current book, courtesy of my new library card. I’ve been liking biographies and memoirs lately so I thought the story of an American Princess, raised in secluded luxury oblivious to the dangerous world her gangster father kept from her would be an amazing … Continue reading

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: by Robert A. Heinlein

Last year we found a haul of first edition classic sci-fi books for just a few dollars each at a quaint little bookshop in Flagstaff including ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’. Unfortunately since then, they have been in a decorative little stack on my bookshelf just looking good. I … Continue reading

The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I by Nancy Goldstone

In 1348 twenty-two year old Joanna, Queen of Naples (part of Italy at the time) and granddaughter of famed ruler Robert the Wise, stood before the Pope to answer the charges of murder in the brutal death of her husband, and it wasn’t the last time Joanna would have to … Continue reading

The Flood Tide (Morland Dynasty 9): by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Possibly not a great spot to begin reviewing in the middle of these books, but I may get a chance to recap the first eight, and I will definitely still be reading them going forward so- shrug. If you want, stop now and get the first book “The Founding”. These … Continue reading

The Archer’s Tale: by Bernard Cornwell

For a brief period of time in medieval Europe, the archers of England were a powerful foe unrivaled in battle by any other country. Boys took up archery at a young age enabling them to become excellent and strong archers who gave the English an advantage in warfare, especially during … Continue reading