Jennifer Donnelly (1) (1963–)

Dans les années 1900, des bas-fonds de Whitechapel aux allées du Parlement, d'Angleterre en Afrique, du Kenya en Californie, le destin bouleversant d'une jeune femme médecin, prête à tous les sacrifices pour venir en aide à ceux qui en ont le plus besoin... Un grand roman historique de qualité.
Londres, 1900.
Son diplôme de médecin en poche, India Selwyn Jones, une riche héritière, décide de renoncer au confort et aux honneurs dus à son rang pour se consacrer aux plus miséreux. Idéaliste et déterminée, elle commence à exercer dans le quartier populaire de Whitechapel et se heurte sans tarder aux pratiques réactionnaires de son supérieur. Ce qui n'entame en rien sa volonté de tout mettre en oeuvre pour soulager au mieux la misère qui l'environne.
C'est dans ce faubourg, le plus mal famé de la ville, qu'elle va sauver la vie de Sid Malone, un célèbre et ténébreux gangster, dont le charme trouble ne la laisse pas insensible. D'autant qu'il est tout l'opposé de son fiancé, Freddie Lytton, un politicien perfide et ambitieux, qui n'a qu'une idée en tête : épouser India pour toucher sa dot et en faire une femme au foyer.
Mais India a une vocation, la médecine, et de grands projets, fonder des dispensaires gratuits, en Angleterre et ailleurs, dans le vaste empire colonial et, pourquoi pas, dans le Nouveau Monde. Prête à tout pour y parvenir, elle va se lancer à corps perdu dans ce grand voyage, semé d'embûches et de drames...… (mer)

India Jones...her name, an echo, intentional or not, of the Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford film character, is spirited, richer than God, smart, high-toned, (in her case another word for smutty), tough and diligent. She lacks only the ability to “smell a set-up a mile away,” a skill that would help her fit right in with her patients in Whitechapel, described as London’s dingiest, grimiest, district, where she has set up her medical practice. The story features a heroine who appears to be an upstanding member of society, but who is "less than complete", without a man...and not just any man...preferably a dangerous one. India fills the bill with Sid Malone, a cruel-hearted and cruelly handsome gangster who is definitely not for the faint of heart. Both naturally resist the temptations of the other.... though not for long enough. Eventually, hormones out rules good common sense that God gave green apples; as the author explains, “He stood, as if to go, then instead he bent to her, took her face in his hands, parted her lips with his tongue, and kissed her deeply.” Once those lips were parted they remained that way for the remainder of the book...and though it wasn't said in so many words, I suspect other body parts as well. To no one's surprise, Sid eventually gets himself in trouble with the police. When he’s released on his own recognizance and arms himself with a false name, he goes in search of India, who has transferred herself to Kenya to do try and "do good in the country". But it seems she has something that Sid says is his. Meanwhile, India is looking for something that she says is hers, but she is stymied by the evil politician...just what this story needed...another evil" anything. Freddie Lytton is the evil politician. who come to think of it, does have several "Jack the Ripper" qualities. Two questions that will sum this up for most readers...Can love take precedence over money? and can love, or the readers patience, out last this way too long, too average narrative? It took a while, but I believe I have come up with the perfect description of this one. This is the love child of Horatio Alger who meets a bodice-ripper who meets a Hemingway, with Dickensian dashes for good measure. I didn't think they wrote "bodice-rippers" anymore...Guess I was wrong. Oh, well...some good came from it... I can cross of another challenge category:)… (mer)

This was a really fun visit to the world of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. We join all of our favorite characters at the moment when the Beast gives Belle his library. She is overjoyed as she searches through all the vastness of the cavernous room. One day she comes upon a magic book that transports her to the world within...and threatens to keep her there.

Honestly, very well done. This felt like an extension of the movie. The tone was right, the characters' voices were right, and so was the setting. High marks.… (mer)