The thirteenth tale

This was a fantastic gothic mystery about books. What could be better? Entertaining and tantiliizing, lots of fun. Great for fans of Kate Morton. Highly recommended.

We just read this book for book club and we fell in love with it! Great writing that you don't find very often anymore. Absolutely recommended for all readers! Our book club members daughters are all picking it up and falling in love with it too. Give it a try - you will be hooked!

Miss Winter is a famous author. She's also the heiress to an estate and a terrible, dark past. She's never told anyone her story, until now- to a young, green autobiographer with a secret of her own.

I really liked this book. I suppose all books are written by book lovers, but it's especially transparent in Diane. And you can tell Diane loves Jane Eyre. Throughout the book there are frequent references to Jane Eyre, and besides the explicit references to the book- the 50 copies of it, for instance, in Miss Winter's library, the pages of the book found with an abandoned child- there are plenty of references to the book in the story Miss Winter tells. There are dark family secrets, governesses and children, an estate, and of course, an estate fire.

I really liked this book, and you will too, especially if you like 19th century British novels written by women.

I'm not usually one to pick up adult fiction and read it. If I'm going to read fiction, I'd rather hop over to the young adult section and read to my heart's content.

But this book was recommended by a friend, so I read it in three days. Not only does Margaret Lea, the main character, love books as much as I do, she perfectly describes the love affair book nerds have with their cherished titles and how passionately we'll defend our book obsession to anyone.

Lea works in her father's antiquarian bookstore, writes biographies on obscure people in her free time, re-reads the classics until they're memorized, and is invited to reclusive author Vida Winter's house to finally get on paper Winter's autobiography, which has never been known before. Very captivating storyline and great surprises along the way.