For me, 2011 has been the year of the ebook. It seems only fitting, then, that my favorite book of 2011 is only available in the ebook format.
The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale by Christine Bell is the story of time pirate Dorothy Gale, aka Stormy, who is stuck in 1836. She’s from 2010, though, and she’s just trying to get back home.
The problem? Her brother, Bacon Frogs, lost a piece of the time machine in a game of cards. And not only did he lose the piece, but he lost it to the Looney Duke of Leister.
So Stormy decides to steal it back so that she and her brother can get home. Little does Stormy know that the Duke of Leister is a man from her past who has more at stake than she does… Will Stormy get home before the Looney Duke steals her time machine and her heart forever?
I loved The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale because it was so vivid, so funny, so entertaining. It’s a short book – only about 80 pages – but it’s so packed full of wit and vivid imagery that the reader doesn’t even notice the length of the story.
Sometimes, when it comes to historical novels, I find that authors have a little trouble reconciling the speech of the time period with speech that a modern reader can relate to. Bell adeptly avoids this problem all together, as she has placed a modern heroine in a historical setting. The reader expects Stormy to speak in a modern way because she’s from 2010.
Of that books that I’ve read that were released in 2011, The Twisted Tale of Stormy Gale is by far my favorite.
Sandra Johnson is a full-time contributor to RomanticLoveBooks.com, a romance novel blog dedicated to helping readers find the best books available.