Spring is officially here, meaning it’s time to announce our new Spring 2023 book club choices for The Silver Petticoat Book Club!
But before we do, we have a quick announcement – plus information about what this book club is about for potential members wondering what we’re all about.
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ABOUT THE SILVER PETTICOAT BOOK CLUB –OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION
Every season (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer), Amber and Autumn – twin sisters behind The Silver Petticoat Review and The Silver Petticoat Book Club – select six book recommendations. A book club focused on choosing books with love stories (it does not need to be a romance) or books with Romanticism.
Think sweet, smart, imaginative, or Austenesque in style. From classics to debut authors, bestsellers, book club books, personal nostalgic favorites, and more.
RELATED: 7 New and Noteworthy Books Reviewed: In Search of a Prince, Wyoming Wild, & More
Amber and Autumn have made it their mission to select books that inspire or excite them – books that ignite a love of reading, whether it’s a fun, sensationalist read or an upmarket literary novel that explores themes of humanity.
All selected book club books range between one and three out of five on the steaminess scale and do not typically have tons of gore, profanity, or explicit content. Some novels may include a little bit of graphic text, profanity, or violence; however, it will not be throughout the book, and Amber and Autumn will give a content warning.
See the official Silver Petticoat Book Club page for more information on the genres we cover, the romance steam levels, and more.
WHEN WILL NEW BOOKS BE ANNOUNCED?
New announcements will typically come near the beginning of a new season. So, you will have a few months to choose from the current list of books and join in on reading the ones that interest you!
They’re also great choices to add to your local book clubs.
ONLINE BOOK CLUB DISCUSSIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA TO FOLLOW
The discussion is simple. Amber and Autumn will ask members on Facebook, Goodreads, and Instagram about each book – albeit giving people time to read first! They’ll ask members if they’ve read the book and what they thought. You can join in at any time to share your thoughts.
RELATED: The Silver Petticoat Book Club Summer 2023 Announcement: Six Entertaining Reads
You can also follow the hashtag: #TheSilverPetticoatBookClub. Also, please use the hashtag to show how you’re participating. And remember to invite your friends to join.
FOLLOW THE BOOK CLUB ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
THE SILVER PETTICOAT BOOK SHOP
To make it easier to buy from the selection of Silver Petticoat Book Club picks (while also supporting local bookstores), you can check out Amber and Autumn’s new bookshop on bookshop.org with a list of all the book club selections – plus some fun extras!
Check it out. It’s a fun way to support local bookstores.
A BRIEF ANNOUNCEMENT
In our recent re-launch of the book club, we announced a new perk for Facebook page members. That perk was to have members join in on choosing one of the books for the next season.
Unfortunately, we didn’t receive enough participation. So, we’re putting that feature on the back burner for now. But we may revisit that idea in the future!
THE SILVER PETTICOAT BOOK CLUB ANNOUNCEMENT FOR SPRING 2023
So, that brings us to our Spring 2023 book club announcement, with six fun, charming, and enchanting reads to choose from. You can read them all or select the ones that interest you.
For the Spring Book Club selections, we chose five books we’ve read and adored and one we’ve wanted to read.
As we previously announced in the re-launch, one of the book club choices will always be one we haven’t read yet. It’s a book from our TBR pile. That way, we can join in on reading a book for the first time with you!
However, this means that the book isn’t a personal recommendation…yet. But one we hope will be soon!
So, let’s get to it! We hope you’ll join us in reading these six fabulous books. Below, you’ll find the official descriptions of each book and buy links.
EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES BY HEATHER FAWCETT
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Romance, Fairy Tales
Publication Date: January 10, 2023, by Del Rey Books
Fans of classic fairy tales, Jane Austen, and paranormal romance will love this enchanting novel! It’s book one in a brand-new series from author Heather Fawcett.
Content Note: There is some mildly depicted violence in the book, including animal abuse. Also, expect some thematic elements.
Official Description:
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.
“So endlessly enchanting, so rich and complete and wise that you’ll walk away half ensorcelled.”—Melissa Albert, author of The Hazel Wood
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party—or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all—her own heart.
THE GHOST BRIDE BY YANGSZE CHOO
Genres: Historical Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Chinese Folklore, Paranormal, Mystery, Romance, YA
Publication Date: August 6, 2013, by William Morrow
The title might be familiar to you because of the Netflix adaptation – which was cute and fun! But it didn’t capture the beautiful prose and storytelling from Yangsze Choo. The Ghost Bride is a lovely novel everyone should read.
If you love historical fiction, paranormal romance, and folklore, this book is for you. Don’t miss our book review of The Ghost Bride and our interview with the author.
Content Note: This is a clean read but has some mild thematic elements.
Official Description:
Now a Netflix original drama!
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Tiger, a Reese’s Book Club pick, Yangsze Choo’s stunning debut, The Ghost Bride, is a startlingly original novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists.
Li Lan, the daughter of a respectable Chinese family in colonial Malaysia, hopes for a favorable marriage, but her father has lost his fortune, and she has few suitors. Instead, the wealthy Lim family urges her to become a “ghost bride” for their son, who has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at what price?
Night after night, Li Lan is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, where she must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family.
I CAPTURE THE CASTLE BY DODIE SMITH
Genres: Classics, British Literature, Coming of Age, Romance, Literary Fiction
Publication Date: 1948
I Capture the Castle is a sparkling, witty novel set in the 1930s and one of our absolute favorites. It’s full of romance, literary allusions, and fantastically drawn characters.
It’s a classic to cherish forever.
Content Note: A clean read but does include child neglect.
Official Description:
One of the 20th century’s most beloved novels is still winning hearts, Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle!
“This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I’ve ever met.” — J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series
Adapted to a feature film in 2003, I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle’s walls, and her own first descent into love.
By the time she pens her final entry, she has “captured the castle”– and the heart of the reader– in one of literature’s most enchanting entertainments.
JANE & EDWARD BY MELODIE EDWARDS
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Women’s Fiction, Retellings
Publication Date: March 21, 2023, by Berkley Books
If there’s a Jane Eyre retelling, we’re automatically interested! Jane & Edward is a brand-new contemporary retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s classic gothic tale – and while we haven’t read this one yet, we’ve heard amazing things!
So, of course, we put this at the top of our TBR list – making it our one choice this season where we pick one book we haven’t read yet. We can’t wait to read it with you.
Content Note: This one has a moderate amount of strong language (including the “f” word, so be warned!). There is a little steaminess, too, with a behind-doors love scene.
Official Description:
This powerful reimagining of Jane Eyre, set in a modern-day law firm, is full of romance and hope as it follows the echoing heartbeats of the classic story.
A former foster kid, Jane has led a solitary life as a waitress in the suburbs, working hard to get by. Tired of years of barely scraping together a living, Jane takes classes to become a legal assistant and shortly after graduating accepts a job offer at a distinguished law firm in downtown Toronto. Everyone at the firm thinks she is destined for failure because her boss is the notoriously difficult Edward Rosen, the majority stakeholder of Rosen, Haythe & Thornfield LLP. But Jane has known far worse trials and refuses to back down when economic freedom is so close at hand.
Edward has never been able to keep an assistant—he’s too loud, too messy, too ill-tempered. There’s something about the quietly competent, delightfully sharp-witted Jane that intrigues him though. As their orbits overlap, their feelings begin to develop—first comes fondness and then something more. But when Edward’s secrets put Jane’s independence in jeopardy, she must face long-ignored ghosts from her past and decide if opening her heart is a risk worth taking.
MISS AUSTEN BY GILL HORNBY
Genres: Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Books About Books
Publication Date: Published January 23, 2020, by Century and April 7, 2020, by Flatiron Books
Now’s the perfect time to read this heartwarming book about the powerful bond between sisters – although there is some romance in it too.
Miss Austen is being turned into a period drama adaptation for PBS – and will hopefully be as lovely as this powerful and well-researched novel. Check it out before the adaptation premieres (albeit it will be a long while before it does!)
See our review of Miss Austen for more about the book!
Content Note: Mild content. Nothing of note.
Official Description:
A #1 International Bestseller
“A deeply imagined and deeply moving novel. Reading it made me happy and weepy in equally copious amounts.” —Karen Joy Fowler
“You can’t help feeling that Jane would have approved.” —The Guardian
For fans of Jo Baker’s Longbourn, a witty, wonderfully original novel about Cassandra Austen and her famous sister, Jane.
Whoever looked at an elderly lady and saw the young heroine she once was?
England, 1840. Two decades after the death of her beloved sister, Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury and the home of her family friends, the Fowles. In a dusty corner of the vicarage, there is a cache of Jane’s letters that Cassandra is desperate to find. Dodging her hostess and a meddlesome housemaid, Cassandra eventually hunts down the letters and confronts the secrets they hold, secrets not only about Jane but about Cassandra herself. Will Cassandra bare the most private details of her life to the world, or commit her sister’s legacy to the flames?
Moving back and forth between the vicarage and Cassandra’s vibrant memories of her years with Jane, interwoven with Jane’s brilliantly reimagined lost letters, Miss Austen is the untold story of the most important person in Jane’s life. With extraordinary empathy, emotional complexity, and wit, Gill Hornby finally gives Cassandra her due, bringing to life a woman as captivating as any Austen heroine.
WYOMING WILD BY SARAH M. EDEN
Genres: Clean Romance, Historical Fiction, Western, Romantic Suspense
Publication Date: March 7, 2023, by Shadow Mountain Publishing
If a swoony but wholesome love story is what you’re after, check out our last book club choice: Wyoming Wild.
It’s a fun, engrossing read from start to finish and the perfect escapist fare.
Content Note: This is a clean read with mild violence and suspense.
Our review:
Official Description:
Hearts collide when a sheriff’s daughter asks a hardened US Marshal to join her fight for justice and rid a small town of her corrupt father.
Wyoming Territory, 1876
US Marshal John “Hawk” Hawking is one of the most respected lawmen in the West, so when a telegram arrives from the small town of Sand Creek warning him of a death threat against him, he immediately begins an investigation.
Posing as a farmer, Hawk heads to Sand Creek, a town ruled by a violent and corrupt sheriff. Only one person is trying to stop him—Liesl, the sheriff’s own daughter. When she meets the self-assured and attractive new farmer, John, she hopes he might help her in the fight for justice.
John is completely unfazed by Sheriff Hodges’s attempts at intimidation, and Liesl is quickly swept up by Hawk’s courage and integrity. Just as quickly, Hawk finds himself falling for Liesl’s strength and bravery, as well as her grace and beauty.
When Liesl discovers John’s true identity, she feels betrayed. Despite her lingering distrust of him, Liesl agrees to work with him to enact a dangerous plan that will put the criminals away forever. Liesl must put her life, and her heart, in the hands of his lawman if she has any hope of saving her family and her town.
For more information on The Silver Petticoat Book Club, check out our new official page and Bookshop bookstore.
So, who’s reading with us this Spring? And what books will you be reading? Let us know in the comments below!
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