Review ~ The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzeman

Simon and Schuster
August 2013

The Kessler sisters are as close as two siblings can be, however, during their adolescence this closeness is shattered during a family holiday, when the sisters strike up a friendship with a struggling young artist, Thomas Bayber. By the end of the holiday all three lives are changed irrevocably. Years later, when Bayber, now a renowned but reclusive artist releases a painting entitled the Kessler Sisters, the past which has been long buried is brought back into focus, and secrets which have been hidden are forced into the open.

For the first third of the book nothing much seems to happen, and I was almost on the point of abandoning the book but gradually as the layers of the story start to be peeled away, it becomes more complex, and as the feelings evoked by the divulging of secrets are revealed piece by piece, the novel started to grab my attention.

Overall this is a competent debut novel, with some flashes of brilliance but rather too much drawing out of the story, which I think could have been more succinct in places.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for my ecopy of this book

To The Fair Land Blog Tour - Guest Post - Lucienne Boyce - Giveaway

Wanderers and Writers: The Inspiration for To The Fair Land

I am delighted to welcome Lucienne Boyce

as she talks about who inspired her to write To The Fair Land

The question is not so much what inspired me to write To The Fair Land, as who. It was my literary heroine, novelist and diarist Frances Burney (1752–1840).


To The Fair Land grew out of my fascination with the secrecy surrounding the publication of Burney’s first novel, Evelina. Burney’s motives for keeping her authorship secret are not entirely clear. Perhaps she feared hostile criticism, or losing respectability, or was anxious not to draw attention to family scandals (her brother had just been sent down from Cambridge University for theft). Whatever her reasons, she wrote in secret and published anonymously (although the truth came out eventually).

I began to wonder what would happen if a book was published anonymously with more at stake than a reputation. I imagined the possibility of a publication that meant real danger to people connected with it. But what could be so important? Again, I found the clues in Burney’s novels and diaries. Her brother James served in the Resolution on Captain Cook’s second voyage in search of the Great Southern Continent, a landmass which many believed existed in the southern hemisphere.

What could be more exciting than the quest for new lands? At stake are lives, fortunes, even the fate of a nation…so Ben Dearlove, the hero of To The Fair Land, is in peril because of his obsession with an anonymous book about a voyage to the Great Southern Continent. The heroine, Sarah Edgcumbe, is a homeless wanderer who has to conceal the truth about her past – like the heroine of Burney’s novel The Wanderer. She’s also named, incidentally, after Frances’s step-sister Sarah, and like her namesake is a writer.

It was Frances Burney’s writing that first interested me in the eighteenth century. Now I’m so hooked I’m writing my own novels set in the period. She truly is my inspiration!

***

My thanks to Lucienne Boyce and to Joanna Zefron at Silverwood Books for the generous giveaway and for allowing Jaffa and I to be part of To The Fair Land Blog Tour 2013

a Rafflecopter giveaway



To The Fair Land Book Blurb

A thrilling eighteenth-century mystery about a map, an author, and a vicious killer.

In 1789 struggling writer Ben Dearlove rescues a woman from a furious Covent Garden mob. The woman is ill and in her delirium cries out the name "Miranda”. Weeks later an anonymous novel about the voyage of the Miranda to the fabled Great Southern Continent causes a sensation. Ben decides to find the author everyone is talking about. He is sure the woman can help him – but she has disappeared.

It is soon clear that Ben is involved in something more dangerous than the search for a reclusive writer. Who is the woman and what is she running from? Who is following Ben? And what is the Admiralty trying to hide? Before he can discover the shocking truth Ben has to get out of prison, catch a thief, and bring a murderer to justice.

Good Luck in the giveaway !!

Review ~ Royal Inheritance by Kate Emerson

Published by Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books
September 2013

Audrey Malte , although illegitimate is brought up on the periphery of the Tudor court. Her alleged father is a tailor to King Henry VIII, and in the course of his work, he takes Audrey to court with him, where she comes into contact with the King. The king appears to be quite taken with Audrey, and ensures that she has rather more privileges that the rest of her family, which leads people to assume that Audrey is in fact the king's illegitimate daughter.
Based on a real historical figure, the story is told by Audrey, now married and a mother. She is relaying the story of her life to her rather precocious 8 year old daughter, Hester, who appears to have a grasp of adult relationships far beyond her tender years. The story flits backwards and forwards in time quite well, and describes a believable set of circumstances which the author has blended into a interesting and different look at Tudor England.

For those familiar with Kate Emerson's writing, this book is a continuation of the Secrets of the Tudor Court series, and as such sits comfortably within its genre.

My thanks to NetGalley and Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books for a digital copy of this book.

Sheryl Browne ~ Romantic Heroes Blog Tour

Safkhet Publishing

My review of Warrant for Love

Leanne, her sister Nicky, and their friend Jade have what you might call rocky relationships with the men in their lives, so when Leanne’s boyfriend, Richard takes advantage of Leanne one too many times, it is only natural that Nicky and Jade would try to convince her to give him up. However, Leanne’s penchant for disastrous relationships means that nothing is ever going to run smoothly and when she is inadvertently arresting for soliciting, by the delectable, but, oh so damaged PC Paul Davis, you get a real sense that life is going to throw up a few obstacles.

The book took me by completely by surprise. I was expecting a light-hearted frothy look at love and relationships but what I got was a book which covered some hard hitting subjects, like divorce, adultery, teenage children, but in a story which was easy to read and difficult to put down. Some parts of the book will undoubtedly make you laugh out loud, but there are also some scenarios which will tug at your heart a little bit. Ultimately, it’s the story of three strong women, who don’t want to be taken advantage of by the men in their lives and who, quite simply, need to protect themselves and each other from continually being hurt.

This is the first time I have read any books by this author but I'm sure that I will look out for more of her books. She has a really nice way with words and conveys the essence of a story in a very readable way.

***

Jaffa and I are delighted to have been invited to take part in the Romantic Heroes Blog Tour

Thanks to 

Safkhet Publishing and Sheryl Browne

JB at Brook Cottage Books

“En Garde! Safkhet Publishing and Sheryl Browne are going on tour and bringing you the entire Sheryl Browne romance collection! Follow the adventures of your Romantic Heroes and get your chance to win signed copies of all Sheryl’s books—Recipes for Disaster, Somebody to Love, Warrant for Love, A Little Bit of Madness, and Learning to Love.” The tour runs from 16th September until 27th September (excluding weekends) and promises to be a lot of fun!

As part of this tour Safkhet publishing is having a fantastic short story competition! The prizes are – Finalists will have their story published in an e-anthology and the winner will be offered a publishing contract. For full details go to http://safkhetpublishing.wordpress.com/ where full terms and conditions can be found.


Closing date now extended until October 31st....

And there’s more! There will be reviews, author interviews and guest posts. Plus, if you’ve ever read any of Sheryl’s books in the past, then you are invited to post the link to your review to be in with a chance of winning a prize!

Now for the small print: This competition is not run in conjunction with Facebook and Facebook is not responsible for any competitions held on this page or for providing prizes.

Join in the fun here https://www.facebook.com/events/630266530351966/

Review ~The King's Exile by Andrew Swanston

Published by Transworld/Bantam
August 2013

This is the second book in the Thomas Hill trilogy and continues the story which started in The King’s Spy with Thomas’s role as cartographer and decoder during the English Civil war and of his association with the English King, Charles I.



Thomas Hill is a book seller living in rural Hampshire with his widowed sister and her two daughters. Without warning, in the spring of 1648, Thomas is arrested for the publication of an alleged seditious pamphlet and without any form of trial, he is transported to Barbados to work as an indentured servant to a dreadful set of captors. Life on this sugar plantation is very difficult and Thomas is shown no mercy but with great strength and determination he sets out to prove his innocence.



I do think it would be helpful to have read the first book in the series before embarking on this second book, as there are references made to the previous story which somehow get lost without prior knowledge. However, having said that, I enjoyed this story and felt that the time and place was captured perfectly. The historic involvement of the island of Barbados in the years after the English civil war is well documented, as is the slave trade and its effect on the Colonies, but with a clever blend of fact and fiction, the author has kept the integrity of the story alive and with great skill has produced a fascinating and gripping story.

My thanks to Elizabeth at Transworld for sending me this book as part of the
 Transworld Historical Reading Challenge 2013

Blog Tour ~ To the Fair Land by Lucienne Boyce

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to add our review of 

To the Fair Land 

by 

Lucienne Boyce 

and 

to be part of her Blog Tour 2013

Published by Silverwood Books

August 2012

About the author

Lucienne Boyce was brought up in the Midlands and now lives in Bristol with her husband and hundreds of books. With its exciting maritime heritage, Bristol is the setting for many of her stories. When she is not writing she is happiest walking around the historic city and the surrounding countryside gathering ideas and inspiration.

Find out more at lucienneboyce.com. 

Here are my thoughts on To The Fair Land

The story opens in 1789, as Ben Dearlove, a burgeoning writer, is enjoying a night at the theatre in Covent Garden in London. His concentration of the play, about the exploration of undiscovered lands, is rudely interrupted by a hysterical outburst from a young woman seated next to him. The young woman is not known to Ben, but feeling a chivalric responsibility, he steers her away from the angry theatre audience, who have take umbrage at the woman’s attempt to ruin the stage play, and sees her safely home. When he returns the following day to check on the woman’s safety, her rooms appear to have been burgled and the woman has disappeared. Several weeks later a mysterious novel called An Account of a Voyage to the Fair Land is delivered to Ben, which tells the story of the voyage of the ship, Miranda. As Ben investigates the book further, he begins to realise that An Account of a Voyage to the Fair Land may not be a work of fiction, but could actually be based on truth.

What then follows is a cleverly constructed historical mystery which pulls the reader into a story which thrives on intrigue and nautical and political skulduggery. There is such an atmospheric feel to the narrative that you could almost be walking the streets of maritime Bristol, with the sharp tang of sea air in your nostrils, or wandering the gin-soaked shops and alleyways of eighteenth century London. There are some quite dark elements to the story, which is perfectly in keeping with the book’s content, after all, this is the eighteenth century, but there is also a lightness to the narrative which is complimented by a delightfully quirky set of characters.

Overall, this enthralling story never loses its momentum and combines the best of historical fiction writing with a lively adventure story. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Come back to Jaffareadstoo on Sunday 29th September to discover who inspired Lucienne Boyce to write To The Fair land and to be in with a chance of winning a copy of this book in  a great giveaway.

***

Our thanks to Silverwood Books and Lucienne Boyce for inviting us to be part of this blog tour

Longbourn ~ Jo Baker

Pride and Prejudice

The Servants' Story

Doubleday
August 2013

I'm always a little bit wary when I read spin-offs written around one of the great Jane Austen classics, but I am pleased to say that Jo Baker has done a really good job with this interesting look at life below stairs for the servants of the Bennett family from Pride and Prejudice.

In the actual classic we hear very little of the servants, in fact they remain rather shadowy figures who existed only to keep the Bennetts clean ,warm and fed. But of course, they had lives and loves of their own, and aspirations, hopes and dreams that were not all that different from the folks upstairs.

Of course, running through the story like a thread is the original story of thwarted love and too much pride, but rather than having a starring role, Darcy's pursuit of Elizabeth plays second fiddle to servant Sarah's infatuation with the Bingley's footman, the aptly named Ptolemy Bingley. However, it is Sarah's realisation that showy manners and sparkling wit are no substitute for the solid and rather more understated feeling she has for the Bennett's own footman, James, which becomes quietly reflective.

Jo Baker has woven an altogether delicious story of warm camaraderie  based on wholesome values, and has instilled in her characters a real sense of purpose. Life certainly wasn't a bed of roses in the servant's quarters at Longbourn House, but in this story, neither was it all unrelenting drudgery.

Well worth a read if you enjoyed Pride and Prejudice.

My thanks to Josette at Risi for lending me a copy of this book.