📖 Book Review ~ Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons

 

Zaffre 
31 July 2023

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

Was the greatest love story of all time a lie?

The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love.

Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo's attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life.

Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo's gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realises that it is not only Juliet's reputation at stake, but her life.

With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way?

A subversive, powerful untelling of Shakespeare's best-known tale, narrated by a fierce, forgotten voice: this is Rosaline's story.

📖 My Review..

The essence of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet will, undoubtedly, stand the test of time. however, in Fair Rosaline, the author gives us an altogether different interpretation of this iconic love story which may not please the purists but hey, this is fiction and is, after all,  just the author’s interpretation of the story.

There is bit of a slow start but then once it picked up pace I enjoyed watching how the story unfolded. The author writes well and there’s enough historical authenticity to help bring the story to life. Looking at the background to the story of ill-fated young lovers is what makes this interesting especially as we look more at Rosaline’s character and her role in this story. Whilst Romeo doesn’t come out of this unblemished what it does show is that women, at this time, in history had very little choice as fathers, lovers and husbands all used them for their own ambition.

Fair Rosaline is an interesting version of a story I thought I knew well so all credit to the author for providing an imaginative re-telling of a much loved classic.

About the Author

Natasha Solomons is a writer and the New York Times bestselling author of The Gallery of Vanished Husbands, The House at Tyneford, and Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English. She lives in Dorset, England, with her husband and their two young children. 

Twitter @natashasolomons #FairRosaline

@zaffrebooks

Hist Fic Saturday ~ The Royal Station Master's Daughters by Ellee Seymour

On Hist Fic Saturday

Let's go back to... 1915

Bonnier Books
Zaffre
 2021

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

A heartwarming World War I saga of family, secrets and royalty.

It's 1915 and Ada, Jessie and Beatrice Saward live in a small Norfolk village with their parents. Their father, Harry, is the station master at Wolferton, the local stop for the Sandringham Estate. With members of the royal family and their guests passing through the train station on their way to Sandringham, the Saward family have a unique position within their small community.

But despite the privileged position the village and the family is in, and the excitement a visit from the royals always brings, it's World War I and the community is suffering. The men are away fighting, rationing is hard and they all need to work together to get through the tough times.

When the Saward sisters' destitute cousin Maria arrives in Wolferton, everything is turned on its head. Young Maria Saward and her siblings have never enjoyed the comforts of family life. As products of Willie Saward's second marriage to a much younger woman, they were shunned by their extended family, and left in poverty after Willie's death. Will the Saward family be able to help Maria and her siblings and what could this do to the balance of their happy family life?

My Review.. 

In this first book of a proposed historical trilogy we meet the Saward family who live in the Station Master's house at Wolferton railway station. This is no ordinary place to live and the station master's daughters, Ada, Jessie and Beatrice are well used to seeing members of the royal family alight at the tiny station on their way to their country home at Sandringham.

The girls live something of a genteel life, their place in the village is comfortable, and their mother and father are well respected. However, in the summer of 1915, their lives are about to be changed when an unwelcome guest arrives to disturb this settled way of life. Add into the mix the continuation of the First World War and the catastrophic effect this will have on the local community and you have all the right ingredients for an interesting historical saga. I enjoyed getting to know the villagers who make the hamlet of Wolferton their home, some are more likeable than others, which adds an interesting dynamic.

The Royal Station Master's Daughters is a lovely start to the trilogy and brings both time and place alive so that anyone who enjoys this genre of historical fiction will have great pleasure in learning about the way of life in Wolferton in 1915. Parts of the story are based on the real life Saward family who lived in the Station Master's house and although the events in this story are fictional by using the details of those who actually lived during this time in history helps to create a good sense of authenticity.

Best read with...One of Betty Fitch's Rock Buns and a nice cup of Rosie Lee

About the Author

Ellee Seymour is a journalist and PR professional living near Cambridge. The Royal Station Master's Daughters is her debut novel. Ellee was inspired to write it after meeting Brian Heath, the great grandson of Harry Saward, who was the royal station master at Wolferton for forty years from 1884 to 1924 and who the novel is based on.

The second book in the series The Station Master's Daughters at War will be published later in 2022.

Twitter @elleeseymour

@ZaffreBooks

📖 Book Review ~ The Winter Guest by W C Ryan

 

Bonnier
6 January 2022

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

January 1921. 

Though the Great War is over, in Ireland a new, civil war is raging. The once-grand Kilcolgan House, a crumbling bastion shrouded in sea-mist, lies half empty and filled with ghosts - both real and imagined - the Prendevilles, the noble family within, co-existing only as the balance of their secrets is kept.

Then, when an IRA ambush goes terribly wrong, Maud Prendeville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan, is killed, leaving the family reeling. Yet the IRA column insist they left her alive, that someone else must have been responsible for her terrible fate. Captain Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and Maud's former fiancé, is sent to investigate, becoming an unwelcome guest in this strange, gloomy household.

Working undercover, Harkin must delve into the house's secrets - and discover where, in this fractured, embattled town, each family member's allegiances truly lie. But Harkin too is haunted by the ghosts of the past and by his terrible experiences on the battlefields. Can he find out the truth about Maud's death before the past - and his strange, unnerving surroundings - overwhelm him?

📖 My Review..

Set in Ireland in 1921, the story gets off to a dramatic start when an IRA ambush goes horribly wrong. Maud Prenderville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan is killed and the hunt is on to find her killer since the IRA insist that they left her alive at the scene. Drafted in to investigate is Captain Tom Harkin, once Maud's fiancé, and now working undercover as an IRA intelligence officer. However, his arrival at the gloomy Kilcolgan House is met with suspicion and mistrust. The once beautiful, but now gloomy, ancestral home is a place of secrets as the family guard their privacy well but it's not just the Prendervilles who are reticent, Harkin too has his own share of secrets, which, at times, threaten to engulf him.

Intelligently written with a fine eye for historical detail, the story is one of mystery and conjecture, bringing both time and place alive. There are vivid and thought provoking flashback details of Harkin's time during the First World War which are eloquently and compassionately described. His struggles to maintain his equilibrium in this post-war world is only heighten by the escalation of the troubles in Ireland and the sense of injustice which prevails.

The brooding nature of Kilcolgan House with its shadowy and haunting atmosphere make The Winter Guest a perfect read for a winter afternoon, preferably snuggled by a warm fire.

Best read with.. a cup of tea and a shortbread biscuit.

About the author

W. C. Ryan is also known as William Ryan, who has won acclaim for his historical crime novels in the Captain Korolev series.

Twitter @WiliamRyan_  #TheWinter Guest

@bonnierbook_uk

Featured Book ~ The Foundling by Stacey Halls

Featured book is all about a book be published that I'm really excited about, so without further ado, here's the latest from from talented author, Stacey Halls

It's published by Bonnier and is out on the 6th February 2020

Zaffre Books
6 February 2020

My thanks to the author for my ecopy of this book

Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst - that Clara has died in care - the last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been reclaimed - by her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why. Less than a mile from Bess' lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.

What did I think about it..

With its central theme of motherhood, The Foundling looks at the whole business of nature over nurture, blending together the lives of two very different women, and their idea of what it means to be a mother.

Bess Bright has no other option but to give up her day old baby daughter into the care of The Foundling Hospital, a charitable institution which cares for infants at risk of abandonment. My heart bled for Bess when she gave up her baby, realising that the only connection she has with the baby's father has now gone forever. However, all is not hopeless as The Foundling offers the chance, if circumstances allow, for mothers to buy back their babies, and it has always been this hopeful thought which has kept Bess going throughout the intervening years. Interweaving the story of Bess Bright with that of Alexandra Callard, a wealthy young widow with a deadly secret, is particularly inspired as it allows a glimpse into the sheltered and genteel world of the upper classes describing so beautifully all of the moral constrictions which society placed on woman in the eighteenth century.

Bringing Georgian London to life in a beautiful and thought provoking way the author has once again transported us back to a time and place that is not our own and yet with each successive turn of the page I felt as if I was fully immersed in a city teeming with life and brimming with people. From the pungent aroma of Billingsgate market, to the delicious decadence of Russell's coffee house, the author leads us by the hand through all the sights, sounds and smells of a world that was only wonderful if you were born to privilege rather than poverty.

There's no doubt that this talented author has another historical hit on her hands with The Foundling. I absorbed every word with all the passionate zeal of a time traveller eager to learn more of the connection between two very different women, whilst at the same time absorbing the beauty and intricate detail of this author's wonderful storytelling.

The Foundling Hospital

About the Author

Stacey Halls grew up in Rossendale, Lancashire, as the daughter of market traders. She has always been fascinated by the Pendle witches. She studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and moved to London aged 21. She was media editor at The Bookseller and books editor at Stylist.co.uk, and has also written for Psychologies, the Independent and Fabulous magazine, where she now works as Deputy Chief Sub Editor. 

Website

Instagram @staceyhallsauthor 

Twitter @stacey_halls #TheFoundling

@BonnierZaffre