A powerful novel about difference
AN INCOMPLETE REVENGE is a novel about difference, and the consequences of that perception in the minds of the people who make up the surrounding community. Wouldn’t it be nice if people were thrilled about difference? If they saw foreigners as intriguing or cool? If they wanted to talk to people who are not like […]
A masterclass on how to write the perfect opening
The opening chapter of Roseanna M. White’s JEWEL OF PERSIA is a masterclass on how to write the perfect opening. First of all, there are only a few characters ~ two girls and two men. Since one of the men doesn’t say a word, that leaves on three characters. But the real energy of this […]
Mental illness has a way of taking up all of the space that a family can hold.
Molly (Mary) and Peggy (Margaret) Gainsborough are the much-painted daughters of artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). Born in 1750 and 1751 respectively, the two sisters grow up together and seem very close. But Molly, the elder daughter, has problems. She is prone to sleep-walking. She blanks out, forgetting where she is, and what she is in […]
An entrancing garden created by an enchanting person
THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN begins in around 1897, when ten-year-old Eliza Makepeace and her twin brother Sammy are trying to survive the brutal conditions of living in poverty in London. Their mother has recently died and both children are obliged to earn money so that they can pay their monthly rent to their landlady, who possesses […]
The Talisman Ring is like a Comic Opera
Having read seven novels of Georgette Heyer, in my quest to gradually work through all of her novels, I already knew that her volumes sparkled with wit, not unlike Jane Austen’s. However, this novel is the funniest I’ve experienced. It reminds me of those eighteenth century comic operas like Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, which […]
Ms. Atkinson’s prose style froths with the fizz of the 1920s
I am an avid reader and have been so since I was nine years old. Indeed, I read so much and talked so much about books that my stepfather once remarked I should be a novelist! Fast forward fifty years and I have actually managed to become an author. But I read books a little […]
A truly wonderful novel with a clever plot
MESSENGER OF TRUTH by Jacqueline Winspear is a truly wonderful novel. Ms. Winspear is known for her detailed descriptions of dress and setting which draw the reader into the world of 1931, and this novel doesn’t disappoint. But what is even more wonderful are the way her characters speak. I am not sure how old […]
The world of Downton Abbey with an adventurous twist
It wasn’t surprising that many a young woman from the past decided that she didn’t want to be married. After all, her husband had complete legal authority over her, including her money, which he could spend as he liked without any regard to her feelings. So it is not surprising that the young women we […]
A Fantasy Historical Novel infused with Sephardic folk-tales
In this fantasy historical novel, the characters inhabit a world that includes a Mirror Realm. On one side of the pomegranate grove or gate is the world of 1492 Sephardic Spain. When the Queen of the Sefaravad (loosely based upon Isabella of Castile) orders her Jewish subjects to convert or leave their homeland with nothing, […]
How Wellington described his troops on the eve of Waterloo
AN INFAMOUS ARMY is how Wellington described the motley troops he was in charge of on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, fought on 18 June 1815, and it is also the title of this novel (Book 4 in the Alastair-Audley series.) As many of you know, Waterloo was one of Britain’s greatest triumphs, […]
