Book Giveaway + Review of THE PAINTED BRIDGE BY WENDY WALLACE

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Published:  Simon & Schuster  (May 2012)

Pages:  386  (Hardcover)

Source:  Publisher

My Rating:  9/10

About the Book:

An elegant, emotionally suspenseful debut, The Painted Bridge is a story of family betrayals, illicit power, and a woman sent to an asylum against her will in Victorian England.

Just outside London, behind a high stone wall, lies Lake House. In the winter of 1859, Anna Palmer becomes its newest patient. To Anna’s dismay, her new husband has declared her in need of treatment and brought her to this shabby asylum.     Confused and angry, Anna sets out to prove her sanity, but with her husband and doctors unwilling to listen, her freedom will not be won easily.

"The appearances of things are deceptive"

The book is set In the 19th century when some women were so powerless that if their husbands/family decided they were too much trouble and wanted rid of them they put them into an asylum for an indefinite time, and they could do little about it.

This is what happened to Anna Palmer, 24, when her bully of a husband, the Reverend Vincent Palmer, left her at Lake House, a private asylum for genteel women of a delicate nature.

She meets allies and enemies, cruelty and kindness there.  Allies in the form of Lucas St. Clair, a photographer who was convinced that by studying the inmates photo a diagnosis of their condition could be made …. and whether they were mad or not, and the owner’s teenage daughter, Catherine, who loved reading poetry and who was a constant worry to her mother.   Cruelty in the form of Fanny Makepeace, matron, who took a dislike to Anna and tried to make her life even more miserable.

You could not help but have sympathy for how Anna and the rest of the ladies were treated, most of whom were as sane as she was, but how could they prove it when no-one listened to them. Anna was an intelligent woman who was determined to find a way to escape and I was willing her to do just that.

Anna’s view from her bedroom window was the Lake and the bridge:

It was a white bridge, stretching from one side of the lake to the other, delicate and ethereal, its three shallow arches a row of half-moons that seemed to float on the surface of the water.   The bridge was the most beautiful she’d ever seen, like something from a painting or an illustration for a fairy tale.

As I gradually realised while reading nothing is as it seems and I loved the way the author teases us with assumptions.  

The writing was vivid with an interesting cast of larger than life characters, the story was compelling and never boring, and the details of the treatments some women endured will live long in my memory. The heroine, Anna Palmer, is sometimes docile but could also be strong-willed when necessary and I really warmed to her.

This is a book you will not forget in a hurry and one that I would certainly recommend.

Special Thanks to the publishers for sending me this book to review.

I am thrilled that the Publishers, Simon & Schuster, have very generously donated 10 (yes, 10!) books to give away to 10 lucky winners. If you would like to have your very own copy of this intriguing book all you need to do is:

Leave me a comment
Add your email address
by the closing date of Thursday 7th June 2012. 

This is open to UK and International readers.

One entry per person please.

Winners will be selected at random and contacted by email.

GOOD LUCK!

And that's not all ! I am just as excited to tell you that Wendy Wallace has written a little piece for my blog about the story and how she came to write The Painted Bridge, which you can read all about tomorrow.

So, don't forget to check back then, and good luck to everyone who enters the giveaway!

Book Review - THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER BY LEAH FLEMING

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Published:  Simon & Schuster  (Jan 2012)

Source:  Publishers

My Rating:  8/10

About the Book:

For May Smith, travelling with her husband and baby girl Ellen, stepping foot on the Titanic marks the start of an incredible journey.
But when the 'unsinkable' Titanic hits an iceberg one cold dark night, May's dreams are instantly shattered. Jumping from the sinking ship at the last minute, May loses sight of Joe and Ellen. Distraught, she is pulled into a lifeboat. Minutes later, the real-life Captain Smith swims to the lifeboat and hands May a baby swaddled in blankets.
Beside herself, and in virtual darkness, May believes the baby to be Ellen. This rescue is witnessed by fellow survivor, Celeste Parkes, married to an American industrialist who is on her way back to Ohio after her mother's funeral.
In horror, they both watch the death throes of the mighty ship; May traumatised, knowing her husband has drowned, Celeste wishing her husband had been on board and out of her life.
As the dawn comes up, and the two women are rescued by the Carpathia, a friendship is formed, one which is destined to transcend the Atlantic and social differences between them and last a lifetime. Then May makes a shocking discovery.......

When the Titanic went down it changed so many lives forever and this book tells the fictional story of three families for whom the Titanic cast a long shadow throughout the generations.

We first meet May Smith, her husband Joe and baby daughter as they eagerly await the train that will take them away from the cotton mills of Bolton to Southampton to board the Titanic and begin a new life in the United States.  They are C class passengers.

Celeste Parkes is in 1st class and has been attending her mother's funeral in England.  She's going back home to her young son and a cruel bully of a husband in Ohio.

Their fates and an everlasting friendship is sealed on that terrible night.

As news of the Titanic's sinking reaches the world we next meet young father Angelo, an Italian, waiting in New York for the return of his wife and baby daughter...who he has never seen....but soon realises that they have perished....though he refuses to give up hope.

This sets the premise for all that is to come as the years pass and May, Celeste and Angelo all begin new lives and try to put the sinking behind them but it never really goes away.

A lovely way of moving the story along in the beginning was by the letters between May in England and Celeste in the USA and we see how the experience has changed them as people and given them more confidence to deal with the challenges that came their way.

I was totally engrossed at the start but my interest started waning about half way through, the story just didn't capture my imagination or held my attention and I didn't rush to pick it up and read on.  Then as the book neared its obvious conclusion I found it engrossing again.

Overall, I enjoyed most of it and would probably read another book by Leah Fleming.

Special Thanks to the publishers, Simon & Schuster, for sending me this book.

Book Review: THE SANDALWOOD TREE BY ELLE NEWMARK

Genre:  Historical Fiction
Published:  Apr 2011
Pages:  489  (Paperback)
Source:  Transworld Book Group Reading Challenge
My Rating:  9/10

About the Book:

It is 1947, and Evie and Martin Mitchell have just arrived in the Indian village of Masoorla with their five-year-old son. But cracks soon appear in their marriage as Evie struggles to adapt to her new life, and Martin fails to bury unbearable wartime memories.
When Evie finds a collection of letters, concealed deep in the brickwork of their rented bungalow, so begins an investigation that consumes her, allowing her to escape to another world, a hundred years earlier, and to the extraordinary friendship of two very different young women.
And as Evie’s fascination with her Victorian discoveries deepens, she unearths powerful secrets. But at what cost to her present, already fragile existence?

First Line:

Our train hurtled past a gold-spangled woman in a mango sari, regal even as she sat in the dirt, patting cow dung into disks for cooking fuel.  A sweep of black hair obscured her face and she did not look up as the passing train shook the ground under her bare feet.

We first meet Evie and Martin as they are travelling to their new home in India where an old Sandalwood Tree with long oval leaves and pregnant red pods presided over the front of their new house.

Martin had come back from the war with combat fatigue, he wanted everything neat and tidy - it was about control, Evie knew, but she didn’t know how to deal with it.  By coming to India she hoped that their cracked marriage would be mended with exotic glue, and they would rediscover the charmed world they had shared in the beginning of their marriage.

When Evie discovers a loose brick behind the cooker which hides a packet of folded papers tied with a faded blue ribbon which ‘reeked of long-lost secrets’ she becomes obsessed with the two English ladies who lived a hundred years ago and whose letters she is now engrossed in reading.

We are then taken back to the mid 19th century as the young Felicity and Adela first meet and they become firm friends.  We follow them as they grow up and, by a remarkable coincidence they both end up living in India.

There are more coincidences when Evie unearths more of Adela’s journals in various locations which I did find hard to believe.

I loved how the two parallel stories also coincided with the Indian uprisings in each century, the author didn’t take sides with either the British or the Indians, she just gave us the facts and left it to the reader to decide the morals.

I enjoyed the overall story, it was slow at first but the pace quickened about halfway through, some of the characters I connected with more than others and the descriptions of India were vivid and real.

This was my first book in the Transworld Book Group Reading Challenge.  Click here for more information and to participate and click here to see which 4 books I've chosen.

Book Review: TIDES OF WAR BY STELLA TILLYARD

Genre:  Historical Fiction
Published by:  Chatto & Windus  (5 May 2011)
Pages:  368  (Hardback)
My Rating:  9/10

About the Book:

At the heart of this sweeping panoramic novel, set in Regency London and Spain during the Peninsular War, stands the lively, outspoken Harriet, poised on the threshold of the adult world.  Her new husband, James, is setting off to join the Duke of Wellington’s troops in Spain.
Left in London, she is taken under the wing of Kitty, Lady Wellington.
While the women plunge into new worlds of politics, finance and science, the men face the bloody reality of the battlefield.
There are betrayals on both sides.
Their dramatic stories whirl us through the tumult of the Regency at home and abroad.

Harriet’s life in London, while her new husband is away fighting, is interspersed with James’ life in Spain fighting under Lord Wellington.  

She attends lectures at the Royal Institution, where she meets and makes friends with Frederick Winsor whose National Light and Heat Company hopes to light the country with new coal gas lamps. She loves chemistry and thought that “sewing, with its thimbles and delicate thread, had none of the satisfactions of chemistry.  A pastime was just that.  Chemistry, or astronomy, changed the world”.
She also tries to discover why her mother left her when she was just a baby but finds that no-one is forthcoming when she asks them.

There was a real feeling of how London was in those days, the sights and smells were especially detailed, as this paragraph from page 237 describes -

One morning in late April ….... she walked to the water’s edge.  Down the narrow cut at Bull Wharf she watched the shallow waves turn over on the shore.  An easterly breeze carried the smell of fish and a tang of salt upriver from Billingsgate Market …... the water’s slap and suck mixed with human voices, gulls’ cries and the rumble of carts over London Bridge.  The river was a brown-blue, laced with grey at its edges.  As far as Kitty could see downriver the rust-red sails of London barges and a lattice of masts and spars stood out against the sky.

Not a word is wasted, not a sentence is written without thought.  I devoured it slowly, savouring every detail.  I felt that Stella Tillyard really got into the minds and thoughts of the characters ….. of which there were many!  From the highest -- Lord Wellington -- to the lowest -- Thomas Orde, who is an out of work weaver and James’ servant in the battlefields.   We got to know them, how they felt as the war was progressing and how it affected them afterwards.

The battlefield scenes seemed authentic without being too graphic, and I was fascinated with the attempts by Dr. McBride to perform a blood transfusion on one of the wounded soldiers.  I wondered if that was based on fact or whether it was a fictional scene.  

Recommended for any historical fiction fan, this book has everything you would want and more!

I've just found this wonderful interview with Stella here ..... recently in telegraph.co.uk.

Stella Tillyard's earlier books are non-fiction, including the wonderful Aristocrats which I listened to several years ago. This is her first novel.  Her website is here

Sharon at Jera's Jamboree has also read this book - check out her fab review here

Book Review: The Gallows Curse by Karen Maitland

Genre:  Historical Fiction


Published by:  Michael Joseph  (Mar 2011)


Pages:  576  (Paperback)


My Rating:  9.5 / 10

Elena is 16 years old, a naive, fragile flame-haired girl, working as a maid for Lady Anne.  She becomes pregnant and has strange dreams in which she appears to kill her new born baby.
Raffaele is a middle-aged man, steward to Lady Anne, he has carried out horrendous crimes in his past for which he can’t forgive himself, but I believe he is a good man.  And he has a soft spot for Elena.

Due to a deliberate act of well-meaning deceipt, their lives become bound forever together.

The year is 1210 -- not a good year in England -- King John has opposed the Pope in wanting his own man to be the Archbishop of Canterbury, not the man that the Pope has requested.  As a punishment the Pope has denied the people all the rites of the church; no church services, no baptisms, no last rites for the dying.

Against this backdrop of fear, as Elena is accused of murdering her baby and sentenced to hang by the evil Lord Osborn, who has now taken over Lady Anne’s house, she flees to safety but her nightmares have only just begun. The man who hunts her, Osborn, will stop at nothing to find her but Raffaele is equally determined to protect her at all costs.

I enjoyed this book enormously, the writing was pacy, descriptive and compelling.  All the characters, both good and bad, were full of life.

People were God fearing  and I was fascinated by the many superstitions the people  believed in such as spitting 3 times on their forefingers to ward off evil and laying a mistletoe twig and sprinkling salt in a newborn’s crib to prevent the faeries abducting the child.  They were terrified of their souls rotting in hell if they didn’t carry out these practices.

I could almost smell the rotting food  and raw sewage running through the middle of the tiny streets and feel the evil among the all enveloping darkness when all that could be seen was an odd chink of light coming from one of the run down houses.

This is a story full of treachery, lies, treason with a murder or two thrown in for good measure! The original plotline kept me hooked throughout all 500+ pages, the story never slowed down, I didn’t think there were any boring parts.

If you enjoy reading books like The Pillars of the Earth I’m pretty sure you will enjoy this!

Book Review: The House of Dust and Dreams by Brenda Reid

Genre:  Historical Fiction
Published by:  Orion Publishing  (June 2010)
Pages:  384  (Paperback)
My Rating:  9/10






THE HOUSE OF DUST AND DREAMS BY BRENDA REID


About the Book:


Greece 1936 A young British diplomat and his wife have been posted to Athens. Hugh loves the life there but his spirited and unconventional wife, Heavenly, finds it hard to fit into the whirl of endless parties and socialising. When Hugh is sent to Crete to sort out a problem, they stay in a rundown house owned by his family. Heavenly falls in love with the place and the people, and stays on when Hugh returns to his duties. As she tries to rebuild the ramshackle home, Heavenly makes firm friends with Anthi, a young woman from the village and Christos, the handsome and charismatic young builder. But the dark clouds of war are gathering and the island will become a crucible of violence and bloodshed in the days to come. For Heavenly, her friends and family, it will be the greatest test they have ever known.


First Lines:

I first saw the old Orfanoudakis house on a warm, sunlit afternoon, the only sound a lone bullfrog and the cicadas.  The village around it was sleeping.

The chapters alternated between the two women, Heavenly an English lady and Anthi a Cretan.  They met when Heavenly was first exploring the beautiful countryside, she slipped and hurt her ankle and Anthi helped her, they immediately became firm friends, and this friendship was the basis for the story.
The backdrop was the lovely island of Crete and as the years went on and the War came nearer their lives began to change in different ways.
Heavenly was no longer the shy gauche creature who moved awkwardly, she blossomed in the friendliness of the people and gradually became absorbed in village life.
As the Germans gained control in Crete, Brenda Reid didn't shirk from describing the awful situation the inhabitants of the little villages found themselves in as they fought against the enemy.
I really warmed to both Heavenly and Anthi ..... they led two very different lives ...... Heavenly was the privileged wealthy wife of an Ambassador and Anthi was the poor hard-working mother of two young daughters and wife to a cruel husband in a loveless marriage.


Wonderful descriptive writing that was easy to read, the author obviously knows a great deal about Crete and which comes through very strongly throughout the story.

BOOK REVIEW: THE BURNING LAND BY BERNARD CORNWELL

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Published by:  Harper  (May 2010)

Pages:  384  (Paperback)

My Rating:  9/10

THE BURNING LAND BY BERNARD CORNWELL

About the Book: (Taken from Lovereading)

In the last years of the 9th century, King Alfred of Wessex is in failing health, and his heir is an untested youth. The Danes, who have failed so many times to conquer Wessex, smell opportunity! First comes Harald Bloodhair, a savage warrior leading a Viking horde, who is encouraged to cruelty by his woman, Skade. But Alfred still has the services of Uhtred, his unwilling warlord, who leads Harald into a trap and, at Farnham in Surrey, inflicts one of the greatest defeats the Vikings were ever to suffer. This novel, the fifth in the magnificent series of England's history tells of the final assaults on Alfred's Wessex, that Wessex survived to become England is because men like Uhtred defeated an enemy feared throughout Christendom.

First Line:

"Not long ago I was in some monastery.  I forget where except that it was in the lands that were once Mercia. I was travelling home with a dozen men."


Uhtred, King Alfred's warlord, is looking back over his life to the time when he was the most feared swordsman in the Land, recounting some of the most bloodthirsty battles between the Saxons and the Danes to gain land and power in the country yet to be named England: he was not just a warrior, he was also an excellent tactician, planning his battles with meticulous detail.
The battles are gory, the descriptions of the killing are somewhat squeamish, the life of the warriors hard, Cornwell's storytelling really makes the characters come to life, but it's not just about the battles, it is the beginning of England, of how religion played a huge part in people's lives while the Danes worshipped the old gods. Uthred, himself, worshipped Thor......he is talking to the wife of one of the Danish ruler's --

'Christianity is a disease that spreads like a plague. We have to stop it.
''If the gods want it stopped,' I suggested, 'they'll do it themselves.
''Our gods prefer feasting. They live, Uhtred. They live and laugh and enjoy, and what does their god do? He broods, he's vengeful, he scowls, he plots. He's a dark and lonely god, Uhtred, and our gods ignore him. They're wrong.'

It is not all about the men, there were some strong women as well, such as King Alfred's daughter who would probably have made as good a ruler as her brother given the chance, riding out to watch while the battles raged.
It was easy to read, the details are interesting, not boring, there was a good pace to the story throughout.

This is the 5th in Cornwell's Alfred series, and several earlier events are mentioned throughout but I didn't feel as if should have read them to know what was happening in this book, though I wish I had now as I'm sure I would have enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed reading this!

If you love historical fiction you should add this series to your collection - as the blurb on the back of the book says --

'This is the making of England brought magnificently to life by the master of historical fiction'

And I certainly wouldn't argue with that!

Bernard Cornwell's official website is here

BOOK REVIEW: THE RED QUEEN BY PHILIPPA GREGORY

Genre: Historical

Published by: Simon & Schuster (Aug 2010)

Pages: 387 (Uncorrected Proof Paperback)

My Rating: 9/10









THE RED QUEEN BY PHILIPPA GREGORY

About the Book:

The second book in Philippa Gregory's stunning new series, The Cousins War, brings to life the story of Margaret Beaufort, a shadowy and mysterious character in the first book of the series - The White Queen - but who now takes centre stage in the bitter struggle of The War of the Roses.
The Red Queen tells the story of the child-bride of Edmund Tudor, who, although widowed in her early teens, uses her determination of character and wily plotting to infiltrate the house of York under the guise of loyal friend and servant, undermine the support for Richard III and ultimately ensure that her only son, Henry Tudor, triumphs as King of England.

My Thoughts:

Margaret Beaufort's only desire in life is for her son, Henry Tudor, to become the King of England. This book is the story of how she sacrificed everything to ensure that that happened.

She believed she was special and that the Lancaster House was blessed by God, she spends hours on her kness in prayer and her heroine was Joan of Arc, in fact she often asked herself 'What would Joan do now?' when she was faced with a tough decision.

I am a highly intelligent, highly educated woman, from a royal family, called by God to great office, guided personally by the Maid, and constantly hearing the voice of God in my prayers.

It is narrated by Margaret who comes across as not very likeable, incredibly pious, very jealous of her rival, Elizabeth Woodville (The White Queen), single-minded and devious. Philippa Gregory has really brought her to life and I was gripped by the seemingly endless battles between the armies of the Lancaster and the Yorks, but Margaret never stopped hoping and plotting and scheming, even when her son had to be raised by her enemy she continued telling him that he was still a Lancaster and that one day he will be the King, and not to give up believing.

I enjoyed the first book in 'the cousins war' The White Queen but I enjoyed this even more, I thought the writing was more descriptive and flowed easier. Although I really didn't like the emotionally cold Margaret Beaufort I did admire her determination and self-belief.

My review of The White Queen can be found here

To enter a competition to win a copy of The Red Queen click here

My thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me an uncorrected proof copy for review.

PHILIPPA GREGORY TALKING ABOUT THE RED QUEEN

Book Review: WAR ON THE MARGINS BY LIBBY CONE

Genre: Historical Fiction

Published by: Duckworth (July 2009)

Pages: 249 (Hardback)

My Rating: 9/10

WAR ON THE MARGINS BY LIBBY CONE

About the book:

Drawn from authentic World War II documents, broadcasts and private letters, War on the Margins tells the unforgettable story of the deepening horror of the Nazi regime in Jersey and the extraordinary bravery of those who sought to subvert it.
My Thoughts:

This book was a real eye-opener for me, while I knew that the Germans had occupied the Channel Islands during WWII, I had no idea that life was so difficult for the inhabitants, especially the Jews who lived there. They had to register as a Jew - were not allowed to move house - they had to shop only between the hours of 3-4pm - had to wear the Jewish star - not allowed to visit public places - had to relinquish their businesses. Many depended on the kindness of friends and neighbours for food to survive.

Libby Cone has taken documents, BBC broadcasts and private letters and woven them into a fascinating and very moving story of what life was like during that time. We see how hard life was through the eyes of several people:

Marlene, a young clerk from the Aliens Office who has two Jewish grandparents, but doesn't consider herself Jewish, is hidden in the house of two French stepsisters who become Resistance Fighters and spread propaganda urging the German soldiers to mutiny, risking imprisonment if found. They also had an illegal wireless which enabled them to keep up to date with the happenings of the war via the BBC.

Peter, a Pole who fought in the Spanish Civil War against Franco but was on the losing side and now finds himself deported to the internment camp at Jersey and used as slave labour to help dig the underground hospital. He escapes from the cruel beatings and starvation meted out and is also hidden by brave Islanders.

Everyone was getting thinner; milk and butter were usually only available on the black market. It was more lucrative for the farmers and shopkeepers to sell to the Germans than to their fellow islanders. Some people stole things back from the Germans. There was a brisk traffic of goods from Occupied France to the Islands. Islanders who were caught stealing or selling on the black market took the return route ....... to France, destined for prison at Caen or Lille.

Some people, wanting to settle old scores, sent letters to the authorities grassing on their neighbours, some of the allegations were true, some not.

Some Islanders left food out on their doorsteps for the prisoners from the camp. All were affected by the occupation in some way.

Libby Cone has a simple writing style and says that some of the people in her story were real and some are composites. It left me feeling very moved and wanting to know more about the people and their lives. Marlene was an interesting character, at first she seemed very indecisive and shy but, as the war went on, we saw another more independent side to her as she helped the Resistance Movement by writing 'V' for Victory in chalk around the towns, among other dangerous activities.

On a personal note: I visited Jersey several years ago when I was 19, not really interested in the War at that young age, I was just on holiday to enjoy the beautiful beaches and have a good time. But one thing that sticks out in my mind is visiting the amazing Underground Hospital that the slave labourers dug with just picks and shovels. Now that I'm older and, possibly, wiser this book really brought home to me just what suffering they must have gone through.

There is a wonderful interview with Libby Cone by Rob over at robaroundbooks that I would urge you to read, it's contains some interesting background information and facts.

Also, see here for a biography of Libby Cone and her works.

Special Thanks to Libby Cone for sending me a copy of her book to review.

Also, check out Jules over at Jule's Book Reviews for a fab review of this excellent book.

Another book about the German occupation of the Channel Islands that may be of interest is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer.