The Blurb (from Goodreads):
Going home can be the hardest thing of all...
When Maeve, twenty year old daughter of Lord Sean of Sevenwaters, accompanies a skittish horse back to Erin, she must confront her demons. For Maeve carries the legacy of a childhood fire in her crippled hands. She has lived with her aunt in Britain for ten years, developing a special gift for gentling difficult animals.
Maeve arrives home to find Sevenwaters in turmoil. The forest surrounding her father's keep also has uncanny inhabitants, including a community of Fair Folk. Now the fey prince Mac Dara has become desperate to see his only son return to the Otherworld to rule after him. To force Sean's hand, Mac Dara has made innocent travellers on the Sevenwaters border disappear, and now their bodies are appearing one by one in bizarre circumstances. Mac Dara's malign activities must be stopped. But how? What human army can defeat a force with magic at its fingertips?
Maeve's gift with animals earns her respect at Sevenwaters. She bonds with her enigmatic small brother, Finbar, his druid tutor Luachan, and two stray dogs. When Maeve discovers the body of one of the missing men, she and Finbar are drawn into a journey where the stakes are high: they may bring about the end of Mac Dara's reign, or suffer a hideous death. For Maeve, success may lead to a future she has not dared to believe possible.
My Thoughts:
Yippee! As far as I’m concerned, Juliet Marillier could bring out a new book every week and I’d be happy. I (like many, many other people) particularly love her books set at Sevenwaters. This new novel is number six. Each can be read alone, but they are definitely best read in order.
The heroine of this book is Maeve, who in an earlier book was badly burned while trying to rescue her dog from a fire. She was crippled as a result, her hands twisted into stiff and useless claws. For me, this gave the story echoes of the terrible fairy tale ‘Maiden with no Hands’. Like the poor handless maiden in that tale, Maeve must try and get through life without the use of her hands. In the tradition of Juliet’s heroines, however, she is brave, philosophical, and determined not to let her life be ruined. She gains comfort and consolation from the animals in her life, particularly a highly-strung stallion named Swift who can only be calmed by Maeve’s soft voice and gentle manner.
Maeve returns to Sevenwaters after many years, to find her home under threat from Mac Dara, the cruel king of the Underworld who was the villain of one or two earlier Sevenwaters tales. A group of travellers through the forest have disappeared, their bodies appearing in cruel and unusual ways. The ripple effect of these murders has Sevenwaters facing the very real possibility of war. Maeve befriends and tames two stray dogs, and her love for them and for her young brother Finbar sets off a chain of events that sees Maeve travelling by herself – crippled and very much afraid – into the Otherworld.
As always, Juliet Marillier’s new book is a beautiful story of love, courage, faith and kind-heartedness … and I want another one right NOW!!!
You might also like to read my review of Skin by Ilke Tempe:
BOOK REVIEW: Skin by Ilka Tampke
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
Discover a brilliant story of love, danger, courage and betrayal, from the internationally bestselling author of The Survivors.
1953, the South of France. The fragile peace between the West and Soviet Russia hangs on a knife edge. And one family has been torn apart by secrets and conflicting allegiances.
Eloïse Caussade is a courageous young Frenchwoman, raised on a bull farm near Arles in the Camargue. She idolises her older brother, André, and when he leaves to become an Intelligence Officer working for the CIA in Paris to help protect France, she soon follows him. Having exchanged the strict confines of her father's farm for a life of freedom in Paris, her world comes alive.
But everything changes when André is injured - a direct result of Eloise's actions. Unable to work, André returns to his father’s farm, but Eloïse’s sense of guilt and responsibility for his injuries sets her on the trail of the person who attempted to kill him.
Eloïse finds her hometown in a state of unrest and conflict. Those who are angry at the construction of the American airbase nearby, with its lethal nuclear armaments, confront those who support it, and anger flares into violence, stirred up by Soviet agents. Throughout all this unrest, Eloïse is still relentlessly hunting down the man who betrayed her brother and his country, and she is learning to look at those she loves and at herself with different eyes. She no longer knows who she can trust. Who is working for Soviet Intelligence and who is not? And what side do her own family lie on?
My Thoughts:
I really enjoy Kate Furnivall’s books – they are a potent mix of intrigue, adventure and romance, usually set during the Second World War. This one is set a little later – in 1953, during the Cold War – and since I’m not as interested in that historical period, I didn’t find it quite as gripping and suspenseful as other books of hers I have read. The setting, however, made up for that – the wild marshes of the Carmargue, in the south of France, a place I have always wanted to visit.
The book follows the adventures of a young woman named Eloïse. She has always adored her older brother, and seeks to emulate him when he becomes an Intelligence Officer working for the CIA in Paris. However, a small misjudgement leaves her brother crippled and bitter, and Eloïse torn apart by guilt and regret. She determines to find out who was responsible for trying to kill them, and ends up in a tangle of lies and half-truths that undermines all she though she knew about herself and her family.
An enjoyable page-turner.
You might also like to read my review of The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell:
https://kateforsyth.com.au/what-katie-read/book-review-the-peacock-summer-by-hannah-richell
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
Against the unforgettable backdrop of New York near the turn of the twentieth century, from the Gilded Age world of formal balls and opera to the immigrant poverty of the Lower East Side, bestselling author Susan Vreeland again breathes life into a work of art in this extraordinary novel, which brings a woman once lost in the shadows into vivid color.
It’s 1893, and at the Chicago World's Fair, Louis Comfort Tiffany makes his debut with a luminous exhibition of innovative stained-glass windows, which he hopes will honor his family business and earn him a place on the international artistic stage. But behind the scenes in his New York studio is the freethinking Clara Driscoll, head of his women's division. Publicly unrecognized by Tiffany, Clara conceives of and designs nearly all of the iconic leaded-glass lamps for which he is long remembered.
Clara struggles with her desire for artistic recognition and the seemingly insurmountable challenges that she faces as a professional woman, which ultimately force her to protest against the company she has worked so hard to cultivate. She also yearns for love and companionship, and is devoted in different ways to five men, including Tiffany, who enforces to a strict policy: he does not hire married women, and any who do marry while under his employ must resign immediately. Eventually, like many women, Clara must decide what makes her happiest--the professional world of her hands or the personal world of her heart.
My Thoughts:
I love Susan Vreeland’s books. She is interested in art and poetry and history, all the things which I love too. Her books always feel like a journey of discovery for me, illuminating the forgotten life of some brilliant, creative, unknown woman. Her latest book is called Clara and Mr Tiffany, and it brings to life Clara Driscoll, the woman behind the beautiful and exotic stained glass lamps that the House of Tiffany produced just before the turn of the century. The Mr Tiffany in this case is the son of the famous Mr Tiffany of the well-known aquamarine box. He was an extraordinary character too, and the relationship between him and Clara is quite fascinating. He made it a rule that none of the women artists working for him were permitted to marry, so that Clara was constantly having to choose between her art and love. I really loved this book, and look forward to Ms Vreeland’s next wonderful creation.
You might also like to read my review of The Muse by Jessie Burton:
VINTAGE BOOK REVIEW: The Muse by Jessie Burton
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them.
My Thoughts:
I’m in the midst of reading a lot of books set in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and so I thought I would re-read this classic by Evelyn Waugh for the first time in many years. I was in my early 20s last time I read it, and I remember it as being a bit too slow and dense for my liking, though I was interested in the unusual love triangle I felt was at its heart. I read it after watching the TV series, and my imagination was still ravished by its glorious locations and interiors and clothes.
It’s impossible to do a précis of the plot without upsetting the delicate balance of elements within the book, but I will try: a young man named Charles makes friends with another young man named Sebastian at Oxford, and finds himself enchanted by the decadence and excess of his privileged life. Sebastian has a sister named Julia – cool, aloof, and sophisticated. Charles is attracted to them both, and sexual tension hums just below the surface of all their interactions. However, there is more at risk than just his heart. Sebastian’s family are devout Catholics, with the blood of martyrs in their veins, and this exerts such pressure upon them all that something must crack.
Reading it again, I did not find it slow. The narrative momentum of the book, its perfect balance of pace and depth, the acuteness of its characterisations, and the subtlety with which Evelyn Waugh introduces his themes of faith, sin, guilt, and redemption are truly astonishing. I am now obsessed with Evelyn Waugh and his life and work, and am seeking out more of his books. I feel I have a lot to learn from him.
GET YOUR COPY OF BRIDESHEAD REVISITED HEREYou might also like to read my review of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte:
VINTAGE BOOK REVIEW:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
November, 1940. Tom Tyler, Detective Inspector of the small Shropshire town of Whitchurch, is a troubled man. The preceding summer had been a dark one for Britain, and even darker for Tom's own family and personal life. So he jumps at the opportunity to help out in the nearby city of Birmingham, where an explosion in a munitions factory has killed or badly injured several of the young women who have taken on dangerous work in support of the war effort.
At first, it seems more than likely the explosion was an accident, and Tom has only been called in because the forces are stretched thin. But as he talks to the employees of the factory, inner divisions -- between the owner and his employees, between unionists and workers who fear communist infiltration -- begin to appear. Put that together with an AWOL young soldier who unwittingly puts all those he loves at risk and a charming American documentary filmmaker who may be much more than he seems, and you have a page-turning novel that bears all the hallmarks of Maureen Jennings' extraordinary talent: a multi-faceted mystery, vivid characters, snappy dialogue, and a pitch-perfect sense of the era of the Blitz, when the English were pushed to their limits and responded with a courage and resilience that still inspires
My Thoughts:
I had never heard of Maureen Jennings before I picked up this book, but apparently she is best known for a series of historical mysteries that have been televised as ‘the Murdoch Mysteries’. I was interested in this book because it was compared to ‘Foyle’s War’, which I love, and because generally anything set during the Second World War is of interest to me. It’s an unusual crime novel. Yes, there is murder, and sabotage, and spies, and skulduggery, but the action is slow and deliberate, and much of the emphasis is on the interior lives of its troubled characters. The action all takes place in in rain, in fog, in bomb shelters, and in munitions’ factories. The atmosphere is gloomy and laden with dread. This is historical crime at its most serious and deliberate, and most effective in its evocation of a terrible time in British history.
You might also like to read my review of Code Name Verity here:
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
Returning home to Cornwall after an unspeakable tragedy, Sir Gideon Trevithick comes upon a defiant beauty in danger and vows to protect her whatever the cost. He's dismayed to discover that she's none other than Lady Charis Weston, England's wealthiest heiress—and that the only way to save her from the violent stepbrothers determined to steal her fortune is to wed her himself! Now Gideon must hide the dark secrets of his life from the bride he desires more with every heartbeat.
She promised to show him how to love—and desire—again.
Charis has heard all about Gideon, the dangerously handsome hero with the mysterious past. She's grateful for his help but utterly unwilling to endure a marriage of convenience—especially to a man whose touch leaves her breathless. Desperate to drive him mad with passion, she would do anything to make Gideon lose control—and fall captive to irresistible, undeniable sin
My Thoughts:
I like nothing better than a good romance novel, particularly when I’m feeling tired and over-worked (which seems to be all the time at the moment). Anna Campbell had recently been voted Australia’s Favourite Romance Author and I had read and enjoyed one of her earlier novels ‘Seven Night’s In A Rogue’s Bed’ and so hunted down another of her books. ‘Captive of Sin’ is a very readable Regency romance with a hero tormented by dark secrets in his past and a heroine on the run from her abusive step-brothers. I enjoyed it immensely!
You might also like to read my review of Mariana by Susanna Kearsley:
https://kateforsyth.com.au/what-katie-read/book-review-mariana-by-susanna-kearsley
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
In the second book of the Wild Magic trilogy, courageous young Mup and her family are trying to heal and restore the kingdom when they uncover an ancient and powerful anger.
The old queen and her raggedy witches have fled Witches Borough, and Mup’s family has moved into the cold, newly empty castle. But the queen’s legacy lingers in the fear and mistrust of her former subjects and in the memories that live in the castle’s very walls. While Mup’s mam tries to restore balance to a formerly oppressed world, Mup herself tries to settle into her strange new home with her dad, Tipper, and Crow. When an enchanted snow blankets the castle, Mup’s family is cut off from the rest of the kingdom, and the painful memories of the old queen’s victims begin to take form, thanks to a ghost whose power may be too much for even Mup and Mam to handle. Celine Kiernan weaves a timely and essential truth into the second book of her trilogy: that dismantling oppression means honoring the pains of the past, and perhaps the most potent magic of all is encouraging joy and hope wherever possible.
My Thoughts:
The Little Grey Girl is the second book in a charming fantasy series for younger readers, written by Irish author Celine Kiernan. It starts where Book 1 : Begone the Raggedy Witches ends, and so must be read in the right order. Basically, the series tells the story of an ordinary girl named Mup whose mother is the heir to a magical realm that had been for decades ruled by her cold and ruthless mother, the queen. In the first book, the queen is defeated and driven away, but now Mup’s mother is queen in her place and must find some way to make reparations and build a lasting peace. The books are deftly written, with some gorgeous lyrical writing and enough warmth and humour to balance out the darkness and fear. And, like the best children’s fantasy, they contain important lessons about kindness and forgiveness. A truly magical fantasy for readers 8+.
You might also like to read my review of Brimstone by Kelly Gardiner:
The Blurb (from Goodreads):
Colonel William Reid has returned home from India to retire near his children, who are safely stowed in an academy in Bath. Upon his return to the Isles, however, he finds that one of his daughters has vanished, along with one of her classmates.
Having served as second-in-command to the Pink Carnation, one of England’s most intrepid spies, it would be impossible for Gwendolyn Meadows to give up the intrigue of Paris for a quiet life in the English countryside—especially when she’s just overheard news of an alliance forming between Napoleon and an Ottoman Sultan. But, when the Pink Carnation’s little sister goes missing from her English boarding school, Gwen reluctantly returns home to investigate the girl’s disappearance.
Thrown together by circumstance, Gwen and William must cooperate to track down the young ladies before others with nefarious intent get their hands on them. But Gwen’s partnership with quick-tongued, roguish William may prove to be even more of an adventure for her than finding the lost girls…
My Thoughts:
This is Book No 12 in a long-running series of delightful and very funny historical romances that tell the adventures of a set of English spies in Napoleonic times. The spies all have named like the Pink Carnation and the Black Tulip, and rampage about in disguise, getting into trouble, falling in love, and fighting off bully-boys with swords hidden in their parasols. Think the Scarlet Pimpernel mixed with Georgette Heyer and Sophie Kinsella (the books also have a chick-lit thread with the contemporary adventures of a young woman tracking down the truth about the Pink Carnation and other spies). Fabulous, frivolous fun (but you must start with Book 1 ‘The Secret History of the Pink Carnation’.)
You might also like to read my review of The English Wife by Lauren Willig here:
https://kateforsyth.com.au/what-katie-read/book-review-the-english-wife-by-lauren-willig
The Blurb (from Goodreads) Whose Body?:
The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially with a pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath.
The Blurb (from Goodreads) Clouds of Witness:
Rustic old Riddlesdale Lodge was a Wimsey family retreat filled with country pleasures and the thrill of the hunt -- until the game turned up human and quite dead. He lay among the chrysanthemums, wore slippers and a dinner jacket and was Lord Peter's brother-in-law-to-be. His accused murderer was Wimsey's own brother, and if murder set all in the family wasn't enough to boggle the unflappable Lord Wimsey, perhaps a few twists of fate would be -- a mysterious vanishing midnight letter from Egypt...a grieving fiancee with suitcase in hand...and a bullet destined for one very special Wimsey.
My Thoughts:
Every year I set myself some kind of reading challenge, and this year I’ve decided to re-read as many Golden Age detective novels as I can. This is partly because I’m writing a novel set during the 1940s, and so I want to immerse myself in the language and attitudes of the times. And it’s partly because I’ve not read them for absolute ages, and I want to treat myself.
I’ve decided to begin with the work of Dorothy L. Sayers. She was born in Oxford and studied there just before the First World War, and her detective-hero Lord Peter Wimsey is known both for his cleverness and his insouciance. I am reading the books in order of publication, and so began with Whose Body? - first published in 1923.
Lord Peter Wimsey is called to view the body of an unknown dead man found in the bathtub of – in his mother, the Duchess’s words – ‘the little architect man who is doing the church roof.’ The body is wearing nothing but a pair of gold pince-nez, which is a type of spectacles popular in the early 20th century.
The murder case then intersects with the case of the disappearance of a wealthy Jewish financier. With the help of Bunter, his valet, Wimsey sets out to solve the interlocked puzzles with a great deal of humour and panache. Whose Body? is quite slight in comparison with some of the later books in the series, but nonetheless a very clever and readable mystery.
Clouds of Witness was published three years later, in 1926, and shows her style developing. The puzzle is again quite masterful – I didn’t guess a thing – and Lord Peter Wimsey’s clever, whimsical personality shines through even more brightly. The story follows his desperate attempts to save his stodgy and very proper brother, the Duke of Denver, from the hangman’s noose after he is accused of murdering his brother-in-law-to-be. Most of the action takes place on the atmospheric Yorkshire moors, and there’s a tragic beauty, a French temptress, a brutal husband, and many other fascinating characters. I’m going to enjoy reading the rest in the series, methinks!
GET YOUR COPY OF WHOSE BODY? HERE GET YOUR COPY OF CLOUDS OF WITNESS HEREYou might also like to read my review of Tombland by C J Sansom:
https://kateforsyth.com.au/what-katie-read/book-review-tombland-by-c-j-sansom
