Historical Fiction

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so other participants know what you’re reading.

I picked up Michelle Moran’s Madame Tussaud from the library a few days ago and even though it’s not the book I’m reading today, I wanted to share the first two lines.

“When she walks through the door of my exhibition, everything disappears: the sound of the rain against the windows, the wax models, the customers, even the children.  This is a face I have not seen in twenty-one years, and immediately I step back, wondering whether I have conjured her from my past.” (pg. 1)

Review – The Tudor Secret

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The Tudor Secret

By C.W. Gortner

St. Martin’s Griffin

ISBN: 978031265850-2

4 stars

A few years back, I overdosed on Tudor fiction but in the last few months I’ve been craving the drama, court intrigue, and ever present bedroom battles that come along with Henry VIII and his wives. What I liked about The Tudor Secret was that it wasn’t told from the perspective of the royal household, but from a 20 year-old with a blank past who is unceremoniously thrown into court life with the intent of letting it devour him.

Brendan Prescott knows nothing of his past other than he was abandoned as a baby and Mistress Alice, a woman who worked as a maid for the wealthy Dudley household, raised him. A child with no background or family, he knows only too well his lowly place in the household and society at-large. His hopes rise no higher than someday being a squire or a steward and even those positions don’t hold much interest for him. He would rather spend his days in the barn with the horses. When he is called to court by Lady Dudley to be a squire to her oldest son, Robert, his hopes of a peaceful life among horses are forgotten.

Knowing nothing of court life and with no one willing to teach him, he’s left alone among the court sharks looking to use him for their own gain, his Master Robert included. Robert promptly engages Brendan in court escapades that involve setting up a liaison with the Princess Elizabeth with whom he is in love. Brendan manages to find the Princess and deliver the message but he slowly begins to understand that nothing about court life is ever secret. Pulled unwillingly into a spy ring, Brendan becomes privy to the lives of his masters in ways he never imagined and ends up a double agent working not only for Master Robert but also to keep Princess Elizabeth safe and help her sister, Mary, to become Queen.

It is Brendan’s past though that keeps him involved long after he wants nothing more than to walk away. He wants to know who abandoned him that night so long ago but his real concern is for the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. They are targets of people who want nothing more than to overthrow Mary and Elizabeth and convince their brother Edward that neither are true heirs to the throne.

Court intrigue and espionage are always terms that are mandatory when talking about the Tudors. The spying, backstabbing, and face-to-face pleasantries while secretly whispering lies behind a person’s back are well-known traits of this family and the court they created. It’s also what makes them all so much fun to read about. The fodder they have provided for future generations is enormous and I think that’s why, while I might need a break to recover from the tension of crown politics, I never entirely tire of the Tudors. Gortner zeroes in on this tension and the moment that Brendan arrives at court, he starts to ramp it up making you turn pages wanting to desperately know what comes next. Telling the story from an outsider’s point of view also makes the character of Elizabeth much more interesting. She’s well-known but an enigma to Brendan which adds freshness to a character that can feel stiff and sometimes a little standoffish.

Covering about two weeks worth of time, the story does feel a bit forced in places though and in particular Brendan who while understanding nothing of the Tudor court, manages to become involved and an integral part of a spy ring. He blunders too much in the beginning and to see him mature so quickly and in a mere matter of days, feels unlikely. But, he’s somehow still very likable and that’s what makes it work. He doesn’t immediately grasp the implications of every move made at court and that sets him apart from the others and you can’t help but side with him. If you’re looking for a book that will pull you back into the Tudor’s, this one’s a good choice.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for The Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

The Sunday Salon – Long Books and Loot

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For the second week in a row, I’ve been in a one week, one book relationship.  The first was a non-fiction book that I was having some issues with (I wasn’t liking it so much and found some of it annoying so it took me longer, even longer than my normal slow pace associated with non-fiction books because there were times I thought about winging it far from my being.) and the second week was consumed by an almost 800 page historical fiction tome that, well, it just took me a long time to read.  I did enjoy it though so there are no complaints.  🙂

So what book was it?  The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick.  Last year, I read her Arthurian legend trilogy, Pendragon’s Banner, loved it so much I knew I needed to read more and when I saw this one, I bought it.  Lately my restraint tactics which I practiced all last year in regard to buying books have been tossed casually into a black hole from which they will never ever return.  Although, the new books are all ebooks so they aren’t taking up any physical space which is probably why I’ve kept at the buying the last few days with little regard for anything other than how much money is left on my gift cards.  The answer to that is not much.  I also picked up A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin (can’t wait for it!) and Un Lun Dun by China Mieville.  I read two of his books last year and he’s becoming a favorite.

To show there’s more to me than just hitting the download button, I also stopped by the library (thanks honey for double parking and deftly avoiding a ticket) and picked up two books that I’m looking forward to reading.  OK, one I already started…

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach.  Mary Roach writes the funniest and most entertaining non-fiction books I’ve ever read and this is going to be the perfect one to get me back on the non-fiction wagon which I jumped off of in January.  My second book is A Conspiracy of Kings by Meghan Whalen Turner.  I thought, really believed, that I had finished this series last year but I didn’t and well, that needed to be fixed and now I have the final book and all is well.

I’m off now.  My husband has informed me there is football stuff to be watched.  Happy Sunday everyone and enjoy the game!

Teaser Tuesdays – The Forever Queen

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

I’m reading The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick who is a master of historical fiction.  OK, that’s just my opinion but I’m sayin’ in anyway.

“Winchester was a pleasant town, or perhaps Emma thought so because it was hers?  This was her dower land, all revenue came directly to her, be it tenancy rents, market traders’ tax, or import duty from the riverside wharf.  Nor was it as foul-smelling as London.”  (Nook pg. 155 of 793)

The Burning Times: A Novel of Medieval France

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The Burning Times: A Novel of Medieval France

By Jeanne Kalogridis

Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 068486923-3

4 stars

Jeanne Kalogridis writes historical fiction that I love.  She mixes a little fact with a little fiction and adds a tiny bit of the paranormal.  The magical element never feels odd in her stories either and most times when I come across it, I go right along with it.  She blends everything so well.

I’ve read several of her books including: The Scarlett Contessa, The Devil’s Queen: A Novel of Catherine de Medici and Covenant with the Vampire.  My library does not have a huge back list for her, but I plan to seek out a few of others if I can.

In The Burning Times, we meet Sybille, a poor midwife with pagan ways who is forced into hiding and assumes the name and appearance of Sister Marie Francoise so she can take refuge among the Franciscan sisterhood.  She does this to escape the Inquisitors who wish to burn all heretics and those they deem witches.  She is eventually caught by the Inquisitors, and during the course of her imprisonment and interview with a young monk, her story unfolds and the powers she holds, she sees the future and can heal the sick, become clear.  It’s obvious to the other Inquisitors that she’s clearly a witch and should be burned but the young Monk Michael wants to hear her story not thoroughly convinced that she is what they all say.

The story is told through this interview and even if you think you know how it will end, the way in which the story is told keeps you interested.  Sybille won’t be rushed, knowing this will be her last chance to tell her story and that of her people.  There are others in the world with her powers and abilities and she wants the church to know that killing her will not end what they consider to be a scourge of heresy.

There’s an interesting mythology to this book that is more than just witchcraft. The pagan ideals of worship and belief in something higher added an interesting new level that ran against the stalwart beliefs of the church.  The historical elements — the Black Plague, the Hundred Years’ War, and the war between England and France — provided a nice background for the story to play out.

I love going back to read earlier works of an author I like.  While the writing quality of this particular book doesn’t compare to the book released this year, The Scarlett Contessa which I thought had a much better flow and felt much more cohesive, I like to go back and see how a writer evolved.  Don’t get me wrong, this is still a good book, but I can see how Kalogridis’s writing has changed over the years and I know that she will be an author whose work I continue to enjoy in the coming years.

Corrag: A Novel

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Corrag:  A Novel

By Susan Fletcher

W.W. Norton & Company

978-0-393-08000-1

4 stars

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book.  It’s historical fiction (which I adore), set in Scotland, (a favorite setting of mine), features Highlanders as characters, (see previous), and is about a woman accused of witchcraft.  All things I usually enjoy entangled in a story.  What I found was something entirely different and not all bad either.

Corrag is a woman accused of witchcraft and slated to burn for her wanton ways.  It’s 17th Century Scotland and the accusation of witchcraft is common enough for women who have an understanding of medicinal herbs, are outspoken, and in some cases misunderstood.  Corrag is a mixture of all the above.  She’s a very small person, so small that some think of her as a child and in many ways she is childlike.  She was the only daughter of a woman hung for being a witch, has little education, and has been on the run for most of her life in search of a place to feel safe.  She finds that place in the Highlands of Scotland.  The MacDonald clan, which is settled in the area Corrag decides to call home, welcomes her and she feels finally at peace in the world.  When the clan is massacred by English soldiers, she is thrown in jail to await her death.  While there, a man named Charles Leslie comes to hear her story and hopefully find out more about the massacre.  What he finds is a filthy woman with a tale that will astound him.

This story is told by Corrag and is broken up by letters from Charles to his wife.  While Corrag’s story does skip around (She fully admits to being a rambler and in some places I felt inpatient with her telling.), but eventually she weaves a tale that makes your heartbreak.  It’s not only about the massacre but there’s also an interesting love story between Corrag and Alasdair MacDonald.  He’s married and while her heart breaks for him, she refuses to break the vow he has made to his wife.  I almost wish that it was a different story but the way Fletcher chose to tell it made sense from the perspective of Corrag.

It’s also a story about an incredible woman who showed little fear even when facing her own death.  She spent a great deal of her life alone, by choice, and was raised by a mother who told her never to love.  Corrag understood why her mother told her that but lets herself experience it anyway.  Becoming involved with the clan creates a life she never imagined possible.  She stops being this strange figure and starts to see herself in a better light.

I enjoyed this book but it does move slowly.  I’ll admit to taking a few breaks and moving on to another story while in the midst of this one.  I wanted very much to know what happened to the MacDonald clan and Corrag takes her time getting to that part.  Yes, I understand this was about her telling her tale so that someone knew her fully before she died, but some of it was too meandering.  In the end, I was happy to have finished it.  Fletcher is an interesting writer and at times can also be quite lyrical.  Descriptions of places and Corrag’s thoughts added wonderful touches to the story.

Fletcher is a new to me writer but I plan to look up a few of her previous novels and see how this one compares.

I received a copy of this book through the Early Reviewers Program on Librarything.

The Last Kingdom

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The Last Kingdom

By Bernard Cornwell

Harper Collins Publishers

ISBN: 0-06-053051-0

4.5 stars

I’m on a mission to read all the Cornwell books in my library and that’s a rather long list so it may take me a while.  The good news is that I will be entertained by the challenge I’m setting for myself.  This latest series I’m starting features Saxons and that’s a topic I fully enjoy.

Uhtred, a boy of ten, joins his father in battle against the invading Danes.  He’s the son of a nobleman and, thanks to the death of his oldest brother during the battle, heir to his father’s English lands.  In the same battle that leaves his father and brother dead, Uhtred is captured by the Danes.  Earl Ragnar, the Danish chieftain that defeated his father, raises Uhtred as his own teaching him to fight like a Viking.  Expected to fight the English alongside his Danish tribe, he fights an internal battle between his loyalty to Ragnar, who loved him as a son, and to his English heritage and the new king, Alfred.  Uhtred feels little loyalty toward Alfred and doesn’t like him on a personal level, but he clings to his dream of ruling his homelands someday.  Fortunately for Uhtred, he prefers battle to loyalties and would rather fight than worry about the person on the other side of the shield wall or political implications.

The Danish way of life portrayed in this book is brutal but it’s hard to dislike the Danes simply because of the love they show for Uhtred, and even when he decides that he must fight for the English, don’t hold it against him as they value his sense of loyalty which they instilled in him.  Alfred is a thoroughly unlikable person, and along with Uhtred, I had trouble liking him but you still have to appreciate his cunning.  Uhtred managed several times to get caught up in Alfred’s plans and being young, cocky, and willing to think with his fists instead of his brain, he walks right into situations that get him in trouble.  That’s also what makes him extraordinarily likable.  He’s flawed, frequently irrational, and single minded in his thinking sometimes, but he believes what he’s doing is right and you agree with him.

Cornwell, and I have probably said this before, has an amazing talent for writing historical fiction.  The details make his stories and each time I finish a book I immediately want to pick up the next in the series.  I have been trying to pace myself so I don’t burn out because while I always enjoy his books, they tend toward the violent aspects of war and I sometimes find myself needing a break to forget the sound of swords crashing against bone.

Religion plays a large part in this story as Alfred is extremely pious but Uhtred, who veers more toward the pagan, is an equal opportunity believer who is happy to let his king think he has found god and secretly prefer to ask Thor and Odin for their assistance in battle.  It’s an amusing side-story and I’m sure one that will be developed more as these types of religious battles seem to always find a place in Cornwell’s books.  It’s never overpowering but always presents enough of an internal battle for a character to be an interesting element.

There are five books in the Saxon series and I’m looking forward to more.

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

My teaser this week is from The Burning Times: A Novel of Medieval France by Jeanne Kalogridis.

“They moved steadily down out of the hills, the English, more than five thousand men, all told: lancers, foot soldiers, the much-dreaded archers with their bows the height of a man.  Dark locusts spilling out in irregular swarms, they had been on the march for months and no longer bothered with the precise lines of formal battle; nor did they need to.” (256)

What are you teasing us with this week?