Category: Historical Fiction
The Show by John Heldt
(Cover picture courtesy of John Heldt.)
Seattle, 1941. Grace Vandenberg, 21, is having a bad day. Minutes after Pearl Harbor is attacked, she learns that her boyfriend is a time traveler from 2000 who has abandoned her for a future he insists they cannot share. Determined to save their love, she follows him into the new century. But just when happiness is within her grasp, she accidentally enters a second time portal and exits in 1918. Distraught and heartbroken, Grace starts a new life in the age of Woodrow Wilson, silent movies, and the Spanish flu. She meets her parents as young, single adults and befriends a handsome, wounded Army captain just back from the war. In THE SHOW, the sequel to THE MINE, Grace finds love and friendship in the ashes of tragedy as she endures the trial of her life.
[Full disclosure: John Heldt sent me a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
I’m so glad that John Heldt decided to return to the story of The Mine to continue where he left off. Only this time, we get to see things from Grace’s point of view and learn how she found her way back to Joel when he fled back to his own time. Then, just when everything seems to be going well, tragedy strikes and Grace is thrust back into 1918. This is where things get interesting character-wise because we learn just how resourceful and intelligent Grace really is as she struggles to cope in another new time. We also learn a little more about how the time travel portals work, although John Heldt never gets into the scientific details. But that doesn’t bother me one bit because the Northwest Passage Series is meant to explore the effects of time travel on people, not how time travel is accomplished.
The plot isn’t what I would call fast-paced until the last 30 pages, but John Heldt’s writing style is so nice that it didn’t bother me at all. Grace drives the plot forward with her actions rather than just reacting to events and it makes for a much more human novel. We feel her anguish at leaving the love of her life and her two children behind, experience her struggle to adapt to a completely different time and feel her confusion about the handsome war hero John Walker. The secondary characters aren’t just two dimensional either; they all have distinct personalities, backstories and react to Grace differently.
The ending felt rather rushed after the steady pace of the first 150 pages, but I suppose it reflects the desperation Grace began to feel as her ability to go back to 2000 was about to be cut off. Still, The Show was a great addition to the story of The Mine and I look forward to reading the rest of the Northwest Passage series.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
*Only available as a Kindle ebook.
Kaiulani: The People’s Princess by Ellen Emerson White
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
May 6, 1889
At Iolani Palace, Father and I met with Papa Moi and Mama Moi in the throne room. Papa Moi was solemn, as he reminded me that it will be my responsibility to do as well as possible, and in that way, further the hopes of our nation. I was glad that I have never admitted to him how fearful I am about leaving. I think he would find that petty, as I go off not for myself, but for all of the Hawaiians I will someday lead.
“I will not fail, Papa, will I?” I asked Father, once we were on the way back to Ainahau.
“It is not even as possiblility,” he said, his voice full of confidence.
I wish that I could feel that same confidence.
After reading The People’s Princess, Kaiulani has definitely joined the ranks of my favourite women in The Royal Diaries. She’s strong, smart and actually has situational awareness, something many other princesses in the series seem to lack. Not only that, but there are actually reasons for Ellen Emerson White’s decision to make the narrative cover 4 years. Covering 4 years in a little over 200 pages is difficult, but the novel never jumps around and you know what is going on.
Kaiulani is an incredible character who fights in whatever ways she knows how in order to keep her country from being annexed by the United States. Of course with the hindsight of history we know that she fails, but her trip to the U.S. to convince the Americans otherwise is fascinating. The way she writes in her diary is very different than the way she presents herself to the public, which is another surprising bonus in tween fiction. Kaiulani is mature and completely aware of her position, making this an interesting read, to say the least.
I wouldn’t call the plot fast-paced, but it’s certainly not boring either. Once again, I can’t exactly vouch for the historical accuracy of The People’s Princess (especially since I didn’t even know her name before I started the book), but it certainly feels like Ellen Emerson White did more than her fair share of research. According to the Historical Note, she didn’t change much, so I’m assuming everything’s accurate as it can be.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Victoria: May Blossom of Britannia by Anna Kirwan
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
29 May
…I had to kiss His Majesty’s hand. Really, one kisses the air over his hand, and that’s a good thing, for he’s so glistening with lotions and powders to cover the liver spots on his skin, which he hates…
Aunt Soap says he was a beautiful lad when he was young. “Prinny was the handsomest Prince ever. His curls were the colour of honey on toast, like that red-gold Russian sable the Princess de Lieven wears.” Now, unfortunately, his beauty has quite fled. Perhaps he does wear a corset, as I once heard Lady C. remark—though I can’t see that it does much good. (I’m sure she would be shocked to know I overheard. But I do wonder why so many people seem to think a young person’s ears do not work unless they are instructed to by some adult.)
Even for a princess in The Royal Diaries, Victoria is quite young when she’s ‘writing’ this book, at only 10 years old. Maybe it’s because I’m a cynical old reader, but even for ten years old she was, quite simply put, an annoying brat. Part of it was her immaturity and the other part was the annoying quirks Anna Kirwan used to make her ‘unique’.
In this portrayal of the future Queen Victoria, Anna Kirwan has made her quite ignorant of her station, immature and an incredibly annoying writer. You see, sometimes Victoria speaks in the language you would expect of the times and in the same entry you might see language you would use in an email to a friend. I don’t know why Kirwan decided to do this, but she makes Victoria use the arcane form of ‘choose’ (‘chuse’) without using any other arcane language. This, of course, doesn’t make it authentic so much as it makes it annoying. The most annoying personality quirk used was Victoria’s habit of using ‘v.’ as an abbreviation of ‘very’. So we end up with a character who uses words that are ten letters long, but abbreviates a four letter word. Writers take note: this is not quirky; it’s annoying.
When you have a book written in diary form, a good narrator is an absolute must because you can’t escape from their point of view. Therefore, Victoria: May Blossom of Britannia was bad overall. I’m sure with a better narrator I would have been more focused on the historical events than on translating v., but that was not the case. As far as I can tell, this book is mostly accurate, but Anna Kirwan admits to changing a few things around in her Historical Note.
I give this book 1.5/5 stars.
*Only available as a used book.
Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country by Kathryn Lasky
(Cover picture courtesy of Open Library.)
July 12, 1554
I think hawking is one of the things that Francis and I do so well together. Our instincts combined with those of the birds seem to fit perfectly when we are in the field. We speak very little to one another but silently give the calls to the birds and perform our hand signals. This afternoon the two of us went out with only Robin McClean as our guard. And I thought as I took a rest on the ridge of a hill that there was something of perfect harmony amongst the three of us and the birds we had brought to fly. If only all of life could be kept in the company of such good souls…
Mary Queen of Scots was a fascinating historical figure and I think that in some ways, Queen Without a Country does her justice. On the other hand, objectively speaking, it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read. I’ll talk about the latter first.
Throughout the whole book, Kathryn Lasky seemed to be trying to get at something, hinting at some greater meaning. Yet at the end of everything, all we see is a stereotypical, predictable ‘ending’ that shows Mary’s ingenuity but doesn’t leave the reader with that message. It feels incomplete, partly because Kathryn Lasky was hinting at Mary reconciling with Queen Catherine, but she never really did. Of course, being a diary of a woman who continued to live for many years afterward, you can’t expect it to be a perfectly wrapped up ending. But there was still something…lacking.
Mary herself was an interesting character, but not exactly memorable. Still, Kathryn Lasky did do Mary the historical figure justice with her portrayal of a headstrong, resourceful, intelligent young woman. One thing I found odd, however, was the lack of mention about Mary’s religion. Mary was relatively pious, spending the last few hours before her execution praying, but religion seems not to be a big feature in Queen Without a Country. I’m not complaining, but it does seem a bit strange considering religion played such a big role in everyone’s daily lives in the 16th century.
Overall, Kathryn Lasky’s portrayal of Mary Queen of Scots was decent and her writing was okay, but nothing more. There was really nothing to distinguish her book from the many others in The Royal Diaries.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
*Only available as a used book.
Sondok: Princess of the Moon and Stars by Sheri Holman
(Cover picture courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.)
10th day of the 1st moon,
17th year of King Chinp’yong
It is the Hour of the Pig when the whole palace is settling down to sleep and only the watchmen and astronomers are awake. I have not had a chance during the festival season to sit at my favourite stargazing spot. It is here where I feel most alive. Here inside the grand mystery of the stars…
How can I help myself, Grandmother? During the day, everything is chaotic in Kumsong. Men rush around the palace, merchants hawk their wares. The city is a jumble of oxen and horses and children and slaves, all bellowing and laughing and tripping over one another to get where they are going. But at night, all is still and peaceful. I can look up into the heavens and find order…
My roots are here, Grandmother. My roots are in the stars.
Say what you want about The Royal Diaries, but I’ve just discovered another awesome female ruler that I never knew existed before. Sondok was the first woman in Eastern Asia to rule in her own right, having ascended the throne in 632 AD. The ridiculous amount of sexism Sondok chronicles in her writings to her dead Grandmother as a girl are a sort of precursor to what she would face when she took the throne.
But of course that doesn’t deter her and although it takes a while, Sondok realizes her true potential—and it isn’t to be an obedient little female either. Her struggle against the societal norms in Korea is fascinating and reveals a lot about not only the religious turmoil in the court at the time, but also the cultural turmoil. The best part is that Sheri Holman presents all of this information without being too obvious about telling the reader. Sondok describes the times and makes some observations, but Holman believes enough in the intelligence of the reader to let us make our own assumptions.
In contrast to some of the other Royal Diary books, there are actually interesting events going on at the time in Korea and Sondok is a part of them, not just an idle observer. That makes the plot both fast and exciting and also makes Princess of the Moon and Stars one of my favourite books in the entire series.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
*Only available as a used book.