Category: Historical Fiction
A Stolen Season by Tamara Gill
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
One small mistake in the past will change everything about her future…
Archaeologist Sarah Baxter just broke one of the biggest rules of time travel: leaving a piece of 21st century equipment in 19th century Regency England. Unfortunately, when she goes back to retrieve it, she makes an even bigger mess of things—resulting in the death of an English Earl. Now his brother is not only out for revenge, but he also has Sarah’s device. Which means an entirely different approach is needed. It doesn’t occur to the new Earl of Earnston that his charming acquaintance is responsible for his brother’s death. He is merely swept away by a passion that threatens his very reputation. Yet he gets the distinct impression that Miss Baxter is hiding something from him. Now Sarah must find a way to steal back her device, hide the truth about the earl’s brother and—most importantly— not fall in love…
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
A Stolen Season is one of those books that you can probably guess the ending right off the bat. It’s really just the journey to get to that ending that makes or breaks your enjoyment of the book. At least that was the case with me.
First off, let me say that Tamara Gill really is an amazing author. Her writing style is concise and yet flows in a manner consistent with the time period the majority of the novel is set in. She’s able to create not only Sarah’s unique modern voice but Eric, our Earl of Earnston’s 19th century voice and sensibilities. The two main points of view in this novel (with a couple of others thrown in on occasion) really contrast the modern era with the 19th century and Tamara Gill never switches viewpoints for no good reason. Every switch is designed to carry the plot forward and it does this rather effectively. Even though like I said, you probably know the ending of the novel before you’ve even begun, the journey to get there really is nerve-wracking. You won’t be able to put down A Stolen Season because Tamara Gill not only has beautiful writing but a real flair for pacing as well.
The characters really do resonate with me. Sarah is trying to deal with a major screw-up that led not only to the death of a man in that time but also to the loss of a key piece of time traveling equipment. She has disappointed her father, the CEO of TimeArch and is tasked to go back in time to a year after the death of the first Earl of Earnston to get the piece back. There’s only one thing standing in her way: Eric, the new Earl of Earnston and brother to the man Sarah accidentally got killed. When he meets her he’s put off by her rudeness at coming to a ball that she wasn’t invited to but is convinced to invite her to a different ball and get to know her. Even though he pretends to protest because of her rudeness, he’s intrigued by the beautiful stranger who doesn’t seem to conform very well to English society’s rules. Soon they begin an attraction that could be the undoing of them both.
I really know very little about Regency England but Tamara Gill seems to have done her research quite well. She actually has characters react when Sarah accidentally uses modern phrases and addresses things like the moral standards of the day, i.e. if a man and a woman are alone together without a chaperone they had better get married. I particularly loved the descriptions of the fashions of the day for both men and women, high and low class. Gill has such a way of describing things that every single description is captivating and lends an aura of authenticity to the story. She really transports you back to the time both through the eyes of an outsider like Sarah and the eyes of Eric, a man who grew up extremely privileged in that era. It really is a magical sort of experience.
Really, what more can you ask for if you’re looking for a time travel romance? You’ve got beautiful writing that brings you back in time to Regency England, a cast of wonderful and three dimensional characters and a plot that even though you probably know the ending will keep you on your seat. It doesn’t get better than this.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Blood Oath by Felicity Pulman
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Love, revenge, secrets – and murder – in a medieval kingdom at war.
A young woman, left alone and destitute after the mysterious death of her mother, plants a sprig of rosemary on her grave and vows, somehow, to bring the murderer to justice. But who can Janna trust with the truth? Even the villein Godric, who wants to marry her, and Hugh, the dashing nobleman, have secrets that threaten her heart and her safety.
In a country torn apart by the vicious civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, Janna needs all her wits and courage to stay alive as she comes closer to those who are determined to silence her forever.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I’d previously read I, Morgana by Felicity Pulman so although I normally wouldn’t pick up what amounts to a medieval murder mystery, I decided to request Blood Oath on NetGalley anyway. She did such a good job with the Arthurian legends I stepped out of my comfort zone to give this one a try. In the end, I’m glad I did.
Janna is a young woman living with her healer mother, a bit of an outcast in the community because of her rather progressive views on religion but someone who was generally respected enough to come to when people were in trouble. But when a lady calls Janna’s mother to help her with her birth and then again when the infant won’t suckle, Janna’s life turns upside down when she is called to the manor to discover her mother dead. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that her mother was of course poisoned, but who did it? How can one teenager girl, completely alone in the world and an outcast in her own community, solve a mysterious murder that no one thinks was a murder?
Clearly, we have an interesting plot in the beginning but it does get even more interesting. As Janna roots out suspects and tries to establish a timeline of events leading up to her mother’s death, religious tensions within the community flare and Janna’s position becomes even more precarious than before, particularly since she’s a woman living on her own. I can’t really go into much more detail about the plot because it would give away some of the pretty cool plot twists, but needless to say Janna does find her mother’s killer and it’s not who you would expect or for the reasons you would think.
The murder mystery itself is pretty fascinating, but it was the characters that really caught my attention. Janna herself is pretty progressive for a woman at the time because of her mother’s independence but she still is a woman of her time. She knows that speaking out too much on certain topics can endanger her very life so she has to tread a fine line between standing up for what she believes in and not rocking the boat too much. But when she discovers who really murdered her mother, she decides to act rather than carry on without carrying out a little bit of justice/revenge. Janna is obsessed with finding her mother’s murderer, particularly because they argued so much in the few days leading up to her death. So there’s an element of guilt driving her but also a sense of duty and justice. She wants things to be right and balanced but knows that it’s not always possible in medieval England, particularly with the vicious civil war being waged close to her community.
In Blood Oath, Felicity Pulman has clearly done her research about the time. I’m no expert on medieval England but she lends a very authentic feeling to the novel by using the old spellings and old names for where the action takes place in the novel. Instead of using Oxford, she uses Oxeneford, just little stuff like that. I was also fascinated by the detail she went into for describing medieval remedies for various ailments. Clearly, she has done her research and she says in her Author’s Note that all of the background events in the novel are very true: there really was a civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda (sometimes known as Maude) being waged in England at the time and it really did split loyalties as is described in the novel. It will be interesting to see just how much of an impact the civil war has on Janna since she decides to leave her village at the end of the novel.
To sum things up: Blood Oath isn’t the most fascinating book I’ve ever read because the plot is a little slow in the beginning but it is a good book. The characters are good but I didn’t think they were anything special and Felicity Pulman’s research was excellent. So if the blurb has interested you, I would recommend giving Blood Oath a try.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Spoils of Olympus: By the Sword by Christian Kachel
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
322 B.C. The Macedonian Empire is on the verge of civil war following the sudden death of Alexander the Great.
As a boy, Andrikos watched as Alexander’s army marched through his homeland of Greek Ionia after defeating the Persians at the Granicus River on their way to the total conquest of the Persian Empire. Soon he will be embroiled in their world, forced to flee his old life due to an unintentional crime.
Thrust into the army, Andrikos struggles to cope with the brutal yet necessary training which his superiors put him through to prepare for the coming wars of succession as Alexander’s surviving generals seek to divide and conquer the spoils of Olympus.
But Andrikos is not destined to be a nameless soldier; by chance he is chosen for a clandestine mission – and is immersed in a world of intrigue, violence and brotherhood.
The path that lies ahead of Andrikos requires him to shed his immaturity and take on the responsibilities and emotions of a man beyond his years as he struggles to save Alexander’s legacy from those who wish to usurp it.
The Spoils of Olympus: By the Sword is a historical epic which follows the advancements of one soldier from boy to man set during a time of global conflict.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
Much has been written about Alexander the Great but the aftermath of his death isn’t nearly so popular a topic simply because it was a really complex politic situation. Kings were rising and falling with alarming rate and the diadochi were tearing each other to pieces over the least little thing. Enter into this world Andrikos, who lives in Illandra with the other Ionian Greeks Alexander liberated. He’s had a rough time what with his father dying and his uncle seeming to constantly disapprove of him and he falls in with the wrong sort of crowd pretty quickly. It’s that wrong crowd that really causes him to leave and become a soldier.
Andrikos and the other characters were pretty good. I particularly enjoyed Vettias, the old spymaster of first Philip, then Alexander and now Eumenes who is under command of Perdiccas. He’s a clever man and if there’s one thing he knows, it’s people. Seeing him try to train Andrikos to become the same sort of suave, sophisticated man-of-the-world that he is was funny but touching at times because you really start to see Andrikos grow up. Throughout the novel Andrikos goes through so much and the brutal training he receives to become a proper soldier in the beginning really is just the beginning. But because of all the things that he goes through, he finally starts to become a man. There’s very little left in the mischief-making boy that we met in the beginning of the novel, particularly by the end. So he at least has a believable character arc and it is very satisfying.
Christian Kachel clearly knows his stuff about the Wars of Alexandrian Succession. It’s a complicated period filled with secret alliances, backstabbing and war and he conveys the feeling of the time quite well. This atmosphere of both hope and despair plays out with the characters, particularly with Andrikos. He leaves Illandra hopeful to join the military, is despairing when he goes through the brutal training and then again becomes hopeful as Eumenes moves against some of the other diadochi for his first battle. Of course there are more examples of that but I really don’t want to spoil a large part of the plot, particularly some of the interesting twists near the end. As for his historical accuracy, I’m no expert on the period but after a little bit more research to remind me of names and such it actually is quite accurate. He doesn’t feel the need to add in battles and people that really didn’t exist other than the main character because the history itself is exciting enough.
My only problem with Spoils of Olympus: By the Sword is that the dialogue lacks both realism and subtlety. I get that this is historical fiction and of course the language is different from ours in different time periods, but I just found the dialogue unbelievable. Everyone from soldiers to spies gives great big long speeches about the problem at hand when just a few words would really suffice. Sometimes the speeches make sense, like when Leandros is recounting his campaigns with Alexander. Sometimes they don’t, like when the different commanders are giving their soldiers encouragement during the battle. In a battle as bloody and vicious as a phalanx battle, you’re not going to stop and give your subordinates almost a full paragraph of encouragement.
And that really leads into the other problem: the total lack of subtlety. Christian Kachel knows his stuff but really assumes that readers don’t, which would be fine if he introduced the history in subtler ways. But he doesn’t. No, characters saying things like this: “The Hypaspists are now known as the Silver Shields since the India Campaign under the commands of Generals Nicanor and Seleucus.” That’s just not realistic because by the time Alexander was dead and Andrikos’ brother Leandros comes back to Illandra, everyone would have known that. The readers wouldn’t have but the characters most certainly would and it could have been introduced in a much more subtle way through dialogue, i.e. “How many Silver Shields got back from India?” “I don’t know, but Seleucus and Nicanor sure tried their best to get all of them back after that huge win.” That’s not the best example but it is better than characters constantly stating the obvious.
So while By the Sword is a good book and I believe that Christian Kachel is a good writer, I did have a hard time coping with the dialogue. At the same time, I loved both the characters and the moderate pacing of the story that just kept increasing. If my review has at all intrigued you, I would definitely encourage you to pick this book up and give it a try.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
Lady of the Eternal City by Kate Quinn
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
National bestselling author Kate Quinn returns with the long-awaited fourth volume in the Empress of Rome series, an unforgettable new tale of the politics, power, and passion that defined ancient Rome.
Elegant, secretive Sabina may be Empress of Rome, but she still stands poised on a knife’s edge. She must keep the peace between two deadly enemies: her husband Hadrian, Rome’s brilliant and sinister Emperor; and battered warrior Vix, who is her first love. But Sabina is guardian of a deadly secret: Vix’s beautiful son Antinous has become the Emperor’s latest obsession.
Empress and Emperor, father and son will spin in a deadly dance of passion, betrayal, conspiracy, and war. As tragedy sends Hadrian spiraling into madness, Vix and Sabina form a last desperate pact to save the Empire. But ultimately, the fate of Rome lies with an untried girl, a spirited redhead who may just be the next Lady of the Eternal City . . .
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
One of the things I’ve always struggled with in Kate Quinn’s Empress of Rome series is the believability factor. She does take the most sensational gossip about all of the emperors she writes about and portrays it in her novels. It’s a conscious choice rather than a mistake caused by lack of knowledge but sometimes it really doesn’t sit easy with me as someone who has studied Roman history to a certain extent. I liked where she took this sensationalism in her first book Mistress of Rome but really didn’t like it in Daughters of Rome because the believability factor with those characters was just not there. However, I set aside my impressions about the two books in the series that I’ve read (I’ve unfortunately skipped #3 but it wasn’t necessary to understand this story) to read Lady of the Eternal City. Because whether I agree with her or not on historical matters, Kate Quinn does write a good story.
Here we have some pretty fabulous characters: Vix, who is all grown up and watching his children both biological and adopted grow up, Sabina who is now Empress of Rome, Antinous the rather naive adopted son of Vix and Hadrian the capricious and ruthless emperor. Of all of these characters, I really did love Antinous the best. Of course I knew how his story was going to end but Kate Quinn made me love him in a way that I didn’t think was possible. For all that his naivete was his main flaw it was also his strength and led to some tremendous changes in other characters. In the cutthroat world of Roman power politics, he stayed innocent and really did believe the best of everyone, even those who mocked and hurt him. Antinous’ father Vix of course was also a great character. On one hand he is loyal to Rome because of his years in the legions. On the other hand, he’d really, really like to slit Hadrian’s throat because of a history of bad blood between the two of them. Vix is a complicated man and he’s far from perfect as you’ll definitely see around the halfway point in this book if you do read it. It makes him more realistic, considering his background.
The plot is not fast-paced even by historical fiction standards but Kate Quinn tells such a good story that you’ll have no problem sailing through the 500+ pages of the novel. Unlike some historical novels, it doesn’t feel like the unseen hand of the author is moving the characters forcibly down the paths of their historical counterparts. No, she creates her characters in such a way that it feels like you really know the historical figure and understand why the character chose to go down their particular path in life. Antinous’ story in particular resonated with me because so little is actually known about him as a person; he was sort of an ornament in Hadrian’s entourage for a number of years. But Antinous in the story really breathes life into a boy known to history as a wallflower, nothing more.
I don’t necessarily agree with the portrayals of all of the historical figures mentioned in the novel but Kate Quinn is generally very historically accurate. Her descriptions of everything from the numerous provinces Hadrian visits all the way to the everyday clothes of men and women are just fabulous. She brings a sort of authenticity to her writing that makes you feel like you’re right there along with the characters exploring the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire. And the little details she adds in to daily life just make it all the more believable. Lady of the Eternal City is one of those novels where you can quite honestly say you learned something from it when you’re done reading.
So if you have read and liked the rest of the Empress of Rome series, you will like Lady of the Eternal City. It reveals so much more about our old friends Sabina and Vix while also introducing an entirely new cast of characters in the next generation of the Roman elite. As with all of Kate Quinn’s books although it takes some of the most sensational stories from the time it remains true to the general historical facts and Quinn adds in little details that make you feel like you’re right there along with the characters. And that is one of the best ways to measure the calibre of any historical fiction novel.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Search for the Golden Serpent by Luciana Cavallaro
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(Cover picture courtesy of the author.)
It’s not where he appears, it’s when.
What if you’re born during another time grew up in the 21st century and thrust back into the past? Confused? So is architect, Evan Chronis.
Evan drawn by screams ventures out to his backyard and sees blood trickling down the limestone steps. He steps off the veranda and finds himself in the days of great and marvellous power, a time when the gods ruled the universe.
To return to the 21st century life he longs for, he must risk his life in search of powerful, treasured relics older than the Holy Grail. But what he finds might be more than he expected.
Will Evan find the relics and return home or will he remain forever stuck in a world so different from his own?
[Full disclosure: I was contacted by the author and provided with an ebook in exchange for an honest review.]
I’ve read quite a few of Luciana Cavallaro’s previous works so I was pretty excited to read Search for the Golden Serpent. The only problem was that she had previously only published short stories and I was a little worried about how she would transition into longer works like this one. After all, a 354 page novel is not the same as a 40 page short story. Still, I was more than ready to give her a chance. In the end, I honestly didn’t even need to worry in the slightest. Her debut novel is just as good as her previous short stories, even better in many ways.
Evan Chronis is a very memorable character. In the modern world he’s a successful architect who absolutely adores his job. Then Zeus decides that he’s needed back in his real time: the early years of ancient Greece, after the sinking of the mythical Atlantis. I don’t know about you but being immersed in the modern world and suddenly being contacted by a god who drops you in the ancient world would be a little jarring to say the least. Evan, understandably, really doesn’t handle it all that well in the beginning until he begins to speak the language and make friends. But poor Evan, called Evandros in his own time, doesn’t ever really get a break: Zeus and the other gods have sent him on a mission to recover powerful artifacts to prevent their eventual fading into historical fiction in the modern era.
He really does have a remarkable physical journey but also a mental and emotional one. When he goes back to the past he fights it tooth and nail, desperate to go back to our own time. However, when he realizes that his only option is to recover the artifacts he throws himself fully into the task. In the beginning Evan is also a little arrogant in his own way, utterly convinced that the people in the past are more primitive and somewhat inferior. Yet through his journeys he tends to appreciate them a little more and realize that many ancient cultures had more accomplishments than just their fantastic architecture. And when he befriends Phameas on the ship that rescues him and is forced to learn an entirely new language in a very short time, it sort of humbles him. He learns a lot on his journey and it was really interesting to see how his character changed throughout the course of the novel.
One of the things I absolutely loved is that Luciana Cavallaro has clearly done her research. She so vividly describes past cultures that we very rarely read about in historical fiction that you feel like you’re really there. From the streets of Carthage to the temples of ancient Egypt and a ship from Phoenicia, you will feel totally immersed in the world of the ancient Mediterranean. It’s brilliant because it shows old empires like Egypt and contrasts it with the rising might of the Greeks. It’s so rare in historical fiction to get a more international picture like this one and it’s a real treat to have it handled by an author with such a passion for history. Obviously Evan and his group are fiction but many of the main events and where they occurred are real. It’s absolutely fascinating and I’m not really doing it justice with this description.
The plot begins a little slow but that’s quickly remedied as Evan is contacted by Zeus and is forced to become Evandros, the version of himself that was raised solely in the past instead of just being born in it. I suppose some people will find Evan’s period on the Phoenician ship a little boring but I really enjoyed his adjustment period as he learned more about the world he was suddenly dropped into. It helps that Evan’s point of view is interspersed with scenes with the gods, who are more than a little worried about their fate as well as scenes with the rest of his crew, who are understandably wondering where the Evandros they knew and loved has gone and whether or not he’s even alive. By the time I got to the end of the book I was on the edge of my seat, anxious to see what would happen next. The ending was a cliffhanger but it was a good place to stop and it was a fairly satisfying end. It made me want more but I had fewer questions than when I started out.
Luciana Cavallaro really has a gift for making you care about her characters and their fates even if you don’t necessarily think they’re sympathetic or likeable. That much was obvious from her short stories but she really transitioned into a longer work really well. The beautiful descriptions that were the hallmark of her short stories for me are expanded and add so much more to the richness of the world she brought to life. So if you loved Cavallaro’s short stories, you will also love Search for the Golden Serpent. And if you’re never ready anything by her, you need to pick up one of her short stories and/or pre-order a copy of her debut novel. You certainly won’t regret it.
I give this book 5/5 stars.