Tagged: historical fiction
The Journey by John Heldt
(Cover picture courtesy of Literary Inklings.)
Seattle, 2010. When her entrepreneur husband dies in an accident, Michelle Preston Richardson, 48, finds herself childless and directionless. She yearns for the simpler days of her youth, before she followed her high school sweetheart down a road that led to limitless riches but little fulfillment, and jumps at a chance to reconnect with her past at a class reunion. But when Michelle returns to Unionville, Oregon, and joins three classmates on a spur-of-the-moment tour of an abandoned mansion, she gets more than she asked for. She enters a mysterious room and is thrown back to 1979.
Distraught and destitute, Michelle finds a job as a secretary at Unionville High, where she guides her spirited younger self, Shelly Preston, and childhood friends through their tumultuous senior year. Along the way, she meets widowed teacher Robert Land and finds the love and happiness she had always sought. But that happiness is threatened when history intervenes and Michelle must act quickly to save those she loves from deadly fates. Filled with humor and heartbreak, THE JOURNEY gives new meaning to friendship, courage, and commitment as it follows an unfulfilled soul through her second shot at life.
[Full disclosure: John Heldt sent me a free ebook of The Journey in return for an honest review.]
First, let me say how dare he! How dare John Heldt make me cry again!
Okay, that was a little bit melodramatic. Yes, The Journey made me cry just like the first book in his Northwest Passage trilogy, The Mine. I won’t tell you whether they were tears of happiness or sadness, but let me just say that it’s a very good sign when I’m so emotionally involved in a book that I show emotion reading it. The best part about The Journey? If you want to cry as well, you don’t have to read The Mine for it to make sense because the two stories are only connected by their time travel premises (so far).
In the beginning when Michelle travelled back in time to 1979 in the town where her younger self is a teenager, I kept thinking John Heldt had gotten himself into a mess. Would Michelle reach out to her younger self and try to change the past? What about the grandfather paradox? (If I kill grandpa before he has my father/mother, will I cease to exist? It’s the same principle with any manipulation of the past.) But the ending, oh the ending! John Heldt wrapped everything up brilliantly in a way that makes you both sad and hopeful.
Michelle as a character takes some warming up to, but you’ll absolutely love her by the end of the novel. As for Shelly Preston, Michelle’s younger self, you’ll love her immediately. The Journey is told from both of their points of view, which I absolutely love because you get to see the effect on has on the other and vice versa. I can’t tell you much about their relationship otherwise it would spoil things, but they make each other better people.
With a fast plot that made me hog the computer for nearly two hours, amazing characters and a tear-jerker ending, you can’t go wrong with The Journey. And at 99 cents at the Kindle Store, it’s a complete steal. It’s worth twenty times that, trust me.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
A Legend Should Never Be Dimmed
This post was brought on by two things, as usual: my father and a book. Since who says I can’t be logical sometimes, I’ll start with the former.
Now, my father is a big opera fan; he’s always appreciated opera, a trait he inherited from his mother. Moreover, he’s a huge Luciano Pavarotti fan and almost shows emotion when he speaks of his death. He’s not someone who you would call starstruck, but he greatly admired the legend that was Luciano Pavarotti. Understandably, he was quite outraged when it came out that Pavarotti’s last performance at the Torino Olympic ceremony in 2006 was lip-synched. At the time, he said something that still haunts me:
“That should never have come out. A legend should never be dimmed.” Continue reading
My Favourite Books of 2012
Yes, 2012 is nearly over, which means it’s time to round up my favourite books for the year. I could have called this the best books of 2012, but that would be unfair because what I like is not necessarily what other people like. Therefore, I will be counting down my favourite books, completely ignoring reading level. A good book is a good book in my eyes, whether it was written for tweens, teenagers or adults. However, for convenience I will be classifying them by genre. So what were my favourite books this year? Read on!
Historical Fiction: The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough.
I’ve read a lot of historical fiction this year, but The Song of Troy was my absolute favourite. It had all the grandeur of the original myth, but the characters were brought to life in a way I had never seen before. They had realistic motivations and we got to see the points of view of pretty much all of the main players, which was a real treat. There was no magic, no gods, only a plausible historical scenario in Colleen McCullough’s masterpiece, which makes it even more impressive. I can’t praise it enough. Continue reading
Look What Just Arrived! (#4)
I went shopping last Saturday and not only discovered that the bookstore owner knows my first name, but also seems to know my reading tastes. This would be normal if it was in my small town, but the bookstore I shop at is in a city an hour away. Okay, obviously I buy a lot of books. So what did I buy this time? (For those of you concerned about my spending, don’t worry. These were all in the ‘Almost New’ section.)
- Kushiel’s Chosen by Jacqueline Carey
- Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey
- Kushiel’s Scion by Jacqueline Carey
- The Mummy or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice
- The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
- The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
- The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
Yes, I’m sticking with the Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey. I love her writing style and her world-building. I am also very curious as to where the series will go right now. The Mummy is one I’ve had my sights on for years, but alas, it is mostly out of print. When I saw it in the used section I nearly caused an avalanche (the books are stacked up on the shelves so there’s more room) to get it. The last three books about the Tudors are evidence of the bookstore owner’s knowledge of my reading tastes. Of course Philippa Gregory is excellent, but after Lisa Jennings reviewed Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir, I discovered a new take on the Tudors.
So what are you reading this weekend?
Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
(Cover picture courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.)
While predominantly known on both sides of the Atlantic for her outstanding works of historical non-fiction, Alison Weir has, over the last few years begun to develop a very nice little niche in fiction novels too.
Like her non-fiction works, they cover many different periods in history, starting right back in the 1100s with her novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine, “The Captive Queen” and moving through to the Tudor period. It’s in this particular era she really does excel, and her novel “Innocent Traitor” which was published in 2007 is possibly her finest work.
A very true story
The main thrust of the story centres on the life of Lady Jane Grey, England’s “Nine Day Queen”, and the tragic outcome of her life. In essence, hers was a short, brutal stay in a world which did not favour women, and that was so rich in machinations and scheming it’s a wonder anyone survived with their head still attached to their shoulders at all.
Weir creates a very sympathetic portrait of the young Jane. From the outset, the reader is fully engaged with her and the life she is born into. It’s a very vivid picture of life in Tudor court, you can very often almost feel and smell the places she describes, hear the rustling of fabric and the clatter of heeled shoes on wooden floors.
The story is told from a number of different perspectives. From that of Jane herself, the people in her household and the people who had the closest connections to the Tudor Royal line.
Jane was a mostly just a helpless pawn in the game of her parents, who seemed hell bent on advancing themselves without a care for their daughter or her happiness. Her mother, Frances Brandon, is painted here in such a strongly disagreeable light by Weir that you really start to feel such hatred for her as you read further into the novel.
In some ways, perhaps, it is a rather one dimensional characterisation which is possibly the only criticism you could level at the novel as a whole. However, as you read further into the story you realise just how she had become so hardened and brutal and it isn’t pretty reading.
Jane herself was a very pious creature; she refused to dress in flashy, bright colours and always favoured more severe and unflattering clothes as if to enhance further her religious character and inherent bent towards the spiritual. Her mother seems to be forever chiding her into wearing the fashions of the time, but Jane consistently refuses and it becomes yet another bone of contention between mother and daughter.
Brutal storytelling
Weir has managed her to create a story that is both heart-wrenching and brutal. The novel opens as Jane sees herself installed in The Tower of London awaiting her fate and the reader knows from the outset that whatever is going to happen to Jane, it isn’t good.
It would be nigh on impossible to make it through to the end of the book without having cried at least once. Jane is frequently beaten and manhandled and very often on the receiving end of her parent’s vile tongues and harsh words as they scheme and plan to make their way to the top.
In modern terms her mother and father would have been top class business partners, plotting how best to get the most money from every deal they make and cannily using their wiles to compare business insurance so they never lose a penny and make the most from their wheeling and dealing. They’re the sort of people who would step on everyone on the way to the top and then expect help when they fell back down again! It is so hard not to feel sympathy towards Jane. The latter stages of the book, in which she is forced into a marriage with Lord Guildford Dudley, again for the advancement of the family, and the ultimate outcome of both the wedding and the fate that befalls her in the final chapters, are moving in the extreme.
At the heart of it all is a teenage girl who is totally helpless and has no way of escaping. Although it is a story that is centuries old, some of the themes will still resonate with teenagers today.
Who is this book aimed at?
This novel would appeal to anyone with a strong longing to know more about the Tudor period but who simply doesn’t want a long-winded, fusty non fiction tome to read. It’s the sort of story that would draw in anyone, right from young adult through to the more mature reader. Weir’s writing style is very easy to read, she doesn’t over complicate or use flowery language, she just tells the story simply and truthfully.
The fact the story centres on a young teenage girl might make it perhaps slightly less appealing to male readers, but not exclusively so, as Weir’s writing, both fiction and non-fiction does tend to have a loyal following from both genders.
This book is rated very highly: 4/5.
Lisa Jennings is a freelance writer from England who mainly writes art and literature reviews for a number of online journals, as well as dryer topics such as how to effectively compare business insurance and other areas of finance. She spent most of her twenties travelling across Asia on bumpy buses or sat atop mountains alone with her tent and just a book for company.