Tagged: masq1
The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Young Josephine Bonaparte shines at the center of a new, sweeping, romantic work of historical fiction by Sandra Gulland: detailed and exhaustively researched, compelling and powerful, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. is the first in a trilogy of fictional novels tracing the actual rise of a young European noblewoman who would one day stand next to Napoleon. From the heartbreak of lost loves to the horror of revolution to the hope of new days, it’s an intimate epic any romance lover will love.
Like many people, I never really thought much about Josephine, the immoral wife of Napoleon Bonaparte—at least until I read Sandra Gulland’s take on her. Learning her story from her extremely humble beginnings, to her unhappy marriage to Alexandre Beauharnais and the fact that she just barely survived Robespierre’s Reign of Terror made me really connect with her. She was in business when it was unseemly for women to do so. She divorced her husband—a true rarity of the time! And she also played a huge role in the politics of the time, again despite being a woman. Reading about her early years up to her marriage to Bonaparte really gives you the feeling she was judged harshly by history like many strong women.
I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re in for fast-paced historical fiction, but for those of us that like slowly building tension and intricately plotted narratives combined with vivid imagery it’s a dream come true. It’s told in diary form from Josephine’s perspective, but it never gets annoying like other books told in the same format. From that perspective, we get to see her innermost thoughts as she struggles to deal with life in Paris, far away from her homeland of Martinico. In a loveless marriage with two children she has to look out for we really get to see so many different aspects of her character. We see her savvy political side, her motherly instinct to protect her children and her iron lady side as she insists on doing what’s best for her children and those she loves.
French history isn’t exactly my strong point, especially around the time of the French Revolution, but with a bibliography and a note at the end on historical accuracy, you get the feeling that Sandra Gulland has done her research. As with Mistress of the Sun, even if everything isn’t 100% accurate the main events are and the minor details feel accurate. This is important in historical fiction and I honestly felt like I was transported back in time to Josephine’s terrifying, exciting, constantly changing world. Josephine is most definitely a memorable character and is now one of my favourite historical figures.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Cleopatra’s Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter
(Cover picture courtesy of The Book Girl Recommends.)
Princess of Egypt
Cleopatra Selene is the only daughter of the brilliant Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and General Marcus Antonius of Rome. She’s grown up with jewels on her arms and servants at her feet, and she longs to follow her mother in becoming a great and powerful queen.
Prisoner of Rome
Then the Roman ruler, Octavianus, launches a war that destroys all Selene has ever known. Taken to live in his palace in Rome, she vows to defeat him and reclaim her kingdom at all costs. Yet Selene soon finds herself torn between two young men and two paths to power. Will love distract her from her goal—or help her achieve her true destiny?
Epic in scope and ravishing in detail, this novel reveals the remarkable true story of a girl long hidden in history: the extraordinary Cleopatra Selene.
I know you won’t believe it, but I found something in this book that is generally an oxymoron: a believable love triangle. Yes, I found the rarest kind of YA book out there! It’s believable and it resolves itself in the end where the main character makes a powerful decision rather than angsting over who she should choose.
After reading Michelle Moran’s Cleopatra’s Daughter, I thought that Cleopatra’s Moon wouldn’t be much different. But I am so glad I decided to buy Vicky Alvear Shecter’s book! It had a completely different perspective from Moran’s and the sort of antagonist of the novel came completely out of nowhere. Hint: it’s definitely not who you think it is but it makes sense when you look back in the story. Cleopatra Selene comes off as a strong character who comes by her feminism honestly in a world dominated by men, rather than being your stereotypical girl with 21st century perspectives in historical fiction. You can really feel her anguish at her mother’s and father’s deaths as well as the growing distance between herself and her twin, Alexander Helios.
Not only that, the men in her life are quite believable as well. Juba comes off as aloof and thoroughly Romanized in the beginning, but we start to see his strength of character later on. Of course Marcellus is incredibly charming but intelligent as well and a potential path to power for Selene. I like how Selene doesn’t just stand by as boys drool over her; she actively pursues them once she realizes their feelings and tries to reconcile her own. She also has incredible determination when it comes to reclaiming her birthright and that makes her both believable as a daughter of Cleopatra and a character everyone will cheer for.
As for the historical accuracy, I can’t nitpick. Some of the mystery surrounding events at the time allows for a little creative license and Vicky Alvear Shecter doesn’t take it over the top. She fills in gaps with plausible explanations and where there are historical records, sticks to them very well. Her portrayals of historical figures are realistic and you kind of get the feeling that hey, this is what they could have really been like. That, my friends, is great writing combined with great research. What more can you ask for in historical fiction, really?
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Kushiel’s Scion by Jacqueline Carey
(Cover picture courtesy of Wikipedia.)
Imriel de la Courcel’s birth parents are history’s most reviled traitors, but his adoptive parents, the Comtesse Phedre and the warrior-priest Joscelin, are Terre d’Ange’s greatest champions.
Stolen, tortured and enslaved as a young boy, Imriel is now a Prince of the Blood; third in line for the throne in a land that revels in art, beauty and desire. It is a court steeped in deeply laid conspiracies—and there are many who would see the young prince dead. Some despise him out of hatred for his mother, Melisande, who nearly destroyed the entire realm in her quest for power. Others because they fear he has inherited his mother’s irresistible allure—and her dangerous gifts.
As he comes of age, plagued by unwanted desires, Imriel shares their fears. When a simple act of friendship traps Imriel in a besieged city where the infamous Melisande is worshiped as a goddess and where a dead man leads an army, the Prince must face his greatest test: to find his true self.
I was skeptical about the spin-off Imriel Trilogy after the Kushiel’s Legacy trilogy was so good. But what I like about hearing Imriel’s story is that it’s a coming-of-age story in which the protagonist truly struggles with a terrible past in order to find out who he is. He has very real trust issues, he’s scared of his mother’s reputation following him everywhere and most of all, he still has the emotional scars he gained in Darsanga.
You can’t help but cheer for Imriel the whole way as he tries to overcome his past and discover what his future will be like. From his escapades in Tiberium to his burgeoning love life back home, he’s quite a likeable character. Imriel really does go on a physical, but also spiritual and emotional journey to find healing and make peace with his past. He does both great and not-so-great things along the way, but in the end he comes out as a better person. Yet still, because of his past, he has trouble reconciling the fact that he is of Kushiel’s line just as his mother is. But with friends like Eammon and Lucius, you have the feeling that he’s in good hands.
The complicated politics of Jacqueline Carey’s world are still at play here, which includes the fallout of Melisande’s treachery. There’s also the movement in Tiberium to return to a republic rather than having a princeps who is more of an emperor than anything. Not only that, part of the fallout of Melisande’s treachery is that although Imriel is third in line, there are those that would quite willingly murder Ysandre’s daughters to help him gain the throne. It makes me happy that Jacqueline Carey’s books are not just shamelessly sex-filled, but that she actually developed a world and populates it with three dimensional characters that have realistic motivations. Not many authors can do that, believe me.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough
(Cover picture courtesy of Avon Romance.)
When the world cowered before the legions of Rome, two extraordinary men dreamed of personal glory: the military genius and wealthy rural “upstart” Marius, and Sulla, penniless and debauched but of aristocratic birth. Men of exceptional vision, courage, cunning, and ruthless ambition, separately they faced the insurmountable opposition of powerful, vindictive foes. Yet allied they could answer the treachery of rivals, lovers, enemy generals, and senatorial vipers with intricate and merciless machinations of their own—to achieve in the end a bloody and splendid foretold destiny…and win the most coveted honor the Republic could bestow.
After reading so many Young Adult books of late, reading something as heavy as The First Man in Rome was a refreshing challenge. Trust me, even if you know your Roman history well, this is a book that you should not read when you’re tired. You will forget all of the plot points.
I first fell in love with Colleen McCullough’s writing after reading The Song of Troy because her portrayals of historical characters were amazing. She made it feel that not only was I alongside these famous people, but that I truly understood them. Well, she does the exact same thing in The First Man in Rome. From Marius’ brilliant leadership in the battlefield to his dismal political career, I really feel like I know the legend as a man. We see the soft side of him when it comes to Julia, his more ruthless streak at the end of the novel and his never-ending ambition to become the First Man in Republican Rome. He’s a larger-than-life character and yet he seems extremely accessible. Contrast that to the brilliant, but debauched young patrician Sulla who develops the ruthless streak he was known for later in life. These two have an unlikely friendship, but it’s one that I absolutely love because it shows that not everything is in black and white.
If you don’t know much about Roman history, I can see where you would get confused by The First Man in Rome. Thankfully, Colleen McCullough includes a well over 200 page index that tells you everything from the English translations of Latin curses (very creative!) to the history behind many of the events characters refer to. But if you’re like me and have someone like Mike Duncan to thank for your knowledge of ancient Rome, you’ll just breeze through The First Man in Rome. In terms of historical accuracy, I can’t pick away at it. Everything is well researched and McCullough does an excellent job of defending her hypotheses in places where there are gaps in the historical record.
I wouldn’t call this a fast-paced book, but it’s not meant to be either. It’s meant to be a sprawling novel in order to draw you in to the cutthroat world of Roman politics and to explore the lives of the main players. The strange thing about Colleen McCullough’s books is that they have this sort of grand, epic feel to them that I can’t quite explain. It’s like you know they’re on par with classic novels, but there’s no sense that McCullough was trying really hard for that ‘classic novel’ status. Her books feel like epic novels in an effortless sort of way and that’s really part of the attraction of her writing: it’s larger-than-life, yet accessible to most readers. That’s why, despite the intimidating length and amount of time I need to spend on them, I’ll certainly be continuing her Masters of Rome series.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Underworld by Meg Cabot
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.
Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera isn’t dead.
Not this time.
But she is being held against her will in the dim, twilit world between heaven and hell, where the spirits of the deceased wait before embarking upon their final journey.
Her captor, John Hayden, claims it’s for her own safety. Because not all the departed are dear. Some are so unhappy with where they ended up after leaving the Underworld, they’ve come back as Furies, intent on vengeance…on the one who sent them there and on the one whom he loves.
But while Pierce might be safe from the Furies in the Underworld, far worse dangers could be lurking for her there…and they might have more to do with its ruler than with his enemies.
And unless Pierce is careful, this time there’ll be no escape.
It’s not often that I don’t understand the plot of a book, especially a contemporary Young Adult novel. So I tried to figure things out with my friend and we had a conversation that went like this (SPOILERS!):
Me: So she hates John, then loves him at the end of the first book then goes back to hating him in the second book?
Friend: Yep.
Me: Then in the second book she hates him in the beginning, then loves him again, hates him again and then has sex with him and decides she loves him and wants to spend the rest of her life with him?
Friend: Sounds about right.
Me: Meanwhile, Mr. Smith told Pierce that she and John were meant for each other in the first book then discourages their relationship in the second book? And what was with nobody having a problem with Pierce coming back from being ‘kidnapped’ two days later and showing up at Coffin Fest?
Friend: *facepalm*
Between the two of us we probably read around 300 books per year. And yet no book has stumped us as much as Underworld. What the heck was Meg Cabot thinking? Her Airhead trilogy was amazing and had both strong male and female characters with a plot that took a lot of twists and turns but made sense. Her Abandon Trilogy feels sexist because Pierce can never figure anything out on her own and the characters are so inconsistent that it almost feels like a YA parody.
I hate Pierce. I really, truly loathe this idiotic main character. She’s supposed to be so kind, caring and delicate but she really just comes off as a Mary Sue who can’t do anything for herself. Pierce is so bad that I keep getting this strange feeling Meg Cabot wrote a satire piece without telling anyone. How could such a strongly feminist author create a character like this? Pierce always needs John to rescue her and she always flips between hating him and loving him. Something that always puzzled me was how she fell for John in the first place. He’s your stereotypical tortured bad boy who is supposedly ‘kind’ underneath but is really still a jerk that treats the heroine like garbage. In his case, it meant kidnapping Pierce, mentally abusing her, not telling her anything at all about himself or the Underworld and holding her against her will. Sounds pretty jerk-like to me.
I won’t even touch the fact that these two have all the chemistry and charm of a brick wall. That would provoke a rant all on its own.
I had read Underworld in hope that it would be better than Abandon because all of the backstory was out of the way. But no, it’s actually worse. Not all the backstory is out of the way and we finally learn something about John, after Meg Cabot hinting at it for 200 pages then revealing it to Pierce out of nowhere through luck (read: author intervention). There’s also the issue of all of the minor characters in the story. Their actions are meant to help drive the plot forward, but their actions don’t make any sense. Pierce shows up after being missing for two days and not only is Uncle Chris completely okay with it, everyone who sees her at Coffin Fest is too. Is nobody wondering where a seventeen-year-old girl went to for two days on a tiny island community? I live in a rural community; everyone would be so nosy that she wouldn’t get to breathe, let alone wander around before the cops were called.
Terrible, just terrible. That sums up the entire book. I don’t think I’ll be reading any Meg Cabot books for a long time now. Underworld just completely put me off my appetite for any more of her writing.
I give this book 0.5/5 stars.