Jack Lark: Rogue by Paul Fraser Collard

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Obtained from: Personal Kindle Library

Read: May 11, 2016

As pot boy at his mother's infamous London gin palace, Jack Lark is no stranger to trouble. Between dog fights and street scuffles, if he's not being set upon, he's starting a brawl himself. But when an unlikely ally draws him from the dark alleys of the East End into the bright lights of a masked ball, he gets a glimpse of another life. That life, once seen, is impossible to forget. Jack will do anything to outwit, outsmart and escape the cruelty in his own home. He is determined to get out, but what price will he be forced to pay for his freedom?

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Paul Fraser Collard’s Jack Lark series has interested me for a while. My father gifted me a copy of book one last year, but in looking at the series as a whole, I decided it best to tackle the prequel novellas before the full length narrative which meant jumping in at Jack Lark: Rogue.

I inhaled this piece, but that fact has as much to do with its modest size as it does Collard’s ill-mannered protagonist. Life in Whitechapel hasn’t been easy for Jack Lark and the realities of daily life in the notorious district have gifted him the survival instincts of a country cat. He’s rough around the edges, but I found his pragmatism and pride endearing.

I was also struck by the complex relationship he shares with his mother. It’s obvious she cares about her son, but she is as much a product of Whitechapel as he is. She is used to hard living and despite her harsh treatment, I have to wonder if her decisions are motivated by selfish desire, selfless sacrifice, or a mixture of both.

Brief though it was, I enjoyed the time I spent with Jack Lark: Rogue and can’t wait to see what the next novella, Jack Lark: Recruit, has in store. 

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He closed his eyes and made up his mind. He knew what he had said. He might not have a brass farthing to his name, but he did have his word.

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Cover Clichés: White Hat Reflections

Sometimes, while browsing the virtual shelves on Amazon and Goodreads, I see an image that gives me an oddly disconcerting sense of deja vu. I could swear I've never read the book, but I know I've seen the jacket image somewhere before.

This phenomenon is what inspired Cover Clichés. Images are often recycled because cover artists are often forced to work from a limited pool of stock images and copyright free material. That said, I find comparing their finished designs quite interesting.  

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January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb.

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding longs to find out about her mother's past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more.

Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip... 

Sweeping epic of adventure and enduring love, from the revolutionary upheaval in Russia to the chaos of post-War Berlin.

Misha is an aristocratic young officer in the army when the Russian revolution sweeps away all his certainties. Tonya is a nurse from an impoverished family in St Petersburg. They should have been bitter enemies; and yet they fall passionately in love. It cannot last, and Misha must flee the country as Tonya faces arrest and possibly death.

Thirty years later, Misha has survived the War and seeks to rebuild his life in the destroyed city of Berlin. Drawn into spying for the British, he learns of a talented female agent from the Soviet quarter. Can it be his lost love? And how will they find each other, as the divide deepens between East and West?

Intensely dramatic, epic in scope, this is a glorious novel of courage, action and ultimately undying hope.

Decades ago, as Nazi planes dominated the British sky, eighteen-year-old Lily Verner made a terrible mistake. She’s tried for decades to forget, but now an unexpected event pulls her back to the 1940s British countryside. She finds herself remembering the brilliant, lustrous colors of the silk she helped to weave at her family’s mill, the relentless pressure of the worsening war, and the kind of heartbreaking loss that stops time.

In this evocative novel of love and consequences, Lily finally confronts the disastrous decision that has haunted her all these years.

Hollywood 1942. When attorney Audra Schaeffer's sister disappears, Audra flies to Hollywood to find her but instead must identify her body. Determined to bring the killer to justice, Audra takes a job with the second Hollywood Victory Caravan. Together with Robert Garfield and other stars, she crisscrosses the southern United States in a campaign to sell war bonds. When two other women are found dead on the train, Audra knows the deaths are tied to that of her sister. Could the killer be the man with whom she's falling in love?

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Which cover strikes your fancy and why? What colors draw your eye? Do you think the image appropriate next to the jacket description? Leave your comments below!

Have you seen this image elsewhere? Shoot me an email or leave a comment and let me know. 

Kick: The True Story of JFK's Sister and the Heir to Chatsworth by Paula Byrne

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Obtained from: Edelweiss

Read: April 22, 2016

Filled with a wealth of revealing new material and insight, the biography of the vivacious, unconventional—and nearly forgotten—young Kennedy sister who charmed American society and the English aristocracy, and would break with her family for love. Encouraged to be “winners” from a young age, Rose and Joe Kennedy’s children were the embodiment of ambitious, wholesome Americanism. Yet even within this ebullient group of overachievers, the fourth Kennedy child, the irrepressible Kathleen, stood out. Lively, charismatic, extremely clever, and blessed with graceful athleticism and a sunny disposition, the alluring socialite fondly known as Kick was a firecracker who effortlessly made friends and stole hearts. Moving across the Atlantic when her father was appointed as the ambassador to Great Britain in 1938, Kick—the “nicest Kennedy”—quickly became the family’s star. Despite making little effort to fit into British high society, she charmed everyone from the beau monde to Fleet Street with her unconventional attitude and easygoing humor. Growing increasingly independent, Kick would also shock and alienate her devout family by falling in love and marrying the scion of a virulently anti-Catholic family— William Cavendish, the heir apparent of the Duke of Devonshire and Chatsworth. But the marriage would last only a few months; Billy was killed in combat in 1944, just four years before Kick’s own unexpected death in an airplane crash at twenty-eight. Paula Byrne recounts this remarkable young woman’s life in detail as never before, from her work at the Washington Times-Herald and volunteerism for the Red Cross in wartime England; to her love of politics and astute, opinionated observations; to her decision to renounce her faith for the man she loved. Sympathetic and compelling, Kick shines a spotlight on this feisty and unique Kennedy long relegated to the shadows of her legendary family’s history.

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Kathleen Kennedy at her wedding to the
Marquess of Hartington, 1944

I've been to Dealey Plaza and toured The Sixth Floor Museum, but my most interesting experience with Kennedy family history took place in a quiet English cemetery. I was visiting my cousins and we'd pulled over to discuss where to go after walking the grounds at Chatsworth. My sister and I weren't part of the conversation, so while the powers that be worked out a game plan, we opted to take a closer look at a nearby church. As we approached the building, we noted a small sign addressed to American visitors and naturally felt obligated to play our part. We followed the directions to a weather beaten headstone and commemorative plaque. Someone had left a blue bouquet of flowers above the memorial marker honoring President John F. Kennedy's visit, but the grave is what caught my eye and I spent the next evening looking up everything I could find on Kathleen.

Unfortunately for me, there weren't many options. Kathleen Kennedy: Her Life and Times by Lynne McTaggart was the only biography I could find, but reviews indicated Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty by Catherine Bailey had some good information as well. A fictional piece, That Kennedy Girl by Robert DeMaria also existed, but not one of these titles satisfied my curiosity regarding Kick's romance with William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington. I wanted more insight, but the opportunity didn't arise until 2016 when I landed an ARC of Paula Byrne's Kick: The True Story of JFK's Sister and the Heir to Chatsworth.

Looking back on the book, I can't say that much of the material was new to me, but it was detailed and easy to follow. Structurally I was somewhat confused and more than a little miffed, but that is what it is. The title indicated the book would be about Kick and her relationship with William, but he doesn't make an appearance until page 82. The first third of the book struck me as stock material one could find in any Kennedy family biography as it was dedicated entirely to Kick’s parents and her life before Billy. This begged the question, was Byrne writing about Kick and Billy as the title suggested or is this really Kick's story with footnotes on her famous family as indicated by the cover image which inexplicably features Kick and Jack.

I resigned myself to the latter, but even that didn't pan out. Kick's childhood and youth were dragged out over several chapters, but Byrne pulled a 180 and lumped the last four years of her life into a paltry fifteen pages. The only rationale for this is that Byrne didn't want to feature Kick's subsequent relationship with Peter Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 8th Earl Fitzwilliam too highly in a book that was supposed to be about her romance with Billy, but that line of thought brought me straight back to my original quandary. Was Byrne writing about Kick and Billy or was she writing about Kick? If the latter, why offer a byline about Chatsworth's heir in the title and why omit intricate detailing of her life after his death?

At the end of the day, Kick: The True Story of JFK's Sister and the Heir to Chatsworth is not a bad biography, but its structure wasn't flawless. I'm not sure how it compares to Kick Kennedy: The Charmed Life and Tragic Death of the Favorite Kennedy Daughter by Barbara Leaming which also released in 2016, but it does offer a significant amount of insight to Kick's life in England and I would definitely recommend it to Kennedy enthusiasts.

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Kick wrote to the Dowager Duchess, Billy’s grandmother, telling her that it was her duty to be strong and brave, and that if men like Billy found ‘the courage to die so one must have the courage to live’.

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The Dark Lady's Mask by Mary Sharratt

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Obtained from: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours/Netgalley

Read: March 1, 2016

Shakespeare in Love meets Shakespeare’s Sister in this novel of England’s first professional woman poet and her collaboration and love affair with William Shakespeare. London, 1593. Aemilia Bassano Lanier is beautiful and accomplished, but her societal conformity ends there. She frequently cross-dresses to escape her loveless marriage and to gain freedoms only men enjoy, but a chance encounter with a ragged, little-known poet named Shakespeare changes everything. Aemilia grabs at the chance to pursue her long-held dream of writing and the two outsiders strike up a literary bargain. They leave plague-ridden London for Italy, where they begin secretly writing comedies together and where Will falls in love with the beautiful country — and with Aemilia, his Dark Lady. Their Italian idyll, though, cannot last and their collaborative affair comes to a devastating end. Will gains fame and fortune for their plays back in London and years later publishes the sonnets mocking his former muse. Not one to stand by in humiliation, Aemilia takes up her own pen in her defense and in defense of all women. The Dark Lady’s Mask gives voice to a real Renaissance woman in every sense of the word.

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William Shakespeare

I wish I could say Mary Sharratt’s The Dark Lady's Mask was the first fictional adaptation of Aemilia Bassano Lanier’s life that I’d encountered, but that honor goes to Dark Aemilia: A Novel of Shakespeare's Dark Lady by Sally O'Reilly. My experience with the latter wasn’t ideal as I’ve issues with gratuitous vulgarity, but the source material left a certain impression and inspired a natural curiosity regarding the woman who inspired it which is what led me to Sharratt’s latest release.

First and foremost, I have to admit that I found Sharratt’s adaptation of the rumors and theories surrounding Aemilia beautifully developed. In context, the ideas made perfect sense, but in looking at more abstract notions, I was tickled by the idea of a writer writing about the power of literature and its impact on their audience.

Another thing I liked about this book was the emphasis Sharratt placed on Aemilia as an individual. All things considered, it would have been very easy for our heroine to be eclipsed by her lover and their supposed relationship, but Sharratt’s emphatic dedication to portraying Aemilia’s own merit - her education and individuality - struck a real chord with me.

Following that train of thought, I reveled in the thematic ideas at the heart of the novel. There are a lot of lighthearted moments and good humored narration throughout the text, but Aemilia's resilience fascinated me. Her trials and heartbreak where one thing, but I felt her journey to overcome those challenges inspiring.

Lyrically poetic in its own right, I’d found The Dark Lady's Mask genuine and authentic. Highly Recommended.

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She looked at the astrologer wonderingly and struggled not to laugh. Was there truly a soul left in London who didn’t know her history?

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Interview with Steven Greenberg, author of Galerie

Author interviews are one of my favorite things to post which is why I am super excited to welcome author Steven Greenberg to Flashlight Commentary to discuss his novel, Galerie.

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Welcome to Flashlight Commentary Steven. To start things off, please tell us a bit about Galerie. 
Galerie is the story of a young woman’s quest for clarity, when her entire life has—to some extent—been lived in a fog. It’s a search for understanding in extraordinary circumstances. The protagonist is a young Israeli, born to Holocaust survivors. Not daring to question her parent’s wartime experiences while they’re alive, after they’ve both passed away she receives her father’s diary, which opens a literal Pandora’s box of discoveries. Along the way, she learns not only who her parents were, but who she is. I’ll leave the rest to my carefully-crafted book blurb:

After Vanesa Neuman’s father dies, the closed book of what he and her grandfather were doing during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia falls literally open. From Tel Aviv to the backstreets of Prague, Vanesa’s relentless quest to unravel the mystery of her father’s wartime diary reveals a seventy-year-old secret darker than she could have imagined.

Your novel touches on some very powerful subject matter. Why did you want highlight the Holocaust and why do you feel the story is important for modern audiences?
I get the feeling that people are rather sick of hearing about the Holocaust. Certainly my perspective is shaped by my background (Jewish) and home (Israel); but as a student of history, I think it is fair to say that the Holocaust was the single worst crime against humanity in recorded history. So I don’t think it can ever be over-discussed or over-examined. The Holocaust remains highly relevant to any modern audience committed to preventing evil by learning from the past.

Galerie, however, is less about the Holocaust itself than it is about how evil resonates throughout history. The Holocaust is the backdrop for what Vanesa discovers, of course. But what interested me was how the book’s events—which happened before she was born—continue to affect her throughout her life. It’s as if exposure to pure evil leaves a genetic scar (there are studies that suggest this is true, by the way). I wanted to rip away this scab and see what was underneath.

At the beginning of the novel, Vanesa has no real knowledge of her family history and is forced to piece things together after the fact. Do you think many descendants struggled with the same kind of uncertainties?
Unquestionably. And most never learned the truth. I say this with some certainty partially because I lived with it for many years. My first wife was the daughter of survivors, and to the best of my knowledge never learned the actual specifics of what her parents went through during the war. 

Beyond my personal experience, while researching Galerie I read a lot on this subject in books like Helen Epstein’s excellent Children of the Holocaust, and Amir Gutfreund’s Our Holocaust, to name just two. Not talking about wartime experiences was pretty much the rule among survivors.

This is exactly what intrigued me. As a parent, I’ve learned that kids can sense trouble and tension. In creating Galerie, I was eager to explore how the knowledge of a horrific past, coupled with the inability to ever clarify that past, affected a whole generation of children.

Vanesa's journey sets many obstacles in her path, but I found her emotional odyssey particularly fascinating. How did you, as an author, strike balance in your narrative and why was it so important for you to do so?
This is a great question.

In any character-driven fiction, the emotional journey is the crux of the story—the events are “just” the wrapping. That said, I’m personally often bored by literary fiction whose authors forget that they’re supposed to entertain me (the reader) with a good story, and not just muse on the ills of humanity.

I tried to make Galerie’s events as compelling as possible, so as to more effectively deliver the “real story”—Vanesa’s emotional journey. I did the same thing with my upcoming novel Enfold Me, and am attempting to do so in the new book I’m working on now. When writing, I constantly ask myself “Is this interesting to the reader? Does this compel them? Does this further the story?” My editor, of course, also played a huge role in cutting out the blah-blah and keeping the book on track. 

What do you hope your readers take from their experience of your work?
On a historical level, I’d like to foster an understanding of why people with a personal connection to the Holocaust are still occupied with it. I’d like people to understand that it remains personally relevant because it is still a living and breathing part of us.

On a personal level, I’d hope that Vanesa’s story reminds readers that everyone is shaped by their parents’ past. Some more dramatically, some less—but each of us is very much a product of what our parents experienced. The better we understand those experiences, the better we understand ourselves.

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PRAISE FOR GALERIE

"...a story that will mesmerize readers from page one." ~ Singing Librarian Books

"...brings the psychological and cultural legacy of the holocaust up to date..." ~ Escapology Reviews

"Buy this book and say goodbye to your family for the weekend, because you will not want to put it down..." ~ Eric W. Swett

"Imagine Stephen King wrote Schindler's List..." ~ Nikki

"...so provocative that it is impossible to put down." ~ Sydology

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I am a professional writer and an Israeli. I am also a full-time cook, cleaner, chauffeur, and work-at-home Dad for three amazing young children, and the lucky husband of a loving and very supportive wife.

Born in Texas and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I emigrated to Israel only months before the first Gulf War, following my graduation from Indiana University in 1990. In 1996, I was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, where I served for 12 years as a Reserve Combat Medic. Since 2002, I’ve worked as an independent marketing writer, copywriter and consultant.

Website ❧  Facebook ❧  Twitter ❧  LinkedIn ❧  Goodreads

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Cover Clichés: The Wallflower

Sometimes, while browsing the virtual shelves on Amazon and Goodreads, I see an image that gives me an oddly disconcerting sense of deja vu. I could swear I've never read the book, but I know I've seen the jacket image somewhere before.

This phenomenon is what inspired Cover Clichés. Images are often recycled because cover artists are often forced to work from a limited pool of stock images and copyright free material. That said, I find comparing their finished designs quite interesting.  

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Michelle Cooper combines the drama of pre-War Europe with the romance of debutante balls and gives us another compelling historical page turner.

Sophia FitzOsborne and the royal family of Montmaray escaped their remote island home when the Germans attacked, and now find themselves in the lap of luxury. Sophie's journal fills us in on the social whirl of London's 1937 season, but even a princess in lovely new gowns finds it hard to fit in. Is there no other debutante who reads?!

And while the balls and house parties go on, newspaper headlines scream of war in Spain and threats from Germany. No one wants a second world war. Especially not the Montmaravians—with all Europe under attack, who will care about the fate of their tiny island kingdom?

Will the FitzOsbornes ever be able to go home again? Could Montmaray be lost forever?

August, 1938. Paris is a city living on its nerves and the threat of war hangs heavy as a distant thunderstorm on a summer's day.



British actress, Clara Vine, is in Paris to film her latest movie, having left Berlin under a cloud. Joseph Goebbels has become increasingly suspicious that Clara has been mingling in Berlin society and passing snippets of information to her contacts in the British Embassy. It would have been absurd, if it hadn't also been true…



With war becoming increasingly likely, Clara is approached by an undercover British operative, Guy Hamilton, who asks her to perform a task for her country: to befriend Eva Braun, Hitler's girlfriend, and to pass on any information she can gather.



Clara knows that to undertake this task is to put herself back in danger. But she also knows that soon she may have to do everything in her power to protect her country… 

Maeve Fanning is a first generation Irish immigrant, born and raised among the poor, industrious Italian families of Boston’s North End by her widowed mother. Clever, capable, and as headstrong as her red hair suggests, she’s determined to better herself despite the overwhelming hardships of the Great Depression.

However, Maeve also has a dangerous fondness for strange men and bootleg gin—a rebellious appetite that soon finds her spiraling downward, leading a double life. When the strain proves too much, Maeve becomes an unwilling patient in a psychiatric hospital, where she strikes up a friendship with an enigmatic young woman, who, like Maeve, is unable or unwilling to control her un-lady-like desire for freedom.

Once out, Maeve faces starting over again. Armed with a bottle of bleach and a few white lies, she lands a job at an eccentric antiques shop catering to Boston’s wealthiest and most peculiar collectors. Run by an elusive English archeologist, the shop is a haven of the obscure and incredible, providing rare artifacts as well as unique access to the world of America’s social elite. While delivering a purchase to the wealthy Van der Laar family, Maeve is introduced to beautiful socialite Diana Van der Laar—only to discover she’s the young woman from the hospital.

Reunited with the charming but increasingly unstable Diana and pursued by her attractive brother James, Mae becomes more and more entwined with the Van der Laar family—a connection that pulls her into a world of moral ambiguity and deceit, and ultimately betrayal. Bewitched by their wealth and desperate to leave her past behind, Maeve is forced to unearth her true values and discover how far she’ll to go to reinvent herself.

D-Day on a Normandy beach: a flip of a coin seals the destinies of two men in love and war. From one of Ireland’s finest writers, a glorious epic story of passion and fate, of cowardice and bravery, and of adultery and murder.

Chud Conduit, the wild grandson of the most successful businesswoman in Monument, and Jack Santry, gentle Anglo-Irish heir to Main, the estate on the hill, are the most unlikely of friends. United by their love for Rosa, beautiful daughter of the town bookmaker, they are bound by a terrible event that flings all three adolescents from their Garden of Eden. Chud and Jack meet again on the beaches of Normandy, where events determine the course of the rest of their lives in ways that none of them can anticipate. One wins Rosa's hand in marriage, the other her eternal affection, sealing their destinies together over six decades, tangled in a triangle of love that is stronger than social convention, beyond even law.

Consequences of the Heart is a work of powerful and sensual lyricism, effortless characterization and sparkling humor. 

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Which cover strikes your fancy and why? What colors draw your eye? Do you think the image appropriate next to the jacket description? Leave your comments below!

Have you seen this image elsewhere? Shoot me an email or leave a comment and let me know.