The Last Casualty by Andrew Leatham

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: December 29, 2016

Belgium, 1917. Wilf joined up at seventeen, wanting to do his bit. But now he is broken by the death and human agony surrounding him. The smell of the rotting corpses, the vermin gnawing on the corpses in No Mans Land, has all been too much. After a brief period of R and R, he knows he cannot return to the line, but off he is sent. When his courage falters, he’s charged with cowardice, court martialled, and shot at dawn. Lancashire England, 1995. Joanne Neally’s grandmother has died. While cleaning out her house, she finds the telegram that informed her family of the death of her great grandfather, simple and unpunctuated: Regret to inform you Private 792163 Isherwood Wilfred 3rd Batt Pennine Fusiliers died of gunshot wounds Ypres August 22 1917. Joanne is moved to tears by the telegram, but it is the diary she finds next that will change her life forever, for Wilf Isherwood detailed his experiences at Passchendaele, one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the Great War. A battle that cost the lives of half a million men, and changed the landscape of Belgium forever. Joanne, who is in an unhappy marriage, decides to clear Wilf’s name. It is obvious he was suffering from shell shock, and a pardon is in order. As she enlists help from the local legion, she discovers a man at a care home who knew her great grandfather. The more he tells her about the horrors they saw, the more determined Joanne is to clear Wilf’s name. But as her job and her marriage fall apart, everyone around her wonders about her loyalty to a man she never met, and how much she is willing to pay to clear his name. 

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Shot at Dawn, National Memorial Arboretum
by Harry Mitchell / CC-BY-4.0

I'm not known for mincing my words so if you don't appreciate critical commentary take the hint and jump ship now. I read negative reviews, I write negative reviews, and I am not ashamed of it. You're not required to agree with my stance nor my assessment of the novel in question, but I'm allowed an opinion just the same so you'll just have to deal the fact that this review actually exists. Don't like it? Don't read it. It's no skin off my nose one way or the other. 

Without further ado or disclaimer, I want to say that Andrew Leatham's The Last Casualty wasn't my cuppa tea and I would find the novel impossible to recommend. The historic subject matter boasts natural intrigue, but the fictional elements felt carelessly constructed, incomplete, and underdeveloped. Consider yourselves warned folks, there are spoilers ahead. 

The Shot at Dawn campaign is remarkable in and of itself, but Leatham's protagonist has virtually nothing to do with the movement. Joanne makes contact with the member of the group, but Leatham fails to develop that relationship and takes the story in an entirely different direction. There is a footnote at the end of the narrative about the success of the campaign, but the actual push for the posthumorous pardon of war victims is otherwise absent from the telling. 

Joanne's deterioration, if that is in fact what Leatham was trying to illustrate, is ambiguous at best and I couldn't decide if she was a rational character trying to clear her grandfather's name or an irrational character that suffered the effects of battle fatigue without having actual experience of it. Wilf has moments, but his story is pretty cut and dry. Joanne's husband Frank is easily the most interesting character in the narrative, but he is never fully explored and his vacillating love/hate relationship with his wife proved both contradictory and confounding. 

The nail in the coffin, however, is how Leatham closed the story. The author's conclusion is inconclusive and leaves the reader questioning the purpose of the narrative. Joanne does not fail in her quest, but she doesn't succeed in it either. It actually feels as if she loses her damned mind before she even gets her feet on the ground, but that's just me. I wish I were joking when I say that I finished the book and checked to make sure my ARC had downloaded properly, but I'm not. The main story line doesn't go anywhere and unlike my fellow reviewers, I refuse to excuse that reality out of admiration for the history involved. 

I think the content great, but to be perfectly honest, I've seen it before and I've seen it done better. If you're that interested, save yourself the trouble and track down a copy of The Lost Soldier by Diney Costeloe or Barbed Wire and Roses by Peter Yeldham and call it a day. Leatham's idea had merit, but his execution leaves much to be desired and struck me as a total and complete disappointment.

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He took Wilf by the left elbow and guided him steadily out of the cell where two more armed men from the regiment took up station in front. The party marched quickly along a short corridor, Tubby Clayton following behind, praying loudly. But no one was listening.

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Left in the Wind by Ed Gray

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: August 21, 2016

In 1587, the 118 men, women, and children of the "Lost Colony" were abandoned by their governor on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and never heard from again. In this fictional journal, Emme Merrimoth—one of the actual colonists of Roanoke—recounts the harrowing journey that brought the colonists to the New World. During the voyage, Emme becomes involved with Governor John White, who reassigns her to his household and then asks her to marry him. With no better prospects and happy to be free of her bland former employers, Emme agrees. Once on Roanoke, the colonist restore the village abandoned by former English settlers and realize, when faced with hostile natives, that they have been misled by White. White plots to return to England to avoid the hardship of the New World, and he and his supporters drive a hard bargain with the colonists: they will send back much-needed supplies from England if they allow White to flee without interference. Faced with little choice, the colonists agree, and are left to fare on their own. Emme, due to a scandalous past, is accused of witchcraft, shunned by the colonists, and enslaved by a nearby tribe. But throughout these dramatic turn of events, Emme commits herself to putting down on paper her every memory of the Lost Colony.

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I wish I’d read the reviews of Ed Gray’s Left in the Wind: A Novel of the Lost Colony: The Roanoke Journal of Emme Merrimoth before picking it up. Gray's thesis is intriguing, but his presentation isn’t the kind I appreciate and the creative license exercised by the author has forever tainted my interest in the early settlement. I know that sounds dramatic, but it's true. I'll never be able to think of John White or Ananias Dare the same way again.

My biggest issue with the narrative is that I couldn’t stand its heroine. Emme enjoys many deep moments of erotic ecstasy over the course of the story and while I’ve nothing against sexually confident women, I was intensely disappointed, and more than a little offended, by Gray’s failure to develop any other aspect of her personality and character. I recognized no genuine substance in her being and I couldn’t help feeling outraged by the insinuation that a woman has no other desire, form, or function. Emme, unfortunately, is not the only character to suffer from lack of depth and development. The male members of the cast fall into one of two categories: those who want to bed Emme and those who don’t. They've virtually no complexity in their make-up and here again, I was not impressed with the oversight.

I’ll grant that Gray put a great deal of time and research into the novel and I admire that most of the cast are based on real life individuals, but while I found the period details interesting, I was disappointed to realize that much of the meritable material was overshadowed by far-fetched situational drama. I found Emme’s abduction overtly coincidental, her physical and psychological adaptability thoroughly unsubstantiated, and her ability to induce lactation, while plausible, highly improbable under the circumstances of her existence and understanding. I liked the political intrigue well enough, but when push comes to shove the fate of the colonists plays second fiddle to Emme's steady parade of paramours so I don't see that my admiration means very much in the grand scheme of things.

My final criticism is the structure of the story or more appropriately, the lack there of. Gray assumes his readers are familiar with the venture so there is little exposition which didn't bother me as a) I am familiar with the history and b) Emme isn't really involved in too much of the politics anyway. You read that correctly folks, most of the story happens around Emme. She is not an active participant until the end when she is abruptly thrust into the climax of the story as the unlikely voice of truth. She’s largely disassociated from the plight of her fellows so the key moment felt awkward anyway, but things only got worse from that as the novel ended without firm resolution. There is a moment, tacked on years later as a bit of an afterthought, but it doesn't provide a definition sense of closure and left me wondering why I'd bothered reading the book at all.

When all is said and done, Left in the Wind was not my kind of book and is not something I see myself recommending forward.

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Though some in our company had been moved by the speech, I had my doubts. Men's protestations of grand intentions I had heard in some quantity, and long ago I had decided that most were a mask to hide the speaker's real purpose. 

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Worth Fighting For by Mary-Anne O'Connor

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: August 2, 2016

From Darwin to Pearl Harbour, Sydney to Papua New Guinea, a compelling story of courage, honour and a great love set against the epic backdrop of the Second World War. Eighteen-year-old Junie Wallace is a smart girl and, with her two brothers away at war and her third brother just killed in action, she knows there is only one way to save the family farm for her grieving parents. Unfortunately, that solution involves marrying the unscrupulous Ernest, and breaking the heart of the young drover she loves, Michael. But the war is looming ever closer, and when Pearl Harbour brings the threat of Japanese aggression to Australian shores, the fates of many becomes inextricably interwoven. From the explosive battles of the Pacific campaign to the desperate fighting in the Papuan New Guinea rainforest; the dancehall gaiety of Sydney’s Trocadero to the terror of the Darwin bombings, this epic family saga brings home the importance of mateship and of fighting for what you believe in, even when impossible odds seem stacked against you, even when all seems lost... Worth Fighting For is a resounding testament to the enduring force of love: a reminder of what can be achieved if you draw on your reserves of courage and listen to the truth in your heart.

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Cropped screenshot of Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr
from the film From Here to Eternity

No, no, no and no again for good measure. Absolutely nothing about Mary-Anne O'Connor's Worth Fighting For worked for me and I can honestly say that I feel the time I spent with it wasted. The only good thing that came of those hours was a two title decrease in my TBR as my experience with this volume killed any and all interest I had in O'Connor's earlier novel, Gallipoli Street. Fair warning folks, there are spoilers ahead.

I hesitate to call the book romance, that is, unless you consider a lot of cheating/adulterous sex romantic, but that's beside the point. The love story...? Stories...? Story...? Whatever. It wasn't satisfying and in the end I wasn't sure who the heck Junie was supposed to be in love with. Was it Michael? Or was it Marlon? Or is she pulling a DJ Tanner and telling the world she doesn't need a man? I don't know and that in and of itself is a huge issue for a book marketed in a genre that is defined by love and relationships.

If you're wondering who the heck Marlon is, don't worry, you're not supposed to understand the reference as the character wasn't mentioned in the blurb. He's one of the narrators, but as far as I can tell he was mainly written in so the author could write a relatively irrelevant scene set against the attack on Pearl Harbor. Come to think of it, there were a handful of scenes in the novel that felt entirely out of place which likely explains why I found myself questioning whether or not the author had a clear vision for this story. Structurally, this piece was all over the map.

Moving on, I want to note that the scene where Michael and Junie get down and dirty in the sand of Burning Palms took me straight back to that iconic moment between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity. At first I told myself I was being too picky. I personally think it sounds uncomfortable, but any pair of fictional characters can have sex on the beach right? Right. I convinced myself it was a fluke and would have let it go if the scene hadn't been immediately followed by Marlon/Milton intimately entertaining lonely Mrs. Hamlin/Holmes in Hawaii just before the Japanese attack on Pearl. Hamlin/Holmes is a serial adulteress, married to Marlon/Milton's commanding officer... Call me crazy, but I felt that episode had too much in common with the film and that parallel simply doesn't sit well with me, especially on the heels of the Michael and Junie's sandy tryst.

Okay, we've touched on the ambiguous nature of the plot, the inclusion of seemingly random content, and a couple of scenes that reminded me of an iconic WWII flick. Let's move on to plausibility and research. Late in the narrative, Michael appears with his men in a plane over New Guinea. The engines are failing, the plane is losing altitude, and he's standing at the jump door refusing to leave because he 'needs' to deliver a grand speech about morality in times of war. Excuse me for questioning the narrative, but what the heck? These men are in a tin can that is nosediving it's way to earth. They don't care what their commander has to say, they want to live! Not only that, there is no way they'd be able to hear anyone speaking at the jump door as the wind and machinery would drown the speaker out. And seriously? What kind of commander puts his men at risk so he can engage them in a warm and fuzzy? Long story short, this was one of many moments where I felt the situational drama unbelievable and the research lacking.

I'd get into my feelings on Shangri-La, the heavy-handed foreshadowing in the author's use of Lost Horizons, Michael's long absences, random scenes dictated by his parents who never reenter the narrative, and the cliched characterization of Junie as a modern woman standing against injustice, but my keyboard is smoking as it is and I think I've made my point. When all is said and done, Worth Fighting For didn't suit my tastes and I'd have great difficulty recommending it to others.

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‘Margaret Hastings…and the plane was called the Gremlin Special. I’ve saved the newspaper clippings,’ Junie confessed with a self-conscious smile. ‘Lost Horizon is my favourite novel.’ ‘Really? I found it a bore,’ said Felicity. ‘Romantic, fairy-tale rubbish.’

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Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray by Dorothy Love

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: March 30, 2016

A general’s wife and a slave girl forge a friendship that transcends race, culture, and the crucible of Civil War. Mary Anna Custis Lee is a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, wife of Confederate General Robert E Lee, and heiress to Virginia’s storied Arlington house and General Washington’s personal belongings. Born in bondage at Arlington, Selina Norris Gray learns to read and write in the schoolroom Mary and her mother keep for the slave children, and eventually becomes Mary’s housekeeper and confidante. As Mary’s health declines, Selina becomes her personal maid, strengthening a bond that lasts until death parts them. Forced to flee Arlington at the start of the Civil War, Mary entrusts the keys to her beloved home to no one but Selina. When Union troops begin looting the house, it is Selina who confronts their commander and saves many of its historic treasures. In a story spanning crude slave quarters, sunny schoolrooms, stately wedding parlors, and cramped birthing rooms, novelist Dorothy Love amplifies the astonishing true-life account of an extraordinary alliance and casts fresh light on the tumultuous years leading up to and through the wrenching battle for a nation’s soul. A classic American tale, Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray is the first novel to chronicle this beautiful fifty-year friendship forged at the crossroads of America’s journey from enslavement to emancipation.

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Stereogram believed to be Selina Gray and
a portrait of a young Mary Custis Lee

I was introduced to the story of Mary Lee and Selina Gray when I was twenty-three years old. I was visiting Washington D.C. and after watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, I wandered over to Arlington House. It wasn’t a planned stop, but it proved profound. Lee’s mistreatment at the hands of the federal government and Gray’s audacious effort to preserve her mistress’ inheritance struck a chord with me and I wondered if there was any chance it had inspired a novel. At the time the answer was no, but Dorothy Love’s latest release, Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray, appeared to fill the void. I eagerly set about procuring a copy, but the reality of experiencing the novel left me bitterly disappointed and unsatisfied.

The narrative is meant to chronicle the friendship between Lee and Gray, but their connection never jumped from the page. Love’s Lee is consumed with thoughts of her family, her husband and her children. Gray, by comparison, is more interested in the persecution of the black community and the meaning of freedom. Both women champion a worthy cause, but neither journey compliments the other which only served to divide them over the course of the narrative. At the end of the day, I felt Love’s incarnation of Lee viewed her slaves with universal affection and that the trust she placed in Gray was not based on confidence so much as limited convenience afforded her as she fled Arlington with her children. 

In looking back at the book, the cornerstone of Love's interpretation of the friendship is in fact Arlington, the home Lee and Gray shared despite social status and position. Unfortunately, Love completely misses this truth and virtually ignores the history of the home that housed and fostered the relationship between these women. There is little atmospheric description of the mansion or its grounds and absolutely no mention of the legalities imposed on it during the war. All things considered, the appropriation of the home by Union soldiers should have had a profound impact on Lee as the property owner and Gray as its custodian, but Love entirely omits these politics from her narrative. 

There is not a single reference to the law Congress passed in June 1862 which empowered commissioners to assess and collect taxes on property in ‘insurrectionary districts’ to raise funds for the war effort and legally punish those who’d sided with the Confederacy. These taxes had to be paid in person, but Lee, trapped behind enemy lines and suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, could not make the journey. In effort to obey the law, she sent her cousin, Philip R. Fendall, to pay the tax, but his effort was rebuffed and the federal government appropriated the estate. Arlington was put up for auction and purchased for a total of $26,800. The rape of Lee’s inheritance and the unjust treatment she suffered under a blatantly bias law should have impacted Lee’s half of Love’s story. The details also impact Gray as she championed the Lee family throughout the war, effectively pitting her against Washington itself, but Love’s narrative is silent on such details. This fact led me to question the extent of Love’s research for while I acknowledge that the details she presents are in keeping with the historic record, I am keenly aware that they are by no means complete. 

Key events, such General Lee’s decision to reject President Lincoln’s offer and join the southern cause, were casually referenced. I personally felt this light-handed treatment undermined the magnitude of such moments and openly questioned the author’s reasoning during my reading. The pacing of the narrative was also sluggish and I struggled to finish the story. The situational drama lacked intensity and tension and despite my interest in the historic material, I was often bored with the narrative. 

Bottom line, I did not appreciate the time I spend with this piece and would have great difficulty recommending it to fellow readers.

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To be a woman was to be under the absolute control of fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, or uncles, powerless to manage one’s own money or to make decisions about anything. Of course it wasn’t the same as slavery, but womanhood was its own kind of bondage.

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The Silver Suitcase by Terrie Todd

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: January 1, 2016

It’s 1939, and Canada is on the cusp of entering World War II. Seventeen-year-old farm girl Cornelia is heartbroken when she learns that her beloved soldier, Henry, has been killed in a train wreck. Alone and carrying a heavy secret, she makes the desperate choice that will haunt her for years to come. Never telling a soul, Cornelia pours out the painful events of the war in her diary. Many decades later, Cornelia’s granddaughter, Benita, is in the midst of her own crisis, experiencing several losses in the same week, including her job and the grandmother she adored. The resulting emotional and financial stress takes its toll on her and her husband, Ken, who is also unemployed. On the brink of divorce, she discovers Cornelia’s diary. Now the secrets of her grandmother’s past will lead Benita on an unexpected journey of healing, reunion, and renewed faith.

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I took note of Terrie Todd’s The Silver Suitcase the moment I laid eyes on it. The jacket description, with its reference to a war era diary, teased my imagination and sparked enough curiosity that I flagged the book as a must read for 2016. I’d never heard of the author and I’d no real expectations going in, but I soon realized that my excitement was severely misplaced.

Structurally, The Silver Suitcase is an absolute nightmare. I understand the contemporary story surrounding Benita, but I felt Todd’s treatment of Cornelia redundant. Todd illustrates her heroine’s experiences as they unfold, only to reiterate much of the same material in the character’s diary entries. As a reader I found the format maddening and admit I struggled with the verbose nature of Todd’s execution.

Todd’s tendency to jump into the superfluous and obscure doesn’t help matters. The early chapters of the novel chronicle Cornelia’s teenage years, but the journals Benita discovers take Todd’s audience back to Cornelia’s childhood. Why? I wish I could say, but the rationale eludes me. Why did Todd hone in on a turn of the century ice cream maker? How is the disjointed epilogue even plausible under the circumstances? Why should I have cared about random people reading journal entries they couldn't possibly understand? Why did the author switch narrators to feature Miriam for a single scene halfway through the narrative? Again, I am at a loss.

The author obviously knows where she is taking her story, but she doesn’t develop her characters or chain of events for her audience. Many of the cast members experience emotional outbursts that are wholly irrational to the reader because Todd fails to establish their situations ahead of time. Ken’s anger and Cecil Black’s antagonistic hatred don’t make the least bit of sense and I found Grace’s response to Benita’s announcement equally illogical. The revelation surrounding Miriam is coincidental, but it lacks any sort of power as Todd omits the character from the bulk of the narrative. I hate to be blunt, but I found the end result sloppy and unconvincing.

Take a look at the jacket description. “Never telling a soul, Cornelia pours out the painful events of the war in her diary.” Spoiler alert folks, but Todd’s story doesn’t relate to WWII. Henry is a soldier when he dies, but he could have been written onto a train for any number of reasons with the same result and the only other scene that relates to the conflict is Cornelia’s attendance at a victory celebration. Again, the festivities could have related to anything and taken place at any other time. Cornelia pours out the painful events of her life in her diary. Period.

Bottom line here is that I feel I wasted my time on The Silver Suitcase. Todd’s characterizations, plot, structure, and writing style failed me in every sense and I can’t see myself recommending the title forward.

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Benita sat back in her chair again, her heart pounding. Oh my gosh. This really is a treasure, she thought. Where do I start? But even as she asked the question, she knew the answer. She would start at the beginning, and read every word her grandmother had written, in chronological order.

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Love's Intrigue by June Francis

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: December 15, 2015

1419, the coast of France. In the troubled times of Henry V’s attempts to take the throne of France, Louise Saulnier and her fellow Frenchmen are forced into wild living by the English. Stripped of the protection of her family’s wealth, Louise survives under the guise of a young boy, Louis, to escape the atrocities towards women that she has witnessed. But danger never wanders far and soon it is her own sister Marguerite who is taken by the foreign men. With only the face of the abductor etched into her memory, Louise risks everything to rescue her sister. When it appears that this very man and his brother is the only key to her success, Louise faces a terrible choice: give in to the Englishmen and betray her beloved Northern France, or lose Marguerite. Flitting between her two identities, Louise crosses boundaries both of land and sea and of the heart. She ventures into new territories and is not only swept up into the clash of the two countries, but also of the two brothers… 

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I requested June Francis' Love's Intrigue on a whim. The cover caught my eye and the plot looked vaguely interesting. I'd no experience with the author, but I liked the period and was generally optimistic when I began reading the narrative. Unfortunately the reality of the novel's execution left me regretting my spur of the moment impulse and I ultimately feel the time I spent with this piece well and truly wasted. 

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I would like to note to that Endeavour Press billed Love's Intrigue as Women's Fiction when calling for reviews on Netgalley. I've no idea how the publishing house defines the term, but I can say their definition differs dramatically from my own. I expected a novel that explored the feminine psyche and perspective, but found instead swollen breasts, hardened nipples, and fevered fondling. Needless to say, I wasn't amused. 

I was also frustrated that the situational drama of the book just didn't make sense. Take the scene in the woods when Louise finds John laying wounded, naked and alone. She helps him up, but it is late and cold. Wolves are about and the two are forced to seek shelter and safety on the branch of a tree. It's a tad dramatic and somewhat clichéd, but what happened pushed me over the edge. I didn't need to be treated a gag inducing description of wandering fingers that brought warmth to chilled loins, but more importantly it made not sense in the context of the scene! 

Structurally I was disappointed that so much of Louise’s journey takes place before the story begins. The reader understands she witnessed the horror of her home being sacked by invaders, but the audience doesn’t experience it alongside her. The circumstances that force her to live as a boy are described, but the discovery of her gender takes place in chapter one and the angle has little import thereafter.  

Historically speaking, Love's Intrigue has little to offer. It's a trade piece with shallow references and no depth. I found Francis' plot both fluffy and predictable, her characters canned, and the drama inconsistent with the ideas she attempted to illustrate. Bottom line is that nothing about this book worked for me and I’m quite happy to be done with it.  

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"It is of no consequence to me who rules France. All I care about is that Henry’s conquests have made the seas safer for English ships — which is better for trade. I have no stomach for the crazy dreams of the Plantagenets. For years they have wasted good money pursuing a war that in the end they must lose if both countries are to survive."

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Dancing In The Athenian Rain by Katie Hamstead

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: December 7, 2015

When Donna is sent back in time to Classical Athens, she's furious at Dr. Stephens for sending her against her wishes. Then a Greek soldier purchases her to be his wife. She's forced to learn a new language and culture, and faces her fears of never returning to her own time. The society hates her, especially because they think she’s an Amazon, which forces her to confront her issues—being compared to her genius brother, borderline abusive friends, and a cheating boyfriend. But her husband, Peleus, is kind and patient. Although against her best judgment, she allows him into her heart. He counters all the negative voices from her past, but those voices drive a wedge between them. She must let go of her fears, her inhibitions, and insecurities, and admit her feelings, or she could lose him and the life they’ve built.

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I blame Achilles for my interest in Dancing in the Athenian Rain. There wasn't a direct link as he doesn't appear in the novel, but I'd spent several weeks reading about the Greek hero and was arguably predisposed to the subject matter when I stumbled over the Katie Hamstead's fiction. Unfortunately, the reality of her work didn't hold as much water as Homer's and I spent most of my reading annoyed with the author's presentation.

In terms of writing and tone, I feel Dancing in the Athenian Rain is best characterized as young adult lit. There is no depth to the narrative, the language is simple, and the vocabulary elementary. That wouldn't be a problem if the novel were marketed within the genre, but as it stands, the novel is pitched as new adult lit and I'd gone into it expecting much more mature prose, more complex characterizations, and deeper thematic material. I am part of the target age group and this held absolutely no appeal for me.

Hamstead tells more than she shows which likely factors in my struggle to appreciate her approach. There is very little atmospheric detail in Donna's story and I couldn't visualize the world as she saw it. There are plot holes left and right and I often found myself shaking my head over the ridiculous nature of the situational drama facing Hamstead's cast. 

Donna and Peleus bored me to tears, Dr. Stephens read like a poor imitation of Doc Brown, and I found the romantic story contrived and coincidental. Ultimately I feel the book wasn't worth the time I spent with it and I don't see myself recommending it forward. 

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As I reach the door, I can't contain my emotions anymore and break into sobs. Peleus grabs me and holds me against him. I cry into his chest as he strokes my back. His embrace soothes me, despite everything. His strong arms provide a sense of safety, his broad chest a comforting place to let my tears fall. I cling to him, yearning for relief from the feelings of loss, fear of never going home, of being stuck in this place where everyone wants to destroy me

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Neverhome by Laird Hunt

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: January 21, 2015

She calls herself Ash, but that's not her real name. She is a farmer's faithful wife, but she has left her husband to don the uniform of a Union soldier in the Civil War. Neverhome tells the harrowing story of Ash Thompson during the battle for the South. Through bloodshed and hysteria and heartbreak, she becomes a hero, a folk legend, a madwoman and a traitor to the American cause. Laird Hunt's dazzling new novel throws a light on the adventurous women who chose to fight instead of stay behind. It is also a mystery story: why did Ash leave and her husband stay? Why can she not return? What will she have to go through to make it back home? In gorgeous prose, Hunt's rebellious young heroine fights her way through history, and back home to her husband, and finally into our hearts.

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Laird Hunt’s Neverhome has received much acclaim and that is wonderful, but that said, I feel the time I spent on the book well and truly wasted. My apologies to fans of both the author and his work, but I found very little of this narrative appealed to my particular tastes. 

Personally, I found it very difficult to relate to Ash and had a hard time manufacturing empathy for her trials and circumstances. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t care if she survived her journey home and that fact made it impossible to appreciate the hurdles she faced over the course of the narrative.

Hunt’s tone is dark and ultimately rather depressing and while I’ve nothing against his style or themes, I can’t say his effort packed the punch I’d anticipated. To be perfectly blunt, I felt the pacing slow, the action monotonous and the ending abrupt and uninspired. 

At the end of the day, I’m definitely disappointed at having wasted my time on Neverhome. There was a lot of potential in the idea, but I don’t think Hunt rose to the occasion and wont be recommending it forward. 

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That was something to think about. How you could rifle a man down was looking at you and you at him but never see his face. I hadn’t figured it that way when I had thought on it back home. I had figured it would be fine big faces firing back and forth at each other, not threads of color off at the horizon. A dance of men and not just their musket balls.

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Not by Sight by Kate Breslin

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: October 5, 2015

With Britain caught up in WWI, Jack Benningham, heir to the Earl of Stonebrooke, has declared himself a conscientious objector. Instead, he secretly works for the Crown by tracking down German spies on British soil, his wild reputation and society status serving as a foolproof cover. Blinded by patriotism and concern for her brother on the front lines, wealthy suffragette Grace Mabry will do whatever it takes to assist her country's cause. When she sneaks into a posh London masquerade ball to hand out white feathers of cowardice, she never imagines the chain of events she'll set off when she hands a feather to Jack. And neither of them could anticipate the extent of the danger and betrayal that follows them--or the faith they'll need to maintain hope.

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Members of the Women’s Forage Corps posed in front of laden General
Service Wagons. Image from the Hampshire and Solent Museums 

Kudos to the Bethany House cover artist who designed this jacket. I don't know your name, but without your efforts, I'd have next to no positive commentary to offer on Kate Breslin's Not by Sight. I'm sorry folks, but I honestly feel I wasted my time on this piece. My sincere apologies for any offense my blunt assessment might inspire, but I found the narrative shallow, unconvincing, predictable, and preachy. There's no depth to the story, the themes lack complexity, and there is absolutely no atmospheric detail to be had.  

Heroine Grace Mabry struck me as a holier than thou, self-righteous, goody two shoes. I found her outlook exceedingly naive and couldn't credit the patriotism Breslin meant to express in her character. The spoiled socialite possesses little if any substance and her championing of the suffragette cause felt both awkward and quixotic. There is no natural correlation between Grace and the subject matter Breslin forced on her, which probably explains why the sections dedicated to Emmeline Pankhurst's movement felt strained, forced and contrived.

Jack had potential in the opening chapter, but his accident reduces him to little more than a wishy-washy, insecure, faltering mess of a human being. His emotional journey put me in mind of Archibald Craven, but I noted very little intensity and/or significance in his structure and disposition. To get right down to it, I found him dull as dishwater and I'm sorry, but I don't have time for banal, platitudinous, and/or cliché-ridden romantic heroes. 

I felt the pacing tedious and the tone pretentiously didactic. I also thought the narrative grossly stereotypic and one-sided. Historically there were some interesting moments involving the Women's Forage Corps and stigmas attached to conscientious objectors during WWI, but I don't think Breslin put enough meat on the bone and I had difficulty sinking my teeth into the story she presented.

It probably goes without saying that I'd have trouble recommending Not by Sight, but I'd like to point out I'm in the extreme minority. Most have adored the title and have nothing but good things to say about it. 

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Jack laughed, and it was a hollow sound to his own ears. “You do sound convincing, my dear. But what else could you say to persuade me, especially in my circumstances?” A pause. “I doubt you even know what love is.”

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A Flying Affair by Carla Stewart

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 7, 2015

Daredevil Mittie Humphreys developed her taste for adventure on horseback, on her family's prosperous Kentucky horse farm. But her love of horses is surpassed by her passion for the thrill of the skies, especially since the dashing pilot, Ames, first took her up in his plane. When handsome British aviator Bobby York offers her flying lessons, he is equally surprised—and beguiled—by Mittie's grit, determination, and talent. Soon, Mittie is competing in cross-country air races, barnstorming, and wing-walking. But when Calista "Peach" Gilson, a charming Southern belle, becomes her rival in both aviation and in love, Mittie must learn to navigate her heart as well as the skies.

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My Netgalley account is flooded with unread titles which annoys me to no end. In an attempt to address the situation, I challenged myself to buckle down and tackle the backlog one story at a time. In light of that goal, I fired up my kindle, picked a book at random, and began reading. Unfortunately the first book I picked was Carla Stewart’s A Flying Affair and the experience was less than satisfactory. 

A companion piece to The Hatmaker’s Heart, I found the novel suffered many of the structural issues I noted in its predecessor. The narrative was dull and Stewart’s heroine was something of a Mary Sue. There is little to no atmospheric detail in the narrative, the plot was predictable and the characters mundane. The author’s interest in fashion is once again evident, but it made less sense this time around as Mittie is not part of the fashion industry.  

I took further issue with how little of the novel was dedicated to aviation. Mittie’s emersion in the field took ages to get off the ground, but it also competed with her and passion for horses. There was simply too much going on in Mittie’s world and I felt Stewart’s inability to pare down created a disjointed and incohesive patchwork of plot. To make matters worse, the author’s illustration of the aviation as a profession lacked authenticity. I hadn’t liked the characters in The Beauty Chorus, but Brown’s descriptions of the cockpit, the mechanics of and mental focus required to fly left Stewart in the dust. 

Long story short, A Flying Affair was a total and complete bust. On reflection, I probably shouldn’t have attempted it, but I now know for certain that Stewart and I are not a good fit and will make a point of avoiding her work in the future. 

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“Serendipity that day was meeting you and falling in love with flying all in one afternoon.”

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Scent of Triumph by Jan Moran

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: February 20, 2015

Scent of Triumph is the story of Danielle Bretancourt, a talented young French perfumer with a flair for fashion and a natural olfactory gift. In the language of perfumery, she is a Nose, with the rare ability to recognize thousands of essences by memory. The story opens on the day England declares war on Germany, and Danielle and her family are caught in the midst of a raging disaster sweeping across Europe. Her life takes a tragic turn when her husband and son are lost behind enemy lines. She spies for the French resistance, determined to find them, but is forced to flee Europe with fragments of her family. Destitute, she mines her talents to create a magnificent perfume that captures the hearts of Hollywood's top stars, then gambles again to win wealth and success as a couturier. Her intelligence and flair attracts the adoration of Jonathan Newell-Grey, of England's top shipping conglomerate, and Cameron Murphy, Hollywood's most charismatic star. Danielle charts her course through devastating wartime losses and revenge; lustful lovers and loveless marriages; and valiant struggles to reunite her family. Set between privileged lifestyles and gritty realities, here is one woman's story of courage, spirit, and resilience.

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I don't know where to begin with Jan Moran's Scent of Triumph. The book made an unmistakable impression, it left me speechless and I find myself at a loss in describing my experience with it.

Moran's style and tone grated my nerves from the start. The language she employs struck me as repetitive and the story is positively saturated with purple prose. I make a point of ignoring the odd hiccup in spelling and grammar, but Moran struggles with neither. This is a technique and one that didn't hold much appeal for this particular reader.

The book is character heavy which might have worked, if any of the cast had struck my fancy. Unfortunately, I felt the lot underdeveloped, wooden and clichéd. Danielle Bretancourt and Jonathan Newell-Grey lacked charisma and depth. Cameron Murphy had potential, but I don't feel Moran executed it to her best advantage. Heinrich and Sofia were promising, but they enjoy relatively minor roles and weren't as necessary to Danielle's experience as they were Nicky's.

To make matters worse, I felt Moran's execution predictable, unbalanced and heavy-handed. Danielle's takes place against WWII, but the global conflict hardly competes with the author's portrayal of the perfumer's art. I felt the first half of the narrative entirely unnecessary and I often found myself wondering at the author's delivery. There is a distinct lack of tension and many of the main plot points are weakly tied together.

I'm a stubborn mule and finished the novel for no other reason than a desire to say I did, but nothing about this piece worked for me and I don't see myself recommending it down the road.

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They all raised their glasses. Marie cleared her throat and held her glass high. “And to those who’ve gone on before us, may they watch after us,” she said solemnly, then added with a lilting laugh, “and may we never cease to amuse them."

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The Executioner’s Daughter by Jane Hardstaff

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: February 3, 2015

Thrilling adventure set in the underbelly of the Tower of London and on the Thames in Tudor times. Moss hates her life. As the daughter of the Executioner in the Tower of London, it’s her job to catch the heads in her basket after her father has chopped them off. She dreams of leaving, but they are prisoners with no way out. Then Moss discovers a hidden tunnel that takes her to freedom, where she learns that her life isn’t what she believes it to be and she doesn’t know who to trust. Her search for the truth takes her on a journey along the great River Thames. Could the answers lie deep in its murky depths?

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If I learned anything from Jane Hardstaff's The Executioner's Daughter, it's that Egmont and I define 'thrilling adventure' very differently. I mean no offense, but I struggled with this piece, more so than I care to admit considering it is young adult lit. I'd considered abandoning it early on over its juvenile prose alone, but when push comes to shove I'm a bit of a stubborn mule and surrender doesn't come easy.

I suppose the biggest difficulty I faced, was a lack of empathy for Moss. Hardstaff tried, but the character didn't interest me in the least and I was incredibly disappointed with how she was presented. She's supposed to be eleven, but there is nothing childlike in her makeup and that fact didn't sit well with me, not when her age is so important to the story at hand. 

The plot posed another problem in that it was all over the place. Moss' eavesdropping seems preposterously implausible, as did her sojourn to Hampton Court. Anne and Henry's appearance makes absolutely no sense within the context of the narrative and don't get me started on the ridiculousness of the ragged man or the Riverwitch. Elizabeth C. Bunce made this idea work in A Curse Dark as Gold. Hardstaff not so much. 

The Executioner's Daughter was obviously a miss in my book, but I will confess to a moment of genuine delight. "Gather round, gather round an’ watch,” said Salter. “'Watch carefully, ladies and gents.' He bent down and whisked off the cloth from the box. The smell of the taffetys wafted into the night air. 'Fresh taffetys, lovely as you like!'" It's a short scene, hardly worth mentioning really, but the gutter snipe's little stunt put a grin on my face. I was singing Tobias Ragg by the time I finished it, but I was in a good mood and that's more than I can say for the rest of book. 

Bottom line, Hardstaff's debut wasn't something I enjoyed and is so disjointed and unpolished that I can't see myself recommending it on in future. 

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London had always been execution-mad. If there was a monk to be drawn and quartered or a Catholic to be burned, the people liked nothing better than to stand around and watch. Preferably while eating a pie. But you couldn't beat a good beheading. That’s what the Tower folk said. Up on the scaffold was someone rich. Someone important. Maybe even a Royal. That’s what people came for. Royal blood. Blood that glittered as it sprayed the crowd. It made Moss feel sick just thinking about it.

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To Parts Unknown by John Anthony Miller

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: November 03, 2014

London, January 1942. London Times war correspondent, George Adams, is a tortured soul, devastated by his wife's death and rejected by all branches of the military. Destroyed by events he couldn't control, he can't face the future and won't forget the past. His editor sends him to Singapore, a city threatened by the Japanese, hoping the exotic location and impending crisis will erase his haunting memories. Within minutes of his arrival, George is caught in a near-fatal air raid that triggers a chain of conflict and catastrophes. Injured and sheltered underground, he meets Thomas Montclair, a crafty French spy, and Lady Jane Carrington Smythe, an English aristocrat, who are destined to share his adventures. When a Japanese general is murdered, Lady Jane becomes the prime suspect. The trio flees the enemy and their own troubled pasts, confronting personal demons as well as the Japanese. They chase their dreams and elude their nightmares, evading a manhunt that spans the islands of the southwest Pacific, their lives wrapped in a swirling kaleidoscope of death, doubt, and desire. 

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The jacket description of John Anthony Miller's To Parts Unknown filled me with excited anticipation when I stumbled over the title and I was legitimately giddy when Taylor and Seale offered me a copy for review. Unfortunately that enthusiasm was short-lived as I soon realized the novel wouldn't meet my expectations. I'm not going to beat around the bush folks, so prepare yourself for a brief and blunt analysis. 

I struggled with this piece from the start. Miller fails to develop George's relationship with Maggie so his grief is hard to swallow and Lady Jane has about as much mystic as the tea that shares her name. To add insult to injury, the plot plods along in a predictable and formulaic chain of events that lacked both intensity and tension. Why do I say this? I fell asleep while the plane carrying our heroes was shot from the air in Chapter 14. I'm talking dead to the world, unconcerned, wake up refreshed and whistling dixie type sleep and that just doesn't happen, not to me. 

I'm a WWII junkie, so this title should've been a slam dunk, but in looking at it alongside books like Night in Shanghai and The Gods of Heavenly Punishment, I can't help feeling To Parts Unknown came up short. Simple, straightforward and superficial, I did not enjoy the time I spent with this piece and can't envision myself recommending it forward. 

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Regardless of the commitment I had made to Toby Fields, it did me nor the London Times any good at all if I vanished beneath the boot of the enemy.  As long as there was a war there would be a front line.  I must find it and give the British subjects of the world a window to the war.

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Shakespeare's Dark Lady: The Lost Story of Aemilia Bassano Lanyer by Sally O'Reilly

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Personal Kindle Library

Read: August 27, 2014

The real Aemilia Basano Lanyer was Renaissance woman, centuries ahead of her time. England’s first professionally-published female poet, she is also suspected to have inspired the poetry of one our greatest and most beloved writers, William Shakespeare—and she continues to inspire writers to this day. With Dark Aemilia, Sally O’Reilly gives us a richly imagined novel of this mysterious, and nearly forgotten, woman, and now, she invites us to discover Ameilia Lanyer first-hand. A collection of Shakespeare’s famed "Dark Lady" sonnets; fascinating and hard-to-find historical details; and Aemilia’s own provocative poetry, as well as exclusive excerpts from the novel; Shakespeare’s Dark Lady is a must-read for poetry lovers and the ideal companion to Sally O’Reilly’s stunning debut—a novel "filled with all the passion, drama, and magic of Elizabethan England"

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Not to be blunt, but this "book" is a bloody waste of time. The jacket description is misleading in that it gives the impression the title will offer some sort of insight to Aemilia's character when in fact is does nothing of the sort. 

The Dark Lady Sonnets by Shakespeare and Eve's Apologie by Aemilia Lanyer are freely available (I looked them up online) and I can't admire the attempt to fashion the Prologue, Chapter One and Historical Note from Dark Aemilia: A Novel of Shakespeare's Dark Lady into a teaser release as the novel's early pages are hardly indicative of its overall content. 

Honestly, I would have liked bonus material, maybe a scene from the book as witnessed by Lilith or Henry, but as it stands, I can't begin to understand what Macmillan is trying to do here.

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I am a witch for the modern age. I keep my spells small, and price them high . What they ask for is the same as always. The common spells deal in love, or what love is meant to make, or else hate, and what that might accomplish. I mean the getting of lovers or babies (or the getting rid of them) or a handy hex for business or revenge. When a spell works, they keep you secret, and take the credit. When it fails, of course, the fault is yours. So a witch is wise to be cautious, quiet, and hard to find.

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To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis by Andra Watkins

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Personal Library

Read: April 3, 2014

Explorer Meriwether Lewis has been stuck in Nowhere since his mysterious death nearly two centuries ago. His last hope for redemption is helping nine-year-old Emmaline Cagney flee her madame mother in New Orleans and find her father in Nashville. To get there, Merry must cross his own grave along the Natchez Trace, where he duels the corrupt Judge, an old foe who has his own despicable plans for Em. To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis is a genre-bending novel that usually falls through the cracks as agents and publishers struggle to figure out ‘what shelf does it go on?‘ At Word Hermit Press, our answer is every shelf! A rich palimpsest of history, suspense, paranormal and biography, we think To Live Forever creates its own category, which we call “fantastic fiction.” We believe you will agree.

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Meriwether Lewis

This is gonna sound crazy, but I look at the ratings and the reviews for Andra Watkins' To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis and I am half-convinced I've read an entirely different novel. Like other readers I love the idea behind this piece, but the execution left me dazed and confused. Get comfortable friends, this is going to take while. Spoilers ahead, consider yourself warned. 

Maybe I'm off base, but the blind trust Emmaline Cagney places in an overwhelmingly male cast seems wrong in a child who's been sexually exploited in front of her mother's clientele. The experience doesn't affect her at all and that annoyed me as her situation is the catalyst for the entire novel. 

Emmaline also doesn't sound like a nine year old. Her age places her among the likes of Sara Crewe (7), Scout Finch (8), Lucy Pevensie (8), Pippi Longstocking (9), Liesel Meminger (9), Arya Stark (9), Mary Lennox (10), Anne Shirley (11), and Lyra Belacqua (11), which irked as her mannerisms, outlook and thought processes held a much closer resemblance to my four year old... minus the Wonder Twins thing.

Knowing nothing of the Natchez Trace presented certain challenges to my reading of To Live Forever, but my love for comic book heroes highlighted a recurring issue in Em's infatuation with the Wonder Twins. The pair debuted in Joy Ride, an episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour which first aired in early September 1977. This means the characters had only appeared in four episodes by the time Em escapes her mother. The publication of Super Friends #7 on Oct. 1, 1977 marked their introduction to the comic books, which is even more awkward as the bulk of the story takes place between Oct. 4th and October 11th of that year. I suppose it's possible that Em could be obsessed with the campy comic relief Zan and Jayna provided established icons like Superman, Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman, but it just doesn't seem feasible given the timeline. 

My apologies folks. Let's get back to my knowing nothing about the Natchez Trace. Watkins allowed the history of the trail to dictate the story which is great if you are familiar with the material. Unfortunately, she doesn't offer much to those of us who aren't versed in the subject matter, a fact which left me scratching my head on more than one occasion. I don't know why a group of reenactors were playing out the War of 1812 on the trail nor how John James Audubon relates to the location. These stories might be well-known locally, akin to Pompey's Pillar in my own neck of the woods, but nationally Watkins is referencing obscure accounts that aren't universally recognizable. Personally, I feel her failure to acknowledge and compensate for this is a significant oversight, one that made it impossible for me to appreciate the scope of her narrative. 

Continuity is another issue. What gives a group of amateur actors the right to arrest and detain civilians? What in Audubon's history qualifies him as a nowhere man because he seems like a pretty normal guy? And why, the nod to Mark Twain in Jim Watson? It's fun for those who actually read Huckleberry Finn, but I don't see how a fictional caricature fits the rest of the story as he is the only exception in a predominately fact based cast. 

I agree with other reviewers, there are a lot of great concepts and themes in Watkins' work, but to be entirely honest the mechanics and structure of the book made it both disjointed and incohesive. Bottom line, this one wasn't for me and isn't something I can bring myself to recommend. 

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The sucess of my trip to the Pacific was some kind of powerful drug. Everyone knew me. I was envied for my skills. In my dreams, I heard their whoops, their breathless expressions of admiration and awe. Until success abandoned me. 

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Circus Escape by Lilliana Rose

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: March 15, 2014

Nessie dreams of escaping her sheltered life to become a mechanical engineer with mechas. But wanting and doing are two very different things, and outer confidence hides inner fears—until she meets Joy. Joy is tough and self-reliant, used to be looking out for no one but herself. As her job keeps her always on the move, keeping to herself is the best way to survive. The very last person she expects to break her solitude is the prim and proper Nessie.

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I love steampunk. A carryover from my days spent reading naught but fantasy and science fiction, I think a wonderfully fun genre and adore how different author interpret the industrial clockwork elements that characterize the genre which is what led me to pick up Lilliana Rose's Circus Escape.

To be blunt, the novella has three major issues. One, the mechanical elements are cheesy and crudely described. Two, there is absolutely no chemistry between Rose's leads. And three, the plot is rushed and poorly presented with key elements literally materializing out of nowhere. 

At only thirty-nine pages I can't say it wasted much of my time, but I've seen authors do a lot with novellas and was disappointed at finding so little between these pages. 

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Normally, she would think about what to do nest and how lons it would take, but not today. It was time to do things diffferently.

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