Nursing Fox by Jim Ditchfield

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: June 4, 2016

At the outbreak of World War I, Lucy Paignton-Fox enlists in the Australian Army Nursing Service and leaves her family's cattle station in the Northern Territory to join the war effort. During the Gallipoli campaign she serves in hospitals in Egypt, but when the Anzacs are posted to France she moves with them. A talented and spirited nurse, with dreams of one day becoming a doctor, Lucy finds more opportunities than she ever imagined: working alongside doctors and surgeons, sharing the soldiers' dangers, helping them through their pain, and making lifelong friends. But with war comes suffering. Lucy sees it all around: sorrow, disease and death. How long can she stay separated from it all? Adam Hayward joins the British Army after a devastating attack on his family. Accepted into the air force, Adam tests his luck in the cockpit fighting for those he loves. But with aircraft technology booming, can Adam continue to stay ahead of the game? John Mitchell's determination leads him slowly up the ranks. With more responsibility than ever, he becomes disillusioned with the horrors of war, but he can't help admiring the brave nurses who do so much to help the wounded men. Nursing Fox details the experiences of Australian nurses during the Great War. It honours their journeys and shows the impact that the nurses had on the soldiers with whom they crossed paths.

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I enjoyed the time I spent with Jim Ditchfield’s Nursing Fox, but I will not deny that I have mixed feelings about the book. To be perfectly honest, I think the narrative suffers an excess of plot and despite my appreciation for the material, I could help feeling frustrated at being pulled so many directions at once.

Don’t misunderstand, Nursing Fox has a lot going for it and reading the novel affords a great deal of insight to the World World I experiences of Australian forces both on and behind the lines. I was fascinated by the wealth of detail Ditchfield managed to weave into the fabric of the narrative and felt the material was exceedingly well-adapted.

That said, the novel alternates between three distinct points of views and while I found Lucy Paignton-Fox, Adam Hayward and John Mitchell quite interesting, I felt the rotation between them distracting and wished Ditchfield had limited himself to Lucy’s point of view. Lucy’s story arc was the most prominent of the three and I think the novel would have read more cleanly and felt more cohesive if the author had limited himself to a single protagonist.

When all is said and done, I can see recommending Nursing Fox to fellow readers, but I think it could have been stronger narrative if there hadn’t been so much going on.

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Lucy sat on an empty bed, her face buried in her hands as tears of relief streamed down her face. She thought back to the CCS. After all these years, all the bombs and all the shells. The fighting might be finished, but the war would never be over for her. She’d never be able to forget the hundreds of operations and the rows of graves that emphasised the failures.

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By Helen's Hand by Amalia Carosella

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: May 12, 2016

With divine beauty comes dangerous power. Helen believed she could escape her destiny and save her people from utter destruction. After defying her family and betraying her intended husband, she found peace with her beloved Theseus, the king of Athens and son of Poseidon. But peace did not last long. Cruelly separated from Theseus by the gods, and uncertain whether he will live or die, Helen is forced to return to Sparta. In order to avoid marriage to Menelaus, a powerful prince unhinged by desire, Helen assembles an array of suitors to compete for her hand. As the men circle like vultures, Helen dreams again of war—and of a strange prince, meant to steal her away. Every step she takes to protect herself and her people seems to bring destruction nearer. Without Theseus’s strength to support her, can Helen thwart the gods and stop her nightmare from coming to pass?

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Theseus and Helen by Vincenzo de' Rossi

I've a confession to make and I don't like beating around the brush so I'm just going to come out and say it. I've been avoiding this review for weeks and even now I can't help feeling that I've been holding off because I didn't want to say goodbye to Amalia Carosella's By Helen's Hand. Writing a review bookends my experience with almost every novel I read and this is one I simply didn't want to be done with.

Helen is the natural focus of the narrative, but Carosella's Helen is anything but typical. Forget all you know, or think you know about the face that launched a thousand ships because the Helen we see between these pages is not the siren of legend. Beneath Carosella's pen, Helen is a complex and genuine figure who's wants and desires make her a remarkably relatable protagonist. I can't imagine that adapting Helen and her mythic beauty to fiction that would appeal to modern readers was easy, but I feel Carosella managed to beautifully redefine this character as a woman of strength, intelligence, and depth.

Paris enjoyed a cameo appearance in book one, but I found his lover, Oenone, who debuts in By Helen's Hand absolutely captivating. I was equally impressed with other members of the supporting cast, notably Polypoetes and Odysseus, and I think that's part of what I like about Carosella's work. As an author, she puts a lot of effort into developing both her primary and secondary cast and I think that adds something very special to her books.

Finally, I want to note the ending of the narrative because those chapters caught me completely off guard. I can't go into too much detail or I'd give it all away, but I didn't see any of part of that twist coming and I was tickled by the fact that Carosella managed to pitch that kind of curve ball at her audience. We all know how the story plays out, but Carosella made it own in an incredibly creative and unexpected way. More than that, she did so without infringing on the classic tale and I've an incredible amount of respect for her for finding a way to be true to both her story and the one that inspired it.

I loved By Helen's Hand and would definitely recommend it other readers, but it should be noted that the novel picks up where it's predecessor left off and while it can be read as a standalone, I really wouldn't advise reading the books out of order. Helen of Sparta lays the foundation for By Helen's Hand and I think the relationships and drama in the second volume are best appreciated by those who know what each of these characters has been through.

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Pollux had not been able to meet my gaze from the moment the small basin had arrived. As if the sight of the water conjured images of my nakedness that he could not bear. My own brother, unable to look upon me without lust. It was as Leda had said all my life. This beauty, this supposed gift of the gods, was nothing more than a curse. A tool meant to drive men into madness.

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The Scarlet Queen by Jacqueline Farrell

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 1, 2016

Egypt, 1900. Kate Whitaker is fourteen years old when she first meets Adam Ellis on her archaeologist father’s dig. They hate each other on sight. Seven years later, they meet again in London, and this time Kate falls in love with him, only to discover he is more interested in his older, more sophisticated cousin Alice. When Adam returns in Egypt to discuss funding for her father’s new excavations, Kate resolves to have as little to do with him as possible. But illness and malicious rumours threaten to sabotage the dig, and Kate has no choice but to work with Adam. Can she trust him, or is he still under the spell of his lovely, haunted cousin...?

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Jacqueline Farrell’s The Scarlet Queen was marketed as a humorous romance on Netgalley. The cover struck me cheesy, but the lighthearted nature of the piece promised the sort of mental reprieve I’ve craved the last few weeks. I requested a copy, received an ARC almost immediately, and jumped in with what I hoped was an open mind.

The early chapters were amusing and several passages actually caused me to laugh out loud, but the momentum didn’t hold and I was soon struggling to remain engaged in the narrative. I wish I could say more about the historic details, but Farrell doesn’t offer her readers much to go on.

I found young Kate mischievous and energetic, but her adult counterpart didn’t have the same degree of self-assurance. Her pride and assumption annoyed me in the end and I ultimately cared very little for her character. Adam proved an interesting contrast to his leading lady, but his humble intelligence and wit could not carry the story alone.

When all is said and done The Scarlet Queen was as well-suited to me and I was to it. I understand there is a companion piece, but I am not inclined to sample it and will be seeking my amusements elsewhere.

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Before he could stop himself, Adam had bent over to examine the scroll more closely. That was when he called me an impudent chit. But not before I saw the look in his eyes. I was right, and he knew it.

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The Memory Painter by Gwendolyn Womack

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Personal Library

Read: July 1, 2015

Two lovers who have traveled across time. A team of scientists at the cutting edge of memory research. A miracle drug that unlocks an ancient mystery. Bryan Pierce is an internationally famous artist whose paintings have dazzled the world. But there's a secret to his success: Every canvas is inspired by an unusually vivid dream. When Bryan awakes, he possesses extraordinary new skills...like the ability to speak obscure languages and an inexplicable genius for chess. All his life, he has wondered if his dreams are recollections, if he is re-experiencing other people's lives. Linz Jacobs is a brilliant neurogeneticist, absorbed in decoding the genes that help the brain make memories, until she is confronted with an exact rendering of a recurring nightmare at one of Bryan's shows. She tracks down the elusive artist, and their meeting triggers Bryan's most powerful dream yet: visions of a team of scientists who, on the verge of discovering a cure for Alzheimer's, died in a lab explosion decades ago. As Bryan becomes obsessed with the mysterious circumstances surrounding the scientists' deaths, his dreams begin to reveal what happened at the lab, as well as a deeper mystery that may lead all the way to ancient Egypt. Together, Bryan and Linz start to discern a pattern. But a deadly enemy watches their every move, and he will stop at nothing to ensure that the past stays buried.

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My purchase of Gwendolyn Womack’s The Memory Painter was something of a surprise. I mean no offense, but when push comes to shove I’m a bit of a penny pincher and rarely buy books blindly. Truth is, I’d not heard of this piece before spotting the striking yellow cover at the Historical Novel Society Conference bookstore and was entirely unfamiliar with the author. I queried a handful of my peers and while they agreed the book looked promising, no one had read it and I wasn’t entirely convinced I wanted to be the first to plunge into a debut. Historically speaking, such ventures seldom ended in my favor, but something about the description sparked my curiosity and refused to let go. I debated a while, but ultimately caved to indecision and acquired the title. 

I’ll be honest, things did not start well. I spent the first three chapters wondering what I’d gotten myself into, but all that changed in chapter four. The plot started coming together and the story began to find its feet. The rush, however, was short-lived and by the end of chapter eleven, I felt I could confidently predict how things would turn out. Chapters twelve through thirty-nine didn’t leave much of an impression, the drama was diverting enough, but predictable in my eyes. The pacing intensified in chapter forty and the curve-ball in chapter forty-five found me cheering Womack’s creativity, but the moment was all too brief as the novel concluded only three chapters later. 

Did I like the story? Yes, looking back at the plot, I think The Memory Painter a fun crossover piece. There isn’t as much history as I’d hoped, but I enjoyed the elements Womack wove into the narrative. I think the author could have done more with the emotional relationship between Bryan and Linz, but the pair proved enjoyable protagonists nonetheless. I found Finn and Conrad incredibly interesting, but you’ll have to read the book to understand why. As far as supporting characters are concerned, I liked Barbara, but felt Claudette, Martin and Layla underdeveloped in comparison which bothered me as I felt their roles should have placed them on more equal footing.

Ideally, I’d have loved a historical note. Something that explained how and why the author chose the historic figures that appear throughout the piece. Personally, I’d have loved to know why certain figures, Louis Le Vau and Pedro Damiano for example, were less prominent than Origenes Adamantius and Alexander Pushkin. I’d also have liked a slightly stronger finish. I appreciate that Womack’s conclusion is meant to lead into a follow-up, but the final notes of the narrative felt rushed and awkward just the same.  

Would I recommend The Memory Painter? As usual, that would depend on the reader. Diehard historic fiction fans might find the book a difficult sell, but the book incorporates exciting elements of both thrillers and science fiction and should prove quite entertaining to those with varied tastes and open minds. 

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Michael didn't know what the right course was anymore. All he knew was that Renovo had the power to change human existence, and the responsibility that came with being its creator was paralyzing. Was he a monster or some sort of hero? He didn't know.

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Daughter of the Gods: A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Stephanie Thornton

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Obtained from: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours 

Read: May 4, 2014

Egypt, 1400s BC. The pharaoh’s pampered second daughter, lively, intelligent Hatshepsut, delights in racing her chariot through the marketplace and testing her archery skills in the Nile’s marshlands. But the death of her elder sister, Neferubity, in a gruesome accident arising from Hatshepsut’s games forces her to confront her guilt...and sets her on a profoundly changed course. Hatshepsut enters a loveless marriage with her half brother, Thut, to secure his claim to the Horus Throne and produce a male heir. But it is another of Thut’s wives, the commoner Aset, who bears him a son, while Hatshepsut develops a searing attraction for his brilliant adviser Senenmut. And when Thut suddenly dies, Hatshepsut becomes de facto ruler, as regent to her two-year-old nephew. Once, Hatshepsut anticipated being free to live and love as she chose. Now she must put Egypt first. Ever daring, she will lead a vast army and build great temples, but always she will be torn between the demands of leadership and the desires of her heart. And even as she makes her boldest move of all, her enemies will plot her downfall...

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Hatshepsut. Indurated limestone sculpture at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Image by Postdlf

Hatshepsut. Daughter of Thutmose I, wife of Thutmose II, fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty, and the longest serving indigenous queen of Ancient Egypt. All things considered it's not hard to imagine what drew author Stephanie Thornton to this enigmatic ruler, nor what prompted her to fictionalize her story in Daughter of the Gods.

Now, I adored Thornton's The Secret History, but contrary to what you might think, that is not a blessing. I am not one of those who finds an author I enjoy and promptly gives a five star rating to every book they release. Quite opposite in fact, I shamelessly hold five star authors to a higher standard. Bottom line, they've impressed me once and I expect them to maintain that measure of excellence. 

The obvious question here is did Thornton succeed? Did she give me a heroine who can stand beside Theodora? Someone who is equally compelling, but uniquely different? Someone with her own motivations, personality, strengths and weaknesses? Did Hatshepsut’s Egypt come to life with a singular rhythm and flavor or was it only a facsimile of Theodora's Constantinople? Does Hatshepsut’s love affair with Senenmut bear too much resemblance Theodora's relationship with Justinian or does it burn with a fire and passion of its own? These are the questions that plagued me going into this novel, but looking back, I can honestly say I've no complaints. 

Hatshepsut was equated to a God while she walked the earth, but Thornton doesn't bother herself with that legacy. On the contrary, she strips it away, giving her audience a realistic interpretation of a woman whose ambition earned her prominence and prestige. Her characterization is at times jealous, guilt-ridden, stubborn, selfish and resentful, but from that she cultivates a fortitude that one cannot help but commend, a tenacious intensity that transcends print and sparks the imagination. 

Thornton's deep appreciation for Hatshepsut’s cultural heritage is evident in every aspect of the book. Meticulously researched the text is saturated with historic detail, but that said, Thornton never allows fact to overwhelm the narrative. Enhancing the text, she treats it like a garnish, creating depth and dimension through the complementary application of truth.

At this point I think it obvious how much I appreciate the time I spent reading Daughter of the Gods, but my favorite aspect of Thornton's work cannot be seen in this novel alone. Theodora, Hatshepsut, Borte, Alaqai, Fatima, Sorkhokhtani... these are women who were meant to ornament ancient courts, not direct them. Through fiction, Thornton is exploring history from the perspective of those who defied convention to make it. As an author, she is highlighting women who bore the responsibility of leadership with courage and persistence rather than raw sexuality and that thesis is something I both applaud and deeply admire. 

Freshly original, Daughter of the Gods is both genuine and authentic, alive with the culture of Ancient Egypt, enriched with vibrant emotion, and augmented with irresistible intrigue. In sum it is an addictively enticing fiction that is impossible to put down. 

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A future without responsibility, a future of doing as she pleased when she pleased: such was the life Hatshepsut had envisioned for herself. Yet that life had been buried along with Neferubity in her tomb. 

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Check out all the stops on Stephanie Thornton's Daughter of the Gods virtual book tour schedule!

Monday, April 28
Review at Unabridged Chick
Guest Post & Giveaway at Passages to the Past

Tuesday, April 29
Interview & Giveaway at Unabridged Chick

Wednesday, April 30
Review at Ageless Pages Reviews

Thursday, May 1
Review & Giveaway at Let Them Read Books

Friday, May 2
Review & Giveaway at HF Book Muse – News
Review & Giveaway at Peeking Between the Pages

Monday, May 5
Review at Flashlight Commentary
Guest Post & Giveaway at HF Connection

Tuesday, May 6
Interview & Giveaway at Flashlight Commentary

Wednesday, May 7
Review at Oh, for the Hook of a Book
Review & Giveaway at Confessions of an Avid Reader

Thursday, May 8
Interview & Giveaway at Oh, for the Hook of a Book

Friday, May 9
Review at Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews

Monday, May 12
Review at CelticLady’s Reviews
Review & Giveaway at Luxury Reading

Tuesday, May 13
Review at The Mad Reviewer
Review & Giveaway at The Maiden’s Court

Wednesday, May 14
Review at A Bookish Libraria

Thursday, May 15
Review at Book Lovers Paradise
Review & Giveaway at The Lit Bitch

Friday, May 16
Review at She is Too Fond of Books

Monday, May 19
Review at Tower of Babel
Review & Giveaway at Broken Teepee

Tuesday, May 20
Review at A Bookish Affair

Wednesday, May 21
Review at Manga Maniac Cafe
Review & Giveaway at The True Book Addict
Guest Post & Giveaway at A Bookish Affair

Thursday, May 22
Review at The Most Happy Reader
Review & Giveaway at Griperang’s Bookmarks

Friday, May 23
Review at Jorie Loves a Story
Interview & Giveaway at The Most Happy Reader