Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: January 13, 2017

A gorgeous, deft literary retelling of Charlotte Bronte's beloved Jane Eyre--through the eyes of the dashing, mysterious Mr. Rochester himself.

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Illustration of Edward and Jane by F. H. Townsend

I’ve nothing against Charlotte Bronte, but Jane Eyre is not my favorite classic. Jane’s marital struggles hit too close to home and I find that I am more inclined to reference the novel in jest than I am to recommend its contents. All things considered, I probably should have avoided Sarah Shoemaker’s Mr. Rochester, but the novel’s premise proved too intriguing to ignore. I was curious and there was simply no end to the questions that taunted my imagination. How would a woman write Jane’s iconic lover? How exactly did he fall prey to his father and elder brother? How would a woman validate his deceit toward Jane?  

Unfortunately, many of the questions that drew me to the novel remain unanswered even after finishing the narrative. I enjoyed the masculine perspective and historical depth of the story, but can’t deny that the reality of the novel left me wanting. Mr. Rochester is an ambitious project and much like Mr. Darcy’s Diary and Rhett Butler’s People, there will be fans who adore it and others who find it flawed. I can’t and don’t pretend to speak for everyone, but I fall into the latter demographic in this instance as I felt the narrative failed to capitalize on the spirit Bronte hinted her hero was meant to possess.

In Jane Eyre, Rochester states, “When I was as old as you, I was a feeling fellow enough, partial to the unfledged, unfostered, and unlucky; but Fortune has knocked me about since: she has even kneaded me with her knuckles, and now I flatter myself I am hard and tough as an India-rubber ball; pervious, though, through a chink or two still, and with one sentient point in the middle of the lump. Yes: does that leave hope for me?... Of my final re-transformation from India-rubber back to flesh?" This essence of character is referenced once again in the final chapter when Jane relays that “When his first-born was put into his arms, he could see that the boy had inherited his own eyes, as they once were — large, brilliant, and black. On that occasion, he again, with a full heart, acknowledged that God had tempered judgment with mercy.” I may be alone in my assessment, but I feel these lines imply that Jane restored to Edward the generous, optimistic, and grateful nature that was stolen by the betrayal of those closest to him. This understanding manifested itself in an expectation that any story based on Rochester should naturally feature the growth of that personality and the circumstances that crushed it, but that view was not it seems, shared by Shoemaker. Her version of Rochester’s life is stark, muted, and often mimics the experiences of his beloved Jane. In her eyes, Edward is a lonely and neglected child who turns into a lost and rather insecure young man. I respect that interpretations differ, but I personally felt Shoemaker’s approach weakened Rochester’s overall character and that it lessened import and influence that Jane’s affections are shown to afford in the original novel.

Jane herself doesn’t appear until the final third of narrative and their love affair is expanded very little by that which Shoemaker illustrates in the closing chapters. I will say that I appreciated Shoemaker’s treatment of Mrs. Fairfax, but like Bronte, I feel Shoemaker shortchanged Grace Poole and while I liked what she attempted to do with Richard, I felt both illustrations could have been more intuitive and enlightening. I felt Edward’s relationship with his father and elder brother equally disappointing and was frustrated that the tension between them was so often muted by physical distance. The additional supporting cast left virtually no impression on me, but I will note a particular frustration with Gerald. Short of feeling superfluous to the narrative, I felt his scenes forced and unnatural. His existence was enough to serve Shoemaker’s purpose and I couldn’t help feeling his adult presence upstaged that of Richard in the latter chapters of the narrative.

When all is said and done, I don’t feel Mr. Rochester allows any new understanding of Edward as it does not elaborate on his life, personality, or emotions beyond that of his original incarnation. The same can be said of the supporting cast and while I feel there is merit in the historical scope of the novel, I’m not sure that I could recommend it on other grounds. 

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In her goodness, Jane did not yet understand that good intentions and moral truth might inflict as dangerous, as painful—indeed as fatal—a wound as malicious intent.

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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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The Unquiet Grave by David J. Oldman

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: December 20, 2016

London, 1946. The war may be over, but the it’s devastating effects are not... Captain Harry Tennant has returned from serving in Italy and North Africa, expecting to be demobbed, only to find his services are still in demand. A policeman before the war, he’s made part of the Intelligence Corps, investigating war crimes. Mostly he looks into smaller cases of army personnel who are the victims, or perpetrators of crimes. That’s how Rose Kearney’s file ends up on his desk. Her brother William, a soldier with the Hampshire Regiment, was reported missing in action after D-Day. Having heard nothing else since, she’s travelling from their home in Wicklow to find answers. As Harry starts to investigate, he learns Kearney was part of a carrier crew fighting near Caen. The bodies from Kearney’s crew are found near a French chateau, with one appearing to have been executed. But there’s was no sign of Kearney. Reports of Nazi atrocities nearby are leaking out and at first, it seems the men were victims of the ruthless Nazi machine. But things aren’t adding up for Tennant. Why was Kearney’s body never found, and why was an SS officer discovered with the missing man’s disks? Although his superior, Jekyll, wants the death blamed on the SS and quickly wrapped up, the more Harry digs, the more curious he becomes. He sets out to find answers, but only seems to dig up more questions. And it’s not long before Tennant find himself in grave danger...

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I feel like the only reviewer who didn’t fall head over heels in love with David Oldman’s The Unquiet Grave, but then I'm not really the swooning type. Most of my peers are overflowing with praise for the narrative and while I respect their opinions, I must admit that my own are decidedly modest. I like the mystery well enough, but the plot didn't take hold of my imagination and I often found that my attention wandered from Oldman’s prose.

The reader is introduced to protagonist Captain Harry Tennant as he struggles to rectify his war time experience with a post war existence. His professional career is stable enough, but his personal life is in tatters and it is clear the author meant to humanize the investigator by manufacturing a measure of sympathy for his situation. It's an admirable aim and I appreciated the effort, but the final product fell flat in my eyes. Forgive me, but Tennant himself didn't intrigue me at all and try as I might, I didn't really care if he figured himself out or not.

The supporting cast wasn't much better. Oldman attempts to create emotional conflict and depth by presenting a complex love interest, but the relationship never seems to have much going for it which probably explains why I found myself questioning the content. A red herring that fails to misdirect has no place in narrative fiction and at the end of the day I'd have been happier if the Oldman's attempt at romance had not appeared at all.

In looking at the historic content, it is clear that Oldman is well-versed in the subject matter. The narrative is chock full of details about the war and the light-hearted culture that took root in its wake. Believe it or not I actually liked those references, but the other elements of the story didn't come together the way I needed them to and I am not sure that I'll be continuing with the series.

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That first impression of seeing the city as relatively untouched soon began to fade. Each morning I became subtly aware of more damage, as if overnight the bombing raids still continued, only silently now. It was an odd sensation and one I kept to myself. In time that faded too as I began struggling like everybody else with the unreliable public transport, food and fuel rationing, and the general drabness of life that manifested itself mostly in shortages of everything you needed and surpluses only of things you didn’t want.

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The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Obtained from: Publisher

Read: November 16, 2016

1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her "little problem" taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister. 1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the "Queen of Spies", who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose. Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth... no matter where it leads.

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Do you know what happens when one of your favorite authors leaves her usual stomping grounds and tackles your favorite period of world history? First, you geek out like the nerd you are. Then worry sets in and you start to psyche yourself out over whether or not the novel will live up to your inflated expectations. After that, you vacillate back and forth between the two. This continues until you actually get opportunity to read the book and are put out of your misery. I know because that’s exactly what happened when I discovered Kate Quinn was writing about World War II.

It was horrible. The highs and lows of my anticipation put Tim Curry to shame, but I was offered an unexpected reprieve in the form of a simple blue ARC. My copy lacked the author’s notes and the attractive jacket, but the story was there and that was all I needed. I inhaled the book in single sitting and then, just because I could, I read it again. I didn’t take notes on the first pass which is unusual for me. I intended to, but my infamous notebook was actually blank when I finished the final page and looking back, I’m glad I didn’t write my review then and there as my thoughts on my first read were remarkably different than those on my second.

Quinn’s signature humor was abundant, but the rhythms of The Alice Network are very different than those of her earlier works. I was confused by that on my first pass, but I grew a deep appreciation for it on my second. I loved the characters, Eve, Lili, and Finn had me rolling on floor more often than I care to admit, but the thematic ideas Quinn played with over the course of the novel felt larger and more comprehensive than anything I’d seen from her before.

I was tickled by the appearance of a Legonda LG6, but the car itself was a superficial detail that could have been dropped into any story. The fabric of the narrative, however, speaks to a much deeper understanding of the period than the car and/or cover description suggests. Half the narrative takes place during World War I while the other unfolds just after World War II. Anyone who has studied the politics will tell you the two conflicts are intrinsically related, but as a fan of war era fiction, I can attest that few authors attempt to illustrate the relationship in a single narrative. Though she avoids deep diving into the political side of things, Quinn treats the two wars as continuing chapters in the lives and experiences of her cast and while I’m not sure every reader will appreciate the subtle nuance, I was personally very impressed with the thematic parallel.

I freely admit that some portions of the narrative are slower than others. In terms of tension, Quinn’s work can’t be compared to spy novels like Code Name Verity, but the personal journeys and conflicts faced by each character offer a different sort of intrigue. There are moments, carefully scattered throughout the story, that leave one on edge of their seat, but it is the characters and how they are shaped by their experiences that captivates the imagination.

Would I recommend the book? Whole-heartedly and without hesitation. I expected this novel to be well-written and I expected an exhaustive level of research to be evidenced in the final product. Quinn delivered on both, but she also managed level of creativity, depth and authentic human emotion that caught me entirely off guard.

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"It is my job to find people with certain skills - the ability to speak French and German, for example. The ability to lie. Outward innocence. Inward courage. To find them and put them to work, ferreting out what the Boches have planned for us. I think you show potential, Miss Gardiner. So, let me ask: do you wish to stand for England?"

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The Pearl and the Carnelian by Annabel Fielding

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: October 3, 2016

Britain, 1934. Hester Blake, an ambitious girl from an industrial Northern town, finds a job as a lady's maid in a small aristocratic household. Despite their impressive title and glorious past, the Fitzmartins are crumbling under the tribulations of the new century. In the cold isolation of these new surroundings, Hester ends up hopelessly besotted with her young mistress, Lady Lucy. Fragile and enthralling, Lucy can weave fascinating stories like a spider weaves her web. Armed with shrewd wits and an iron will to match, she is determined to carve out a new life for herself. They are drawn to each other as kindred spirits, eager to take advantage of the new opportunities the world has to offer. Moreover, soon Hester gets to accompany Lady Lucy on her London Season, and readily plunges herself into the heady mix of passion, art and excitement of the glittering city. However, there are plenty of dark undercurrents swirling beneath the majestic imperial capital. The country is rife with discontent, and radical political movements are growing in influence day by day. There is a controversy, surrounding the new dictatorships of Europe, and struggles are breaking out in the press as well as in the streets. The hushed whispers of yet another war are still rare, but the battle for hearts and minds has already started, and Lucy's talent can be employed for very sinister ends. Meanwhile, Hester seems to be harboring some secrets of her own... 

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Annabel Fielding’s The Pearl and the Carnelian took hold of my imagination the moment I stumbled over it. I was captivated by the originality of the plot description and jumped for joy when I landed an ARC of the narrative for review through Netgalley. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm was short lived and I can’t bring myself to give the novel more than two stars.

The politics of the story are fascinating and I genuinely appreciate Fielding’s eye for subject matter, but I found the tone of the telling monotonous and simply couldn’t get into the story. The sluggish pacing didn’t help and I spent the bulk of the narrative wondering when something was going to happen. I kept telling myself the story would take off in the next chapter, but that moment next came and I finished the last page feeling deflated and disappointed with the experience.

The characters were not bad, but they didn’t stand out in my mind. They lacked spirit and seemed to go through the motions. They hit all their marks, but there was no life or intrigue in their make-up and I found it different to engage in their individual story lines. I wanted to like them, but they lacked that spark that makes a character jump from the page.

Fielding has an obvious passion for the period and made great use of the detail, but the execution left something to be desired. I found the information dumps difficult to navigate and was confused when scenes shifted to feature various members of the supporting cast. Despite its potential, the story didn't leave an impression on me and I can’t see myself recommending the book to other readers down the road.

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 East End crawled under her skin, mixing with her blood. It was a fitting place for her, as she recognized now - sometimes with humour, sometimes with bitterness. The age-old place for the alien, the disreputable, the unwanted.

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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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The Girl and the Sunbird: A Beautiful, Epic Story of Love, Loss and Hope by Rebecca Stonehill

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: August 11, 2016

A haunting, heartbreaking and unforgettable novel of a woman married to a man she can never love, and drawn to another who will capture her heart forever... East Africa 1903:When eighteen year old Iris Johnson is forced to choose between marrying the frightful Lord Sidcup or a faceless stranger, Jeremy Lawrence, in a far-off land, she bravely decides on the latter. Accompanied by her chaperone, Miss Logan, Iris soon discovers a kindred spirit who shares her thirst for knowledge. As they journey from Cambridgeshire to East Africa, Iris’s eyes are opened to a world she never knew existed beyond the comforts of her family home. But when Iris meets Jeremy, she realizes in a heartbeat that they will never be compatible. He is cold and cruel, spending long periods of time on hunting expeditions and leaving Iris alone. Determined to make the best of her new life, Iris begins to adjust to her surroundings; the windswept plains of Nairobi, and the delightful sunbirds that visit her window every day. And when she meets Kamau, a school teacher, Iris finds her calling, assisting him to teach the local children English. Kamau is everything Jeremy is not. He is passionate, kind and he occupies Iris’s every thought. She must make a choice, but if she follows her heart, the price she must pay will be devastating. 

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I should have listened when a good friend of mine warned me off Rebecca Stonehill’s The Girl and the Sunbird: A Beautiful, Epic Story of Love, Loss and Hope, but I’m a stubborn mule and forged ahead anyway. Unfortunately for me, my friend was entirely correct in her assessment. The book didn’t suit my tastes and proved rather disappointing in my eyes.

The trouble started early when I noted the author’s tendency to tell more than she showed. It grated my nerves and I was frustrated that Stonehill seemed to expect me to simply accept Iris as she was described by her fellows. To be perfectly blunt, I found little to no evidence to substantiate the claims on Iris’ character. She didn’t seem real and I found it impossible to generate genuine empathy or interest in her or her experiences as the story moved on.

The same concept applies to the romantic and marital relationships Iris engages in. Emotions and feelings she was meant to harbor are firmly stated, but poorly illustrated and I think that went a long way in undermining the authenticity of each affair. I wanted to believe her sentiments sincere, but here again I felt force fed material that was largely unsupported.

I liked the general themes of the story, but the duration of the narrative and large gaps in the timeline made the underlying messages difficult to appreciate. Key plot points were wholly predictable and I couldn’t understand the multitude of narrators. Iris was the central figure of the story and I felt the rotating voices distracting and often irrelevant.

I can’t say The Girl and the Sunbird was a complete wash, there were moments I liked and East Africa proved an interesting setting, but the story wasn’t my cup of tea and I’m not sure I’ll be reading this author again.

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Is this your way of apologising, for trying to make up for the neglect, the rage and the pain you have inflicted upon me? And as the tears silently stream down my face, I think, It is too late for this. It is far, far too late.

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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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Time and Regret by M.K. Tod

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 8, 2016

When Grace Hansen finds a box belonging to her beloved grandfather, she has no idea it holds the key to his past—and to long-buried family secrets. In the box are his World War I diaries and a cryptic note addressed to her. Determined to solve her grandfather’s puzzle, Grace follows his diary entries across towns and battle sites in northern France, where she becomes increasingly drawn to a charming French man—and suddenly aware that someone is following her... Through her grandfather’s vivid writing and Grace’s own travels, a picture emerges of a man very unlike the one who raised her: one who watched countless friends and loved ones die horrifically in battle; one who lived a life of regret. But her grandfather wasn’t the only one harboring secrets, and the more Grace learns about her family, the less she thinks she can trust them.

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Time and Regret is M.K. Tod’s third novel. I’ve both of her earlier releases and was eyeing her latest long before it was made available for review. WWII is my usual stomping ground, but I find myself increasingly fascinated with the Great War and, as such, couldn’t help bumping Time and Regret to the top of my TBR when Lake Union Publishing granted my request for an ARC.

The book impressed me on a number of levels, but I was floored by Tod’s illustration of a woman trying to move forward after an unexpected divorce. By coincidence, I intimately understood a lot of Grace’s insecurities and I was both impressed and appreciative of the authenticity Tod managed to convey in her make-up. Trends favor young, confident women, but Tod chose to feature a woman with relatable life experience and I think her novel stronger for it.

Secrets buried in letters and diaries are war lit clichés, but I really liked how Tod used Martin’s service memoir in Time and Regret. The volume contains many surprising revelations about Martin’s experiences at the Front, but I felt the way he repurposed it to convey his final wishes to Grace gave interesting insight into both his character and the relationship he shared with his granddaughter. I am used to relatives discovering the letters and diaries after the fact, but I found Martin’s active role as ‘game master’ refreshingly engaging.

Cynthia was a difficult character for me, but I grew to appreciate her very deeply in the end. I’m not used to seeing grandmothers portrayed as difficult, but here again I found myself applauding Tod’s unconventional approach. She threw stereotypes out the window and created a very unique personality in Cynthia and I like how the revelations into her character led me to believe different things about her character at different points in the narrative.

The climax of the novel was entertaining in its way, but I felt the intensity and emotion faded in the final chapters. I don’t mean to sound critical, but I appreciated those elements more than the mystery surrounding the paintings and while I liked how the story ended, I would have favored a more emotive conclusion. That said I greatly enjoyed the time I spent with this piece and would definitely recommend it to my fellow readers.

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If the newspapers reported the truth, if they wrote about the mud and filth and the body parts littering the ground and how young men look old before their time, would we still be here?

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Mary Ann Cotton - Dark Angel Britain's First Female Serial Killer by Martin Connolly

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: August 3, 2016

A female thief, with four husbands, a lover and, reportedly, over twelve children, is arrested and tried for the murder of her step-son in 1872, turning the small village of West Auckland in County Durham upside down. Other bodies are exhumed and when they are found to contain arsenic, she is suspected of their murder as well. The perpetrator, Mary Ann Cotton, was tried and found guilty and later hanged on 24 March 1873 in Durham Goal. It is claimed she murdered over twenty people and was the first female serial killer in England. With location photographs and a blow by blow account of the trial, this book challenges the claim that Mary Ann Cotton was the ‘The West Auckland Borgia’, a title given to her at the time. It sets out her life, trial, death and the aftermath and also questions the legal system used to convict her by looking at contemporary evidence from the time and offering another explanation for the deaths. The book also covers the lives of those left behind, including the daughter born to Mary Ann Cotton in Durham Goal.

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*** NOTE: It should be understood that the title of this piece is somewhat misleading as Mary Ann Cotton was not Britain's First Female Serial Killer. For more information on her predecessors, please click here. 

Mary Ann Cotton - Dark Angel Britain's First Female Serial Killer by Martin Connolly looked interesting from the start. I’m fascinated with true crime stories and female serial killers aren’t exactly common, so I requested an ARC and was pretty excited when a copy of the book landed in my inbox. Unfortunately, for me though, that enthusiasm was short lived.

In the introduction, Martin notes that he chose to write this biography/case study in response to queries he received after publishing The Potted History of West Auckland. He explains that Mary Ann’s story generated a lot of interest and he felt compelled to put together a more complete picture of her life. That’s great and quite generous in a way, but I think this admission has a lot to do with the difficulties I experienced while reading Connolly’s finished work.

I’d never heard of Mary Ann Cotton, but the author was catering to an audience who had and that disconnect impacted my experience. I didn’t understand the basics of the case and long story short, I found Connolly’s narration intensely difficult to navigate. The author jumps about the timeline on the assumption that his audience knows all the players, understands the crime, and has a general awareness of how events will unfold.

I ended up supplementing my reading with a fair amount of virtual research just to finish the book and found myself thinking the finished book more trouble than it’d been worth. The material is interesting, but I felt much of its power lost in the telling and would have difficulty recommending this one to all but ardent enthusiasts.

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"I am convinced that my children were poisoned. I suspected it at the time, but I did not want my mind to dwell on the subject. They were healthy and strong, and only ill a few days before they died. Any time she gave them anything they vomited, and were sick and purged."

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The Memory of Us by Camille Di Maio

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: June 2, 2016

Julianne Westcott was living the kind of life that other Protestant girls in prewar Liverpool could only dream about: old money, silk ball gowns, and prominent young men lining up to escort her. But when she learns of a blind-and-deaf brother, institutionalized since birth, the illusion of her perfect life and family shatters around her. While visiting her brother in secret, Julianne meets and befriends Kyle McCarthy, an Irish Catholic groundskeeper studying to become a priest. Caught between her family’s expectations, Kyle’s devotion to the church, and the intense new feelings that the forbidden courtship has awakened in her, Julianne must make a choice: uphold the life she’s always known or follow the difficult path toward love. But as war ripples through the world and the Blitz decimates England, a tragic accident forces Julianne to leave everything behind and forge a new life built on lies she’s told to protect the ones she loves. Now, after twenty years of hiding from her past, the truth finds her—will she be brave enough to face it?

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The wasn't much question about whether or not I'd read Camille Di Maio's The Memory of Us. I'm such a WWII junkie that I was sold the minute I saw 'Blitz' in the jacket description and rest as they is say, is history. 

Inspired by the song Eleanor Rigby, The Memory of Us chronicles the life of Julianne Westcott and the love she holds for a young man named Kyle McCarthy. It's not much of a war story, but the conflict is a key component of the narrative and I ultimately appreciated how the author used it to propel the plot. 

The book is a slow starter and the entire novel is bittersweet, but I think it a solid debut just the same. I liked Julianne and Kyle enough to wonder how their story would end and there were a couple of very genuine moments that captured some deeply authentic and personal emotions.

That said, I wish the novel had been structured differently. I don't mean to sound impertinent, but Jane Bailey captured my attention the moment she entered the story and I can't help feeling the novel would have been stronger if it had been told through her eyes as she uncovered the clues and unraveled the secrets that haunt Julianne.

The Memory of Us is not the most excited novel I've tackled this year, but it proved a pleasant read just the same and I'd definitely recommend it alongside Letters from Skye and The Last Telegram.

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I hadn’t set foot in a church since that Christmas morning when I became somebody else. The condemned don’t have any need for religion.

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Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Obtained from: Local Library

Read: July 28, 2016

It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and to two orphaned Russian brothers, whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war, conscription and revolution. In a plot of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall Of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.

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I can't really say what kept me from picking up this behemoth when it came out, but Ken Follett's Fall of Giants never demanded my immediate attention. I stumbled over it here and there, but it wasn't until I saw the audio edition available for check out through Overdrive that I really considered tackling the title.

I wont lie, Fall of Giants is long, the story lines are unbalanced, the cast is unusually large, the characterizations are not complex, and many of the individual arcs are not satisfactorily concluded by the final page. That said, the book is not about any one person, it is about an intense period of time, a few short years that changed the course of human history, and in that light I feel the novel an indisputable success.

A fully comprehensive snapshot would be impossible to create, but Follett's representation is the next best thing. He captures the experiences of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and social standing and pairs it with the political, international, and social issues that dominated their lives. The end result is an intensely personal and multifaceted illustration of both WWI and the Russian Revolution.

Follett's work is meticulously researched, but his ability to deftly weave together the stories and experiences of five families against such a massive and immersive backdrop sets Fall of Giants apart. It's intimidating as hell to look at, but if anyone ever asked if I would endorse it, my answer would be an immediate and enthusiastic yes.

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“It was a sunny day in early summer, and he could hear birdsong. In a nearby orchard that had so far escaped shelling, apple trees were blossoming bravely. Men were the only animals that slaughtered their own kind by the million, and turned the landscape into a waste of shell craters and barbed wire. Perhaps the human race would wipe itself out completely, and leave the world to the birds and trees, Walter thought apocalyptically. Perhaps that would be for the best.”

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Begun by Time by Morgan O'Neill

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 10, 2016

In 1945, a man disappeared into thin air... In the final days of World War II, Catherine Hastings meets the man she wants to marry. Flight surgeon Jonathan Brandon isn't just handsome - he's everything Catherine could hope for in her betrothed. But her dream of a happily ever after is shattered when Jonnie disappears shortly before their wedding... leaving Catherine bereft, broken-hearted, and with a lifetime of unanswered questions. Arthur Howard is smitten with the lovely Catherine the moment he sees her. He's certain he's found the woman he wants to marry. Yet behind Catherine's sparkling green eyes is a haunted look - the look of a woman who has known loss. But can he love a woman who still grieves the loss of her fiancé? Now Arthur wants answers about the man Catherine intended to marry. But the truth about Jonnie's disappearance is far stranger than fiction...

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Yeah... no. Morgan O'Neill's Begun by Time didn't work for me. I've a penchant for WWII lit and jumped into the novel without thinking twice, but I made it only a few chapters before realizing I'd picked up something I wasn't going to enjoy.

My first issue was the characterizations or more accurately, the lack there of. Cookie cutter character drive me up the wall and there was simply no depth to Catherine, Jonathan or Arthur. They appeared to be going through the motions, but there was nothing genuine about their sentimentalities which made it incredibly difficult for me to buy into the relationships they were meant to experience.

My second issue was the structure of the novel. The story unfolds chronologically, but as a reader I found the presentation awkward. Why bother to illustrate the relationship between Catherine and Jonathan when you intend to rip them apart? It's a bloody waste of ink, especially since anyone who has read the blurb knows their wedding never takes place. Honestly, the book should have started with Arthur meeting Catherine and followed their relationship as he sought to unravel the mystery that haunts her heart.

Last, but not least, is the lack of historic detail. Begun by Time is an exceedingly light piece and that's well and good for those who appreciate vague references, but I favor meatier pieces with extensive worldbuilding and calling an end to the greatest conflict of the twentieth century with little more than "It is unconfirmed as yet, and there are no details, but Germany announced late last night that Hitler is dead" didn’t pack the punch I was looking for.

I’d no real interest in reading The Thornless Rose prior to picking up its prequel, but I’m definitely not interested now and can’t say I see myself recommending Begun by Time to my fellow readers.

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Time. She suddenly realized how it had affected her, how her journey with Arthur was begun by time itself. Begun by time. Yes. And always meant to be.

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Lost Destiny: Joe Kennedy Jr. and the Doomed WWII Mission to Save London by Alan Axelrod

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Local Library

Read: July 30, 2016

On August 12, 1944, Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., heir to one of America's most glamorous fortunes, son of the disgraced former ambassador to Great Britain, and big brother to freshly minted PT-109 hero JFK, hoisted himself up into a highly modified B-24 Liberator bomber. The munitions he was carrying that day were fifty percent more powerful than TNT. Kennedy's mission was part of Operation Aphrodite/Project Anvil, a desperate American effort to rescue London from a rain of German V-1 and V-2 missiles. The decision to use these bold but crude precursors to modern-day drones against German V-weapon launch sites came from Air Corps high command. Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle, daring leader of the spectacular 1942 Tokyo Raid, and others concocted a plan to install radio control equipment in "war-weary" bombers, pack them with a dozen tons of high explosives, and fly them by remote control directly into the concrete German launch sites—targets too hard to be destroyed by conventional bombs. The catch was that live pilots were needed to get these flying bombs off the ground and headed toward their targets. Joe Jr. was the first naval aviator to fly such a mission. And—in the biggest manmade explosion before Hiroshima—it killed him. Alan Axelrod's Lost Destiny is a rare exploration of the origin of today's controversial military drones as well as a searing and unforgettable story of heroism, WWII, and the Kennedy dynasty that might have been.

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I'm not gonna beat around the bush here and I'm not going to apologize for my bluntness either. I was hugely disappointed with Alan Axelrod's Lost Destiny: Joe Kennedy Jr. and the Doomed WWII Mission to Save London and feel the eleven and half hours I spent listening to the audio largely wasted.

Axelrod did a marvelous job chronicling Operations Anvil and Aphrodite, but his coverage of the famous face that graces the jacket is nothing short of laughable. The mission, it's purpose and development are illustrated in minute detail, but the man himself features in less than 30% of the text. Looking back, I wish the author had written solely about the operations and listed Kennedy as little more than a tragic pilot, but it's also occurred to me that Joe Jr. was tacked on to this manuscript to capitalize on name recognition and artificially inflate sale numbers.

I'll grant the book has merit for those interested in exhaustive detail regarding WWII aviation, developing technologies, weaponry, and bomb testing, but those looking for information on Kennedy's war experience best look elsewhere.

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But there was no way to know all this as the V-1s rained down and as London, among other cities, waited in dread for assault by the even deadlier V-2s. So the Allied bombers flew, and so Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and the other men of Aphrodite and Anvil prepared to lay down theirs lives to save the citizens of London and the other English towns.

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Days of Sun and Glory by Anna Belfrage

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: June 14, 2016

Adam de Guirande has barely survived the aftermath of Roger Mortimer’s rebellion in 1321. When Mortimer manages to escape the Tower and flee to France, anyone who has ever served Mortimer becomes a potential traitor – at least in the eyes of King Edward II and his royal chancellor, Hugh Despenser. Adam must conduct a careful balancing act to keep himself and his family alive. Fortunately, he has two formidable allies: Queen Isabella and his wife, Kit. England late in 1323 is a place afflicted by fear. Now that the king’s greatest traitor, Roger Mortimer, has managed to evade royal justice, the king and his beloved Despenser see dissidents and rebels everywhere – among Mortimer’s former men, but also in the queen, Isabella of France. Their suspicions are not unfounded. Tired of being relegated to the background by the king’s grasping favourite, Isabella has decided it is time to act – to safeguard her own position, but also that of her son, Edward of Windsor. As Adam de Guirande has pledged himself to Prince Edward he is automatically drawn into the queen’s plans – whether he likes it or not. Yet again, Kit and Adam are forced to take part in a complicated game of intrigue and politics. Yet again, they risk their lives – and that of those they hold dear – as the king and Mortimer face off. Once again, England is plunged into war – and this time it will not end until either Despenser or Mortimer is dead. Days of Sun and Glory is the second in Anna Belfrage’s series, The King’s Greatest Enemy, the story of a man torn apart by his loyalties to his lord, his king, and his wife.

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I didn’t think twice about picking up Anna Belfrage’s Days of Sun and Glory. I’ve read all of Blefrage’s other books and I enjoy her style and tone a great deal. I feel that her stories strike a nice balance between fact and fiction and the depth of her research shows an obvious passion for the history on which her work is based, but it is her representation of people that always stands out in my mind. As an author, she puts a lot of effort into illustrating individuals and the relationships they share with others and I think that brings something very special to her books.

Adam de Guirande is one half of Belfrage’s leading couple, but if I’m entirely honest, I enjoyed his arc more than any other. He suffers a crisis of divided loyalties and his sentiments and allegiances place both himself and his family in politically precarious positions. He is forced to make hard choices and his actions have rippling consequences that are most often shared by his wife, Kit. Maybe it’s just me, but I find something very authentic in that and I appreciate Belfrage for capturing it as she does on the page.

Isabella also stood out to me. I’ve seen Isabella of France portrayed many ways, but I feel that Belfrage’s interpretation really capitalizes on Isabella’s she-wolf reputation. The is a fundamental fire and innate ferocity in Isabella that sets her apart from other women in the narrative and while I appreciate the historical parallel this illustration creates, I love the idea that Isabella’s nature was as challenging for her allies and it was her enemies. Here again, I recognized a very realistic association and reveled in the genuine conflict it created within the fabric of the novel.

The last character I want to mention is Cassandra. She enjoys a smaller supporting role, but she intrigued me nonetheless. Like Isabella, she boasts an abundance of confidence and daring, but her application of those strengths lead her to a very different end and I thought that contrast incredibly interesting. That said, she is a remarkably self-serving creature without compunction of any kind and her lack of scruples makes her incredibly dangerous. She exemplifies a darker reality and I think there is a lot of merit in exploring those concepts and motivations as there is in emphasizing the good.

I don’t mean to downplay the historic context of the narrative as I feel Belfrage’s recreation of the political conflicts that plagued Edward II’s reign truly impressive. I simply appreciate the human qualities her characterizations bring that conflict and how her presentation and approach guides her readers through turmoil of the era. Her style gives depth and emotion to the dramatic power struggle and invites her audience to experience it in a truly unique way.

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“… with his jaw set, his eyes narrowed into piercing blue shards, her prince no longer looked like an untried youth – he looked like the future king he was destined to be. A king coerced into taking part in a venture he did not approve of, and someday those that forced him would pay. She crossed herself, praying that she would be nowhere close to either the queen or Lord Mortimer when that happened.” 

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Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Obtained from: Local library

Read: July 19, 2016

Oct. 11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? 

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Phenomenal. There's a word I don't use lightly, but there is no other way to describe Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity. I hate sounding like a gushing fan girl, but the young adult surprised me in the best possible way. There are light notes, but the story itself is tempered by the dark realities of WWII and the end result truly remarkable.

Much has been said about the 2012 release, but few reviewers have mentioned Wein's characterizations. Verity, Maddie, Engel, and Millitrette are all strong in different ways. These women defy convention, but not one among them rejects their femininity and I think that an incredibly powerful message. I often see woman painted as homemakers or tomboys and I was profoundly moved to see an author reject conventional tropes in favor of something genuine, multidimensional, and authentic.

That said, Verity stands as a very special character. In contrast to most authors, Wein doesn't shove her headliner's savvy down the throats of her audience in some Sherlock Holmes inspired expositional display of pseudo-intellectualism. In a rather ingenious move, Wein puts everything on the table from the very beginning, hiding Verity's intellect and brass in plain sight while she directs attention toward other elements of the narrative. The end result is subtle, but indisputably brilliant.

Historically speaking... well, I'm not sure I want to go into too much detail on that account. Suffice it to say Wein doesn't hold back. I'm not sure that the description of torture, execution, and death are appropriate for every reader, but I personally thought the author's decision not to hold back intensely admirable considering the subject matter. History loses its value when we downplay the parts we don't care to consider and I think novels like this help those lessons alive through honest and unfiltered illustration of human history.

I didn't know what to expect when I picked up Code Name Verity, but the title proved an intense and complex narrative that vividly recreates the intensity of the era. An absolute must read for one and all.

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“But I have told the truth. Isn't that ironic? They sent me because I am so good at telling lies. But I have told the truth.”

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The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 24, 2016

Raised in a poor yet genteel household, Rachel Woodley is working in France as a governess when she receives news that her mother has died, suddenly. Grief-stricken, she returns to the small town in England where she was raised to clear out the cottage...and finds a cutting from a London society magazine, with a photograph of her supposedly deceased father dated all of three month before. He's an earl, respected and influential, and he is standing with another daughter-his legitimate daughter. Which makes Rachel...not legitimate. Everything she thought she knew about herself and her past-even her very name-is a lie. Still reeling from the death of her mother, and furious at this betrayal, Rachel sets herself up in London under a new identity. There she insinuates herself into the party-going crowd of Bright Young Things, with a steely determination to unveil her father's perfidy and bring his-and her half-sister's-charmed world crashing down. Very soon, however, Rachel faces two unexpected snags: she finds she genuinely likes her half-sister, Olivia, whose situation isn't as simple it appears; and she might just be falling for her sister's fiancé...

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I've eyed Lauren Willig's novels for a long time, but The Other Daughter marks my first real experience with her work. I read The Record Set Right, the short Willig contributed to Fall of Poppies, but there's a world of difference between an anthology submission and a full length narrative. It's apples to oranges really, but that's neither here nor there.

I listened to the audio edition of The Other Daughter and I think it safe to say the format colored my experience. Nicola Barber's voice isn't poor, but I wasn't thrilled with her performance. The inflections she employed for each individual character drove me up the wall. The male cast members suffered more than their female counterparts, but I felt led and I didn't like how Barber's interpretations pigeonholed each of Willig's characters.

The plot itself also challenged me. I prefer meatier stories and the trials faced by Miss Rachael Woodley lacked the sort of intrigue that captures my imagination. Don't misunderstand, it's a fun narrative, overflowing with lighthearted humor and smart literary references, but Willig's London is dressed to the nines, encrusted in jewels, and positively drowning in champagne. The mysteries at the heart of the novel felt petty and the motivations behind them vague and coincidental. The reveal lacked the punch I craved and I ultimately felt rather indifferent over the lack of deliberate antagonism in the story. 

Perhaps I picked the wrong novel or selected the wrong format, but The Other Daughter didn't work as well as I hoped and while I'm happy to have sampled it, I am not chomping at the bit to get into the Pink Carnation series. 

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"No sin is original, no matter what the bright young things may hope. We're all merely playing to a theme."

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Rosa's Gold by Ray Kingfisher

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 11, 2016

Nicole Sutton’s world has been turned upside down. Sixteen and suffering the fallout of a devastating family tragedy, she is forced to move away from her London home to the quiet town of Henley—and a new life she never wanted nor expected. In the dusty cellar of her strange new house, Nicole stumbles upon a worn old journal left behind by a previous occupant. Inside, through the eyes of a soldier named Mac, she finds herself drawn into a brutally honest memoir of the horrors of war and Auschwitz—and of the life and love Mac had to leave behind. The more Nicole reads, the more she is able to make sense of her own troubles. Because Mac’s story is so much more than a journal: it is the story of a family fighting for survival in the darkest days of humanity, of hope in the face of persecution. And then there’s the buried gold...

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I was optimistic going into Ray Kingfisher’s Rosa’s Gold, but the reality didn’t live up to my expectations. I don’t mean to imply that my opinion trumps anyone else’s because it doesn’t, but I’m not gonna lie, I expected more from a book with one hundred four and five star ratings. A lot more.

The lack of character development grated my nerves and I was bitterly disappointed with the passionless relationship between Mac and Rosa. I’m sorry, but a couple of chaste kisses does not an epic romance make. Structurally speaking, the novel was all over the place and the plot really doesn’t get around to the gold until the final fourth of the narrative. That’s right folks, the novel’s primary plot point is tagged on like an afterthought in the final chapters. Why? I don’t know, the decision made as much sense as introducing a third narrator, one Mrs. Belotti, in the thirty-seventh of thirty-nine chapters, but that’s just my opinion. 

I’m not gonna get on my soapbox about Nicole’s annoyingly infantile parents, but I will stay that I didn’t care for the contemporary story line. Nicole’s experience hardly qualifies as a compelling arc and I don’t consider her an active participant in the narrative. I suppose one could argue, that much like Bastian in The Neverending Story, but while Nicole bears witness, she doesn’t stand up to anything in the end, she merely stands up and I don’t think that’s quite the same thing. 

My last issue, or at least the last I feel the need to mention, is continuity. In the jacket description and on pages eight, twenty-eight, and thirty, Nicole is sixteen years of age. On page sixteen, one hundred nine, two seventy-one, two seventy-two, and two seventy-eight, she is seventeen. I’ll grant it’s a minor detail, but I noticed it just the same and I can’t help wondering how many other continuity issues I’d have found I’d been actively hunting them. I mean no offense, but how is the reader supposed to keep the details straight if the narrative contracts itself? And yes, I checked my ARC edition from Lake Union against the one currently available through Amazon Digital Services, and the same errors exist in both. My ARC also lacks the usual disclaimer for unedited manuscripts which leads me to believe the book is ready for release and any comment on the editing failures is fair game.

At the end of the day, Rosa’s Gold simply didn’t suit my tastes. I’m happy to have tried it, but I don’t see myself recommending it to other readers down the road. 

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I wonder whether they took that idea and twisted it into ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ – the words erected across those dark, threatening gates like a mantra to the suffering masses. Was it a mantra? Was it prayer? Or was it there merely to taunt those people that little bit more? Either way, ‘twisted’ is the correct word; everything in that horrid place in those horrid times was twisted in one way or another.

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The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by Pam Jenoff

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: May 24, 2016

Young Adelia Monteforte flees fascist Italy for America, where she is whisked away to the shore by her well-meaning aunt and uncle. Here, she meets and falls for Charlie Connally, the eldest of the four Irish-Catholic boys next door. But all hopes for a future together are soon throttled by the war and a tragedy that hits much closer to home. Grief-stricken, Addie flees—first to Washington and then to war-torn London—and finds a position at a prestigious newspaper, as well as a chance to redeem lost time, lost family…and lost love. But the past always nips at her heels, demanding to be reckoned with. And in a final, fateful choice, Addie discovers that the way home may be a path she never suspected.

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Pam Jenoff has been one of my go-to writers for a while. I always enjoy the time I spend with her stories and I think that is why I put off reading The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach for as long as I did. I’d flagged it as a comfort read and kept it in my back pocket to distract me when I found myself in rough patch.

The story surprised me in many ways. I found it slower than Jenoff's other novels, but it is a story of self-discovery so the pacing was actually quite appropriate to the action. Adelia Monteforte is a young girl when Jenoff introduces her and it takes years for her to experience the events that shape the woman she becomes. It is a process that unfolds as she enters each new phase of her life and I liked how Jenoff structured the story to emphasize that idea. 

Another thing I like about this piece was how it highlighted America’s pre-war years. Europe was a world away and the United States didn’t really understand the magnitude or fear experienced by those on the other side of the Atlantic. I know the era through my own research, but I appreciated Jenoff’s effort at illustrating the naivety that existed in America and showing her audience how blissfully unaffected the average American was prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 

The heart of the story, however, is the idea of family, the roles each individual plays in it, how those roles change over time, and how they play into the choices we make as adults. It’s a subtle idea with no flashy bells and whistles, but it’s elegant and moving nonetheless. It takes a while to get there of course, the narrative spans a handful of countries over a period of years, but there a sense that it comes full circle in the end and I liked how everything came into focus in the final chapters. 

The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach is a heartfelt coming of age novel of love and renewal. It’s not the heaviest historical I ever read, but I’d definitely recommend it to readers of period romance and/or women’s fiction. 

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“Running doesn’t make the pain stop. You take it with you.”

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