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?

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

Worth Fighting For by Mary-Anne O'Connor

Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: August 2, 2016

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

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

*** 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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

"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."

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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?

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

Cover Cliché: Coquettish Conversation

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

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

 ═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

The Paris Wife meets Into Thin Air in this breathtaking debut novel of obsession and divided loyalties, which brilliantly weaves together the harrowing story of George Mallory's ill-fated 1924 attempt to be the first man to conquer Mount Everest, with that of a single day in the life of his wife as she waits at home in England for news of his return. 

A captivating blend of historical fact and imaginative fiction, Above All Things moves seamlessly back and forth between the epic story of Mallory's legendary final expedition and a heartbreaking account of a day in the life of Ruth Mallory. Through George's perspective, and that of the newest member of the climbing team, Sandy Irvine, we get an astonishing picture of the terrible risks taken by the men on the treacherous terrain of the Himalaya. But it is through Ruth's eyes that a complex portrait of a marriage emerges, one forged on the eve of the First World War, shadowed by its losses, and haunted by the ever-present possibility that George might not come home. 

Drawing on years of research, this powerful and beautifully written novel is a timeless story of desire, redemption, and the lengths we are willing to go for honour, glory, and love.

In this evocative and meticulously detailed novel about the last romance of one of America's greatest literary couples, R. Clifton Spargo crafts an exhilarating portrait of the passionate yet tragically dysfunctional relationship between F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

In 1939 Scott is living in Hollywood, a virulent alcoholic and deeply in debt. Despite his relationship with gossip columnist Sheila Graham, he remains fiercely loyal to Zelda, his soul mate and muse. In an attempt to fuse together their fractured marriage, Scott arranges a trip to Cuba, where, after a disastrous first night in Havana, the couple runs off to a beach resort outside the city. But even in paradise, Scott and Zelda cannot escape the dangerous intensity of their relationship.

In Beautiful Fools, R. Clifton Spargo gives us a vivid, resplendent, and truly human portrait of the Fitzgeralds, and reveals the heartbreaking patterns and unexpected moments of tenderness that characterize a great romance in decline.

Set against the lush, exotic European colonial outposts of the 1920s, New York Times bestselling author Deanna Raybourn delivers the captivating tale of one woman who embarks upon a journey to see the world—and ends up finding intrigue, danger and a love beyond all reason. 

Famed aviatrix Evangeline Starke never expected to see her husband, adventurer Gabriel Starke, ever again. They had been a golden couple, enjoying a whirlwind courtship amid the backdrop of a glittering social set in prewar London until his sudden death with the sinking of the Lusitania. Five years later, beginning to embrace life again, Evie embarks upon a flight around the world, collecting fame and admirers along the way. In the midst of her triumphant tour, she is shocked to receive a mysterious—and recent—photograph of Gabriel, which brings her ambitious stunt to a screeching halt. 

With her eccentric aunt Dove in tow, Evie tracks the source of the photo to the ancient City of Jasmine, Damascus. There she discovers that nothing is as it seems. Danger lurks at every turn, and at stake is a priceless relic, an artifact once lost to time and so valuable that criminals will stop at nothing to acquire it—even murder. Leaving the jewelled city behind, Evie sets off across the punishing sands of the desert to unearth the truth of Gabriel's disappearance and retrieve a relic straight from the pages of history. 

Along the way, Evie must come to terms with the deception that parted her from Gabriel and the passion that will change her destiny forever...

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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

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

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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

“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.”

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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...

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════

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.

═══════════════════════════ ❧  ═══════════════════════════