The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 8, 2016

Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbours treacherous. And there are clues to the past - a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds - that her husband refuses to discuss. Just as Gwen finds her feet, disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice, hiding the truth from almost everyone, but a secret this big can't stay buried forever...

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Book reviewers are typically solo acts. We pick our books, read our selections, post our thoughts and repeat. We obviously enjoy it, but a lot of us crave debate and discussion when analyzing literature which is what led a small group of my friends and I to commit to a buddy read.

The selection process, as you might imagine, was rather amusing. Four book junkies, rifling through their TBRs, submitting title after title in hope that something would spark mutual interest. It took us a couple of days, but The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies trumped every other submission. In recognition of our busy schedules, we committed to reading a few chapters a week and planned to open the floor for discussions every Friday. We started strong, but somewhere along the way our little group lost their momentum and the discussions trailed off. Evidence of our effort is available on Goodreads if you care to look and while I’ve yet to discuss the particulars with any of my fellows, I have a few theories as to why seemingly struck out.

Subtly isn’t something I’m known for so I’m just gonna come out and say it, The Tea Planter’s Wife is tediously slow. ‘Just keep reading’ became my mantra as I doggedly forced myself through the latter half of the narrative, but making the finish line awarded me no satisfaction. In point of fact, finishing the book made the experience even worse. When I stalled after chapter nineteen, I could speculate over the grand revelations that might be delivered in final climatic chapters… having finished the book, I can’t erased or reimagine the feeble culmination of Gwen’s experiences or the crushing sense of disappointment that was left in its wake.

Each member of the cast enjoys a moment or two of genuine intrigue, but taken as a collective whole Jefferies’ characterizations struck me as exceedingly thin. Every time I thought I was connecting with someone, that individual would either disappear from the narrative or sink into an extended period of self-pitying introspection. My eyes would glaze over, I’d groan, debate abandoning the book, berate myself for considering the notion, let fly a decidedly British expletive and force myself to keep going, but I suppose that admission is neither here nor there in the scheme of things.

Thematically, I felt Jefferies presentation insightful, but heavy-handed. Race relations in Ceylon are an integral part of Jefferies’ story, but I felt the Hoopers were forced into awkward situations in order for the author to explore social tensions of the day. The couple is preoccupied with their personal and professional lives for chapters at a time, far removed from the common Tamil and Sinhalese inhabitants of their community, but their existence is unnaturally punctuated by prejudice and while I appreciated what the author was trying to convey, I couldn’t help feeling the final product fractured and incohesive.

As stated, I can’t speak for Heather, Stephanie or Magdalena, but I personally struggled a great deal with The Tea Planter’s Wife. I did not enjoy the time I spent with this piece and would have great difficulty recommending it to other readers.

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The truth in return for his life. It would be an exchange, a bargain with God, and even if it meant losing everything, she must confess or otherwise watch her son die.

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The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 7, 2016

The highly anticipated new standalone novel from Martin Cruz Smith, whom The Washington Post has declared “that uncommon phenomenon: a popular and well-regarded crime novelist who is also a writer of real distinction,” The Girl from Venice is a suspenseful World War II love story set against the beauty, mystery, and danger of occupied Venice. Venice, 1945. The war may be waning, but the city known as La Serenissima is still occupied and the people of Italy fear the power of the Third Reich. One night, under a canopy of stars, a fisherman named Cenzo comes across a young woman’s body floating in the lagoon and soon discovers that she is still alive and in trouble. Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Giulia is on the run from the Wehrmacht SS. Cenzo chooses to protect Giulia rather than hand her over to the Nazis. This act of kindness leads them into the world of Partisans, random executions, the arts of forgery and high explosives, Mussolini’s broken promises, the black market and gold, and, everywhere, the enigmatic maze of the Venice Lagoon. The Girl from Venice is a thriller, a mystery, and a retelling of Italian history that will take your breath away. Most of all it is a love story.

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The phrase “highly anticipated” should set off warning bells, but I ignored my misgivings and jumped at Martin Cruz Smith’s The Girl from Venice. I’m a WWII junkie and have absolutely no restraint when considering literature set against the conflict, but looking back, I wish I’d have listened to my gut and passed on the narrative.

Please excuse my assessment, but Smith’s character development felt remarkably thin. As a reader, I couldn’t connect to a single member of the cast which made it intensely difficult to care how their stories turned out. I appreciated the brisk pace of the story, but I felt the individuals themselves were clichéd and forgettable.

Factually there are a few interesting points peppered throughout the narrative, but creating an atmosphere and transporting his readers wasn’t Smith’s priority. The Girl from Venice is first and foremost a mystery and at the end of the day, I feel the piece best suited to fans of that genre. The novel happens to take place during WWII, but when push comes to shove, it lacks the depth and detail I associate with good historic fiction.

At the end of the day I can't say I was particularly impressed with The Girl from Venice and I don't think I'll be recommending it to others any time soon. If failed satisfy any of my expectations and left no impression whatsoever.

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He hadn’t studied her in the light before. She was imperious, with straight hair and a sharp chin. Cenzo thought that if he could see the world with her eyes, it would be a place where your death was on a list. The girl came with ghosts.

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Cover Clichés: Scarlet Serenity

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

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

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In Oxford’s Bodleian Library, Elizabeth Staveley has found a fragment of ancient paper that may hold the key to a story hidden for four centuries: a British sea captain’s daughter held captive in the sultan’s harem.

Constantinople, 1599. In the sultan’s palace, the chief eunuch has been poisoned by a beautiful ship made of spun sugar, and a rebellion is rising within the palace’s most private quarters. A British merchant, Paul Pindar, brings a precious gift to the sultan and discovers that the woman he once loved, Celia, may be alive, hidden among the ranks of slaves in the sultan’s harem. Can this really be his shipwrecked Celia? And if it is, can they be reunited?

Steeped in mystery and sexual intrigue, The Aviary Gate transports readers to exotic sixteenth-century Constantinople, offering the rarest glimpse into the forbidden confines of the sultan’s harem.

Transporting readers to the menacing yet majestic world of eighteenth-century Turkey, biographer and Middle East expert Janet Wallach brilliantly re-imagines the life of Aimee Dubucq, cousin of Empress Josephine, in her first novel Seraglio.

At the age of thirteen, when en route from France to her home in Martinique, Aimee Dubucq is kidnapped by Algerian pirates. Blonde and blue-eyed, the genteel young girl is a valuable commodity, and she is soon placed in service in the Seraglio - the Ottoman Sultan’s private world - in Topkapi Palace. As Dubucq, renamed Nakshidil ("embroidered on the heart") discovers the erotic secrets that win favor of kings and deftly learns the affairs of the empire, she struggles to retain her former identity, including her Catholic faith. Overtime Nakshidil becomes the intimate of several powerful sultans: wife to one, lover and confidante to another, and adoptive mother to a third. Her life often treads the tenuous line between sumptuous pleasures and mere survival until her final years when she is awarded control of the harem as the valide, mother of the Sultan.

With phenomenal research and a mesmerizing voice, Janet Wallach provides a powerful and passionate glimpse of East-West history through one woman’s distinctly European eyes.

The bestselling author of A Natural History of the Senses now explores the allure of adultery, the appeal of aphrodisiacs, and the cult of the kiss. Enchantingly written and stunningly informed, this "audaciously brilliant romp through the world of romantic love" (Washington Post Book World) is the next best thing to love itself.

For centuries her name has been a byword for feminine beauty, guile, and wisdom. This sweeping, meticulously researched novel restores Esther to her full, complex humanity while reanimating the glittering Persian empire in which her story unfolded. Esther comes to that land as a terrified Jewish orphan betrothed to her cousin, a well-connected courtier. She finds a world racked by intrigue and unfathomable hatreds and realizes that the only way to survive is to win the heart of its king. Passionate, suspenseful, and historically authentic, The Gilded Chamber illuminates the dilemma of a woman torn between her heart and her sense of duty, resulting in pure narrative enchantment.

A guerra entre Absolutistas e Liberais está ao rubro quando Vicente Maria Sarmento retorna a Chão de Couce, após receber a notícia da morte do pai. Mas esse regresso tem um sabor duplamente amargo; em Lisboa, onde viveu os últimos anos, Vicente Maria pertenceu a um bando de salteadores e esteve preso no Limoeiro, donde só saiu por obra e graça dos malhados, que assaltaram a cadeia para libertar os partidários de D. Pedro. Antes de seguir para casa da mãe, para sossego do corpo e do espírito, Vicente Maria dirige-se para a Venda do Negro, acabando a noite nos braços da puta Tomásia, que nunca esqueceu e a quem promete casamento e vida honesta.

Contudo, o seu regresso reacende na vila antigos ódios e paixões e os seus inimigos estragam-lhe os planos. Não lhe resta, pois, senão juntar-se a um novo grupo de bandidos, esperando que as pilhagens lhe rendam o bastante para se pôr a milhas dali com a amada. Quem também se vê em apuros é D. Miguel, atacado por todos os lados, a quem as vénias dos corcundas já de nada servem.

Projectado o assalto a uma família de fidalgos ricos em viagem, é numa curva da estrada que o bando intercepta uma carruagem, sem saber que os destinos de Portugal se jogam nesse preciso instante. E é pela ousadia de Vicente Maria que, afinal, se alterará o rumo da História, embora os livros injustamente o omitam.

Com uma linguagem poderosa e um humor digno da melhor literatura picaresca, o presente romance é uma homenagem aos heróis anónimos que ajudaram a construir as respectivas nações e um fresco sublime das lutas liberais.

Set in the late 19th century, in the remote northern outreaches of the British Indian empire, Shalimar is an epic love story set amidst the lush Kashmir mountains and the intrigue of the Great Game. Emma Wyncliffe is a disaffected, 23- year-old British woman living with her family in Dehli. She is fiercely independent, willful, and intelligent. It is not until her younger brother, a soldier in the Northern forces, suffers heavy debts, that Emma is forced into a marriage to Damien Granville, a man with dangerous secrets who is rumored to be a spy. It is Emma's search for the truth, and Emma's search for love, that comprise the narrative of this grand novel set along India's fabled Silk Road -- the trade route between the West and China.

It’s said if you want to succeed, watch successful people and do what they do. Simply Irresistible is a humorous manual of case studies that show how the greatest sirens of history did what they did and got what they wanted, nearly all the time. Our role models-many of whom are still weaving their charms today- include Eva Peron, Greta Garbo, Coco Chanel, Nigella Lawson, Angelina Jolie, Edith Piaf, Lucretia Borgia, Anne Boleyn, Mata Hari, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Simply Irresistible gives practical, sexy, and sometimes downright outrageous advice on modern seduction. It exalts the siren archetypes of the Companion, Competitor, Goddess, Mother, and Sex Kitten. The cheeky histories of the iconic real-life women are paired with a fun array of quizzes, quotes, photos, tongue-in-cheek captions, and personal stories of triumph and tragedy. (Mata Hari and Anne Boleyn were, after all, both executed.) The wisdom of these famous sirens is fleshed out with the contributions of everyday, lesser known charismatic women. The conclusion? All women have an inner siren-the ability to bring men to their knees-just waiting to come out. Now they’ll know how.

Sofia is just a young woman in 1562 when she is kidnapped by corsairs and sold into captivity in the great Ottoman Empire. As manipulative as she is ambitious, Sofia vows that her future will hold more than sexual slavery in the great harem of the sultan. Rich in passion, history, and human experience, Sofia will transport readers to another time and place.

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

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

The Alchemist's Daughter by Mary Lawrence

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 1, 2016

In the year 1543 of King Henry VIII’s turbulent reign, the daughter of a notorious alchemist finds herself suspected of cold-blooded murder... Bianca Goddard employs her knowledge of herbs and medicinal plants to concoct remedies for the disease-riddled poor in London’s squalid Southwark slum. But when her friend Jolyn comes to her complaining of severe stomach pains, Bianca’s prescription seems to kill her on the spot. Recovering from her shock, Bianca suspects Jolyn may have been poisoned before coming to her—but the local constable is not so easily convinced. To clear her name and keep her neck free of the gallows, Bianca must apply her knowledge of the healing arts to deduce exactly how her friend was murdered and by whom—before she herself falls victim to a similar fate...

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Mary Lawrence’s The Alchemist’s Daughter has been on my TBR longer than I care to admit. I received an ARC in 2015, but only got round to picking it up this summer. The premise intrigued me, but for one reason or another the book never demanded my immediate attention.

Interestingly, my sentiments have not been altered by actually reading the novel. I mean no offense, but the telling struck me as rather bland. The mystery unfolded in a loosely related series of events, but it lacked the tension and urgency I crave. I pieced it all together early on and spent most of the book waiting for the characters to catch up and the author to deliver her point. Unfortunately, the climax fell flat and I was left wondering why I’d bothered sticking it out.

Character development was thin beginning to end, but I was intensely frustrated with Bianca. The attitudes of Lawrence’s heroine struck me as anachronistic and I was frustrated by the depth of her scientific understanding which seemed to exceed the capacities of the day. I was also annoyed with how irrelevant the story felt when all the details came to light. I don’t want to give anything away, but Bianca Goddard and Jolyn Carmichael seemed removed from much of the drama and I couldn’t help feeling they were minor characters in the affair.

Looking back, the only aspect I truly appreciated was Lawrence’s descriptions of life in under Henry VIII’s rule. This is not Gregory’s glittering court or Mantel’s political pit of vipers. Bianca and her fellows live in London’s rat infested streets and though I know the graphic descriptions wont appeal to everyone, I personally applauded the author for daring to incorporate such vulgar realities into her narrative.

There are now three Bianca Goddard Mysteries and while I liked The Alchemist's Daughter well enough, I do not think I’ll be continuing the series. I’ll certainly recommend it to fans of Tudor era fiction, but personally I need a little more meat in my mysteries and don’t think I’ll find it here.

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Times like this required resourcefulness and calm. Unfortunately, both had escaped her. The thought of rats chewing her apart renewed her calls for help, and she banged and kicked the door until her thin leather boot wore through and her toes ached. She considered setting the door on fire, but what if it asphyxiated her before it burnt down? Well, at least she’d be dead when the rats gnawed her bones.

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The Other Einstein: A Novel by Marie Benedict

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: April 29, 2016

A vivid and mesmerizing novel about the extraordinary woman who married and worked with one of the greatest scientists in history. What secrets may have lurked in the shadows of Albert Einstein’s fame? His first wife, Mileva “Mitza” Marić, was more than the devoted mother of their three children—she was also a brilliant physicist in her own right, and her contributions to the special theory of relativity have been hotly debated for more than a century. In 1896, the extraordinarily gifted Mileva is the only woman studying physics at an elite school in Zürich. There, she falls for charismatic fellow student Albert Einstein, who promises to treat her as an equal in both love and science. But as Albert’s fame grows, so too does Mileva’s worry that her light will be lost in her husband’s shadow forever.

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Albert and Mileva Einstein, 1912

I feel like the only reader who wasn’t wholly enthralled by Marie Benedict’s The Other Einstein, but if I’m entirely honest, the novel didn’t draw in me as I’d hoped. I give Benedict a lot of credit for highlighting a lesser known individual, but the mechanics of the novel weren’t fully developed and the actual conflict came so late in the narrative that I’d all but given up hope of its delivery.

The relationship between Albert and Mileva takes center stage in the narrative, but I never felt it a true partnership. The whole thing felt distinctly one-sided and I often found myself frustrated with Mileva for allowing herself to be so marginalized for so little emotional and/or professional return. I couldn’t understand what Mileva saw in Albert which made Benedict’s emphasis of their union rather awkward. The issue was exacerbated further by Benedict’s interpretation of Albert. The famed scientist is difficult at best, but her portrayal is so far from his cultural legacy that it alienates those with any sort of appreciation for him.

Another thing I struggled with was the science behind the story. Both Albert and Mileva are supposed to have been brilliant, but Benedict shies away from the intricacies of their studies and profession. The unfortunate reality is that interest in the novel is vested in the couples’ command of physics, but I didn’t feel that Benedict effectively related those principles to her audience within the context of the narrative. Her characterizations did not carry convincing authority and that fact made their movements difficult to appreciate and credit.

Finally, I had trouble with Benedict’s themes. The injustices Mileva faced are extraordinary, but Benedict’s presentation is nothing short of suffocating. Mileva is the innocent victim of social prejudices, sexism, and an abusive husband. Each illustration punctuates her suffering, but the episodes occur with such frequency that I became numb to them and I don’t think that spoke to the author’s intention.

I feel Benedict’s story well-meant, but I would have liked to see a more coherent narrative structure, more complex character dynamics, more detailed scientific expositions, and less heavy-handed motifs. The Other Einstein is an ambitious story and one that is more than worth looking into, but Benedict’s effort struck me as rough around the edges and while I would recommend it, I’d caution my fellow readers to take the narrative with a grain of salt.

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We will be four professional women with busy lives of our own, here in Switzerland with its tolerance of women, intelligence, and ethnic peoples. We will have one another and our work; we need not follow the traditional path.”

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The Scarlet Queen by Jacqueline Farrell

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Obtained from: Netgalley

Read: July 1, 2016

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Cover Clichés: Mourning Lace

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

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

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Artist Alison Schuyler spends her time working in her family’s renowned art gallery, determined to avoid the curse that has followed the Schuyler clan from the Netherlands to America and back again. She’s certain that true love will only lead to tragedy—that is, until a chance meeting at Waterloo station brings Ian Devlin into her life. Drawn to the bold and compassionate British Army captain, Alison begins to question her fear of love as World War II breaks out, separating the two and drawing each into their own battles. While Ian fights for freedom on the battlefield, Alison works with the Dutch Underground to find a safe haven for Jewish children and priceless pieces of art alike. But safety is a luxury war does not allow. As time, war, and human will struggle to keep them apart, will Alison and Ian have the faith to fight for their love, or is it their fate to be separated forever?

Amidst the strange, silent aftermath of World War II, a widow, a poet, and a doctor search for lasting peace and fresh beginnings in this internationally acclaimed, award-winning novel.

When Anikka Lachlan’s husband, Mac, is killed in a railway accident, she is offered—and accepts—a job at the Railway Institute’s library and searches there for some solace in her unexpectedly new life. But in Thirroul, in 1948, she’s not the only person trying to chase dreams through books. There’s Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war, but who has now lost his words and his hope. There’s Frank Draper, trapped by the guilt of those his medical treatment and care failed on their first day of freedom. All three struggle to find their own peace, and their own new story.

But along with the firming of this triangle of friendship and a sense of lives inching towards renewal come other extremities—and misunderstandings. In the end, love and freedom can have unexpected ways of expressing themselves.

The Railwayman’s Wife explores the power of beginnings and endings, and how hard it can sometimes be to tell them apart. Most of all, it celebrates love in all its forms, and the beauty of discovering that loving someone can be as extraordinary as being loved yourself.

Four years on from discovering their true heritage, Sally and Luke have overcome their animosity to forge a trusting brother- sister relationship. So when Luke returns home from his post as a detective in the Hong Kong police force, he asks Sally for help to prove the innocence of his friend Irish, locked up in prison for the murder of his wife. Luke believes Irish was set up and wants Sally's help to prove it. But Sally already has her hands full. As well as tending her flourishing business empire, she must also pick up the pieces when her family - from her feckless sister Josie to her self-centred daughter Margo - runs into trouble. Moreover, she must put her own dreams on hold because the man she loves is not free to be with her. Facing betrayal and humiliation at the hands of her so-called loved ones, can Sally bring herself to forgive those who have wronged her? How can she help Luke? And what can she do when sorry is not enough?

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

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