A Triple Knot by Emma Campion
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 9:27 AM
Set in the England of the Middle Ages, this is the true story of a couple in love who refused to be parted by political forces and differences in rank. Joan, Countess of Kent, the niece of King Edward III of England, was very unusual for her era.
Joan, who was considered quite a beauty in the middle ages, fell in love for all the right reasons with Sir Thomas Holland. He was, unfortunately, much older than she, and he was also below her in rank. This match was challenged, and she was forced into a second, loveless marriage to another nobleman who was chosen by the men in her life who used her as a political tool. Her second husband and her cousin, The Black Prince, all refused to allow her to return to Sir Thomas, who was, in reality, her legal husband.
This novel depicts her prolonged emotional, political, and legal struggles with both her second husband and with her cousin, the heir to the throne, Edward, the Black Prince, neither of whom wanted her to return to Sir Thomas because both of them wanted her.
The characters are richly developed and complex. The setting is described in exquisite detail and at a careful pace, which builds suspense as Joan fights to claim the legitimacy of the marriage to her one true love. While history has conflicting accounts of Joan’s affections, Emma Campion does an outstanding job to portray an image of Joan that will leave even non-historical readers clamoring for more.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 2:58 PM
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 10:56 AM
“He is a young man with a future of power and opportunity and we are young women destined to be either wives and mothers at the very best, or spinster parasites at the worst.”
“The Boleyn Inheritance” is a fine historical novel. Philippa Gregory, the author, uses an interesting narrative device to tell the story of two of Henry VIII’s queens, Anne of Cleves and the clueless and luckless Catherine Howard. The story is told in brief vignettes from the eyes of three women: Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Jane Boleyn.
Like the other books in the series, the details that Gregory puts into the Tudors’ era and the characters are magnificent. In this book, you have three different protagonists. Jane Boleyn has lots of remorse about her past and what she did to her husband and his sister. Yet she is still thirsty for wealth and plotted with her uncle to push another Howard girl in Henry’s way. Young Katherine Howard, on the other hand, is so naïve and portrayed as childish and sometimes dumb. Still, one can’t help but feel sorry for the fate she was sent to. This shows Henry’s cruelty and how he did not spare this fifteen-year-old girl whom he used. Anne of Cleves must have ended being the luckiest and the most clever one of them as she recognized Henry’s madness and understood that it was better for her to get away from him.
Gregory’s ability to blend her extensive historical knowledge with imagination makes another great read. Her telling of history through the eyes of the women at Henry’s court brings the period alive, and the different voices coming through add enormously to our understanding of what it must have been like to live through this dangerous era.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 3:46 PM
Book Wrap Up August
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 10:10 AM
The Girl in the Tree by Şebnem İşigüzel (✫✫✫)
Unusual style with a powerful message of a young woman struggling for self-discovery amidst an oppressive government. An unlikely love story provides an attentive ear. I liked this book but found myself confused by the way the author jumped backward and forwards and I could barely figure out what was current!
The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale (✫✫✫)
Well written, although slightly disjointed in places, the author has captured the mind of a young woman in a terrible predicament for the times, has introduced a very different theme of fireworks to run through the book, and the outcome was unexpected, which I enjoyed most.
Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan (✫✫✫✫)
I enjoyed this book. It gives insight into the formation and change of Communist China from 1950 until 2005. The author does this through the eyes of a man forced to be reborn several times as different animals. It also gives an unusual depiction of Chinese customs and myths. This book had a feeling of reality and authenticity. I found it to be an excellent read.
Where the Light Falls by Allison Pataki (✫✫✫✫)
“Where the Light Falls” is a splendid tale set against the backdrop of the French Revolutions. The novel successfully evokes all the fear and terrors of the time. It is a tale of two men - their lives become irretrievably interwoven because of their circumstances and family. A rivalry turns to hatred and escalates as the story unfolds.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 3:04 PM
“The kind of place one could not love without effort, and yet, she understood now, the only place on the face of the whole earth that she herself loved.”
A beautiful story of family, love, pain, and miracles. The story takes through three generations. From an abandoned child to his children and grandchildren and the people that they loved.
There was not one minute that I wasn’t interested in Amedeo Esposito, his family, and their life on Castellamare, a five-mile island off the coast of Sicily, so small that your neighbors know things about you before you do.
Amedeo was an orphan, a foundling who was helped along the way in Florence by a caring doctor. He comes to the island in 1914 when he is 40 years old to take the position of island Doctor, but seeking a place he could call home and the life he has longed for. He finds that home and that life when he marries Pina and together they build a family and a business in the cafe/bar The House at the Edge of the Night. But life on the island is not always idyllic. People are not perfect and it is Amedeo himself who creates some scandal on the island. There are wonderful characters you will love, with a couple of exceptions among the inhabitants of Castellamare. A place isolated from the modern world, immune to most of what happened outside of, but not the changing tides in Italy. The outside world creeps in as the sons are called to war.
Because it takes place over several generations, the island is touched by war, famine, and general political unrest but there’s also a bit of magic in the way certain things fall into place for the citizens that make the book a pleasure rather than a harrowing experience.
For a book that includes so many characters and events and such an enormous shift in time, Catherine Banner does an exemplary job of developing everything and not leaving the reader feel like anything was untangled or left unexamined. Because the book is so vast, the reader does not have time to “live with” one main character, but the richness of the story makes up for that.
Delightful, captivating, and decidedly romantic, I loved reading about the life of the Esposito family, as well as the other inhabitants of Castellamara, with its intrigue, feuds, and perpetual gossip.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 3:50 PM
Girl on the Golden Coin: A Novel of Frances Stuart by Marci Jefferson
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 9:59 AM
Set between 1661 and 1688, at the height of the Restoration in Great Britain, the rule of Charles II, the novel is narrated by English noblewoman Frances Stuart. Frances is part of a group of exiled English royalists holed up in France, serving the Queen Mother there while hoping for an invitation to join the court in England. When her great beauty attracts the attention of King Louis XIV, she becomes a pawn in a greater political struggle for power, as both Louis and the Queen Mother essentially ordered her to become mistress to Charles II.
I loved Frances. Though she is subject to the demands of her family and of her king, she is no simpering milksop. She is so poised, so strong, so prescient in her ability to see through any situation to the core that it seems as if she really must have been as Ms. Jefferson portrays her to have been able to capture and hold the estimation of not only her king but her fellow countrymen as well. And since we are privy to her inner thoughts, we get to witness her struggle with balancing the demands on her; we get to witness those private moments when her poise and graciousness fall away, where she’s simply a daughter desperate to protect her family, simply a woman in love caught in a web of political maneuvering that never allows her to throw caution to the wind and reach for her happiness.
The writing and prose are outstanding- no one would ever guess this is Marci Jefferson’s first novel. Events are timely and developed with care and well-researched historical points- plus, the story is so entertaining. There’s no dragging here to get to the essence of what’s going to happen. The story moves flawlessly and keeps you hooked until the very end. I was touched by several parts of this book and particularly enjoyed the fresh take on the characters of some of the other well-known historical figures.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 9:10 AM
Envy by Anna Godbersen
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 10:48 AM
“He was a mystery to her, and every time she tried to solve him it caused her a little more pain. But when she tired to give him up he pursued her in her thoughts, stronger each time.”
Envy, the third book in Anna Godbersen’s Luxe series, picks up just a couple of months after Book Two left off: Penelope has snagged Henry, Elizabeth is mourning the loss of the love of her life, and Diana’s determined to go on with her own life now that Henry’s unavailable. Mix in former maid Carolina, and several misunderstandings, and you’ve got the stage for intrigue, gossip, and backstabbing that makes this series so wonderful.
Her characters still sit at the top of the world but are now living with the consequences of their choices. Hope for love and personal happiness is swiftly vanishing, along with the cash they all require to continue living their lavish lives. I rooted for Diana and Elizabeth to find happiness in their lives and I felt the anguish at their circumstances. There was so much deception by all the characters and they all eventually suffered the consequences of those deceptions and of their choices. Through the lies, secrets, and scandals, you just want to keep reading and reading!
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 10:14 AM
