Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

This is the first book in a new trilogy.  It covers Marie Antoinette's life from when she was a pre-teen until she first became Queen of France.  She was raised with her brothers and sisters by the empress of Austria.  Her real name was Maria Antonia.  She knew that she would eventual be married off somewhere as her mother's political pawn but she had no idea that it would start at the tender age of ten.  

Her mother summoned her and told her that she was to be betrothed to the Dauphin of France.  Soon after that representatives of King Louis XVI started flooding in to assess Marie to see if she could indeed become the Dauphine of France.  They picked apart just about everything about her.  Her teeth weren't perfect, her hair, her posture, her education, and the list went on.  She had to endure braces for her teeth, a brace for her posture, numerous painful gadgets in her hair, etc.

Then, once she gets to court she finds a teenage boy who acts even younger than his years is her husband.  She is expected to start having babies right away but he is unable to consecrate their marriage.

Juliet Grey does not skimp on any detail, no matter how small.  I found myself getting bored in several parts of the book because of this.  Some of the details were important and interesting like what she had to endure with getting braces for her teeth and the torture she had to endure to get her hair just right.

The characters were well written.  I really enjoyed Maria's relationship with her sister, Charlotte.  Grey weaved a sympathetic  and compassionate relationship between Marie and her awkward husband. 

Though there are other books out there that deal with Marie in her earlier years, I hadn't read any before this.  Despite the parts that dragged, I did find this book worthwhile.  Will I read the next book in the trilogy?  I'm not sure at this point.

3/5

Cross posted at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time, where I am currently hosting a giveaway of this book.  Go here, to win.

BBAW Nomination

We would like to thank everyone who nominated us for Best Historical Fiction Book Blog. These are the links we submitted:

Susanna Kearsley The Winter Sea Discussion

Why I think the Plantagenets Trump the Tudors by Anne Easter Smith

Lauren Willig's Books of a Lifetime

Book review: The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

Book review: the Iron King by Maurice Druon

Upcoming release: By The King’s Design

Strong-willed Annabelle Stirling is more than capable of running the family draper shop after the untimely death of her parents. Under her father's tutelage, she became a talented cloth merchant, while her brother Wesley, the true heir, was busy philandering about Yorkshire. Knowing she must change with the times to survive, Belle installs new machinery that finishes twice the fabric in half the time it takes by hand. But not everyone is so enthusiastic.

Soon, riled up by Belle's competitors, the outmoded workers seek violent revenge. Her shop destroyed, Belle travels to London to seek redress from Parliament. While there, the Prince Regent, future King George IV, commissions her to provide fabrics for his Royal Pavilion. As Belle's renown spreads, she meets handsome cabinetmaker Putnam Boyce, but worries that marriage will mean sacrificing her now flourishing shop. And after Wesley plots to kidnap the newly-crowned King-whose indiscretions are surfacing-she finds herself entangled in a duplicitous world of shifting allegiances.

Painting a vivid portrait of life in the British Regency, Christine Trent spins a harrowing tale of ambition, vengeance, love, and complex loyalties against the dynamic backdrop of the early Industrial Revolution.

By The King's Design by Christine Trent is to be released January 31, 2012. Meanwhile, you can visit the author's website and read an excerpt of her exciting new book.

Why I Love Etruscan Art by Elisabeth Storrs

Last year we posted this fabulous guest post from Elisabeth Storrs in celebration of the fact that her debut novel had been released in Australia. Unfortunately that made it difficult to obtain the book in other countries!

There is, however, good news! The Wedding Shroud is now available in ebook formats, and available world wide! In honour of this exciting development we are reposting Elisabeth's wonderful post on Etruscan Art.

If this post whets your appetite, head over to Elisabeth's website and click on the Buy Books link. (Please note that if you don't read e-books, Fishpondworld.com has free international postage, although beware - Australian books are expensive even without postage!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Funerary art seems a morbid source of inspiration but it was my discovery of an ancient sarcophagus that began my obsession with the art of a little known civilization and a ten year journey to write my novel, The Wedding Shroud.

Let me explain. Years ago I came across a photograph of a casket with a life size married couple reclining on their bed in a tender embrace.

Sarcophagus of the Married Couple, Cerveteri, Bandataccia Necropolis, C520 BC

‘ there was a smooth, round contentment to her as she sat upon a dining couch with her husband, head resting against his shoulder as he embraced her. Their happiness revealed by the curve of their lips and the ease of their touch…’ The Wedding Shroud

The impact upon me of finding a husband and wife depicted in such a way was profound. To understand this, I need to take you back to Classical times where Athens was a shining light for its democracy, philosophy, art and literature and where the nascent Republican Rome was still scrapping with its Latin neighbours to gain ascendancy in Italy.

At that time women were possessions of men. In Athens they were cloistered in women’s quarters. In Rome they were second class citizens restricted to rearing their children and household duties.

Roman women rarely ate with their men and could be killed with impunity by their husbands or fathers for committing adultery or just for drinking wine. They were given only one name, that of their father’s in feminine form, and when they died, their ashes were placed in a man’s tomb and they were not commemorated.

Knowing this put into context the extraordinary rendering of the couple on the sarcophagus and piqued my interest to discover who these people were with their distinctive almond shaped eyes and straight nose and brow. What kind of ancient society would portray both a man and a woman in such a sensuous pose? What appeared to be an exaltation of marital fidelity?

The answer led me to the Etruscans, a race that had lived in Italy from before archaic times and were located in the area we now know as Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio but whose influence spread throughout Italy, and whose trading interests extended across the Mediterranean.

My research revealed that, although recent archaeological digs are revealing more about the Etruscans, their civilisation has often been dubbed ‘mysterious’ because none of their literature has survived other than remnants of ritual texts. Most of what is known of the Etruscans from literary sources is from historians who wrote centuries after Etruria had been destroyed or from fragments of texts from contemporary travellers to their cities which were quoted by later historians. In effect, the victors (who came from societies which repressed women) wrote about the vanquished through the prism of their times and with all their prejudices intact.

To my delight I discovered that there was another source of information about the Etruscans - their fantastic art. Engraved mirrors, funerary sculpture and paintings as well as votives, furniture and utensils give us a glimpse into their world and, in turn, served as a rich vein of inspiration for episodes within my book.

Examination of tomb paintings clearly demonstrated that the Etruscans were as enlightened as the Athenians but there was one major difference - women were afforded independence, education and sexual freedom including the ability to dine with their husbands and drink wine. As a result they were considered wicked, decadent and corrupt by the rest of the ancient world.

‘… the women sat on their husband’s couches. These had headboards with deep mattresses piled high with pillows, more bedding than upholstery.’ The Wedding Shroud

Tomb of the Leopards, Tarquinia, early C5th BC

Etruscan women were also believed to hold positions as high priestesses and even conducted their own businesses. Inscriptions recorded that they were given two names, their maternal and paternal bloodlines clearly acknowledged. Some modern historians even go so far as to say that Etruria was a matriarchal society.

The Sarcophagus of the Married Couple was the first of many Etruscan artworks which was to inspire me as I delved into the history of these people. As I studied the vivid murals I was astounded at how these people seemed to have decanted beauty into paint, revealing their hedonistic world which was so different to that of their austere and self righteous neighbours, the Romans of the early Republic.

The paintings open up a world of Dionysian revels where the Etruscans indulged in ecstatic dancing while listening to lyre, double pipe and timbrel.

‘Musicians were playing … plucking strings, beating drums or trilling pipes. And it seemed the [Etruscans] captured the lilt of melody in their limbs even when no lyre or horn could be heard.’ The Wedding Shroud

Tomb of the Triclinium, Tarquinia, C470 BC

Their art also displays a mystical world where the art of prophecy had been raised to a science.

‘There was drama to his ministry. When he marked the sacred boundaries with his lituus, carried the patera of water around the altar, she could almost see the lines that divided holy from profane appear.’ The Wedding Shroud

Tomb of the Augurs, Tarquinia, C520 BC

In fact their tenets were set out in a series of sacred books that together formed the Etruscan Discipline, with its complex branches of haruspicy, divination and most fascinating of all, the interpretation of lightning. In fact, their priests predicted Etruria would end after ten sacred eras known as saecula and this appears to have come true. The Etruscans also believed that they could delay fate which became an essential plot component in my novel.

There was also a dark side to their worship. As their enemies slowly dominated their cities, the more life-affirming Dionysian religion was overtaken by a death cult preoccupied with the torments of the journey to the afterlife. This was reflected in their art which pictured the demons and monsters that awaited them in the Beyond.

‘Each of us is greeted at the gate of Acheron by demons that either guard or terrify us. They are servants of Aita, god of the dead.’ The Wedding Shroud

Francois Tomb, Vulci 350-330 BC

I wanted to write about these amazing people by comparing their culture to that of their Roman enemies. And that’s when I read the little known story of the war between Rome and Etruscan Veii. These cities were located only twelve miles apart across the Tiber, and it intrigued me that just by crossing a strip of water you could move from what was the equivalent of the Dark Ages into something similar to the Renaissance. So I created Caecilia, a young Roman girl from ‘virtuous’ Rome, who is married to an Etruscan nobleman, Vel Mastarna, to seal a truce. Caecilia is exposed to the ‘sinful’ Etruscan culture and must deal with conflicting moralities as she is slowly seduced by the freedoms granted to her by her husband’s decadent society.

Of course the scenes and historical accounts of sexual abandon seem at odds with the commitment also portrayed between Etruscan couples in funerary art. However, to me, the concept of a society that condones female promiscuity while also honouring wives and mothers is not necessarily contradictory. For while it can be erroneous to compare modern societies with ancient ones, it could be argued that this attitude to women occurs in many present-day Western cultures.

Images of a couple embracing or even being shown in sexual congress were common in Etruria. The sexual act and its connotations of fertility and regeneration were protection against the evil that might lurk after death. None is more powerful than the sarcophagus (my favourite) which inspired the title.

‘Lying on her side, she faced her husband, their arms encircling each other, swathed in their transparent wedding shroud and unconcerned that their bare feet were uncovered in abandon.’ The Wedding Shroud

Sarcophagus and lid with husband and wife
Italic, Etruscan, Late Classical or Early Hellenistic Period, Ponti Rotto Necropolis, Vulci 350—300 B.C.

Photograph Courtesy © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Here Thanchvil Tarnai and her husband, Larth Tetnies, lie naked beneath a mantle which I came to understand could be the large veil under which an Etruscan bride and groom were married. So, in effect, this husband and wife are lying for eternity under their ‘wedding shroud’ - an enduring, potent and touching image.

Etruscan art continues to absorb me, not only because of its beauty but because it is also open to interpretation due to the lack of substantial extant Etruscan literature. As a result, research also needs to be undertaken into the art of other contemporary cultures to establish a context when viewing them. There is also an opportunity for a writer not only to escape into their world but also to hypothesize on the meaning behind their artwork. Another reason why I love Etruscan art!

Elisabeth Storrs has long had a passion for the history, myths and legends of the ancient world. She graduated from the University of Sydney in Arts Law, majoring in English and having studied Classics. She lives with her husband and two sons in Sydney and over the years has worked as a solicitor, corporate lawyer, senior manager and company secretary and corporate governance consultant. Elisabeth's first novel, The Wedding Shroud, is set in early Rome and Etruria, and was researched and written over a period of ten years. It was released last September by Murdoch Books in Australia and New Zealand. She is currently writing the sequel which will be released by Pier 9 / Murdoch Books in 2012.

If you would like to see some more examples of Etruscan Art, please visit Elisabeth's website where you can view a book trailer, or at Youtube!

You can buy The Wedding Shroud online at many Australian bookstores such as http://www.booktopia.com.au/, http://www.dymocks.com.au/, http://www.fishpond.com.au/, or http://www.qbd.com.au/. If you have any trouble locating the book for sale, please email us at Historical Tapestry and Marg will do her best to find some links for you.

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin

Completion Date: July 19, 2011

Reason for Reading: Received review copy from Random House Canada.

In her national bestseller Alice I Have Been, Melanie Benjamin imagined the life of the woman who inspired Alice in Wonderland. Now, in this jubilant new novel, Benjamin shines a dazzling spotlight on another fascinating female figure whose story has never fully been told: a woman who became a nineteenth century icon and inspiration—and whose most daunting limitation became her greatest strength.

“Never would I allow my size to define me. Instead, I would define it.”

She was only two-foot eight-inches tall, but her legend reaches out to us more than a century later. As a child, Mercy Lavinia “Vinnie” Bump was encouraged to live a life hidden away from the public. Instead, she reached out to the immortal impresario P. T. Barnum, married the tiny superstar General Tom Thumb in the wedding of the century, and transformed into the world’s most unexpected celebrity.

Here, in Vinnie’s singular and spirited voice, is her amazing adventure—from a showboat “freak” revue where she endured jeering mobs to her fateful meeting with the two men who would change her life: P. T. Barnum and Charles Stratton, AKA Tom Thumb. Their wedding would captivate the nation, preempt coverage of the Civil War, and usher them into the White House and the company of presidents and queens. But Vinnie’s fame would also endanger the person she prized most: her similarly-sized sister, Minnie, a gentle soul unable to escape the glare of Vinnie’s spotlight.

A barnstorming novel of the Gilded Age, and of a woman’s public triumphs and personal tragedies, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb is the irresistible epic of a heroine who conquered the country with a heart as big as her dreams—and whose story will surely win over yours.

In a post stating new releases for the coming year, I saw mention of this book. It sounded different, so I knew I was going to have to give it a try. I had heard of Melanie Benjamin following the success of her debut novel, but this was my first time reading her. Can I just start with the gushing now? I loved this book! This is the story of Mercy Lavinia "Vinnie" Warren Bump, better known as the wife of General Tom Thumb, and her life and adventures. And what a life of adventures she had. Vinnie is a Little Person, but she never let her size hold her back. This book is amazing for what she accomplished in her life, but for the times it would have been equally as amazing if she was a woman of average height. She saw the world and did things that most women couldn't claim to have done.

I had no idea that Vinnie was a real person. I had never heard of her before, so I think Benjamin is doing her a great service by bringing attention to her once again. She loved the limelight and the attention, so I am sure even now she would be thrilled. In the notes at the back of the book, Benjamin points out that if Vinnie has been born nowadays, she would have been given growth hormone and likely been average height. Instead, she rose to fame by being a perfectly formed Little Person. She also a sister, Minnie, born with the same problem. When Vinnie married Tom Thumb (Charles Stratton), she was working for P.T. Barnum and he had a grand idea of her sister joining the show and four Little People traveling the world together. Minnie was not like her sister, but she grew up fast in this hectic lifestyle and would eventually die in childbirth.

Vinnie was a fascinating character. She was determined that her size would not define her -despite the fact she got her jobs because of her size in the first place. She thought her talent was important, too, so while the men that she worked for saw her size, she saw a crowd of people there to see her and a chance for her to shine. Her first employer was a terrible experience, but despite ups and downs she had a wonderful chance at a career with Barnum's crazy ideas. If she had never joined his show, Benjamin would probably not have even knew of her to write a book about her. He made her famous and the acquaintance of anyone that was anyone in the world she inhabited.

My enjoyment of this book is because I found Vinnie's life so interesting, but it is also because Benjamin captures everything so well. She obviously had to imagine in the details, but she did it in such a way that it seemed believable. You really could see Vinnie at the end of her life recording all that had happened to her. The world in which she inhabits really comes alive, too. Benjamin really did her research on the times and places that Vinnie encountered, but she also includes newspaper clippings to set the stage for what was happening in the larger world during these times. I thought that was a nice touch.

Overall an excellent book that will be finding a place on my best of list at the end of the year.

Thanks very much to Random House Canada for sending me this wonderful book! It counts for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

This review was cross-posted at The Written World.

The Legacy by Katherine Webb

The Legacy by Katherine Webb

Completion Date: August 3, 2011

Reason for Reading: Received a review copy from Harper Collins via NetGalley.

Following the death of their grandmother, Erica Calcott and her sister Beth return to Storton Manor, a grand and imposing house in Wiltshire, England, where they spent their summer holidays as children. When Erica begins to sort through her grandmother’s belongings, she is flooded with memories of her childhood—and of her cousin, Henry, whose disappearance from the manor tore the family apart.

Erica sets out to discover what happened to Henry—so that the past can be laid to rest, and her sister, Beth, might finally find some peace. Gradually, as Erica begins to sift through remnants of the past, a secret family history emerges: one that stretches all the way back to Oklahoma in the 1900s, to a beautiful society heiress and a haunting, savage land. As past and present converge, Erica and Beth must come to terms with two terrible acts of betrayal—and the heartbreaking legacy left behind.

I requested this book from NetGalley because I heard it was being compared to Kate Morton and Diana Setterfeld. I love both of those authors, so I knew I was going to have to try and read the book. The book shifts time periods from the early 1900s to closer to the present day. The early viewpoint is about a young woman that finds herself marrying a farmer. This leads to her leaving the big city of New York and taking up residence in the vast, empty spaces of Oklahoma. It is a huge adjustment for her, and one that she doesn't necessarily thrive in. There are a lot of problems for her along the way and it is not an easy time for her.

The other half of the book is told by this young woman's great-granddaughter. Erica and Beth's grandmother has died leaving them her large house, Storton Manor. The agreement is that either they decide to live in it together or they sell it. They have arrived just around the Christmas holidays to begin sorting through years of accumulated things. While there a young boy from their past reappears all grown up and adds to Erica's desire to figure out a secret from their past. She was there, but she has blocked things out. Beth knows the truth and it has been killing her slowly for years. She is depressed, anorexic, and there have been suicide attempts. Erica believes that if she figures out the secret of Cousin Henry it will help save Beth from guilt.

The novel switches back and forth between the two viewpoints. Erica is slowly getting to know her great-grandmother better through objects of hers still left in the house. It is apparent that Catherine was hiding a huge secret of her own. There is more than one skeleton in Storton Manors closets. The reader, though, knows the truth of Catherine's secret. Her young husband is tragically killed and part of her dies, too. She never fully recovers from the events of her first marriage. A marriage that is kept a secret when she goes to remarry so as to make her chances better. This second marriage is not a happy one and it further sinks Catherine into despair. She is not a very nice mother to her daughter and it will have repercussions through the generations.

I enjoyed this book. I have to admit that I had solved the mystery, but I still wanted to read on to make sure that I was right. I couldn't help feeling bad for Catherine. She had a tough life and she was largely misunderstood by the end of it. She lived to be very old and no one really knew her. There were too many secrets and part of her had been dead for many years. She was never able to fully recover and carried the love of her first husband until the day she died. It was a sad story-line. Then, you have Erica trying to solve all of the mysteries in her family. She fears that she is losing her sister and will do anything possible to get her back. I enjoyed reading about her rummaging in the attic and cleaning out the other rooms. That house had been in the family for many years, so there was plenty of time to collect a fair bit of treasures.

I think if you like elements from Kate Morton and Diane Setterfeld's novels, you will appreciate finding them in this book. It wasn't perfect, but it was enjoyable. It had a bit of a mystery to tie everything together and I felt that Webb captured the early 20th-century lifestyle very well. This was a good introduction to Katherine Webb and I look forward to more from her in the future because I imagine she will just get better.

This book counts for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

This review was cross-posted at The Written World.

Winners!

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winners for these two giveaways! I haven't been blogging or reading at all in the last week or so!

Without further ado.....

Congratulations to



Courtney from Stiletto Storytime!


who has won a copy of Before Versailles by Karleen Koen

and also to

Margaret from A Sampler of Stitches

who has won a Helen Hollick book from her Sea Witch series


An email will be on it's way to the winners shortly!

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Completion Date: July 10, 2011

Reason for Reading: Received a review copy of the 20th Anniversary Edition.

In Outlander, a 600-page time-travel romance, strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century, and a lover in another. Torn between fidelity and desire, she struggles to understand the pure intent of her heart. But don't let the number of pages and the Scottish dialect scare you. It's one of the fastest reads you'll have in your library.

While on her second honeymoon in the British Isles, Claire touches a boulder that hurls her back in time to the forbidden Castle Leoch with the MacKenzie clan. Not understanding the forces that brought her there, she becomes ensnared in life-threatening situations with a Scots warrior named James Fraser. But it isn't all spies and drudgery that she must endure. For amid her new surroundings and the terrors she faces, she is lured into love and passion like she's never known before.

I was lame and sore in every muscle when I woke next morning. I shuffled to the privy closet, then to the wash basin. My innards felt like churned butter. It felt as though I had been beaten with a blunt object, I reflected, then thought that that was very near the truth. The blunt object in question was visible as I came back to bed, looking now relatively harmless. Its possessor [Jamie] woke as I sat next to him, and examined me with something that looked very much like male smugness."

Gabaldon creates characters that you'll remember, laugh with, cry with, and cheer for long after you've finished the book.

Another reread! I don't reread a lot, so this is impressive. I had the chance to get the 20th Anniversary edition of this book from Random House Canada, so I decided now was the perfect time to revisit the book. I originally read the book back in 2006 and posted a review. That means it has been just over 5 years since I read the book last. I enjoyed my experience with it once again. It is not my normal sort of read to begin with, but there is enough other elements that I enjoy. I still have never read on in the series. I thought maybe after finishing the book for the second time I would feel compelled to; but I still think the first book ends satisfactory and have no burning desire to read on.

I am not even sure if there is much point saying much about this book. It has been around for 20 years and I have heard my fair share about it. I was happy to discover through my reread that while I remembered the basics of the story, there were still things that I felt like I was reading for the first time. I also had a different experience with the book this time. The first time I read it, I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting myself into. I am not a big fan of romance novels and that is pretty much what this is. I was a bit intrigued by the historical aspect, though, and the idea that there was time travel. This time, I knew that I loved it before and I was a bit worried it wouldn't hold true this time around. I am happy to report that I loved this book all over again and am excited I will have the 20th Anniversary Edition to read again in the future.

If you are one of the about 10 people that haven't read this book, you really should give it a try. It makes me wish I reread more often, but I know that will only last until I see a new book and my attention is drawn off into that direction. I still might read on in the series one day, but I am happy to have just read this book and loved it as much as I did.

My thanks to Random House Canada for sending me a copy of this book!

You can read an excerpt from this book here.

This review was cross-posted at The Written World.

The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

The Wild Rose is a part of the sweeping, multi-generational saga that began with The Tea Rose and continued with The Winter Rose. It is London, 1914. World War I looms on the horizon, women are fighting for the right to vote, and explorers are pushing the limits of endurance in the most forbidding corners of the earth. Into this volatile time, Jennifer Donnelly places her vivid and memorable characters:

•Willa Alden, a passionate mountain climber who lost her leg while summiting Kilimanjaro with Seamus Finnegan, and who will never forgive him for saving her life;

•Seamus Finnegan, a polar explorer who tries to forget Willa as he marries a beautiful young schoolteacher back home in England;

•Max von Brandt, a handsome German sophisticate who courts high society women, but has a secret agenda in wartime London.

Many other beloved characters from The Winter Rose continue their adventures in The Wild Rose as well. With myriad twists and turns, thrilling cliffhangers, and fabulous period detail and atmosphere, The Wild Rose provides a highly satisfying conclusion to an unforgettable trilogy.

Back in 2006 I read and adored the second book in the Rose trilogy by Jennifer Donnelly, The Winter Rose. Little did I imagine that it was going to be another five years before I finally go to read the conclusion to the trilogy. After all, at one stage there was a release date of May 2008 up at Amazon UK, and then it was changed to May 2009. When that date passed, I forced myself to only get excited when there was a definitely publishing date, and finally, finally that day has come.

The big danger of wanting a book so badly for a period of five years or more is that it will be very difficult for any book, no matter how much you like it, to live up to those expectations and that is what has happened with this book. While I liked it, it didn't quite live up to the label that I had given the book of the most anticipated release of 2011.

All the characters that we have come to know and love have returned in this final part of the Rose trilogy, along with some new ones. Fiona and Joe Bristow are back along with their children, especially their politically active daughter Katie. India and Sid drift in and out of the story particularly in the early part of the book (although I must say that for me Sid stole the scenes that he was in most of the time), but the main couple that is the focus of this particular episode of the saga are Seamie Finnegan and Willa Alden.

As individuals, Seamie and Willa are both somewhat daredevil. Seamie has been on polar expeditions and returned to London with great public acclaim, Willa lives an isolated life in the shadows of Mt Everest trying to put her life back together after the closing events that were covered in The Winter Rose. Seamie and Willa share a great passion for adventure, and for each other, but it seems that circumstances are destined to keep them apart.

If you are to take only one thing from this review, it should probably be that Jennifer Donnelly loves to absolutely torture her characters whether it be physically or emotionally and that is definitely true in this book. There are traitors and spies, betrayal, infidelity, physical danger, political and social upheaval, not to mention the involvement of characters in World War I.

One thing that Donnelly does do well is to involve many of the foremost figures of the day. Through the family's various connections the reader gets to "meet" characters such as Ernest Shackleton, Lawrence of Arabia, sometimes in overly coincidental situations, and be involved in events and issues like the suffragette movement.

I was going to try and do some kind of plot summary, but I am not sure that I could do it justice - there is just so much going on. Beyond that busyness of the plot though, the biggest flaw with this book is actually the two main characters. I struggled with Seamie and Willa, both with the twists and turns of their relationship, and also with them as individuals. Willa spends a lot of time in a drug induced haze, mostly to deal with managing pain due to losing a leg (I guess it isn't a spoiler if it is in the book description right?), and Seamie is meant to be the returning adventure hero, but many of his actions were far from heroic.

I do have to make a comment about the cover of this book. The thing that initially attracted me to The Tea Rose was the gorgeous cover, and that was true of The Winter Rose as well. This cover does not sit all that well against those two. I am not saying it isn't an attractive cover but if it is meant to represent Willa it doesn't do it for me, and it is just kind of generic to me. Of course, there might be plenty of people out there who disagree with me on that, and that's fine!

I am glad that we are no longer waiting for this book to come out. I assume though that means that we have quite a wait for the next Jennifer Donnelly book. Whilst this book didn't quite meet my unrealistically high expectations (particularly against my memories of The Winter Rose), it is still a fun, juicy saga of the best kind, and I can't wait to see what she bring us next.

Rating 4/5

Crossposted at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

The Historical Fiction Challenge- August Reviews

In July, we collectively read 79 books! That makes our total for 2011 so far, 572 books!

There is still time to join the challenge, go to Historical Fiction Reading Challenge to sign up and then come back to leave your links each month.  There is a new post for your links each month.

Please leave your links for your August reviews in Mr. Linky, below or, if you don't have a blog, in the comments below.

*Note: if you missed posting your links last month, please always post "late" links in the current month's Mr. Linky.  For example, if you forgot to post a link in February, please post it on this Mr. Linky in this post.