BOOK REVIEW: The Phoenix Bride by Natasha Siegel

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Phoenix Bride by Natasha Siegel is a gentle yet gripping historical novel. Set in London amidst plague and the Great Fire of 1666, the novel follows Cecilia Thorowgood, a young widow who lost her beloved husband to the plague. She grieves so deeply that her sister is worried for her health and sanity. After a series of doctors fails to cure her melancholy, her sister takes a bold step, bringing in David Mendes, a Jew.

David understands obsessive grief. He has also lost a loved one, a longtime friend. Because the friend was a man, David never confessed his love. As a Jew and a bisexual, David has to take great care in all he does. Falling for an aristocratic Gentile is perhaps even more perilous than falling for another man.

Gentle and understanding, David is able to reach Cecilia in a way no other physician could. They grow dangerously close. But David learns a secret. Cecilia’s sister’s concern is not as altruistic as she wants it to seem. She wants Cecilia cured so that she can be advantageously remarried. She even has a second husband picked out. And when Cecilia learns what David knows, the fragile band of trust is broken. Can it be restored?

The novel is beautifully written. The setting is richly rendered. And readers will find their heartstrings pulled.

BOOK REVIEW: The House of Lamentations by S. G. MacLean

The Captain Damian Seeker series by S.G. MacLean is one of the most compelling historical political thriller series that I’ve come across. Start with The Seeker. You won’t be disappointed.

After reading The Bear Pit (book 4) I was so impatient for book 5 that I bought the ebook because that was the earliest release I could obtain. But then, concerned it was the last book in the series, I put off reading it because I didn’t want the story to end. Then, unfortunately, it fell off my radar and languished on my TBR pile. Until I saw that there will be a book six released in September. 

I pulled out my ipad and settled down to enjoy The House of Lamentations. 

Set in the mid-1600s near the end of Cromwell’s controversial reign as Lord Protector, the novels bring the time period to life with all its idealism, uncertainty, and violence. Captain Damian Seeker is one of Cromwell’s most loyal men. He began his career in the army, but now serves as an enforcer and spy. He is a brutal man with a complicated past and a soft core.

After the events of book 4, Seeker is sent to Bruges to keep tabs on loyalist ex-pats who are plotting against Cromwell. Seeker takes on the identity of “John Carpenter,” insinuating himself easily into places the royalists would not like him to be. There is a double agent working within royalist circles who feeds information to Seeker. However, since their plots are consistently foiled, higher-ups have concluded there must be a spy in Bruges and they are sending a “she-intelligencer” to uncover him.

Strangers come and go in Bruges and Seeker tries to keep tabs on them all. His most pressing current task is to identify the “she-intelligencer” before she can discover his contact or, worse, expose him. But he has an even more pressing concern. He has been separated for more than a year from the woman he loves back in England. Now, with Cromwell’s England becoming more violent and more of a dictatorship, Maria’s brother has decided to move to Massachusetts and take Maria along. Seeker races against time to complete his mission and return to England to reunite with her before she goes.

The complex plotting will keep readers guessing. The atmospheric writing is superb. Seeker’s internal conflicts keep him as compelling a protagonist as ever. Now, on to book 6!

BOOK REVIEW: Out Front the Following Sea by Leah Angstman

Out Front the Following Sea by Leah Angstman is a gritty, swashbuckling, page-turner of a historical novel.

Orphaned at sixteen, Ruth is branded as a witch when her parents die in a barn fire and she is deemed responsible. The townspeople drive her out, burning her home. Her only ally is a childhood friend, Owen Townsend. Owen is a sailor, first mate on his father’s ship, and Owen comes and goes at his father’s whim. It is Ruth’s good fortune that the ship is in the harbor when she needs to flee, so she stows away.

The friendship between the two has lately matured to love, and now, on the ship, veers into passion. 

Still, Owen must leave her at the next port. Father’s orders: he has no choice. This time, he tells her, he’ll be away at least a year. During his absence, Ruth is compelled to marry the cruel Captain Samuel Whitlock, one of the leading men of the town.

The novel is set in the New England colonies in the late 1600s, during King William’s war. The colonists in Ruth’s new town are staunch British loyalists. Owen’s loyalty lies with the French. When he comes to rescue her, all hell breaks loose.

Ruth is a strong woman with modern-day ideas and a take-no-nonsense attitude. She has no prejudices or superstitions, and befriends natives as well as Quakers, who are considered heretics. She’ll do whatever it takes to return to Owen. Owen is more pirate than simple sailor. Although a Frenchman, his allegiance is first and foremost to Ruth.

There are myriad twists and turns in the plot and the adventure will keep you on the edge of your seat. A few anachronisms and implausibilities were not enough to mar my enjoyment of this novel of undying love.

BOOK REVIEW: The Anatomy Lesson by Nina Siegal

The Anatomy Lesson by Nina Siegal is an engrossing historical novel that explores, from multiple angles, Rembrandt’s first major masterpiece, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp.

Set in Amsterdam in the mid-seventeenth century, the story is told from multiple viewpoints. Dr. Tulp is the ambitious surgeon who hopes the lecture he will give while dissecting a corpse at the annual guild meeting will catapult him to high political office. René Descartes, the French philosopher/mathematician, is attending the public dissection hoping it will help him in his search for the seat of the soul. Jan Fetchet is a merchant trading in curios – and in human corpses. Rembrandt is, of course, the young painter, who has been commissioned to paint the members of the surgeon’s guild. He will decide to incorporate the corpse into his painting. And then, there is Aris the Kid, a young thief sentenced to be hanged, who claims to welcome death because his life has been one long misery. The only bright spot in his life is Flora, a friend from youth who briefly became his lover. She is carrying his child and comes to Amsterdam to try to save him. But she is always one step too late. Aris’ corpse will be the dissection specimen.

The story is imaginative and yet feels wholly credible as the author dives into the stories of each of these people and weaves them into a history of the painting. This novel should appeal to art lovers and historical fiction fans.

BOOK REVIEW: Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen is a quirky literary historical novel loosely based on a real-life witch hunt in Wurttemberg, Germany, in the early 1600s. 

I saw this novel while browsing in a bookstore on a recent vacation but didn’t buy it because I had too much to lug around. The urge to read it stuck with me though, and I was pleased to discover it in my local library.

The story is told by two people, Katharina Kepler, the accused witch, and her neighbor, Simon, who supports her defense, though rather reluctantly.

Katharina is an elderly woman, independent and crotchety, who has obtained some small standing in her little town. She owns a little property and a cow. Her husband ran off long ago, as did her youngest son, but she still has a son and daughter nearby who have done well. Also, her eldest son, Johannes, has done exceptionally well as a mathematician/astrologer/astronomer and was once the Imperial Mathematician. (This is the true-to-life part. The son is Johannes Kepler – known for his laws of planetary motion. And his mother really was imprisoned for witchcraft.)

So, people in town may be jealous of her. Or maybe they find her irritating–which she is. She tends to stick her nose in other people’s business. She gets along with some of her fellow townspeople but not with most. She has some odd ideas, but they probably are not all that odd for the time. (The author does a superb job dropping the reader into the early seventeenth century.) Whatever the case, after Katharina has a falling out with Ursala, her one-time friend, Ursala accuses Katharina of witchcraft. Then other villagers start recalling interactions with Katharina that were followed by misfortune, so they pile on with more accusations. The “evidence” is absurd. At first, Katharina tries to ignore it. But she is a querulous woman and her reactions compound the problem.

Her children (all grown) stand by her, but they, too, are exasperated by her at times.

Because she’s a woman, she needs a guardian if she’s questioned by authorities, so she ropes her neighbor Simon into helping her. Simon is a good man, a widower with a daughter. He likes to keep to himself. However, Katharina helped him out once and he feels he owes her. Plus, he believes she’s innocent. Plus, he knows what it’s like to feel falsely accused of something. So he stands by her but tries to do it quietly.

The case drags on for years. Katharina copes in a variety of different ways, some counterproductive. All the while, the town goes crazier, Katharina’s standing sinks lower, her possessions are leached away, and even her friends start backing away. The novel becomes more and more gripping as the noose tightens around her neck.

The novel is darkly comic. The voice pulls the reader in. The writing is wonderful. With this glimpse of a witch hunt of the past, we can see echoes in modern-day pettiness, stone-throwing, greed, and corruption as well as compassion, kindness, and forgiveness. (Plague and warfare play a role too, but a surprisingly minor one.)

BOOK REVIEW: The Master of Measham Hall by Anna Abney

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Master of Measham Hall by Anna Abney is a newly-released historical novel set in England during the Restoration. (The novel starts in 1665.)

The heroine is a young Catholic gentlewoman, Alethea, sent to London by her stepmother to serve as a a companion to another family. Mainly, the stepmother wanted to be rid of her so her own children would be heirs. Alethea’s beloved older brother, William, had been exiled to France after he killed a man in a duel. Her father is a distant figure. Alethea is quite alone.

In these difficult times (religious persecution and plague), Alethea has to downplay or hide her Catholicism, a fact that doesn’t bother her except when she thinks of her devout, deceased mother.

The woman Alethea is staying with in London (Lady Culverton) takes against her when the man of the house (Lord Culverton) seems to be taking too much interest in her. Alethea is sent off on a fool’s errand while the rest of the household escapes to the countryside to get away from the plague. Clearly, the woman intended Alethea would die. She does not.

Instead, she decides to walk back home to her family estate, Measham Hall, convinced her father, at least, will welcome her.

It’s not a very safe plan and she is almost instantly attacked, but she is rescued by a lowborn, independent-minded man named Jack, who is also walking away from London. They end up in the forest, taken in by a small group of religious dissenters. Alethea adapts quickly, dropping her religion in exchange for theirs, primarily because of their charismatic leader, Samuel.

When this life is disrupted, she begins her trek home anew, this time accompanied by one of the young women from the group. Along the way, Alethea learns her entire nuclear family died from the plague except William, who is still missing. She decides that rather than present herself at the estate, she will impersonate her missing brother, in order to avoid being shunted aside by more distant relatives eager to claim the property.

The novel presents the debates over religion in the Restoration period in an interesting way, allowing Alethea to adopt different beliefs as she goes along, internally and sometimes externally debating the issues. However, in religion, as in pretty much all aspects of her life, Alethea is fickle, adopting whatever beliefs and actions are most convenient at the time, allowing her to get what she wants. She doesn’t have strong convictions and her main moral guide seems to be Machiavelli, whose teachings she reads about in a book gifted to her by Lord Culverton.

Alethea is a sympathetic character at first. She is kind and means well but is almost painfully naive in the ways of the world and suffers for it. However, over time, she learns how the world works and is happy to shed principles in order to arrange things to her liking. She becomes less and less likeable as the story progresses. It’s interesting to watch her transformation and the novel is satisfying as a character study, even though the plot is a bit slow and, in parts, a bit far-fetched. 

BOOK REVIEW: The Bear Pit by S.G. Maclean

 Among the best historical thrillers I have read are the books in the A Captain Damian Seeker Novel series by S.G. Maclean. Set in England during the time of Oliver Cromwell, the books focus on the exploits of Damian Seeker, captain of Cromwell’s guard. The first book is The Seeker, and you should really start there. I bought book four, The Bear Pit, while reading book three, but I’ve been holding off reading it because these books are so amazing I don’t want them to end. (The fifth book, which I fear is the last, will be out in paperback in the fall, and I’m trying to wait till then to buy it. I might not be able to wait.)

Seeker is a busy, busy man, given Cromwell’s increasing unpopularity and the numerous factions that are attempting to eliminate him: Royalists, Republicans, foreign governments, disaffected one-time adherents. The head of Cromwell’s intelligence agency, John Thurloe (Seeker’s direct boss) is overwhelmed with all the reports he’s receiving and can’t keep up with the threats. It’s Seeker’s responsibility to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

On a personal level, Seeker is also busy. The long-lost daughter he retrieved from the north is now living under an assumed identity in London, helping to serve in a tavern. The owner of the tavern, Dorcas, is a smart, good-hearted woman in love with Seeker, and he takes what comfort there that he can. However, his heart still belongs to Maria Ellingworth, sister of a radical Republican lawyer. Their relationship was thwarted by politics and family loyalty. But when their paths cross accidentally, after two years of no contact, it’s clear they are both suffering from being apart.

Seeker also has to keep tabs on Thomas Faithly, a “turned” Royalist that he recruited as a spy, but whose loyalties he can’t be sure of. 

If all that isn’t enough, there is a bear somewhere in the bowels of London that has been feasting on human flesh. Bear-baiting, once a popular gambling sport, has been banned. Supposedly, all the bears were shot. Bear-hunting would normally be below Seeker’s pay grade, but the victim of the attack was an old army buddy of Samuel Kent, Samuel being a coffeehouse owner who Seeker would consider a friend if he had friends.

The politics of the times have been so well portrayed throughout the series that they are treated a little more lightly in this book. The reader is already immersed so it’s easy to follow what’s going on. The stakes are high for Seeker, since he must always, above all else, serve Cromwell’s interests, but his own interests are getting harder to set aside. I’m rooting for Seeker, not Cromwell.

This series is phenomenal. Highly recommended.

BOOK REVIEW: Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

 My historical fiction book group met virtually this weekend. The book we read was Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. Brooks is a wonderful writer. I loved The Secret Chord. I was a bit hesitant to read another plague book just now. To Calais, In Ordinary Times by James Meek was such an extraordinary read that I thought, “That’s enough plague.”

However, I dove in and was captivated from the start. Anna Frith is a young widow with two very young children living in a small English mining village in 1666. Her husband died in a mining accident. Her father is a violent drunk. She has to fend for herself. She keeps sheep and works as a housemaid for the Rector and his wife, and also helps serve at the manor of the local gentry, the Bradfords. The Rector’s wife, Elinor, is a saint of a woman, who sees Anna’s intelligence and teaches her to read and allows her to dream.

Everything changes when a traveling tailor comes to the village and boards at Anna’s house. He brings light and laughter into the cottage, as well as hope of a new love. But before they can act on their attraction, he receives a shipment of cloth from London and sets to work making clothes. Soon, he falls ill with the plague. Although his dying plea to Anna is that she “burn everything,” it is impossible for her to carry through. People want the bits and pieces of clothing they paid for. Before long, plague is racing through the town.

The rector, Michael Mompellion, preaches to the village about sacrificial love. He says they should quarantine rather than flee, which would carry the plague far beyond the village. His flock agrees, except for the lord and his family who think themselves too important to be sacrificed for the greater good.

Over the next year, half of the town dies of the plague, directly or indirectly. Anna is witness to all the humanity and inhumanity of the people she has known all her life. She draws closer to Elinor as together they try to bring comfort and healing to the dying, while Michael tends to the practical and spiritual needs of his charges. But things keep going from bad to worse.

Anna is an inspiring character: clear-eyed, generous, compassionate, and imperfect. Because of Anna, the book is hopeful rather than depressing. Only the epilogue didn’t quite fit. It did wrap things up neatly for Anna, but seemed far-fetched after the gritty realism of her life in her village. However, despite my dissatisfaction with the epilogue, I would recommend Year of Wonders. 

BOOK REVIEW: Destroying Angel by S.G. MacLean

 England in the mid 1600s, under Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate, was a scary and oppressive place to be. I don’t know much about that time period, but S.G. MacLean’s historical thriller series featuring the captain of Cromwell’s Guard, Damien Seeker, is teaching me quite a bit.

Seeker is utterly loyal to Cromwell and works closely with the chief government spy, Thurloe. In the previous two books, starting with The Seeker, the reader is introduced to this strong, complex military man who is feared and hated by many on both sides for good reason. However, we also learn that he can be gentle and kind to those in need. And that he certainly does have a heart.

At the end of book two, Seeker is forced to walk away from the woman he has come to love because he can’t serve Cromwell and look away from her brother’s treasonous leanings. 

In book three, Destroying Angel, Seeker has been sent north to the Yorkshire moors to connect with the Major-General sent there to keep order and to look into the possible return of a banished Loyalist, Thomas Faithly. Faithly had been in exile with the young King, and it is supposed that he has returned to his ancestral estate to drum up support. This sort of thing, rooting out Royalists, is all in a day’s work for Seeker, but there are complications.

Seeker is originally from Yorkshire—not Faithly Moor, where he has been sent—but the area around it. And it was in Yorkshire, as a young man, where personal tragedy changed the course of his life. I don’t want to introduce spoilers for the first two books, but Seeker’s marriage was destroyed and he lost contact with his daughter. With nowhere else to turn, he fled to join Cromwell’s Army and the bitterness and cruelty of that life made him what he is today. He is very, very good at soldiering--cold, demanding, and relentless. (He’s also very good at solving political mysteries.) 

Now that he is back in his old stomping grounds, his past comes back to haunt him.

There is a lot going on in this book. Seeker not only has to search for Faithly, but he also becomes involved in solving a murder of a young girl, the ward of the town constable, a loyal Cromwell supporter. The town is also undergoing an upheaval because of the arrival of a “trier,” a rigid Puritan examiner who has been called in to try the local rector who has been accused of not being Puritan enough. Bitter, long-held grievances between villagers are at play, and Seeker has to sort through what is important and what is not. There is also fear of witchcraft and those who would hunt witches. Although at first it is a lot to take in and keep track of, the reader just needs to keep following the protagonist. Seeker is as clever as ever at untangling the threads until it all comes clear.

These are fascinating novels. Thrilling and disturbing. We keep rooting for Seeker even as the cause he serves becomes more and more corrupt. At some point, there will have to be a reckoning as Cromwell’s England becomes just as evil as the regime it replaced, moving farther from the ideals that drew Seeker to the fight. I’ve got the next book on hand and am anxious to see what comes next.

BOOK REVIEW: The Black Friar by S.G. MacLean

 The second book in the  Damian Seeker series by S.G. MacLean, The Black Friar, is as superb as the first, The Seeker. 

Picking up where Book 1 left off, Damian Seeker continues in his role as the captain of Oliver Cromwell’s guard. It’s a difficult job, protecting the Lord Protector, when plots are springing up right and left. The main antagonists are the Royalists, but there are also Fifth Monarchists (religious fanatics) as well as the generally disenchanted folks who once supported Cromwell but who speak against him now that he has assumed the role of king. For them, he’s no better than the deposed and executed tyrant.

Amongst the disenchanted are those honest people we met in book one, Elias Ellingworth, an impoverished lawyer and pamphleteer, and his sister, Maria. Seeker and Maria have begun an affair. For these star-crossed lovers, there is no viable future. Seeker knows it’s only a matter of time before he will have to arrest Elias, and possibly Maria herself. Keeping such a relationship secret with so many spies watching each other is also a dangerous undertaking.

As the book opens, a dead man is found walled into an old monastery. The body is too well- preserved to belong to the centuries-old location or to the Blackfriar’s clothing he’s wearing. Seeker recognizes the man, a spy who was supposed to have died months earlier, a spy whose funeral he witnessed. The man was deeply embedded in uncovering something. Seeker’s superior, Thurloe, assigns Seeker to find out what the spy had learned that got him killed.

At the same time, children are going missing in the city. Not many, but the coincidence is too striking for Seeker to ignore since their circumstances are not typical of runaways or street children.

Seeker is good at his job. He’s known and widely feared throughout the city. He navigates the swirling conspiracies within the government with intelligence and cynicism. He’s kind to the lowly but ruthless to those who fall afoul of the law.  And if he has to choose between his duty to Cromwell and his love for Maria. . .

Again, the various threads of the mystery are thickly interwoven. The historical background is fascinating. And Seeker’s personal battles are as gripping as the political ones.

I have book three on my shelf and book four on order. These books are great!

BOOK REVIEW: The Seeker by S.G. MacLean

I’ve found a new historical mystery series! I’ve come late to it but that means the others have already been released so hopefully I can get to them soon.

The Seeker by S.G. MacLean is the first in the series that features the cold, cynical Damian Seeker, an agent in the service of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, in London in the mid-1600s. Cromwell and his forces have deposed and beheaded King Charles, and now must be on their guard against Royalists who plot to bring Charles’ son back to the throne.

England is gripped by fear under Cromwell’s repressive regime. The freedoms promised by the revolutionaries have not materialized. Damian Seeker understands the complexities of the situation, but he has pledged loyalty to Cromwell and he’s standing by that pledge.

When one of Cromwell’s most popular army captains is found murdered on his own doorstep, the guilty party seems clear. Elias Ellingworth, an impoverished lawyer who is known to be critical of Cromwell’s government, is standing over the corpse with a bloodied knife in his hand.

Seeker begins the investigation at once by interrogating the widow. Her story convinces him that Elias is innocent. Truth matters to Seeker. He doesn’t want an innocent man executed. Plus, the real killer is still at large. Seeker sets about finding the real killer. He uncovers a web of conspiracy, multiple suspects, and a couple of unrelated crimes. Moreover, his veiled compassion for some of the oppressed Londoners, including Elias’ sister, Maria, yields something he wasn’t seeking: friendship? Maybe love?

The plotting is dense, with multiple intertwined subplots. Characters have depth. Seeker is one of those thrilling anti-hero types of detectives: fearless, ruthless, brutally effective. His dark, violent past renders him able to kill coldly without remorse, yet he has an inner core of goodness that leads good people to trust him as much as they fear him.

S.G. MacLean does a wonderful job of placing the reader into the time period, bringing us up to speed quickly on the politics at play that set the stage for the intrigues. I’m eager to read book 2!

BOOK REVIEW: Elizabeth of Bohemia: A Novel about Elizabeth Stuart, The Winter Queen by David Elias

I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of King James (VI of Scotland and I of England) and his queen, Anne of Denmark, is one of those obscure but fascinating women of the Middle Ages/Renaissance whose lives provide material for historical novels that inform while they entertain.

Elizabeth of Bohemia: A Novel about Elizabeth Stuart, The Winter Queen by David Elias begins in October 1612 when the young princess is about to meet the man who will become her husband, Frederick V of the Palatine. Elizabeth is tired of being paraded in front of potential suitors. Beautiful, clever, and stubborn, she has strong opinions about everything, including her extravagant parents for whom she feels mostly contempt. The only person she cares for is her older brother Henry, who she believes would be a much better king.

Frederick woos her persistently, befriending Henry in the process. Unfortunately, Henry suffers from a recurrent illness that seems suspiciously like chronic poisoning. During Frederick’s visit, Henry dies. Elizabeth accepts Frederick’s proposal while in a deep depression. This is more than simply mourning; it appears Elizabeth suffers from bipolar disease, which influences her later behavior.

Frederick’s primary appeal, aside from his devotion to her, is his potential claim to the throne of Bohemia. In the novel, Elias portrays Frederick as a sensible, sensitive man content with the title and riches he possesses. Elizabeth, on the other hand, finds an outlet for her discontent: ambition. She bullies her husband into pursuing the throne against the advice of his counselors.

The novel closely follows the historical timeline. Frederick obtains the crown but cannot hold it for more than a couple of months. (Hence Elizabeth’s nickname, the Winter Queen). They are driven from the castle into exile. Frederick spends the rest of his life fighting a war he cannot win. Elizabeth falls from being a pampered, wealthy daughter of a king to being an impoverished exile, living on the charity of sympathetic nobles.

The historical detail is superb, bringing this woman out of the shadows. However, Elizabeth is not a warm protagonist. She does not love her husband. (She never really loves anyone but her dead brother.) She takes no interest in her many, many children until they are adults. She has no qualms about using men who fall for her to help her achieve largely selfish aims. Her political acumen is lacking. It’s difficult to root for her success.

Nevertheless, despite a somewhat unlikeable protagonist, the story itself is compelling enough to make this an enjoyable read.

BOOK REVIEW: Love's Alchemy. A John Donne Mystery by Bryan Crockett

I reviewed Love's Alchemy. A John Donne Mystery by Bryan Crockett for the latest issue of The Historical Novels Review and a link can be found here, along with reviews of other new releases in historical fiction. I loved this book and wanted to mention it again here:

It’s fashionable now to take popular writers from the past and turn them into sleuths. I was intrigued by this debut novel that centers on John Donne, the famous English metaphysical poet. Donne? What kind of mystery would he be called upon to solve?

As it turns out, this is no mere whodunnit. Set in 1604, Donne is already married to Anne More and suffering the poverty and fall from grace that marrying for love was bound to cause. His political career is in ruins, so to survive, he needs to find patronage for his poetry. Unfortunately, the patroness he attracts is a beautiful and manipulative woman who tempts him to stray. He has another option, one he literally can’t refuse—to turn spy for King James’ chief counselor, Robert Cecil. Cecil is rabidly anti-Catholic and has heard rumors of a Catholic plot against the government. Donne, although currently divorced from the Church, has Catholic connections going way back. If he can convince his family he wants to return to the fold, he should be able to uncover the plot—so believes Cecil.

The mystery is this: is there a plot? Who is behind it? This provides for a tension-filled mission for Donne. But the deeper mystery driving the book is: who is John Donne? As he embarks on the journey, he wrestles with his qualms about betraying those who trust him, his separation from the Church, his love for his wife and his lust for his new patroness. This is a remarkably intense and emotional portrayal of the poet that makes him believably brilliant and flawed. It is a wonderful blending of history and fictionalized biography. Highly recommended!

BOOK REVIEW: Exit the Actress by Priya Parmar

With just a few days to spare, I’m finishing up my last 2014 challenge, the TBR pile challenge. A couple years ago I won a copy of Exit the Actress by Priya Parmar. I was excited to win. The book sounded wonderful. Nevertheless, it has been sitting on my shelf ever since. It wasn’t until reading Vanessa and her Sister by the same author that my attention was brought back to the book. So I chose it to finish up my challenge.

The actress is Nell Gwyn, the famous mistress of King Charles II of England. Nell (Ellen) is the younger of two daughters being brought up by an alcoholic mother in an impoverished home. Her father died when she was young. Nell and her sister, Rose, help to keep the household afloat by selling oysters–but that isn’t enough. When Rose is fourteen, she joins her mother’s trade, prostitution. Ellen is determined not to follow the same path. Luck is with her. She is offered a job selling oranges in the Theatre Royal.

Ellen is so full of fun, so natural, and so good-natured, that everyone takes to her at once. It isn’t long before she becomes a favorite of the acting troop. They discover she can dance and sing. She is taken under the wing of the leads and trained up to be an actress herself. She also becomes the mistress of one of the men.

Ellen is safe, secure, and loves being on stage. But she yearns for more. She wants love, and although she cares for the man who keeps her, she doesn’t love him.

As Ellen becomes well known as a stage personality, her path crosses that of the king, first by chance and then by design. King Charles has a wife and a string of mistresses, but when he meets Ellen, he finds her uniqueness irresistible. The attraction is mutual.

This novel is told partially in journal format from Ellen’s point of view and partly as a collection of letters, playbills, and scandal sheets. It’s a formula that works well for Parmar, allowing the intimacy of Ellen/Nell Gwyn’s first person account as well as a view from outside looking in.

Ellen is not particularly interested in the politics of the day, but discussions go on around her so there is enough historical context to add weight to the love story. London experiences a plague and the great fire during Charles’ reign, to significant dramatic effect.

Ellen is a likeable character. In fact, the book is filled with likeable characters. Even the antagonists are pretty mild and don’t affect/threaten Ellen much because she has so much support. She is presented as so consistently beloved, a stage presence that sparkled, the life of every party, so charismatic, that she made no enemies. Everyone loved her. Whether realistic or not, the novel presents her life as fascinating and surrounds her with so many interesting friends that I was caught up in the whirlwind as well.

I’m a big fan of Priya Parmar’s work and look forward to her next book. I won’t let it sit so long on my shelf.

BOOK REVIEW: Trapped at the Altar by Jane Feather

If your a historical fiction fan, check out the large online database of reviews at the Historical Novel Society's website.

In the most recent (November) issue, I reviewed a historical Romance by Jane Feather, Trapped at the Altar. Here is the publisher's blurb:

Headstrong Ariadne Daunt is convinced she loves handsome Gabriel Fawcett, but her grandfather has other plans for her. He decrees that she marry Ivor Chalfont, thus forging a powerful alliance between the two warring families who share ownership of their valley. Given no time to plot an escape, Ari finds herself standing reluctantly at the altar, swearing to honor and obey a man who is not her choice.

Ivor has treasured Ari as a friend ever since he was brought to the valley as a child, but now he feels a man's desires. He longs to take the beautiful young woman to his bed and make their marriage more than an empty vow. Ari may believe she loves another man, but Ivor believes otherwise—and he will not rest until he gains her heart, her trust . . . and her passion.  

My review is here at the HNS website.

This is my 22nd book read for the historical fiction challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry. I'm closing in on completing the challenge!

ESCAPE TO THE PAST WITH: Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth

At some point last year there was a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about Kate Forsyth’s novel Bitter Greens. Every review raved about this brilliant historical novel, which is, among other things, a retelling of the fairy tale Rapunzel.

For some reason, maybe because of the fairy-tale retelling bit, I was under the impression that it was a YA historical. (It definitely is not.) At any rate, I very much wanted to read the book, but I couldn’t get hold of a copy. U.S. bookstores didn’t carry it. Amazon had used copies but not many. Even The Book Depository failed me. It was "currently unavailable" for months and months.

Finally, with Forsyth’s new book, The Wild Girl, coming out (but also not available in the US?) and still frustrated that I had yet to read Bitter Greens, I decided to buy a used copy from Amazon.

I’m always thrilled when a book lives up to expectations. This one delivered even more. I was anticipating a retelling of the classic story of Rapunzel, but Bitter Greens is a multi-layered story within a story. It begins by introducing the reader to Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force, a French writer contemporary of King Louis XIV. She led a somewhat scandalous life, including the writing of some novels which were not as anonymous as she believed. This led to her banishment by the king to a convent where she continued to write, penning her version of Rapunzel. (This much is true.)

Charlotte-Rose’s "memoir" is fascinating reading. It alone would carry a novel. But while in the convent, Charlotte-Rose hears the stories of Rapunzel and of the witch. Both are presented as factual, so the reader hears the fairy tale as history and the book morphs into a marvelous sort of medieval fantasy. Men’s wickedness, women’s relative lack of power, sex and witchcraft are all twisted together until an innocent girl ends up locked in a tower. The parallels with Charlotte-Rose’s incarceration in the nunnery are clear, along with other similarities between her life and Rapunzel/Margherita’s.

The three women’s stories are equally compelling and Forsyth’s pacing of them is perfect. Even though I hated to leave off one thread, I was anxious to see what was going on with the others. And so it was nearly impossible to stop reading because I had to keep up with all three tales. The writing is beautiful and so vivid that the boundaries between the fairy tale and the historical fiction blurred. Normally I prefer historical fiction to be realistic and historical fantasy to stay on its own side of the line, but this book was simply magical.

If you can find a copy of Bitter Greens, I highly recommend it. This is my 23^rd book for the historical fiction challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry.

ESCAPE TO THE PAST WITH: Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach

My book club chose Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach for its last meeting, a historical novel set in 1630s Amsterdam, during the time of tulipomania–a bubble of speculation involving tulip bulbs. It falls into the category of novels about the-woman-behind-the-painting that are so popular. This time the artist is a young man named Jan van Loos. The woman is Sophia Sandvoort, the beautiful wife of the elderly and wealthy Dutch businessman Cornelis Sandvoort. Cornelis has already lost his first wife along with two sons to premature death. He married the much younger Sophia primarily because he wanted an heir, but her youth, beauty and sweetness have won him over completely. He loves her to distraction. Unfortunately, she has not gotten pregnant.

Cornelis hits on another scheme for achieving immortality. He hires a portrait painter, Jan van Loos. Cornelis and Sophia sit for this artist, but before the first session is over, Jan and Sophia have fallen in love. Before too much longer, they are sneaking around, betraying Cornelis.

Secondary characters include Sophia’s maid, a robust, passionate, country girl named Maria and a fish-seller, Willem, with whom she is in love. Their relationship is honest and uncomplicated, but they are poor.

Adultery and treachery set the stage for disaster. Sophia and Jan need money to escape from Cornelis. Maria, pregnant and desperate, is entrapped in their schemes. The lovers catch the tulipomania that has snared so many others. Gambling on tulips brings on a feverish greed that nearly eclipses the excitement of their affair. The stakes multiply until they are playing for lives.

I borrowed the book from the library a few weeks ago in preparation for book group. As it turned out, the book club met on the same day that I caught the plane for the Historical Novel Society Conference in Florida. I was going to miss our meeting. So do I still read the book?

It is historical fiction and the jacket flap description interested me. So, yes. When I returned from HNS, I started Tulip Fever. But I almost didn’t finish it.

Overall, my reaction to it is a bit mixed. It’s told from multiple viewpoints. Sophia is in first person and the other characters are in third person viewpoints. The chapters mostly bounce between characters but there are some omni chapters thrown in that are not really scenes but are descriptions of things or themes. The flow of the story does not really suffer from the constantly shifting POVs, but it’s difficult to care about the characters. Sophia, Jan, and Cornelis behave badly but with complete self-justification. Maria and Willem don’t behave badly so much as with a stereotypical country bumpkinism. Somewhere around page 100, I put the book down because it was too obvious where it was all going and I didn’t want to suffer along with these not very likeable people in a tragedy of their own making.

However, after reading House of Earth, I went back to Tulip Fever and I’m glad I did. Even though much of it played out predictably, the introduction of the tulip speculation and Sophia’s ill-fated plans to escape from her passionless marriage made the second half of the novel more interesting. I haven’t read about the tulip bubble before and delving into that piece of the past made this a worthwhile read after all.

This is my 18^th novel for the Historical Fiction Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry and my 14^th book for the Library Reading Challenge hosted by Book Dragon’s Lair.