SEVERED KNOT by Cryssa Bazos @CryssaBazos #RBRT

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads
On BookBub

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: Fiction centred round the treatment of Scottish and Irish royalist prisoners during the English civil war; slavery in Barbados; romantic aspect.

I enjoyed this book so much.  The basic story: Iain Johnstone is a Scottish 'moss-trooper' imprisoned by Cromwell's men after persuading many of his contemporaries to go south and fight for Charles II.  Mairead O'Conneil is a young woman staying at her uncle's house in rural Eire for 'safety' while her father and brothers fight the Parlimentarians ~ but then the soliders come... and both Iain and Mairead find themselves on a slave ship bound for Barbados.

I hadn't read this relatively new writer before, but I'm glad I've discovered her; she's seriously talented.  The book is professionally presented, which I appreciated so much; it is clear that the research has been both meticulous and extensive, but at no time was I overly aware of it; I never felt that I was reading her research notes, as can so often be the case.  The atmosphere of the prisons, the slave ships and the Barbadian plantations, with all their horrors, is colourfully illustrated, and her characterisation and dialogue kept me engrossed, throughout.  I liked, too, that it gave me a view of how the English troubles spread far and wide.  Aside from all this, it's a terrific adventure story.

Within the plot is a romantic thread, a background shadow in the first half of the book that steps closer to centre stage as it goes on.  The theme is the romantic novel standard of two people taking against each other on sight then being extraordinarily rude to each other whenever they cross paths before finally admitting their passion, which can work well if cleverly written, and this was. 

Sadly, though, because of the descriptions of Mairead (tiny, skinny, frizzy-haired, plain, sprite, 'Mouse') I could only ever picture her as a sort of meek teenage imp, rather than a woman likely to inflame the passions of the Sean Bean-as-Sharpe/Boromir-like Iain, so it fell a little flat for me.  This sort of opinion is only ever personal viewpoint, though, and I must bear in mind that I not a fan of romantic fiction, generally; I was glad that other non-love stuff made up the main body of the book.

Despite these reservations, I am still rounding the 4.5* up to 5* on Amazon in the interests of objective reviewing, because it really is an exceptionally good novel, and I will definitely place her on my mental 'read more' list.

LADY OF THE HIGHWAY by Deborah Swift

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

This is the third book in the Highway Trilogy, and is every bit as good as the last two.  As I have a terrible memory I am probably the ideal person to review series; I could remember next to no details about the last two books, but this episode is so well put together that it could be read as a stand alone.  I'd suggest reading the first two as well, though, simply because they're so good!

It's YA, but, as with the other two parts, I wasn't that aware of it being a book for teenagers (which would have put me off).  It tells the end story of Lady Katherine Fanshawe, which is based on truth but given much fictional detail by Deborah Swift; there is a author's note of a few pages at the end to explain much of the history, which you may or may not want to read first.

The story itself is gripping, quite dark, a real page-turner, and as beautifully written as all this author's books.  Kate Fanshawe is a heroine who will appeal to many; she's a fighter, but so many things go disastrously wrong for her in a world where young women of noble stock are seen by everyone as little more than something to be bartered and bought.  As events take a more desperate turn I felt angry with her for the way she treated her loyal maid, Abigail, and her lovely groom, Cutch; brave of Ms Swift to make her not always likeable, but my sympathy was with her for most of the time, her good intentions were misunderstood, and she made bad decisions only out of desperation - I can't say too much for fear of giving the plot away.

The characters and history are so real, and there is a hint of the supernatural throughout the book, which worked very well.  I thoroughly enjoyed this whole trilogy and recommend it for readers of all ages.  

I received an ARC of this book for an honest review. 

Links to reviews of other books by Deborah Swift, including the first two parts of the Highway Trilogy, HERE

THIS ROUGH OCEAN by Ann Swinfen

5 GOLD stars

English Civil War Drama

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

What an amazing book ~ I don't think I'm going to be able to read anything else for a day or so!

This Rough Ocean is about the fortunes of the Swinfen family in the English Civil War; it's fiction but much of it is based on the real life adventures of John and Anne Swinfen (Swynfen) and their family; the author's note at the back gives more information.

John Swynfen is a Member of Parliament, a 'moderate', and his family have joined him to live in Westminster from their country estate in Staffordshire, during the time when Charles I has been captured and Cromwell's men are ransacking the country.  John is imprisoned, and Anne must take her family back to Stafford to safety ~ and assume the role of 'Lord of the Manor'.

I'd say this is probably the ultimate fiction about the period.  It's impeccably and intricately researched, a book of adventure, great hardship, bravery, loss, the brutality within man but the goodness to be found in unexpected places, too; honestly, it's riveting.  I liked the first half very much, when John is safe in Westminster, and the danger around the country is becoming more and more of a threat, but I ADORED the second half, which is told from the alternating points of view of Anne, with all her difficulties managing Swinfen estate, and John, as his life becomes more bleak, the possibility of escape back to his home and family seeming ever more impossible.  Also woven into this part of the story is the tale of their wayward eldest son, Dick, who decides to walk from London to Stafford instead of going safely back to school....

In the first third of the book there is a fair bit of political detail which you might find a bit hard going unless you are already well versed in/particularly interested in this aspect, but it's an education in itself, and the book soon ups its tempo as it moves away from the London political arena and back to the stories of John, Anne and their family.  Stick with it!

Ann Swinfen clearly has such insight into all aspects of life at this time, and I felt so involved with the characters all the way through this book; it even made me cry at three separate points.  This Rough Ocean is something of a masterpiece ~ I can't recommend it too highly.

FLOOD by Ann Swinfen reviewed HERE

BETRAYAL by Ann Swinfen reviewed HERE

 

BETRAYAL (The Fenland Series 2) by Ann Swinfen

5 out of 5 stars

17th century historical fiction

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

 
I enjoyed the first book in this series, Flood, so much that I began the sequel as soon as I'd finished it ~ a recommendation in itself!

Betrayal carries on where the prequel left off, as the villagers in Ann Swinfen's fictional 17th century Fenland village recover from the devastation caused by not only the weather but also the destruction of their way of life by the money men who aim to take their land for their own profit.

This episode adds another dimension to the story, as Mercy's brother Tom leaves the area after losing his leg in the troubles, feeling that he will serve them better by resuming his legal studies in London.  But these are difficult times; Cromwell is now in power but the Civil War still festers, with young men being rounded up and sent to fight against their will.  The story's underlying focus, though, is Tom's effort to retrieve a charter, written in the twelfth century, that granted the Fenlanders the right to live on and farm their land without interference.

The title of the book tells you that all is not what it seems ~ the reader is given a pretty good idea of who is behind the wrongs being done to the villagers, but Mercy, Tom and their friends have difficulty realising exactly who they can trust.

Aside from being a cracking story, I loved this novel as I loved the first, for its wonderful research and description.  Domestic detail in some books can be tedious, but this book shows how in the right hands it can be fascinating, such an insight into the times.  I so enjoyed the chapters from Tom's point of view, about the London of the 17th century, and it fast became one of those books I wanted to actually live in!

I can't recommend these two books highly enough; historical fiction addicts will adore them.  Although the communities are poor, by many standards, I saw the Fenlanders' way of life as an idyllic one; living with the land as nature intended, pulling together and supporting each other.  I very much hope there is more of this terrific series to come.

FLOOD by Ann Swinfen is reviewed HERE

FLOOD (The Fenland Series 1) by Ann Swinfen

5 out of 5 stars

17th century historical fiction/witch hunts

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

What a wonderful chance find this book was!  I've been wanting to read something about the Fens in the 17th century, when the ancient way of life of the Fenlanders was washed away to satisfy the greed of those in power, since reading something about it in a book by Norah Lofts, years ago, but I've never been able to find anything.  Then I chanced upon this book via a random passing tweet (on Twitter). 

The book starts with the very end of the old way of life, when the people of Ann Swinfen's fictional village celebrate old traditions, the bringing in of the May and the beating of the village boundaries, for the last time ~ except that they don't know that the way they live is about to be consigned to a memory of a golden, uncomplicated past.  Mercy, the heroine of the novel, says "Why can we not be left to ourselves, here in the Fens, to grow our food, and rear our animals and mend our houses, troubling no one?  We need no courts or kings or parliaments."  Something that might be echoed by many communities before and since....

As the dreaded 'drainers' move in, life becomes more treacherous for Mercy, her family and friends every day, and is made harder still by unclement weather, failing harvests, and the presence of Matthew Hopkins, witchfinder general.  

This book is so well researched, I relished every word, every description; if only there were pictures, too!  All the characters are so alive (I particularly liked eel fisherman Nehemiah, and soldier George), the story is a real page turner and I was completely engrossed, doing that 'just one more chapter' at three in the morning thing.  It taught me a lot about a subject, time and place that fascinates me, too.  I have just downloaded the sequel, and will be beginning it as soon as I have posted this review.  

Highly, highly recommended; historical fiction at its best.


Review of the sequel, BETRAYAL, HERE

 

THE LADY'S SLIPPER by Deborah Swift

5 GOLD Stars

17th century drama

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE

Wonderful, wonderful, I adored this book.  I read the stand alone sequel over a year ago, always meaning to get to this too, and the author very kindly sent me a review copy.  I loved it so much I think I might have to read the sequel (The Gilded Lily) again!

(part of) The blurb:

The year is 1660.  The King is back, but the wounds of Civil War remain.  In rural Westmorland, artist Alice Ibbetson has become captivated by the rare Lady's Slipper orchid. She is determined to capture its unique beauty for posterity, even if it means stealing the flower from the land of the recently converted Quaker, Richard Wheeler. 

Fired by his newfound faith, the former soldier Wheeler feels bound to track down the missing orchid. Meanwhile, others are eager to lay hands on the flower, and have their own powerful motives. 

Margaret Poulter, a local medicine woman, is seduced by the orchid's mysterious herbal powers, while Geoffrey Fisk, Alice's patron and former comrade-in-arms of Wheeler, sees the valuable plant as a way to repair his ailing fortunes and cure his own agonizing illness.

The story is told most adeptly from many points of view: Alice, Richard, Margaret (I loved her section) and the troubled Geoffrey Fisk... also his son, Stephen (who begins to reject his upbringing in favour of the ways of the Quakers), the sly maid, Ella, and a couple of others.  Each character was so well portrayed that I could imagine him/her immediately.  The plot is unusual and well thought out, the strands work together so smoothly.  I was completely absorbed in the past while reading this, taking it slowly, stopping to imagine the setting.  A bonus was the part on board ship at the end; I've long been fascinated by seafarers of this time

Love, love, love Deborah Swift's writing; I'm just sad that I've read all her books now, and have to wait for her to write another!   

The Gilded Lily reviewed HERE

A Divided Inheritance reviewed HERE

Shadow on the Highway reviewed HERE

Spirit of the Highway reviewed HERE

Past Encounters (written as Davina Blake) reviewed  HERE

SPIRIT OF THE HIGHWAY by Deborah Swift

5 out of 5 stars

17th Century YA

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE

I received an ARC of this book from the author, for an honest review.

.... and I'm happy to report that Deborah Swift has done it again!  This is the second part of the Highway Trilogy, and first I must make the point that it's a complete stand alone.  This is important for me, because I have virtually no long term memory when it comes to book/film/TV series plots.  Of course, once I began to read this, the plot of Part I, Shadow on the Highway, came back.

Part I is jolly good, but Part II is even better.  I'd only intended to dip in, take a look at the start, but then I read two thirds of it in one go.  I'm never quite sure what 'YA' actually means; when I was a young adult there were no YA books, we just read... books.  I suppose there are limitations on content and this is written more simply than, for instance, A Divided Inheritance, but I would have thought it could be enjoyed by anyone from the age of twelve to ninety.

Spirit of the Highway is (mostly) about a conflict at Markyate Manor, home of the real life Katherine Fanshawe (see the author's notes at the back of the book), between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians at the end of the English Civil War of the mid 17th Century.  It's written from the point of view of Ralph Chaplin, the young farmer in love with the lady of the manor; we're told from the beginning that he's dead (and, indeed, some of it is told by him as a ghost), but knowing the outcome for the main character does not spoil the story at all - just thought I'd better point that out!

Last week I read a very good novel about the 1980s UK Miners' Strike, Public Battles, Private Wars, so I had a good time nodding sagely to myself and making observations about unchanging human nature, etc.  Deborah Swift really knows her stuff, and I find myself saying the same things about her books every time I review one... but she's just a great story teller, I haven't been let down yet.  The last three and a half chapters of this story, are, in particular, brilliant; I highly recommend this book, and am very much looking forward to Part III.

SHADOW ON THE HIGHWAY is reviewed HERE; at the end you will find links to the two other 17th Century books by Deborah Swift that I've read (only one to go...)

and her WW2 mystery, PAST ENCOUNTERS, written under the name Davina Blake, is reviewed HERE

PUBLIC BATTLES, PRIVATE WARS by Laura Wilkinson

4.5 out of 5 stars

1980s Miners Strike Drama

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE

Well, what a nice surprise this was!  It was in the reviewing list for Rosie Amber's Review Team, of which I am a part, and I failed to pick up on it, but then I read THIS review of it by another team member (sorry, can't find it on the blog so have taken it from Amazon!), and decided to buy it anyway.  Guess what?  Book blogs work!!  Read them!!  :)

This is so good, I read it in one day (yep, couldn't put it down!).  It's written in the first person narrative of Mandy Walker, a miner's wife during the strike of 1983-5, in a Yorkshire village.  Running through the real life/public events are the private wars of the title; the strain on family life that these events caused, coupled with love wrangles, painful memories and marital disharmony.

What I liked about this book: it's very well written, flows beautifully (probably goes without saying, as I read it in a day!).  The story is so realistic; I am the same age as the fictional Mandy (I was 24 in 1983, too), but my life was so different ~ middle class, in the south, with a husband and a small business rather than four kids.  The conflict was something we saw on television, something for which we put money in buckets, then went on with our lives.  This brought it all home to me ~ BUT (and it's a big 'but') it wasn't done so in a painfully laboured fashion.  It's written in such a way that I was aware of the north~south divide, the fact that they were a Yorkshire community, without everyone giving it 'ee-by-gum, he's worked down t'pit all his life, I'll take home a bottle of stout for the Mrs' every five minutes, like you see in some books that wish to be representative of a place and time, and neither did it cash in on the 1980s aspect with loads of references to the music and everyone wearing white high heels and padded shoulders (not that they would have done in a mining community anyway, perhaps).  The characters were great; Mandy was very believable and likeable, and others I thought particularly good were the dragon-like matriarch of the community, Ethel Braithwaite, and Dan, the soldier who'd returned from the Falklands, something of an enigma.  

I also liked the way the changing attitudes of the time were illustrated, especially when Mandy went down to London as part of her work with the wives' action group, and met people from areas of life she would not normally have done, had it not been for the strike.

I was a little disappointed that there was less drama than I'd have liked in the last twenty per cent, but that's only personal taste; the way in which it turned out was certainly realistic.  I'd have liked to see the 'main baddie' get more of a comeuppance (I hated this character from the start, but won't even give away the sex as I don't want to reveal the plot), but this isn't 'Dallas' and the person was so well drawn, too; it's good to have someone to hate in an emotional drama such as this!  Aside from the fact that I felt let down by one particular revelation and its outcome ~ oh, okay, and that it didn't end up quite as I wanted it to! ~ I'd have given it 5*, but it's a definite 4.5.

I'd totally recommend this book, it's a cracker.  I look forward to reading more by this author ~ and I mean that, it's not just a nice way of rounding off the review!

SHADOW ON THE HIGHWAY by Deborah Swift

4.5 out of 5 stars

17th Century history, YA

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE

I didn't realise when I bought this that it was a YA novel, as the blurb doesn't say so, but I thought I'd read it anyway as I've read another of Deborah Swift's books and thought it excellent.  I've just spent a very happy afternoon reading the second half of this, it was great!

Set right in the middle of the English Civil War, Shadow on the Highway is about deaf lady's maid Abigail Chaplin, who is taken into service by Lady Katherine Fanshawe, a girl of around her own age.  However, Katherine is far from in control at Markyate Manor, as Abi is to find out.

This is one of those 'half fact, half fiction' stories that I love; I didn't realise exactly how much was fact until I read the historical notes at the end of the book (I think it's probably better to read them afterwards, when they mean more).  I love Ms Swift's work; the research is so complete but the details are never laboured; she assimilates her knowledge of the times so smoothly, so that a picture of the time is painted almost immediately.  Her books are so very readable.  One thing I very much appreciated about this novel was the way she put questions in the reader's mind about certain characters' backgrounds early on, but does not answer them until much later.

I became more aware of this being a YA novel in the last quarter, though before that I think it could have been meant for any age.  I'm not really into YA as a rule, but I think I'll still have to get the next one in the series - and what a marvellous way to learn about history for teenagers; this is far more interesting than any history lesson I sat through.  It brings the time to life, which is what learning history should be about, isn't it? 

THE GILDED LILY by Deborah Swift reviewed HERE

A DIVIDED INHERITANCE by Deborah Swift reviewed HERE