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 Fiona Finnegan may be a poor tea worker in London, but she and her boyfriend Joe have big dreams. They want to own their own shop rather than work for other people and they know exactly how to do it. But while their dreams are big in their heads, and their love consumes their hearts, other factors are working against them. For one thing, Jack the Ripper is wreaking his vengeance on London whores, but no one knows when he’ll strike other women instead. And another woman has her sights set on Joe, a woman who can offer him more than Fiona in terms of wealth and prospects. Everything collides against her and Fiona finds herself en route to the United States, where she’ll finally learn to run her own shop and eventually confront the ghosts of her past.
After I so enjoyed both A Northern Light and Revolution, I knew I wanted to read more by Jennifer Donnelly, and all recommendations coming in told me that The Tea Rose was the book to read. Luckily, I already had it – so if you’ll recall, I made it one of the books I aimed to read by the end of 2010, and I succeeded. I think reading the other two books first was a bit of an injustice to it, but it was good and absorbing in its own way.
For a start, this is an epic saga of Fiona’s life, which is fairly obvious from its length. We follow her from her teenage years, which are hard-working but relatively peaceful and full of dreams, into the turmoil of her twenties, and then into her accomplished thirties – at which point she has to go back and face her demons. There’s no question that it was an absorbing story and that I was eager to find out what happened next to Fiona – it didn’t drop my attention once over the course of its 550 (large) pages.
At the same time, it feels a bit less polished than Donnelly’s other works. It’s the kind of book where Fiona is responsible for all great inventions, in that way reminding me a bit of that series by Jean M. Auel (but without the constant caveman porn), where Ayla even manages to invent a sewing needle. Fiona constantly has ideas that set her apart from everyone else, and while I enjoyed the core story, I felt it was just a bit too much. I didn’t think one woman revolutionized the store, and then went on to revolutionize tea, in quite the same way, and it almost made it more difficult to relate to Fiona because she was just too extraordinary. Joe is similarly just too perfect; sure he makes mistakes, but his character isn’t really flawed and his genius wins out. In this way it was nothing like Donnelly’s other books, which I did feel had realistic and flawed characters. It is a first book and, having read later work, feels that way.
Still, for a first book, it is very good; the period details is fantastic and it’s immediately absorbing. I’m going to continue reading the series, especially considering I already own The Winter Rose, and I have high hopes for where Donnelly will go next. The Tea Rose is recommended for those who enjoy sagas set in Victorian England and New York City.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 Another retelling of a Mabinogion story, The Meat Tree starts off with two people in space, exploring an abandoned ship. There were meant to be three people on it, but none yet exist. Communicating entirely through their minds, the two navigators discover a virtual reality system with a place for three people – outdated technology to them, but worth exploring to see if they can find out what happened to the ship’s inhabitants. They find themselves transplanted back to medieval Wales, where they proceed to re-enact a tale of old and struggle to maintain themselves in the face of these new characters.
This was such an interesting approach to a retelling of a medieval Welsh story! When the book opened with two people out in space, one teaching the other to use her mind to communicate, I had no idea how it was going to relate to the actual story the author was retelling. Using virtual reality to tell the tale was fascinating and a very clever approach. For a while there I had no idea how Lewis was going to work in an actual retelling. I love the idea of using predictions for the future to shed light on the past like this – and loved even more that the story still retained a very human feel. Despite living in the future, these are people like us, and the characters they play are also, surprisingly, people, despite the myths swelling up around them.
Amusingly, the part I didn’t like about the story was the myth itself. I’ll confess to never having read the original, despite having heard it bandied about (it’s the one about Math with the quarrelling brothers). I was surprised, although I shouldn’t have been, at the bestiality of the tale, and I found the descriptions somewhat disturbing. While I can’t really hold this against the modern author, the fact remains that I didn’t really like it.
Overall, though, this was quite an interesting retelling, done in an interesting way. It’s completely different from the last I read, The Dreams of Max and Ronnie, and so far I remain fascinated with these modern interpretations of centuries-old stories. I’m looking forward to reading more of them as they are published, and the ones before the two that I’ve read.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from a publicist.
 When Inda hears that his home country is about to be under attack by the Venn, he immediately abandons his piracy to his friend, the Fox, and heads home to warn everyone he knows that danger is imminent. He takes just a few friends with him, unsure of his welcome; little does he know that his close friend is king and he is about to take charge of the army in the face of the Venn’s arrival. The stakes have never been higher as Inda prepares to adapt his sea tactics to a battle on land and in the process sets about winning the hearts and minds of King Evred’s men.
I am definitely not used to reading fantasy chunksters these days. I really enjoyed this book, but there were times when I wished it was going by just a little faster. In large part, these sentiments occurred when we saw what was happening with Fox and Inda’s former ship crew; it seems I still don’t get on particularly well with books set on boats, for whatever reason. I was much more interested in what was happening on land, with the characters that I’d genuinely come to care about.
Of primary interest to me here, of course, was the tension between Inda and his lifelong fiance, Tdor, and his current lover, a Venn dag (or sorceress). Inda and Tdor have to rediscover one another, which I really enjoyed watching, and decide where their relationship is going to go in the future – whether they will adhere to tradition or choose to go their own way. I won’t tell you what happens; for the very few of you who read this blog who also enjoy epic fantasy, I don’t want to spoil it for you.
I would say that I preferred this book to the last one, because I much preferred the war-like atmosphere and tension this one had to the last one, which if I recall was spent mostly on boats and with Inda engaged in piracy. Inda’s steady growth as a person and a leader, his relationships with those around him, and the perceptiveness of the other Marlovans were all more interesting, for me at least. Quite simply, this book suited the reader I am, and has me looking forward to Treason’s Shore, which I think is the conclusion of this series.
I would recommend King’s Shield, and the rest of the series (starting with Inda) to those who enjoy epic, doorstopper-sized fantasy. It’s a great world with some intriguing characters and I’m looking forward to spending a little more time there.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
Happy New Year everyone!
To be honest, I was relatively pleased with my reading in 2010. I read mainly what I wanted to read, when I wanted to read it. I started a new system of rotating different kinds of books, so for the last few months of the year I evenly read from my own books, library books, and review books. So really I have only a few goals.
1. Read 25% non-fiction. I think this should actually be fairly easy for me, as I was approaching this at the end of last year. I’ve found lots of fantastic non-fiction this past year and I really want to continue learning in all different subjects.
2. Read more of my own books. I know this is a problem everyone seems to have, but I’m definitely reading out of proportion these days. I have shelves and shelves of my own books, but only one shelf of review books. When I get through those, I want to continue accepting fewer review books and start reading 2 of my own books for every 1 review book.
3. Review books more promptly. I want to get into a system where I review the last book I read before I start a new one. Right now I’m about two weeks behind and I just don’t like it; I start to forget things. It gets so overwhelming that I then don’t review anything and just read more! I’d just like to be more punctual.
4. Most importantly, don’t feel guilty! I aimed for this last year, but I don’t think I succeeded (and to be honest I doubt I will this year). I want blogging to be less stressful; to not worry if I don’t post for a week or if I want to do something that isn’t reading a book for a while.
Do you have any reading or blogging goals for the new year?
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