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 Catherine de Medici is just a girl with a little too much life experience when she leaves her home of Italy to be married to the French king’s son, Henri. Wondering and hoping for the best from her marriage, Catherine is dismayed to discover that her new husband has a mistress intent on keeping his attention away from her. With her status at stake, Catherine must make sacrifices to take control of her life, but they are sacrifices which only strengthen her for the extraordinary role she must take in the lives of her children and her adopted country, France.
Even though I really enjoyed C.W. Gortner’s last work, The Last Queen, I was worried how I was going to react to this one. I’ve mentioned my recent disaffection with historical fiction quite a lot, but since I so recently loved The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger, I thought it might be time to give it a try. And I was right – I loved this book. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading it and I fully enjoyed immersion in it throughout its 400 pages. Gortner has penned another winner and I’m glad I didn’t wait one minute longer to read it.
Making Catherine de Medici, one of history’s favorite villains, a sympathetic character is an impressive feat, but Gortner does just that. Charting her growth from naive girl to married princess to crowned queen to mother and regent allows him to give her life perspective which is rarely achieved in other works that target the same time period but focus on different characters. As a result, we can see how and why she acts the way she does, and with these believable motives in place, her character shifts and she becomes a character we can relate to instead of a conniving queen, even if she might appear that way to others.
I also really enjoyed the settings; I could picture sixteenth century France and its many troubles easily. A number of important historic events happen during Catherine’s reign as queen, most notably the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, and the struggle between the Huguenots and the Catholics was, for me, well portrayed, and captured a lot of the frustrations and violence which seethed through France and its neighboring countries at the time. So much was happening that the book never slows down or feels boring; whether it’s Catherine’s personal life in turmoil or the country itself, something is always going on to keep the reader entertained and captivated.
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici was surprisingly just as excellent as I’d hoped, and I think it’s an excellent choice for other lovers of historical fiction – even if, like me, you are a bit unhappy with the genre as a whole. C.W. Gortner is an amazing writer and you’ll find me lining up for his next book ASAP.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
 Lady Duff Gordon is one of nineteenth century London’s best known aristocrats. Famed for her house parties, friendships, and writing, she is admired by all who meet her, including her lady’s maid, Sally Naldrett. But Lady Duff Gordon has tuberculosis and is slowly dying from the inside out, even though she tries to hide it. Her doctors advise a departure from the damp English climate, so she’s forced to move away from her family, to Egypt, with only Sally as a companion. There, without a household of servants around her and the love of her Lady giving her peace, Sally begins to discover freedom like she’d never imagined; until she crosses a line and abruptly learns that she has nothing.
The Mistress Of Nothing has the distinction of being one of few historical fiction novels I’ve managed to thoroughly enjoy this year. I was never bored and I never knew what was going to happen next, which is so refreshing when I feel I’m usually reading the same stories over and over again. Kate Pullinger’s prose is rich and enveloping; I was completely sucked into this book from the very first page. Sally narrates the book and I adored her voice and her character, how she embraces freedoms and discovers so much about herself that wasn’t possible when she was only a simple servant.
The gorgeous descriptions made me feel as though I could have been in England and Egypt, too. I really enjoyed the contrast between the two locations. Not much time is spent in England in the book, but Sally has lived there her whole life and she recognizes when her life begins to change. Just the moment when she decides to stop wearing her corset is perfectly captured:
” … Without it, I felt fully unwrapped and as though everyone was looking at me. My back and arms seemed loosened and free, even with the stiff brown muslim on once again. I felt odd, as though along with the stays, I’d removed my spine and become a kind of jelly creature, supple, porous.”
At that moment, Sally starts to embrace her new freedom. She loves her Lady – has chosen not to marry in order to stay with her – but she remembers that she is also her own person and starts to seize on her time in Egypt. Later in the book, her new ways cause her trouble fitting in with other English people; she becomes a product of her experiences in both countries.
Everything else about the book was richly drawn and evocative, too – the characters’ emotions, the slow-moving but deeply impacting plotline, even the lazy Nile that meanders through the town in which Sally lives. But the whole thing is truly about a class struggle. Even when Sally feels equal to her employer, even when she’s spent her life serving another person and that person seems to feel just as affectionate as she does, she can easily be knocked down to absolute zero simply because she’s a servant. It’s not only a story about a woman embracing life, it’s a story about learning that things could be different and bucking the trend for the first time. That, at the core, is what makes it so powerful.
I loved The Mistress Of Nothing and, if you enjoy historical fiction, I’m pretty sure you will too.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 In the early twentieth century, Benjamin Purnell gathered a group of followers dedicated to chastity and remaining young forever, called the House of David. Together they relocated to Benton Harbor, Michigan, and created a community called Eden Springs. An amusement park and a house full of young people successfully hid the corruption within, though, until eventually Benjamin Purnell’s lechery and abuse of young women was exposed. This is a re-imagining of those true events, supported by documentary images and real newspaper clippings about Eden Springs.
I had never heard of Eden Springs before and to be honest I found just the history fascinating and quite disturbing at the same time. I did have to look it up to fully understand what was going on at first; I really had no idea where the story was going or what had happened with the cult. But the writing was beautiful and I really wanted to continue, so I perservered beyond the first fifty pages and the story came together.
In essence, the story centers around girls. One’s death is covered up, a sixteen-year-old buried under the headstone of a sixty-year-old woman. Another is frustrated with life and longs for openness. Yet another girl, pregnant, longs for Benjamin Purnell’s touch once again; but all the girls long for him. Slowly, suspicion grows in the reader and the community as we realize that far too many women are pregnant for a colony about chastity and when rushed marriages take place in order to explain the babies. Only then do we become aware of what’s happened and why Lena longs so desperately to get away.
If anything, I really wanted more from this book. The chapters were very short and written in a dreamlike style, as though the girls were living in a haze before the truth was exposed. Even then, they still longed to see Purnell. Though the images and newspaper clippings definitely expanded on the story and brought it more to life, I still felt like I didn’t get the appeal of Benjamin Purnell or the cult in general. I could see how nice it would be to run an amusement park surrounded by luscious fruit trees providing all the money the followers could ever want, but personally that wouldn’t be a draw.
I would definitely recommend Eden Springs to anyone who has heard of the House of David before – it’s just such an interesting story. The fact that the fiction is backed up by so much genuine history for me really enlivened the book. I just wish it had been longer!
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from a publicist for review.
 When her beloved grandfather dies, Theodora Lestrange finds herself dependent on the charity of others to survive. As a Victorian woman intent on making her living by her pen, she still doesn’t earn enough to house herself, but she’s repulsed by the idea of living with her sister and brother-in-law and children. Luckily, her friend Cosmina writes to her, urging her to attend her wedding in Romania to the enigmatic Count Dragulescu, and stay for a while. Theodora gratefully accepts, planning to write her novel in an atmospheric castle. But when she arrives, she discovers more than atmosphere – a mystery that could have more to do with the supernatural than anything she’s ever encountered before.
If you’re a long-time reader of my blog, you’ll know that I just adore Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey series. I was made a little sad by the fact that she took time off from Julia to write this book, but I looked forward to it just the same. And with good reason; her writing quality stands up to the test and I definitely enjoyed my time with this book.
The beginning started off particularly slowly, which had me worrying at first. It all felt like a simple summary of what had gone before and way more telling than showing. I was waiting for the action to get started, and it finally picked up when Theodora got to Romania and the book began properly.
I didn’t love it quite as much as the Lady Julia Grey series, though, perhaps because much of it feels like the same characters in a different story. Theodora is a paler imitation of Julia and the Count just doesn’t have the appeal that Nicholas Brisbane does. I didn’t fall in love with them and I felt the Count in particular remained shadowy, possessed of few attributes beyond his physical attractiveness and rakish past. But I liked them and I was intrigued by the mystery, whether there were truly supernatural creatures in Romania or not and what was the true cause of these crimes. I didn’t predict the outcome, but then I didn’t think about it all the much either. I was too busy reading!
The Dead Travel Fast is an engaging gothic romance, but doesn’t quite touch the appeal of the Lady Julia Grey series. If you’re new to Raybourn’s books, I would suggest starting with Silent in the Grave.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the Amazon Vine program for review.
 Anne Neville has always known that her future isn’t really hers to choose. But she trusts her father, the earl of Warwick, to provide a good husband for her, and her childhood is generally happy even if she does occasionally fight with her sister Isabel. When Richard, duke of Gloucester, is brought to her home of Middleham to be fostered, Anne immediately develops an interest in him, and they become friends. When her father arranges their marriage, Anne is at first uncertain and then pleased. But politics in England are uncooperative and soon a rift grows between Anne’s father and King Edward IV. Anne is forced to flee to France, where she ends up in a loveless marriage and spends days wondering when she will escape her cruel life and get back to the man she loves.
Anne O’Brien chose to write this novel about Anne Neville because few people actually give the focus to her when writing a novel set during the Wars of the Roses. And she’s right, because I’m not sure I’ve read one which does actually have her as the narrator. As a result, there were some new sections here, particularly the exile in France. I’ve not read a fictional account of Anne’s marriage to the Edward of Lancaster, even though most books mention it. So, O’Brien succeeded in bringing some new material to a story that’s been told many times, which I appreciated.
I also liked that O’Brien chose to cast the novel as a romance between Anne and Richard over an extended period of time. While there’s no evidence that there was actually a romance, and Richard had plenty of greedy motives for marrying Anne, as the author says, there isn’t any evidence that it didn’t happen. And the romance was quite sweet and well-written; I like how both the characters, especially Richard, changed over the period of the novel and the couple acknowledged one another’s faults and flaws when they decided to be together in the end.
Unfortunately, a few things prevented the book from being truly excellent, though it was enjoyable. For one thing, I really feel like the Wars of the Roses are massively overdone in historical fiction, only surpassed by the truly ridiculous saturation of Tudors. Knowing the details of everything that is going to happen in a novel just kills it, IMO – which is why I appreciated how O’Brien did some things differently. I did find some things a little strange, like the fact that Anne referred to her parents as the Earl and Countess even in her own head, but Margaret of Anjou was never really the Queen and Richard was always Richard. While children in the Middle Ages would have been very aware of their parents’ titles, I’m pretty sure they still called their mothers “Mother”, especially when they’re depicted as having a close relationship – Anne’s mother doesn’t seem to be a particularly distant figure to her and she loves and trusts her parents. It added a bit of distance that I don’t think the novel needed.
Lastly, I thought the addition of an incestuous relationship between two of the characters was a little unnecessary; they had already been villainized enough throughout the rest of the novel. It just kind of squicked me out.
Virgin Widow is a good addition to the current offering of historical fiction covering the Wars of the Roses and I definitely recommend it for its different perspective on events.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 Isabel and her sister Ruth have been slaves their entire lives. On the eve of the American Revolution, their owner dies and sets them free in her will. But because of the turmoil, no one bothers to find the lawyer or read the will, so Isabel and Ruth are inherited and sold to a cruel Tory family who lives in New York. There Isabel tries her hardest to free herself and her sister just as her country tries to free itself from British rule. After all, if a country can be free, why can’t two little girls?
Slavery during the American Revolution isn’t something we always think about. There is so much going on in the period that I think we tend to get excited about Americans winning our independence from Britain and completely ignore the fact that we chose to keep thousands of people enslaved at the same time simply because of the color of their skin. Laurie Halse Anderson rightly points out how utterly wrong this was by writing this compelling tale of two sisters who are legally free but trapped because white people simply don’t care and don’t want to bother finding out the truth.
Anderson is a master at creating characters’ voices and I just adored Isabel’s, who is the narrator of this story. I felt for her the whole way through the book and I really, really wanted her to win freedom for herself and her sister. Her every failure broke my heart, especially when it wasn’t her fault. She’s just a child and that really becomes clear – it’s horrible how she’s treated. Somehow, though, this book is more readable than many books about slavery. Even though Isabel suffers, she doesn’t get beaten down. She has a fantastic spirit and I think it enlivens the whole book because hope remains in the darkest times for her.
It also speaks to Anderson’s talent that she took an era in which I have relatively little interest, for whatever reason, and make it the background for an utterly compelling book. I had never known that the British promised freedom to the slaves to get them on their side, for example. I’ve only ever read one book set in New York City at this time, The Tory Widow by Christine Blevins, and I was intrigued by the parallels and differences told by each author.
I thought Chains was a fantastic work of YA historical fiction. It’s compelling, readable, and haunting. I can’t wait for the sequel, Forge, and just wish it was out now!
I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.
 Isabella d’Este, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, is thrilled with her father’s choice of husband for her. Francesco Gonzaga, the future Marquis of Mantua, is not a wildly handsome man but their betrothal looks to lead to a love match. Just one month later and she’d have been marrying her younger sister’s Beatrice’s betrothed – the much older Ludovico Sforza, regent of Milan. Ludovico has more power, but he’s put off Beatrice’s wedding for so long that it looks like it might never happen. When it does, however, Isabella meets Ludovico and for the first time is jealous of her younger, less attractive sister, because she and Ludovico are clearly of the same mind about many things. Moreover, Ludovico’s Milan is home to Leonardo da Vinci and Isabella wants nothing more than to be made immortal by the genius artist. But all is not well in Italy as the political machinations of her leaders come back to haunt them.
I have wanted to read this book ever since I read Stealing Athena by the same author two years ago. When I started to get bored with most historical fiction, I thought I would give Karen Essex a chance to bring back my fascination with it. At first, it wasn’t looking good. The book started off slowly and I set it aside for a full week in favor of other, more immediately compelling books. When I sat down to finally force myself to read it, though, it picked up and I enjoyed it by the end.
There’s no denying that Essex’s writing is lovely. She paints a gorgeous picture of a variety of places in Italy. I loved how the book was set right during the Renaissance, but there are still plenty of reminders of the Middle Ages, like jousts, hanging around to remind me that this was a period of transition. I could definitely imagine myself feasting and dancing in the courts along with the main characters, which I did appreciate.
The focus on art was fascinating as well. Isabella’s desire to immortalize herself takes up quite a bit of the story and art remains a central focus throughout. The characters are either painted or commissioning paintings or both – while Leonardo da Vinci slowly gets on with a variety of different kinds of art. Essex also reminds us how transient art is; some of the paintings she mentions are lost or have been destroyed in the meantime. It doesn’t all lead to immortality as Isabella would like.
The story is compelling in the end; it’s far more than a simple battle between two sisters for one man, as the cover would have you believe. It’s really about all of the women who are painted, or long to be painted, by Leonardo da Vinci, and the way that politics can destroy the overambitious. I would definitely recommend Leonardo’s Swans to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 It’s 1941. Frankie Bard, a rare female radio personality, reports from London every night on the state of the burgeoning war in Europe, trying desperately to convince Americans that the time has come to intervene and stop Germany. In Franklin, Massachusetts, both Emma Fitch, the doctor’s new wife, and Iris James, the town’s postmistress, listen to Frankie from the comfort of a small town in Cape Cod. But the war can’t stay out forever and these three women will find their lives intertwined as the question of who delivers the news becomes paramount in all of their lives.
I’ve heard a lot of hype lately about The Postmistress. It seems that everyone who reads it enjoys it. I’m not an exception – I didn’t love it, but I did enjoy reading this. It’s a smooth read, very well-written, with some fantastic imagery. I loved in particular Frankie’s radio stints. I could almost hear her voice in my head, especially when the other characters described how she sounded – like she was smiling, or if she sounded tired or angry. I almost never listen to the radio personally, but it always strikes me as an essential part of twentieth-century history.
In fact all around Frankie was my favorite, but I also appreciated the contrast between war-time Europe and sleepy Cape Cod. It seemed amazing to me – as it did to Frankie – that throughout so many European countries people were regularly exiled from their homes, shipped off to concentration camps, or trapped in hiding while Americans did nothing even though they knew precisely what was happening. The contrast seemed strikingly relevant to the present day as well, where there are plenty of war-torn countries while we sit comfortably in our homes and hardly ever have to worry about our safety when we go to the grocery store. I have no solutions, but the book certainly brings up plenty of questions that are still relevant to our lives.
For some reason, though, this never became a book I loved. Maybe because of the ending, which I found a little on the unnecessary side, or maybe just because the whole book was full of secrets. I know others feel more strongly about it than I do, but I don’t think it’s one I’ll need to revisit. I’d probably still recommend The Postmistress to someone looking for fiction about the Second World War with a female focus.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 Willow is a destitute child in Southern China, reduced to begging and stealing for food, until she becomes friends with the local missionary’s daughter, Pearl Sydenstricker. From that moment on, their lives intertwine, as Pearl goes on to become a famous writer after her share of struggles and Willow experiences the worst of the new Communist regime under Chairman Mao. Throughout they remain friends and in contact wherever possible, sharing pain, sorrow, and joy.
This is such a touching book. The friendship between Pearl and Willow feels right and true, from its development to its end. It’s not a perfect friendship, as of course there are roadblocks as there might be between any two women. Towards the end, with the effect of the Cultural Revolution, no letters are allowed at all, and Willow finds herself endlessly wondering what is happening to her friend even as she endures persecution for refusing to denounce Pearl. This is certainly the darkest and slowest part of the book, but these things genuinely happened to people, and they deserved their place here.
I found it so interesting that Pearl is genuinely regarded as a Chinese writer. She spent the large majority of the first forty years of her life in China, spoke Chinese fluently, and had a great understanding of Chinese people. The author writes in her prologue that when she read The Good Earth, it was so accurate and so moving a picture of Chinese peasants that it made her cry and inspired her to write this book. The parts reflecting Pearl’s life are drawn from history (I’m not sure if Willow was a real person or not) and I’ve been totally inspired to learn more about her life. She seems like such a fascinating and driven woman, confronted with obstacles but determined to surmount them in the end.
Pearl of China is a great book for those of us who are interested in China. The more I read, the more I want to read, and this was a fantastic choice for fiction. I’m looking forward to reading more by Anchee Min.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the Amazon Vine program.
 When Charlotte Wallace lost her parents, she was sent to live with her aunt and uncle, where her only joy in life became riding horses in secret – and being taught by the stable boy, Robert Devington. Now older and completely in love, Robert and Charlotte wish more than anything to marry, but Charlotte’s uncle won’t hear of it, no matter how many ways Robert proves himself. An unexpected betrayal and a lie forces them apart, and only horse racing can bring them back together again.
I questioned my judgment a little before I read this book, not sure what I was thinking when I requested it. Horse racing? Really? I loved horse books when I was a kid, but it was something I grew out of. Emery Lee’s book says maybe I “grew out” of it too soon, because I enjoyed this book to a surprising degree.
While Robert and Charlotte are the focus of this book’s plot, this is definitely not a romance. They already fell in love and the book is concerned with getting them married, which is all they both want. They both love horses, though, and the racing is a constant plot point. The horses themselves are almost characters, given little quirks of personality, and it’s clear through their love for animals that Robert, Charlotte, and even Philip Drake are good people thrown in bad circumstances. I really liked many of the characters. A few of them were caricatures, like Charlotte’s uncle, who is the epitome of a fortune seeker and doesn’t care for anyone else as long as he makes money and rises in prestige, but rather than annoying me I thought these people were an interesting backdrop for the characters who are worth reading about.
Plus, the book is exciting. The horse races in particular are surprisingly riveting. I didn’t know who was going to win all the time, and I was genuinely curious. Even though a fair amount of the plot is revealed on the back of the book, I couldn’t really predict where the book was going to go and just how or even if Robert and Charlotte were going to get back together in the end. I also liked that some of the book took place in the Colonies; it gave a different perspective on the new sport and provided another angle. It went very quickly for a 500-page book.
The Highest Stakes is a very enjoyable work of historical fiction, providing a compelling story against the backdrop of thoroughbred horse racing. Definitely recommended. And a totally shallow note, I love the cover of this book. I think it’s gorgeous!
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
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