Bedside Bookstack: February 2015

Thursday 26 February 2015

Sally Bone - Sheila Fields

A small girl in a crowd of evacuees decides that destination marked out for her does not appeal – so she makes the first of many sudden decisions which change her life at every turn.

We follow Sally as she grows, through work, marriage and widowhood. This draws heavily upon the author’s own life and experiences, and it’s difficult to tell where fact and fiction meet. Sally’s life is eventful - with distant parents, a second life in the country as an evacuee, working first as a nurse and then becoming a businesswoman. There’s also a fair dash of romance in the Netherlands.

Why you’ll like it
It’s a believable picture of farm life seen through the eyes of a five-year old, the trials of life as a student nurse and a fascinating view of life in 1960s Amsterdam.

Why you won’t like it
The style is conversational; Sally is relating her memories to the reader, interspersing anecdotes and comments which can disturb the thread, and sometimes it’s difficult to follow.

Get it here

Format:	Paperback	e-pub Kindle
Publisher	Blenheim Press Ltd	Blenheim Press Ltd
Year:	2009	2009
Price:	£9.95	£4.80
Pages:	394	394
ISBN-10:	1906302162
ISBN-13:	978-1906302160
ASIN:		B005GAAVPI
Reviewed:		7^th June 2012
Prices correct at date of posting 2015-02-26

Tuesday 24 February 2015

City of Secrets - Christine Jordan

In the closing years of the fifteenth century, Gloucester is tense whilst piety and politics vie for power. Plague, floods and the fear of heresy affect everyone, highborn or peasant alike and suspicions run deep. Trapped in a marriage of necessity, Emmelina clutches at any hope of escape, however temporary, but the risks are great and the stakes high. When she disrupts the plans of the rich and powerful, she becomes the target of their revenge. How can she survive?

There is plenty of local detail and period atmosphere; Jordan knows Gloucester well and takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the mediaeval city. It is an intriguing story with a feisty protagonist, murders and violence, tears and joy and more than a little excitement. It is easy to believe that a woman could not stand alone in 1497; many did, owning property and running businesses, and Emmelina is determined to survive, manage her husband’s business and make her own way in the world, although she does not have it all her own way by any means. The chapter detailing Maud’s fate was graphic and could be distressing.

A few anachronisms; nightclothes were not common at this time, and a woman’s only undergarment was a chemise; some characters seemed to be wearing more modern underwear.
Some of the prose was a little stilted, with choppy sentences which could have been smoothed in the final edit. The story came to a somewhat abrupt ending; all the threads were brought together in a few pages, which was a shame as there would have been scope for a sequel telling of Emmelina’s further adventures, but that said, this was an entertaining debut novel.

Link to original review

Get it here

Format:	Paperback	e-pub Kindle
Publisher	FeedaRead.com	Indigo Books
Year:	2014	2014
Price:	£8.99	£0.99
Pages:	394	394
ISBN-10:	1784076015
ISBN-13:	978-1784076016
ASIN:		B00IDHC6T0
Reviewed:	29^th September 2014
Prices correct at date of posting 2015-02-23

Myth - Jolea M Harrison

Taking advice doesn’t come easy to Dynan and Dain Telaerin. Just because your father is the King doesn’t make you want to listen to him, and the fact that you’ve already saved the world once doesn’t make him trust you! However, fate and family destiny forces the twins to face personal tragedy and to grow up fast.

Darker than the first book in this series, this is a more challenging read. The characters are developed well, changing as they grow and face the challenges fate throws at them. Dream sequences and time shifts interweave the complex threads of the story, which are sometimes slightly difficult to follow. However, the story hangs together well, and holds the attention well. It’s let down slightly by a few silly textual errors.

Why you’ll like it

Believable characters sympathetically developed, and a plot which really holds the attention, it’s a great adventure story.

Why you won’t like it

Interwoven threads can be challenging to follow, and a few spelling mistakes.