Tag Archives: Historical

An Unlit Candle by Caren J. Werlinger #DualTimeline #LiteraryFiction #TuesdayBookBlog

Posted in Book Review, Contemporary, Dual Time Line, Gay Romance, Historical, Literary Fiction, Romance by

58950251._SY475_Author: Caren J. Werlinger

Published: September 2021 by Corgyn Publishing

Category: Contemporary, Historical, Fiction, Religion, Literary

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Patricia Horrigan is the eldest daughter of a family determined to gain entry into the upper echelons of Rochester society as the 1950s give way to the turbulence of the 60s. Born of an Irish father and a French-Canadian mother, Pip inherited the stubborn pride and fierce determination of both.

In present time, Lauren Thackeray has managed to put her life back together—in a manner of speaking. She has her weaving, her home, her chosen family, and she has the monastery and the lasting friendship of the nuns there. The one thing she doesn’t have, she doesn’t want. She won’t open her heart again after she barely survived the last time.

I enjoyed In This Small Spot so much I jumped at the chance to read An Unlit Candle. Told in two alternating timelines, part sequel, part prequel, and woven together beautifully. I think this story would definitely benefit from being read after In This Small Spot.

We first meet Patricia (Pip) Horrigan in the late 1950s as she and brother accompany their parents to a ball at the Wasserman’s, where it pays to be seen. Mr Wasserman would play an ongoing role in Pip’s life.

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#ThrowbackThursday ~ The Mobster’s Lament  (City Blues Quartet Book 3) by Ray Celestin #Historical #CrimeFiction set in 1940s New York.

Posted in Book Review, Crime, Fiction, Historical, Throwback Thursday by

I’ve loved this series and am looking forward to the fourth book which is due in November. The stories chart the history of jazz and the mafia during the middle years of the 20th century.

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My Thoughts

I really enjoyed the first two books in the series—The Axeman’s Jazz & Dead Man’s Blues—and The Mobster’s Lament was no exception. Set in post war New York where private investigator Ida Davies arrives to help her old friend and mentor, ex Pinkerton agent, Michael Talbot.

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#ThrowbackThursday ~ Entry Island by Peter May ~ Complex and Emotional Dual Timeline #MurderMystery #Historical

Posted in Book Review, Contemporary, Dual Time Line, Historical, Murder/Mystery, Throwback Thursday by

Entry Island is one of my all time favourite books. I listened to the audio version which was released in 2013 and Peter Forbes’ narration gave the already incredible story extra depth.

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My Thoughts

Detective Sime (Sheem) Mackenzie is part of the murder investigation team sent to Entry Island, one of Les Îsles de la Madeleine archipelago in the Gulf of St Lawrence, from the Sûreté de Police.

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The Silence by Susan Allott ~ set in Australia #LiteraryFiction #Historical #Mystery @SusanAllott

Posted in Book Review, Historical, Literary Fiction, Mystery by

412MsxyY+IL._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_Author: Susan Allott

Published: April 2021 by The Borough Press (paperback edition)

Category: Literary Fiction, Historical, Mystery, Book Review

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A missing woman

30 years ago, in the suffocating heat of a Sydney summer, the Greens’ next-door neighbour Mandy disappeared without a trace.

A cold case reopened

In 1997, in a basement flat in Hackney, Isla Green is awakened by a call in the middle of the night: her father is under suspicion of Mandy’s murder.

A devastating secret

How well does Isla know her father? Is he capable of doing something terrible? And is there another secret in their community – a conspiracy of silence which stretches deep into Australia’s past?

After reading FictionFan’s review I knew this would be a book I’d enjoy, and I certainly did! In 1997 Isla Green was living in London and, awakened at 2am one night by a phone call from her father in Australia, she knew immediately something was wrong. Her father never called. He hated the telephone and always wrote letters.

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Top 20 Favourite Reads of 2020 #amreading #bookblogger #FridayReads

Posted in Am Reading, Book Blogger, Crime, Favourite Books, Historical Fiction, Urban Fantasy by

It’s nearly Christmas and the end of another year, one I think we’ll all be glad to say goodbye to. But on a brighter note, it’s also favourite books of the year time.

As always it’s a difficult choice but despite my reading being a little hit and miss this year I’ve read some fabulous books. So in no particular order, and not necessarily published this year, here we go…

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#Extract from Celts and the Mad Goddess: The Deathless Chronicle 1 by P.C. Darkcliff #Historical #Fantasy @P_C_Darkcliff

Posted in Extract, Fantasy, Historical by

Today I’m sharing an extract from Celts and the Mad Goddess, courtesy of P.C. Darkcliff. First of all, let’s see what the book is about…

When the raiders chase her into a swamp, Rawena falls into the furry claws of Goddess Pandemia. Despite her murderous instincts, Pandemia lets Rawena live—and turns her into a pawn in a mad game.

Only Garux, a warrior who has rejected Rawena for her younger sister, knows how deadly the game is. With the cards stacked against him, he must defeat the jealous Rawena and the cunning Pandemia… while fighting foreign invaders and traitors within his tribe.

Will Garux and his allies prevent a disaster that could wipe out everyone in Bohemia and perhaps the whole world? Purchase Celts and the Mad Goddess now to find out.

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The Lost Blackbird by @LizaPerrat ~ Fiction based on Fact #HistoricalFiction #Psychological #RBRT #FridayReads

Posted in Based on Real Events, Book Review, Fiction, Historical by

Author: Liza Perrat

Category: Based on Fact, Psychological, Historical, Book Review

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London 1962. A strict and loveless English children’s home, or the promise of Australian sunshine, sandy beaches and eating fruit straight from the tree. Which would you choose?

Ten-year-old Lucy Rivers and her five-year-old sister Charly are thrilled when a child migrant scheme offers them the chance to escape their miserable past.

But on arrival in Sydney, the girls discover their fantasy future is more nightmare than dream.

The story begins in January 1962 when Lucy and Charly Rivers’ father comes home drunk, as he often does, and a fall leaves him dead at the bottom of the stairs. Their mother, who was out at the time, was charged with his murder and the sisters were sent to Easthaven Home for Girls. The home was run by authoritative and heartless Mrs Mersey, who spared no kindness or pity for the unfortunate girls in her supposed care.

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#GuestPost by #Author @mitchelljkaplan talking about his latest release, Into The Unbounded Light #Historical #Thriller #TuesdayBookBlog

Posted in Guest Post, Historical, Thriller by

Today I’m delighted to welcome Mitchell James Kaplan with a guest post about how he came to write his latest novel, released today, Into The Unbounded Light.

First of all, let’s see what the book is about…

Into The Unbounded Night follows the lives of five troubled individuals as they struggle for survival and purpose in the first century Roman empire. The story is primarily seen through the eyes of Aislin, a refugee from Albion; other important characters include Yohanan ben Zakkai, Saul of Tarsus, the emperor Vespasian, and Azazel, a doomed angel.

Throughout Into The Unbounded Night, these characters’ lives intertwine in unexpected ways that shed light on colonization and its discontents, the relative values of dominant and tyrannized cultures, the sense of imminent apocalypse, and the holiness of life itself — even the weakest of lives.

Into The Unbounded Night is not only relevant to the world today, it is also a meditation on who we are, the stories we tell, and why we tell them.

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#ThrowbackThursday ~ The Highlander ~ Rise of the Aztecs #1 by Zoe Saadia #HistoricalFiction #Mexico

Posted in Book Review, Historical Fiction, History by

Throwback Thursday this week showcases the first in an excellent historical fiction series, based on fact. There are prequels which are just as good but not essential to read first.

My Thoughts

The Rise of the Aztecs follows on from the pre Aztec series and the story picks up in 1409 with two boys from vastly differing backgrounds. Coyotl, a Lowlander, first son of the Emperor and Kuini, a Highlander and son of the War Leader from Huexotzinco. The boys meet by chance on Coyotl’s favourite hill which overlooks his altepetl, Texcoco, the capital of the Acolhua people. A growing friendship develops, both expressing interest in the other’s customs and culture. The story is told from each of their perspectives as they begin meeting in secret. 

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The Paper Bracelet by @EnglishRachael ~ Every baby’s bracelet held a mother’s secret… #DualTimeline #BookReview #FridayReads

Posted in Book Review, Contemporary Fiction, Dual Time Line, Historical by

Author: Rachael English

Published: February 2020 by Hatchette Books Ireland

Category: Dual Timeline, Historical, Contemporary, Book Review

For almost fifty years, Katie Carroll has kept a box tucked away inside her wardrobe. It dates from her time working as a nurse in a west of Ireland mother and baby home in the 1960s. The box contains a notebook holding the details of the babies and young women she met there. It also holds many of the babies’ identity bracelets.

The Paper Bracelet is inspired by true events, namely the harsh way unmarried mothers were treated, not only in Ireland where this story is set, but further afield as well. For a long time nothing was known about the injustices and heartbreak women suffered in mother and baby homes, run by nuns for women, and sometimes including young abused girls, whose families didn’t want the shame or stigma of an unmarried and pregnant daughter. Rachael English tells this heartbreaking story extremely well and with empathy.

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