Review: The Royal Correspondent

Title: The Royal Correspondent

Author: Alexandra Joel

Publisher: 3rd February 2021 by HarperCollins AU

Pages: 400 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction

My Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

Success would depend on taking a dangerous risk.

When Blaise Hill, a feisty young journalist from one of Sydney's toughest neighbourhoods, is dispatched to London at the dawn of the swinging sixties to report on Princess Margaret's controversial marriage to an unconventional photographer, she is drawn into an elite realm of glamour and intrigue.

As the nation faces an explosive upheaval, Blaise must grapple with a series of shocking scandals at the pinnacle of British society. Yet, haunted by a threat from her past and torn between two very different men, who can she trust in a world of hidden motives and shifting alliances? If she makes the wrong choice, she will lose everything.

Inspired by real events, The Royal Correspondent is a compelling story of love and betrayal, family secrets and conspiracy that takes you from the gritty life of a daily newspaper to the opulent splendour of Buckingham Palace.

My Thoughts

Following on from Alexandra’s 2020 novel, The Paris Model, she now brings to life the upper echelons of British society, with the incorporation of the press, in the 1960s with her latest historical fiction offering. I enjoyed last year’s book and I am happy to report that once again, Alexandra has won me over with her seamless weaving of historical fact and fiction to provide her readers with a highly engaging tale. 

‘ ... no matter how good you are, you’re going to be faced with plenty of brick walls for no other reason than because you’re a girl. I say ignore them. Either batter those walls down, find a way round them or else slip through the cracks - if you don’t, you won’t get anywhere. You’ve got to back yourself Blaise - nobody else will.’

Inspired by real events, The Royal Correspondent covers love and betrayal, family secrets and even a thrilling spy conspiracy from the streets of Sydney to the swinging 60s of London. Perhaps the most inspiring story line is that of a female trying to pave her way out of the ‘Women’s Pages’ and into the ‘real news’ and to be seen (and paid) like her fellow male reporters. Add into the mix everything from Buckingham Palace Garden parties, to conspiracy theories of the Cold War, to romance and betrayal all against the backdrop of hems coming up and music in full swing. It is lively and it is liberating!

You cannot help but be inspired by  Blaise as she pushes the social boundaries in her quest to be recognised for her journalism and maintain the strong, independent woman she wishes to represent in the 1960s. There is sure to be something for everyone in this multi layered story - from espionage to fashion, from getting the scoop to falling in love, readers are sure to be enthralled with this fun and lively tale. 

‘Blaise drifted out of Sir Ernest’s flat, gathered her billowing skirts in her white-gloved hands and stepped into the lift. Taking several deep breaths, she told herself ‘You’ve got this, Blaise Hill. You’re simply off to a royal ball held by Her Majesty the Queen in honour of the imminent marriage of her little sister, Princess Margaret. Piece of cake. Nothing to it.’ Somehow, the words had a hollow ring.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Watchmaker of Dachau

Title: The Watchmaker of Dachau

Author: Carly Schabowski

Publisher: 20th January 2021 by Bookouture

Pages: 388 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction, WWII

My Rating: 3 cups

Synopsis:

An unforgettable novel of human kindness, inspired by an incredible true story.

Snow falls and a woman prepares for a funeral she has long expected, yet hoped would never come. As she pats her hair and straightens her skirt, she tells herself this isn’t the first time she’s lost someone. Lifting a delicate, battered wristwatch from a little box on her dresser, she presses it to her cheek. Suddenly, she’s lost in memory…

January 1945. Dachau, Germany. As the train rattles through the bright, snowy Bavarian countryside, the still beauty outside the window hides the terrible scenes inside the train, where men and women are packed together, cold and terrified. Jewish watchmaker Isaac Schüller can’t understand how he came to be here, and is certain he won’t be leaving alive.

When the prisoners arrive at Dachau concentration camp, Isaac is unexpectedly pulled from the crowd and installed in the nearby household of Senior Officer Becher and his young, pretty, spoiled wife. With his talent for watchmaking, Isaac can be of use to Becher, but he knows his life is only worth something here as long as Becher needs his skills.

Anna Reznick waits table and washes linens for the Bechers, who dine and socialise and carry on as if they don’t constantly have death all around them. When she meets Isaac she knows she’s found a true friend, and maybe more. But Dachau is a dangerous place where you can never take love for granted, and when Isaac discovers a heartbreaking secret hidden in the depths of Becher’s workshop, it will put Anna and Issac in terrible danger…

My Thoughts

‘Each watch told a story to Isaac as he mended them. The way they were worn, the way they broke, gave clues to him like a detective at a crime scene.’

At its heart, The Watchmaker of Dachau is a story about friendships in the midst of the Holocaust of  World War II.  Interestingly, the novel takes place towards the end of the war, where the hope that the Americans were soon to arrive - that an end to the suffering of so many would soon occur, provided this tale with an interesting aspect. 

This book is told from multiple perspectives - Isaac the older Jewish prisoner, Anna a young Jewish prisoner,  Frederich the son of the camp commandant and an anonymous narrator of discovered letters that are interspersed throughout the tale. The first three voices are clear and strong with good alternating stories. I struggled with the letters as it seemed to slow the story down somewhat. There are other interesting secondary characters - Commandant Herr Becher and his wife (Frederich’s parents) and Greta, their cook. Both Isaac and Anna work at the Becher house which is how they encounter Frederich. This is a book that most definitely is character driven rather than focused on the plot. 

The book provides a heartbreaking tale of the Holocaust but I did not find it as strong as other tales on this same topic - sad, interesting and realistic certainly, however, some things were tied up too neatly by the conclusion for my liking. That being said, there is a definite message of positivity throughout the book (I will never think of the aroma of lemons quite the same again) with the importance of finding joy in the everyday. There is a solid balance between the tale of the horrific Dachau experiences with the goodness of humanity shining through despite and inspite of those horrors. 

‘One thing I cannot understand is that the hum of bees, the singing of birds and the colours of flowers still exist. How can things carry on as if nothing so horrific is happening around us?’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Sargasso

Title: Sargasso

Author: Kathy George

Publisher: 3rd February 2021 by Harlequin Australia & MIRA

Pages: 387 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: mystery, contemporary, gothic

My Rating: 3.5 cups

Synopsis:

An empty house, a lonely shore, an enigmatic, brooding man-child waiting for her return ... a trip to the dark lands of Australian Gothic, for readers of Kate Morton and Hannah Richell.

Last night I dreamt I went to Sargasso again ...

As a child, Hannah lived at Sargasso, the isolated beachside home designed by her father, a brilliant architect. A lonely, introverted child, she wanted no company but that of Flint, the enigmatic boy who no one else ever saw ... and who promised he would always look after her.

Hannah's idyllic childhood at Sargasso ended in tragedy, but now as an adult she is back to renovate the house, which she has inherited from her grandmother. Her boyfriend Tristan visits regularly but then, amid a series of uncanny incidents, Flint reappears ... and as his possessiveness grows, Hannah's hold on the world begins to lapse. What is real and what is imaginary, or from beyond the grave?

A mesmerising Australian novel that echoes the great Gothic stories of love and hate: Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and especially Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.

My Thoughts

 ‘Not everything in life is meant to be shared. Some things shouldn’t be spoken about. They should be kept secret, close to your heart.’

How wonderful to add another author’s name to the Australian Gothic list. Kathy George has all the necessary ingredients in her new novel with an isolated location, a mysterious house and a visitor that you are never really sure of. 

When Hannah returns to Sargasso, this isolated home her father built when she was a child, strange things begin to happen. With the loss of both parents and her grandmother, she has to decide whether to reside or sell the infamous ‘Sargasso’. This is a house that is certainly full of memories but the added mystery that accompanies will have you wondering what is real and what is not right throughout.

This clifftop home is a character within itself and provides the perfect backdrop for this Gothic style novel. Eventful weather and the ever changing sea just add to the whole feel of the story. Told from alternating timelines - then and now - Hannah shares her childhood memories with the enigmatic Flint ‘then’ and also of his return in the present day with the ‘now’ storyline. Who is Flint? What is his secret and what is this hold he has over Hannah?

Kathy will have  you guessing every which way as you are unsure what is real and what isn’t. Some aspects you will begin to make educated guesses about, however, she will keep you wondering regarding the final resolution right up to the very end. If the mysterious Gothic is a genre you read, you are sure to find this a haunting and fulfilling tale. 

 ‘Why am I always here? What draws me to this quiet, tucked-away corner of Sargasso? It’s like a puzzle - only, I’m missing a piece.’  

     

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Night Letters

Title: The Night Letters

Author:  Denise Leith

Publisher: 7th October 2020 by Ventura Press

Pages: 400 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: fiction, contemporary, cultural Afghanistan

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

For five years, Australian doctor Sofia Raso has lived in Kabul’s vibrant Shaahir Square, working with Dr Jabril Aziz to support the local women. She knows that living peacefully in Kabul requires following two simple rules: keep a low profile; and keep out of local affairs. 

Yet when threatening night letters from the Taliban taunt the town, and young boys disappear from Jamal Mina, Kabul’s largest slum, Sofia can no longer remain silent. While the square is encased by fear, an elegant former warlord proves an unlikely ally, and a former lover re-emerges with a warning. As the search for the boys intensifies, and Sofia feels herself being drawn back into a love affair she thought had ended, it soon becomes clear that answers will bring a heavy price.

 Gripping and evocative, The Night Letters takes you to the heart of Kabul in a story of secrets, friendship and love in all its imperfect guises.

My Thoughts

‘After five years of living in Afghanistan she was finding her silences harder to hold, and yet remain silent she did. The stakes were simply too high to do otherwise. Silent and invisible was what Sofia needed to be ... She might be living in Afghanistan but she would always remain an outsider ...’

This is the second novel in the past few weeks that has taken me to a place I have never been or knew little about (the other being Iraq in When the Apricots Bloom). I very much  enjoyed Denise’s portrayal of life in Afghanistan for both the locals and expats. This is an intriguing story about life in Kabul when the Taliban took over Afghanistan as told mostly by Sofia Rosa, an Australian doctor living and working there. Having lived the expat life myself, I was most appreciative of how she captures the totally different lifestyle compared to my Western one. 

‘Sofia wanted to experience more of life than ‘normal’, and now that she had there was no way she could ever step back into the ‘normal’ of Sydney.’

Sofia lives and works in Shaahir Square and develops life changing relationships with the local community and the women she is there to assist. The book does include some other points of view, however, Sofia’s contributions are obviously the strongest. The reader is given an honest and engaging window into life in Kabul under the Taliban from all points of view. Such an obviously oppressive system to live and work under and it is this that makes for a most compelling plot aside from what life is like on a day to day basis. 

‘What sort of tenacity or desperation, she often wondered, forced people to build in such a place? Life was hard enough in the cities; in the country it could be soul-destroying. People aged quickly and died early in Afghanistan, but it was not always disease, childbirth, bad diet or even war that killed them. Sometimes it was just life.’

Although it was slow to start I became invested in many of the characters, particularly the Afghan women and their stoic determination - both young and old - to work for good. I have mixed feelings about the ending. On the one hand, one of the lead characters signing off for the novel as a whole was bittersweet. Yet on the other hand I did not feel that, after investing in the lives and the serious nature of some of the plot lines, there was enough of a satisfactory conclusion. 

‘What you do with the women in the square is enough. It’s more than enough and we’re so grateful that you are doing this. We can’t change Afghanistan, Sofia. None of us can individually and certainly outsiders can’t.’

All up, however, I very much enjoyed my time spent in Kabul and the glimpse it provided into what truly is a whole other world. With a little romance, themes of protection of the young and vulnerable and a taste of life on the street it will be a book that I definitely recommend.

‘Without any doubt, the women of Afghanistan were marshalling their strength and gathering their resources and would one day be a force to be reckoned with.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Where the Crawdads Sing

Title: Where the Crawdads Sing

Author: Delia Owens

Publisher: 12th December 2018 by Hachette Australia

Pages: 370 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction, mystery, coming of age

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.

But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world–until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures. 

My Thoughts

I was a little concerned coming late to ‘the party’ when it came to reading Crawdads. When a book gets such rave reviews from all quarters, my expectations are often left unfulfilled. Not on this occasion. Whilst there is nothing sensational and attention grabbing about the book as a whole, it captures more an unspoken power, a slow burn that builds connections and wraps itself around you leaving you lost in thought.

“Well, we better hide way out there where the crawdads sing ... “What dya mean, where the crawdads sing? Ma used to say that." Kya remembered Ma always encouraging her to explore the marsh: “Go as far as you can - way out yonder where the crawdads sing."  “Just means far in the bush where critters are wild, still behaving like critters.”            

This is truly a heart wrenching tale that I defy anyone not to feel for the main character Kya. Without going into details, this is a cleverly written dual time narrative - one in 1969 with a murder and consequent trial and the other starting in 1952 until it finally merges with the 1969 timeline. Than in itself is clever writing. From 1952 when first Kya’s mother, then siblings, then father walked out and abandoned her, Kya is left all alone and must adapt and survive from the age of like seven! Truly unthinkable! Yes, she may be the ‘Marsh Girl’ but what other human being, regardless of where they came from, would not lend assistance? Only a kind coloured couple care and that is difficult as, remember, this is the 1950s in America. Kya struggles understandably - physically, socially, emotionally ... you name it. Then whenever help is offered, is it genuine? Are the relationship understandings reciprocated or will be Kya abandoned all over again? 

“Please don’t talk to me about isolation. No one has to tell me how it changes a person. I have lived it. I am isolation.”

Interwoven throughout this struggle for survival is some of the most beautifully written prose of North Carolina marshes, wildlife and small town living. Intersperse a murder trial throughout and you begin to understand the fanfare behind this book. It is well done in all aspects. Do yourself a favour and read this book. It is beautifully written, thoughtful, emotive and will sit with you long after the final page is turned. 

“Tate, I appreciate your teaching me to read and all those things you gave me. But why’d you         

do it? Don't you have a girlfriend or somebody like that?” “Nah ... I like being out here in the quiet and I like the way you’re so interested in the marsh, Kya. Most people don't pay it any attention except to fish. They think it's wasteland that should be drained and developed. People don't understand ...”

                                    

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Magic Lessons - A Prequel to Practical Magic

Title: Magic Lessons - A Prequel to Practical Magic

Author: Alice Hoffman

Publisher: 7th October 2020 by Simon & Schuster (Australia)

Pages: 400 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: historical fiction,  magical realism, fantasy, witches

My Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

From New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman comes the origin story of her beloved novel and basis for the cult classic film Practical Magic—taking us on a captivating journey to the Salem witch trials, featuring the indomitable matriarch of the Owens family, Maria.

It’s no secret that love has plagued the Owens family for centuries. But when did the curse begin, and why? It all began with Maria Owens, who arrived in America in 1680, with a baby in tow…

Born with pitch-black hair and pale green eyes, Maria was abandoned in the English countryside by her birth mother and raised by Hannah Owens who warned her, “Always love someone who will love you back.” She inherits Hannah’s Grimoire—a magical book of enchantments that include instructions to heal illnesses, ingredients for soaps that restore youth, and spells that make a person burn with love for another. When Hannah dies in an attack, Maria leaves for Curacao, where she meets John Hathorne, a magistrate from Salem living freely for the first time in his life as he falls in love with Maria. But Hathorne soon abandons her, before Maria realizes she’s pregnant. When she gives birth to a red-headed baby girl, Faith, who possesses immense magical talent, Maria embarks on a voyage to Salem to face her destiny, with or without magic.

But aboard the ship bringing her to America, fate intervenes and she meets a man who will change her life, if she’ll only let him. Her journey, laced with secrets and truths, devastation and joy, magic and curses, will show her that love is the only answer, always.

My Thoughts

‘For some, witchery was a choice, but not for them. It was in their very nature, and they must do their best with it, but how did a woman survive when she would surely be judged again and again?’

I am a fan of Alice Hoffman over the years, but you are never sure what you are going to get. Magic Lessons is a prequel to the Practical Magic series with Maria Owens, the original witch in the Owens bloodline. It would be fair to say that Alice’s writing is in itself magical in this 17th century historical fiction story. She certainly has a gift. 

‘It was a time of evil, when people were owned and women were treated no better than they had been across the sea.’

This book tells the story of Maria Owens (and later on her daughter Faith) from her start in England, then onto Curaçao, Salem and finally New York. I will admit to being a bit nervous in the beginning as it was somewhat slow to get going. It begins with Maria abandoned as a baby and raised by a witch. It then progresses to her being a servant in Dutch Curaçao and finally to Salem and New York. 

‘A woman alone who could read and write was suspect. Words were magic. Books were not to be trusted. What men could not understand, they wished to burn.’

As ever, Alice Hoffman’s writing is the real attraction - it is beautiful. Her capacity to portray not only a sense of place and time but also authentic and real people and stories. This book required finesse given it covers historical events such as the plague, life in a Dutch colony and the Salem witch trials. Her attention to detail is exceptional and I love how she gave voice to a period when women had no power. Then to bring in all things magic - everything from listed ingredients for curing ailments to evoking black magic and spells. Tying it all together is a tale of love and loss, betrayal and revenge. It is dark at times and sad,  yet you cannot help but get swept along with Maria and Faith on their journey.

If you have not read (or seen the movie) fear not, for this can certainly be read as a standalone. The attraction of an Alice Hoffman book always brings an element of surprise - what will be on offer this time? Magic Lessons is a beautifully written tale that I would recommend. 

‘Fate is what you make of it. You can make the best of it, or you can let it make the best of you.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.