From the Book Elf

The Other Life Of Mary English by GD Harper The Other life of Mary English by G D Harper is published by Ginger Cat. My thanks to Glynn and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to  Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me onto the book tour. Synopsis Two Different Women. One Shared Destiny. Mary English, a dockworker’s daughter from Faversham, England, travels to South America to escape a scandal from her past. She ends up running a cacao plantation in Colombia, at a time when women were not legally allowed to own businesses there. Manuela Sáenz, tempestuous lover of Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar, serves as a colonel in his army. She joins him in battle to fight the Spanish and twice saves his life from assassination attempts. This is the story of two real-life remarkable women, both fighting oppression, hardship and danger in 1820s Colombia, who come together to change the course of a nation’s history. My Thoughts This is a fascinating book about two rema...

Notebook Number Nine  by Jackie Carreira My thanks to Jackie for sending me a copy of  Notebook Number Nine to review and to  Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me onto the Book Birthday Blitz When all the lies and hypocrisy of the world become too much to ignore; when you see it all so clearly that you can’t erase the image from your mind, what do you do? When the thin veil of conformity drops from Bekki’s eyes she doesn’t know what to do either, so she sits down and writes a letter. Alice replies. But who is Alice? And is it even possible for ‘normal’ people to undertake a true journey of self-improvement without running away to a monastery up a mountain? Bekki is going to find out. My Thoughts Notebook Number Nine is a really unusual book in that it infuriated me at the beginning and I really had to push myself to keep going because I felt that “ I should “ !!!!. However, once Beckie had started on her new life and was moving forwards with what she believed i...

  The Uskok  by George Sand translated by Lynne Forest My thanks to Lynne and Aurora Metro Books  for sending me a copy of The Uskok to review and to  Random Things Resources for inviting me onto the tour. Synopsis In the elegant yet treacherous world of 17th century Venice, young nobleman Orio Soranzo has squandered his fortune and his reputation. Only by marrying the rich and beautiful heiress, Giovanna, can he regain both fortune and favour. Soranzo hurls himself into perilous ventures against the Turks — unaware that his quest for redemption will entangle him in a web of lies, shifting alliances, and dark deeds. As pirates stalk the seas, Giovanna dares to join Orio at the forbidding island fortress he commands. But with the arrival of an old friend, fate unleashes a terrible reckoning none could foresee. Lynne Forest’s vivid new translation invites readers to savour one of Sand’s most thrilling stories, in this newly rediscovered classic. My Thoughts I was int...

The Beasts of the Black Loch  by Gay Marris The Beasts of the Black Loch is  by Gay Marris and published by Bedford Square Publishers. My thanks to Gay and the publishers for sending me a copy to review and to Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the tour. Synopsis In 50,000 acres of remote Scottish mountains and moor sits Dorcha Hall: a former hunting lodge nestling amongst ancient forests, on the shores of the enigmatic ‘Black Loch’. At night, lights glow from within, smoke curls from its chimneys, and in the forgiving murk of the gloaming, it looks magical. In daylight, its mouldering plasterwork and failing plumbing present a less romantic reality. Dr Ava Dickens has come to Dorcha to visit her godson, Alastair – a young man whose parents’ sudden death has taken him from a quiet life in academia to owning Loch Dorcha. He and his very new wife are convinced the only way to make the estate work is to run the Hall as a hotel. But Ava is a rigorous scientist, her specialty...

The Knife Maker of Venice  by David Gilman My thanks to David and Head of Zeus for sending me this lovely copy of  The Knife Maker of Venice to review.  Also to Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me to take part on the book tour. Synopsis A young Englishman captured by slavers must survive the snakepit that is seventeenth-century Venice. 1604. As pirates seeking slaves to sell in the markets of North Africa terrorise the coasts of Europe, headstrong Richard Sheriff and his sister Elizabeth are torn from their Devonshire home and thrust into a waking nightmare. Richard's skills as a blacksmith see him fetch a high price, but the pirate captain has other plans for Elizabeth and once they are separated, Richard has no idea of his sister's fate. They must both learn to survive on a deadly voyage into the unknown. Sold into servitude in Venice: glittering, vicious city of secrets, he is apprenticed to a knife maker. Richard's talents soon win him renown... but haunted by...