I loved FLAME OF SEVENWATERS. Author Juliet Marillier did a wonderfully sensitive job with disability. If one is a differently-abled person it is more difficult to find the things in life that […]
HEIR TO SEVENWATERS is the fourth volume in what was originally meant to be the Sevenwaters Trilogy. But author Juliet Marillier created such an evocative landscape with such interesting characters that readers […]
The last time I visited Sid in his modest home in Hook, Surrey, was in the summer of 1922. His lungs still bothered him, but now he had Doll to fuss over […]
CHILD OF THE PROPHECY is the third book in the Sevenwaters Trilogy. Told from the point of view of Fainne, daughter of Niamh and Ciaran, it tells of a sad tale of […]
I didn’t think it possible that Juliet Marillier could top her achievement of DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST, the first of the Sevenwaters Trilogy, which is also a re-telling of the Grimm’s Fairy […]
It takes eight pages for conflict to erupt in DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST, for the first plot point to be anchored to the story, when Finbur quietly defies his father’s anger and […]
As 1915 turned into 1916, things didn’t improve. Father passed away, and Mother moved to Deptford, to stay with one of my sisters. When Beat suggested that her parents come and live […]
THE LANTERN BEARERS is set roughly 300 years after her first, THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH in around 427 CE. 18-year-old Aquila is just starting out on life, and has spent a […]
Rosemary Sutcliff’s FRONTIER WOLF concerns a young man, Alexios, who is in his early twenties. He is given the responsibility of commanding a unit in what is now Germany, but when the […]
Mistress of Mellyn really creeped me out. There I was sitting up in bed at midnight, the dark only relieved by the light from my iPad screen. And I really felt uncomfortable. […]
But Christmas 1914 wasn’t happy. Beat lost her baby, and was laid up for several weeks. It never occurred to me to reach out to my wife. She was seemingly content, surrounded […]
THE SILVER BRANCH is set about 200 years after THE EAGLE. Marcus Flavius Aquila’s namesake grandson (called Flavius rather than Marcus) and his cousin Justin come across something that points to treason […]
As most everyone knows, today, 16 September 2020 is the 400th Anniversary of the departure of the Mayflower from Plymouth, England before it sailed across the Atlantic and made landfall in Massachusetts, […]
No-one knows what really happened to the Ninth Legion, the Hispana. All that is known is that it marched north into what is now Scotland to deal with the Painted People, and […]
ON THE NIGHT OF THE SEVENTH MOON by Victoria Holt is a fairy tale set in the years 1859 to 1870 in Germany. A young English girl gets lost in the mists […]
“I’m forty-one years old and getting married for the first time tomorrow, on Saturday June 21, 1930. At least, that’s what I tell my wife-to-be. I wasn’t thinking of marrying Emmy, until […]
In this last, sixth novel of the series, we say “goodbye” to our friends at Green Knowe. In this farewell volume, published in 1976, twelve years after volume five, we see our […]
Like Volume 4, Volume 5 is about a stranger who arrives at Green Knowe. However, this stranger is no gorilla trying to find a place to hide, but a creepy academic woman […]
“The author knows her characters very, very well; this shows in the consistent and very individual way they act. This is not a plot-driven story; it’s character-driven. In this book, the characters are the jam which holds everything together. The best example of this is Grace, the talented violinist, who, simply, jumps off the page. I loved her.”
“After reading Cynthia Sally Haggard’s Thwarted Queen Saga, I was looking forward to her newest release, Farewell My Life. I was not disappointed. She has a special talent of transporting her readers back in time, feel as though they are part of the story, and living in that moment in history.
Farewell My Life gets a very well deserved five plus stars from me. I highly recommend it and plan on reading it again in the near future. It is definitely a keeper. “
“Farewell My Life is a coming of age period drama, the book is set in between World War I and World War II.
Written in third person narration the author has creatively set the novel into three distinctive parts. The opening of the book is set in Georgetown, Washington DC
Angelina, a single mother to Violent and Grace is the black sheep of the Pagano family. She does not follow the norm, her morals are questionable to say the least. A chance meeting leads her to introducing handsome Nicholas Russell to her daughters. This sets in motion some dramatic events, when Mr. Russell’s attraction toward Angelina’s younger daughter Grace becomes sinisterly obsessive. To escape the unnerving clutches of Mr. Russell, Grace’s family take her to Berlin Germany, where she can study violin with the greatest teacher of the day. But in Berlin, they encounter the turbulent political climate leading up to the beginning World War II.
Exquisitely written with vibrant characters this book left a lasting impression on me. The author has written a heartfelt, moving, powerful, thought-provoking book, one that is definitely going to be a reread for me as the writer’s voice is so captivating. I really enjoyed the well researched content historical events interwoven with fictional characters.”
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