
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 […]
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 […]
“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. “
“This intriguing tale explores the hopes, plans, and struggles of Angelina, the stubborn youngest daughter of a troubled Italian-American family, and her two daughters. A widow, Angelina became a “fallen woman,” acting as a mistress over the years in an attempt to earn her own money, and the story opens just as her life begins to change.
The author has clearly done a great deal of historical research into the time, filling the story with details about the clothes, buildings, and passersby, to where readers can enjoy an immersive experience. The dialogue similarly seems to fit, with some lines in Italian and then translated into English to give the feel of the characters and the way they’ve kept their heritage alive.”
“I loved the elaborate descriptions of all the places in this book. This is the kind of book that shows instead of just telling.
I also loved the historical setting and how the everyday situations were described. The novel is set in Berlin, in the middle of the two wars, so the Nazis are obviously an important factor in the story.
The characters are very well-developed and interesting to read about. Angelina is a fascinating character, as is Grace. Along the duration of the book, Grace learns a lot about herself. I was amazed by her quiet yet vibrant personality, and her brilliant talent.”