Monday 30 November 2020

Book and Cover of the Month - November

designer Cathy Helms of www.avalongraphics.org
with fellow designer Tamian Wood of www.beyonddesigninternational.com
select their chosen Cover of the Month
with all winners going forward for 
Cover of the Year in December 2020
(honourable mentions for the Runner-up)

Cover of the Month
WINNER  - NOVEMBER

designer Penny Johnson
 
RUNNER UP COVERS
Designer unknown (publisher Beacon Press)

designed by JD Smith Design 
(Haywood Press publisher)


Book of the Month


runner up
ignoring the fact that I am one of the authors (and I am friends with several of the others) this anthology is very good!
I have to recommend it as a 'good read' 
(although it will be exempt from Book of the Year, 
for obvious reasons)

Read our review

WINNER
an enjoyable series


* * * * * * * * * *
Cover &Book of the month
PREVIOUS WINNERS

* * * * * * * * * *

Book and Cover of the Year
will be announced on 31st December 2020

Friday 27 November 2020

A Discovering Diamonds Review of The Virtues of Scandal by Richard Abramson



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Alternative 
1800s
Europe

George Gordon, the 6th Lord Byron, was a gifted poet with some appalling habits. Even by modern permissive standards he was a libertine and something of a rotter to boot. It is this latter aspect of Byron – famously described as ‘mad, bad, and dangerous to know’ – that author Richard Abramson has chosen to bring to the forefront in The Virtues of Scandal

The story opens with a fictional scene towards the end of Byron’s life when he is wounded in a swordfight with a Turkish janissary in Ottoman Greece. Byron slays the Turk, but is gravely wounded in the process. The author then takes us into an Assembly Room scene in London where a much younger Byron is trading wit and insults with William Wordsworth and poet laureate Robert Southey. Here, we also meet Byron’s one-time mistress Lady Caroline Lamb, the wanton young wife of the (then) rising Tory politician Lord Melbourne. These two contrasting episodes set the reader off on adventure across Europe to Constantinople and Greece, taking in St Petersburg and the fictional dalliances of Don Juan in Spain along the way. The plot and timeline are a little hard to follow initially as Byron careers between salon small talk, arguments with his publisher and prose scenes based on ‘Don Juan’ cantos, but the pace keeps the narrative alive. 

While it does get a little confusing at times Abramson’s use of language brings each scene to vibrant life and, gradually, we get a clearer picture of the complex poet and the complicated times in which he lived. We see how literary success ironically led to debt, and how his personality and caustic wit constantly make him new enemies and then how all this lands him in international political affairs relating to the nineteenth-century ‘Turkish problem’. 

Abramson deftly weaves fact and fiction together using snippets from genuine correspondence and sections from the cantos to create a tale of immorality, betrayal and surprising self-effacing courage. 

Three narratives are developed and interlaced to form a story that spans a decade and includes young Don Juan himself. The prose is rich; characters, settings and situations come to life on the page. Secondary and minor characters are rounded, although in some cases, such as that of William Wordsworth, whom Byron famously mocked for being ‘simple’ and ‘dull’, they are over-fictionalised for this reader. 

Herein lies one of the dilemmas of historical fiction: to what extent can or should authors depart from documented events and/or scholarly biographies of eminent figures? Abramson stresses in his subtitle that this is ‘A Novel of Lord Byron’ but I think this particular story may entertain readers who know less about the period and personae than those who know more through academic study or wide reading. The voices of a few characters did not ring true for me because I had studied them previously.

In The Virtues of Scandal debut author Richard Abramson gives us an entertaining version of a life Lord Byron could have led. It might have been better, however, to warn readers at the beginning that this a form of alternative fiction and that he had changed how Byron died. The poet was reported to have contracted a fever in Missolonghi, but not due to festering wound from a sword fight. He was then bled to death by misguided physicians. It has to be said, Byron’s extant letters and journals amply demonstrate his real life was the stuff of fiction anyway. 

Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds 

© John Darling
 e-version reviewed


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Cover and Book of the month selections revealed 30th November

Wednesday 25 November 2020

A Discovering Diamonds review of To Shine With Honor - Coming Of Age by Joseph Scott Amis



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Military / First Crusade
11th Century
France

“A family of minor nobility, comes of age in the perilous world of late 11th century France, where powerful noblemen massacre the other and innocents in unending petty warfare over lands and silver, despite the efforts of the Church to control their violence. Galien, educated for the priesthood, trained at arms and horse by his father and older brothers, all knights, finds his once-certain future as a high Church official compromised by family misfortunes. Through a series of often violent events, he discovers his own destiny as events in France and the distant Holy Land draw inexorably toward the great war of faiths known in history as the First Crusade.”

The huge list of characters, and other information (except for the map) at the beginning of this debut novel is a little overwhelming, especially as an e-book version. (Lists never go down well in e-books as it is not as easy to flip backwards and forward on a Kindle as it is with a paperback – I do wish authors would remember this!) However, once into the story proper, the narrative gets going nicely. The characters are well drawn, the plot well thought out and the action progresses at a decent pace. As far as I can tell the research was fairly well done, although I did spot some anachronisms and a few factual bloopers, plus some mild continuity errors within the plot– but not enough to spoil the reading experience. (I would suggest the author finds an good editor experienced in the period for his next publication.) There were also a few minor errors of grammar, punctuation etc, but I read a pre-publication ARC edition, so hopefully, these have been corrected in the final version.

What was particularly enjoyable was that the narrative covers the everyday life of the characters during the pre-Crusade period and during the events that led to that eventual Call To Arms. Presumably, the next in the series will continue with the next phase of this turbulent times. The author also focuses on the ordinary men (albeit the ‘Knight Class’ of men) rather than the usual point of view of the kings and nobility involved. It was somewhat refreshing to be down among the masses rather than in the leadership ranks. Interesting, too, to see how the traditions, etiquette and ‘chivalry’ of the knights began to emerge as the era and events progressed. Amis explores the complexity of life in the late eleventh century, avoiding the stereotypes of arrogant nobles or hard-done-by peasants.

In this debut novel the inexperience of the author does show in places, but there is promise here. Possibly an author to watch.


Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds 

© Jack Holt
 e-version ARC reviewed



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Monday 23 November 2020

The Flame Within by Liz Harris

Shortlisted for Book of the Month


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Linford series #2

Fictional drama
1923
London

Linford Trilogy #2

"Alice Linford stands on the pavement and stares up at the large Victorian house set back from the road—the house that is to be her new home. But it isn’t her house. It belongs to someone else—to a Mrs Violet Osborne. A woman who was no more than a name at the end of an advertisement for a companion that had caught her eye three weeks earlier. More precisely, it wasn’t Mrs Osborne’s name that had caught her eye—it was seeing that Mrs Osborne lived in Belsize Park, a short distance only from Kentish Town. Kentish Town, the place where Alice had lived when she’d been Mrs Thomas Linford. Thomas Linford—the man she still loves, but through her own stupidity, has lost. The man for whom she’s left the small Lancashire town in which she was born to come down to London again. The man she’s determined to fight for."

It is often with a certain amount of trepidation that a reader opens the second instalment of a series – will it be as engrossing, as enjoyable? Will the characters and the events of their lives be as believable as the previous novel? No worries about any of that with book two of the Linford Trilogy – The Flame Within. Actually, I would go as far as saying it was even a tad better than Book One because I had already met the characters – but this one could just as easily be a stand-alone story for anyone who has not yet read Book One.

Slightly different to the usual run of a series, this second book runs parallel to the first, a simultaneous telling of the story as it unfolds, rather than running onward as a consecutive ‘what happened next’. The drama, from the different point of view of the characters is very cleverly done.

Back in 1918 Alice fell in love with Thomas Linford while he was recovering from injuries received during WWI. In 1923, she is his wife, but things are going wrong for Alice. Thomas is finding it hard to adjust to his disabilities and he is in the depth of feeling sorry for himself, enhanced by his resentment that his brothers did not go to war and are not suffering like he is. Divorce in the 1920s was not really an option, and so, inevitably, Alice starts an affair. Which is when the problems get worse for Alice. No spoilers about what happens next, except Alice has the courage to pick herself up and turn her face to the future. I really liked Alice and several times felt like muttering, ‘You go girl! Good for you!” She is ambitious, determined and brave, but perhaps too trusting of those who lie, betray or try to manipulate her.

Alice herself is a delightful character, Thomas, and his family – successful London builders – the sort you automatically despise. And then there is Alice’s family ... all of them are characters that grab hold and cling on to the reader’s interest because they come across as so believably real. Some of them we like, some we don’t. Some we cheer for, some we hiss and boo.

Ms Harris’s research is impeccable, both of life in London during the Great War, and its aftermath, and in the poorer communities of Lancashire. Her style is eloquent and passionate from the first, opening line to the last.

If I had to compare this novel to something from popular fiction I would immediately cite Catherine Cookson... although with the caveat that I think Liz Harris is even better than ‘Our Kate’.


Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds 

© Helen Hollick
 e-version reviewed

(there will be a short story about the Linfords in our December StorySong series - read the story, guess the song)


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Friday 20 November 2020

A Discovering Diamonds review of Age Of Druids by Christy Nicholas


A Discovering Diamonds Review of Age of Druids by Christy Nicholas


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Historical fantasy
Approx. 5th century
Ireland

Age of Druids is the ninth and final book in Christy Nicholas’s Druid’s Brooch series. In this instalment, readers are taken to early Christian Ireland, roughly 5th century, where Cliodhna struggles to come to terms with the new religion that is invading and pushing out her beloved old belief. She is accustomed to welcoming the day with the sun, feeling the spirit and energy of living things, and communicating with the Fae who live in the woods near her roundhouse. To her dismay, not only does the new religion have no place for the things she loves, but her two eldest children, nearly grown themselves, are drawn to this new faith and are changing because of it. On top of that, Cliodhna’s husband has been missing for months, adding a layer of suspicion through which the zealous abbot, Padraic, views her.

To try to hold on to her way of life, Cliodhna begins lessons with Adhna, a man of the Fae. He teaches her how to draw upon earth energy to revitalize plants and animals as well as to protect herself. Cliodhna soon finds herself drawn into Adhna’s world more deeply than she ever imagined possible. She will be forced to make a choice between the mortal world, full of strange new ideas and shifting loyalties, and the Fae world, utterly foreign and frightening.

It was interesting to see how the various threads from the other books in this series were entwined throughout this novel. We at last learn how the brooch was created and how and why it was gifted to Cliodhna’s family line to begin with. Learning how her family became connected to the Faerie realm was satisfying after so many books preceding it that hinted but never confirmed. 

I have read many of Nicholas’s books and, while I greatly enjoyed this one, there were a few places, in particular scenes set in the Faerie realm, that I felt I had read before, although maybe it was just a function of having read the others and that Nicholas’s writing style has become so familiar. That is not in itself a bad thing.

The descriptions were all top notch, both in the mortal realm and in Faerie. I liked the diversity of characters and how they changed over time. The Christian monks in general, and the abbot in particular, were described in a negative way since they were seen primarily from Cliodhna’s point of view. This negativity was explained in a later part of the plot, but devout readers may be a little put off by this. The villagers had a few bright spots in terms of character development as well. Ita in particular was an interesting figure and I wish there had been more scenes with her. She added a nice counterpoint to Cliodhna, a good balance.
 
The ending felt a little abrupt, but it makes sense because now the timeline  of the plot has reached where it starts to move forward, rather than backward. Readers could enjoy the series in the reverse order of publication if they really wanted to and get a different view of this sweeping epic. I really loved the way the entire series moved backward through time to get to the genesis of the brooch that was central to the lives of the characters.

Overall, this novel is nicely done and provides a satisfactory end to the entire series. Definitely recommended for fans of historical fantasy and Irish culture.

Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds 

© Kristen McQuinn

 e-version reviewed



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Wednesday 18 November 2020

REVIEW... Betrayal by various authors...

an independent review ... Shortlisted for Book of the Month


Alison Morton, Amy Maroney, Anna Belfrage, Annie Whitehead, 
Charlene Newcomb, Cryssa Bazos, Derek Birks, Elizabeth St John,  
Helen Hollick, Judith Arnopp,  Mercedes Rochelle, Tony Riches

e-book only - Free to download

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short stories
various centuries
various locations

Betrayal, treachery, treason, deceit, perfidy’ . . . so begins the introduction to twelve very different short stories on the theme of the ‘calculated violation of trust’. Twelve stories by twelve skilled historical fiction authors, each set in a specific epoch, running chronologically from post-Roman Britain to a 21st century alternative history of a Roman colony.

The stories vary from imaginary accounts of betrayal by lovers, loved ones, friends and parents to retellings of significant acts of treachery and deceit by historical and legendary figures such as Mortimer and Richard III, and pirates Calico Jack and Anne Bonny. Told from a variety of perspectives, domestic and political, each story illustrates the multiple wounding effects of injustice and deceit.

I read this anthology from start to finish in a matter of days. Each story is gripping in its own way; each contains a shocking, saddening or maddening act of treachery, where the reader can empathise with the victim or the unwitting culprit, and feel outraged anger that such behaviour not only occurred but went unpunished.

What these stories also show is that the past is a complicated place. People did things differently there – or so we would like to think. But actually, no, the rotters, the perpetrators, were all subject to complex pressures in their own way, and no amount of toppling statues and monuments is going to rectify that. One needs to stand back and think about why their acts of betrayal occurred and what led up to each situation. Social perspectives, expectations and values differ according to the given period, gender and social class, but the universal truths of self-preservation, love and loss prevail.

One of the very good things about this anthology is how the various authors tell their tales. Some are more entertaining than others in terms of humour and irony, but each provides insight into a tortuous human dilemma or predicament such as why a parent found it necessary to sell a daughter; how, in trying to do the right thing a good person leads a royal child into a deadly trap; or why a noblewoman would risk exile or death to secure her son’s future.

In the introduction, Alison Morton tells us we will be reading about events that shock, cause disbelief, despair and a profound desire for revenge, and she is absolutely right. I would also add that the authors take us right into the past and help us see what it was really like there.

'Betrayal’ is definitely a Discovered Diamond. Very highly recommended.

Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds

©  J.G. Harlond

 e-version reviewed



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Monday 16 November 2020

A Discovering Diamonds Review of Captain Kempton's Christmas by Jayne Davis

1800s
England

"Lieutenant Philip Kempton and Anna Tremayne fall in love during one idyllic summer fortnight. When he’s summoned to rejoin his ship, Anna promises to wait for him. While he’s at sea, she marries someone else. Now she's widowed and he's Captain Kempton. When they meet again, can they put aside betrayal and rekindle their love?"


Not looking forward to the Christmas festivities, Captain Philip Kempton is heading for his Aunt Beth’s for the duration. Unknown to the Captain, she has  also invited Anna.  Four years ago, Anna said she would wait for him – but promptly wed someone else the moment he went to sea. Now a widow, Anna discovers how much she hurt Philip, but the guests are arriving and the couple of misplaced lovers must struggle to control their feelings while in the company of others, all of whom are supposed to be having a good time.

This is a sweet, predictable romance, but for all that it is a charming and enjoyable read. We know everything will be fine in the end, but it is entertaining to discover how we get to that point with these two delightful people. The family and guests also create an enjoyable background to a somewhat typical Christmas where not everyone is as congenial as perhaps they should be.

The Christmas setting was well done – ideal for a comfortable, cosy Yule Tide read. The paperback would make an ideal stocking filler for readers who enjoy a quick-read romantic tale.


Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds 

© Mary Chapple

 e-version reviewed



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Friday 13 November 2020

Kindred by Octavia Butler

A Good Read Revisited


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Timeslip
Late 20th/ Early 18th century
LA and Antebellum Maryland USA

I recently decided to reread Kindred by Octavia Butler. I had read it many years ago but forgot everything about it, so when it was selected as the next read for one of my book clubs, it was like reading this novel for the first time. Reading it was an interesting experience because, even though the book is more than forty years old, it remains relevant to our contemporary society. I am not sure if that is a sad comment or not, though I think it is. Either way, I maintain that genres like sci-fi or timeslip, as Kindred is, are excellent ways to discuss social issues and Butler’s novel is yet another example of that.

In Kindred, Dana is a modern (the novel is initially set in 1976) young black woman, married to a white man, Kevin, and they are both writers. 

They have recently purchased their first real home together and are in the middle of unpacking when Dana feels dizzy and falls to the ground. When the dizziness passes, she finds herself outside and hears a child yelling for help. Since Dana is a good and moral person, she rushes to help and ends up saving a young boy named Rufus from drowning. The boy’s father comes across them and, thinking Dana is trying to harm his son, aims a rifle at her. Dana is then transported back to her home, soaking wet and covered in mud from her rescue efforts.

Over the next few weeks, Dana finds herself inexplicably called back to what she learns is 1819 in the antebellum South, to a plantation with slaves. Somehow, anytime Rufus is in mortal danger, he pulls her back in time to him, completely unintentionally. Dana learns that Rufus is one of her ancestors and she has to keep saving him until he is able to father the child who is her direct ancestor. Each time Dana goes back, she stays longer and the period spent in the past is more dangerous for her. She eventually figures out that when she herself fears for her life, she is able to return to her own time, which is moving more slowly than the past.

Dana spends hours, days, and months in the past and yet her own time period only moves forward by a few minutes or days regardless of how long she was in the past. She has to learn how to survive in a harsh time period, retain Rufus’s trust enough that he doesn’t harm her just because he can, and keep her husband Kevin safe during her travels as well. 

This story was a difficult and yet un-put-downable read. Difficult because of the subject matter but a very fast and engaging read. Even though it was written in 1979, there was not much reference to technology so it didn’t feel dated. In fact, it could have been written this year and would have been hailed as a timely discussion on race relations and equality, given the ongoing protests in the US surrounding police brutality towards black people.

It was a horrifying read as well because it explores topics such as slavery, which is to be expected from the book’s premise. What was worse, though, was Dana’s thoughts on how easy it can be to become accustomed to injustice. The discussion of racism was deep and explored some of the ways in which it has become institutionalized in America even today. 

Some scenes reminded me of part of Angie Thomas’s novel The Hate U Give where Starr and her brothers received “the talk” from their parents. Not the sex talk, but the talk about what to do and how to act if and when they are stopped by a police officer. The fact that such talks are considered a necessary part of parenting for so many people is heartbreaking, and Butler’s novel shows readers partly why that has come to be. 

Dana adapted fairly quickly to her new environment, not because she was somehow weak or didn’t resist hard enough, but because she had to - or die. Part of the discussion on how quickly Dana had to adapt to slavery conditions was also the sense of mutual obligation between many of the characters. They all tried to look out for each other and take everyone’s well being into consideration, even if it was sometimes to their own detriment.

But parents, for example, would do whatever was necessary to spare their children and to keep them with them rather than being sold to different places far away. I can understand that; there is nothing I wouldn’t do to keep my daughter safe with me. Despite Dana’s ability to adapt quickly to her new circumstances, she was not spared from being on the receiving end of some awful abuse, and she lived in constant fear of being sold to a plantation further south that was notorious for its truly brutal conditions.

Part of the discussion on adapting is, I think, the ways Dana and the other black characters view Tom Weylin and Rufus. Tom initially appears to be brutal, every bit the stereotypical slave owner. As the novel progresses, how he is viewed doesn’t change into liking him so much as to seeing how he is more or less a fair man operating within the social constructs of his time period. He is a hard man and sometimes does cruel things, but he is doing what is allowed for him to do and doesn’t step out of those bounds, as disgusting as they are to our modern sensibilities. 

Similarly, with Rufus, he seems to grow up to take after his father in most ways, except that he is in love with Alice, and his father never would have loved a slave.

Dana is able to forgive Rufus for so many wrongs, but in many ways, he is a pitiable character, largely lacking in understanding, empathy, or willpower. 

Normally, I don’t care much for first-person perspective in novels. But I think first-person is the only way this novel could be as powerful as it was. The title itself is a stark reminder that being related to a person doesn’t always mean they are your family. There’s a big difference between relatives and family. Rufus and Dana have a sense of mutual obligation to each other, but they are in no way family as I would define it. Similarly, her marriage to Kevin is illegal in the past and, I would imagine, is seen as at least odd in 1976. I don’t think interracial marriages were very well tolerated at the time in the USA.

This was a terrific read, if difficult at times because of the things that happened to people. I definitely recommend Kindred to any fans of timeslip, sci-fi, magical realism, or antebellum history. 

Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds 

© Kristen McQuinn 
 e-version reviewed



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Wednesday 11 November 2020

A Discovering Diamonds Review of The Fear of Ravens by Wendy Percival


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(Esme Quentin Mystery Book 4) 

cosy mystery
19th / 21st century
England

"When Esme Quentin is engaged to research the history of an ancient mill owned by her client, Anna Brannock, she stumbles upon a bitter family feud, tales of witchcraft and a century-old allegation of murder.
As Esme digs deeper, the past begins to converge on the present, when Anna becomes the target of a disturbing campaign, echoing menacing events from many years before. Can a 19th century curse still wield its formidable power? What connects Anna with the 24 year-old mystery concerning the whereabouts of the charismatic Ellen Tucker? Esme must uncover the truth to save Anna from becoming a 21st century victim, in a cruel repetition of her ancestor’s merciless fate."

This book fits into the Cosy Mystery slot with its numerous mentions of witches and murder but without the gory detail that usually accompanies the more full-blooded crime thriller.

There are many strands to the story. Instead of one heroine we have three: Anna, Esme and Maddy, each with their own personal story. There’s also an old cottage where a witch, who mysteriously disappeared, was once reputed to have lived. When Anna decides to renovate the decrepit old mill, she opens the door on a great deal of unsavoury history of two families who carry old hatreds into the current century. 

There are many family members and I must confess I had trouble remembering the relationships between them. Not that all were known; some were secret relationships. Esme is curious when a private investigator seeking the owner of the cottage dies by drowning and, using her genealogical knowledge, starts tracking people down and thereby uncovering their secrets. 

The book has a bit of a slow start, but the second half moved faster, and I read through to the end very quickly. The whole is well written, the dialogue is natural and entertaining though often does not progress the story. 

If you like your mysteries with engaging snippets of characters’ lives and hobbies, and/or especially enjoy research into genealogy, you will love this author. Though I prefer a sharper style this did not prevent me from enjoying the story as it unfolded. The genealogical aspect was interesting, but I fear not every search is going to prove so productive - but then, this is fiction, and a 'cosy mystery' where everything gets solved in the end!

Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds 

© Jen Black
 e-version reviewed


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