Tag Archives: romance

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Shadows in the Ashes is the new dual-timeline romance novel by Viking specialist Christina Courtenay. Alternating between the present day and AD79 Pompeii, it tells the story of gladiator Raedwald and Aemilia, a wealthy Roman woman trapped in a loveless marriage; and Caterina, an English-Italian woman who flees to Italy leaving behind an abusive husband, and Connor a red-hair volcanologist she meets in Sorrento. The story opens in AD73 with Raedwald, a young man in Frisia (today’s Netherlands) who, after being betrayed and sold into slavery, finds himself training as a gladiator in Pompeii. In 2022 in North London, Cat works from home as a translator, shielding young daughter Bella from her manipulative husband Derek. Both Raedwald and Cat fall in love when it is most inconvenient; Cat because she is on the rebound and not looking for a boyfriend, Raedwald because he is planning to escape from Pompeii and return home to Frisia to seek revenge for his betrayal. To earn extra money, Cat takes a live-in position at a hotel in Sorrento where Connor is a guest; Raedwald and his fellow gladiator Duro take on extra work as bodyguards, their client is Lucius Licinia, husband of the beautiful Aemilia.
The two stories switch effortlessly between the centuries as Courtenay creates a mirroring effect as the people in each timeline face similar, but not identical, situations. The story becomes more mystical when Cat visits the ruins at Pompeii and starts to have visions. The actual date of the real Vesuvius eruption isn’t known so this adds tension to the Pompeii timeline as days pass and the warning signs increase. Minor earthquakes become bigger, smoke rises from the ground.
I had a few quibbles – there are a few easy coincidences, some difficult actions are achieved too simply or without mention, and the Pompeii research sometimes lies heavily on the page – but this is an easy read to sink into after a difficult day. The author treads a careful path through her narrative, including the tragic volcanic explosion and an abusive marriage, counter-balancing these threats by emphasizing the security of true love, of family, of friends, of partners. Even if the romance and flirting at times edges into over-the-top ‘teenage crush’ territory, the characters quickly return to the hard reality of daily life. I particularly enjoyed the scenes with Cat’s Italian family, particularly her two uncles who are just the men to have on your side in a tough situation.
Included as ‘Bonus Material’ is an intriguing short story called Alaric’s Dilemma which hints at a sequel to Shadows in the Ashes.
Welcome escapism.

Here’s my review of TEMPTED BY THE RUNES by the same author.

If you like this, try:-
‘Glorious Exploits’ by Ferdia Lennon
‘The Wolf Den’ by Elodie Harper #1WolfDen
‘The House with the Golden Door’ Elodie Harper #2WolfDen

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview SHADOWS IN THE ASHES by @PiaCCourtenay https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7RW via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Perfect Cornish Murder’ by Fiona Leitch #crime #cosycrime

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After reading a series of dense historical novels, I turned to Fiona Leitch for some Cornish escapism. The Perfect Cornish Murder is third in her Nosey Parker series about Jodie Parker, ex-policewoman in London now caterer, living again in her hometown, Penstowan.
When a film crew rolls up, complete with famous soap star and sexy leading man, the whole village lines up to be cast as extras. Jodie, initially reluctant, accompanies mum Shirley and daughter Daisy. If the fictional actors remind you of real ones its because they are ‘of a type,’ not just the soap star but an ageing roué, young high maintenance American star with miniature dog, the handsome romantic lead. But as the story progresses, Jodie discovers the truth behind the actors’ masks.
The love triangle from the previous book continues, with Jodie torn between Cornish best friend Tony and incomer detective chief inspector Nathan. But briefly torn between Tony’s Mr Darcy impression in a wet shirt, and Nathan’s gorgeous smile, Jodie suddenly finds herself spending more time on the film set when the owner of the catering van has an accident. Taking over the cooking gives her opportunities to people watch. But Gino’s mishap is not the first, a series of unexplained accidents are waved away as a curse until one of the star actors dies. Which means Nathan visits the film set every day.
There are plenty of chuckle moments, my favourite is Shirley’s definition of the different types of love according to shoes.
This maturing series does what it says on the tin. The Perfect Cornish Murder is a cosy mystery that combines humour, romance and murder without violence. It’s heartwarming, funny and moreish.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

And here are my reviews of the first books in the Nosey Parker series:-
The Cornish Wedding Murder #1NoseyParker
The Cornish Village Murder #2NoseyParker

If you like this, try:-
‘Or The Bull Kills You’ by Jason Webster #1MaxCamara
‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood #2DeathinParadise
‘The Art of the Imperfect’ by Kate Evans #1ScarboroughMysteries

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE PERFECT CORNISH MURDER by Fiona Leitch https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7hE via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Secret Shore’ by @liz_fenwick #WW2 #romance

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It was only when I finished reading The Secret Shore by Liz Fenwick that I read the Author’s Note at the back and discovered it is based on real people and events in the Second World War from 1942-1945. What a cracking wartime romance this is, shedding light on the rarely mentioned mapmakers who enabled the military to plan and execute operations. Merry, Dr Meredith Tremayne, was a geography lecturer at Oxford University before becoming a mapmaker in the War Office in London. In the first chapter there is a rather nice ‘meet cute’ with an American officer, involving a dropped copy of Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers. This romantic suspense story parallels Merry’s experiences as a woman in a man’s world when even the course of wartime flirtation doesn’t run smoothly.
When Elise, Merry’s widowed French mother goes missing, she returns home to Cornwall, to Kestle, the family home on the Helford estuary. Her boss Commander Fleming has transferred her temporarily to a small seaborne unit operating out of a house called Ridifarne, on the opposite side of the Helford river to Kestle. She will train with them to learn what they require from maps when in enemy territory, experience she hopes to use when making maps later in the war. Still confident her artist mother has simply gone on an impromptu painting trip, Merry is disturbed to hear local gossip that Elise is a spy. Maps, as always for Merry, provide clues, answers and solace. ‘When things didn’t add up, I turned to maps. From the age of eight, I’d been mapping my life day by day since my father first taught me how to draw one.’ Like Sayers’ heroine Harriet Vane, Merry has a mystery to solve.
As a member of a university rowing crew, Merry fits easily into the male banter of the flotilla crew at Ridifarne who recover quickly from their mistaken expectation that Dr Tremayne would be male. Amongst the officers is an American, Jake Russell, the man Merry met over the dropped copy of Gaudy Night. Once they understand Merry’s knowledge of Helford, competence in a boat, fluency in French, Breton and reading maps, she is accepted. Flirtation with Jake is a light relief from the horror of war and the plight of her mother.
Merry is a strong woman who knows what she wants from life, even if at the beginning of the novel she doesn’t truly understand what she will be giving up. When that becomes apparent to her, the war has darkened and she has seen danger and death. She’s a great character – both Merry and Jake are fictional – her no-nonsense exterior drives the plot from training to active duty, from Cornwall to London and back again. Although surrounded by secrecy it becomes clear to Merry that the crew is sailing to Brittany with supplies for the Resistance, returning with men. This new knowledge makes her flirtation with Jake seem irresponsible in wartime so, in what seems quite a ‘male’ decision, she decides to live in the day, have fun and not worry about the future. But all the time a shadow is cast by the mysterious disappearance of her mother.
The cast of characters is rather long and at times I would have appreciated a list of names, ditto a map of the Helford River. I enjoyed the description of Cornwall, its nature, people and traditions, and the Sayers references. I expect to spot more of these on a second reading.
Atmospheric, full of tension and period detail, I really enjoyed The Secret Shore. It’s the first book I’ve read by this author, and will now explore the others.

If you like this, try:-
‘Life after Life’ by Kate Atkinson
‘One Moonlit Night’ by Rachel Hore
‘At Mrs Lippincote’s’ by Elizabeth Taylor

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SECRET SHORE by @liz_fenwick https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-7ek via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Missing Pieces of Us’ by Eva Glyn @JaneCable #romance

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The Missing Pieces of Us by Eva Glyn is a touching tale of love, self-awareness and how love persists over the years. Izzy and her daughter Claire are shopping. It is just before Christmas. The streets of Winchester are crowded and the air is icy. Izzy bumps into a tramp, a homeless man, and is sure she knows him. But when she turns round, he is gone. This is the story of Izzy and Robin’s love for each other, their loss, and how they find themselves and each other again. Central to the story is a faerie tree. It is place where children leave gifts and messages for the fairies, and where the fairies leave their replies. It is a story of hope and compassion, of flawed characters, real people, finding their way out from the darkness. Beneath the faerie tree, Izzy and Robin swear eternal love to each other in 1986 but are soon after parted by circumstances. When they finally meet again, their memories of their early time together are so different: why? And whose memory is correct, whose is flawed?
This story combines a love story with suspense and a sprinkle of folklore.
This review was first published here in 2015 as ‘The Faerie Tree’ by Jane Cable. The book has since been republished by One More Chapter as ‘The Missing Pieces of Us’ by Eva Glyn, Jane Cable’s pen name.

Here’s my review of another novel by Eva Glyn:-
THE COLLABORATOR’S DAUGHTER

Also by Eva Glyn, writing as Jane Cable:-
ANOTHER YOU
ENDLESS SKIES
THE CHEESEMAKER’S HOUSE

If you like this, try:-
‘Love and Eskimo Snow’ by Sarah Holt
‘The Museum of You’ by Carys Bray
‘Please Release Me’ by Rhoda Baxter

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE MISSING PIECES OF US by Eva Glyn @JaneCable https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6YM via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘House of Grace’ by @PMOsborneWriter #familysaga #romance

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Grace Granville, teenager and budding fashion designer, falls in love and makes a choice which takes her a long way from her privileged, familiar world. House of Grace is first in the ‘House of Grace’ family saga trilogy by Patricia M Osborne. Grace’s story starts in 1950 as she leaves boarding school in Brighton and travels to Lancashire to stay with her best friend from school, Katy. Coming from a sheltered childhood with a strict father and little emotional closeness, Grace is keen to make her own way in life. But when she sees the new Katy, free from the restrictions of school rules – she smokes, has a boyfriend who she disappears into the bushes with – Grace is shocked, and intrigued. Katy’s family, though wealthy, are friendly, emotionally open and mix with people from different backgrounds. Completely the opposite to Grace’s parents. When Grace meets Katy’s cousin Jack, a coal miner’s son, she falls in love. Their summer romance is brought to an abrupt halt by Grace’s father who insists she marry one of the eligible suitors he has lined up for her. He is adamant that her new life as a wife and mother must begin now. But Grace, having seen the freedom of Katy’s family life, now knows there’s another way. She loves Jack and still dreams of designing and making clothes. The decision she makes changes everything.
House of Grace is a story of social conflict at a time when women, exploring freedoms glimpsed during World War Two, wanted more than a domestic bliss as imagined by men. This is an easy-to-read family saga of a young woman’s life, which I read over a weekend, with clearly-drawn characters and striking parallels between the social classes and inequalities of the 1950s and 60s. This is a more a family story rather than a focus on the battle to established Grace’s fashion business, this happens in the background and I was quite curious to know more about it.
A quick refreshing read, ideal if you need a change of pace. I really enjoyed it and am intrigued to read the next in the trilogy, The Coal Miner’s Son, and to find out what’s in store for Grace’s children, George and Alice.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

If you like this, try:-
‘A Daughter’s Hope’ by Margaret Kaine
‘The Orphan Twins’ by Lesley Eames
‘Pattern of Shadows’ by Judith Barrow

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
HOUSE OF GRACE by @PMOsborneWriter #bookreview https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6wu via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘A Village Affair’ by Joanna Trollope #familysaga #rereading

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The title of this Joanna Trollope novel is so clever. Yes, A Village Affair is about a love affair that takes place in a village. It’s also about a woman’s love for that village, a comfortable middle-class lifestyle and a house, and the reverberations of her subsequent love affair on such a small claustrophobic community. When Alice Jordan moves to The Grey House in Pitcombe she knows at last she is living a beautiful life. The house is old and stylish, her husband successful, her three children adorable. She wishes for nothing more and fits comfortably into village routines. So why does it feel as if something is missing. When she falls in love with Clodagh Unwin, daughter of their richest neighbours, the whole village apple cart is upset and Alice’s life is suddenly the opposite of idyllic. ‘Once you had stopped letting things happen and started to make them happen, you couldn’t go back.’
Trollope charts the changes in Alice’s life through the descriptions of her homes. The stifling suburban home where she grew up, her first married home with Martin to the glorious Grey House. It is clear as she bounces from one home and one relationship to another – from smothering mother and silent father, to boring husband Martin, and Cecily, Martin’s cool garden designer mother – that Alice doesn’t know who she is or what she wants. She has fallen in love with a picture postcard image of marriage, but has married the wrong person. When she realises this and becomes open to change, making choices she has never considered before, she then must face the consequences good and bad. Her choices now affect more than just her.
First published in 1990, the story about a gay love affair has dated somewhat awkwardly. The neighbours all have a judgement about the Jordan’s marriage but that is what villages are like, everyone knows everyone else even if they don’t know them well or particularly like them. One village character feels so strongly about what’s happened that she weeps over and over again but ‘couldn’t quite describe what it was that she felts so strongly about.’ Another believes he understands more about poetry than life because, ‘life was often just too peculiar to take in.’
I first read this book thirty years ago and enjoyed again Trollope’s skill at characterization, the small details. Clodagh, in distress, becomes ‘an exotic broken bird with tattered, gorgeous plumage and splintered frail bones showing through.’ Toddler Charlie ‘who had fitted a raspberry on his finger like a thimble and was regarding it with wonder.’
It is possible to feel affronted at the now old-fashioned portrayal of a relationship between two women but this story is really about love full stop. Alice loves Clodagh but also loves her children, her parents and in some way still loves her husband. Love is never simple.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Here are my reviews of other Trollope novels:-
A PASSIONATE MAN
MUM & DAD
THE CHOIR
THE RECTOR’S WIFE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Lie of the Land’ by Amanda Craig
‘The Perfect Affair’ by Claire Dyer
‘Something to Hide’ by Deborah Moggach

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A VILLAGE AFFAIR by Joanna Trollope https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6jI via @SandraDanby

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#BookReview ‘Molly & the Captain’ by Anthony Quinn #historical #art

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Three timelines, three studies of artist families. Molly & the Captain by Anthony Quinn is the story of one painting via three families across three centuries. It starts in Georgian Bath with the artist William Merrymount and his two daughters. His portrait of the two girls, ‘Molly & the Captain,’ intrigues through the centuries and ends up in North London in the current time. Each of the three parts stands alone, the connections revealing themselves in the final pages. In 1758, Merrymount is a renowned artist. His elder daughter Laura is a promising student and it is she who tells the family’s story through letters to her cousin. When her emotionally brittle sister Molly falls in love with the man Laura had thought to marry, their lives change. Things are not as they appear, secrets are well-hidden even within their household and Laura discovers facts she perhaps would prefer to remain unknown.
In 1889, artist Paul Stransom makes a living painting pictures of his local area, preferring to paint landscapes in parks rather than portraits. Tempted to venture abroad, perhaps to Normandy where colleagues are having success, his plans change when in Kensington Gardens he sees a mother and two young daughters, all dressed in white. When he approaches them, they disappear. Meanwhile his sister Maggie is faced with choosing to marry a man with the means to support her, or the poor man she loves.
In modern-day North London, artist Nell is preparing for an exhibition, a retrospective of her work which should bring long-overdue recognition. Her actress daughter Billie meets a young musician who she is to work with in a film. Horrified by the squat where Robbie lives, Billie suggests her mother take him into her house to replace the lodgers currently moving out of her loft. The consequences impact on all their lives.
This is a book about families, love and loyalty, about how creativity impinges on the privacy of family members and how the conflicts of success are just as difficult to deal with now as in Georgian times. Life – romance, loyalty, self-sacrifice, betrayal, opportunities, failure – always seem to get in the way.
It took me longer to read than I expected although it is not a particularly long book. The pace is slow, Quinn takes times to describe his settings with characteristic care of detail. Essentially this is a gentle mystery, a question runs throughout the three sections: what happened to the painting ‘Molly & the Captain’?
The ending has a wonderful, but gentle, twist. A thoughtful read and one I expect to gain more from on re-reading.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

Read my reviews of these other novels also by Anthony Quinn:-
CURTAIN CALL
FREYA
HALF OF THE HUMAN RACE
OUR FRIENDS IN BERLIN
THE RESCUE MAN
THE STREETS

If you like this, try:-
‘The Doll Factory’ by Elizabeth Macneal
‘The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock’ by Imogen Hermes Gowar
‘The Ballroom’ by Anna Hope

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
MOLLY & THE CAPTAIN by Anthony Quinn #BookReview https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6if via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

#BookReview ‘The Hidden Palace’ by @DinahJefferies #WW2 #Malta

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The Hidden Palace by Dinah Jefferies, second in the ‘Daughters of War’ trilogy, wasn’t quite what I expected. I felt disconnected from the first book which means it’s perfectly possible to be read as a standalone novel. Florence Baudin, one of the three Baudin sisters featured in Daughters of War, first in the series, has fled France leaving her sisters behind. It is 1944 and she is in England at the isolated Devon cottage of Jack, the English SOE agent who led her through France and Spain to safety. Florence is finally reunited with her mother Claudette who had stayed in England for the war. As sharp and feisty as ever, Claudette doesn’t make her daughter feel welcome but has a surprising request. Will Florence find her younger sister Rosalie who ran away from the family home in Paris in 1925? Florence, desperate to be closer to her mother, agrees despite the absence of clues, despite it being wartime.
This is a dual timeline story. 1944 with Florence, and 1925 with Rosalie Delacroix who flees Paris and goes to Malta where she finds work as a dancer. Rosalie is a more dynamic character than Florence, she makes things happen. Rosalie swaps career from dancer to journalist, publishing editor to campaigner, not all of which felt natural for her character. This is a novel of two separate stories – of aunt and niece, two decades apart – linked by genes but not impacting on each other.
Basically this tells of the search for a missing person. From the book blurb I anticipated a story set during the WW2 siege of Malta but it was late coming; at 70% through the novel Rosalie was still in 1930s. When war does come, I wanted to know more about Malta at this time. It was such a dramatic period in history and is seldom written about in fiction. Rosalie’s work as a plotter in the underground control centre during the defence of Malta is good, but slim pickings. Jefferies contrasts well the beauty of Malta with a darker underlying menace, prostitution, trafficking of women. This is an island invaded and settled by foreigners over many centuries with the looming threat of another world war. The hidden palace of the book’s title is a mesmerising maze of a building, like something out of an exotic Mary Stewart suspense novel. Is it a sanctuary or a prison. It’s a mysterious setting I was hoping would be used as a sanctuary during the war or perhaps a secret military headquarters.
The theme of unity and divisions between sisters shows how misunderstandings, if not addressed, can become impenetrable division. The deepest of bad feelings are better aired and faced, than deeply buried. Running away does not leave the old trouble behind, but also causes new problems.
I like to be immersed in characters and prefer long sections so I become emotionally involved. This story jumps around a lot between timelines which can be disorientating. The use of a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter is meant to add tension to keep the reader reading, but there needs to be a worthy pay-off each time. When chunks of years were skipped in Rosalie’s story, I wanted to know what was missing. It was like looking at a family photo album with pages torn out.
So, a bit of a curate’s egg. It didn’t advance the story of the three Baudin sisters, as I was expecting. But Rosalie’s story in Malta kept my attention.

Here are my reviews of the other books in the series:-
DAUGHTERS OF WAR #1DAUGHTERSOFWAR
NIGHT TRAIN TO MARRAKECH #3DAUGHTERSOFWAR

And here are my reviews of some of Dinah Jefferies’ other novels:-
THE TEA PLANTER’S WIFE
THE SAPPHIRE WIDOW
THE TUSCAN CONTESSA

If you like this, try:-
‘The Gabriel Hounds’ by Mary Stewart
‘The Postcard from Italy’ by Angela Petch
‘The Last Hours in Paris’ by Ruth Druart

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#Books THE HIDDEN PALACE by @DinahJefferies https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-63n via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-

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SANDRA DANBY'S BOOK REVIEWS

Sharing thoughts on the books I read, new authors, favourite authors, classics re-visisted

Tag Archives: romance

#BookReview ‘Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt’ by Lucinda Riley & Harry Whittaker #romance

#BookReview ‘The Sicilian Secret’ by Angela Petch #WW2 #romance

#BookReview ‘Shadows in the Ashes’ by @PiaCCourtenay #romance #Pompeii

#BookReview ‘The Perfect Cornish Murder’ by Fiona Leitch #crime #cosycrime

#BookReview ‘The Secret Shore’ by @liz_fenwick #WW2 #romance

#BookReview ‘The Missing Pieces of Us’ by Eva Glyn @JaneCable #romance

#BookReview ‘House of Grace’ by @PMOsborneWriter #familysaga #romance

#BookReview ‘A Village Affair’ by Joanna Trollope #familysaga #rereading

#BookReview ‘Molly & the Captain’ by Anthony Quinn #historical #art

#BookReview ‘The Hidden Palace’ by @DinahJefferies #WW2 #Malta

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