Book Reviews – Page 3

I read so many novels, I’ve decide it’s time I started sharing some of my reviews.

I’m a reviewer for The Historical Novel Society and NetGalley. I get through books like chocolate biscuits.

I’ll try to post reviews on the last weekend of every month.

The Maiden of Florence by Katherine Mezzacappa

*****

The Maiden of Florence is based on a true story about Giulia, a young woman who, in 16th century Italy, was plucked from an orphanage to prove the virility of a prince marrying into the powerful Medici family. Her task done, a comfortable life is arranged for her. But she can never forget what happened, nor escape the unwanted attentions of the lecherous minister who facilitated the ‘test’ in the first place.

It’s a shocking, harrowing scenario and, to be honest, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about reading such a horror story, imagining bleakness and a tale without hope. The novel sat on my shelf for a while before I had the courage to read it. But when I started it, I just couldn’t put it down.

Katherine Mezzacappa uses every tool in her writer’s armoury to create an astonishing novel, weaving fact with credible fiction to totally immerse the reader in Giulia’s world, a world in which men of money and power call all the shots. The Maiden of Florence is beautifully written and diligently researched, with all the senses in action, making this reader feel uncomfortably prurient when the act is described and as injustice after injustice is heaped upon the protagonist.

Giulia is treated so brutally. Inside, she is raging, yet she manages to retain a quiet dignity to equip her well in the years that follow.

This is a novel with tenderness, hope, justice and love at its heart. The Maiden of Florence is my book of 2024.

The Engraver’s Secret by Lisa Medved

*****

In 17th century Antwerp, an engraver is on his death bed when he reveals to his daughter, Antonia, a terrible secret. Something he did when he worked in the studio of artist Peter Paul Rubens will have dangerous repercussions for his family for generations to come.

Meanwhile, in the present day, Rubens aficionado Charlotte secures a short-term position as a university lecturer in Antwerp. She has a secret of her own, which may be affecting her judgement when she makes a major discovery.

In a dual timeline, handled deftly by the author. Antonia’s and Charlotte’s stories intertwine, building layers of intrigue to reach a thrilling conclusion. Along the way, we get to know the two women, the times in which they live, the prejudices they face and the towns and workplaces they inhabit.

The Engraver’s Secret is that rare thing – solid, well researched and fascinating historical fiction combined with a fast-paced thriller, all wrapped up in terrific writing which flows off the page. The novel is a real page turner, and I couldn’t put it down. A Dan Brown for discerning readers of art history fiction.

Witness 8 by Steve Kavanagh

****

This is a fast-paced crime thriller with ex-con-man turned criminal lawyer Eddie Flynn defending a respected surgeon and family man wrongly accused of murder in a rich neighbourhood of New York. Throw into the mix some capable sidekicks, assassins, corrupt police, preening officials and an unlikely baddie in the shape of a young mother’s help with a sick mother, and you have a real page turner of a novel with a twist at the end which I did not see coming.

I’m familiar with the genre but not the author or his protagonist. I’d definitely read him again.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance reader copy of Witness 8. Thoroughly recommended.

Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey

***

This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

The story is told from the viewpoints of two characters, Milly and Pip, over the course of forty years. They are both Irish and live in London. When they meet, Milly is a barmaid and Pip is a promising boxer but becomes an alcoholic.

The pair live their largely separate lives against a backdrop of a London which is changing hugely, with buildings and locations crucial to the characters deteriorating over the years.

It is a melancholy, gentle and sometimes brutal novel. If you are expecting a romance with lots of dramatic ‘will they, won’t they’ moments to punctuate the narrative, this is not it.

Pivotal events are sometimes told in a retrospective, detached way, which, as a reader, I found frustrating.

The character of Pip was explored more fully than Milly’s and there were times when I felt that the author held back on what motivated Milly by not delving into her backstory.

I found the novel compelling and capitivating but it felt to me like something was missing, and I did not care for the ending. For that reason, I am giving it three stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance reader copy of this novel.

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

I’ve enjoyed some of Tracy Chevalier’s novels in the past but really struggled with this novel, which follows the fortunes of a female glassmaker from the Rosso family on Murano.

Her ability to transport you into certain eras and to describe complicated processes are expertly done but, for me, the narrative plodded, with more telling than showing.

The device of showing the same characters through the centuries, hardly ageing, didn’t work for me, as there was no reference to this in their everyday lives, apart from an omnipresent narrator at the beginning of each section. It seemed forced, artificial, and I think it would have been much more interesting, readable and brave if she had followed the dynasty generation by generation or gone the whole hog and done a Matt Haig-type How To Stop Time treatment.

I have the good fortune to be a reviewer for NetGalley, a website which distributes advance reader copies of books to hundreds of thousands of members in exchange for honest reviews.

I was introduced to it by a friend in Lush Places, who insisted it would be for me after we started reviewing books from the village phone box library during lockdown.

It was too much hassle at first, but she kept on at me until I signed up and requested my first book. Thank you, Vikki!

Several years on, I’m now getting some amazing (free) downloads for my Kindle. The more books you review online, the more likely you’ll be approved for books in your favourite genres.

I share my reviews on the Goodreads platform or here on this blog.

I don’t very often award five stars but I’ve had some absolute corkers recently. Here are a couple of novels to look out for (both books are available to pre-order):

You Are Here by David Nicholls (due to be published by Sceptre 23 April 2024).

I was very excited to be approved for the latest David Nicholls novel. It didn’t disappoint. I didn’t want it to end, although I did, to find out what happened.

Michael and Marnie are two single strangers approaching middle age, living lonely, separate lives, north and south of the country. Michael is a geography teacher, obsessed with geology and his broken relationship with his beloved ex. Marnie is a self-employed, self-taught book editor who is finding her way after divorcing her entirely unsuitable husband She is anchored to her work, her ‘cosmopolitan’ life in London and, most of all, the joys of the English language.

The two are thrown together by a mutual friend on an arduous walk across luscious countryside in the Lake District and Yorkshire Moors. As the walk progresses, and as other walkers fall by the wayside, the reader learns more about the two of them and their problematic love lives. We are willing them to get together, to reach some kind of understanding that will see them triumph, ultimately, as a couple. But the course of true love, just like a coast-to-coast walk, does not run smoothly.

Romance isn’t really my thing but I loved this novel. I loved the characters of Michael and Marnie (and most of all, Marnie, who has a kick-ass sense of humour and pedantic eye for detail).

Nicholls’ writing is seemingly effortless and a joy to read. Tender moments are captured with humour and clarity. There are laugh out loud moments and I imagined myself picturing who might play the roles when it’s adapted into a television series like his best-known novel, One Day.

The new novel has so much hope at its core, following the desperation and isolation of the covid lockdowns. I thoroughly recommend it.

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins (expected publication by The Borough Press, May 2024).

In 1870s London, widower Henry Latimer is working in his father-in-law’s shop selling hearing aids. A mysterious customer, who owns a silk factory in the Devon town of Telverton, asks Henry to help his young daughter who has been deaf since birth. Intrigued, Henry takes up his invitation. He travels to the man’s big house in Telverton and ends up getting caught in a web of deceit, greed and enchantment.

Henry’s story is interspersed with the first person journal of a previous lady of the house, whose sojourn on a Greek island results in the discovery of spiders which spin the most incredible silk. When worked into fabric, the spider silk has a unique property that can bring calming silence or excruciating madness to those exposed to it.

I was spellbound by this novel – more so because I wasn’t expecting to like it. I had read one of Collins’ previous novels, The Binding, which I was enjoying before it started to get weird. The Silence Factory, however, is streets ahead in its storytelling, quality of writing and characterisation. If you like gothic novels, you will love this. Prepare yourself for an immersive ride. It’s definitely got big screen potential written all over it, either as a film or television series. Highly recommended.