Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

Alnwick Castle (from 2010).  Home of the Percy family for more than 700 years.

In The Courtesan’s Lover, Gabrielle Kimm takes a minor character from her debut novel, His Last Duchess, and gives her a story of her own.  Francesca, the fictional mistress of the Duke of Ferrara, has started a new life for herself in Naples and managed to become a courtesan of some worth.  She has two houses (one for business and one for a home for her twin daughters), a list of wealthy, regular patrons and a life that seems to be everything she could want (given her situation).

After about the first third or so I was afraid that this was going to be nothing more than Francesca’s “Adventures in Whoring”.  But then something happens that abruptly causes her entire life  - and the way she looks at it - to change.  What follows is an engrossing story about love, truth, betrayal and how your past can totally ruin your future no matter how much you wish it otherwise.  Although I thought Francesca’s revelation and desire to change her life came about a little too abruptly, her reaction to it was fascinating.  Here is this confident woman who knows exactly who and what she is (and for which she offers no apologies) and she completely falls apart right in front of you.

Francesca wants what everyone wants – to be truly loved and to give love in return.  Due to the extremely personal and intimate nature of Francesca’s meltdown, the first person narrative works well. I could feel her pain and anguish as she dared to hope for a better life for herself and her children only to realize the possibility that she might lose it all.   Because I can’t imagine this working as well without Francesca telling her own story, I can overlook what I consider to be an annoying trend – the use of third person for other parts of the story (but it still beats the info dumps usually required in first person narration to account for events the narrator couldn’t witness).  Here, it makes sense but the transitions are a little awkward at times.

Surprisingly, for a book about a courtesan, what little sex is in the book is relatively tame.  By the time I got to the last third or so of the story, I couldn’t put it down.  Nothing else got done that evening as I waited to see if Francesca would get the opportunity to truly be happy.


In case the FTC asks:  copy from the publisher

The Borgia Mistress by Sara Poole.  US and UK release May 22, 2012.


From the author of Poison and The Borgia Betrayal, comes a new historical thriller, featuring the same intriguing and beautiful heroine: Borgia court poisoner, Francesca Giordano.

Mistress of death Francesca Giordano—court poisoner to the House of Borgia—returns to confront an ancient atrocity that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance and plunge the world into eternal darkness. As the enemies of Pope Alexander VI close in and the papal court is forced to flee from Rome, Francesca joins forces with her lover, the brilliant and ruthless Cesare Borgia to unravel a conspiracy that strikes at the heart of Christendom. But when a shattering secret from her past imperils her precarious hold on sanity, only Francesca’s own courage and resolve can draw her back from the brink of madness to save all she values most.


Abdication by Juliet Nicholson.  US release May 22, 2012.


England, 1936.
The year began with the death of a beloved king and the ascension of a charismatic young monarch, sympathetic to the needs of the working class, glamorous and single. By year’s end, the world would be stunned as it witnessed that new leader give up his throne in the name of love, just as the unrest and violence that would result in a Second World War were becoming impossible to ignore.

During the tumultuous intervening months, amidst the whirl of social and political upheaval, wise-beyond-her-nineteen-years May Thomas will take the first, faltering steps toward creating a new life for herself. Just disembarked at Liverpool after a long journey from her home on a struggling sugar plantation in Barbados, she secures a position as secretary and driver to Sir Philip Blunt, a job that will open her eyes to the activities of the uppermost echelons of British society, and her heart to a man seemingly beyond her reach.

Outwardly affable spinster Evangeline Nettlefold is a girlhood friend to the American socialite Wallis Simpson, a goddaughter to Lady Joan Blunt and a new arrival to London from Baltimore. She will be generously welcomed into society’s most glittering circles, where one’s daily worth is determined by one’s proximity to a certain H.R.H. and his married mistress. But as the resentment she feels toward Wallis grows in magnitude, so too does the likelihood of disastrous consequences.

Young, idealistic Julian Richardson’s Oxford degree and his close friendship with Rupert Blunt have catapulted him from excruciating hours in his mother’s middle-class parlor to long holidays spent at stately homes and luxurious dinners in the company of a king. But even as he enjoys his time in this privileged world, his head cannot forget the struggles of those who live outside its gilded gates, and his uneasy heart cannot put aside his undeclared affection for May.

May, Evangeline and Julian will all become embroiled in the hidden truths, undeclared loves, unspoken sympathies and covert complicities that define the year chronicled in Abdication. In pitch-perfect prose, Juliet Nicolson has captured an era in which duty and pleasure, tradition and novelty, and order and chaos all battled for supremacy in the hearts and minds of king and commoner alike. As addictive as Downton Abbey, as poignant as The Remains of the Day, Abdication is a breathtaking story inspired by a love affair that shook the world at a time when the world was on the brink of war.


Rome:  The Eagle of the Twelfth by M.C. Scott.  UK release May 24, 2012.

They are known as the Legion of the Damned...


Throughout the Roman Army, the Twelfth Legion is notorious for its ill fortune. It faces the harshest of postings, the toughest of campaigns, the most vicious of opponents. For one young man, Demalion of Macedon, joining it will be a baptism of fire. And yet, amid all of the violence and savagery of his life as a legionary, he realizes he has discovered a vocation - as a soldier and a leader of men. He has come to love the Twelfth and all the bloody-minded, dark-hearted soldiers he calls his brothers.

But just when he has found a place in the world, all that he cares about is ripped from him. During the brutal Judaean campaign, the Hebrew army inflict defeat upon the legion - not only decimating their ranks, but taking away their soul, the eagle.

There is one final chance to save the legion's honour - to steal back the eagle. To do that, Demalion and his legionaries must go undercover into Jerusalem, into the very heart of their enemy - where discovery will mean the worst of deaths - if they are to recover their pride.

And that, in itself, is a task worthy only of heroes.

In her third book, Empress of the Seven Hills (published as Empress of Rome in the UK), Kate Quinn brings back a pair of characters from her debut novel – Vix, the son of a slave and a gladiator, and Sabina, the indulged daughter of a respected senator who would become Empress of Rome.

The year is 102 AD.  Trajan is emperor and with no son to follow him, his scheming wife plots to put her favorite “adopted” son, Hadrian, in line.  Plotina figures a senator’s daughter should do nicely to improve Hadrian’s chances and Sabina is her somewhat reluctant choice.  The reluctance flows both ways.  Sabina is everything most noble young women are not – independent, adventurous and not afraid to get her hands dirty.  She would rather travel and see the world than be empress.  And she unashamedly gives her heart to ex-gladiator Vix.

And who could blame her?  Vix is charming, cocky, abrasive and lives life on the edge – for fans of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon books, think Uhtred in ancient Rome.  He also seeks adventure and joining the legions is his way of dealing with a heart broken by circumstance.  Vix drowns his sorrow by killing Rome’s enemies and moving on with his life, while Sabina plays her part as Hadrian’s wife and for the most part being allowed to do as she pleases.  Over the years as Vix moves up within the ranks, he and Sabina cross paths where it is obvious they still love each other but are constrained by their current positions.

Overall, I liked this one slightly more than Quinn’s previous books.  There is still the quirky stylistic issue of some characters point of view being in first person and others in third and at times, the switch is a little jarring.  (As a side note, it seems to be a trend that's unfortunately catching on).  As Rome is in the midst of taking over the known world, some battles and campaigns are part of the storyline, but they are more about the politics of the situation and Vix’s climb through the ranks than actual fighting.   Plotina is the bitch in the mix and Hadrian comes across as rather weak and pathetic, but in the end shows that he is not a man to be messed with.  But it is the secondary character Titus who almost steals the show – intelligent, industrious, and socially awkward, he moons over Sabina while almost missing out on love right under his nose.  I enjoyed every scene he was in and hope to see more of him in the future.  From the way Quinn ended this one, it looks there is more of Vix and Sabina to come.



In case the FTC asks:  Copy from the publisher