Torment by Lauren Kate

Having read the first in this series, Fallen, last year I was keen to read this sequel.

At the end of Fallen, Luce learned of the real identity of a number of her classmates at the Sword & Cross school and realised that the man she had fallen instantly and inexplicably in love with (Daniel) was an angel. She learned of his immortal status and her previous relationships with him, a relationship repeated every 17 years, as in each life a kiss with Daniel would result in her fiery doom. The story concluded with a battle between angels and demons, Luce being almost killed by an Elder, saved by angels and whisked away to safety by a mortal but angel-friendly teacher.

The prologue in Torment set some of the scene of the truce between angels and demons in order to allow both sides time to destroy other players in the game - the Outcasts (angels that were barred from entering both heaven and hell) and the Elders. Hints are given that Luce's mortality in this life (due to never having been baptised) has changed the state of play dramatically and it is imperative that she is kept safe and alive.

Chapter 1 ignored the epilogue from Fallen and started with Luce aboard a flight to California on her way to a new school - Shoreline - organised by Daniel. This turns out to be a school of 'gifted' and elite students. The gifted students in particular being nephilim - the offspring of angels and mortals who have some angelic abilities. Luce is placed in a dormitory with Shelby, an ascerbic character who I spent almost the whole book wondering if she is on the side of good or evil. A couple of bouncy girls make her feel a bit more at ease, and a boy, Miles, becomes a friend she feels she can confide in.

The book covers a period of a mere 17 days - from the beginning of the truce to the day before it ends. During this time, Luce is asked and warned to stay within the campus grounds, but irritatingly, Luce keeps endangering herself (and potentially her rescuers) as she travels away from the school a number of times.

Luce learns a little of the nephilim world and the some of the things that they can manipulate in the world around them. She sees Daniel a few times but although her heart sings at a glimpse of him, the stubborn side of her continually surfaces when she wants to know more and he won't tell her. This goes for her new angel/demon teachers too - although the demon one at least gives her a few hints.

She misses her family and her old school friend Callie and at this school there is no bar to her accessing a phone or email, yet she declines to have more than cursory contact with them during her stay which is a puzzling change from her mindset in the last book.

Thanksgiving arrives and she is surprised to be allowed home to her parents for the day - along with a host of angels, demons and nephilim, as well as her friend Callie. Word has leaked out however as to her location and a battle starts with the Outcasts who see Luce as their key back into heaven. The story concludes with Luce running away and avoiding everyone that cares for her.

Overall, I found the book very frustrating and started to wonder if the title was aptly named for the reader. So little was learned to advance the plot and add depth to the story. The characters were mostly shallow sketches and a number of them acted in ways that made little sense.

Luce repeatedly acted disappointed/upset/annoyed and frankly came across as quite bratty. She was constantly annoyed with not knowing enough about her situation yet didn't seek out the angel-teacher who had offered her help on arrival at the school, nor did she actively seek Arriane when she made an appearance back in the story to find out more. At the conclusion of Fallen, Luce was given a book by Gabe on angels/watchers that must have contained pertinent information, yet no mention is made of this at all and she even acts vague about the whole topic when talking to Daniel about it on her way to Shoreline. Was Luce so struck into immobility in the days between her rescue and her setting off to Shoreline that she couldn't open a book? One must assume so. She continues throughout the book as needing everything spelled out letter by letter for her, otherwise she becomes despondent and annoyed and almost a damsel in distress (yet annoyed by being rescued and treated as such).

She latches on to one lesson - that about the Announcers (or shadows) and learns to use them for the memories they hold as she seems fixated on finding out more about her past relationships with Daniel and her past lives families. Consequently we are taken on many a side trip that don't really add much to the story, so one hopes that they will come have a meaning in the next book.

Basically her character annoyed me terribly!

Whilst the reader can see that Daniel is afraid to tell her anything - worried that too much information will kill her and hoping that she can work it out herself - it is easy for the reader to see that telling her these small facts would certainly have eased the situation. Is Daniel really so dense after living for thousands of years, or is the fault of the writer purposefully using lack of information as a device for keeping everyone (her characters and her readers) guessing?

Daniel's character could have been improved upon as well - he gets very little character development and seems to perpetually be mooning after Luce. He only gets a starring role at the beginning and end of the book (where we finally get to see some more human traits like jealousy and pain). Otherwise he is limited to only quick appearances. Add this to the fact none of the nephilim seem to want to talk about him (even though the Daniel/Lucinda story has entered angel folklore) and the result is that both Luce and the reader are kept in the dark.

Most disappointing of all is that the sweet romance and gut twisting emotion that the first book had is missing and the book definitely suffers from the lack of this ingredient.

I think the writer has done her readers a disservice by not enlightening them but rather hoping that hints will be sufficient to keep her readers returning. She may be sadly mistaken.

I hold out hope that the next novel, Passion, will tidy things up. However, given the vagueness of the first two stories, I have to wonder if Lauren Kate even knows where it is heading.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

A Newberry Medal winner, this book was recommended to me as a classic in children's literature and I really enjoyed the story.

Set in the late 17th century the story is about Kit Tyler, an independent and confident young lady (age 16) who travels from a relatively carefree life in Barbados to an Aunt who resides in cold and bleak Connecticut.

Having come from a life where she had been free to do as she wished, never expected to work and with a personal servant who had been with her since childhood, Kit finds her Aunt and Uncle's Puritan household to be overly strict and she can't help but rebel against the rules and restrictions they expect her to follow as a member of their family.

Kit is constantly at conflict with her Uncle and the expectations of the community's Puritan beliefs. After one such conflict she escapes the confines of the house to the peaceful meadows outside of the town. An old quaker widow, Hannah, lives there and all are warned to stay away as there are suspicions the woman could be a witch. However Kit finds comfort with Hannah who seems to have a calming influence on her and makes the rest of her life more bearable.

There are young men in Kit's life - the keen suitor William, the annoying but good looking sailor, Nat, and a divinity student John who is one of the few people she feels able to talk to beside her cousins Mercy and Judith.

As she has been well educated, Kit helps Mercy in 'the dame school' and befriends a little girl, Prudence, who she met on the last leg of her voyage and who is somewhat dazzled by the capable Kit. Kit works hard to overcome early objections to her by the community but her continued friendship with Hannah fuels suspicions. Combined with jealousy and fear this culminates in Kit being accused of witchcraft.

The book moves with a fast pace and there are occasions when you are filled with terror for what could happen to Kit. She is an easy character to identify with - after all, haven't we all wanted to rebel against people telling us what we can and can't do?

A great read for older children/young adults, or just the young at heart!

The Kingdom by Jennifer McBay Barry

I read this book as part of a book club read. Unfortunately it is not available in Australia (at least through Independent booksellers and the main book chains), whether this is because it was only recently published or because it was a short first print run I'm not sure, but I had to obtain it overseas. It IS stocked by Amazon.com at the moment.

The first thing that struck me about the book is that it is quite a slim volume. In the large paperback format it is a mere 237 pages. In the YA category it's written simply and its size makes it is a nice, quick read!

The story is set in modern day Ireland and is written from the viewpoint of Rioghan, an incredibly handsome young man that we quickly learn has unearthly charms and talents. Toying with people's emotions he is clearly bored yet little things he does shows he really does care - providing it doesn't involve him!

Upon meeting the sharp-tongued, red haired Lily, daughter of a famous opera singer, he feels a niggle of something more. She doesn't fall for his charms and he starts to find her fascinating. The more Lily resists Rioghan, the more he feels and soon she becomes the centre of his universe.

The story is a wonderful blend of mythology and legend, of an immortal/ mortal relationship and of finding what is most important versus what you are expected to do.

The picturesque country of Ireland, described so well, provides a wonderful setting for this modern fairy tale.

Although I wasn't immediately impressed, the characters are interesting, have a depth to them that made me want to know more and I was soon in the can't-put-it-down mode! I couldn't help but think back on the legends and stories of the past and everything became completely plausible. By the end I was disappointed that there weren't a few hundred more pages!

I do have a bit of a problem with a couple of the terms used (eg. 'fairy' seems a bit light for the story and perhaps a more archaic spelling or term, eg 'faerie' or 'fair folk' would raise the level a little) but this is a fairly minor concern.

This is the start of a series and I must say that I am looking forward to reading more about Rioghan and his Kingdom in the future!

100 Cupboards by N D Wilson

On the recommendation of my local bookstore I bought this for my son earlier last year. My requirements were that he needed a novel - something a boy would like with some adventure, perhaps a little magic and aimed at his age (11/12).

He liked the look of it, started it, loved it and about 2/3 of the way through he stopped. It languished for months on his bedside table being overtaken by shorter novels borrowed from the school library. He finally started it again during the holidays and then put it down a couple of chapters from the end as it was a bit scary to read at night!

He finally finished it (during the daytime) and I finally got a chance to read it (he's quite strict that I CANNOT read his books before he does).

The story starts in a small country town named Henry in the state of Kansas. A young (12 y.o.) boy (also called Henry) who has lived a very sheltered, protected life goes to live with his Aunt and Uncle after his parents have been taken hostage while on a bicycle tour of Colombia. His Aunt Dotty is a friendly, frugal woman, his uncle is tall, thin and appears a little absent minded, however he deals well with the out-of-his-element Henry, and to top it off, his three cousins are all girls! The large front bedroom of the house is mysteriously referred to as "Grandfather's Room" but it has been locked since his death a couple of years previously and no-one can find the key to get in.

Henry is moved into the attic room where on his first night he hears some unusual scratching. He also sees coming out of the bathroom a mysterious short man in a purple robe who promptly becomes a hazy sort of memory.

On his second night, some plaster from the wall falls on his head and when he looks up, two small knobs are protruding from the plaster in the wall. Henry picks at the plaster and ends up uncovering, with his cousin Henrietta's help, a wall with 99 small cupboard doors that all appear locked.

Henry is wary, but Henrietta is excited and so the adventure begins. The mystery of the cupboards is slowly revealed, as Henry and Henrietta receive mysterious letters through them, realise that they are doors to other worlds, and have some quite scary moments before Henry finally starts using them.

The pace doesn't slacken, the momentum if anything keeps building and although there is a happy ending, there are some spine chilling events too!

I really enjoyed it, however I can see how my son got a little scared towards the end. The witch character is definitely not nice and the treatment is a little horror-style, albeit aimed at children. I am looking forward to reading the second instalment - the Dandelion Fire, although this may take months at son's previous reading rate!!

Some bestselling books and award winners from 2009

I picked up a great reading guide from my local bookshop call "the Independent Book Guide" (Summer 2009) put out by a group of Australian independent booksellers.

Here are some interesting lists from the guide.

Bestsellers 2009 (Jan-Oct):

Fiction

The elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Breath by Tim Winton
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Non Fiction

Dreams From My Father by Barak Obama
The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
The Audacity of Hope by Barak Obama
Heaven and Earth by Ian Plimer
Geed Me Now by Bill Granger
The House At Salvation Creek by Susan Duncan
The SMH Food Guide
A Lion Called Christan by Bourke and Rendell

Children's books

Twilight Saga
The Diary of A Whimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
The Henderson Boys by Robert Muchamore
Zac Power by H I Larry
Cherub by Robert Muchamore
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
The Magic Ballerina by Darcey Bussell
The 39 Clues by various authors
Harry Potter by J K Rowling
Grug by Ted Prior
Rainbow Magic by Daisy Meadows

Other children's bestsellers not necessarily part of a series were:

Evernight by Claudia Gray
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Imagine by Alison Lester
Where Is The Green Sheep by Mem Fox
Ten Little Fingers by Mem Fox
Tales of Beedle the Bard by J K Rowling
Possum Magic by Mem Fox
Thomas the Tank Engine by Rev. Awdry
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
Hairy Maclary From Donaldson's Dairy by Lynley Todd
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

The booklet also mentioned some 2009 award winners:

The Crime Writers Association 2009 Gold Dagger Awards

Winner:
A Whispered Nam by William Brodrick

Shorlist:
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
In the Dark by Mark Billingham
Hit and Run by Lawrence Block
A Whispered Name by William Brodrick
The Coroner by M R Hall
Dark Times in the City by Gene Kerrigan

The Australian Independent Booksellers Indie Award 2009
(decided by popular vote of independent bookshops Australia wide). Prize: $15,000 AUD

Category Winners:
Non Fiction - The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper
Debut Fiction - The Virtuoso by Sonia Orchard
Children's book - Pearl Verses the World by Sally Murphy and Heather Potter
Fiction - Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

The overall award went to the Fiction winner, Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey.


The Miles Franklin Award 2009
(Awarded for the novel of the year which is of "the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases"). Prize: $42,000AUD

Shortlist:
Breath by Tim Winton
Ice by Louis Nowra
The Pages by Murray Bail
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
Wanting by Richard Flanagan

Winner: Breath by Tim Winton

The Orange Prize for Fiction 2009
(open only to women, established by journalists and publishers). Prize: 30,000 pounds

Shortlist:
Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman
The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey
The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie

Winner: Home by Marilynne Robinson


The Man Booker Award 2009
(awarded to works of literary fiction written by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or the republic o Ireland). Prize: 50,000 pounds.

Shorlist:
The Children's Book by A S Byatt
Summertime by J M Coetzee
The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Winner: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Finalists:
The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
All Souls by Christine Schutt
Oliver Kitterdige by Elizabeth Strout

Winner: Olive Kitterdige by Elizabeth Strout



Looks like I have some reading to do!

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

When I was recently purchasing some more Fanny Burney books I saw the Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. Remembering the references to it in Northanger Abbey, I thought it was a book that I should read and I'm glad I did!

The most popular book of the author's time, this Gothic Romance was published in 1794 and was read with excitement - in 1824 Sir Walter Scott recalled the eagerness of whole familes as the four volumes of the work "flew, and were sometimes torn, from hand to hand".

Set in France and Italy two centuries before it was written, it is a wonderful tale of suspense. Our heroine, Emily St Aubert, is orphaned a short period before she is of legal age. Aware of the proprieties and social moires of the time, she goes to live with her aunt, a cold, selfish woman. Before her father dies, she meets and falls in love with the Chevalier Valancourt and her early expectation of marriage to him under her Aunt's care is dashed when her Aunt marries Signor Montoni, and they remove to Italy - firstly Venice and then to the Apennines to the secluded Castle Udolpho.

Emily's fears of inpropriety, marriage to any man but her beloved Valancourt, and the loss of her family estate are soon expanded to almost permanent periods of terror induced by Montoni's heartless treatment and fearful associations, not to mention ghostly mysteries within the dark and gothic castle.

The novel is full of descriptive scenic views of the place and time, which belies the fact that the author only travelled abroad once in her life; poetry appears frequently and I must admit I skimmed over those passages a bit!

The pace of the novel can be slow and there is the occasional thread that lacks continuity (perhaps this is only something that the modern reader would note). Personally I don't think the romance aspect of the novel is all that convincing although the overall devotion of Emily and Valancourt is obvious.

The author's real strength is suspense and intrigue - for example, we wait right until the end of the novel before we find out what scares Emily so much in the remote room of Udolpho where a picture is hidden behind a black veil.

It is not a particularly 'easy' read. I found I needed quiet and preferably solitude to read it, and in that environment I could envision and enjoy the story more and make steady progress through the volumes.

It is a wonderful example of its genre and should be mandatory reading for lovers of Austen et al.

Fallen by Lauren Kate

My 11 y.o. niece who is a confessed Twilight fan is now reading this book. She left it at my house a couple of days ago and I thought, 'why not?', picked it up and finished it that day.

A story of everlasting love with a handsome and aloof immortal male lead and a confused somewhat troubled mortal female lead, as well as a highschool setting with little parental input, it does bear some similarity to the Twilight novel and I can definitely see the appeal to the same audience. However instead of vampires, we're dealing with angels.

The book opens with an emotionally and sexually charged prologue where a young woman, mid 1850s, finds herself inexplicably drawn to a handsome young man. She succumbs to the magnetic pull she feels towards him, desire flames brightly and she disappears.

We then turn to the modern day. Luce, a troubled teen who has seen 'shadows' most of her life, is sent to a reform school, the Sword and Cross, after the mysterious and somewhat suspicious death of a boy she liked at her previous, ivy league school. Her new school is filled with a motley assortment of hard-core reform cases and she is quickly 'claimed' by a somewhat crazy girl who guides her through her first days.

Within hours of arriving at the school, she sets her eyes on Daniel, a gorgeous boy who almost immediately acts coldly towards her. However, there is a pull towards him she can't explain and she feels strongly that she knows him from somewhere.

As the story continues, Luce is befriended by a 'normal' fellow student who aids her sanity and need to find out more about Daniel, a boy with piercing green eyes attempts to romance her, she is involved in a suspicious death at the school and moments of closeness with Daniel that confuse Luce further while reinforcing the depth of her feelings for him.

Written for the young adult market, this is no great literary work. However it is a good story, rather hard to put down with stomach-twisting emotion that will appeal to girls and women who need a romantic/eternal love fix. (Yes, I'm one of them!)

The next instalment in the story, Torment, is due out September 2010.

50 Books You Can't Put Down

From the 2008 Books Alive Guide (Australia)



The Household Guide to Dying - Debra Adelaide (fiction)
Breath - Tim Winton (fiction)
People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks (fiction)
The Spare Room - Helen Garner (fiction)
Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis (biography)
The Six Sacred Stones - Matthew Reilly (fiction)
Exit Music - Ian Rankin (fiction)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson (fiction)
Infidel - Ayaan Hirsi Ali (autobiography)
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (fiction)
God's Callgirl - Carla van Raay (autobiography)
Change of Heart - Jodi Picoult (fiction)
Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert (autobiography)
Those Faraday Girls - Monic McInerney (fiction)
Skin and Bone - Kathryn Fox (fiction)
7th Heaven - James Patterson with Maxine Paetro (fiction)
Secrets of the Red Lantern - Pauline Nguyen with Luke Nguyen and Mark Jensen (autobiography)
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton (fiction)
Somme Mud - EPF Lynch (biography/war)
Vietnam: The Australian War - Paul Ham (war)
Les Norton and the Case of the Talking Pie Crust - Robert G Barrett (fiction)
Turn Turn Turn ... Please - Kerry O'Keeffe (sport)
Over the Top with Jim - Hugh Lunn (autobiography)
That'd Be Right - William McInnes (autobiography)
The Day After Tomorrow - Allan Folsom (fiction)
Nothing to Lose - Lee Child (fiction)
The Memory Room - Christopher Koch (fiction)
Addition - Toni Jordan (fiction)
Voodoo Doll - Leah Giarratano (fiction)
The Rouseabout - Rachael Treasure (fiction)
Avoiding Mr Right - Anita Heiss (fiction)
This Charming Man - Marian Keyes (fiction)
Back from the Brink - Peter Andrews (environment/agriculture)
True Green - Kim McKay and Jenny Bonnin (environment)
He'll Be OK - Celia Lashlie (family/health)
Girl Stuff - Kaz Cooke (family/health)
Lucky for Me - Frank Robson (autobiography)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling (fiction/fantasy)
Obernewtyn (book 1 of Obernewtyn Chronicles) - Isobelle Carmody (fiction/fantasy)
The Gift (book 1 of Pellinor series) - Alison Croggon (fiction/fantasy)
Superior Saturday (book 6 of The Keys to the Kingdom series) - Garth Nix (fiction/fantasy)
Twilight - Stephanie Myer (fiction)
George's Secret Key to the Universe - Lucy and Stephen Hawking (children's nonfiction)
Treasure Fever (book 1 in the Schooling Around series) - Andy Griffiths (children's fiction)
Water Witcher - Jan Ormerod (children)
The Waterhole - Graeme Base (children)
Parsley Rabbit's Book about Books - Frances Watts and David Legge (children)
Quest for the Crown (book 1 in the Faraway Fairies series) - Eleanor Coombe (children's fiction)
Go Girl! Angels: Anniversary Edition - Chrissie Perry and Meredith Badger (children's fiction)
Nim's Island - Wendy Orr (children's fiction)

Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married

Author: Marian Keyes

Lucy Sullivan - in her twenties, an office worker and a serial dater of unsuitable men.

Lucy sees a fortune teller with some co-workers and is told that she will be married within 18 months. Considering she is currently footloose and fancy free this comes as something of a surprise to Lucy so she discounts the possiblity. However, her co-workers are soon linking events to the prophecies they received and everyone starts to think that Lucy really WILL be married soon.

Lucy actually does meet a man - totally unsuitable of course which Lucy can't resist and she starts to think maybe he is 'the one'. Of course to complicate matters there are other men in her life as well - could one of them be the lucky man instead?

On route to finding her marital bliss Lucy learns more about herself and her family than she ever suspected.

Amusing and eminently readable, as all Marian Keyes novels seem to be, this is the perfect novel to get away from your own life and find yourself flatting in London on the lookout for Mr Right.

Mr Darcy’s Diary

I was interested to read this – women are always interested to hear what men REALLY thought, and I believe I had a desire to believe that men feel with the same depth of passion, to the detriment of everything else, when they fall in love. The author, Maya Slater (a woman), obviously wanted the same thing and she served this up in a nicely bound little package!

So, perhaps reality has to take a few leaps…. but it was nice to think that it could be so, that Mr Darcy did indeed feel the torment of unrequited love (at least for a little while). There is a little explanation at the end of the book that the diary was found in a little bureau that was being auctioned and it was found to bear a striking similarity to the story described in Pride and Prejudice. A nice touch.

This is pure fan-fic, a spin off from an established novel that meets the needs of the fans in wanting to know more – what happened before, after or behind the scenes. As such it does a credible job, but would have been better to have been written by a man. My husband immediately said when he saw me reading it, “well Mr Darcy wouldn’t have called it a diary… he would have called it a journal”. Hmmmm, it was an unsettling thought, but a realistic one. So as this thought sat and grew, I became a little more skeptical of Mr Dacry’s purported side of things as I read.

However, all said and done, it was a pleasant, easy read, that lovers of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice will no doubt enjoy!

The Bitterbynde Trilogy: The Ill-Made Mute

A sweeping fantasy novel by Cecilia Dart-Thornton. From the first page Cecilia draws you in with vivid descriptions in a well constructed world. You can tell it is going to be an interesting journey as you have immediate empathy for the poor damaged creature who has the lead role in the novel. You feel elated in its eventual escape, but worry for its safety and relief at its seeming rescue. You feel worry and thrill in accordance with the story and the end literally left me with tears streaming down my face.

It has more flesh than some of the more ‘standard’ fantasy novels that have an aim and try and get there (with as much done as possible) in a straight line. This story however, meanders along and asks you to enjoy the journey. The prose is rich and poetic and incredibly detailed, so if you like action style fantasy novels this won’t be one for you.

The lore and bestiary of the world is well thought out and draws heavily on little known Celtic lore, but the high number of unusual words make it a slight trial if you let yourself get bogged down on them. A more comprehensive phrase and word reference would have been helpful in this respect.

The basic story is that of a severely disfigured and mute foundling, reared in a remote castle by a lowly servant, where it is abhorred by all who see it. Lonely and longing for something more, the youth escapes on a Windship that is attacked by pirates and culminates in a sudden escape/rescue by a red-haired Ertish adventurer. Truths are revealed and a name bestowed upon the nameless fugitive. A magical journey ensues with the Ertishman. Learning that the disfigurement may be healed, a journey to far Caermelor to seek a famed healer is undertaken with disastrous results and a wilderness must then be crossed with two companions – a young Ertishman who feels bound to assist the mute, and a Dainnan ranger who is courteous but distant.

I am looking forward to reading the next instalment in the trilogy!

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

I was sent this novel some months ago by my sister in law who thought I would enjoy it. As usual it languished on my bookshelf until we went away for a few days and I thought I should take a book with me to read, should I get the time. Luckily I DID get the time as it was a page turner from the very start!

The story is based on a rather lonely woman (Margaret Lea) who grew up around books and took an interest in writing biographies of deceased writers, who is selected by a very popular author (Vida Winter) to write her biography before she dies. The story of Vida’s life is revealed piece by piece and you share Margaret’s breathless curiosity. But the story still has surprises even at its conclusion.

There are frequent references to classic, favourite books (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Woman in White), a Brontesque sense of drama as well as a keen observation of twins and their language. (From a personal point of view, the author has written information on twin language that is virtually unobtainable from professional sources, but is indeed true as I have found from being the mother of twins!)

The story is heavily female oriented as the male figures only play minor roles, and there are strong relationship themes. The writing is rich and inviting and for anyone who loves books and reading, they will associate with part of it and will find it quite riveting!

Amazingly, this is the first novel of author Diane Setterfield – I look forward to the other treasures she will write if this story is any indication of her ability.