Sunday Wrap Up: Week ending March 9, 2014

Hello and welcome to our newest in a new series of weekly wrapping up of the week's worth of activity. This time round we have a gorgeous display of variety, what with Regency romance, historical fiction with focus on the Great War, fantasy and New Kingdom Egypt filling our pages. Very keen to explore a diversity of genres and topics, The Review Group welcomes author submissions for review; details can be found above at our submissions tab. 

Whether you are a returning or new reader, we welcome and encourage your comments, especially as many of our entries are accompanied by giveaways--and the best part is entry involves only commenting on the same blog as the review! Typically there is also a link for Facebook users. Wherever you comment, please ensure we will be able to contact you in the event you're our winner--we want our giveaways to go far and wide and see lots of winners! 

Relax and peruse the posts for the past week, feel free to comment, and enjoy the ride!

Jayne's love of Regency romance shines through in this review of a novel that opens with a tragedy resulting dire circumstances for our protagonist. A further tragedy leads to greater burden for Letty, who plans for the future to regain some of the past. Will it work out? Well, Letty will lead you to that answer, but Jayne states, "I have read many Regency romance books and this one compares favourably with the others. Letty is a character that I could empathise with and I admired her strength which comes over very well in the book." To see more of what Jayne says and information about the book, click right here. 

Currently there is a giveaway for a FREE copy of The Widow's Redeemer; please follow blog link above for details and to comment. 

First in a series, In Foreign Fields tells of two British officers sent during the Great War's Battle of Mons into enemy territory to complete secret missions. Stuart writes, "David Hough does a terrific job in recreating the image of a nation in ruins as the tide of war sweeps over it leaving destruction and grief in its wake. It is an old fashioned, edge of the seat page turner that holds your attention as Wendel and his friends finally reach the château and prepare to complete their mission. . .  as the book reaches it climatic finale where through the flames and smoke of a night of high drama and horror crimes are avenged and hopes for a fresh start are tantalisingly close." Hold onto your seat and click here for more details on this page turner that Stuart declares he shall follow as the series progresses. 

An exciting fantasy, Deep Echoes brings us further into the week with "a world unto itself. . . complete with annals, geographical features and. . . underlying threat." Well, if the story seems to come alive with that idea reaching out from its pages, your further interest is sure to be piqued by Anna's continuing description: "What follows is a nice combination of a coming-of-age story and a War of the Worlds scenario." And who doesn't want to grow up with their world at war and fighting to defend those whose rejection has placed them at the parameters of society? Fortunately for you, dear readers, and us as well, we can "live" (read: adventure) vicariously through the pages of the book--with hint of a sequel, so reviewer Anna confides--from the safety of our overstuffed chairs. 

Travel to ancient civilizations has also never been so easy! Margaret wraps up our week with a review for Richard Abbott's Scenes From a Life--which by the by entails a giveaway--as Makty-Rasut searches for his roots. Readers are likely to be drawn in by Abbott's progression of the tale, as Margaret elaborates on: "The structure of the book is also interesting – alternate chapters take us to Makty’s present and past – with the chapters in the present moving forwards, those in the past taking us progressively further back. If this sounds complicated, it isn’t. I found it an effective way of structuring the story and had no problem following the timeline." A sort of reverse linear, as it were, seems as if bit by bit the clues to who Makty is and the roots of underlying questions (his and our own) are answered, not unlike how they would be for Makty himself. Engaging indeed!

Currently there is a giveaway for a copy of Scenes From a Life; please follow blog link above for details and to comment. 

Missed last week's wrap up? Reader dear, never fear, click right here!

JAYNE'S CORNER: REVIEW OF WIDOW'S REDEEMER

As an avid reader of Regency Romance I was pleased to be asked to read and review Widow’s Redeemer by Philippa Jane  Keyworth

The book opens with the heroine, Letty Burton, at home in the country where her husband John is seriously ill. On becoming a widow, she finds herself in desperate circumstances; John has mismanaged their finances and she has to sell her home. She then moves in with her brother in law David and his wife Theodora, a giddy seventeen year old, whose husband is also dying. Letty finds that she has to take over as Theodora is unable to cope when David dies. 

Later, the ladies' mother-in-law, Clarissa, comes to stay and offers to take them under her wing, but Theodora has to go back to live with her parents. Letty realises that Clarissa is lonely and agrees to stay with her. She forms a friendship with an old friend of her husband's, Edward Deverell, who comes to visit and when Clarissa comes up with the idea of moving to London to find Letty a new husband, one that will win Clarissa back her standing in the community, Deverell accompanies them there. 

An earlier chance encounter with the rude Viscount Beaumont leads Letty to dislike the man immensely and when he turns out to be a friend of Deverell's his appearance at social events causes problems between him and Letty, for the dislike is mutual. As it happens, Beaumont is recovering from a disastrous affair which has put him off women. However, things begin to change between he and Letty and they begin to form a mutual attraction; but will Letty's pride and Beaumont's arrogance spoil their chances of true love? As we know in Regency romances, the course of true love never runs smoothly. 

I have read many Regency romance books and this one compares favourably with the others. Letty is a character that I could empathise with and I admired her strength which comes over very well in the book. At first I did not like Viscount Beaumont because of his arrogance but he redeems himself in the last bit of the book. I found their story very engrossing and I was unable to put the book down. 

For authors of this genre, a great deal of knowledge is needed and the author has presented her understanding of the way the Ton (The Aristocracy) and how it worked in London in the early 1800s, very well. I found the purely platonic relationship between Letty and Deverell very interesting as this rarely happens in many novels and the way the relationship worked in the story was excellently written. The author's clever  use of secondary characters made for an even more engaging read; for example she uses letters from Letty to her friend Sophie to convey the story of Letty's feelings about the Viscount. 

The author's writing style was engaging and it flowed very well with no inconsistencies,  making it easy to immerse myself in. The characters were well rounded and developed and I liked the way they all had a decent part to play in the story. This is the first novel I have read of Philippa Keyworth's and I will certainly look forward to reading more from this author in the future. 

Philippa Keyworth, known to her friends as Pip, has been writing since she was twelve in every notebook she could find. Originally trained as a horse-riding instructor, Philippa went on to become a copywriter before beginning a degree in history. She has always written stories and believes that as one of her loves and passions, she always will.

She has a Facebook page and a website.

Widow’s Redeemer is available in paperback and Kindle. 

For a chance to win an ebook copy of Widow's Redeemer please leave a comment on this blog or if you use Facebook, leave a comment on The Review Blog Page's thread for this blog.

Jayne Smith is an avid reader of historical fiction and Regency romances. She is an admin of The Review Group and is one of its founders. She is Welsh by birth and very proud of that. A nurse by profession, Jayne loves cats and her family. You will always find Jayne in a historical group of some description, participating in debates. Such is her love of history and talking about it, Jayne has created many historical groups on Facebook. You'll never be far from one of Jayne's groups wherever you are.