Cynthia Sally Haggard's Blog: Cynthia Sally's Blog, page 20

THE STARLESS SEA by Erin Morgenstern narrated by Dominic Hoffman (Zachary Ezra Rawlins), Dion Graham (“Sweet Sorrows”), Bahni Turpin (“The Secret Diary of Katrina Hawkins”), Fiona Hardingham (“The Ballad of Simon & Eleanor”), Allan Corduner (“Fortunes and

This has to be the weirdest piece of writing I have ever experienced and I honestly don’t think I would have had the patience to read it if it hadn’t been for the magnificent narrators who brought this story to life.

THE STARLESS SEA is as cloying, sweet, and viscous as the honey which forms the main metaphor of this novel. Photo 136757837 / Dripping Honey © Annausova75 | Dreamstime.com

As you can see from the above, THE STARLESS SEA is a complex tale made up of various threads. The author, Erin Morgenstern (according to her readers) wrote a stunner of a debut novel in THE NIGHT CIRCUS (which I haven’t read) and followed up that triumph with this 500-page volume eight years later.

Unfortunately, most people seem to have been extremely disappointed by this novel and I can’t say I blame them.

First of all, there is no plot. Instead, this novel is like a fairy tale in the sense that things just happen with no motivation, no explanation, and very little cohesion. After a time, I stopped trying to make sense of it, and just let the voices of the narrators waft over me.

Granted, it is beautifully written. But it also has annoying tics. Why for example, is the name of the main character, Zachary Ezra Rawlins always given IN FULL? It was so mind-numbing to hear his FULL NAME repeated and repeated!

As other readers have said, this novel needed a brilliant developmental editor to provide that arc of tension that provokes readers to keep turning the pages. As it stands, THE STARLESS SEA is as cloying, sweet, and viscous as the honey which forms the main metaphor of this novel. Two stars.

Happy Fourth!

Award-Winning Author Cynthia Sally Haggard writes Historical Fiction that spans the Vastness of Time

Just wanted to announce that my new Patreon Page is up and running!

For those of you who do not know, Patreon is a Membership Platform that allows content creators to run a subscription service in return for various benefits that are tailor-made for subscribers.

The thing I love about Patreon is how easy it makes it for authors (like myself) to get to know my readers (like you.)

I can run polls to find out what you want.

My first poll on Patreon

I can run Q & A sessions to have a chat.

SMS chat on SmartPhone

I can even collaborate with you on my WIP (work in progress).

My handwritten notes for THE PORTAL, Chapter 11 of LADY JUSTICE, Book One of THE TWELVE CURSED SISTERS, my retelling of THE TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES

If this intrigues you, please tap below to find out more…

https://www.patreon.com/cynthiasallyhaggard

Thank you so much for your support, and ENJOY YOUR FOURTH!!

TOPSHOT – Fireworks explode over the Lincoln Memorial during the Fourth of July celebrations in Washington, DC, July 4, 2019. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs Book 1) by Jacqueline Winspear narrated by Rita Barrington

First Edition of Maisie Dobbs (2003).

How happy I am to have discovered both Jacqueline Winspear AND Maisie Dobbs! What a treat to read about an intelligent young woman, born poor and thus condemned to a life of servitude by her marriage and subsequent children, who, through a twist of fate, actually found herself at Girton College and running her own business!

I loved this novel. I loved seeing Maisie start out on her career. I loved the extended back-flash that explained Maisie’s life from age 13 (when she is taken on as a maid by Lady Rowan) to the age of 32 (when she starts her own business) in 1929. I loved the wartime romance. And I even loved the heartbreaking outcome of said romance.

Maisie makes mistakes and that is one of the reasons why everyone loves her. She is kind to people who are poor and modest. She uses her gifts to help people. So of course it was disappointing that she let her fiancé down. But so true to life, and thus so powerful and compelling.

Despite its many marvelous qualities, one can tell this is a first novel. Ms. Winspear gives way too many stage directions, with arched eyebrows, posture detailings, cigarette handlings, and winks. This is very distracting to the reader/listener and interrupts the narrative flow.

Apart from that, the novel is near-perfect. Quite a triumph for a debut novel! Five stars.

Tap here for your copy of Maisie Dobbs

#maisiedobbs #maisiedobbs-1 #jacquelinewinspear

It’s not too late to grab your FREE copy…promos end today!

HAUNTED BY DREAMS: What if you keep having embarrassing dreams? And your husband knows? What do you do then?

tap here for your free copy of “haunted by dreams”

THE END OF CHILDHOOD: What if your Master begins flirting? Would you be able to refuse? A tale about my 5 times grandmother set in 1809 during the Napoleonic wars.

tap here for your free copy of “the end of childhood”

#bookfunnel #cynthiasallyhaggard #shortstories #hauntedbydreams #endofchildhood #freehistoricalromance #june

HOUSE RULES by Jodi Picoult, narrated by Mark Turetsky, Rich Orlow, Nicole Poole, Christopher Evan Welch & Andy Paris

Most kids with Asperger’s (high-functioning Autism) parallel play long beyond what is normal. This boy with autism spectrum disorder quietly collects puzzle pieces while other children play ball behind him.

Jodi Picoult’s HOUSE RULES is an astonishing novel, overflowing with empathy towards those extremely bright kids whose lives are marred by Asperger’s.

Jacob Hunt knows more about forensic science at 18 than the local police force. When he crashes their investigations and makes suggestions he is nearly always right. But he isn’t able to consider how others will see his actions.

So when he stages a crime scene with a real dead body, the local police believe he is the killer.

Even his own mother fears the outcome of the courtroom drama that envelops their lives as the prosecutor tries to pin Jess Ogilvy’s murder on Jacob.

But Jacob has a brother, an “ordinary” 15-year-old named Theo, who passes his time by doing a little breaking-and-entering. What is Theo not saying about Jess’s death?

Five stars.

Grab your copy of HOUSE RULES here

#jodipicoult #houserules #aspergers #markturetsky #richorlow #nicolepoole #christoperevanwelch #andyparis

THE PALACE PAPERS by Tina Brown, narrated by the author

Camilla with her prince at their wedding on 8 April 2005.

As someone who is roughly the same age as Diana, Princess of Wales, and who, as a young woman, found Diana so compelling I wanted to be her best friend (like millions of others) I pressed the play button on my iPhone, not sure what I was going to find. After all, Diana has been done to death (pun intended) and what else could one say about her?

Queen Lilibet with her prince on their wedding day, 20 November 1947.

It turns out that Tina Brown is an extremely talented writer. And yes, she did find something new to say about Diana.

Generally speaking, I find biographies boring in the extreme. Too many authors turn their books into dull listings of events that happened in a person’s life when what everyone really wants to know is “what is this person really like?”

And this is where author Tina Brown shines, for she brought these people (even the Queen) to life.

Meghan with her prince on 19 May 2018.

We learn about the toxic dynamics that brought Harry and Meghan together. (As I suspected, Harry was looking to escape Dodge, and Meghan provided the perfect means for him to do so.)

We learn how e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y patient both Camilla and Kate had to be to catch their Royal princes, (and how shabbily the Palace treats princely girlfriends, so much so that most of these young women flee before the relationships have a chance of developing.)

Kate with her much-waited-for prince on 29 April 2011

We gain peerless insights into the love affair (and marriage) between the Queen and Prince Philip, whose 70-plus years of marriage weathered many storms.

And we learn about the savagery of the British tabloids that makes the lives of these ordinary, rather bourgeois people (who mostly just want to be left alone) hell.

If you or a loved one want to learn more about the British Royals, this is the book for you. Five stars.

THE SERPENT & THE DOVE by Shelby Mahurin, narrated by Holter Graham and Saskia Maarleveld

As I experienced this in audio form, I want to give a shout-out to the two narrators, Holder Graham and Saskia Maarleveld, who did such a wonderful job of bringing this novel to life in audio form. What a coup to get TWO such talented narrators to do your novel!!

Now to the novel itself. What kind of novel is it? The type of romance in which two unlikely characters get thrown together. At first, they can’t stand one another, and then they fall deeply in love.

La Dame Blanche with her Owl (allusions to the Goddess Athena)

In this case, we have the prim and very proper Chasseur (hunter) Reid Diggory, who has sworn an oath to catch and burn all witches, and a young and very beautiful woman whose name turns out to be Louise le Blanc.

Who is she? The daughter of La Dame Blanche (the White Witch) herself. And the Archbishop. (Shock, gasp).

The great strength of this novel is its two wonderful lead characters, Reid and Lou. Not only do they jump off the pages but their dialogue is superb (and funny.)

What doesn’t work so well is the plot, which is set in the indeterminate past, maybe the Middle Ages, maybe the Renaissance. As some readers have noted, it strains credulity.

However, if you are looking for a Romance/Fantasy/Historical novel and are fascinated by witches and their persecution in the 1400s, 1500s and 1600s, this novel is for you.

Four stars.

Grab your copy of Shelby’s Mahurin’s THE SERPENT and THE DOVE

HANDLE WITH CARE by Jodi Picoult, narrated by Cassandra Morris, Charlotte Perry, Alma Cuervo, Celeste Ciulla, Jessica Almasy and Jim Colby.

Along with THE PLAIN TRUTH, PICTURE PERFECT, and NINETEEN MINUTES, this novel has become one of my favorite Jodi Picoult novels.

Jodi Picoult’s 17th novel examines what happens when a family with a modest income has a severely disabled child with OI aka Osteogenesis Imperfecta, known in Britain as “Brittle Bone Disease.”

True to form, Ms. Picoult has picked a provocative topic to write about. What if you have a child who is so severely disabled that you (a cop and a pastry chef) cannot support her on the income you make?

What do you do when you’ve maxed out your credit cards, taken on a second mortgage, and have another (healthy child) to think about? Do you raid her college fund too?

What would you do to save your family from bankruptcy? Would you launch a “wrongful birth” suit? How would you explain this to your children?

When Charlotte O’Keefe, the mother of severely disabled 5-year-old Willow launches a “wrongful birth” suit, HANDLE WITH CARE turns into one of Ms. Picoult’s courtroom dramas.

Michaela Davert, 22 years old at the time this picture was taken has Type 3 OI, the exact same type as Willow O’Keefe. With this condition, the body does produce enough collagen but it is of poor quality, causing multiple bone breaks, scoliosis, and other health problems throughout life.

As in many of her other novels (SONGS OF A HUMPBACK WHALE, MY SISTER’S KEEPER, CHANGE OF HEART and HOUSE RULES) Ms. Picoult deploys a narrative style in which various characters take turns narrating the story, thus providing the reader with their perceptions of what is happening as the story unfolds.

Unlike these novels, however, Ms. Picoult makes very clever use of the second person, so that all of these characters address themselves to Willow (the “you” in their various narratives) thus conveying (without telling the reader) that Willow is the center of this tale.

Yes, this tale is depressing. Yes, it is hard to read. Yes, some readers are going to find the ending especially painful. But I thought that Jodi Picoult – unlike in too many of her novels – handled this material with technical flair. Five stars.

Get your copy of Jodi Picoult’s HANDLE WITH CARE here

June Promos (courtesy of BookFunnel)

HAUNTED BY DREAMS: What if you keep having embarrassing dreams? And your husband knows? What do you do then?

Click here for your free copy of “Haunted by Dreams”

THE END OF CHILDHOOD: What if your Master begins flirting? Would you be able to refuse? A tale about my 5 times grandmother set in 1809 during the Napoleonic wars.

Click here for your free copy of “THE END OF CHILDHOOD”

THE WITCH’S DAUGHTER by Nina Bawden

This copy is exactly like the one I read as a girl in 1970s Britain.

I loved this book as a girl, another favorite I read over and over again. But what intrigued me so much about it then was Perdita, the witch’s daughter, the shy, neglected girl, bullied by other children in the teeny-tiny Scottish isle where she lives.

Now, I find myself more focused on the other aspect of the story, (which passed me by completely before), the story of the jewel thief hiding his ill-gotten gains on a remote island in the far north of Scotland, and how he is inadvertently thwarted by Perdita and her new friends Janey (who is blind) and Tim, Janey’s brother.

Tim is the least interesting character of the three. He mainly exists as a mouthpiece for the working out of the jewelry heist plot. But Perdita and Janey are perfect foils for each other. Perdita, because she is unusually sensitive when other people are about to be hurt. And Janey, because she is blind but extremely smart is well adept at hearing things others cannot. The scene where Janey leads Perdita and Tim out of danger is my favorite.

If you have a middle grader who wants to read something different, quirky & English, you should look no further. Five stars.

Click here to get your copy of Nina Bawden’s THE WITCH’S DAUGHTER