Theresa Smith's Blog, page 99
July 19, 2019
#BookBingo – Round 15
Now this one was a perfect match! This round also gives me a horizontal line filled, so bingo!
A book with a place in the title:
The French Photographer by Natasha Lester
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…this is my favourite novel by Natasha Lester. I’d go so far as to say that it is her best yet. There’s a strength to the writing in this novel, a reckoning with regards to her themes that just elevates this novel into a class of its own. It’s brilliant, insightful, and wrenching; an ode to all of the women who fought for their right as journalists and photographers to report on WWII. History is rife with inequalities against women, and here, in The French Photographer, Natasha rips the dust cloth off and shakes out the rot that is steeped into the history of women in journalism, exposing it all, in its shocking and distasteful glory.
For 2019, I’m teaming up with Mrs B’s Book Reviews and The Book Muse for an even bigger, and more challenging book bingo. We’d love to have you join us. Every second Saturday throughout 2019, we’ll post our latest round. We invite you to join in at any stage, just pop the link to your bingo posts into the comments section of our bingo posts each fortnight so we can visit you. If you’re not a blogger, feel free to just write your book titles and thoughts on the books into the comments section each fortnight, and tag us on social media if you are playing along that way.
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July 18, 2019
The Week That Was…
Back to work this week and consequently, much less reading as well. I need to get back into the swing of being busy!
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As a result of my recent book organising, this week has seen the beginning of a cataloguing frenzy. Many thanks to Shelleyrae from Book’d Out for recommending the bookcollectorz app and to Tracey from Carpe Librum for opening my eyes up to a side of Goodreads that I never knew existed.
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Year 12 English for this term = Macbeth!
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Glee for me, gloom for my daughter. I LOVE Macbeth. To set the stage for my enthusiasm, I sent my daughter this joke:
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She claims she doesn’t get it. She will.
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My new favourite movie:
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I cannot believe how much I enjoyed this!
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Read of the week:
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So much love for this book.
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What I’m reading right now:
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Until next week…
July 17, 2019
Behind the Pen – A Few of my Favourites with Kate Forsyth
It’s always so lovely to give a warm welcome to Kate Forsyth here at Behind the Pen. Kate’s latest novel, The Blue Rose, was released this week and to celebrate, I asked Kate to share with us a few of her favourites. Over to you Kate!
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What is your favourite…and why…
Character from one of your books?
My favourite character is always the one who has most recently inhabited my imagination for months and months on end. This year, it is Viviane de Faitaud who is the heroine of my latest novel, The Blue Rose. She grew up in a chateau in the French countryside (always a dream of mine!), and – like me – loves gardens and birds and animals and French cooking. She travels to Versailles, and becomes a maid-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette, and then lives through all the mad tumult of the French Revolution. She has to learn to have courage and faith in herself, and stand up for what she believes in, important lessons I think we all struggle to acquire.
Scene from one of your books?
So hard to choose only one! I’m going to say the final scene in The Wild Girl, where Dortchen Wild and Wilhelm Grimm dance together in the snowy forest. I dreamt that scene and it was extraordinarily beautiful and powerful, like a gift from my subconscious. I held it in my mind the whole time I was writing that book and the day I finally got to write it was just wonderful.
Though I also loved writing the scene in Beauty in Thorns when Dante Gabriel Rossetti had the coffin of his dead wife exhumed so that he could retrieve his tattered and worm-eaten manuscript of poetry, buried with her corpse seven years earlier …
And the scene in Bitter Greens when Margherita, my maiden locked in the tower, tries to escape down a spiral staircase only to find the skeletons of eight young women hidden in the basement …
Or the final scene in The Blue Rose when my star-crossed lovers are at last re-united after all their ordeals and difficulties. I loved writing that!
As I said, it’s too hard to choose just one.
Movie of all time?
I love so many. I’m going to go with ‘Charade’, a 1963 film with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant set in Paris.
Book that you always keep a copy of and recommend to others?
‘Precious Bane’ by Mary Webb, the most wonderful book which few people have ever read. I’m a lone evangelist spreading the word about it.
Fashion accessory that despite having plenty of, you still keep collecting?
Handbags! My husband calls me the bag lady …
Drink that you enjoy everyday?
I love my cup of tea first thing in the morning! I drink it in bed while I write in my diary – it’s one of my favourite parts of the day. I have a collection of beautiful fine bone china teacups that I take with me whenever I travel to ensure I can always have a decent cuppa.
Treat you indulge in?
For me, it’s chocolate all the way …
Place to be?
Paris! It was the first place I headed to on my first overseas trip, and I try to return as often as I can. My husband says I write books set there just so that I have a excuse to return …
Person you admire?
Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen.
Season of the year?
Spring.
The Blue Rose
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Moving between Imperial China and France during the ‘Terror’ of the French Revolution and inspired by the true story of the quest for a blood-red rose.
Viviane de Faitaud has grown up alone at the Chateau de Belisama-sur-le-Lac in Brittany, for her father, the Marquis de Ravoisier, lives at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles. After a hailstorm destroys the chateau’s orchards, gardens and fields an ambitious young Welshman, David Stronach, accepts the commission to plan the chateau’s new gardens in the hope of making his name as a landscape designer.
David and Viviane fall in love, but it is an impossible romance. Her father has betrothed her to a rich duke who she is forced to marry and David is hunted from the property. Viviane goes to court and becomes a maid-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette and a member of the extended royal family. Angry and embittered, David sails away from England with Lord Macartney, the British ambassador, who hopes to open up trade with Imperial China.
In Canton, David hears the story of ‘The Blue Rose’, a Chinese fable of impossible love, and discovers the blood-red rose growing in the wintry garden. He realises that he is still in love with Viviane and must find her.
The Blue Rose
Published by Penguin Random House Australia
Released on 16th July 2019
More About Kate:
Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel at the age of seven, and has since sold more than a million copies around the world. Her books include Bitter Greens, a retelling of Rapunzel which won the 2015 American Library Association Award for Best Historical Fiction; The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm Brothers’ famous fairy tales, which was named the Most Memorable Love Story of 2013; The Beast’s Garden, a retelling of ‘The Singing, Springing Lark’ set in the underground resistance to Hitler in Nazi Germany; and Beauty in Thorns, a reimagining of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ set amongst the passions and tragedies of the Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists and poets. Recently voted one of Australia’s Favourite 15 Novelists, Kate Forsyth has been called ‘one of the finest writers of this generation’. She has a BA in literature, a MA in creative writing and a doctorate in fairy tale studies, and is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. Read more about her at: www.kateforsyth.com.au
July 16, 2019
Book Review: Rogue by A.J. Betts
About the Book:
‘There was no going back; there was no choice, anymore. I’d chosen out and this was it: hot-cold, dry-wet, bright-dark and lonely.’
Hayley has gone rogue.
She’s left everything she’s ever known – her friends, her bees, her whole world – because her curiosity was too big to fit within the walls of her underwater home.
But what is this new world she’s come to? Has Hayley finally found somewhere she can belong?
Or will she have to keep running?
The thrilling conclusion to Hive from award-winning, internationally bestselling author A. J. Betts.
My Thoughts:
Last year I read Hive, the first novel by A.J. Betts in her two part dystopian YA series about a community who live in a hexagonal world. At the end of Hive, Hayley, our protagonist, was aided in her escape from the only world she’d ever known and propelled out into the ocean. At the time of reading Hive, I expressed the opinion that I wished this story was one bigger novel instead of two smaller ones released a year apart. Now after having read Rogue, I stand by this opinion. I really do think sometimes that publishers do YA novelists a disservice by always releasing in series form. Hive itself wasn’t a very long novel, and despite really enjoying it at the time, I just didn’t remember enough of the specifics to fully enjoy Rogue.
The world Hayley discovers is an altered Australia, 100 years in the future. Global warming has indeed changed the surface of the earth, and as you might expect, there are more islands. Betts provides an eerie vision that is typical on some levels but innovative on others. As Hayley grapples with surviving up above, she spends some time contemplating life that is still going on down below.
‘Even if it was a mistake that had kept three hundred people in an underwater vault, at least it had been a fortunate one. They’d lived happily and safely, unaffected by the famines and storms and wars that had plagued this world above.
A greater mistake now would be to tell them the truth. It would be too cruel to show them the atlas and point out their smallness. It would trivialise everything they’ve done and believed in.’
I didn’t mind Rogue but it didn’t have me as enthralled as Hive. Hayley’s sheltered naivety offers at times an overly simplistic outlook and I found the ending somewhat rushed and oddly timed, with little preceding warning of the ultimate outcome. An easy ‘happily ever after’ out, if that makes sense. It’s in this that the novel rears its YA head, reminding me why I prefer fiction for adults. One thing I did really like about this story is the absence of romance driving the narrative. Hayley is a strong character who is relying on her wits and inner strength to get her through the challenges that are thrown in her path, and for this, I highly commend the series as a whole. It also places a great emphasis on friendship and trusting others to help you through the hard times. If you read Hive, you’ll want to follow it up with this one, even if it’s just to find out why Hayley’s world was originally constructed. But it’s not a novel that can be read as a standalone so if you’re new to this series, I recommend you pick up Hive first.
Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of Rogue for review.
Visit my review of Hive here.
About the Author:
A.J. Betts is an Australian author, speaker, teacher and cyclist and has a PhD on the topic of wonder, in life and in reading.
She has written four novels for young adults. Her third novel, Zac & Mia, won the 2012 Text Prize, the 2014 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, and the 2014 Ethel Turner prize for young adults at the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, was shortlisted for the 2014 Queensland Literary Award and is available in 14 countries. It was adapted for American television. Her fourth novel, Hive, was shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Awards and a notable book in the Children’s Book Council of Australia awards.
A.J. is originally from Queensland but has lived in Perth since 2004.
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Rogue
Published by Pan Macmillan Australia
Released on 25 June 2019
July 15, 2019
Giveaway! The Blue Rose by Kate Forsyth **Competition now closed**
I’m celebrating the release of Kate Forsyth’s latest historical fiction, The Blue Rose, by giving away this beautiful prize pack:
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To enter, simply leave a comment below and a winner will be chosen at random.
Competition closes Friday 19th July at 12pm. Winners will be announced back here, in this post on Friday afternoon.
*Competition is open to Australian addresses only.*
Giveaway! The Blue Rose by Kate Forsyth
I’m celebrating the release of Kate Forsyth’s latest historical fiction, The Blue Rose, by giving away this beautiful prize pack:
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To enter, simply leave a comment below and a winner will be chosen at random.
Competition closes Friday 19th July at 12pm. Winners will be announced back here, in this post on Friday afternoon.
*Competition is open to Australian addresses only.*
Book Review: The Blue Rose by Kate Forsyth
About the Book:
Moving between Imperial China and France during the ‘Terror’ of the French Revolution and inspired by the true story of the quest for a blood-red rose.
Viviane de Faitaud has grown up alone at the Chateau de Belisama-sur-le-Lac in Brittany, for her father, the Marquis de Ravoisier, lives at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles. After a hailstorm destroys the chateau’s orchards, gardens and fields an ambitious young Welshman, David Stronach, accepts the commission to plan the chateau’s new gardens in the hope of making his name as a landscape designer.
David and Viviane fall in love, but it is an impossible romance. Her father has betrothed her to a rich duke who she is forced to marry and David is hunted from the property. Viviane goes to court and becomes a maid-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette and a member of the extended royal family. Angry and embittered, David sails away from England with Lord Macartney, the British ambassador, who hopes to open up trade with Imperial China.
In Canton, David hears the story of ‘The Blue Rose’, a Chinese fable of impossible love, and discovers the blood-red rose growing in the wintry garden. He realises that he is still in love with Viviane and must find her.
My Thoughts:
‘There are no true red roses,’ he answered. ‘Not in Europe anyway. I have heard rumours of a ruby-red rose in China, but all attempts to bring one back have failed. Sir Joseph Banks has invested a fortune in trying! But the journey is too long, and there are too many pitfalls for such a delicate flower.’
‘But all the medieval romances talk of red roses,’ she argued.
‘That was only because they did not have a word for “pink”,’ he said with a wry grin. ‘Saying “pink” to describe a colour only began less than a hundred years ago. At first it meant flowers in the Dianthus genus, like carnations or sweet Williams or the common pink, which all have frilled or serrated petals, as if they have been cut with pinking shears. Gradually the word came to mean the colour as well as the flower.’
I had no idea that red roses originated in China! And this is not the only thing I learned while reading Kate Forsyth’s magnificent new release, The Blue Rose. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, this is a tale of history: the collapse of an old world society, revolution and violence, danger and love, discovery and innovation. It’s a masterpiece, as is everything Kate writes, an amazing novel, the very best that historical fiction can be with that perfect balance of true history with imaginative flair.
‘A gardener with the tongue of a poet,’ the marquis said. ‘How disconcerting. It is like hearing a toad sing like a nightingale. Very well. I thank you for your service and dismiss you forthwith. I am sure you understand I cannot pay you or give you a recommendation, not having yet seen anything but a few dead sticks.’
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‘As Clothilde rattled on, Viviane stared at her in consternation. It seemed a dreadful thing that her stepmother thought that gambling debts owed to a rich nobleman must be repaid, while money owed to poor, hard-working tradesmen was to be left outstanding.’
When you consider the characters within this novel, those that populated the ‘ruling class’, to me it now seems as no surprise that the French Revolution eventuated. These people were awful, so entitled and rude, unappreciative of their servant’s labours, scathing of anyone lower than them, simpering to those who were higher. Kate’s characters were realistic and wholly three dimensional, recreating the era of such far flung history to perfection. And as is her way, the narrative is sprinkled with history, yet with such subtlety that you don’t even realise that you are learning so much as well as being entertained. Kate is such a skilled writer too, because even with something like this, where there were absolutely appalling injustices, she is still able to generate empathy within her readers for both sides of the story. Nothing is ever cut and dry in a Kate Forsyth novel, no character without a kernel of redemption, even if it is at the eleventh hour. This is my favourite novel by Kate since Bitter Greens. I love all of her work, but The Blue Rose is reminiscent of Bitter Greens in its emotional scope, cast of characters, and level of historical detail. It was lucky I picked this up the night before a public holiday because I could not stop reading – going to work would have been a wrench!
‘Louis could no more help being born a king than she could help being a marquis’s daughter or Pierrick the illegitimate son of a peasant. She found herself torn between her sympathy for the royal family and her affinity with the ideals of the revolutionaries.’
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‘I believe all men and women are born free and equal in rights…and that liberty consists in the freedom to do as I wish as long as my actions injure no-one else.’
As well as examining the French Revolution, Kate takes a look at the early British expedition into China, aimed at collecting tea samples, as well as other botany exclusives that Britain had yet to acquire. Botany, within an historical framework, is an area of interest to me, so I found myself particularly drawn to these sections. It’s fascinating, the things we take for granted as always being there, like red roses, and tea, yet there was a time when these plants were exclusive to other countries, unknown to the rest of the world. Elusive and almost mythical.
‘It was also hoped the British might be able to discover the secrets of growing tea, so that they could break the Chinese monopoly. David had been given strict instructions by Sir Joseph Banks, his patron at the Kew Botanical Garden, to surreptitiously gather as many tea seedlings as he could, so they could be transplanted into British-owned land in India. It was a dangerous mission, for the penalty for smuggling tea plants out of China was death by beheading.’
Viviane and David, the main characters within The Blue Rose, were just beautiful. I loved them both and I believed in their love story, became invested in their fate. As is the way with all grand love stories, there is pain, anguish, misunderstanding, and loss. This is a magnificent journey, this story, and for all of us who follow Kate’s writing on social media, it has definitely been well worth the wait. This is one to savour and linger over, to get lost wandering within its pages. With such a rich historical background and such lyrical prose, The Blue Rose is an unforgettable novel that will leave you pining for more once you’ve read the last page. Bravo Kate Forsyth, you’ve done it again!
‘He had thought her weak-willed. Why would she not run away with me? Does she not love me enough to leave behind her chateau and her fine silks? He had not thought of how a songbird, confined all its life in a tiny cage, its wings clipped, might hesitate at a latch suddenly swinging open.’
Thanks is extended to Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of The Blue Rose for review.
About the Author:
Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel at the age of seven, and has since sold more than a million copies around the world. Her books include Bitter Greens, a retelling of Rapunzel which won the 2015 American Library Association Award for Best Historical Fiction; The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm Brothers’ famous fairy tales, which was named the Most Memorable Love Story of 2013; The Beast’s Garden, a retelling of ‘The Singing, Springing Lark’ set in the underground resistance to Hitler in Nazi Germany; and Beauty in Thorns, a reimagining of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ set amongst the passions and tragedies of the Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists and poets. Recently voted one of Australia’s Favourite 15 Novelists, Kate Forsyth has been called ‘one of the finest writers of this generation’. She has a BA in literature, a MA in creative writing and a doctorate in fairy tale studies, and is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. Read more about her at www.kateforsyth.com.au
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The Blue Rose
Published by Penguin Random House Australia
Released on 16th July 2019
July 14, 2019
Book Review: After the End by Clare Mackintosh
About the Book:
Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. Only now they’re facing the most important decision of their lives – and they don’t agree.
As the consequences of an impossible choice threaten to devastate them both, nothing will ever be the same again.
But anything can happen after the end…
My Thoughts:
I’ll be up front here and let you know that this review will contain spoilers – to a certain degree. The blurb is particularly vague so it’s impossible for me to talk about this book and the problems I had with it without divulging the themes and the main topic. So bear that in mind if you continue to read. I came to this book with high expectations as I’ve read this author’s novels in the past and really appreciated them. It’s a tricky novel to review though, this one, because it’s entirely without joy. It depicts a sad and awful situation for a couple to find themselves in. It’s not the sort of novel anyone could actually ‘like’. Appreciate, yes, but probably not like or love. You see, this novel is about a couple who have a terminally ill toddler. The hospital is recommending palliative care to ease his suffering into death. Continuing treatment is an option, but has no positive outcome. The parents need to decide which path they should take. Unfortunately, they disagree, and the decision needs to then be made by a judge.
The first half of the novel is titled Before, meaning of course, before the death of their son, Dylan. Much of this is played out in the hospital and in flash backs of happier days. This section culminates in the judge’s decision, but in a twist, the author gives the reader both scenarios and the novel moves into After, but within two timelines. This is the point where the novel fell apart for me. The second half is made up short and choppy chapters alternating between a life where Dylan died after three weeks and one where he died after three years. The three week span is in Pip’s perspective – because she was in favour of letting him go – and the three year span is in Max’s perspective – because he wanted to keep on with the treatments. Neither outcome projects a better decision, which is ultimately one of the main points. Either path was a losing one for both Pip and Max, but which one was better for their son?
I just feel that this part of the book, the whole After section, didn’t given me a chance to be invested in the story. Perhaps if the book had been divided into three parts, it would have allowed for spending time within each pathway and really appreciating the consequences of that particular decision, but the constant switching back and forth prevented that and also, on occasion, became confusing and I needed to check back to the chapter header to see who I was with and what pathway we were on.
But really, it’s not just the style that had me offside. I wanted to really dive deep into what happened between Pip and Max after the judge made his call. The stress upon their marriage because of Dylan’s illness was profound, but Max’s approach to this decision was to my mind, like taking an axe to something and splitting it apart. He really showed a side of himself that was not favourable and I struggle to see how any relationship could come back from that. How did they cope in those days immediately after the judge’s decision? In the last weeks of their son’s life? How did they breathe the same air after such a terrible chasm had opened up between them? How did Pip recover from the social media evisceration she was subjected to because of Max’s decision to plaster such a personal thing all over the internet? None of this was addressed. Instead, the story just wandered off onto these two pathways that were flimsy, uninteresting, and not particularly deep. Such a disappointment.
There is a lot of hype about this novel and a swag of five star reviews. There was a lot of potential within the first half of the novel, certainly, but for me, it was all downhill from the second half.
+1/2
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of After the End for review.
About the Author:
With over 2 million copies of her books sold worldwide, number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of I Let You Go, which was a Sunday Times bestseller and the fastest-selling title by a new crime writer in 2015. It also won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2016. Both Clare’s second and third novels, I See You and Let Me Lie, were number one Sunday Times bestsellers. All three of her books were selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club, and together have been translated into over thirty-five languages.
Clare is patron of the Silver Star Society, a charity based at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, which supports parents experiencing high-risk or difficult pregnancies. She lives in North Wales with her husband and their three children.
For more information visit Clare’s website www.claremackintosh.com or find her at www.facebook.com/ClareMackWrites or on Twitter @ClareMackint0sh
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After the End
Published by Hachette Australia
Released on 25th June 2019
July 11, 2019
The Week That Was…
Second week of the school holidays, only three days left until it’s back to the grindstone…trying to enjoy it while it lasts. At least the sun is shining and we are currently having some pretty glorious winter weather out here in Central Australia.
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I embarked on a very satisfying project this week. The corner of my bedroom has looked very crazy book lady for the last couple of years. I had a small cube bookshelf packed with titles to be read, but this had long been obliterated by piles and piles of other books to be read. I’m not exaggerating, it’s lucky I have a big bedroom because I’m talking thirty books high, three piles wide and five deep, along with baskets jammed full at the very back in front of the bookcase. So I bought myself a bigger flat packed bookshelf, hauled everything out, including emptying the existing bookshelf, and began sorting. I built the new bookshelf myself after my teenage son tried to delay by going out with his friends, donated some titles I’ll never read, set a stack aside for giveaway through my Facebook book club, and then turned the rest into this:
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My own TBR library in the corner of my bedroom! I’m so excited! I can actually see my books and properly make reading selections. The smaller shelf on top of the chests (which contain things I don’t need access to) holds my publisher and author sent review TBR and the bigger shelf (which is the one I built this week) are my own purchases. Books that are read are in the lounge, already organised onto shelves inside cabinets and cupboards. I feel like I have finally implemented a long needed system. I do still have six baskets and three plastic tubs of own purchased TBR tiles tucked away elsewhere, but I figure they might dribble onto the shelves over time as I read these. I have of late been turning to e-books because finding something in the piles was just too much hard work, but this will set me back onto the right path. You may well see some older titles being reviewed more in between the new releases from here on in. The books are two deep on both shelves, but this is still easier to manage. I think though, that new purchases need to be e-books from here on in! Publisher sent titles will fill the gaps I make here by reading, but really, there’s not a lot of room for more. I still can’t get over all that floor space!
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When an author you admire releases a book trailer for their long-awaited next novel. This:
The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley is out in late October. I can’t wait! And isn’t this just the most gorgeous trailer?!
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Joke of the week:
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Read of the week:
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Seeing as it’s school holidays, I have indulged in a bit of TV watching. Last Saturday I watched all of this:
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The fact that I watched it all in one day (eight episodes) should indicate how much I enjoyed it. Really looking forward to season two but as yet there is no firm release date. I may need to read the books in the meantime because this ended on a pretty big cliffhanger!
I’m now about halfway through this one:
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This is an interesting interpretation of Dracula and I’m quite enjoying it. It is very well cast and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers wears Dracula as well as he did Henry VIII.
It’s funny, but while I don’t read very much supernatural horror, I do tend to gravitate towards it with my TV viewing.
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Very excited to be teaming up with Tracey Allen from Carpe Librum for a community buddy read of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier in early August.
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What I’m reading right now:
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Until next week…
Announcement! Upcoming Buddy Read: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
I’m super thrilled to announce that Tracey Allen from Carpe Librum and I are teaming up for a buddy read! 
