Posted Friday, 22 April, 2016 by jorielov Aldrich Press, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Kelsay Books, Rita Maria Martinez, The Jane and Bertha in Me 3 Comments
Gifted: I was blessed by being gifted a copy of this collection of poetry, which blessedly was in time to participate in the blog tour on it’s behalf via Poetic Book Tours. Even though I was gifted a copy of “The Jane and Bertha in Me” by someone who understood my passion for Brontë and my love of “Jane Eyre”, I was not obligated to post a review nor did it influence my opinions or impression of reading the collection. I chose to post my thoughts on this collection as a tie-in to my own celebrations this April on behalf of “Jane Eyre”; they reflect my honest impressions herein. Likewise, I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I was motivated to become involved with this blog tour:
Jane Eyre has become a part of my being – from the very first moment I learnt of the story, to the first time I took in the adaptation which forever changed my impression on behalf of the story and the manner in which the author penned her story originally. The adaptation I most appreciate (thus far along) is the 1996 version starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt.
Let me share a bit more about why this adaptation touched my heart:
My initial introduction to Ms. Jane Eyre: Came during the early hours of a morning wretched by the plight of the sickly girl frustrated beyond hilt and despite to do something that could advert her misery! She plucked the remote control up off the nightstand and dared the tv to illuminate a movie that could curtail sleep and cast aside her anguish! She had to flip through several channels before stumbling across a seemingly British teleplay with gothic underpinnings! A few scenes in, she was not only hooked but she had abandoned the remote! A few scenes more and she deduced she was watching an adaptation of Jane Eyre! She felt betwixt with herself for even considering to watch this film knowing full and well that she had intended always to read this particular novel ahead of seeing its adaptation,… her eyes veered back to the discarded remote and her heart leapt out a response to qualm her furrowed brow. Her tired eyes moved back to the screen and she became fully entranced with Thornfield Hall!
– as quoted from my Books of Eyre Reading Challenge
Since the original Septemb-Eyre event in the book blogosphere [September, 2013] I have been attempting to re-enter Jane Eyre and the beautiful after canons: re-tellings and/or sequels thereafter. This is why I was so thrilled to bits to find there was an ‘Books of Eyre’ reading challenge – however, the time-frame was not a good one for me, thus I have extended it as a personal challenge outside it’s original scope. This parlays well as I’m a member of The Classics Club, wherein I am championing Classical Lit on as I’m quite keen to entreat inside the lovelies of literature I have not yet had the pleasure of reading!
I must confess – I had absolutely no foreknowledge that *April, 2016* was such a historic moment for readers who love Jane Eyre and respectively her author Charlotte Brontë! It’s a bit like how I missed the anniversary of reading/re-reading Pride and Prejudice a few years ago whilst the rest of the book blogosphere was well underway in their celebratory events. I seem to be on the fringes of knowing when certain bookish milestones are upcoming – not because I don’t have my ear to the rails but because, I think sometimes you get caught up inside your own life – not just the books on our shelves we’re constantly reading or hoping to read next – but the seasons of our lives which occupy our hours outside of this bookish reprieve, where we settle our thoughts and share our bookish lives through the output of our blogs (and/or tweets via the twitterverse; for me, it’s my micro-blog!).
Imagine then – my dearest joy in finding I could curl back inside Jane Eyre, pick up Wide Sargasso Sea for the very first time all the whilst finding two after canon writers who’ve put their mark on Eyre! The first author I have the pleasure of sharing with you dear hearts, is Rita Maria Martinez whose taken her pen to creatively fuse the characters we belove inside a hearty collection of poetry whilst Luccia Gray has given us a thrilling trilogy which is a curious splice between Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea!
I’ve determined my Eyre celebrations will be tagged #EyreApril to ring in ‘Eyre in April’ whilst everyone else is yielding to the established tag of #Bronte200. To whichever way we choose to share conversely our thoughts and murmurings on behalf of characters who have bewitched us for two hundred years, let’s be happy for the chance to revel in the fact Classical Lit is still relevant to today’s literary audience!
The Jane and Bertha in Me
by Rita Maria Martinez
Source: Gifted
This spring marks the bicentennial of Charlotte Brontë’s birth.
In her ambitious and timely debut, The Jane and Bertha in Me, Rita Maria Martinez celebrates Brontë’s classic novel Jane Eyre.
Through wildly inventive, beautifully crafted persona poems, Martinez re-imagines Jane Eyre’s cast of characters in contemporary contexts, from Jane as an Avon saleslady to Bertha as a Stepford wife.
These lively, fun, poignant poems prove that Jane Eyre’s fictional universe is just as relevant today as it was so many years ago. The Jane and Bertha in Me is a must-read for any lover of Brontë’s work.
Genres: After Canons, Poetry & Drama, Re-telling &/or Sequel Places to find the book:
Borrow from a Public Library
Add to LibraryThing
ISBN: 978-0692543412
Published by Aldrich Press
on 12th January, 2016
Format: Paperback Edition
Pages: 89
Published By: Aldrich Press an imprint of Kelsay Books
Converse via: #JaneEyre, #Bronte200, #CharlotteBronte and #JaneAndMe*
*this is a celebration of showing photos of your books of ‘Eyre’ and/or reading ‘Jane Eyre’
About Rita Maria Martinez
Rita Maria Martinez is a Cuban-American poet from Miami, Florida. Her writing has been published in journals including the Notre Dame Review, Ploughshares, MiPOesias, and 2River View.
She authored the chapbook Jane-in-the-Box, published by March Street Press in 2008. Her poetry also appears in the textbook Three Genres: The Writing of Fiction/Literary Nonfiction, Poetry and Drama, published by Prentice Hall; and in the anthology Burnt Sugar, Caña Quemada: Contemporary Cuban Poetry in English and Spanish, published by Simon & Schuster. Martinez has been a featured author at the Miami Book Fair International; at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida; and at the Palabra Pura reading series sponsored by the Guild Literary Complex in Chicago. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Florida International University.
Website | Blog | Twitter
Posted Friday, 22 April, 2016 by jorielov in 21st Century, After the Canon, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Book Cover | Notation on Design, Classical Literature, Equality In Literature, Fly in the Ointment, Indie Author, Inspired By Author OR Book, Inspired by Stories, Jane Eyre Sequel | Re-telling, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Modern Day, Multi-cultural Characters and/or Honest Representations of Ethnicity, Poetic Book Tours, Poetry, Self-Harm Practices, Vulgarity in Literature, Women's Health, Women's Rights
Posted Wednesday, 13 April, 2016 by jorielov Jennifer Kincheloe, Prometheus Books, Seventh Street Books, The Secret Life of Anna Blanc 1 Comment
Acquired Book By: I am a reviewer for Prometheus Books and their imprints starting in [2016] as I contacted them through their Edelweiss catalogues and Twitter. I appreciated the diversity of titles across genre and literary explorations – especially focusing on Historical Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction and Scientific Topics in Non-Fiction. I received a complimentary copy of “The Secret Life of Anna Blanc” direct from the publisher Seventh Street Books (an imprint of Prometheus Books) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I picked this as my first Prometheus Books title:
(a portion this was originally shared with the publicist who sent me my copy)
I was most enthused finding The Secret Life of Anna Blanc in Seventh Street Books catalogue via their publishing website. The allure for me to read this title is due to how much I love reading Cosy Historical Mysteries and Historical Thrillers and Suspense. It’s a special niche of the Mystery | Suspense genre that I happen to fancy and my review history reflects this as I cannot help but become excited when I find a ‘new story and a new author’ to become introduced too! Equally joyful in this regard is that Seventh Street Books found me on Twitter and thus, introduced me to this lovely new imprint for Mystery novelists! This is how I originally started to interact with the publisher Prometheus Books whilst becoming acquainted with their imprints and releases.
I happen to be a Sherlockian to boot and I love finding spunky characters with the moxie to win-over their peers by proving their salt for the field they are passionately working inside! It’s hard not to be curious about this novel!
I remember when it arrived and how much I wanted to read this back in December, however, the timing was not right for me to soak inside it’s chapters until the Spring. I personally love finding Cosy Historical Mysteries as it happens to be an active pursuit of mine – a few lovely things have happened since I received my copy of the novel, including being able to interact a bit with the author via Twitter but also, finding out a favourite author of mine has joined Seventh Street Books! Susan Spann’s Shinobi Mysteries are now *Hiro Hattori Novels* under this imprint and are set to release August 2016! I cannot wait to find out where The Ninja’s Daughter will take me as previously I have been wondrously happy inside her novels! To learn how I came to review for Prometheus Books, kindly view my End of the Year Survey, 2015. The sweet part is that as I’m revealling my impressions on behalf of Anna Blanc, Spann’s latest novel has arrived by Post! Talk about celebratory blissitude for Seventh Street Books!!
When I first started working with Seventh Street Books, I wanted to focus on their Crime Fiction, as I have a penchant for well-conceived plots and strong characters within Crime Dramas & Suspense! I am a regular reader of these kinds of stories – therefore, from the offerings of front list titles, this is the one that stood out to me because of how convincingly brilliant the synopsis sounded! I could well see why Ms Kincheloe has attached the tagline of “for readers who love Phryne Fisher” as her character, Anna Blanc is also living inside a man’s world where women are not generally allowed to pursue a career outside of what society deems is proper and right.
I’ve followed the #MissFisher Murder Mysteries solely through the adaptive serial starring Essie Davis, and had entertained reading the mysteries starting lateron this year, until through a twitterverse convo with my bookish mates, I learnt the sad truth that revealled Jack isn’t the object of Miss Fisher’s eye in the novels! To me, having gone through the serial first rather than the books, it would be too hard to back-track and thereby, I’m a Miss Fisher supporter via the adaptations only. However, having said that, if this book holds true to the sentiment that Anna Blanc is a mirror composite of Phryne by strength, ingenuity and moxie, I knew instantly I’d become her ally! We need more characters like Phryne especially set in the historical past to help illuminate how women have always tried to find a foothold towards freeing the rights we deserve to stand on equal footing as our male peers.
Notation on Cover Art Design: This is the most dearly loved cover art I’ve come across recently – not just for the image of Anna Blanc but because of it’s velvety softness upon touch! This clever cover is lovely to hold in your hands because it’s texture is truly a one of a kind original! I even loved how the typography has this fade in / fade out styling and how Anna Blanc herself is tipping her hat away from the camera as if to take the attention off herself and leave it on the story!
The Secret Life of Anna Blanc
It's 1907 Los Angeles. Mischievous socialite Anna Blanc is the kind of young woman who devours purloined crime novels—but must disguise them behind covers of more domestically-appropriate reading. She could match wits with Sherlock Holmes, but in her world women are not allowed to hunt criminals.
Determined to break free of the era's rigid social roles, Anna buys off the chaperone assigned by her domineering father and, using an alias, takes a job as a police matron with the Los Angeles Police Department. There she discovers a string of brothel murders, which the cops are unwilling to investigate. Seizing her one chance to solve a crime, she takes on the investigation herself.
If the police find out, she'll get fired; if her father finds out, he'll disown her; and if her fiancé finds out, he'll cancel the wedding and stop pouring money into her father's collapsing bank. Midway into her investigation, the police chief's son, Joe Singer, learns her true identity. And shortly thereafter she learns about blackmail.
Anna must choose—either hunt the villain and risk losing her father, fiancé, and wealth, or abandon her dream and leave the killer on the loose.
Places to find the book:
Borrow from a Public Library
Add to LibraryThing
ISBN: 9781633880801
on 3rd December, 2015
Pages: 368
Published By: Seventh Street Books (@SeventhStBooks)
Available Formats: Paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #SecretLifeOfAnnaBlanc
About Jennifer Kincheloe
Jennifer has been a block layer, a nurse's aid, a fragrance model, and on the research faculty at UCLA, where she spent 11 years conducting studies to inform health policy. A native of Southern California, she now lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband and two teenagers. She's currently writing book three in the Anna Blanc Mystery series. Book two, THE WOMAN IN THE CAMPHOR TRUNK, is coming out in Fall of 2017 from Seventh Street Books.
Photo Credit: Fola Akinyemi
Biography updated: March 2017
Links updated: August 2019
Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon | Instagram | Pinterest | LibraryThing | FantasticFiction
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2016 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Posted Wednesday, 13 April, 2016 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 20th Century, Blog Tour Host, Cosy Historical Mystery, Crime Fiction, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Author, Debut Novel, Father-Daughter Relationships, Historical Fiction, Indie Author, Lady Detective Fiction, Prometheus Books, the Nineteen Hundreds, True Crime, Vulgarity in Literature, Women's Rights, Women's Suffrage
Posted Tuesday, 12 April, 2016 by jorielov Masks and Shadows, Prometheus Books, Pyr, Stephanie Burgis 0 Comments
Acquired Book By: I am a reviewer for Prometheus Books and their imprints starting in [2016] as I contacted them through their Edelweiss catalogues and Twitter. I appreciated the diversity of titles across genre and literary explorations – especially focusing on Historical Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction and Scientific Topics in Non-Fiction. I received a complimentary ARC copy of “Masks and Shadows” direct from the publisher PYR (an imprint of Prometheus Books) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
How I came to learn about ‘Masks and Shadows’:
For the fuller story behind my forthcoming reviews on behalf of Prometheus Books, kindly read my story about becoming a reviewer for them on my End of the Year Survey, 2015. I was quite delighted by receiving an email from the publicist I am working with at Prometheus Books, as before I had the proper chance to start my reviews, she instinctively knew how much I love reading Historical Fiction! This title stood out to me for several reasons: it’s the first adult novel by it’s author who has a penchant for writing Middle Grade stories; it’s set during the 18th Century one of my most beloved centuries to explore; there is a Musical Historical backdrop to the evolving story and it’s centred at court!
High society and life at Court are two of my favourite historical veins of interest – the court has a way of enlightening you inside a portion of the historical past where innuendo reigned supreme. I have read a few musical driven plots since I’ve become a book blogger and as I enter into my 3rd Year, I’m appreciating being able to re-examine certain styles of stories which I itch to read more of.
Notation on Cover Art Design: On display in the cover art are all the key marks of the story: from the ethereal smoke snaking it’s way into view to the masquerade mask(s) and the setting for the folly itself: Eszterháza Palace. The colours themselves lend such an enriched cover palette but it’s the fullness of the cover design to evoke out a recognition of the story’s internal elements that struck me as being quite bang-on brilliant as you can foretell a bit from it’s artwork.
Masks and Shadows
The year is 1779, and Carlo Morelli, the most renowned castrato singer in Europe, has been invited as an honored guest to Eszterháza Palace. With Carlo in Prince Nikolaus Esterházy’s carriage, ride a Prussian spy and one of the most notorious alchemists in the Habsburg Empire. Already at Eszterháza is Charlotte von Steinbeck, the very proper sister of Prince Nikolaus’s mistress. Charlotte has retreated to the countryside to mourn her husband’s death. Now, she must overcome the ingrained rules of her society in order to uncover the dangerous secrets lurking within the palace’s golden walls. Music, magic, and blackmail mingle in a plot to assassinate the Habsburg Emperor and Empress—a plot that can only be stopped if Carlo and Charlotte can see through the masks worn by everyone they meet.
Places to find the book:
Borrow from a Public Library
Add to LibraryThing
ISBN: 9781633881327
on 12th April, 2016
Pages: 300
Published By: Pyr (@Pyr_Books)
Available Formats: Trade Paperback and Ebook
Read the back-story about Masks and Shadows!
Read about the author’s next novel Congress of Secrets publishing November 2016!
Converse via: #MasksAndShadows
About Stephanie Burgis
Stephanie Burgis was born in Michigan, but now lives in Wales with her husband, writer Patrick Samphire, and their children. Before becoming a fulltime writer, she studied music history as a Fulbright Scholar in Vienna, Austria, and worked as a website editor for a British opera company.
She has published over thirty short stories for adults. Kat, Incorrigible (US)/A Most Improper Magick (UK) won the Waverton Good Read Children’s Award in 2011 for Best Début Children’s Novel by a British writer. It was followed by Renegade Magic/A Tangle of Magicks and Stolen Magic/A Reckless Magick.
Photo Credit: Patrick Saphire
Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | LibraryThing
My Review of Masks and Shadows:
Charlotte has decided to visit her younger sister Sophie whilst she’s ensconced in a decidedly different affair than her sister allocated at being proper but evenso, as sister’s go, Sophie has such a spirit about her to charm Charlotte into staying with her even if she’s troubled by the truth of what she’s found out. The differences are a bit great given their time of living, as Charlotte believed Sophie was attached to Court in a proper fashion not as the known mistress to a Prince, especially as she’s married yet her husband has carted off someplace Charlotte couldn’t help but wonder as to where. We enter their conversation as if we’re their long lost friends as they reveal a bit of their personalities whilst trying to sort each other out. Read More
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2016 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Posted Tuesday, 12 April, 2016 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 18th Century, Alternative History, ARC | Galley Copy, Blog Tour Host, Castles & Estates, Cosy Horror, Cosy Horror Suspense, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Fantasy Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Indie Author, Musical Fiction | Non-Fiction, Opera, Prometheus Books, Vulgarity in Literature
Posted Saturday, 9 April, 2016 by jorielov ChocLitUK, Melanie Hudson, The Wedding Cake Tree 0 Comments
Acquired Book By:
I am a ChocLit reviewer who receives books of my choice in exchange for honest reviews! I received a complimentary copy of “The Wedding Cake Tree” from ChocLit in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I choose this for a holiday weekend:
I wanted to read something light for Easter weekend with a strong focus on life and love (as this is what the holiday is best meant to celebrate!) – when I read the premise of The Wedding Cake Tree I immediately wanted to read it! Of course, being stateside I had to wait my turn as the print releases come after the Digital First editions and even then, there is a slight wait-time for the novels to make it across the Pond. I don’t generally mind the waiting periods, as in-between reading the new releases I get the luxury to read the backlist of titles ChocLit has been producing since it began. To me, this is an incredible blessing as I get to ‘meet’ the authors from whence they began their ChocLit tenure.
I have a particular fondness for Epistolary novels – as I’ve regularly mentioned on my blog, I’m a letter-writer IRL who loves postal mail correspondences, thus whenever I have the pleasure of finding a novel which highlights letters (or written exclusively through them as in Letters from Skye), postcards, petit bleus (as viewed inside Moonlight Over Paris) or other gestures of communication sent in transit from one sender to a receiver is true joy for me! I try to keep my eyes peeled for new stories which include bits of mail inside them, but sometimes, they arrive as if they’ve found me before I found them! (a bit of a nodding towards why I included a self-quote on my Twitter banner!) All the stories I’m reading are threaded through my Postal Mail & Correspondences category in case your keen to view them!
When I first saw “P.S. I Love You” I hadn’t realised it was based on a novel, nor was I thinking I’d one day have the chance to interact with the author via a chat on Twitter or start to collect her novels, as none of us know which doors will start to open as we seek out stories which truly attach themselves into our heart. I personally loved the character journey of the film – it was such a clever one, very non-traditional and highly emotionally charged; it’s not for watching if your under high stress in other words!
I personally love stories where mementos are left behind – such as why I am enjoying interviewing authors from Bookouture as my conversation with Renita D’ Silva in April will reveal. She used a journal to connect her characters whereas Hudson has selected using letters left behind from her heroine’s Mum. You can gather deeper inside the mind of a character by seeing their reactions to letters inasmuch as their approach to writing them; letters give us a raw honesty with ourselves and those we’re writing.
When I watched the unexpected journey Orlando Bloom’s character took inside the film “Elizabethtown” on the larkspur suggested road trip by Kirsten Dunst’s character – you could say I have an attachment to serendipitous story-lines encouraged by people who get you to ‘walk outside your comfort box’ in order to discover a period of new growth and enlightenment.
Imagine then,
my delight to dip inside The Wedding Cake Tree?
The Wedding Cake Tree
Source: Direct from Publisher
Can a mother’s secret past provide the answers for a daughter’s future?
Celebrity photographer Grace Buchanan has always known that one day, she’d swap her manic day job for the peace and quiet of her beloved childhood cottage, St Christopher’s – she just didn’t expect it to be so soon.
At the reading of her mother’s will, she’s shocked to learn that she hardly knew Rosamund at all, and that inheriting St Christopher’s hangs on one big – and very inconvenient – condition: Grace must drop everything for two weeks and travel the country with a mysterious stranger – war-weary Royal Marine, Alasdair Finn.
Caught in a brief but perfect moment in time, Grace and Alasdair walk in Rosamund’s footsteps and read her letters at each breathtaking new place. As Grace slowly uncovers the truth about her mother’s incredible life story, Alasdair and Grace can’t help but question their own futures.
Will Rosamund’s madcap scheme go to plan or will events take an unexpected turn?
An emotional, fun-filled and adventurous journey of a lifetime.
Places to find the book:
Borrow from a Public Library
Add to LibraryThing
ISBN: 9781781892244
Published by ChocLitUK
on 19th August, 2015
Format: Paperback Edition
Pages: 384
Published by: ChocLitUK (@ChocLitUK)
Formats Available: Paperback, Audiobook and E-book
Converse via: #ChocLit
For a smidge of a pinch of Hudson’s humour, read this blog post of hers!
View a description and photo of a ‘Wedding Cake Tree’ (otherwise known as the Giant Dogwood)
About Melanie Hudson
A Yorkshire lass first and foremost, Melanie left her native county in 1994 when she joined the Royal Air Force as an Air Traffic Control Officer.
Melanie enjoyed the nomadic lifestyle awarded by her military career. In addition to working at several air stations throughout the UK, she experienced an operational tour in the Balkans during the Kosovo Crisis in 1999, and served as air liaison officer with the British Army during their insurgence into Iraq in 2003.
In May 2004 she transferred to the Royal Navy Air Traffic Control Specialisation, the highlight of which was an exhilarating stint in HMS Invincible. Melanie had a son in 2007, before retiring from military life in 2010, after which she moved to Dubai temporarily where she finally found the time to pursue her passion for writing. She wrote the majority of her first novel, The Wedding Cake Tree, while sitting in a Japanese tea shop overlooking the Burj Kalifa.
Melanie is happiest when wandering in the wilds of the Scottish Highlands (pretending to be all mysterious and romantic). Melanie lives in Devon.
Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
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Posted Saturday, 9 April, 2016 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 21st Century, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Bookish Discussions, Britian, British Literature, ChocLitSaturdays, ChocLitUK, Contemporary Romance, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Author, Debut Novel, England, Epistolary Novel | Non-Fiction, Flashbacks & Recollective Memories, Fly in the Ointment, Green Publishing, Indie Author, Life of Thirty-Somethings, Life Shift, Military Fiction, Modern British Author, Modern British Literature, Modern Day, Mother-Daughter Relationships, Postal Mail | Letters & Correspondence, Romance Fiction, Scotland, Vulgarity in Literature, Women's Fiction
Posted Saturday, 19 March, 2016 by jorielov A Bargain Struck, A Western Heart, ChocLitUK, Evie Undercover, Liz Harris, The Art of Deception, The Lost Girl, The Road Back 0 Comments
Acquired Book By:
I am a ChocLit reviewer who receives books of my choice in exchange for honest reviews! I received a complimentary copy of “Evie Undercover” from ChocLit in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
On my connection to Ms Harris:
I have been hosting #ChocLitSaturday chats on a regular basis for the past two years. Eleven in the morning of a Saturday, has become a favourite hour for me to exchange conversation and joy with everyone who shows up to participate in a chat centered around ChocLit novels and the Romance branch of literature in general.
Similar to my previous thoughts I shared about Ms. Courtenay, I have come to appreciate chatting with Ms. Harris, either through #ChocLitSaturdays chats or privately. She is most giving of her time and I have appreciated the opportunity to know the writer behind the stories I enjoy reading! She always shares her happy spirit in the chats too, and her insights into why she enjoys writing the books that speak to her the most.
I am disclosing this, to assure you that I can formulate an honest opinion, even though I have interacted with Harris through our respective love & passion of reading inside the twitterverse whilst I host #ChocLitSaturday the chat as well as privately; I treat each book as a ‘new experience’, whether I personally know the author OR whether I am reading a book by them for the first time. Similarly this applies to all future novels I read by an author I appreciate reading due to the compelling story-lines and characters they continuously bring to their novels and/or novellas.
An appreciator for the fiction Ms Harris writes:
Historicals: The Road Back (review) | A Bargain Struck (review)
Contemporaries: Evie Undercover
Novellas: The Art of Deception and A Western Heart
I entered into the worlds of Ms Harris via her historicals A Bargain Struck and The Road Back wherein I travelled through time to two distinctively unique chapters of the historical past. I learnt about A Western Heart when I hosted a special guest feature revealling a bit more about it’s story and of course, I loved the back-story attached to The Road Back (via another Guest Post of hers). As I was mentioning during #ChocLitSaturday the chatty extension of #ChocLitSaturdays, I love soaking inside the collective works of authors I know I want to continue reading – not only if they exchange genres but if they tackle different kinds of stories than the breadth of which you were originally introduced too.
Ms Harris definitely falls into this category for me, as I appreciate the curious pursuit of crafting stories which have something to say that is outside the boxes of their genre designations. By appearances, you think you will know outright how a story of Harris’s might go along but until you’ve read her novels, your in for an unexpected surprise because she crafts them in a way that re-defines the genres they occupy. I appreciate this for several reasons – one it never leaves any genre exploration of hers left to stagnation and secondly, it gives me an edge of constantly moving in and out of my comfort zones. I like writers who challenge me – either by their choices of how they tell their stories or the topics they explore within them.
If a writer can fuse their inspiration across genre divides and still have a way of capturing your curious nature to consume those works of fiction, you’ve been doubly blessed! For me, Harris is a prime example of how writers love to explore different components of their literary wanderings whilst keeping their readers happily refreshed by the choices they are making on behalf of their characters. I’m not only a reader who dances through genre, but like Harris, I too, wander in and out of genres as a writer. It’s keenly wicked to watch another author find her wings and confidence growing between both the Historical and Contemporary worlds whilst inhabiting both novella and novels in length.
Notation on Cover Art: There was a change of cover-art for “Evie Undercover” as the original version can be seen via my ChocLit Next Reads List on Riffle. What is noted between the two, is the second cover is a bit more revealling of Evie’s personality – she’s an independent woman whose trying to make her way in the world as a journalist but she’s still in transition of learning how far she’s willing to go to get the story she’s commissioned to write. In the original cover, you see the faux Evie the one who was willing to hide behind a more conservative persona in order to hook her mark into thinking she was uninteresting and solely focused on her presumed task as his secretary. I think both covers are aptly suited to the novel and each speak to the story’s lead character in different ways.
Evie Undercover
by Liz Harris
Source: Direct from Publisher
When libel lawyer Tom Hadleigh acquires a perfect holiday home, a 14th century house that needs restoring, there’s a slight problem. The house is located in the beautiful Umbria countryside and Tom can’t speak a word of Italian.
Enter Evie Shaw, masquerading as an agency temp but in reality the newest reporter for gossip magazine Pure Dirt. Unbeknown to Tom, Italian speaking Evie has been sent by her manipulative editor to write an exposé on him. And the stakes are high – Evie’s job rests on her success.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781781892404
Also by this author: A Bargain Struck, Guest Post (A Western Heart) by Liz Harris, Guest Post (The Road Back) by Liz Harris, The Road Back, Book Spotlight w/ Notes (The Lost Girl), Guest Post (The Lost Girl) by Liz Harris, The Art of Deception, The Lost Girl
Published by ChocLitUK
on 2nd September, 2015
Format: Paperback Edition
Pages: 244
Published by: ChocLitUK (@ChocLitUK)
Formats Available: Paperback, Audiobook and E-book
Converse via: #ChocLit
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Posted Saturday, 19 March, 2016 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 21st Century, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Bookish Discussions, Britian, British Literature, ChocLitSaturdays, ChocLitUK, Contemporary Romance, England, Fly in the Ointment, Green Publishing, Indie Author, Investigative Reporter | Journalist, Life Shift, Modern British Author, Modern British Literature, Modern Day, Romance Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Vulgarity in Literature
