Category: Historical Romance

Book Review | The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn by Lori Benton #BloggingForBooks

Posted Wednesday, 22 October, 2014 by jorielov , , , 0 Comments

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The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn by Lori Benton

 Published By: WaterBrook Multnomah (@WaterBrookPress),

(an imprint of Random House Publishing Group)

Official Author Websites: Site | Facebook

Available Formats: Trade Paperback & Ebook

Converse on Twitter via: #ThePursuitOfTamsenLittlejohn & #LoriBenton

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Acquired Book By: I decided to join the “Blogging for Books” programme (on 9th July, 2014) which is a book for review programme created by the Crown Publishing Group. I received “The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn” at the end of July, and had 90 days in which to post my review. As a book blogger you are offered books in exchange for an honest review on your book blog as well as the ability to reach new readers when you cross-post your review to the Blogging for Books website. The benefit for the blogger is exposure as a reviewer as they put direct links back to your blog post on the book you select to review as well as your homepage. Therefore, this is my first review as a new book blogger in the programme. I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the publisher WaterBrook Multnomah, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired to Read:

I appreciate compelling historical fiction stories that curate within them a fusion of heart and soul inside the narrative itself. I appreciate reading stories of anguish and angst, where in the ending you feel as though the characters who have walked the hardest path have found not only resolution but redemption through what oppressed them. I have always held a soft spot for stories set in the American West, in the wild lands between the Coasts before progress and civilisation came into existence. There was a lot of untamed townes and cities, where lawbreakers outnumbered the peacekeepers, and where the rules of propriety between the genders was dependent upon the beliefs and views of the individuals you encountered.

I always felt a championing spirit by uncovering the stories that knitted together the realism of the generation where the stories were set but placing within their pages a lead character who could tether your own spirit straight into the story itself. I like taking the journey with a character whose moxie and grit of determined spirit not only inspires you as you read her story unfold, but gives you a hearty prose to stay with you after the book is put down. I love finding writers who stitch their stories alive with an intensity that pulls back with a grace that illuminates the action through a gentle hand of how a story can take you somewhere unexpectedly cosy to visit.

Book Review | The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn by Lori Benton #BloggingForBooksThe Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn
by Lori Benton
Source: Publisher via Blogging for Books

Frontier dangers cannot hold a candle to the risks one woman takes by falling in love

In an act of brave defiance, Tamsen Littlejohn escapes the life her harsh stepfather has forced upon her. Forsaking security and an arranged marriage, she enlists frontiersman Jesse Bird to guide her to the Watauga settlement in western North Carolina. But shedding her old life doesn’t come without cost. As the two cross a vast mountain wilderness, Tamsen faces hardships that test the limits of her faith and endurance.

Convinced that Tamsen has been kidnapped, wealthy suitor Ambrose Kincaid follows after her, in company with her equally determined stepfather. With trouble in pursuit, Tamsen and Jesse find themselves thrust into the conflict of a divided community of Overmountain settlers. The State of Franklin has been declared, but many remain loyal to North Carolina. With one life left behind and chaos on the horizon, Tamsen struggles to adapt to a life for which she was never prepared. But could this challenging frontier life be what her soul has longed for, what God has been leading her toward? As pursuit draws ever nearer, will her faith see her through the greatest danger of all—loving a man who has risked everything for her?


 Praise on behalf of the novel:

“Seldom has a tale swept me away so powerfully that I’m left both breathless and bereft at its end, reluctant to let go. The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn is such a book, a gentle masterpiece destined to be treasured and acclaimed.”
—Julie Lessman, award-winning author of the Daughters of Boston and Winds of Change series

“With gorgeous prose and characters that will steal your heart, Benton has breathed live and passion into history. The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn is a captivating example of excellence. Flawless!”
—Roseanna M. White, author of the Culper Ring series 

“In this sweeping colonial saga, author Lori Benton has crafted a powerful tale wherein every element of storytelling is vividly woven together. Poetic, emotional, and rich in historic detail, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn is a stirring page-turner.”
—Joanne Bischof, award-winning author of Be Still My Soul and Though My Heart Is Torn 

Genres: Historical Fiction, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction



Places to find the book:

Published by WaterBrook Multnomah

on 15th April, 2014

Format: Paperback

Pages: 400

Author Biography:Lori Benton

Lori Benton was raised east of the Appalachian Mountains, surrounded by early American and family history going back three hundred years. Her novels transport readers to the 18th century, where she brings to life the Colonial and early Federal periods of American history, creating a melting pot of characters drawn from both sides of a turbulent and shifting frontier, brought together in the bonds of God’s transforming grace. When she isn’t writing, Lori enjoys exploring beautiful Oregon with her husband.

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My Review of The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn:

The opening of The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn brought me back to my readings of Westerns, as there has been a bit of a gap between my readings of frontier life, the open plains, and the trappers who called the woods their home. Cowboy fiction was a bit of a sub-genre of interest for me, and as I started to settle into Jessie Bird’s life moving cattle across the open lands fraught with Native American attacks, it drew me back into the worlds I used to alight inside quite frequently. There is a raw freedom to living off the land, curating your own hours, and taking it upon yourself to draw out a stipend of a living by any which means you’re able. Jessie felt a bit hardened by his lifestyle of choice, but optimistically hopeful about his future at the very same time, wondering why his bunkmates felt it necessary to gloat about another man’s fortune of matrimony when he hadn’t yet found a gal to fancy himself.

I enjoyed seeing a working agreement between the Native Americans and the cowboys, as they were each looking out for each other when a raiding group of rebels attempted to cut the herd by a river. Whilst the men hunkered down for the night by firelight, Tamsen Littlejohn herself took her cue to enter into the story within the next chapter. The segue felt natural to me, as Tamsen’s ability to strike a scene so vivid and endearing of courage held my breath as I watched her handle Ambrose Kincaid’s unsettling display of diffidence towards someone he employs like the true champion I felt she was all along! Tamsen Littlejohn doesn’t seek out trouble, but trouble finds her all the same, yet it is her firm beliefs in what is right and wrong in life that anchor her to speaking her mind when the occasion rises to be filled with words of truth. The 18th Century was not the time of acceptance for expressing the rights of slaves but there were a few who understood the greater scope of the plight all slaves faced and happily I found Tamsen Littlejohn a woman who stood on the side of justice and freedom.

The vile nature of Tamsen’s step-father is enough to see the world painted black and tarnished with a fear that will not end unless you find the bravery necessary to escape – my thoughts were aligned with Tamsen as she plotted to sort out a way to ferret out of his plans. The man had no filters nor boundaries of causing violence inside his home, as he attacked Tamsen’s mother with such a harshness and cruel smugness that I couldn’t wait to see Tamsen exit the house to gain her freedom. Her mother was too passive to understand that staying was not the better option, but watching Tamsen realise the error of her mother’s choices was guttingly emotional.

I had a bit of difficulty staying inside the story after Tamsen starts to make her way out from the shadow of her step-father, not because the writing of the story wasn’t on the same caliber as the first half of the novel itself, but because the intensity of Tamsen’s life never felt like it was going to lesson. I was hoping that once she was out from underneath her step-father’s control, she could start to put the pieces back together, whilst forging a new life and identity elsewhere. The circumstances she left under and the origins of her own heritage she learnt on her mother’s deathbed painted a true portrait of how this story was going to be an emotional read from start to finish. For me personally, it felt a bit too emotionally churning as each time Jesse and Tamsen were a step closer to being on stable ground, something else would alight on their conjoined path and upset the apple cart so to speak. The harsh reality felt a bit crushing at times, and a bit of a difficult reading when your used to having the heaviest bits lesson a bit after awhile.

The writing style of Lori Benton:

Benton has the graceful stroke of understanding the importance of the historical perspective of her story as much as giving realism to the era in which her characters lived by allowing them the chance to speak in words & phrases that would have been readily known. She leaves a breath of intrigue in only giving out certain pieces of information at different junctions of time, giving you a full pause and a measure of wonder at where she is going to guide the story next. She cleverly masked the worst of the brutality from Tamsen’s step-father by giving just enough to feel the full measure of his wrath without pushing the envelope past what you can stomach inside of a historical inspirational novel.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comThis book review is courtesy of: Blogging for Books

Blogging for Books - book for review programme for book bloggers

I wanted to thank the Blogging for Books programme for giving me the opportunity to read this novel! I had hoped to post my review over the Summer, and not on the deadline of 90 days after I received it! I simply had too much on my plate this Summer, and I regret that I was delayed until now to share my thoughts about reading my first Lori Benton novel! The grace of understanding the staff of Blogging for Books gave me in this regard was a true blessing! I am going to wait until mid-November before I make my next selection for Blogging for Books, to allow myself to have more time to soak into my next novel I accept for review through their programme for book bloggers! I am thrilled I can find Inspirational novels like this one available on their website!

I positively *love!* comments in the threads below each of my posts, kindly know that I appreciate each thought you want to share with me and all the posts on my blog are open to new comments & commentary! Short or long, I appreciate the time you spent to leave behind a note of your visit! Return again soon!

Reader Interactive Question:

What are your favourite Inspirational Fiction stories to read? Do you find yourself captured more by historical settings or contemporary modern life? What do you appreciate the most by finding a strong lead character such as Tamsen Littlejohn who defies her era by standing strong in the midst of danger?

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{SOURCES: Book cover for “The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn” (small icon size) was provided by Blogging for Books directly and the larger version seen at the top of this review was saved from the Random House site’s page for the novel itself with permission of Blogging for Books; both versions are used with permission. The Author Photograph was saved from WaterBrook Multnomah site’s page for the author with permission of Blogging for Books. Likewise, the Author’s Biography, the Book Synopsis, and Quotes of Praise were used with permission of Blogging for Books as well. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

Comments via Twitter:

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Posted Wednesday, 22 October, 2014 by jorielov in 18th Century, African-American History, Balance of Faith whilst Living, Blog Tour Host, Blogging for Books, Civil Rights, Clever Turns of Phrase, Domestic Violence, Farm and Ranching on the Frontier, Father-Daughter Relationships, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Mother-Daughter Relationships, Native American Fiction, Old West Americana, Psychological Abuse, Sociological Behavior, The American Frontier, The Deep South, Western Fiction, Western Romance

Blog Book Tour | “Sophia” by Paula Kremser a #sweetromance set within the London Season! Folly before matrimony in this delightful debut novel!

Posted Sunday, 19 October, 2014 by jorielov , , , , 6 Comments

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Sophia by Paula Kremser

Published By: Sweetwater Books (@SweetwaterBooks),
an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc (@CedarFortBooks)

Official Author Websites:  Site @PaulaKremser | Facebook

Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook

Converse via: #Sophia & #SweetRomance

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Acquired Book By: 

I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort whereupon I am thankful to have such a diverse amount of novels and non-fiction titles to choose amongst to host. I received a complimentary copy of “Sophia” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired to Read: 

I am magnetically attracted to stories of romance, the London Season, and the follies which are wrought out of seeking romance as much as an engagement to end the unattached life of a singleton! I love the fanciful worlds of classical literature, where ladies and gentlemen not only are attired in such a way to reflect their propriety, but there is a measure of grace and honour in how they interact with each other. Perhaps not always finding themselves in situations that alight on their paths with the full honour of intentions, but there is a magnified expression of life within the ordinary hours that make the best stories burst to life! I love the romanticism of previous generations as much as I love a grounding in realism. I do not always have to read a story wrought straight out of historical records to become consumed by the expanse of the narrative; as there are parts of my literary soul who are quite comfortable in soaking in a romance with a tender-hearted heroine and the perception of a rake who is in fact a misunderstood gent who has yet to control either his life, affairs, or emotional outrage! Laughs.

Historical romances are always going to be a tip of a feather in my hat, as I grew up with a such a rapt fascination for this side of the Romance genre! I have only yet begun my sojourn through the classical writers who created the impetus for the modern writers to find encouragement and inspiration to create their own niche; but what I appreciate the most is being caught up in the details, the conversations, and the whispers of ‘intrigue’ as each lad and lass find their way in life! There are elements of carried over truths, but each story is set to it’s own pace, carrying with it a unique heart centered plot, and allows the benefit of being elsewhere in full mirth of joy for the reader who finds the book itself!

For these reasons and many more I have not yet mentioned, I most delightfully was joyful in finding Sophia! This novel is the second release as part of Sweetwater Book’s new focus on Pure Romance! Willow Springs was the first release, of which I found equally enjoyable to consume!

Blog Book Tour | “Sophia” by Paula Kremser a #sweetromance set within the London Season! Folly before matrimony in this delightful debut novel!Sophia
Subtitle: Pure Romance

Small-town Sophia Spencer can't believe her luck when an unexpected inheritance sweeps her up into the glittering London social scene.  With more invitations to balls, parties, and country-drives than she can keep up with, Sophia is soon lost in the swirl of dresses and dances, friendships, and flirtations. But her happiness comes to an abrupt halt the moment she's caught napping in a grumpy gentleman's bedroom -- and forced into an engagement to protect her reputation!

This stunning debut novel combines unforgettable characters with crisp dialogue and a gorgeous setting to create a world you won't want to leave. A fun, romantic read that's perfect for incurable romantics of all ages!


Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

Find on Book Browse

ISBN: 9781462114825

Series: Pure Romance


Also in this series: Willow Springs, The Second Season, To Suit a Suitor, Mischief & Manors, Unexpected Love, Lies & Letters, The Darkest Summer, The Secret of Haversham House, Love and Secrets at Cassfield Manor, Enduring Promises of the Heart, Book Spotlight: The Promise of Miss Spencer


on 7th October, 2014

Pages: 208

Author Biography:

 Paula Kremser

Paula Kremser focused on a career in science for a few years after graduating from Brigham Young University. Several years later when she moved with her young family to England, Paula seized the opportunity to focus on her love of the Regency Era. The enchantment of the aristocracy and the fascinating stories from every stately home she visits have been both research and inspiration for her first novel. Paula lives with her husband and four children in a charming village nestled in the Chiltern hills in Buckinghamshire.

For a hilarious look-see behind-the-scenes of how this photograph was captured read her Outtakes post! I believe that the photograph that was chosen captures her ‘in the moment’ with a spark of joy. Sometimes the best photographs are the ones we do not overly plan but rather happen spontaneously!

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London | a fetching place to set a Romance:

My heart is always quite aflutter when I realise I have stumbled across a romance set during the time of the London Season; that alluring moment where débutantes have to ‘come out’ and attract a suitor of a match of equality for their family to agree to the marriage. The notion of having to condense your dating years to a full season of endless balls and get togethers where every singleton of the year who is in want of a wife or husband is attending the exact same events as you, is more than daunting; it is tremendously full of pressure and expectancy of an engagement! I am not sure how the young men and woman feted away their anxiety and could settle into the social calendar as though it were simply an ordinary day within the expanse of their life. I do think in some ways it encouraged them to converse and interact with each other on level grounds, but not all the circumstances of their events would be equal nor without their share of hiccups!

I always felt that the easiest way to unsettle anyone’s chances at a good match would be to become quite devious in altering their chances for a match in love whereupon they would have to settle for a match of convenience to avoid scrutiny. It is simply too easy to speculate how willing some families might perceive the situations to being an opportunity to heighten their own motivated chances of success! Yet, aside from the malarkey of some, the back-drop of having a city the size of London the stomping grounds of fetching a suitor and sorting out what you want in life and love is such a captivating locale of choice! London is one of the world’s most known and most elusive of cities; the more I find is writ about one particular city, the more I fear there is still left to uncover about the city’s heart.

I feel the best centuries of setting a story in London are between the 18th & 19th Centuries, yet more oft than naught over the score of the last year: I’ve become further acquainted with London in the early and latter half of the 20th Century! Much to my chagrin I find London is perennially captivating irregardless of the timescape I am attune inside the story at hand!

My Review of Sophia:

Such an extreme concern on where to dispense an inheritance begins this Sweet Romance, on the presumption that if a grandmother were not to choose the most sensible heir to receive the family’s wealth, every inch of what had become the estate would fall straight to ruin! Imagine the tenacity of the declaration, as this is the type of woman who felt quite strongly that a man whose life was given to medicine and taking care of the health of others was beneath the family’s station! The very same man’s daughter became her sole living grand-daughter of whom she elects to choose as the beneficiary of her will and estate. I, must commend the author on how insightful she was in selecting such a perplexing and moxie filled character as Lady Atkinson to start her debut narrative! Atkinson is the type of character you hope to discover in fiction, as she is altogether in full belief she is always in the right as much as she has a sense that the way in which she perceives the world is both the end and beginning of argument!

I felt as if I stepped straight back inside the writing’s of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell (of whom I have not yet read but read about extensively on her style of voice), L.M. Montgomery, and Charlotte Bronté! There is such a beautiful expanse of classical literary voice ebbing out of Sophia, as part of me started to cheer for her as a character before I knew too much about her person! Fond memories washed over me of having read An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott as I started to soak inside this new classically inspired romance! Of course, part of me fondly brought to mind my viewing of the tv film The Inheritance (1997) starring Meredith Baxter and based on the story by Louisa May Alcott.

Alexander Huntley walks into the scene with a convicting back-story of a ill-wonted youth spent without concern for others, yet as an adult he has returned back to the ton quite changed! Gone from his conscience are the self-less ways of idling away hours he could have been more circumspect on attaching himself to the concerns of his estate’s well-being and replaced with a proper sense of duty, propriety, and a grounding of pride in his work. Huntley is as relatable as Sophia, being that they are two attendees to the seasonal balls who are a bit out of step with the rest of those in attendance! They each have their own quirky backgrounds which set them apart, but it is how they each approach life and set their minds to their futures, that felt the most in sync of all.

The circumstances by which fate brought Alex & Sophia together was part comical and part ingenious twisting of destiny; the scene felt a bit like a ‘meet-cute’ in some ways as well. My favourite part is how Sophia awoken out of her slumber to overhearing everything before fully realising the full scope of the situation! Kremser has a wicked talent for comic timing and a way of infusing a twinkling of wit without being overly cliche! I had noticed the forewarning of Sophia’s recently discovered ‘Auntie’ was up to something most foul, but it is how the plan to upset her niece I think will ultimately prove to be her undoing! Most wretchedly jealous relations always get their upcomings in the end, and it is the suspense of not knowing where Kremser will take these two characters that whisks you away further into the novel!

Lady Anne Fitzgerald is the kind of Auntie I was hoping Sophia would have had inherited rather than her jostly hostile Aunt Nora! My goodness! Lady Anne had all the grace, compassion, and composure of an Aunt you can lean on in the fervent height of a crisis, whilst having the forethought to plan what to do to wiggle your way out of a difficulty as she consoles your emotional heart! Sophia, I knew at this junction was in good hands, because even those of us who are given a jolt to our emotional keel by an Auntie who schemes against us needs a shelter from the storm!

One particular touch of unexpected joy for me was seeing each paragraph of each new chapter began in the hand of cursive writing! It gave me a seed of thought towards this being writ down as a re-telling account of a life in which was lived rather than of a completely fictional story within the imagination of the writer who penned it! Such a curious ticking of bemused thoughts floated to find of finding such a keen treasure of a journal filled my mind as I read each new chapter. Sophia, is the most obvious choice of whom might have kept it, but a part of me felt perhaps it was Lady Anne who was the truer narrator of the story overall — her sharp yet kind wisdom of understanding more than even Sophia & Alex could have dared to conceive possible knitted this theory into existence.

The most poignant love story is the one that places a stronger focus on the relationship and the purity of love spun between the two souls who have become entwined with each other. I am earnestly thankful that I not only found a story that once you become curled into you do not want to put down until the very last pages are wholly consumed, as within those final breaths of narrative prose, you find an illuminating ending that transcends the angst of the climax, but you find that the greatest love story of all is always told with the intention of uniting two persons who genuinely cannot be separated from one another due to the love that grew between them.

On the classically-bent writing style of Paula Kremser:

Kremser has a keen sense of a true way of capturing the heart of a romance booklover whose heart is tethered, tied, and threaded through Classical Literature! Her innate style of pacing the story as many of the writers of the 18th & 19th Centuries gave us such a felicity of mirth to discover, so too does her debut novel of Sophia; for recapturing the style of how to make an unexpected inheritance fuel the direction of a story! The little details and occurrences of a life within the upper tiers of society are contained with a happy fusion of mirth, cheeky humour, and a knowing hand who can pen a tale that is quite plausible as it is believable. An author who makes you giddy to know what she is penning next and if she is going to keep the timescape and setting of her first novel inside the second!

I have several bookish friends who adore this type of story (hallo Maggie, Juli, & Rissi!) and I would be plumb delighted to see if Kara and Charlene would find themselves just as wicked happy to soak inside this tome! This is the kind of story for all of us who grew up on Anne of Green Gables as much as found ourselves attached to Elizabeth Bennett & Jo March!

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This Blog Tour Stop is courtesy of Cedar Fort, Inc:

Cedar Fort Publishing & Media

Virtual Road Map of “Sophia” Blog Tour can be found here:

Sophia Blog Tour with Cedar Fort

To find out which Cedar Fort & Sweetwater Books author
I am hosting next visit my Bookish Events!

I positively *love!* comments in the threads below each of my posts, kindly know that I appreciate each thought you want to share with me and all the posts on my blog are open to new comments & commentary! Short or long, I appreciate the time you spent to leave behind a note of your visit! Return again soon!

{SOURCES: Author photograph, Book Cover of “Sophia”, the Cedar Fort badge, the Book Synopsis, and the Author Biography were provided by Cedar Fort, Inc. and used by permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

The tweets I posted after I read “Sophia”:

{ favourite & Re-tweet if inspired to share }

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Posted Sunday, 19 October, 2014 by jorielov in 19th Century, Balance of Faith whilst Living, Blog Tour Host, British Literature, Cedar Fort Publishing & Media, Classical Literature, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Author, Debut Novel, England, Father-Daughter Relationships, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Indie Author, Inspired by Stories, Life Shift, Literary Fiction, London, Modern British Literature, Old World Arts & Crafts, Orphans & Guardians, Romance Fiction, Sewing & Stitchery, Single Fathers, Singletons & Commitment, Sweet Romance, The London Season, the Victorian era, Unexpected Inheritance, Widows & Widowers, Writing Style & Voice

+Blog Book Tour+ “I Looked for the One My Heart Loves” by Dominique Marny, a French literary novel in translation!

Posted Friday, 5 September, 2014 by jorielov , , , , 5 Comments

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I Looked For the One My Heart Loves by Dominique Marny

I Looked for the One my Heart Loves Blog Tour via France Book Tours

Published By: Publishers Square , 12 August, 2014

a publishing partner of Open Road Integrated Media, Inc 

Twitter: (@OpenRoadMedia)Facebook

Originally Published as:

J’ai cherché celui que mon coeur aime  (I Sought Him Whom my Soul Loves)

{ IF I may add a small note on the titles: the original title in direct English translation suits this novel! }

(by Presses de la Cite), 2011

Available Formats:  Paperback, Ebook

Translated by:  Jean Charbonneau

Author Connections: Site | Facebook

Converse on Twitter: #ILookedForTheOneMyHeartLoves & #FranceBT

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Acquired Book By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “I Looked for the One My Heart Loves” virtual book tour through France Book Tours. I received a complimentary ARC copy of the book direct from the publisher Open Road Media, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

+Blog Book Tour+ “I Looked for the One My Heart Loves” by Dominique Marny, a French literary novel in translation!I Looked For the One My Heart Loves
by (Translator) Jean Charbonneau, Dominique Marny
Source: Publisher via France Book Tours

Anne and Alexis are separated by war as children and reunited later by destiny. A powerful and dramatic love story that spans decades in spite of its seeming impossibility.

Anne, 9, and Alexis, 11, grow up together in the Montmartre area of Paris. While she has a major crush on him, he merely sees her as his friend’s little sister. After WWII begins, the two are separated as their families flee Paris to avoid the German occupation. When they say goodbye, Alexis promises to always protect Anne.

Anne holds on to this promise for years as she constantly thinks of Alexis, wondering where he may be. Anne grows up, finds works in an art gallery, and marries a kind, devoted man with whom she has two children. But her heart still belongs to Alexis and she never stops looking for him. Their paths cross fatefully one day in Brussels many years after they were separated.

Alexis, living in Canada and soon to be moving to San Francisco, has a family of his own; a wife in constant depression and a son. Despite their responsibilities to family and the geographical distance that keeps them apart, Anne and Alexis find a way to love one another, secretly yet passionately.

But after all this time, will they ever manage to be truly together, completely?

Genres: Contemporary Romance



Places to find the book:

Published by Open Road Integrated Media Inc, Publishers Square

on 12th August, 2014

Pages: 384

Author Biography: Dominique Marny 

Dominique Marny was raised in a family that loves art, literature, adventure and travels. In addition to being a novelist, she is a playwright, screenwriter, and writes for various magazines.

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A shortened & condensed reading of a World War:

One of the gifts Marny gives her readers is a shortened and condensed reading of a World War, by attaching a full historical enriched scope of the French side of World War II. Knitted into the arc of the chapter which begins in 1939 is an intact re-creation of all the pertinent moments which had the most impact on French families and citizens. She approached this section of her novel with an intensity yet intermixed a warmth of hope and love of family, as she focuses on Anne as a central figure to highlight the discrepancies as you would observe them. By focusing on Anne during this time, we see the war through the eyes of an innocent child whose wishful thinking and dreams are nearly curtailed by the haunting realities of what war can bring into your world view.

Marny does a considerable job at bringing us right into the heat of the bombings flying over Paris to the lesser known anguished moments of separation from school friends and the family members who live too far away to commute to see when living under German occupation. I appreciated seeing everything Anne saw and breathing in a side of the war I had not yet felt touched in other stories.

My Review of I Looked for the One My Heart Loves:

As the story opens centered on a family living in France on the fringes of World War II developing into their lives, we peer into the young life of Anne, of whom we greeted at a cemetery decades later before warming into her years of childhood. The transitional shift left me curious to know not only of whom the grave marker belonged too, but who the curious stranger was in front of her visiting the same grave! As a young child, Anne felt the full measure of anguished sorrow for how a new Great War would impact her life and the ones she cared about the most. She was at the impressionable age where knowing about what feared adults was enough to fear a child. Her brother Bernard was like a typical brother, bent on teasing his sister and tormenting her with either embarrassment in front of their peers or telling her things she would rather not know at all. The two were caught up in the tides of a changing world – where freedom and the sanctity of family would be tested.

The mass exodus out of Paris into safer areas of France is depicted with equal measures of heightened alarm for safety and the arduous tension in walking or biking hours at at time reach a destination. Although I had known Paris and London were left behind for only those who could brave the war which arrived on their doorsteps, I had not yet read of what Parisians had gone through during the developing days leading into World War II. I have oft read war dramas from the perspective of the British during this war, and therefore, am a bit remiss on knowing more about the French. When I read Letters from Skye, I learnt a great deal about the front lines and the intensity of staying hopeful amidst uncertainty.  Marny and Brockmole have a way of placing us into the heart of the French people and the plight of France during the war itself in such a way as to feel as though we lived the hours ourselves.

The entire first section of this novel is a beautiful eclipse of how war affects a young girl and how her life is different by living through war as it altered her neighbourhood and disrupted the lives of everyone she knew. She held a candle lit for the young boy she held an infatuation of concern for during the bombings of Paris; never knowing where his family had fled a few years before when Paris was starting to feel the blitz of the bombers. The bond she felt for Alexis and the growing love she knew was in her heart for him is what helped her endure. She cast her thoughts on his own well-being and although they lived apart during the war, her spirit was tied to his.

After the war, Anne started to fuse her passion for art into a passionate career, all the while curious about where Alexis had gone inside his own life’s adventure. She was not one who strove to entertain the idea of marriage, but rather was found in the throes of loving a man who genuinely loved her in return. Her life took on a rhythm part of her choosing and part of choosing to live a life that might become expected of her to curate. Because she elected to make choices in her life based on where society and convention were guiding her to tread, she ended up closing the door on her own heart’s desire. Anne’s life because a swirling sea of art acquisitions and galley showings featuring artists both renowned and starting out to gain an audience. As the years started to encompass her hours, even motherhood did not tether her heart to happiness.

It was always a nudge inside her mind that she had missed something, or rather that she had missed the opportunity to be with someone she always felt was more her equal and her other half. Alexis was only a boy when they departed from each others’ lives, yet the candle that once flickered for him turnt into a fiery flame renewed through happenstance which led them into that daring twist of fate where deciding which path you take in life can either be your downfall or your unexpected blessing.

I was a bit betwixt myself as I read this novel if I agreed with her choice to follow after Alexis; and I credit this vacillation to a previous novel I read in August Lemongrass Hope, of whose thematic of choice parallels I Looked for the One My Heart Loves. In many ways, what left me feeling a bit aghast is that the lead character in Lemongrass Hope found beauty and joy inside being a mother – to consider leaving her children even if she had chosen to live a different life than she dreamt for herself was a cross she was not willing to bear, yet the path she chose to live was one that surprised me in the end. Anne on the other hand is career-driven and is not willed to her children as Kate was to hers and this in of itself shows the differences within motherhood and the connection a mother shares with her children. However, for me personally, I felt Anne came off more self-centered and selfish than Kate, as Kate was caught between fate and true love. Anne never had the luxury of experiencing what Kate had with Ian, and therefore, in this instance I sided with Francois over Anne. On a lot of levels, Francois and Anne were identical to each other: each were dedicated to their professions to where they approached marriage and children second to their career.

Lemongrass Hope matches this novel for exploring the fragility of the human heart and the yearnings of a powerful mind bent on pursuing its own convicting motivation. For me, although I enjoyed reading this novel, I found myself a bit wanton of wanting to dig back into Lemongrass Hope. In a lot of ways I felt Impellizzeri had won me over for how she handled the truism of a conflicted heart and soul. Whereas Marny gave me a breath of insight into the French who survived the war and the carefree approach to living I always felt the French embraced as a celebration for life itself.

On writing a unique Romance set against time, memory, and war:

I appreciated the honesty and raw emotions that Marny stitched into her novel, as she has written a very unique Romance set against time, memory, and war. The initial reactions I felt to the story of Anne and Alexis were two people caught up in each others’ lives who drifted apart out from war. Yet, when I soaked into the story, I started to see the complexity of understanding who we choose to love and who we might have let go from our life without realising they were the ones our heart had chosen to love before our mind even realised the connection. Both of Marny’s characters made choices to marry against their own will in some ways, because neither was quite ready for what marriage would bring into their life.

The honesty within their thoughts and the actions they took after their reconnection warmed me to their story, because life as in fiction, choices can determine the fate of where we end up in our lives. And, not everything is straight-up right nor wrong, there are in-between places as well. The one I felt a bit sorry for in the story were Anne’s husband Francois, who truly loved Anne in a way she could not quite reciprocate. This is not merely a Romance novel but a literary novel centered on human emotions and the conflictions of understanding the line between desire and adultery.

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Meet Dominique Marny via OpenRoadMedia

Inspired to Share:

I always appreciate seeing a video about an author I am about to read, and in this one I appreciated getting to know someone who speaks a different language than I do, because through the sub-titles and the way in which Ms. Marny describes the story she’s written, I felt connected in a way that would lend a curiosity to read her novel. I hope you appreciate seeing her inside this short introduction as much as I had originally.

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Virtual Road Map for 
I Looked for the One My Heart Loves” Blog Tour:

I Looked for the One my Heart Loves Blog Tour via France Book Tours

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Be sure to scope out upcoming tours I will be hosting with:

France Book Tours

 via my
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{SOURCES: Cover art of “I Looked for the One My Heart Loves”, book synopsis, author photograph of Mr. Malaval, author biography, and the tour host badge were all provided by France Book Tours and used with permission. The introduction video of author Jean-Paul Malaval by Open Road Media & Bordeaux travelogue by TravelTherapyTV had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post, and I thank them for the opportunity to share more about this novel and the author who penned it. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Tweets were able to be embedded by the codes provided by Twitter. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Bookish Events & France Book Tours badge created by Jorie in Canva.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

The ‘live reading’ tweets I shared as I read & reviewed “I Looked for the One My Heart Loves”:

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • Go Indie
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Posted Friday, 5 September, 2014 by jorielov in 20th Century, Aftermath of World War II, ARC | Galley Copy, Art, Art History, Author Interview, Blog Tour Host, Bookish Discussions, Bookish Films, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Family Drama, France, France Book Tours, French Literature, French Novel Translated into English, French Resistance, Geographically Specific, Good vs. Evil, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Indie Author, Life Shift, Literary Fiction, Military Fiction, Romance Fiction, School Life & Situations, Siblings, Singletons & Commitment, The World Wars, War Drama, War-time Romance