Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
At the close of [2019] I had the pleasure of JOY reading a delightful war drama entitled “Christmas Once Again” – this was a time travelling Historical Romance wherein the method of travel was through the component of a ‘train’. I joyfully talked extensively about this during my #SatBookChat whilst I happily also engaged with my readers talking about the finer points of what made this Historical Romance such a beautifully evocative read! Meanwhile – it was a wicked sweet joy to highlight today’s new release “The Runaway Girl” on my #TopTenTuesday List for Most Anticipated Reads for 2020.
When it comes to reading Historical Romances – I happen to *love!* when a writer captures the truer heart and atmosphere ‘behind’ the romance wherein we get to peer into History’s window and seek out the era of the age in which these characters are alive. We get to understand the breadth of their living realities whilst gaining a foothold into how they are living their lives with the shadow of historical events behind them. Whenever a writer can intersect History with a compelling realistic #HistRom, I am definitely the kind of reader who is oft in search of their collective works because I want to consistently reside in their stories!
This is why when I first learnt about “Christmas Once Again” & “The Runaway Girl” – I knew I wanted those to be purchase requests at my local library. Not just for the joy of my own readerly pleasures but to help other patrons in my local community find inspiration out of a story I personally *loved!* absorbing! You see, I didn’t just read “Christmas Once Again” – I felt convinced I had stepped through its theshold and lived those hours as if I had inhabited the characters directly. I love feeling that pull of narrative – where you are so wholly engaged into a story it doesn’t feel fictional but a realistic impression of a life which is still being lived. Literature is powerful that way and whenever you can find Historical voices of the craft pulling us into the windows of where history and human interest stories can intersect is a wicked wonderful way to spend your readerly hours!
Thus, when I first hear a whispering about “The Runaway Girl” – of how this story was anchoured to Titanic and my own literary and science interest in Titanic – as I loved learning the real-life story of how Titanic was discovered on the ocean floor and the journey of its recovery – I knew immediately that I wanted to live inside this new novel! There is something alluring about Titanic – not the tragedy of how everyone died but how hard they fought to survive – how even in the direness of their hours as the sinking was erasing the calm of where they felt they would be embarking on a new life abroad was instead replacing it with a darkness of uncertainity – they still rallied, they fought the ocean and they tried to make peace with their fate.
At least this is what I observed and understood whilst researching Titanic and of having taking the walking exhibit where I had a third class ticket where someone had gone down with the ship. It was a harrowing walk through because of the way they told the story but also how they left you with haunting reminders of the fragilty of our lives and the uncertain balance of how we all are living with uncertain futures. A sombering contemplation on a good year and a intuitive one during a world crisis.
There is so much I love about the premise of “The Runaway Girl” and it is a pleasure of absolute for me to host my final blog tour hosted by the publisher Boldwood Books to go out with a bit of a signal boost on this novel and a wicked engaging conversation with Ms Bacarr – wherein through our conversation you’ll find notations about the story, her process of writing and the allure of Historical Fiction by a writer as bemused about her own stories & characters as the reader behind Jorie Loves A Story!
This marks my third of three featured posts I’ve be sharing on behalf of Boldwood Books this Spring, 2020. I recently interviewed Jessica Redland on behalf of her Whitsborough Bay series as well as having featured Rosie Clarke to begin this series.
Brew yourself a lovely cuppa
and journey back to Titanic with us today as we uncover “The Runaway Girl”!
The stories I’m keenly intrigued & excited about by Ms Bacarr:
Christmas Once Again (see also Review)
The Runaway Girl (listed as one of my Top Anticipated Reads of 2020!)
Published by: Boldwood Books (@BoldwoodBooks)
Available Formats: Trade Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook
Converse via: #HistoricalRomance or #HistRom
as well as #Titanic and #JinaBacarr