Book Hop (5)

A Very Big Welcome

Welcome to any visitors who got here through the weekly Book Hop (a Book Party) organised by Jennifer (a BIG thank you!) @ Crazy for Books(http://www.crazy-for-books.com/) so that book bloggers can share their blog with other book lovers and also find a new blog to 'follow.' To get involved all you have to do is post your blog link at the bottom of the 'linky list' on Crazy For Books and post about 'Your favorite new-to you author this year.'

My answer: My favourite author that I have discovered this year is Georgette Heyer, who writes Regency Romance novels which are very witty with lots of diverse heroes and heroines.    I have only read several so far but there are around 50 of them so many are on my TBR list.

I hope that you enjoy taking a look round my blog and find a post that you enjoy reading. I'd love to hear from you, so please feel free to drop me a comment! Also, I am happy for you to leave a link to your blog in  a comment so I can easily visit it.

Last week, I reached 50 followers (YAY!) so thank you to everyone! I have had a great time looking at everyone else's blogs and look forward to reading more of your posts on my feed.

Happy hopping!                                                                                                                    

Book Review: Swallowcliffe Hall by Jenny Walters

Blurb of book (I chose to use it because I think it has been written really well and I love it!) :

'Polly Perkins can hardly believe her luck when she is taken on as an under-housemaid at Swallowcliffe Hall. At first it's all Polly can do to keep up, with endless fires to be laid, carpets to be swept and beds to be made - never mind when guests arrive from London for a country house party. Will she ever feel at home in this grand old house, full of whispers and ghosts from the past? But friendship and comfort are found in unexpected places and Polly slowly begins to find her feet - until a tragic secret leads her to question everything she's ever believed. Could the elegant life of Swallowcliffe Hall be nothing more than a glittering sham?'

My review and thoughts:

I first read this book, which is the first in the Swallowcliffe Hall trilogy about 2 years ago when I was researching Victorian servants and it has remained one of my favourite books since.  I was writing a story myself at the time about a young Victorian servant and was quite disheartened to discover that many of the same events were the same as the ones I had planned to write about!

Polly, who is 14 when she first walks through the imposing gates of Swallowcliffe Hall to become under-housemaid, having  left home to help support her younger siblings and mother because their father was drowned at sea. As it is 1890,  the fashion for extravagant entertaining has reached is peak and fancy guests are always arriving for dinner parties, while the servants scurry around catering for their every need. After having worked at the village vicar's house, Polly expects the hard work but not the spiteful tricks, accusations and other hardships that she has to endure. At first she is pleasantly surprised and in awe of the grand house, which the other servants find rather amusing.  However, slowly, she gets used to the work and makes friends, especially with the beautiful 'butter haired' parlour maid Iris and others that she is not supposed to speak with.

Told through Polly's point of view, her story enthralled me as her unique voice lifted off the page and she soon became very real in my mind and I imagined how I would feel in her place as she is only a year older. Her voice was very informal and chatty and the way she described the details of her new life at the Hall was very lively and not at all like a dull historical account.
The opening of the book was very strong and got straight to the point and the action in the story, as Jenny Walters says on the book's website that she cut most of the first chapter out in order to achieve this effect of 'drawing in.'  I love it so much that I am going to include the first few paragraphs in this post below:

'I stood on the doorstep to the grand house, my heart thumping so hard that it was fit to jump out of my chest, raised the knocker and brought it down with a clap that echoed round the empty courtyard. A couple of pigeons pecking at crumbs fluttered up into the air, such a great noise in that  quiet place startled me,too, though I had made it myself. For two pins I would have taken up my basket and ran all the way home, but there could be no turning back: the new year had begun and with it, a new life for me. I had arrived to start work as under housemaid at Swallowcliffe Hall- if only someone would let me in.'

 Characters- The characters were all very authentic with natural flaws to their personality and I loved the range of characters in the book from Miss Harriet (the youngest daughter of the Vye family who live at Swallowcliffe Hall) who doesn't want to be lady like and sew but instead to be free to the stern on the outside but ind hearted Housekeeper.
Polly was very easy to relate to as she was just a 'normal girl' who goes through things that girls today of her age can relate to such as growing up, developing friendships and falling in love for the first time.

 Historical description- Through the experiences that Polly has and her description I learnt a lot about life as a Victorian servant and the world 'below stairs' that I had not discovered in research. In reading it, you will find about social hierarchy, Victorian manners and decorum, households and methods of house-keeping, the roles of servants, workhouses, the constraints put on love and courting as a servant and fashion. To add to the historical setting and detail, at the beginning at each of the chapters, there was a short snippet from a Victorian Publication such as a manual on 'Mrs Nickleson's Guide for a Household Servant.' I found them incredibly interesting and set the scene for each chapter and sometimes hinted at what it was about.

Although, I don't think that any book is perfect, I can't really fault Swallowcliffe Hall, except to say that I don't think that ll of the cover should be in a sepia tone as although it creates an aged effect, I feel it should be a bit brighter to make it more appealing.

I loved Polly's story of finding your place, friendship, mistakes, sad and trying situations and a growing friendship turning into first love. Now, I have read it several times and although it is not an amazing literary work, it has really inspired some of my historical fiction short stories.

A series

There are 2 other books in the Swallowcliffe Hall series, which follow on from the story in different time periods: WW1 and WW2. The next one features Grace, who is Polly's daughter telling her story at the Hall and there are some clever links and a surprise in the last book which links to a question that is never clearly answered in the first book.

If you like the sound of this series, there is an amazing website for it with lots of extract, information, inspiration for the story background and interactive pages. Here's the link.

Teaser Tuesdays (4)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along and have fun! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page


Share (preferably 2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

My teaser this week is from No Shame, No Fear by Anne Turnball, which I reviewed this week and I hope that if you read the review and liked the sound of it, this will help you to get a flavour of the book. I have included extracts from both of the main character's pint of view to give a clearer picture of the themes of love and religious faith.

Extract from the character Susannah's point of view:

'When would he come again? I could think of nothing else for the rest of the day; in my imagination I relived our conversation, saw his hands close to mine as we both kneeled to stroke the little dog, heard his voice, his questions, every word he'd said.'

From Will's point of view:

'And now I had found a faith that challenged me to overturn my life. I had been shown a new way to live, and, no matter how difficult and dangerous it might be, I knew I had to meet that challenge.'

Reading Challenges Summer 2010

After looking around at other people's book blogs, I noticed that many were taking part in reading challenges so I decided to take a look at them and decide which ones I would like to participate in. I have decided to join one as unfortunately I do not have as much time to read this summer as I would like:
 
Historical Fiction Challenge 2010

I love this challenge button!

This challenge is held by Royal Reviews with help from Alaine at Queen of Happy Endings from 1st January 2010 to the end of December so there is still plenty of time left. As you can tell from my reviews, I read a lot of historical fiction books normally so it would be nice to recognise this by taking part in the challenge and finding out about more hf through other bloggers taking part.

There are 4 levels to this challenge:

-- Curious – Read 3 Historical Fiction novels.

- Fascinated – Read 6 Historical Fiction novels.
-- Addicted – Read 12 Historical Fiction novels.

-- Obsessed – Read 20 Historical Fiction novels

 

I am just going to aim to read as many as I can in the time and see where I get to but if I counted all the hf books I've already read this year then I will have definitely reached Obsessed by Decemeber! Also, I am not going to list the novels I'm going to read in advance here as I do not know yet so I will update in my reviews of the hf books that I read and wrap up in a list in a post at the end of the challenge.
 
Here is the link to the challenge welcome post if you are thinking of joining in yourself, whether you are a book blogger or not:  For those of you are not inclined towards reading historical fiction there are other great challenges for a variety of genres listed there too.
 
Look out for more soon!

Book Review: No Shame, No Fear by Ann Turnball

My Summary:

'He is not for thee Susannah."


"Don't cry, we won't be parted, I promise.' - Will

No Shame, No Fear is set in England 1662, just after the civil war and there are many disputes over religious faith and culture.

Susanna is a young Quaker girl who has left her home in a small countryside village to go to work as a servant in the town of Hemsbury after her father is in jail for his Quaker beliefs and the bailiffs have raided her home.  In the community, the Quakers are a feared, hated by some because of their different and simplistic way of thinking about their Christian faith

Meanwhile, seventeen year old Will has just finished his studies at Oxford and is returning home, where his father is trying to arrange a suitable apprenticeship for him in London using his wealth and influence.

By chance, the two meet and Will is intrigued by Susannah and her welcoming group of Quaker friends whose ways seem strange to him. As his curiosity grows, he spends more time with Susannah and a secret romance blossoms between them. Will, knows that his father, an Alderman would oppose to him mixing with a young Quaker girl and getting involved in the illegal Quaker meetings, as well as his sudden change in behaviour. With society, family and even the law against them, they must fight to what is most important to them and stay true to their love. Is it strong enough to overcome the many obstacles that stand between them?

My thoughts and review:

What I loved most about this book was the way that each chapter was told from an alternating view point so that you got to know each of the characters of Will and Susannah really well and gave me a deeper understanding of the rift between their social standing and what ill would be giving up to follow his heart for Susannah. The plain yet language was what made the book so beautiful and it included the Quaker 'thee' and 'though' at some times made the story seem very authentic.

I could definitely tell that the author mus have put a lot of research into writing the book, for I learnt a lot about the manners, dress, food, apprenticeships, households (such as laundering) prison systems and law of the time. The detail of the Quakers, who called themselves Friends was very fascinating and I loved reading about their story of faith though suffering and persecution from Parliament through the eyes of two young people in love. There is no need to worry about the theme of faith and religion making the writing seem 'preachy' for it is not like that at all.

Characterisation- I thought that the character of Susannah was right for the plot and the fact that she was a young Quaker. She was very innocent and has many questions about her faith but is strong inside and brave when it comes to the things that she cares about. However, although I liked her, I think that she could have been given more of a distinct personality.

Will is the character who undergoes the most change in the book after meeting Susannah and getting involved with the Quakers. I got the feeling that although it is hard for him to decide whether to defy his family and society to turn his back on everything he has ever known, he never really fitted into it that well in the first place. He has a lot of courage and is very caring but I must admit that pondering on it, some of the life changes that he chose to make and the changes in him were quite quick.

Anne Turnball definitely got me involved with with story without unrealistic excitement and twists happening in the story all the time but through compelling descriptions and human emotions and suffering.

No Shame, No Fear, had me rooting for the love of William and Susannah and sympathising with the Quakers and their battle with faith in a combination which kept me hooked.

Currently, I am reading the sequel to No Shame, No Fear, which is called Forged in the Fire- off to read it now!

Book Hop (4)

Welcome to any visitors who got here through the weekly Book Hop (a Book Party) organised by Jennifer (a BIG thank you!) @ Crazy for Books(http://www.crazy-for-books.com/) so that book bloggers can share their blog with other book lovers and also find a new blog to 'follow.' To get involved all you have to do is post your blog link at the bottom of the 'linky list' on Crazy For Books and 'Tell everone about what you are currently reading.'

I just finished reading No Shame No Fear by Anne Turball, which is set in 1662 and is about a young Quaker girl called Susannah who leaves home to work in a nearby town and a rich Alderman's son called Will. It is a story of love that shouldn't be in society and a group of people defying the law for their beliefs and standing up to society. I finished it in just over a day because I couln't ut it down so I will be reviewing it soon!

Feel free to let me know you've hopped over by leaving a comment

and I will be happy to visit your blog in the spirit of the hop.