A mix of fantasy and history that’s consistently intriguing and enjoyable.
As political turmoil roils medieval England, one girl’s ability to conjure magic may be the key to peace in DeLaurentis’ fantasy novel.
As Abrielle d’Alençon, the daughter of a knight, grows up in Chateau Montancien in Normandy, she slowly becomes aware of her supernatural abilities. One day, she changes the leaves of a tree into larks; the only witnesses are two boys—one of whom is her future husband, Jules. As she watches her family and friends become embroiled in the politics of the monarchy, she sees her mother, Lady Cherise, use her own magical premonitions to steer the present path to a better future for all. Also at Montancien is Earl Edouard de Montancien and his two sons, Curtis and Destin, who Lady Cherise predicts will end up in different roles than those that were chosen for them; Jules and Josette, his sister, are Curtis and Destin’s cousins. Vardon, the child of an abusive local weaver, takes a wayward path in life but later connects back to Abrielle and her friends. When King Richard dies and is succeeded by the mercurial and egotistical King John, the country and the lives of those around Abrielle are soon put in danger. The story, which starts in 1194 and leads up to the signing of the Magna Carta, delves into political intrigue of the era as well as painting a picture of the daily lives of people in medieval England and Normandy. The pace is steady and never falters, framing major historical events within engaging scenes. DeLaurentis also delivers wonderful imagery throughout, immersing readers in such settings as a Normandy chateau, English manors, and the city of Paris. Abrielle and Jules’ romance is appealing and wholesome, and it never sacrifices the characters’ complexity. DeLaurentis expertly give many characters their own distinct arcs, which all knit together into a compelling story.
A mix of fantasy and history that’s consistently intriguing and enjoyable.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73379-207-3
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Writing Studio LLC
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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