Molly September, by Maggie Secara

Molly September
By Maggie Secara

I am on a never ending quest for female characters who are not female first and people second, and in Molly September I have found one.  Molly, as far as I was able to discern, is as self-actualized, as much her own person as any female character I have read, or for that matter written.  Brava, I say, brava!

This is the story of the daughter of a well-bred lady who fell in love with and eloped with a notorious privateer.  She has been in Port Royal in Jamaica for a short time being pushed into marriage with a brutal fop when she meets Dick Prentiss, the Jack-Sparrow-only-far-sexier  character in the book.  They are drawn together instantly, birds of a feather so to speak, and she, like her lamented slut of a mother, elopes with him as Maman did with her own scoundrel.  Molly proves an enthusiastic and skillful seaman herself.  The two and the crew of the ship Jealous Mary sail away into harrowing and sometimes quite deadly adventures always a step away from the vengeful plans of the jilted fop.  When twice it seems that Dick and Molly will never see each other again, the reader holds out hope and ... well you will have to read this thoroughly entertaining book to see what happens.

Let me get my few reservations out of the way, though, first, so I can start lavishing the book with my praise.  There were times, I am sorry to say, when I thought plot twists, like Molly's kidnapping by Armand, were in the book for the fun of writing them only, though in fact they do have importance to the final resolution.  I can't go so far as to say the subplots were gratuitous, and who cares anyway since they are so much fun?  The other thing i could have done without was the appearance of Lady Fortune,  a mystical creature, which I felt was inconsistent with the tenor of the rather natural, realistic novel.  Oh, and I really, really wanted an author's note.  Was it just not in the review copy?  I will decline to comment further on some tiny continuity problems.

OK, now I can get on with what I really wanted to say!  There are three aspects of this book I absolutely loved, in addition to it just being a heck of a fun read. 

First, the non-cartoonish nature of the characters.  Molly, as I said, is as much her own person as I could want.  She is so natural, so genuine and so in touch with herself she was precious to follow.  After her first sea battle, one in which she participated fully, she thinks "This is not women's business.  This is what I was born for!"    The pairing of those statements, and the liberating character of the second sentence, made me stop, nod, and say, "All right then!"  Nor is Molly the only simply real character.  I felt the author drew all of the many different characters just as honestly,  not at all the caricatures one might expect in a pirate adventure novel.  Each is suitably complex and therefore not always predictable and written clearly and satisfyingly.  And that goes for Dick Prentiss, Molly's love, and for the least member of the Jealous Mary's or any other ship's crew member for that matter.

Second, I loved the sex scenes.  They did what I always say sex scenes should do.  They reveal the characters in their most intimate  moments.  yes, these scenes were erotic, but they also told a story about love and about real care and concern for the lovers' partners.  They remained fresh and sweet, and I felt after each that I knew Molly and Dick, not to mention a couple other characters, so much better than I should have without them.

Finally, I adored the frequently poetic and original phrases.  I wish I could remember them all.  One I picked out was "Calmly, Armand backed off, black eyes reflecting light like soiled windows.."  There were lines about the sea, the ship, about the people and about their emotions that made me stop and savor the sheer perfection of them.  I know I will have to read this novel again just to savor them once more.  Next time I will write every last one of them down.

In short, this is a rollickign good read but with some quite aesthetic and literary jewels.

The author sent me a copy of this wonderful novel specifically for a review, sending me a file I could use on my Kindle 3.  She used the subject line "Have I got a book for you!"  I think I appreciated her chutzpah almost as much as I did a chance to add one more female character to the short list with whom I can identify.

Nan Hawthorne's Booking History: What Makes a Book Review Useful?

Nan Hawthorne's Booking History: What Make a Book Review Useful?: "I started That's All She Read as much to have a log of everything I read as to share my perspective with other readers, so there may be cha..."

Wine of Violence, by Priscilla Royal - Eleanor of Winethorpe mysteries

Wine of Violence

Priscilla Royal

Eleanor of Winethorpe mysteries

The first of the Eleanor of Winethorpe mysteries does more than introduce the reader to the regular characters of these novels set in the reign of Henry III after the defeat of Simon de Montfort. Set in a dual sex monastery called Tyndal, it brings up many of the conflicts that can arise in a society where religious vocation is often not the primary draw of monastic life. A woman might prefer to avoid a horrible death in childbirth or a man be given no choice because of his own birth or sexual inclinations, the potential harmony of the truly religious is threatened by the conflicting needs of those who enter the cloister. As the author says, though our image of a nun’s life might be patterned on Audrey Hepburn, reality was far more complex.

The old prioress has died and already there is conflict as the enigmatic message she passed on to her confessor is made the more obscure when he is murdered. The new prioress is an outsider, the twenty-year-old daughter of a Norman baron, and at first she is treated with resentment and suspicion. Coincidentally with her arrival is that of Brother Thomas, given the choice of a monastic life or death by fire for being caught in a homosexual act with a friend. The local crowner, which we would call the coroner, is called to investigate the murder, then finds himself called back first when Thomas is hit on the head while following a suspicious pair and then for the murder of a local man no one in the village will admit knowing. When someone tries to kill the new prioress, which is making many positive changes at the monastery, the reader is left with a number of possible suspects and motives. Is the sub-prior so resentful of a woman’s control he would kill her? Would the novice master kill to cover up his molestation of his charges? Are resentful Saxons embittered enough to be the culprits? Or is it none of these or some other combination?

Power struggles between the female-controlled order of monks and nuns is just part of the mix of dissonant elements in Wine of Violence. Older religious resent rule by younger. The Norman noble and the Saxon villager contend. Sexual tensions complicate matters both for heterosexual and homosexual members of the community. The corrupt struggle against those who may expose them. Secular and religious authorities further dither over jurisdiction. Is it any wonder that someone, or more that just one, choose to cut through the complications and just kill those who stand in the way?

Royal’s pragmatic overview of the many different people and personalities in a 1270 monastery makes this novel and no doubt all its sequels uniquely realistic. In her foreword she states directly that no concept is absent in any time even though its Time has not arrived yet. So strong intelligent women will be found in 13th century England, as will people whose affect ional preference is their own sex. How they were perceived and how they might have coped with being outside the accepted norm is the point of a novel like this. As she points out, while it might be a mistake to try to make medieval people think and act like modern, simple facts of human existence nevertheless cannot be overlooked.

Mysteries are not always profound but they can be, or at least they may pose profound questions that erupt from the violence of their subject matter. Wine of Violence is one such mystery with sensitive and sensible portrayals of the sort of people who would be outsiders in their own time.

As an aside, as I listened to the book on my Kindle 3 during a scene where the young prioress’s orange cat scares off her assailant, I was sitting with my own orange cat, likewise rescued from being “disposed of”, and I praised him in lieu of the novel’s charming feline.

Thanks to Priscilla Royal and her publisher for enabling text to speech so I could read, almost unable to put it down once I had started reading, this novel.

Beloved Pilgrim Now on Kindle and Amazon UK

NEWS!

 Beloved Pilgrim is now available in both print and on Kindle at Amazon.xom and in print and on Kindle at Amazon.co.uk!

Waterloo, by Bernard Cornwell - Richard Sharpe Adventure Series

Waterloo

Bernard Cornwell

Richard Sharpe Adventure Series

We are almost there.  My husband's and my marathon attempt to read every Richard Sharpe novel in chronological order is nearly at an end.  Waterloo is the second to last, at least at this date.  So far it is easily my favorite, but then I have become fond of the battle for some reason and even written a bit about it myself. Nothing published yet.  We only have Sharpe's Devil to go.  We've read it, but we will read it again, almost next.

In spite of his promise to Lucille, Our Hero heads to Belgium when he hears that Boney has escaped Elba and is apparently still able.  The allied armies are ready, sort of, to face L'Empereur but do not actually expect him any time soon.  They are getting ready for the ball of the season in Brussels when Sharpe, of course, is the one to alert Wellington to the advancing army.  "He's humbugged me!" Wellington admits.  The battles at Quatre Bras and Waterloo ensue, the British losing the first, and nearly losing the whole enchilada, during a novel that spans only a few days.  It is a highly documented battle, and Cornwell does justice to the complexity of the events.

By the way, if you saw the TV movie first, forget it.  The two bear only a glancing resemblance.  The book, as usual, takes the prize.

Undercurrents include Jane Sharpe and her lover Lord Rosendale showing up in Brussels, where Sharpe confronts the shaking Rosendale, says he can "keep the whore" but he wants his money.  Jane tells her lover that he should kill Sharpe during battle so they can marry.  Rosendale doesn't know she has an urgent need as she is now pregnant.  Another more satisfying undercurrent is Harper's arrival at Sharpe's side.  Although a civilian now, Harper has accepted Sharpe's invitation to join him to catch sight of Boney.  Perhaps the most historically ambiguous subplot is Sharpe's attachment to the retinue of the Prince of Orange, called "Slender Billy" and "the Young Frog", a Dutch prince whose youthful arrogance is only matched by his criminal ineptitude.  One wonders why he has not been shot by his own side..or perhaps he will.

Cornwell as usual weaves his familiar and beloved characters in and out of a well dramatized historical event, going farther to give the reader an understanding of why Napoleon, with fresher and larger forces, managed to get beaten.  It is absolutely fascinating.  And, of course, Sharpe is responsible for the most decisive action of the war, effectively winning the Battle of Waterloo.

My husband Jim read the book to me over successive nights.  We plan to follow our tradition and read my latest novel now that it is in print, then on to Sharpe's Devil.  Then our reading of the Sharpe novels will be done. We are  looking forward someday to reading the Sharpe novel Cornwell reportedly plans for the near future.

The Warrior's Path, by Catherine M. Wilson - When Women Were Warriors

The Warrior's Path
Catherine M. Wilson

When Women Were Warriors, Book I

I have been fascinated by attempts to write novels about societies where women and men are equals, but until I read this novel I had never actually found one that satisfied me.  When, back in the Pleistocene era, I was in college, I had the good luck to be offered a special topics class on women writers of science fiction.  Before I had read all the novels, I had come to the conclusion that no author could imagine a society where a sort of cultural rape was in the  inevitable future.  We've come some way since those were all written, but Wilson's is the first one I have read where the men and women characters work alongside one another and the men are not made the bad guys.  How refreshing!  And how important if we want to get away from the destructive side of the gender clash.

Tamras is a young woman who travels to the stronghold of the Lady Maren to join the household where her own mother was a warrior.  The Lady asks her to agree to become the companion of Maara, a warrior who came to the household from an uncertain past and whom the others in the household distrust.  Maara reluctantly allows Tamras to stay, but it is not until Maara is brought back heavily wounded from fighting with the warriors against cattle raiders and Tamras nurses her back to health that Maara truly accepts her.  Maara begins to teach her far more than a companion learns, more like an apprentice.  Maara's ways are different but Tamras soon learns their value.  Underlying their warrior/apprentice relationship run a current of Tamras trying to learn more about the mysterious warrior and her odd behavior, including sleepwalking characterized by violent episodes.  The leader of the warriors, Vintel, through her enmity with Maara, is a constant threat to both Tmras and the warrior.  Through Tamras's trust and utter devotion, others come to accept Maara, especially after Maara brings intelligence that saves them all.  Another underlying current is Tamras's friendship with another of the companions, Sparrow.  She is also a loner, having once been a slave.  The two young women become sexually involved causing some friction with their two warriors, Maara and Vintel.  There love scenes are sweet and satisfying to read.

This is a refreshingly told story with characters both familiar and just different enough to keep your interest.  Though no specific era and location are given, it works, partly because the first person narration makes that more credible and partly because this allows the reader to think about the society that is the setting without and coloration from historical tribes or epochs.  I decided to call this speculative historical fiction, though the author says many call it fantasy, because the setting is just too real and natural to fall under that rubric.

In this culture both women and men are warriors.  The matriarchy is firmly in place and women make up the tribal council, but it is definitely not a he vs. she tale.  I firmly believe we need books like this to offer an alternative to the lies we have been told for thousands of years about men's and women's natural roles and abilities.  Too much of what has written along these lines feeds into a tense detente between the genders.  Since both the histories of women in general and gays and lesbians is virtually nonexistent or fraught with bias and misrepresentation, it may fall to historical novelists to provide the next best thing.  How much  better if the "history" doesn't fall into myths just as destructive as the negative ones that predominate?

Archetypes are my specialty, so I looked for them here as in every novel.  The women characters are wonderfully diverse.  The Lady is the mother figure, but far from stereotyped, as she does not hesitate to use manipulation and dishonesty to protect her tribe.  Maara is the maverick, the outsider, while Vintel is the swaggering, aggressive fighter, a role usually reserved to a man.  Namet is the practical, insightful and merciful healer, though not officially, the actual healer being more in service to the group than the individual.  I especially enjoyed Gnith, the crone of crones, the discounted aged woman who spends all her time on the hearth observing and commenting with the wry humor and detachment of someone no longer entirely in this world.

If I have any regret about this first book of the trilogy it is that the tension with Vintel is overlooked in the final transformative event.  I really felt that this antagonist had to have had something to say or a chance to look annoyed or roll her eyes.

I fully intend to read the full trilogy.  The print copy is on Amazon , but I bought the ebook from Smashwords.  This meant I could listen to the novel on my Kindle 3, for which I am grateful.