Category: Blog Tour

#BlogTour #BookReview The Paris Network by Siobhan Curham @bookouture

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The-Paris-Network---Blog-TourWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Paris Network by Siobhan Curham which is published today in paperback and as an ebook.  My thanks to Sarah Hardy for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Bookouture for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Sharon and Emma at Shaz’s Book Blog, Nat at Nat’s Bookish Corner and Julie at Bookish Jottings.

The Paris NetworkAbout the Book

Paris, 1940: He pressed the tattered book into her hands. ‘You must go to the café and ask at the counter for Pierre Duras. Tell him that I sent you. Tell him you’re there to save the people of France.’

Sliding the coded message in between the crisp pages of the hardback novel, bookstore owner Laurence slips out into the cold night to meet her resistance contact, pulling her woollen beret down further over her face. The silence of the night is suddenly shattered by an Allied plane rushing overhead, its tail aflame, heading down towards the forest. Her every nerve stands on end. She must try to rescue the pilot.

But straying from her mission isn’t part of the plan, and if she is discovered it won’t only be her life at risk…

America, years later: When Jeanne uncovers a dusty old box in her father’s garage, her world as she knows it is turned upside down. She has inherited a bookstore in a tiny French village just outside of Paris from a mysterious woman named Laurence.

Travelling to France to search for answers about the woman her father has kept a secret for years, Jeanne finds the store tucked away in a corner of the cobbled main square. Boarded up, it is in complete disrepair. Inside, she finds a tiny silver pendant hidden beneath the blackened, scorched floorboards.

As Jeanne pieces together Laurence’s incredible story, she discovers a woman whose bravery knew no bounds. But will the truth about who Laurence really is shatter Jeanne’s heart, or change her future?

Format: Paperback (414 pages)           Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date: 15th February 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Paris Network on Goodreads

Purchase links
Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

I was first introduced to the writing of Siobhan Curham when I read Beyond This Broken Sky in April 2021. Like the earlier book, The Paris Network alternates between two timelines. The first, set in 1993, concerns Jeanne who, following the death of her mother, discovers that her father has a secret in his past, one that directly affects her.  The second is set in wartime France in which the reader witnesses the events following the occupation of France by the Nazis through the eyes of Laurence, owner of a bookshop called The Book Dispensary.

I confess I wasn’t completely won over by the dual timeline structure. Perhaps because Laurence’s story was so powerful or because it was written in the first person, the sections concerning Jeanne felt very much secondary and I found myself eager to immerse myself again in Laurence’s story.

In her author’s note, Siobhan describes how her discovery of the important role books played during the German occupation of France inspired the writing of The Paris Network. As a booklover myself, this was an aspect of the book I really enjoyed. I loved the idea of Laurence dispensing literary ‘prescriptions’ to her customers in the form of books, or more often poems, individually tailored to their circumstances; to provide comfort, inspiration or solace. It’s just one way the author demonstrates the essential role that books play in Laurence’s life. They also provide her with sustenance through dark times. In fact, at one point she says, ‘Today for lunch I am dining on an appetiser of Little Women before a hearty feast of Flaubert’. This is all the more poignant given the food shortages the people of Laurence’s village experience as the German stranglehold on the population increases.

Books also become a form of resistance as Laurence creates a book club who read works of literature banned by the Nazis, including those illicitly published by the Resistance movement. (A list of the poems and books that feature can be found at the end of the book.) But Laurence is also inspired by General de Gaulle’s rallying call to the people of France to carry out other acts of resistance: secretly listening to BBC radio broadcasts even though radios are banned, painting V for victory signs or the word ‘Liberty’ on buildings, carrying coded messages and delivering leaflets for the Resistance or defying petty rules such as the ban on drinking wine on Sundays or the wearing of trousers by women.

However, acts of resistance have consequences and German reprisals for acts of sabotage or in defiance of rules are increasingly swift and savage, as Laurence discovers. Wartime relationships often form quickly and can be fleeting. Such is the case for Laurence. Facing a heartbreaking choice, she has to channel all the strength and courage of her heroine Joan of Arc.  As Jeanne and her father Wendell put together the final pieces of Laurence’s story, I was reminded of a famous quotation from Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities.

In three words: Emotional, dramatic, absorbing

Try something similar: Resistance by Eilidh McGinness

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Siobhan Curham Author PhotoAbout the Author

Siobhan Curham is an award-winning author, ghost writer, editor and writing coach. She has also written for many newspapers, magazines and websites, including The Guardian, Breathe magazine, Cosmopolitan, Writers’ Forum, DatingAdvice.com, and Spirit & Destiny. Siobhan has been a guest on various radio and TV shows, including Woman’s Hour, BBC News, GMTV and BBC Breakfast. And she has spoken at businesses, schools, universities and literary festivals around the world, including the BBC, Hay Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Bath Festival, Ilkley Festival, London Book Fair and Sharjah Reading Festival.

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#BlogTour #BookReview The City of Tears by Kate Mosse @RandomTTours @panmacmillan

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City of Tears BT PosterWelcome to the final stop on the blog tour for The City of Tears by Kate Mosse, which was published in paperback on 20th January 2022. My thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Pan Macmillan for my digital review copy. Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, Hayley at The Lotus Readers.

The City of TearsAbout the Book

August 1572: Minou Joubert and her family are in Paris for a Royal Wedding, an alliance between the Catholic Crown and the Huguenot King of Navarre intended to bring peace to France after a decade of religious wars. So too is their oldest enemy, Vidal, still in pursuit of a relic that will change the course of history. But within days of the marriage, thousands will lie dead in the streets and Minou’s beloved family will be scattered to the four winds…

A gripping, breathtaking novel of revenge, persecution and loss, the action sweeps from Paris and Chartres to the city of tears itself, Amsterdam.

Format: Paperback (560 pages)         Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Publication date: 20th January 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The City of Tears (The Burning Chambers #2) on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

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My Review

The City of Tears is the follow-up to the best-selling The Burning Chambers and the second book in a planned series following the fortunes of a cast of characters from 1562 to 1862. (The prologue gives a brief glimpse of the final part of the series.) If you’ve not read The Burning Chambers you need not worry because the author includes brief recaps of events in the first book and if, like me, you have limited knowledge of the Wars of Religion that are the backdrop to events in the book, the author’s Historical Note will tell you everything you need to know.

The book blends actual historical events, such as the St. Bartholomew’s Massacre, with the story of Minou and Piet Reydon, and their family. In this turbulent period of history, during which the conflict between Catholics and Protestants over religious doctrine swept across Europe, few families were left unaffected and the Reydon family are no exception.  Forced to flee France, the family become separated and Minou and Piet are left not knowing whether some of their loved ones are alive or dead. The decisions they are forced to make even threaten their previously strong relationship.  Yet, through it all, Minou never gives up hope of a reunion. ‘Even in the worst of times, it was a miracle how the human heart kept beating.’

In addition to wider geopolitical events affecting their lives, Vidal, their implacable enemy from the first book, remains in the picture. Now in a position of power within the Catholic faction, he is totally ruthless and a force to be reckoned with. A ‘malignant and vengeful man’, his actions are fuelled by a lethal combination of a desire for revenge, fanatical religious zeal and a sense of injustice. Although responsible for some unspeakable acts, one has to admit he does make a fantastic villain!

As might be expected from a series that will span three hundred years, the theme of inheritance features strongly, whether that’s by way of physical features, blood ties or ownership of assets and property. Alongside Vidal’s pursuit of relics of religious significance, objects handed down through the generations feature as well, precious memories of those who have gone before. Issues of displacement, the plight of refugees and religious intolerance remain, regrettably, only too familiar.

The historical detail in The City of Tears is evidence of the meticulous research for which the author has become renowned. The book has a great sense of place such that you can easily imagine yourself walking the streets of Paris or Amsterdam, the city of tears of the title. (To find out more about how Kate goes about research for her books you can read my write-up of her appearance at Henley Literary Festival 2021 here.) 

To plagiarise part of my review of The Burning Chambers, if you gave Mary Berry flour, butter, eggs and sugar, you could be absolutely sure she’d create the perfect Victoria sponge cake.  In the same way, in The City of Tears, Kate Mosse skilfully combines all the ingredients necessary for a deliciously satisfying historical fiction novel, including a thrilling and dramatic climax (even if, perhaps appropriately, there is the threat of soggy bottoms).

In three words: Gripping, authentic, dramatic

Try something similar: The Silver Wolf by J. C. Harvey

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Kate MosseAbout the Author

Kate Mosse is a number one international bestselling novelist, playwright and non-fiction writer. The author of eight novels and short story collections – including the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy (Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel) and Gothic fiction The Winter Ghosts and The Taxidermist’s Daughter, which she is adapting for the stage – her books have been translated into thirty-eight languages and published in more than forty countries. She is the Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and a regular interviewer for theatre & fiction events. Kate divides her time between Chichester in West Sussex and Carcassonne in south-west France.

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