Category: HF Reading Challenge

Book Review: Spirit of Lost Angels (The Bone Angel #1) by Liza Perrat

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SpiritofLostAngelsAbout the Book

Her mother executed for witchcraft, her father dead at the hand of a noble, Victoire Charpentier vows to rise above her poor peasant roots.

Forced to leave her village of Lucie-sur-Vionne for domestic work in Paris, Victoire is raped and threatened by her Marquis master, and must abandon her newborn, Rubie, on the church steps.  Accused of a heinous crime, Victoire is imprisoned in La Salpêtrière mental asylum, where she bonds with fellow prisoner, Jeanne de Valois – conwoman of the infamous Necklace Affair that brought down Queen Marie Antoinette. She dreams of escaping the asylum but wonders if the price of freedom – losing Jeanne – is worth it.

Enmeshed in the fervour of the 1789 Bastille storming, Victoire hears the name ‘Rubie’ called. Could her foundling daughter be alive, and living in Paris?

Spirit of Lost Angels traces the journey of a bone angel talisman passed down through generations of women of L’Auberge des Anges. Amidst the tumult of revolutionary France, it is a testament to the courage of women facing tragedy, betrayal and insanity.

Format: Paperback, ebook (378 pp.)    Publisher: Perrat Publishing
Published: 11th May 2012                       Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops) *links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

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My Review

In Spirit of Lost Angels, the author certainly puts her heroine through the mill!  Not to give too much away (although most of it’s in the book blurb), poor Victoire suffers poverty and near starvation, bereavement of close family members, rape, physical assault, false accusation, imprisonment and abduction.  Her experiences are played out against the turbulent backdrop of the French Revolution with Victoire witnessing some of the climatic events such as the storming of the Bastille.  I really liked the walk-on parts for real life figures such as Thomas Jefferson and Mary Wollstonecraft and the references to political and philosophical thinkers such as Voltaire and Rousseau.

It’s a ripping yarn that fairly zips along but with some well-researched and fascinating detail about life for those living in poverty in the countryside and in the squalid streets of Paris.  Here, the poor of the city exist cheek by jowl with the nobility who, in contrast, live a life of luxury, extravagance, debauchery and excess.   Some of the most powerful scenes in the book take place in La Salpêtrière mental asylum – the descriptions of the treatment of the inmates being truly chilling.

During the course of the book, Victoire evolves from innocent abroad to persecuted and friendless girl, to informed and cultured young woman – not forgetting her role as angel of vengeance, of course.    The author keeps the reader on tenterhooks to find out if Victoire will eventually find peace and contentment and be reunited with the daughter she was forced to abandon.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Spirit of Lost Angels is the second book in my 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge.  You can see the complete list here.

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Liza PerratAbout the Author

Liza grew up in Wollongong, Australia, where she worked as a general nurse and midwife for fifteen years.  When she met her French husband on a Bangkok bus, she moved to France, where she has been living with her family for twenty years. She works part-time as a French-English medical translator, and as a novelist.

Since completing a creative writing course ten years ago, several of her short stories have won awards, notably the Writers Bureau annual competition of 2004 and her stories have been published widely in anthologies and small press magazines. Her articles on French culture and tradition have been published in international magazines such as France Magazine, France Today and The Good Life France.

Spirit of Lost Angels is the first in the French historical “The Bone Angel” series set against a backdrop of rural France during the French Revolution. The second in the series, Wolfsangel, set during the WWII Nazi Occupation of France, was published in October, 2013. The third, Blood Rose Angel, set during the 14th century Black Plague years was published in November, 2015.  The Silent Kookaburra, a 1970s Australian psychological suspense novel, was published in November, 2016.  Friends, Family and Other Strangers is a collection of humorous, horrific and entertaining short stories set in Australia.

Liza is a founding member of the Author Collective, Triskele Books and regularly reviews books for Bookmuse.

To receive a FREE copy of Ill-fated Rose, the short story that inspired ‘The Bone Angel’ series, sign up for Liza’s newsletter here.

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Book Review: The Concubine’s Child by Carol Jones

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The Concubine's ChildAbout the Book

In 1930s Malaya a sixteen-year-old girl, dreaming of marriage to her sweetheart, is sold as a concubine to a rich old man desperate for an heir. Trapped, and bullied by his spiteful wife, Yu Lan plans to escape with her baby son, despite knowing that they will pursue her to the ends of the earth.

Four generations later, her great-grandson, Nick, will return to Malaysia, looking for the truth behind the facade of a house cursed by the unhappy past. Nothing can prepare him for what he will find.

This exquisitely rich novel brings to life a vanished world – a world of abandoned ghost houses, inquisitive monkeys, smoky temples and a panoply of gods and demons. A world where a poor girl can be sold to fulfil a rich man’s dream. But though he can buy her body, he can never capture her soul, nor quench her spirit.

Format: ebook, hardcover (384 pp.)                  Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 1st April (ebook), 31st May 2018  (hardcover) Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ  Amazon.com ǀ Kobo | Google Play | iBooks | Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Concubine’s Child on Goodreads

My Review

When Yu Lan’s father, an apothecary, contracts her to be the ‘second wife’ or concubine of rich mine owner, Chan Boon Siew, she has no idea what lies in store for her.  As well as the unwelcome attentions of her new husband eager to beget the sons that his first wife has been unable to provide, Yu Lan has to cope with life as a virtual prisoner in their home and the jealousy of Chan’s first wife.  It turns out that the role of ‘second wife’ amounts to that of a second-class citizen with none of the ‘rights’ or position of respect granted to a first wife.  ‘But as a concubine, a chieh, her husband would decide when and if she might visit her birth family.  As a concubine, she would receive no dowry of gold and jewellery, own no property. She wouldn’t return to her parents’ home on the third day after the wedding with gifts of roast pig and other delicacies….There would be no red posters outside the apothecary’s shop announcing to all that her father was receiving a gifted son-in-law into their family.’

Furthermore, as events unfold, Yu Lan is forced to see Mrs. Chan usurp the role of mother to the son to whom she gives birth.  Initially cowed into submission, Yu Lan eventually finds help and friendship in the person of Ho Jie, amah to the Chan household and a so-called ‘self-combed woman’.   In due course, Yu Lan finds the courage to fight back in a way that will have repercussions down the years.

I’ve previously confessed that I sometimes have problems with books that have a dual timeline structure; often I find the story set in the past much more compelling than that set in the present day.  I’m pleased to report that, in the case of The Concubine’s Child, although I did find Yu Lan’s story the most absorbing, the modern day story also held my attention – not least because of the curved ball the author delivers part way through the book.

The modern day story, as well as being a search for answers about Nick’s family history, is also an insightful portrait of a marriage under strain.  It’s a marriage where the intense flames of first love have died down, not helped by Nick’s decision to accept an academic posting in Kuala Lumpur that will mean him and his wife, Sarah, spending months apart.    Eventually, Sarah will face heartbreaking choices about their life together.

Although set in Kuala Lumpur, the book is full of fascinating detail about Chinese customs, festivals, clothing and food.  And there are some evocative descriptions of the landscape and wildlife of Malaysia.  ‘A chorus of cicadas greeted them as they stepped onto a path that wound through thick forest.  It followed the course of a river that cascaded over boulders in a gradual descent down the mountain.  Small lizards poked their heads out from under decaying leaves that carpeted the jungle floor, while the occasional centipede scurried underfoot.  Above them the trees echoed with the chatter of monkeys and unfamiliar birdcalls.’

The Concubine’s Child is a powerful story of love, loss and of history repeating itself.  Oh, and that revenge is a dish best served cold…and perhaps stinky?

You can read a fantastic guest post here from Carol about how her first trip to Malaysia provided the inspiration for the setting of her novel. Oh, and her experiences of naughty macaques.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Head of Zeus, and NetGalley in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Compelling, atmospheric, emotional

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Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbHAbout the Author

Born in Brisbane, Australia, Carol Jones taught English and Drama at secondary schools before working as an editor of children’s magazines. She is the author of several young adult novels as well as children’s non-fiction.

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