Category: Read

#WWWWednesday – 28th February 2024

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

The Story CollectorThe Story Collector by Iris Costello (ARC, Penguin)

London, 1915: Tarot reader Katerina is trying to hold her life together amid the wartime chaos. When she opens a bakery that offers divination alongside sweet treats, she is hailed as a beacon of hope. But Katerina is hiding a dark truth that could cost her everything.

Germany, 1918: A mute British soldier is taken to a prisoner of war camp where he meets Miriam, a researcher. She is drawn to his gentle manner and secretly vows to help him. But soon she will have to make an impossible will she save the one she loves, or herself?

Cornwall, Present Recently widowed Edie is astonished to discover a mysterious box hidden in the wall of her newly cottage. As Edie starts to investigate, she uncovers a secret that has lain hidden for over a century…

A Tapestry of TreasonA Tapestry of Treason by Anne O’Brien (HQ via NetGalley)

Her actions could make history – but at what price?

1399: Constance of York, Lady Despenser, proves herself more than a mere observer in the devious intrigues of her magnificently dysfunctional family, The House of York.

Surrounded by power-hungry men, including her aggressively self-centred husband Thomas and ruthless siblings Edward and Richard, Constance places herself at the heart of two treasonous plots against King Henry IV.  Will it be possible for this Plantagenet family to safeguard its own political power by restoring either King Richard II to the throne, or the precarious Mortimer claimant?

Although the execution of these conspiracies will place them all in jeopardy, Constance is not deterred, even when the cost of her ambition threatens to overwhelm her.  Even when it endangers her new-found happiness.

With treason, tragedy, heartbreak and betrayal, this is the story of a woman ahead of her time, fighting for herself and what she believes to be right in a world of men.

Recently finished

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey (Penguin)

The Other Princess by Denny S. Bryce (Allison & Busby)

A Madras Miasma (Superintendent Le Fanu Mystery #1) by Brian Stoddart (Crime Wave Press)

Our Souls at Night by Kent Huruf (Picador)

What Cathy Will Read Next

DivaDiva by Daisy Goodwin (eARC, Aria via NetGalley)

In the glittering and ruthlessly competitive world of opera, Maria Callas is known simply as la divina: the divine one. With her glorious voice, instinctive flair for the dramatic and striking beauty, she’s the toast of the grandest opera houses in the world. Yet her fame has been hard won: raised in Nazi-occupied Greece by a mother who mercilessly exploited her, Maria learned early in life how to protect herself.

When she meets the fabulously rich shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, her isolation melts away. For the first time in her life, she believes she’s found a man who sees the woman rather than the legendary soprano. Desperately in love, Onassis introduces her to a life of unbelievable luxury, mixing with celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

And then, suddenly, it’s over. The international press announce that Onassis will marry the most famous woman in the world, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, leaving Maria to pick up the pieces.

Book Review – The Other Princess by Denny S. Bryce @AllisonandBusby

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About the Book

Book cover of The Other Princess by Denny S. Bryce

A princess enslaved becomes goddaughter to a queen.

By the time she was seven years old, Aina had been born into life as an Egbado princess, witnessed the brutal killing of her entire family, and had been enslaved to a rival chieftain. With a death sentence hanging over her head, she would also face being bartered as an exotic trophy, renamed and presented to the distant Queen Victoria as a ‘gift’.

From traumatic beginnings, Sarah Forbes Bonetta’s will to survive led her to negotiate Her Majesty’s court, cultivate friends in high places and to flourish in a world far removed from her rural African upbringing.

Format: eARC (384 pages) Publisher: Allison and Busby
Publication date: 22nd Fabruary 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Other Princess on Goodreads

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My Review

The Other Princess is the story of Aina, an Egbado princess saved from a brutal death at the hands of a rival African tribe or a life of enslavement, and brought to England as a ‘gift’ to Queen Victoria, becoming the Queen’s goddaughter. Renamed Sarah Forbes Bonetta, she is taught English and educated with a view to becoming a Christian missionary. Her fear of being returned to Africa and her eagerness to remain close to the royal household means she is forced to conform to expectations of how she should behave. This often involves her taming her independent spirit and suppressing her cultural identity. One gets the sense of her being a kind of social experiment; the turning of a ‘savage’ into an acceptable member of English society. And one, moreover, who will be expected to engage in reinforcing British colonialism in Africa and converting its people to Christianity.

Told in the first person, Sarah comes across as resilient, brave and intelligent. She quickly masters English and becomes a gifted pianist. There’s a nice scene in which she surprises Queen Victoria with her musical skill. Sarah’s life becomes one of relative privilege, for instance she forms a close friendship with Princess Alice, one of Queen Victoria’s daughters. And, as any young girl might, she enjoys the fancy clothes and parties that come with life close to the royal household. But this privilege comes at the price of inability to make her own life choices. This is starkly demonstrated towards the end of the book when Sarah is forced by the Queen, overwhelmed with grief at the death of Prince Albert, to make a difficult decision between pursuing her heart or being consigned to a life of penury. If I have one criticism of the book, it’s that the pacing seemed slightly off with the final years of Sarah’s life – which were actually quite eventful – covered relatively quickly.

The Other Princess is a fascinating, eye-opening story of survival but one tinged with sadness.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Allison and Busby via NetGalley.

In three words: Fascinating, enlightening, well-researched
Try something similar: The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph

About the Author

Author Denny S. Bryce

Denny S. Bryce’s previous novels include Wild Women and the Blues and In the Face of the Sun. Bryce is a professor on the MFA Creative Writing programme at Drexel University, a book critic for NPR, and has written for USA Today and Harper’s Bazaar. She traces her family back to Jamaica, Bermuda and Nigeria, the birthplace of Sarah Forbes Bonetta. Bryce lives in Savannah, Georgia. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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