Category: Reviews

#BookReview #Ad The Lace Weaver by Lauren Chater @AllisonandBusby

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The Lace WeaverAbout the Book

1941, Estonia. As Stalin’s brutal Red Army crushes everything in its path, Katarina and her family survive only because their precious farm produce is needed to feed the occupying forces.

Fiercely partisan, Katarina battles to protect her grandmother’s precious legacy – the weaving of gossamer lace shawls stitched with intricate patterns that tell the stories passed down through generations.

While Katarina struggles to survive the daily oppression, another young woman is suffocating in her prison of privilege in Moscow. Yearning for freedom and to discover her beloved mother’s Baltic heritage, Lydia escapes to Estonia.

Facing the threat of invasion by Hitler’s encroaching Third Reich, Katarina and Lydia and two idealistic young soldiers, insurgents in the battle for their homeland, find themselves in a fight for life, liberty and love.

Format: eARC (352 pages)                           Publisher: Allison & Busby
Publication date: 19th January 2023 [2018] Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

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My Review

Being an avid reader of historical fiction set during World War Two, I was attracted to The Lace Weaver by the fact it is set in Estonia. Although I’ve visited Tallinn, I knew very little about Estonia’s history and certainly not about the period covered by the book during which the country was occupied by the Soviet Union and then by the Nazis with Germany initially being looked upon as Estonia’s saviour. As we learn, it didn’t work out like that.

First published in 2018, I doubt if Lauren Chater could have imagined at the time how the situation facing Estonia described in the novel – a small country threatened by a much more powerful neighbour whose stated aim is to bring it within its orbit – would have such similarities with the situation facing Ukraine today.  Indeed, if applied to Ukraine, President Putin might well agree with Russian officer Lieutenant Lubov when he insists, ‘The Baltics have always belonged to Russia. She has just welcomed them back to the fold’.

Ostensibly Katarina and Lydia represent different sides of the conflict. Katarina, born and brought up in Estonia, is determined to ensure her country’s culture, such as the making of traditional lace shawls, survives for the day when Estonia is restored to independence. It also acts as a silent form of resistance when more active resistance brings only death.  Lydia seemingly represents everything Estonia is fighting against, innocently absorbing the propaganda that Estonia is prospering under Soviet rule when, as we witness, the opposite is the case. Much of the population are starving having been robbed of their property as part of Stalin’s policy of collectivisation.  Lydia has her own personal link to Estonia through her mother and her own reasons for wanting to flee Russia when she discovers the truth about her parentage. However, being a Russian in Estonia at that time brings its risks.

The author brings us moments of high drama as the worst excesses of both the Soviet and German occupations of Estonia play out. It starts with confiscation of property, travel restrictions and attempts to destroy the culture of the country, such as outlawing its language, and progresses to forced deportation, the persecution of Jews and other minorities, and eventually to mass murder and the horror of the concentration camps. There are scenes of brutality and cruelty that are hard to stomach, even more so because they are based on historical fact.

In time of war, it’s perhaps understandable that people will snatch at any chance of happiness.  After all, who knows what tomorrow will bring or even if there will be a tomorrow? Katarina and Lydia both become involved in romantic relationships. I found Katarina’s more believable given that it developed from a childhood friendship into something more. Lydia’s was less credible being the product of a convenient chance encounter.

The book’s title is a bit of a misnomer as Estonian shawls of the kind featured in the book are knitted from wool not woven. Indeed, Kati and the other women themselves refer to their gatherings as ‘knitting circles’. Maybe ‘The Lace Knitter’ didn’t sound as good as a title? I found it difficult to visualise the lace patterns mentioned, which also form the chapter headings. It would have been helpful to have illustrations of them and while I’m at it perhaps a map of Estonia and a glossary too? This might have helped me appreciate the extent of the forest in which those displaced took shelter and which acted as the base for the Estonian partisans known as the Forest Brothers.

The Lace Weaver shines a light on events in a little known theatre of war. Those who like to be immersed in actual historical events will find much to appreciate in the book. And those who love an element of romance in their historical fiction won’t be disappointed either.

My thanks to Allison & Busby for my review copy received via NetGalley.

In three words: Romantic, powerful, moving

Try something similar: Daughters of War by Dinah Jeffries

Lauren ChaterAbout the Author

After working in the media sector for many years, Lauren Chater turned her passion for reading and research into a professional pursuit. The Lace Weaver was her debut, and her most recent novel is The Winter Dress. She is currently completing her Masters of Cultural Heritage through Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. (Photo: Twitter profile)

Connect with Lauren
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

My Week in Books – 15th January 2023

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MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared my review of historical novel, Bellatrix by Simon Turney as part of the blog tour.  

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Most Anticipated Books Publishing in the First Half of 2023.

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Thursday – I shared my review of literary thriller, My Father’s House by Joseph O’Connor, which will be published on 26th January. 

Saturday – I published my review of historical thriller, The English Führer by Rory Clements, which will be published on 19th January.

New arrivals

Other Worlds Were PossibleOther Worlds Were Possible by Joss Sheldon (eARC, Rebel Books)

Sunny and his kinfolk were content with their way of life. During the dry season, their clan lived alone. They hunted whenever they chose, gathered an array of plants, told stories, and took part in debates. In the rainy season, they united with the rest of their tribe. They formed a temporary city, feasted, held dances and played games. They could have lived like this forever. But a strange and foreign people had ideas of their own…

Appearing out of nowhere, these aliens looked completely different. They smelled different. They even dressed differently. And they had the most peculiar set of habits. These people did not live with the earth. They exploited the earth; imposing monocultures and intensive farming. They were not content with their lot. They were possessed by an insatiable desire to consume. And they had no sense of freedom. They were beholden to a never-ending list of outlandish concepts; things such as “Hierarchy”, “Patriarchy”, “Monarchy”, “Monogamy”, “God”, “Punishments”, “Ownership”, “Inequality”, “Money”, “Work” and “Tax”.

Sunny and his kinfolk faced the toughest decision in their history… They could wage war on these imposters. But their enemies were strong. They had already killed hundreds-of-thousands of indigenous people. They could flee. But these imperialists would surely follow. They would push them into the sea, the mountains or the desert.

Their clan needed another solution. But what could it be? Could they negotiate with this violent foe? Could they form a pact? Could they create a kind of alliance?

Sunny had no idea. But he was compelled by a duty to find out. This was his time. And he was willing to risk his life, to save the people he loved…

Nothing SpecialNothing Special by Nicole Flattery (eARC, Bloomsbury via NetGalley)

New York City, 1966. Seventeen-year-old Mae lives in a run-down apartment with her alcoholic mother and her mother’s sometimes-boyfriend, Mikey. She is turned off by the petty girls at her high school, and the sleazy men she typically meets. When she drops out, she is presented with a job offer that will remake her world entirely: she is hired as a typist for the artist Andy Warhol.

Warhol is composing an unconventional novel by recording the conversations and experiences of his many famous and alluring friends. Tasked with transcribing these tapes alongside several other girls, Mae quickly befriends Shelley and the two of them embark on a surreal adventure at the fringes of the countercultural movement. Going to parties together, exploring their womanhood and sexuality, this should be the most enlivening experience of Mae’s life. But as she grows increasingly obsessed with the tapes and numb to her own reality, Mae must grapple with the thin line between art and voyeurism and determine how she can remain her own person as the tide of the sixties sweeps over her.

Dead of NightDead of Night by Simon Scarrow (eARC, Headline via NetGalley)

Berlin. January 1940. After Germany’s invasion of Poland, the world is holding its breath and hoping for peace. At home, the Nazi Party’s hold on power is absolute.

One freezing night, an SS doctor and his wife return from an evening mingling with their fellow Nazis at the concert hall. By the time the sun rises, the doctor will be lying lifeless in a pool of blood.

Was it murder or suicide? Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is told that under no circumstances should he investigate. The doctor’s widow, however, is convinced her husband was the target of a hit. But why would anyone murder an apparently obscure doctor? Compelled to dig deeper, Schenke learns of the mysterious death of a child. The cases seem unconnected, but soon chilling links begin to emerge that point to a terrifying secret.

Even in times of war, under a ruthless regime, there are places in hell no man should ever enter. And Schenke fears he may not return alive . . .

Rivers of TreasonRivers of Treason by K. J. Maitland (eARC, Headline via NetGalley)

From the stark Yorkshire landscape to the dark underbelly of Jacobean London, Daniel Pursglove’s new mission sees him fall prey to a ruthless copycat killer…

London, 1607. As dawn breaks, Daniel Pursglove rides north, away from the watchful eye of the King and his spies. He returns, disguised, to his childhood home in Yorkshire – with his own score to settle. The locals have little reason to trust a prying stranger, and those who remember Daniel do so with contempt.

When a body is found with rope burns about the neck, Daniel falls under suspicion. On the run, across the country, he is pursued by a ruthless killer whose victims all share the same gallows mark. Are these the crimes of someone with a cruel personal vendetta – or has Daniel become embroiled in a bigger, and far more sinister, conspiracy?

A new river of treason is rising, flowing from the fields of Yorkshire right to the heart of the King’s court . . .

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: The Lace Weaver by Lauren Chater 
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2023
  • Book Review: The New Life by Tom Crewe
  • Book Review: Becoming Ted by Matt Cain