WWW Wednesdays – 21st August ‘19

 

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 Outrageous Fortune of Abel MorganThe Outrageous Fortune of Abel Morgan by Cynthia Jeffries (ebook, courtesy of Allison & Busby and Random Things Tours)

1660, England. War is at an end, yet for Christopher Morgan his personal conflict rages on. Haunted by the tragic death of his wife, Christopher is desperate to escape the pain her memory brings, although looking into the eyes of his young son, Abel, he cannot help but be reminded of what he has lost.

Over time, father and son develop a strong bond until they are callously torn apart when Abel is snatched by smugglers and sold overseas. From the shores of Constantinople to the coast of Jamaica, time and tide keep them apart. Christopher will sail across oceans to find Abel, never losing faith that one day they will be reunited, and, as the years pass, Abel will learn that fortune favours the brave.

the mathematical bridgeThe Mathematical Bridge by Jim Kelly (hardcover, review copy courtesy of Allison & Busby)

Cambridge, 1940. It is the first winter of the war, and snow is falling. When an evacuee drowns in the river, his body swept away, Detective Inspector Eden Brooke sets out to investigate what seems to be a deliberate attack. The following night, a local electronics factory is attacked, and an Irish republican slogan is left at the scene. The IRA are campaigning to win freedom for Ulster, but why has Cambridge been chosen as a target? And when Brooke learns that the drowned boy was part of the close-knit local Irish Catholic community, he begins to question whether there may be a connection between the boy’s death and the attack at the factory. As more riddles come to light, can Brooke solve the mystery before a second attack claims a famous victim?


Recently finished (click on title for review)

The Tides BetweenThe Tides Between by Elizabeth Jane Corbett (ebook, courtesy of the author and Odyssey Books)

In 1841, on the eve of her departure from London, Bridie’s mother demands she forget her dead father and prepare for a sensible, adult life in Port Phillip. Desperate to save her childhood, fifteen-year-old Bridie is determined to smuggle a notebook filled with her father’s fairy tales to the far side of the world.

When Rhys Bevan, a soft-voiced young storyteller and fellow traveller realises Bridie is hiding something, a magical friendship is born. But Rhys has his own secrets and the words written in Bridie’s notebook carry a dark double meaning.

As they inch towards their destination, Rhys’s past returns to haunt him. Bridie grapples with the implications of her dad’s final message. The pair take refuge in fairy tales, little expecting the trouble it will cause.

Ike and KayIke and Kay by James MacManus (ebook, courtesy of Duckworth Books)

In 1942, Cork-born Kay Summersby’s life is changed forever when she is tasked with driving General Eisenhower on his fact-finding visit to wartime London. Despite Eisenhower’s marriage to Mamie, the pair takes an immediate liking to one another and he gifts Kay a rare wartime luxury: a box of chocolates.

So begins a tumultuous relationship that against all military regulation sees Kay travelling with Eisenhower on missions to far flung places before the final assault on Nazi Germany. She becomes known as “Ike’s shadow” and in letters Mamie bemoans his new obsession with ‘Ireland’. That does not stop him from using his influence to grant Kay US citizenship and rank in the US army, drawing her closer when he returns to America. When the US authorities discover Eisenhower’s plans to divorce from his wife they threaten the fragile but passionate affair and Kay is forced to take desperate measures to hold onto the man she loves…


What Cathy (will) Read Next

The Stationmaster's DaughterThe Stationmaster’s Daughter by Kathleen McGurl (ebook, courtesy of HQ Digital and Rachel’s Random Resources)

As the last train leaves, will life ever be the same?

Dorset, 1935 – Stationmaster Ted has never cared much for romance. Occupied with ensuring England’s most beautiful railway runs on time, love has always felt like a comparatively trivial matter. Yet when he meets Annie Galbraith on the 8.42 train to Lynford, he can’t help but instantly fall for her.

But when the railway is forced to close and a terrible accident occurs within the station grounds, Ted finds his job and any hope of a relationship with Annie hanging in the balance…

Present day – Recovering from heartbreak after a disastrous marriage, Tilly decides to escape from the bustling capital and move to Dorset to stay with her dad, Ken.  When Ken convinces Tilly to help with the restoration of the old railway, she discovers a diary hidden in the old ticket office. Tilly is soon swept up in Ted’s story, and the fateful accident that changed his life forever.

But an encounter with an enigmatic stranger takes Tilly by surprise, and she can’t help but feel a connection with Ted’s story in the past…

#BookReview The Tides Between by Elizabeth Jane Corbett @OdysseyBooks @lizziejane

 

The Tides BetweenAbout the Book

She fancied herself part of a timeless chain without beginning or end, linked only by the silver strong words of its tellers.

In the year 1841, on the eve of her departure from London, Bridie’s mother demands she forget her dead father and prepare for a sensible, adult life in Port Phillip. Desperate to save her childhood, fifteen-year-old Bridie is determined to smuggle a notebook filled with her father’s fairytales to the far side of the world.

When Rhys Bevan, a soft-voiced young storyteller and fellow traveller realises Bridie is hiding something, a magical friendship is born. But Rhys has his own secrets and the words written in Bridie’s notebook carry a dark double meaning.  As they inch towards their destination, Rhys’s past returns to haunt him. Bridie grapples with the implications of her dad’s final message. The pair take refuge in fairytales, little expecting the trouble it will cause.

Format: Paperback, ebook (300 pp.)         Publisher: Odyssey Books
Published: 20th October 2017        Genre: Historical Fiction, YA

Purchase Links*

Amazon.co.uk ǀ Kobo  
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Tides Between on Goodreads


My Review

The author conveys in convincing detail the terrible conditions endured by those, like Bridie and her mother and stepfather, travelling in steerage: the heat below deck, the cramped accommodation, lack of privacy and risk of disease. Not to mention the terrible seasickness caused by the motion of the ship. There are particularly vivid descriptions of the terror experienced by the passengers as the ship rides out storms on the voyage, not least those in steerage where the order ‘batten down the hatches’ means them literally being sealed below decks.

For Bridie, the storytelling sessions she shares with Rhys and his wife, Sian, provide a welcome distraction from the privations of the voyage, her continuing grief at the death of her father and her difficult relationship with her mother’s new husband, Alf, that cause her to misunderstand and reject his attempts to guide her and prepare her for their new life in Australia. In addition, Bridie must come to terms with the signs that she is moving from childhood to being of marriageable age.

The emigrants undertaking the long and arduous voyage to Australia are doing so in the hope that a new and better life with more opportunities awaits them. But some, including Rhys and Sian, are also keen to leave behind the past and avoid discovery of secrets they wish to keep hidden. However, from time to time there are precious snatched moments of conviviality as the passengers come together to sing songs and listen to stories, especially those performed by Rhys and Sian.

Tragedy awaits many of those who undertake the voyage and even when they arrive at their destination it’s clear more challenges await them. The open-ended nature of the book’s conclusion means the reader can indulge their own imagination about Bridie’s future… or possibly await a sequel?

The Tides Between is an absorbing, skilfully crafted coming-of-age story that takes the reader – like Bridie and her fellow passengers – on an often turbulent and emotional journey.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author. Find out more about Elizabeth’s writing journey and the inspiration for the book in her Q&A with bookblogger, Linda Hill.

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In three words: Emotional, dramatic, immersive

Try something similar: Fled by Meg Keneally (read my review here)


Elizabeth Jane CorbettThe Tides Between TeaserAbout the Author

When Elizabeth Jane Corbett isn’t writing, she works as a librarian, teaches Welsh at the Melbourne Celtic Club, writes reviews and articles for the Historical Novel Society and blogs at elizabethjanecorbett.com.

In 2009, her short-story, ‘Beyond the Blackout Curtain’, won the Bristol Short Story Prize. Another, ‘Silent Night’, was short listed for the Allan Marshall Short Story Award. An early draft of her debut novel, The Tides Between, was shortlisted for a HarperCollins Varuna manuscript development award.

Elizabeth lives with her husband, Andrew, in a renovated timber cottage in Melbourne’s inner-north. She likes red shoes, dark chocolate, commuter cycling, and reading quirky, character driven novels set once-upon-a-time in lands far, far away.

Connect with Elizabeth

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