Tag: fiction

Blog Tour/Review: The Renaissance Club by Rachel Dacus

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Blog Tour January 23, 2018 - February 23, 2018

I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Renaissance Club by Rachel Dacus.  You can read my review below.  If you’re interested in art history, Italy or just love a time travel romance, then this is the book for you.

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The Renaissance ClubAbout the Book

May Gold, college adjunct, often dreams about the subject of her master’s thesis – Gianlorenzo Bernini. In her fantasies she’s in his arms, the wildly adored partner of the man who invented the Baroque.

But in reality, May has just landed in Rome with her teaching colleagues and older boyfriend who is paying her way. She yearns to unleash her passion and creative spirit, and when the floor under the gilded dome of St Peter’s basilica rocks under her feet, she gets her chance. Walking through the veil that appears, she finds herself in the year 1624, staring straight into Bernini’s eyes. Their immediate and powerful attraction grows throughout May’s tour of Italy. And as she continues to meet her ethereal partner, even for brief snatches of time, her creativity and confidence blossom. All the doorways to happiness seem blocked for May-all except the shimmering doorway to Bernini’s world.

May has to choose: stay in her safe but stagnant existence, or take a risk. Will May’s adventure in time ruin her life or lead to a magical new one?

Praise for The Renaissance Club

‘Enchanting, rich and romantic…a poetic journey through the folds of time. In The Renaissance Club, passion, art, and history come together in this captivating tale of one woman’s quest to discover her true self and the life she’s meant to lead. Rachel Dacus deftly crafts a unique and spellbinding twist to the time-traveling adventure that’s perfect for fans of Susanna Kearsley and Diana Gabaldon’. [Kerry Lonsdale, Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author]

‘The Renaissance Club is a beautifully written story about a woman torn between two worlds – the present and the distant past. This time-travel adventure kept me guessing until the end about which world May would choose, and if that choice would be the right one. Highly recommended for lovers of time travel fiction or anyone looking for a compelling story about a woman trying to find happiness.’  [Annabelle Costa, Author of The Time Traveler’s Boyfriend]

‘The Renaissance Club shimmers with beauty, poetry, and art. Author Rachel Dacus sweeps her readers away to Italy with her, lifting the senses with the sights, sounds, and tastes of that stunning country; imparting her deep knowledge of Renaissance and Baroque art while immersing the reader in a gorgeously romantic story. This book is time travel at its best!’ [Georgina Young-Ellis, author of The Time Mistress series]

Format: eBook, paperback (274 pp.)  Publisher: Fiery Seas Publishing
Published: 23rd January 2018              Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Barnes and Noble ǀ  iBooks ǀ  Kobo
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Renaissance Club on Goodreads

My Review

Bernini1When I was contacted by Catherine at Fiery Seas Publishing about taking part in the tour, I was immediately attracted not only by the intriguing premise of The Renaissance Club but also by the fact that I’ve visited some of the Italian locations in the book – Rome and Venice.  I’ve even seen the Bernini sculptures at Villa Borghese in Rome – although I didn’t have a close encounter anything like May does.

The author uses the story of May’s travels around Italy with the other members of The Renaissance Club in an imaginative way to give the reader the story of Bernini’s life and work without the book ever feeling like an art history textbook.

May’s relationship with her boyfriend, Darren, is strained and what she experiences during her journey through Italy only seems to make their differences more apparent.  Although May feels gratitude towards Darren for bringing her on the trip, she feels frustrated at his unwillingness to commit to their future together.  They seem temperamentally very different as well.  He is ambitious and status driven, whilst May is more interested in exploring her creativity through writing poetry. When Darren remarks dismissively, “There’s not much money in writing poetry, is there?” May’s understandable reaction is to think his comments ‘eminently reasonable, but not exactly encouraging’.

At one point, initiated by Darren, they indulge in an academic debate over lunch about who was the better sculptor – Bernini or Michelangelo.  To my mind, the discussion that follows encapsulates the tensions in their relationship – it’s an argument loosely disguised as academic debate.   No surprise that Darren puts the case for Michelangelo, dismissing May’s adored Bernini as “a mere entertainer…a vaudevillian who equates art with spectacle…a showoff.”  May soon works out what’s really going on. ‘He was demolishing her idol with a savage analysis.  This wasn’t their usual game.  This was a fight.  She felt as if he were acting like a jealous lover.’

May, and her boss, Eva, both find their creativity awakened by their experiences on the tour.  For Eva it is getting up close and personal with the greatest Renaissance art, as represented by Michelangelo, that brings about this change and offers her the possibility of moving on from tragedies in her personal life.  For May, it is the master of the Baroque, Bernini, who gets her creative (and other) juices flowing.  Her creative outlet is poetry, the medium in which she can most effectively express her feelings and emotions.

As a reader, I felt almost transported to the various artistic sites The Renaissance Club visit on their tour thanks to the author’s wonderful descriptions of church interiors, frescoes and sculptures.  There are also some evocative descriptions of the cities the group visit on their tour: Rome, Siena, Assisi, Florence and Venice.  For example, this description of Rome: ‘Ancient city walls next to rough-piled medieval palazzos, Egyptian obelisks rising from Baroque fountains.  Rome was a hot mess of beauty.’  (I love that phrase ‘a hot mess of beauty’.  If you’ve ever been there, you’ll realise how apt it is.) Or this description of Venice: ‘White-domed churches shouldered next to palazzos of earthy colours, and the filigreed palaces, with fluted chimneys and Juliet balconies, were jewels against the blue sky.  Venice was the gaudy inheritance of a rich empire built on water, imagination, and bold ambition.’  The author also writes poetry and I got a real sense of this in some of the imaginative phrases and metaphors in the book.  For instance, as May feels herself slipping between past and present: ‘The city kept doing this to her, zigzagging through its eras so fast she had time-whiplash.’

I really enjoyed The Renaissance Club and found much to admire in it on a number of different levels.  I loved the imaginative use of the time travel aspect to provide an insight into Italian art of the Renaissance and the Baroque without feeling that I’d sat through a lecture on art history.  I enjoyed seeing the awakening of May’s creativity and the effect on her of Bernini’s energizing presence: ‘I need to learn to flow. Why do I always feel like I’m encased in stone?’.  And I found myself applauding the changes she decides to make in her life.  As the group’s remarkable tour guide, George, says, “Your life is yours to create, May.  Shape it like a poem, with imagination but also sense”.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of publishers, Fiery Sea Publishing, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

In three words: Imaginative, romantic, time travel

Try something similar…The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

Rachel DacusAbout the Author

Rachel Dacus is the daughter of a bipolar rocket engineer who blew up a number of missiles during the race-to-space 1950’s. He was also an accomplished painter. Rachel studied at UC Berkeley and has remained in the San Francisco area. Her most recent book, Gods of Water and Air, combines poetry, prose, and a short play on the afterlife of dogs. Other poetry books are Earth Lessons and Femme au Chapeau.

Her interest in Italy was ignited by a course and tour on the Italian Renaissance. She’s been hooked on Italy ever since. Her essay “Venice and the Passion to Nurture” was anthologized in Italy, A Love Story: Women Write About the Italian Experience. When not writing, she raises funds for non-profit causes and takes walks with her Silky Terrier. She blogs at Rocket Kid Writing.

Connect with Rachel

Website ǀ  Twitter ǀ  Goodreads

 

 

Throwback Thursday: The Existence of Pity by Jeannie Zokan

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ThrowbackThursday

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Renee at It’s Book Talk. It’s designed as an opportunity to share old favourites as well as books that we’ve finally got around to reading that were published over a year ago. If you decide to take part, please link back to It’s Book Talk.

Today I’m revisiting a fantastic book I read a while back, The Existence of Pity by Jeannie Zokan.

DEAL ALERT! Great news for those interested in reading the book – for a limited time you can snap up the Kindle edition for the special price of £0.99!

TheExistenceofPityAbout the Book

Growing up in a lush valley in the Andes mountains, sixteen-year-old Josie Wales is mostly isolated from the turbulence brewing in 1976 Colombia. As the daughter of missionaries, Josie feels torn between their beliefs and the need to choose for herself. She soon begins to hide things from her parents, like her new boyfriend, her trips into the city, and her explorations into different religions. Josie eventually discovers her parents’ secrets are far more insidious. When she attempts to unravel the web of lies surrounding her family, each thread stretches to its breaking point. Josie tries to save her family, but what happens if they don’t want to be saved?

Click here to view a selection of photographs Jeannie has taken of places that feature in the book alongside some short excerpts from The Existence of Pity.

To view the book trailer, click here

Format: eBook (240 pp.)                 Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Published: 14th November 2016   Genre: Contemporary Fiction, YA

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

Find The Existence of Pity on Goodreads

My Review

The Existence of Pity is a really interesting coming-of-age story set in the fascinating location of Cali, a city in Colombia.   I loved the insight the novel gives into the culture and landscape of Colombia – in fact, there could have been more of that for me. The picture of the missionary community, largely cut off from the indigenous population, with few contacts with the local people aside from those working as their maids, I found somewhat depressing.  However, I can appreciate that Colombia can be a dangerous place and that there was an element of personal safety considerations in that arrangement. Josie, the central character, is the one member of her family who seems to make an effort to connect with and absorb the atmosphere of the country and its people.

‘Cali was full of smells, each connected to a memory. Some, like the burning of sugar cane, reminded me of good-byes. The smell of the city – with its diesel fuel, cigarettes, and occasional aromas of cologne and bursts of air conditioning – was the smell of excitement and possibilities. The mountains’ mix of cool fresh air, rain, and coffee was sheer beauty. But the best smell, the one I knew even with my eyes closed, was our street. The smoky smell of the corner restaurant lingered among the fragrance of fruit trees, flowers and mown grass.’

Josie’s parents are Baptist missionaries and I did struggle with their certainty that their beliefs are ‘right’ and the people of Colombia need to be persuaded to jettison their own religious beliefs, to ‘see the light’ as it were. So I could really understand and appreciate Josie’s desire to explore other beliefs. I found her parents’ intolerance of her spiritual exploration and their unwillingness to believe her side of events that take place later in the novel quite at odds with their professed Christian spirit. Their hypocrisy, given what we learn as the novel progresses, is quite breathtaking too. And I really hated their treatment of their Colombian maid, Blanca.  I think you can tell from this that the author definitely succeeded in engaging me in the story!

I feel The Existence of Pity would make a perfect YA book as I think readers younger than myself might be able to identify better with Josie’s (to me, superficial) pre-occupations with which boys to date: ‘Tom was a good guy, and I really liked him, but did I like him enough to overlook things like his stupid hat.’ However, I really liked that Josie found a few people, include some Colombians, who were able to support her in a way her parents seemed unable to do.

The description of the book in the blurb – ‘a story of flawed characters told with heart and depth against the beautiful backdrop of Colombia’ – perfectly sums up this engaging, interesting novel.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author and publishers, Red Adept Publishing, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Emotional, coming-of-age, thoughtful

Try something similar…A Reluctant Warrior by Kelly Brooke Nicholls (click here to read my review)

JeannieZokanAbout the Author

Jeannie Zokan grew up in Colombia, South America, where she read almost every book in the American school she attended. Her love of books led her to study Library Science at Baylor University then to attend The George Washington University in DC. When the chance came to head south, she took her motorcycle to Florida’s Gulf Coast to write stories for the local newspaper. She now lives ten minutes from the beach with her husband, two teenage daughters, and three pets, all of whom keep her inspired and just a little frantic. She enjoys aerial yoga, tennis, and holding NICU babies as a volunteer. But there’s always writing. Writing to relive, writing to understand, writing to remember, writing to renew.

Connect with Jeannie

Website ǀ Blog ǀ Facebook ǀ Twitter ǀ Goodreads