Tag: giveaway

Book Review: A Pivotal Right (Shaking the Tree#2) by K. A. Servian

whatcathyreadnext

04_A Pivotal Right_Blog Tour Banner_FINAL

I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for A Pivotal Right by K. A. Servian.  A Pivotal Right is the second book in the author’s ‘Shaking the Tree’ series and the sequel to A Moral Compass.  I read A Moral Compass last year and really enjoyed it so I was thrilled when Amy at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours contacted me about taking part in the tour for A Pivotal Right.  Read my review below.

You can see the other great book bloggers taking part on the tour page along with links to their reviews of the book, extracts and other content.  If you’re a US resident, the tour page is also where you can enter the giveaway for a chance to win one of 10 ecopies of The Moral Compass.  Please read the terms and conditions for the giveaway.

A Pivotal RightAbout the Book

Florence struggled for breath as she stared into the face of a ghost. “Jack?”

Twenty years after being forced apart Jack and Florence have been offered a second chance at love. But can they find their way back to each other through all the misunderstandings, guilt and pain?

And what of their daughter, Viola? Her plan to become a doctor is based on the belief she has inherited her gift her medicine from Emile, the man she believed was her father. How will she reconcile her future with the discovery that she is Jack’s child?

Format: Paperback, ebook (428 pp.)    Publisher: Sweetpea Publishing
Published: 15th August 2018         Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

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

Find A Pivotal Right (Shaking the Tree #2) on Goodreads

My Review

Although A Pivotal Right can be read as a standalone, for maximum enjoyment I would recommend starting with the first book in the series, A Moral Compass, not least because the importance of the role of one character in the first book will only become clear to new readers some way through the second.  However, there is plenty of recapping of events in the first book for the new reader starting with A Pivotal Right.

In fact, readers starting the series with A Pivotal Right will find themselves in much the same position as Florence’s daughter, Viola; learning surprising things about her mother’s past in a series of unexpected, and at times shocking, revelations.  I found Viola an engaging character: independent-minded, ambitious, a little headstrong at times but displaying the same belief in equality and fairness as her principled mother (including in the ‘pivotal right’ of universal suffrage).

The book has some swift changes in location and timeline as events of the twenty years between A Moral Compass and A Pivotal Right are revealed.    At times, there is a sense of history repeating itself as Viola undergoes a traumatic experience that  mirrors her mother’s similar experience years before.  (The author certainly does like to create some really amoral characters.) As the events of the book unfold, many of the characters face moral choices between following their heart or fulfilling their responsibilities to others and between staying true to their principles or standing by promises made long ago.

One of the things that originally drew me to the first book in the series, A Moral Compass, was the New Zealand setting.  I did find myself wishing for a little more local colour, as the New Zealand that Florence and Viola experience in A Pivotal Right is predominantly ‘European’: taking tea with other ladies, leaving calling cards, attending church.   The indigenous population is largely absent.  I did enjoy the brief foray outside Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch when Viola and her companion, Matilda, travel to a remote sheep station.

A few potentially intriguing story lines were briefly introduced but not fully developed, such as Florence’s brother’s interracial marriage, the simmering conflict between the indigenous Maoris and European settlers and the campaign for women’s suffrage in New Zealand (although the latter two are covered in the author’s interesting historical notes at the end of the book).  Maybe the author will explore these in future books.

A Pivotal Right kept me thoroughly entertained with its gradual reveal of the events in the twenty years since the reader said goodbye to Florence and Jack at the end of the first book.  It’s a story of missed opportunities, misunderstandings and secrets but also of the possibility of second chances in life and love.  I was excited to see at the end of the book a reference to a third in the series, Slaves in Petticoats, billed as ‘coming soon’.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author and Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In three words: Appealing, historical, romance

Try something similar…A Moral Compass by K. A. Servian (read my spoiler free review here)

K A ServianAbout the Author

As a life-long creative, Kathy gained qualifications in fashion design, applied design to fabric and jewellery making and enjoyed a twenty-year-plus career in the fashion and applied arts industries as a pattern maker, designer and owner of her own clothing and jewellery labels.

She then discovered a love of teaching and began passing on the skills accumulated over the years: design, pattern-making, sewing, Art Clay Silver, screen-printing and machine embroidery to name a few.

Creative writing started as a self-dare to see if she had the chops to write a manuscript. Writing quickly became an obsession and Kathy’s first novel, Peak Hill, which was developed from the original manuscript, was a finalist in the Romance Writers of New Zealand Pacific Hearts Full Manuscript contest in 2016.

Kathy now squeezes full-time study for an advanced diploma in creative writing in around working on her novels, knocking out the occasional short story, teaching part-time and being a wife and mother.

Connect with Kathy

Website  ǀ  Blog | Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads

Book Blast: A Different Kind of Fire by Suanne Schafer

whatcathyreadnext1 Comment

04_ADKOF_Book Blast Banner_FINAL

I’m delighted to be taking part in the celebrations to mark publication day of A Different Kind of Fire by Suanne Schafer.  Watch the book trailer here.

WinFor US readers only, there’s a giveaway with a chance to win a Fiery Bookish Prize Pack, including a literary scarf, beaded velvet bookmark, a copy of A Different Kind of Fire and a $10 Amazon Gift Card! Read the terms and conditions and enter via the form on the tour page here.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

02_A Different Kind of FireAbout A Different Kind of Fire

Ruby Schmidt has the talent, the drive, even the guts to enrol in art school, leaving behind her childhood home and the beau she always expected to marry. Her life at the Academy seems heavenly at first, but she soon learns that societal norms in the East are as restrictive as those back home in West Texas.

Rebelling against the insipid imagery women are expected to produce, Ruby embraces bohemian life. Her burgeoning sexuality drives her into a life-long love affair with another woman and into the arms of an Italian baron. With the Panic of 1893, the nation spirals into a depression, and Ruby’s career takes a similar downward trajectory. After thinking she could have it all, Ruby, now pregnant and broke, returns to Texas rather than join the queues at the neighbourhood soup kitchen.

Set against the Gilded Age of America, a time when suffragettes fight for reproductive rights and the right to vote, A Different Kind of Fire depicts one woman’s battle to balance husband, family, career, and ambition. Torn between her childhood sweetheart, her forbidden passion for another woman, the nobleman she had to marry, and becoming a renowned painter, Ruby’s choices mould her in ways she could never have foreseen.

Praise for A Different Kind of Fire

“Writer Suanne Schafer spins a unique tale of a turn of the 19th century Texas heroine and her way of artistic expression.  A Different Kind of Fire depicts the journey of a determined woman to meet life on her own terms.” [Pamela Morsi, USA Today bestselling author of 26 books including The Cotton Queen and Bitsy’s Bait & BBQ]

“If you love historical novels about women who throw off the shackles of feminine convention, then this book is for you. In spare but sensuous prose reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy and E. Annie Proulx, Schafer brings Ruby Schmidt to life – a woman who doesn’t belong in the late nineteenth century but gradually finds her place in the twentieth. This is a powerful and deeply satisfying read.” [Helena Echlin, co-author of Sparked and author of Gone]

“An exceptional first novel. Schafer has woven a cohesive tale from disparate elements–a stark life in the rugged countryside of 1890s Texas vs the gentility of an arts academy in the East; a traditional marriage and motherhood vs a secret and haunting sexuality. Unequivocally recommended!” [Michael R. Hardesty, author of Amazon Best Seller, The Grace of the Ginkgo]

“With rare artistry, Schafer paints a life both creative and cursed in A Different Kind of Fire”. [Willa Blair, award-winning Amazon and Barnes & Noble #1 bestselling author of His Highland Love, Highland Troth, Highland Seer, and ten other books]

“The saga of a young woman determined to follow her dream, whatever obstacles cross her path.” [M J Fredrick, author of A Texas Kind of Love, Smitten in a Small Town, and twenty-five other books, two-time Epic Awards winner and four-time RWA Golden Heart finalist]

“Told in a rich, sensual, style, A Different Kind of Fire is a book about reconciling the irreconcilable. It is a book about boundaries: the dilemmas they place upon those would dare rise above them.” [James Hanna, author of The Siege, Call Me Pomeroy, and A Second, Less Head and Other Rogue Stories]

“Suanne Schafer’s A Different Kind of Fire tackles the sensitive subject of bisexuality in 19th century America with grace, compassion, and empathy through fully developed characters in a story readers will cherish long after the book ends.” [C.S. Fuqua, author of Walking after Midnight: Collected Stories]

Format: Paperback, audiobook (pp.)    Publisher: Waldorf  Publishing
Published: 1st November 2018      Genre: Historical Fiction

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

Find A Different Kind of Fire on Goodreads

03_Suanne SchaferAbout the Author

Suanne Schafer, born in West Texas at the height of the Cold War, finds it ironic that grade school drills for tornadoes and nuclear war were the same: hide beneath your desk and kiss your rear-end goodbye. Now a retired family-practice physician whose only child has fledged the nest, her pioneer ancestors and world travels fuel her imagination. She originally planned to write romances, but either as a consequence of a series of failed relationships or a genetic distrust of happily ever after, her heroines are strong women who battle tough environments and intersect with men who might – or might not – love them.

Suanne completed the Stanford University Creative Writing Certificate program. Her short works have been featured in print and on-line magazines and anthologies. Her debut women’s fiction novel, A Different Kind of Fire, explores the life of Ruby Schmidt, a nineteenth century artist who escapes – and returns – to West Texas. Suanne’s next book explores the heartbreak and healing of an American physician caught up in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Connect with Suanne

Website  ǀ  Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Pinterest ǀ Goodreads