Tag: historical fiction

#BookReview The Porcelain Doll by Kristen Loesch @AllisonandBusby

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The Porcelain DollI’m delighted to be celebrating publication day of The Porcelain Doll by Kristen Loesch by sharing my review of this captivating historical novel. My thanks to Christina at Allison & Busby for my review copy.

The Porcelain DollAbout the Book

‘She was called Kukolka,’ he says. Little doll. It’s an unwelcome reminder of Mum’s porcelain prisoners back in London. Of all the things we could have brought with us from Russia – and we weren’t able to bring very much – she chose them.

Rosie’s only inheritance from her reclusive mother is a book of Russian fairy tales. But there is another story lurking between the lines.

Not so long ago, Rosie lived peacefully in Moscow and her mother told fairy tales at bedtime. But one summer night, all that came abruptly to an end when her father and sister were gunned down. Years later, Rosie is a doctoral student at Oxford, with a fiancé who knows nothing of her former life and an ailing, alcoholic mother lost to a notebook full of eerie, handwritten little stories.

Desperate for answers to the questions that have tormented her, Rosie returns to her homeland and uncovers a devastating family history which spans the 1917 Revolution, the siege of Leningrad, Stalin’s purges and beyond. At the heart of those answers stands a young noblewoman, Tonya, as pretty as a porcelain doll, whose actions reverberate across the century.

Format: Hardcover (384 pages)           Publisher: Allison & Busby
Publication date: 17th February 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I often find that in novels with a dual time structure one of the timelines – usually the earlier one – is more engaging than the other. This was definitely not the case in The Porcelain Doll because the author has managed to create two equally compelling storylines that blend past and present in a deliciously satisfying way.  The structure works because the connections between the two stories are so strong that  one never seems secondary to the other. Indeed, it feels that one could not exist without the other.

Starting in Russia in 1915, Tonya’s story spans decades encompassing the Revolution of October 1917, the Russian Civil War, the Stalinist purges of the 1930s, the siege of Leningrad during World War 2 and beyond. All of these events impact on Tonya and those close to her in dramatic ways, forcing her to make almost impossible choices to protect herself and those she cares for. As she observes at one point, ‘the choice in this country is not between right and wrong. It is between life and death’. Hers is a powerful, often harrowing, story of betrayal, loss, sacrifice and the sheer will to survive, often against seemingly insurmountable odds. It’s also a heart-breaking love story that brought to mind elements of Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

Rosie’s story takes place in 1991, an equally pivotal time in Russian history. It’s the era of perestroika and glasnost that would ultimately result in the collapse of the Soviet Union. But a new regime does not mean that old wounds can be forgotten. Far from it. The turbulent events in the country of Rosie’s birth reflect that in her own life. She continues to be haunted by memories of events earlier in her life, events that have left her with unanswered questions and a kind of survivor’s guilt. At one point Rosie is warned, ‘There is no enlightenment to be found in the past. No healing. No solace. Whatever we are looking for will not be there’. However, that warning doesn’t stop Rosie trying to find out more about her family history and to decode the answers she believes lie hidden in her mother’s stories.  What she discovers will change everything she thinks she knows and thought she wanted.

As the two storylines interweave, nothing is quite what it seems – and often no-one is quite what they seem either. The way the author has crafted the multi-layered plot is akin to a Rubik’s Cube where you think you’ve just about arrived at the solution only to find there’s a piece out of place. There are some moments of breathtaking revelation and twists that I certainly didn’t see coming.

Storytelling is an underlying theme of the book whether that’s stories created to entertain, to pass on cultural myths and legends, to record for posterity life experiences, to act as propaganda or set out a vision for the future.  Storytelling itself may even be a means of survival. And sometimes stories are the only way traumatic events can be processed and communicated.

I absolutely loved The Porcelain Doll. It kept me enthralled until the very last page.

In three words: Dramatic, emotional, captivating

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Kristen LoeschAbout the Author

Kristen Loesch grew up in San Francisco. She holds a BA in History, as well as a Master’s degree in Slavonic Studies from the University of Cambridge. Her debut historical novel, The Porcelain Doll, was shortlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award and longlisted for the Bath Novel Award. After a decade living in Europe, she now resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and children.

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#BlogTour #BookReview The Paris Network by Siobhan Curham @bookouture

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The-Paris-Network---Blog-TourWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Paris Network by Siobhan Curham which is published today in paperback and as an ebook.  My thanks to Sarah Hardy for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Bookouture for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Sharon and Emma at Shaz’s Book Blog, Nat at Nat’s Bookish Corner and Julie at Bookish Jottings.

The Paris NetworkAbout the Book

Paris, 1940: He pressed the tattered book into her hands. ‘You must go to the café and ask at the counter for Pierre Duras. Tell him that I sent you. Tell him you’re there to save the people of France.’

Sliding the coded message in between the crisp pages of the hardback novel, bookstore owner Laurence slips out into the cold night to meet her resistance contact, pulling her woollen beret down further over her face. The silence of the night is suddenly shattered by an Allied plane rushing overhead, its tail aflame, heading down towards the forest. Her every nerve stands on end. She must try to rescue the pilot.

But straying from her mission isn’t part of the plan, and if she is discovered it won’t only be her life at risk…

America, years later: When Jeanne uncovers a dusty old box in her father’s garage, her world as she knows it is turned upside down. She has inherited a bookstore in a tiny French village just outside of Paris from a mysterious woman named Laurence.

Travelling to France to search for answers about the woman her father has kept a secret for years, Jeanne finds the store tucked away in a corner of the cobbled main square. Boarded up, it is in complete disrepair. Inside, she finds a tiny silver pendant hidden beneath the blackened, scorched floorboards.

As Jeanne pieces together Laurence’s incredible story, she discovers a woman whose bravery knew no bounds. But will the truth about who Laurence really is shatter Jeanne’s heart, or change her future?

Format: Paperback (414 pages)           Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date: 15th February 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

I was first introduced to the writing of Siobhan Curham when I read Beyond This Broken Sky in April 2021. Like the earlier book, The Paris Network alternates between two timelines. The first, set in 1993, concerns Jeanne who, following the death of her mother, discovers that her father has a secret in his past, one that directly affects her.  The second is set in wartime France in which the reader witnesses the events following the occupation of France by the Nazis through the eyes of Laurence, owner of a bookshop called The Book Dispensary.

I confess I wasn’t completely won over by the dual timeline structure. Perhaps because Laurence’s story was so powerful or because it was written in the first person, the sections concerning Jeanne felt very much secondary and I found myself eager to immerse myself again in Laurence’s story.

In her author’s note, Siobhan describes how her discovery of the important role books played during the German occupation of France inspired the writing of The Paris Network. As a booklover myself, this was an aspect of the book I really enjoyed. I loved the idea of Laurence dispensing literary ‘prescriptions’ to her customers in the form of books, or more often poems, individually tailored to their circumstances; to provide comfort, inspiration or solace. It’s just one way the author demonstrates the essential role that books play in Laurence’s life. They also provide her with sustenance through dark times. In fact, at one point she says, ‘Today for lunch I am dining on an appetiser of Little Women before a hearty feast of Flaubert’. This is all the more poignant given the food shortages the people of Laurence’s village experience as the German stranglehold on the population increases.

Books also become a form of resistance as Laurence creates a book club who read works of literature banned by the Nazis, including those illicitly published by the Resistance movement. (A list of the poems and books that feature can be found at the end of the book.) But Laurence is also inspired by General de Gaulle’s rallying call to the people of France to carry out other acts of resistance: secretly listening to BBC radio broadcasts even though radios are banned, painting V for victory signs or the word ‘Liberty’ on buildings, carrying coded messages and delivering leaflets for the Resistance or defying petty rules such as the ban on drinking wine on Sundays or the wearing of trousers by women.

However, acts of resistance have consequences and German reprisals for acts of sabotage or in defiance of rules are increasingly swift and savage, as Laurence discovers. Wartime relationships often form quickly and can be fleeting. Such is the case for Laurence. Facing a heartbreaking choice, she has to channel all the strength and courage of her heroine Joan of Arc.  As Jeanne and her father Wendell put together the final pieces of Laurence’s story, I was reminded of a famous quotation from Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities.

In three words: Emotional, dramatic, absorbing

Try something similar: Resistance by Eilidh McGinness

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Siobhan Curham Author PhotoAbout the Author

Siobhan Curham is an award-winning author, ghost writer, editor and writing coach. She has also written for many newspapers, magazines and websites, including The Guardian, Breathe magazine, Cosmopolitan, Writers’ Forum, DatingAdvice.com, and Spirit & Destiny. Siobhan has been a guest on various radio and TV shows, including Woman’s Hour, BBC News, GMTV and BBC Breakfast. And she has spoken at businesses, schools, universities and literary festivals around the world, including the BBC, Hay Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Bath Festival, Ilkley Festival, London Book Fair and Sharjah Reading Festival.

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