Tag: historical fiction

Blog Tour/Book Review/Giveaway: The Mistress of Pennington’s by Rachel Brimble

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I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Mistress of Pennington’s by Rachel Brimble.  Set in 1910, it’s described as a compelling tale of female empowerment in Bath’s leading department store and perfect for fans of the TV series Mr Selfridge and The Paradise.

Plus, there’s a giveaway (open internationally) with a chance for one lucky person to win a £20/$20 Amazon Gift Card.  Enter using the Rafflecopter link here.

Giveaway Terms and Conditions – The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then the giveaway organiser reserves the right to select an alternative winner.  Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winner’s information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time the data will be deleted.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

The Mistress of PenningtonsAbout the Book

Elizabeth Pennington should be the rightful heir of Bath’s premier department store through her enterprising schemes and dogged hard work. Her father, Edward Pennington believes his daughter lacks the business acumen to run his empire and is resolute a man will succeed him.

Determined to break from her father’s iron-clad hold and prove she is worthy of inheriting the store, Elizabeth forms an unlikely alliance with ambitious and charismatic master glove-maker Joseph Carter. United they forge forward to bring Pennington’s into a new decade, embracing woman’s equality and progression whilst trying not to mix business and pleasure.

Can this dream team thwart Edward Pennington’s plans for the store? Or will Edward prove himself an unshakeable force who will ultimately ruin both Elizabeth and Joseph?

Format: Paperback, ebook (454 pp.)    Publisher: Aria Fiction
Published: 1st July 2018      Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

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

Find The Mistress of Pennington’s on Goodreads

My Review

Elizabeth Pennington seeks to be ‘Mistress’ of Pennington’s, the department store owned and run (with a very firm hand) by her father, Edward, but she’s not there yet.  Recalling the words of her mother, ‘Go forth and conquer the world, Elizabeth’, Elizabeth hopes things are about to change, with the help of talented glove-maker, Joseph Carter.

One can perhaps forgive the instant attraction – from their very first glimpse of each other – between the beautiful Elizabeth and the handsome Joseph, since it soon becomes apparent they share a history of tragedy in their personal lives and recognise in each other a similar social outlook and driving ambition.  For Joseph, the attraction is heightened by the fact that Elizabeth seems to possess the same qualities as a woman who played a big part in his life and whose influence still drives him.  For Elizabeth, the attraction is heightened by the difference she sees between Joseph and the sort of men her father favours as potential suitors – men who’ve achieved their wealth and position in society through inheritance rather than their own endeavours.    However, both Elizabeth and Joseph have reservations about entering into a relationship that might become more than merely professional.  When it becomes apparent there is previous history between the two families, things become even more complicated.

The book is set in an interesting period when the campaign for women’s suffrage was reaching its peak.  The prejudice those courageous and doughty campaigners faced is encapsulated in the character of Edward Pennington, who clearly believes women are good for nothing more than child rearing or providing pleasure in the bedroom.    Edward finds it difficult to see beyond Elizabeth’s gender and recognise her obvious business acumen, seeing her new ideas for Pennington’s as a threat rather than as a valuable contribution to the success of the business (as you suspect he would if they had come from a man).  For example, her suggestion of a trial of Joseph’s designs elicits the dismissive response: ‘Will you be able to control your feminine desires long enough to wrangle a profitable deal for the store?’

It’s also a time when the opportunities for mass production and mass marketing are being explored by those with vision in the commercial world.  Edward Pennington definitely does not fall into this category.  You get the feeling that, even if the story line was moved to the modern day, Pennington’s would be the only department store without an online presence.

I haven’t watched either of the TV series with which the book has been compared – Mr. Selfridge and The Paradise – so can’t comment on the accuracy of the comparison.  However, I can envision The Mistress of Pennington’s making ideal Sunday night viewing.  I can also see the book, with its engaging leading characters, period setting and romantic story line, appealing to Rachel Brimble’s many fans and to those looking for a new historical fiction saga in which to become engrossed.   There are some loose ends – including one quite large one – left unresolved, no doubt deliberately so they can be picked up in future books in the series.

I received a review copy courtesy of Rachel’s Random Resources in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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Rachel BrimbleAbout the Author

Rachel lives with her husband and two teenage daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK. Since 2007, she has had several novels published by small US presses, eight books published by Harlequin Superromance (Templeton Cove Stories) and four Victorian romances with eKensington/Lyrical.

In January 2018, she signed a four-book deal with Aria Fiction for a brand new Edwardian series set in Bath’s finest department store. The first book, The Mistress of Pennington’s was released in July 2018.

Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America, and was selected to mentor the Superromance finalist of So You Think You Can Write 2014 contest. When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family. Her dream place to live is Bourton-on-the-Water in South West England.

Connect with Rachel

Website ǀ  Blog | Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Instagram ǀ Goodreads

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Book Review: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

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The Silence of the GirlsAbout the Book

From the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war comes a reimagining of the most famous conflict in literature – the legendary Trojan War.

When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis’s old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she’s not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.

The Trojan War is known as a man’s story: a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? What words did they speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead?

In this magnificent historical novel, Pat Barker charts one woman’s journey through the chaos of the most famous war in history, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.

Format: Hardcover, ebook (336 pp.)    Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
Published: 30th August 2018         Genre: Historical Fiction

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Silence of the Girls on Goodreads

My Review

In The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker sets out to give voice to the women ‘silenced’ in previous versions of the story of the Trojan War.  Unfortunately, I’m not sure she entirely succeeds.  It all starts promisingly as the reader experiences the fall of Lyrnessus to the Greek army, commanded by Agamemnon, through the eyes of Briseis, wife of King Mynes.  The horror of the battle, the dreadful consequences of defeat for the female inhabitants of the city in particular and the aftermath of the battle are evocatively described.

After the fall of the city, Briseis and noble women like her are ‘awarded’ to leading figures in the Greek army in the manner of battle honours or prizes of war.  Because of her status, youth and beauty, Briseis is allocated to the legendary warrior, Achilles, becoming his slave and, effectively, his possession.   Briseis wryly notes that in some cases individual women’s lives are changed for the better following their capture if, that is, they possess youth, beauty and fertility.  ‘One girl, who’d been a slave in Lyrnessus – and a kitchen slave at that, the lowest of the low – was now the concubine of a great lord, while her mistress, a plain, slack-bellied woman near the end of her childbearing years, had to scratch and scrape for food around the fires.’

Surprised and unaccustomed to being on public view and unveiled when serving at Achilles’ table, Briseis eventually realises why he is happy for her to be seen by his comrades. ‘Nobody wins a trophy and hides it at the back of a cupboard. You want it where it can be seen, so that other men will envy you.’  The use of the word ‘it’ is relevant as, throughout the book, the author sheds light on the way the women are treated as objects.

For example, when Agamemnon later demands Briseis be handed over to him, Achilles’ anger is at being deprived of what he believes is rightfully his. ‘She’s his prize, that’s all, his prize of honour, no more, no less.  It’s nothing to do with the actual girl.’  His response to this perceived dishonour will have far-reaching and tragic consequences.  Later Briseis observes, ‘Men carve meaning into women’s faces; messages addressed to other men’. For example, messages that demonstrate their status or their ability to wield power over others.

In parts two and three of the book, however, Briseis’ first hand narrative is interspersed with sections from the point of view of Achilles.  Given his pivotal role in subsequent events and his strange heritage (his father, Peleus, is a mortal but his mother is a sea goddess), I found the power of his unfolding story rather took over the book, especially when it comes to the intense relationship between Achilles and his friend, Patroclus.  Effectively, I felt Briseis was being silenced again.  This was underlined for me when Briseis notes, ‘Once, not so long ago, I tried to walk out of Achilles’ story – and failed. Now, my own story can begin.’  These are the last lines of the book.

The book does assume the reader has some prior knowledge of the story of The Trojan War and its key characters.  I had a little but not enough to recognise all the characters, their relationships or their role in the story.  I think a dramatis personae would be a really helpful addition to the book.   I wanted to love The Silence of the Girls and feel thrilled from beginning to end at witnessing the story of the clever, resourceful and resilient Briseis through her eyes and those of other women.  Instead I found that, although I could admire the skilful writing, I felt slightly disappointed at the end, that my high expectations had not been met.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of publishers, Hamish Hamilton, and NetGalley, in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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Pat BarkerAbout the Author

Pat Barker was born in Yorkshire and began her literary career in her forties, when she took a short writing course taught by Angela Carter. Encouraged by Carter to continue writing and exploring the lives of working class women, she sent her fiction out to publishers. Thirty-five years later, she has published fifteen novels, including her masterful Regeneration Trilogy, been made a CBE for services to literature, and won awards including the Guardian Fiction Prize and the UK’s highest literary honour, the Booker Prize. She lives in Durham and her new novel, The Silence of the Girls, will be published by Hamish Hamilton in August 2018.

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Website  ǀ  Goodreads