Tag: Reading Challenges

#BlogTour #BookReview SBS Special Boat Squadron by Iain Gale

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SBS BLOG TOUR BANNER (1)Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for SBS Special Boat Squadron by Iain Gale. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.

SBS Special Boat SquadronAbout the Book

From this moment on, you and your men, you don’t exist.

Formed in the darkest hours of the Second World War, as nation after nation fell before the unstoppable Axis advance, the task of the Special Boat Squadron was to strike back at an enemy no army could meet in the field. Trained in sabotage and surveillance, the SBS raided deep behind enemy lines, sowing chaos and capturing much-needed intelligence. Soldiers, adventurers and rogues, their methods were unorthodox, their success rate unprecedented.

Operation Anglo, 31 August 1942. Beneath the waves of the Mediterranean, HMS Traveller closes in on the coast of Rhodes. Aboard, eight SBS commandos check their weapons as they prepare to infiltrate and sabotage two Axis bomber fields. Only two of the eight commandos will make it back to alive. Ex-Black Watch Sergeant Jim Hunter will be one of the lucky ones, but what he will face next will make Operation Anglo look like a cakewalk.

Format: Hardback (352 pages)           Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 13th October 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find SBS: Special Boat Squadron on Goodreads

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My Review

Inspired by actual events, the book tells the exciting story of the wartime exploits of the Special Boat Squadron, an elite group of ‘intelligence commandos’ created to carry out undercover missions.

Having together survived a disastrous operation that may in fact have been doomed from the start, Hunter and Woods are comrades on the battlefield but rivals in other respects. Cherchez la femme, as they say. However, as Woods explains, ‘If you think I’m fool enough to allow some petty differences to come between me and the life of a brother officer and a man I count as a friend, then you’re very much mistaken’. As the reader will discover, that principle will be tested beyond measure.

The circumstances which have given rise to the mission Hunter, Woods and their teams are asked to undertake may seem a little unlikely but of course there were a number of surprisingly unorthodox operations carried out during WW2.

The book features appearances by real life figures such as Xan Fielding and the flamboyant Patrick Leigh Fermor. WW2 film buffs may recall the latter was played by Dirk Bogarde in Ill Met by Moonlight which dramatised an actual but equally daring SOE operation in Crete. Included in the book’s characters is a rather famous author whose manner of introducing himself is likely to make you chuckle but whose role is, again, based on historical fact.

I particularly liked the way the book illustrated the courage of the Cretan resistance fighters – the andartes – who assisted Allied undercover operations. Their very personal reasons for wanting to do so are often harrowing to read about, even more so because they reflect the well-documented real life experience of those under German occupation.

The team assembled to carry out the mission possess, as Woods remarks, ‘unusual, or should I say […] unique abilities’. Amongst their skills are safe-cracking, knowledge of explosives, communications, code-breaking – and of course silent killing. Although we mainly see things through Hunter’s eyes, the author provides the reader with occasional glimpses into the thoughts of the other team members, most memorably Phelps. It’s a reminder that, although highly trained, they can still experience fear and doubt. And that, although a mission may be planned down to the last detail, things can go wrong and, when they do, the weakest link in the chain is the most dangerous.

SBS Special Boat Squadron, with its tense action scenes, daring accounts of undercover operations and colourful cast of characters, will appeal to fans of wartime adventures such as The Guns of Navarone.

In three words: Action-packed, authentic, dramatic

Try something similar: Eight Hours From England by Anthony Quayle

Iain GaleAbout the Author

Iain Gale is the author of twelve military historical novels and two works of military history. Iain was for many years a member of the Scottish Committee of Combat Stress, the armed forces’ PTSD charity. He also sat on the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Waterloo Committee at Edinburgh Castle and was privileged to be invited by the regiment to take a major part in its bicentenary commemorations.

He is a recognised authority on the Battle of Waterloo, and has taken numerous tours there, including leading a tactical military exercise of thirty-two serving US Army officers. Ian also guides regular small battlefield tours to the Somme, Arnhem, Dunkirk and Normandy and presents military history lectures. He is married with six children and lives in Fife and Edinburgh.

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#BlogTour #BookReview Squire’s Hazard by Carolyn Hughes

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Squire's Hazard Blog Tour BannerWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Squire’s Hazard by Carolyn Hughes, the fifth book in her Meonbridge Chronicles series. My thanks to Carolyn for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy. Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, Debbie at Brook Cottage Books.

Squire’s Hazard is available now as an ebook from Amazon UK at the discounted price of £1.99 for a short time only. It will be published in paperback later this month.

Squire's HazardAbout the Book

How do you overcome the loathing, lust and bitterness threatening you and your family’s honour?

It’s 1363, and in Steyning Castle, Sussex, Dickon de Bohun is enjoying life as a squire in the household of Earl Raoul de Fougère. Or he would be, if it weren’t for Edwin de Courtenay, who’s making his life a misery with his bullying, threatening to expose the truth about Dickon’s birth.

At home in Meonbridge for Christmas, Dickon notices how grown-up his childhood playmate, Libby Fletcher, has become since he last saw her and feels the stirrings of desire. Libby, seeing how different he is too, falls instantly in love. But as a servant to Dickon’s grandmother, Lady Margaret de Bohun, she could surely never be his wife.

Margery Tyler, Libby’s aunt, meeting her niece by chance, learns of her passion for young Dickon. Their conversation rekindles Margery’s long-held rancour against the de Bohuns, whom she blames for all the ills that befell her family, including her own servitude. For years she’s hidden her hunger for revenge, but she can no longer keep her hostility in check.

As the future Lord of Meonbridge, Dickon knows he must rise above de Courtenay’s loathing and intimidation, and get the better of him. And, surely, he must master his lust for Libby, so his own mother’s shocking history is not repeated? Of Margery’s bitterness, however, he has yet to learn…

Beset by the hazards triggered by such powerful and dangerous emotions, can Dickon summon up the courage and resolve to overcome them?

Format: ebook (417 pages)              Publisher: Riverdown Books
Publication date: 6th October 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Squire’s Hazard on Goodreads

My Review

Squire’s Hazard is the fifth in Carolyn Hughes’ series featuring the inhabitants of the fictional village of Meonbridge in Hampshire.  Having read and enjoyed all the previous books in the series – Fortune’s Wheel, A Woman’s Lot, De Bohun’s Destiny and Children’s Fate – I feel as if I’m an honorary resident of Meonbridge so invested have I become in the lives of the characters. As I start a new book in the series I find myself wondering about what has happened to particular characters in the interim, whether feuds continue or have been resolved and who’s the latest subject of village gossip.

Even if you haven’t read any of the previous books that won’t be a barrier to enjoying this one because much of the story involves characters learning more about past events in their own families. Some of these cast an entirely different light on people they have come to know, make them think differently about themselves or reveal the reasons for longstanding feuds. For followers of the series this also acts as a useful memory jogger since, over the course of the five books, the reader has been introduced to a large number of characters.  However, what Carolyn Hughes has always done particularly well is to focus more closely on just a few individuals in each book, often female characters. In Squire’s Hazard the story centres on young Dickon de Bohun, heir to Meonbridge, Libby Fletcher, companion to Dickon’s grandmother, and Margery Tyler, Libby’s aunt. They each face their own share of challenges.

For Dickon it’s coming to terms with a very different future than the one he might have imagined, one which brings a new position in society and a new set of responsibilities. It means a change to his relationships with others as well, for example his childhood playmate, Libby. And it doesn’t help that he has become a useful target for the settling of old scores. Meanwhile Libby’s dreams for her future seem to be dashed when what she desires most becomes out of reach. And Margery Tyler is a woman who feels she has been wronged and robbed of her future. In fact, she is still being wronged in the most vile way possible, a chilling demonstration of the imbalance of power in medieval society particularly where women are concerned.

As always in one of Carolyn Hughes’ books, there’s a wealth of detail about medieval life, everything from pottage to potagers.  What comes across strongly is not just the sheer grind of daily life for many but also how early in life people’s futures were determined. For example, Dickon, separated from his family as a boy and sent away to train as a squire. But there are also heartwarming examples of strong family bonds.

In case you’re thinking you might not have a lot in common with people who lived in the 14th century, then consider the fact that many of them experienced the years when the Black Death – or the Great Mortality, as it was known – ravaged England, killing many, creating widows and orphans, and leaving economic hardship in its wake. And although centuries may divide us, the people of Meonbridge share many of the same concerns as us: they worry about their families, their relationships, how to make ends meet, and the future of their community.

As in real life, there are happy endings for some whilst, for others, new challenges and possibilities await. Life can be cruel though. Although Meonbridge will continue to exist, the same cannot be said of all of its inhabitants.  And some actions cast long shadows. Roll on book six!

In three words: Authentic, absorbing, engaging

Carolyn HughesAbout the Author

Carolyn Hughes has lived most of her life in Hampshire. With a first degree in Classics and English, she started working life as a computer programmer, then a very new profession. But it was technical authoring that later proved her vocation, as she wrote and edited material, some fascinating, some dull, for an array of different clients, including banks, an international hotel group and medical instruments manufacturers.

Having written creatively for most of her adult life, it was not until her children flew the nest several years ago that writing historical fiction took centre stage, alongside gaining a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Portsmouth University and a PhD from the University of Southampton.

Connect with Carolyn
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