Book Giveaway: The Soldier of Raetia by Heather Domin

In the Augustan period, a young man comes of age and learns the ways of Roman military life, in Heather Domin’s The Soldier of Raetia. At twenty years old, Manilus Dardanus has come to Rome, guided by his father’s intentions. He seeks the patronage of the illustrious general Marcus Cassius Valerian, who commands Augustus Caesar's twenty-fourth legion. General Valerian, hardened by battle and tragedies of the past, at first assumes that Dardanus is like the sons of so many sycophants who have sought his favor. Despite his own misgivings, Valerian helps mold Dardanus into a warrior and re-discovers deeply buried emotions within himself. Dardanus grows and changes as well, from a reticent young man at the whim of others’ designs to become someone who chooses his own destiny. A confrontation with Germanic barbarians is his first test of all Valerian’s training. Dardanus learns to be a staunch friend, a dedicated soldier and a valiant protector of his general.

I find Roman military history and the Augustan period extremely fascinating. Ms. Domin gives the sense of a Roman legion as a unit, truly fighting as one. With myriad details of training, camp life and fighting scenes, her work blossoms as an example of an authentic historical. Ms. Domin has a skill for painting worlds where visuals unfold on the page as if the reader is standing right there within a scene. What I enjoyed the most must be the characters, even more so than the descriptions of Roman legionary life. Dardanus and Valerian are the heroes of this story, but equally evident is the bond each has formed with his comrades. Valerian treats his tribunes, particularly Pertinax, his doctor Salvio, even his slave Tacitus with respect and tolerance, even when they overstep their bounds. His love for Dardanus is unlike anything he has ever experienced. It leaves him unprepared for the magnitude of his feelings. Dardanus finds his purpose as part of the whole and makes what seem to be friendships with his units, particularly Iocundus and Elerius. Those connections make this a strong, emotional piece of writing. The companionship between brothers forged by adversity and endurance, in tests of arms and by the spilling of blood had me cheering every victory. The relationships were just as believable as Ms. Domin’s descriptions.

Two concerns I did have were about the portrayal of Dardanus and his fellow soldier Elerius. There was personal and professional risk to Dardanus throughout the story, and he warred against himself with every decision. Still, I felt he did have any significant adversity to overcome. Living beyond the last battle provided him courage and made him a man. Keeping his wits about him in his interactions with Valerian brought out an inner strength he never knew he possessed. It would have been interesting to see him thrown into a situation where other emotions bubbled to the surface, instead of his usual acceptance and sometimes, resignation. Without spoiling anything for other readers, I also found Elerius’ grasping nature and the consequences of it predictable. For me, he was a less nuanced character and compelling character than the others Ms. Domin brought to life so vividly. While some of his actions are villainous, he does not come across as anything more than misguided and ambitious, yet not dangerously so. Still, I hope Ms. Domin may revisit his final fate in the future. She has told me there is a sequel to The Soldier of Raetia and I look forward to reading it.

Heather Domin has agree to give away a KINDLE copy of The Soldier of Raetia. Please leave your comment, telling Ms. Domin why you would like to win this book. This is an INTERNATIONAL giveaway.

Call Me Duchess by Maggie Dove

Back Cover Blurb:

A rapist is loose in London…and he has plans for Marguerite Wiggins.

Grippingly suspenseful and romantic, CALL ME DUCHESS is one young woman’s stunning journey to find love in 1870s London while a dashingly handsome chaperone, a heinous villain, and her own lofty aspirations stand in her way.

Armed with a list from their father of “acceptable” men to marry, the four Wiggins sisters go to London to debut in society and make advantageous marriages. Marguerite had decided years ago that she would marry no one but the Earl of Wallingford. However, because of a serial rapist attacking women of the ton, the sisters’ uncle hires a bodyguard to protect them. Marguerite is attracted to their bodyguard, Ashton James. When she has the opportunity to further her acquaintance with the Earl, she seems to ruin her chances with him and in society. Will she get the opportunity to make amends with the Earl? Will she forget the Earl and choose Ashton? Will any of the sisters marry at all?

Call Me Duchess is the second novel in the Windword Trilogy Series. The beautiful cover drew me to the book and made me eager to read it. This historical romance takes place during the London Season in the late nineteenth century. It is a tale for four sisters whose father has squandered the family wealth. The sisters must find wealthy husbands during the London season or they will face severely reduced circumstances. Each sister sets out on her own search for a husband, but it is Marguerite who sets her sights higher than the others. She plans to become the wife of Phillip Lancaster Phillip Lancaster, the Duke of Wallingford, with whom she has been in love with since a child. With their Aunt Elizabeth’s help, they attend London’s most exclusive balls and parties, chaperoned by the handsome Aston James. Aston performs his duties as chaperone well, but it is Marguerite whom he is drawn to, but Marguerite is in pursuit of the Duke and rejects all other interested gentlemen, especially Aston.

Call Me Duchess by Maggie Dove has a nicely developed plot with plenty of subplots and twists that keep the reader guessing and turning pages. The secret rapist adds plenty of suspense and mystery. The various characters and their colourful antics keep the story interesting. For lovers of the historical romance genre, this one is very well done! I highly recommend it.

The Winter Prince by Cheryl Sawyer

As a 17th Century enthusiast and having just written my third book on the era, I was very excited to read this novel of Mary Villiers, the only daughter of Charles I’s assassinated favourite Duke of Buckingham has been treated like a Royal child all her life. Rich, beautiful and spoiled, Mary is destined to make marriages of state, and at twenty her second husband is James Stuart, Duke of Richmond. A staunch royalist, Mary toys with treason by visiting Lord Essex and tells him she disagrees with King Charles’ actions in declaring war on his Parliament and giving up London at the beginning of the English Civil War.

Mary met Prince Rupert when she was younger and doesn’t appear to have been very impressed with the arrogant young nephew of King Charles.  When they meet again, she reminds him that she teases everyone, but their attraction is mutual and devastating.  Mary is a loyal and dutiful wife, and thus she agrees to be Rupert’s friend, when he would like to take their liaison much further.

The war takes Rupert off into dangerous territory, leaving Mary to fret and worry about the man she admits only to herself she is in love with. Our hero and heroine can only meet every few months, and largely at the exiled Court in Oxford or on Queen Henrietta’s forays into Europe in search of funds and support for her husband’s cause.  This leaves the lovelorn Rupert and guilt-ridden Mary to endure heartfelt looks and regretful sighs and the ‘will they won’t they’ which gets tedious after a while. To the author’s credit, Rupert and Mary’s love affair was mostly gossip and speculation at the time, so to give them a happy ending was out of the question. 

Mary and Rupert are doomed to show their affection in cryptic ways, like when Rupert sends her a book of poems with pinpricks in the pages to show her which lines he wants her to read, or contrived meetings – like their ‘accidental’ tryst in a secret tunnel beneath Merton College which had been undiscovered for two hundred years.

Cheryl Sawyer is an accomplished writer and she delves into the minds of her characters in fluid, emotive prose that fits the 1640’s beautifully. Her in-depth accounts of the conflicts, the victories, private ambitions and characters of the players is exemplary. She portrays the King and Queen faithfully, as proud, vain, egomaniacs without the intellectual capacity to realise that some compromise would have saved them. The casual dismissal of their subject’s lives to obtain their own ambitions is staggering, but plays excellently into the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ philosophy that was Charles I’s downfall.

For anyone interested in the English Civil Wars, this is a fabulous account, but I also feel Ms Sawyer has benefitted Mary with all the virtues and none of the faults of a girl raised as a princess.

This novel also gives rise to the question, ’How much history should an historical novel contain?’ In this case too much as I felt the military accounts were more like a textbook in places and in order to stick to facts, Rupert and Mary’s ‘affair’ was tenuous and there wasn’t much to work with.

The Cyclist by Fred Nath

Book Review of The Cyclist by Fred Nath

Reviewed by: L. Gregory Graham

World War II can be a touchy subject. It is still too fresh in our collective memory. In addition, there is film. As a result, it is very hard to romanticize it or to stray far from the truth. This novel of three hundred pages confronts these obstacles and manages to tell a compelling story.

Vichy France is a deal with the devil at best. The Nazi’s, acting the part of the Devil, promise that they will not rape and pillage too much if citizens of France promise not to resist. The deal is frequently violated on both sides. The Nazi’s take what they want, and violate whomever they choose, and the French organize a resistance movement that does what it can to kill soldiers and sympathizers and disrupt Nazi hegemony.

This is the world of August Ran, an assistant Chief of Police, in Bergerac, a small town in the south of France. He is a just man, a moral man who knows on the most basic level that the social fabric must be maintained. The guilty must be punished, and justice must prevail no matter who is in charge. When the order comes down from the Nazi’s that all Jews in the prefecture must be identified, he compiles the list and passes it along. When the order comes down that all Jews must wear a yellow Star of David on their coats, he enforces this also. Only when the orders come that he must round up the Jews for deportation to work camps does he wake up to the moral implications of his actions.

To make matters worse, he is sheltering the daughter of his boyhood Jewish friend who has joined the resistance, and the Nazi in charge of his area has raped and murdered a young woman. It looks as if the monster will get away with it and be free to rape and murder again.

August finds himself plunged into a moral nightmare without easy answers. Should he obey Nazi orders and round up the Jews if he knows that they will be killed? Should he continue to harbor the Jewish girl when it jeopardizes his own family? How can he allow the Nazi commander to get away with rape and murder? Isn’t he in the final analysis a policeman, and isn’t his job to protect the people of Bergerac from monsters like the Nazi even if the courts and the penal system no longer function as they should? Finally if he kills the commander, is his immortal soul forfeit or is he absolved because he is an instrument of God’s will?

Nath does an excellent job of depicting one man’s moral and intellectual struggle to make sense of a world turned upside down. It is far too easy for us, seventy years after the war to label all Nazis as evil and deserving of death. It is another thing to walk in the shoes of a just man faced with the enormity of the Nazi regime. When does one decide that killing is the only answer?

It is not an easy question. If you don’t believe me, change the circumstances. Should an Iraqi man who watched his family killed by an American soldier take that soldier’s life when he gets the chance? Is he morally justified in doing so?

There is a gritty appealing reality to this story. Sometimes one must find a way to work with evil to preserve a greater good, sometimes one must decide when evil has gone too far, and sometimes one must resist it knowing the consequences. They are tough decisions that take a man back to the basics. What does he believe and why does he believe it?

The story is a compelling one. There were times when I wearied of August’s internal monologues, but in the end, it is worth it. August does what he must because of who he is and what he believes. That makes him a hero.

Sins of the House of Borgia by Sarah Bower

The Renaissance court of Lucrezia Borgia comes to life in this epic tale of the wickedly corrupt Borgia family.

Sins of the House of Borgia is an epic historical fiction novel of the infamous Borgia family who rose to power in fifteenth century Italy. The story is narrated by a young Jewish girl named Esther who is forced to leave Spain when the Jews are expelled. She flees to her father in Italy who uses her for his own political advancement. He urges her to relinquish her Jewish faith and be baptized as a Catholic in order to place her as a lady in waiting for Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia stands as Esther’s godmother.

Lucrezia Borgia

The illegitimate daughter of depraved Pope Alexander VI, Lucrezia Borgia’s court is one of decadence and secrets. Violante soon encounters the alluring and callous Cesare, Duke of Valentinois and Romagna, Lucrezia’s old brother, and falls desperately in love with him.

Cesare Borgia

After a horse race, Cesare renames her Violante, breaker of promises. As the relationship with Cesare progresses, Violante relinquishes her virginity to him, which resulted in two unanticipated results - she becomes pregnant and contracts a dose of the pox.

The world has always been fascinated with the wickedly corrupt Borgia family and many books have been written about them. What makes this novel stand apart is that it is told through the eyes of an innocent Jewish woman trapped at the center of numerous intrigues. As a result of her connections to the Borgias, she is caught up in the family’s troubles, forfeits all family ties, and suffers great losses.

Sins of the House of Borgia is a riveting, scandalous historical fiction novel with shocking characters and an intricate plot. The book is rich in detail, the times brought to life skilfully and with accuracy. Sarah Bower skilfully draws her readers into the abundantly vivid world of Renaissance Italy. This opulently gratifying story immerses the reader into the rich lives of the characters. It is a dazzling, breathtaking read – one worth savouring, which I very much recommend.

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas

In this rich first novel set in 1877, a young girl, Eleanora Cohen secretly follows her rug-trader father and stows away on a ship bound for the city of Constanta in Stamboul. Eleanora is no ordinary child. She was born prophetic and with the intelligence of a savant. Once in Stamboul, she goes to the home of Moncef Bey, a wealthy friend of her father who lavishes Eleanora with rich clothes and a great many books. Unexpectantly, her father dies in a boat accident and Eleanora is left under the kind guardianship of Bey. Alone in the world and overcome by grief, she withdraws and no longer speaks. But a child savant cannot be inconspicuous for long and she soon comes to the attention of the Sultan himself.

This tale has a charming, almost magical feel about it. With its innocent quality, endearing young heroine, and exotic surroundings, it can easily be read and enjoyed by young adults as well as adults. It is a gentle read and the tale flows seamlessly from its pages. The ending left me with the impression there is a sequel in the works, which I look forward to reading. I highly recommend this book for people of all ages.  A wonderful debut novel.



Wickedly Charming by Kristine Grayson

Review by Sheila R. Lamb

Wickedly Charming offers a new twist on historical fantasy. Set in the present day, Charming and Mellie are torn between their contemporary lives and the world they left behind, hundreds of years in the past. Through various portals, fairy tale characters are able to travel back and forth between the mythical Kingdom and the present day Greater World.

Charming doesn’t really go by Charming. Not now. In modern Los Angeles, he’s known as bookseller Dave Econto. He rarely returns back to the fairy tale world of the Third Kingdon, not since Ella (aka CinderElla) divorced him, taking their two daughters with her.

Mellie is angry and for good reason. Her step-daughter, a Miss White, told the world that Mellie tried to murder her. And now Mellie is trying to overcome the untrue accusations, by organizing the activist group, PETA: People for the Ethical Treatment of Archetypes. When Mellie bumps into Dave at an LA bookfair, sparks fly. Literally. The recognize each other from their past lives in the Kingdom world. 

As Charming figures out “...you and I met at a party ... a century or two ago when someone decided we should clear up the Charming mess and the stepmother gossip and see if we could take care of those Brothers Grimm.”

First, the two modern day fairy tale misfits have to overcome some stereotypes of their own. She knows he is one of family of Charming’s. He knows she is a Stepmother. They dance around their attraction to each other until Charming’s jealousy of one of Mellie’s supposed dates, Bourke, causes a humorous scene in an L.A. coffeeshop.

“ ‘I think you should stop talking now,’ Mellie said to Bourke. 

Charming recognized that tone. It was a warning tone, one that the magical used in the Kingdoms as fair notice that magic was about to occur. 

‘Don’t Mellie,’ Charming said softly.

She ignored him.

‘You think I should stop talking, do you, your highness?’ Bourke asked.

It took Charming a second to realize that Bourke was using the phrase sarcastically.”

As the two forge a rocky friendship, Charming tries to help Mellie tell her side of the story by offering to be her ghostwriter. In the meantime, Ella gives him full custody of their two daughters, and Charming finds himself  with his hands full a single father. He must protect his girls from school bullies and try to explain why their mother has disappeared. 

Mellie is reluctant to help, given her bad standing as a stepmother already.  Slowly, she begins to make overtures to Charming’s daughters, and a tenuous relationship between the three women in Charming’s life begins to develop. Soon, Charming and Mellie can no longer deny their wickedly magical attraction to each other.

A fun and delightful story, read Wickedly Charming and find out what really happens to “happily ever after!”


Wickedly Charming will be published by Sourcebooks in April 2011.