Archive for historical fiction

Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall

By Ree
Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

Blue Asylum by Kathy HepinstallTitle: Blue Asylum
Author: Kathy Hepinstall
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: April 10, 2012
Hardcover: 288 pages

Where’d I Get It: For Review from the Publisher

Synopsis (From Goodreads): Amid the mayhem of the Civil War, Virginia plantation wife Iris Dunleavy is put on trial and convicted of madness. It is the only reasonable explanation the court can see for her willful behavior, so she is sent away to Sanibel Asylum to be restored to a good, compliant woman. Iris knows, though, that her husband is the true criminal; she is no lunatic, only guilty of disagreeing with him on notions of justice, cruelty, and property. 
On this remote Florida island, cut off by swamps and seas and military blockades, Iris meets a wonderful collection of residents— some seemingly sane, some wrongly convinced they are crazy, some charmingly odd, some dangerously unstable. Which of these is Ambrose Weller, the war-haunted Confederate soldier whose memories terrorize him into wild fits that can only be calmed by the color blue, but whose gentleness and dark eyes beckon to Iris?

My Thoughts: As a disclaimer, I’m not a history buff and I have not read this to be analytical of the authors level of research for end-of-Civil-War era information. Quite honestly, I read it just to read it, and I reviewed it as I would any other novel. Therefore, this should not be seen as a literal review of a Historical Fiction, but rather as a review of a general work of fiction.

While Ms. Hepinstall’s writing was engaging and the story compelling, I feel as though a lack of information and detail may have detracted enough from the story that I was unable to really fall in love with any of the characters, and as such was unable to invest a lot of emotion in their plights.

That said, I did read to the end and I -was- interested. This simple fact is, I think, thanks simply to the writing of the author; she really does have a way with words and her weaving of the plot could have produced so very much if only she’d gone into a little more depth. I’d have liked to have been able to see more of the reasoning behind the “love” portrayed and I’d have also really enjoyed knowing what exactly it was that drew so many people to our protagonist.

All in all, it was a good book.

Rating: 3 of 5

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Blog Tour – Carol Tibaldi’s Willow Pond

By Ree
Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

Willow Pond by Carol TibaldiWe’re hosting Carol Tibaldi today via Chick Lit Plus blog tours. She’s got a debut novel out, Willow Pond, that I’ve been super excited about. My review of the book will go up tomorrow. :) For now, please enjoy an excerpt from the novel, and an interview between Carol and one of the characters of the book, Virginia Kingsley.

A little tidbit about the author:  Carol Tibaldi was born and raised in Bayside, New York and attended Queens College of the City University of New York. She loves to travel and has lived in London and Los Angeles. For twenty five years she worked as a newspaper reporter and covered the crime beat. She is a history buff and loves to research different time periods having a special affinity of the prohibition era and the Civil War. Willow Pond is her first novel and she is hard at work on the sequel.

Phillip was never on time for anything. Laura had learned, over their two and a half years of marriage, that he actually believed no one else had anything to do that was more important than what he was doing.
By one o’clock the next afternoon, Todd was packed and ready to go. She hated the whole idea of his leaving and kept hoping the phone would ring, that Phillip would offer some lame excuse as to why he couldn’t take Todd. Whatever the excuse was, Laura would have been happy to accept it.
It was nearly two-thirty by the time she saw the white Rolls Royce pull up in front of her building. She stared with disgust at the ostentatious car, knowing Phillip had used both it and his chauffeur to show off in front of her neighbors. It made her even angrier at him than she already was. Her neighbors had no idea she had been married to a movie star, and she liked things that way. Now they’d all want to know who had been driving the Rolls Royce.
When she opened the door, Phillip looked so annoyed she wanted to slap him. He strode into the apartment and glared down at Todd as if he were nothing more than a piece of property he owned. Todd blinked guilelessly up at him. It was past his naptime, and he had grown cranky. He tried to comfort himself by sucking his thumb.
“I thought we agreed that was a nasty habit, and you were going to break him of it,” Phillip said. “Do you want him to grow up with buck teeth?”
“Oh, please,” Laura said. “He’s tired. You were supposed to be here an hour and a half ago. Where were you?”

The Interview between Carol Tibaldi and fictional character, Virginia Kingsley (this interview makes Virginia seem cheeky, but stoic, doesn’t it?):

CT. Today I’m going to be interviewing Virginia Kingsley who is the owner of a speakeasy in New York City. Welcome, Virginia.

VK. It’s nice to be here.

CT. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

VK. I blame myself for Todd’s kidnapping. If I hadn’t gotten involved with that creep Rudy it never would have happened. I have to find him because if I don’t I know Laura will never forgive me.

CT. Feeling that way must be terrible for you. Has Laura told you that she blames you?

VK. She doesn’t have to. How else could she feel? I’m sure she’s guessed by now that someone connected to my gang had something to do with Todd’s kidnapping. That new boyfriend of hers is filling her head with all kinds of lies about me.

CT. Tell me about him?

VK. His name is Erich Muller and he’s a newspaper reporter. He won a Pulitzer a few years ago and he thinks he know everything. He thinks I know who the kidnapper is and if he keeps making up stories about me I’m going to sue the paper.

CT. What about Rudy?

VK. I made a big mistake by getting involved with him and an even bigger mistake when I let him know anything about my business. He thought he could outsmart me, but no one has ever done that and no one ever will.

CT. What kind of business are you in?

VK. I run a speakeasy, you know a nightclub. The most popular one in the city. The mayor comes to Bacchanal.

CT. That sounds interesting.

VK. The only thing I can think of right now is Laura and her little boy. I have to bring him home to her. But, how?

CT. Do the police have any leads?

VK. Do you mean that moron Detective Wilson. He has no idea how to run and investigation and has bungled the whole thing. I’m going to have to find Todd, but before I do that I’m going to have to find Rudy. If I’d listen to Harry none of this would have happened. He kept telling me I would getting soft, but I didn’t listen.

CT. Do you think you’re being too hard on yourself?

VK. No. My lifestyle is the reason Todd was kidnapped and that’s why it’s my fault. The worse part is that I’m going to have to lie to Laura. I hate doing it but I have to. I won’t stop looking for Todd because I want Laura to be happy again.

CT. Thank you Virginia for coming today and for telling us about Willow Pond. I hope people take a few minutes to find out more!

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Thanks for stopping by! Remember to come back tomorrow to read my review of Carol’s novel.

 

Categories : Blog Event, Blog Tour
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Blog Tour – Destined by Allison Kraft

By Ree
Friday, April 13th, 2012

Literary Obsession is incredibly excited to host author Allison Kraft today to help promote her book, Destined!

Title: Destined
Author: Allison Kraft
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Historical Fiction
Publisher: CreateSpace / Self Published
Publication Date: August 24, 2011

Synopsis (From Goodreads): While flying across the Atlantic on the centennial anniversary of the Titanic’s tragic maiden voyage, Apolline Greer, last in a long line of vampire hunters, finds herself suddenly transported from her airliner cabin to an eerily familiar ocean liner cabin—as well as the entirely unfamiliar body of her ancestor, Noelle Greer. Upon learning that she is, in fact, on board the very ship she’s been fascinated with all her life, she knows there’s only one thing to do: get off as soon as possible.

But whether by destiny, freak coincidence or a really vivid dream, Apolline finds that her trip back in time comes with three very good reasons to stay on board: Alexander Walker, a handsome and charming fellow vampire hunter; Cristof, the vampire that has tormented her family for generations and very likely killed her own mother; and Sasha, the vampire Noelle was sent to kill.

Time, however, is not on Apolline’s side. The Titanic is on a collision course with destiny, and she only has four days to complete her quest. What seemed like more than enough time at the start quickly becomes too short as she finds that hunting vampires on a luxury ocean liner is much more difficult than she expected. Sasha and Cristof become more elusive as each day passes, while her feelings for Alexander become increasingly complicated. As that fateful night approaches, will she regret her decision to stay and witness history first-hand?

When I first heard about this book, I had to sign up for the tour. My intention was to read it and review it, but a family emergency has derailed…or sunk….that little plan. I still definitely plan on reading the book, because…well…it’s about the TITANTIC, man! And there’s Vampires and we all know I’m a sucker for Vampires. (Oh, look how punny…) Eek, sorry, I’ll stop now. That was painfully bad. ;)

Right, so. Onward to the good stuff…

My question for Ms. Kraft was:

What made you decide to have Apolline/Noelle allow the Titanic to continue on its fateful course despite knowing what will happen?

And the answer:

I gave this a lot of thought when I was plotting out Destined. Initial instinct would be to have her try everything to save the ship and the people on board. If I somehow found myself in her place, it would be my first thought as well. But then I started to really think about it, about what things were like in 1912 and how her warnings would be taken.

First off, she was a woman. A woman traveling alone in second class. If she started telling everyone she saw that the ship was going to hit an iceberg and sink, the best outcome would be that they would laugh off her warnings and forget them. The worst? She’d be locked up or given over to the ship’s doctor for being crazy.

Second, as a frequent reader of time travel fiction, I lean towards the theory that certain events in our history have to happen. If someone tries to stop them, they will either fail, or events will rearrange themselves to make it happen another way. A kind of course-correction, if you will. In the case of the Titanic, while it was a horrible and tragic disaster, it brought things into light that desperately needed to be addressed. For one, people were forced to reconsider the outdated safety regulations about how many lifeboats a ship must have. For another, until Titanic’s sinking, ships were not required to have their wireless rooms manned 24 hours a day. If they were, the Californian’s wireless would not have been turned off, and they might have been able to get to Titanic in time to save everyone on board. And lastly, the disaster inspired the United States Coast Guard, in conjunction with 13 other countries, to organize the International Ice Patrol in an effort to avoid such a tragedy from happening again. Every year on April 15, they lay a wreath at the site of the Titanic’s sinking in honor of the lives lost.

In Destined, I chose to have Apolline struggle with her decision, second-guessing herself nearly every time she came across an officer she might have warned. Intellectually, she knew there was nothing she could do, but in her heart, the more she got to know the other passengers, the more she wanted to save them all. She convinced herself the disaster needed to happen, that in some twisted way it was for the greater good, but was determined to do anything she could to save the lives of those she had grown close to. As the story progresses and she begins to fall for Alex, saving his life starts to become her focus. She is afraid if she tries to tell an officer about the ship’s fate, she will be deemed crazy and possibly even detained belowdecks, a sure death sentence not only for Alex, but for her own ancestor, Noelle. Getting them and their friends onto a lifeboat is a much more attainable goal than stopping the Titanic from hitting the iceberg.

Whether or not she succeeds, well, you’ll have to read the book to find out!

Well, like I said above, I’ll definitely be reading to find out! :) Thank you, Ms. Kraft, for stopping by Literary Obsession and sharing some wonderful insight into your book, Destined.

This post is a stop on the Destined Blog Tour organized by Parajunkee.com. To continue through the tour, please follow the linky list here:

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