Tag Archives: Rosemary Noble

CARIADS’ CHOICE: MAY 2022 BOOK REVIEWS

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K T Dady’s Lemon Drop Cottage reviewed by Carol Thomas

This is the first book by K T Dady that I have read and, therefore, my first visit to Pepper Bay. As each book in the series is standalone, this didn’t spoil my understanding of the story.

I enjoyed meeting Scott and Dolly and spending time in this close, friendly community as their feelings developed. Dolly’s son, Dexter, is a great character who shone through; it was nice to see a teenage boy represented in a positive, caring way. There is an interesting sub-plot with the local retirement home being under threat and a good cast of secondary characters – I liked Giles, who has a close link to Scott and his secretive past. Having visited the Isle of Wight, I enjoyed the setting. Overall, this is a warm-hearted novel full of kind, caring characters who will make you smile.

 

Vicki Beeby’s A New Start for the Wrens reviewed by Morton S Gray

Loved this book! I binge read it as I wanted to know what would happen. The three main female characters Iris, Mary and Sally are all so easy to relate to and care about, as is Rob. Love the glimpses of Orkney and the poignant history. Cottoned on to the baddie early on and kept shouting warnings at my Kindle lol. Loved Vicki Beeby’s Ops Room Girls series and was worried this might not be as good but it is! Can’t wait for the next instalment in this series.

 

Rosemary Noble’s Sadie’s Wars reviewed by Jessie Cahalin

I have been idle for two days and it is Rosemary Noble’s fault. I travelled from innocence to experience with her character, Sadie.  She had my ear as soon as I walked into this thrilling family saga.  This hard-hitting, realistic document of challenging times deals with: propaganda, inequality, domestic violence and loss. Insight into Australia and England placed me in the centre of the historical periods.

Strategic juxtaposition of Sadie’s life during World War One Australia and World War Two Grimsby is brilliant.  Noble explores how our experiences make us react in the future thus providing depth to Sadie’s character.  Wounded by past troubles, Sadie makes decisions that made me want to sit her down and give her advice.  Tempting questions hang artfully in each chapter of this novel. Noble shows the inequalities between men and woman at the turn of the century and contrasts it with changing attitudes in post Second World War Britain.  Historical events, attitudes and politics are artfully woven into the narrative fabric of the novel. Noble explores love so beautifully in the novel.

An intelligent, powerful and deeply moving novel from Rosemary Noble.

 

Caroline James’s The Spa Break reviewed by Jane Cable

How marvellous to have a book about four women in their sixties going away on a girls’ weekend. It happens in real life quite a lot (some young people would be amazed to hear), but rarely between the pages of a book, and frankly I’d like more of it.

Caroline James’ characters are brilliant; fully rounded, far from perfect and never, ever, falling into the trap of being stereotyped. Each of the four women has their own story to tell, their own future to grab hold of and change, and it seems that a spa break is the best place to do it.

This is a gorgeously warm, witty book and I would totally recommend it as a feelgood weekend or holiday read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CARIADS’ CHOICE: JANUARY 2022 BOOK REVIEWS

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Rosemary Noble’s The Bluebird Brooch, reviewed by Jane Cable

Very seldom does a book or a film make me cry, but this beautiful multi-generational love story made me so invested in the characters it did bring me to tears.

Laura has been dumped by her boyfriend so her life is in a state of flux when she hears she has inherited a house from a great aunt she didn’t know she had. Even more surprising is the fact her grandmother Peggy is still alive, albeit trapped in a silent post-stroke world in a nursing home. But Peggy has plenty of spirit and her world is brought back to life by Laura’s presence.

Together they trace family history, and Noble skilfully weaves the narratives of the women of the past with those of the present until the story is complete. Or is it? Perhaps there is one final secret that needs to be revealed before both Laura and Peggy can find happiness and peace.

 

Ella Gyland’s The Helsingør Sewing Club, reviewed by Natalie Normann

One of the most incredible stories from WW2 is how the majority of Danish Jews were saved, right under the noses of the Gestapo and SS. Ordinary Danes risked everything to rescue friends, neighbours and total strangers to safety in Sweden.

In The Helsingør Sewing Club, this story comes to life when Cecilie Lund finds something in her late grandmother’s flat. It leads her to a meeting with a man who knew her grandmother in 1943, and she discovers just how brave she was.

Ella Gyland writes with warmth and respect, but doesn’t hide the realities of just how dangerous and risky it was. The story is beautifully written, with no sentimentality or exaggerations, giving the events even more of an impact. It’s so moving and painful to read at times, but it’s also impossible not to keep reading!

The research is phenomenal, and I can only imagine the work! I love the characters and how their story is told. It’s sad and brutal, but also hopeful and an inspiration for how everyone can make a difference.

 

Jane Cable’s The Forgotten Maid, reviewed by Jessie Cahalin

Set in Cornwall in the Regency era and 2015, we move from Thérèse’s world to Anna’s: Thérèse is a French maid and Anna is employed to set up a glamping sight. Both protagonists are warm characters suffering a sense of loss and longing. Cable artfully weaves in the link between the past and the present and tangles the reader in the mystery of this time shift novel. I was hooked from the first chapter when Thérèse’s spirit is left fluttering in the novel, waiting to be discovered. The ethereal quality in Cable’s writing is both haunting and believable. Clever twists and turn in the plot kept me captivated, and I adored the emotional parallel between the two characters. Poetic, accomplished writing – another triumph for Jane Cable.

 

Clare Mackintosh’s Hostage, reviewed by Jill Barry

You can save hundreds of lives, or the one that matters most. That’s the dilemma facing flight attendant Mina when she’s 35,000 feet high in the sky on the inaugural non-stop flight from Heathrow to Sydney. The story unfolds on the ground, focussing on Mina’s husband and their young daughter, as well as in the air, with brief chapters introducing certain passengers by their seat numbers. The planet Earth’s future is the theme of Clare Mackintosh’s stunning novel in which eco-warriors on board are banding together in order to hijack the Boeing 777 aeroplane and force those in power to take action before it’s too late. Deep-seated fears and the tangled emotions of Mina and her police officer husband are revealed against a background of high tension while the hours slip by and the aircraft’s fuel supply diminishes. Maybe best not to read this one if planning a long-haul flight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: READING AWAY

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Jane Cable catches up on some reading

Those of you who follow this column will know that I struggle to read while I’m writing, so holidays are the best time for me to catch up with the books I’ve been squirreling away on my Kindle. My recent trip to the US was good in that there were long flights, but bad because once we were there we had such a busy schedule it was hard to squeeze in too many pages.

Nevertheless, I did manage to finish a few, mainly those by authors I know (you make promises and fell obliged – in a good way, of course). Others like screenwriting bible Save The Cat deserve an article all of their own, but here are some thoughts on the fiction I managed to chomp through.

The Particular Charm of Miss Jane Austen by Ada Bright and Cassandra Grafton

It clear to see that this is a book that was written for fun, with many personal quirks and touches and as such it’s very much a tale of female friendship which reflects the real one between the co-authors. But it’s much more than that; it’s also a romance with a mystery to solve and the history surrounding Jane Austen is impeccable researched.

Set in modern day Bath at the time of the annual Jane Austen Festival the plot revolves around the time-travelling author who gets stuck in the twentieth century – with serious – and hilarious – consequences. I’m delighted to say that the book has just been acquired by Canelo and will be re-issued next year.

Sadie’s Wars by Rosemary Noble

I’ve known Rosemary for a number of years through Chindi Authors, but I have never before got around to reading one of her books. Sadie’s Wars is her latest – and technically third in her Currency Girls saga – but don’t let that put you off because it works well as a standalone novel.

The book goes back and forth between Australia before and during World War One and England during World War Two. Although both eras are beautifully drawn I found I related to the English story far more and it is a truly beautiful one. Rosemary captures the privations of the era so brilliantly and the love story Sadie finds in her later years is warm, real and lacking in sentiment.

The Cornish Village School – Breaking the Rules by Kitty Wilson

I’m not always the biggest romcom fan, but Kitty Wilson’s writing genuinely makes me laugh out loud. It’s the small observations, the turns of phrase – the genuine frustrations people feel when faced with contrary small children and difficult adults. And of course I was drawn to these books, not only because Kitty is a friend but because they are set in Cornwall.

Although inhabited by the cast of characters necessary to create romcom chaos and alchemy, the village of Penmenna itself feels pretty real. It’s not a tourist trap, it’s the Cornwall I’ve come to know and love since I’ve been here, with scruffy pubs full of genuinely eccentric locals who later career home down tiny single-track lanes and by some miracle get there unscathed.

The book is the first in a series and last week the next one – Second Chances – appeared. And it’s even better than the first.

The Business of Books: Jane Cable Gets Distracted But Finds She is Not Alone

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Jane Cable gets distracted but finds she is not alone

It’s a small miracle you are reading this article at all, to be honest – and great credit to writer friends who have rallied around to provide me with some content. The thing is, last week I moved house. Long distance and for the first time in over twenty years. Not only did time become an issue, but the mental effort turned my brain into a huge mass of Cornish clotted cream.

I am not the only author suffering from a life event at the moment. Frost’s own Margaret Graham has been in the wars but in typical fashion is seeing the positive: “Falling into a wall recently and breaking my shoulder not only put one hand out of use but a whole brain, it seems to me. I feel that actually giving it a rest is probably not a bad thing. You will find that creativity is better for a bit of a holiday.”

Writer of historical fiction, Rosemary Noble, is also good at seeing the upside of potentially distracting events. “Sometimes you can avoid the stress by burying yourself in writing. I’m thinking of trying to sell my mother’s flat to pay for her care home. The only way I got through that 12 months was writing,” she told me.

There are some everyday distractions which make the list too. Day jobs (most writers have them), family commitments, lack of sleep, paying the bills – even social media – all sap creative energy. Sometimes the good things do as well. Ghost writer and freelance wordsmith Sue Kelso Ryan cited her dog as the biggest culprit – and it was a great excuse to use her lovely picture as well.

Which just goes to show that good things interrupt our writing too. “Having twins,” says media medic and women’s fiction author Carol Cooper. “That knocked writing on the head for a few months. And illness/surgery. You resent having to rest or slow down because it stops you writing.” Although she did manage to create a top-selling practical parenting guide about her experiences once she was able to find the time.

Crises involving other family members which hit without warning seem to have the biggest effect, as fantasy & romance writer and brand strategist Amy Tipper-Hale has just found out: “My boyfriend breaking his leg in Milan after being run over by a motorcyclist, and me having to fly over to be with him so he wasn’t entirely stranded…I thought I’d have plenty of time to write, but it ended up being stressful and exhausting – my mind all over the place, and not a single word written…except this.” Luckily the patient is now at home – and hopefully Amy will get back to writing again soon too.

As for me, now I have unpacked my desk and settled it into its new location, I need to have a plan. I’ve been sitting on the edit notes for my current manuscript for a month or so and my brain is just starting to tick over them. And one thing this house move is meant to achieve is more time to write. Fingers crossed I can make it happen.

As well as those mentioned above, my thanks also go to Barbara Copperthwaite, Victoria Cornwall, Morton S Gray, Wersha Bharadwa, Carol Thomas and Clare Ruel for their contributions.