The Pitman's Daughter by Marjorie DeLuca

REVIEW

Rita was born and bred in Crag street, where "everything was bare and exposed. Life was raw and tough and, God knows, she’d tried hard to smooth out the rough edges she’d been left with."

The pitmen and their extended families called it home, but for most of them it felt more like a poverty trap they could not escape from. Coal mining defined everything they did or had. Black soot and dust colored their lives and stories. But Rita knew she would get away, and so did George. Despite the poverty and hardships, change was waiting to happen that would leave no one untouched. However, love was not easy to come by, but it did change everything when it happened. Sadly, it also did not happen for everyone who deserved it.

Comments: This book can be viewed as a blend of romance and historical fiction with a touch of excellence in detail that winds through the narrative from the beginning to end. The characters are authentic. It took a while to get into the story, but when it happened, reality lost out to this nostalgic tale about the inhabitants of Crag street in this small mining village in England.

Rita was one determined young lady who had to prove her ambitious dreams of escaping the circumstances and people she so despised. Nothing and no one in Crag street could ever make her happy. All she ever dreamed of was not only to get away, but also move as far away as possible. In this amazingly multileveled tale, her journey started out as the learning curve of a ten year-old girl, on her way into adulthood where she must find herself and learn unintentional, unplanned lessons on her way in searching for love and security. Some of those lessons were not supposed to be learnt by innocent young girls, but which, in the end, defined her in ways she never thought possible as an adult. It was only when she was forced to come full circle that she finally understood the real meaning of the brightly flowering lobelias and daisies in the coal miner gardens. But she first had to live out her aspirations, to understand where the strength of her own roots lay hidden and what really determined the core of her happiness.

What a thoroughly enjoyable read. It is once again one of those books that takes the reader into the intimate world of people and history that nobody, except the inhabitants, would have known otherwise. Detailed, descriptive, and fascinating, but also informative and well presented. 

The tale is rich, heartwarming, endearing, passionate, compassionate, sad, hopeful, beautiful. A brilliant piece of writing by a highly skilled author. 

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AMAZON BLURB
Rita Hawkins fought all her life to escape from Crag Street, the grimy street of colliery houses where gossip reigned, tuberculosis killed, and mining families slaved to make ends meet. There she met George, the last surviving son of a poor mining family forced against his wishes to start work as a miner. Her life becomes inextricably tied up with his but love eludes them, though events in their lives constantly throw them together. George the high-minded idealist gets caught up with the miner's union, while cold, hard cash drives Rita, the pragmatist, towards independence and success in business. Their relationship is complicated by the tragic Maggie, abused mother of seven children and Ella, the childless street gossip with her nose in everyone's business. 
Years later, when Crag Street is torn down and rebuilt in a museum, Rita receives an invitation from George to attend the Grand Opening. The visit forces her to face painful memories about George, Maggie and Ella and to revisit the tragic incidents of the last days she spent on Crag Street. 

 

A vivid tale of love and loss, joy and tragedy, The Pitman's Daughter spans five decades and portrays the colorful tapestry of life in a Durham colliery village. Filled with unforgettable characters it is also a story of ambition and identity that shows no matter how hard we try, we can't escape our past since it shapes us into the person we become.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marjorie DeLuca spent her childhood in the ancient cathedral city of Durham in North-Eastern England. She attended the University of London, became a teacher, and then immigrated to Canada where she lives with her husband, two children and a crazy dog named Bella. There she also studied writing under her mentor, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Carol Shields. Though she loves writing sci-fi for teens, she’s also just completed two historical novels due out in the next few months

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BOOK INFORMATION
Genres: british-novels, canadian-authors, community, coal mine history, family, historical-fiction, relationships, reviewed, romance, England, Marjorie De Luca
Number of Pages: 350
Formats: Kindle | Paperback| Nook
Publishing Date: August 27th 2013
Publishers: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ASIN: B00ETYRX3A

• ISBN-13: 9781492162063

Edition language: English
Purchase Links: Amazon USA  | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

  

Daffodils by Alex Martin

REVIEW:
The first world war broke out in Europe

Young people from small, poor bucolic British families all dreamed of new possibilities and better lives if they signed up for the war. Most of them, in counties such as Wiltshire, had never been in London, many had never seen the sea. They eked out a living working for the gentry on their big estates with poverty standing like invisible perennial guards at their doors. There was hardly any escape possible until the war came.

Katy Beagle worked in the manor house as a personal maid when the son of the manor needed a little bit of fun before he departed for London to join the war effort. 

Young and inexperienced as she was, and bored to death with the prospect of being rooted to her situation for the rest of her life, Katy jumped at the opportunity to have some fun. It resulted in a huff and a lot of puff with a cloud of scandal threatening her good name and honor. Good, rock-solid Jem, the gardener, proposed again, and this time she had no other choice but to accept. And so begins the story of a young couple within the village dynamics of Wiltshire with the assortment of lovable, despicable, and delightful characters who share their lives for generations. But after the young vicar announced them husband and wife, the village openly released a sigh of relief. The scandal was short-lived and the couple could live happily ever after.

But that was not to be. Katy and Jem's paths through the deeply moving narrative exposes the highs and lows of two young people's inner turmoil with life and love, their first encounters in the adult world with heartbreak and hardship. The tale winds through a volatile time in world history and how it personally effected two young people but also their community. 

The horror of the First World War is portrayed with accuracy and emotion. The deprivations and devastation of the war is creatively and convincingly conveyed. All the elements to make this a great book is present: loyalty, weakness, betrayal, guilt, lies, sex, secrets, violence, an attempted suicide, heroism and finally love coupled with justice. All the people are real. So much so that the reader becomes emotionally attached to them and become emotionally invested in the turns and twists of the plot. Throughout the harsh reality of the war, there is still an almost ironic wholesomeness present in the young people's optimism and hope for a better future. Despite all the obstacles, the daffodils never seized to bloom among the privation and suffering of the war. 

Daffodils is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope which teaches us the power of resilience, integrity and true honor.

This book was a deeply emotional experience that managed to reach the inner core of my being. This is such a powerful story. I am amazed that it has not attracted more attention on Goodreads. It really deserves it.

If you have enjoyed The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, you will love this book as well.

Highly recommended.

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AMAZON BOOK BLURB
Katy dreams of a better life than just being a domestic servant at Cheadle Manor. Her one attempt to escape is thwarted when her flirtation with the manor’s heir results in a scandal that shocks the local community. 
Jem Beagle has always loved Katy. His offer of marriage rescues her but personal tragedy divides them. Jem leaves his beloved Wiltshire to become a reluctant soldier on the battlefields of World War One. Katy is left behind, restless and alone. 
Lionel White, just returned from being a missionary in India, brings a dash of colour to the small village, and offers Katy a window on the wider world. 
Katy decides she has to play her part in the global struggle and joins the war effort as a WAAC girl. She finally breaks free from the stifling Edwardian hierarchies that bind her but the brutality of global war brings home the price she has paid for her search. 


"Absorbing, involving, unputdownable, honest, great characterisation". 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Life has been full to date. Now I have a window, a pause, in which to explore my first passion - writing. I have a shed in the garden where I can be found bashing both brain and keyboard. I'm attempting to express those thoughts and ideas that have been cooking since I was seven, and learned to read. 

There was an old black and gold typewriter knocking about my childhood home. When I wasn't skinning my knees climbing trees or wandering aimlessly in the countryside with my dog and my dreams, I could be found, as now, typing away with imaginary friends whispering in my ear.

My first novel, The Twisted Vine, is based on a happy time picking grapes in France in the 1980s. I met some amazing people there but none as outrageous as those that sprang to life on my screen. The next one, Daffodils, is now published on KDP and in paperback with www.feedaread.com is based in Wiltshire, where I grew up. It attempts to portray how ordinary lives, and the rigid social order, were radically altered by the catalyst of the First World War.


The next one, as yet un-named, is a ghost story. I'm just listening to the whispers from the other side to get the full picture....

You can keep up to date with my progress on alexxx8586.blogspot.com 

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BOOK INFORMATION
Genres: british-novels, community, drama, historical-fiction, relationships, reviewed, romance, world-history, Wiltshire, Alex Martin
Number of Pages: 402
Formats: Kindle, Paperback
Publishing Date: March 6th 2013
Publishers: Kindle Direct Publishing /  Feedaread.com / Amazon Digital ServicesISBN-13: 9781782993957ASIN: B00BPUQAY4
Edition language: English
Purchase Links: Amazon USA  | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

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Message from the author Alex Martin:I send enormous thanks to Margitte for this beautifully written and heartfelt review of Daffodils. I'm currently writing the sequel, Speedwell, which follows the same characters through the roaring twenties and thirties. The name is linked to the rise of the motor car, in which they all become involved, but I'll say no more than that! I can't tell you how thrilled I was with this review especially as you took the trouble to post it in the UK as well as the States and here, on Goodreads. Sincere thanks, Margitte.

I can't tell you how much it means to know that someone, thousands of miles away, has enjoyed something I've created.

Alex Martin

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The Detective's Daughter by Lesley Thomson

Genres: Murder, Mystery, Drama, Suspense, Thriller, Relationships, Family
Formats: Kindle
Pages: 470
ISBN: 1908800240
ISBN13: 9781908800251 

Published date: May 1st, 2013
Publishers: Head of Zeus
Edition language: English
Purchase Link: Amazon

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AMAZON BLURB:

Kate Rokesmith's decision to go to the river changed the lives of many.

Her murder shocked the nation. Her husband, never charged, moved abroad under a cloud of suspicion. Her son, just four years old, grew up in a loveless boarding school. And Detective Inspector Darnell, vowing to leave no stone unturned in the search for her killer, began to lose his only daughter. The young Stella Darnell grew to resent the dead Kate Rokesmith. Her dad had never vowed to leave no stone unturned for her.

Now, thirty years later, Stella is dutifully sorting through her father's attic after his sudden death. The Rokesmith case papers are in a corner, gathering dust: the case was never solved. Stella knows she should destroy them. Instead, she opens the box, and starts to read.

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REVIEW:

Kate Rokesmith died on Monday, 27 July 1981 and her case would go unsolved into the cold case files. But detective Terence Christopher Darnell was determined to find out what happened and pursued the investigation after his retirement which would end on Sunday, 9 January 2011. 

For thirty years, the story would be dormant in police files, and all the people involved in Kate's life would continue with their lives. Her husband left the country, her four year old son landed up in a boarding school where he was bullied. For some life would continue normally, and for others her death would change everything.

When Terry dies of a heart attack, his daughter Stella, with her own cleaning company, assumes she will just clinically finish up his life and home, as she is doing with all her clients, never expecting to find what was waiting for her in his home. She believes they did not have a good relationship, her dad was married to his work, and she dissociated with him after her parents divorce. She did not really know him and felt no need to mourn his death at all.

To find the case still open and being investigated by her retired dad brought even more resentment and bitterness. How did it happen that she resented a dead woman this much? It was the murder case that ended his marriage and changed his relationship with Stella forever. Until she starts to read her dad's meticulous notes.

Between the time of his death and his funeral, her entire approach to life will be challenged, her memories rearranged, her values tested, and her mission in life changed.

There was thirty years of history in different people's lives that would open up for her. In less than three weeks, she would become something she never imagined possible and get to know people she never deemed necessary in her life. 

This is a brilliant detective murder mystery. Not only are there complete profiles of all the people involved, there are also the detailed memories of those who remembered the murder but never discussed what they knew. The secrets are stacked up, the veneer covering up the guilt, are polished to a satin shine. But Stella was not only known for her meticulous cleaning services, her ability to find grime in hidden places, she was also her father's daughter when it comes to detail.

This was a tremendous experience! Five stars for everything!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lesley Thomson was born in 1958 and grew up in London. She went to Holland Park Comprehensive and the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. Her novel A Kind of Vanishing won The People's Book Prize in 2010. Lesley combines writing with teaching creative writing. She lives in Lewes with her partner.

Thirty Seconds Before Midnight by Helen Beal

Thirty Seconds Before Midnight by Helen Beal

Genres: Drama, tragicomedy, satire, family, fiction, British-novels
Formats: Hardcover(250 pages), Paperback, Kindle, Nook
Published: December 1st 2012 by Carapace Limited
Original title: Thirty Seconds Before Midnight
ISBN 1909354015 (ISBN13: 9781909354012)
Publication language: English
Purchase links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble



It was the first time ever that I seriously thought about the different forms of laughter. I honestly never thought I had it all in me! While reading this book, it went from quaint gigles, tee hee hees, harrah harrah harrah, woo-hoo hoo, snorting, chuckling, bwahaha ha to almost indecent guffaws, snickers, and titters!

Which form of laughter do you think would you indulge in when you read this:
"...just as the main door to the Big House flew open with an almighty smash, and the man with the stripy hair stood proud on the step, naked as a nectarine. With his hands on his hips, he screamed as though his toenails were being extracted.

Bob dropped the bucket. It tumbled down the Hill, emptying its contents - a delicious assortment of lettuce ends and cucumber starts - in its wake. First his face, weathered like one of Stella's vintage handbags, went a chalky white. Then, as Naked Man, his hair swinging against his gluteus maximus, posed in prayer then like a standing star and then low down like a wheelbarrow, so low that I was sure the tip of his genitalia must have been scraping on the gravel, Bob turned puce. And he stomped off to the feed shed."

But wait, humor and satire are not the same all over the world. What the English, and most of the world who shared a life with the Brits at one point regard as hilariously funny, might be regarded by the Americans as dull and not funny at all.

Whatever the case might be, this book will touch you in more ways than one. Actually in more ways than you could ever have imagined!

I cannot help but smile again when trying to introduce the duo, Digby, the parakeet, and dear Herbert, the gigantic land tortoise - who is not the only, but mostly, our main narrator!

My first impression was that I have been fooled into reading a children's book. Perhaps it was a fairy tale for grown-ups, which had me quite infatuated with the idea, since it worked so well as the story initially unfolded !

Well, as I mentioned, there's Digby, the flying arm of the gossip team, and Herbert the wallflower, a real tortoise though, enclosed in his 'exquisite boredom', observing the lives of their new neighbors at Bestwood. Herbert had a crush on Stella, his human friend. Best friend he ever had! The feeling was mutual! Digby regarded Herbert as his mother but that's another story ...

Perky Herbie (my nickname for Herbert) is bowled over with the voice of Ollie, one of the twins of the new neighbors. Herbie just figured out that Sid and Ollie, with their band, Apollemis, were indeed the incarnation of Apollo and Artemis, with Ollie, no doubt, being Apollo - the God of music and light. He wasn't so sure about Sid, though. But he would go with Sid as the male embodiment of Artemis, lady of wild things, the moon, the dark side. The twins were like the sun and the moon. Truth and chastity. These twins were united by their band called Apollermis. The name was a combination of the two Greek Gods' names. Right then... Ollie was the musician and Sid the party animal.

The previous owners who lived a quiet life at Bestwood, sold the impressive property to the twin's dad Dave, with his new trophy wife Issa, and her three dog-lits. She might have been a mistake in Dave's life since he soon realized that he cannot make her happy, that her discontent with life is permanent...

Herbie felt it "unfair that these humans could have multiple talents, explore multiple uses of themselves and be good at more than just one thing. It was like living several lives in just one - it was gluttonous. A richness that wracked my simple life dedicated to observation with poverty rendered it positively dissatisfying."

I would say that this thought of Herbert, pretty much sums up the fast-flowing story with its surprising twists and turns.

The turning of events will begin with the famous rock star, Dave Palmer, buying the estate, planning to turn it into a health resort, getting rid of the animals as well. The gatehouse, where the zookeeper, Bob and his daughter Stella reside, would make a perfect recording studio for the twins. Ollie planned his own record label.

The idea will receive creative, ingenious opposition (mostly kicking and scheming)from the existing occupiers, both human and animal alike. It promised to be hilarious in its originality.

The book addresses life, including animal & human antics with wit and wisdom in an easy-flowing format. All the animals have names and characters like their human counterparts. The story proves that we are somehow, either through blood, or the company we keep, family.

The story line is original and very well executed. The events are funny, sad, feisty, profound, thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, but definitely grown-up in nature. There is a dignity and depth in all the characters. There is a skillful intermixing of narrators to keep the story flowing. Most of the character development will be done in epistolary style. The initial impression of dealing with a bunch of lunatics, will be balanced out very quickly by the rolling events.

The characters show respectability and responsibility in their make-up, which renders the story real and utterly believable apart from fairy tale characters Herbert and Digby being their twittering, pondering and philosophical selves. And do not forget the phantom tigress called Kevin...!

Stella would become the catalyst that would force all the human and animal family in her life to address their own truths, hurt and way forward. There is anger, sadness, laughter as well as a state of total disbelief in the situation. There is enough drama to keep the reader absolutely riveted to the unfolding tale. And no, it turned out not to be a fairy tale for grown-ups at all. In fact, I was so totally caught off-guard for what would happen!

I never thought I would enjoy this book this much! Honestly. I have a confession to make! Well yes, I want to pull on a British flag short, jump over the wall into the zoo encampment, take a bow; where the Naked Man's had been punchy, mine will be wide, generous and all inclusive, like Ollie's, and, like him, want to yell: " Hello, I'm Ollie! Ollie Palmer. And it is my absolute pleasure to meet you all!"

How terribly fast life changed after Ollie's clownish jump!

This story is brilliant. No annoying lose ends will blow into your eyes; no emotion will remain unaddressed. A tragicomedy par excellence! I have been soooo wrong into believing differently!

Five stars! All the way! I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a heartwarming, yet soul-wrenching community and family drama. This book will surprise you beyond believe!