Book review: The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry

Title: The Way of All Flesh
Author: Ambrose Parry
Publisher: Canongate Books
Publication date: 2nd October 2018
Genre: Historical Fiction
Series: Raven, Fisher & Simpson, #1
Source: Review copy from publisher via NetGalley

Description: Edinburgh, 1847. City of Medicine, Money, Murder. Young women are being discovered dead across the Old Town, all having suffered similarly gruesome ends. In the New Town, medical student Will Raven is about to start his apprenticeship with the brilliant and renowned Dr Simpson. Simpson’s patients range from the richest to the poorest of this divided city. His house is like no other, full of visiting luminaries and daring experiments in the new medical frontier of anaesthesia. It is here that Raven meets housemaid Sarah Fisher, who recognises trouble when she sees it and takes an immediate dislike to him. She has all of his intelligence but none of his privileges, in particular his medical education. With each having their own motive to look deeper into these deaths, Raven and Sarah find themselves propelled headlong into the darkest shadows of Edinburgh’s underworld, where they will have to overcome their differences if they are to make it out alive.

My thoughts: I went to university in Edinburgh and its one of those places where you can feel the history leaking out of the stones all around you. So a historical story set here, and in one of my favourite historical periods to read about, was a definite 'yes' from me. The book starts just before Will starts an apprenticeship with a doctor. Before he can get there, he discovers that a young woman he'd been visiting has died, and it doesn't seem like natural courses. Will is determined to investigate, even if it jeopardises his new position.

Dr Simpson is wealthy, but treats many patients who could never normally afford a doctor as well, and his specialism is childbirth. Midwifery is a key part of the book, and I found it fascinating and horrifying to see some of the medical practices of the period. It was one of those books where I paused to google quite a few times and learn a little bit more about what was happening in the wider medical and legal community at the time that fell outside the immediate view of the book. Pain relief in childbirth is just starting to be experimented with, but half of the doctors using it have no idea what they're doing, and many women tragically died.

There's a gripping crime plotline through the middle of the book, which I really enjoyed, and an examination of privilege and the position of women at the time through the character of Sarah. But it was the historical aspects that I really found fascinating. Beyond the midwifery, it's woven wonderfully into the story, from the setting of Edinburgh itself, to episodes like when Will spends a day with some photographers and sees how their art is developing.

I really enjoyed this book, and I'm so glad it's the start of a series. If like me you'd like to know more about the author, I was interested to learn that it's actually a writting team: Scottish crime writer Christopher Brookmyre, and his wife, who got interested in some of the topics explored in the book while working on her PhD.

Overall, I'm giving this one 9/10, and I will definitely be reading the sequel at some point.

The Earl's Countess of Convenience by Marguerite Kaye

Title: The Earl's Countess of Convenience
Author: Marguerite Kaye
Publisher: Mills & Boon
Publication date: 4th April 2019
Genre: Historical Romance (Regency)
Source: Review copy via NetGalley

Description: Eloise Brannagh has witnessed first-hand the damage unruly passion can cause. Yet she craves freedom, so a convenient marriage to the Earl of Fearnoch seems the perfect solution! Except Alexander Sinclair is more handsome, more intriguing, more everything, than Eloise anticipated. Having set her own rules for their marriage, her irresistible husband might just tempt Eloise to break them!

My thoughts: The book opened with several pages of serious info-dumping as Eloise and her family discuss their past and set up the facts of the story opening: that the Earl has written to propose a marriage of convenience with Eloise. The slew of telling went on to the point that I completely lost track of who was being talked about. Despite that quite off-putting start, I did quickly get drawn in once Alexander Sinclair arrive at Eloise's house and they started talking. Each had formed various opinions about the other and now found that not only were those ideas quite wrong, but actually the other person was quite attractive and they were really enjoying talking to them.

I loved that the drama of the story is totally built around their relationship. Often in the historical romance books I've read, there is some kind of dramatic event near the end - a duel, a kidnapping, blackmail - that causes the hero and heroine to realise their true feelings for each other. In The Earl's Convenient Countess, Marguerite Kaye keeps the focus on the evolving relationship between Eloise and Alexander, looking at how time changes their opinions of each other, how they modify their behaviour based on what the other is saying or doing, and how they questions their own plans and desires. It gets so much more into the little actions that affect dynamics of a relationship than some historical romance novels do.

Marguerite Kaye's writing really flows, and I thought her descriptions of people and places were just right: bringing a scene to life without it feeling laboured or overdone. It's not a book full of glamorous parties (although there are some nice dinners and a shopping trip) or too much intrigue, but I don't think that detracts from the story in any way or made it feel like less of the kind of historical romance I was expecting. Overall, I'm giving The Earl's Countess of Convenience 7 out of 10. I found it a really interesting study of a relationship and it definitely lived up to my expectations of Marguerite Kaye's writing, which I've always enjoyed in the past.

Book Review: Lady Olivia and the Infamous Rake by Janice Preston

Title: Lady Olivia and the Infamous Rake
Author: Janice Preston
Publication date: 23rd August 2018
Publisher: Mills & Boon
Genre: Historical Romance
Source: Review copy via NetGalley

Description: 'He’s completely unsuitable… he’s a rake.'

After being plucked from peril by resolute bachelor Lord Hugo Alastair, Lady Olivia Beauchamp is secretly outraged that he doesn’t even try to steal a kiss! He’s a notorious rake amongst the ton and as a result, utterly forbidden to an innocent debutante like her. But their attraction is magnetic. Will she risk her reputation for a passionate encounter?

My thoughts: Lady Olivia Beauchamp has had a very fortunate life. Her family are high in British society, she has two older brothers to secure the future of the family, they're well off financially and her father is able to provide a good dowry for her so she needn't worry too much about her future husband being wealthy himself. She knows how to behave in public to appear as a proper young lady, but in private she's a little more rebellious. Her brothers have always overshadowed her, and she feels like her sex has held her back from a lot of opportunities in life. That leads her to the situation at the beginning of the book where she has disguised herself and persuaded her brother to take her to Vauxhall Gardens one night while their father is away. Unfortunately, things go wrong, and Lord Hugo steps in to rescue her.

They then meet several times through various circumstances and despite knowing he has a reputation as a rake, Lady Olivia finds herself very attracted to him. I liked Olivia for her daring, and the way she balanced the lady she needed to appear as to society against the person she was inside. There are a couple of times in the book where she makes very silly decisions, without really thinking about possible consequences, which was a bit frustrating but I think that's an accurate reflection of the fact that she's eighteen and just doesn't have a clear picture of the harsh realities of the world yet.

While you don't get to see much of what the secondary characters are up to, there are references to some adventures which I think must play out in the other books in this sequence, called 'The Beauchamp Heirs'. I'd be interested to read more, I think, but I'm not necessarily going to seek them out over other historical romance books that might be available to me when I'm next choosing something.

Lady Olivia and the Infamous Rake was a light, easy read and that was exactly what I was looking for. It's nicely written Regency romance, and I'd read other books by Janice Preston in future. I'm giving this book 6 out of 10.

Book Review: Last Christmas in Paris, by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Title: Last Christmas in Paris
Author: Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Release date: 3rd October 2017
Publisher: William Morrow (available in the UK through Harper 360)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Review copy from Harper 360

Description: 
Christmastime in Paris... Thomas Harding travels to the City of Lights, a packet of cherished letters in hand... letters that tell a story of love a loss, friendship and family, and the innocent hopes of a generation devastated by war. As he reads the letters one more time, Tom is transported back to 1914 and the sunlit August day when Evie Elliott waves goodby to him and her brother Will, as they head to the Western Front. 

All believe the war will be over by Christmas when the trio plan to reunite and celebrate the holiday among the romantic cafes of Paris. But it is not to be. As months slip into years, Tom's and Evie's lives become bound together by the letters and telegrams, notes and stories that travel between them, from the front line in France to a quiet suburb of London. But as their friendship flourishes, there is far more than words held between the pages of Tom's and Evie's letters. 
Now, decades later, Thomas finds himself once again in his beloved Paris, determined to fulfill a last promise and to lay to rest the ghosts of the past... but one final letter is waiting for him. 

My thoughts: 
The basic premise of Last Christmas in Paris is quite straightforward: Evie and Tom write letters to each other during the First World War, with occasional letters to other friends and family included too. Tom and Will go off to France all excited, eager to do their part, sort out the enemy, and meet their friends a couple of months later. We all know how it actually turned out, and the horrors of the Front.

I loved that it was all told in letters, and I found it very quick to read in that format - 'just one more letter' is a lot faster than 'one more chapter', so I'd end up reading far more at once than I expected to! It was really interesting seeing how their lives developed, and how things went unsaid, and their slow realisation that in fact they did love each other. But the framing of the story is that Tom is rereading these in Paris years later, and it's vague enough that you really don't know up until the very end if it all turns out ok for them. I liked the fact that that tension remained throughout the whole book.

Although this is a fairly typical war story, with ups and downs and lots of personal growth and a slow building romance, I did really enjoy it, and was in tears in several places. A well written book, in a really enjoyable format that managed to sustain the tension right through to the end. Overall I'm giving it 7 out of 10.