The Alcove (Lavender Shores #7)
10.0
Rate It
Book
Jasper Getty is living his dream as the owner of the charming bookshop, Lavender Pages. For seven...
M_M Contemporary Romance
After the Scrum
8.0
Rate It
Book
When a former rugby player reinventing himself meets a man who’s afraid to move on, can love offer...
Contemporary MM Romance
Return of the Thief (The Queen's Thief #6)
Book
The thrilling, twenty-years-in-the-making, conclusion to the New York Times–bestselling Queen’s...
The Boys Volume 2: Get Some
7.7
Rate It
Book
Fiction Non-Fiction Limited Editions Series A–Z Authors A–Z Social Back to product...
China Room
9.0
Rate It
Book
Longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize, the breathtaking story of a woman and a man in pursuit of...
Historical fiction Literary fiction India
Thorn in My Side
8.0
Rate It
Book
DI Mike Yorke is coming home. After three months in London, he’s looking forward to being back in...
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post
Sep 19, 2022
David McK (3600 KP) rated Scoundrel (the sailing thrillers, #5) in Books
Nov 29, 2023
Maybe because I'm *from* Belfast, Northern Ireland and have relatives who lived through the period of history colloquially known as The Troubles (I was a teenager in the 90s, when they 'ended', and when this is set), so know exactly what the IRA and their loyalist counterparts were/are like.
It made my blood boil to read passages in this where they were treated as heroes by some in Boston (and, yes, I know it's a fiction book): surely to goodness nobody could be that naive??
Anyway, I normally like Bernard Cornwell (Author) novels.
I know he spent a bit of time here (the BBC, I believe?), before moving to the States.
His knowledge of landmarks does show.
I would have thought he would have known better, though, in how he portrays the tangled mess that is politics and history that went on in this fair isle.
Sorry, Mr Paul Shanahan: you're unlikeable as a lead character; no match to a Richard Sharpe or an Uhtred of Bebbanburg.
(his other stand-alone sailing thrillers - those I have read, at least - are all much better)
Midnight Conquest (Bonded By Blood Vampire Chronicles #1)
8.0
Rate It
Book
Falling in love was not part of the plan. After thirty years of seeking my enemy, I find him... ...
Adult Historical Paranormal Romance
David McK (3600 KP) rated Arthur (The Arthurian Tales #3) in Books
Jun 30, 2024 (Updated Jun 30, 2024)
It's also the first one - I believe - to so heavily rely on flashbacks, paralleling the 'now' of the story with the background to one of the main characters Beran (whose identity I, personally, found quite easy to grok early on).
As a whole, I have to say, this trilogy is one of the best retellings of the Arthurian myths I have come across although retelling, however, may be too strong a word; perhaps a better on would be re-imagining as there's no mystical Green Knight (reimagined in 'Camelot'), search for the Holy Grails (again, see 'Camelot'), or mysterious women lying in ponds and distributing swords ("that's no basis for sound government..."), but which does cover the whole Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere love triangle (see, in particular, 'Lancelot') and the fall out thereof.
In short, all three novels are well worth a read - personally, I found I enjoyed these more than the 'Blood Eye' series by the same author.