Garden at War: Deception, Craft and Reason at Stowe
Book
At Stowe, 250 acres of parkland off er a complex web of views, pathways, statues, inscriptions, urns...
Alla Osipenko: Beauty and Resistance in Soviet Ballet
Book
Alla Osipenko is the gripping story of one of history's greatest ballerinas, a courageous rebel who...
Approaches to Teaching the History of the English Language: Pedagogy in Practice
Mary Hayes and Allison Burkette
5.0
Rate It
Book
The History of the English Language has been a standard university course offering for over 150...
New Technology and Education
Book
This title offers an engaging look at the debates surrounding the benefits and dangers of the...
Neoliberalism and Contemporary Literary Culture
Mitchum Huehls and Rachel Greenwald Smith
Book
Neoliberalism has been a buzzword in literary studies for well over a decade, but its meaning...
Reading the Psychosomatic in Medical and Popular Culture: Something. Nothing. Everything
Book
Pain. Chronic digestive symptoms. Poor sleep. Neuropathy. Sensory disturbances. Fatigue. Panic....
The Signifying Power of Pearl: Medieval Literary and Cultural Contexts for the Transformation of Genre
Book
This book enhances our understanding of the exquisitely beautiful, fourteenth-century, Middle...
A Return to Eros: The Radical Experience of Being Fully Alive
Marc Gafni and Kristina Kincaid
Book
Discover the secret relationship between erotic, the sexual, and the sacred Sex is not negative or...
Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Grave Mercy in Books
Jan 6, 2021
I'd had this on my "to read" shelf on here for a while and then removed it, thinking that since I very rarely read historical books that I might not enjoy it after all.
What a load of rubbish that was!
The synopsis made me think it would be like the <i>Throne of Glass</i> series and in a way it was; assassin, a bit of romance, but it was also not. This was based on true events and there was a lot of different things happening in relation to the duchy.
I have to admit that the first 10-15% was a bit hard for me to get into. There wasn't too much detail about her time at the abbey and as much as I was interested in what she was learning there that bit started to bore me after a while.
It was only with the arrival of Duval and the sparks they ignited that I really started to get into this. I could tell straight away that something was going to happen there and since I'm a romance reader I was happy that there was the possibility of romance. It was nice reading the slow progression of their relationship as it changed.
As for everyone else; Anne, Isabeau, Beast etc. I grew to really like them. They all added great things to the story.
In relationship to Beast, I would really like to know what happened to him, and I'm hoping I will find the answers to that in the next book in the series.
If you like stories of assassins and romance then you'll more than likely like this.
Eleanor Luhar (47 KP) rated Apple Tree Yard in Books
Jun 24, 2019
The narrative of this book is quite unique, being recalled as an account from the past. Yvonne, the narrator, often refers to "now" and unknown events that have yet to take place in the story. This definitely builds the suspense a lot.
Yvonne takes us through the development of her extramarrital relationship with the unknown "you" (or "X" as she refers to him in her letters). Later, we will learn the identity of Yvonne's lover, but throughout the book we are given only speculations about his life that Yvonne theorises to be accurate.
This affair is, I suppose, both shocking and familiar at the same time. Yvonne is a successful, loved wife and mother with a safe home and good career. She loves her husband and her children. Her affair is, in this respect, unexpected and outrageous. But at the same time, as Yvonne summarises at the end of the novel, her "one-off" offence falls perfectly into the typical category of people like her. People who do not cheat on their partners because they don't love them. Unline "you", who cheats repeatedly for the excitement of it.
Most of the book is dedicated to the devlopment of the relationship, with other details of Yvonne's life and comments about the present included here and there. Yvonne is eventually sexually assaulted by a coworker/acquaintance. Amazingly, this event leads to Yvonne being on trial for murder.
The court case is described fantastically, with plenty of detail about all the little things that really set the scene. The narrative throughout the book is also fantastic - it really has the 'feel' of a middle-aged woman. 3.5 stars.