Thursday 31 January 2019

Vote for Effie by Laura Wood – review


A wacky comedy for switched-on kids. Cute boys, chocolate cake and a fight for rights! Effie Kostas is on a mission. She wants to – no, she will – become Student Council President at her new school. She’s got her campaign team all lined up: a squad of loveable misfits who feel as strongly as she does about the big issues that really matter. You know, like gender imbalance, outdated school conventions – and good-looking boys who steal the last bits of chocolate cake at lunchtime. It’s time for change, and Effie is going to make change happen. So don’t hang around. Vote for Effie!

Laura Wood is amazing at writing books that leave you feeling uplifted. A Sky Painted Gold was one of my favourite books of last year (you can read my review here). Not only did Vote for Effie make me laugh and feel very happy, but it also had an important message that left me feeling really motivated.

A real strength of this book is the characters. I adored Effie and how much she cares about things that matter. Every character felt well developed and I particularly liked the relationship Effie has with her family. The dialogue is also witty and utterly believable.

Vote for Effie also felt very topical. It got me thinking about how if we want to make positive changes, we all have a part to play. It makes me happy that children will read this book (and adults too). I already passed my copy on to an eleven-year-old girl who I'm sure will love it.

I hope that there are more Effie books. I need more stories with her in them, but I think the world needs them too!






Tuesday 29 January 2019

Stripes YA Afternoon Equali-Tea

I had a brilliant time at the Stripes blogger event on Saturday, a YA Afternoon Equali-Tea that raised money for the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall. It was a great opportunity to catch up with lovely people and find out about all the amazing books that Stripes have coming out this year. Special thanks to the wonderful Chelley Toy for letting me use her photographs.

 
Whiteout, the latest Red Eye title, is out now and is one of my favourite yet. A group of teenagers are trapped on a ski resort in a snowstorm while an ancient evil watches from the surrounding forests. When night falls, they have to face the monsters...

Author Gabriel Dylan read a particularly creepy extract and talked about his writing journey. It turns out that a real ski trip inspired the book, although fortunately without the horrifying events that unfold in Whiteout!




We also heard about the upcoming Proud anthology (7th March 2019). This is my current read and I'm already convinced that it's the best book of short stories I've ever read. It's a collection of stories, poetry and illustrations by LGBTQ+ authors and illustrators, each giving their response to the theme of 'Pride'. We got to hear from three of the previously unpublished authors: Cynthia So, Kay Staples and Karen Lawler. I've read all of their stories and they're some of my favourites in the book so far.



Another book I'm exceptionally excited about is Music and Malice in Hurricane Town by Alex Bell. Out on 4th April 2019, it's set in a world inspired by New Orleans and is about a young jazz player who is possessed by the ghost of a murdered woman. She's pulled into a world of intrigue, including secret vampire jazz clubs... 





We also watched a video of author Randy Ribay talking about his exciting new book, Patron Saints of Nothing. It comes out on 27th June 2019 and is a coming-of-age story about a Filipino-American teenager trying to find the truth about his cousin's murder. 







We also heard from Editor-At-Large, Sarah Shaffi, about her first acquisition, My So-Called Bollywood Life by Nisha Sharma. This book sounds like so much fun, and is the story of a Bollywood film fanatic who is trying to 'find her happily ever after'. It comes out on 2nd May 2019.





Thank you so much to Stripes for putting on such a lovely event and providing an amazing selection of proof copies! 

Monday 21 January 2019

The Girl King blog tour – extract


It's a pleasure to join the blog tour for The Girl King. I loved this book so much, and it reinvigorated my interest in YA fantasy. The world building is fantastic and there's plenty of action in the battle for the throne. You can check my review out here.

For my stop on the blog tour, I have a brilliant extract from the beginning of the novel. Enjoy!


CHAPTER 1
The Girl King
The sword cut through the air a finger’s width from Lu’s face. She suppressed the instinct to flinch. The thrust was meant to throw her off balance so her opponent could knock her to the ground. Once that happened, she would be done for.
She wasn’t so easy. Sorry to disappoint, Shin Yuri.
Lu leaped back lightly, swinging her own blade in a hard, upward parry just as the sword master sent his crashing down upon her. She was ready for it. Their weapons met with a flat thwack. Wood on wood.
“Good!” her shin barked, dancing back from the blow. “Now, fix your stance!”
Lu darted a look down at her feet. Shin Yuri took advantage of her distraction. She barely had time to raise her sword before he fell upon her.
“Don’t use your eyes to fix your feet!” he scolded between thrusts. “The body knows the body. Eyes are for the opponent!”
Idiot! A beginner’s mistake. Hardly befitting a princess who had picked up a practice blade at the age of seven and spent the past nine years training daily. A princess who in a few short hours would be named her father’s successor . . .
Yuri came at her hard, raining fresh blows on her. She shuffled back, taking him with her. His movements were violent, almost wild, but she wasn’t fooled. His control was ironclad. Still, a man his age could not keep up this pace for long.
“Keep me moving!” Shin Yuri snapped. “Let me use up my energy.”
I know that!
The shadow of Kangmun Hall’s massive red walls fell over them as they danced along the perimeter of the Ring. The hall was named for the first ethnic Hu emperor— her own great- grandsire— who had led his army of nomad warriors south to conquer the failing last Hana dynasty. They had had the Gift of the tiger back then, allowing them to rend their enemies with tooth and claw. But that was long ago.
Yuri pushed her back another step. Lu imagined herself in the bronze- laced red wooden armour and orange tiger pelt of the old Hu kings, like those she had seen hung in reverent display in the Hall of the Ancestors.
She leaped forward and swung hard. The blood pounding in her ears became the thundering hooves of a thousand Hu warriors astride massive black war elk. The warriors screamed for victory— for her— their magnificent mounts foaming at the mouth in their toil.
“Reckless!” she heard Shin Yuri shout. “Control your strokes! Fewer swings, more knowing.”
His words meant nothing to her. She was what thousands of years of warriors had wrought. She had the blood of the tiger in her veins. Who was he to tell her how to swing a sword?
She drove him back another step. As Shin Yuri raised his blade, she spun away from him, then reversed the motion, circling back toward him, raising her sword high above her head. She brought it down, hard, just as he completed his own stroke. The force of her unexpected blow knocked the sword clean from his hands.
Shin Yuri dove after the blade, but Lu kicked it out of reach. He hit the sandy ground, rolling away from her. He bounded back to his feet, poised to dash, only to find her wooden blade at his throat.
Lu kept the sword steady in one hand and used the other to pull off her leather practice helmet, the heavy black rope of her plait tumbling down her back.
“I believe there is a saying for this situation, is there not?” She grinned, wiping away the sweat brimming on her upper lip with her sleeve. “Something about the student becoming the shin?”
Pride and annoyance tugged at the old man’s features, but before he could speak, applause broke out, sharp and unexpected as the ringing of a glass wind- chime.
Lu turned and saw three girls gathered just outside the chalked perimeter of the sparring ring. Against the sandy practice yard, the trio’s pastel- hued robes gave them the misplaced look of flowers scattered in the dirt: Lu’s younger sister, Princess Minyi, and two of her nunas, Butterfly and Snowdrop. Seeing the surprise on her face, they burst into pleased giggles.
Minyi’s sallow face was sun warmed and flushed. She was dressed as their empress mother preferred her to be, in the old Hana way, her layered robes of pale pink cinched high at the waist. The empress had never tried to dress Lu this way, even when she was a young child. But then, between the two of them Min had always been the more malleable.
Butterfly and Snowdrop wore the yellow batik robes customary of palace nunas, topped with a hooded cape— a symbol of modesty. But Butterfly and Snowdrop had uncovered their heads to enjoy the late summer sun.
“Ay!” Lu hollered, striding over to them. “What are you doing here?”
“We overheard you sparring,” Min said. Her voice was ever tentative, like the tip of a toe testing hot bathwater. “It sounded so exciting that they— we— wanted to watch. Just for a moment.”
Lu blinked in pleasant surprise. It had been some time since Min had watched her spar— years, truly. She’d assumed Min wasn’t interested. Her sister had always been a sensitive creature, flinching at even the clashing of practice swords.
“Don’t be cross, Princess,” Butterfly interjected, pulling Lu’s gaze away. “We just wanted to see if the rumours were true, that you’re as deft as a man with a blade.” Snowdrop let loose a fresh peal of laughter.
“What’s so amusing? You don’t think I’m as good as a man?” Lu demanded good- naturedly.
“Oh no, it’s not that!” Butterfly smirked. “Snowdrop was just commenting that in your practice robes and helmet, Her Highness cuts as handsome a figure as any crown prince could hope to— ”
“You truly are the Girl King, just as they say!” Snowdrop interrupted, dissolving into fresh laughter.
Lu caught herself before she reacted, but from the corner of her eye she saw Minyi stiffen.
“Girl King” was the derisive nickname Lu had earned among both court officials and commoners contemptuous of her ambitions— as Snowdrop well would have known, had she the sense of a child half her age. She understood the language of awkward silences at least; she went quiet, sensing her error.
“The Girl King?” Lu said with a deliberate smile. The tension eased just slightly from Min’s shoulders. “Perhaps I will be! We’ll see soon enough.”
Very soon. By the end of the day, she would have her new title, and finally put to bed all the rumours: that she was too weak to rule, that the Hu dynasty was on its last legs, that her father was planning to marry her off to her stupid, drug- addled Hana cousin, Lord Set of Bei Province.
“Yes,” agreed Min. Her voice was rushed in eagerness, grateful to move past the discomfort Snowdrop had initiated. “We should probably head over to court soon.”
“Court?” Lu repeated. She cursed, looking toward the sun. “Is it that late already? Why didn’t you say so sooner?”
Min flushed as she always did when sensing the slightest displeasure directed her way. “Well, it’s not so late yet— ” she amended quickly.
“Snowdrop, take Princess Minyi to her apartments and get her dressed for court,” Lu interrupted, her thoughts racing. It wouldn’t do to be late today of all days. “Butterfly, run ahead to my apartments and tell my nunas to prepare a hot bath and lay out my clothes. The formal teal robes, and the plum underskirt with gold trim. Make sure to speak to Hyacinth directly. She knows the clothes and how best to prepare my bath.”
“Yes, Princess.”
Lu turned toward her sister. “I’ll see you at court.”
“Should we meet beforehand so we can walk to Kangmun Hall together . . . ?” Minyi ventured hopefully. Lu tamped down a sigh; Min hated making an entrance on her own. Most days Lu didn’t mind playing the chaperone . . .
“Not today,” she said brusquely. “I can’t afford to be late.” “I won’t be . . .”
“Best hurry now!” Lu flashed her an encouraging smile before turning away.
She hurried back to Shin Yuri, who had removed his sword belt and was now worrying the shoulder buckles on his sparring jerkin.
“I apologize for the interruption, Shin Yuri.”
“Interruption?” he said blandly. “What interruption?” A smile quirked at the corners of Lu’s mouth.
Shin Yuri spat in the dirt, then turned to fix her with a tight frown. “Time for court, is it?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “Well, before you go, allow me to do my duties as a shin and give you some notes on your performance today.”
Lu sighed, hands on her hips, but Yuri was immune to her impatience by now. “I’m an old man, Princess. Half a century on this earth wears on the body,” he told her, extracting a handkerchief from his tunic. He wiped his face, soiling the fine silk. “You did well today, used your speed to your advantage. But
you would not have succeeded against a man— an opponent— the same age as you.”
Lu bristled. Her arms rose to fold over her chest— a defensive gesture. She willed them back down. “You can’t know that.”
“You have talent and strength on your side. Good instincts. But that will take you only so far. If you’re going to survive in a battle, you need to develop your mind as well as your body. Efficiency of movement comes from experience, keen observation, and observation can only be done with— ”
“Patience!” she snapped. “Yes, I know. You’ve told me a thousand times before.”
“And I’ll tell you a thousand times more if I think it will help you survive.” His eyes locked with hers, and Lu was struck with the uneasy sense that he was speaking of more than just sparring.
He is just being condescending, she told herself fiercely. Her father was about to name her his successor; what did she have to fear? One day she would be Yuri’s empress, and yet he persisted in trying to put her in her place like she was a child. Why were old men so tiresome?
As though hearing her thoughts, he said, “If you do not trust my words as your elder, then trust my experience as a warrior.”
A warrior who abruptly resigned from his post in the North for the comforts of the capital, a nasty voice in her head hissed. This was the undercurrent of gossip that had been following Yuri around since he had returned to court some five years ago. An odd tension— to be labelled both the best and a coward.
“I trust you,” she told him, scuffing the sand with the toe of her boot.
Yuri resumed the task of loosening his jerkin. “I should hope so,” he said. “If you don’t, I’d have no business being your shin.”
He dismissed her with a wave. “Best get prepared for court. You have a long day ahead of you.”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “I do.”

I hope you enjoyed that extract as much as I did! You can follow the rest of the blog tour using the banner below. The book is out now!


Friday 11 January 2019

CHCC Bookish Joy Blog Fest – blog tour


I'm excited to join the CHCC Bookish Joy Blog Fest to share a letter about why I love the bookish community so much. There are details at the bottom of the post about how to book tickets to the Chadwell Heath YA Fest and a discount code.

Dear bookish community,

One of my first big book events was YALC 2014 and I've been hooked ever since. I love being part of this community: as a reader, blogger and writer.

What I love most about bookish events is not the books (although they're a close second) but the people. I've met so many people who love books as much as I do, both readers and authors, and have made some really good friends. There's such a brilliant atmosphere when you're at a book launch or Q and A with a room full of excited, passionate people. I've included photos of some of the lovely people that I've met at book events.

The online bookish community is just as supportive and enthusiastic. Twitter is where I've found my bookish people. Some people that I've met on Twitter have become really close friends in real life too.

I only started my blog because of the bookish community. The very lovely Chelley (@ChelleyToy) and Andrew (@PewterWolf) delivered a blogging workshop at YALC a few years ago and I'd always thought people wouldn't care what I had to say about books. They gave me the confidence to start my blog and I'm eternally grateful. Thank you both!


The online bookish community have also helped me to get one step closer to my dream of getting a book published. This year, I got onto a fantastic mentoring program called #WriteMentor that helped me to polish my manuscript, and I've since got an agent. I also had a fantastic manuscript critique from Lauren James, who gives brilliant feedback as well as being one of my favourite authors. I learned about her services (you've guessed it) on Twitter.


If you're already part of the online or real-life bookish community, you probably know exactly what I mean. If you're reading this and thinking about joining in with either, please do! We're friendly and we love books (the perfect combination). 

Thank you to everyone in the bookish community who has shared the love of books with me and helped me to achieve my writing goals.

Love from,

Amy (@yaundermyskin)




Chadwell Heath Community Centre (CHCC) YA Fest is an event that I really hope to attend this year! The event will be held on Sunday 12th May 2019 and you can buy your tickets here. Use the code YAFest10 before the 28th February to get 10% off your ticket (one time use).

Check out the graphic below for more posts giving thanks to the people and things that give us bookish joy.

SLAY: On Tour Blog tour – review



SLAY are BACK...and this time they're headed to Tokyo to track down another hellraising demon. When they're invited on tour with a super-cool band of holographic girls, SLAY find themselves whisked off around Japan - until strange things start happening on their tour train. Suddenly it seems it's not just SLAY's fans following their every move...

Slay was one of my favourite books of last year and I had just as much fun reading SLAY: On Tour

The bond between characters is one of my favourite things about this series. All of the band members have distinctive qualities and quirks, and it was hard to pick which one I liked best. In the end, I'd have to stick with JD (my favourite from Slay). I thought Tom and Milly had interesting journeys as characters and I'll look forward to seeing how they develop in the next book. 

I really loved the Japanese setting of this book too. It felt authentic and well-researched, and the J-pop hologram girl band was a creative concept. I Iiked the elements of Japanese mythology too, and how the demons in this book allowed the characters to explore the morality of what they do.

The action sequences in this series are brilliantly written. They have the perfect balance of believable fighting, witty dialogue and danger.

I love the Slay books because they're fun, fast-paced reads but they also delve into dark subject matters. The characters in the Slay books are some of my favourites and I can't wait to see what happens to them next.

 



You can check out the other stops on this fabulous blog tour using the graphic below:


Whiteout blog tour – Kick-ass females in books and popular culture


I'm thrilled to join this blog tour, as Whiteout was one of my favourite books of last year. It's genuinely terrifying and one of the tensest YA horror books I've ever read. You can check out my review here (although the giveaway has now closed). 

For my stop on the blog tour, I have a post from the author Gabriel Dylan about his favourite kick-ass female characters.

Back when there was no Katniss Everdean, before Virginia Au Augustus and Hermione Granger, Buffy Summers was the gold standard of kick ass females in the world of popular culture. 

There’s been so many highlights in the faltering journey from sending my (very ropey!) original manuscript out into the world, gaining an agent, getting a publishing offer, and finally seeing my novel in print. But right up there was the comment from my amazing publishing editor, Katie Jennings, when she offered me a deal with Stripes, and told me that in regards to the central protagonist in Whiteout ‘she didn’t think she’d seen such a kick ass horror heroine since Buffy.’ 

That comment meant the world to me. That someone had not only read my novel, but liked it, engaged with it, and seen something in the characters I’d created, was a dream come true. Katie and assistant editor Mattie made Whiteout the book it is today – they gave me the suggestions to hone the characters, bring out their depth and individuality, and turn what was a flawed and uneven manuscript into the book I’m so proud of today. And the character I most wanted to get right was Hanna. 

For me, Hanna is the beating heart of the novel, an angry, resourceful, uncompromising heroine that will do anything to get the revenge she seeks. It’s her search for the terrible truth she knows lurks in the deserted Austrian Alps that drives the story forwards. Out of all the characters in the novel, she’s the one I’m most proud of, and the one that was with me right from the start. So here, in Hanna’s honour, are my top six kick ass inspirational heroines of film, book, and television. 

(Warning - controversial choices lie ahead!) 

6. Mia – The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks 


Mia is a harlequin, an assassin trained from infancy to be a living weapon, but at the start of John Twelve Hawks' The Traveller, she wants nothing more than to live a normal life, away from all that she was created for. This book had me at hello! It doesn’t take long before Mia is dragged back into the world she tried to turn her back on, trying to protect Gabriel, a magical traveller, able to move between dimensions, from the grasp of the Brethren, a controlling organisation run by politicians, businessmen, those at the top of society. Although the series lost its way a little as it went on, there’s lots of great ideas in Twelve Hawks’ first book, and I love the writer biography (all it says is Twelve Hawks lives off the grid!), but what captured me more was the character of Mia, who carries a sword everywhere she goes, is seriously bad ass, and will do anything to protect Gabriel from the twisted forces that pursue him – even though as the story unfolds her feelings start to get in the way of her mission…. 

5. Citra Terranova – Scythe by Neal Scusterman 


 
I only discovered this series of books recently, and found them impossible to put down. In a utopian world where death has been eliminated, a group of people known as scythes select people at random to painlessly euthanize, to prevent population explosion from becoming a reality. With their long cloaks, cool demeanour, and an arrival which promises death to those they visit, scythes are a latter day grim reaper in a world where mankind is all but immortal. When a chance encounter for teenager Citra leads her onto the path of becoming an apprentice reaper, she learns (often in very dark, humorous scenes) how to cope with such an unpleasant job. After a while, Citra finds herself a skilled death dealer, but also one who is cunning enough to be able to think her way out of the most tricky of situations, which is just as well as an order of rogue scythes start to disrupt this utopian world. I raced through this book and its sequel, loving the way Citra grew as a character whilst slowly unearthing the dark conspiracy. But that cliff hanger at the end of book two… not fair!

4. Eleven – Stranger Things

I’m going to cheat here, and delve into the world of television, but as the first season of Stranger Things was sooo good I hope I’ll be forgiven. As much as I love the group of Dungeons and Dragons playing teens at the centre of the show, for me the opening episode really came alive with the introduction of Eleven. Tortured, haunted, otherworldly, and with some crazy abilities that can see off the meanest of school bullies, Eleven is the kind of character that any high school geek needs to make friends with. As well as making her back story tragic and heartfelt, the Duffer brothers also made the end of the first series unforgettable, and left the viewer longing to know if Eleven had really given her life to defeat the demigorgon and save her friends from the terrifying beast. No spoilers from me!

3. Buffy Summers – Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I feel like I grew up with Buffy Summers. And that’s probably a feeling shared by anyone else who had a Buffy the Vampire Slayer addiction during the nineties. The great thing about Buffy Summers was that, apart from the fact that she was a slayer, she was just the girl next door – except one who was more than a little adept at dispatching vampires. I still think Joss Whedon creates the most memorable kick ass females, right through Firefly, Dollhouse, and all the memorable characters such as Willow, Faith, Anya, and Glory, that Buffy brings with her. Buffy goes on a real journey through the show’s seven series, and we see her grow up, fall in love, lose people she cares about, but most importantly we feel it all with her. She doesn’t always get it right, she doesn’t always win first time, but she tries her best, she makes us care, and she has some great one liners. My favourite? – ‘Conversation’s over, hell bitch!’.

2. Thorn – Half the World by Joe Abercrombie




I’m a big fan of Joe Abercrombie, and his grimdark fantasy worlds, and I thought his Shattered Sea trilogy was a real page turner. Whilst I really enjoyed book one, Half a King, the second book, Half the World, was where the trilogy really went stratospheric for me, mainly because of the addition of Thorn Bathu. 

Awkward, unsure of herself, riddled with bad attitude, and decidedly kick ass, we first meet Thorn on a moody shale beach, training to become a warrior, and unfairly pitted against three male combatants who aren’t going to pull their punches. When tragedy unfolds during the sparring, Thorn escapes death by agreeing to protect the trilogy’s morally ambiguous protagonist, Yarvi, on a seabound mission. During the trip, Thorn is relentlessly trained, for weeks on end, until she becomes one of the deadliest warriors amongst the Shattered Seas. Thorn is a great character, as lacking in confidence as she is full of anger and attitude, and she has some of the greatest put downs, as well as being brutally capable with the blade, even though, as usual in Joe Abercrombie’s novels, things don’t always go the way you expect them to… 


1. Lisbeth Salander – Millenium series


Fiercely unconventional, and a darkly kooky anti heroine (wikipedia’s words, not mine!) Lisbeth Salander is tough enough to take on anyone who guns for her, and can run rings around her pursuers with unrivalled hacking skills and a photographic memory.

The Millennium novels, starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are NOT for young readers, nor for the fainthearted, and in many ways they are not an easy read. But the character of Lisbeth Salander, the angry, haunted black star at the centre of the series’ dark universe, tops this list for me because not only is she so different (many theorists claim she is autistic, and there is much evidence in the novel to back this up, and her relationship history is definitely complicated), but she is also endlessly resourceful. She turns the damsel in distress trope on its head by being the one who comes to the aid of the threatened male characters, and she also gives hope to all of the underdogs and outsiders out there with her uncompromising, kick ass attitude. 




Thanks so much for sharing this list Gabriel! Buffy is the winner for me, because I too grew up watching the series in my most formative years. She's always been my favourite character and I think it'd take a lot to knock her from the top spot.

What are your favourite kick-ass female characters? If you'd like to share, you can do so in the comments or find me on Twitter (@yaundermyskin).

Whiteout is out now and I highly recommend it if you want a good scare!

There have been lots of great posts for the blog tour this week and you can use the banner below to check them out:










Wednesday 2 January 2019

Monsters by Sharon Dogar – review


1814: Mary Godwin, the sixteen-year-old daughter of radical socialist and feminist writers, runs away with a dangerously charming young poet - Percy Bysshe Shelley. From there, the two young lovers travel a Europe in the throes of revolutionary change, through high and low society, tragedy and passion, where they will be drawn into the orbit of the mad and bad Lord Byron.

But Mary and Percy are not alone: they bring Jane, Mary's young step-sister. And she knows the biggest secrets of them all . . .

Told from Mary and Jane's perspectives, Monsters is a novel about radical ideas, rule-breaking love, dangerous Romantics, and the creation of the greatest Gothic novel of them all: Frankenstein.


I knew from the blurb that I'd love this book. It ended up being quite different from what I expected, but in a really good way. I was gripped throughout the book and became very invested in the characters. I didn't know much about Mary Shelley's life and Monsters felt like a fascinating, authentic insight.

The characters were vividly realised and deliciously flawed. I liked the fact that aspects of their personalities and relationships were evident to the reader but not always to them. This book has inspired me to read more about the real people involved in the novel. 

Monsters seems very well researched and believable, and I enjoyed the third person style. It allowed the historical details and character traits to come through.

There is a sense of building tension throughout the book and it was great to look out for small ideas that would become Frankenstein.  

I haven't read many historical novels, especially those based on real people, but this is one of my favourites. It's brilliantly written, tense and the characterisation was excellent. It's made me want to read more historical novels, and more by Sharon Dogar.