Book Review - 'Tho I Be Mute by Heather Miller @HMHFR @maryanneyarde

 

 'Tho I Be Mute

 By Heather Miller

Publication Date: 13th July 2021.  Publisher: Defiance Press and Publishing. Page Length: 340 Pages. Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance.

Home. Heritage. Legacy. Legend.

In 1818, Cherokee John Ridge seeks a young man’s education at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. While there, he is overcome with sickness yet finds solace and love with Sarah, the steward’s quiet daughter. Despite a two-year separation, family disapproval, defamatory editorials, and angry mobs, the couple marries in 1824.

Sarah reconciles her new family’s spirituality and her foundational Christianity. Although, Sarah’s nature defies her new family’s indifference to slavery. She befriends Honey, half-Cherokee and half-African, who becomes Sarah’s voice during John’s extended absences.

Once arriving on Cherokee land, John argues to hold the land of the Cherokees and that of his Creek neighbors from encroaching Georgian settlers. His success hinges upon his ability to temper his Cherokee pride with his knowledge of American law. Justice is not guaranteed.

Rich with allusions to Cherokee legends, ‘Tho I Be Mute speaks aloud; some voices are heard, some are ignored, some do not speak at all, compelling readers to listen to the story of a couple who heard the pleas of the Cherokee.

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚⭐ = A book in a million

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review

 'Tho I Be Mute

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

This novel follows the lives of Sarah Bird Northrup and John Ridge, a white woman and a Cherokee, who come together through dire circumstances and withstand anything and everything life puts in their way.

John has had a bad hip for a long time, and he cannot walk properly without the help of a crutch. With a bout of cold weather when he is at school, John falls ill and his hip worsens considerably. John is taken to the school’s steward, so that he can recuperate, and here he meets the steward’s daughter, Sarah.

There are many ways in which to tell of a people that many readers may not know much about, but taking a character who also knows next to nothing, and putting them into the society is a perfect way to accomplish such a thing. Sarah travels with John to his home, and, although she does not speak Cherokee, (‘Tho she be mute…) she falls into her place, quickly gaining approval from John’s parents.

I had a few issues with this book, mostly that, at the beginning, it took me a while to figure out what was going on. There is one scene, where John starts reading a Shakespeare play for the first time and had to read it slowly to understand it. This book was much like that. Although, once I got into it, everything started to sort itself out in my mind and I began to find that I liked the intense amount of detail, for it painted a complete picture so that my mind did not have to fill in any gaps.

I love books wherein it is incredibly obvious that the author has put hours upon hours of research into making sure they know everything there possibly could be to know about the era and setting. This book is one of these. Not only was it necessary to find out about the era and the Cherokee and Creek nations, but the characters in this book are also based on real people who lived and died. I adore books such as this, ones that bring to life a memory of people who would have otherwise been lost to history. 

This book is one that I would gladly read again, for the narrative is rich with detail, the characters come to life on the page, and it was truly a wonder to read.

You can pick up your copy of this book on Amazon.

Follow the tour here!

As an English educator, Heather Miller has spent twenty-three years teaching her students the author’s craft. Now, she is writing it herself, hearing voices from the past. 

Miller’s foundation began in the theatre, through performance storytelling. She can tap dance, stage-slap someone, and sing every note from Les Misérables. Her favorite role is that of a fireman’s wife and mom to three: a trumpet player, a future civil engineer, and a future RN. There is only one English major in her house. 

While researching, writing, and teaching, she is also working towards her M FA in Creative Writing. Heather’s corndog-shaped dachshund, Sadie, deserves an honorary degree.

Social Media Links:

Website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, BookBub

The Curse of Conchobar―A Prequel to the Adirondack Spirit Series by David Fitz-Gerald @AuthorDAVIDFG @maryanneyarde

 

The Curse of Conchobar―A Prequel to the Adirondack Spirit Series

By David Fitz-Gerald

Publication Date: 20th January 2021. Publisher: Outskirts Press. Page Length: 171 Pages. Genre: Historical Fiction

Banished by one tribe. Condemned by another. Will an outcast's supernatural strengths be enough to keep him alive?

549 AD. Raised by monks, Conchobar is committed to a life of obedience and peace. But when his fishing vessel is blown off-course, the young man's relief over surviving the sea's storms is swamped by the terrors of harsh new shores. And after capture by violent natives puts him at death's door, he's stunned when he develops strange telepathic abilities.

Learning his new family's language through the mind of his mentor, Conchobar soon falls for the war chief's ferocious daughter. But when she trains him to follow in her path as a fighter, he's horrified when his uncanny misfortune twists reality, causing more disastrous deaths and making him a pariah.

Can Conchobar defeat the darkness painting his steps with blood?

The Curse of Conchobar is the richly detailed prequel to the mystical Adirondack Spirit Series of historical fiction. If you like inspiring heroes, unsettling powers, and lasting legacies, then you'll love David Fitz-Gerald's captivating tale.

Buy The Curse of Conchobar to break free from the fates today!

*Trigger Warnings:

Violence

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚 ⭐ = A book in a million.

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review

The Curse of Conchobar―A Prequel to the Adirondack Spirit Series

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

I was aware that this book was a prequel when I agreed to read it, and I was slightly apprehensive about that fact. Generally, I have found that prequels are written to provide backstory to the characters in the series, and there are often things that you may not understand if you do not know the characters or if you haven’t read the series.

I am not entirely sure if the characters in this book feature in the rest of the series, as I had a look at the other books and they are both set much later than this one. Nevertheless, I decided to put aside the thought that this was part of a series and read it as if it was a stand-alone book (which I think it might be)!

Conchobar’s life has never been a completely peaceful one, despite living at Skellig Michael among the monks there. His father cursed his mother and her offspring, but since his mother died giving birth to him, Conchobar has had to deal with the curse by himself. His bad luck is proven when a storm sends him away from Skellig Michael on the one day he decided to take out a fishing boat. He finally comes ashore and joins a tribe to live a life, unlike anything he has ever known before. After all, it is difficult to keep one’s thoughts chaste when surrounded by half-naked women.

Conchobar slots into the chief, Spits Teeth’s, family and makes fast friends with some of Spit Teeth’s children. However, when people start dying around Conchobar, it doesn’t matter whether or not Conchobar has been helping the tribe, or whether he fought against his will for the tribe, the blame falls to him. Then again, the manner of some of the deaths could not possibly be natural, and they only happen when he is around. 

Conchobar’s plight and ill fortune made me feel incredibly sorry for him. He did not deserve the treatment that he is given for something he cannot control, and even those who believe he is not at fault can do nothing to help him. The curse is something that Conchobar must fight by himself, and I found myself sat, hoping that everything would sort itself out and that Conchobar could live a semi-normal life. 

This is a wonderful book, and I really enjoyed the supernatural elements mixed in among the history. Even if you have not read the rest of the series, this book makes perfect sense by itself, and I recommend you grab yourself a copy!

You can find this novel at your favourite online bookstore (Universal bookshop Link). 

David Fitz-Gerald writes fiction that is grounded in history and soars with the spirits. Dave enjoys getting lost in the settings he imagines and spending time with the characters he creates. Writing historical fiction is like making paintings of the past. He loves to weave fact and fiction together, stirring in action, adventure, romance, and a heavy dose of the supernatural with the hope of transporting the reader to another time and place. He is an Adirondack 46-er, which means he has hiked all of the highest peaks in New York State, so it should not be surprising when Dave attempts to glorify hikers as swashbuckling superheroes in his writing.

Social Media Links: Website • Twitter • Facebook • Instagram • Pinterest • BookBub • Amazon Author Page • Goodreads

Tour Schedule can be found over on The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Book Review - The Girl from Venice by Siobhan Daiko @siobhandaiko @maryanneyarde

 

The Girl from Venice

By Siobhan Daiko 

Publication Date: 29th June 2021. Publisher: ASOLANDO BOOKS. Page Length: 300 Pages. Genre: Romantic Historical/Women’s Fiction.

Lidia De Angelis has kept a low profile since Mussolini's racial laws wrenched her from her childhood sweetheart. But when the Germans occupy Venice in 1943, she must flee the city to save her life.

Lidia joins the partisans in the Venetian mountains, where she meets David, an English soldier fighting for the same cause. As she grows closer to him, harsh Nazi reprisals and Lidia’s own ardent anti-fascist activities threaten to tear them apart.

Decades later in London, while sorting through her grandmother’s belongings after her death, Charlotte discovers a Jewish prayer book, unopened letters written in Italian, and a fading photograph of a group of young people in front of the Doge’s Palace.

Intrigued by her grandmother’s refusal to talk about her life in Italy before and during the war, Charlotte travels to Venice in search of her roots. There, she learns not only the devastating truth about her grandmother’s past, but also some surprising truths about herself.

A heart-breaking page-turner, based on actual events in Italy during World War II.

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚⭐ = A book in a million

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review

The Girl from Venice

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

After reading the blurb, I came into this book with impossibly high expectations, and yet, I was not disappointed. This book ensnared me. It pulled me in and did not let me go until I had finished reading it. It is one of those kind of books.

So onto the story - Lidia’s life is flipped upside-down when the persecution of the Jews begins in Italy (WW2). She loses her access to higher education, which is a bitter blow, and yet that is only the beginning of what will be a journey of hardship and repression, but her story is also one about justice, friendship and love. I thought Lidia's depiction was breathtakingly beautiful. The author has given her readers a strong heroine who, despite the terrible odds, dares to fight back against her peoples' oppressors. 

Many years in the future, in 2010, Charlotte starts to unravel the mystery of her beloved Gran’s life. Her Gran never mentioned her life before coming to England, preferring to keep the past in the past and not drag up old memories. The loss of her Gran brings with it a determination to find out where her Gran came from, and where she belongs. Charlotte has no choice, she has to travels to Italy. 

Both women were an absolute joy to read about, not that they didn’t have me in tears on more than one occasion. There is action aplenty, but it is levelled out by the more intimate scenes—the conversations between friends and the developing love between two people. I couldn’t help but root for both women, for Lidia to find love and safety, and for Charlotte to find out about her roots, and where her place is in the world.

This book is truly wonderful and completely unputdownable! I cannot wait to read more books by this author!

You can pick up your copy of this book on Amazon. If you subscribe to #KindleUnlimited you can read this novel for free.

Siobhan Daiko is an international bestselling historical romantic fiction author. A lover of all things Italian, she lives in the Veneto region of northern Italy with her husband, a Havanese puppy and two rescue cats. After a life of romance and adventure in Hong Kong, Australia and the UK, Siobhan now spends her time, when she isn't writing, enjoying the sweet life near Venice. 

Social Media Links:

Website, Twitter, Publisher's Facebook, Author's Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, BookBub, Amazon Author Page, Goodreads

Tour Schedule

Mendota and the Restive Rivers of the Indian and Civil Wars 1861-65 (The Simmons family saga) by Dane Pizzuti Krogman @dekester09 @maryanneyarde

Mendota and the Restive Rivers of the Indian and Civil Wars 1861-65

(The Simmons family saga)

By Dane Pizzuti Krogman

 

Publication Date: 15th March 2021. Publisher: Independently Published. Page Length: 416 Pages. Genre: Historical Fiction

This is the fictional story set in Mendota, Minnesota of the Simmons family who are faced with the consequences of the Dakota Sioux Uprising of 1862 that swept across the state as well as the Civil War.

The father, Dan enlists in the 1st regiment of Minnesota volunteers as a teamster. His two sons, who are both underage join the 2nd Regiment. John, aged 16 becomes a bugler and William, aged 15 becomes a drummer. Their sister, Sara is left behind with their mother, Louise to fend for themselves. Dan is sent east to fight with the Army of the Potomac while his sons are sent to the western theater to serve in the army of the Cumberland. Back in Mendota, their neighbor and close friend, Colonel Henry Sibley is ordered to stay in the state to control the Indian uprising.

Dan will see action up through the battle of Antietam. He will later find himself in the hospital in Washington DC where he befriends a comrade also from the 1st Regiment. His sons barely miss the action at Shiloh but after, are engaged in all the major battles in the West. While they are passing through Louisville, William falls for a young woman, Mary who works as a hospital nurse. Back in Mendota, Sara befriends a young Chippewa native boy while her mother struggles with the breakup of her family. After Colonel Sibley defeats the Sioux, he is promoted to General and ordered to round up all the Dakota and push resettle them in the Dakotas.

This leads to the punitive expeditions that he and General Sully will command up until 1864. William is captured at the battle up Missionary Ridge and then sent to the prison camp at Belle Isle, VA. and then onto Andersonville. GA. John receives a 30 day furlough and returns to Mendota before he re-enlists. Louise and Sara wait for the war’s end so the family can be reunited, but events may not turn out as anticipated.

 

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚 ⭐ = A book in a million.

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review

Mendota and the Restive Rivers of the Indian and Civil Wars 1861-65

(The Simmons family saga)

By Dane Pizzuti Krogman 

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend it.

"...When the war with the South is finished you will get your payments..." 

In the meantime, the Sioux can starve. 

I do not usually take quotes from books and I hope that the author does not mind that I have done so, but I thought this quote really sums up this book. Not only does it explain the dire situation that the Dakota Sioux faced, but it also, inadvertently, speaks volumes about the desperate shortages the country faced due to the Civil War.

This was a desperate and unprecedented era in American History, but unlike many books that are set in this era, very few have depicted the desperate plight of the Native American Indians. I thought the author tackled the buildup to the Dakota War, the uprising itself, and the deplorable executions that followed with a great deal of skill and authority. I am not ashamed to admit that I found myself shaking my head in disbelief and reaching for the tissues on more than one occasion.

This novel also depicts the realities of the American Civil War. The lack of supplies, the endless marching, the loss of friends, and the threat of disease reminds that reader of just how much was lost, but also how much was gained. The union was preserved and slavery was abolished, but for those who fought in the war, their lives would never be the same. 

At times, I became so immersed in the story that I found myself forgetting I was reading a book, rather it felt like I was alongside Dan, and his sons, witnessing the events first hand. 

This book is probably one of the most educational historical fiction novels that I have ever read. I feel like I have a better understanding of the historical events depicted in this book than I had before. This is certainly a novel that I can see myself coming back to time and time again. A great read. 

You can find this novel on Amazon. It is also available on #KindleUnlimited

Dane Pizzuti Krogman was educated in the fine arts at the University of Minnesota, receiving BFA and MFA degrees. He also specialized in Asian art history, with a concentration in textile and surface design. After graduation, he worked as a freelance designer creating fashion samples for women’s athletic wear. He eventually relocated to California and taught at Cal-Poly Pomona in the Environmental Design program then moved on to work as a pictorial artist for outdoor advertising. Moving back to the Twin Cities in 1981 he formed a scenic design company call Artdemo which in 10 years did over 1000 designs and productions for sets, props, and special effects for television commercials and feature films. In the early 90’s he relocated to Charleston, SC to work as a spec writer for feature film scripts. Six of his screenplays have won major writing awards and two of these have been optioned for production. During this time he also taught scene design at the College of Charleston. This position led to an adjunct teaching position at Virginia Commonwealth University where he taught art direction for filmmakers. In 1998 he took a full time teaching position at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he taught art direction, life drawing, set construction, and Asian film studies, eventually becoming chairman of the department. 

The common thread through all of this has been his passion for Japanese design, art, and fashion. He has lived in Kyoto, Japan for the past 20 summers studying Japanese kimono and obi design of the Heian and Edo periods. In 2002 he won the Grand Prize for the best graphic novel at the Hiroshima manga competition. His graphic Novel Skeleton boy was selected for inclusion into the Hiroshima peace memorial library in 2007.

He was most recently an adjunct faculty member in the Graduate Program in Digital Filmmaking at Stony Brook Southampton. He is also an award-winning screenwriter. His screenplay, The Schooner was produced as the Australian film, AUSTRALIA in 2008. He has other award-winning films that have been optioned for production or are in production.

As a Civil War historian he has worked as a technical advisor for the films, Dances with Wolfs, Gettysburg, and Glory. He currently has one Civil War novel in pre-publication; MENDOTA, AND THE RESTIVE RIVERS OF THE CIVIL AND INDIAN WARS 1861-65.

He also works part-time as a crew member on a Grand-Am Rolex series race team. The team won the national championship in 2008

Tour Schedule can be found over on The Coffee Pot Book Club.