A Gathering Light – Jennifer Donnelly

Set in Adirondacks at the start of the 20th century, A Gathering Light is based on the real life murder of Grace Brown by her fickle lover Chester Gillette.

Telling the tale from the perspective of local schoolgirl, Mattie Gokey / Mathilde Gauthier, Jennifer Donnelly shows us the lives of the farming communities around the lakes, the families who prosper and those that don’t, contrasting with the wealth of the New York tourists who while away their summer at leisure in the local lakefront hotel.

There are other stories too – Mattie’s and Weaver’s yearning to continue their education and the personal and financial costs that brings, the influence of their teacher Miss Wilcox and the occasional unexpected glimpse of the struggles in what appear to be a safely privileged existence, the lure of the logger’s life – bringing money at the risk of injury or death, and the porous nature of the US-Canadian border.

A very enjoyable read.

Amazon.co.uk link: A Gathering Light – Jennifer Donnelly

Heretic – Bernard Cornwell

The third and final installment of The Grail Quest sees English archer Thomas of Hookton once more in France, this time leading a group of archers in the seizing of a fortified Gascon town – a pretext devised by the Earl of Northampton to lure cousin Guy Vexille into the family heartlands and into revealing more about the Vexille treasure…. and the tantalising legend of the Grail.

With seiges and skirmishes in place of battles, Heretic is a classic tale of good versus evil. When Thomas and Robbie both fall for heretic femme fatale, Genevieve, their subseqent falling out threatens to give arch enemy Vexille and ambitious Archbishop Bessieres the upper hand in their respective quests for the Grail and the power it brings…. until the plague starts its deathly advance across Europe….

Amazon.co.uk links:

Vagabond – Bernard Cornwell

Back to Thomas of Hookton, English archer living off his wits and talent with bow and arrow during the Hundred Years War….

Having survived the battle of Crécy, Harlequin Thomas turns Vagabond, returning to England under royal orders to track down more information about the Holy Grail from a Durham monk…. but the evil Dominican inquisitor Bernard de Taillebourg and Thomas’s cousin and rival Guy de Vexille get there first. Thomas unwillingly exchanges lover Eleanor and down to earth monk Hobbe for bolshy Scottish prisoner of war, Robbie Douglas – who turns out to be an excellent sidekick as Thomas’ adventures and the legend of the Grail take him back to France.

Amazon.co.uk links:

The Love Knot – Charlotte Bingham

Totally trashy honeymoon holiday reading (and none the worse for that), The Love Knot tells the story of the intertwining lives of our three heroines – illegitimate East End lovely Leonie, dissatisfied wife and mistress to the moneyed Dorinda, and upper class country gel, Mercy. With the main events taking place in Society, debutantes and the Season, the parallel theme of the book is the gentification and legitimisation of the nursing profession in the late 19th century.

Amazon.co.uk link: The Love Knot – Charlotte Bingham