JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Cuckoo’s Flight by Wendy Orr

When Clio’s town in Bronze Age Crete is threatened by seafaring raiders, she faces the greatest sacrifice of all. Can Clio, her herd of horses and a new young friend find a way to change their destinies?

When a raiders’ ship appears off the coast, the goddess demands an unthinkable price to save the town – and Clio’s grandmother creates a sacred statue to save Clio’s life.

But Clio is torn between the demands of guarding the statue and caring for her beloved horses. Disabled in an accident, she must try to put aside her own grief at no longer being able to ride – and in the process, save a friend’s life and stop a war.

Cuckoo’s Flight is Wendy Orr’s third middle grade novel set in the Bronze-Age Mediterranean, following on from Dragonfly Song and Swallow’s Dance. Whilst this is the third novel set in this time period, and there is some overlap in characters and history, you don’t need to read the other two novels to be able to read Cuckoo’s Flight.

The setting is one of the strengths of this novel, as well as the seamless transition between prose and poetry that readers will recognise from Wendy’s other works.

Wendy captures the era with accuracy and thorough research. Immediately, you’re swept up in Clio’s saga. She’s tenacious, resilient and strong, brave and confident. She doesn’t conform to what the community expects of her, and looks for alternate solutions. She’s self-driven, but she’s also a great teacher of others. She doesn’t let her disability — a stiff, twisted leg from when she fell off a horse as a young girl — stop her.

“Clio can’t imagine life without her grandmother. She knows that only the gods live forever and that all other living creatures — birds, beasts and people, dragonflies and dolphins — will return to the Great Mother one day.”

Wendy’s Bronze Age trilogy are all female-centric, with young female characters as the protagonists. They are all disadvantaged in some way. Perhaps they’re physically disadvantaged, or they’re an outcast in society. Perhaps they’re poor. Wendy crafts her protagonists so that readers can watch them rise above what others expect of them. Young readers will feel reassured that bravery and courage will always save the day.

Whilst this may appear to be an adventure series, a rollercoaster of a journey for all the characters involved, there’s a lot of heart and depth to these novels. They’re multi-layered and offer insightful characterisation — all readers will find something to love within these books.

“The gully at the river’s bend
carved from the steep bank
washes silt to the water
trapping the pebbles from the creek above —
gravel and silt forming a ledge
across the river, nearly to the other shore.”

Admittedly this story takes a bit longer to engage with the characters than the previous two works. I felt like the opening started in the wrong place. We’re thrust into Clio’s life a little too chaotically, and it does take a few chapters for the reader to settle into the story. Additionally, the pacing in the novel is quite fast so we don’t have a lot of time to really sit with the characters. Cuckoo’s Flight is very much a plot-driven novel.

“On her wooden stage in the dim light of the courtyard, with the east mountain looming darker behind her, the Lady begins to sing. Slowly, slowly, she calls the sun up from behind the mountain into the pale sky. Blinding the audience, streaking the sky with pink and gold, the miracle of sunrise happens again.”

Imaginative and enticing historical fiction, Cuckoo’s Flight and its two predecessors will engage any young reader.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Cuckoo’s Flight
Wendy Orr
March 2021
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

She will discover the best of herself in the worst of times . . .

Texas, 1934. Elsa Martinelli had finally found the life she’d yearned for. A family, a home and a livelihood on a farm on the Great Plains. But when drought threatens all she and her community hold dear, Elsa’s world is shattered to the winds.

Fearful of the future, when Elsa wakes to find her husband has fled, she is forced to make the most agonizing decision of her life. Fight for the land she loves or take her beloved children, Loreda and Ant, west to California in search of a better life. Will it be the land of milk and honey? Or will their experience challenge every ounce of strength they possess?

Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds is one of my highly anticipated releases for 2021. I absolutely adored her previous novel, The Great Alone, and have been holding out for this new one for months now.

The Four Winds is impeccable — a sweeping, masterful historical fiction feat. It’s emotional and moving, inspiring and just absolutely heartbreaking at times. This is the perfect adult novel, I can’t fault it.

The novel brings to fruition the early 1930s Great Depression and Dust Bowl migration, laying bare the challenges and struggles that American families faced trying to feed their children. Many husbands fled their responsibilities, leaving young women to care for children alone. It was a time of great suffering and prejudice.

“The next morning, Elsa woke well before dawn and found Rafe’s side of the bed empty. He’d slept in the barn again. Lately he preferred it to being with her. With a sigh, she got dressed and left her room.”

Set in Texas, when Elsa and Rafe sleep together outside of wedlock and Elsa falls pregnant, they’re forced to get married. Rafe’s plans to go to college are pulverised, and Elsa is abandoned by her parents — her disgrace has hurt them beyond repair. Elsa and Rafe move in with Rafe’s parents and years pass. Another child is born.

The drought has considerable affect on the family’s farm. Everyone works all day to keep the family afloat, but it’s impossible without any rain. And then one morning, Rafe abandons them and Elsa is forced to make unbelievable sacrifices to keep her children alive.

The Four Winds explores a mother’s sacrifice and determination to provide for her children, but it also explores love and family, friendship and loyalty. In the end, Rafe’s parents end up being more of a family for Elsa than her cold, harsh parents ever were.

“She saw how red his cheeks were from the cold, saw the plumes of his breath and the weight loss that had sunken his face and eyes. For a man who had two religions — God and the land — he was dying a little each day, disappointed by them both.”

Written in third person, Kristin Hannah has crafted emotionally rich characters, people you want to cheer for and people who make you keep turning the pages because you’re desperate to discover more about them. Her books are set in some of the worst conditions, and they show us how resilient and determined people can be when they have something to live for — to fight for.

An underlying theme in the book is that of dreams — wanting a better life. When the harsh and unrelenting Dust Bowl hits, many nearby farmers abandon their homes and travel West in search of a better life. But conditions there aren’t necessarily any better, and people are judged and ostracised for where they’ve come from. There’s little work, even smaller wages to be earned, and the conditions in which they must live are inhumane. And still, Elsa perseveres.

“Another scorcher of a day, and not even ten in the morning. So far, September had offered no respite from the heat. Elsa knelt on the linoleum kitchen floor, scrubbing hard. She had already been up for hours. It was best to do chores in the relative cool of dawn and dusk.”

Gritty and beautiful, highly recommended. I couldn’t fault this even if I tried.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Four Winds
Kristin Hannah
February 2021
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Elizabeth and Elizabeth by Sue Williams

‘I’ve waited for this moment so long, dreamed of it, prepared for it, I can barely believe it’s finally here. But it is. And it is nothing like I expected.’

There was a short time in Australia’s European history when two women wielded extraordinary power and influence behind the scenes of the fledgling colony.

One was Elizabeth Macquarie, the wife of the new governor Lachlan Macquarie, nudging him towards social reform and magnificent buildings and town planning. The other was Elizabeth Macarthur, credited with creating Australia’s wool industry and married to John Macarthur, a dangerous enemy of the establishment.

These women came from strikingly different backgrounds with husbands who held sharply conflicting views. They should have been bitter foes.

Sue Williams’ Elizabeth and Elizabeth is a rich, heartfelt historical fiction debut, exploring early colonial Australian history and the story of two women who forge a strong bond amidst unlikely circumstances. Together, they wield incredible power and are pivotal in the development of Australia.

It’s quite refreshing to read historical fiction that doesn’t centre around a budding romance — a rare find! Instead, Elizabeth and Elizabeth is about a budding friendship, and the support that each characters provides the other within this male-dominated environment.

This novel puts women front and centre during a time when females generally didn’t have much say. Sue establishes a strong, multi-layered characterisation in each of these women — Betsey is hopeful, eager, and perhaps a little naive. Elizabeth is older and wiser, has lived in Australia for longer, and possesses a slightly judgemental and skeptic attitude, which does adapt and change over the course of the novel.

“It would be one last adventure for us both, I told him, an experience we could share and an exciting chance to help shape a part of the world we were hearing so much about. It would be a fine legacy for him, a fitting finale to his long career of service to his country and a great opportunity for me to see something of the world.”

Another strength in the novel is setting and location. Capturing Australia in the early 1800s requires vivid description, and an understanding of the political landscape of the time. Sue brings authenticity to the novel, making it clear how much research has gone into this work — how much time and dedication. I’ll admit some of the political dealings and international relations went over my head, but I appreciate the necessity of these elements in the novel, and how Sue seamlessly wove them in with intrigue.

“Ironically, given the number of times Lachlan urged me to be patient when we arrived, it’s now my turn to worry that Lachlan might be moving too far in relation to the emancipation of convicts, and it’s me who’s warning him to slow down so we don’t make too many enemies.”

Admittedly, I did feel like there wasn’t enough tension in the novel, and challenges felt thin and skimmed over. Because Sue was covering such a large amount of time within the confines of one novel, she did move through the plot quite quickly. As a result, any struggles the women faced, such as miscarriages or home invasions, happened too quickly to really dwell on.

Truthfully, I never really felt worried for either of the women. They both come from incredible privilege and so for the majority of the novel, tensions just didn’t really seem that heightened. Elizabeth’s husband is a bit of a sore point but he’s gone for majority of the novel. For Betsey, her most impressive act of courage doesn’t really happen until the end of the novel, when she’s working so hard to have her husband’s report published. I felt there was scope to expand on that, but instead the months are skimmed over and so I never really felt concerned for her plight.

“She’s a similar age to me, maybe just a few years younger, and she’s plucky, too. Apparently, when the mutineers appeared at Government House to depose her father, she tried to fight them off with her parasol! I would have loved to have seen that.”

Recommended for readers of historical fiction.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth & Elizabeth
Sue Williams
January 2021
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

The Charleston Scandal by Pamela Hart

London, 1920s: Kit Scott, a privileged young Australian aiming to become a star, arrives in the city to find the Jazz Age in full swing. Cast in a West End play opposite another young hopeful, Canadian Zeke Gardiner, she dances blithely into the heady lifestyle of English high society and the London theatre set, from Noel Coward to Fred Astaire and his sister, Adele.

When Kit is photographed dancing the Charleston alongside the Prince of Wales, she finds herself at the centre of a major scandal, sending the Palace into damage control and Kit to her aristocratic English relatives – and into the arms of the hedonistic Lord Henry Carleton. Amid the excesses of the Roaring Twenties, both Zeke and Kit are faced with temptations – and make choices that will alter the course of their lives forever.

Pamela Hart’s The Charleston Scandal is a step away from the heartfelt war novels that her readers will be familiar with, and is instead an immersive story set during the roaring 1920s London after the war has ended and women are beginning to realise they can hold a place in this world.

Be transported to the glorious 1920s, where status is everything and parties are prevalent. It’s not what you know, but who you know.

The Charleston Scandal features an interesting array of characters, evocatively capturing the setting with fashion, culture, status and connections. Kit’s journey not only illustrates life in the 1920s, but it also highlights the difficulty for women – and actresses – to find work at the time. They weren’t taken seriously, and it took a strong, determined woman to defy society’s expectations and maintain that career path.

“He was – rather surprisingly – dressed in the most conservative suit Kit had ever seen. No tan with brown shoes here. Not even light grey. This was a proper navy pinstripe, complete with black shoes and a regimental tie. Surely that couldn’t be right?”

Written in third person and switching perspectives between a couple of different characters, The Charleston Scandal puts women at the centre of the narrative, exploring their struggles and triumphs in a time where women were not seen as equal to men.

While Kit is a little insipid at times, perhaps a little too forgettable, she is determined and she grows confident over the course of the novel. By the end, she knows exactly who and what she wants in life and she won’t let anyone’s opinions of her change that.

Themes explored in the novel include alcoholism, domestic abuse, women’s rights, equality and determination for a career that’s more than just socialising.

“She sailed off feeling momentarily on top of the world, until she recalled Lady Bridlingham’s curl of the lip. No matter who her escort or how nice her frock, that curl said she didn’t belong there and she never would.”

Admittedly, there doesn’t feel like there is a lot of tension in this novel. It just feels like party after party after party, and then some theatre/acting scenes thrown in. After a while, the plot felt a bit same-same. Zeke and Kit’s friendship felt like it was on the backburner for too long in the novel, so by the time anything significant happens between them, it almost doesn’t feel substantial enough? I think romance readers might be disappointed with this novel.

Very small thing, but Hitler is name-dropped towards the end of the novel. The book is set during the 1920s and my understanding is that Hitler didn’t really rise to ‘fame’ or power until at least 1933. It felt a little bit jarring – perhaps premature – to mention him in this story.

“He had more than one. She lost track; she had given herself a three-drink limit at the start of the night, although getting anything other than champagne from the waiter was a herculean effort.”

For fans of historical fiction.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Charleston Scandal
Pamela Hart
December 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

The Champagne War by Fiona McIntosh

In the summer of 1914, vigneron Jerome Méa heads off to war, certain he’ll be home by Christmas. His new bride Sophie, a fifth generation champenoise, is determined to ensure the forthcoming vintages will be testament to their love and the power of the people of Épernay, especially its strong women. But as the years drag on, authorities advise that Jerome is missing, considered dead.

When poison gas is first used in Belgium by the Germans, British chemist Charles Nash jumps to enlist. After he is injured, he is brought to Reims, where Sophie has helped to set up an underground hospital to care for the wounded. In the dark, ancient champagne cellars, their stirring emotions take them both by surprise.

While Sophie battles to keep her vineyard going through the bombings, a critical sugar shortage forces her to strike a dangerous bargain with an untrustworthy acquaintance – but nothing will test her courage more than the news that filters through to her about the fate of her heroic Jerome.

Set during World War I, Fiona McIntosh’s The Champagne War is a sweeping saga about lost love, legacy, survival and and of course, champagne. Set amongst the gorgeous sun-kissed vineyards of rural France, and the tumultuous battle grounds in Belgium, Fiona’s latest novel follows a newly married couple torn apart by war.

This is my first time reading a Fiona McIntosh book, which is a little baffling considering how much I love historical fiction. The premise is exactly the kind of read I knew I’d love, and I was not disappointed.

Fiona’s prose is delectable. Written in third person, Fiona captures each character’s voice and personality with ease. Dialogue is rich and realistic, and the pacing maintains consistency throughout. Setting is a huge part of the book, like most historical fiction. Fiona guides you through France and Europe, exploring the different facets of the war and how people in different locations were affected by the fighting.

“In the time she’d stood here, how many men had been hit by bullets? How many men had died from artillery? Or shrapnel wounds? A new battle was now raging in Belgium. Flanders was aflame again, and the French soldiers were bogged in trenches alongside their allies.”

At its core, The Champagne War is a love story between Sophie and Jerome. It’s about hope and perseverance, and the strive that one has to return home to their loved ones. But The Champagne War is also about Sophie’s independence and determination to continue managing her vineyards even during such a tumultuous time. She’s a wealthy woman, and intelligent, and even during the war she works hard to produce the champagne she loves so much. Even if it means striking a bargain with someone she despises.

The Champagne War highlights the far-reaching effects of war and its unfortunate soldiers. It’s not just about the men on the battle grounds — it’s also their family and friends, their loved ones, and their children. How must they go about their lives when war is raging? When they’ve lost someone they care about? Sophie spends many years in disbelief that Jerome has died in battle. She fights for evidence. She fights for the truth. But when the gorgeous Charlie crosses her path, and she feels attraction towards him, she feels deep guilt. She feels like she’s abandoning her husband, even though he’s been gone for many years. How many other women felt like this?

“Sophie let out a sighing breath and forced herself to stand, shake out her tense shoulders, and move on to another task. She knew the time was fast approaching to let Jerome go, let him live on in her memory…through his vines and the champagne with which she would honour him.”

The presence of champagne and its significance in the book adds a bountiful joy to the story. It’s clear that a lot of research went into writing this book, from the locations to the war, to the details around growing, bottling, and producing champagne amidst all that chaos. Fiona brings authenticity to the novel, and readers will appreciate all the insights into the vineyards and the champagne.

“The woman in front of Sophie looked over her shoulder and caught her attention. For over two hours they had been riddling the champagne bottles, angled into the shelves they called pupitres. It needed focused diligence to carefully turn thousands of bottles one eights forwards from yesterday’s position.”

Recommended for fans of historical fiction, romance, and sweeping sagas tracking generations. Readership skews female, 20+

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Champagne War
Fiona McIntosh
November 2020
Penguin Random House Publishers