Publisher: Headline Review
Publication Date: 18th January 2024
Genre:Historical Fiction
Summary:
The sunlight caught her gold bracelet, sending a flash that almost blinded her.
She closed her eyes, but jumped when the earth started shaking and there was an almighty boom behind her.
Present Day
Finally escaping an abusive marriage, Caterina Rossi takes her three-year-old daughter and flees to Italy. There she's drawn to research scientist Connor, who needs her translation help for his work on volcanology. Together they visit the ruins of Pompeii and, standing where Mount Vesuvius unleashed its fire on the city centuries before, Cat begins to see startling visions. Visions that appear to come from the antique bracelet handed down through her family's generations...
AD 79
Sold by his half-brother and enslaved as a gladiator in Roman Pompeii, Raedwald dreams only of surviving each fight, making the coin needed to return to his homeland and taking his revenge. That is, until he is hired to guard beautiful Aemilia. As their forbidden love grows, Raedwald's dreams shift like the ever more violent tremors of the earth beneath his feet.
The present starts eerily to mirror the past as Cat must fight to protect her safety, and to forge a new path from the ashes of her old life...
Review:
Firstly thank you to Rachel's Random Resources, Headline Review and Christina Courtenay for having me on this tour and sending me the book.
Now I love dual-timeline historical fiction so I can't believe that I'd never heard of Christina Courtenay's books before now! And I'm so glad this was my first one of her's because I absolutely loved it, I read it in two sittings one of which took me into the small hours of the morning because I just needed to know what happened.
I really felt for poor Cat and her situation, it was so brilliantly written it brought out all the emotions when reading anything to do with her and her abusive husband and I was cheering her along when she finally made that escape from him. The relationship between her and Connor was really well-paced, she had that uncertainty which you'd expect considering her previous situation and I loved how they started with a friendship and just visiting places in Italy together rather than a rushed relationship. And I really enjoyed the Flashbacks/visions that Cat started to have after that visit to Pompeii, I liked how she got those insights into Aemilia and Raedwald's life by catching those glimpses.
Speaking of Aemilia and Raedwald I loved the forbidden nature of their relationship and how it quietly grew on both sides until they couldn't contain it any longer, it was lovely to read in those chapters and to be there willing them to get together and escape Pompeii before its too late. Much like Cat's husband i really disliked Aemilia's husband, both of them were nasty pieces of work who treated their wives like a piece of property. It was good to see both women find a man who treated them like they were something to treasure rather than something to possess. The switches between timelines were brilliantly done, it was very easy to flick between the two and it was all very well written.
I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book and I can't wait to read more by her.
Firstly thank you to Rachel's Random Resources, Headline Review and Christina Courtenay for having me on this tour and sending me the book.
Now I love dual-timeline historical fiction so I can't believe that I'd never heard of Christina Courtenay's books before now! And I'm so glad this was my first one of her's because I absolutely loved it, I read it in two sittings one of which took me into the small hours of the morning because I just needed to know what happened.
I really felt for poor Cat and her situation, it was so brilliantly written it brought out all the emotions when reading anything to do with her and her abusive husband and I was cheering her along when she finally made that escape from him. The relationship between her and Connor was really well-paced, she had that uncertainty which you'd expect considering her previous situation and I loved how they started with a friendship and just visiting places in Italy together rather than a rushed relationship. And I really enjoyed the Flashbacks/visions that Cat started to have after that visit to Pompeii, I liked how she got those insights into Aemilia and Raedwald's life by catching those glimpses.
Speaking of Aemilia and Raedwald I loved the forbidden nature of their relationship and how it quietly grew on both sides until they couldn't contain it any longer, it was lovely to read in those chapters and to be there willing them to get together and escape Pompeii before its too late. Much like Cat's husband i really disliked Aemilia's husband, both of them were nasty pieces of work who treated their wives like a piece of property. It was good to see both women find a man who treated them like they were something to treasure rather than something to possess. The switches between timelines were brilliantly done, it was very easy to flick between the two and it was all very well written.
I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book and I can't wait to read more by her.
Krystina xx
No comments:
Post a Comment