Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


May 12

1

Review and Giveaway: Written In the Ashes by K. Hollan Van Zandt

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on May 1, 2012
Posted in Books Read in 2012 • My Past Giveaways  | 16 Comments

Written In the Ashes takes place in the 5th century after the Roman Empire collapses, in Alexandria Egypt.  It opens with teenager, Hannah, a shepherd girl roaming the desert with her father in search of a new place to live that has water for their sheep and themselves to live.  One night Hannah sleeps close to the sheep to keep an eye on them but she is awakened by men who kidnap her and rape her.  They bring her to Alexandria and auction her off as a slave to the highest bidder, Alizar.


Alizar recognizes the beauty and talent in Hannah for her intelligence and singing voice.  He decides to give her the opportunity to buy back her freedom and sends her to the Library of Alexandria to get educated and is taken under the wings of Hypatia, the library’s headmistress and other’s.  When Hypatia gives lectures, she invites Hannah to sing and the audience is mesmerized.

Meanwhile, the Bishop, Cyril vows to rid Alexandria of all he views as pagan, including Jews and Hypatia.  Cyril does find a way to chase the Jews out and a great many are killed.  How far will he go?  Does he and his disciples have anything to do with the burning of the Great Library?  How will Hannah fair in all of this?


You must read Written In the Ashes to find out!  Yes, this is a must read for all historical fiction lovers.  This is K. Hollan Van Zandt’s first book but you would never guess it.  It sung to me like the main character, Hannah with beautiful prose, gleaming characters and 5th century Alexandria, Egypt being brought to life.  The words poured off the pages and as hard as I tried to savour each word, I could not put Written In the Ashes down.  I cried at the end because I was so upset that the book ended! 

Written In the Ashes is book one in what Van Zandt hopes to be a trilogy.  It has been optioned by Mark R. Harris, Academy Award-Winning Producer (Crash, Gods & Monsters) for a TV mini-series!  Van Zandt told me that one of the big publishers really loved the book but doesn’t think that readers are interested in 5th century Alexandria, Egypt and the burning of the Great Library.  I find that hard to believe and I hope you will help K. Hollan Van Zandt, I, and others prove them wrong.  Written In the Ashes is in my top 5 books of all time, I hope it will be yours as well!


Please note that I coordinated the upcoming May tour for Written In the Ashes but the book was given to me from the author for my honest review and opinion.  I was not paid for my review and the opinions |I expressed are my true and honest view of this amazing book!

5/5+

About K. Hollan Van Zandt:

K. Hollan Van Zandt has always loved libraries, oceans, ancient history and migrating birds. Her mentor, novelist Tom Robbins, instilled in her an abiding love and respect for language.She lives in Southern California, and dreams of a home in Greece. This, her first novel, took ten years to complete.

K. Hollan Van Zandt started a group on GoodReads to answer questions about Written in the Ashes and the Great Library of Alexandria. Please join her at http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/68538-q-a-with-k-hollan-van-zandt

Thanks to K. Hollan Van Zandt I am giving away one copy of Written in the Ashes 
to one lucky winner.  If you live in the U.S., you have a choice of paper or eBook. 

If you are from any other country, you will receive and eBook.  Follow the tour in May for more chances to win!  This giveaway ends on June 1, 2012.  Please use Rafflecopter below to enter.


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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Apr 12

11

The Second Time We Met by Leila Cobo

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on April 11, 2012
Posted in Books Read in 2012 • Columbia  | 9 Comments

In 1989, Rita, a 16 year old girl lives with her family in a remote small town in Columbia.  It is a dangerous time when guerrillas have just about taken over the town and church.  There is the sound of men talking outside her second story window and she can help taking a look out.  She made eye contact with one of them.


“He smiled when he met her eyes behind the bars that shielded her from him, a bold smile of utter self-assurance- the assurance that comes from being armed and in a group and…simply from being assured.”

Soon after that, she encounter him, the guerrilla they call Lucas, in the street several times, actually he follows her around.  He tries to convince her that he is a nice guy and she finally falls for it.  The meet in secret and have an affair, which results in pregnancy.  By the time she realizes she is pregnant, Lucas has been sent away by his commander.


With nowhere else to turn, she eventually tell her parents, who tell the local priest.   After hearing her confession, he drives her to a orphanage, far away to have the baby and give him up for adoption.  She names him Sebastian, after her little brother and writes a letter to him at the prompting of a nurse after giving birth.

Asher Sebastian Stone grew up in California with wonderful parents.  He always knew he was adopted, his parents even read a letter to him from his birth mother.  However, he was never really curious to know more about her until his accident.  He started wonder if she ever thought of him and if she wondered how he was.


All of a sudden he can’t get her off his mind.  With the help of his parents and girlfriend, he embarks on a journey to try to find her.

I loved the story of Rita, how she girl up with extremely strict parents in a small town, what she did to pass the time at the orphanage while pregnant and her new life after in Bogota.  Bogota has always been a fascinating place to me because my brother, Steve play French horn in the symphony orchestra there in the later 70’s.  He painted a pretty bleak picture, with men with machine guns on roof tops to keep the peace. 


While in Bogota, looking for Rita, Asher and his girlfriend see those same machine guns on roof tops.  Asher’s search is a roller coast ride.  With assistance he pieces together bits of information and embarks on what appears to be fruitless.  I could feel his frustration but he doesn’t give up.

Leila Cobo paints a story of what it is like to grow up in guerrilla infiltrated Columbia as well as what is means to be adopted.  At times it felt like it was lacking in something, though I can’t quite figure out what.  Nonetheless, this is a great character study and the well written story kept me turning the pages. 


4/5

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Did you review The Second Time We Met?  Please leave the link in the comments.

I received this book from Grand Central Publishing for my honest review.

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Mar 12

16

Dinner with Lisa by R L Prendergast

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on March 16, 2012
Posted in Books Read in 2012  | 4 Comments

When Joseph Gaston’s wife dies he is left to care for their four children on his own.  This is during the great depression and he lost his job.  Many people encourage him to break up his family.  After all, how can a man care for children without a woman? 

Joseph refuses and with just a few suitcases he takes the children across Canada from Ontario to Philibuster, Alberta.  His brother, the Great Henri had sent him an ad for a job and with an employment letter in hand, he makes the move.

When they arrive, he tries to come to the rescue of a vagrant being beat up by the police.  This does not give a good first impression with the local police chief.   Henri and his wife Tilda have little themselves but what they had they gladly shared with Joseph and the children.  Henri finds a room in a rooming house for Joseph and the children to live and Tilda gladly volunteers to take care of the children at her house when Joseph is working.

Joseph goes to his new employer bright and early the next morning only to find the job was given to somebody else.   Every day he drops the children off for Tilda to care for them while he looks for work.  Everyday Tilda grows closer to the children, especially the two girls.  She is unable to have children of her own. 

In Dinner With Lisa we follow the ups and downs of an unforgetable family during the 1930’s depression.  The characters are well defined and quirky.  R.L. Prendergast captures the history and landscape in vivid prose with a dash or humor.  This historical fiction struck a home run for me!

5/5

Disclosure:  I received this book from the author for my honest review.  I also set up the virtual book tour promoting Dinner With Lisa.  This in no way shaped my opinion of this book.  I truly loved it.

Be sure to enter my giveaway of Dinner, here.  There are also many other giveaways of the book at other tour stops.  For the full schedule, go here.

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

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