Two Different Women. One Shared Destiny.
Mary English, a dockworker’s daughter from Faversham, England, travels to South America to escape a scandal from her past. She ends up running a cacao plantation in Colombia, at a time when women were not legally allowed to own businesses there.
Manuela Sáenz, tempestuous lover of Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar, serves as a colonel in his army. She joins him in battle to fight the Spanish and twice saves his life from assassination attempts.
This is the story of two real-life remarkable women, both fighting oppression, hardship and danger in 1820s Colombia, who come together to change the course of a nation’s history.
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GD Harper became a full-time author in 2016. He has written three psychological thrillers, Love’s Long Road, A Friend in Deed and Silent Money, and two historical novels, The Maids of Biddenden and Arden.
The Maids of Biddenden was the winner in the historical fiction category of the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the largest international awards program for indie authors and independent publishers, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Selfies Award at the London Book Fair.
Arden was placed third in the 2024 Yeovil International Literary Prize. The Other Life of Mary English was a finalist in the Eyelands Book Awards. He has also been longlisted or shortlisted for fourteen
other awards.
His books have had over one million page reads on Kindle Unlimited, been number one most downloaded e-book on Amazon UK, number three on Amazon worldwide, and garnered over two thousand reviews and ratings on Amazon and Goodreads, with an average rating score of 4.4.
He lives in East Sussex and, when not writing, can be found wild camping in the Scottish mountains or in the mosh pit at live music events.
Website Instagram: gdharperauthor
My thoughts: I love learning about women from the past, especially those who defied convention and forged their own paths as both Mary English and Manuela Sàenz did at a time and in a place that did not encourage them at all.
Mary returns to Colombia as a widow, and as the agent of a bank aiming to establish themselves as the go to for all the material comforts of Britain in the newly established republic. She’s attempting to outrun a scandal too. Her first husband was a bigamist and is still alive, unfortunately in South America, and while her marriage to General English was legitimate, her daughter Eliza isn’t.
She becomes the Belle of Bogota, a society hostess, popular with the locals of high society and the British military types. She plans to marry Colonel Campbell but the threat of scandal destroys that, although he remains both Britain’s chief envoy and a loyal friend. Instead she marries William Greenup and together they buy a cacao plantation, with dreams of making their fortune from chocolate.
When William must return to England, Mary runs the plantation with the help of her foreman. But this is unheard of and adds more challenges to her ambitious plan.
At the same time Simòn Bolívar is fighting against the Spanish to liberate and hopefully unite South America. His lover, Manuela Sáenz, is by his side, even traversing the mountains of Peru to be with him in battle. She’s incredibly brave and resourceful, risking scandal and her life to accompany the Liberator as he fights for a new future.
The two women form an alliance and share information in an attempt to prevent Bolívar from being assassinated.
While some parts of the story are fictionalised, GD Harper draws on the letters and diaries from the time and from both women to bring their world, of revolution and struggle, to life.
An absolutely fascinating and enjoyable read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 