Tag: historical fiction

‘My defloration was talked about in all the courts of Europe. The Prince boasted of his prowess, even as preparations were being made for his wedding, as boldly as if he had ridden across that causeway with bloodstained sheet tied to his lance.’

1584, Italy: Twenty-year-old Giulia expects she will live and die incarcerated as a silk weaver within the walls of her Florentine orphanage, where she has never so much as glimpsed her own face. This all changes with the visit of the Medici family’s most trusted advisor, promising her a generous dowry and a husband if she agrees to a small sacrifice that will bring honour and glory to her native city.

Vincenzo Gonzaga, libertine heir to the dukedom of Mantua, wants to marry the Grand-Duke of Tuscany’s eldest daughter, but the rumours around his unconsummated first marriage must be
silenced first. Eager for a dynastic alliance that will be a bulwark against the threat of Protestant heresy beyond the Alps, the Pope and his cardinals turn a blind eye to a mortal sin.

A powerful #MeToo story of the Renaissance, based on true events.

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Katherine Mezzacappa is an Irish writer of mainly historical fiction, currently living in Italy. She has published several novels under pen names with publishers Bonnier Zaffre and eXtasy. She works as a manuscript assessor for The Literary Consultancy. Katherine reviews for Historical Novel Society’s quarterly journal and is one of the organisers of the Society’s 2022 UK conference.

In her spare time she volunteers with a used book charity of which she is a founder member.

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Giveaway to Win a vintage postcard, early 1900s, of the babies from the façade of the Innocenti orphanage. (Open INT)

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My thoughts: based on real events, this follows Guilia, a young woman raised in a Florentine orphanage and chosen to be the virgin offered up to prove the Prince of Mantua’s virility.

Used and abused by cruel men, Guilia finds happiness with the husband found for her by the politician Vinta, a man who has become obsessed with her and who spies on her family.

Writing her memoirs as a letter to the mother she never knew, Guilia’s story is one of tragedy and joy, moving and charming. She’s a true survivor and with her husband and children lives a good, virtuous life, as women of the Renaissance were expected to. But Vinta casts a long shadow and threatens her son, causing her to seek aid from the Grand Duke of Mantua – formerly the Prince she once thought she loved. Her story goes full circle.

Fascinating and filled with the detail of Italian life in the 16th century, as she was raised to weave, Guilia often comments on fabrics and designs.

The situation she is placed in as a young woman is shocking and not in keeping with the religiosity of the age, but since it’s all supposed to be secret, and bloodlines, heirs and wealth were so central to how the city states ran, it isn’t entirely surprising someone came up with this test.

While the real Guilia disappears from the historical record shortly after this, Katherine Mezzacappa brings her and her world vividly to life in this novel.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

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Paisley, Scotland, 1697. Thirty-five people accused of witchcraft. Seven condemned to death. Six strangled and burned at the stake. All accused by eleven-year-old Christian Shaw.

Bargarran House, 1722. Christian Shaw returns home, spending every waking hour perfecting the thread bleaching process that will revive her family’s fortune. If only she can make it white enough, perhaps her past sins will be purified too.
But dark forces are at work. As the twenty-fifth anniversary of the witch burnings approaches, ravens circle Bargarran House, their wild cries stirring memories and triggering visions.

As Christian’s mind begins to unravel, her states of delusion threaten the safety of all those who cross her path. In the end she must make a terrible choice: her mind or her soul? Poverty and madness, or a devil’s bargain for the bleaching process that will make her the most successful businesswoman Paisley has ever seen?

Her fate hangs by a thread. Which will she choose?

An eerie tale of lies, deception and the supernatural from award-winning author Victoria Williamson.

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My thoughts: inspired by a true case in 17th century Scotland, Red Runs the Witch’s Thread follows Christian Shaw as she attempts to set up a business in Paisley, her father and brothers are dead and as the eldest, she is trying to revive her family’s fortunes and provide for her mother and sisters.

Her family is looked on with suspicion because as a child Christian claimed to be cursed by witches and accused 35 people of witchcraft, leading some to be burnt at the stake (which only happened in Scotland, in England they were hung).

Christian is having flashbacks to that time and the events that led to so many deaths by her hands, albeit indirectly. It’s causing her to hallucinate and act very strangely, frightening not only herself but her family and servants. She’s also becoming increasingly obsessive over the bleaching process for the thread her livelihood depends on. As she unravels, her past revisited, she starts to realise the truth of whose influence she has really been under.

Christian isn’t a hugely sympathetic character, her single mindedness and high handed way of talking to everyone – servant and family members isn’t very pleasant and it’s no surprise her sisters aren’t that fond of her. But her clearly troubled mind and conscience, are no surprise either. Eleven year olds tell lies, but the fact that so many adults, including supposedly educated ones, believed the terrible things she said is shocking.

There is an ongoing movement in Scotland to have the victims of the witch trials, Christian really did exist and really did have 35 people condemned to death, pardoned by the state and removed from the lists of convicted and executed criminals. Most of the “witches” were guilty only of poverty and of their circumstances. I would probably be among their number if I was in the 16th and 27th centuries so I have a lot of empathy for these men and women.

Victoria Williamson brings that era of superstition and suspicion vividly to life in Red Runs the Witch’s Thread as Christian attempts to rebuild her family fortune and her reputation.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

From the author of A Most English Princess comes a rich novel about young Princess Alix of Hesse — the future Alexandra, last Empress of Imperial Russia— and her sister, Princess Ella.

Their decision to marry into the Romanov royal family changed history.
They were granddaughters of Queen Victoria and two of the most beautiful princesses in Europe.
Princesses Alix and Ella were destined to wed well and wisely. But while their grandmother wants to join them to the English and German royal families, the sisters fall in love with Russia—and the
Romanovs.
Defying the Queen’s dire warnings, Ella weds the tsar’s brother, Grand Duke Serge. Cultivated, aloof, and proud, Serge places his young wife on a pedestal for all to admire. Behind palace gates, Ella struggles to secure private happiness.
Alix, whisked away to Russia for Ella’s wedding, meets and captivates Nicky—heir apparent to the Russian throne. While loving him deeply, Alix hears a call of conscience, urging her to walk away.
Their fateful decisions to marry will lead to tragic consequences for not only themselves and their families, but for millions in Russia and around the globe.

The Romanov Brides is a moving and fascinating portrait of two bold and spirited royal sisters, and brings to vivid life imperial Russia—a dazzling, decadent world on the brink of disappearing forever.

Clare McHugh is the author of A Most English Princess, a historical novel about the family of Queen Victoria, and The Romanov Brides.
A former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, McHugh graduated from Harvard College with a degree in European history.
She currently lives in London and in Amagansett, NY.

My thoughts: I am endlessly fascinated by the history of Russia, ruled for almost a thousand years by the same family, the Romanovs, until their terrible end in 1918 at the hands of a firing squad, although other members of the family met even more horrific endings – like Ella, one of the main characters in this book.

But before the Revolution of 1917 and the downfall of the autocratic, and tyrannical Romanovs (Britain ended feudalism in the 1600s for comparison), and I am fully aware of how much damage the family did over the centuries, there is a beautiful love story between the daughters of the royal house of Hesse, grand-daughters of Queen Victoria, and two of the princes of Russia – Grand Duke Serge and Nicky, the future Tsar.

Hesse in Germany is where the story begins, Ludwig the Grand Duke is married to Princess Alice of Britain, daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, their nine children married into the Royal families of Europe, forming ties across the continent.

The daughters of Hesse are beautiful, intelligent and well connected. They have suffered tragedy with the early deaths of some of their siblings and their mother.

When some of their Russian relatives visit, Ella finds herself falling for Grand Duke Serge, brother of the Tsar Alexander (known as Sasha). The family are against this match, especially her grandmother who had anti-Russian beliefs. In part due to religious differences – between the German Protestant Lutheran church and the Russian Orthodox, the two churches have very different beliefs and practices.

However Ella refuses to give up on love and eventually overcomes her family’s concerns to marry Serge. Sadly it isn’t the most wonderful marriage that she imagined, but they find a way to live together. 

On a family visit to Russia, to see her sister, Alix (Alexandra, known as Alicky or Sunny to her family) meets the tsarevich (prince) Nicky, the future Nicholas II. He’s exciting and charming, handsome and devoted to her. But once again the royal family is against the match, for political and religious reasons. Queen Victoria tries to pair Alix with her grandson Eddy, even though first cousins marrying is a bad idea, something that is only just being recognised.

Alix doesn’t care for Eddy, she cannot get Nicky out of her head or heart. But refuses him as she feels her father needs her.

These star crossed lovers do eventually marry and despite the timing of their wedding, it is a grand spectacle that is attended by Bertie, future King of England as well as members of the royal families of Europe.

The book is beautifully written and captivating, knowing how it all ends in tragedy doesn’t detract from reading about the joy of being young and falling in love. My favourite character was the tiny and cranky Queen Victoria, trying to get her large family to fall in line and struggling with her strong willed grandchildren (can’t work out where they got that from!) I also loved Ernie, the sole boy in the Hesse family, who always has his sisters’ backs and loves them.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.