Deborah Swift is one of my favourite authors, and The Fortune Keeper is the third book of her Renaissance series adventures.
The Venice setting will be new to most readers, as this is a world of danger and mystery where the people live in fear of the Inquisition. The heroine, Mia Caiozzi, develops from a naive but ambitious girl to a woman who is not afraid to risk her life to overcome intrigue and duplicity.
Count your nights by stars, not by shadows ~ Italian Proverb
Venice, Winter 1643
Mia Caiozzi is determined to discover her destiny by studying the science of astronomy. But her stepmother Giulia forbids her to engage in this dangerous occupation, fearing it will lead her into trouble. The ideas of Galileo are banned by the Inquisition, so Mia must study in secret.
Giulia insists Mia should live quietly out of public view. If not, it could threaten them all. Giulia's real name is Giulia Tofana, renowned for her poison Aqua Tofana, and she is in hiding from the Duke de…
Anna Belfrage is a skilled storyteller, and I particularly like the way she develops her characters by gradually revealing more details of their complex backstories. Readers will like the glimpses of the real history which will make them want to find out more, and there are plenty more books in the Graham series to keep them guessing.
'A Rip in the Veil' is the first book in The Graham Saga, Anna Belfrage's time slip series featuring time traveller Alexandra Lind and her seventeenth century husband, Matthew Graham. On a muggy August day in 2002 Alexandra Lind is inexplicably thrown several centuries backwards in time to 1658. Life will never be the same for Alex. Alex lands at the feet of Matthew Graham - an escaped convict making his way home to Scotland. She gawks at this tall gaunt man with hazel eyes, dressed in what looks like rags. At first she thinks he might be some sort…
Daughters of the Famine Road but knew little about the often shocking impact of the potato famine on the people of Ireland.
Bridget Walsh evokes a compelling sense of the hardship suffered by the poor, with an authentic use of the Irish language. There are enough twists and turns to keep readers wanting to know how it ends.
When they meet, Jane and Annie have much in common. As young Irish women in the 1840s, they both know the value of family, home and friendship. Even more importantly, they understand the need to survive against a backdrop of famine, disease and cruel colonial rule.
With Ireland crumbling around them and peril at every turn, can these tenacious women overcome the arc of history and create a better life?
Lady Penelope is one of the most beautiful and sought-after women in Elizabethan England. Daughter of the queen's nemesis, Lady Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex, she becomes the stepdaughter of Robert Dudley when he marries her mother in secret. The inspiration for Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet Astrophel and Stella, she is inevitably caught up in her brother Robert's fateful rebellion.
A complex and fascinating woman, her life is a story of love, betrayal, and tragedy. Discover how Penelope charms her way out of serious charges of treason, adultery, and forgery, and becomes one of the last truly great ladies of the Tudor court. Penelope outlives the end of the Tudors with the death of the old queen and the arrival of King James, becoming a favourite lady-in-waiting to the new queen, Anne of Denmark.
