ONCE UPON A DREAM; Professional Reader

 

It's just after 8pm and it is already quite dark.  Now that summer has reached its end, the nights are starting to draw in again and the dark season is making a welcome return. At least it is in my house.  I live for the darker nights of autumn and winter and I am already in the swing of the cosy, spooky season.  Last night I watched Crimson Peak, the night before that it was The Nightmare Before Christmas - so yes, it is fair to say that I am welcoming the darkness with open arms, as I do every year.

For me, autumn and winter are all about curling up in cosy nooks, with great books and the warm glow of scented candles around me.  I like to make my home a snug retreat from the outside world, a place that I have to be prized out of because it's the most comforting place I know.   I see my entire house as something of a hyggekrog - that is, a comfy place to rest, relax, escape and drift away into a wonderful book, film or piece of music. 

It is time to coorie down, snuggle in and enjoy the great indoors and I have a stack of fabulous dark season books to get through.  Having said that, my book collection has taken over the house - not that I'm complaining, I love them! But I've now got so many books, I'm having to use the pedal platform of my piano as an additional book shelf, and it's already half full.

So I was delighted today when I was accepted as a Professional Reader on NetGalley.  This means that publishers will now send me free books to read and review, prior to their publication.  So I get first dibs on all the new books, and they will be sent straight to me before they are even released!  This is fantastic news for a lifelong bookworm.  Not only will it save me a fortune, it means that I can still do what I love, which is to enjoy and share books, regardless of space issues in my little house.

I am aware that this is a great privilege and it is not an opportunity that everyone would be offered.  My work in the publishing industry as an author and columnist, plus my MA degree, has no doubt helped to open this door for me.  Nonetheless, it is a significant milestone, because it indicates that I have now been recognized by the publishing industry, as a professional book reviewer.  Of course I have reviewed books and music in the past for magazines, but I have never been offered a steady stream of soon-to-be-published books for review purposes.  Until today.

I already have a few on my review list but I am most excited by the fact that Harper Collins sent me this book today, The Lighthouse Witches, which is one I have been wanting to read and I think it will be my first publishing house endorsed review, so I will always be grateful to Harper Collins for that. 

I started reading the novel this afternoon and I can almost smell the sea as I read.  It helps that the book is set in a part of the Scottish Highlands that I have visited a lot and am very familiar with, Cromarty and the Black Isle, so it sucked me straight in!

For the rest of the late summer bank holiday, I am going to curl up with this spooky book and a glass of red wine, enjoying a restful evening, hopefully the first of many, as a Professional Reader.  I'm going to light a few candles and be all coorie beneath my tartan blanket - there is likely to be a cream tea involved as well, as a brief nod to the departing summer.  Look out for many more book reviews, hopefully lots of witchy ones too! 

Blessed Be

Marie x

BOOK NOOK; An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson

"...I could smell him; the spice of crisp dry leaves, of cool nights under a clear moon, a wildness, a longing..."

An Enchantment of Ravens is a fairy-lover novel, a love story between a mortal woman and a fairy prince, in this instance the Autumn Prince, Rook.  It is by the same author as Sorcery of Thorns, so if you enjoyed that book you might like this one too.   The fairy-lover trope is a popular one.  It beguiles readers with the notion of a man who is different, Otherworldly and powerful, with magic at his fingertips.  Fairy-lovers are also beautifully handsome, with a magnetism that can draw mortals in, against their better judgement. 

This is exactly what happens to Isobel, the protagonist of the story. She is a talented artist and she is commissioned to paint the portraits of the royal Fey Court, in particular Rook, the Autumn Prince. He is a shapeshifter, often taking on the form of a raven. He is arrogant and conceited on the surface, but he holds onto a secret sorrow. It is this sorrow that Isobel notices with her artistic eye and paints into his portrait, thus angering the Prince, who spirits her away, taking her through the seasonal Courts of the Fey, to stand trial for her crime of making him look weak. 

As they progress on their journey, they make the mistake of falling in love. Relationships between mortals and the Fey are forbidden, and falling in love is punishable by death.  Pursued by both the Wild Hunt and the Alder King, Isobel and Rook have to find a way to be together, no matter what.

Featuring enchanted nanny goats and hares, fairy balls and banquets, this is a lovely fairytale romance that will leave you longing for a fairy-lover of your own. Full of falling leaves and misty rides through the forest, it is the perfect book to read now that the nights begin to draw in and the first breath of autumn stirs in the air.  It's a short book, but one that will draw you into the romantic world of the Fey from the very first chapter. Enjoy! 

BOOK NOOK; Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian

 

"Nimue used to say that there was peace in knowing the future, but I have never felt that way.  Knowing the future set me on edge, it made me act rashly, and I used it to drive wedges between myself and the people I loved.  It did not bring me peace."

I had been waiting eagerly for this book to be released at the end of last month and I finished reading it today.  It did not disappoint.  It is, of course, as the title suggests, a novel retelling based on Tennyson's famous poem, The Lady of Shalott.  I've loved the poem since I was a teenager, along with the painting by Waterhouse, which is featured on art prints and cushion covers dotted around my house, and also a pretty locket I like to wear.  I've written about it before, here on my blog. 

The novel tells the story of Camelot, but from the perspective of Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat and the Lady of Shalott.  In this novel, Elaine is a Seer, gifted with the ability to foretell the future.  Her loom is a scrying vehicle and the tapestries she weaves are images of future events - romances, tournaments, wars - all play out upon the loom, her hand guided by a powerful, psychic gift, nurtured in Avalon by the Lady of the Lake.  

Elaine has been given the job of trying to prevent the tragedy of Arthur's last battle against Mordred.  She travels with him to Camelot, determined to see him crowned king and along the way she falls in love with Lancelot.  However, her gift makes her distrustful, for how can she really trust someone when she has already seen and felt the pain of their future betrayal?  She is plagued with visions of treachery by her friends, of Camelot's destruction and the fall of the king, even of her own death by drowning.  Night after night, she feels the water close in above her head, the weight of it pressing her down, keeping her under as her lungs burn for air. 

As Fate pulls her along its path, Elaine does all she can to effect a different outcome for Arthur and her friends, but eventually, she lets go of control and allows Fate to take her where it will.  Her gifts weighs heavily upon her. It is one thing to be able to share foresight of happy events such as a pregnancy, but quite another to be compelled to foretell the death of a loved one, knowing that there is nothing to be done to save them, only prepare them to face the worst.   Elaine pushes people away because all she can see in the end is her own powerlessness to protect them, her own limitations, their betrayals and eventually, her loneliness and drowning. 

The book is nicely written, but there are some stonking inaccuracies you will need to overlook. As an example, the author has hung lace curtains at the castle windows and has her characters drinking hot cocoa and tea from porcelain cups!  As these beverages didn't reach English shores until the mid-seventeenth century, it is highly improbable that they would have been enjoyed in pre-Medieval Camelot! Ditto with the lacy curtains, but if you can get past such inauthentic bloopers, then you will probably enjoy the book.  The story also veers into the realms high fantasy for a few chapters, and while this doesn't diminish one's enjoyment of the novel, I did wonder what real purpose it served.  Just bear in mind that it is written by an American - which kind of explains it all. 

Overall though, inaccuracies and lycanthropian monsters aside, I did enjoy the book.  It wasn't quite what I was hoping for. but it was entertaining and a good read. It's also the first newly published novel I've read in a long time that hasn't jumped all over the gender-bending, LGBTQ, WOKE diversity bandwagon - and that in itself was a wonderfully refreshing change!  I don't know about you, but I get thoroughly annoyed when I pick up what I think is going to be a straight forward novel, only to be aggressively spoon-fed political agendas. This book, however, is just a classic boy-love's-girl tale of Camelot's once and future king.  And for that reason, I recommend it to anyone who enjoys novels of Arthurian legend. Happy Reading!

 

ONCE UPON A DREAM; Good Harvest

Corn and grain, corn and grain, all that falls shall rise again...

August marks the beginning of the harvest season and it has been a lovely harvest for me this year, full of abundant achievement!  Tonight I completed and submitted my final dissertation for the Masters degree.  I'm three weeks ahead of deadline, because I like to work ahead on all my writing projects and because it has been so much fun to work on this extended assignment.  So now, all the academic work is done and I just need to sit back and wait for the results to come in next month.  I'm keeping everything crossed that this assignment passes as well as all my others have. Then I should be attending the post-grad graduation ceremony this November.  I've already bought a new dress and matching shoes for that event and I'm quite looking forward to it.  I will be a bag of nerves, just like last time, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it once the formal stagy bit is over and done with.

Harvest is when we reap what we have sown earlier in the year and in years gone by, and next month I should be attending the long postponed launch of the university anthology that features my work of flash fiction, inspired by my soldier friends.  It should have launched last autumn, but due to Covid, it was postponed. Now we have an actual date for the launch event next month and I'm very much looking forward to it.  It should be a fun night out - or as much fun as academic events can get!  I've got a new dress for that too. 😊

I've had a bad flare up of M.E. chronic fatigue these last few weeks, so I've been resting as much as possible.  I'm hoping to be well enough for the events I have coming up this autumn as I have worked hard for them all.  Fortunately, I can still write, even when I'm on bed rest, so I have still been able to meet my academic commitments and deadlines.  It's going to be strange not returning to university next month, but now that I have completed my Masters course, I am making plans for alternative study.  September just wouldn't be the same if I didn't have some kind of studying to look forward to starting!  I enjoy all the back to school buzz, because you're never too old for education. I have my eye on a new learning environment and I'm hoping to enroll there next month.

I also have new projects in the pipeline that I'm working on, one of which I am very excited about, as it's a dream come true for me. To be asked to collaborate in this way, on such a lovely project, is an honour.    Creative projects take time to evolve, but I am working with a fantastic team and I'm sure it will all run smoothly.  But suffice to say, this is something I have wanted to do for years - so I'm thrilled that I'm finally going to get the chance!  It's all so exciting!

So this autumn will bring with it new achievements, new projects, new studies, new qualifications and celebrations - and as always, new victories - because all that falls shall rise again, no matter what. That is the law of nature. And to celebrate, you can bet that there will be more afternoon teas like this one on the cards...hopefully I'll look at lot healthier next teatime...this was taken in the midst of the M.E. flare up so I look poorly, because I was! It was a delicious tea though. 

Happy harvest, may you reap as you've sown. 

BB Marie x

xxx