Throughout May I have been reading a range of books from fantasy, romance to historical fiction. This month’s reads were The Poison Keeper by Deborah Swift, Secrets of the Italian Island by Barbara Josselsohn, The Spanish love deception by Elena Armas and I was also given the privilege opportunity to review the first eleven chapters of Cassandra Clare’s new fantasy novel, Sword Catcher due to be released in October 2023. Read my review of Sword Catcher here.
The best and the worst books of May
The Poison Keeper by Deborah Swift is an immersive historical fiction set during the Italian Renaissance. This is the first book in the series followed by The Silkworm Keeper and The Fortune Keeper published by Quire Books.
Giulia continues her mother’s legacy of delivering poisons to wives in unhappy marriages. The dedication to detail and historical accuracy is excellent and transported me into the Italian Renaissance of the 17th century. The story was intriguing and the idea that a women would poison their husbands to free themselves was empowering in a time which many women had no power. Giulia’s character develops from a confused and quiet manner to one that helps the women in Naples find peace from the abusive men in their lives. Swift crafts the de Verdi family as unlikable and cruel that helps the reader side with the female characters such as Agnese and agrees with their actions. The de Verdi’s tyranny impacts all the characters and many encourage Giulia to continue poisoning the de Verdis for the greater good of society. The religious aspect is explored through Giulia’s growing guilt in her actions as an enabler of murder and Swift presents the justification of her actions as an act of freeing many women from a life of abuse and oppression that is worst than death. I thought the pace of the plot was slow in places and lacked a lot of movement, many of the characters were ‘stuck’ doing the same tasks or having similar discourse. But the novel soon picks up pace again that delivers a satisfying and compelling denouement. The novel is influenced by real historic events of Giulia Tofana’s life and her career as a poisoner throughout Italy. I enjoyed the plot and thought the characters were well developed and the female characters transform from accessories of men to the individuals. The novel is a story of rebellion, injustices and the blurring of good and bad.
*Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC ebook*
Secrets of the Italian Island by Barbara Josselsohn is a historical fiction set during Italy in the Second World War. A story of loss, love and mystery. A dual narrative where Mia retraces her Grandmother’s footsteps.
This novel is an immersive and historically rich novel that transports the reader to a fanciful world of the castle on the Isola di Parissi, Italy, that is shadowed by the looming threat of the Nazi invasion in 1943. The dual narrative that parallels Mia in 2018 walking the footsteps of her Grandmother’s, Lucy (aka Annalisa), life in 1943, unravels the story of love, hope, secrets and tragedy. Through this path, Mia’s character transforms and her identity becomes clearer through discovering the hidden life of her Grandmother and her losses. Mia becomes an independent and hopeful character that continues the life and legacy of Annalisa through continuing her passion of science. It is only through Annalisa’s sacrifice and turning her back on hope and love after 1943, that Mia can confront her life’s purpose as a scientist, preserving Annalisa’s legacy, family reputation, and pursuit of love. Josselsohn’s dedication to description creates a vivid and vibrant life at the castle that emphasises the tragedy caused by the Nazi invasion throughout the novel. The guests, who were great thinkers, painters and inventors are murdered in their prime which provides a distinct and emotional reminder of the atrocities of the war. This novel is fast-paced, well written and full of mystery where the reader is left with a mixture of answers and even more questions by the novels denouement. This is a novel of hope, loss and family that creates emotionally driven and rich characters that help the reader relate to the character’s struggles, thoughts and feelings.
Sword Catcher (Sampler) by Cassandra Clare is an ARC ebook provided by NetGalley and a new fantasy world due to be published in Oct 2023. I am beyond grateful to have the opportunity to review a 11 chapter sample of Sword Catcher by one of my favourite authors.
I have been a fan of Cassandra Clare’s shadowhunter series for many years and was really intrigued at the idea of a completely new high fantasy world. Sword Catcher is set in the new and vibrant world of Castellane. This world has magic, forbidden knowledge and follows main protagonists Prince Conor, his sword catcher Kel and physician Lin with criminals such as the Ragpicker King. Clare crafts a world of vibrant criminal activity, excessive nobles and injustices that help build this world and immerse the reader in magic, adventure and romance. The richness of the hedonistic nobles are expertly contrasted with the poorer and less fortunate members of Castellane that highlights many of the injustices and political discourse to follow. Clare discusses themes of race, class and politics that seamlessly permeates throughout the narrative and very essence of Castellane. Conor and Kel’s relationship and character arc is one that I’m most interested to read and see how their dymanic will change throughout the novel. Furthermore, the Ragpicker King is a character that I cannot wait to read more about – he is elusive and mysterious! I’m impatiently waiting to read the rest of Sword Catcher when it is published in October and follow Conor, Kel and Lin on their adventures. Clare’s writing is vivid, compelling and immersive – I cannot wait to see what she conjures up next!
The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas is a fake dating romcom with a slow burn. The concept was interesting, but needed further development and conflict between characters. The concept of the novel that explores fake dating and Lina needing a date for her sister’s wedding in Spain was intriguing. I expected that situation to take up a lot of the novel and the family to discover Lina’s lie. However, that didn’t happen. I was confused as to why there was a bachelor auction where Aaron needed Lina’s help, this scene felt incongruous to the rest of the novel. I understand why this scene was included to emphasise that they both needed each other, but distracted from the novel’s focus. The slow burn romance was extremely slow and the more romantic scenes were condensed towards the end that made the plot slow and clunky in places. I think the idea that Aaron knew everything about Lina was creepy and needed to be addressed as such. The novel has two main points of conflict, the first being Lina and her ex Daniel’s conversation that is quickly over before it started. I would have liked Daniel to have made accusations or try to undermine Lina and Aaron’s relationship publicly in front of the family. This would have made his character more dynamic and emphasise his potential jealousy or even revealing his engagement was fake – something that would have turned the tables that mirrors Lina’s thoughts or insecurities of being single or having failed at romantic relationships. Aaron’s character was lacking and could have challenged Lina in telling her family the truth instead of continuing a lie that he clearly wanted to be true. The second conflict, Aaron stands up for Lina in front of Gerald and his sexist comments in the workplace. This scene could have been given further attention where colleagues publicly discuss the situation with Lina and suggest that they had similar experiences with Gerald’s inappropriate comments. This is an important topic of gender in the workplace and was brushed over fairly quickly. Overall, the concept was good but needed a deeper exploration of Lina and Aaron’s characters and show how they can help each other change and grow as individuals. Lina’s judgemental and public dislike for Aaron changes very quickly to love without feeling remorse for how she treated her co-worker in the past. The blatant ogling of Aaron throughout the novel showed an immaturity to her character.
Final thoughts
May’s reading haul has been mixed with historical fiction, fantasy and romance that explored different character tropes and themes. Overall, I enjoyed the dive into historical fiction and the focus of Italian themed narratives. They are perfect as a summer read and I continue to dream of visiting Italy and experiencing the culture and history in person – one day, I hope! For now I will just have to settle to experiencing the Italian culture through the power of immersive literature. Both Swift and Josselsohn have excelled at immersing the reader into Italian culture and history.
I also had the opportunity to read fantasy and as ever Cassandra Clare continues to create a world that is deadly and enticing, I hope to continue my journey in Castellane soon. May also saw romance and I was disappointed. I have read many ‘TikTok Sensation’ books recommended through BookTok and sometimes they are brilliant and other times not-so-good. For example, Tessa Bailey’s Hook, Line and Sinker is a particular BookTok favourite of mine. This highlights the power of TikTok and influencers promoting books that are popular and easy reads, but not necessarily quality. I wanted to read The Spanish Love Deception for a while and after reading The American Roommate Experiment by the same author, I was unsure at what to expect. The quality of writing improved in the latter but character development and conflict was limited and needed a deeper exploration. May has been an interesting and immersive reading experience and I hope that June will offer more fascinating and immersive books.
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