This novel was lent to me by my professor, and I actually expected it to be a bit of work to read in between readings for class, and writing assignments and what not.   I was pleasantly surprised, however.   The book isn’t incredibly long, only about 300 pages, and I flew through it effortlessly, finishing it in just a few day (basically over the weekend).

Shanghai Girls is ultimately a story about family and the bonds that are forged between them, over time.   The novel begins in Shanghai and is centered around two privileged sisters who’s lives are thrown completely upside down with the loss of their father’s money, sudden arranged marriages, and the invasion of Shanghai by the Japanese.  The two girls are forced to flee their country and emigrate to America.  The second half of the story is spent dealing with the life of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, during a time when all Orientals were looked upon with suspicion after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, and then again during the communist threat of Mao’s revolution.

The book was incredibly easy to read, which is really a feat in itself considering the incredible depth of description and the completely alien world (at least to me, and probably  most readers) that the author brings the reader into.   However, the entire reason it was so easy to get through is because  Lisa See effortlessly weaves a landscape of incredible detail that truly made me feel that I was witnessing Shanghai, and later Chinatown, of the 40s and 50s.   It honestly boggles my mind, the amount of research that would have to go into creating such a complete environment.  Short of actually seeing and witnessing 1940s Shanghai myself, I couldn’t write with such depth and I am humbled by her ability.

In the end, what Lisa See managed to accomplish was to  open my eyes completely to Chinese culture, beliefs and family dynamic as well as how that changed, and stayed the same, due to Americanization.   I highly recommend this novel to any lover of history and culture.

You can find it here:  Shanghai Girls

As an education student majoring in English Language Arts, I’ve had the unique opportunity to approach literature from a completely different perspective than most people do.   While reading Pirate’s Passage I was also evaluating it as an educator, keeping in mind the novel’s potential for teaching teenagers.   This is a completely different way of reading than I’m used to, because it cannot be purely escapist, which is my sole reason for reading fiction, normally.  That’s not to say that I read the book from a completely objective point of view, either;  the whole point of reading a novel is enjoyment, after all.

My first impression of the novel was that it was very difficult to get into.  I believe I fell asleep somewhere around page 22, and then again ten pages later.  This could be solely attributed to the fact that I was reading before bed, but I do think that it also had something to do with the pacing.   This is a slow novel to get into.

The novel takes place in Nova Scotia, Canada, in the early 1950′s and begins with the daily routine of Jim, a 12 year old boy who lives in an ancient Inn on the coast.   The monotony of daily routine takes a turn when a mysterious Captain named Charles Johnson is blown in from the ocean during a storm.  The Captain decides to spend the winter in Jim’s mother’s inn, while making necessary repairs to his boat.   During this time, he hires Jim to do small errands and basically keep him company.

Most of their time (and indeed, the majority of the noveol) is occupied with the Captain educating Jim about the history of pirates, to help Jim in an essay for school.  During these stories, the reader gets the feeling that the Captain knows more than he lets on, and it even seems that he, somehow, may have been involved with pirates hundreds of years ago.   He often makes the statement “when I’ve gotten younger” which titilates the imagination of who, or what this Captain is and where he is from.

Unfortunately, that’s a theme that is never actually explored and because of that I was left rather disappointed with the outcome of the story.    I found the second half of the novel to be more engaging than the first; there was a lot less sailing terms being thrown around and a more plot than just daily life at the Inn, interspersed with Pirate history.  I still can’t be happy with the ending though.  There was so much more potential, and while the author makes an effort to wrap up loose ends, I really wish that the supernatural theme that was hinted at had been explored.

As an educator, the ultimate question is would I teach this novel?    The story and whether I liked it or not aside, it is a good example of children’s literature because it does a very good job of portraying every day life for young boy, including common issues which every boy eventually faces.  I can see how boys could relate to the character and be drawn into the story, however I think that girls might have problems getting into the story.   The history in novel is presented in a way as to be very enjoyable to students; short, sweet and exciting however there’s so much of it they might get tired of it by the end, like I did.

I probably wouldn’t use the book in a classroom, but I would suggest it for boys interested in pirate history.

You can find it here:  Pirate’s Passage

In the realms of Science Fiction these days the sub-genre known as ‘Steampunk’ has been gaining a good deal of momentum. If you’re not familiar with Steampunk it’s a form of fiction set in an era when steam is still used as the primary power source. Typically Victorian age time frames are used and there’s a lot of brass and iron machines about. Alternate history is often employed to show a ‘road not taken’ approach where we find dirigible airships sailing the skies and other machines that could have been. I like to describe it as Cyberpunk if it was written in the 1840′s.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest is one of these alternate history Steampunk novels. Set in 1880′s Seattle the Klondike gold rush has happened about a decade early, and the US Civil War has dragged on an extra ten years thanks to interference by the British. In 1864 the Russians are looking for a way to harvest the gold in the Klondike and other parts of Alaska (which they still own at the time) so they hold a contest to see who can make the best digging machine. A genius in Seattle, named Leviticus Blue comes up with a remarkable machine called Blue’s “Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine”, or Boneshaker for short. On it’s first test run however the machine destroys the financial district of the then burgeoning Seattle and releases a strange and toxic gas the people call ‘Blight’. Rather then kill it’s victims the Blight gas turns them into the walking dead, that’s right, it’s a zombie novel. They never say zombie however, they refer to the undead as ‘rotters’. To keep the world safe from this gas the people build a 200 foot high wall around the core Seattle and meek out a meager existence in the Outskirts.

The book starts in earnest 16 years later when Briar Wilkes and her son Ezekiel are living in the outskirts as outcasts. Why? Because Briar Wilkes used to be Briar Blue, wife of the new infamous inventor and Zeke is his son. Zeke has never known his father but being a teenager he has a lot of angst so he sets off into the blighted city to try and find some evidence to clear his fathers name. Once inside the dead city however we find that there is still a population living among the deadly gas and roving rotters. They refine that gas into a drug called lemon sap and sell it to outsiders via smugglers who fly hydrogen filled airships into the city and trade goods for drugs. Briar hitches a ride on one of these ships to chase after her son.

Inside the city there is a strange dynamic going on where the survivors are quasi-ruled by a mysterious doctor who calls himself Dr. Minnericht. He’s a genius inventor who provides the surviving population of the city with fantastic inventions in return for favors and manipulates the idea alive that he just might be Leviticus Blue himself. Briar must confront this doctor and prove to both herself and her son that he isn’t her long lost husband….or is he?

I’ve never been able to really get into Steampunk, I’m not a huge fan of the Victorian era, but I took a chance on Boneshaker because the idea of steampunk + zombies sounded interesting. I’m glad I did. Boneshaker turned out to be a very accessible introduction to the genre. Priest creates a set of characters that are compelling and hook you into their lives. At the same time there is a rich back-story and strong world building going on around them that teases you with the “what if’s” that are presented. Priest also manages to build a strong sense of suspense when the denizens of Seattle are running for their lives from the rotters and you genuinely feel claustrophobic as the filters in the characters masks start to fill up with the Blighted air.

Overall this is a great book and I can see why it’s been nominated for a Hugo award. If you’re looking for an easy way into the Steampunk genre this is it. You’ll also be glad to know that this is just the first book in what Priest calls the ‘Clockwork Century’ setting and her next novel, Dreadnought is due out September 28th, 2010.

***

Boneshaker

This is the beginning of a story that started with a simple smell, coffee.  My mind ran away with me, and soon I had a paragraph.   I have no idea where this is going, or what it will become, but I wanted to share it, regardless.   This is also my first attempt at writing in first person.   A quick warning:  the story doesn’t start happy.

*****

The smell of burnt coffee and stale cigarette smoke hung in the air, even though the detective was no longer seated across from me. I didn’t remember him leaving. I was only aware of my own position: perched precariously on the edge of a rose patterned love seat, hand clenched, knuckles white around a shredded tissue. My breathing was ragged and shallow, echoes of shed tears. My nose was raw and red; I sniffed delicately, dabbing briefly with the tissue. The clock in the corner ticked loudly, counting off the seconds of my changed life, intruding in on my thoughts; a black ragged turmoil that couldn’t be pinned, soothed or subdued.

My eyes strayed, for what seemed like the hundredth time, to the liquor cabinet in the corner, which mocked me with its silent unchanging presence. It whispered seduction in my ears, promising the relief of oblivion. It would be so easy to fall back into old destructive patterns, to say, “the Hell with it!” and lose myself in the golden liquid burn, allowing it to engulf my senses, my sanity, my self. Or what was left of it. But it had been years since I had walked down that path, and despite the temptation I knew that he would be disappointed in me if I surrendered. Him. John. Wherever he was now. The tears silently began to pour down my cheeks again. I choked off a sob, taking a deep shaky breath, closed my eyes, blocking out the vision of the empty chair across from me. When did the detective leave?

I opened my eyes. Had I dozed? The sun had changed position in the room, it’s rays now glowing warmly across my hand, the room taking on a pinky-orange cast with the impending sunset. My stomach growled and I rose from my seat, automatically smoothing the wrinkles out of my slacks. It seemed easiest to stick to routine and so I moved to the kitchen and began dinner. Chicken breasts, grilled, steamed broccoli and carrots, brown rice. John was on a low sodium diet, because of high blood pressure.

What was a I doing?! I stared helplessly at the table set for two, the two chicken breasts on the grill. Reality had reached out and slapped me in the face, and all I could do was take it. I turned off the stove; chicken and plates remained untouched. I didn’t need to eat. Memories slithered through my mind of a chilled tumbler, wet with moisture, ice clinking as I tipped the contents down my throat. I didn’t need that, either, I told myself without really believing.

One of the interesting consequences of writing this blog is my reading style has changed in that I am less likely to read something which belongs to a series (to spare you reviews of the same thing), and I’m branching out with my genres, trying to give you a little more variety. When it comes down to it, this is probably a good thing for me, because it expands my horizons as well, and keeps me out of a book rut.

It used to be that to find the next book I wanted to read, I just had to find the next in the series, or (always difficult) find a new series altogether. I’ve never been a best sellers list kinda person, because of this. So, in another break from past habits, I found this book by looking through the best sellers list on the Kobo website. Even more out of character, I chose this one over the newest Phillipa Gregory novel, which I was aching to read since I’d just finished The Wise Woman.

I’m glad I chose this novel, because it plunked me back into reality. The Last Child is the story of Johnny, a 13 year old boy who’s twin sister went missing a year ago, and of Hunt, the lead detective who, over the year, has become obsessed with the unsolved case.

Since his sister went missing, Johnny’s family has been torn apart, his father gone, his mother sunken in drugs, alchohol and depression, her boyfriend abusive. He spends his time skipping school and searching for his missing sister, one house at a time, finding strength and power wherever he can. Similarily, Hunt, unable to let the case go, has lost his wife and driven away his teenage son and is close to losing his job. Johnny’s search for his sister unravels mysteries that delve deep into the underbelly of the community, exposing predators and secrets and finding goodness, salvation and answered prayers in unexpected places.

This story brought me out of the fictional universe usually expected in novels, because it seemed so close to real life. It was very easy to imagine a family destroyed by loss, and a cop eaten away with guilt, allowing a case to become too personal. This book is the story of small town life, and child disappearance that could happen anywhere. At no point in the story is it sensationalist or unbelievable; the characters and their relationships are dynamic and heartbreaking and the reader can emphasize with their motivations.

Best of all, at no point in the story did I know what was going to happen next. I kept guessing all the way through, and the ending was completely unexpected, leaving me feeling both sad and satisfied. This is not a feel good, happy novel, yet even in the sad resolution the reader is left with a ray of sunshine of hope that life will be better despite everything that was lost.

This was an excellent novel, and I highly recommend it. You can find it here: The Last Child

On Summer vacation this year I needed to get a real, on-paper, book to read while we were at the cabin in the woods so I headed out to the closest ‘bookseller’ I could find: Wal-Mart. If you’ve ever looked at the book selection in Wal-Mart you’ll know there’s a real dearth of anything there that’s not written by Stephenie Meyer but in the ‘bestsellers’ section I found Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz. Since Koontz, along with King, is one of my fallback authors I decided to pick it up. I’ve had pretty good luck buying Koontz books at random. Life Expectancy and Odd Thomas were both spur of the moment purchases in airports and they’re both truely excellent books. I can’t say I enjoyed Your Heart Belongs to Me quite as much.

The book is a 384 page character study of an Internet billionaire named Ryan Perry who lives the idyllic life of the ultra-rich. One day while surfing with his girlfriend however he has a major heart problem where he goes cold and his vision almost blacks out. He plays this off as just a one time issue but after a while it happens again and he finds himself paralyzed in his bedroom one night. After that he finally goes to his doctor and they find he has an enlarged heart. While discussing the possible causes of this condition his doctor offhandledly mentions ‘poison’. This sets Ryan off, he externalizes his problem and his mind convinces him his staff, his girlfriend, and his girlfriends estranged mother are all out to poison him. He enlists the help of a private detective and goes off on a chase for the supposed poisoners. His girl encourages him to stay the course and let what will happen happen, but instead Ryan goes behind her back and finds a new cartiologist, the best in the nation, and in a month he has a new heart but he’s lost is girlfriend and most everyone close to him.

At this point we’re 3/4ths of the way though the book and I was left wondering when some action might happen, it starts to pay off at this point as he starts getting messages from somone telling him ‘your heart belongs to me’. This escalates quickly and the plot advances rapidly all the way to a rather hackneyed and somewhat disappointing ending. There’s a bland reveal about Ryan’s personallity that didn’t really get sold very well, and when the final showdown between Ryan and the evil stalker it plays out meekly and the ‘bad guy’ character doesn’t get any sort of real resolution.

While I enjoy Koontz’s writing style and he keeps me turning pages, I even managed to read this book in a single day, this book seems to miss the mark. The entire novel is spent exploring Ryan’s character in order to reveal the supposed awfulness deep inside himself but it doesn’t feel genuine, in the end if comes off as forced. You’re meant to see Ryan as a flawed rich guy who uses his wealth to the detriment of those around him but it doesn’t come though, Ryan has been built up to be too nice of a guy during the rest of the novel. The book is decent, and it’s a good quick read if you’ve got some down time but if you looking for a top flight Koontz novel pick up the fantastic Odd Thomas instead.

***

Your Heart Belongs to Me

Over the last four months I’ve lived a pretty relaxed life as a full time mom, able to read as much as I liked, in between doing laundry and feeding kids. I’ve had time to write up a post every morning and read a book every week, so you’ve been pretty much guaranteed something new every day of the week. This, however, is about to change.

Tomorrow I go back to being a full time student on top of full time mom, and my schedule will be crazy. I cannot guarantee when posts will be posted, or books read and reviewed. I can, however, promise that when I have the time, I will write. So, keep coming back often, so you don’t miss anything!

Thanks for reading my posts over the summer, It’s kept me occupied when I otherwise would have wallowed in boredom.

Sorry, Zombie lovers, I have to take a little break away from “For Love of Brian” because I’ve reached the end of what I’ve written and have been immersed in a vast deep pit of ‘what should happen next?’ for a long, long time.   While I ponder the fate of Julia and Brian, my hubby has kindly volunteered to have a piece of his first novel posted for you to read.  So, here is an excerpt from chapter two of Second Chance.

****
Swish! The doors of the supermarket slide open as Jerry approaches and the cool air from the produce department slides over him, sending a chill up his spine. Determined to find the ingredients for a good healthy meal Jerry picks up a hand basket and strides confidently into the produce section. The light glimmers off the water droplets on the vast array of vegetables spread in front of him. He moves slowly along the refrigerated cases pausing often to survey the item in front of him.

He considers what would make a good inclusion in his meal as he moves along. Would onions fit the bill? No, Jerry detests them with their limp consistency and harsh taste. He moves on down the line. The sprayers come on and a cool mist washes over Jerry.

For the second time since entering the store he shivers. Something seems slightly off, strange in a way that Jerry can’t quite place. He feels like someone is watching him and he keeps glancing over his shoulder as he walks. Thinking it’s just a trick of his active imagination he shrugs to himself and keeps moving thought the vegetables.

The sweet peppers lay before him, green, red, yellow, and the slightly exotic orange pepper. Are any of these good choices? No, Jerry decides, the flavor of the green is too sour, the red and yellow are too bland and he’s never had an orange pepper and the idea of trying something new tonight isn’t appealing to him. He moves on, still with the feeling that someone is watching him.

He glances again over his shoulder and this time catches a glimpse of someone as they move around a corner. A white t-shirt and long brown hair are all Jerry manages to see but it strikes a chord with him. Something about that half-seen form seems vaguely familiar. Another chill runs up Jerry’s spine and a cold sweat starts to break out on his skin. What the hell is going on? Jerry thinks to himself

He shakes his head trying to clear it and focuses on the food items again. Eggplant? Is that even an option? How does one even cook an eggplant? That’s a question Jerry can’t answer. He picks it up and surveys the rotund purple food and puzzles over it. Odd, he thinks, I’m a 32 year old man and I’ve never even seen the inside of one of these things. He puts the plant back down with the others of its species and moves on.

After much fruitless searching thought the produce aisle Jerry finds himself among the meat. A section he’s much more comfortable with. Nichole has been on a push lately for vegetarianism but it’s something that Jerry just can’t bring himself to even consider. He is a meat eater and always has been. Running his tongue over his teeth he looks at the cuts arrayed behind the glass of the butchers counter.

Large porterhouse steaks jump out at him, bright red with a nice white marbling of fat. Jerry’s mouth waters looking at the succulent cuts of beef but he knows it’s too much red meat for today; he doesn’t have the energy to put into such a nice cut of meat. Beside the steaks is the pork. Fresh, thick pork chops lay three deep on platters under the lights of the display case, a light mist hanging in the air above them, but once again Jerry passes by. Pork was on the menu last night.

Fifteen minutes later and Jerry has exhausted his options in the produce, meat, pasta, and dairy aisles and finds himself in a well traveled location: the snack aisle. Shiny packages of chips, crackers, and pretzels face out at him, mocking his inability to decide on a healthy alternative. The plastic packaging over the high fat snack treats shimmer and shine as Jerry slowly moves down the aisle looking over each bag. He stops and stares at the chips, feeling sorry for himself and his waist line he picks up a jumbo pack of Lays potato chips and drops it into his cart. He then selects a bean and cheese dip to go with it and drops that into his basket as well. Just as the dip hits the bottom of his basket with a dull thwack the lights above him go out.

He cranes his neck back and looks up at the florescent lights above him simultaneously cocking an eyebrow and giving the now dark lights a look of distain. Two banks directly over him have gone out; at the same time the temperature of the air around him seems to have dropped a couple degrees with the loss of light. Another chill runs up Jerry’s spine. He drops his head and catches movement out of the corner of his eye.

He turns to look and as he sees the figure standing about four feet away from him his world swoons for a moment. The edge of Jerry’s vision gets dark and forms a sort of tunnel with the girl at the center. Jerry’s heart is racing and cool sweat has broken out all over his body. He stumbles slightly and has to hold onto the rack of chips to stay on his feet. The basket he’s holding drops from his numb hand and makes a loud plastic smack as it hits the hard floor.

Something about this young girl has affected him badly, something is ripping at the back of his mind screaming to get out but Jerry has no idea what it is. He’s deathly afraid of this little girl.
****

Interested?  Go here for your copy of Second Chance.

I picked up this novel in a  Fields store in a little town on Little Shuswap lake, called Chase.  I was about to finish reading The Wise Woman and knew that I  couldn’t go through another two days vacation without reading something, plus it was only $3.00 for the hardcover, so it was a steal.  I have to admit that because of the price I didn’t expect it to be very good and was bracing myself for a fair amount of cheese.

The First Cut is a crime novel that begins with the murder of a female vice cop who’s been drawn to the dark side and become engaged in some funky and dangerous sex play for pay.   The rest of the novel is centered around Vining, a female cop who survived a brutal attack while on duty, the year previous.  Vining is just coming back  to work where she is asked to help on the case of the murdered cop – despite being placed in a different department.  She spends the entire novel comparing the murder to her own attack and working up the nerve to look into her own unsolved case.  She pegs the murderer on a hunch, despite a complete lack of evidence and lack of support from the rest of the department, and in the end catches and kills the murderer, freeing his newest victim.  In the end she vows to find her own attacker.  Eh.

So, to begin with, if you’re going to have a crime novel investigating a murderer, by a cop who was almost murdered, wouldn’t you expect the two murderers to be one and the same?   I certainly figured that she’d find out that the cop killer is the person who attacked her and in the end get some resolution.    On one hand, maybe it’s a good thing that the author did something that I didn’t expect; I really dislike predictability in a novel.  On the other hand, it was completely unsatisfactory for this intensely scarred by her ordeal cop to get no relief or justice for herself in the end.   To be fair, the novel does set up the ending for a sequel that allows her to hunt down her own would be killer,  but I really have no interest in reading a sequel, so what’s the point?

Why do I have no interest in a sequel?   Well, for one, I just didn’t care enough about the main character.   The action and suspense of the novel are well handled and I can sympathize with the main character’s trauma but that’s as far as it goes.   There was no real connection established between reader and character; I felt like she was held at arms length.  Part of that may have been because she’s referred to by her last name, Vining, through the entire novel, her first name (Nan) being only mentioned a couple of times.  Also, while there were a few personal moments, one with her daughter and a few with her exboyfriend, there was no real emotion beyond panic and negativity.   I had the feeling that she just didn’t like anybody.  Whenever the author introduced a new character, Vining’s reaction to them was always negative and that got really tiring and made it difficult to like her, in return.

The writing was reasonably well done, there were no problems with pacing or tense and dialogue worked okay.  There were a lot of flash backs, however, that were annoying and the plot was pretty flat.   Maybe that’s the reason I don’t want to read a sequel – it just wasn’t exciting enough to make me want more.

Readers on Amazon give the novel much higher praise than I have, and by the looks of it, there are two sequels out, as well.  So, if you’re interested, you can find it here:  The First Cut

It was time to go on vacation and I was eagerly awaiting an entire week of nothing more demanding to do but read.   I had planned on doing some writing, too, but my laptop never even made it out my bag.   So I packed up my Kobo along with all my other necessities, only to realize after leaving home that I had forgotten to upload the three galleys I had downloaded from netgalley.com.   So when I found myself in a Walmart for a last minute stop at the pharmacy, I also stopped in the book isle, hoping to find something I might like, that was cheep.  When I found The Wise Woman on sale for $9.95, I jumped on it, and finished it in five days.

The Wise Woman is the story of Alys and her ambition.  Taking place in England during Henry VIII’s reign, Alys is abandoned as a baby at the house of the local wise woman, who raises her.   She lives a hard, poor childhood, and is never really loved so when the opportunity comes to raise her station she takes it by becoming a nun.    The story begins when her nunnery is burnt down by the Lord’s son (Catholics being deemed heretics, by Henry VIII), and she flees without trying to save her sisters or mother at the abby, (a truth about her character which plagues her throughout the novel).  She is forced back to the home of the wisewoman, Morag, who raised her, and again grasps at any opportunity to achieve better for herself by becoming healer and scribe to the Lord.   From there, her ambition causes her to plot to rise to lady of the manor.  She breaks her vows, takes the young Lord Hugo as lover and uses ‘dark arts’ to achieve her ends.

This was a great historical fiction, as it’s not very often that authors choose to write about lower classes, in historicals.  The look into the lives of different classes was eye opening and really set the mood for the rest of the novel and causes the reader to empathize with  Alys’ ambitions.

While it’s easy to empathize with Alys, I found it difficult to sympathize.  She’s a difficult character to grow to like because she spends the entire novel deceiving the people who care for her, to get what she wants.   I think that is more difficult to take because she was a nun and made her vows to be a good person, yet at the first challenge she throws all that aside (albeit with some moral struggle).

My favorite part of the novel was the use of ‘dark arts’.  During the time period many people did turn to ‘wise women’ who would use herbal cures, deliver babies and create love spells and such for people who would pay.  These were, of course, not real ‘spells’ but people were very superstitious and witchcraft at the time was a very serious charge.  I would have enjoyed the novel a lot more if it stuck to historical here and made any results of ‘black art’ and women’s mysteries explainable.   It starts out doing just that, however crosses the line with wax dolls that come to life, a miscarried baby made of wax and Morag turning into a rabbit.

The end of the novel also through me for a loop.  Alys spends the entire novel deceiving people to get her way – she’s the highest person in the house after the Lady dies, pregnant with the Lord’s child, and what does she do?  She repents!   After all of that she just turns away from it all.   I think I would have preferred to see her giving birth to a daughter and end up working as the wise woman back in the hovel where she grew up.  It would have been a perfect turn around and counterpoint.  Instead, the moral of the novel becomes about salvation, rather than consequence.

Regardless, I really enjoyed the novel.  The writing drew me in completely and the research was excellent.  I really felt like I understood the time period and the motivations of the different classes, and class structure.   I like how Phillipa Gregory writes and will definitely seek out more of her work.

You can find the novel here:  The Wise Woman