Long Review article about Caterina's Renaissance -- Bev Newman

 This is copied over from Amazon.  Seemed like it deserved a blog post of its own.

Beverley Newman
5.0 out of 5 starsAn intoxicating blend of escapism, time travel, love and ecology
25 June 2018
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase


(NOTE – I was a beta reader for this novel and also helped with the historical research. I knew from the first chapter that this book would be a good read and it did not disappoint.)

This is a beautifully crafted adult time travel novel. Christa skilfully blends the believable with the unbelievable to create a narrative that might just be possible if… If there were dragons, if time travel were possible and if we were able to choose the time in which we live.

I enjoyed the novel from start to finish and appreciated the level of research Christa put into recreating the society, attitudes, sights, sounds and smells of 16th century Venice. It made it come alive, as did her understanding of life in a small island community today. Her ability to paint a vivid picture of both people and scenery, brings the story to life. Her characters are human, and she addresses the scars and emotional baggage of their past with a great depth of understanding and compassion
.
It is clear that ecology and life in a small community, matter to Christa. She is well aware of how the threat of big change affects an island community. Not because these people are NIMBY’s but because they know their home island is special and once part of it is destroyed it will never recover. It is evident they see themselves as guardians of the land that they live on.

Christa's approach to the moral dilemma of time travel was both insightful and intensely human. The heroine asked the difficult questions and was given the space within the story to find answers. What if I know something about a significant person’s future? Do I tell and risk changing history? Do I keep silent and allow history to play out, despite wanting to protect the person from pain? How far should love and friendship go?

The hero and heroine are a very unlikely couple, who met when he was “washed” into her bed. The difficulties in communication and understanding each other’s worlds often bring humour and at other times bittersweet moments where an inability to communicate causes great misunderstanding… which is where the neighbours and the dragon prove very helpful indeed…Their relationship deepens and grows throughout the novel. Christa's weaves a tale that is sensuous yet includes understandable worries and concerns.

The relationship is aided by the dragon. Scullyruba is a wonderful character, fun but feisty. He is in many ways a voice of reason from the past. A creature who is able to slip through time, and see the mistakes people are making. He’s and is on a mission to help, albeit for his own salvation. Christa has created a fascinating character with fantastic abilities and given him a very strong personality. He facilitates the story and his interjections range from the helpful to the downright comical… ever heard a dragon sing the blues?

If you want a novel that allows you to escape the everyday world, that makes you smile and maybe shed the odd tear, then this is definitely for you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lesson 5: Beyond Dusty Books: Researching Characters and Plots through Crafting

A real boon of researching by doing hand work   is that you find a rhythm when you're using your hands, and that can spin out nicely for    pacing a scene.  For example, you can have some grandmothers sewing a quilt of family events and discussing various family members, maybe relating personality characteristics or events to colours on the quilt. Or you could have a heroine weaving a blanket and thinking about all the threads in her life, the warp and weft of people and events and places. Or you can have a man making barrels in the back yard and have the heroine admiring his hands and the ease with which he shapes his barrels, and maybe think about how he has molded and shaped his children into beautiful works of art, too.  You get the idea. I would love if some other people pitched in with some ideas on this! As I mentioned at the beginning of this course, I spent a few years farm volunteering around Europe, and I've done this a little in Canada too. I know t
Read more

Living and Writing with Less Money and More Passion in Europe

Image
Rocket yourself back into the past: Go WWOOFing to research your next historical novel! Table of contents:  Out-of-the-Box Solution   1             How It Works   2              Other sample experiences   5 Writing schedule:   14                     But . . .   14                      Other Organizations   15 by Christa Bedwin I have been  writer and editor for twenty years. (I now write time-travel magical realism adventures with my characters exploring various cool time periods and places in the past, mostly but not completely placed in Europe.) Even ten years ago I realized a big problem with the writing/editing career – too much time with the bum in the chair just isn’t healthy. An editing colleague died of an aneurysm at her desk, working on a late deadline, and I vowed to make my health a priority. (Sometimes I do better, sometimes I do worse, but the intention is always there!) As a single mom, though, budget matters. I pulled years of working all night on editi
Read more

My Writing Companion

Image
My writing companion is an 18-year-old black cat. She's our philosopher cat (we also have a military cat who defends us and keeps us in order, but that's my son's cat -- another story). I never meant to have a black cat, but about when I finally accepted that I seemed to be a sad and lonely spinster and that I might as well get a cat, I decided I should go to the humane society. But I procrastinated. Instead of going to the humane society that day, I walked up a hill in the town where I lived at the time and down the hill were coming Ashley, Leanna, and Ashley, and they were carrying this wee black kitten, the last of her litter, and they sorrowfully told me if they couldn't give this little cat named Zipper away, their parents were going to force them to take her to the humane society. So then I had a cat. No collar or litter or cat knowledge or anything but I took her home and the first thing she ever napped on was a stack of manuscript
Read more