Book review – Page 51 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: ‘Black & White’, by Nick Wilford

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Publication Date: 18th September 2018

Published by: Superstar Peanut Publishing

I.S.B.N.: 9781370304622

Format: e-book

Blurb

What is the price paid for the creation of a perfect society?

In Whitopolis, a gleamingly white city of the future where illness has been eradicated, shock waves run through the populace when a bedraggled, dirt-stricken boy materialises in the main street. Led by government propaganda, most citizens shun him as a demon, except for Wellesbury Noon – a high school student the same age as the boy.

Upon befriending the boy, Wellesbury feels a connection that he can’t explain – as well as discovering that his new friend comes from a land that is stricken by disease and only has two weeks to live. Why do he and a girl named Ezmerelda Dontible appear to be the only ones who want to help?

As they dig deeper, everything they know is turned on its head – and a race to save one boy becomes a struggle to redeem humanity.

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Review: ‘Beauty’, by Peter Liney

BEAUTY by [Liney, Peter]

Published by: Independently Published

Publication Date: 18th June 2017

I.S.B.N.: 978-1521531310

Price: £7.25

Format: Paperback and Kindle

Blurb

When cosmetic and transplant surgery get together and beauty becomes a commodity that can be bought and sold, the Rich become more beautiful, the Poor less. But if something can be traded, it can also be stolen – brutally, violently, by the feared face-stealers, and to a point where the rich finally cry ‘Enough! . . . Enough. Make us plain; make us ordinary.’ Now there is no beauty left, not as we once knew it, only photos, videos, exhibitions. And yet . . . you still hear the occasional rumour.

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Review: ‘Ribbons Among The Rajahs’, by Patrick Wheeler

Ribbons Among the Rajahs
Published By: Pen & Sword History
Published: 12th June 2017
ISBN: 9781473893276

Blurb

From the mid-eighteenth century onward, British women started travelling in any numbers to the East Indies, mostly to accompany husbands, brothers or fathers. Very little about them is recorded from the earlier years, about the remarkable journeys that they made and what drove them to travel those huge distances. Some kept journals, others wrote letters, and for the first time Patrick Wheeler tells their story in this fascinating and colourful history, exploring the little-known lives of these women and their experiences of life in India before the Raj. With a perceptive approach, Ribbons Among the Rajahs considers all aspects of women’s lives in India, from the original discomfort of traversing the globe and the complexities of arrival through to creating a home in a tight-knit settlement community. It considers, too, the effects of the subservience of women to the needs of men and argues for the fusion of European and Indian cultures that existed before imperial times.

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Review: ‘The Eye Of Nefertiti’, by Maria Luisa Lang

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I received this book directly from the author in return for an honest review.

Published By: CreateSpace Independent Publishing

Publication Date: 29th November 2016

I.S.B.N.: 9780996335218

Price: £6.70

Format: Paperback (also available as a Kindle ebook)

Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy

Wrappa-Hamen is a wise-cracking, funny, slightly self-deceiving cat blessed by Bastet with the ability to walk and talk like a human. And eat like a human. A mysterious letter arrives at Wrappa-Hamen’s abode in New York, the home of Elena Knowall and her ancient Egyptian husband, the High Priest of Amen Ra, Gato-Hamen, and their son, Alexander, the reborn Pharaoh Wrappa-Hamen served thousands of years before. Elena learns to read the Tarot, much to Gato-Hamen’s shock and anger, especially after he interupts her reading for Wrappa-Hamen. Something momentous is going to happen to the cat.

The letter arrives from a woman in Bath, England, who wants Elena to write her biography. Elena accepts and the family, by one means or another go to Bath. Elens and Alexander fly, Wrappa-Haman and Gato-Hamen travel in the Boat that they arrived in New York on in the first book, via Stonehenge 1000 B.C.E. At Stonehenge they meet a mysterious Egyptian priestess. Arriving finally in Bath, the pair explore Bath with Elena and baby Alexander. Finding secret passages and discovering the mysterious woman from the Tarot reading and a dream Wrappa-Hamen has, the High Priest and Cat travel back to the city of Akhetaten in about 1330 BCE. The woman is Nefertiti, wife of the heretic Pharaoh Ahkenaten, and mother of Tutankhamun. They must find out why she has no memory of a period of 10 days and why she can’t die.

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Review: ‘Maladies and Medicine: Exploring health & healing 1540 – 1740’, by Jennifer Evans & Sara Read

Maladies and Medicine Publication Date: 4th July 2017

Published By: Pen & Sword

ISBN: 9781473875715

Format: Paperback

Price: £12.99

Blurb

Maladies and Medicine offers a lively exploration of health and medical cures in early modern England. The introduction sets out the background in which the body was understood, covering the theory of the four humours and the ways that male and female bodies were conceptualised. It also explains the hierarchy of healers from university trained physicians, to the itinerant women healers who travelled the country offering cures based on inherited knowledge of homemade remedies. It covers the print explosion of medical health guides, which began to appear in the sixteenth century from more academic medical text books to cheap almanacs.

The book has twenty chapters covering attitudes towards, and explanations of some of, the most common diseases and medical conditions in the period and the ways people understood them, along with the steps people took to get better. It explores the body from head to toe, from migraines to gout. It was an era when tooth cavities were thought to be caused by tiny worms and smallpox by an inflammation of the blood, and cures ranged from herbal potions, cooling cordials, blistering the skin, and of course letting blood.

Case studies and personal anecdotes taken from doctors notes, personal journals, diaries, letters and even court records show the reactions of individuals to their illnesses and treatments, bringing the reader into close proximity with people who lived around 400 years ago. This fascinating and richly illustrated study will appeal to anyone curious about the history of the body and the way our ancestors lived.

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Review: ‘Goldsmith Jones,’ by Sam Taylor-Pye

Goldsmith Jones Cover

Published By: Clink Street Publishing

Publication Date: 9th February 2017

I.S.B.N.: 978-1911110972

Format: Paperback

Price: £9.99

Blurb

Fourteen-year-old Goldsmith Jones is left stranded in crime-ridden, gangland territory. He finds himself living at The Shades, a home to local street kids. While selling sexual favours down the Dead Man’s Alley to survive, Jones is charmed by a seaman he knows as Sweet Virginia. Moving further away from the relative security that The Shades and his best friend, Raccoon, offered him, Jones is drawn ever closer to the manipulative Sweet Virginia. When Raccoon falls gravely ill and is taken to convalesce on the rural Rancheria, Jones is left under the controlling powers of the unscrupulous navvy. Swindled and wrongly accused, he is unexpectedly rescued by the leader of the villainous Suarez Brothers, the charismatic Saul. Faced with a choice between becoming Saul’s ‘little brother’ and saving Sweet Virginia’s life, Goldsmith Jones must embark on a dangerous journey which will change his young life forever.

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Goldsmith-Jones-Sam-Taylor-Pye-ebook/dp/B01MTYL3PO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1485385843&sr=1-1

Purchase from Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/goldsmith-jones-sam-taylor-pye/1125296311?ean=9781911110972

About Sam Taylor-Pye

Sam Taylor-Pye grew up on the border between Washington state and British Columbia, Canada

and currently lives in Kent in the UK. She received her BA from the Open University, and has an MA in Creative Writing. This is her first published novel.

Follow Sam on twitter – https://twitter.com/rtaylorpye

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Review: ‘Hall of Heroes: A Fellowship of Fantasy Anthology’

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: 21 Jun. 2017

I.S.B.N.: 978-1548275334

Format: EBook or Paperback

Price: £0.00 (Ebook); £12.57 (Paperback)

Blurb

Twenty-Seven Thrilling Tales from Amazing Fantasy Authors!

Whether they are unwitting, plucky, or just plain epic, heroes capture the imagination and rescue us from everyday life. With stories set in fantastic, magical realms, gritty urban landscapes, and fairytale kingdoms, our heroes stand fast as defenders of good. Struggling against evil governments, wicked demi-gods, wrathful nature, supernatural con-men, and their own insecurities, each must find the strength to triumph and the will to persevere.

In the second anthology from the Fellowship of Fantasy, twenty-three authors explore the theme of heroes, covering genres ranging from steampunk and fairytale to urban and Arthurian. These are the heroes you’ve been waiting for.

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Review: ‘Grimsby Streets’, by Emma Lingard

Published By: Pen & Sword History

Publication Date: 6th July 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781473876019

Format: Paperback

Price: £12.99

Blurb

Grimsby Streets is a journey through time, which examines the meaning of many of the towns names and their association with the Danish settlers, through to the Victorian era, and the men who helped develop the town and build its surrounding docks.

Names of the great and good that were forgotten until now are explored, as well as some of the many famous people who were born there, and where they lived. The book also covers the many incidents, which occurred on Grimsby’s streets, to give a colourful insight into the history of this once famous fishing port and some of the many wonderful buildings that stood in this proud port.

Included throughout are a selection of old photographs, some of which have never been published before, which for many folk will give them a reminder of what this town used to be like before change and demolition in the 1960s.

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Review: ‘Women in the Great War’, by Stephen Wynn and Tanya Wynn

Women in the Great War

Published by: Pen and Sword Military

Publication date: 5th June 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781473834149

Price: £12.99

Blurb

The First World War was fought on two fronts. In a military sense it was fought on the battlefields throughout Europe, the Gallipoli peninsular and other such theatres of war, but on the Home Front it was the arduous efforts of women that kept the country running.

Before the war women in the workplace were employed in such jobs as domestic service, clerical work, shop assistants, teachers or as barmaids. These jobs were nearly all undertaken by single women, as once they were married their job swiftly became that a of a wife, mother and home maker. The outbreak of the war changed all of that. Suddenly, women were catapulted into a whole new sphere of work that had previously been the sole domain of men. Women began to work in munitions factories, as nurses in military hospitals, bus drivers, mechanics, taxi drivers, as well as running homes and looking after children, all whilst worrying about their men folk who were away fighting a war in some foreign clime, not knowing if they were ever going to see them again.

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Review: ‘Childhood & Death in Victorian England’, by Sarah Seaton

Imprint: Pen & Sword History
ISBN: 9781473877023
Published: 19th June 2017 Price: £12.99

Blurb

In this fascinating book, the reader is taken on a journey of real life accounts of Victorian children, how they lived, worked, played and ultimately died. Many of these stories have remained hidden for over 100 years. They are now unearthed to reveal the hardship and cruel conditions experienced by many youngsters, such as a travelling fair child, an apprentice at sea and a trapper. The lives of the children of prostitutes, servant girls, debutantes and married women all intermingle, unified by one common factor – death. Drawing on actual instances of Infanticide and baby farming the reader is taken into a world of unmarried mothers, whose shame at being pregnant drove them to carry out horrendous crimes yet walk free from court, without consequence. For others, they were not so lucky. The Victorian children in this publication lived in the rapidly changing world of the Industrial Revolution. With the introduction of the New Poor Law in 1834 the future for some pauper children changed – but not for the better. Studies have also unearthed a religious sect known as the ‘Peculiar People’ and gives an insight into their beliefs. This book is not recommended for those easily offended as it does contain graphic descriptions of some child murders, although not intended to glorify the tragedies, they were necessary to inform the reader of the horrific extent that some killers went to. This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the social history of the Victorian period.

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