Review: Seductive Secrets by Lynne Connolly
July 14, 2008
Sandy M's review of Seductive Secrets (The Secrets Trilogy, Book1) by Lynne Connolly
Historical Romance ebook published by Samhain 10 Jun 08
I know when I read Lynne Connolly I'm going to get something different that I haven't read before. I still get the feel and the taste of whatever era or subject she's writing about, but the storyline is original and distinct. Very seldom am I disappointed.
Tags: 2008, eBook, Grade B, historical romance, June 2008, Lynne Connolly, Review, Samhain, Sandy M, Seductive Secrets, The Secrets TrilogyCrazy About… George MacDonald Fraser
June 28, 2008
Crazy about...
George MacDonald Fraser
Specifically the Flashman books, Fraser's masterwork.
The Flashman books are not romances. They are adventures. If the Lymond Chronicles can be described as the story of a Tudor mercenary, then the Flashman books are the story of a Victorian soldier.
The books purport to be a series of "packets discovered in a Leicestershire saleroom in 1966" where Flashman tells the true story of his life, as opposed to the sanitised "Dawns and Departures of a Soldier's Life" which is his public face. An editor is assigned to the books, and he adds copious footnotes, some of them disapproving of Flashman's behaviour and some elaborating on the many historical events Flashman throws out casually. After all, they were part of his life, not History. Occasionally his censorious sister-in-law, Grizel, has taken a hand too, but her main contributions are to criticise his scandalous behaviour.
The published books dot about in time, as they depend on when the ‘packets' are opened so this is one series that doesn't have to be read in order. Once you've read the first book, "Flashman," you can pick the next one that takes your fancy.
Of course, all of these people are Fraser, although people have been known to take the series at face value. When the series came out in the States, several reviewers took the books at face value, as genuine memoirs, which delighted the author no end.
Reading Victorian history through the eyes of Flashman is an exhilarating ride, and he never puts on the brakes. From the battlefields of Europe and India to life on the slave ships and with the Apache, he never stops. And be warned - there is absolutely nothing of the politically correct in these books, any more than there was in the Victorian age. Suck it up.
When Fraser was asked about political incorrectness he said, "I think little of people who will deny their history because it doesn't present the picture they would like.
My forebears from the Highlands of Scotland were a fairly primitive, treacherous, blood-thirsty bunch and, as Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote, would have been none the worse for washing. Fine, let them be so depicted, if any film maker feels like it; better that than insulting, inaccurate drivel like Braveheart."
In the books, Flashman describes himself as a bully and a cad, but there is so much more to him than that. He's intelligent, something he considers a curse, as when the Army discovers it, some highly dangerous covert operations come his way, and above all, he's honest. Brutally honest. Not everything he does is admirable - no romance hero, our Flashy - but he recounts it in raw detail, along with the exploits of the people around him which are often no better and frequently worse than his.
Flashy has no illusions. He is the bully from Tom Brown's Schooldays, and the only reason to read that awful book about the sanctimonious Victorian attitude to "play the game against the odds" which helped to lose the British Empire. Flashy is sent home in disgrace, is seduced by his father's mistress, is sent to Scotland where he meets his amazing wife Elspeth (which doesn't stop either of them playing away from home, but they remain sincerely in love) and then joins the army.
That's just the start. Adventures in Afghanistan, the Crimea, the Old West, the Deep South, the Indian Mutiny, Imperial China (where he becomes the Empress's favourite) follow on a breathtaking ride through the nineteenth century.
And these books are funny. I have never read a funnier sex scene than the Duchess Irma's wedding night in "Royal Flash" (which wickedly parodies the "Prisoner of Zenda" and features Bismarck in the Rudy role). Through it all Flashy ruthlessly describes his less-than-heroic exploits which tend to end with him coming up smelling of roses. You have to read these. They're a palate-cleanser after an angsty romance, a ride you'll never forget, and an amazing example of how to write a pinpoint accurate historical novel without making it read like a text book.Just a taster - this is from "Flashman at the Charge" where Flashman is stuck with a German royal prince, trying to keep him out of trouble in London. Prince Willy wants to pop his cherry:
"I couldn't budge him. So in the end I decided to let him have his way, and make sure there were no snags, and that it was done safe and quiet. I took him off to a very high-priced place I knew in St. John's wood, swore the old bawd to secrecy, and stated the randy little pig's requirements. She did him proud, too, with a strapping blonde wench--satin boots and all--and at the sight of her Willy moaned feverishly and pointed, quivering, like a setter. He was trying to clamber all over her almost before the door closed, and of course he made a fearful mess of it, thrashing away like a stoat in a sack, and getting nowhere. It made me quite sentimental to watch him--reminded me of my own ardent youth, when every coupling began with an eager stagger across the floor trying to disentangle one's breeches from one's ankles."
Go thou and read.
Tags: Crazy About, Flashman Books, George MacDonald Fraser, Lynne ConnollyEDUCK Flash - NCP using author’s name in vain
June 26, 2008
This just in...
Well holy crap, I have no idea what NCP thinks its doing now.
I've had the pleasure of working with author Sydney Somers before, and I can happily say she writes a damn fine book. Except that her latest release isn't hers.
Tags: eBook, Lynne Connolly, NCP, Sydney SomersSome hard truths about e-publishers
June 21, 2008
I've been involved in e-publishing for around 8 years now, so you could say I've been there since the Wild West Frontier days.
Tags: E-publisher Warning Signs, eBook, Ellora's Cave, Lynne Connolly, Redflags, RFI West, Samhain Publishing, TriskelionAnd then he kissed her… 100 years of Mills and Boon
June 7, 2008
Lynne Connolly does Manchester and you don't even have to wait for the film 
100 years... and they are just getting started. Shocking isn't it? Read on for a taste of Mills and Boon, you know if you are like me and can't get to Manchester.
Tags: Lynne Connolly, Mills & BoonReader baggage? Bring it on!
June 7, 2008
From our ducktastic friend, Lynne Connolly
Tolkien always claimed that there was nothing about his experiences in World War One in The Lord Of The Rings. But who hasn't read the passage about the Dead Marshes and not been reminded of the terrible experiences in the trenches? Influences we don't even see emerge, attitudes we aren't aware of surface in books we write and equally, attitudes and influences affect how we read as well. Readers may be more distanced and be able to spot things the writer hasn't been aware of. Now, forty years after the death of Georgette Heyer, we can see influences of her own time in her work, manners and opinions that are more reminiscent of the 1920's than the 1820's. In the film of "Gone With The Wind" Scarlett looks very ‘40's with her make-up and pillar-box red lipstick. But at the time, because the experience was largely shared, people didn't notice.
I find this relationship fascinating. In the past, comments readers have made about my books have made me think again about what I was trying to achieve with the book. Their comments weren't what I meant at all, but they're just as valid. And occasionally it's sent me off in a new direction, given me new ideas.
Once a book is "out there" it becomes the property of more than one person (not legally!) and the author who demands that their book is only read one way is - well, pretty tedious if you ask me.
There is no slavish adherence to markets, and most writers who try to do that end up with empty, boring books about themes they think the readers want. If an author adds her special brand, she'll find readers, but if the writer doesn't deliver, the readers will move on. And that includes me.
Tags: Lynne Connolly, PonderingREVIEW: Icefire by Lynne Connolly
May 30, 2008
Shannon C.'s review of Icefire (Pure Wildfire, Book 2) by Lynne Connolly
Paranormal romance published by Ellora's Cave 30 May 2008
One of the best surprises I've had this past month has been Lynne Connolly's paranormal books. With the second book in her Pure Wildfire series, Ms. Connolly continues her winning streak. Pure Wildfire is a rock band, consisting of firebird shapeshifters, and given that I love me some musicians, this is absolutely one of my favorite premises for a series.
Tags: 2008, Ellora's Cave, Grade B, ICEFIRE, Lynne Connolly, Paranormal, Pure Wildfire series, Review, romance, ShannonCCrazy about…Francis Crawford of Lymond
May 30, 2008
At one point in my life, I decided to give up working for a while and have babies with my husband. That entailed selling my house in Banbury, moving up to Manchester and changing all the boring legal stuff, house titles, insurance documents. You get the picture. Tedious stuff.
That was when I discovered Dorothy Dunnett. I had come across her name before, but when I tried the first book in the Lymond Chronicles, "The Game of Kings," I couldn't get through it. It is difficult, dense reading, but it was the first book she ever wrote, and it's worth struggling through it because there is a feast waiting for you.
I raced through the six books of the Chronicles and when I finished, I started again.
Dunnett writes like nobody else I've ever come across. Her central character, the Scottish Francis Crawford of Lymond, is seen by his family, friends and enemies. You rarely get a passage in Lymond's point of view. But you will never read a more lively, exciting, sexy or dangerous man anywhere else. "Lymond, the only hero you'll ever need."
He's a musician, a poet, a mathematician and one of the best fighting men of his age. He's an adventurer, and a planner, handsome and lethal. You will never forget him, I guarantee it.
The books are set in the first part of the sixteenth century, and the settings range from Scotland, to France, Turkey, Malta, England, Russia and everywhere in between. She depicts the Regent of France, Mary of Guise, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth Tudor, Ivan the Terrible and countless others, as well as her own brilliant creations, who meld seamlessly with the historical characters.
Her style is rich, full of references, some obscure ones but you don't have to know them to enjoy the books. Read it through fast the first time, then you can have a leisurely read, and enjoy the language.
Examples:
Lucent and delicate, Drama entered, mincing like a cat
Lymond to Christian Stewart
'This of course, is the chamber of devils, who sit in hexagon babbling like herring gulls about the ruin of charity and the disorderly rupture of souls...
Christian to Lymond
'I am an architect in lexicography; I can build you a palace of adverbs and a hermitage of personal pronouns...
The building, always derelict, had a sullen air, as if in the emptying the last, lingering kindness had been wrung from the stones.
Lymond sat in the broken hall, and by him stood Johnnie Bullo...
Will Scott stalked forward prepared to get full value from the wrath boiling in his veins, and met the wall of Lymond at his worst.
When you first meet Lymond, he is entering Scotland illegally, a convicted felon who has just spent four years on the galleys. Then after half-killing an official, he sets fire to his mother's castle - with his mother still in it.
At this point, you're hating him, I can almost guarantee it. But have faith - there is reason in everything he does, good reason. And Lymond's story is told by some of the most vivid, most interesting and sympathetic characters you will ever meet anywhere. The blind but far from helpless Christian Stewart, who understands him as few other people do. His brother Richard, Baron (later Earl) Culter. His mother, the sainted Sybilla - or is she?
By the end of the first book, you are with Lymond for the rest of his journey. You think you understand him, but then you're plunged into the middle of French court intrigue, and after that, you meet Lymond's deadly enemy Gabriel, the beautiful man who seduces everyone except Francis to his cause. By then you trust him.
And let's not forget the action. The first book, "The Game of Kings" has the best sword fight I've ever read - and I've read "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Dr. Syn" and "Scaramouche." The rooftop race, the escape across the desert and the various battles Lymond takes part in are vivid and exciting. The romance, and there is more than one, is breathtaking.
Historical accuracy? It almost goes without saying. Lady Dunnett thoroughly absorbed her research and then she wrote. You live and breathe the sixteenth century while you read these books, the Europe of Henry VIII and the corrupt French court, the Russia of Ivan the Terrible, the Far East of the Ottoman court at its height.
Get the books. Read them. Don't give up at the start, get through that first book and then sit back and hold on. You're in for one hell of a ride.
The Lymond Chronicles are:
The Game of Kings
Queen's Play
The Disorderly Knights
Pawn in Frankincense
The Ringed Castle
Checkmate.
And here's how it all starts:
"Lymond is back."
It was known soon after the Sea-Catte reached Scotland from Campvere with an illicit cargo and a man she should not have carried.
"Lymond is in Scotland."
It was said by busy men preparing for war against England, with contempt, with disgust; with a side-slipping look at one of their number. "I hear the Lord Culter's young brother is back." Only sometimes a woman's voice would say it with a different note, and then laugh a little.
Lymond's own men had known he was coming. Waiting for him in Edinburgh they wondered briefly, without concern, how he proposed to penetrate a walled city to reach them.
I'm always hearing "Oh yes, I keep meaning to read those." Don't put it off any longer. You can't afford to. Tomorrow you might get knocked down by a bus, and it would be a real tragedy if you hadn't read The Lymond Chronicles first.
Excerpt: Seductive Secrets (Secrets Trilogy, Book 1) by Lynne Connolly **NOW with correct title**
May 27, 2008
Seductive Secrets (Secrets Trilogy, Book 1) by Lynne Connolly
This will be available on June 10. I am very interested to see what you all think of it. For the most part I really liked it but it still doesn't equal my fave of hers. Personally I just want her to write more historicals ;).
Read more
BOOK ALERT: Seductive Secrets by Lynne Connolly **June 10, 2008**
May 16, 2008
Seductive Secrets (Secrets Trilogy, Book 1) by Lynne Connolly! Isn't that just an amazing cover? I lurve it! If you are wondering it is by Anne Cain. You can see it, a touch bigger at the bottom of the post, you know, in case you missed it *g* (excerpt is coming!)
Hopefully Lynne will have some nifty news soon... because older series, Richard and Rose, she has pulled from Mundania Press and she is shopping it again to get it back into print.
Tags: Anne Cain, Book Alert, coverawesomeness, eBook, Historical, Lynne Connolly, Samhain, Seductive Secrets, The Secrets Trilogy
