Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - May statistics

 

Each month I share the statistics for the previous month for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I always find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! This month I have visited most of the reviews that have been linked up. Hopefully I can get to the rest over the weekend. 

In terms of the books, it was another really good month for reviews with 84 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 22 participants. This is 19 more reviews than for the same month last year. There were 81 individual titles reviewed, written by 75 different authors. There were 7 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 7 or just 1. 

Let's move onto the books. There were 3 books that were reviewed twice during May. Interestingly, one of these books was also on our most reviewed list for last month, which is quite unusual. 

The three books that were reviewed twice were

Homecoming by Kate Morton - This was actually one of the books that was featured last month. Seeing the same book two months in a row doesn't actually happen very often. This month the book was reviewed by Bree from All the Books I Can Read and by Helen at She Reads Novels

The Castle Keepers by Aimie K Runyan, J'Nell Ciesielski and Rachel McMillan - Whenever I am doing these statistics I am never sure whether to count books with multiple authors as one author or three in this case. I seem to have landed on one for now. This book, which follows the lives of multiple generations who live in a castle was reviewed by Davida at The Chocolate Ladies Book Reviews and by Shirley on Goodreads. Each story is written by one of the authors.

The Letter Reader by Jan Casey was reviewed by Shirley on Goodreads and also by Cathy at What Cathy Read Next. This book sounds very interesting as it features someone who worked as a censor during WWII. I have never thought about the people who did this work!

There were a number of authors who were reviewed more than once but for separate titles

I was interested to see D E Stevenson reviewed 4 times this month. Barbara at Stray Thoughts review two Miss Buncle books (Miss Buncle's Book and Miss Buncle Married).  Carol from Journey and Destination reviewed The English Air and Spring Magic. 

It will be no surprise to regular participants to see that there were multiple reviews for Agatha Christie. This month the books reviewed were Death on the Nile which was reviewed at Laura's Reviews and Towards Zero which was reviewed at Shellie Loves Books

Daphne du Maurier

The final author to have multiple books reviewed is Martin Edwards, author of the Rachel Savanake series. Bev at My Reader's Block reviewed Blackstone Fell, which is the third book in the series whilst Cathy at What Cathy Read Next reviewed Sepulchre Street which is the fourth book in the series.

It's not too late to join the 2023 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. The sign up post is here, and you can find the June linky to add your reviews here.

I am looking forward to seeing what people share during June. Next month, in addition to the normal monthly stats, I will share some stats at the halfway point of the challenge for this year. I know, I can't believe it either!

I am also sharing this post with Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier

Lady Dona St Columb is somewhat notorious in London, which is not a bad achievement considering that she was part of the court of Charles II where there were plenty of notorious people, both men and women! She is known for accompanying her husband, Harry, and his friends to card games and bawdy houses. After one particularly ribald prank where she dressed as a boy and scaring the living daylights out of an elderly society matron, Dona realises that this life is empty and that she wants... more.
She leaves her husband and his friends and the court of Charles II, takes the kids and heads to the family's country estate - Navron House in Cornwall. Once she arrives she is a little surprised to find that there is only one servant in the house, William, and even more strange, there is a jar of tobacco and a book of poetry in her room. Dona was looking forward to some peace and quiet, but it isn't long before the true adventure finds her, in the form of a ship full of pirates led by the handsome and charismatic Jean Aubrey.

The local landowners are determined that they are going to catch the marauding French pirates who are stealing their goods and allegedly bothering their women folk but, so far, have been far to clever to be caught in their traps. Dona finds herself caught up in both sides with her husband and his friends working to catch him and Dona compromised by her growing relationship with Jean, but this might just work to his benefit.

Du Maurier is such a clever author. I had no doubt that Dona was shallow and unlikable as we first met her, in the same way that her husband was quite spineless and his friend Rockingham was much cleverer and quite sly and determined to capture Dona for himself. By the time we get to the end of the book, Dona is still impetuous and adventurous but this reader was also sure that she was a better person.

When I mentioned that I was reading this book on Goodreads, someone commented that this is one of Du Maurier's most romantic novels, and at its heart, Frenchman's Creek is a romantic book without necessarily meeting all the structural requirements of a romance. It is also quite bawdy in parts, something that quite surprised me. After reading a few nudge, nudge, wink, wink sections of narrative I realised that it wasn't just the way I was reading the book but that those nuances were deliberately placed.

For me, the strongest aspects of the book were the action sequences. There were beautiful passages of description and reflection, but it was when the pirates were in action and Dona caught up in danger and intrigue that my heart was racing and the pages kept on turning. Towards the end of the book the pacing was a little up and down, but it certainly kept my attention right to the very end!

One of the things that I found interesting was that the opening chapter was told from a modern perspective as someone takes the opportunity to take a picnic in the ruins of Navron House. With the use of modern narrative to introduce a story such a common motif in current historical fiction, it was interesting to note that it was being used by authors like Daphne du Maurier (and presumably others as well) were using it so long ago as well.

I have owned this book for many years but had never read it before. It's been a couple of years since I read my last Daphne du Maurier book, but I am determined to read more from her now!

Rating 4.5/5

Lady Dona St Columb is beautiful, headstrong - and bored. Desperate to escape the pomp and ritual of the Restoration Court, she escapes to the hidden creeks and secret woods of the family estate at Navron, in Cornwall. Though renowned for her passionate engagement with life, privately she years for freedom, integrity and love - whatever the cost.

The peace Lady Dona craves, however, eludes her from the moment she stumbles across the mooring place of a white-sailed ship that plunders the Cornish coast. And as she becomes embroiled in a plot to steal another ship from under the nose of the English authorities, she realises that her heart is under siege from the French philosopher-pirate Jean Aubrey....

I read this book for the Daphne du Maurier Season that is currently running over at Historical Tapestry. Head over for guest posts, reviews, giveaways and more!