Genre: Historical fiction
Pub date: 17 November 2020
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Betrayal, treachery, treason, deceit, perfidy—all names for the calculated violation of trust. And it’s been rife since humans trod the earth.
A promise broken
A mission betrayed
A lover’s desertion
A parent’s deception
An unwitting act of treason
Betrayal by comrades
Betrayal by friends
Could you resist the forces of misplaced loyalty, power hunger, emotional blackmail, or plain greed? Is there ever redemption, or will the destruction visit future generations and even alter history? These questions are still with us today.
Read twelve tales by twelve accomplished writers who explore these historical yet timeless challenges from post Roman Britain to the present day.
If you are anything like me, this book is a dream! So many brilliant authors all in one book!
The collection includes:
Derek Birks – Death at the feet of Venus
Annie Whitehead – Love to Hatred Turn’d
Charlene Newcomb – A Knight’s Tale
Anna Belfrage – All those Tangled Webs
Mercedes Rochelle – Family or Fealty
Amy Maroney – Heart of a Falcon
Elizabeth St. John – Road to the Tower
Judith Arnopp – House Arrest
Tony Riches – Drake – Tudor Corsair
Cryssa Bazos – Honour of Thieves
Helen Hollick – A Not So Bonny Betrayal
Alison Morton – The Idealist
I am a huge fan of a number of these authors already and couldn’t wait to read their short stories.
The book spans several eras but there are alot of characters we all already know including Sir Francis Drake, Margaret Beaufort and Thomas Percy.
Each story features a betrayal, which you can probably guess from the title but even so, some were rather unexpected. I particularly enjoyed Honour of Thieves and having not read anything by this author previously will certainly be doing so now.
The Idealist was also really good, it mixes history with modern day and I am looking forward to reading more from Alison Morton now I’ve discovered her work.
This short story collection is perfect for those who are already fans of these authors as well as those looking for new authors to read. I will never get enough of the Plantagenet and Tudor era so to be able to read short stories from Judith Arnopp, Tony Riches and Elizabeth St. John was great but I’m also grateful to have found some new authors whose work I previously wasn’t aware of in a wider number of eras.
There is something for all historical fiction fans in this collection, I definitely recommend it and best of all, it’s free and it’s available from today!
You can find out more about the stories and the authors here and if you’d like to find them on Twitter:
I’d like to thank the Historical Fictioneers for an advanced copy of this collection, thoroughly enjoyable reading!
Amy McElroy 