Tag: C.C. Humphreys

Review: The Curse of Anne Boleyn by C.C. Humphreys + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways
curse of anne boleyn by cc humphreysFormat read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: historical fiction
Series: French Executioner #2
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Date Released: May 5, 2015 (originally published in 2002 as Blood Ties)
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Nearly twenty years have passed since Anne Boleyn died at the hands of her slayer and savior, Jean Rombaud. All he wants is to forget his sword-wielding days and live happily with his family. Yet her distinctive six-fingered hand, stolen at her death―and all the dark power it represents―still compels evil men to seek it out.

When Jean’s son, Gianni, joins the Inquisition in Rome and betrays all his father worked for, Jean discovers that time alone cannot take him―or his son―far from his past. But he never expected his whole family, especially his beloved daughter Anne, to become caught up once more in the tragic queen’s terrible legacy.

From the savagery of way in Italy to the streets of London and Paris and the wilds of North America, The Curse of Anne Boleyn sweeps readers into a thrilling story that puts love, loyalty, and family to the ultimate test.

My Review:

Today, May 19th, is the 479th anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s death, which makes this a fitting day for a review of a book about, not Anne herself, but the ways in which she was used and abused after her death.

For a woman who only lived at most 35 years, and who was only queen for three, she has cast a long shadow. She fascinated Henry VIII, and her story still fascinates us.

french executioner by cc humphreysIn The French Executioner (reviewed here) we read the immediate effects of her death on one man, the swordsman sent from France to cut off her head. In that story, Jean Rombaud made Anne a promise – that he would cut off her infamous six-fingered hand as well as her head, and take the hand away to be hidden where it could not be used by her enemies.

The Curse of Anne Boleyn takes place twenty years after The French Execution. Instead of featuring entirely the same cast of characters, it is more like The French Executioner: the Next Generation. But it still centers around Jean’s vow to keep Anne’s hand safe, and forces who want to use that hand and Anne’s legacy for their own grisly ends.

Although twenty years have passed, there are some things that are still the same. Anne Boleyn, or rather the King’s desire to marry her in spite of already having a wife, started England down the path of the Protestant Reformation that was catching fire (often literally) all over 16th century Europe.

While in Anne’s day, the Protestants were in the ascendant, twenty years later both Henry VIII and his even more devoutly Protestant son Edward VI are dead, and his daughter, whom history recalls as Bloody Mary, is on the throne. Mary was devoutly Catholic, and the blood spilled in her name was that of Protestant martyrs who refused to bend to whims of faith.

But as this story begins, Mary’s reign is coming to an end. She has no children, and it has become obvious that she will have none. Her heir is her sister Elizabeth, the Protestant daughter of Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth only has to survive her sister’s suspicions and the machinations of all of those around her and Mary who would destroy Elizabeth if they can’t manage to use her.

The Imperial Ambassador plans to use Anne Boleyn’s six-fingered hand as a way of pinning Anne’s purported witchcraft onto her daughter Elizabeth, as a last-ditch stand for the Spanish and the Catholic religion, to remain in power in England.

The hand is gone, and so we have another action/adventure tale of the hunt for the hand, as well as the bravery of the forces still trying to protect Anne’s legacy and Jean Rombaud’s last vow. The story is set against a backdrop of Elizabeth and the Imperial Ambassador playing a game of chess that is a metaphor for the real chess game they play about Elizabeth’s life. And the death that has been hung over her head.

But when Jean finds out that the hand is being sought, he is not the man he was twenty years ago. In the intervening time, he found brief happiness as an innkeeper and wine grower with Beck, the young woman who attached herself to his earlier quest. Jean and Beck, along with their comrades Haakon and Fugger, are inside the siege of Sienna after their homes had been overrun.

The fate of the hand now centers around their children. Haakon’s son Erik, Fugger’s daughter Maria, and especially Jean and Beck’s two children, Anne and Gianni. Gianni has betrayed them all, and is working with the more militant elements of the Catholic Church to bring the hand back to England at any cost.

Gianni’s betrayal has broken his parent’s marriage, and his father’s spirit. But when he kidnaps Maria in order to get Fugger to betray Jean again, we begin to see the depths to which he has sunk in his rebellion. And eventually his madness.

The story moves in grand swoops from Sienna to Paris to Rome and even to the wild lands of Canada, before it comes to its sweeping, and stunning conclusion.

Escape Rating B+: I love the way that this story, and the one preceding it, dip their toes into history without falling all the way in. There have been so many historical fiction treatments of Anne Boleyn that enough is probably past enough.

At the same time, the historical elements in this book feel true. Something like this could have happened. It even conceivably might have happened, on the principle that “reality is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.” That we are still fascinated with Anne Boleyn and the Tudors today is a testament to just how compelling her story and theirs was. And is.

But it is the characters in The Curse of Anne Boleyn that keep you turning the pages, probably long after you should have stopped for the night. And this story is actually a bit too hair-raising (sometimes literally) to read just before bed. Which didn’t stop me for a second.

While this is the story of the next generation after The French Executioner, what keeps it going is the family strife between Jean and Beck, and between their children Gianni and Anne, fueled by Gianni’s extreme and bloodthirsty fanaticism. Gianni wants to sacrifice everyone and everything to his belief in a Church extremely militant, while his family is as non-religious as possible in that era. Beck’s real name is Rebecca, and she was raised as a Jew, although she left her people to marry Jean. After the groups travails at the hands of the Church in The French Executioner, none of them are exactly fond of the avatars of the Catholic faith.

But Gianni, possibly as part of a natural teen aged rebellion, has gone the other way. He is fanatical to the point of hunting down and murdering those he believes are the enemies of his church. Including his mother’s people.

He’s ripe to be set on a mission to tear down his father’s friends and his father’s faith. His pursuit of his sister across the Atlantic is just part of his rebellion against his family. His father loved and trusted Anne more than Gianni, so Gianni will punish Anne because he can no longer reach his father.

Gianni never grasps that he, his faith and especially his brutality are being used, just as he uses anyone who comes near him in his quest for vengeance. Or is it validation?

The book is divided into two parts. The first half takes place in Europe, as Gianni and his allies harass Jean and his friends and pursue the hand. After their final confrontation, in Europe, Anne, her allies, the hand and eventually Gianni and his followers move the conflict to Canada, which at that time was still firmly in the hands of the Native nations.

The divide between the two parts felt a bit abrupt to this reader. Part one ends decisively, and almost felt like the end of the book as a whole. When it picks up again in Canada, it almost feels like a different story. And equally compelling story, but a very different one.

Anne and Gianni find themselves on opposite sides in one of the significant battles that forms the Six Nations Confederacy, a battle where they, and the people who have come to rely on them, both lose and win.

As Anne sails off into the sunset, the reader is left hoping that she finds her peace. And something of her family left behind.

~~~~~~TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

The publisher is giving away 3 copies of THE CURSE OF ANNE BOLEYN by CC Humphreys.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Guest Post by Author C.C. Humphreys + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blog tours> Giveaways> Guest Posts

Today I’d like to welcome C.C. Humphreys, author of the fascinating Jack Absolute historical fiction series, to talk about the creation of his latest book to be released in the U.S. The French Executioner. (reviewed here).

I’m very happy to host C.C. again today. I loved the first two Jack Absolute books, and I’ve been interested in Anne Boleyn and her time since I saw Anne of the Thousand Days lo these many years ago. So I had to ask C.C. why feature the unknown man instead of the very famous queen?

french executioner by cc humphreys original coverWHY WRITE A NOVEL ABOUT THE MAN WHO KILLED ANNE BOLEYN?
By C.C. Humphreys

Where do the ideas for novels come from?

I remember exactly what I was doing when the idea for The French Executioner hit me like a bolt of lightning. I was working out.

I was living in Vancouver at the time. Making my living as an actor. I’d written a couple of plays. But my dream from childhood had always been to write historical fiction.

I wasn’t thinking of any of that, on that day in a gym in 1993. I was thinking about shoulder presses. Checking my form in the mirror.

This is what happened. (It also shows you the rather strange associations in my brain!)

I lift the weight bar.
Me, in my head. ‘God, I’ve got a long neck.’
Lower bar.
‘If I was ever executed,’ – Raise bar – ‘it would be a really easy shot for the ax.’
Lower bar.
‘Or the sword. Because, of course, Anne Boleyn was executed with a sword.’
Raise bar. Stop half way.
‘Anne Boleyn had six fingers on one hand.’

Flash! Boom! Put down bar before I drop it. It came together in my head, as one thing: the executioner, brought from France to do the deed, (I remembered that from school). Not just taking her head. Taking her hand as well, that infamous hand – and then the question all writers have to ask: what happened next?

I scurried to the library. Took out books. I knew it had to be a novel. I did some research, sketched a few ideas. But the problem was, I wasn’t a novelist. A play had seemed like a hill. A novel – well, it was a mountain, and I wasn’t ready to climb it. So I dreamed a while, then quietly put all my research, sketches, notes away.

But I never stopped thinking about it. The story kept coming and whenever I was in a second hand bookstore I’d study the history shelves and think: if ever I write that novel – which I probably never will – I’ll want… a battle at sea between slave galleys. So I’d buy a book on that subject, read it. Buy another, read it.

November 1999. Six years after being struck by lightning. I’m living back in England and I find a book on sixteenth century mercenaries – and I knew the novel I was never going to write would have mercenaries. Twenty pages in, I turn to my wife and say: “You know, I think I’m going to write that book.” And she replies, “It’s about bloody time.”

I wrote. The story, all that research, had stewed in my head for so long, it just poured out. Ten months and I was done. I wondered if it was any good. I sent it to an agent. She took me on and had it sold three months later.

I was a novelist after all.

About the Book: The year is 1536, and notorious French executioner Jean Rombaud is brought in by Henry VIII to behead Anne Boleyn, the condemned Queen of England. But on the eve of her execution, Rombaud becomes enchanted with the ill-fated queen and swears a vow to her: to bury her six-fingered hand, a symbol of her rumored witchery, at a sacred crossroads.
Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it. Bloodthirsty warriors, corrupt church fathers, Vikings, alchemists, and sullied noblemen alike vie for the prize as Rombaud, a man loyal to the grave, struggles to honor his promise.
From sea battles to lusty liaisons, from the hallucinations of St. Anthony’s fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic messiah, The French Executioner sweeps readers into a breathtaking story of courage, the pursuit of power, and loyalty at whatever cost.
cc humphreysC.C. Humphreys is the author of eight historical novels. The French Executioner, which was his first novel and a runner-up for the CWA Steel Dagger for Thrillers award in 2002, has never before been published in the U.S. The sequel, The Curse of Anne Boleyn, will be published in the U.S. in May 2015.
Humphreys has acted all over the world and appeared on stages ranging from London’s West End to Hollywood’s Twentieth Century Fox. He is also an accomplished swordsman and fight choreographer. For more information, visit http://cchumphreys.com/

~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

Chris is kindly giving away a copy of The French Executioner to one lucky winner! (US/Canada). To enter, use the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: The French Executioner by C. C. Humphreys

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
french executioner by cc humphreysFormat read: ebook provided by the publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genre: historical fiction
Series: French Executioner #1
Length: 391 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Date Released: October 7, 2014 (originally published in 2001)
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

It is 1536 and the expert swordsman Jean Rombaud has been brought over from France by Henry VIII to behead his wife, Anne Boleyn. But on the eve of her execution Rombaud swears a vow to the ill-fated queen – to bury her six-fingered hand, symbol of her rumoured witchery, at a sacred crossroads. Yet in a Europe ravaged by religious war, the hand of this infamous Protestant icon is so powerful a relic that many will kill for it… From a battle between slave galleys to a Black Mass in a dungeon, through the hallucinations of St Anthony’s Fire to the fortress of an apocalyptic Messiah, Jean seeks to honour his vow.

My Review:

If this were a contemporary novel, it would probably fall under the heading of “magical realism” but it isn’t so it doesn’t. Instead, it’s a historical novel in which magic happens, but it’s the kind of magic that is the result of the power of human belief; and in the mid-1500s, people did believe in magic and miracles.

Also in demons and black masses, but every silver lining has its cloud.

This is also not a book about Anne Boleyn, although her spirit certainly has a part to play in the events that occur. Instead, this is a historical action/adventure tour of Europe as the man who committed Anne’s execution chases her severed, six-fingered hand through battles, torture, slavery and even a pirate rescue in order to fulfill a vow.

french executioner by cc humphreys original coverThe original cover (at left) featured a portrait of Anne Boleyn. IMHO it’s a better cover than the new one, but confuses the issue about who the star of this show really is.

This is one of those stories where its the journey that makes it worth reading, the goal is only the means to place “the end” at the finale of the trip.

Jean Rombaud was the French executioner imported to England as one last favor to his about-to-be-late Queen Anne Boleyn. She asked for a swordsman because it was supposed to be quicker and therefore painless. (There are some fairly horrific stories of axe-beheadings that would make this a reasonable request under the circumstances, for certain values of reasonable)

The swordsman doing the job is what happened in history. Where this tale differs is that instead of the standard villainess or victim portrait of Anne, we follow swordsman Jean Rombaud as he tries to keep Anne’s famous hand for burial at a crossroads in their mutual Loire homeland.

He found Anne spiritual and somewhat saintly. He made her a vow, and he intends to keep it.

But he has an opposite number, a venal archbishop who plans to use the hand for the power he believes it holds either in alchemy or to summon Satan. Possibly both.

What follows is a repetition of chase-catch-release as first Jean has the hand, and then Archbishop Cibo steals it from him through superior force of arms, or just superior villainy. As they chase each other through Europe, Jean picks up a rag-tag band of followers who are after the Archbishop for compelling reasons of their own.

Jean and his comrades survive an episode of being galley slaves on a French ship, overtake a band of pirates by recruiting one of their number; pluck the hand out of the midst of a Black Mass and even help a young woman rescue her father from Cibo’s clutches. Of course, at the time that young woman is pretending to be a young man who can’t figure out that what she feels for Jean is more than friendship or hero-worship, while Jean can’t figure out why he’s suddenly developed an interest in young men, or at least one particular young man.

Their slowly developing love story was a bit of sweetness in the midst of tons of derring-do adventure, much of which nearly results in disaster.

Jean Rombaud has more lives than a cat. Following him as a uses them up in order to keep his vow makes for one rollicking adventure.

Escape Rating B+: This story takes a while to get started, but once it has you firmly in its six-fingered grip, it doesn’t let go.

The cast of characters that Jean either helps or opposes provides an introduction into what was best and worst of the mid-16th century. Jean himself is a mercenary; he plies his trade wherever he gets paid, and as often uses his sword in battle as on the headsman’s block. Along his career, he has encountered many men like himself, who live each day for the next battle.

He also doesn’t think of himself as a leader, and is astonished, and often exasperated, to find himself leading a band instead of just being one of the followers.

Two of the men who follow him are men he fought against on one particular battlefield. And so is the chief lieutenant for the Archbishop. All of them fought for pay, so it doesn’t matter that they were on opposite sides before, only their positions now.

One man is a Norse mercenary, the other is a former Janissary. They follow Jean because it gives them purpose. Beck follows Jean because she hunts the Archbishop. Disguised as a boy, Beck has been desperately trying to find her way into the Archbishop’s dungeons, because he is holding her father prisoner. She finds common cause with Jean because they hunt the same quarry, not because she believes in his quest.

Then there’s “The Fugger” who rescues Jean from a gibbet in return for his own redemption. He nearly doesn’t find it.

Read this one for the adventure. Jean and his crew so often end up in dire straits, only to be rescued by fortune, by providence, or by each other.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Interview with Author C.C. Humphreys + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Interviews> blog tours> Book Giveaway> Giveaways

Today I’d like to welcome C.C. Humphreys, author of the totally enthralling Jack Absolute historical fiction series, including his recent title The Blooding of Jack Absolute (reviewed here).

Marlene: Holding up a new mirror to the American Revolution: by bringing Jack Absolute to new readers in the U.S., you’re also showing us a perspective on the war we don’t usually read about. What might U.S. readers learn?

The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. HumphreysChris: Well, we all think we know the history of a war, or a revolution, until we start to delve a little deeper. I think Jack can be our guide in that. He’s not really anti-rebel. In The Blooding he fights beside the men that later in the series he fights against and finds that hard. He also has a revolutionary spirit, inherited from his mother, an Irish rebel. He prizes individual freedom. Thus he’s quite conflicted. So perhaps we can see through him the sort of choices people were forced to make. He has other loyalties: to the uniform he’s worn with pride, the Redcoat. To his commander, John Burgoyne. To his comrades. But he also believes – and this begins with The Blooding – that his adopted people, the Iroquois, are not going to gain from an American triumph, that they are better off under the Crown. It’s a big driver for him and he argues their cause passionately.

Marlene: As a fencer and fight choreographer (among other things), you know a thing or two about swashbuckling. What books/movies/TV shows best depict that fine “tradition”?

Chris: Ah, swashbuckling! I just wrote a novel, ‘Shakespeare’s Rebel’ about the Bard’s fight choreographer which will be published in the US in 2015. In it, my hero does a true ‘swash buckle’: he beats (swashes) his small steel shield (his buckler) with the flat of his sword to provoke a fight. He’s a real swashbuckler!

princess bride imdbI became an actor so I could leap around with bladed weaponry and I think I became an author to write the same – nearly all my novels have duels and swordplay. My inspirations? Well, Dumas and his Musketeer books certainly – the 70’s movie with Michael York and Oliver Reed was the best. I loved Flynn’s Robin Hood, (“You speak treason.” “Fluently!”) and Tyrone Power’s Zorro. Scaramouche was good in print and on the screen. But one of my favourites has to be The Princess Bride: great fights, terrific acting. Coupled with a real sense of honour. Honour’s important and the dishonourable deserve their come-uppance!

CC Humphreys as Jack AbsoluteAbout C.C. HumphreysChris (C.C.) Humphreys was born in Toronto and grew up in the UK. He has acted all over the world and appeared on stages ranging from London’s West End to Hollywood’s Twentieth Century Fox. Favorite roles have included Hamlet, Caleb the Gladiator in NBC’s Biblical-Roman epic mini-series, ‘AD – Anno Domini’, Clive Parnell in ‘Coronation Street’, and Jack Absolute in Sheridan’s ‘The Rivals’.
His new adult novel ‘Shakespeare’s Rebel’, about William Shakespeare’s fight choreographer at the time of ‘Hamlet’, was released in the UK in March 2013 and in Canada August 2011.

He has recently signed to write two books for Century in the UK and Doubleday in Canada. Plague and Fire are tales of religious fundamentalist serial killers set against the wild events of 1665 to 1666, London. They will be published in 2014 and 2015.

Chris lives on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada, with his wife and young son.

To learn more about Chris, visit his website or follow him on Twitter.

~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

Chris is kindly giving away a copy of The Blooding of Jack Absolute to one lucky winner! (US/Canada). To enter, use the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. HumphreysFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, large print hardcover, paperback, mass market paperback
Genre: Historical fiction
Series: Jack Absolute, #2
Length: 303 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Date Released: November 5, 2013 (reprint edition)
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Before he can become a man, he must first learn to kill…

London: 1759: Life is easy for Jack Absolute, a young raconteur loved by the ladies and envied by his schoolmates. With a place secured at university and a baronetcy at hand, his future seems bright—if he can just stay out of trouble. But when Jack is caught read-handed with a powerful lord’s mistress, his good fortune is destroyed, forcing him to seek a new fate in the dangerous New World during the brutal Frecn and Indian Wars.

There, marooned amid hostile Indians and fierce colonial rivalries, the bawdy schoolboy disappears and a man emerges. Jack’s survival depends on winning the friendship and help of the natives, but those come at a high price. In order to become the man they could eventually trust, Jack Absolute must first be blooded. And in order to be blooded, he must do the unfathomable. He must learn to kill.

My Review:

The Blooding of Jack Absolute could be called “the portrait of the spy as a young man”, or even as a “young sybarite” or even simply as a young fool. Although the man that Jack has become by the time we read of him in the first book in this series, Jack Absolute, would probably be willing to admit that nearly 20 years later he has yet to outgrow being a fool.

Jack Absolute by C.C. HumphreysWhat fascinates in this “biography” of the fictional character of Jack is that we first saw the man he has become in the absolutely enthralling Jack Absolute (reviewed here) and now we start to see the making of that man in The Blooding of Jack Absolute, set against the backdrop of Britain’s conquest of Canada, and consequent loss of those colonies that became these United States.

Jack starts out not unlike Tom Jones (the one by Henry Fielding, not the 20th century singer!) and finds himself in a career that resembles an 18th century James Bond.

This book is labeled both as book 2 in the series and as a prequel, and it works either way.

If you’ve already read the first book in the series, and wondered how Jack acquired all of his various skills and rather unique worldview, this story provides both fascinating backstory for the character and a compelling view of mid-18th century London and her Colonies.

If this is your first introduction to the series, then you have a marvelous coming-of-age story, featuring a character who is both fascinating in his own right but is also a witness to, and occasionally an actor in, some of the events that shaped what became our future.

Escape Rating A-: As with the first book in the series, The Blooding of Jack Absolute definitely has a “you are there” quality in the historical aspects that often brings the sights, sounds, and occasionally smells of the 18th century to the reader with the force of a punch. We are with Jack all the way, sometimes to the point of wanting to shake him when he’s being the young fool that is a necessary part of his blooding.

Having read the first book, the part of this story that I was happiest to see was the explanation in full of how and where Jack met his blood brother Até of the Mohawks. It is clear from the first book that they must have shared a life-altering experience as equals, but not how that experience came about. Now we know.

There is definitely a comparison to be made between the Jack Absolute series and Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander and Lord John Grey series. Not in the romance department, because while Jack falls in love, he does not have the luck of Jamie Fraser, but in the depth of the historical research and in the author’s ability to bring that research to vivid life for the reader. The series also overlap in time period, sometimes covering the same campaigns from different perspectives.

Anyone who enjoys well-written historical fiction will adore Jack Absolute.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Sneak Peak at The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Guest Posts

Today I’d like to share with you a sneak peak from The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys. The author is also giving away three copies of the marvelous first book in this series Jack Absolute (Escape Rating A review here)! Look for the Rafflecopter at the end of the post.

Chapter 2: Reunion

The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. HumphreysJack came along the track at a steady lope, thinking about Time. The Papists had won, it seemed, despite Englishmen expressing their displeasure, in flame and riot, the length of the land. Time had stood still. So though Jack had been hiding for near three weeks now, by some trick only ten days had passed on the calendar. He and Treve, his only contact, had scratched their heads a lot, especially when considering if they were now younger than they’d been. If that was true, it was not good. He needed to get older as fast as possible, for with age would come size and strength and these were requirements for the hard life promised.

Or mayhap it was the lack of food that was curbing his reason. It had been a day and a night since last he’d rendezvoused with his friend and Treve had brought what little his mother Morwenna could spare. Since then, Jack had made do with a fish he’d found washed up on the beach. That had made him sick, probably because he’d been unable to cook it properly.

Jack halted. The track plunged into a gully whose steep sides, lined in thick bramble, would be hard to scramble up. He might need to for two reasons. Firstly, the effects of that fish made frequent halts a necessity and he didn’t want to be stuck with his breeches down on a track this close to Absolute Hall. Secondly, Treve had warned that Craster was once again hunting him, after the period of restraint that had followed Duncan’s funeral. Treve’s dad, Lutie, and many of the others had tried to persuade his cousin that Jack was gone, had joined the fishermen in Penzance or even set out for the clay pits over Austell. But Craster was determined. A warrant had been sworn, blaming Jack for his father’s death. In fact, since that day, it was said that Craster Absolute had changed, had taken on attributes of the dead man. His voice had settled deep, he cursed Jack day and night, and he had begun to drink.

Jack’s bowels calmed, enough to shift his feelings to his stomach and its emptiness. He hoped that Treve lay up ahead with perhaps a pasty or another of his mother’s Figgy Hobbans. The memory of that last one—three weeks, or ten days before, whichever it was—now made up his mind. He hastened down the gully.

Rounding the bend, he saw Treve there before him. But his joy in the sight died fast as he saw that his friend was not alone.

“Seize him!”

Continue reading “Sneak Peak at The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys + Giveaway” →

Review: Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> Book Lovers Inc.> book reviews
Jack Absolute by C.C. HumphreysFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Genre: Historical fiction
Series: Jack Absolute, #1
Length: 276 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Date Released: May 7, 2013 (U.S. edition)
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

The year is 1777. As the war for American independence rages across the sea, London is swept off its feet by Jack Absolute, the dashing rogue in Richard Sheridan’s comedy The Rivals. That is, until the real Jack Absolute, former captain of the 16th Light Dragoons, returns after years abroad to discover this slander of his reputation.

Before he can even protest, he is embroiled in a duel over an alluring actress of questionable repute, and his only escape is the one he most dreads: to be pressed again into the King’s service—this time, as a spy for the British in the Revolutionary War.

My Review:

Jack Absolute’s character is written in a way intended to make the reader think of an 18th century James Bond. One of the later Bonds, at the point where he’d begun to get a bit tired of the game and developed some self-reflection.

I certainly got some of that. Jack is a member of a very old profession: he is a spy for the English crown during the American Rebellion. He’s been a spy before, and he is pretty much dragooned into doing it again, in spite of his stated views that us Americans do have some justifications for our actions.

If you’ve ever seen Sheridan’s play The Rivals, you’ve already met Captain Jack Absolute, and it’s quite possible that you have seen the play. It’s famous for the character who gave us the word “malapropism”. That’s right, Mrs. Malaprop supposedly guards the virtue of the heroine in this classic romantic comedy/farce.

Jack Absolute is the romantic hero of the play. In the book, Sheridan the playwright is one of Jack’s friends. He made a hit out of trivializing and romanticizing a real incident in Jack’s life.

Jack’s own life is not a romance, not that he hasn’t played the part of lovesick fool on more than one occasion. As a spy, he’s played whatever role suited the occasion best in order to fulfill his mission.

John Burgoyne by Reynolds
Portrait of John Burgoyne by Joshua Reynolds c 1766

This mission is in big trouble from the start. General John Burgoyne has been led to believe that there are thousands of Loyalists ready to take up arms against the Rebels as soon as he gives the word. And that equal numbers of Native allies are eager to march with the British Army for the usual inducements.

As history tells us, those assumptions were wrong. Jack didn’t have the advantage of history, but what he did have was several years of experience living in America, including living with the Mohawk. He knew those beliefs couldn’t be right.

Jack had a secondary mission; find the spy within the British command staff, codenamed Diogenes. He thought he was looking for a military officer, not the woman he loved.

Escape Rating A: I did think of James Bond, but mostly I thought of Jamie Fraser and Lord John Grey.

The incredibly, marvelously immersive work of historical fiction that is Jack Absolute kept me flipping pages long past bedtime. The author does a fantastic job capturing the sights and sounds of Colonial America, and of 18th century life. I felt I was there and didn’t want to leave.

Plan of battlefield of Saratoga
Plan of the battlefield of Saratoga

The depth of the portrait of life in the British military at this time period was reminiscent of Diana Gabaldon’s Lord John Grey series. Same period, similar perspective and eventually, place. Also, Jack Absolute and Jamie Fraser (Outlander) both knew, and fought with, General Simon Fraser of Balnain. Jack and Jamie (read An Echo in the Bone if you’re curious) were both at the Battle of Saratoga, on opposite sides.

As an American, it is always interesting to read about the Revolution from the perspective of British. The histories written by the victors glorify the Revolution. The British called it a Rebellion. Perspective is everything.

I got swept away by this book, and not just because I found the period details enthralling, although I did. Jack was one of those characters who kept getting more and more fascinating as the book went on, because he was complex. He thought about what he was doing, he didn’t just obey orders. He was tired of the spy game and thought about what it meant, but he was good at his job. His relationship with the Mohawk people, and especially his blood brother Até, is not just a true brotherhood, but is also used as a way to explore the British and American relationship with the Native peoples and the devastation that is inevitably coming.

This review originally appeared at Book Lovers Inc.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 5 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Jack Absolute by C.C. HumphreysFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Series: Jack Absolute, #1
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: May 7, 2013 (U.S. edition)
Number of pages: 276 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Purchasing Info: Author’s website | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK)

The year is 1777. As the war for American independence rages across the sea, London is swept off its feet by Jack Absolute, the dashing rogue in Richard Sheridan’s comedy The Rivals. That is, until the real Jack Absolute, former captain of the 16th Light Dragoons, returns after years abroad to discover this slander of his reputation.

Before he can even protest, he is embroiled in a duel over an alluring actress of questionable repute, and his only escape is the one he most dreads: to be pressed again into the King’s service—this time, as a spy for the British in the Revolutionary War.

My Thoughts:

Jack Absolute’s character is written in a way intended to make the reader think of an 18th century James Bond. One of the later Bonds, at the point where he’d begun to get a bit tired of the game and developed some self-reflection.

I certainly got some of that. Jack is a member of that very old profession, he is a spy for the English crown during the American Rebellion. He’s been a spy before, and he is pretty much dragooned into doing it again, in spite of his stated views that us Americans do have some justifications for our actions.

Playbill for The Rivals by Sheridan 1887If you’ve ever seen Sheridan’s play, The Rivals, you’ve already met Captain Jack Absolute, and it’s quite possible that you have seen the play. It’s famous for the character who gave us the word “malapropism”. That’s right, Mrs. Malaprop supposedly guards the virtue of the heroine in this classic romantic comedy/farce.

Jack Absolute is the romantic hero of the play. In the book, Sheridan the playwright is one of Jack’s friends. He made a hit out of trivializing and romanticizing a real incident in Jack’s life.

Jack’s own life is not a romance, not that he hasn’t played the part of lovesick fool on more than one occasion. As a spy, he’s played whatever role suited the occasion best in order to fulfill his mission.

This mission is in big trouble from the start. General John Burgoyne has been led to believe that there are thousands of Loyalists ready to take up arms against the Rebels as soon as he gives the word. And that equal numbers of Native Allies are eager to march with the British Army for the usual inducements.

As history tells us, those assumptions were wrong. Jack didn’t have the advantage of history, but what he did have was several years of experience living in America, including living with the Mohawk. He knew those beliefs couldn’t be right.

Jack had a secondary mission; find the spy within the British command staff, codenamed Diogenes. He thought he was looking for a military officer, not the woman he loved.

Verdict: I did think of James Bond, but mostly I thought of Jamie Fraser and Lord John Grey.

The incredibly, marvelously immersive work of historical fiction that is Jack Absolute kept me flipping pages long past bedtime. The author does a fantastic job capturing the sights and sounds of Colonial America, and of 18th century life. I felt I was there and didn’t want to leave.

Surrender of General Burgoyne by John
Surrender of General Burgoyne by John Trumbull, 1822

The depth of the portrait of life in the British military at this time period was reminiscent of Diana Gabaldon’s Lord John Grey series. Same period, similar perspective and eventually, place. Also, Jack Absolute and Jamie Fraser (Outlander) both knew, and fought with, General Simon Fraser of Balnain. Jack and Jamie (read Echo in the Bone if you’re curious) were both at the Battle of Saratoga, on opposite sides.

As an American, it is always interesting to read about the Revolution from the perspective of British. The histories written by the victors glorify the Revolution. The British called it a Rebellion. Perspective is everything.

I got swept away by this book, and not just because I found the period details enthralling, although I did. Jack was one of those characters who kept getting more and more fascinating as the book went on, because he was just so complex. He thought about what he was doing, he didn’t just obey orders. He was tired of the spy game and thought about what it meant, but he was good at his job. His relationship with the Mohawk people, and especially his blood brother Até, is not just a true brotherhood, but is also used as a way to explore the British and American relationship with the Native peoples and the devastation that is inevitably coming.

5-Stars-300x60

I give  Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys 5 arrow-tipped stars!

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.