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#MGMonday... Middle Grade Settings

 Middle Grade Settings: An Introduction Having photos in front of you can help you write about your settings I’m going to make a confession. Settings are not something I often spend time planning. Perhaps my stories are the poorer for it, but the settings come as I’m writing or editing. The Glass Room, in Taking Wing, is not something I planned before I started writing. Personally, I’m a very visual writer, seeing my characters as though they are a video in my head, and I write what I see. As such, the setting just happens! There are benefits and drawbacks to this. The main benefit is that the writing process is more interesting. Not everything is set, and my story can still give me surprises. The drawback is that, similar to AI, I cannot know that I’m not stealing settings from films and books I’ve seen/read previously. I certainly don’t mean to plagiarise but the concern is a real one! With that in mind, I have started to at least have a vague idea of my settings before I start t...
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#HistFicThursdays - Book Review of "An Unwilling Alliance" by Lynn Dawson

 The first thing to mention about this book was that it was not what I was expecting! I thought, from the blurb and the fact it had been shortlisted for a military literary award, that this would be a military story with a romance, but this is definitely a romance set during a war. Given this difference, it took me a while to get my head into the book

There is a line in the book when Roseen observes how eager and enthused Kelly becomes when he is discussing the Navy, and Dawson's writing is exactly the same. The book springs to life as the campaigning starts and the account of the offensive against Copenhagen is handled skilfully and compassionately. The movements of the military machine were well-researched and the care taken to set the reader in that surrounding is commendable.

I found most of the characters irritating to one degree or another - although this is not a criticism, as I have read plenty of great book with protagonists who annoy me! Roseen I found most annoying of all, and I kept willing various ones of her companions on this journey to push her into the sea. Having said all that, I had a soft spot for Durrell, with whom I most identified, and I felt that he was unfairly treated by Kelly, who had a long way to go on his journey to becoming a gentleman. I did feel that people were either good guys or bad guys, and some shades of grey along the way would have been interesting - especially in terms of Roseen's suiters.

The hard sell for me was how convenient everything seemed to be. I don't want to mention events which will be spoilers, but it is a case of constantly being at the right/wrong place at exactly the right/wrong time. This is fine once or twice (after all, that's what keeps a great adventure going) but it seemed to happen time after time. 

Overall, this is a great read for fans of historical romance and happy endings, and we all need that from time to time.

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