Today, I am pleased to be sharing another book review. Read on to find out what I thought of Stephanie Barron's Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron . But first, let's meet the book... Blurb The restorative power of the ocean brings Jane Austen and her beloved brother Henry, to Brighton after Henry's wife is lost to a long illness. But the crowded, glittering resort is far from peaceful, especially when the lifeless body of a beautiful young society miss is discovered in the bedchamber of none other than George Gordon--otherwise known as Lord Byron. As a poet and a seducer of women, Byron has carved out a shocking reputation for himself--but no one would ever accuse him of being capable of murder. Now it falls to Jane to pursue this puzzling investigation and discover just how "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" Byron truly is. And she must do so without falling victim to the charming versifier's legendary charisma, lest she, too, become a cautionary example for ...
Images conjured up by the phrase "Crimean War" tend to include the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade and Florence Nightingale as the Lady of the Lamp single-handedly fighting back cholera and treating the wounded. These are certainly what we were told about in school and were reflected in the children's history books. I ended up being amazed that the allied forces ever managed to beat the Russians... These sort of odds were bound to make a great book! Medical history tends to make an appearance in all of my books, so it's no surprise that I opted to make my heroine a nurse. I began researching Florence Nightingale's work and was surprised to find it was not the story I'd been told in school. I'd been led to believe she was a battlefield nurse, but her hospital was so far behind the lines many wounded men would have died long before they reached it. No, this was no good for my heroine. She had to be a roll-up-her-sleeves-and-get-the-job-done woman. Sh...