#kate mosse

[c-etait-ailleurs]

Nous ne laissons en ce monde que le souvenir de ce que nous fûmes et de ce que nous y avons accompli. Une empreinte, rien de plus.

Kate Mosse, Labyrinthe, LdP p. 29-30

[tatti-enthusiast]

see, i've always struggled with names that are similar to each other. i used to think marilyn manson and marilyn monroe were the same person. i often forget the last name of singer and model kate bush and wonder if she's the same person as writer kate mosse and whether i would've heard of it if she had actually written a vaguely da vinci code -esque (?) thriller (??) trilogy (???). i still don't know which one is light and which one is L but at least i don't think L is short for light anymore

...if i've somehow got this wrong twice and it turns out that the actual crux of death note is some oneceler-levels of selfcest then don't even tell me

[themancorialist]

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester.

[the-final-sentence]

'Though, I do hope the remainder of my stay will be less eventful.'

Kate Mosse, from “The Mystery of the Acid Soil”

[brian-in-finance]

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Tickets

Remember… tickets are still available for this evening’s online book club at 7 p.m. (UK time).

2.5 hours from time of posting, 4:30 p.m.

[semper-legens]

118. The Burning Chambers, by Kate Mosse

Owned: No, library Page count: 574 My summary: Huguenots and Catholics are at each other’s throats in 1500s France. But for Minou, such things are beyond her concern - her father has never recovered from a mysterious trip he took some months ago. When she bumps into a red-haired stranger on the street, she has no way of anticipating that she’ll be drawn into a conspiracy that reaches back to the day of her birth... My rating: 2.5/5 My commentary:

I picked this book up because the third book in this series came into work for a reservation, and seemed interesting. But it’s the third in the series, so I decided to go back to the source to see if the whole thing was worth checking out. And...was largely disappointed. God damn it, I love some historical fiction, particularly historical fiction that isn’t set in Tudor or Victorian England, but this was very much not it for me. It’s actually taken me the better part of a week to do this writeup, mostly because I just have so little to say about it. It just...didn’t live up to any of the expectations I had for it.

A large part of the problem with this book is that the narrative is rushed and spread far too thin. There are so many characters to keep track of here; the narrative shifts often between Minou and Piet and Minou’s sister and Blanche, and Minou’s father and random Huguenots and so many others. The result is that we don’t spend enough time with any of them to really get a good sense for them or start identifying with them. And what we do see is...not all that interesting, to my mind? The story isn’t too sure whether it wants to be a family drama about the conspiracy within Minou’s history or a wider narrative of the conflicts between the Catholics and Huguenots, so it goes for both, which is why this book is nearly 600 pages long. Unfortunately, I just didn’t care enough about it. There’s a whole star-crossed lovers thing going on with Piet and Minou, but their relationship is literally just ‘we met once for five minutes so now we are DEEPLY IN LOVE’. Minou is never enough of a Catholic that her slide into the Huguenot faith matters - and the story isn’t interested in the theological differences between the two or the nature of faith anyway. There just isn’t enough focus on any one part of the story for me to be engaged at all.

Add to that the historicity of the books. There’s a way to show a historical era and balance reader interest and historicity, and this does not do it. The characters’ dialogue is often too stiffly formal or too self-consciously archaic, and the particular moments where the story wants to teach you about history focus on trivia that isn’t there enough to count. Yeah, sure, the duality of French and Occitan is interesting enough, but as someone who doesn’t speak French, when characters used Occitan I just assumed it was French. It wasn’t until the author’s note at the end that I realised there were two languages going on. Sure, the author will narrate that a character is speaking in French and Occitan, but the significance of it isn’t integrated enough. I just struggled through this book, and I don’t think I’m gonna bother with the rest. It’s just...not what I was looking for.

Next up, back to CHERUB, as James tries to figure out what a crooked car dealer is up to

[k8mosss]

[bookliteratibookreviews]

The Map of Bones (Joubert Family Chronicles Book 4) by Kate Mosse

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mantle; Main Market edition (10 Oct. 2024)Language ‏ : ‎ EnglishHardcover ‏ : ‎ 480 pagesISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1035042150ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1035042159 Book Blurb Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688. When the violent Cape wind blows from the south-east, they say the voices of the unquiet dead can be heard whispering through the deserted valley. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from…

[dlwrish]

[sweettestdoll]

[zippocreed501]

AUTHOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

'Five minutes of writing a day is better than no minutes. Too many new writers think that unless they have plenty of time, it’s not worth booting up the computer or sharpening that pencil. But think of it, instead, like practising scales on the piano before tackling that Beethoven Concerto or like warming-up in the gym – the more you prepare for writing, the better shape you’ll be in once you have time to really concentrate.'

'When I write, I start very early in the day – maybe 4 o’clock – with a cup of strong, sweet black coffee and my tiny laptop, which I use only for fiction writing – no email, no research, no letters, just novels! I then write for, say, seven/eight hours a day, before disappearing off for a walk or a swim or anything that keeps the old bones moving. After that, a quiet evening with the family, thinking about the next chapter, and early bed … to begin again the next morning.'

'There’s only one difference between published and unpublished writers, and it is this -- the first group see their work in print on the shelves of Waterstone’s or Tesco or online at Amazon; the second group are yet to have physical evidence of the hours, weeks, years spent fashioning words into their patterns. You are already a writer.'

'Most of all, dream and think big. It’s the imagination that counts, whate'ver your inspiration or subject matter.'

'There are no tricks of the trade that work for everyone. Be a jackdaw. Take lots of advice, then figure out what suits you and stick with it. I plan, plot, research, first; then write last. I’m a lark not a nightingale, so prefer the early morning, alone at my desk with a cup of strong sweet coffee and the white glow of the computer screen. Others do late nights with a bottle of Glenmorangie or spend afternoons at their keyboard with tea and Marmite sandwiches. Be yourself.'

Author Extraordinaire Kate Mosse

(text sources inculde www.writerssources.com and www.writersandartists.co.uk)

[c-etait-ailleurs]

Elle approcha ses lèvres pour le caresser mais, la repoussant doucement, il s'agenouilla auprès d'elle. "À présent, à quelle sorte de jeu entendez-vous vous livrer avec moi, madame ? demanda-t-il en écartant lentement ses jambes. À celui-ci ?" Elle murmura, alors qu'il se baissait pour l'embrasser. "Ou cela ?" Les lèvres de l'homme errèrent jusqu'à descendre vers la part la plus intime de sa féminité. Oriane retenait son souffle, pendant que la langue jouait sur sa peau, mordant, léchant, titillant.

Kate Mosse, Labyrinthe, LdP p. 142

[pandoras-prison]

[coquettefawn]

[brian-in-finance]

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Remember… it was so much easier to say nothing than to forget. This is what Cushla remembered. — Louise Kennedy, Trespasses