When the fate of the world rests on your shoulders, how do you choose between what you ought to do and the only thing you really want?Leonie finally knows who she is. But now she needs to decide who she is going to be. Her choice will affect not just her family, not just those she knows, but tens, hundreds of thousands, millions of people that she doesn’t. And every path that’s open to her will put Perry under the pressures that caused his breakdown before. How can she do what she must and still protect Perry?Perry desperately wants to make things easier for Leonie. Somehow he has to find the strength to face the things that all but destroyed him in the past. But every way he turns, some aspect of his past lies waiting to pounce – even during his happiest moments. And he can never forget that Leonie’s life is in danger from someone, somewhere.Gabriel has managed to negotiate peace, at least in theory. Now he must put that into practice and reunite Leonie with the family she never knew she had. Then disaster strikes right in the middle of his own sanctuary. Can he still protect those he loves, or has he been harbouring a villain the whole time?
Cloth of Grace by Rachel J Bonner is Book 4 in the Choices & Consequences series and was published on 19 February. As part of the Blog Tour arranged by Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources, I'm delighted to welcome the author here today. She's talking about the books that are special to her in My Life in Books.
My Life In Books - Rachel J Bonner
As a blog topic this is a big challenge. I learned to read when I was about 3 years old and have been reading ever since. We could be here for days…but I’ll try and pick a few favourites along the way.
One of my all time favourites from childhood is Winnie-the-Pooh by A A Milne, closely followed by the sequel, The House at Pooh Corner. I have several different editions, from one which belonged to my father as a child to a modern box set that was a gift from my son. There’s a children’s book mentioned in Cloth of Grace which isn’t named, but in my head it’s Winnie-the-Pooh.
Like many young girls I devoured anything that involved horses or ballet. Noel Streatfield’s Ballet Shoes was a particular favourite. It’s a book that shows that if you want to achieve your ambitions you really have to work at them. As for horse books, there were so many of them…Walter Farley’s Black Stallion series stands out, about a boy and the relationship he has with a wild black stallion as they learn to trust each other.
My Dad introduced me to Dorothy L Sayers and the Lord Peter Wimsey detective series. The mysteries in these are great stories, but they don’t shy away from the fact that the main characters are broken and struggling. They are set, mostly, between the wars and Lord Peter Wimsey suffers from shell shock as a result of the First World War, and a fear of responsibility because, as an officer, he sent men to their deaths. The fact that his investigations can also lead to the execution of murderers also tears him apart. His love interest, Harriet, has been abused by a past lover. But they both struggle on, doing what they believe to be right. (Spoilers : yes, things work out for them).
From Dorothy L Sayers I moved onto P G Wodehouse, also set between the wars but a much lighter and highly entertaining read. My favourites are the Jeeves novels. I love how Bertie Wooster tries to solve his friends’ problems but just makes things worse – and then the butler, Jeeves, steps in and sorts everything out in the background. But I like the Empress of Blandings books too, and how Freddie always describes himself to his father as “your only son, apart from the other one”.
At university I came across Pier Anthony’s Xanth series. They start with A Spell for Chameleon and are full of magic and bad puns. They also take things very literally – for instance a breadfruit tree has fruit that is loaves of bread, a buttercup is full of butter, a beer barrel tree is full of beer… My favourite is probably The Colour of Her Panties – I’ll leave you to work out what a Pantry is. Somehow those led me on to Terry Pratchett and Discworld. I love each Discworld book more than the last – I just couldn’t pick a favourite. My favourite characters are the Luggage (a magical trunk with legs) and the Librarian (who is an orangutan), closely followed by the Wee Free Men (small, violent, loyal and blue). As I write this I am wearing Wee Free Men socks. I’m quite certain that the Discworld Assassins’ Guild has influenced the Assassins in my books, including those in Cloth of Grace (I also have Assassins’ Guild socks. And Luggage socks.).
Of course, reading Terry Pratchett meant I had to read Neil Gamian and another of my favourite books is their collaboration, Good Omens. That’s been made into a highly publicised TV series recently, so I suspect I don’t need to say any more about that one – except read it or watch it, preferably both.
Now I read anything where the blurb takes my fancy, irrespective of genre. That could be fantasy, romance, mystery, suspense, contemporary or historical. I have a few authors where I’ll buy what they write no matter what. They include Jodi Picoult for the way her books tackle difficult issues (my current favourite is Keeping Faith), Jodi Taylor for the Chronicle of St Mary’s – time travel with comedy and a very laid back love story. The eleventh book in the series, Plan for the Worst, is due out in April. Another time travel author I really enjoy is Sarah Woodbury and the After Climeri series where the latest book, Unbroken in Time, is due in March. This is a wholly different approach to time travel from Jodi Taylor. The After Cilmeri series is an alternative timeline series where a 20th century American boy ends up in mediaeval Wales – and changes history. Start with the Daughter of Time, which is a prequel to the main series, to understand what is happening.
I could go on forever but I’ll leave you with a fantasy series that inspired me. It’s by a young Canadian author, Annette Marie. She’s written several series, but her first one was the Steel and Stone series which starts with Chase the Dark. Her books are young adult/new adult but very compelling and also touch on oriental mythology.
If you’d like to know more about what I read, you can follow me on Goodreads, where I try and leave at least a short review on every book I read. In the meantime, happy reading!
Rachel J Bonner - March 2020
Rachel J Bonner is the author of the compelling and enthralling four book Choices and Consequences series. The first book in the series, Strand of Faith, was published in November 2018. Book 2, Thread of Hope, released on 2nd May 2019, followed by Weave of Love on 24th October. The story concludes with Cloth of Grace, released on 29th February 2020.
Rachel has a degree in engineering, which she followed with a career in accountancy which is probably not a conventional path to becoming an author, particularly in fantasy or romance. Rachel says that, although accountancy isn’t anything like as boring as everyone thinks, writing is a lot more fun. When not writing, she can be found walking in the beautiful countryside near where she lives, which has influenced much of the scenery in her books, or shooting things with her local archery club. Shooting targets only, honest. Nothing to worry about. (Okay, sometimes we shoot Polo mints. Or cabbages. Still nothing to worry about.)
She also enjoys swimming, eating chocolate chip cookies and growing aromatic herbs, especially thyme and rosemary. It’s no coincidence that her heroine likes the same things.
You can find out more about her books and sign up for Rachel’s newsletters at www.racheljbonner.co.uk.
Newsletter subscription link https://www.subscribepage.com/webpage
Author Page : https://www.amazon.com/author/racheljbonner
Website : https://www.racheljbonner.co.uk
Twitter : @racheljbonner1
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/racheljbonnerauthor
No comments:
Post a Comment