I’m delighted today to be joining the blog tour for the latest book from Christina Courtenay, Shadows in the Spring, and sharing my review: published by Headline Review on 24th April as an e-book on all major platforms and in paperback, with the audiobook to follow on 1st May. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the publishers for my advance reading copy (provided via netgalley).
I’ve been enjoying Christina’s writing for a very long time now – ever since I picked up The Silent Touch of Shadows way back in 2013 (it was republished last year), and knew I’d found an author whose books I’d love. Her historical settings are wonderfully researched and always feel entirely real, and I always enjoy the way she incorporates timeslip and time travel elements in her stories. I honestly was surprised how easily I slipped into her Viking world – I’ve read every book in her Runes series and enjoyed every single one – and you’ll find all my reviews if you pop her name in the search bar. And a personal favourite of mine was a standalone book she produced in 2022, Hidden in the Mists – romance at its best, along with two really engaging storylines (one of my 2022 Books of the Year – you’ll find my review here). Last year she took us to Pompeii in AD79 in Shadows in the Ashes, a compelling dual timeline story, featuring romance in both past and present but also laced with drama and danger (you’ll find my review here) – and I was rather delighted to discover that her latest book was a sequel, this time set in Roman Britannia, and entirely readable as a standalone.
Two souls bound together but lost in time. Until now.
AD 80 Duro of the Iceni tribe escaped life as an enslaved gladiator and is now finally home in Britannia with one thing on his mind: vengeance. For 20 years he has sought the Roman legionary who destroyed his family. What he didn’t expect was Gisel: a fierce Germanic woman with long white-blonde hair, forced into slavery by the Romans. Hypnotised by her spirit and her beauty, Duro frees Gisel and slowly tries to win her trust as they work together to complete his quest.
Present Day Mackenna Jackson returns to Bath with a broken heart, thanks to rockstar Blue Daniels. Luckily she can still count on Blue’s former bandmate Jonah Miller as a listening ear. But Jonah has secretly been fighting stronger feelings, drawn to Mac’s quiet confidence and gorgeous white-blonde hair. As they explore the area, memories they can’t quite explain flood them both.
Is the spark between Mac and Jonah in fact a sign of something much deeper – a love enduring through millennia – or can it all be an illusion?
When Duro rejoins his Iceni tribe after escaping from life as a centurion when Vesuvius erupted, he doesn’t get quite the welcome he hopes for – his younger brother is now their leader. But establishing his place in the new order must wait – he embarks on a quest for revenge against the Roman soldiers who killed his parents. During his travels, he comes across Gisel, being sold as a slave, and frees her from her Roman captor – but it takes some considerable time to convince her that he’s to be trusted.
In the present day, Mackenna’s relationship with rock star Blue Daniels and the rather different lifestyle she’s been enjoying are over. Jonah, another band member, has also had more than enough of Blue – but, having offered his support when she left, she’s finds she’s keen to have him as a friend in her newly rebuilt life. There’s an attraction between them that they both unsuccessfully try to resist – but neither of them can escape the attention of the media, and although he’s able to provide her with a much-needed refuge, the complications seem to make anything further impossible.
Two very different storylines, but they’re quite perfectly balanced – parallels cleverly drawn between the individuals and relationships, along with that thin veil between past and present that the author always excels at, moments of deja vu when surroundings change and there are sometimes momentarily disconcerting glimpses of the past.
There’s no wrenching between the two stories, separated by so many centuries – the well-researched detail of life in Roman Britannia makes that world exceptionally vivid and real, but I was equally happy to wander the streets of modern day Bath with Mac and Jonah. And both stories were equally intriguing and compelling – emotional at times, with their moments of well written drama, plenty of tension, unexpected twists and turns, and two central developing romances I entirely believed in.
This was such clever writing – and I really loved the symmetry of the stories and the connections between them, two equally convincing love stories spanning the years that separate them. Very much recommended – this was a book I thoroughly enjoyed.
About the author
Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a Vice President and former Chair of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014), and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).
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