The Treehouse

The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark

 

Not having read many fiction stories about India and having studied India at university I was keen to dive into this book. As with many books, the story is divided into two time periods and the book begins during 1947 and the lead up to Partition in India. Evie Mitchell has travelled to India with her young son Billy and historian husband Martin whose job it is to record the last days of British rule in India. Martin is a man much changed by his experiences in the Second World War and as a result their marriage is suffering and they are growing apart. Finding the disintegration of her marriage impossible to deal with, Evie throughs herself into endless bouts of cleaning and in doing so discovers a bundle of letters which have been hiding in the house since the nineteenth century, just shortly before the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

The letters were written by a young Victorian girl named Adela to her friend Felicity. the discovery of them plunges Evie into an obsessive search for the truth of the girls' story and what happened to them. Evie discovers little pieces of the story in various places - the local church, the local British club and hidden diaries of Adela's that she discovers. As she continues to search out the story of Felicity and Adela her own world continues to disintegrate as her husband becomes less able to cope with his war nightmares and reluctant to confide in her and as the days of British rule draw ever more swiftly to a close. 

Elle Newmark describes the sights and sounds of India both in the nineteenth and twentieth century in a wonderfully rich fashion. This, in addition to the mystery of Adela's and Felicity's lives and the closed book of Marin's war experiences and its effect on his marriage make this a compelling story which will satisfy fans of historical fiction. 

This book was provided by Transworld as part of their Book Club and is my 20th read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

 

Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll

This urban fantasy story by Lee Carroll is a great addition to shelves of paranormal literature. When New York jeweller Garet James stumbles into a previously unnoticed antiques shop during a sudden fog her life takes a different course altogether. She admires a box and is subsequently asked if she would take it home and open it up as it is sealed shut. A large sum of money is offered if she's able to perform this seemingly simple task. Garet and her father are in urgent need of funds and so that night Garet sets about opening up the box. Immediately her life begins to change and she embarks upon an adventure with vampires, fairies and all manner of supernatural characters. Along the way she discovers that she has powers of her own and also that the death of her mother, many years previously, is connected to the box. Her ultimate goal is to prevent the world being overtaken by the demons of Despair and Discord and to have a life with the man that she has fallen in love with.

Fans of supernatural fiction will find this book difficult to put down. The story captures the imagination from the first paragraphs with fabulous characters and quick paced action. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am eager to read the second one which is called The Watchtower.Thanks to Transworld who sent this book to me as part of their current book club review programme.