Hello loves!
I am making a brief return from my blogging hiatus to post a review as part of The Write Reads blog tour for Betrothal and Betrayal by Janet McGriffin.
This a new historical fiction series set in the dazzling city of Constantinople under the Eastern Roman Empire.
Summary
Seventeen-year-old Thekla needs her quick wits and knife to track down her betrothed, a soldier who has left her at the altar for the third time. Elias the monk travels with her to Constantinople where she meets Irini of Athens, an extraordinarily beautiful orphan her same age who has been brought by powerful Emperor Constantine to marry his son, Co-Emperor Leon. The two women join forces to survive this vigorous capital of the Roman Empire of the East which is rocked by religious and political strife. But will Thekla help the ambitious and ruthless Irini of Athens find the power that she craves?
Rating
ESCAPE score: 49
Thoughts
This was a wonderful book that simply hooked me in and did not let me go again. It was incredibly enjoyable and it was clearly well grounded in the historical setting which made my Ancient Historian heart so happy.
Thekla was a brilliant main character, bright and engaging on the page and very easy to like and get behind. I loved watching her develop across the course of the book and I am sure that this only continues through the rest of the series as she really went from strength to strength through the many adversities that she faced. To add to this we had Elias who was such a mysterious figure that I want to know who he actually was and learn more about his life.
The story itself was very character driven but it was simply fascinating to read. I just had so much fun following Thekla around the Roman Empire and navigate her way through life, making friendships and forming relationships along the way. We then had the contrast of Irini and the intense life of scheming at court that she was living, as a character that hung over Thekla’s life from the very beginning and influencing it in all sorts of ways.
Author bio
Janet McGiffin divides her time between her apartment in Manhattan, her family in Washington State, and her friends in Athens, Greece. She was born in Fairfield, Iowa into a newspaper family and learned to write copy as a teenager by writing obituaries for the Ellensburg Daily Record in Washington state. After university, she worked for the Milwaukee Health Department where she gained first-hand knowledge for her best-selling mystery series published by Fawcett Press, NY, featuring Doctor Maxine St. Clair, an ER doctor in an inner-city hospital. She worked as a press officer for the Washington state senate, then moved to Athens, Greece where she wrote grant proposals for small non-profit women’s organizations in Mediterranean countries. She also wrote a humor column for the Athens News newspaper with field archaeologist Adrian Vrettos, wrote two English language easy readers for Cambridge University Press, UK, and a series of hiking articles for greecetravel.com. She researched her Byzantine-era Empress Irini Series through extensive travel in Greece, followed by six months of research at the Bodleian libraries in Oxford, England. She enjoys hiking in Greece, England, Wales, and Scotland.
Instagram: @janetmcgiffinauthor
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