A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn is dripping with the adventure that you’d expect from an African story.
Publisher’s description:
Beginning in Paris at the height of the roaring twenties, socialite Delilah Drummond experiences a scandal big enough to make her oft-married mother exile her to Kenya until gossip subsides. As a dissolute expat, she indulges in gin and jazz records, cigarettes and safaris, and in the heart of darkness, she finds a love worth fighting for.
If you blend glamour from The Great Gatsby and romance from Out of Africa, you are beginning to grasp the stunning new novel that is A Spear of Summer Grass.
The writing was evocative and suspenseful, whether the story was tracking an animal or some human drama. The emptiness of that socialite life of the 1920’s is almost uncomfortable at times, the shocking excesses in so many fronts looked at as entertainment, but the characters are so well drawn, be they the native Masai, the expats who have settled there and totally assimilated like the wild Ryder or who try to make Africa their playground like Helen.
As Ryder White explains, “Everyone out here has scars. Mine just happen to be on the outside” (page 195).
This was a beautiful story that made me yearn for the opportunity to escape to Africa or a similar wild terrain. Throughout you wonder if Delilah is going to love it or leave it.
Find out more by visiting Deanna Raybourne’s Official Site:
Far in the Wilds, a prequel novella, is available for free on Kindle right now if you want to check out the intriguing character of Ryder White. I hadn’t seen this before I read the novel, but I downloaded it and can’t wait to spend some more time with him.
5 of you will win it
Leave a comment below if you’d like to win and get a taste of 1920’s glamour. We’ll announce the winners in our June 12 giveaway column. The giveaway is closed.
Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.
Sounds intriguing! I have read a few of the author’s Victorian mysteries and would love to see how she writes in a different era and setting. Thanks for the chance to win.
This author has captivated me with her novels. Would enjoy this new book.
A wonderful story that is memorable.
I would definitely love to read this book. Great timeline, thanks for the chance to win it.
You won! Please reply to this email with your shipping info.
This historical and the era appeals to me. thanks for this opportunity.
a compelling novel with a great storyline.
You won! Please reply to this email with your shipping info.
Sounds like a lovely story and I do love historical fiction.
You won! Please reply to this email with your shipping info.
thanks for the chance to read this beautiful story
Sounds like a fantastic book – I’d love to win a copy!
Sounds like a great read!
You won! Please reply to this email with your shipping info.
Sounds like an interesting read. I love the time period the book is set in.
I love things set in the 1920’s. . . I think I would have loved living in that time – at least the good parts of it!
My mother was born in 1917. She is 95 1/2 and I moved her from Nashville to Boise near me. I like the Historicals and have attempted to write one myself. I am a member of ACFW and MBT, attempting to publish. I hope I get to read this book! Thanks.
You won! Please reply to this email with your shipping info.
Thanks! When I write a review, should I acknowledge that I won this book on your blog contest? (this is my birthday, what a nice gift)
Mary
Happy Birthday!
I don’t think you’re required to disclose a book you won, because you have no obligation to do anything with it, but you can if you want.
FYI – I edited your comment to remove your address, so it wasn’t on the site permanently, but I got it!
I like to read about the 1920’s and it looks suspenseful!