- ASIN: B0BXQW8XRT
- Publisher: Käferhaus Press; 1st edition (6 Mar. 2023)
- Language: English
- Print length: 454 pages
- Genre: Historical Action & Adventure Fiction
The BookViral Review:
From England’s green and pleasant lands to eighteenth-century Nassau Giordano takes us on an exhilarating journey that reflects the best and worst in human nature. In a high-octane Historical adventure where love, honour and treason come crashing together to deliver an intelligent and instantly engaging read.
Authentically capturing a bygone era in which women were viewed as the prizes in a male game Strange Eden is a showdown between its style and story. Combining Giordano’s slick, high-tension writing with the values and sexual stereotyping of a bygone era whilst reminding us of love’s sometimes harrowing consequences in times past.
Awash in heart-rending emotions Strange Eden is a novel to lose yourself in. It’s got both the sweeping spectacle of Nassau and the keen, tactile sense of human intimacy as Giordano juggles the tone, pace and scale of her story.
Giordano certainly has a knack for creating characters with real gravitas and here her principal characters Eliza Sharpe, Lord Charles Sharpe and Jean Charles de Longchamp are highly memorable and well-conceived. She demonstrates an unerring ability to delve into the minds of her characters as she vividly brings them to life but also allows them room for growth as events evolve. And it makes for superb fictional dynamics as the superficial order surrounding Charles is stripped away and his darkest secrets are finally revealed.
Far too many Historical Fiction novels revolve around plots stretched beyond tolerable limits to keep the narrative going; seemingly introducing the unknown because an author hasn’t figured out what to fill the empty space with. But Giordano gives her readers a refreshingly satisfying payoff as she explores the foundations of love, the dictates of duty and the ever-resounding echo of hope as the dark and tragic history of Pleasant House and the harsh brutality of slavery is hauntingly revealed to Eliza.
An enthralling Historical Adventure, Strange Eden proves a notable debut for Giordano in a genre which often suffers from a lack of originality and a heavy reliance on well-worn tropes. Leaving us with an emotionally fraught cliffhanger ending it’s a must-read for fans of Historical Adventures and is recommended without reservation!
