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The BookViral Review:
With an insightful and revealing spotlight on traditional Eastern romance, Yen Sun Cheng blends fate with desire as his characters negotiate the tricky path of love, romance and family relationships. His story features the beautiful Mei Li, loved by two men to whom she has at differing times, given her heart.
Living in a traditional household, her romantic decisions are not her own, and her innocent and blossoming romance with San Heng is brought to an abrupt and traumatic halt by her Father, who intercepts her lover’s letters, sent faithfully for 3 years.
Meanwhile, Heaven Boy-Tian Shun Dang is chosen for Mei as a suitable suitor. The two become a love match and are duly married. However, unbeknown to Mei, ‘The Heaven Fortune’ has other ideas. Tian’s fate has been sealed in the heavens where it has been decided that Mei will only be the first of two wives. Tian baulks against this knowledge, attracting the wrath of fate as his fortunes slide.
In the background, San has become rich and successful and his path is drawn irrevocably closer to his first love, Mei. Yen Sun Cheng leads us through the twists and turns of this unfortunate love triangle whilst the fate and circumstances which surround it pull on the reader’s heartstrings as a desperate Tian struggles to keep his marriage together against all odds.
A fascinating snapshot of long-established practices giving way to modern views, ‘Red: Fate and Time Inseparable’ exposes traditional views on male dominance, personal appearance and parental control, leading the reader to question both customary and contemporary wisdom and accepted societal behaviour. Yen Sun Cheng explores the validity of cultural and religious beliefs and the idea of a higher power, as his characters desperately try to break down their walls with hope and determination.
Moving through flashbacks, Yen Sun Cheng builds empathy for Mei, and for her two male protagonists, San and Tian, but leaves a cliff-hanger as Mei and San begin to work at the same company. With small vignettes to wet the appetite, he promises many more intricate storylines in further editions.
An interesting snapshot of traditional values in western society, Red: Fate and Time Inseparable combines golden dreams and desires with the cold light of human nature and for fans of Spiritual Literature and Fiction it is a recommended read.
Cleverly plotted, beautifully characterized, dark and utterly compelling it’s clear from the start that Wojciechowski knows how to weave an intriguing narrative and she is quick to hit her stride to give us a haunting and idiosyncratic read with a savvy emotional payoff about taking chances and moving forward.
Powerfully written in an evocative style, ‘Faith and Fortitude’, Crispin Rogers’ historical account of his likely ancestor, John Rogers (the first of 287 Protestant martyrs under Queen Mary) is and the intermingling of state and church towards their own corrupt ends.
Whilst there is undoubted value in considering historical context, not least because past forces, individuals and trends both shape the present and provide valuable lessons for our future decisions, is historical fiction of any value?
Have you ever come home to a hot bath strewn with rose petals and filled with bubbles, in a bathroom bedecked with scented candles and an ice cold glass of champagne fizzing invitingly on the side. If not you might be thinking poor me but you might want to think again!
In the genre of speculative fiction Alternate History is proving more popular than ever.
George Macdonald, when asked the reason for his chosen genre, replied,
“I write, not for the children, but for the child-like, whether they be five, or fifty, or seventy five”
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