Difference between revisions of "Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell"

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(Created page with "Mitchell & Mitchell left You can read more about AU|THOR THOR|here. ==Elizabeth E Mitchell== There I...")
 
 
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[[Category:Authors|Mitchell & Mitchell]]
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{{infobox1
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|title= Revenge
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|author= Mitchell & Mitchell
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|reviewer= Kate Jones
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|genre=Historical Fiction
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|summary= A well-thought-out plot-driven romp through 17th Century England, through the eyes of a strong-willed young woman.
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|rating= 4
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|buy= Maybe
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|borrow= Yes
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|pages=340
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|publisher=Independently Published
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|date=April 2017
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|isbn= 978-1520973173
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|cover=MandM_Revenge
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|aznuk=1520973179
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|aznus=1520973179
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}}
  
[[image:Mitchell_Mitchell.jpg|left]]
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''Revenge'' opens with the news that Charles Stuart is to return to the throne as Charles II of England. A young woman, Ruth Courtney, is returning home to her family's farmhouse, excited at the prospect of a new King. She arrives home, however, to find her home ablaze and surrounded by renegade soldiers, supporters of Cromwell, her family nowhere to be found.
 
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You can read more about AU|THOR [[:Category:AU|THOR|here]].
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Following an assault by the leader of the men, and forced to attack him to protect herself, she is later found unconscious and rescued, and taken in by a kind local parson and his wife. Initially, she has no recollection of who she is, and is so deep in shock she cannot speak. Eventually, however, she regains her strength and voice, and the soldiers responsible are hung for their crimes.  All but one, who returns later in the story.
 
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==Elizabeth E Mitchell==
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As Ruth discovers she is pregnant to the soldier who violated her, she decides to assume her dead sister's name, Hope, as she was married and both she and her husband died in the raid.  Receiving a marriage proposal from an elderly wealthy gentleman, she is advised to take his offer, believing it will provide the best hope for herself and her unborn child.  But Sir Neville is not all he seems, and Ruth/Hope soon ends up on the run and fighting for her life.  
 
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There I was, 58 years old, having recently taken early retirement after 44 years of full-time office work, bored – no matter how difficult the knitting pattern it just didn't cut the mustard – I needed a challenge. My sister, Ros, reminded me how much I had loved making up stories for my four younger siblings when we were kids. So true. I remember how upset I was when I found I was too late to save my composition book on the last day of term from being put in the bin. Mr Angel, my English teacher, had been too quick off the mark in clearing out each year's classroom cupboard.
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The story has various twists and turns, and whilst Sir Neville's behaviour is initially a little suspect, I didn't see the main turn of events coming.  The book is certainly plot driven, and the cast of characters did seem at times slightly stereotypical and a little one-dimensional, but in general, they were believable.  For anybody interested in historical detail, there isn't a great deal in the book, though personally I don't like to be overloaded with details, so this wasn't a problem for me.  The story does have a touch of the melodrama of a 19th Century Gothic style novel, which I'm not sure if the authors intended or not. They clearly wanted to stress the plight of women of the period, who had very little agency over their own lives, and this is a theme which is repeated throughout.
The local authority came to my rescue, God love them, with its creative writing classes. I joined and I never looked back, nor was there a dull moment thereafter. Thoroughly hooked, I wrote short stories, novels, poetry and plays, one of which 'A Chance Meeting' was published, all under the name Beth E Browning. Children's stories were fun, murder/detective stories absorbing, and my three-part historical saga aimed at both children and adults took me back to those long-ago times I found so fascinating.
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All in all, an enjoyable, tense plot, with a likeable central female character, exploring the issues faced by women in history who often had very little power over their lives.
I met Linda, my friend and now co-author, at the writing class, and joining forces the writing duo 'Mitchell & Mitchell' was born. Linda, with her beautiful prose and character enhancing skills, and myself as the main plotter, work well together, researching as we go, trying to make our period stories as authentic as possible, and living our characters' lives as we put them on the page.  
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If you liked this, you might like [[The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements]].
 
 
==Linda Mitchell==
 
  
Much though I would like to say that Elizabeth and I met tracking down big-game hunters in the Serengeti, it was actually happening to sit next to each other on the first day of a writing class. I had attended other classes over the years but this was by far the most inspirational and, incidentally, lead to many lasting friendships.
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You can read more about Mitchell & Mitchell [[:Category:Mitchell & Mitchell|here]]
 
 
I have been scribbling away in some note-book or other as long as I can remember, writing everything from children's stories to mini-plays, and was fortunate enough to win a prize for a ghost story. The one uniting feature of all my work was its brevity; short pieces being my speciality it was with some trepidation that I started out on the adventure of joining Elizabeth in writing a novel, but I found I could hang my prose on her plot lines, and somehow, despite both of us pushing the plot a little this way and that over the many months of writing, with email attachments flying back and forth, we managed to progress without ever a cross word. 
 
 
   
 
   
The setting of the novel allowed me the opportunity to revisit some of my favourite towns and villages of my native Kent, this time with pen and camera in hand, and happy hours researching what often proved to be quite obscure historical facts.
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For Elizabeth and myself our married surnames being the same, seemed to give our collaboration a sense of inevitability – and happily we have never had to concern ourselves with whose name comes first! (It's Elizabeth's, since you ask.)
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Latest revision as of 09:00, 22 September 2020


Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell

MandM Revenge.jpg
Buy Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Category: Historical Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Reviewer: Kate Jones
Reviewed by Kate Jones
Summary: A well-thought-out plot-driven romp through 17th Century England, through the eyes of a strong-willed young woman.
Buy? Maybe Borrow? Yes
Pages: 340 Date: April 2017
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 978-1520973173

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Revenge opens with the news that Charles Stuart is to return to the throne as Charles II of England. A young woman, Ruth Courtney, is returning home to her family's farmhouse, excited at the prospect of a new King. She arrives home, however, to find her home ablaze and surrounded by renegade soldiers, supporters of Cromwell, her family nowhere to be found.

Following an assault by the leader of the men, and forced to attack him to protect herself, she is later found unconscious and rescued, and taken in by a kind local parson and his wife. Initially, she has no recollection of who she is, and is so deep in shock she cannot speak. Eventually, however, she regains her strength and voice, and the soldiers responsible are hung for their crimes. All but one, who returns later in the story.

As Ruth discovers she is pregnant to the soldier who violated her, she decides to assume her dead sister's name, Hope, as she was married and both she and her husband died in the raid. Receiving a marriage proposal from an elderly wealthy gentleman, she is advised to take his offer, believing it will provide the best hope for herself and her unborn child. But Sir Neville is not all he seems, and Ruth/Hope soon ends up on the run and fighting for her life.

The story has various twists and turns, and whilst Sir Neville's behaviour is initially a little suspect, I didn't see the main turn of events coming. The book is certainly plot driven, and the cast of characters did seem at times slightly stereotypical and a little one-dimensional, but in general, they were believable. For anybody interested in historical detail, there isn't a great deal in the book, though personally I don't like to be overloaded with details, so this wasn't a problem for me. The story does have a touch of the melodrama of a 19th Century Gothic style novel, which I'm not sure if the authors intended or not. They clearly wanted to stress the plight of women of the period, who had very little agency over their own lives, and this is a theme which is repeated throughout.

All in all, an enjoyable, tense plot, with a likeable central female character, exploring the issues faced by women in history who often had very little power over their lives.

If you liked this, you might like The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements.

You can read more about Mitchell & Mitchell here

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Buy Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
Buy Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Revenge by Mitchell & Mitchell at Amazon.com.

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