Audio Review: The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth

A retelling of The Beauty and The Beast set in Nazi Germany 

 The Grimm Brothers published a beautiful version of the Beauty & the Beast tale called ‘The Singing, Springing Lark' in 1819. It combines the well-known story of a daughter who marries a beast in order to save her father with another key fairy tale motif, the search for the lost bridegroom. In ‘The Singing, Springing Lark,' the daughter grows to love her beast but unwittingly betrays him and he is turned into a dove. She follows the trail of blood and white feathers he leaves behind him for seven years, and, when she loses the trail, seeks help from the sun, the moon, and the four winds. Eventually, she battles an evil enchantress and saves her husband, breaking the enchantment and turning him back into a man.

 Kate Forsyth retells this German fairy tale as a historical novel set in Germany during the Nazi regime. A young woman marries a Nazi officer in order to save her father, but hates and fears her new husband. Gradually she comes to realize that he is a good man at heart, and part of an underground resistance movement in Berlin called the Red Orchestra. However, her realization comes too late. She has unwittingly betrayed him and must find some way to rescue him and smuggle him out of the country before he is killed.

 The Red Orchestra was a real-life organization in Berlin, made up of artists, writers, diplomats, and journalists, who passed on intelligence to the American embassy, distributed leaflets encouraging opposition to Hitler, and helped people in danger from the Nazis to escape the country. They were betrayed in 1942, and many of their numbers were executed.

 The Beast's Garden is a compelling and beautiful love story, filled with drama and intrigue and heartbreak, taking place between 1938 and 1943, in Berlin, Germany.

 Paperback, 512 pages

Audio, 16 hours, 21 minutes

 Published August 3rd, 2015

 by Random House Australia

****

 Kate Forsyth is one of my go to’s for fairy tale retellings based on historical events. This is also my second in as many months taking place inside Germany during the war.

 Beginning as Stormtroopers terrorized Germany on a night known as Night of Broken Glass (1938), life for the Jewish community changed forever.  Hilter's word cannot be trusted as treaties/promises are broken and turns against Germans he deems unfit. All told from inside the borders and through the eyes of a young woman struggling to make sense of the changes taking place. Especially when a Jewish family is like her own.

 This is my 3rd Forsyth book and again I was not disappointed, I went the audio route. Jennifer Vutetic is the reader - always a pleasure listening to her. Playing out with vivid detail and getting a real sense of what life was like for those in Germany during those terrible years Kate Forsyth has done her homework, drawing on real historical events and characters.  Vividly describing the horror and feeling the fear kept me attached to this audio.  While I didn't always feel the emotional connection between some of the players that did not take away from my enjoyment (though that does seem weird to say considering the subject matter).  But on the other hand, there were those at the mercy of the Nazis that just did what they could to survive - it was a horrible time, to say the least.

This is definitely a book I recommend, especially lovers of WW2 HF, also an author who brings stories to life.

click on covers to see what I thought of these two beauties

My best of 2015

I surprised myself with how many books I read last year,150 to be exact. I didn't plan on that many it just happened.

Some interesting facts:

-the longest was 1059 pages with Voyager (Outlander #3) by Diana Gaboldon and the short with 34 pages was Kika the Upside Down Girl Jessica Tudos
-43 were audio books
-54 were new authors to me
-12 new series started
-12 series that I got caught up with or finished
-still plugging away at (Outlander)
-51 books reviewed for netgalley

My top 10 audio books of 2015 - in random order

1) The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams
2) Lyrebird Hill by Anna Romer
3) The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth
4) Shadow on the Crown by Patricia Bracewell
5) The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
6)  Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova
7) Castles, Customs and Kings by various authors
8) Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
9) Misery by Stephen King
10) Mr. Mercedes/Finders Keepers by Stephen King
notice a tread there, sadly that trend was broken when I tried Revival in audio

My top 10 (actually 13) books of 2015 - remember in random order

1) A King's Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman
2) The Lake House by Kate Morton
3)  Lost in the Barrons by Farley Mowat
4) The Ones We Trust by Kimberly Belle
5) The Particular Appeal of Gillian Pugsley by Susan Ornbratt
6) Helen of Sparta byAmalia Carosella          
7) The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth
8) Medici's Daughter by Sophie Perinot
9) Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole
10) Lady of the Eternal City by Kate Quinn
11) The Tapestry by Nancy Bilyeau
12) The Voyager by Diane Gabaldon
13) To Catch a Falling Star by Anna Belfrage

So that's my year, how was yours?

Review: The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

Once there were six sisters. The pretty one, the musical one, the clever one, the helpful one, the young one...And then there was the wild one. 

Dortchen Wild has loved Wilhelm Grimm since she was a young girl. Under the forbidding shadow of her father, the pair meet secretly to piece together a magical fairy tale collection. The story behind the stories of the Brothers Grimm.

 

Hardcover, 495 pages

Published July 22nd 2013 by Allison & Busby

audio from public

library (through overdrive)

17 hrs and 41 mins 

*****

 I am relatively new to Kate Forsyth books, her book Bitter Greens was a favorite of mine - it had a mix of HF and fairy tale retelling. As much as I love fairy tales I just dont seem to read them like I want (my tbr pile reflects this).  It isn't a secret that I am a big fan of audio books.  I hestatied for the longest time whether to give the audio a try for The Wild Girl.  Some books are  more enjoyable reading verses audio, as well some lend themselves to audio as my preferred method.  When I realized that Kate Reading was reading this one I knew I was in for a real treat - she is one of my favorites (yea she could read the ingredients off a box of cookies and I would be entranced).

The Wild Girl is the story of the Grimm Brothers, but mostly centers on their neighbour Dortchen Wild.  Life isn't easy for her, especially as her siblings move on, marry and have babies while Dortchen is left to care for her parents (let me tell you, no easy task). 

There is definitely that fairy tale feel here, whether it's the stories she shares with Wilhelm Grimm or just her life, Dortchen was someone who was easy to feel sympathy for.  Caring, compassionate and always putting others before her own dreams, especially with the secrets she keeps to herself.

That being said this is also about Grimm fairy tales coming into print.  Taking place during Napolean's rule in Germany during the late 1800's, it's a brutal time for all which Kate Forsyth depicted perfectly.

One of the disadvantages of going the audio route is not being able to write down quotes or phrases that I enjoy doing with a physical print copy.  But I did manage one.

“Stories are important too. Stories help make sense of things. They make you believe you can do things. They help you imagine that things may be different, that if you just have enough courage... or faith... or goodness... you can change things for the better.”

Waiting on Wednesday: The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill  at  Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.   

 This week I am waiting for:

Published August 3rd 2015 by Random House Australia

A retelling of The Beauty and The Beast set in Nazi Germany

The Grimm Brothers published a beautiful version of the Beauty & the Beast tale called ‘The Singing, Springing Lark' in 1819. It combines the well-known story of a daughter who marries a beast in order to save her father with another key fairy tale motif, the search for the lost bridegroom. In ‘The Singing, Springing Lark,' the daughter grows to love her beast but unwittingly betrays him and he is turned into a dove. She follows the trail of blood and white feathers he leaves behind him for seven years, and, when she loses the trail, seeks help from the sun, the moon, and the four winds. Eventually she battles an evil enchantress and saves her husband, breaking the enchantment and turning him back into a man.

Kate Forsyth retells this German fairy tale as an historical novel set in Germany during the Nazi regime. A young woman marries a Nazi officer in order to save her father, but hates and fears her new husband. Gradually she comes to realise that he is a good man at heart, and part of an underground resistance movement in Berlin called the Red Orchestra. However, her realisation comes too late. She has unwittingly betrayed him, and must find some way to rescue him and smuggle him out of the country before he is killed.

The Red Orchestra was a real-life organisation in Berlin, made up of artists, writers, diplomats and journalists, who passed on intelligence to the American embassy, distributed leaflets encouraging opposition to Hitler, and helped people in danger from the Nazis to escape the country. They were betrayed in 1942, and many of their number were executed.

The Beast's Garden is a compelling and beautiful love story, filled with drama and intrigue and heartbreak, taking place between 1938 and 1943, in Berlin, Germany.

What are you waiting for? 

Interview & Giveaway: Kate Forsyth author of Bitter Greens

Last year Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth was released in UK and Australia, my impatient self could not wait for a Canadian release so I promptly ordered it from BookDepository.  Today I am thrilled to welcome Kate here.

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of post for your chance to win a copy of this book (US only).

It's no secret of your love for fairy tales and retelling. I noticed on Goodreads that you are working on your doctorate in fairy tale retelling.  It sounds very interesting what exactly does this entail?

Its been such a fascinating Doctorate to undertake. Basically, I've written a mythic biography of Rapunzel, from its earliest pre-literarte roots in what may well have been a matriarchal mythology all the way down to Disney's Tangled. Along the way, I've been interrogating the question of why fairy tales such as Rapunzel endure for so many centuries, when other tales are forgotten and die.


Do your children share you love of fairy tales?

Certainly my daughter does, but then she has the most wonderful collection of beautifully illustrated fairytales and fairytale retellings (I collect them!). My boys, who are teenagers now, used to love me to read fairy tales to them, but have outgrown them now.

Writing seems to run in your family.  I've just started reading The Ivory Rose by Belinda Murrell, your sister.  Your childhood must have been really interesting, did you write/read together? Share (steal) ideas?

I do hope you enjoy Belinda's books and read many more of them. She's a wonderful writer.

We did have a fascinating childhood, surrounded by books and animals and all kinds of adventures. Both of us wrote from a very young age - poems and stories and novels - plus we used to put on plays for our mother. We read all the same books and played games inspired by them, and sometimes we wrote together (but not usually). We never need to steal ideas from each other, we have plenty of our own! Sometimes, though, there are eerie coincidences between our work. We both wrote a timeslip adventure set in Scotland at the same time, for example, and we had to change the titles as they were far too similar. The books themselves are very different though (mine is THE PUZZLE RING, and Belinda's is THE LOCKET OF DREAMS).

Can you see any of your children following in your footsteps?

All of my children are beautiful writers and love to read, but at the moment they have other hopes and dreams. Belinda's daughter Emily is the one who most longs to be a writer! I'm sure she shall make her dreams come true too.


Between your family, your doctorate, workshops you run and reading when do you have time to write?  What's a normal day like for you?

Busy! But I manage because I have an amazingly supportive husband and family (including my sister - we help each other out as much as we can!). I tend to write when my family are at school, and read at night before I go to bed. I turn  social media and email off while I'm writing, and try to do all my teaching and travelling and speaking to certain months of the year, usually after my book has been published. However, all this is easier said than done, and sometimes I wonder myself how I'll ever get any writing done!
 
Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel at the age of seven, and is now the internationally bestselling & award-winning author of thirty books, ranging from picture books to poetry to novels for both adults and children. She was recently voted one of Australia’s Favourite 20 Novelists, and has been called ‘one of the finest writers of this generation. She is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers, and has told stories to both children and adults all over the world.

Her most recent book for adults is a historical novel called ‘The Wild Girl’, which tells the true, untold love story of Wilhelm Grimm and Dortchen Wild, the young woman who told him many of the world’s most famous fairy tales. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, ‘The Wild Girl’ is a story of love, war, heartbreak, and the redemptive power of storytelling, and was named the Most Memorable Love Story of 2013.
She is probably most famous for ‘Bitter Greens’, a retelling of the Rapunzel fairy tale interwoven with the dramatic life story of the woman who first told the tale, the 17th century French writer, Charlotte-Rose de la Force. ‘Bitter Greens’ has been called ‘the best fairy tale retelling since Angela Carter’, and has been nominated for a Norma K. Hemming Award, the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Fiction, and a Ditmar Award.

Her most recent book for children is ‘Grumpy Grandpa’, a charming picture book that shows people are not always what they seem.

Since ‘The Witches of Eileanan’ was named a Best First Novel of 1998 by Locus Magazine, Kate has won or been nominated for numerous awards, including a CYBIL Award in the US. She’s also the only author to win five Aurealis awards in a single year, for her Chain of Charms series – beginning with ‘The Gypsy Crown’ – which tells of the adventures of two Romany children in the time of the English Civil War. Book 5 of the series, ‘The Lightning Bolt’, was also a CBCA Notable Book.

Kate’s books have been published in 14 countries around the world, including the UK, the US, Russia, Germany, Japan, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Poland and Slovenia. She is currently undertaking a doctorate in fairytale retellings at the University of Technology, having already completed a BA in Literature and a MA in Creative Writing.

Kate is a direct descendant of Charlotte Waring, the author of the first book for children ever published in Australia, ‘A Mother’s Offering to her Children’. She lives by the sea in Sydney, Australia, with her husband, three children, and many thousands of books.

For more information please visit Kate Forsyth’s website and blog. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

Monday, September 15
Guest Post & Giveaway at Passages to the Past
Tuesday, September 16
Review at Kinx’s Book Nook
Review & Giveaway at Bookish
Wednesday, September 17
Review & Giveaway at Literary, etc
Review & Giveaway at Book Drunkard
Thursday, September 18
Review & Giveaway at Build a Bookshelf
Review & Giveaway at The Eclectic Reader
Friday, September 19
Review at The Maiden’s Court
Review & Giveaway at Icey Books
Monday, September 22
Review & Giveaway at Luxury Reading
Review, Excerpt, & Giveaway at A Dream Within a Dream
Spotlight at Flashlight Commentary
Tuesday, September 23
Review at Book Dilettante
Review, Excerpt, & Giveaway at SurLaLune
Wednesday, September 24
Review at Caroline Wilson Writes
Review, Interview, and Giveaway at Ink Gypsy
Review, Interview, and Giveaway at The Lit Bitch
Thursday, September 25
Review & Giveaway at No BS Book Reviews
Interview & Giveaway at Just One More Chapter
Friday, September 26
Review at The Gilmore Guide to Books
Review at Must Read Faster
Monday, September 29
Review at Book Lovers Paradise
Review & Giveaway at Bookworm Blues
Tuesday, September 30
Review at The Life & Times of a Book Addict
Review & Excerpt at Books-n-Kisses
Review & Giveaway at Broken Teepee
Wednesday, October 1
Review at One Book at a Time
Review at Book-alicious Mama
Review & Giveaway at Mina’s Bookshelf
Review & Giveaway at Let Them Read Books
Thursday, October 2
Interview at Layered Pages
Review & Giveaway at Oh Magic Hour
Friday, October 3
Review at Bibliophilia, Please
Review & Giveaway at Gone Pecan
Sunday, October 5
Review at Carole’s Ramblings
Monday, October 6
Review at Book Babe
Review at A Bibliotaph’s Reviews
Interview, Excerpt, & Giveaway at Harlequin Junkie
Tuesday, October 7
Review at A Chick Who Reads
Review & Giveaway at The Pretty Good Gatsby
Wednesday, October 8
Review at So Many Books, So Little Time
Review & Giveaway at My Friends Are Fiction
Thursday, October 9
Review at Jorie Loves a Story
Friday, October 10
Review at Mel’s Shelves
Review & Giveaway at No More Grumpy Bookseller
Interview at Jorie Loves a Story
Monday, October 13
Review at 100 Pages a Day – Stephanie’s Book Reviews
Review & Giveaway at Layers of Thought
Tuesday, October 14
Review & Giveaway at Words and Peace
Review & Giveaway at Beth’s Book Reviews
Wednesday, October 15
Review at Crossroad Review
Review at My Tangled Skeins Book Reviews
Thursday, October 16
Review at Cheryl’s Book Nook
Review at CelticLady’s Reviews
Friday, October 17
Review at Mary Gramlich
Review at She Reads Novels
Monday, October 20
Interview & Giveaway at The Reading Frenzy

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Waiting on Wednesday - The Wild Girl

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly waiting to get our hands on.

 

  This week I am waiting for: The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

Dortchen Wild fell in love with Wilhelm Grimm the first time she saw him.

Growing up in the small German kingdom of Hessen-Cassel in early Nineteenth century, Dortchen Wild is irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the young and handsome fairy tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm.

It is a time of War, tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hessen-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, the Grimm brothers decide to save old tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small all over the land.

Dortchen knows many beautiful old stories, such as 'Hansel and Gretel', 'The Frog King' and 'Six Swans'. As she tells them to Wilhelm, their love blossoms. Yet the Grimm family is desperately poor, and Dortchen's father has other plans for his daughter. Marriage is an impossible dream.

Dortchen can only hope that happy endings are not just the stuff of fairy tales.

Released already in Australia but not till July for us in US and Canada

What are you waiting for?