#Blogtour The Priest's Wife by A. G. Rivett

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Priest's Wife by A.G. Rivett. This is the second part of The Isle of Fincara Trilogy, published by Pantolwen Press: Publication Day 19 October 2023. Tour courtesy of Zooloo's Book Tours.

About the Author

Ceredigion author A G Rivett claims to have lived several lives in the course of his one life. Born in London, raised in the Home Counties, he has been a doctor, a priest, and a crofter in the Scottish Highlands. He has lived in rural Northern Nigeria and knows what a simpler life looks like, less dependent on technology. He now lives in West Wales with his wife, Gillian Paschkes-Bell, who works with him as a writing team. There, he grows fruit and vegetables and has sewn a wildflower meadow. He has three daughters and two grandsons. Connect with the author via agrivett.com

About the book

When her husband the priest dies, Morag loses more than her life partner. With him goes her home and her place in the community. When her identity is also called into question, she sets out on a quest to find herself anew.

Meanwhile, the new priest brings with him a religion that seeks to sweep away the mix of Celtic myth and Christian story that has sustained the islanders for many years.

In the conflict that unfolds, each is challenged to know themselves more deeply, and at last to recognise the new roles that await them.

Review

Bringing it back to the basics of structure, the death of Hugo reveals the instability of Morag's life. Everything is built upon the premise of her position as his companion and partner, and when he no longer exists neither does her position. It's a bit of a blow to her heart and soul. Not only has she lost the man she loved, she is suddenly relegated to a position of non-importance. She loses her role, her standing and her home. In a way she also loses her community. 

For an outsider looking in it looks like the ultimate betrayal, but it is merely one of the many inconviences of being a woman in a world run by men. Or at the very least a world run by lineage and born from societal structures.

The grief, the rejection, the replacement and the displacement, all serve as inner and outer drivers to push Morag on a path to discover her identity. Who is she and where does stem from, what is her maternal lineage? The discoveries she makes eventually lead her on an eye-opener of journey. One whihc may or may not lead her back to the fold of friends and her family.

Whilst the journey to find self is still a core element in the second book in the Isle of Fincara trilogy, this time it is defined by the way women are perceived in roles of influence and authority. We delve further into Celtic myth and the advancement of a patriarchal religious system, which strides without losing pace towards societies who prior to this were determined and ruled by a more earth based set of rules interwoven with folklore and mythology.

Buy The Priest's Wife at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy via Barnes & Noble. Via Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Seaborne by A.G. Rivett

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Seaborne by A.G. Rivett. This is the first part of The Isle of Fincara Trilogy, published by Pantolwen Press: Publication Day 21 October 2025. Tour courtesy of Zooloo's Book Tours.

About the Author

Ceredigion author A G Rivett claims to have lived several lives in the course of his one life. Born in London, raised in the Home Counties, he has been a doctor, a priest, and a crofter in the Scottish Highlands. He has lived in rural Northern Nigeria and knows what a simpler life looks like, less dependent on technology. He now lives in West Wales with his wife, Gillian Paschkes-Bell, who works with him as a writing team. There, he grows fruit and vegetables and has sewn a wildflower meadow. He has three daughters and two grandsons. Connect with the author via agrivett.com

About the book

John Finlay is fleeing from failure. - His engineering business has failed. His relationship has failed. His flight from debts leads him to disaster – and to the Island, where he must learn to live anew. 

Dermot, pulling a boy barely alive from the water, has never seen anyone so strangely dressed. His Celtic island knows nothing of debt, nor engineering. Where has this man come from? John struggles to accept that he has been carried across time and into another world – both like and unlike his own. How he got there is a mystery.  

But John, the foreigner, must turn slowly into Dhion, the Islander. Still, he brings with him unfinished business that must be faced, and ideas that may not always be welcomed.  

Meanwhile Dermot, consumed with a growing jealousy, develops his own deadly agenda. The whole community finds itself caught up in what becomes a matter of survival – or transformation. A tale of loss and change. A spiritual inquiry. And a love story. 

Review

Although the story, which is the first part of The Isle of Fincara Trilogy, is speculative in nature it also brings together a myriad of aspects and perceptions. The spritual awakening for one. Not so much in a religious, pagan or the natural origin of past societies who are perhaps isolated from greater advancements and developments, but rather an awakening of self. 

How John/Dhion adjusts and then comprehends that in this new setting he is no longer John with the burden or lightness of his previous life and identity. In this setting he is in fact Dhion and walks in the shoes of this emerging identity, albeit with the bonus of being able to access the knowledge and ability of John.

I did wonder why Dhion doesn't really delve deeply into the why or how of his new existence. Is it perhaps because he welcomes a new beginning or the concept that something more unusual than being recovered from the sea is at hand.

To some of the people who surround him he will always be the one borne of the sea, and that mirrors the way modern society distinguishes born and bred from the outsider, even if the outsider has a generational standing in said village, town or society. That inkling of other often brings an element of distrust with it, which explains the wariness when Dhion uses modern ideas to enhance the lives of those around him.

I think it's a book - or a start of a journey - that is better served without too much pre-knowledge from others. What I will add is that one of the last sentences captures not only the entirety of John becoming Dhion, but also serves a gentle reminder of something not everyone experiences - 'my feet feel they have found a path' - it encapsulates so much of this story and more.

Buy The Seaborne at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Pantolwen Press, published 21 October 2025. Buy via Barnes and Noble.