#BlogTour Lying with Lions by Annabel Fielding

 It's my turn on the BlogTour Lying with Lions by Annabel Fielding

About the Author

'I am a self-professed geek who lives in Berlin, and is dedicated a little too much to reading historical non-fiction; I pick out the juiciest bits from it and bring them to you. My special areas of interest are Edwardian age and Late Middle Agnes/Renaissance, but sometimes I veer into other directions, too, when distracted by a shiny thing.' 

Annabel Fielding is a novelist, a history geek and an international woman of mystery. She has long since pledged her allegiance to travel, tea and books. When she isn't busy writing historical fiction she can be found on her blog historygeekintown.com. There, you will find travel posts, lesser-known facts, some photography and (mostly) historical fiction-related book reviews. Follow @DearestAnnabel 

About the book

Edwardian England. Agnes Ashford knows that her duty is threefold: she needs to work on cataloguing the archive of the titled Bryant family, she needs to keep the wounds of her past tightly under wraps, and she needs to be quietly grateful to her employers for taking her up in her hour of need. However, a dark secret she uncovers due to her work thrusts her into the Bryants’ brilliant orbit - and into the clutch of their ambitions.

They are prepared to take the new century head-on and fight for their preeminent position and political survival tooth and nail - and not just to the first blood. With a mix of loyalty, competence, and well-judged silence Agnes rises to the position of a right-hand woman to the family matriarch - the cunning and glamorous Lady Helen. But Lady Helen's plans to hold on to power through her son are as bold as they are cynical, and one day Agnes is going to face an impossible choice...

Review

Agnes is expecting her job as an archivist to reveal some secrets, but not the kind of secrets some people would do absolutely anything to keep buried. The tunnels beneath the Bryant's house and estate are a deeply disturbing experience to undertake each day, and yet she does, because it's of paramount importance that she maintain her position.

Until she starts searching for the truth about an item of interest she uncovered. It displeases the gentleman of the house to be confronted with questions and garners the interest of the lady of house. Not the kind of attention you should want to draw to yourself when your life of comfort could not only come to a sudden halt, but also put an end to the search for secrets and answers.

This did not go where I thought it was heading - in a gothic mystery good kind of way though. It's a riveting story that melds fact and fiction to create the kind of read you think you have sussed and yet in reality you haven't.

I enjoyed the fact it was LGBTQIA, it's great to have diversity in all genres. Saying that I think the relationship between the two of them lacks balance - it's more of a dominant and submissive type of relationship. Power reigns supreme and anything is a weapon to be wielded to get what certain people want. - Fielding is just getting started as far as I am concerned.

Buy Lying with Lions at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. KDP pub date 15 Jun. 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour A Pearl for my Mistress by Annabel Fielding

Today it is my pleasure to be part of the Blog-Tour for A Pearl for my Mistress by Annabel Fielding. It is step into a world where women have started to blossom and walk new paths. They are discovering their sexuality, breaching the walls of social boundaries and creating possibilities for future generations.

About the Author
Annabel Fielding is a novelist, a history geek and an international woman of mystery. She has long since pledged her allegiance to travel, tea and books. When she isn't busy writing historical fiction she can be found on her blog historygeekintown.com. There, you will find travel posts, lesser-known facts, some photography and (mostly) historical fiction-related book reviews.
Follow @DearestAnnabel @HQDigitalUK
Visit historygeekintown.com
Buy A Pearl for my Mistress

About the book
A story of class, scandal and forbidden passions in the shadow of war. Perfect for fans of Iona Grey, Gill Paul and Downtown Abbey.

England, 1934. Hester Blake, an ambitious girl from an industrial Northern town, finds a job as a lady's maid in a small aristocratic household.

Despite their impressive title and glorious past, the Fitzmartins are crumbling under the pressures of the new century. And in the cold isolation of these new surroundings, Hester ends up hopelessly besotted with her young mistress, Lady Lucy.

Accompanying Lucy on her London Season, Hester is plunged into a heady and decadent world. But hushed whispers of another war swirl beneath the capital… and soon, Hester finds herself the keeper of some of society’s most dangerous secrets…

Review
In a way Lucy and Hester are separated by worlds, and yet the common denominator between the two is their gender, which makes them equal in the basest of ways. Regardless of the difference in status, and believe you me the divide between upstairs and downstairs is a huge one, the two of them start to connect on a personal level.

At first there is the common love of books, reading and expanding their knowledge. Lucy crosses boundaries that have to be kept between the two of them, because the rest of society wouldn't understand their relationship. When the two of them connect on an emotional and physical level it becomes a destructive secret.

Fielding incorporates quite a few hot topics in this story, and for me this wasn't a love story per se, perhaps because it doesn't evolve beyond the physical element. In fact I would go as far as to say that it is more about shedding a light on how women who love women were treated in that particular era. Locked away, disowned, treated like the mentally ill and put in asylums for the insane.

At the same time there is a focus on the gender inequality, which was an issue for women on every rung of the social ladder. Women and girls of a higher status were treated like birds in gilded cages with no voice or power. Any move towards independence was ridiculed and dismissed. Girls over 21 didn't receive the vote until 1928, so the 1930s was still an era of advancement and discovery.

Although Lucy is part of this new-found age for women she still has to maintain the facade of the quiet well-behaved daughter of the household, whilst making her own choices in private. Of course while society is busy infantilizing their daughters and wives, they are also guilty of creating vulnerable women who crave new input, which in turn makes them the perfect target. In this case Lucy is more susceptible to the theories and voices of the far-right. She is drawn in by the shiny glow of the pseudo intellectual arguments and the belief that she is doing what is right for herself and her country.

Her involvement with Hester is a direct contradiction to her interest in Mosley. Hester's possible heritage and exotic appearance would make her a non-entity in the eyes of the Blackshirts. It's as if Lucy chooses to be oblivious to certain opinions the Mosley brigade shout out to the world. In the midst of her anger at her family and her lack of trust, she starts to become what she hates the most.

Fielding combines historical fiction with important social issues of the 20th century. It isn't a love story, it is a story about identity and about discovering the power we yield.

Buy A Pearl for my Mistress at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.