Blurb:
In
seventeenth-century London, thirteen years after the plague and twelve years
after the Great Fire, the restoration of King Charles II has dulled the memory
of Cromwell’s puritan rule, yet fear and suspicion are rife. Religious turmoil
is rarely far from tipping the scales into hysteria.
Elizabeth
Cellier, a bold and outspoken midwife, regularly visits Newgate Prison to
distribute alms to victims of religious persecution. There she falls in with
the charming Captain Willoughby, a debtor, whom she enlists to gather
information about crimes against prisoners, so she might involve herself in
petitioning the king in their name.
‘‘Tis
a plot, Madam, of the direst sort.’ With these whispered words Willoughby draws
Elizabeth unwittingly into the infamous Popish Plot and soon not even the
fearful warnings of her husband, Pierre, can loosen her bond with it.
This
is the incredible true story of one woman ahead of her time and her fight
against prejudice and injustice.
About the Author:
One
day, several years ago, I bought some pages of a trial, merely to hold a piece
of a three-hundred year-old book. That purchase changed my life. The defendant
in the trial captivated me. Her story demanded to be told. My debut novel, The
Popish Midwife, is based closely on the true story of Elizabeth Cellier, an
extraordinary seventeenth century midwife.
My
research revealed Elizabeth to be known in three areas of interest—for writing
books, being caught in The Popish Plot, and as a forward-thinking midwife—but
her story was all in pieces and scattered. I wanted to link it all together and
share it with people of today. If she could be all she was in a time of such
suppression, how much more good could she do now, when we have so much more
freedom?
Review:
First,
someone needs to let writers know that footnotes don’t work in e-books unless
you put them at the end of the chapter or at the end of the book. If you want
them to immediately accessible, you can link the word, phrase or number to the
explanation. But different devices have different page sizes, so more often
than not your footnotes will end up in the middle of the next page. Not to
mention the fact that they pull the reader out of the story. Most modern
e-readers include dictionaries. All one needs to do is press on a word and the
definition pops up—even archaic ones.
Second,
I hate modern word usage in historical books, especially when that usage is
wrong. “That” is a thing, not a person. People in the seventeenth century would
have said “who” when referring to a person. They also would have used adverbs
when appropriate, instead of substituting adjectives, which I see a lot these
days. We editors tell our authors to use adjectives sparingly, not to dump them
altogether.
Finally,
I found the book slow-paced and tedious. In fact, between being pulled out of the
story by bad grammar and footnotes, I was bored to tears by the pacing. I
couldn’t finish it. I made it through about thirty-five percent by forcing
myself to read it, but I wanted to put it down after the first chapter. I
cannot recommend The Popish Midwife.
You may as well look up Ms. Cellier in a text book if you can find her. It
would probably be just as engaging.
Author Website: http://www.scriptalchemy.com/
Warnings:
Length: 454 Pages
Prices:
Print: $28.25
Digital: $7.99
You’ll
notice we always include the publisher’s buy link. That’s because authors
usually receive 40-50% of the net proceeds from the publisher. Editors and
cover artists usually receive about 5%. When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes
& Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the
author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left. So, if
a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author
will receive about $2.40-$2.99. If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will
receive about $1.70-$2.10.
Download
the file from the publisher onto your computer as you would any other file. I’ve
created a folder for books on my computer, with subfolders by source (Marketing
for Romance Writers, Net Galley, Authors who find me on Kindle lists, etc.).
That way, if there’s a glitch with your Kindle, the books are on your computer.
Some publishers send books in all digital formats. If my Kindle breaks and my
kids buy me a Nook, I won’t have to replace all of my books. If you have a
Kindle and your hubby has a Nook, you won’t have to buy separate copies, so buying
directly from the publisher can save you money.
Moving
the file from your computer to your e-reader is as easy as transferring any
file from your computer to a USB flash drive. Plug the larger USB end of your
e-reader charging chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the
file from the folder into which you’ve downloaded the book to Documents/Books
directory on your e-reader. You can move the file by highlighting it and
dragging it to the documents directory in you Kindle you want to move it to. Or
right click on it, and then left click copy or move. Or hit Control/C for copy,
Control/X for cut, and Control/V for paste.
Your
author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.
Thanks
for visiting.
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