![]() I don’t mean to make light of this at all, because Chevalier paints a Hudson River landscape of vivid beauty for her readers. ![]() ![]() He lurks about the shabby mansion, giving attitude and generally being stereotypically upper crust and obnoxious.īut, Michael (and we) notice that the mansion’s aged caretaker, his wife, and their orphaned granddaughter all seem to love John anyway. In classic romantic tradition, John Seward is the damaged and dispossessed scion of the family whose overgrown garens Michael is hired to resurrect. Before his exile upstate, Michael had begun to dream of medical school and his experience as a physical therapist in a British field hospital both broke his spirit and focused his desire to heal. He’s also queer, and in order to avoid the law, takes a job as a gardener at an isolated estate up the Hudson River. ![]() Michael McCready is a Bowery-born Irishman, recently returned from a harrowing stint in the trenches of Europe. It transports you to the years right after World War I in New York City, and it keeps you there effortlessly, without overelaborate description or anachronism. Chevalier’s Bonds of Earth is a beautifully crafted historical romance that achieves its goal. I am a great fan of historical fiction, but only if it’s well done only if I can get lost in the created past without constantly being reminded that what I’m reading is by a contemporary hand. ![]()
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