Thursday, August 1, 2013

Review: A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn

Title: A Spear of Summer Grass (A Spear of Summer Grass #1)
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source FirstReads
Release Date: April 30 2013
Reviewed by: Jasmyn

Paris, 1923 

The daughter of a scandalous mother, Delilah Drummond is already notorious, even amongst Paris society. But her latest scandal is big enough to make even her oft-married mother blanch. Delilah is exiled to Kenya and her favorite stepfather's savannah manor house until gossip subsides. 

Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded African dream, a world where dissolute expats are bolstered by gin and jazz records, cigarettes and safaris. As mistress of this wasted estate, Delilah falls into the decadent pleasures of society.  

Against the frivolity of her peers, Ryder White stands in sharp contrast. As foreign to Delilah as Africa, Ryder becomes her guide to the complex beauty of this unknown world. Giraffes, buffalo, lions and elephants roam the shores of Lake Wanyama amid swirls of red dust. Here, life is lush and teeming-yet fleeting and often cheap.  

Amidst the wonders-and dangers-of Africa, Delilah awakes to a land out of all proportion: extremes of heat, darkness, beauty and joy that cut to her very heart. Only when this sacred place is profaned by bloodshed does Delilah discover what is truly worth fighting for-and what she can no longer live without.



Africa - a strange and distant place that Delilah has only heard wonderful and fantastic stories of.  When she choses to leave and ride out her most current scandal in Africa, she finds that it really is nothing like what she expected.  Finding the need to restore Fairlight to her former glory and manage the numerous social pitfalls she is notorious for finding and jumping into, Delilah settles into life as best she can.  

She makes herself at home in safaris and expedidtions which really help bring Africa to life and the country becomes a character all on its own.  Delilah and Africa become good friends and fierce enemies with amazment and traged coming hand in hand.  She makes friends and enemies among the natives and with her Brit "neighbors".  This was a book that you need to curl up with on an evening when you can just lose yourself in with wonderful characters and places.




Barnes & Noble:  A Spear of Summer Grass
Book Depository: A Spear of Summer Grass

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