Celeste De Blasis (1946–2001)

A Wild Hope by Celeste De Blasis is a 2020 Bookouture publication.

Well, they sure don’t write ‘em like this anymore… Sigh…

This sweeping saga was originally written back in the 1980s, back when epic historical tomes were commonplace. Sadly, many of these books have simply faded into obscurity along with the authors who wrote them.

Thankfully, some publishers have chosen to digitally format a select few of them- giving them new titles and covers and offering them to a whole new audience.

For those of us who were fans back in the day, this is also an opportunity to revisit some of our old favorite authors and some of their work again… and in a format that is a little easier on the eyes.

For anyone concerned about content- not every single historical romance novel written in the 1980s was a ‘bodice ripper’. Yes, this book is a romance and there are explicit sex scenes- more than I felt was necessary, and there are moral issues, like adultery, but it is also a story that would appeal to historical fiction fans. For it’s time the novel incorporated issues into the story, like race, and feminism and features a strong female lead character, which should appeal to the modern reader.

I really miss these sweeping sagas. There’s nothing like being swept away into another time and place and following the characters through all the tragedies and triumphs in their lives. I also love that the story will continue in the next book and will once again feature characters from this novel and lead the reader into future generations. That’s something we don’t get much of these days in historical fiction or romance and kind of miss that too.

This is a long book- and because our attention spans are shorter these days- I did get a bit impatient a time or two when I felt the pacing lagged and there didn’t seem to be much going on- but at the same time, I enjoyed the long span of time the novel covered and all the various locations, and layers of emotions involved.

Overall, I loved getting lost in this novel and it was so nice to read a book by Celeste De Blasis again, after all these years. Looking forward to book two in the trilogy!!

5 stars… (mais)