A SECRET WOMAN by Rose Solari

5 STARS

A SECRET WOMAN
A Novel
by
Rose Solari

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SUMMARY

(from Amazon)

Louise Terry is the quintessential, modern American woman; a successful and independent artist, sexually liberated and head strong, she’s determined to carve out a life for herself where her painting comes first and where she can avoid messy romantic entanglements. But when her estranged mother, Margaret, dies, leaving a box of documents, photos, and journals, Louise discovers in its contents a new and very different woman from the one who raised her. This Margaret was admired by Catholic priests and Wiccan priestesses alike for her spiritual gifts and was working, at the time of her death, on assembling her visions of a 12th-century cross-dressing woman mystic who not only managed to infiltrate the male bastion of Glastonbury Abbey, but who instigated the tragic fire that burned it to the ground in 1184. Determined to pursue the fragments her mother left behind, Louise travels to England where she meets a cast of characters whom she must depend on to find her way. Blurring the boundaries between past and present, between the body and the spirit, between female and male, this page-turning mystery is a sexy romp through time and space, a profound meditation on the mother-daughter connection, and an enlightening exploration of what it means to make love, to make art, and to make a life worth living.

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Santa Fe Writer's Project (April 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982625197
• ISBN-13: 978-0982625194

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AUTHOR

Rose Solari is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, Difficult Weather and Orpheus in the Park, and the play Looking for Guenevere, which retells Arthurian legend from a woman’s perspective. Her poetry and prose have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including American Poetry: The Next Generation, Just Like A Girl: A Manifesta, and Initiate: New Oxford Writing. She is the recipient of the Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, an Academy of American Poets University Prize, an EMMA Award for excellence in print journalism, and grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. In spring of 2012, she will be a visiting fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

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REVIEW

Reading this book was pure heaven.  The author wrote as a poet.  The language, the phrases, and the imagery were wonderful.  But you still have to have a strong lead character.  And the author gives us that.  Louise Terry is that character.  She is with it, funny, and yet down to earth.  Even though the book is a first novel, it is very clear and yet complex.

The author leads us on a journey that is guided by a strong will, the author doesn't hesitate nor get off track.  She is in complete control of her story. The author adds a lot of the modern world so that the reader isn't lost in the past..  I must say that the parts of the book such as thee double pages, and the cover which would be worthy a collector's item.  We used to get to put our hands on books like this all the time but these days, you don't see those kid of books so much.  this is the kind of book that should be kept to hand down to generations to come.  A beautiful book, inside and out.

I was given a complimentary copy of A SECRET WOMAN from the author and NightOwlReviews for my view of the book.  No Other compensation took place

I would give this book 5 STARS.

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LINKS

http://bemiown.blogspot.com

bemiown@yahoo.com

www.nightowlreviews.com