BOOK REVIEW - A RIP IN THE VEIL BY ANNA BELFRAGE (THE GRAHAM SAGA, BOOK 1)

Hooked from page one. There’s so much I love in this book that once I got started, I couldn’t stop and read it in a few days:  Scotland in the 17^th century, at the time of the Civil War, romance and time travel, fantasy and magic, adventure and irony.  A Rip in the Veil is book one in Anna Belfrage’s “The Graham Saga” and is a thrilling ride between two different time lines, through the adventurous lives of Alexandra Lind, a 21st century computer engineer still coping with a trauma from her past, and Matthew Graham,  a runaway 17th century convict on his way home to Scotland.

The heroine & the hero: Alex & Matthew

Here are heroine and hero as presented by the author herself in the section bonus material at her website:

Alexandra Lind

Date of Birth: August 24, 1976

Astrological sign: Virgo (“Virgo? How boring is that,” she says with a laugh)

Education: Degrees in Computer Engineering and Programming. Most useful in her new environment she says sarcastically. A karate practitioner since childhood, she holds a black belt 4th dan and has also dabbled in jujitsu. Never got beyond “Smoke on the water” on guitar, but knows the lyrics to all her favourite rock songs – although she’s not quite sure this qualifies as education. Is a proficient user of the staple gun – has used it for everything from upholstery to fixing Halloween disguises. Sadly, staple guns do not exist in the seventeenth century. Good at drawing, crap at sewing and knitting. Used to consider herself a good chess player – until she met Matthew.

ANNA BELFRAGE, EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN FROM SWEDEN TO ROME: ST BIRGITTA & QUEEN KRISTINA + DOUBLE GIVEAWAY!

To celebrate our recent acquaintance through this wonderful media which is the internet, author Anna Belfrage (check out her wonderful historical fiction novels HERE) wrote this very interesting piece especially for my FLY HIGH! blog. Help me to make her welcome here and enjoy her guest post about two really extraordinary women from the past who travelled from her country, Sweden, to my country, Italy. 

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First of all, mille grazie Maria Grazia for inviting me to do some guesting on your blog. And isn’t it a somewhat magical world where an Italian lady who loves English literature meets up with a Swedish author who writes in English – all because of that marvellous invention, the Internet?

I thought it apt to somehow tie together Sweden, Rome and history in my post. Not the most immediate connection that springs to mind, seeing as Sweden has for most of its existence been a backwater no one really wanted to visit, while Rome has for millennia been right at the middle of things, a must-see place since well before the birth of Christ.

But there are connections: specifically, there are two Swedish women, one from the 14^th century and the other from the 17^th century, who had an intense relationship with Rome. (It is somewhat coincidental that my books are either set in the 17^th century or the 14^th century, even if I have as yet not published anything set in Sweden) So today I thought I’d introduce you to St Birgitta of Sweden and Queen Kristina of Sweden, two women who could never be called meek and retiring. Never.