Young Adult Historical Fiction discussion

Hello :) This month's group read is Secrets of the Realm by Bev Stout. Bev Stout also happens to be a member of Young Adult Historical Fiction and will be available to answer questions about Secrets of the Realm in this thread.

How are you liking Secrets of the Realm? What is your opinion of Annie Moore? What do you think about the other characters? The plot? What are your impressions of this book in general?

*Please remember to put spoiler tags around anything that could be considered a major spoiler.*

To celebrate being selected as the January 2014 group read, I have put the ebook versions at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and iBooks on sale for $0.99 until Jan 7, 2014. The price varies slightly on these websites in other countries.

UPDATE: This price is now good until March 3, 2014.

How are others enjoying this book? I have to say that so far I have really struggled to find the book interesting...

I'm struggling to relate to Annie at all and am more annoyed by her clunky speech and overdone 'English' accent than anything....

I am left wanting to know more about Annie, about what she's feeling. But I really liked her adventure, her friends, and her daring and hope it continues.

Hmmm... I don't know, I'm really trying to persevere with this book, but I have to admit this book has so far left me wanting so much more. And the more I read it the more I am annoyed by Annie's persona, speech and the (VERY) inaccurate history.

Perhaps I need to leave it for a few days and come back to it.

I bought this book on iBooks and haven't officially started it yet. :)

I think the history isn't inaccurate, just that Annie's persona is modern, which was intentional, I think. She's supposed to be a trailblazer of sorts. Either way, we all have books that aren't our cup of tea. I happened to enjoy the plot, the Realm and the characters.

Well, as far as I have read (which, admittedly is not the whole book) the historical content is not accurate. I understand that, as a work of fiction, not all elements of this book are to the letter accurate, but there are so many inaccuracies I find it hard to forgive.

Similarly, as I mentioned earlier, the very way that Annie and other characters speak just doesn't ring true to an authentic speech pattern or accent of an English person - Let alone an 18th century one.

I have found the sentence structure clunky and short, with too much emphasis on points that really don't need emphasising and not enough on points that would add to the book. (for example, WHY is Annie blamed for the death of her Uncle - The mere fact that she is another mouth to feed doesn't, for me, explain this)

Obviously this book is not one that I am currently finding my cup of tea, but as it is this month's read I feel it's worth mentioning these points.

Further into the book an explanation as to why Aunt Mary blames Annie for her uncles death is given.

I don't find any glaring historical problems with this book. It is historical fiction and the criteria for historical content in this genre is a little murky. A good article that talks about this can be found at http://tinyurl.com/kyrxnhs.

Thanks for that link Bill - I found it really interesting. It's a very interesting topic as to what constitutes fiction and how much historical accuracy the genre should contain.

I guess I probably tend to find more inaccuracies in the book than most as Early Modern England and the treatment and behaviour of women in this period are an area I know a lot about.

I am glad to hear that there is a further explanation for Annie being blamed for her Uncle's death. This was one of a few areas I felt needed more explaining. When I decide to come back to this book I will hopefully get that far.

Hopefully the rest of the book will clear up a few more questions for me also.

Marie wrote: "@Becka, this is in now way an attack, but purely out of curiosity. What parts of the book do you find to be historically inaccurate? History fascinates me. If you don't want to discuss it here, fee..."

I think History is fascinating too. I think it would probably be better to PM you - I'm not sure this board is the appropriate place to continue this discussion - Perhaps we would be better suited to talk about other aspects of the book.

If you don't mind though, I will just finish up on reading the book before I PM you - I want to check that I'm not missing parts by not reading the whole book. I'm very interested in finding out why Annie is blamed for her Uncle's death.

I enjoyed the book. It's an adventure above all, and I thought was well done with attention to details, but not getting overly-detailed about things.

Here is an interesting bit of info on the Amazon site. If you buy the Kindle version of Secrets of the Realm at $0.99 right now, you can then buy the Audio version for only $1.99. If you were to only buy the audio version, the Amazon price would be $17.46. So you can save a bundle on the audio book by buying the Kindle first.

I thought this was a great book for tween readers. It has the feel of adventure and romance without diving too deeply into things younger readers might not be ready for. I wrote a review here, on my blog:
http://thestorysanctuary.com/get-lost...

This was truly a great book.
I think Annie was an amazing tough and clever young woman.
She was determined yet compassionate.
The other characters were defined so well one felt he/she knew them. They fit the setting perfectly.
The plot just kept developing and taking new twists to the very end.
This was a tremendous tale. Anyone who hasn't read it should grab it at this price!

The response has been so great that I have decided to lower the price of the ebook version back down to $0.99 until 3 March 2014.

Have we chosen February book, yet?

Beverly wrote: "Have we chosen February book, yet?"

The voting ends Jan 27th.

Thanks, Bill

I'd like to thank everyone for their support and let you know that I am working on the sequel (working title Return of the Realm) and hope to have it out this summer.

Bev Stout