Blog tour:- Can't I Go Instead by Lee Geum-yi, published by Scribe on 9th November 2023

 

Another fascinating book by Lee Geum-yi, who wrote "The Picture Bride" which I reviewed here last year. Korea is a country which seems rather mysterious and unknown to me, and I relish the opportunity to learn more.  

Description:-

Two women's lives and identities are intertwined - through World War II and the Korean War - revealing the harsh realities of class division.

Can't I Go Instead follows the lives of the daughter of a Korean nobleman and her maidservant in the early 20th Century. When the daughter's suitor is arrested as a Korean Independence activist,  and she is implicated during the investigation, she is quickly forced into marriage with one of her father's Japanese employees and shipped off to be a comfort woman to the Japanese Imperial army.

Years of hardship, survival and even happiness follow. In the aftermath of WWII, the women make their way home, where they must reckon with the tangled lives they've led, in an attempt to reclaim their identities, and find their place in an independent Korea.

My reaction:-

At the beginning of this novel, Korea is controlled by Japan.  A  Korean viscount has a splendid home in Seoul, a son by a concubine and his wife is due to give birth after a series of miscarriages.  She bears him a healthy daughter, Yun Chaeryeong.  For her eighth birthday, her doting father buys her a companion/servant from the settlement associated with one of his farms, and this girl, Sunam (effectively a slave), has her life changed forever.  It seems extraordinary that a person could buy another and belong to an eight year old girl, but this collision of lives goes on to have many repercussions.  Sunam is an intelligent and resourceful child who is able to make use of the new world she finds herself living in, and it is interesting to see how this develops.  Chaeryong, meanwhile, enjoys a privileged life and education while her mother becomes increasingly embittered and distant.

I will not spoil the plot of the story, but both girl's destinies are thrown into the air by war and discord.  Chaeryeong loses her first love and is married off and sent to the USA, while Sunam has to adopt Chaeryeong's identity and take her punishment for associating with a Korean Independence campaigner as a support worker for the Japanese Army - in a military brothel.  This broke many women, but what of  Sunam?  The story tells us of how both these girls fare throughout their lives, and also how little right to self-determination women of any social status had at this time.  Subjugation to men and class affects both of them.

Although terrible things happen in this tale, as they did in reality, I enjoyed reading this well-written and -translated story and learning more about Korea's place in history and the world.  There is plenty of food for thought within the pages.  I really appreciate the opportunity to read and share my thoughts on Can't I Go Instead.

Books on Tour: New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village by Michelle Vernal

Bookouture's description:- 

 Welcome to the little Irish village of Emerald Bay where the sun is shining, the locals are gossiping, and romance is in the air. But will returning home be the fresh start Imogen Kelly needs?

Thirty-two-year-old Imogen Kelly is meant to be living her best life in Dublin but the bright lights of the city aren’t making her truly happy. So she leaps at the chance to take on an interior design job at the big country manor at the edge of Emerald Bay. It also gives Imogen an excuse to return to the place where she spent an unforgettable summer with her first love, Lachlan Leslie, the heir to Benmore House.

Imogen’s heart is full of hope at the thought of seeing her childhood sweetheart but on the way there she nearly has an accident on the winding, muddy country road. She arrives at Benmore House late and flustered, only to discover the builder working with her on the renovation project is none other than Ryan O’Malley – the class prankster who was forever pinging her bra strap at school.

Within seconds it’s clear he’s still a cheeky charmer, even if he’s transformed into a gorgeous guy who unexpectedly sets her pulse racing. Forced into close proximity with relentlessly cheerful Ryan, who’s forever (badly) singing rock ballads at the top of his voice, Imogen at first finds him an annoying distraction.

With St Patrick’s Day celebrations in full swing, Imogen has her work cut out to keep the job on track. Spending more time with Ryan, she discovers that, behind his warm smile and generous ways, he’s nursing heartache. But when she finally sees blue-eyed Lachlan again, Imogen has to face up to the truth about the secret summer romance they shared.

Will she leave Emerald Bay broken-hearted? Or will Imogen realise that home really is where the heart is?

What the publisher's description doesn't mention is that Imogen actually has a man in her life already - she has a relationship with her rather older boyfriend,  Nevin - "there's a bit of an age difference."  In fact, Nev comes with rather  lot of baggage as he has a previous marriage and grown up daughters who are still curiously dependant on their Dad to rescue them from various scrapes.  He wants no further children and Imogen has acquiesced, seemingly happy to pursue her career in interior design.  Her business is doing well and her success in Dublin is what leads her to accept a commission in her home village, giving her the the opportunity to visit her family and perhaps, at last, introduce her man to her childhood home.

Michelle Vernal has truly written a feel-good story, as warm as the community of Emerald Bay.  Imogen is very much a contemporary protagonist, seeking to find happiness and fulfilment in her chosen career and her personal life, yet not so lost in the glamour of life in the big city to have moved beyond her early life.  There is gentle humour and a great sense of place in the glorious Irish countryside, beautifully and wittily described.  I greatly enjoyed spending hours in Imogen's company as she adjusted to living back in her family home, coping with the fierce interest in her affairs of the community she grew up in, while dealing with her exacting employers, getting contractors to meet deadlines and specifications, her distant and demanding lover, her first real boyfriend and the disconcertingly multi-faceted man the classroom pest has grown up to be.  A deft and entertaining, compulsive read.  Thanks, Bookouture, for the opportunity to read this enjoyable book.

I was interested to learn that Michelle Vernal does not live in the Emerald Isle.  Michelle Vernal is a New Zealand author who writes stories that will take you onto the page with her characters and make you feel part of their lives. She writes with humour and warmth, and her readers describe her books as unputdownable, feel good and funny. Her writing has been likened to Maeve Binchy but with a modern-day vernacular. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Love Stories Award. In 2020 she won the Reader's Favourite Gold Medal Award for Chick Lit, and in 2021 was shortlisted for the Page Turner Book Awards.

If you would like to discover what other readers thought of this book, why not visit the other participants in this  Book Tour, who are listed below:

Blog Tour: The Girl Who Escaped by Angela Petch

 

The Girl Who Escaped: Utterly heartbreaking and emotional WW2 historical fiction by Angela Petch

 

Italy, 1940. The girl sobs and rages as her father tells her the terrible news. “Italy is entering the war alongside Germany. Jews are to be arrested and sent to camps. We have to be ready.”

As fascists march across the cobbled piazzas and past the towered buildings of her beloved home city, twenty-year-old Devora’s worst fears come true. Along with her Jewish parents and twin little brothers they are torn away from everything they love and sent to an internment camp huddled in the mountains. Her father promises this war will not last long…

When they are offered a miraculous chance of escape by her childhood friend Luigi, who risks everything to smuggle vital information into the camp, the family clambers under barbed wire and races for the border. But Devora is forced to make a devastating choice between saving a stranger’s life and joining her parents. As shots fire in the moonless night, the family is separated.

Haunted by the question of whether they are dead or alive, all Devora can do for their future is throw herself into helping Luigi in the Italian resistenza in the fight for liberty. But posing as a maid for a German commander to gather secret intelligence, Devora is sure she sees her friend one night, in a Nazi uniform…

Is Devora in more danger than ever? And will her family ever be reunited – or will the war tear them apart?

An absolutely devastating but ultimately uplifting historical novel about how love and hope can get us through the darkest times. Perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Rhys Bowen and Soraya M. Lane.

 

Buy link: https://geni.us/B0BYC1V9NHsocial

Devora is the heroine of this novel.  Born in Italy to Jewish parents who fled Germany and the horrors of persecution during WW1, she is happily living in Urbino, studying with the ambition to become a doctor, with a group of friends and a teenage crush on the local heart-throb.  However, the rise of the fascists and invasion by the Nazis threaten her future and the safety of her parent and twin brothers.  Devora must discover new strengths and resources within herself if she is to have the opportunity to grow up and realise her dreams, and she also needs to determine who her true friends are.  A spirited and rebellious girl, she must grow up quickly.

I enjoyed getting to know Devora and her journey to adulthood against the background of the War in a setting I was somewhat unfamiliar with: the Italian Resistance and the risks taken in outwitting the enemy as part of the fight for survival.  Urbino is a beautiful, hill-top walled city, a world heritage centre in the Marche region of the Appennines which played a significant part in the Renaissance and was the birthplace of the artist Raphael.  It looks absolutely beautiful and luckily it was not bombed during the war and remained relatively unscathed.  I recommend a quick search to discover more about this beautiful place, but I digress...

This is a moving story of bravery and collaboration against a common enemy, with a satisfying ending.

It is a good read, too. Thanks to Bookouture for the opportunity to enjoy this book.