The Spanish Pearl by Catherine Friend

Publisher:               Bold Strokes Books


If you like historical fiction, this book by Goldie Award winning author Catherine Friend is for you.

Kate Vincent and her partner have traveled to Spain to adopt a child named Arturo. Kate isn't sure that she wants a child, but Anna does and Kate usually does what Anna wants. Besides, Arturo captures her heart immediately and she is determined to give him a good life. The process is delayed when Arturo catches a cold and, to pass the time, one afternoon Kate decides to visit a cave. While there she becomes dizzy, passes out and wakes up nine hundred years in the past. A woman who is used to cars, television, women's rights and who has an addiction to Diet Coke and chocolate finds herself in the Spain of the Moorish occupation in the days of El Cid. Moorish women have no rights at all, a fact that gets tart tongued Kate in trouble immediately.

Kate is taken prisoner by a group of soldiers, thrown into a harem and forced to live in a world where women are barely third class citizens. She is determined to escape in order to find the cave and return to the future, but is thwarted at every turn by Luis Navarro, a dashing captain of the guard. As Kate blunders her way through the life of the 11th century, Luis is there to save her, stop her and basically try to keep her alive. Kate continues to plot her return, but finds herself being drawn more to Luis, who has a secret to share, and Kate begins to question her relationship with Anna and whether or not returning to her own time is what she truly wants to do. After a daring dash across Spain, time spent in dungeons and being tortured, plus mingling in the intrigues of both the Moorish and Spanish royal courts, Kate has to face a final decision, which century is the one where her heart belongs.
 
Catherine Friend manags to tell an exciting story that draws the reader in without violating the constraints of history. Kate isn't a 21st century woman running around living that lifestyle in the 11th century. She has to follow the customs of the time, wear the appropriate clothing and respond as a woman from that time would. She doesn't lose any of her fire, but she also isn't accepted as an equal who can stand toe-to-toe with men and look them in the eye.

Friend doesn't use the trick of saying this is fantasy, so forget the reality of the period because it's fiction. She makes her heroine conform to the time and still keeps her interesting. The details in the book show the depth of her research. Little items like Kate, who is an artist, getting in trouble for putting perspective in her pictures (which won't be done for another four hundred years) or making a reference to how women dealt with menstrual periods in those days, help the reader to feel like she is in Spain in 1085 and makes the book seem almost true history. In fact, the reader will have to keep remembering that this IS fiction because the characters seem so real and true to the time.

Don't dismiss this as dry history however. There is humor, lust and danger enough to interest anyone. The Spanish Pearl is an exciting work to read and it might teach the reader something at the same time. Who could ask for more? 

A Pirate's Heart by Catherine Friend

Publisher:                 Bold Strokes Books


Catherine Friend has created another tale set in two centuries. She tells the parallel stories of pirate captain Thomasina Farris and Rebekah Brown in the 18th century and librarian Emma Boyd and private investigator Randi Marx in the present. In the process, the reader learns that there are still pirates among us and treasure lies in where you find it.

Tommy Farris had a reputation as a ruthless pirate in the Caribbean in the early 1700's and left many legends behind her before mysteriously disappearing. As a follow up to an article she did, Emma Boyd is determined to find out what happened to the captain and the fabulous fortune she supposedly stole from a Spanish gold fleet. The treasure has never turned up, but it becomes obvious that Emma isn't the only one who believes in it when she discovers that someone is going to rare book collections and cutting maps out of the books that might tell where Captain Tommy's gold is. Emma feels she is in a race against time with the thief, so she reluctantly accepts the assistance of investigator Randi Marx. As the women chase leads across the country, they discover Tommy Farris was more complex than anyone realized as they turn up evidence of an involvement with someone named R. Brown and tales of a hidden island that only some people can see. Randi Marx proves to be as difficult to know as the captain, but Emma is enjoying that challenge as much as the hunt for Farris, until a terrible betrayal threatens to break her heart forever. Emma learns that pirates come in many forms and capturing the heart of one may be more valuable than gold.

A Pirate's Heart is a combination of mystery and adventure with a little romance thrown in. The story of Thomasina Farris is a classic pirate story with swashbuckling and adventure with Rebekah Brown playing the part of the damsel who is reluctantly saved and then falls in love with the roguish captain. It captures the tone of the time very effectively and creates an interesting contrast with the present. Emma and Randi present more contemporary images, but reflect many of the same emotions and experiences as the earlier couple. 

The only drawback to the book is the way Friend chooses to alternate the stories from one couple to the other, past to present. Just as the reader is getting involved in one story, the book changes gears and switches to the other. It gives the book the feeling of being a little choppy, but none of the sections are long enough to cause the reader to lose the thread of either story. The format does allow the reader to compare the characters in both stories and see their similarities. Anyone who has read Friend's other historic novels will find this one equally as satisfying.