Review/Giveaway: Pleasing Mr. Pepys by Deborah Swift

London 1667. Set in a London rising from the ruins of the Great Fire, Pleasing Mr Pepys is a vivid re-imagining of the events in Samuel Pepys’s Diary. 

Desperate to escape her domineering aunt, Deb Willet thinks the post of companion to well-respected Elisabeth Pepys is the answer to her prayers. But Samuel Pepys’s house is not as safe as it seems. An intelligent girl in Deb’s position has access to his government papers, and soon she becomes a target of flamboyant actress Abigail Williams, a spy for England’s enemies, the Dutch. 

Abigail is getting old and needs a younger accomplice. She blackmails Deb into stealing Pepys’s documents. Soon, the respectable life Deb longs for slides out of her grasp. Mr Pepys’s obsessive lust for his new maid increases precisely as Abigail and her sinister Dutch spymaster become more demanding. When Deb falls for handsome Jem Wells, a curate-in-training, she thinks things cannot possibly get worse. 

Until – not content with a few stolen papers – the Dutch want Mr Pepys’s Diary.

Publication Date: September 28, 2017

Accent Press

eBook & Paperback; 407 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

****

I have been a fan of Deborah Swift's since reading The Lady's Slipper and The Gilded Lily.  She has that great ability to transport this reader back in time and become fully immersed in her books.

Reading in the 1600's is not a time I visit that often, being unfamiliar with the history and events it is always a treat to learn more especially at the hands of an author who has definitely done the research.  To be honest I really couldn't even have told you who the King was at the time let alone heard of Samuel Pepy, and it's learning about these unknown (to me anyways) figures that I thoroughly enjoy.  Even Deb Willet is from the pages of history, though not much is known and the author does a great job creating her story.

Deborah Swift did not disappoint, her research shines through here.  Told from different POV's I was able to get into the heads of different characters which balanced out the story nicely.  England is still recovering after the Great Fire, it's created dire situations for a vast majority of it's citizens as well as political tension with the Dutch, life isn't easy.  With vivid descriptions it wasn't hard to feel the conditions and despair.

Definitely a book I highly recommend and my thanks to HFVBT for the invite to be part of this tour.

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Chapters

 

Deborah Swift is the author of three previous historical novels for adults, The Lady’s Slipper, The Gilded Lily, and A Divided Inheritance, all published by Macmillan/St Martin’s Press, as well as the Highway Trilogy for teens (and anyone young at heart!). Her first novel was shortlisted for the Impress prize for new novelists. She lives on the edge of the beautiful and literary English Lake District – a place made famous by the poets Wordsworth and Coleridge.

For more information, please visit Deborah Swift's website.

You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Giveaway

During the Blog Tour we will be giving away a signed copy of Pleasing Mr. Pepys to one lucky winner! To enter, please enter via the Gleam form below.

Giveaway Rules
 – Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on October 20th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
 – Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.
 – Only one entry per household. Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.


  Pleasing Mr. Pepys