What do You think about The Blood Upon The Rose (2015)?
I thoroughly enjoyed this historic-fiction novel by Tim Vicary, my first experience of this author. Set in a politically divided Ireland in the early nineteen hundreds and backdropped by the First World War, it stages politics, class, and romance and demonstrates how the three just don’t mix.Catherine is a single-minded, obstinate, and determined young girl, the daughter of a wealthy colonel. Sean is a fanatical young man, dedicated to the IRA and its elusive leader, Michael Collins. Their attraction to each other is fated: they are separated by class, and Catherine has to balance her tenuous loyalty to her father with her love for Sean, who is being sought by the police for murder and hopefully to lead them to Michael Collins. Exasperated and under pressure to find both men, the British government is brought in, and Catherine’s colonel father enlists the stern and lonely Andrew Butler, a hero of the war, to find and assassinate Michael Collins. But the path to the success of this is hampered: how is that their fugitive is always one step ahead of his pursuer? This was a compelling story. One occasionally forgot the era in which the story was set: there was a modernness about some of the characters that perhaps was a little incongruous, but actually, this was what I really liked. The author didn’t overpower and bog it down with excessive historic detail. In fact, his words were carefully chosen throughout to keep you focussed and glued to the plot. There was no redundancy of words, nor lack thereof. The book was tense, very well conceived, and gripping and kept you on edge to the end. I loved the contrast provided by Catherine and Sean, both committed to their own ambitions, separated by their backgrounds, but bound by their passion.I very much liked this author’s style and his story-telling ability and will certainly look forward to reading more by him. I thoroughly recommend this.
—Cathy Speight
This book deals with the story of the Irish Independence and the formation and activities of the IRA and effectively brings out divided personal loyalties in the bigger picture of political unrest. The time period has been well researched and the characters fit well into the background.The feel of Ireland in the 1920s is very strong, and is the mainstay of the entire book. The despair of the local people, the determination of the British authorities to stamp out Irish nationalism and the anger of the IRA in dealing with such high handedness is very realistic and interesting. The characters are well etched out and the middle of the book becomes very interesting as the plots start to twist and turn and the characters get more complex. The book was suspenseful and kept me wondering what was happening next. Until the very finish, there was no indication of how it would end. The love story fits snugly into the background and flows very naturally. However, on the downside, there were some clichéd stories. The war torn assassin, the radical idealist who is in love with a rebel girl, an aristocratic girl rebelling against her destiny are all ideas that have been explored before countless times, but the author manages to breathe fresh life into them. At some points in the story, there is a show of misogyny that could have been avoided. This is highly recommended for anyone interested in a fictional depiction of the background of the Irish – English conflict in the last century.
—Kavita
"The Blood Upon the Rose" is sort of Romeo and Juliet story set against the backdrop of the violence in Ireland in the early 1900s when the Irish Republican Army (Sinn Fein) was actively engaged in fighting for Irish independence. Catherine is a member of the upper class, which does not believe in the independence movement. Sean is actively engaged in Sinn Fein. They should be natural enemies but in a twist of fate, they fall hard for each other even with everything else going on. It is a great, gripping love story set against chaos. I really enjoyed reading this historical fiction!One of the things I love about reading historical fiction is being taken to a place and time that I've never really known about before. Sure it's nice to visit old favorites in WWII and Tudor England but it's especially nice to learn about someplace entirely new, which I got a chance to in this book. Vicary really uses a lot of great historical detail to create Catherine and Sean's world. You get to feel of chaotic it would be and what it must have been like to live in those times. I personally did not realize how far the Sinn Fein movement went back so it was really interesting to see the movement during the early part of the 1900s. All of the detail really made the characters feel real to me, which is an important part of any book, in my opinion.I also really like a good, forbidden love story. The story of everything that happened between Catherine and Sean kept me fully engaged and wanting to know if they were going to get to be together. You really are pulling for them through the whole book until the very end. Overall, this book has so many good things going for it.
—Meg - A Bookish Affair
