Book Review: A Day of Fire by Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Kate Quinn, and Vicky Alvear Shecter

A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii
by Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Kate Quinn, and Vicky Alvear Shecter
ARC, e-book, 302 pages
Knight Media, LLC
November 4, 2014
★★★★★

Genre: Historical Fiction, Short Stories

Source: Received for review as part of HF Virtual Book Tour

“Pompeii was a lively resort flourishing in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius at the height of the Roman Empire. When Vesuvius erupted in an explosion of flame and ash, the entire town would be destroyed. Some of its citizens died in the chaos, some escaped the mountain's wrath . . . and these are their stories:

A boy loses his innocence in Pompeii's flourishing streets.
An heiress dreads her wedding day, not knowing it will be swallowed by fire.
An ex-legionary stakes his entire future on a gladiator bout destined never to be finished.
A crippled senator welcomes death, until a tomboy on horseback comes to his rescue.
A young mother faces an impossible choice for her unborn child as the ash falls.
A priestess and a whore seek redemption and resurrection as the town is buried.

Six authors bring to life overlapping stories of patricians and slaves, warriors and politicians, villains and heroes who cross each others' path during Pompeii's fiery end. But who will escape, and who will be buried for eternity?”

I LOVED this collection! Let’s just start with that fact. I have noticed a new trend lately of authors getting together to write a collection of short stories that tell a cohesive narrative, and I find this to be a really exciting trend! This is the first of these types of collections that I have had the chance to read, however I am also looking forward to reading Grand Central.

The stories told in this collection each would hold up as a stand-alone short story, however when read together you get a complete story of the city of Pompeii and the disaster that took its life; because quite frankly, that is what this book is really about. Sure there are great characters who you quickly become attached to and you learn their stories as well, but this book tells the fate of Pompeii, from the preceding days, to the actual eruption of the volcano, to the aftermath. We see Pompeii at her best, worst, and everything in between. There is great drama, pain, and luck. There are those who survive and those who don’t. You will experience a mixed bag of emotions here, so prepare yourself.

While each story focuses primarily on its own character or set of characters, there is definitely crossover between stories. You may catch a glimpse of a character from a prior story passing through the background of another story; these glimpses are sweet little treats. And if you are a fan of Kate Quinn’s novels, you will get the opportunity to see a couple beloved characters appear in this collection!

With a variety of authors writing this collection you run the chance of their voices not meshing with one another. That is not the case here. Their storytelling styles are so similar, you don’t really notice that you are reading different authors – which is a good thing in this circumstance.

An excellent job all around here – the writing style, the choice of stories told, the evolution of characters, the drama. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Way to go!

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Dodging Arrows

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon US and Amazon UK.

These authors have their own novels and you can check them out at their individual websites: Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Kate Quinn, and Vicky Alvear Shecter.

You can follow along with the rest of the tour by visiting the HFVBT site or on Twitter with the following hashtag: #ADayofFireBlogTour.

 

**UPDATE**

There is a tour wide giveaway for a beautiful one-of-a-kind Roman style Necklace (18″) and Earring set, hand-crafted with real carnelion, and inspired by jewelry of the ancient world.  It is open INTERNATIONALLY!!  Entries are made through the Rafflecopter below and the winner will be selected at the end of the tour by the tour coordinator.  Here are some rules:

• Giveaway ends at 11:59pm on December 5th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
• Winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter on December 6th and notified via email.
• Winner have 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

**If you previously entered this giveaway when it was listed as a copy of the book, the tour coordinator will be contacting you to make sure you still want to be entered in this giveaway drawing.**

Good luck and enjoy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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