BLOOD ROSE ANGEL (THE BONE ANGEL TRILOGY #3).

BLOOD ROSE ANGEL by LIZA PERRAT.

BACK COVER BLURB: 1348. A bone-sculpted angel and the woman who wears it––heretic, Devil’s servant, saint.

 Midwife Héloïse has always known that her bastard status threatens her standing in the French village of Lucie-sur-Vionne. Yet her midwifery and healing skills have gained the people’s respect, and she has won the heart of the handsome Raoul Stonemason. The future looks hopeful. Until the Black Death sweeps into France.

Fearful that Héloïse will bring the pestilence into their cottage, Raoul forbids her to treat its victims. Amidst the grief and hysteria, the villagers searching for a scapegoat, Héloïse must choose: preserve her marriage, or honour the oath she swore on her dead mother’s soul? And even as she places her faith in the protective powers of her angel talisman, she must prove she’s no Devil’s servant, her talisman no evil charm.

FIRST SENTENCE {The Year of Our Lord 1334, Lucie-sur-Vionne:1}: 'Christ's toenails, ignore him Héloïse;' Isa chided, as I glared at Drogen sauntering towards us through the market-place stalls and customers.

MEMORABLE RANDOM MOMENT {Apologies my post-it-note indicating my Memorable Moment appears to have dropped out of the book so instead I've opened a random page and will share a sentence - or two - from there}: Her face was haggard, with grief I supposed - drink certainly - and her once cornflower blue eyes were sunken into red-rimmed hollows with the unnatural brightness of a person on the cusp of lunacy - Page 220.

SOURCE: Received for review from the author.

MY THOUGHTS: One of those books that once started was nigh on impossible to put down and yet at the same time one of those novels that you didn't want to pick up knowing that every page read was a page closer to having to say goodbye to some wonderful characters not to mention the end of an exceptional trilogy.

The third in the Bone Angel Trilogy. Whilst the books are connected by three generations of women proud to have been passed down an angel talisman they are quite different stories (though perhaps the first, Spirit Of Lost Angels, is more similar to Blood Red Angel than the second, Wolfsangel) and as such can be read as stand alone reads or in which ever way the reader so wishes.

Superstition, pestilence, an oath sworn on a dead mother's soul, medicine, religion and most of all a wonderful heroine. A 'non-born', a midwife/healer, a woman taunted from childhood - in Héloïse Liza Perrat has created an amazing character who is at once complex and yet easy to relate to.

Her creating some quite heavy scenarios - the 'ignorant' superstitions and prejudices of many of the people, the treatment of women in general and women seen to be in different in particular, the religious/political struggles, Héloïse's relationship with her stonemason husband - thankfully tempered by some wonderfully tender and moving moments.

In short, not only does she write beautifully, Liza Perrat is also a master storyteller who manages to bring to life both the people and places of her novels and I for one can't wait to find out just where her next book will take me.