In the 18th century, British emigrants began settling in colonial New Zealand. The new and harsh landscape along with the presence of the native Maori creates unease and conflict among the two groups.  With ten interwoven short stories, the lives of several settlers and one Maori are examined.

I don't know a lot about New Zealand or its settlement by the British, so these stories were eye opening for me.  The stories each provided a very intimate and in-depth look into the lives of a diversity of characters.  Some of the stories were very emotional and taking on a darker tone and some had a dreamlike quality.  I enjoyed looking into a variety of characters, a newly married couple, the local madam. one of the working girls, farmers and a Maori man. Some of these characters I created a very strong connection with, especially Dottie, Laura and Pip. I also liked that even though these were short stories, each story had a small connection to each of the others through a character or an event; which, in the end created a story within itself.  

This book was received for free in return for an honest review. 

Ruth is born into a brothel, called ‘The Convent’ in 18th century Bristol.  Her mother is the hard-fisted Madam of the brothel, her sister Dora is the beauty, trained to take her mom’s place and Ruth is the scrapper with a not-so-fortunate face.   Ruth’s future seems bleak until Dora’s regular client; a well off Mr. Dryer, with a love for gambling sees talent in Ruth’s fighting abilities.  Mr. Dryer places Ruth in fights the Hatchet Inn where she earns a name for herself until Mr. Dryer places her in a fight at the Fair.   Mr. Dryer puts Ruth to the side when the fight goes south and starts training her husband Tom instead; Tom’s prospects seem high, so Mr. Dryer brings them to his fancy house.  While at the Dryer’s , an abandoned Ruth finds the friendship of the equally abandoned Mrs. Dryer, Charlotte.  Charlotte was scarred with smallpox when she was younger and forced to marry Mr. Dryer, she often hid into the shadows. Charlotte took on the care for Ruth when she was left to starve, and Ruth began to teach Charlotte how to fight.

I really enjoyed the plot of this book, about female boxers.  Unfortunately, much of the book strayed from this.  The book was written from three different points of view, Ruth, Charlotte and Mr. Dreyer’s childhood friend, George.   Beginning with Ruth’s point of view, I was immediately captured by Ruth’s spirit, the atmosphere surrounding the brothel and the beginning of her career in boxing.  Then, the point of view switches to George, and I felt duped.  George’s story of he and his school mates was interesting, but took away from the female perspective and felt far too long.  George’s perspective gave background to Charlotte, Dryer, Ruth and Dora’s histories, but did not do much to move the story along.  Charlotte’s story was also interesting, but took a while to get to.  I feel that I would have liked the book much better if it was cut down to just Ruth and Charlotte’s perspectives.  Also, there did not seem to be any main climax point lending to a weak story arc, I kept waiting for something significant to happen, but it didn’t. 

This book was received for free in return  for an honest review.