‘A fast read with a lot to say about society, women, and progress.’ @deBieJennifer reviews #HistoricalFiction Talk Of Tokyo by @heather_hallman

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Rosie Amber

Today’s team review is from Jenny. Find her here https://jenniferdebie.com/

Jenni has been reading Talk Of Tokyo by Heather Hallman.

Where Heather Hallman gave only a taste of her version of turn-of-the-century Tokyo with her brief “Scandals of Tokyo” (the first installment in her Tokyo Whispers series), with Talk of Tokyo she delivers a full banquet. Return with Hallman to sumptuous and scandalous Tsukiji, the foreign quarter of Meiji-era Tokyo, and meet Suki Malveaux, a young woman who is half Japanese, half French, and all determination when it comes to her dream of being an investigative journalist.

For years Suki has nibbled around the edges of journalism, writing a popular gossip column as the anonymous Tokyo Tattler, but finally her editor has given Suki a true story and nothing is going to stop her pursuing it… not even a man (and a westerner at that!) who she may have misjudged, and publicly smeared, in the past.

As for the man himself, Griffith Spenser is an English businessman who has lost a wife to divorce, is in the process of extricating himself from a bothersome socialite girlfriend, and awaits the imminent arrival his orphaned niece and nephew in Tokyo Harbor. The only thing he wants is a proper governess to help the children adjust to their new lives in Japan, and if the intriguing Miss Malveaux can help him in that endeavor, or spend a little time with him until the right caretaker can be found, then all the better.

The two leads are on a collision course as their cultures, preconceptions, and passions tangle in Hallman’s sweeping tale of lies, truths, and love that can see past both. Lush in setting and rich in characterization, Hallman makes 1897 Tokyo glitter with diamonds, cut glass, and broken tinsel as her characters traverse the social strata and a political minefield while Suki pursues her story and Griff pursues her.

Written with a loving attention to detail, Hallman knows her time and place intimately, and it shows in every line. She also seems to revel in writing liminal characters, whether they are perceived as foreigners in their homeland (as half French Suki is), or are Japanese women ostracized for their associations with westerners, or are among the most vulnerable of society for other reasons, Hallman has a heart, and a talent, for bringing these characters to life.

Talk of Tokyo is a fast read with a lot to say about society, women, and progress. Lucky for us, it also happens to be a delicious read by a gifted wordsmith who will, hopefully, be bringing us stories from the land of the rising sun for years to come.

5/5

CAREFUL WITH YOUR WORDS

1897 Tokyo is no different than anywhere else in the world: men are exploiting women. Specifically, Western men are exploiting Japanese women, and Suki Malveaux holds no punches in her condemnation of their behavior in her weekly column in the Tokyo Daily News.

Suki knows firsthand when Western men arrive at Tokyo Bay there’s only one outcome for Japanese women: a child and new mother left behind as nothing more than discarded shrapnel from the heartless war on love.

Griffith Spenser is her latest target. He’s been seen with Natsu Watanabe, one of Tokyo’s esteemed war widows. Under full anonymity of the moniker “The Tokyo Tattler,” Suki makes sure Griffith knows exactly why his behavior with Natsu won’t be tolerated.

Away from her Japanese mask as a columnist, Suki never intended to meet the cad. When he seeks her out to hire as a tutor for his niece and nephew, she’s faced with seeing him day in and day out without him ever knowing who she really is.

Caught in her struggle for anonymity so she can keep battling for women’s rights, Suki’s about to learn the full impact of her words on the people behind the story, especially on Griff.

AmazonUK | AmazonUS

‘There is just enough detail to bring a face, a room, or a street to life without over burdening the reader’. Frank reviews Talk Of Tokyo by @heather_hallman

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Rosie Amber

Today’s team review is from Frank. Read more about him here https://franklparker.com/

Frank has been reading Talk Of Tokyo by Heather Hallman

I’m not sure why I expected something different when choosing this book. On the other hand, what I got was by no means a disappointment. That it might be better described as historical romance, rather than historical fiction, could provide an explanation, although, to be fair, it is both.

Written in a style full of the wit one might expect from a work by Jane Austen, this exploration of the unlikely relationship between two people from different cultures, set at the end of the nineteenth century, is a delight that can be experienced on several levels. There is the inevitable clash of cultures that took place when the hitherto feudal Japan opened up to trade with Europe and the USA. There is the rapidly evolving role of women in both cultures; there are the erotic possibilities that arise when two people experience a passionate desire to explore each other’s need for sexual fulfilment. Finally there is the corruption and exploitation of human weaknesses that accompanies the pursuit of lucrative trade deals and investment in new infrastructure.

In Talk of Tokyo, all these elements combine to produce an effervescent cocktail of scenes to both educate and delight the reader. The central character, half French, half Japanese, is a young woman whose French father deserted the family whilst she was still a child. She is determined to ‘out’ any foreign male who seems likely to treat Japanese women with equal disdain. Until, that is, she meets an English man whose sensibilities prove he is, at the very least, the exception that proves the rule.

The story is told in alternating first person narratives from both hers and his point of view, a technique that permits the author to indulge her proficiency in wit and irony through the contrast between the two. Both characters mature as the story progresses so that, by the end, two become one, so to speak. Along the way they expose one or two criminal conspiracies, something they are able to do, in part, because of the incompetence and/or lack of commitment on the part of the conspirators.

All of the other characters have substance, too, as do the settings. There is just enough detail to bring a face, a room, or a street to life without over burdening the reader with too much dull description.

The whole book is a delight to read, none more so than the erotic passages which are beautifully handled, and ‘handled’, in this context, very definitely has a double meaning.

Try as I might, I cannot think of a single reason to award fewer than five stars. Highly recommended for anyone who likes romance or history – especially a place and period that remains largely hidden from view in the English speaking world. I congratulate Ms Hallman for bringing it into the light.

CAREFUL WITH YOUR WORDS

Caught in her struggle for anonymity so she can keep battling for women’s rights, Suki’s about to learn the full impact of her words on the people behind the story, especially on Griff.

AmazonUK | AmazonUS