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The Thief of Red Mountain
Would you sacrifice your past to change your fate?
Japan, 1859, and the decline of the samurai era.
Akayama Arata and his young wife Mei become hostages following a raid by shogunate soldiers on their remote mountain estate. Their target was Arata's brother, the enigmatic lord of the Red Mountain, but he has fled and the ornate house now stands empty. Arata and Mei need to find a way to escape or else lure their lord back and betray him.
Yet Arata's injuries have left him with no memory of his former life and he is forced to rely on Mei to understand who he once was and the role he played in his clan's downfall.
Gradually he begins to wonder if he can trust her. The strange and beautiful Mei has her own secrets, and their time together is running out. As Arata endeavours to piece together events, he finds himself borne deeper into the family's tangled web of lies, betrayal and revenge.
This new addition to the samurai genre is a fast-paced romantic thriller that builds to a gripping conclusion.
Japan, 1859, and the decline of the samurai era.
Akayama Arata and his young wife Mei become hostages following a raid by shogunate soldiers on their remote mountain estate. Their target was Arata's brother, the enigmatic lord of the Red Mountain, but he has fled and the ornate house now stands empty. Arata and Mei need to find a way to escape or else lure their lord back and betray him.
Yet Arata's injuries have left him with no memory of his former life and he is forced to rely on Mei to understand who he once was and the role he played in his clan's downfall.
Gradually he begins to wonder if he can trust her. The strange and beautiful Mei has her own secrets, and their time together is running out. As Arata endeavours to piece together events, he finds himself borne deeper into the family's tangled web of lies, betrayal and revenge.
This new addition to the samurai genre is a fast-paced romantic thriller that builds to a gripping conclusion.
269 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 28, 2013
1 person is currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Nathalie Andrews
2 books10 followersNathalie Andrews is the author of "The Thief of Red Mountain," a historical romance set in late Edo Period Japan.
Nathalie has traveled throughout the world, often with little more than a tent, a backpack and a decent knowledge of the local beer. She had always hoped to grow up and be a great adventurer before discovering that adventuring doesn't pay the bills and people don't actually grow up.
Nathalie trained for over ten years in Egyptology and has presented and published academic papers on language and religion in Ancient Egypt. She works as an executive assistant, and is founder of Girl and Cat Publishing. She currently lives in London with her cat, Nefertari and a house full of shiny and colourful things.
Nathalie has traveled throughout the world, often with little more than a tent, a backpack and a decent knowledge of the local beer. She had always hoped to grow up and be a great adventurer before discovering that adventuring doesn't pay the bills and people don't actually grow up.
Nathalie trained for over ten years in Egyptology and has presented and published academic papers on language and religion in Ancient Egypt. She works as an executive assistant, and is founder of Girl and Cat Publishing. She currently lives in London with her cat, Nefertari and a house full of shiny and colourful things.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 26, 2014
I find it hard to write a coherent review of something I enjoy. Part of me wants to put on an analytical hat and dissect the themes of dependence and family and identity and holding on to your obligations - no matter the cost. The other half wants to gush at how much I enjoyed the writing, the characters, the world. I want to talk about how every character took a piece of my heart, how I stayed up way past my bedtime to keep reading, but then had to kept putting it aside to pace myself because while I wanted to know what happened - I didn't want it to end.
So bear with me. I only finished it the other day and am still filled with the glow of reading a book that was one of those rare stories that stick in the back of your mind because you don't want to let them go.
The Thief of Red Mountain was nothing that I expected it to be.
Normally, the term 'historical romance' would send me to the bookstore to find ANYTHING else. But I was interested in the premise of this so I decided to think of it as 'memory loss revenge story with family secrets and lies and samurai'. That being said, the historical aspects of it were really interesting. Coming from someone who skims over anything that doesn't have to do with the immediate action, I found I couldn't skim through anything. Not only was the writing too beautiful to ignore, but the story and the world was so fascinating it demanded my full attention.
And romance, I'm not a fan of romance. But I am a fan of watching character fall in love, and there's a nice lovely wonderful twist to this that had my cynical heart all a-flutter.
So, now that my misconceptions about 'historical romance' are smashed out of the water lets talk about the story.
What a story.
It's like the author peeked inside my head, plucked out everything I like and mixed it into her book.
Seriously. Samurai? Check. Brother rivalry story? Oh my, yes. Massive awesome fight scenes that are like - WOAH did that just happen? Plenty. Are our heroes facing overwhelming odds? Sure are. Is there a compelling mystery? You betcha. Scene where antagonist and hero have to grudgingly work together? Antagonist who probably isn't that bad of a guy, if the situation was different? Check and check again.
The book opens in the aftermath of some shogunate soldiers killing the hell out of everyone on the titular mountain. Everyone, except the two main characters. They would have been killed too, but Mei pulls some fast talking and buys them some time.
The soldiers, lead by the gruff and grumpy Captain Takashi, (who is FANTASTIC) are there for the head of Lord Akayama, but he's not there. Just the sweet and strange Mei and her injured, probably-going-to-die-soon-anyway husband, the lord's brother.
Takashi and Mei work out an arrangement - she and her husband remain on the mountain as bait with the hope that the brother will hear of their plight and return to help them out. In the meantime, Takashi can blackmail Mei for money and her, uh 'company' and they get to live a little longer. Everyone's happy.
Well, not really, because when her husband wakes up he's lost his memory.
Normally I'd be rolling my eyes at this trope, but it's handled so well. Not only does it make things tricky for the characters (as you would expect from this sort of device) but it make us learning about the characters so much more engaging. This guy's trying to learn who he is at the same time we're trying to suss him out and something about going on this journey with him as he attempts to pull some shambles of his identity together makes us like him so much more.
For someone who starts of as essentially a blank slate, someone who we know about only from the coloured impressions of Mei, it's amazing how quickly I was on his side. And that's no mean feat the author has pulled off, because according to Mei, he was not a nice man before the head wound that killed his memories.
The memory loss also give our characters some more drama to deal with. Apparently he knows where his brother is. Or he should - seen as his dear old brother is the one responsible for his nearly fatal, memory-losing head injury.
As the story goes on Mei tries to help him remember anything that can get them out of the situation they're in, but as small memories start to come back more and more things don't add up. It's obvious almost immediately that Mei's lying to him. The lie is a big one (and a major spoiler so I won't go into it too much) but once it comes out all these pieces fall into place. Now, this big twist comes about half way through the story, but the mystery isn't over then. There is obviously something seriously messed up going on with the brothers and Mei and something about it is the key to why they're being targeted. (There's another whole political side to this but I'm not going to touch on it too much, because the brother story is much more interesting)
We might have found out WHAT Mei was hiding, but we don't really know why and the tension keeps building right up to the final confrontation.
Told through flashbacks and switching point of views the mystery and the history of this family slowly comes together.
We have not one, but two unreliable narrators. We know Mei is lying, but we don't know her intentions right away and she's such a fascinating character it's hard not to go along with whatever she says.
Don't get me wrong, it's fairly obvious she has good intentions. She wants to keep them both alive, there's no hint of a sinister motivation from her. What makes it so interesting is trying to understand why she's doing what she's doing.
Her husband can't remember enough about his past to be fully trusted either. Right now he seems to be a good guy - but based on Mei's memories and the fight he and his brother had before the story opened - we don't really know what he's been up to. Again, his intentions are good. He wants to find out the truth and protect his home and protect Mei. But theres the chance he's the reason they're in this mess.
Honestly, I could spend forever talking about how much I love these characters. How complex and real and understandable they are. Personally, a book could be two people sitting in an empty white room and having a chat. As long as I care about them I'm invested. I could be in a bare room with these characters - Mei, the Akayama brothers, Arata and Ryuu, and Takashi -book after book. All they would need to do is talk to each other, argue with each other, tease each and I'd be hooked. They're flawed and fascinating and fantastic.
They're not in a bare room, though. While for me, characters are the most important thing, I can't fail to mention how wonderful the writing is. Normally I skim over description. (Short attention span, great interest in characters, It's just how I read, OK) But in this world, a bamboo thicket is a 'strange geometry of green' How great is that? Honestly, if I went through the book picking out every line that stirs some fantastic imagery or great emotion I'd be here all night. I will say that the writing is so true, it's easy to just fall in the words on the pages and be wrapped in the story and the world. It's gorgeous.
My other favourite quote is about the romance. Again, romance stories don't usually get to me so the fact I include it is a testament to how much I love it.
"If it were possible to fall in love, he thought, with the same person twice, then no doubt everyone would choose it. Over and over. And over again."
There's no better way to close this review then to echo (and butcher) that perfect thought.
If I could read this book again without knowing what would happen, and have the chance to discover it and the characters fresh one more time, I would. Over and over and over again.
So bear with me. I only finished it the other day and am still filled with the glow of reading a book that was one of those rare stories that stick in the back of your mind because you don't want to let them go.
The Thief of Red Mountain was nothing that I expected it to be.
Normally, the term 'historical romance' would send me to the bookstore to find ANYTHING else. But I was interested in the premise of this so I decided to think of it as 'memory loss revenge story with family secrets and lies and samurai'. That being said, the historical aspects of it were really interesting. Coming from someone who skims over anything that doesn't have to do with the immediate action, I found I couldn't skim through anything. Not only was the writing too beautiful to ignore, but the story and the world was so fascinating it demanded my full attention.
And romance, I'm not a fan of romance. But I am a fan of watching character fall in love, and there's a nice lovely wonderful twist to this that had my cynical heart all a-flutter.
So, now that my misconceptions about 'historical romance' are smashed out of the water lets talk about the story.
What a story.
It's like the author peeked inside my head, plucked out everything I like and mixed it into her book.
Seriously. Samurai? Check. Brother rivalry story? Oh my, yes. Massive awesome fight scenes that are like - WOAH did that just happen? Plenty. Are our heroes facing overwhelming odds? Sure are. Is there a compelling mystery? You betcha. Scene where antagonist and hero have to grudgingly work together? Antagonist who probably isn't that bad of a guy, if the situation was different? Check and check again.
The book opens in the aftermath of some shogunate soldiers killing the hell out of everyone on the titular mountain. Everyone, except the two main characters. They would have been killed too, but Mei pulls some fast talking and buys them some time.
The soldiers, lead by the gruff and grumpy Captain Takashi, (who is FANTASTIC) are there for the head of Lord Akayama, but he's not there. Just the sweet and strange Mei and her injured, probably-going-to-die-soon-anyway husband, the lord's brother.
Takashi and Mei work out an arrangement - she and her husband remain on the mountain as bait with the hope that the brother will hear of their plight and return to help them out. In the meantime, Takashi can blackmail Mei for money and her, uh 'company' and they get to live a little longer. Everyone's happy.
Well, not really, because when her husband wakes up he's lost his memory.
Normally I'd be rolling my eyes at this trope, but it's handled so well. Not only does it make things tricky for the characters (as you would expect from this sort of device) but it make us learning about the characters so much more engaging. This guy's trying to learn who he is at the same time we're trying to suss him out and something about going on this journey with him as he attempts to pull some shambles of his identity together makes us like him so much more.
For someone who starts of as essentially a blank slate, someone who we know about only from the coloured impressions of Mei, it's amazing how quickly I was on his side. And that's no mean feat the author has pulled off, because according to Mei, he was not a nice man before the head wound that killed his memories.
The memory loss also give our characters some more drama to deal with. Apparently he knows where his brother is. Or he should - seen as his dear old brother is the one responsible for his nearly fatal, memory-losing head injury.
As the story goes on Mei tries to help him remember anything that can get them out of the situation they're in, but as small memories start to come back more and more things don't add up. It's obvious almost immediately that Mei's lying to him. The lie is a big one (and a major spoiler so I won't go into it too much) but once it comes out all these pieces fall into place. Now, this big twist comes about half way through the story, but the mystery isn't over then. There is obviously something seriously messed up going on with the brothers and Mei and something about it is the key to why they're being targeted. (There's another whole political side to this but I'm not going to touch on it too much, because the brother story is much more interesting)
We might have found out WHAT Mei was hiding, but we don't really know why and the tension keeps building right up to the final confrontation.
Told through flashbacks and switching point of views the mystery and the history of this family slowly comes together.
We have not one, but two unreliable narrators. We know Mei is lying, but we don't know her intentions right away and she's such a fascinating character it's hard not to go along with whatever she says.
Don't get me wrong, it's fairly obvious she has good intentions. She wants to keep them both alive, there's no hint of a sinister motivation from her. What makes it so interesting is trying to understand why she's doing what she's doing.
Her husband can't remember enough about his past to be fully trusted either. Right now he seems to be a good guy - but based on Mei's memories and the fight he and his brother had before the story opened - we don't really know what he's been up to. Again, his intentions are good. He wants to find out the truth and protect his home and protect Mei. But theres the chance he's the reason they're in this mess.
Honestly, I could spend forever talking about how much I love these characters. How complex and real and understandable they are. Personally, a book could be two people sitting in an empty white room and having a chat. As long as I care about them I'm invested. I could be in a bare room with these characters - Mei, the Akayama brothers, Arata and Ryuu, and Takashi -book after book. All they would need to do is talk to each other, argue with each other, tease each and I'd be hooked. They're flawed and fascinating and fantastic.
They're not in a bare room, though. While for me, characters are the most important thing, I can't fail to mention how wonderful the writing is. Normally I skim over description. (Short attention span, great interest in characters, It's just how I read, OK) But in this world, a bamboo thicket is a 'strange geometry of green' How great is that? Honestly, if I went through the book picking out every line that stirs some fantastic imagery or great emotion I'd be here all night. I will say that the writing is so true, it's easy to just fall in the words on the pages and be wrapped in the story and the world. It's gorgeous.
My other favourite quote is about the romance. Again, romance stories don't usually get to me so the fact I include it is a testament to how much I love it.
"If it were possible to fall in love, he thought, with the same person twice, then no doubt everyone would choose it. Over and over. And over again."
There's no better way to close this review then to echo (and butcher) that perfect thought.
If I could read this book again without knowing what would happen, and have the chance to discover it and the characters fresh one more time, I would. Over and over and over again.
January 6, 2015
Set in the backdrop of feudal Japan and the decline of the Edo Bakufu (Shogunate), Nathalie Andrews spins a delicate tale of betrayal, power, and revenge.
From the construction of chapter titles to her poetic use of prose, the author’s subtle hints at the softer side of her warriors’ nature touch the very spirit of bushido (the Samurai warrior code) perfectly. Even the title is, in effect, wordplay on the family name of her protagonist daimyo, Akayama (red mountain). She even goes so far as to separate the scenes within her chapters by use of the kanji symbols for red mountain, 赤山.
Many sub-plots infuse the story with intrigue; Brother against brother, wife against husband, Bakufu against daimyo, and the common thread to all, is a mysterious and beautiful commoner (Mei) who is left alone on the mountain with an injured brother who has lost his memory.
The storytelling, though beautifully written, has a cadence reminiscent of Haiku. Using this method, the author expends a great deal of time relaying character contemplations, motivations, and back stories right in the middle of critical dialogue. This had the unfortunate effect of distracting from that dialogue and the interplay between the characters. This was especially apparent during the fight scenes. Editing issues with format, missing words, and English spellings for certain words (such as realise instead of realize) detracted from a smooth reading experience.
From the construction of chapter titles to her poetic use of prose, the author’s subtle hints at the softer side of her warriors’ nature touch the very spirit of bushido (the Samurai warrior code) perfectly. Even the title is, in effect, wordplay on the family name of her protagonist daimyo, Akayama (red mountain). She even goes so far as to separate the scenes within her chapters by use of the kanji symbols for red mountain, 赤山.
Many sub-plots infuse the story with intrigue; Brother against brother, wife against husband, Bakufu against daimyo, and the common thread to all, is a mysterious and beautiful commoner (Mei) who is left alone on the mountain with an injured brother who has lost his memory.
The storytelling, though beautifully written, has a cadence reminiscent of Haiku. Using this method, the author expends a great deal of time relaying character contemplations, motivations, and back stories right in the middle of critical dialogue. This had the unfortunate effect of distracting from that dialogue and the interplay between the characters. This was especially apparent during the fight scenes. Editing issues with format, missing words, and English spellings for certain words (such as realise instead of realize) detracted from a smooth reading experience.
October 14, 2014
I originally got this book as a gesture of solidarity to a fellow-NaNoWriMo-er and fellow south-east Londoner. I know little about 19th century Japan, it's outside my usual genres.
Then it floated to the top of my TBR list, so I read it, and was blown away by the writing. The descriptions put me right in the scene, the characters were complex, and the plot was one of those onion-skin plots, where you peel away layer by layer, each time exposing a little more of what has been going on. And for the most part there is no need to understand a lot about Japanese culture and history, the action is all about universal human experiences. Though no doubt if you do, that can only add to your enjoyment.
I'm really glad of that impulse to get the book, and now I'm going to get the next one too. Seriously. Highly recommended.
Then it floated to the top of my TBR list, so I read it, and was blown away by the writing. The descriptions put me right in the scene, the characters were complex, and the plot was one of those onion-skin plots, where you peel away layer by layer, each time exposing a little more of what has been going on. And for the most part there is no need to understand a lot about Japanese culture and history, the action is all about universal human experiences. Though no doubt if you do, that can only add to your enjoyment.
I'm really glad of that impulse to get the book, and now I'm going to get the next one too. Seriously. Highly recommended.
January 4, 2014
This book is for those who want to escape into another culture and land. Nineteenth century Japan, and the characters within, are brought alive by the author. There is romance and adventure, with a wonderful plot twist. It keeps you engrossed throughout.
September 8, 2016
A wonderfully balanced book. I really felt I was looking through a window into mid-19th century Japan, just as the age of the samurai was drawing to a close. The characters were well crafted and each had a compelling story to tell. I would recommend this story to any lover of historic fiction!
December 6, 2016
life is just a story, seems like I've lived through this story
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews