Bohemian Gospel

by Dana Chamblee Carpenter

Overview

Thirteenth-century Bohemia is a dangerous place for a girl, especially one as odd as Mouse, born with unnatural senses and an uncanny intellect. Some call her a witch. Others call her an angel. Even Mouse doesn’t know who—or what—she is. But she means to find out.When young King Ottakar shows up at the Abbey wounded by a traitor's arrow, Mouse breaks church law to save him and then agrees to accompany him back to Prague as his personal healer. Caught in the undertow of court politics at the castle, Ottakar and Mouse find themselves drawn to each other as they work to uncover the threat against him and to unravel the mystery of her past. But when Mouse's unusual gifts give rise to a violence and strength that surprise everyone—especially herself—she is forced to ask herself: Will she be prepared for the future that awaits her? A highly original tale of fantasy and adventure, Bohemian Gospel heralds the arrival of a fresh new voice for historical fiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605989020
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/15/2015
Series:	The Bohemian Trilogy , #1
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	889 KB

About the Author

Dana Chamblee Carpenter is the award-winning author of short fiction that has appeared in The Arkansas Review, Jersey Devil Press, and Maypop. Her debut novel, Bohemian Gospel, won Killer Nashville’s 2014 Claymore Award.  She teaches creative writing and American Literature at a private university in Nashville, TN, where she lives with her husband and two children.
Dana Chamblee Carpenter is the award-winning author of short fiction that has appeared in The Arkansas Review, Jersey Devil Press, and Maypop. Her debut novel, Bohemian Gospel, won Killer Nashville's 2014 Claymore Award. She teaches creative writing and American Literature at a private university in Nashville, TN, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Editorial Reviews

In those parts of the tale in which Mouse must counter threats, the novel is a compulsive read, full of historical and supernatural (yet historically-founded) detail.

Historical Novel Society

A grand,
thought-provoking adventure in sorrow, joy and magic.

One of the most intriguing novels you'll read this year.

An unforgettable debut with an enchanting, compelling lead.

J. T. Ellison

One of the best novels I've read in years. Wonderful writing, great characters,

a fantastic story—everything a reader of historical fiction could want.

Philip Freeman

Carpenter expertly combines elements of gothic fantasy with historical details of 13th-century Bohemia. The combination creates an atmosphere of mysticism and tension. With a strong and nuanced central character and a rich sense of mystery, Bohemian Gospel is breathtaking.

Shelf Awareness (starred review)

The most badass heroine I’ve encountered in a long time. One part historical thriller, one part adventure fantasy, and all parts girl power.

Nina Sankovitch

This entrancing and suspenseful story pulls you in as if you were reading a

Grimm's fairy tale but with a strong, complex yet vulnerable woman at its core.

A page-turner of eerie shivers and supernatural questions.

Nancy Bilyeau

A thoroughly enjoyable read — gripping and exciting with a wonderful and intriguing central character in the enigmatic Mouse and a sting-in-the-tail ending that is a genuine surprise. We will be hearing much more from Dana Chamblee Carpenter in the future.

Diana Bretherick

Bohemian Gospel is a fast-moving, seductive read. A fascinating mix of dark fantasy and rich historical detail, swirling around Mouse, a fiercely independent, brave young woman who struggles with a gift that is both a blessing and a curse.

Linda Lafferty

Like a rushing river, Bohemian Gospel flows bright, dappled with a patina of legend, and has a current that runs deep and wonderfully dark. The reader will be swept along in this bold debut.

Mark Richard

Bohemian Gospel isn't afraid to leave readers with unanswered questions, though, in the best possible way. Hot dang, that is how you write a freaking epilogue. I refuse to disclose any spoilers, but trust me—you won't see the ending coming. I can only sit tight and wait for a sequel.

Ellen Findley - Odyssey

Carpenter deftly plays with readers’ expectations throughout the novel. The book’s opening gives every indication that this will be a Cinderella story: the tale of a young, handsome king who rescues a nameless orphan and who is in turn rescued by her. But in Bohemian Gospel, this scenario is only the beginning of a long, complicated relationship. Carpenter’s debut runs readers through the gamut of emotions, hoping against hope for a happy ending in a time and place where endings tend to be anything but happy.

Chapter 16

A
riveting, spell-binding tale that brings 13th century Europe vividly to life.

S.D. Sykes

2015-09-03
Thirteenth-century Bohemia: the kingdom is cursed by infighting, and a young girl with strange gifts struggles to heal and win the heart of a king, safeguard the kingdom, and fight some nasty demons in Carpenter's debut novel. Mouse has grown up in an abbey but finds herself ostracized from the rites of the Church. Trained in healing and possessing preternatural senses about the world and about human souls, she saves King Ottakar's life following an assassination attempt. He's taken with her beauty and her skill and insists she travel back to his court as his ward. Once there, she must not only navigate the dangerous political landscape, but also begin to come to terms with her own mysterious abilities, which earn her muttered accusations of witchcraft. Father Lucas, one of the men who raised Mouse and who calls her his "angel," returns to help her banish some ghosts who have been terrorizing her and the kingdom, and then he and Mouse travel to Houska, an abandoned fort that has been constructed over the gate to Hell. Carpenter's novel is an odd hybrid: part history, part horror, part love story, part Christian mythology, and this at first keeps it fresh and surprising. But all these parts fail to become a comprehensive whole, and the fragments splinter the narrative, rendering it uneven and each part of the story frustratingly incomplete. There will be some comparisons to Kostova's The Historian, and like that novel, this one does a good job of interweaving history with mythology and the supernatural, offering a new take on somewhat familiar themes. Unlike that novel, however, this one clocks in at an easily readable length; it should have been longer in order to fully develop the interesting seeds from which it springs. Brings the Dark Ages to strange and bewitching life for a time but proves too ambitious for its own good.

Kirkus Reviews