Blue Desert Receives Midwest Book Review Feature!

The October 2022 issue of MBR’s online book review magazine "Reviewer's Bookwatch" features a review of "Blue Desert" by Celia Jeffries!

Here is the review:

Suanne Schafer's Bookshelf

Blue Desert
Celia Jeffries
https://www.celiajeffries.com
Rootstock Publishing
https://www.rootstockpublishing.com
9781578690442, $16.95

Alice George, a headstrong young woman of sixteen, is trapped in the societal constraints of Edwardian England. When her family moves to Morocco, her life finally changes. Then, on a drive with her father and younger sister, their driver has an accident and overturns the automobile. When a Taureg man carries Alice away from the accident site, she considers herself less kidnapped than liberated. The desert, so open, inviting yet hostile, intrigues her as do the Tuareg. She lives with them until, with the onset of World War I, she leaves the Tuareg and returns to England in 1917. Alice must find her way through the landmines of Edwardian England which is completely different from what she remembers. Her family doesn't understand what has happened to her, so Alice hides her Tuareg life in her deepest soul. Alice's two worlds collide when she is 78.

The prose here is understated, the details sensuous and exquisite. The novel is deeply rooted in nature with lush descriptions of the seemingly empty Sahara desert and the moors and woods of Devonshire. The characterizations are complex, especially Alice. Jeffries weaves a tale of colliding cultures with collisions reverberating though individual cultures as well with undercurrents of "progress" coming to the Tuaregs. She contrasts the free nomadic life of the Tuaregs and the colonialism espoused by the British. Alice is unabashedly feminist in an age when women are bound to strict societal roles. Be prepared to root for an exceptional protagonist.

–Suanne Schafer, Reviewer

Originally posted at http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/oct_22.htm#suanneschafer.