Blast from the Past! The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous, Reviewed by V.Cline Barton

To date, I have written three novels: ECONOMIC SEX in 1985,  The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous in 1999 - and my most recent effort, TRILLIUM, released in 2019.

For a quiet Canadian writer working in the boonies, it is a delightful and slightly unnerving experience when a more prolific and socially active American author reviews - and then extols - one's lesser known work.

When that reviewing author then gives that lesser known work  another FIVE star review  - it is hard not to sigh in relief and immense gratitude.

Could any writer ask for more?!?

The reviewing author of my last two novels, Veronica Cline Barton, is a fertile writer of a charming cozy murder series that has her main protagonist, Gemma, bounce back and forth from the States to the United Kingdom. Integral to Gemma's evolving story is Veronica's on-going interest with FAMILY and FORTUNE - but on a royal scale! We intersect on those two points. As #writers, we are both fascinated by the vicisstitudes of FAMILY and FORTUNE in fiction - and real life ... 

Book Review Header on Veronica's Blog

Since the very beginning of human history, family tribes have plotted to not only secure but expand their territories. Growth, let alone survival, has been achieved through numbers. Adding new members to any family invariably increases that family's material wealth and influence. 

The most common method to enhance status and FORTUNE is to 'marry' into a FAMILY of greater means or status than one's own. If family bonds are very thick, the 'ritual' of marriage becomes a strategic move to enhance both wedding parties material wealth and power.

It is only in relatively recent times that LOVE - as a basis for marriage - has gained ground against the plotting traditions of Powerful Families. (Just ask the British Monarchy.)

In Veronica's recent review of my second novel, The Gilded Beaver, she deftly highlights the slow evolution of the willful and creative protagonist, Iris Burdock, as she attempts to navigate the commercial world of FORTUNE. 

Iris, like so many of her hard-working female contemporaries, operates in the world of commerce without the traditional support of an ambitious or protective FAMILY.

As an independent woman, Iris must evaluate and assess a bachelor who has entered her working realm. 

It is not as straight-forward a business transaction as she initially thinks.

During her on-going assessment of his tastes and his way of life  - and without the wise or interfering counsel of family - Iris must chart her own course. She is eventually forced to ask herself what she really wants: is it FORTUNE? - Or is it really LOVE?

Read Veronica's stellar 5 star review of The Gilded Beaver  > 

https://myamericanalmostroyalcousinseries.com/2020/01/15/veronicas-writersdiary-when-reality-enters-the-fiction-zone/

The Gilded Beaver by Anonymous won the Hamilton Arts Council 'Best Fiction' Award in 1999.
TRILLIUM , my latest novel, was a Finalist for the same award in 2019 ...