Paullina Simons is a massively popular bestselling author world-wide, and I’m a huge fan of The Bronze Horseman series, which is an epic Russian love story. Paullina is Russian born, although she lives in America now, and I feel her Russian heritage is evident in all her writing. Nothing is timid or understated. Everything is dramatic and heightened, emotional and epic.
The Tiger Catcher is the first novel in the End of Forever trilogy, and once again it is a big, dramatic love story.
Julian sees Josephine perform in a play in London and he’s mesmerised by her, and then he meets her a few weeks later in LA and they begin a passionate love affair. But none of his friends like her and everyone seems to think she is hiding secrets. But he is so smitten with Josephine that he wants to marry her, and they are deliriously happy together. But then the most tragic event happens, and I’m not doing a spoiler to say that Josephine dies before their wedding, because in the opening chapter you meet Julian who is grief stricken. But you will have to read the book to find out the why, what and how around her death, which is part of the intrigue of the book.
But Julian is given the chance to go back in time to find Josephine again, at great risk to himself, so at this point the novel becomes a time slip story. Julian goes back to London in the 1600s in an attempt to reconnect with his lost love. This part of the book is very well done, and a fascinating look into life in a different era, where the skills that Julian had in the modern world aren’t that useful in the 1600s, and there are many practical things he doesn’t know how to do. And Josephine (called Mary in this era) is a slightly different person in things like her appearance and manner, but also the same person in her love and passion for things in life.
This is a book of love, loss, grief and angst. Anyone who loves Outlander by Diana Gabaldon or The Time Traveller’s Wife will enjoy this book. I thought The Tiger Catcher was wonderful. It’s emotionally engaging, larger than life, truly epic and compelling. The next instalment is out in July, so we don’t have long to wait for A Beggar’s Kingdom! Which is just as well, as I am hooked and can’t wait to see what happens to Julian and Josephine’s time travel love affair next.
Reviewer: Karen McMillan
Published by HarperCollins