The Maternal Element by Kate Nicholls Blog Tour

Today is my stop on the blog tour for book "The Maternal Element" by Kate Nicholls, this is a Random Things Tour. The Book is available to buy now on kindle or paperback versions from Amazon.


Book Blurb read outloud HERE on our Booktok, we always include the book blurb text in our review post, below. The book is available to buy in Kindle and paperback format, from Amazon.

About the author




Kate Nicholls is an author and former actor who traded the stage to study evoluti onary biology. She raised and homeschooled fi ve children while researching lions in the Okavango Delta. She now lives and writes in Rome

The Maternal Element by Kate Nicholls
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out as able, 5 days

Pages - 400

Publisher - SALT

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Siberia 1833.

Forty-one-year-old Maria Mendeleeva is enduring her seventeenth pregnancy. Her husband Ivan has lost his sight, and her brother Vasily has left their grandfather’s glass factory in ruins. The factory Maria hungered for as a child. On the brink of poverty and her family’s only remaining hope, Maria must find a way to make the factory viable. She must find the power to bring her grandfather's dreams back to life. She must make the glass sing.

The Maternal Element is a sweeping, gripping epic with an extraordinary woman at its heart. Maria Mendeleeva – mother of Dmitri Mendeleev, who devised the Periodic Table of the Elements – is a heroine like no other. A woman who refuses to be quashed by circumstance, Maria fights against the strictures of her time to gain an education for herself and for her children as she traverses the Urals of Russia seeking opportunity and safety for her family. A vivid and visceral portrait of a woman history has long since forgotten, The Maternal Element is a manifesto for truth, female empowerment and defying societal expectations.


My Review

So I don't know much at all of Dmitri Mendeleeve but know absolutely zero about his family, up bring and indeed his mother. I do enjoy reading people's history especially going back to the 1800's because it is such a different time. This one takes us back to when Maria is just a bairn, what life is like for her desperately wanting everything offered so freely to her brother. Girls are meant to prepare for being married and keeping a home. Maria is like a wee sponge, so inquisitive, wanting to know and learn everything, science in particular, how things work, following her dad about. Her brother is a bit bitter, he hates being forced to go to school and learn. We follow Maria across country, Russia, fighting for her families survival, education, having a voice and actually being listened to in a time where women just weren't, especially back then!

Across a lifetime, navigate grief, love, loss, hardship, survival against so many odds ooft. This is a fictionalised retelling of a true story through letters, vivid imagery and some really emotive, challenging and heart tugging interactions and scenes. The family dynamics, how they love, dislike, push against each other and change and react to the curveballs life throws at them. How love, determination and the force and dedication of one woman who will stop at nothing and for no one to ensure the absolute best for her loved ones. She seemed like an absolute force of nature! In books sometimes when you have timelines that jump about and go back and forth it can be distracting and off putting, add into that letters, however it flows and works effortlessly, 4/5. I really liked this and think I need to look more into this family and their history, this book has definitely peeked my interest and I may well actually learn something!

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The Story of Silence by Alex Myers

The Story of Silence by Alex Myers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - as able over 10 days

Pages - 400

Publisher - Harper

Source - Netgalley

Blurb from Goodreads

A knightly fairy tale of royalty and dragons, of midwives with secrets and dashing strangers in dark inns. Taking the original French legend as his starting point, The Story of Silence is a rich, multilayered new story for today’s world – sure to delight fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale.

There was once, long ago, a foolish king who decreed that women should not, and would not, inherit. Thus when a girl-child was born to Lord Cador – Merlin-enchanted fighter of dragons and Earl of Cornwall – he secreted her away: to be raised a boy so that the family land and honour would remain intact.

That child’s name was Silence.

Silence must find their own place in a medieval world that is determined to place the many restrictions of gender and class upon them. With dreams of knighthood and a lonely heart to answer, Silence sets out to define themselves.

Soon their silence will be ended.



My Review

Silence, born a girl, raised a boy. The laws of the land that only males could inherit therefore Silence MUST be a boy. I had never heard of this medieval poem so this retelling was shiny brand new to me from all angles. We open in an old tavern with a bard telling the story of Silence and we go back to Silence's birth, why the law came into play that only males can inherit and Silence's life.

This is brilliant, different, unique (I felt) going back to a time when there is war, inheriting through marriage, birth, titles, land. Being raised as a boy, knowing you are different but not exactly why and living your life a lie, trying to constantly prove your worth. It is emotive in places, I really felt for Silence. Nothing was good enough, just wanting approval, only wanting to be a knight. Silence is such a good person, kind, honest and it is almost constantly used against them.

I don't generally read books like this and I am glad I got a chance to, historical fiction (I am coming more around and enjoying this genre), fantasy, gender vs sex, adventure, friendship, relationships, deceit, betrayal and even a wizard! There is just so much and for me it was fresh, different, new. I read a lot of books across genres but this was really different. I plan to hunt down the poem and have a read at it. When reading this I did find myself pondering life/situations for Silence then and for those in the LGBTQIA community now. I don't know if that was one of the authors goals in writing this but it certainly left me deep in thought. Sometimes you don't realise how much you take for granted purely because of how you were born/raised. 4.5/5 for me this time, this was my first time reading this author, I will be looking at their other work and other books in this kind of vein. It is thought provoking read and I think I will be thinking about this long after I put it down.

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Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 386

Publisher - Wildfire books

Source - Vine

Blurb from Goodreads

A mesmerising retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Perfect for fans of CIRCE, A SONG OF ACHILLES, and THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS.

As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur - Minos's greatest shame and Ariadne's brother - demands blood every year.

When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods - drawing their attention can cost you everything.

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne's decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover's ambition?

Ariadne gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods. Beautifully written and completely immersive, this is an exceptional debut novel.


My Review

I don't think I have read any retellings or if I have it has been one and a long time ago. Ariadne and Phaedra are princesses in Crete, their father King Minos and this is the retelling of Theseus and the Minotaur. I remember the Minotaur story and the labyrinth maze as a kid but didn't know its origins. The book looks at so much more than just King Minos and the Minotaur there are other Gods and legends mentioned, their stories and how they link or relate(d) to each other.

A running theme within the stories of females suffering because of the choices of men (Gods) and the after effects and ripples of that. Absolutely relevant (in some aspects) even in our modern day real life the parallels, greed, infidelity, power, lust, fascination, sex, obsession, wrath of Gods, death, blood lust, parenthood - the list goes on and on.

Ariadne is the main character, we follow through her innocence growing up then exposed to sex, abhorrence with things she bears witness to and experiences. Family ties, cause/effect, there is a level of this that some readers may find hits an emotive spot in them, depending on your life experiences identifying with some of the characters, stories and themes.

This doesn't read like a debut and it has renewed my want for reading myths and legends, some of the stories I hadn't heard since I was a kid and even then only snippets. I LOVED have a character we could walk through these with and quite a few I hadn't heard of at all. Retellings seem to be popular at the moment and I can't wait to grab some more, 4/5 for me this time. I will be keeping an active eye out for Saint's future works!

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