Gwenna From The Valleys Of Wales

I’m honoured to have been awarded a Gold Quality Mark from BooksGoSocial for my forthcoming novel Gwenna, and to have received some early reviews that make everything worthwhile.

This is a wonderfully well written, constructed, and edited book.

The story moves along at a good pace and the reader is pulled into the world and time in the first chapter.

Gwenna Price, the master sugar boiler in the family confectionery business. Her Pa is dead and her stepbrother Elias is in charge. She fears her dreams are lost forever. In 1899, amid the bustling vibrancy of Auckland’s Karangahape Road, Gwenna escapes her troubled and turbulent life, but more trouble awaits her. Based on a true story.

Early reviews of the story I’d like to share:

Vicky Adin takes us on a delightful journey through a Victorian New Zealand. Our companion is Gwenna, the confectioner; charming, irrepressible and utterly unforgettable. Adin is a master of her craft, her detail accurate and her historical knowledge sound. A must read for those who love historical fiction – Jenny Harrison, author of Out of Poland

A wonderful addition to Vicky Adin’s list of great historical novels.

Set in Auckland at the turn of the 20^th century, the story centres on the lives of the Price family, sweet makers who emigrate from Wales to Auckland New Zealand, searching for better lives for themselves. Along with the political upheavals and challenges of settling into a new and different social environment; the very foundations of their commitment to each other are tested by a series of completely unpredictable experiences.

It is Gwenna who holds the family together. Through a roller coaster of love and tragedy, it is Gwenna who shoulders the responsibility of bringing the family business back from the brink of collapse and ensures the financial security of the other members. A powerful woman, she strides the streets of early Auckland with courage and determination.