Betrothal and Betrayal by Janet McGiffin

Book Summary

Seventeen-year-old Thekla needs her quick wits and knife to track down her betrothed, a soldier who has left her at the altar for the third time. Elias the monk travels with her to Constantinople where she meets Irini of Athens, an extraordinarily beautiful orphan her same age who has been brought by powerful Emperor Constantine to marry his son, Co-Emperor Leon. The two women join forces to survive this vigorous capital of the Roman Empire of the East which is rocked by religious and political strife. But will Thekla help the ambitious and ruthless Irini of Athens find the power that she craves?

I loved Thekla immediately, she was so feisty and no-nonsense. Her knife gets a LOT of use and I think should have it's own twitter account. It's practically a character itself and I bet it would have tons of stories to tell!

This was easy to get into and very easy to read, however it was a little bit lacking in suspense, which stopped me from getting completely gripped in the story. Everything just seemed to happen a bit too easily for Thekla, and even when real trouble did strike, it passed over very quickly, though I must admit I enjoyed not having to put up with too much angst!

The descriptions of all the food sounded so delicious, this is not one to read on an empty stomach! I loved all the Greek words included in the story and it was good to have the glossary at the end.

Author Bio

Janet McGiffin divides her time between her apartment in Manhattan, her family in Washington State, and her friends in Athens, Greece. She was born in Fairfield, Iowa into a newspaper family and learned to write copy as a teenager by writing obituaries for the Ellensburg Daily Record in Washington state. After university, she worked for the Milwaukee Health Department where she gained first-hand knowledge for her best-selling mystery series published by Fawcett Press, NY, featuring Doctor Maxine St. Clair, an ER doctor in an inner-city hospital. She worked as a press officer for the Washington state senate, then moved to Athens, Greece where she wrote grant proposals for small non-profit women’s organizations in Mediterranean countries. She also wrote a humor column for the Athens News newspaper with field archaeologist Adrian Vrettos, wrote two English language easy readers for Cambridge University Press, UK, and a series of hiking articles for greecetravel.com. She researched her Byzantine-era Empress Irini Series through extensive travel in Greece, followed by six months of research at the Bodleian libraries in Oxford, England. She enjoys hiking in Greece, England, Wales, and Scotland.

I'm sure Emperor Constantine would love a Constantine's Cosmo before going into battle. To make the cocktail, shake the following ingredients with ice and find strain into  a coupe glass. 50ml vodka, 20ml elderflower liqueur, 25ml raspberry-lychee puree, 25ml lemon juice.