by Kelly Burton

Created on: February 12, 2010

I would imagine that most people would know the author Kate Furnivall from her book published in 2008, "Under The Blood Red Sky" - I have yet to read it, but even I recognise it's distinctive cover and I've read a few reviews on it praising its contents. 

"The Russian Concubine" is published before the aforementioned book in 2007 and tells the story of a beautiful Russian woman, Valentina, and her fiery daughter Lydia who have been exiled from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. Valentina and Lydia are taking refuge in Junchow, China , living in poverty and unable to see a way out. With her mothers increasing addiction to alcohol, Lydia takes it upon herself to survive their situation and resorts to stealing. 

When she steals a valuable ruby necklace, a young Chinese man called Chan An Lo saves her from what would be certain death. From that point on, the two are bound together, sure that they are supposed to protect each other despite their cultural differences. Lydia and Chang soon fall in love and come up against savage triads, opium running, torture and kidnap, their love is really tested to its limits. Their love for each other is unstoppable, but it will surely mean the death of both of them... 

This book was truly outstanding, from the characters and content all the way through to the writing. This is historical fiction, action adventure and an epic love story rolled into one. For starters, Furnivall has chosen an interesting point in history and created some likeable, gutsy and colourful characters who really stand out against the back drop China on the brink of breakdown (or some may say that its already broken!) Already the simmering tension that has been created between the Chinese piqued my interest immediately, but the characters in this book all have their own parts to play that all tie in nicely. 

Slow Burn at first...but worth it! 

At first, it took me a long time to get into the story; at 592 pages, it's a fairly epic read! The first chapter is Russia in 1917, showing how Valentina and Lydia came to be in China in the first place. This was an interesting first chapter that gave a small taster of the violence, action and fast paced plot that was about to come. This is definitely a slow burner, as the following chapters took their time in setting up the scene, with some fascinating descriptions of Chinese life at this time, from the attitudes towards foreigners, the huge divide between the rich and the poor and life in

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