Monday, June 9, 2014

The Grip of God By: Rebecca Hazell

Read from May 08 to 10, 2014

This book takes place in the 13th century and is about a princess named Sofia a wonderful soul from Kievan Rus a stunning and well educated girl she was. Her father sent her away to Constantinople to her uncle, Sofia was excited at first but her father said he wouldn’t be traveling with her disposition turned dark. The Tatars were on the move toward Rus and her father had to stay.
So her voyage began, and it went well for a while and she was adding pheasants all throughout her travels. Then she was woken up one morning and she heard a peculiar noise, she looked for her servant and couldn’t find her, she peeked out of her tent and saw the sound was arrows whistling through the air, she couldn’t find Oleg her protector, or Alexander her educator. Bodies were everywhere and there were men with torches, then she found her maid Kateryna, with a slash across her breast. Just then someone grabbed her they finished Kateryna off with a knife across her throat. And then she fainted. She was alone except for some pheasants. These men who were attacking were so smelly, brutal, and talked in weird tongue, she knew some languages but she didn’t recognize this one. This one guy he seemed he was in control started to brutalize Sofia, he did some unimaginable things to her. She figured these people were the Tatars, they rape the woman, the men forced to watch then they kill them. But little did she know these were the Mongols an equally brutal clan. She found the man who made her a woman was Argamon and he was working his way up to be a great warrior.
Argamon treated Sofia ok when she started understanding what she was supposed to do and do it right she was his concubine, a slave she had to do what he demanded of her. As time went on they got to be like they were in a regular relationship, However she didn’t want her servants to have all the household responsibilities so she would help and when Argamon would find out he would get truly angry.
Sofia had made friends with Q’ing-ling Argomons mother they were best of friends they sewed together rode together and just spent so much quality time with her. Unfortunately Q’ing-ling died and Argomon was never the same because his brother and fathers other wife had a hand in her death the other wife poisoned Q’ing-ling and Argamon’s father had her put to death.
Sofia no matter what happened to her she was a gentle person willing to help anyone and her religion played a big part in her life, being with the Mongols they let her practice her faith, she learned the language of the Mongols pretty fast and Batu Khan wanted her to be his translator for newly captured individuals to find out about their armies, soon she was writing up the plans of attacks for Batu Khan. While this all was happening she was becoming a young woman and was falling for Argamon and he brought home an additional concubine. She was reminded of herself at the beginning the girl Anna was so young and afraid Sofia knew the brutality her man had in him and she was hurt.
At the conclusion of a celebration Batu Khan gave Argamon wealth and sent him to Rus, Sofia’s homeland to supervise tax collectors and Batu Khan was sending word to Argamon’s wife and son to start off where they left off before he went to war. And Batu asked for Sofia and of course Argamon couldn’t decline. Sofia was crushed. Find out what Sofia does when she is to go to Batu Khans ger to make a home for herself.
This story is AMAZING I loved Sofia, I went through the emotions with her. Sofia grows up in front of us and she has a beautiful disposition to anyone in her life. Rebecca Hazell has left my mind blown with this story, some of it is Historical facts, and in my interview with Rebecca she tells us she is related to Sofia. For a 1 through 5 scale I give this a 9. I don’t know what else I can say without repeating myself. Thank you Rebecca!

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