- Home
- GENERAL FICTION REVIEWS
- Realms of Gold: Ritual to Romance Reviewed By Sandra Shwayder Sanchez for Bookpleasures.com
Realms of Gold: Ritual to Romance Reviewed By Sandra Shwayder Sanchez for Bookpleasures.com
- By Sandra Shwayder Sanchez
- Published September 21, 2012
- GENERAL FICTION REVIEWS
Sandra Shwayder Sanchez
Reviewer Sandra Shwayder Sanchez: Sandra is
a retired attorney and co-founder of a small non-profit publishing
collective: The Wessex Collective with whom she has published two short fiction collections
(A Mile in These Shoes and Three Novellas) and one
novel, Stillbird.
Her most recent novel, The Secret of A Long Journey is soon to be released by Floricanto Press in April 2012 and her first novel, The Nun, originally published by Plain View Press in 1992 is being  reissued in a 2nd Edition with additional material by PVP in March 2012.
Author: Terry Stanfill
Publisher: Story Merchant Books
ISBN: 9780615657547
This fascinating novel is prefaced with a quote from the book From Ritual to Romance written by Jessie L. Weston in 1920:
“That the man who first
told the story, and boldly, as befitted a born teller of tales,
wedded it to Arthurian legend, was himself connected by descent with
the ancient Faith, himself actually held the Secret of the Grail, and
told, in purposely romantic form, that of which he knew. I am firm
firmly convinced, not do I think that the time is far distant when
the missing links will be in our hand, and we shall be able to weld
once more the golden chain which connects Ancient Ritual with
Medieval Romance.”
For readers interested in Arthurian legend, ancient archaeology, the development of ancient philosophies and religions this book will be a journey well worth taking.
Terry Stanfill combines a
stunning knowledge of Mediterranean history, art and archaeology to
create an engrossing tale of mystery and romance. Bianca, An
American of Italian heritage, is a student of art history who writes
for an art magazine. Giovanni is an Italian archaeologist. Neither of
them really wants to attend the wedding of a mutual cousin in Venice
but for different reasons, they both do and there they meet each
other and embark upon a journey of destiny, which Giovanni explains
to her:
“In this case there’s no such thing as coincidence. Again it’s synchronicity -events unlikely to ever occur together by chance. You see, Bianca the culmination of synchronicity is its direct revelation of destiny, the design of the whole universe working itself out in the display of each unique human life. And since you delve so deeply into the unconscious synchronicity is activated and can occur frequently. Again, its all that right brain business I keep talking about.” (p. 169)
Bianca is an intuitive who
studies the diary of her great grandmother Nina and sometimes dreams
or has visions of what Nina saw in her life. And Interspersed
into the 2007 narrative are bits of medieval & ancient history in
the words of historical characters. It is Pythagoras, for instance,
who makes a claim that Bianca and Giovanni would each agree with (as
exemplified in their lives):
“The highest and the fewest are those who love wisdom, those whose lives are devoted to pursuits of the mind – the philosophers, whose entire lives given to searching for the true wisdom of the universe. Perhaps theirs are not only the greatest gifts, but also the greatest challenges.” (p.173)
The story culminates when Bianca and Giovanni discover the real site of Camelot together and thence discover their destiny . . . together. Along the way, the author also demonstrates her knowledge of music, neuro-psychology and Italian cuisine. Every detail is perfect and the reader. upon completion of this literary journey, remembers it as if it were a real life journey to Italy, Greece, France & back into time.
Follow Here To Purchase Realms of Gold: Ritual to Romance