July 31st 2008
£7.99
272 pages
B-Format Paperback
ISBN
978 0 9551384 9

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Blood Tender by Rachel Ingrams

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A story about personal choice, love and loss… Blood Tender is an excellent read, with a real authenticity and compelling plot

Aesthetica

The sky is a bloody gold and there are riots in the streets the night that Marlena arrives in Sicily. A damaged English girl – with her head full of secrets – she’s here to dance. Or rather, to strip: at Mickey’s, a down-at-heel bar on the rough edges of Catania. One night, at the local club, a heart-stopping encounter with Jula – whose secret pride is his Romany blood – transforms Marlena’s life. But as she’s drawn into a chilling relationship with Paulo and his psychotic friends, Marlena is caught in the crossfire of anti-gypsy fury and right-wing politics.

Sultriness and picturesque decay lace her intensely characterised story. Ingrams has personal experience of the gypsy life and puts that knowledge to evocative use in this nigh-operatic scenario; her heroine is a multi-faceted protagonist

Publishing News

Set in Sicily, the tale of a stripper who discovers it is not easy to hang on to love; full of local colour, prejudice and cruelty

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