Review
~~Eve Carpenter is having a very bad day, and it is about to get worse. She comes round from a paragliding accident but everything is rather strange. Although she's still in London, this is a city and a world she hardly recognises. There is just enough that is familiar to be totally confusing. In this world, England is a backward country with a population kept too busy fighting in a civil war to do much else. She is taken captive by a small group of soldiers who take her marching across the country with them. The leader, Major Harker, is obnoxious and scruffy, and is convinced Eve is a spy, or perhaps she is just mad. While they apparently speak the same language, they struggle to understand each other - their worlds are so different. The Untied Kingdom is an unusual combination of genres - a dystopian chicklit novel, as much a war and adventure story as a romance (not just a romance with a war setting). I quickly got caught up in the problems facing Eve and Harker and the other soldiers. The strongly drawn characterisation and lively narrative and dialogue is key to this ...Something else I found interesting in this novel was the exploration of an alternate world without the technology we have become so reliant on, where electricity and landline telephones are luxuries which only the super rich can afford and only stronger military powers have equipment like computers. Thank you to Choc Lit for sending a copy of this original and exciting romantic adventure story to the Bookbag.~~ --The Bookbag
~~~Winner of a Best Book Award from Long & Short Stories. ~~~ --Long & Short Stories
**Shortlisted for the 2012 Best Romantic Contemporary Novel of the year award (RoNA).** --Romantic Novelists' Association
~~~Winner of a Best Book Award from Long & Short Stories. ~~~ --Long & Short Stories
Product Description
The portal to an alternate world was the start of all her troubles
– or was it?
When Eve Carpenter lands with a splash in the Thames, it’s not the London or England she’s used to. No one has a telephone or knows what a computer is. England’s a third world country and Princess Di is still alive. But worst of all, everyone thinks Eve’s a spy.
Including Major Harker who has his own problems. His sworn enemy is looking for a promotion. The general wants him to undertake some ridiculous mission to capture a computer, which Harker vaguely envisions running wild somewhere in Yorkshire. Turns out the best person to help him is Eve.
She claims to be a popstar. Harker doesn’t know what a popstar is, although he suspects it’s a fancy foreign word for ‘spy’. Eve knows all about computers, and electricity. Eve is dangerous. There’s every possibility she’s mad.
And Harker is falling in love with her.
– or was it?
When Eve Carpenter lands with a splash in the Thames, it’s not the London or England she’s used to. No one has a telephone or knows what a computer is. England’s a third world country and Princess Di is still alive. But worst of all, everyone thinks Eve’s a spy.
Including Major Harker who has his own problems. His sworn enemy is looking for a promotion. The general wants him to undertake some ridiculous mission to capture a computer, which Harker vaguely envisions running wild somewhere in Yorkshire. Turns out the best person to help him is Eve.
She claims to be a popstar. Harker doesn’t know what a popstar is, although he suspects it’s a fancy foreign word for ‘spy’. Eve knows all about computers, and electricity. Eve is dangerous. There’s every possibility she’s mad.
And Harker is falling in love with her.
