History of Cyprus

Having read Andrea Busfield's first book, Born Under a Million Stars, and loved the humour and human touch of it, I found Aphrodite's War a little disappointing in comparison. It felt more like a history lesson with a novel wound around it and seemed to have lost the immediacy of her previous writing.

There are two central themes here, a love story between childhood sweethearts, Praxi and Loukis, and the turbulent story that is the history of the island of Cyprus.
Loukis is one of five children in the Encomidou family and although he is a central character, all five are used in various ways to explain aspects of the events that were taking place at the time. We also meet a Turkish man, Mehmet, known as Stavros to his Cypriot friends, who helps to provide a balance to the story for the Turks.

I'm glad I read this book, I learnt a lot, but I would have preferred that the author had removed some of the historical content and replaced it with a time line at the start of the book, leaving her with more freedom to do what she does so well and concentrate on the characters. In addition, a map would have been very useful. ( )