Category: Historical Fiction

#BookReview The Sister Returns by Joanna Rees @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheSisterReturns #JoannaRees #AStitchinTiime #PGCBooks

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#BookReview The Sister Returns by Joanna Rees @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheSisterReturns #JoannaRees #AStitchinTiime #PGCBooks Title: The Sister Returns

Author: Joanna Rees

Series: A Stitch in Time #3

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Sep. 20, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 496

Format: Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The Sister Returns by Joanna Rees is the third novel in A Stitch in Time – a sweeping historical trilogy.

To have a future, she must confront her past . . .

It’s 1929 and after running away from her family in Lancashire, becoming a dancer in London and having had a riotous time in Paris with her best friend Nancy, would-be fashion designer Vita Casey is living a much more sedate life in New York with her baby son, Bertie, far away from her evil brother, Clement and her nemesis, Edith.

When the disastrous events of the Wall Street crash change their destinies, Vita and Nancy flee to Los Angeles, where Nancy is determined to make it in the talkies. Schmoozing their way into the Hollywood elite, Vita is starting to think that can begin to fulfil her fashion ambitions. But when the love of her life, Archie is hired as a writer on Nancy’s new movie, The Sister Returns and Clement exacts his ultimate revenge, Vita’s past and present collide.

She has no choice but to tell the truth and try and reclaim what is rightfully hers before it’s too late.

Review:

Dramatic, exciting, and vivid!

The Sister Returns is an absorbing, pacey tale that picks up right where The Hidden Wife left off, taking us back to 1929 and into the life of Anna Darton, aka Vita Casey, as she now heads to America to be part of her best friend’s wedding until the crash of the stock market sends all their plans upside down and they travel from New York to Hollywood where Nancy is determined to become an actress and where Vita’s past catches up to her finally sending this “runaway daughter” back home to Lancashire where she truly belongs.

The prose is rich and atmospheric. The characters are ambitious, capable, and resistant. And the plot is a compelling tale about life, loss, family, friendship, emotion, secrets, heartbreak, passion, danger, determination, glitz, glamour, old Hollywood, self-discovery, and love.

Overall, The Sister Returns is the third and final story in the A Stitch in Time trilogy and even though it’s a little bittersweet to say goodbye to the characters I’ve come to know and enjoy over these past three novels, it is nevertheless the perfect ending to a wonderful series that I highly recommend and will undoubtedly miss.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

             

 

 

Thank you to Publishers Group Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Joanna Rees

Joanna Rees, aka Josie Lloyd and Jo Rees, is a bestselling writer of twelve novels, including rom-coms, blockbusters and big- hearted adventures such as Come Together, Platinum and A Twist of Fate.The Runaway Daughter, published in August 2019, is the first in The Stitch in Time trilogy set in the 1920s and following the fortune of budding fashion designer and girl-about-town, Vita Casey. The second part, The Hidden Wife is out in 2020.Based in Brighton, Joanna is married to the author Emlyn Rees with whom she has three daughters. They have co-written seven novels, including the Sunday Times number one bestseller Come Together, which was translated into twenty-seven languages and made into a film. They have written three bestselling parodies of their favourite children’s books, including We’re Going On A Bar Hunt and The Teenager Who Came To Tea as well as a light-hearted activity book encouraging people to stop being addicted to their technology called Switch It Off.

Photograph from www.curtisbrown.co.uk.

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#BookReview Big Red: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles by Jerome Charyn @jeromecharyn @LiverightPub @OverTheRiverPR #BigRed #JeromeCharyn #LiveRightPub #OTRPR

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#BookReview Big Red: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles by Jerome Charyn @jeromecharyn @LiverightPub @OverTheRiverPR #BigRed #JeromeCharyn #LiveRightPub #OTRPR Title: Big Red: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles

Author: Jerome Charyn

Published by: Liveright Publishing on Aug. 23, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: OTRPR

Book Rating: 8/10

It’s 1943. The Germans rule Europe, and the moguls rule Hollywood. Attendance is better than ever. Not even radio can compete with the Saturday matinee. The heart of America has become Hollywood Boulevard. And Rusty Redburn, a feisty lesbian visionary who works as a lowly servant to Harry Cohn at Columbia’s publicity department, lives right on the boulevard at the Hollywood Hotel.

Harry is worried about his biggest star, Rita Hayworth, who has moved in with the “Boy Genius” Orson Welles. He’s never had a star before Rita arrived. He schemes to have Rusty pretend to work as Rita’s private secretary while spying on her. Rusty is far more clever than Harry Cohn. She worships Orson and Citizen Kane. And thus the story begins.

Nothing will last, neither the war, nor Harry Cohn, nor the marriage of Rita and Orson. And it’s Rusty who tells their tale.

BIG RED is Jerome Charyn at his very best and promises to consume both Hollywood cinephiles and neophytes alike. 

Review:

Scandalous, nostalgic, and entertaining!

Big Red is the intriguing, dramatic tale of two of the most famous actors of the 20th century, Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles and their on-again, off-again relationship with each other and Hollywood, told from the perspective of Rusty Redburn, a young woman working in Columbia Pictures’ publicity department who is hired by top executive Harry Cohn to take on the role of Rita’s PA in order to spy on the couple and let him know what goes on behind closed doors.

The writing is informative and light. The characters are talented, driven, and unique. And the novel is a compelling tale of one couple’s personal and professional successes and heartaches both on and off the screen, including a past littered with childhood abuse and a tumultuous marriage grounded in love but consistently strained by infidelity, differing visions, and crippling insecurities.

Overall, Big Red is a captivating, descriptive, fascinating tale by Charyn that highlights his considerable knowledge and impressive research into these renowned historical figures whose lives and work have had a tremendous impact on the motion picture industry.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to OTRPR and Liveright Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Jerome Charyn

Jerome Charyn is the award-winning author of more than fifty works, including The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson. A renowned scholar of twentieth-century Hollywood, he lives in Manhattan.

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#BookReview The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper @ElodieITV @UnionSqandCo #TheWolfDenTrilogy #TheHousewiththeGoldenDoor #ElodieHarper #UnionSqandCo

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#BookReview The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper @ElodieITV @UnionSqandCo #TheWolfDenTrilogy #TheHousewiththeGoldenDoor #ElodieHarper #UnionSqandCo Title: The House with the Golden Door

Author: Elodie Harper

Series: Wolf Den Trilogy #2

Published by: Union Square & Co. on Sep. 6, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 472

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Union Square & Co.

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The life of a courtesan in Pompeii is glittering, yet precarious…
Amara has escaped her life as a slave in the town’s most notorious brothel, but now her existence depends on the affections of her patron: a man she might not know as well as she once thought.

At night she dreams of the wolf den, still haunted by her past. Amara longs for the women she was forced to leave behind and worse, finds herself pursued by the man who once owned her. In order to be free, she will need to be as ruthless as he is.

Amara knows her existence in Pompeii is subject to Venus, the goddess of love. Yet finding love may prove to be the most dangerous act of all.

We return to Pompeii for the second instalment in Elodie Harper’s Wolf Den Trilogy, set in the town’s lupanar and reimagining the lives of women long overlooked.

Review:

Absorbing, enthralling, and atmospheric!

The House with the Golden Door is a dramatic, multilayered tale that picks up right where The Wolf Den left off, taking us back into the life of Amara, who now as a freedwoman and living in the house provided to her by her patron Rufus, must learn how to contain her grief at the loss of her best friend, continue to secretly construct business deals to try and secure an independent future for herself and those she loves, and ultimately confront the heartbreak she faces due to forbidden love, unimaginable betrayals, societal expectations, and weighty ambitions.

The prose is eloquent and descriptive. The characters are brave, scarred, and resourceful. And the plot is a gripping tale of life, loss, duty, deception, secrets, lies, manipulation, greed, betrayal, corruption, mayhem, savagery, survival, and love.

Overall, The House with the Golden Door is an immersive, intense, gritty sequel by Harper that has left me counting down the days until the third and final novel in this trilogy becomes available so I can finally discover how this thrilling, historical saga will finally conclude.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to Union Square & Co. for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Elodie Harper

Elodie Harper is a journalist and prize-winning short story writer. Her story 'Wild Swimming' won the 2016 Bazaar of Bad Dreams short story competition, which was judged by Stephen King.

She is currently a reporter at ITV News Anglia, and before that worked as a producer for Channel 4 News. Her job as a journalist has seen her join one of the most secretive wings of the Church of Scientology and cover the far right hip hop scene in Berlin, as well as crime reporting in Norfolk where her first two novels were set – The Binding Song and The Death Knock.

Elodie studied Latin poetry both in the original and in translation as part of her English Literature degree at Oxford, instilling a lifelong interest in the ancient world. The Wolf Den is the first in a trilogy of novels about the lives of women in ancient Pompeii.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Darkest Sin by D. V. Bishop @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheDarkestSin #DVBishop #CesareAldoSeries #PGCBooks

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#BookReview The Darkest Sin by D. V. Bishop @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheDarkestSin #DVBishop #CesareAldoSeries #PGCBooks Title: The Darkest Sin

Author: D. V. Bishop

Series: Cesare Aldo #2

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Sep. 6, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 432

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

Florence. Spring, 1537.

When Cesare Aldo investigates a report of intruders at a convent in the Renaissance city’s northern quarter, he enters a community divided by bitter rivalries and harbouring dark secrets.

His case becomes far more complicated when a naked man’s body is found deep inside the convent, stabbed more than two dozen times. Unthinkable as it seems, all the evidence suggests one of the nuns must be the killer.

Meanwhile, Constable Carlo Strocchi finds human remains pulled from the Arno that belong to an officer of the law missing since winter. The dead man had many enemies, but who would dare kill an official of the city’s most feared criminal court?

As Aldo and Strocchi close in on the truth, identifying the killers will prove more treacherous than either of them could ever have imagined . . .

Review:

Sinister, evocative, and enthralling!

The Darkest Sin is the complex, thrilling sequel that takes us back to Renaissance Florence in the spring of 1537 and into the life of Cesare Aldo, an officer of the Otto di Guardia e Balia, who now finds himself not only investigating the murder of a naked man found stabbed to death within the walls of the Santa Maria Magdalena convent, but also hoping that Constable Strocchi doesn’t have too much success discovering who actually killed their fellow brutish officer, Cherchi, who’s been missing since winter and whose body has just been recently discovered floating in the river Arno.

The prose is seamless and expressive. The characters are methodical, diligent, and tormented. And the plot is a gripping, twisty tale about life, loss, friendship, secrets, duty, deception, danger, abuse, corruption, politics, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Darkest Sin is another fabulous addition to the Cesare Aldo series by Bishop that does an exceptional job of interweaving historical times and compelling fiction into a gritty, suspenseful mystery that is darkly entertaining and exceptionally atmospheric. 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

           

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About D. V. Bishop

D. V. Bishop is the author of the Cesare Aldo mysteries set in Renaissance Florence, and published by Pan Macmillan.

An award-winning screenwriter and TV dramatist, his love for the city of Florence and the Renaissance period meant there could only be one setting for his crime-fiction debut.

City of Vengeance won the Pitch Perfect competition at the Bloody Scotland crime fiction festival in 2018, and D. V. Bishop was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship by the Scottish Book Trust while writing the novel.

He is currently finishing the second novel in the Cesare Aldo mysteries.

Photo by Paul Reich.

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#BookReview The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris @KrisMcmorris @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheWaysWeHide #KristinaMcMorris #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris @KrisMcmorris @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheWaysWeHide #KristinaMcMorris #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Ways We Hide

Author: Kristina McMorris

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Sep. 6, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 496

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 10/10

A sweeping World War II tale of an illusionist whose recruitment by British intelligence sets her on a perilous, heartrending path.

As a little girl raised amid the hardships of Michigan’s Copper Country, Fenna Vos learned to focus on her own survival. That ability sustains her even now as the Second World War rages in faraway countries. Though she performs onstage as the assistant to an unruly escape artist, behind the curtain she’s the mastermind of their act. Ultimately, controlling her surroundings and eluding traps of every kind helps her keep a lingering trauma at bay.

Yet for all her planning, Fenna doesn’t foresee being called upon by British military intelligence. Tasked with designing escape aids to thwart the Germans, MI9 seeks those with specialized skills for a war nearing its breaking point. Fenna reluctantly joins the unconventional team as an inventor. But when a test of her loyalty draws her deep into the fray, she discovers no mission is more treacherous than escaping one’s past.

Inspired by stunning true accounts, The Ways We Hide is a gripping story of love and loss, the wars we fight—on the battlefields and within ourselves—and the courage found in unexpected places.

Review:

Heart-wrenching, charged, and atmospheric!

The Ways We Hide is an absorbing, enthralling, tragic tale set during WWII that follows Fenna Vos, a young American magician who, after taking a position working in England with Christopher Hutton at MI9 inventing “escape-and-evasion gadgets” for airmen and POWS, requests to be dropped into occupied Holland to find her childhood friend and love of her life who has seemingly disappeared without a trace and believed to be a traitor and Nazi collaborator.

The prose is eloquent and polished. The characters are driven, courageous, and resilient. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine seamlessly into an absorbing tale of life, loss, family, tragedy, desperation, secrets, danger, friendship, magical illusions, survival, and war.

Overall, The Ways We Hide is a passionate, rich, evocative tale by McMorris that transports you to another time and place and immerses you so thoroughly into the personalities, feelings, and lives of the characters within it that you can’t help but be fully absorbed and invested. I can honestly say I devoured this novel, and it is hands down one of my favourite reads of the year!

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Kristina McMorris

Kristina McMorris is a New York Times bestselling author of two novellas and six novels, including the runaway bestseller Sold on a Monday. Initially inspired by her grandparents’ WWII courtship letters, her works of fiction have garnered more than twenty national literary awards. Prior to her writing career, she owned a wedding-and-event planning company until she had far surpassed her limit of YMCA and chicken dances. She also worked as a weekly TV-show host for Warner Bros. and an ABC affiliate, beginning at age nine with an Emmy Award-winning program. A graduate of Pepperdine University, she lives near Portland, Oregon, where (ironically) she’s entirely deficient of a green thumb and doesn’t own a single umbrella.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookTour #BookReview A Woman in Time by Bobi Conn @BobiConn @AmazonPub @TLCBookTours #amazonpublishing #BobiConn #AWomaninTime #tlcbooktours

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#BookTour #BookReview A Woman in Time by Bobi Conn @BobiConn @AmazonPub @TLCBookTours #amazonpublishing #BobiConn #AWomaninTime #tlcbooktours Title: A Woman in Time

Author: Bobi Conn

Published by: Little A on Aug. 30, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 334

Format: Hardcover

Source: TLC Book Tours

Book Rating: 8/10

A woman challenges the constraints of life in Prohibition-era Appalachia in this sweeping and richly rewarding novel about endurance, survival, and redemption.

The McKenzie women, empowered with a formidable history rooted in the foothills of Appalachia, have passed down their folk healing wisdom through generations. Rosalee, the last living headstrong daughter in Granny McKenzie’s line, soaked up everything she could about the secrets of the forest before a series of tragedies left her alone, without the protection of the women who came before her.

The close-knit ties of Rosalee’s childhood are long gone. Now, at her eastern Kentucky farm, she bears a marriage with a volatile bootlegger. She struggles with the demands of motherhood. And her independence is relegated to its “proper place”: under the thumb of men. Her optimism dimming, Rosalee finds solace in the Kentucky woods, a place that holds secret powers of protection from a life Rosalee can no longer control. At the graves of her female ancestors, beside the waters of an enchanting spring, Rosalee returns time and again to consider her future—and discovers a mysterious connection to her past.

As Rosalee wrestles with her isolation, being a wife in an increasingly dangerous marriage, and being a woman of her time, she must draw on her strength and resilience to survive—and to protect—on her own terms.

Review:

Atmospheric, sensitive, and sobering!

A Woman in Time is a moving, multi-generational story that transports you to rural Kentucky between 1899 and 1939 and into the lives of the McKenzie family, especially the women, and all the secrets, smiles, tears, misery, abuse, compassion, strength, powerful emotions, and unimaginable tragedy that has tied them together through the years.

The prose is expressive and fluid. The characters are vulnerable, tormented, and resilient. And the plot is a heart-tugging, compelling tale of life, love, loss, family, friendship, poverty, misogyny, courage, desperation, self-preservation, motherhood, violence, and survival.

Overall, A Woman in Time is a gritty, astute, promising fictional debut by Conn that is a wonderful reminder that even after suffering the most unimaginable hardships and cruelty, humanity still has the innate ability to hope for better and still be kind and compassionate to others.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

        

 

 

Thank you to TLC Book Tours & Amazon Publishing for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Bobi Conn

Bobi Conn is the author of the memoir In the Shadow of the Valley. Born in Morehead, Kentucky, and raised in a nearby holler, Bobi developed a deep connection with the land and her Appalachian roots. She obtained her bachelor’s degree at Berea College, the first school in the American South to integrate racially and to teach men and women in the same classrooms. She attended graduate school, where she earned a master’s degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing. In addition to writing, Bobi loves playing pool, telling jokes, cooking, being in the woods, attempting to grow a garden, and spending time with her incredible children.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper @ElodieITV @UnionSqandCo #TheWolfDen #ElodieHarper #UnionSqandCo

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#BookReview The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper @ElodieITV @UnionSqandCo #TheWolfDen #ElodieHarper #UnionSqandCo Title: The Wolf Den

Author: Elodie Harper

Series: Wolf Den Trilogy #1

Published by: Union Square & Co. on Mar. 29, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 488

Format: ARC, Paperback

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Sold by her impoverished mother. Enslaved in an infamous brothel in Pompeii. Determined to fight for her freedom at all costs. . . . Enter into the Wolf Den.

Amara was once the beloved daughter of a doctor in Greece, until her father’s sudden death plunged her mother into destitution. Now Amara is a slave and prostitute in Pompeii’s notorious Wolf Den brothel or lupanar, owned by a cruel and ruthless man. Intelligent and resourceful, she is forced to hide her true self. But her spirit is far from broken. Buoyed by the sisterhood she forges with the brothel’s other women, Amara finds solace in the laughter and hopes they all share. For the streets of the city are alive with opportunity—here, even the lowest-born slave can dream of a new beginning. But everything in Pompeii has a price. How much will Amara’s freedom cost her? The Wolf Den is the first in a trilogy of novels about the lives of women in ancient Pompeii.

Review:

Fascinating, raw, and alluring!

The Wolf Den is a captivating, immersive, tragic tale that takes you back to Southern Italy during A.D. 74 and to the life of Amara, the educated daughter of a doctor from Greece who, after being sold by her mother and ending up the slave of a barbaric pimp in Pompeii, is determined to do whatever it takes to regain her freedom, body and soul, once and for all.

The prose is rich and vivid. The characters are bold, ambitious, vulnerable, and shrewd. And the plot is an absorbing saga of all the hopes, fears, sacrifices, struggles, treachery and entangled relationships faced by one group of enslaved women.

The Wolf Den is, ultimately, a story about life, loss, love, politics, power, corruption, greed, riches, desires, sacrifice, friendship, savagery, abuse, violence, and early prostitution. It’s an atmospheric, compelling, insightful tale by Harper that does a beautiful job of highlighting her impressive research and considerable knowledge of the Roman city of Pompeii and the lifestyles, hardships, and treatment women most likely endured during that time.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to Union Square & Co. for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Elodie Harper

Elodie Harper is a journalist and prize-winning short story writer. Her story 'Wild Swimming' won the 2016 Bazaar of Bad Dreams short story competition, which was judged by Stephen King.

She is currently a reporter at ITV News Anglia, and before that worked as a producer for Channel 4 News. Her job as a journalist has seen her join one of the most secretive wings of the Church of Scientology and cover the far right hip hop scene in Berlin, as well as crime reporting in Norfolk where her first two novels were set – The Binding Song and The Death Knock.

Elodie studied Latin poetry both in the original and in translation as part of her English Literature degree at Oxford, instilling a lifelong interest in the ancient world. The Wolf Den is the first in a trilogy of novels about the lives of women in ancient Pompeii.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford @JamieFord @AtriaBooks @SimonSchusterCA #JamieFord #TheManyDaughtersofAfongMoy

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#BookReview The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford @JamieFord @AtriaBooks @SimonSchusterCA #JamieFord #TheManyDaughtersofAfongMoy Title: The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

Author: Jamie Ford

Published by: Atria Books on Aug. 2, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The New York Times bestselling author of the “mesmerizing and evocative” (Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants) Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations.

Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living.

As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.

Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.

As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who’s loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price.

Review:

Sentimental, thought-provoking, and memorable!

The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is an intriguing novel that takes you into the lives of seven generations of Moy women over a two hundred and fifty-year span, from Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to live on American soil, to Dorothy, a young woman determined to do whatever it takes, even experimental research, to discover the source of her distress and hallucinations in order to protect her daughter from suffering a similar fate.

The prose is expressive and eloquent. The characters are conflicted, fragile, and raw. And the plot told in a back-and-forth, past/future style is a compelling tale of life, loss, love, family, friendship, tragedy, mental illness, discrimination, self-discovery, desperation, heartbreak, self-preservation, anamnesis, and epigenetics.

Overall, The Many Daughters of Afong Moy made me think, made me feel, and resonated long after the final page. It’s a unique, emotional, absorbing tale by Ford that raises some interesting questions about what emotional trauma on top of our physical traits we may actually be inheriting as well as passing down.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

           

 

 

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Jamie Ford

Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from Hoiping, China to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the western name Ford, thus confusing countless generations. His debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two years on the New York Times bestseller list and went on to win the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. His work has been translated into thirty-five languages. Having grown up in Seattle, he now lives in Montana with his wife and a one-eyed pug.

Photo by Eric Heidle.

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#BookReview The Secret Letter by Debbie Rix @ReadForeverPub #ReadForever #ReadForever2022 #DebbieRix #TheSecretLetter

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#BookReview The Secret Letter by Debbie Rix @ReadForeverPub #ReadForever #ReadForever2022 #DebbieRix #TheSecretLetter Title: The Secret Letter

Author: Debbie Rix

Published by: Forever on Apr. 20, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Source: Forever

Book Rating: 9/10

Inspired by a true story, this historical novel is a heart-wrenching, unforgettable tale of one young girl who refuses to give up on what she believes in and the strength of human kindness in a time of unimaginable heartbreak.

London, 2018: When ninety‑four‑year‑old Imogen receives a letter addressed to her in neat, unfamiliar handwriting, she notices the postmark is stamped from Germany—and it sends shivers down her spine . . .
 
Germany, 1939: Thirteen‑year‑old Magda is devastated by the loss of her best friend Lotte, cruelly snatched from her and sent to a concentration camp—the Star of David sewn on her faded brown coat. As the Nazis’ power takes hold, Magda realizes she’s not like the other girls in her German village—she hates the fanatical new rules of the Hitler Youth. So she secretly joins The White Rose Movement and begins to rebel against the oppressive, frightening world around her.

But when an English bomber pilot crashes nearby, she is faced with an impossible choice: risk the safety of her family or save a stranger and make a difference in the devastating war that has claimed the lives of so many. Little does she know, her actions will have the power to change the life of another girl, on the other side of enemy lines, forever.

Review:

Captivating, emotional, and intense!

The Secret Letter is an immersive, dual-timeline tale set in London and Germany during WWII, as well as 2018, that takes you into the lives of two main characters from completely different backgrounds and worlds, Imogen and Magda, whose lives become unimaginably entwined by the consequences of war and the actions of one brave man.

The prose is rich and expressive. The characters are resilient, determined, and brave. And the plot is an alluring, coming-of-age tale about life, loss, family, secrets, separation, desperation, tragedy, friendship, love, and the hardships and horrors of war.

Overall, The Secret Letter is an absorbing, moving, beautifully written tale by Rix inspired by real-life events that, at its heart, highlights that survival of any kind often involves moral dilemmas, action, strength, courage and beyond all else, sacrifice.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to Forever and Grand Central Publishing for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Debbie Rix

Debbie Rix tells the stories of real women history has overlooked. As an ex‑journalist, she believes historical accuracy is key and she strives to weave her stories around real‑life events. Her novels have been published in several languages, including Italian, Czech, and Russian.

Debbie spends a lot of time in Italy, but when not traveling, she lives in the Kent countryside with her journalist husband, and their children, chickens, and cats.

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#BookReview The Unkept Woman by Allison Montclair @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #AllisonMontclair #TheUnkeptWoman #SparksAndBainbridgeMysteries #SMPInfluencers

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#BookReview The Unkept Woman by Allison Montclair @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #AllisonMontclair #TheUnkeptWoman #SparksAndBainbridgeMysteries #SMPInfluencers Title: The Unkept Woman

Author: Allison Montclair

Series: Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #4

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jul. 26, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 304

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 9/10

Allison Montclair returns with the fourth Sparks & Bainbridge mystery, The Unkept Woman: London, 1946, Miss Iris Sparks–currently co-proprietor of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau–has to deal with aspects of her past exploits during the recent war that have come back around to haunt her.

The Right Sort Marriage Bureau was founded in 1946 by two disparate individuals – Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge (whose husband was killed in the recent World War) and Miss Iris Sparks who worked as an intelligence agent during the recent conflict, though this is not discussed. While the agency flourishes in the post-war climate, both founders have to deal with some of the fallout that conflict created in their personal lives. Miss Sparks finds herself followed, then approached, by a young woman who has a very personal connection to a former paramour of Sparks. But something is amiss and it seems that Iris’s past may well cause something far more deadly than mere disruption in her personal life. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn is struggling to regain full legal control of her life, her finances, and her son – a legal path strewn with traps and pitfalls.

Together these indomitable two are determined and capable and not just of making the perfect marriage match.

Review:

Suspenseful, immersive, and engaging!

The Unkept Woman is a clever, mysterious tale set in London post-WWII that takes you into the lives of two main characters. Miss Iris Sparks, the former intelligence agent, now partner in a matchmaking service whose previous personal life may make her the primary suspect in the murder of a young woman with a complicated past, and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a young mother and widow who’s ongoing accidental associations with the criminal underworld may once again set back her struggle to regain the legal independence she so desperately desires

The prose is vivid and smooth. The characters are sharp, plucky, and intriguing. And the plot is a well-paced, entertaining mystery full of secrets, suspicions, espionage, duty, friendship, flirtation, duplicity, and fun.

Overall, The Unkept Woman is a rich, atmospheric, highly entertaining tale by Montclair that is the fourth title in the Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery series and is also, in my opinion, the perfect choice for anyone who is looking for an amusing, lighthearted historical whodunit to pick up.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Allison Montclair

ALLISON MONTCLAIR grew up devouring hand-me-down Agatha Christie paperbacks and James Bond movies. As a result of this deplorable upbringing, Montclair became addicted to tales of crime, intrigue, and espionage. She now spends her spare time poking through the corners, nooks, and crannies of history, searching for the odd mysterious bits and transforming them into novels of her own. She is the author of the Sparks & Bainbridge historical mystery series, which begins with The Right Sort of Man.

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