Category: Historical Fiction

#BookReview A More Perfect Union by Tammye Huf @TammyeHuf @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForeverPub #ReadForever2022 #AMorePerfectUnion #TammyeHuf

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#BookReview A More Perfect Union by Tammye Huf @TammyeHuf @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForeverPub #ReadForever2022 #AMorePerfectUnion #TammyeHuf Title: A More Perfect Union

Author: Tammye Huf

Published by: Forever on Jan. 11, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback

Source: Forever

Book Rating: 10/10

Inspired by true events, A More Perfect Union is an epic story of love and courage, desperation and determination, and three people whose lives are inescapably entwined…

Henry O’Toole sails to America in 1848 to escape the famine in Ireland, only to face anti-immigrant prejudice. Determined never to starve again, he changes his surname to Taylor and heads south to Virginia, seeking work as a traveling blacksmith on the prosperous plantations.

Torn from her home and sold to Jubilee Plantation, Sarah must navigate its intricate hierarchy. And now an enigmatic blacksmith is promising her not just the world but also her freedom. How could she say no?

Enslaved at Jubilee Plantation, Maple is desperate to return to her husband and daughter. With Sarah’s arrival, she sees her chance to be reunited at last with her family—but at what cost?

Review:

Poignant, impactful, and extremely memorable!

A More Perfect Union is a passionate, heart-wrenching tale that sweeps you away to Virginia during the mid-1800s and into the lives of Sarah, a young woman destined to live out her days as a worker on the Jubilee Plantation and property of the prosperous Master Jeremiah and Henry, an Irish immigrant whose heart sees no colour and who will do whatever it takes to spend his life with the one he loves.

The prose is expressive and rich. The characters are determined, vulnerable, and strong. And the plot is an exceptionally captivating tale about life, loss, love, hope, injustice, jealousy, guilt, self-identity, loneliness, slavery, and courage.

Overall, A More Perfect Union is a book that needs to be read. It’s a powerful, moving, beautifully written tale by Huf inspired by true-life events that, at its heart, is a magical reminder that no obstacle is too large and no challenge too difficult when it comes to love.

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to Forever & Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Tammye Huf

Tammye Huf grew up in California, before moving first to Germany and then to the UK with her husband and their three children. In more normal times, she still returns to the US regularly to catch up with friends and family. She has worked as a teacher, translator and copywriter and has published stories in Diverse Stories Quarterly, The Forge, Ginosko Literary Journal, The Storyteller, Necessary Fiction, New Plains Review and The Penman Review. She was runner-up in the 2018 London Magazine Short Story Prize.

Photo courtesy of read-forever.com.

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#BookReview Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #HerHiddenGenius #MarieBenedict #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #HerHiddenGenius #MarieBenedict #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: Her Hidden Genius

Author: Marie Benedict

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jan. 25, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie and The Only Woman in the Room.

Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider―brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments. When she is assigned to work on DNA, she believes she can unearth its secrets.

Rosalind knows if she just takes one more X-ray picture―one more after thousands―she can unlock the building blocks of life. Never again will she have to listen to her colleagues complain about her, especially Maurice Wilkins who’d rather conspire about genetics with James Watson and Francis Crick than work alongside her.

Then it finally happens―the double helix structure of DNA reveals itself to her with perfect clarity. But what unfolds next, Rosalind could have never predicted.

Review:

Captivating, insightful, and absorbing!

Her Hidden Genius is an informative, heart-tugging tale set in Paris and England between 1947 and 1958 that takes you into the life of Rosalind Franklin, a young woman from an influential Jewish family whose intellect and love of science drove her to forgo an easier socialite lifestyle to wade into a male-dominated, mostly exclusionary field where she used her exceptional knowledge and unparalleled work ethic in X-ray crystallography to identify the base, double-helix structure of DNA before it, ultimately, led to her premature death at the tender age of 37. 

The prose is rich and smooth. The characters are intelligent, dedicated, and lonely. And the plot is a somewhat poignant tale of one woman’s personal and workplace relationships, struggles, disappointments, accomplishments, challenges, and achievements.

I have to admit, shockingly as a science major, that I knew very little about Rosalind Franklin when I started Her Hidden Genius, but Benedict did such a lovely job of blending historical facts with compelling fiction that I was left fascinated, impressed, and highly entertained, and more than a little intrigued to learn more about this strong-minded, extraordinary woman who has for far too long been overlooked or not credited for the remarkable impact she had on the twentieth-century advancements in science we all continue to reap the benefits of today.

 

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 providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Marie Benedict

Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator at two of the country's premier law firms and Fortune 500 companies. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston College with a focus on history and a cum laude graduate of the Boston University School of Law. She is the author of New York Times bestseller The Only Woman in the Room, Carnegie's Maid, The Other Einstein, and Lady Clementine. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview Antoinette’s Sister by Diana Giovinazzo @DianaGauthor @GrandCentralPub #AntoinettesSister #DianaGiovinazzo #GrandCentralPub

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#BookReview Antoinette’s Sister by Diana Giovinazzo @DianaGauthor @GrandCentralPub #AntoinettesSister #DianaGiovinazzo #GrandCentralPub Title: Antoinette's Sister

Author: Diana Giovinazzo

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Jan. 11, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: Hardcover

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 9/10

As Marie Antoinette took her last breath as Queen of France in Paris, another formidable monarch—Antoinette’s dearly beloved sister, Charlotte—was hundreds of miles away, in Naples, fighting desperately to secure her release from the revolutionaries who would take her life. Little did Charlotte know, however, that her sister’s execution would change the course of history—and bring about the end of her own empire.
 
“You are the queen. You are the queen that Antoinette wanted to be.”
 
Austria 1767: Maria Carolina Charlotte—tenth daughter and one of sixteen children of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria—knows her position as a Habsburg archduchess will inevitably force her to leave her home, her family, and her cherished sister, Antoinette, whose companionship she values over all else. But not yet. The Habsburg family is celebrating a great triumph: Charlotte’s older sister, Josepha, has been promised to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and will soon take her place as queen. Before she can journey to her new home, however, tragedy strikes. After visiting the family crypt, Josepha contracts smallpox and dies. Shocked, Charlotte is forced to face an unthinkable new reality: she must now marry Ferdinand in her sister’s stead.
 
Bereft and alone, Charlotte finds that her life in Naples is more complicated than she could ever have imagined. Ferdinand is weak and feckless, and a disastrous wedding night plunges her into despair. Her husband’s regent, Tanucci, a controlling and power-hungry man, has pushed the country to the brink of ruin. Overwhelmed, she asks her brother Leopold, now the Holy Roman Emperor, to send help—which he does in the form of John Acton, a handsome military man twenty years Charlotte’s senior who is tasked with overseeing the Navy. Now, Charlotte must gather the strength to do what her mother did before her: take control of a country.
 
In a time of political uprisings and royal executions and with the increasingly desperate crisis her favorite sister, Queen Marie Antoinette, is facing in France, how is a young monarch to keep hold of everything—and everyone—she loves? Find out in this sweeping, luxurious tale of family, court intrigue, and power.

Review:

Rich, fascinating, and informative!

Antoinette’s Sister is an alluring, compelling tale set in Europe during the late 1700s that tells the story of Maria Carolina Charlotte, a young, Habsburg archduchess who not only became the powerful Queen of Naples and Sicily and a loving mother after her reluctant marriage to the immature King Ferdinand IV but also remained a stalwart, unwavering supporter of her closest and dearest sister, Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

The prose is seamless and vivid. The characters are intelligent, ruthless, and bold. And the plot is an insightful, sweeping tale of the struggles, sacrifices, hopes, fears, entangled relationships, love affairs, schemes, and treachery that surrounded one of the most powerful families of the time.

Antoinette’s Sister is, ultimately, a story about life, loss, politics, power, family, desires, sacrifices, love, and war. It’s an immersive, absorbing, well-written tale by Giovinazzo that does a beautiful job of highlighting her incredible research and considerable knowledge into the life of Maria Carolina of Austria and both her undeniable love for her infamous sister and her long-lasting influence on Naples and European history.

This novel is available now.

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

           

 

 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Diana Giovinazzo

Diana Giovinazzo is the co-creator of Wine, Women and Words, a weekly literary podcast featuring interviews with au­thors over a glass of wine. Diana is active within her local literary community as the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Women’s National Book Association. The Woman in Red is her debut novel.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain @D_Chamberlain @StMartinsPress #TheLastHouseontheStreet #DianeChamberlain #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers

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#BookReview The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain @D_Chamberlain @StMartinsPress #TheLastHouseontheStreet #DianeChamberlain #StMartinsPress #SMPInfluencers Title: The Last House on the Street

Author: Diane Chamberlain

Published by: St. Martin's Press on Jan. 14, 2020

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Women's Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: Hardcover

Source: St. Martin's Press

Book Rating: 10/10

From bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes an irresistible new novel that perfectly interweaves history, mystery, and social justice.

When Kayla Carter’s husband dies in an accident while building their dream house, she knows she has to stay strong for their four-year-old daughter. But the trophy home in Shadow Ridge Estates, a new development in sleepy Round Hill, North Carolina, will always hold tragic memories. But when she is confronted by an odd, older woman telling her not to move in, she almost agrees. It’s clear this woman has some kind of connection to the area…and a connection to Kayla herself. Kayla’s elderly new neighbor, Ellie Hockley, is more welcoming, but it’s clear she, too, has secrets that stretch back almost fifty years. Is Ellie on a quest to right the wrongs of the past? And does the house at the end of the street hold the key? Told in dual time periods, The Last House on the Street is a novel of shocking prejudice and violence, forbidden love, the search for justice, and the tangled vines of two families.

Review:

Thought-provoking, ominous, and highly absorbing!

The Last House on the Street is an alluring, mysterious tale that sweeps you away to Round Hill, North Carolina during 1965, as well as 2010, and into the lives of Ellie Hockley and Kayla Carter, two intelligent, young women whose strength, tenacity, and compassion will be tested when the ones they love are lost and the long-buried history of a town steeped with strong underlying racist mentalities, longstanding alliances, hidden betrayals, and dark secrets is finally brought to light.

The writing is effortless and eloquent. The characters are empathetic, vulnerable, and endearing. And the plot, alternating between timelines, unravels and intertwines seamlessly into a beautifully tragic tale about life, loss, love, family, friendship, self-discovery, regret, deception, cruelty, manipulation, power, privilege, racism, politics, mayhem, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Last House on the Street is another sincere, thought-provoking, incredibly affecting tale by one of my all-time favourite authors that does an incredible job of highlighting the weakness and ugliness of group mentality and the ease with which it allows one to participate in the most unforgivable of crimes, while also reminding us that compassion and kindness is the base of humanity that should ultimately always transcend socioeconomic status and skin colour.

This novel is available now.

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

                

 

 

Thank you to St. Martins Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Diane Chamberlain

Diane Chamberlain is the New York Times, USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of 25 novels published in more than twenty languages. Some of her most popular books include Necessary Lies, The Silent Sister, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, and The Keeper of the Light Trilogy. Diane likes to write complex stories about relationships between men and women, parents and children, brothers and sisters, and friends. Although the thematic focus of her books often revolves around family, love, compassion and forgiveness, her stories usually feature a combination of drama, mystery, secrets and intrigue. Diane's background in psychology has given her a keen interest in understanding the way people tick, as well as the background necessary to create her realistic characters.

Diane was born and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey and spent her summers at the Jersey Shore. She also lived for many years in San Diego and northern Virginia before making North Carolina her home.

Diane received her bachelor's and master's degrees in clinical social work from San Diego State University. Prior to her writing career, Diane worked in hospitals in San Diego and Washington, D.C. before opening a private psychotherapy practice in Alexandria Virginia specializing in adolescents. All the while Diane was writing on the side. Her first book, Private Relations was published in 1989 and it earned the RITA award for Best Single Title Contemporary Novel.
Diane lives with her partner, photographer John Pagliuca, and her sheltie, Cole. She has three stepdaughters, two sons-in-law, and four grandchildren. She's currently at work on her next novel.

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#BookReview The Child of Auschwitz by Lily Graham @lilygrahambooks @GrandCentralPub #LilyGraham #TheChildofAuschwitz

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#BookReview The Child of Auschwitz by Lily Graham @lilygrahambooks @GrandCentralPub #LilyGraham #TheChildofAuschwitz Title: The Child of Auschwitz

Author: Lily Graham

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Sep. 7, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 256

Format: Paperback

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 9/10

For readers of Lilac Girls and The Tattooist of Auschwitz, a heartbreaking story of survival, where life or death relies on the smallest chance and happiness can be found in the darkest times.

​It is 1942 and Eva Adami has boarded a train to Auschwitz. Barely able to breathe due to the press of bodies and exhausted from standing up for two days, she can think only of her longed-for reunion with her husband Michal, who was sent there six months earlier.

But when Eva arrives at Auschwitz, there is no sign of Michal and the stark reality of the camp comes crashing down upon her. As she lies heartbroken and shivering on a thin mattress, her head shaved by rough hands, she hears a whisper. Her bunkmate, Sofie, is reaching out her hand…

As the days pass, the two women learn each other’s hopes and dreams – Eva’s is that she will find Michal alive in this terrible place, and Sofie’s is that she will be reunited with her son Tomas, over the border in an orphanage in Austria. Sofie sees the chance to engineer one last meeting between Eva and Michal and knows she must take it even if means befriending the enemy…

But when Eva realizes she is pregnant, she fears she has endangered both their lives. The women promise to protect each other’s children, should the worst occur. For they are determined to hold on to the last flower of hope in the shadows and degradation: their precious children, who they pray will live to tell their story when they no longer can.

Review:

Evocative, tragic, and heartrending!

The Child of Auschwitz is an immersive, affecting tale set during WWII that takes you into the lives of two young Jewish women, Eva and Sofie, as they do whatever it takes to help each other survive life in the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to one day reunite with the people that have kept their fighting spirits alive, Eva’s husband Michal and Sofie’s son Tomas.

The prose is insightful and authentic. The characters are resilient, caring, and brave. And the plot is a poignant, memorable tale of life, loss, love, family, sacrifice, courage, survival, selflessness, the inconceivable horrors of war, and the special bonds of friendship.

Overall, The Child of Auschwitz is a harrowing, hopeful, moving tale by Graham inspired by true-life events that are a haunting reminder of a time in history when millions endured unimaginable cruelty and needlessly suffered and and yet still managed to have the capacity for compassion and love.

This novel is available now.

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

         

 

 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Lily Graham

Lily Graham is the author of the bestselling, The Child of Auschwitz, The Paris Secret, and The Island Villa, among others. Her books have been translated into numerous languages, including French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Turkish.

She grew up in South Africa, and was a journalist for a decade before giving it up to write fiction full time. Her first three novels were lighter, women's fiction, but when she wrote The Island Villa, a story about a secret Jewish community living on the tiny island of Formentera during the Spanish Inquisition, she switched to historical fiction and hasn't quite looked back since.

She lives now in the Suffolk coast with her husband and English bulldog, Fudge.

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#BookReview Blind Tiger by Sandra Brown @SandraBrown_NYT @GrandCentralPub #SandraBrown #BlindTiger

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#BookReview Blind Tiger by Sandra Brown @SandraBrown_NYT @GrandCentralPub #SandraBrown #BlindTiger Title: Blind Tiger

Author: Sandra Brown

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Aug. 3, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Romantic Suspense

Pages: 512

Format: Hardcover

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The year 1920 comes in with a roar in this rousing and suspenseful novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown. Prohibition is the new law of the land, but murder, mayhem, lust, and greed are already institutions in the Moonshine Capitol of Texas.

Thatcher Hutton, a war-weary soldier on the way back to his cowboy life, jumps from a moving freight train to avoid trouble . . . and lands in more than he bargained for. On the day he arrives in Foley, Texas, a local woman goes missing. Thatcher, the only stranger in town, is suspected of her abduction, and worse. Standing between him and exoneration are a corrupt mayor, a crooked sheriff, a notorious cathouse madam, a sly bootlegger, feuding moonshiners . . . and a young widow whose soft features conceal an iron will.

What was supposed to be a fresh start for Laurel Plummer turns to tragedy. Left destitute but determined to dictate her own future, Laurel plunges into the lucrative regional industry, much to the dislike of the good ol’ boys, who have ruled supreme. Her success quickly makes her a target for cutthroat competitors, whose only code of law is reprisal. As violence erupts, Laurel and—now deputy—Thatcher find themselves on opposite sides of a moonshine war, where blood flows as freely as whiskey.

Review:

Twisty, gritty, and entertaining!

Blind Tiger is an engrossing, sinister novel that takes us to Foley, Texas during 1920 and into the life of former soldier Thatcher Hutton who, after a grievous misunderstanding, suddenly finds himself recruited as a part-time deputy investigating a complex case involving kidnapping, a potential murder, and an illegal, highly-successful bootlegging operation, all while fighting the attraction that seems to be brewing between himself and Laurel Plummer, a young widowed mother who may be caught up in something a little more enterprising than just farming with her father-in-law.

The prose is crisp and tense. The characters are flawed, multilayered, and hardy. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unravel seamlessly into a mysterious tale of mayhem, corruption, coercion, mischief, politics, criminal behaviour, dangerous situations, suspicious motivations, red herrings, deduction, violence, and murder.

Overall, Blind Tiger is an ominous, sophisticated, satisfying novel by Brown that has all the things I enjoy in her romantic suspense novels, along with the added bonus of a unique historical setting that provided the perfect backdrop for lots of action and adventure.

 

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is the author of sixty-nine New York Times bestsellers, including the #1 Seeing Red. There are over eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. She lives in Texas.

 

Photograph courtesy of grandcentralpublishing.com.

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#BookReview Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan @CKeeganFiction @PGCBooks @groveatlantic #SmallThingsLikeThese #ClaireKeegan

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#BookReview Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan @CKeeganFiction @PGCBooks @groveatlantic #SmallThingsLikeThese #ClaireKeegan Title: Small Things Like These

Author: Claire Keegan

Published by: Grove Press on Nov. 30, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 118

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.

Review:

Astute, thought-provoking, and memorable!

Small Things Like These is a short but affecting story that takes you to County Wexford during Christmas 1985 and into the life of Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant and father of five daughters who, after discovering some whispered but often ignored rumours to be true about the local convent-run laundry and the girls who are housed within, must decide whether to continue to turn a blind eye about the atrocities that may be occurring there or risk his stable, comfortable life and do what he knows in his heart of hearts is the right thing to do.

The prose is sophisticated and descriptive. The characters are gentle, kind, and sympathetic. And the plot is an exceptionally moving tale about family, morality, community, relationship dynamics, and the harrowing history of Magdalen laundries in Ireland.

Overall, Small Things Like These is a powerful, pensive, well-written story by Keegan where the space between the words resonates as loudly as the words themselves and is a beautiful reminder, especially at this time of year, that caring is truly the root of morality.

 

This book 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 Claire Keegan

Claire Keegan was raised on a farm in Ireland. Her stories have won numerous awards and are translated into more than twenty languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was chosen as a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster, after winning the Davy Byrnes Award — then the world’s richest prize for a story — was recently selected by The Times UK as one of the top 50 novels to be published in the 21st Century. Her stories have been published in the New Yorker, Paris Review, Granta, and Best American Stories. Keegan now holds the Briena Staunton Fellowship at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Photo courtesy of Grove Atlantic Website.

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In Sight of the Mountain Cover

#BookReview In Sight of the Mountain by Jamie McGillen @JamieMcGillen #JamieMcGillen #InSightoftheMountain #TheRainierSeries

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#BookReview In Sight of the Mountain by Jamie McGillen @JamieMcGillen #JamieMcGillen #InSightoftheMountain #TheRainierSeries Title: In Sight of the Mountain

Author: Jamie McGillen

Series: Rainier Series #1

Published by: Evergreen Bookshelf on Sep. 19, 2019

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 362

Format: Paperback

Source: Jamie McGillen

Book Rating: 9/10

~ Inspired by the trailblazing women of the 19th Century who dared to summit Mount Rainier ~

In the devastating aftermath of the 1889 Great Seattle Fire, nineteen-year-old Anna Gallagher faces considerable pressure to marry well and soon. She has two serious suitors: a well-meaning but condescending doctor, and an evasive fisherman who challenges her mind. But Anna has no intention of giving up her freedom to keep house; she has a dream to reach the summit of Mount Rainier.

Despite her family’s disapproval and her own self-doubt, she secretly trains, raises money for supplies, and buys a train ticket to the base of the mountain. If she succeeds in reaching its icy peak, she could pioneer the way for women mountaineers; but it’s a tall task and there’s much at risk—including the heart of a man who just might love her as an equal. On the journey, Anna will face glaciers, avalanches, and frozen temperatures, all without knowing if she even has a family or a future to return to.

In Sight of the Mountain is a charming coming-of-age story, but it also casts the reader’s gaze upon issues of colonialism, class, and women’s far-too-narrow options.

Review:

Fascinating, engaging, and rich!

In Sight of the Mountain is a heartwarming, atmospheric tale set in Seattle during the late 1880s that takes you into the life of Anna Gallagher, a nineteen-year-old-girl who yearns to be more than just a wife and mother, and who finds through her unusual friendship with a young Duwamish woman the excitement she craves and the mettle she needs to train and pursue her greatest wish, to become the first woman ever to successfully summit the treacherous Mount Rainier. 

The prose is evocative and fluid. The characters are feisty, driven, and independent. And the compelling, well-paced plot is an adventurous journey filled with familial drama, heartbreak, life, loss, courage, self-discovery, hope, friendship, romance, and love.

Overall, In Sight of the Mountain is an absorbing, well-written novel by McGillen that showcases her passion and knowledge for Pacific Northwest history and highlights humanities ability to dream, strive, conquer, endure, and still seek love in times of political upheaval, natural disasters, extreme prejudice, and social oppression.

 

This novel is available now.

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

              

 

 

Thank you to Jamie McGillen for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Jamie McGillen

Jamie McGillen Photo

Jamie McGillen lives in the shadow of Mount Rainier, and no matter how many times she moves away, it draws her home. Everything about large evergreen trees delights her, except how poky they are, and the sap.

Her first novel In Sight of the Mountain was released in 2019, the sequel In Light of the Summit was released in 2020. The final book in the series, In the Heart of Paradise, came out in November 2021!

Her poems and essays have been published in Rust + Moth, Marathon Literary Review, The Raven Chronicles Journal, Avalon Literary Review, and Arcturus Literary Magazine.

One of her poems was selected to be included in the anthology Thanku: Poems of Gratitude (Lerner/Millbrook, 2019). This amazingly diverse collection includes poems by Jane Yolen, Margarita Engle, and Naomi Shihab Nye.

Photo courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BlogTour #BookReview The Midwife’s Secret by Emily Gunnis @EmilyGunnis @Mobius_Books @headlinepg #TheMidwifesSecret #EmilyGunnis #MobiusBooksUS

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#BlogTour #BookReview The Midwife’s Secret by Emily Gunnis @EmilyGunnis @Mobius_Books @headlinepg #TheMidwifesSecret #EmilyGunnis #MobiusBooksUS Title: The Midwife's Secret

Author: Emily Gunnis

Published by: Headline Books on Dec. 7, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 384

Format: Hardcover

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 9/10

A little girl goes missing from Yew Tree Manor – the same house from which a girl vanished decades before. Does the key to the present lie buried even deeper in the past, in the forgotten history of an innocent midwife accused by a family of shocking betrayal? A gripping, heartwrenching story of love, loyalty and family secrets.

From the internationally bestselling author of THE GIRL IN THE LETTER and THE LOST CHILD.

When six-year-old Alice Hilton goes missing in the snow on New Year’s Eve 1969 from Yew Tree Manor, suspicion immediately falls on local man Alf Simms. Simms had a grievance against Alice’s father, wealthy Richard Hilton, and he is arrested, tried and found guilty for Alice’s death. Tragically the child is never found.

Decades later, Willow Simms, an architect working on a development at Yew Tree Manor, discovers that the land surrounding the house is holding a secret. And when another little girl goes missing from Yew Tree, Willow realizes the key to her disappearance lies in the history of the house, and the two families attached to it. A terrible wrong needs to be made right…and to uncover it, Willow must unravel events from long ago, when in 1919 a court sentenced a midwife to death, for a shocking crime that happened at Yew Tree Manor…

Review:

Absorbing, mysterious, and moving!

The Midwife’s Secret transports you to Sussex, England between 1946 and 2017, and immerses you into the ongoing, complex, multi-generational relationships between the wealthy, entitled Hilton family and the poor, victimized James family complete with all the powerful emotions, despicable tales, long-buried secrets, and unimaginable tragedy that has tied them together for the past seventy years.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are vulnerable, conflicted, and hardworking. And the plot is an enthralling, emotional saga filled with life, loss, familial drama, survival, betrayal, corruption, social injustice, tragedy, inequality, manipulation, and heartbreak.

Overall, The Midwife’s Secret is a heart-tugging, clever, haunting tale by Gunnis that reminds us that the choices we make often have far-reaching consequences, and skeletons often find their way to the surface no matter how well they’re buried.

This novel is available now.

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

                

 

 

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

 

About Emily Gunnis

Emily Gunnis previously worked in TV drama and lives in Brighton with her young family. She is one of the four daughters of Sunday Times bestselling author Penny Vincenzi.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Savage Instinct by M.M. DeLuca @DeLucaMarjorie @Inkshares #MMDeLuca #TheSavageInstinct

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#BookReview The Savage Instinct by M.M. DeLuca @DeLucaMarjorie @Inkshares #MMDeLuca #TheSavageInstinct Title: The Savage Instinct

Author: M.M. DeLuca

Published by: Inkshares on May 4, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 377

Format: Paperback

Source: Inkshares

Book Rating: 8/10

August 1872. Clara Blackstone, travels to Durham City to meet her husband, Henry, a newly appointed Professor of Mathematics at Durham University. It is supposed to be a fresh start – a chance to put recent troubles and nightmarish events behind her. But after a tense reunion, their carriage runs into a mob gathered to witness the mass murderer Mary Ann Cotton being brought into Durham Jail. Buried memories of Clara’s second tragic miscarriage begin to resurface, and her inability to recall events of the months leading up to her subsequent committal to a private asylum, cause her to question her husband’s motives for placing her there.

When Clara befriends Catherine, an outspoken Suffragist, she joins her as a prison visitor, working with female inmates. The childless Clara encounters Mrs. Cotton and becomes increasingly fascinated with her story. When she learns the murderer is pregnant her obsession grows, while public outrage grows about this “unnatural monster” who would go against her God-given instincts and murder her children, step-children and several husbands.

Against all this controversy, Clara struggles to find her place as a wife and future mother until a disturbing encounter finally unlocks the truth behind the terrible events surrounding her miscarriage. But when her husband falls under the controlling influence of a devious colleague, she soon finds herself fighting for her grandmother’s inheritance, her freedom and her sanity.

Fact meets fiction in this dramatic novel set against the backdrop of real-life murderer, Mary-Ann Cotton’s sensational arrest and trial.

Review:

Eerie, ominous, and gritty!

The Savage Instinct is a well-paced, historical thriller set in England in the late 1800s that takes you into the life of Clara Blackstone, a young woman who, after losing her unborn child and being confined to the Bethlem Asylum for the past year, finds herself back under her husband’s loveless care and spending her days visiting a local women’s prison where she befriends a woman, Mary Ann Cotton, who is charged with the most heinous of crimes.

The writing is sinister and gloomy. The characters are troubled, tormented, and resourceful. And the plot, using a back-and-forth style, is an engrossing tale rife with desperation, manipulation, abuse, survival, defiance, class disparity, marital inequality, and murder.

Overall, The Savage Instinct is a dark, sinister, intense novel by DeLuca that does a wonderful job of interweaving historical facts and compelling fiction into a suspenseful mystery that is deliciously atmospheric and highly entertaining.

 

This novel is available now.

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

              

 

 

Thank you to Inkshares for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

 

About M.M. DeLuca

M. M. (Marjorie) DeLuca spent her childhood in the beautiful cathedral city of Durham in North-Eastern England. She attended the University of London, Goldsmiths College, studied psychology, then became a teacher. She immigrated to Canada and lives in Winnipeg with her husband and two children. There she also studied writing under her mentor, Pulitzer Prize winning author, Carol Shields.
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She loves writing for all ages and in many genres—suspense, historical, sci-fi for teens.
She also teaches workshops in Creative Writing and the writing process.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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