Category: Historical Fiction

#BookReview I Died for Beauty by Amanda Flower @BerkleyPub @PenguinRandomCA #IDiedForBeauty #AnEmilyDickinsonMystery #AmandaFlower #Berkley #BerkleyPartner #PenguinReads

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview I Died for Beauty by Amanda Flower @BerkleyPub @PenguinRandomCA #IDiedForBeauty #AnEmilyDickinsonMystery #AmandaFlower #Berkley #BerkleyPartner #PenguinReads Title: I Died for Beauty

Author: Amanda Flower

Series: An Emily Dickinson Mystery #3

Published by: Berkley on Feb. 25, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: Paperback

Source: Berkley Publishing

Book Rating: 8/10

When a blaze takes both a neighbor’s home and his life, Emily Dickinson and her maid Willa have a burning desire to crack the case in this new historical mystery from Agatha Award–winning author Amanda Flower.

Amherst, 1857. The Dickinson family braves one of the worst winters in New England’s history. Trains are snowbound and boats are frozen in the harbor. Emily Dickinson and her maid, Willa Noble, have never witnessed anything like it. As Amherst families attempt to keep their homes warm, fears of fire abound.

These worries prove not to be unfounded as a blaze breaks out just down the street from the Dickinson in Kelley Square, the Irish community in Amherst, and a young couple is killed, leaving behind their young child. Their deaths appear to be a tragic accident, but Emily finds herself harboring suspicions there may be more to the fire than meets the eye. Emily and Willa must withstand the frigid temperatures and discover a killer lurking among the deadly frost.

Review:

Mysterious, atmospheric, and entertaining

In this latest novel by Flower, I Died for Beauty, we head back to 1857, where poet Emily Dickinson and her maid/sidekick Willa Noble now find themselves tangled up in a tragic investigation into a house fire that may not have been as accidental as it first appeared and which ultimately left two people dead and one little girl orphaned.

The writing style is fluid and light. The characters, including the intelligent, independent heroine, are well-developed, complex, and intriguing. And the plot is a well-paced, engaging whodunit full of twists, turns, amateur sleuthing, red herrings, suspects, customs, tradition, deduction, and danger.

Overall, I Died for Beauty is a cosy, enjoyable, satisfying tale by Flower that I thoroughly enjoyed and which is undoubtedly another wonderful addition to the Emily Dickinson Mysteries.

 

This novel is available now.

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

         

 

 

Thank you to Berkley for this free copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Amanda Flower

Amanda Flower is the USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning mystery author of over forty novels, including the nationally bestselling Amish Candy Shop Mystery Series, Magical Bookshop Mysteries, and, written under the name Isabella Alan, the Amish Quilt Shop Mysteries. Flower is a former librarian, and she and her husband, a recording engineer, own a habitat farm and recording studio in Northeast Ohio.

Photo by David M. Seymour

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | YouTube

#BookReview The Day I Left You by Caroline Bishop @calbish @SimonSchusterCA #TheDayILeftYou #CarolineBishop #SimonSchusterCA

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview The Day I Left You by Caroline Bishop @calbish @SimonSchusterCA #TheDayILeftYou #CarolineBishop #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Day I Left You

Author: Caroline Bishop

Published by: Simon & Schuster Canada on Feb. 18, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

For readers of The Secrets We Kept and Jill Santopolo comes an epic love story about Greta and Henry, who by chance meet in 1982 East Berlin and find a love that’s meant to last a lifetime—until Greta vanishes.

I’m sorry. I can’t stay.

East Berlin, 1982. When Greta Schneider meets Henry Henderson, she is instantly smitten. An engineer on a work visa from Britain, Henry offers Greta a taste of the world beyond the Iron Curtain, a world that she yearns to explore as a translator once she finishes university. For Henry, Greta is simply perfect—bold and beautiful, her lively and inquisitive nature adding a vital spark to his everyday life.

But their time together is limited. Henry can’t stay once his visa expires, and Greta is forbidden from going beyond the Berlin Wall. It’s only been a few weeks, but they know how they feel about each other, so when Henry proposes, Greta accepts—and is given permission to start a new life with Henry in England. And for a time, everything is perfect. Until, one day, out of the blue, Greta walks out the door of their Oxford home, leaving a simple note behind.

Decades later, Henry still has unanswered questions. Greta loved him, and he loved her. They surmounted the odds to be together, and in his heart, he knows their marriage was happy. So why did she leave? How well did he really know his wife? When a young mother visits Henry’s antique restoration shop, she unknowingly brings with her a clue that sends Henry on a journey to find out what happened to the love of his life all those years ago.

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, The Day I Left You is a gorgeous, spellbinding story about the nature of love, the memories we cling to, and the hurts we must leave behind to move forward.

Review:

Immersive, intriguing, and affecting!

The Day I Left You is a vivid, captivating tale set in Europe during 1982, as well as 2018, that is told from two different perspectives. Greta, an East German woman who, after falling in love with a British man and with the help of some acquaintances, flees the Iron Curtain for marriage and a life in the UK, until one day she just ups and leaves, and Henry, a lovelorn man who has never forgotten the love of his life he lost more than thirty years ago.

The prose is polished and expressive. The characters are independent, troubled, and vulnerable. And the plot is an evocative tale of life, loss, love, self-discovery, manipulation, secrets, determination, betrayal, family, espionage, and romance.

Overall, The Day I Left You is a rich, evocative, tense novel by Bishop that grabs you from the very first page and is sure to be a big hit with historical fiction lovers everywhere.

 

This book 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 Caroline Bishop

Caroline Bishop is a journalist, an editor, and the author of two novels, The Other Daughter and The Lost Chapter. For the past fifteen years, she has written about travel, food, and theatre for many publications, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, and BBC Travel. A British-Canadian, she currently lives in Switzerland.

Photo courtesy of S&S website.

Website | Instagram

#BookReview The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor @EuropaEditions @PGCBooks #JosephOConnor #TheGhostsOfRome #RomeEscapeLineTrilogy #PGCBooks

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor @EuropaEditions @PGCBooks #JosephOConnor #TheGhostsOfRome #RomeEscapeLineTrilogy #PGCBooks Title: The Ghosts of Rome

Author: Joseph O'Connor

Series: Rome Escape Line Trilogy #2

Published by: Europa Editions on Feb. 14, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

In the final months of World War II, a clandestine group known as The Choir smuggles thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret route known as the Rome Escape Line. When an unidentified airman falls from the sky, The Choir is plunged into lethal danger and the survival of the Escape Line itself is threatened.

The Choir is riven with internal tensions and infighting. The organization is in danger of falling apart, which would leave thousands of escaped allied soldiers, POWs, Jews, and objectors stranded in a Rome that is ruled with vicious efficiency by the Nazis. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, the architect of the Escape Line and acknowledged leader of The Choir, broods inside the Vatican, seemingly paralyzed by what he sees as the intolerable risks of keeping the Escape Line in operation.

One man has been given the task of definitively destroying the entire operation and the price of his failure is high—SS Commander Paul Hauptmann’s wife and children are under Gestapo supervision in Berlin. Hauptmann is ordered to stay on in the city he both loathes and loves and to dismantle the Escape Line, or watch his family perish. Into this deliriously thrilling melee steps the Contessa Giovanna Landini, a reckless, audacious, and magnetic member of the Italian Resistance who has the nerve to challenge Hauptmann’s authority.

A beautifully written and expertly crafted historical suspense novel that is bursting with action, atmosphere, and unforgettable characters, The Ghosts of Rome is the thrilling follow-up to Joseph O’Connor’s best-selling My Father’s House.

Review:

Charged, emotional, and action-packed!

The Ghosts of Rome is a fascinating, enticing tale that picks up right where My Father’s House left off, taking us back to Vatican City during WWII and into the lives of a handful of individuals known as “The Choir” who now find themselves doing whatever they can to help a shot down, wounded allied airman evade capture while also getting him the life-saving surgery he desperately needs.

The prose is smooth and expressive. The characters are selfless, reliable, and resourceful. And the plot unravels and intertwines briskly into a sweeping saga of life, loss, bravery, strength, loyalty, espionage, grit, determination, deception, secrets, and survival.

Overall, The Ghosts of Rome is an intricate, suspenseful, captivating tale by O’Connor based on real-life events that does a wonderful job of interweaving historical facts and compelling fiction into a thrilling, heart-tugging tale that is atmospheric and highly absorbing.

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 gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Joseph O'Connor

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. He is the author of the novels Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes , The Salesman , Inishowen , Star of the Sea and Redemption Falls , as well as a number of bestselling works of non-fiction.

He was recently voted ‘Irish Writer of the Decade’ by the readers of Hot Press magazine. He broadcasts a popular weekly radio diary on RTE’s Drivetime With Mary Wilson and writes regularly for The Guardian Review and The Sunday Independent. In 2009 he was the Harman Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Baruch College, the City University of New York.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Website.

Website | Goodreads

#BookReview A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci @davidbaldacci @GrandCentralPub #DavidBaldacci #ACalamityofSouls #GCPInsider

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci @davidbaldacci @GrandCentralPub #DavidBaldacci #ACalamityofSouls #GCPInsider Title: A Calamity of Souls

Author: David Baldacci

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Feb. 11, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 512

Format: Paperback

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 9/10

Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially-charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants in this courtroom drama from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci. 

Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. And he quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial.
 
Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a fractious and unwieldy partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth. Yet DuBose is also aware that powerful outside forces are at work to blunt the victories achieved by the Civil Rights era.  
 
Lee and DuBose could not be more dissimilar. On their own, neither one can stop the prosecution’s deliberate march towards a guilty verdict and the electric chair. But together, the pair fight for what once seemed impossible: a chance for a fair trial and true justice.

Over a decade in the writing, A Calamity of Souls breathes richly imagined and detailed life into a bygone era, taking the reader through a world that will seem both foreign and familiar.

Review:

Impactful, atmospheric, and hauntingly realistic!

A Calamity of Souls is a fast-paced, sinister tale that takes you into the life of small-town white attorney Jack Lee as he suddenly finds himself partnering with the well-known, indomitable Black lawyer Desiree DuBose on the case of his life when he agrees to defend Jerome Washington, a local Black man who, after being found near the bodies of an influential white couple, is automatically presumed guilty.

The prose is gritty and descriptive. The characters are vulnerable, raw, and impulsive. And the plot is an immersive, absorbing tale of life, loss, poverty, familial drama, friendship, courage, morality, loyalty, community, self-preservation, bigotry, racial injustice, violence, and murder.

Overall, A Calamity of Souls is a sincere, ominous, pensive tale by Baldacci that not only highlights the ugliness and weakness of group mentality and the ease with which it allows one to behave with ignorance, intolerance, and even participate in the most unforgivable of crimes, but also reminds us that kindness and compassion is the base of humanity that should ultimately always transcend skin colour and socioeconomic status.

 

This book is available now.

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

             

 

 

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

 

About David Baldacci

David Baldacci is a global #1 bestselling author, and one of the world’s favorite storytellers. His books are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with over 130 million worldwide sales. His works have been adapted for both feature film and television. David Baldacci is also the cofounder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. Still a resident of his native Virginia, he invites you to visit him at DavidBaldacci.com and his foundation at WishYouWellFoundation.org.

Photograph by Allen Jones.

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Instagram | Bookbub

#BookReview Witchcraft for Wayward Girls @PenguinRandomCA #WitchcraftForWaywardGirls #GradyHendrix #PenguinReads

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview Witchcraft for Wayward Girls @PenguinRandomCA #WitchcraftForWaywardGirls #GradyHendrix #PenguinReads Title: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Author: Grady Hendrix

Published by: Berkley on Jan. 14, 2025

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror

Pages: 496

Format: Paperback

Source: Penguin Random House Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

There’s power in a book…

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

Review:

Dark, visceral, and atmospheric!

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is an intricate, ominous tale that transports you back to 1970s Florida and into the lives of several teenagers who, after being dropped off at a home for unwed pregnant girls and treated barbarically, decide to impart their own type of revenge using the spells they find in the “How to Be a Groovy Witch” book they are gifted by a strange bookmobile librarian with an agenda of her own. 

The writing is vivid and sharp. The characters are vulnerable, desperate, and impulsive. And the plot is an eerie tale full of twists, turns, secrets, surprises, heartbreak, abuse, survival, childbirth, female friendship and violence, all interwoven with the supernatural.

Overall, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is an intense, creative, disturbing page-turner by Hendrix that, being the unique mix of horror, fantasy and historical fiction genres, certainly left me unnerved and highly entertained from start to finish.

 

This novel is available now.

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

        

 

 

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix is a New York Times bestselling novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of How to Sell a Haunted House, The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, We Sold Our Souls, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and Horrorstör. His books have sold over two million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages. He also writes nonfiction and his history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties, Paperbacks from Hell, received the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction.

Website | Facebook

#BookReview The Girls of the Glimmer Factory by Jennifer Coburn @JenniferCoburn @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheGirlsOfTheGlimmerFactory #JenniferCoburn #bookmarkedbylandmark

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview The Girls of the Glimmer Factory by Jennifer Coburn @JenniferCoburn @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheGirlsOfTheGlimmerFactory #JenniferCoburn #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Girls of the Glimmer Factory

Author: Jennifer Coburn

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jan. 28, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 480

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 9/10

From the author of Cradles of the Reich comes a poignant and inspiring tale of resistance, friendship, and the dangers of propaganda, based on the real story of Theresienstadt, for fans of The Forest of Vanishing Stars and The German Wife.

Hannah longs for the days when she used to be free, but now, she is a Jewish prisoner at Theresienstadt, a model ghetto where the Nazis plan to make a propaganda film to convince the world that the Jewish people are living well in the camps. But Hannah will do anything to show the world the truth. Along with other young resistance members, they vow to disrupt the filming and derail the increasingly frequent deportations to death camps in the east.

Hilde is a true believer in the Nazi cause, working in the Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. Though they’re losing the war, Hilde hasn’t lost faith. She can’t stop the Allied bombings, but she can help the party create a documentary that will renew confidence in Hitler’s plans for Jewish containment. When the filming of Hitler Gives a City to the Jews faces production problems due to resistance, Hilde finds herself in a position to finally make a name for herself. And when she recognizes Hannah, an old childhood friend, she knows she can use their friendship to get the film back on track.

Review:

Compelling, intense, and absorbing!

The Girls of the Glimmer Factory is a charged, intriguing tale set during WWII that takes you into the lives of Hannah Kaufman, a young Jewish woman imprisoned in the Theresienstadt ghetto, and Hilde Kramer-Bischoff, a German filmmaker who is bound and determined to produce a film that shows the world the benefits of Hitler’s Nazi ideology.

The prose is fluid and rich. The characters are resilient, courageous, and strong. And the plot is a captivating tale of life, loss, love, family, survival, sacrifice, courage, selflessness, the unimaginable horrors of war, and the dangers of propaganda.

Overall, The Girls of the Glimmer Factory is an enticing, heart-tugging, atmospheric tale by Coburn that transports you to another time and place and immerses you so thoroughly into the feelings, lives, and personalities of the characters you can’t help but be fully engrossed and completely invested throughout.

 

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 Jennifer Coburn

Jennifer Coburn is the author of Cradles of the Reich, a historical novel about three very different women living at a Nazi Lebensborn breeding home at the start of World War ll.

She has also published a mother-daughter travel memoir, We'll Always Have Paris, as well as six contemporary women's novels. Additionally, Jennifer has contributed to five literary anthologies, including A Paris All Your Own.

Jennifer lives in San Diego with her husband, William. Their daughter, Katie is currently in graduate school. When Jennifer is not going down historical research rabbit holes, she volunteers with So Say We All, a live storytelling organization, where she is a performer, producer, and performance coach. She is also an active volunteer with Reality Changers, a nonprofit that supports low-income high school students in becoming the first in their families to attend college. She specializes in college essay development, and interview prep.

Photo Credit: Killian Whitelock

Website | Facebook | Instagram

#BookReview The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse @KateMosse @PGCBooks #TheMapOfBones #KateMosse #TheJoubertFamilyChronicles #PGCBooks

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse @KateMosse @PGCBooks #TheMapOfBones #KateMosse #TheJoubertFamilyChronicles #PGCBooks Title: The Map of Bones

Author: Kate Mosse

Series: The Joubert Family Chronicles #4

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Jan. 7, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 480

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

Following The Ghost Ship, bestseller Kate Mosse brings readers a sweeping novel of adventure and hardship, injustice and triumph, in the epic conclusion to The Joubert Family Chronicles.

Olifantshoek, 1688. When the violent Cape wind blows from the south-east, they say the voices of the unquiet dead can be heard whispering through the deserted valley. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from war-torn France, is here to walk in her cousin’s footsteps. Louise Reydon-Joubert, the notorious she-captain and pirate commander, landed at the Cape of Good Hope more than sixty years ago, then disappeared from the record as if she had never existed. Suzanne has come to find her—and to lay the stories to rest. But all is not as it seems.

Franschhoek, 1862. Nearly one hundred and eighty years after Suzanne’s perilous journey, another intrepid and courageous woman of the Joubert family, Isabelle Lepard, has journeyed to the small frontier town once known as Oliftantshoek in search of her long-lost relations. A journalist and travel writer, intent on putting the women of her family back into the history books, she quickly discovers that the tragedies and crimes of the past are far from over. Isabelle must face a race against time—to not only discover the truth, but escape with her life as well.

Moving and ambitious in scope, The Map of Bones tells the story of courageous women battling to survive in a hostile land—of revenge, retribution, and ultimately, redemption. Most of all, it is a poignant novel about the importance of women bearing witness and the power of the written word.

Review:

Captivating, immersive, and memorable!

The Map of Bones is an atmospheric, fascinating tale that picks up a few decades after The Ghost Ship left off, sweeping us to the Cape of Good Hope in the late 1600s and into the life of the fierce, independent Suzanne Joubert who, after arriving as a refugee on the shores of South Africa is bound and determined to do whatever it takes, even amongst the hostility and danger that surrounds her, to once and for all discover the fate of her infamous ancestor Louise Reydon-Joubert, the she-captain of the Ghost Ship.

The prose is rich and expressive. The characters are persistent, resilient, and strong. And the plot is a passionate, engrossing quest full of life, loss, love, courage, action, adventure, family, friendship, sacrifice, savagery, injustice, and revelations.

Overall, The Map of Bones is the alluring, insightful, stunning conclusion to The Joubert Family Chronicles by Mosse which spectacularly highlights her incredible knowledge and research into the vivid, tragic history of the Huguenots.

 

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 gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Kate Mosse

KATE MOSSE is a multiple New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author with sales of more than eight million copies in thirty-eight languages. Her previous novels include Labyrinth, Sepulchre, The Winter Ghosts, Citadel, The Taxidermist’s Daughter, and The Burning Chambers. Kate is the founder director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, a visiting professor at the University of Chichester, and in June 2013, was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature. She divides her time between Chichester in the United Kingdom and Carcassonne in France.

Photo Credit: Ruth Crafer

Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

#BookReview The Kennedy Girl by Julia Bryan Thomas @AuthorJuliaT @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheKennedyGirl #JuliaBryanThomas #bookmarkedbylandmark

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview The Kennedy Girl by Julia Bryan Thomas @AuthorJuliaT @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheKennedyGirl #JuliaBryanThomas #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Kennedy Girl

Author: Julia Bryan Thomas

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Jan. 14, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8/10

This American Girl in Paris might hold the fate of nations…

It’s the 1960s, and the fashion culture of New York, Paris, and Milan is starting to make an impression on the mid-century American woman. Jackie Kennedy’s effortless style leads the nation, although Mia’s bustling bakery job doesn’t often give her the time or money to craft a stylish closet after her idol in the White House. But when a mysterious stranger suddenly offers her a modeling job in Paris at the esteemed House of Rousseau, she takes a chance on it, despite knowing nothing about the world of fashion. As an orphan with big dreams, holding a one-way plane ticket to Paris, she sets off for what she hopes is a better life.

But the job of a model runs deeper than photoshoots and runway walks, and as Mia adjusts to the Parisienne lifestyle, she realizes that not everything is as it seems. Becoming more and more successful in her position as an up-and-coming model, she is soon drawn into the Cold War by the very fashion house she works for. And as she finds herself falling further into national crimes and politics, Mia will soon have to decide which side of history she’s really on.

Jackie Kennedy is no longer the only woman for whom fashion and politics dramatically collide… 

The Kennedy Girl is an immersive and heart-pounding story perfect for history buffs and armchair travelers alike, with glimpses into both the propulsive Cold War era of espionage and the inner-workings of the most prestigious Parisian fashion houses.

Review:

Absorbing, captivating, and vivid!

The Kennedy Girl is a rich, compelling tale set in Paris during the 1960s that takes you into the life of Mia Walker, a young American woman who, after accepting a position to model for the House of Rousseau, finds herself swept up in the glitz and glamour of the City of Light, mingling with the rich and powerful from several countries, and moonlighting as a spy for more than one side.

The prose is descriptive and smooth. The characters are independent, spirited, and brave. And the plot is a mysterious tale of life, loss, love, self-discovery, war, politics, secrets, friendship, determination, betrayal, and espionage.

Overall, I found The Kennedy Girl to be an intriguing, absorbing, atmospheric tale by Thomas that did a lovely job of blending historical times with entertaining suspense.

 

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 Julia Bryan Thomas

Julia Bryan Thomas is the author of For Those Who Are Lost. She is married to mystery novelist Will Thomas.

Instagram

#BookReview The End and the Beginning by K. J. Holdom @SimonSchusterCA #KJHoldom #TheEndAndTheBeginning #SimonSchusterCA

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview The End and the Beginning by K. J. Holdom @SimonSchusterCA #KJHoldom #TheEndAndTheBeginning #SimonSchusterCA Title: The End and the Beginning

Author: K. J. Holdom

Published by: Simon & Schuster Canada on Nov. 5, 2024

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

At the start of the war, eight-year-old Max Bernot lives with his sister and parents in Lauterbach, Saarland, a narrow strip of territory between the French and German defence lines. His German father, Anton, and his French mother, Marguerite, do their best to shield Max and his sister, Anna, from Nazi violence, but in late 1944, their beloved godfather is executed in their garden by the SS, and Max, now thirteen, is conscripted in the Volkssturm. Less than a month later, Max flees a Hitler Youth camp in Bavaria with his best friend, Hans. His mission: to return home and tell his mother the truth about his godfather’s murder As he escapes, he sends postcards to his family that trace his fraught journey across a country in its death throes.

Unbeknownst to Max, his mother is trapped in the German interior, coerced into working for a fanatical Nazi officer. Desperate to escape and reunite her family, Marguerite must first protect Anna from the sinister attentions of their captor, who could hold information on Max’s whereabouts even as Allied planes circle closer.

Deftly interweaving the wartime stories of Max and Marguerite, The End and the Beginning maps the loss of innocence of a generation of children raised in the shadow of the Reich and follows the fate of one family, neither wholly French nor entirely German, who find themselves on the wrong side whichever way they turn.

Review:

Poignant, thought-provoking, and moving!

The End and the Beginning is predominantly set in Germany from January to May 1945 and is told from two different perspectives; Marguerite, a French mother living with her family in Saarland on the Germany-France border who, after her cousin is murdered, her husband is arrested, and her son is sent away to fight, spends her days working for a vicious Nazi while doing whatever she can to protect her daughter and locate her son, and Max Bernot, a thirteen-year-old boy who, after being conscripted to participate in the Hitler Youth Program, decides to escape as soon as he has the opportunity in order to make his way home.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are courageous, vulnerable, and resilient. And the plot is a heart-wrenching, absorbing tale about life, love, loneliness, friendship, familial relationships, heartbreak, pain, war, loss, grief, guilt, hope, loyalty, and survival.

Overall, The End and the Beginning is an atmospheric, touching, beautifully written novel by Holdom that transports you to another time and place and immerses you so thoroughly into the personalities, feelings, and lives of the characters you can’t help but be affected. It is undoubtedly one of my favourite reads of the year that does an incredible job of highlighting the indomitable spirit of humanity to survive, endure, conquer, and continue to love in even the harshest of environments and situations.

 

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 gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About K. J. Holdom

K.J. Holdom is a New Zealand writer who lives in Auckland. A former journalist, she holds a master’s in creative writing from the University of Auckland, where she won the 2018 Master of Creative Writing Prize for best manuscript. The End and the Beginning is her first novel.

Photo © Frances Oliver

Website | Facebook

#BookReview The Paris Maid by Ella Carey @GrandCentralPub #TheParisMaid #EllaCarey #GCPInsider

Published on by ZoeLeave a comment
#BookReview The Paris Maid by Ella Carey @GrandCentralPub #TheParisMaid #EllaCarey #GCPInsider Title: The Paris Maid

Author: Ella Carey

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Oct. 8, 2024

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 288

Format: Paperback

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 8.5/10

In this heart-shattering WWII novel set during the Nazi occupation of Paris, a brave young woman pays a terrible price to save those she holds most dear. 

Louise Basset works as a housemaid at The Ritz Hotel, home to the most powerful Nazis in France. As she changes silk sheets and scrubs sumptuous marble bathtubs, she listens and watches, reporting all she can to the Resistance. The only secret she never tells is her own.

Everything changes for Louise when a young Allied pilot, hunted by the Nazis, is smuggled into the hotel. As he and Louise share a small carafe of red wine hidden amongst her cleaning bottles, she feels her heart begin to open. But what might happen if Louise finally confides in someone?

Years later, her granddaughter Nicole looks up at the ornate façade of the infamous Paris hotel. She is reeling from her recent discovery: a black and white photograph of her grandmother as a young woman, head shaved, branded a traitor. Devastated by her new legacy just as she’s about to start a family of her own, Nicole begins to search for answers.

When a French historian reveals that Louise once went by a different name, Nicole realizes there is more to her grandmother’s story. Was the woman who taught Nicole so much about family and loyalty a resistance fighter, or will her granddaughter have to live with the knowledge that she is descended from a traitor? And will Nicole be able to finally move forward with her life if she can uncover the truth?

Review:

Captivating, immersive, and sincere!

The Paris Maid is a sentimental, engaging tale predominately set in France during the early 1940s, as well as present day, that takes you into the lives of two main characters. Louise, a hardworking maid who, through courage and determination, uses her job at the Nazi-occupied Ritz Hotel to help the resistance as much as she possibly can; and Nicole, a young woman who, after seeing a photo from the war of her late grandmother labelled as a traitor and sporting a shaved head, decides to embark on a journey to Paris to unravel the secrets from the past and discover the true history of this woman who meant so much.

The prose is eloquent and rich. The characters are tenacious, resilient, and determined. And the plot is a touching tale about life, loss, family, secrets, separation, desperation, regret, grief, love, tragedy, survival, friendship, and the horrors of war.

Overall, The Paris Maid is a lush, intriguing, absorbing tale by Carey that does a lovely job of blending historical events with palpable emotion and thought-provoking fiction.

 

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 gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Ella Carey

Ella Carey is a writer and Francophile who claims Paris as her second home. Her previous books are Paris Time Capsule and The House by the Lake, and her work has been published in the Review of Australian Fiction. She lives in Australia with her two children and two Italian greyhounds.

Photo by Alexandra Grimshaw.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest