Genre: Historical Fiction

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.
​
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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#BookReview The Secret Stealers by Jane Healey @healeyJane @AmazonPub #TheSecretStealers #JaneHealey #LakeUnion

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#BookReview The Secret Stealers by Jane Healey @healeyJane @AmazonPub #TheSecretStealers #JaneHealey #LakeUnion Title: The Secret Stealers

Author: Jane Healey

Published by: Lake Union Publishing on Apr. 1, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 456

Format: Paperback

Source: Amazon Publishing

Book Rating: 9/10

A female American spy in Nazi-occupied France finds purpose behind enemy lines in a novel of unparalleled danger, love, and daring by the Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Beantown Girls.

Anna Cavanaugh is a restless young widow and brilliant French teacher at an all-girls school in Washington, DC. Everything changes when she’s recruited into the Office of Strategic Services by family friend and legendary WWI hero Major General William Donovan.

Donovan has faith in her—and in all his “glorious amateurs” who are becoming Anna’s fast friends: Maggie, Anna’s down-to-earth mentor; Irene, who’s struggling to find support from her husband for her clandestine life; and Julia, a cheerful OSS liaison. But the more Anna learns about the organization’s secret missions, the more she longs to be stationed abroad. Then comes the opportunity: go undercover as a spy in the French Resistance to help steal critical intelligence that could ultimately turn the tide of the war.

Dispatched behind enemy lines and in constant danger, Anna is filled with adrenaline, passion, and fear. She’s driven to make a difference—for her country and for herself. Whatever the risk, she’s willing to take it to help liberate France from the shadows of occupation and to free herself from the shadows of her former life.

Review:

Immersive, pacey, and affecting!

The Secret Stealers is an absorbing, gripping tale set predominantly in Nazi-Occupied Paris during WWII that follows Anna Cavanaugh, a young widow and french teacher who, after taking a position as a PA to the director of the OSS, General Donovan, finally gets her wish to return to Paris as an undercover spy using her unique skillset to infiltrate, befriend, and acquire special intelligence from the enemy to help the efforts of both the French Resistance and Allied Forces.

The prose is polished and eloquent. The characters are spunky, driven, and resilient. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unravel into a sweeping saga of life, loss, family, heartbreak, betrayal, secrets, espionage, danger, survival, tragedy, friendship, and a touch of romance.

Overall, The Secret Stealers is a rich, evocative, tense novel by Healey that grabs you from the very first page and is sure to be a big hit with historical fiction lovers everywhere. I devoured, enjoyed, and highly recommend it!

This book is available now.

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

         

 

 

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

 

About Jane Healey

Jane Healey is the author of three historical fiction novels. Her novel THE BEANTOWN GIRLS was a Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller. Her latest novel, THE SECRET STEALERS, was an Amazon First Reads Editor’s Pick, one of the New York Post’s Best New Books in April 2021 and was a Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choice pick.

Jane has given presentations about the history behind her novels to hundreds of libraries, book clubs and organizations around the country, including through the Jewish Book Council Network and the American Red Cross. She is also the host of Historical Happy Hour, a monthly webinar and podcast featuring premiere historical fiction authors and their latest novels.

A graduate of the University of New Hampshire and Northeastern University, Jane shares a home north of Boston with her husband, two daughters, and two cats. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, running, cooking, and going to the beach.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Orphan House by Ann Bennett @annbennett71 @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForeverPub #ReadForever2021 #TheOrphanHouse #AnnBennett

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#BookReview The Orphan House by Ann Bennett @annbennett71 @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #ReadForeverPub #ReadForever2021 #TheOrphanHouse #AnnBennett Title: The Orphan House

Author: Ann Bennett

Published by: Forever on Oct. 5, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 336

Format: Paperback

Source: Forever

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Two women uncover the secrets of the past in this emotional and poignant story that’s perfect for fans of Lisa Wingate and Kristina McMorris.
 
1934: Connie Burroughs loves living in the orphanage that her father runs in the English countryside. Exploring its nooks and crannies with her sister, hearing the pounding of a hundred pairs of feet on the wooden stairs, having a father who is doing so much good. But everything changes the day she sees him carrying a newborn baby that he says he found near the broken front gate. A baby she recognizes . . .

Present Day: Arriving at her father’s beloved cottage beside the Thames, Sarah Jennings is hoping for peace and quiet, and an escape from her difficult divorce. But when she finds her father unwell and poring over boxes of files on the orphanage where he was abandoned as a child, she decides to investigate his elusive past herself.

The only person left alive who lived at Cedar Hall when Sarah’s father was there is Connie Burroughs, but Connie sits quietly in her nursing home for a reason. The sewing box under Connie’s bed hides secrets that will change Sarah’s life forever, uncovering a connection between the two women that has darker consequences than she could ever imagine.

A heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting tale inspired by the lives of the children who lived at the author’s great-grandfather’s orphanage

Review:

Pensive, tense, and emotive!

The Orphan House is an engaging, mysterious tale that sweeps you away to the idyllic village of Weirfield and immerses you into the lives of two main characters, Sarah Jennings, a young woman who, after heading to her father’s home to regroup after her marriage falls apart, finds herself taking care of her father, purchasing a historic home, and endeavouring to rebuild a new life in a house that needs a lot of work and seems to contain a lot of hidden surprises; and Connie Burroughs, an elderly woman who, after a recent fall and subsequent move to an assisted-living facility, decides to let the memories she’s been protecting and her father’s long-buried secrets finally come to light.

The prose is evocative and expressive. The characters are focused, troubled, and attentive. And the plot, set in both the 1930s as well as present-day, is a tender, heartfelt mix of life, love, family, friendship, self-reflection, history, abuse, power, negligence, community, new beginnings, and second chances.

Overall, The Orphan House is a hopeful, absorbing, reflective tale by Bennett that, with its compelling storyline and endearing characters, I’m sure glad I didn’t miss.

 

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

 

About Ann Bennett

Ann is the author of several historical novels about WWII. She has a Law degree and works full time as a lawyer. Since her early twenties she has spent as much time as possible travelling in the region. She's married with three sons and lives in Surrey.

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#BookReview Death of a Showman by Mariah Fredericks @MariahFrederick @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #DeathofaShowman #MariahFredericks #JanePrescottSeries #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

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#BookReview Death of a Showman by Mariah Fredericks @MariahFrederick @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #DeathofaShowman #MariahFredericks #JanePrescottSeries #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: Death of a Showman

Author: Mariah Fredericks

Series: Jane Prescott #4

Published by: Minotaur Books on Apr. 13, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 288

Format: Hardcover

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

In Mariah Fredericks’s Death of a Showman, the fourth in this absorbing series set in Gilded Age New York, lady’s maid Jane Prescott is thrust into the world of show business, where a killer is stalking Broadway.

It is the summer of 1914 and lady’s maid Jane Prescott is back in New York with the Tylers after a glittering society wedding in Europe. On their return, Jane learns another wedding has taken place. Her old dancing partner, Leo Hirschfeld, has married a chorus girl in his new Broadway musical.

Jane and Louise Tyler are pulled into the sparkling and scandalous world of Broadway, as a star struck Louise invests in Leo’s show, and Jane chaperones her at rehearsals. But behind the glittering facade of the theater, there are rivalries, secret romances, and some very dodgy business practices. When the show’s abusive producer, Sidney Warburton, is murdered, the list of suspects is long. Was it the comedic star or her gambler boyfriend? The disgruntled costume designer? The beautiful, blond dancer, her jealous husband? Or was it Leo himself, who had more reason than anyone to hate Sidney Warburton?

As the First World war looms in the distance, Jane and tabloid reporter Michael Behan must strip back the masks of these consummate performers before one of them kills again.

Review:

Whimsical, suspenseful, and compelling!

Death of a Showman is an amusing, nuanced, surprising tale that takes you back to Manhattan during 1914 and into the life of lady’s maid Jane Prescott who, after spending a year in Europe, returns to find her former dance partner and potential paramour, Leo Hirschfield married and rehearsing a new Broadway musical, a show that ends up with more problems than just money woes when the producer suddenly turns up dead, and everyone behind the curtain seems to have a motive for murder.

The prose is vivid and authentic. The characters are astute, multi-layered, and likeable. And the plot develops nicely and has just the right mix of misdirection, deduction, clues, suspects, mishaps, drama, and murder.

Overall, Death of a Showman is a light, quick, enjoyable tale by Fredericks that I thoroughly enjoyed, and that is without a doubt another satisfying addition to the Jane Prescott series.

 

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 Mariah Fredericks

Mariah Fredericks was born and raised in New York City, where she still lives with her family. She is the author of several YA novels. Death of an American Beauty is her third novel to feature ladies' maid Jane Prescott.

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#BookReview The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian @KellyMustian @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheGirlsintheStiltHouse #KellyMustian #bookmarkedbylandmark

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#BookReview The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian @KellyMustian @Sourcebooks @sbkslandmark #TheGirlsintheStiltHouse #KellyMustian #bookmarkedbylandmark Title: The Girls in the Stilt House

Author: Kelly Mustian

Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark on Apr. 6, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Sourcebooks Landmark

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Set in 1920s Mississippi, this debut Southern novel weaves a beautiful and harrowing story of two teenage girls cast in an unlikely partnership through murder—perfect for readers of Where the Crawdads Sing and If the Creek Don’t Rise.

Ada promised herself she would never go back to the Trace, to her hard life on the swamp and her harsh father. But now, after running away to Baton Rouge and briefly knowing a different kind of life, she finds herself with nowhere to go but back home. And she knows there will be a price to pay with her father.

Matilda, daughter of a sharecropper, is from the other side of the Trace. Doing what she can to protect her family from the whims and demands of some particularly callous locals is an ongoing struggle. She forms a plan to go north, to pack up the secrets she’s holding about her life in the South and hang them on the line for all to see in Ohio.

As the two girls are drawn deeper into a dangerous world of bootleggers and moral corruption, they must come to terms with the complexities of their tenuous bond and a hidden past that links them in ways that could cost them their lives.

Review:

Gritty, immersive, and powerful!

The Girls in the Stilt House is a captivating, moving tale that sweeps you away to the heat, humidity and stickiness of the 1920s Mississippi swamplands and into the lives of two teenage girls, Ada Morgan, a young white girl, pregnant and alone, who with nowhere else to turn reluctantly returns home to a sadistic father with a penchant for cruelty, and Matilda Patterson, the black daughter of a sharecropper who spends her time writing of the ongoing prejudice and poverty found in the south while dreaming of moving to the north, two girls from completely different backgrounds who after a moment of shared violence are bound together forever.

The prose is eloquent and descriptive. The characters are raw, tormented, and fragile. And the plot is a heart-tugging tale of life, love, violence, hardship, terror, racism, dreams, resilience, loss, hope, redemption, and survival.

The Girls in the Stilt House is a perceptive, compelling, fabulous debut by Mustian that is an excellent reminder that compassion, kindness, and strength come in many forms that ultimately transcend socioeconomics, skin colour, and the deepest, darkest of realities.

 

This book 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 Kelly Mustian

Kelly Mustian grew up in Natchez, Mississippi, the southern terminus of the historic Natchez Trace. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and commercial magazines, and her short fiction has won a Blumenthal Writers and Readers Series Award. She is a past recipient of a Regional Artist Grant from the North Carolina Arts and Science Council. Kelly currently lives with her family near the foothills of North Carolina. The Girls in the Stilt House is her debut novel.

Photo by Rachelle Thompson.

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#BookReview The London House by Katherine Reay @Katherine_Reay @harpermusebooks @BookSparks #TheLondonHouse #KatherineReay #FallPopUp

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#BookReview The London House by Katherine Reay @Katherine_Reay @harpermusebooks @BookSparks #TheLondonHouse #KatherineReay #FallPopUp Title: The London House

Author: Katherine Reay

Published by: Harper Muse on Nov. 2, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback

Source: BookSparks

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Uncovering a dark family secret sends one woman through the history of Britain’s World War II spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris to save her family’s reputation.

Caroline Payne thinks it’s just another day of work until she receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian. But pleasantries are cut short. Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades: In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover.

Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London. She and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were known as the “Waite sisters.” Popular and witty, they came of age during the interwar years, a time of peace and luxury filled with dances, jazz clubs, and romance. The buoyant tone of the correspondence soon yields to sadder revelations as the sisters grow apart, and one leaves home for the glittering fashion scene of Paris, despite rumblings of a coming world war.

Each letter brings more questions. Was Caroline’s great-aunt actually a traitor and Nazi collaborator, or is there a more complex truth buried in the past? Together, Caroline and Mat uncover stories of spies and secrets, love and heartbreak, and the events of one fateful evening in 1941 that changed everything.

In this rich historical novel from award-winning author Katherine Reay, a young woman is tasked with writing the next chapter of her family’s story. But Caroline must choose whether to embrace a love of her own and proceed with caution if her family’s decades-old wounds are to heal without tearing them even further apart.

Review:

Captivating, immersive, and mysterious!

The London House is an uplifting, pensive tale that sweeps you away to England and Paris during WWII, as well as present-day London, and into the lives of the Payne family as they delve into all the strained relationships and enduring secrets, loss, tears, wounds, misery, grief, and anger that has surrounded them for generations.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are complex, scarred, and authentic. And the plot is a sweeping saga filled with familial drama, introspection, love, loss, life, family, friendship, mystique, heartbreak, romance, secrets, hope, passion, sisterhood, as well as a little insight into some of the iconic fashion produced by the house of Schiaparelli over the years.

Overall, The London House is an informative, romantic, alluring tale by Reay that does an exceptional job of highlighting the incredible impact war had on the personal lives of those it touched both at home and away and the significant contribution women played during those dark and tumultuous times.

 

This novel is available now.

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

                

 

 

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

 

About Katherine Reay

Katherine Reay is a writer, wife, mom, continually rehabbing runner, compulsive vacuumist and a horrific navigator…

She graduated from Northwestern University and earned an MS in Marketing from Northwestern as well. She then worked in marketing and development before returning to graduate school for a Masters of Theological Studies. Moves to Texas, England, Ireland and Washington left that degree unfinished as Katherine spent her time unpacking, raising kids, volunteering, writing, and exploring new storylines and new cities.

The Reay family (with a great sense of permanency) now resides outside Chicago, and Katherine pursues writing with more focus. She writes character-driven stories and non-fiction that focuses upon examining the past and how it influences our present experiences.

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#BookReview Pippo and Clara by Diana Rosie @Diwrite @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #PippoandClara #DianaRosie

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#BookReview Pippo and Clara by Diana Rosie @Diwrite @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #PippoandClara #DianaRosie Title: Pippo and Clara

Author: Diana Rosie

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Oct. 19, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 336

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A story about family and fate – and how so much of our lives hinges on chance.

A country torn apart by war. Two siblings divided by fate.

Italy, 1938. Mussolini is in power and war is not far away . . .

Clara and Pippo are just children: quiet, thoughtful Clara is the older sister, Pippo the younger brother is forever chatting. The family has only recently arrived in the city carrying their few possessions.

When Mamma goes missing early one morning, both Clara and Pippo go in search of her. Clara turns right; Pippo, left.

As a result of the choices they make that morning, their lives will be changed forever.

Diana Rosie’s Pippo and Clara tells the story of a family and a country divided. But will Clara and Pippo – and their mother – find each other again?

Review:

Moving, tragic, and absorbing!

Pippo and Clara is a bittersweet, family saga that sweeps you away to Italy in the late 1930s when Italy was full of unrest and upheaval not only due to the war being waged on the fields of Europe and getting closer to its borders by the day under Mussolini rule, but in their own countryside where simmering anger, questions of patriotism, and ongoing tension between supporters of communism and fascism was quickly coming to a head.

The prose is rich and smooth. The two main characters Clara and Pippo are lost, strong, and resilient. And the plot told from alternating points of view is an engaging tale filled with life, loss, friendship, familial drama, tragedy, heartbreak, separation, war, survival, and political unrest.

Overall, Pippo and Clara is a thought-provoking, informative, gripping story by Rosie that reminds us that often the choices we make have far-reaching consequences and has just the right amount of intrigue, colourful history, and heart-tugging emotion to be exceptionally pleasing to lovers, like myself, of historical fiction.

 

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 Diana Rosie

Diana Rosie has been a tour guide in South America, a designer in Hong Kong, an Olympics volunteer in London and an advertising copywriter all over the place.
Diana now writes books in a country cottage where she lives with a husband, two children and a big dog.
She is thinking of buying some noise cancelling
headphones.

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#BookReview Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge @colleengleason @KensingtonBooks #MurderatMallowanHall #ColleenCambridge

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#BookReview Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge @colleengleason @KensingtonBooks #MurderatMallowanHall #ColleenCambridge Title: Murder at Mallowan Hall

Author: Colleen Cambridge

Series: Phyllida Bright Mystery #1

Published by: Kensington Books on Oct. 26, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 304

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Kensington Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The first in an exciting new historical mystery series set in the home of Agatha Christie!

Colleen Cambridge’s charming and inventive new historical series introduces an unforgettable heroine in Phyllida Bright, fictional housekeeper for none other than famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie. When a dead body is found during a house party at the home of Agatha Christie and her husband Max Mallowan, it’s up to famous author’s head of household, Phyllida Bright, to investigate…

Tucked away among Devon’s rolling green hills, Mallowan Hall combines the best of English tradition with the modern conveniences of 1930. Housekeeper Phyllida Bright, as efficient as she is personable, manages the large household with an iron fist in her very elegant glove. In one respect, however, Mallowan Hall stands far apart from other picturesque country houses…

The manor is home to archaeologist Max Mallowan and his famous wife, Agatha Christie. Phyllida is both loyal to and protective of the crime writer, who is as much friend as employer. An aficionado of detective fiction, Phyllida has yet to find a gentleman in real life half as fascinating as Mrs. Agatha’s Belgian hero, Hercule Poirot. But though accustomed to murder and its methods as frequent topics of conversation, Phyllida is unprepared for the sight of a very real, very dead body on the library floor…

A former Army nurse, Phyllida reacts with practical common sense–and a great deal of curiosity. It soon becomes clear that the victim arrived at Mallowan Hall under false pretenses during a weekend party. Now, Phyllida not only has a houseful of demanding guests on her hands–along with a distracted, anxious staff–but hordes of reporters camping outside. When another dead body is discovered–this time, one of her housemaids–Phyllida decides to follow in M. Poirot’s footsteps to determine which of the Mallowans’ guests is the killer. With help from the village’s handsome physician, Dr. Bhatt, Mr. Dobble, the butler, along with other household staff, Phyllida assembles the clues. Yet, she is all too aware that the killer must still be close at hand and poised to strike again. And only Phyllida’s wits will prevent her own story from coming to an abrupt end…

Review:

Mysterious, atmospheric, and delightfully entertaining!

Murder at Mallowan Hall is a clue-like murder mystery set in England at the home of Max Mallowan and Agatha Christie during the 1930s that features Phyllida Bright, a housekeeper extraordinaire who, after stumbling upon the body of a last-minute, previously uninvited guest to the manor, and with a lack of confidence in the local Constable and Scotland Yard inspector sent to investigate the case, endeavours to solve not just one, but ultimately two murders by using her knowledge and love of Hercule Poirot and a little extra help from some of the other members of staff.

The prose is descriptive and light. The characters, including the intelligent, independent heroine, are multi-layered, intriguing, and well-developed. And the plot is a well-paced whodunit full of red herrings, suspects, amateur sleuthing, deduction, attraction, and of course, a touch of the unexpected.

Murder at Mallowan Hall is the first book in the Phyllida Bright Mystery series, and if you love historical mysteries, this one won’t disappoint. It’s an entertaining, cosy, satisfying debut by Cambridge, and I can guarantee I will definitely be keeping my eye out for book number two.

 

This novel is available now.

Preorder now from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links!

            

 

 

 

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

 

About Colleen Cambridge

Colleen Cambridge is a pseudonym for a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than eight languages. She lives in the Midwest and is hard at work on her next novel.

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