Publisher: Simon & Schuster

#BookReview The Winter Witch by Jennifer Chevalier @SimonSchusterCA #TheWinterWitch #JenniferChevalier #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview The Winter Witch by Jennifer Chevalier @SimonSchusterCA #TheWinterWitch #JenniferChevalier #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Winter Witch

Author: Jennifer Chevalier

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Jan. 27, 2026

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

Two sisters set sail on a bride ship from Normandy hoping to leave a curse behind them and find better lives in the wilds of 17th-century Quebec, only to meet a mysterious witch who forces them to confront the truth about magic—and their past. For fans of Emilia Hart, Sarah Penner, Alix E. Harrow, Ami McKay, and Roberta Rich.

Élisabeth Jossard boards a bride ship to New France with her sister Marthe, forced to start a new life after a scandal in her village in Normandy. She’s harbouring a dark secret and hopes that by coming to Montreal—the holiest place in the world, she’s been told—the saints will hear her pleas and lift the curse that plagues her.

When Élisabeth’s prayers go unanswered and she is unable to banish the spirit she believes is tormenting her, Marthe encourages her to turn to a powerful witch for help, the enigmatic stowaway Jeanne Roy. But Jeanne has secrets of her own, and when she refuses to help, Élisabeth’s resentment kindles a dangerous fire.

Inspired by the tales of Canada’s Filles du Roi, The Winter Witch examines how lies, arrogance, and ignorance can lead to witch hunts in any society.

Review:

Atmospheric, mysterious, and immersive!⁣
⁣
The Winter Witch is a rich, fascinating tale set in seventeenth-century Quebec that draws readers into the lives of Élisabeth and Marthe Jossard, two young sisters from Normandy who journey to New France in the hope of leaving behind their losses, secrets, and curses.

The writing is eloquent and descriptive. The characters are resilient, layered, and compelling. And the story is an engaging blend of life, loss, hope, family, female friendship, betrayal, misfortune, witchcraft, and love.
⁣
Overall, The Winter Witch is a vivid, compelling, absorbing tale by Chevalier inspired by real-life events that sheds light on an often overlooked chapter of Canadian history and the struggles, resilience, and hardships of that time.

 

This book is available now.

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

         

 

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

 

About Jennifer Chevalier

Jennifer Chevalier worked for several years at the BBC in London before moving home to Ottawa where she is currently the showrunner for CBC Radio’s long-running weekly political affairs program, The House. The journalism and documentaries she’s led have won a Gracie, several RTDNAs, and a CAJ Award for investigative journalism. She lives in Ottawa with her husband and two children.

Photograph © Angela Gordon.

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#BookReview Theo of Golden by Allen Levi @SimonSchusterCA #TheoOfGolden #AllenLevi #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview Theo of Golden by Allen Levi @SimonSchusterCA #TheoOfGolden #AllenLevi #SimonSchusterCA Title: Theo of Golden

Author: Allen Levi

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Nov. 11, 2025

Genres: Literary Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…

His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers.

Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their “rightful owners.” With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered.

A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.

Review:

Powerful, poignant, and memorable!⁣
⁣
𝐓heo of Golden is a nostalgic, touching novel that takes you into the life of Theo, an eighty-six-year-old man who, after arriving in a small town and stumbling upon a coffee shop adorned with nearly a hundred beautiful portraits of local residents, decides to purchase each drawing and return it to the person depicted, while also offering a listening ear, gentle wisdom, and an extraordinary kindness to anyone willing to receive it.⁣
⁣
The prose is eloquent and reflective. The characters, including all the supporting characters, are unique, endearing, multi-layered, and warm. And the plot is a beautiful tale of friendship, happiness, kindness, generosity, loss, grief, solace, forgiveness, honesty, humour, unconditional love, growing old, and the true meaning of family.⁣
⁣
Overall, 𝐓heo of Golden is a moving, delightful, exceptional debut by Levi that made me smile, made me cry, and is, without question, one of my favourite reads of the year.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

 

This book is available now.

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

         

 

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

 

About Allen Levi

Allen Levi—attorney, judge, singer/songwriter, author—lives on and cares for family acreage near a small town in middle Georgia. Theo of Golden is his first novel.

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#BookReview Finding Flora by Elinor Florence @SimonSchusterCA #Finding Flora #ElinorFlorence #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview Finding Flora by Elinor Florence @SimonSchusterCA #Finding Flora #ElinorFlorence #SimonSchusterCA Title: Finding Flora

Author: Elinor Florence

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Apr. 1, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

A rollicking historical novel set in turn-of-the-century Alberta about a young woman on the run from her abusive husband who uses a legal loophole to claim a homestead in the Wild West—perfect for fans of Outlawed and Giver of Stars.

In 1905, Scottish newcomer Flora Craigie jumps from a moving train to escape her abusive husband. Desperate to disappear, she claims a homestead near Alix, Alberta, determined to start a new life for herself. She finds that her nearest neighbours are also a Welsh widow with three children; two American women raising chickens; and a Métis woman who makes a living by breaking in wild horses.

While battling the harsh environment (and draconian local attitudes toward female farmers), the five women grapple with the differences of their backgrounds and the secrets each struggles to keep. When their homes are threatened with expropriation by the hostile federal Minister of the Interior, the women join forces to “fire the heather,” a Scottish term meaning raising a ruckus. And as the competition for land along the new Canadian Pacific railway line heats up, Flora’s violent husband closes in, and an unscrupulous land agent threatens the lives and livelihoods of the women just as they’re coming into their own.

Review:

Enthralling, moving, and authentic!

Finding Flora is an absorbing tale that sweeps you away to Alberta during the early 1900s and into the life of Flora Craigie, a young Scottish bride who, after discovering her husband’s true nature, jumps from a moving train as it crosses the Canadian prairies and endeavours to start a new life by working the unforgiving land and surviving the harsh weather, in the hopes of ultimately claiming a homestead of her own.

The writing is eloquent and expressive. The characters are resilient, devoted, and strong. And the plot is a harrowing tale about life, loss, hope, family, female friendships, secrets, hardship, trust, violence, murder, and love.

Overall, Finding Flora is a beautifully written, well-researched, atmospheric novel by Florence that reminds us not only of the rugged beauty of this land we call home but also of the extraordinary women who sacrificed to pave the way for the rights and freedoms we have today.

 

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 Elinor Florence

Elinor Florence grew up on a Saskatchewan farm and earned degrees in English and journalism. She worked for newspapers in all four Western provinces, spent eight years writing for Reader’s Digest Canada, and even published her own award-winning community newspaper. Her first novel, Bird’s Eye View, was a national bestseller, while the second, Wildwood, was named one of Kobo’s Hundred Most Popular Canadian Books of All Time. Finding Flora was inspired by her own Scottish homesteading and Indigenous ancestors. She is a member of the Métis Nation of British Columbia and makes her home in the mountain resort of Invermere.

Photograph credit Kelsey.

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#BookReview The Resistance Painter by Kath Jonathan @SimonSchusterCA #TheResistancePainer #KathJonathan #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview The Resistance Painter by Kath Jonathan @SimonSchusterCA #TheResistancePainer #KathJonathan #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Resistance Painter

Author: Kath Jonathan

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Mar. 25, 2025

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Historical Fiction

Pages: 448

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

An evocative work of historical fiction, examining the little-known story of Poland’s extraordinary WW ll resistance army and the contemporary lives of two artists, grandmother and granddaughter, inextricably linked by a wartime betrayal.

Warsaw 1939. Irena Marianowska’s dreams of attending art school in Paris are crushed when the Nazis invade Poland. Instead, she joins the Home Army and, together with her resistance cell, risks her life guiding people to safety through the sewers of Warsaw. In 1942, after a harrowing mission, she returns home to learn that her sister, Lotka, has been abducted by the Gestapo. In her search for Lotka, Irena encounters a host of characters who lead her into greater danger.

Toronto 2010. Jo Blum lives in Toronto with her beloved grandmother, a lauded painter of WWII and a decorated war hero. Jo has a budding career creating sculptures for grave sites based on the life stories of her dying clients. Her recorded interviews with Stefan, her new Polish client, unveil an heroic wartime past eerily similar to her grandmother’s. But Jo’s quest to uncover the truth about Stefan and her grandmother opens an explosive Pandora’s box whose shockwaves threaten everything she’s known about her family.

Review:

Immersive, hopeful, and heart-wrenching!

The Resistance Painter is a poignant, dual-timeline tale set in Poland during WWII, as well as Toronto in 2010, that takes you into the lives of two main characters. Irena Marianowska, a young woman who, after her dream of attending art school is destroyed due to German invasion, endeavours to help the Polish Resistance in any way she can, and Jo Blum, a creative grave sculptor who, after a new client’s past seems eerily familiar, is resolved to discover all the details and truth about her own grandmother’s past.

The prose is atmospheric and authentic. The characters are vulnerable, brave, and strong. And the plot is an evocative, vivid tale of life, loss, love, family, friendship, grief, perseverance, selflessness, suffering, art, the unimaginable horrors of war, and the importance of sewers during wartime in transporting people to safety.

Overall, The Resistance Painter is an insightful, emotional, beautifully written debut by Jonathan inspired by real-life familial events that reminds us that survival of any kind often involves heartbreaking choices, moral dilemmas, action, spirit, extreme loss and, beyond all else, unimaginable sacrifice and courage.

 

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 Kath Jonathan

A resident of Toronto, Kath Jonathan is a poetry, short story, and novel writer. Her work has been shortlisted for the Marina Nemat Award, a finalist for The Janice Colbert Poetry Award, longlisted for the Puritan’s Thomas Morton Memorial Prize for short story, published in a Penguin Random House chapbook and in online literary magazines. Kath holds a Certificate in creative writing and an MA in English literature, both from the University of Toronto.

Photograph by Marion Voysey.

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#BookReview Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall @SimonSchusterCA #BrokenCountry #ClareLeslieHall #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall @SimonSchusterCA #BrokenCountry #ClareLeslieHall #SimonSchusterCA Title: Broken Country

Author: Clare Leslie Hall

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Mar. 4, 2025

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

Review:

Poignant, mysterious, and beautifully written!

Broken Country is a tragic, moving, emotionally-charged novel that transports you to North Dorset between 1955 and 1968 and immerses you into the ongoing, entangled relationships between the hardworking, reliable Johnson family and the privileged, affluent Wolfe family, complete with all the powerful emotions, long-buried secrets, and unimaginable tragedy that has tied them together for almost fifteen years.

The prose is lyrical and expressive. The characters, including all the supporting characters, are complex, conflicted, and scarred. And the plot is a compelling, sobering tale of life, loss, family, friendship, grief, guilt, denial, secrets, reflection, self-preservation, love, and redemption.

Overall, Broken Country will make you think, it will make you sad, and it will resonate with you long after the final page. It’s an impactful, enthralling, powerful tale by Hall that uses extraordinary character development to weave a combination of an impressive, intricate mystery and a heartbreaking, bittersweet love story, all steeped in an abundance of tragedy and pain.

 

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 Clare Leslie Hall

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. She’s the author of Broken Country, Pictures of Him, and Days You Were Mine.

Photograph by Oli Green.

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#BookReview The Close-Up by Pip Drysdale @SimonSchusterCA #TheCloseUp #PipDrysdale #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview The Close-Up by Pip Drysdale @SimonSchusterCA #TheCloseUp #PipDrysdale #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Close-Up

Author: Pip Drysdale

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Dec. 3, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

In this glittering new psychological suspense novel from internationally bestselling author Pip Drysdale, a writer’s own thriller is brought chillingly to life when a stalker begins to reenact the events from her book.

Sometimes when your dreams come true, so do your nightmares…

When Zoe Ann Weiss moves to LA to pursue her dream of becoming a novelist, she welcomes the fault lines, the Santa Ana winds, and the magic hour light. Her whole future is wide open—until Zach, the bartender and aspiring actor she’s falling for, ghosts her, and her debut novel, a thriller, bombs.

Three years pass. Zach’s star rises—he’s on Netflix, on billboards, in every magazine—while hers falls. Now she’s working in a flower shop, still calling herself a writer while staring at a blinking cursor every night. But then she delivers flowers in one of LA’s most exclusive neighborhoods and…he’s there. Zach Hamilton. And it’s like no time has passed at all—the two pick up right where they left off.

It feels like fate, a love story for the ages—the kind of love you write about. Suddenly, Zoe’s writer’s block disappears. When photos of Zach and Zoe are leaked, her name ends up in the press and her novel goes viral online. Which all sounds fine in theory: at least now she’ll sell some books. Except the problem with everyone knowing her name is that everyone knows her name.

Including Zach’s stalker. A stalker who wants Zoe gone. A stalker who has read Zoe’s novel. A stalker who is now re-enacting everything that happened in that book, step by step, against her…

Review:

Edgy, addictive, and twisty!

The Close-Up is a sharp, atmospheric tale that takes you into the life of Zoe Ann Weiss, a struggling author who, after reconnecting with a man who is now a Hollywood movie star, finds herself the victim of a deviant stalker with a penchant for reenacting all of the gruesomest scenes from her first and only published novel.

The writing is tight and intense. The characters are troubled, tormented, and consumed. And the plot is an engrossing, eerie tale full of twists, turns, lies, deception, obsession, fame, depravity, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Close-Up is a sinister, suspenseful, tortuous tale by Drysdale that does a wonderful job of highlighting just how easily people can be emotionally and psychologically exploited while at the same time reminding us just how vulnerable and susceptible technology and social media truly makes us.

 

This novel is available in paperback 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 Pip Drysdale

Pip Drysdale is a writer, musician and actor who grew up in Africa and Australia. At 20 she moved to New York to study acting, worked in indie films and off-off Broadway theatre, started writing songs and made four records. After graduating with a BA in English, Pip moved to London where she played shows across Europe and started writing books. Her debut novel, The Sunday Girl, was a bestseller and has been published in the United States, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Strangers We Know was also a bestseller and is being developed for television. The Paris Affair is her third book.

Photo courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview The Secret History of Audrey James by Heather Marshall @HMarshallAuthor @SimonSchusterCA #HeatherMarshall #TheSecretHistoryOfAudreyJames #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview The Secret History of Audrey James by Heather Marshall @HMarshallAuthor @SimonSchusterCA #HeatherMarshall #TheSecretHistoryOfAudreyJames #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Secret History of Audrey James

Author: Heather Marshall

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Jun. 4, 2024

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 432

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

Sometimes the best place to hide is the last place anyone would look.

Northern England, 2010

After a tragic accident upends her life, Kate Mercer leaves London to work at an old guest house near the Scottish border, where she hopes to find a fresh start and heal from her loss. When she arrives, she begins to unravel the truth about her past, but discovers the mysterious elderly proprietor is harbouring her own secrets…

Berlin, 1938

Audrey James is weeks away from graduating from a prestigious music school in Berlin, where she’s been living with her best friend, Ilse Kaplan. As she prepares to finish her piano studies, Audrey dreads the thought of returning to her father in England and leaving Ilse behind. Families like the Kaplans are being targeted as war in Europe threatens.

When Ilse’s parents and brother suddenly disappear, two high-ranking Nazi party members confiscate the Kaplans’ upscale home, believing it to be empty. In a desperate attempt to keep Ilse safe, Audrey becomes housekeeper for the officers while Ilse is forced into hiding in the attic—a prisoner in her own home. Tensions rise in the house and the chance of survival diminishes by the day. When a shocking turn of events pushes Audrey to become embroiled in cell of the anti-Hitler movement – clusters of resisters working to bring down the Nazis from within Germany itself – Audrey must decide what matters most: saving herself, protecting her friend, or sacrificing everything for the greater good.

Inspired by true stories of courageous women and the German resistance during WWII, this is a captivating novel about the unbreakable bonds of friendship, the sacrifices we make for those we love, and the healing that comes from human connection.

Review:

Immersive, memorable, and moving!

The Secret History of Audrey James is predominantly set in Berlin and Northern England during 1938, as well as 2010, and is told from two different perspectives; Kate, a young woman who, after a tragic accident that leaves her marriage in tatters and her parents both deceased, decides to make a change and move out of London in order to visit a place her parents once loved and somehow start to heal, and Audrey, an elderly woman who, as her life is quickly coming to an end, finally shares her life story that was full of commitment, passion, heartache, courage, selflessness, pain, horrifying conditions, and unrequited love.

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

Overall, The Secret History of Audrey James is an absorbing, poignant, beautifully written novel by Marshall that does a wonderful job of showcasing the hard work, bravery, and danger involved in being a resister in Germany during WWII. It’s now the second novel I’ve had the pleasure to read and absolutely love by Marshall, and I can guarantee that whatever she decides to write next will always hold a top spot on my TBR list.

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 Heather Marshall

Heather Marshall lives with her family near Toronto. She completed master’s degrees in Canadian history and political science, and worked in politics and communications before turning her attention to her true passion: storytelling. Looking for Jane is her debut novel.

Photograph by Amanda Kopcic.

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#BookReview Swift River by Essie Chambers @SimonSchusterCA #SwiftRiver #EssieChambers #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview Swift River by Essie Chambers @SimonSchusterCA #SwiftRiver #EssieChambers #SimonSchusterCA Title: Swift River

Author: Essie J. Chambers

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Jun. 4, 2024

Genres: General Fiction, Historical Fiction

Pages: 304

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: she’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so that they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on.

But when Diamond receives a letter from a relative she’s never met, key elements of Pop’s life are uncovered, and she is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, whose lives span the 20th century and reveal a much larger picture of prejudice and abandonment, of love and devotion. As pieces of their shared past become clearer, Diamond gains a sense of her place in the world and in her family. But how will what she’s learned of the past change her future?

A story of first friendships, family secrets, and finding the courage to let go, Swift River is a sensational debut about how history shapes us and heralds the arrival of a major new literary talent.

Review:

Raw, atmospheric, and insightful!

Swift River is a descriptive, moving novel that sweeps you away to New England in 1987 and into the life of biracial teen Diamond Newberry, the only young girl of colour in her whole small town who, after her father suddenly disappears in 1980, struggles to come to grips with her burgeoning weight and a constant sense of being adrift and disconnected due to a lack of relationship and any knowledge into her paternal ancestry.

The prose is vivid and expressive. The characters are vulnerable, lonely, and adrift. And the plot is a heart-tugging, compelling tale of life, love, loss, family, friendship, poverty, prejudice, racism, community, courage, desperation, self-reflection, and coming of age.

Overall, Swift River is a rich, gritty, absorbing tale by Chambers 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 enthralled, emotional, and invested 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 Simon & Schuster Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Essie J. Chambers

Essie Chambers earned her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Vermont Studio Center, and Baldwin for the Arts. A former film and television executive, she was a producer on the documentary Descendant, which was released by the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company and Netflix in 2022. Swift River is her debut novel.

Photograph by Christine Jean Chambers.

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#BookReview The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean @SimonSchusterCA #TheReturnOfEllieBlack #EmikoJean #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean @SimonSchusterCA #TheReturnOfEllieBlack #EmikoJean #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Return of Ellie Black

Author: Emiko Jean

Published by: Simon & Schuster on May 7, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state—but Ellie’s reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.

It’s been twenty years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work.

Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State.

But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken—and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.

The debut thriller from New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean, The Return of Ellie Black is both a feminist tour de force about the embers of hope that burn in the aftermath of tragedy and a twisty page-turner that will shock and surprise you right up until the final page.

Review:

Intricate, compelling, and sharp!

The Return of Ellie Black is a well-paced, ominous tale that takes you into the life of Detective Chelsey Calhoun as the past suddenly collides with the present when an investigation into the sudden reappearance of the missing teen Ellie Black shockingly uncovers years of tragedy, dark secrets, and perversion.

The writing is tight and intense. The characters are layered, secretive, and persistent. And the plot, told from multiple perspectives and in a back-and-forth style, is an engrossing tale full of twists, turns, red herrings, secrets, deduction, depravity, mayhem, manipulation, and abuse.

Overall, The Return of Ellie Black is a relentless, suspenseful, tortuous thriller by Jean that keeps you guessing from start to finish and is an eerie reminder that evil can live easily amongst us, simply hidden behind masks of normality.

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 Emiko Jean

Emiko Jean is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novels Tokyo Dreaming and Tokyo Ever After, a Reese Witherspoon/Hello Sunshine pick, as well as the novel Mika in Real Life, which was a Good Morning America Book Club pick. She lives in Washington with her husband and two kids.

Photograph © Katy Weaver Photography.

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#BookReview The Black Crescent by Jane Johnson @JaneJohnsonBakr @SimonSchusterCA #TheBlackCrescent #JaneJohnson #SimonSchusterCA

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#BookReview The Black Crescent by Jane Johnson @JaneJohnsonBakr @SimonSchusterCA #TheBlackCrescent #JaneJohnson #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Black Crescent

Author: Jane Johnson

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Mar. 5, 2024

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A captivating historical novel set in post-war Casablanca about a young man marked by djinns who must decide where his loyalties lie as the fight for Moroccan independence erupts.

Hamou Badi is born in a village in the Anti-Atlas Mountains with the markings of the zouhry on his hands. In Morocco, the zouhry is a figure of legend, a child of both humans and djinns, capable of finding treasure, lost objects, and even water in the worst of droughts. But when young Hamou finds the body of a murdered woman, his life is forever changed.

Haunted by this unsolved murder and driven by the desire to do good in the world, Hamou leaves his village for Casablanca to become an officer of the law under the French Protectorate.

But Casablanca is not the shining beacon of modernity he was expecting. The forcible exile of Morocco’s sultan by the French sparks a nationalist uprising led by violent dissident groups, none so fearsome as the Black Crescent. Torn between his heritage and his employers, Hamou will be caught in the crossfire.

The lines between right and wrong, past and future, the old world and the new, are not as clear as the magical lines on his palms. And as the danger grows, Hamou is forced to choose between all he knows and all he loves.

Review:

Complex, evocative, and moving!

The Black Crescent is a compelling, gritty tale that sweeps you away to Morocco in the mid-1950s and into the life of Hamou Badi, a young man from the small village of Tiziane who, after discovering a murdered woman on his way home as a young boy, decides to train as a police officer in Casablanca to try to do some good in a country that is unfortunately full of unrest and upheaval and where simmering anger, questions of loyalty, and ongoing tension due to the French occupation is quickly coming to a violent head.

The prose is rich and smooth. The characters are kind, strong, and resilient. And the plot is a vivid, suspenseful tale filled with life, loss, friendship, family, folklore, religion, morality, self-identity, patriotism, survival, politics, romance, murder, and culture.

Overall, The Black Crescent is a thought-provoking, informative, atmospheric tale by Johnson that reminds us that often the choices we make have far-reaching consequences and has just the right amount of intrigue, colourful history, magic, culture, moral dilemmas, and heart-tugging emotion to be exceptionally pleasing to lovers, like myself, of the historical fiction genre.

 

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 Jane Johnson

Jane Johnson is from Cornwall and has worked in the book industry for over 20 years, as a bookseller, publisher and writer. She is responsible for the publishing of many major authors, including George RR Martin.

In 2005 she was in Morocco researching the story of a distant family member who was abducted from a Cornish church in 1625 by Barbary pirates and sold into slavery in North Africa, when a near-fatal climbing incident caused her to rethink her future. She returned home, gave up her office job in London, and moved to Morocco. She married her own ‘Berber pirate’ and now they split their time between Cornwall and a village in the Anti-Atlas Mountains. She still works, remotely, as Fiction Publishing Director for HarperCollins.

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