Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

#BookReview The Lost English Girl by Julia Kelly @The_Julia_Kelly @SimonSchusterCA @GalleryBooks #TheLostEnglishGirl #JuliaKelly #SimonSchusterCA

#BookReview The Lost English Girl by Julia Kelly @The_Julia_Kelly @SimonSchusterCA @GalleryBooks #TheLostEnglishGirl #JuliaKelly #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Lost English Girl

Author: Julia Kelly

Published by: Gallery Books on Mar. 7, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

The acclaimed author of the “sweeping and beautifully written novel” (Woman’s World) The Light Over London weaves an epic saga of love, motherhood, and betrayal set against World War II.

Liverpool, 1935: Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne knows what’s expected of her: marry a Catholic man from her working-class neighborhood and have his children. However, when she finds herself pregnant after a fling with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish man with dreams of becoming a famous Jazz musician, Viv knows that a swift wedding is the only answer. Her only solace is that marrying Joshua will mean escaping her strict mother’s scrutiny. But when Joshua makes a life-changing choice on their wedding day, Viv is forced once again into the arms of her disapproving family.

Five years later and on the eve of World War II, Viv is faced with the impossible choice to evacuate her young daughter, Maggie, to the countryside estate of the affluent Thompson family. In New York City, Joshua gives up his failing musical career to serve in the Royal Air Force, fight for his country, and try to piece together his feelings about the family, wife, and daughter he left behind at eighteen. However, tragedy strikes when Viv learns that the countryside safe haven she sent her daughter to wasn’t immune from the horrors of war. It is only years later, with Joshua’s help, that Viv learns the secrets of their shared past and what it will take to put a family back together again.

Telling the harrowing story of England’s many evacuated children, bestselling author Julia Kelly’s The Lost English Girl explores how one simple choice can change the course of a life, and what we are willing to forgive to find a way back to the ones we love and thought lost.


Review:

Immersive, moving, and sweet!

The Lost English Girl is a captivating, heart-wrenching tale set in Liverpool during WWII that takes you into the life of Viv Byrne, a young catholic girl who, after making a mistake with a local Jewish boy whom she marries in name only to protect her family’s reputation, struggles to raise her child alone under the roof of her cruel, judgemental parents until she is coerced into sending her daughter to the British countryside to live for the duration of the war leaving her wracked with heartbreak, guilt, and a determination to do whatever she can to build a new life for them for when she returns.

The prose is vivid and smooth. The characters are resilient, brave, and endearing. And the plot is a poignant, compelling tale about life, loss, family, secrets, separation, desperation, tragedy, grief, parenthood, friendship, duplicitous behaviours, and the horrors and hardships of war.

Overall, The Lost English Girl is a hopeful, heartwarming, affecting tale by Kelly inspired by true-life events that is a wonderful choice for anyone who loves to be swept away into a well-written historical fiction novel that delves into the unimaginable sacrifices and deeply emotional choices people often must make during times of war.

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 Julia Kelly

Julia Kelly is the award-winning author of women's fiction and historical romance books about the extraordinary stories of the past. She also writes fast-paced contemporary sports romance as Julia Blake. In addition to writing, she’s been an Emmy-nominated producer, journalist, marketing professional, and (for one summer) a tea waitress. Julia called Los Angeles, Iowa, and New York City home before settling in London.

Photograph by Scott Bottles.

#BookReview A Death at the Party by Amy Stuart @AmyfStuart @SimonSchusterCA #ADeathattheParty #AmyStuart #SimonSchusterCA

#BookReview A Death at the Party by Amy Stuart @AmyfStuart @SimonSchusterCA #ADeathattheParty #AmyStuart #SimonSchusterCA Title: A Death at the Party

Author: Amy Stuart

Published by: Simon and Schuster on Mar. 7, 2023

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 304

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

In this tense, spellbinding thriller set over the course of a single day, a woman prepares for a party that goes dreadfully wrong—for fans of Ashley Audrain and Lisa Jewell.

Nadine Walsh’s summer garden party is in full swing. The neighbors all have cocktails, the catered food is exquisite—everything’s going according to plan.

But Nadine—devoted wife, loving mother, and doting daughter—finds herself standing over a dead body in her basement while her guests clink glasses upstairs. What happened? How did it come to this?

Rewind to that morning, when Nadine is in her kitchen, making last-minute preparations before she welcomes more than a hundred guests to her home to celebrate her mother’s birthday. But her husband is of little help to her, her two grown children are consumed with their own concerns, and her mother—only her mother knows that today isn’t just a birthday party. It marks another anniversary as well.

Still, Nadine will focus just on tonight. Everyone deserves a celebration after the year they’ve had. A chance for fun. A chance to forget. But it’s hard to forget when Nadine’s head is swirling with secrets, haunting memories, and concerns about what might happen when her guests unite.


Review:

Simmering, sinister, and seductive!

A Death at the Party is a character-driven, domestic thriller that takes you into the life of Nadine Walsh, a mother of two who, after ending the night of her mother’s sixtieth birthday party and the thirtieth anniversary of her aunt’s tragic death standing over the body of a dead man, takes us back to the start of the day and into all the deception, infidelities, suspicions, and deviant behaviours that led her there.

The prose is intricate and intense. The characters are unreliable, secretive, and consumed. And the plot unfolds and unravels briskly into a murky tale full of twists, turns, surprises, familial drama, manipulation, resentments, scandal, wickedness, depravity, vengeance, and murder.

Overall, A Death at the Party is a tight, devious, relentless tale by Stuart that delves into the complex bonds that exist between friends and family members and reminds us that behind all those happy, smiling faces often lies an abundance of destructive lies and devastating secrets.

 

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 gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Amy Stuart

Amy Stuart is the #1 bestselling author of three novels: Still Mine, Still Water, and Still Here. Shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award and winner of the 2011 Writers’ Union of Canada Short Prose Competition, Amy is the founder of Writerscape, an online community for hopeful and emerging writers. Amy lives in Toronto with her husband and their three sons.

Photograph by Joey Stuart.

#BookReview Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare @cassieclare @SimonSchusterCA #ChainofThorns #TheLastHoursTrilogy #CassandraClare #SimonSchusterCA

#BookReview Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare @cassieclare @SimonSchusterCA #ChainofThorns #TheLastHoursTrilogy #CassandraClare #SimonSchusterCA Title: Chain of Thorns

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series: The Last Hours #3

Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books on Jan. 31, 2023

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

Pages: 800

Format: Hardcover

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

James and Cordelia must save London—and their marriage—in this conclusion to the Last Hours series from author Cassandra Clare.
Chain of Thorns is a Shadowhunters novel.

Cordelia Carstairs has lost everything that matters to her. In only a few short weeks, she has seen her father murdered, her plans to become parabatai with her best friend, Lucie, destroyed, and her marriage to James Herondale crumble before her eyes. Even worse, she is now bound to an ancient demon, Lilith, stripping her of her power as a Shadowhunter.

After fleeing to Paris with Matthew Fairchild, Cordelia hopes to forget her sorrows in the city’s glittering nightlife. But reality intrudes when shocking news comes from home: Tatiana Blackthorn has escaped the Adamant Citadel, and London is under new threat by the Prince of Hell, Belial.

Cordelia returns to a London riven by chaos and dissent. The long-kept secret that Belial is James and Lucie’s grandfather has been revealed by an unexpected enemy, and the Herondales find themselves under suspicion of dealings with demons. Cordelia longs to protect James but is torn between a love for James she has long believed hopeless, and the possibility of a new life with Matthew. Nor can her friends help—ripped apart by their own secrets, they seem destined to face what is coming alone.

For time is short, and Belial’s plan is about to crash into the Shadowhunters of London like a deadly wave, one that will separate Cordelia, Lucie, and the Merry Thieves from help of any kind. Left alone in a shadowy London, they must face Belial’s deadly army. If Cordelia and her friends are going to save their city—and their families—they will have to muster their courage, swallow their pride, and trust one another again. For if they fail, they may lose everything—even their souls.


Review:

Intense, action-packed, and thrilling!

Chain of Thorns is a suspenseful, gripping tale that takes us back to Edwardian London and into the lives of the most powerful Shadowhunter families in existence as they join forces to use their knowledge, weapons, and special talents to once and for all conquer demonic magic and vanquish Belial, the Prince of Hell, for good.

The prose is brisk and tight. The characters are multilayered, dependable, and fearless. And the plot is a riveting tale full of twists, turns, angst, loyalty, duty, heartbreak, danger, family, friendship, love, sizzling tension, tormented pasts, and supernatural abilities.

Overall, Chain of Thorns is an imaginative, passionate, epic, fantastical novel by Clare that is bursting with soul-searching dilemmas, sizzling romance, dangerous quests, and complex, intriguing characters. And while it’s a little bittersweet to say goodbye to this amazing cast of characters I’ve come to be invested in over these last three novels, it is nevertheless a superb ending to a fabulous series that I highly recommend and will undoubtedly miss.

 

This novel is available now.

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

       

 

 

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

 

About Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare is the author of the #1 New York Times, USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestselling Shadowhunter Chronicles. She is also the coauthor of the bestselling fantasy series Magisterium with Holly Black. The Shadowhunter Chronicles have been adapted as both a major motion picture and a television series. Her books have more than fifty million copies in print worldwide and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Cassandra lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and three fearsome cats.

Photo by Kelly Campbell.

#BookReview Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall @HMarshallAuthor @SimonSchusterCA #LookingforJane #HeatherMarshall #SimonSchusterCA

#BookReview Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall @HMarshallAuthor @SimonSchusterCA #LookingforJane #HeatherMarshall #SimonSchusterCA Title: Looking for Jane

Author: Heather Marshall

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Mar. 1, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

For readers of Joanna Goodman and Genevieve Graham comes a masterful debut novel about three women whose lives are bound together by a long-lost letter, a mother’s love, and a secret network of women fighting for the right to choose—inspired by true stories.

Tell them you’re looking for Jane.

2017

When Angela Creighton discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession in a stack of forgotten mail, she is determined to find the intended recipient. Her search takes her back to the 1970s when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network in Toronto known only by its whispered code name: Jane…

1971

As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was sent to a home for “fallen” women where she was forced to give up her baby for adoption—a trauma she has never recovered from. Despite harrowing police raids and the constant threat of arrest, she joins the Jane Network as an abortion provider, determined to give other women the choice she never had.

1980

After discovering a shocking secret about her family history, twenty-year-old Nancy Mitchell begins to question everything she has ever known. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she feels like she has no one to turn to for help. Grappling with her decision, she locates “Jane” and finds a place of her own alongside Dr. Taylor within the network’s ranks, but she can never escape the lies that haunt her.

Weaving together the lives of three women, Looking for Jane is an unforgettable debut about the devastating consequences that come from a lack of choice—and the enduring power of a mother’s love.


Review:

Absorbing, poignant, and heartrending!

Looking for Jane is a harrowing, moving novel set in Toronto between 1960 to 2017 that introduces you to three young women as they navigate the torment and fallout of a world where unwed mothers are sent to homes, deprived of basic necessities, coerced into relinquishing their parental rights, and unnecessarily punished viciously, babies are bought, adoption information is sealed, abortion is not legal and expensive back alley butchering is often the only choice, and an incredible network of caring professionals endanger themselves in order to provide safe options while rallying for change.

The prose is vivid and rich. The characters are strong, vulnerable, determined, and brave. And the plot told from multiple perspectives, is a compelling blend of life, loss, secrets, surprises, heartbreak, abuse, survival, motherhood, female friendships, pregnancy, infertility, and the history and legalities of abortion.

Overall, Looking for Jane is a compassionate, enlightening, timely tale inspired by true-life events that is a haunting reminder of just how much physical, psychological, and emotional abuse young unwed women endured and shockingly highlights that even though we’ve come so far in respect to women’s rights and body autonomy, in some respects, we still have a long way to go. It’s a book that ultimately needs to be read to appreciate just how well-researched, beautifully written, and extremely memorable it truly is.

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.

#BookReview The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa @ArmandoCorrea @SimonSchusterCA @AtriaBooks #TheNightTravelers #ArmandoLucasCorrea #SimonSchusterCA

#BookReview The Night Travelers by Armando Lucas Correa @ArmandoCorrea @SimonSchusterCA @AtriaBooks #TheNightTravelers #ArmandoLucasCorrea #SimonSchusterCA Title: The Night Travelers

Author: Armando Lucas Correa

Published by: Atria Books on Jan. 10, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 368

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Four generations of women experience love, loss, war, and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in this sweeping novel from the bestselling author of The German Girl.

Berlin, 1931: Ally Keller, a talented young poet, is alone and scared when she gives birth to a mixed-race daughter she names Lilith. As the Nazis rise to power, Ally knows she must keep her baby in the shadows to protect her against Hitler’s deadly ideology of Aryan purity. But as she grows, it becomes more and more difficult to keep Lilith hidden so Ally sets in motion a dangerous and desperate plan to send her daughter across the ocean to safety.

Havana, 1958: Now an adult, Lilith has few memories of her mother or her childhood in Germany. Besides, she’s too excited for her future with her beloved Martin, a Cuban pilot with strong ties to the Batista government. But as the flames of revolution ignite, Lilith and her newborn daughter, Nadine, find themselves at a terrifying crossroads.

Berlin, 1988: As a scientist in Berlin, Nadine is dedicated to ensuring the dignity of the remains of all those who were murdered by the Nazis. Yet she has spent her entire lifetime avoiding the truth about her own family’s history. It takes her daughter, Luna, to encourage Nadine to uncover the truth about the choices her mother and grandmother made to ensure the survival of their children. And it will fall to Luna to come to terms with a shocking betrayal that changes everything she thought she knew about her family’s past.

Separated by time but united by sacrifice, four women embark on journeys of self-discovery and find themselves to be living testaments to the power of motherly love.


Review:

Compelling, rich, and moving!

The Night Travelers is a heartbreaking, alluring tale that transports you between Germany, Cuba, and the USA from 1931 to 2015 and immerses you in all the oppression, tragedy, emotions, memories, racism, and scars that mar and define the multi-generational women of the Keller family.

The prose is fluid and expressive. The characters are wounded, selfless, and intelligent. And the plot is a tender tale about life, loss, love, grief, forgiveness, sacrifice, friendship, courage, hope, romance, the unbreakable ties that bind us as family, and the horrors of both WWII and the Cuban Revolution.

Overall, The Night Travelers is an atmospheric, absorbing, heartfelt tale by Correa that does a beautiful job of highlighting his exceptional ability to portray complex, memorable characters and historically troubling times in such a way that is not only impactful but stays with you long after you finish the final page.

 

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 Armando Lucas Correa

Armando Lucas Correa is an award-winning journalist, editor, author, and the recipient of several awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications and the Society of Professional Journalism. He is the author of the international bestseller The German Girl, which is now being published in thirteen languages. He lives in New York City with his partner and their three children.

Photograph by Héctor O. Torres.

#BookReview The Other Daughter by Caroline Bishop @calbish @SimonSchusterCA #TheOtherDaughter #CarolineBishop

#BookReview The Other Daughter by Caroline Bishop @calbish @SimonSchusterCA #TheOtherDaughter #CarolineBishop Title: The Other Daughter

Author: Caroline Bishop

Published by: Simon & Schuster Canada on Jan. 10, 2023

Genres: Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 432

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

A timely novel about an ambitious London journalist who reports on the fight for women’s rights in 1970s Switzerland, and the daughter who uncovers the long-buried truth about the assignment years later—for fans of Genevieve Graham and Heather Marshall.

2016

Jess is at a crossroads in life. In her late thirties, all she has to show for it is a broken marriage and a job teaching a bunch of uninterested kids. But when she discovers a shocking secret about her late mother, Sylvia, Jess begins to question all she’s ever known. Her search for answers leads to a 1970s article about women’s rights in Switzerland that Sylvia wrote when she was a young journalist. But to uncover the real story of what happened all those years ago, Jess will have to go to Switzerland and find someone who knew her mother…

1976

Sylvia’s life is on track. She has a loving fiancé and her dream job as a features writer in a busy London newsroom—if only her editor would give her the chance to write about something important instead of relegating her to fashion, flowers, and celebrities. When Sylvia learns about the growing women’s liberation movement in Switzerland, where women only recently got the right to vote, she knows the story could be her big break. There’s just one wrinkle: she’s pregnant.

Determined to put her career first, Sylvia travels to Switzerland, and as she meets the courageous band of women fighting for their rights, she stumbles across an even bigger scoop, one that would make her male colleagues take her seriously. But telling the story will change her—and her baby’s—life forever.

Inspired by an important chapter of women’s history, The Other Daughter is an unforgettable novel about the bond between mothers and daughters—and the fight of women, generations over, for the freedom to choose their own path.


Review:

Astute, tender, and nostalgic!

The Other Daughter is a layered, intriguing tale set in Europe during 1976, as well as 2016, that is told from two different perspectives; Jess, a young woman who journeys to Switzerland after her mother’s death to unravel the secrets of her birth, and Sylvia, a writer who after travelling abroad to cover women’s rights not only befriends a wonderful group of courageous women but also unexpectedly delivers her baby girl early resulting in a turn of events that will ultimately have heart-shattering consequences.

The prose is reflective and sweet. The characters are troubled, inquisitive, and endearing. And the plot using a past/present, back-and-forth style, intertwines and unravels effortlessly into a touching tale of life, loss, family, friendship, drama, emotion, secrets, heartbreak, passion, self-discovery, and love.

Overall, The Other Daughter is a heartfelt, sentimental, affecting read by Bishop that does a lovely job of interweaving historical facts and compelling fiction into an insightful, heart-tugging tale that is atmospheric and highly absorbing.

 

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.

#BookReview The White Hare by Jane Johnson @JaneJohnsonBakr @SimonSchusterCA #TheWhiteHare #JaneJohnson

#BookReview The White Hare by Jane Johnson @JaneJohnsonBakr @SimonSchusterCA #TheWhiteHare #JaneJohnson Title: The White Hare

Author: Jane Johnson

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Oct. 4, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

For fans of Alice Hoffman and Kate Morton, The White Hare is a spellbinding novel about mothers and daughters finding a new home for themselves, the secrets they try to bury, and the local legends that may change their lives.

In the far west of Cornwall lies the White Valley, which cuts deeply through bluebell woods down to the sea at White Cove. The valley has a long and bloody history, laced with folklore, and in it sits a house above the beach that has lain neglected since the war. It comes with a reputation and a strange atmosphere, which is why mother and daughter Magdalena and Mila manage to acquire it so cheaply in the fateful summer of 1954.

Magda has grand plans to restore the house to its former glory as a venue for glittering parties, where the rich and celebrated gathered for cocktails and for bracing walks along the coast. Her grown daughter, Mila, just wants to escape the scandal in her past and make a safe and happy home for her little girl, Janey, a solitary, precocious child blessed with a vivid imagination, much of which she pours into stories about her magical plush toy, Rabbit.

But Janey’s rabbit isn’t the only magical being around. Legend has it that an enchanted white hare may be seen running through the woods. Is it an ill omen or a blessing? As Mila, her mother, and her young daughter adjust to life in this mysterious place, they will have to reckon with their own pasts and with the secrets that have been haunting the White Valley for decades.


Review:

Atmospheric, mysterious, and intriguing!

The White Hare is a rich, eerie, gripping tale that transports you to Cornwall during 1954 and into the lives of three generations of Prusik women as they move to a dilapidated new home and try to come to terms with all the powerful emotions, spooky folklore, traditions, long-buried secrets, strange behaviours, tragedy, and magic that surrounds them.

The prose is tight and intense. The characters are multilayered, vulnerable, and scarred. And the plot is an unsettling tale of life, loss, trauma, tragedy, desperation, familial drama, legends, folklore, secrets, supernatural phenomena, new beginnings, and the complex relationships that exist between mothers and daughters.

Overall, The White Hare is an ominous, vivid, gothic tale by Johnson that undoubtedly kept me engaged and invested from start to finish and was truly a delight to read.

 

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.

#BookReview An Italian Girl in Brooklyn by Santa Montefiore @SantaMontefiore @SimonSchusterCA #AnItalianGirlinBrooklyn #SantaMontefiore

#BookReview An Italian Girl in Brooklyn by Santa Montefiore @SantaMontefiore @SimonSchusterCA #AnItalianGirlinBrooklyn #SantaMontefiore Title: An Italian Girl in Brooklyn

Author: Santa Montefiore

Published by: Simon and Schuster on Nov. 8, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

Dark secrets and hidden sorrows abound in Santa Montefiore’s spellbinding new novel set in war-torn Italy and the streets of New York.

‘Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore’ JOJO MOYES
 
New York, 1979
 
It is Thanksgiving and Evelina has her close family and beloved friends gathered around, her heart weighted with gratitude for what she has and regret for what she has given up. She has lived in America for over thirty years, but she is still Italian in her soul. 
 
Northern Italy, 1934
 
Evelina leads a sheltered life with her parents and siblings in a villa of fading grandeur. When her elder sister Benedetta marries a banker, to suit her father’s wishes rather than her own, Evelina swears that she will never marry out of duty. She knows nothing of romantic love, but when she meets Ezra, son of the local dressmaker, her heart recognises it like an old friend. 
 
Evelina wants these carefree days to last forever. She wants to bask in sunshine, beauty and love and pay no heed to the grey clouds gathering on the horizon. But nothing lasts forever.  The shadows of war are darkening over Europe and precious lives are under threat…


Review:

Thoughtful, moving, and immersive!

An Italian Girl in Brooklyn is a poignant, tender tale set in Northern Italy during 1934, as well as New York in 1979, that takes you into the lives of Evelina Pierangelini and Ezra Zanotti, two young lovers from different backgrounds and religions whose lives are unimaginably torn apart and changed forever when their homeland adopts and enforces Germany’s antisemitic regulations during WWII.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are brave, selfless, and resilient. And the plot is an exceptionally touching tale about life, loss, family, secrets, separation, desperation, forbidden love, tragedy, friendship, and the consequences, repercussions, and horrors of war.

Overall, An Italian Girl in Brooklyn is a beautifully written, sweeping saga by Montefiore that tugs at the heartstrings, makes you think of all those what-ifs, and ultimately reminds you that life is complicated, things often happen for a reason, and love is powerful and everlasting.

 

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 Santa Montefiore

Santa Montefiore’s books have been translated into twenty languages and have sold more than four million copies in England and Europe. She is married to writer Simon Sebag Montefiore. They live with their two children, Lily and Sasha, in London.

Photograph by Santa Montefiore

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

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

Author: Jamie Ford

Published by: Atria Books on Aug. 2, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 384

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

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

Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living.

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

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

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


Review:

Sentimental, thought-provoking, and memorable!

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

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

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

 

This novel is available now.

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

           

 

 

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

 

About Jamie Ford

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

Photo by Eric Heidle.

#BookReview The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk @AtriaBooks @SimonSchusterCA #LisaJewell #TheFamilyRemains

#BookReview The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk @AtriaBooks @SimonSchusterCA #LisaJewell #TheFamilyRemains Title: The Family Remains

Author: Lisa Jewell

Series: The Family Upstairs #2

Published by: Atria Books on Aug. 9, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 384

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell comes an intricate and affecting novel about twisted marriages, fractured families, and deadly obsessions in this standalone sequel to The Family Upstairs.

Early one morning on the shore of the Thames, DCI Samuel Owusu is called to the scene of a gruesome discovery. When Owusu sends the evidence for examination, he learns the bones are connected to a cold case that left three people dead on the kitchen floor in a Chelsea mansion thirty years ago.

Rachel Rimmer has also received a shock—news that her husband, Michael, has been found dead in the cellar of his house in France. All signs point to an intruder, and the French police need her to come urgently to answer questions about Michael and his past that she very much doesn’t want to answer.

After fleeing London thirty years ago in the wake of a horrific tragedy, Lucy Lamb is finally coming home. While she settles in with her children and is just about to purchase their first-ever house, her brother takes off to find the boy from their shared past whose memory haunts their present.

As they all race to discover answers to these convoluted mysteries, they will come to find that they’re connected in ways they could have never imagined.

In this masterful standalone sequel to her haunting New York Times bestseller, The Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell proves she is writing at the height of her powers with another jaw-dropping, intricate, and affecting novel about the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love and uncover the truth.


Review:

Suspenseful, gripping and intense!

The Family Remains is a well-executed, intricate thriller that takes us back into the lives of the Lamb family, specifically Lucy, Harry, and Libby, as they continue to struggle with the actions, scars, repercussions, and tragedy from their childhoods and they endeavour to find Libby’s birth father and Harry’s childhood obsession, Phin, whom they haven’t seen since he managed to escape the mansion of horrors more than twenty years ago.

The writing is brisk and tight. The characters are troubled, devious, and vulnerable. And the plot told from various timelines and multiple perspectives unfolds and unravels quickly into a compelling tale of twists, turns, lies, secrets, manipulation, obsession, loyalty, extortion, vengeance, family, and the long-lasting effects of childhood trauma.

Overall, The Family Remains is a creepy, engrossing, complex sequel by one of my favourite authors that once again showcases her exceptional ability to not only delve into the psychological and behavioural actions of the most depraved of society but also those of the victims who have suffered and been permanently damaged by their hands.

This novel is available now.

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

           

 

 

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

 

About Lisa Jewell

Lisa Jewell is the internationally bestselling author of sixteen novels, including the New York Times bestseller Then She Was Gone, as well as I Found You, The Girls in the Garden, and The House We Grew Up In. In total, her novels have sold more than two million copies across the English-speaking world and her work has also been translated into sixteen languages so far. Lisa lives in London with her husband and their two daughters.

Photograph by Andrew Whitton.

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