Tag: Historical Fiction

#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 When We Were Brilliant by Lynn Cullen @BerkleyPub @PenguinRandomCA #WhenWeWereBrilliant #LynnCullen #Berkley #BerkleyPartner #PenguinReads

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#BookReview When We Were Brilliant by Lynn Cullen @BerkleyPub @PenguinRandomCA #WhenWeWereBrilliant #LynnCullen #Berkley #BerkleyPartner #PenguinReads Title: When We Were Brilliant

Author: Lynn Cullen

Published by: Berkley on Jan. 20, 2026

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 400

Format: Hardcover

Source: Berkley Publishing

Book Rating: 9/10

They were an unlikely pair—a blond bombshell and a photographer determined to be taken seriously—but Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold would make a deal that would change their lives in this dazzling new novel from the national bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and The Woman with the Cure.

In 1952, Norma Jeane Baker follows documentary photographer Eve Arnold into a powder room on the night they first meet. She has a proposition for her. Norma Jeane created Marilyn Monroe to be photographed, and she wants Eve to do it. Eve is better than anyone she’s seen at capturing a person’s inner truth. Together they can help each other. Together, she says, they can make something brilliant.

Skeptical of this cipher of a young woman, Eve demurs. She’s looking for more serious subjects than this ambitious starlet. But she keeps getting drawn back into Marilyn’s orbit, and the women come to recognize something in each other—something fundamental. Nothing will get in the way of what they want, and when Marilyn’s star takes off to teetering heights, neither will ever be the same.

A lavish and transporting novel, When We Were Brilliant captures the halcyon days of an icon and the grit of women determining their own futures as it explores the exceptional and complicated friendship between Marilyn Monroe and Eve Arnold.

Review:

Fascinating, captivating, and rich!

When We Were Brilliant is an insightful, immersive novel set in the 1950s that draws readers into the lives of photographer Eve Arnold and her most famous subject and close friend Marilyn Monroe, through their unusual, evolving bond, the highs and lows of fame and fortune, the pressures of marriage, the ache of loss, and the toll of living under constant public scrutiny.

The prose is eloquent and expressive. The characters are hardworking, devoted, and passionate. And the plot is a compelling tale of life, love, friendship, family, glitz, glamour, jealousy, scandal, uncertainty, infidelity, ambition, and the many complexities of stardom.
 

Overall, When We Were Brilliant is a vivid, absorbing novel by Cullen that showcases her impressive research and deep understanding of both a pioneering photographer and a brilliant, misunderstood actress whose life was tragically short and painfully complicated, yet who is unfortunately too often remembered only for her beauty and sex appeal.

 

This book is available now.

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

             

 

Thank you to Berkley for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Lynn Cullen

Lynn Cullen’s bestselling novels, including The Woman with the Cure, The Sisters of Summit Avenue, Mrs. Poe, Twain’s End, The Creation of Eve, and Reign of Madness, have been translated into seventeen languages and are the recipients of various honors, including NPR Great Read, Oprah.com Book of the Week, People magazine Book of the Week, Indie Next List selection, and Atlanta magazine Best Books of the Year. She lives in Atlanta.

Photo by Megan Cullen Cayes.

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