Historical Fiction
Strangers In Time
Strangers in Time by David Baldacci
This was one of the best Historical Fiction novels that I have experienced!
In London, 1944, two teenagers devastated by the war find a book shop owner who is suffering from his own losses.
Fourteen-year-old Charlie survives the streets as he goes from day to day, taking only what he needs. Existing as no child should have to, barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie is a beautiful soul.
Molly, at fifteen has returned from the country as part of the “Pied Piper” operation, only to find London in a state that she doesn’t recognize. She is confronted by a reality that she no longer has her parents and home isn’t what she remembers.
Molly and Charlie find each other and the two stumble into the world of Ignatius, a book shop owner, whose only solace is maintaining the shop his wife left behind. Ignatius finds that he needs the children as much as they need him.
There is mystery, intrigue, and just an overall beautifully written story of survival and forgiveness that will engulf you as the reader. It’s wonderfully written as only David Baldacci can do!
I would love to Thank NetGalley for the pleasure of reviewing an ARC of this book! 5/5⭐
The Medicine Woman of Galveston
The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda Skenandore
The title is so misleading! Excellent book but not exactly what I was expecting.
Tucia fights to become a doctor, a rare thing in 1900, to be female and a doctor. She struggles and then has everything stripped from her by a monster and the repercussions reshape her life. Only through the tragedy of a hurricane does she find her place again.
Tucia joined a traveling troupe of miracle working snake oil characters to support her son and survive. The show uses her medical license to add credibility to their group. She is repulsed by the purgatives she is forced to peddle but forges on as a means of survival and caring for her son. In a group of misfits she finds family through friendships made along the way.
Tucia has to find her confidence and survive the journey with a cast of unique characters. They are all bound to Huey through blackmail and deceit. She travels with her son Toby, and a "tinkering" man named Darl.
This is a heartbreaking journey exploring two aspects of history, what is was like for a woman in the medical field in the early twentieth century and what life was like on the road with the snake oil troupes traveling just short of being individual circuses.
This story of found family, redemption, and survival will make you cry in the trenches of heartache and soar with the triumphs. Tucia is a formidable character and she is unforgettable in this volume of historical fiction. Don't judge a book by its cover, or in this case, its title. Excellent reading! 4/5⭐
I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book!
The Book of Lost Friends
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
This is a beautiful story, enriched and layered between two timelines.
A beautiful quote that I loved: “ We die once when the last breath leaves our bodies. We die a second time when the last person speaks our name.”
In 1875, you have three courageous women traveling amidst the post war destruction of the Civil War. They are searching for roots, for family, some connection to their origin. Everyone has a need to belong to someone or something, an anchor to this world.
Later in 1987, you have a new young teacher who finds the women’s stories as part of an attempt to lure her students to connect to reading and their community. She is bold and courageous and so inspiring!
Freed slaves were desperate to find a connection to the families they were often torn from, so they advertised in Southern newspapers to reach out. These “Lost Friends” advertisements or notices were the inspiration for this book.
What an amazing story! I was so moved and humbled by this book! I absolutely loved it! 5/5⭐
The Saints of Swallow Hill
The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart
This is a riveting, complex story set in the true grit of the South during the Great Depression. The story brings out the courage and determination found in southern women who live in survival mode.
The “Tar Heel” state of North Carolina was once the home of a turpentine industry during some of the hardest times to exist in the South. In this story, Rae Lynn Cobbs and her husband, Warren, run a small turpentine farm. The work is hard, sometimes dangerous. Having grown up in an orphanage, Rae Lynn welcomes the “home” she finds with Warren.
After Warren’s sudden death, fearing the perception of what happened, Rae Lynn dresses as a man and leaves to find a safe have at a turpentine camp in Georgia, Swallow Hill.
The camp is no haven, it’s isolated, harsh and home to an evil man that targets Rae Lynn. She finds solace with Del and Cornelia, two friends that struggle to survive in the camp with her.
I really enjoyed learning about a piece o Southern history that I knew nothing about. I also really appreciate the way Donna Everhart presents her female heroines and brings out their greatest strengths in their struggles. 4.5/5⭐
The Great Alone
There were points in this book where I wanted to throw it away, I was so flustered with anger and frustration with Cora’s actions or lack there of. She was a true victim of domestic abuse and addiction, to the abuse and the need to feel loved in a twisted relationship. She would not leave even for Leni, until she had to.
This book is a testament to immersing your audience in a story. I will admit it took a little bit for me to get fully connected but once I did, I was so interwoven in the story of Leni and Cora.
This was a beautifully raw story of the scars of war and all those it affects. A Vietnam war hero, fighting unseen evil, takes his family to the Great Alone of the wilderness of Alaska. Ernt Allbright was sick and evil.
This novel has a found family in the community that embraced the Allbrights. The people, the wilderness and the love between two young kids made for a beautiful story. This tale is full of raw emotion, domestic abuse, resilience, a community embracing and protecting its own, and redemption with heartache and loss. You will feel it all because Kristin Hannah is a master of storytelling and she invites you into this story with her brilliant words. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did! 5/5⭐
The Matchmaker's Gift
The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman
This is a brilliant story!
Two extraordinary women with a gift of finding love. Sara Glikman discovered hers at an age of ten as she immigrated with her family. She is a matchmaker, bringing soulmates together. She had a good run in the Lower East Side of New York, her competition dominating the vocation as a bunch of devout old men threatened by a woman.
She did her thing for over a decade in secret, and when her family was in need of support, she stepped out to take her place in the vocation of matchmaking.
When her grandmother dies, Abby inherits Sara’s journals with recorded documentation of her love matches in a familiar handwriting. Abby finds more questions than answers and wants to know the purpose of passing the volumes to her. Abby is in the business of divorce. Will she risk her career to finish what Sara started and fulfil a promise? Is there really love at first sight?
I loved this one so much! The writing is phenomenal, connecting the reader with the characters and letting them exist in the story! The characters are so relatable and well developed. 5/5⭐
The World's Fair Quilt
The World’s Fair Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
Jennifer Chiaverini continues the celebration of the Elm Creek quilting Community with Sylvia Bergstrom. This is a series.
With the Bergstrom family venue for quilting retreats, Sylvia finds that the business is struggling. She wants to preserve the family legacy and she has to get creative. In 1933, Sylvia and her sister had a quilt displayed at the World’s Fair. The competition caused somewhat of a rift with the family.
In 2004, Summer Sullivan, a founding quilter in the community, wants to take the community through the history of the business by displaying the quilt and letting it tell its story.
Reluctantly considering the proposal, Sylvia makes an unexpected discovery and finds her faith in the quilt and the way forward for the Elm Creek Quilt community.
This was a charming story, I enjoyed it and perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the series.
I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC of this book.
3/5
The Girls of the Glimmer Factory
The Girls of the Glimmer Factory by Jennifer Coburn
This is a phenomenal WWII novel! I love to learn through reading and Jennifer Coburn does not disappoint.
Two friends, very different paths and one destiny. The two, Hilde and Hannah, childhood friends exist on different sides of the war, one trapped in a Jewish concentration camp and the other climbing her way up through the ranks of the Reich. Hannah, a hero for the children in the camp, Hilde an aspiring film maker trying to prove herself and justify the horror with complete ignorance.
This story is so real and powerful, so sad and it gives the reader a new perspective with two views. This wonderful book made me mad – for the pain and pure hell that existed for Jews and mad that so many Germans let themselves be led in complete ignorance, participating in such horrific tragedy. I really enjoyed the experience with this story.
So real and raw, I connected with the characters, the descriptions were painful and real. Hannah, betrayed in so many ways, was my hero!
I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC of this book. It was a phenomenal experience.
On a side note, the German terms in the story were distracting for me as a reader but I purchased the audiobook and it was a phenomenal game changer, I was able to better immerse myself in the story and not fret about pronouncing or finding meaning in the unfamiliar terms.
5/5
Junie
Coming Soon!
Harlem Rhapsody
Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray
I really wanted to love this one but I didn’t.
It promised the story of Jessie Redmon Fassett, a remarkable woman that I was excited to learn about. The book seemed to emphasize an extramarital affair with WEB DuBois over her outstanding achievements in the literary world. I couldn’t emotionally connect with the book or its characters and after finishing the book, the affair and the connotation that her achievements were a result of the affair is what I am left to reflect on.
I really wish the author success and I applaud her for bringing another black historical figure to the attention of the world. I wish it had been more focused on her achievements and the great authors she interacted with.
I would like to Thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC of this novel. Overall rating : 2.5/5⭐
Don't Forget to Write
Don't Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino
I loved this book! It just invites the reader in and lets them exist in the story. Wonderful writing and beautifully developed characters that I just really connected with. This is a coming of age adventure with a beautiful message of "love who you want". Everyone needs a Great Aunt Ada!
Marilyn Kleinman is an eighteen year old that doesn't fit the mold that holds her to her Jewish parents' expectations. She rebels and her father responds. She is sent to spend the summer with her Great Aunt Ada. She expects a strict pillar of confinement and rules that will break her, what she finds is the most amazing friend and ally that she never saw coming.
In this coming of age adventure of the 1960's, Marilyn finds herself and freedom. Her aunt is a matchmaker with a phenomenal reputation, and it's up to her to "save" Marilyn when she is caught making out with the Rabbi's son. As the summer unfolds, Marilyn and Ada head to the Jersey shore and new adventures together. Marilyn learns a few life lessons, some family secrets and discovers where she can go when she doesn't settle. When her father threatens to disinherit her, Marilyn has to decide if she will embrace the comfortable life she knows or will she reach for something more and risk everything to follow her dreams.
Everything about this story is just wonderful. It's a well written beautiful story with likeable, engaging characters that you can treasure. 5/5⭐
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stein
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
This was a wonderful book! Beautiful writing. I absolutely love a book where I can just "walk" into the story. I want to experience it with the characters. I want to know the characters. This book has beautiful heartfelt character development and heartwarming adventures with a wonderful love story.
In this story Augusta Stern learns that it's never too late for a new beginning. She is unmoored when she retires at almost eighty! With the help of her niece she relocates to a retirement community in southern Florida. She crosses paths with some old friends from the days she worked in her father's pharmacy.
In the 1920's she grew up in Brooklyn in a loving Jewish family. Her Aunt Esther moves in when her mother dies and her life forever changes. She had two role models, her father and her great aunt, both were heroes providing help to the community with their own methods.
Augusta grew up and followed her dream to pharmacy school and had a long career that she stretched out. Irving was her first love and her greatest heart break.
When the two, Esther and Irving find one another in the retirement community almost sixty years later, they forge a new friendship as they get to know one another. Old lies, heartbreak and answers surface among new friends and old ones. Augusta hopes to reclaim some of the magic she put away long ago and find her new place in this new community.
This is a beautifully written historical fiction account of living in Brooklyn in the 1920's post WWI and complete with prohibition mobsters. I absolutely loved everything about this story and the characters! I have added Augusta to my favorite character list! 5/5⭐
Out of the Easy
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Josie Moraine is struggling to free herself from her life in the French Quarter of New Orleans. In the 1950s it's hard to overcome the stigma of being the daughter of a brothel prostitute. Josie wants so much more, college, to write, she has big dreams. She is entangled with the brothel's madam, Willie Woodley.
Josie is caught between her dreams of college and the underworld of the Big Easy. She is tempted and challenged with every turn.
I really enjoyed this one! The characters are captivating and so developed with detail that makes them relatable to everyone. The story is so raw and completely enchanting, you feel everything Josie does.
4/5⭐
Last Christmas in Paris
Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
What an enchanted tale told through correspondence between 1914-1918!
This was a really unique way of telling a love story. Two people, Evie Elliot and Thomas Harding spend the Great War corresponding from a distance. They both deal with grief and loss. Evie becomes a voice for women as a reporter, and Thomas goes to war to escape his legacy in the newspaper business.
Their romantic anticipation of meeting up in Paris after a short stint in the war falls short of the reality they both endure.
This was a tear jerker but a wonderful story that took place during WWI.
I really enjoyed the way it was told and how the letters let the reader connect intimately with the characters and their story. 4/5⭐️
Christmas With the Queen
Christmas with the Queen (audiobook) by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
This was an intriguing love story!
Jack Devereaux has a history with Olive Carter. They were once friends, a lifetime ago. For Christmas 1952, the two find their paths crossing in the midst of the young Queen Elizabeth II.
Jack, an aspiring chef lands in the kitchen at the Queen’s residence, Sandringham. Olive is an aspiring writer working with the BBC as a trainee reporter. Both are thrown in their current position by chance.
Over several years the two cross paths repeatedly and end up spending Christmas with the Queen, over and over.
Jack realizes that he has important things that he left unsaid and Olive is carrying a big secret. Can the friendship survive if they come clean with one another?
I thought this was a creative story of love, resilience, forgiveness, and chance.
I really enjoyed it!
The narrators did a wonderful job, although I did find the male voice for Jack a little rushed and clipped, it affected my perception of the character.
For content I would give this one a 4/5⭐️ and for narration a 3/5⭐️
Surviving Savannah
Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan
This is a beautiful story of uncovering hope in a dismal situation and of survival, told in a dual timeline 180 years apart.
Everly Winthrop, a Savannah history professor has a gift curating exhibits. She brings a personal connection to the pieces. When Everly is asked to curate a special new exhibit of a recently recovered shipwreck, the Pulaski, she has a difficult time working with an old friend.
The tragedy of losing her best friend has trapped her with survivors guilt. The debilitating condition actually allows her to connect with ghosts of the past and work through her present distress.
The ship sank in 1838 off the coast of North Carolina with some of Savannah’s most elite citizens on board. Some survived and many secrets were hidden until the ship was recovered. As secrets spill from the relics of the sea, so do connections that Everly never saw coming. She connects the past with her present.
This is a beautifully written story with phenomenal research and background. You get a little bit of everything, grief, loss, tears, laughter, and recovery.
I really enjoyed this book, Patti Callahan is a talented story teller with a gift in historical fiction. 5/5⭐️
The Story She Left Behind
The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry
This book was so good! I took my time reading and just devouring the pages. The lyrical prose was so beautifully crafted! I was drawn in and mesmerized by the story with secret languages, missing pages, and a magical realm of the mind to perch a beautiful escape, just beauty in words!
The setting descriptions were timeless and mystical. I felt like I was there with Clara and Winnie. I could feel the heartbreak and wonder! I absolutely loved diving into this one, based on a real-life literary mystery!
In 1927, a renowned author disappears leaving a heartbroken Clara whose magical childhood shatters. Later in 1952, Clara has made a name for herself as an illustrator and has a beautiful, yet fragile daughter Wynnie. One day, Clara gets a call when a stranger in London claims to have her mother’s lost words. Charlie Jameson compels Clara to cross the ocean, and she arrives during a deadly natural disaster, The Great Smog. Asthmatic Wynnie becomes overtaken by the acidic smog and the two leave the city with Charlie to take refuge at his family’s country home in the Lake District. While there, Clara is intrigued with peculiar connections and begins to unravel the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.
This was a captivating mystery and so imaginative! 5+/5⭐️
I would love to thank NetGalley for the awesome opportunity to review an ARC of this beautiful story!
This will be released later in 2025.
The Winemakers Wife
The Winemaker's Wife by Kristin Harmel
Maison Chauveau, a champagne house near Reims, France, housed secrets at the dawn of WWII. Michel treats his wife Inez like a child and she resents him for it. Theo and his wife, Celine, also live on the grounds, working the vineyard. As rumors bring horrific news of war efforts and the Germans are making to move all the Jews eastward, Celine becomes a focus because her father is Jewish. Michels's efforts to help the Resistance by hiding guns, blooms into something more dangerous. Two women forever change the fate of their families as they follow their hearts.
In 2019, Liv Kent has hit rock bottom after a failed marriage and her Grandma shows up to save the day and whisks Liv off to Paris. There Liv uncovers a family secret full of heartbreak but she also finds herself again. As the past and present mingle Liv imagines a new beginning for herself.
I really enjoyed this story.
Another great adventure into the history of WWII and its unsung heroes from behind the scenes. During the darkest days, love leads the hearts of unappreciated women. History brings hope to a woman in 2019 who lost hers but finds a new path in the remnants of a family tragedy. 4/5⭐
The Secret Daughter of Venice
The Secret Daughter of Venice (audiobook) by Juliet Greenwood
I liked this one but I didn’t love it, the plot fell flat for me.
Kate has always felt out of place, knowing that she came from somewhere else. She loves art but is alone in that pursuit and that further displaces her among her adoptive family. When she finds hidden sketches in a book of poetry that was passed to her as an infant, she feels a heartfelt connection to the past. The drawings spark long forgotten memories and her adoptive family won't answer her questions. she goes on a journey as part of a war effort to help orphaned children and as she shares her talents she finds answers and a connection to who she really is.
This one did not resonate with me, the plot seemed to disappear in the details and introduction of characters.The scene descriptions were detailed and beautiful but the plot just fell flat, sort of lost in the elaborate details. The ending was better than the other 3/4 of the book, which seemed to meander with a theme but lacked a purposeful central plot.
The narration was well done, the voice given to the characters was distinctive and enjoyable.
I would like to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to review this audiobook.
Overall the book content was just ok. 2.5/5⭐️
Secrets of a Charmed Life
Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner
I enjoyed this one! It gave a personal connection to the fashion industry during WWII and I really liked the sibling relationship between Emmy and Julia.
In this story, told in a dual timeline, you have Kendra Van Zant , who is writing an article to claim her place in journalism. She interviews Isabel McFarland. Isabel is at a point in life where she is ready to reveal secrets from her past about her true identity. The story Kendra is presented with is a test of her morality and convictions.
Isabel talks about her experiences in the 1940s during the war when Hitler waged terror on England and England sent its youth to the country for protection. Emmy Downtree was a fifteen year old aspiring artist/designer with no formal training and load of natural talent. She had just managed to land an apprenticeship with a designer that would give her a solid future, when word came that she and her sister must go to live in the countryside for the foreseeable future. The two girls, Emmy and Julia end up in a Cotswold cottage with a good foster family. Emmy can't bury her ambitions and throw away her opportunity, so she runs away with Julia in tow and it changes the course of their future forever when they get separated in the middle of destruction.
Emmy's diligent efforts to survive were inspiring and remarkable. This was a great example of the bond between siblings and great perseverance in the time of war. Emmy continued on carrying guilt for her ambition and not knowing what became of her sister. There are some interesting twists in this story and a heartwarming bond between sisters! 4/5⭐
The Lions of Fifth Avenue
The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
A fabulously detailed connection to the New York Public Library!
Laura Lyons is happy living in the New York Public Library. Her husband is the superintendent and that affords them the ability to live on site, in an apartment within the library! In 1913, the library is still new but has a lot of secrets.
Laura has two wonderful children but she wants more and the library encourages that. She applies and gets into the Columbia Journalism School and it takes her so far beyond the confines of the library. She learns to live in the moment and finds a radical female led group where her ideas and thoughts are appreciated and celebrated.
Then valuable books start disappearing from the library - threatening all the things she cherishes the most, including her family. She is forced to face her change in priorities head on.
In 1993, Sadie Donovan is struggling. Laura Lyons was her grandmother and family connections and secrets threaten her status as a library curator. Her dream job becomes a disaster as rare priceless pieces disappear from the Berg Collection she is assigned to curate. As she teams up with a private detective to uncover the truth, things start to unravel with exposed family secrets.
This was a wonderfully layered story with a dual timeline spanning 80 years. I love how Fiona Davis immerses her readers in a place in history exploring rich architecture in an in depth story. Her stories are all about the place not merely the characters. The details in this story were so well placed that I was compelled to take a side trip to explore the NYC Public Library on a virtual tour. What a beautiful piece of American history and architecture! There were some aspects of the story that I did not care for but overall it was a very well written story and I really enjoyed it! 4/5⭐️
The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson
The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker
This is a heart wrenching story that spans many decades. In 2015, at age 94, Cecily Larson if forced to revisit her past that she has kept hidden for most of her life. While recovering from an accident, her family decides to surprise her with a unique gift, a DNA test, without telling her. The results uncover a tragic love story and a lifetime of heartbreak.
In 1924, a four year old Cecily was dropped of at a Chicago orphanage with a promise that her mom would come back for her. At age 7, she was sold to a traveling circus. Although heartbroken, she does find the family she has always longed for with the circus performers. As a teenager, Cecily falls in love for the first time, her heart captured by a roustabout named Lucky. From there, her life takes an unexpected turn full of danger.
This story meanders through a long period of contemporary American history. It is a compelling drama about a remarkable woman that faced enormous heartbreak and abuse while she did everything to protect he ones she loved. Once her secrets are exposed, everything about her family is questioned and they must decide who they are and what family and forgiveness really means.
A beautiful story of resilience, survival, and forgiveness, this tale is told with multiple points of view and over a multigenerational timeline.
I absolutely loved this novel and I took my time digesting it. Cecily and her family were beautifully portrayed characters. There was so much depth and description, it was as though the reader was right there to experience life with her. 5/5⭐️
The Frozen River
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
This book is a moving experience, it takes you through the life of Martha Ballard. It’s a brilliant tale of resilience and midwifery in the late 1700s. In Maine, 1789, the Kennebee River freezes which alters the daily lives of everyone that lives along its borders.
A man is discovered in the frozen river and Martha is called to examine the body. A local physician shows up and attempts to undermine her in every direction. Over the course of several months, she pursues the truth of what happened while the body is resting in wait for the ground to thaw. The winter is brutal.
Martha, a woman trusted with the most sacred duty of a community, to shepherd life into the world, serves her community of Hallowell, and the women within it. She meticulously makes record of every birth, death and crime in her journal. While championing one of her women, she is drawn into a trial and experiences the pure evil of men.
Like the river in the story, Martha serves the community she is immersed in, affecting everyone she encounters with life and death. This is a courageous story based on the real life and journal of Martha Ballard. It is fiction but so beautifully crafted to celebrate a life that could have otherwise been forgotten.
My favorite quote: “…if I’m being honest- it is because these markings of ink and paper will one day be the only proof that I have existed in this world. That I lived and breathed.”
This was primarily a story of midwifery in a small town but there is murder, mystery, and pain. It is intense, it will draw you in from the first page and it is long but it’s a wonderful experience, a worthy story from a talented storyteller.The character development is detailed and personal. The details of the story will stay with you.
5/5⭐️
The Secret Book of Flora Lea
This was such a great story! The characters were so richly developed and I couldn’t put it down! A new favorite to add to my library!
The story is told with a flashback of a war ridden London of 1939. Two sisters were sent to the country to avoid the Blitz. Hazel made up the magical stories of Whisperwood to calm Flora and get through their situation.
Twenty years later Hazel works in a rare book store and unwraps a package containing an illustrated version of her Whisperwood. No one knew about Whisperwood but her lost sister, Flora. Hazel’s life long quest to find Flora is renewed with this new finding. Hazel risks everything to search for the truth of what happened to her sister and how the story ended up in a book.
I loved this one, 5/5 ⭐️s
Once Upon A Wardrobe
Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan
In this brilliant story, you meet Megs Devonshire who is attending Oxford. A young woman who has a mind for facts through numbers and science, seeks answers about the magical world of Narnia. On behalf of her brother George, Megs approaches C.S. Lewis for answers. Through listening to “Jack’s” stories of his own life and retelling them to George, Megs learns a new craft of storytelling. She also finds answers in a way that she had not anticipated about life and love.
This book is so good, your heart will soar, and you may cry a few tears, but isn’t that what a good book does? Read it, devout, love it! 5/5⭐️s
Becoming Mrs. Lewis
Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan Henry
This was the most enchanting, beautiful love story that I’ve ever read!
The story takes you through the life and career of Joy Davidman and her love for writing and C.S Lewis. There is a profound journey of faith and love. I read this for a book club and I will definitely recommend it to everyone. Patti Callahan Henry is a talented story teller and story crafter. You don’t want to miss this one!
I learned about the life of someone I had never heard of or considered and now I’m going down a rabbit hole to find out more! 5/5⭐️s
The Glass Maker
The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier
This is a beautiful historical narrative of the glass makers of Italy, crossing many centuries.
It includes a love story that spans six centuries. Time, like a skipping stone, takes the reader from the Renaissance to the present day, with Orsola Rossa, a gifted artisan, and daughter of the Murano glass makers. Her unique gift with glass walks you through the fragile world of a woman in a man's profession, examining the beautiful city of Venice through her eyes.
This is truly a unique and brilliant story with a richly drawn cast of characters that speak to the reader like a love letter that endures forever.
I loved it! 5/5⭐s
Shelterwood
Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate
This is a phenomenal volume of historical fiction!
Olive Augusta Ridley, Ollie, knows her step father is a bad man and the two Choctaw girls they’ve taken in, are in trouble. It’s 1909, and Oklahoma is perilous to an eleven year old on the run with a six year old in tow. In their travels, the two join up with an unlikely bunch of kids who are from similar circumstances. They are all trying to survive the world they have been dumped into.
In 1990, Valerie Boren -Odell, a ranger, arrives on the scene of a new park, Horsethief Trail National park. Her first day finds her in the middle of a quandary, a missing teen and an uncovered burial ground. As she tries to find answers, she collides with old secrets and the tragic history of the land.
This is a deeply emotional tale with a dual timeline. It will envelope you in the story where abandoned children were left to fend for themselves, failed by the government and the very people sworn to care for them.
I thought this was an excellent book. 5/5⭐️s
The Wings of Poppy Pendleton
The Wings of Poppy Pendleton by Melanie Dobson
This is a riveting , dual timeline mystery. A five year old Poppy disappears from her family home in 1907, the same night her father is found dead. The mystery remains unsolved for almost ninety years, captivating the town and tourists.
In 1992, Chloe Riddell has inherited the island with the castle and her grandparents’ candy shop. Emma, a lost child running from secrets, shows up and clings to Chloe for help. Then Logan, a journalist also appears asking questions about the unsolved mystery of Poppy and Chloe’s grandfather. Chloe joins forces with Logan to find the truth and protect Emma.
The characters are realistic and captivating. I will admit I stumbled through the beginning a little because of the complexity that shows up from the beginning. There is a lot of detail and quite a few characters but the story is so well developed and researched that the reader will find it hard to put down until the end. The book is an intriguing mystery and an excellent volume of historical fiction. I can’t wait to read more of Melanie Dobson’s books! 4/5 ⭐️s
The Other Einstein
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
Mitzi Marie, a gifted physics student encounters Albert Einstein while attending an elite school in Zurich. She has planned her education and career out, not to include distractions like love and romance. Albert,a charismatic and brilliant student, charms her into a friendship by promising to cherish her as an equal in science and love. She falls hard.
This is a complex tale of love and more between two brilliant minds, that at times must do nothing but co-exist and others they can’t exist in the same space.
This novel is an intriguing journey into the story of the forgotten woman who was the shining light of inspiration to one of the most famous minds of all times, and she was his match.
I really enjoyed this angle on telling the story of what inspired Albert Einstein and it introduced a character from history that I knew nothing about, in a brilliant way! 4/5⭐️s
What She Left Behind
What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman
A stunning story with a dual timeline!
You have Izzy in the present, a foster child at the mercy of the system she is about to age out of. Her mother killed her father and Izzy has a lot of unresolved feelings.
In 1929, Clara Cartwright, an eighteen year old, gets caught up in the family politics of falling for a guy her parents don’t approve of and bucking away from an arranged marriage. As a result, Clara ends up in an asylum, labeled troubled because she disagreed with her wealthy father. She is later transferred to a state asylum when her father can’t afford the private one.
Izzy gets introduced to Clara as she is cataloging things for a museum project with her foster parents, and they find Clara’s trunk. With a journal and determination Izzy pieces together Clara’s story.
I really enjoyed this multilayered story with beautifully defined characters. This book made me feel things! I cried some and at one point I was so angry with some of the characters, I was yelling at them in my mind. It was just an engrossing experience and I loved it. There were a couple things that I think could have been better resolved in Izzy’s story but overall it was an excellent book! 4.5/5⭐️s
The Life She Was Given
The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman
This was a phenomenal book!
You have somewhat of a dual timeline between two women that have similar talents. In 1931, Lily Blackwood is sold to the circus that she has dreamily glimpsed through the small window of her attic room. Having never ventured from her room, Lily is suddenly a sideshow attraction in a world that is foreign and cruel.
Two decades later, Julia Blackwood inherits the family estate and questions that have gone unanswered won’t stay that way. As Julia ventures into locked rooms and explores hidden secrets, she has more questions than answers. She discovers striking circus pictures and begins to unravel family secrets and a shocking betrayal.
The best part- there is some gripping local history (to me in East TN) incorporated in this tale and it involves an elephant!
I really enjoyed this one and I was engrossed from the beginning and did not want to put it down until the last page. It evoked angry tears and so much emotion. I felt like I was with Lily! 5/5⭐️s