In 1870, Mariah Stover is left for dead and with no memory when the Deadeye Gang robs the stagecoach she’s on, killing her father and brother. As she takes over her father’s blacksmith business and attempts to move forward, the old-fashioned townspeople meet her new occupation with disdain.
Handsome and polished Clint Roberts escaped to Western Wyoming from the painful memories he left back east. In the hope of a new life, he opens a diner where he creates fine dishes, but is met with a harsh welcome from the townsfolk who prefer to stick to their old ways.
Clint and Mariah are drawn together by the similar trials they face in a new town, and Clint is determined to protect Mariah at all costs when danger descends upon her home. As threats pursue them from every side, will they survive to build a life forged in love?
Mary Connealy steals you away to the atmospheric American West with an adventure-filled, charming nineteenth-century tale.
My Thoughts
I have been reading this author’s books for years and have always enjoyed the strong faith message in them. Mariah Stover is no shrinking violet, despite being on a stagecoach that was robbed and that took the life of her father and brother she knows she must go on. She is left with no memory of the incident. I enjoyed seeing Mariah cast as a strong woman taking over her father’s blacksmith shop, a job at this time period known to be a man’s job. The town’s people are not accepting of her doing this as they are used to seeing men do this and are stuck in the old way of thought. Hoping to escape painful memories Clint Roberts comes to town for a new start and opens a diner but the townspeople are not accepting of him either. Mariah and Clint become friends bound together by a common ground of nonacceptance and find they have a lot in common. Despite this closeness danger seems to follow Mariah. Is someone trying to eliminate a witness because she is still alive after the robbery? This is a wonderful start to a new series and it’s so refreshing to see women doing male dominated jobs including her friend Nell who as a talented seamstress makes chaps for cowboys. This story taking place in Wyoming has such a wonderful description of the barren and dusty area that I can just picture it now. I was going to give this book 4 stars but I am removing one star for it including animal abuse. I could never condone animal abuse and including it does nothing to enhance the story. There are several instances where a dog is abused, and I was so disappointed to read this. I was given a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House through Interviews & Reviews for my honest opinion.
About The Author
Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy with cowboys always with a strong suspense thread. She is a two time Carol Award winner, and a Rita, Christy and Inspirational Reader’s Choice finalist. She is the bestselling author of 65 books and novellas. Her most recent three book series are: Braced for Love, A Man with a Past and Love on the Range for Bethany House Publishing. She’s also written four other series for Barbour Publishing and many novellas and several stand-alone books for multiple publishers. Mary will be a published author for ten years in 2017 with nearly a million books in print. She has a degree in broadcast communications with an emphasis in journalism and has worked at her local newspaper.
t’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organise yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. Hosted at The Book Date.
My reading has been all over the place this past week. I’ve gotten a lot of reading done. I have some blog tours I need to read for upcoming soon and I’m trying to catch up on some older NetGalley books. I also have a blog tour I was supposed to post about March 3 and didn’t write it in my notes and completely forgot about it, so I had to buy a copy on Amazon because it’s archived on NetGalley. So, I’ll be posting that today or tomorrow. I hope your week is getting off to a great start.
Read last week
Currently Reading
What’s Up Next for me
What does your reading plan look like for this week?
362 pages Feb 21,2023 publish date Bethany House publishers
About The Book
Miss Gwendolyn Brinley accepted a temporary paid companion position for the Newport summer season, believing it would be a lark to spend the summer in America’s most exclusive town. She suddenly finds her summer turning anything but amusing when her employer expects her to take over responsibilities as an assistant matchmaker. Tasked with the daunting prospect of attaining advantageous matches for her clients, Gwendolyn soon finds herself in the employ of Mr. Walter Townsend, the catch of the Season, but a gentleman Gwendolyn finds beyond irritating.
Walter Townsend is reluctantly in search of a wife for the sake of his unruly motherless children who cannot keep a governess for long. What he wasn’t expecting was Miss Brinley, an amateur matchmaker who turns his quest for a new wife into a complete and utter debacle. Constantly besieged by society ladies on a mission to win his affection, Walter must find a way to overcome their inundating attention–and his unexpected attraction toward Gwendolyn.
The more time they spend together throughout the Newport Season, the harder it is for Gwendolyn to find Walter a wife when she realizes his perfect match might be . . . her.
My Thoughts
If you read a Jen Turano book, you’ll be guaranteed of laughter. Her books are full of humor and always make me smile and put me in a good mood as I’m reading them. I really enjoy books set in places I’ve been to. This past Summer we vacationed in Newport and visited many of the opulent mansions of yesterday there. From doing this I could picture the descriptions the author offers in her writing, and it makes the book absolutely come alive.
I laughed out loud so many times imagining the hilarious scenarios being played out.
Gwendolyn is one of my favorite female characters Jen has written about. The children, now they just make the book so charming and amusing. The dialogue is humorous and witty.
I enjoyed reading how the assistant reluctant matchmaker does such a wonderful job with matchmaking but yet she becomes part of a perfectly matched pair herself.
If you’re looking for a historical romance full of humor and wit, may I recommend this one to you? I look forward to seeing what the author puts out next. I was given a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House through Interviews & Reviews for my honest opinion.
Enjoy your day and give a smile to someone who needs it today.
Hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This week’s topic is genre freebie, we are to build a theme around this. I’m going to list some general fiction books with the word Summer in the title as I’m ready for warmer weather and summer reads. Come join me.
All her life she’s been searching for the truth . . .
The three daughters of stunning but unstable movie star Jillian Croft and her famous acting-teacher husband, Daniel Braddock, grew up being treated as special, even after their mother’s tragic death. Years later, their world is overturned when they discover a medical document suggesting Jillian could never have given birth to them.
Whilst Olivia and Eve insist there’s some mistake, quirky, impulsive middle sister Rosalind can’t leave the matter alone. Rosalind has always felt separate from her poised, successful sisters. If she has a different birth mother, she wants to know.
Investigation leads her to Leila Allerton, an opera singer from New Jersey with a vibrant, close-knit family to whom Rosalind aches to belong. At first its members warmly welcome their new neighbour – but circumstances and personalities soon clash, leaving a bewildered Rosalind unsure how they’ll feel when they discover her true reason for seeking them out . . .
Rose Anderson is done with being known as “the nice one” in the small town in Northern California where she lives. She’s done with playing third, fifth, seventh wheel at loud gatherings on her family’s flower farm. And most of all, she is done with the pitying looks and well-meaning comments she gets about her single status from the way-too-interested townsfolk.
No one seems to care that she’s single by choice. That she actually enjoys going to bed early with a good book—love stories are always better in fiction anyway. Busy with her flower arranging business, Rose has no time for a man, thank you very much. So when news spreads that Hillsboro is being used to shoot an upcoming Hollywood movie, Rose gets an idea. One that will appease her family while keeping her heart safely intact…
Bestselling author Debbie Burns combines her love for rescue dogs with a compelling woman’s journey in her brand new series.
Making a new start in a new part of the country is particularly challenging for a single mom. Fate and good fortune lead 27-year-old Josie Waterhill to Galena, Illinois where she and her six-year-old daughter, Zoe, move into a historic mansion that operates as a tea house. When 34-year-old journalist Carter O’Brien comes to stay at the mansion while researching his next story, Josie isn’t sure what to think of this charming stranger and his 110-pound rescue dog.
Carter’s curiosity about Josie deepens and he inadvertently stirs up trouble when he learns things about Josie and her daughter that she would rather not have known. Ready or not, Josie has to let go of her painful past so she can create a glorious future.
A new start can come from the most unexpected places…
It’s been years since Lizzie Lockhart spoke to her parents. But she was safe in the knowledge she knew everything about them. Once upon a time, they were as close as could be. Until they weren’t.
After receiving the earth-shattering news of their passing, Lizzie decides it’s time to unearth some family secrets and find out just who her parents really were… starting with Streamside Cottage. A cottage Lizzie never knew existed, in a place she’s never heard of: the beautiful English village of Leafton.
Leaving behind London, and the tattoo parlour she called home, Lizzie finds herself moving to the countryside. Faced with a tight-lipped community, who have secrets of their own, Lizzie is at a loss for what to do, until her rather handsome neighbour, Ben, steps in to help.
Each year, the start of summer brings bustle and much-needed tourist dollars to the little town of Albany Beach, Delaware. For Natalie Sullivan, this season is proving more stressful than others. It’s make-or-break time for the Irish pub her husband, Conor, recently bought with his brothers. Their two children are thriving, but she’s experiencing pangs of loss at the end of her childbearing years.
When sixteen-year-old McKenzie starts gushing about Bella, the new coworker at her summer job, Natalie suddenly finds her past and present in conflict. Bella, two years older than McKenzie, looks so similar that a customer remarks that they could be sisters. And when Natalie learns that Bella was adopted, she is propelled back into a heartbreaking decision. As a college student, Natalie became pregnant and put her baby up for adoption. Now, the more McKenzie talks about Bella, the more Natalie wonders: could Bella be her daughter?
Conor insists it’s a mistake to pursue the matter. Natalie’s child belongs to another family now; that was the agreement in the closed adoption. Still, Natalie can’t resist spending time with Bella. As their bond deepens, McKenzie accuses her mother of caring more for a stranger than for her, and Natalie begins imagining what it would be like to have Bella as a second daughter. What will the impact be if Bella really is her biological child? And if she isn’t, can Natalie embrace the joy and potential in her own family, without always wondering about what could have been?
In the summer, everything feels possible… A heartwarming small-town romance about new beginnings, old secrets and how home is truly where the heart is. Fans of Susan Mallery, Pamela Kelley, and Mary Alice Monroe will fall head over heels for this romantic page-turner.
All that Meghan Gray has left of her beloved Pappy is his cottage on the edge of the shimmering Atlantic Ocean. Longing to feel close to her grandfather, she returns to the golden sands of Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks for the summer, clutching the manilla envelope he gifted her tightly in her hand.
On her first night on the sun-drenched island, she meets brooding Toby Meyers, a local businessman. She might feel lost without Pappy, but looking into Toby’s sparkling blue eyes feels like coming home.
The beach house where she spent her childhood is just how she remembers: a shingled bungalow with two rocking chairs on the porch and shutters on the windows. As Meghan strolls along the sand with Toby, breathing in the salty air, she realizes she is making new memories…
When Meghan opens the envelope, she finds a black-and-white photograph of someone she doesn’t recognize. If she can find out its meaning, and why Pappy gave it to her, she’ll unlock a secret that has been hidden for decades. The truth has the power to change everything Meghan and Toby thought they knew about their lives—and it will either bring them together, or break their hearts…
In the summer of 1936, while the Nazis make secret plans for World War II, a courageous and daring young woman struggles to expose the lies behind the dazzling spectacle of the Berlin Olympics.
German power is rising again, threatening a war that will be even worse than the last one. The English aristocracy turns to an age-old institution to stave off war and strengthen political bonds—marriage. Debutantes flock to Germany, including Viviane Alden. On holiday with her sister during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Viviane’s true purpose is more clandestine. While many in England want to appease Hitler, others seek to prove Germany is rearming. But they need evidence, photographs to tell the tale, and Viviane is a genius with her trusty Leica. And who would suspect a pretty, young tourist taking holiday snaps of being a spy?
Viviane expects to find hatred and injustice, but during the Olympics, with the world watching, Germany is on its best behavior, graciously welcoming tourists to a festival of peace and goodwill. But first impressions can be deceiving, and it’s up to Viviane and the journalist she’s paired with—a daring man with a guarded heart—to reveal the truth.
But others have their own reasons for befriending Viviane, and her adventure takes a darker turn. Suddenly Viviane finds herself caught in a web of far more deadly games—and closer than she ever imagined to the brink of war.
All NEW from bestselling psychological thriller writer Keri BeevisMead House was once our childhood home. Despite my fears, I always knew we would have to return to face the demons of our past. Back to the place where it happened, to where, as carefree teenagers, we lost our elder sister in the most brutal of circumstances. As executors of our grandmother’s will, my twin brother, Ollie, and I needed to empty the house for resale. What I didn’t expect to discover was my sister’s secret journal that contained her most private thoughts and shocking dark secrets. Now I am questioning everything that I saw that night. Did I get it wrong, who I saw? Did my evidence send an innocent man, my then boyfriend’s brother, to jail for the last 17 years? I know I have no choice. If I want to find answers, I will have to go back to that fateful night my sister died. When she made her last visit to the summer house.
Welcome back to The Starfish Café for a glorious summer, but with a few dark clouds on the horizon…
A new beginning…
As her summer wedding to Jake approaches, Hollie is excited for their new beginning as a family. But when some unexpected news threatens the future she and Jake had hoped for, Hollie will need to find the strength to overcome heartache once more.
A fragile heart….
Single mum, Kerry, loves her job at The Starfish Café, but behind the brave smiles and laughter with customers there is a sadness deep within. So when someone from her past re-appears in her life, Kerry can either hide away or face her demons and try to finally move on from her heartbreak.
A summer to remember…
For Hollie and Kerry it promises to be an emotional rollercoaster of a summer, but the community at The Starfish Café will always be there to help them through – after all, with courage nothing is impossible…
Preorder the next book in the heartwarming and bestselling Love Heart Lane series
Love Heart Lane – where friends are there for you no matter what
When Bea Fernsby discovers her fiancé’s eyes have been wandering, she calls off the wedding and hits the road. The village of Heartcross in the Scottish Highlands is about as far away from home as she can get, and when she stumbles into the ideal summer job at The Little Blue Boathouse and meets gorgeous vacationer Nolan Hemingway, things finally start looking up.
Now, as an old mystery surfaces and Bea and Nolan band together to find out what happened to his late grandfather’s one true love, fate throws Bea some unexpected curveballs…and promising opportunities.
Bea’s stay is only supposed to last a couple of weeks, but as the old saying goes: ‘Once you arrive in Heartcross, you never want to leave…’
I have lots of books with the word summer in the title. Some have released some have not. Would you read any from my selection?
Thank you for stopping in. Your visit is a blessing.
386 pages April 7,2021 publication date Bookouture Buy Link
About The Book
Corbello, Italy, 1947. A woman and a little boy stagger into the ruins of an old house deep in the forest, wild roses overwhelming the crumbling terracotta walls. Since the war, nowhere has been safe. But they both freeze in shock when a voice calls out from the shadows…
For young mother Fosca Sentino, accepting refuge from reluctant British war hero Richard – in Tuscany to escape his tragic past – is the only way to keep her little family safe. She once risked everything to spy on Nazi commanders and pass secret information to the resistenza. But after a heartbreaking betrayal, Fosca’s best friend Simonetta disappeared without trace. The whole community was torn apart, and now Fosca and her son are outcasts.
Wary of this handsome stranger at first, Fosca slowly starts to feel safe as she watches him play with her son in the overgrown orchard. But her fragile peace is shattered the moment a silver brooch is found in the garden, and she recognises it as Simonetta’s…
Fosca has always suspected that another member of the resistenza betrayed her. With Richard by her side, she must find out if Simonetta is still alive, and clear her own name. But how did the brooch end up at the house? And with a traitor hiding in the village, willing to do anything to keep this secret buried, has Fosca put herself and her young son in terrible danger?
An absolutely gripping and heartbreaking standalone historical read that explores the incredible courage of ordinary people in extraordinary times. Perfect for fans of Rhys Bowen, The Nightingale, and anyone longing to lose themselves in the mountain landscapes and olive groves of rural Tuscany.
My Thoughts
This is my first read by this author. I have always enjoyed reading historical fiction and this one was no exception. If you like a well-researched and very descriptive book, then this one is for you. The book goes back and forth between time periods explaining things happening now were caused by things happening in the past. The characters, you could really feel their emotions coming through strongly. The book is mesmerizing, emotional and uplifting as well. A compelling read you won’t soon forget about once you are done with it. Though this is my first read in this series I feel the need to go back to read more of this series.
Pub Date 07 Apr 2021 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
The Author
Welcome to my author page – “benvenuti”!
I live in the beautiful Italian Apennines for several months each year. Such an inspiring location.
My love affair with Italy was born at the age of seven when I moved with my family to Rome where we lived for six years. My father worked for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and he made sure we learned Italian and visited many places during that time.
Later on I studied Italian at the University of Kent at Canterbury and afterwards worked in Sicily, where I met my husband. His Italian mother and British father met in Urbino in 1944 and married after a war-time romance.
I wanted to write “The Tuscan Secret” not only for my amazing mother-in-law, Giuseppina, but also to make people aware of the courage of the resistance fighters and the generous hospitality shown by the poorest of families, including relatives of our Italian neighbours in our corner of war-torn Tuscany.
This is my first novel and is a story about ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times. (Please note it is a revised version of “Never Forget” and “Tuscan Roots”). I was signed by wonderful BOOKOUTURE for a two-book deal and one of these was a slight re-write of “Tuscan Roots”. The new title is “The Tuscan Secret” and has more tension and intrigue to the story. I am so proud to be a part of this publishing “family”, as they describe themselves, who have patiently helped me to polish the original. It is available on Amazon and has reached the bestseller slots.
A sequel to this original book was self-published way back, at the end of April 2017. “Now and then in Tuscany” features the same family that appeared in “The Tuscan Secret”. The background is the transhumance, a practice that started in Etruscan times and continued right up until the 1950’s. STOP PRESS: This has a new title: A TUSCAN MEMORY, re-published by BOOKOUTURE SEPTEMBER 7TH 2020.
Watch out for another Tuscan, war novel. “The Tuscan Girl” was published on February 25th 2020, inspired by the many ruins I see on my walks in the Apennines. Each dilapidated house holds a story for me, whether true or invented. I’m delighted to announce that my publisher, Bookouture, has commissioned another two Italian novels from me for 2021 and 2022. Watch this space, as they say.
How many of you have read an Angela Petch book? What were your thoughts? I really have enjoyed my first read by her and have several more in my files of hers to read.
The Polish Girl: An utterly heartbreaking and gripping World War 2 historical novel (The Secret Resistance Series) by Gosia Nealon
Poland, 1944. “Please, officer, I beg you—”, I cry. But my father has already fallen. “Don’t leave me, Tata,” I whisper, rushing to desperately cradle him close. As the kind, loving man who raised me takes his last breath, I weep into my hands and promise to fight to end this terrible war, no matter the cost…
Although it won’t bring her beloved father back, twenty-three-year-old Wanda vows to honour his memory and all he stood for. Throwing herself into the Polish resistance, she risks her life on the dangerous mission of transporting ammunition for the underground network’s uprising against the Nazis.
Slipping through the night-time shadows of an empty park to meet an informant—one who could provide crucial supplies in the battle for what’s right—the sight of the man waiting turns Wanda’s blood to ice. Even in the dim light, she instantly recognises him as the soldier who killed her father.
The soldier claims he is a double agent, working for the resistance. Questioning everything, Wanda’s heart races as she is forced to make a split-second decision. Believe the man who she thought was the enemy? Or endanger the lives of her network—and their secret plans to fight the Germans?
Can Wanda trust the man she hates most in the world? Did her father die in vain? Or if she fights her every instinct, will she truly change the tide of the war?
Fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and The Tattooist of Auschwitz will adore this utterly heartbreaking page-turner. You will not forget this unputdownable story of love, loss, and the courage it takes to hold on to hope in darkest times.
Previously published as The Last Sketch.
My Thoughts
This book is excellent. I could not put it down once I started it and read it past my bedtime, finishing it in one day. Twin brothers, identical twins, raised together by the same parents. Vastly different, one is gentle and compassionate taking after the mother. The other, like the father is a brutal killer, a German soldier. Wanda Odwaga feels safe in her home with her mother and her father, a retired surgeon. One evening her, Tata, (father) is killed before her eyes there. Looking into the eyes of this killer she vows she will get her revenge. As she then starts to see this murderer everywhere she goes, she is sickened and confused. He whispers to her, “I am not who you think I am.” An orphaned little boy is adopted into her family, and he is a wonderful addition to the story, he is so smart too. Poland, 1944, it was such a turbulent time, rationing was in full force, there was a curfew, the Germans had invaded. No one was safe on the streets, especially a woman alone. Some risked their lives to be in the Polish resistance using code words to pass messages. We see the characters going through such turmoil in this unputdownable book but yet they persevere and show such strength in the darkest of days because they know strength and courage brings the light. Heartwarming will not be soon forgotten.
Pub Date 24 Feb 2023 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
About The Author
While Gosia Nealon is a proud New Yorker, she was born and raised in Poland. Her journey to the Big Apple revealed a wealth of cultural differences, but also the values that connect us all. Like the fierce desire to protect family, find love, and ultimately, discover who we are and why we’re here.
Gosia’s award-winning short stories have always delved into life’s biggest questions, but it was the drama, sacrifice, and tragedy of WWII that led her to pen her debut novel, which won a gold medal in the 2022 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY).
Growing up in Poland, Gosia heard many firsthand accounts of the war, told from a perspective rarely captured in mainstream literature. She was compelled to breathe life into two young people falling in love in the midst of the most terrifying conflict of our time.
When Gosia isn’t tapping away at her laptop, she’s often walking the streets of New York. With her husband and two young sons in tow, they search for the most succulent pierogi, transporting them back to the cobbled streets of her childhood.
374 pages Revell publisher February 7,2023 publish date
About the Book
When the Germans march into Denmark, Baron Henrik Ahlefeldt exchanges his nobility for anonymity, assuming a new identity so he can secretly row messages for the Danish Resistance across the waters to Sweden.
American physicist Dr. Else Jensen refuses to leave Copenhagen and abandon her research–her life’s dream. While printing resistance newspapers, she hears stories of the movement’s legendary Havmand–the merman–and wonders if the mysterious and silent shipyard worker living in the same boardinghouse has something to hide.
When the Occupation cracks down on the Danes, these two passionate people will discover if there is more power in speech . . . or in silence. Bestselling author of more than a dozen WWII novels, Sarah Sundin offers pens another story of ordinary people responding to extraordinary circumstances with faith, fortitude, and hope for a brighter future.
There are many, many authors that write WWII fiction but when I want to read the best researched facts in a book, I read Sarah Sundin. Her books are the most realistic of any of this type I’ve read. A very compelling read, I could not put it down. The characters draw you in, some make you root for them, some really fooled me with their actions and some, well they are the perfect villains. A Baron trades his nobility for several different identities to avoid being detected as the one rowing messages for the Danish Resistance across the waters to Sweden. This is a love story, an intense love story between a baron and an American physicist, Dr. Else Jensen. Henrik and Else know how dangerous the work the other one does and if they get caught it could involve death. It was heartwarming seeing how protective they are of each other. The story is full of courageous characters and loyalty, you can just feel the tension in the book and the lengths they go to to stay one step ahead of danger. Though the book is full of dangerous circumstances you can still feel the strength and perseverance these characters have as they look forward to a brighter future they know is coming. I highly recommend this book to you!
Pub Date 07 Feb 2023 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
About The Author
Sarah Sundin enjoys writing about the drama and romance of the World War II era. She is the bestselling and Christy Award-winning author of The Sound of Light (February 2023), Until Leaves Fall in Paris (2022), When Twilight Breaks (2021), and several World War II series.
Sarah’s novels have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. Until Leaves Fall in Paris received the 2022 Christy Award, When Twilight Breaks and The Land Beneath Us were finalists for the Christy Award, and The Sky Above Us won the 2020 Carol Award.
A mother of three, Sundin lives in Southern California and enjoys speaking to community, church, and writers’ groups. Sarah serves as Co-Director for the West Coast Christian Writers Conference. Please visit Sarah at http://www.sarahsundin.com, on Facebook at SarahSundinAuthor, on Twitter at @sarahsundin, and on Instagram at @sarahsundinauthor.
I hope you’re having a marvelous day. Thank you for stopping in.
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they’re books that have yet to be released.
I am looking forward to…………..
Pub Date 06 Jun 2023 Gallery publisher
Description
From the bestselling author of the “heart-stopping tale of survival and heroism” (People) The Book of Lost Names comes a gripping historical novel about two mothers who must make unthinkable choices in the face of the Nazi occupation.
Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change.
When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life—her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it.
More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble—and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise’s desperate search leads her to New York—and to Juliette—one final, fateful time.
Top Ten Tuesday is run by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each Tuesday we are given a theme that we can make our own to fit our needs. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This week’s theme is February 21: Favorite Heroines (or heroes, if you prefer!) I’m going to change the theme and list books that sound like they involve female drama.
A starry-eyed romantic, a cynical writer, and (the ashes of) an elderly woman take the road trip of a lifetime that just might upend everything they believe about true love.
Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she’d reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she never imagined that would mean traveling from D.C. to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash’s remains in her backpack. But Millie’s determined to give her friend a symbolic happily-ever-after, before it’s (really) too late—and hopefully reassure herself of love’s lasting power in the process.
Welcome to Eldey, an island with deadly secrets.
Mona: a carefree artist, staying at the Cloister to work on her illustrations.
Beth: the harried mother of a toddler, on the remote Welsh island for a weekend with her family.
Charlotte: a reluctant stepmother who wanted a romantic getaway with her husband.
One of them is a serial killer who poisoned four of her friends at her eleventh birthday party. They all fit the profile. Who will risk everything to kill again?
An absolutely gripping Welsh crime novel, perfect for fans of Sarah Pearce and Lucy Foley.
Two sisters have one summer to crush their comfort zones and save their grandmother’s legacy in this sweet, sexy, and heartfelt novel by Ali Brady, author of The Beach Trap. Things get even more complicated when secrets come to light, making the sisters question the one relationship they’ve always counted on: each other. With their company’s future on the line, they can’t afford to fail. But in trying to make a comeback to honor their grandmother, are they pushing themselves down the wrong path?
In the spirit of Colleen Hoover and Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You, an unforgettable and heartbreaking love story with an earth-shattering secret at its core that asks the question: is love worth risking everything for?
An earth-shattering secret. A life-changing love story.
When Wren realizes her fiancé is in love with someone else, she thinks her heart will never recover.
On the other side of the world, Anders lost his wife four years ago and is still struggling to move on.
Wren hopes that spending the summer with her dad and step-family on their farm in Indiana will help her to heal. There, amid the cornfields and fireflies, she and Anders cross paths and their worlds are turned upside-down again.
But Wren doesn’t know that Anders is harboring a secret, and if he acts on any feelings he has for Wren it will have serious fall-out for everyone. Walking away would hurt Wren more than she can imagine. But, knowing the truth, how can she possibly stay?
From the multi-award-winning and internationally bestselling author Donal Ryan, a searing, jubilant story about four generations of women and fierce love
The Aylward women of Nenagh, Tipperary, are mad about each other, but you wouldn’t always think it. You’d have to know them to know that—in spite of what the neighbors might say about raised voices and dramatic scenes—their house is a place of peace, filled with love, a refuge from the sadness and cruelty of the world.
Their story begins at an end and ends at a beginning. It involves wives and widows, gunrunners and gougers, sinners and saints. It’s a story of terrible betrayals and fierce loyalties, of isolation and togetherness, of transgression, forgiveness, desire, and love. Of all the things family can be and all the things it sometimes isn’t. The Queen of Dirt Island is an uplifting celebration of fierce, loyal love and the powerful stories that bind generations together.
Mexican Gothic meets Outlander in this spellbindingly atmospheric timeslip debut, as a woman struggling with struggling with her mental health spends the winter with her cruel in-laws in their eerie, haunting manor that sweeps her back through time and into the arms of her fiancé’s mysterious, alluring 19th century ancestor.
Traveling to be with her fiancé’s terminally ill mother in her last days, Saoirse Read expected her introduction to the family’s ancestral home would be bittersweet. But the stark thrust of Langdon Hall against the cliff and the hundred darkened windows in its battered walls are almost as forbidding as the woman who lies wasting inside. Her fiancé’s parents make no secret of their distaste for Saoirse, and their feelings have long since spread to their son. Or perhaps it is only the shadows of her mind suggesting she’s unwelcome, seizing on her fears while her beloved grieves?
Readers of Eve Chase, Kate Morton, and Anita Frank will devour this bewitchingly atmospheric, melancholy modern ghost story set in the lush hills of England’s Lake District. There, a solitary women’s quiet life spent in her crumbling ancestral manor house with the company of a child’s ghost is dramatically interrupted when her estranged sister returns to share a horrific story of cruelty and desperation from decades earlier…
Francine Thwaite has lived all her fifty-five years in her family’s ancestral home, a rambling Elizabethan manor in England’s Lake District. No other living soul resides there, but Francine isn’t alone. There are ghosts in Thwaite Manor, harmless and familiar. Most beloved is Bree, the mischievous ghost girl who has been Francine’s companion since childhood.
When Francine’s estranged sister, Madeleine, returns to the manor after years away, she brings with her a story that threatens everything Francine has always believed. It is a tale of cruelty and desperation, of terror and unbearable heartache. And as Francine learns more about the darkness in her family’s past—and the role she may have played in it—she realizes that confronting the truth may mean losing what she holds most dear.
As moving and poignant as it is chilling, Her Little Flowers is a story of grief and enduring love—and of the haunting regrets only forgiveness can dispel.
Love isn’t blind, it’s just little blurry.
Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary” condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality.
But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls in love—not with one man but two. The timing couldn’t be worse.
Making judgment calls on anything right now is a nightmare. If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to have it all.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Ginny Baird brings her signature charm to this multicultural story about two disputing families sharing a beach house and the messiness that comes from falling in love with someone who your family is determined to despise.
In 1944, Germany, two sisters seek to overcome impossible odds in this unforgettable WWII novel about sisterhood, courage and survival.
All they had left was each other. Until the Nazis tore them apart.
After years of hiding from the Nazis, Rachel Epstein and her little sister Mindel are captured by the Gestapo and sent to the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. The only ray of light for either girl is that they are together.
But on arrival they are separated. As she’s seventeen and deemed an adult, Rachel is sent to work in a brutal factory while four‑year‑old Mindel is sent into the so‑called “star” camp for Jewish prisoners. Rachel knows her sister will have no chance of survival all on her own.
Working in the windowless, airless factory—filling munitions casings with chemicals that burn her fingers and make her eyes sting—the only thing that keeps Rachel going is the thought of her little sister. Because if there’s even a chance Mindel is alive, Rachel knows she must try to save her.
But, separated by barbed wire, and treated brutally by SS guards who do not even see them as human beings, can either of the orphaned sisters dare to hope that they’ll ever find their way back to each other? And to freedom?
What do you think of my selections? Will you be reading any of these?
That Artsy Reader Girl hosts Top Ten Tuesday now. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Today’s topic is Love/Valentine’s Day Freebie. So once again I’m going to make the topic my own and list books with a mostly pink or red cover for Valentine’s Day.
“A luscious, layered story of inheritance, heartbreak, reinvention, and family. I adored this book.” —Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author
When a deed to an apartment in Paris turns up in an old attic trunk, an estranged mother and daughter must reunite to uncover the secret life of a family matriarch—perfect for fans of The Little Paris Bookshop and The Beekeeper’s Daughter.
Perfect for fans of Kate Quinn, Kristin Harmel, and Pam Jenoff, this new historical fiction novel from an acclaimed author is based on true WWII stories of life in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Occupation and the women who served the Allies as agents and spies. Casting light into one of the darkest periods of World War II, this powerful book tells of two Jewish sisters– one imprisoned in Poland and the other who joins the Special Operations Executive in a daring attempt to free her family from the Nazis.
Based on a true story, a spellbinding historical novel about the world’s first female investigative journalist, Nellie Bly.
In 1887, young Nellie Bly sets out for New York and a career in journalism, determined to make her way as a serious reporter, whatever that may take.
But life in the city is tougher than she imagined. Down to her last dime and desperate to prove her worth, she comes up with a dangerous plan: to fake insanity and have herself committed to the asylum on Blackwell’s Island. There, she will work undercover to expose the asylum’s wretched conditions.
But when the asylum door swings shut behind her, she finds herself in a place of horrors, governed by a cruelty she could never have imagined. Cold, isolated and starving, her days of terror reawaken the traumatic events of her childhood. She entered the asylum of her own free will – but will she ever get out?
An extraordinary portrait of a woman ahead of her time, Madwoman is the story of a quest for the truth that changed the world.
The scent of roses is in the air while romance blooms in this gorgeously escapist Scottish-set love story, about finding your way back to the one you’ve never forgotten… Sure to capture the hearts of readers who love Debbie Macomber, Carolyn Brown and Fern Michaels.
It’s hate at first sight for the wedding planners…
It’s down to maid of honour Beth and best man Matt to plan a dream wedding for the absent bride and groom. Not only do they have to handle the bride’s sky-high expectations and their respective dysfunctional families, they also have to deal with each other – and so far, it’s not going well.
Fire-fighter Matt is far too laid-back for Beth’s liking, and Beth’s need to arrive half an hour early for everything is driving Matt crazy. But over the weeks, the arguing and animosity morphs into something else that feels fun and flirty…
With Beth’s father parading his new, half-his-age girlfriend around, her mother set on revenge, Matt’s family refusing to engage in the celebrations, and an addled grandmother thrown in the mix, is there any way Beth and Matt can make the wedding a success?
A funny and heartwarming romantic comedy for fans of Jo Watson and Sophie Ranald.
It’s Christmas time at the Weber Haus mountainside inn, where the official greeter, watcher, and matchmaker of the hotel’s resident humans is an adorably mischievous bundle of feline fluff named Snowball. Snowball takes her job very seriously –even if it means being a little more naughty than nice –and she’s ready to celebrate her third holiday season by making the purrrrfect match.
New York, 1938: Martha pulled the door of her Fifth Avenue apartment closed, her heart thumping, re-reading the telegram she’d been dreading. Her beloved sister Charlotte needed her help. She was alone in Paris, and the threat of Nazi invasion grew ever stronger. The time had come for Martha to make the bravest decision of her life. She needed to bring Charlotte home.
Can a new shop change the village’s future – and Rowena’s?
Single mum Rowena is always looking for ways for her and her four-year-old daughter, Nia, to live more sustainably. So, when she visits a zero-waste shop in Cardiff, she’s inspired to start one up in her own village, where local businesses and artisan shops are a core part of the community.
For Huw, it’s love at first sight when he bumps into Rowena, on the day he moves to Foxmore. But a series of misunderstandings keeps the two from getting closer, and now a conflict of interest over Rowena’s shop might put a stop to any fledgling romance…
When a figure from Rowena’s past makes a surprise appearance, both her shop and relationship with Huw are suddenly under threat. Can Rowena still realise her corner shop dreams and find love?
A gorgeously fun and feel-good cosy romance, perfect for fans of Sue Moorcroft, Holly Martin and Suzanne Snow.
The start of a BRAND NEW series from bestselling author Sarah Bennett.
On paper, Hope Travers has an idyllic life.
Living in a bustling farmhouse with her mum, aunt and uncles, cousin and too many dogs to count, surrounded by the breath-taking Cotswolds countryside, she knows she is privileged and protected.
But all families have secrets, and the Travers family are no exception. Their farmhouse sits in the grounds of the Juniper Meadows estate, passed down through the generations and now being made to pay its own way with a myriad of businesses and projects. When a construction crew uncover what appear to be historical ruins, the history of the Travers family is put under ever closer scrutiny as a dig gets underway.
Hope may have found a blossoming romance with local archaeologist Cameron Ferguson who is running the dig, but when things start to go wrong around the estate and family secrets begin to be revealed, Hope wonders if she’s made a big mistake in digging up the past.
Her life spanned ninety-five years and there were only two great loves in her life. The first is long gone. The second still stands as a testament to an extraordinary woman.
1916
Venice Arial is a product of the elite social class in New Orleans and under the strict control of her cruel and hateful mother, Lorraine. At twenty, Venice must obey the rules of social duty her mother sets, including going through with an arranged marriage to a man she barely knows. The golden days of youth are being stripped away and her only escape is the family’s summer home on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain—her beloved Belle Haven.
When Venice visits Belle Haven in the last weeks of summer, her structured life is thrown off course by a poor local boy, Etienne Armand, who shows her a love she has never known. But to Lorraine, locals are low class, and a poor boy like Etienne is strictly forbidden. But how can Venice return to New Orleans with such strict rules and the isolation of her palatial prison? Venice has a major decision to make but will the raging war in Europe make it for her?
1991
Seventy-five years ago, Venice Arial made a dramatic decision that altered her life and her future. After living through so much history, her cherished memories along with the painful ones are fading. The Lost Generation must be remembered, and her personal story recorded. That foregone era was the harsh reality of her life. She had known great love, a crippling world war, lost love, and new beginnings but should she include the cruelty, selfish greed, and hurtful deception inflicted on her all those years ago?
This story of great love, war, and remembrance will grab your emotions and hold them until the very end.
What are your choices this week?
Have a beautiful day my friends. Spring will soon be here.
Vegan Book Blogger 