The Heir by Darcie Wilde (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

What is a recent book you read and gave 5 stars?

Victoria has grown up at Kensington Palace under control of her mother and her advisor, Sir John Conroy.  She feels like a bird in a cage.  One afternoon, she is able to slip away for a horse ride.  While galloping across the palace green, she comes across the body of a dead man.  Who is this man and where did he come from?  Victoria sets her mind to solve this mystery.

My thoughts on this novel:

·       The Heir is a cozy historical mystery.  The mystery moves slowly at first but gains traction throughout the novel.  It’s set in the very real historical world of the future Queen Victoria and delves into the dynamics of her life.

·       This is the first in a new “A Young Queen Victoria” mystery series.  I am looking forward to the next novel in the series, especially with the hints that her mother is trying to find a match for her.

·       Victoria had a hard time with her mother and John Conroy controlling her every move.  I can’t imagine having to live like she did. 

·       I loved the character of Victoria.  She is spunky and wants to have her own autotomy.

·       Jane Conroy is Sir John’s daughter.  He brings her to the palace to be friends with Victoria.  He mistreats Jane.  Jane feels awkward and like she never quite knows how to behave.

·       Kensington Palace seems moldy and stifling.  It seems strange to grown up in a palace, but to have no control over your life.

·       Governess Lehzen is on Victoria’s side and assists her.  She was an interesting character.

·       The mystery involves the many royal bastards in the family.  It always intrigues me that there were so few legitimate heirs in this family.

·       I listened to part of the book on audio.  The narrator was excellent.  It was a very enjoyable audiobook.

Overall, The Heir by Darcie Wilde is an intriguing new historical mystery set in young Queen Victoria’s world.  I enjoyed the characters, and I learned a lot.

Book Source:  Thank-you to @darciewildeauthor @kensingtonbooks @austenprose for a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. 

The Harvey Girls by Juliette Fay (Get Red PR Book Tour)

 

Title:  The Harvey Girls

Author:  Juliette Fay

Narrated by:  Cassandra Campbell

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 11 hours and 47 minutes

Source: Thank you, Partner @getredprbooks and Gallery Books for the review copy of physical book copy of The Harvey Girls by Juliette Fay.  Thank-you to @simonaudio for the audiobook and @netgalley for e-book review copies.

What is your favorite restaurant?  I have a lot of favorites but tend to favor local restaurants that are family owned.

Two young women from very different backgrounds start work as “Harvey Girls” in the 1920s.  Harvey Girls were well paid female employees that worked for a chain of restaurants that spread through the west every one-hundred miles or so and served quality, inexpensive meals.  Charlotte was born into a wealthy blue-blooded family, but after she ran away to marry her husband, she feels she has no where to turn to escape him when he turns abusive.  She changes her name and strikes out on her own as a Harvey girl.  Billie needs the money to support her family with eight younger siblings.  She pretends to be older than her years to get a job as a Harvey girl and sends her money back to her family.  As both girls are assigned to a restaurant in the Grand Canyon, will they be able to keep their secrets and their jobs?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       Cassandra Campbell is an audiobook narrator that I enjoy, and I thought she did a great job narrating this book.  It was enjoyable to listen to.

·       I loved how a large part of the book took place at the Grand Canyon as it developed into a tourist destination.  It was interesting.

·       Both main characters had very interesting love stories in this novel, and I enjoyed them.  The book was told through their dual POVs.

·       Violence against Catholics was portrayed in the book as Billie attended mass with Hispanic friends who are attacked.  She is also dismayed when she is assigned to work at the Grand Canyon and discovered there is not a Catholic church in the area for her to attend.  She also has much to decide when she realizes that her potential beau is not Catholic.

·       This novel also took a hard look at abusive marriage.  It was hard to divorce at that time and to support yourself as a woman.  When a woman was trapped in an abusive marriage, what could she do?  A job as a Harvey girl was a very well-paying job at the time for a woman.

·       Charlotte as a learning moment as well as she realizes her inadvertent racism towards Native Americans at the Grand Canyon.

·       The novel has an interesting Part II which flashes forward to 1996 and the reader learns what happened to the characters in the novel.

·       There is a great foreword and Author’s Note at the end which give details about Fred Harvey’s empire and other historical details in the novel.

Overall, The Harvey Girls by Juliette Fay was an interesting historical fiction novel about a unique time and place in American history.

Mob Queen by Erin Bledsoe (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Title:  Mob Queen

Author:  Erin Bledsoe

Narrated by:  Brittany Pressley

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 3 minutes

Source: Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @blackstonepublishing for the review copy of physical book copy of Mob Queen by Erin Bledsoe.  Thank-you to NetGalley for the audiobook and e-book review copies.

Are you addicted to a particular genre, or you read all sort of genres?  I read all sorts of genre, but historical fiction is my addiction.

Virginia Hill is struggling to make ends meet in 1930s Chicago.  She has recently divorced her husband and is looking for her missing friend, Madeline.  Madeline disappeared into the Mafia.  Virginia is recruited into the Mafia but has her own secret mission to find Madeline.  As she climbs the ranks, she finds the type of power she never realized she wanted.

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I loved how the intriguing man she met at the beginning of the novel, Ben, turned out to be Bugsy Siegel.  I had heard the name Bugsy Siegel before, but I didn’t know anything about him.

·       The reality of what the mafia actually did (horrific murders, kidnapping girls from the country into prostitution, etc.) was hard for Virginia to deal with.

·       Brittany Pressley was a great audiobook narrator.  She was Virginia to me.

·       Virgina was very sassy and had great comebacks.

·       Now I want to watch the movie Bugsy.  Virginia Hill is known for being Bugsy’s girlfriend, but she had a fascinating history of her own. 

·       There was intense chemistry between Virginia and Ben.  They seemed to go from desire to hate to desire to hate throughout their entire relationship.

·       A brief author’s note about the real Virginia Hill was interesting.

·       The book had a nice epilogue.

Overall, Mob Queen by Erin Bledsoe was a fascinating look at one powerful woman as she made her way in the man’s world of the mob. 

The Communist’s Secret by Suzanne Parry (Get Red PR Book Tour)

 

What is the most action-packed book that you have read lately?

Katya Karavayeva has a secret.  In a moment of weakness, she complained about her husband at work.  Little did she know that this information would be used to arrest her husband and throw their entire family out of the communist party.  Katya joins the war effort to prove her loyalty.  Her camp is attacked, and she escapes with Svet, a young woman also working at the camp.  Will they be able to survive in the wild and keep themselves save from the Nazis?  Will Katya be able to forgive herself for the betrayal of her husband?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       The author of this novel, Suzanne Parry was a former Pentagon arms control negotiator and studied Russian in Moscow.

·       This historical fiction novel was action packed.  It pulled me into the story right away and kept me enthralled throughout the book.

·       This is book two in the Leningrad series.  I haven’t read the first novel.  This can be read as a stand-alone.  I need to read the rest of this series!

·       I always enjoy stories of living off the land, but also trying to hide from the Nazis and keeping yourself on the right side of your own government really pushed up the thrill level of this book.

·       There were themes of betrayal and forgiveness throughout this novel.

·       Katya really grows as a character throughout the story to realize that her own government isn’t perfect and doesn’t treat its citizens with care.  It also looks at the communist system.  For example, a successful farmer had their farm taken away and it no longer produces as well under the new communist system.

·       The ending was perfect.  It was unexpected and hopeful.

·       This book really got me thinking – how did families that were split up in WWII find each other again?  Katya’s daughter and mother-in-law were in Leningrad while Katya was all over the place.

·       It also made me think - what would I do to stay alive?  Katya has a relationship with a Nazi commandant at one point in the novel.  Would you be friendly with the enemy?

The Communist’s Secret by Suzanne Parry was a unique and very engaging WWII story set in Russia with an unforgettable main character in Katya.   

Book Source: Thank-you to She Writes Press for a review copy of this novel as part of the Get Red PR Book Tour.

Six Weeks by the Sea by Paula Byrne (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

Do you like to vacation by the sea?  Do you have any favorite seaside vacation spots?  I don’t really vacation by the ocean, but by the Great Lakes. I live in a Lake Michigan community in Wisconsin with a seasonal view of Lake Michigan.  I love to walk by the water.  Growing up in Michigan, I loved South Haven and Holland, also on Lake Michigan. 

In Six Weeks by the Sea by Paula Byrne, Jane Austen has just had to leave her beloved family home in Steventon after her brother takes over as the rector.  Before her family settles in Bath, they spend six weeks by the sea in Sidmouth, Devon, England.  There with her mother, father, and sister Cassandra, they are reunited with her beloved brother Frank who has a brief break from his naval adventures in the Royal Navy.  He has also brought along his friend, Captain Parker.  While sparks begin to fly between Captain Parker and Jane, Jane also feels herself very annoyed by a new young lawyer in town, Samuel Rose.  As she gets to know Mr. Rose and Captain Parker better, will she find true love?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was a short, but beautifully written novel.  It had almost a dream like quality to it as I read it.

·       I was intrigued to discover that Paula Byrne had written the nonfiction book, Belle:  The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice.  I had watched the movie Belle in the past and just recently rewatched it.  Six Weeks by the Sea had elements in it that reminded me of Belle.

·       Reverand Swete’s son has returned home with his child, a daughter who doesn’t speak and who is half black.  Jane is intrigued by the girl and uses her skills as an aunt to get to know her better and draw her out.  She also notices the kind behavior Mr. Rose has towards the young girl.  This also had shades to me of Miss Georgiana Lambe, Austen’s biracial character in her unfinished novel, Sanditon.

·       Jane has prejudice against Mr. Rose at first because he is a lawyer, and she hates lawyers.  She learns over the course of the novel just what types of cases that Mr. Rose works on, and it aligns with her own opinions on the fight against slavery.  I loved how Jane’s feelings on Mr. Rose changed through the course of the novel.

·       I loved the inclusion of William Cowper’s poetry.  I didn’t know that he had written anti-slavery poetry.

·       This time period has always been a mystery in Jane Austen’s life.  Did she have a mysterious love who died?  I loved how this story filled in the gaps.  I would love to imagine that even though she never married, she had a great love of her own.

·       I always enjoy a good love triangle.  I also love thinking about Austen finding love with someone who could match her wit. 

·       This novel had small moments with the family getting together for meals, going for walks, balls, etc.  The pacing and these small moments reminded me of a Jane Austen novel.

·       I enjoyed quotes showing up from Austen’s letters and novels within this book.  Even the fictional conversations carried the same sparkle and wit one sees in an Austen novel.

·       There is a great author’s afterword at the end of the book that delves into what was real and what was fictional.  Captain Parker was a fictional character, while Samuel Rose was a real person.

Overall, Six Weeks by the Sea by Paula Byrne was a fascinating novel and look into a period of transition and change for Jane Austen that may have also included love.  I enjoyed the look into social issues at the time that Austen cared about and wrote subtle about in her novels.

Book Source: Thank-you to @paulajaynebyrne @pegasus_books @austenprose for a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour.

The Shakespeare Secret by D.J. Nix (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

Was Shakespeare a woman?  Author D.J. Nix’s son pitched the idea to him and he then read Elizabeth Winkler’s article in the June 2019 edition of The Atlantic, “Was Shakespeare a Woman?”  This inspired D.J. Nix into writing a compelling story.

Three women in Elizabethan England share a secret – they are the true authors of Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays.  Mary Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke is a frustrated poet who has suffered a loss.  Emelia Bassano is a court musician and mistress to the Lord Chamberlain.  Jane Daggett is a seamstress for the Queen’s men’s players and invents stories of her own.  As one of the Queen’s spies (Robert Cecil) zeroes in on them, they hire an actor named Will Shakespeare to be their “face.”  Will they be discovered?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I’ve been down and out without my computer for the past couple of weeks, so I am sadly behind on reviews.  Now that my computer is repaired, I will work on getting caught up.

·       The Shakespeare Secret has short engaging chapters and was a fast-paced historical fiction read.

·       Robert Cecil thinks the three ladies are plotting to kill Queen Elizabeth.  How do they get out of this accusation?

·       I really loved the Elizabethan time period and setting.

·       This novel made me want to read Shakespeare.  I took a Shakespeare class in high school and in college, but it has been a while.  We have a play slotted for next year for my Back to the Classics Book club.  I am looking forward to it.

·       I loved the strong women characters during this perilous time in history.

·       It was fun to read the process of them writing the plays, such as Taming of the Shrew.  I can get behind the reimagining of a terrible play and making it into a better story.  It sounds like fun.

Overall, The Shakespeare Secret by D.J. Nix was a great historical suspense novel with a feminist twist.

Book Source: Thank-you to @david.nix.author @alcovepress @austenprose for a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour.

No Stone Unturned by Jenelle Hovde (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

What's a book that you wish more people knew about?

Bridget Littleton is a vicar’s daughter and loves history and antiquities.  She is very excited to find a Roman mosaic in a neighborhood farm field.  Capitan Rafe Hawthorn has returned from fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, and he is the new viscount in the neighborhood.  He confronts Bridget as he believes she is excavating on his land.  Will Bridget be able to prove she is actually on the Peterson farm, and will she be able to convince Rafe that the work is worthwhile?  Will love bloom?  Who else is trying to steal the mosaics?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was a sweet Regency romance and a clean read.  It has a slow burn and enemies to lovers’ romance.

·       I loved Bridget. She is an educated woman who knows her own mind.  She has a passion for archeology and Roman artifacts.  She loves to read Gothic fiction and she is kind to others.

·       I also love Rafe.  Rafe had a broken childhood filled with abuse.  His mother was able to escape with him.  He also suffered a grave wound and loss of a friend in the war.  He has returned with his terrible memories to the estate, and he wants to repair the estate and help the tenants.

·       Bridget and Rafe had great banter and dialogue between them.

·       Roman archaeology is fascinating to me.  I loved reading about the dig, their finds, and early Christianity amongst the Romans.

·       I enjoyed the quotes at the start of each chapter.  Many are from Lord Byron, Seneca, and John Wesley amongst others.

·       The novel is told through a dual narrative between Bridget and Rafe. The story is told through the first-person point of view.

·       There were mysteries throughout the novel that kept me intrigued.

·       There is a great author’s note on the real Roman discoveries that occurred in England in the 18^th and 19^th century.

·       There are also great discussion questions at the end to challenge yourself with or use at a book club.

·       This was an excellent debut novel!  I can’t wait to see what Jenelle Hovde writes next!

Favorite Quote: “Leave no stone unturned.  How can we learn or grow if we do not understand the past?  How can we heal if we do not fully examine what happened to us?”

Overall, No Stone Unturned by Jenelle Hovde was a beautifully written Regency romance with great main characters and growth, interesting mysteries, and Roman archaeology. I greatly enjoyed this novel.

Book Source: Thank-you to @jenellehovdeauthor @tyndalehouse @austenprose for a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour.

A Lesson In Proprietary by Jen Turano (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

What is the last comedy you’ve read or watched and enjoyed? 

Drusilla Merriweather has had a terrible time.  Her father has died, and his business partner stole his fortune.  Her fiancé dumps her, and she and her family are now cut direct by the four hundred.  Her eccentric aunt left her and her sister a castle in Chicago.  Drusilla decides to use her strengths and make it a school to teach propriety.  When she, her mother, and her sister arrive, they find a castle full of goats with an eccentric guard.  Will she be able to turn the castle around in time to keep her family afloat?  Will they find the man who stole their family fortunate?  Where is their aunt?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was a funny and fun novel that reminded me of a madcap rom com from the 1930s.

·       Drusilla is an independent young woman who is determined to make her dream of a school become reality and to save her family.  I enjoyed her as a character.

·       The criminal underworld is trying to get the prime property that is on Lake Michigan.

·       I thought Rhenick Wittenbecker was a great romantic lead.  He is the only brother in a family of girls and seems a lot more understanding of ladies than other men of the time period.  Although he comes off the wrong way to Drusilla at their first meeting and must work to understand her.  I loved his mother and family.

·       Annalise, Drusilla’s sister, is also eccentric and loves animals.  She has three attack ferrets who also wan to help rid the castle of rats and snakes.  I laughed out loud at parts of this novel.

·       I really enjoyed the haunted castle.  Who is haunting it and why?  It reminded me a Scooby Door mystery.

·       This is the first book in a new series.  I’m interested to see where it goes next.

A Lesson In Proprietary by Jen Turano is a fun, lighthearted, historical romance with Gothic elements.  I really enjoyed this novel. 

Book Source: Thank-you to @jenturanoauthor @bethanyhousefiction @austenprosefor a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour.

The Collector of Burned Books by Roseanne M. White (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 

If you could save one book from being burned, which book would you pick?

German expatriate authors gathered in Paris after Nazis started to burn books in Germany.  They opened a library that has collected together all of the banned books on the Nazis list.  When the Germans enter Paris, Christian Bauer, a former literature professor that has been drafted by the Nazis is sent to close the library of banned books and to relocate France’s other libraries.  Once there he meets Corinne Bastien, a professor and patron of the library who has been using it to help to spread these forbidden ideas.  What will happen to the library?  Will Christian be able to protect the literature that he secretly loves?  Will love blossom between the two?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I thought this was an interesting look into an aspect of WWII that I have always found disturbing, the burning of books and limitations put on the spreading of ideas.

·       I enjoyed both the characters of Christian and Corinne.  I loved their banter and witty conversations about literature.

·       Everyone seems confused that Corinne is a professor.  They think she looks younger than she is.  The Nazis tell her she should be trying to get married and having children.  They also say that this type of job should be left to the men. Unfortunately, this rhetoric seems prevalent still to this day.

·       This novel expressed the importance of books and ideas.  If you feel you need to suppress ideas and books in order to control people, what does that say about your ideology?  We’ve seen a rise in book banning over the last few years in the United States and is concerning.

·       This book did make me ponder, what would people do if this started to happen? If a politician told you that a book was “bad”, would you throw it away or burn it and go along with the crowd? Would you hide the book?  Would you help keep the word alive?  I have consistently been against book banning when it has unfortunately cropped up in my life.

·       Christian was a complicated character.  Further into the story, his motivations are revealed.  Why would a man who loves the written word like him go along with the Nazis?  He wants to help his friends, but he also has a much deeper and more personal reason.

·       The ending of this book was perfect.

·       There is a great authors note and discussion questions at the end of the novel.  It was so interesting that there really was a library of burned books in Paris.

Overall, The Collector of Burned Books by Roseanna M. White was a thought-provoking historical fiction novel with an intriguing story and wonderful characters.

Book Source: Thank-you to @roseannamwhite @tyndalehouse @austenprose for a review copy of this novel as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour.

The Night Sparrow by Shelly Sanders (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Title:  The Night Sparrow

Author:  Shelly Sanders

Narrated by:  Gilli Messer

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Length: Approximately10 hours and 26 minutes

Source: Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for the review copy of physical book copy of The Night Sparrow by Shelly Sanders.  Thank-you to NetGalley for the audiobook and e-book review copies.

What genres that you are looking forward to reading this year?  I am enjoying reading lots of historical fiction.

Elena Bruskina is a university student studying German in the Soviet Union when it is invaded by Nazis.  She is Jewish and she and her family are forced into the Minsk ghetto.  After her family is killed, she escapes and vows to get revenge.  She joins an all-female sniper unit in Moscow.  She eventually also becomes redeployed as German translator searching for Hitler.  Will Elena make it through the war, and will she make a difference?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       Author Shelly Sanders used facts from real life Soviet women snipers and interpreters to write the story.  Each chapter starts with a real quote from the women that served.

·       This story really showed the horrors of war.

·       It was disturbing to learn about “front line wives” where Soviet soldiers would pick a woman to be their front-line wife even if they didn’t want to be.  These women were ostracized when they returned home.

·       Soviets were the first to discover the Eagle’s Nest.  Elena is there to witness the horrors and to help prove that Hitler is indeed dead.

·       There were unique difficulties as Elena is Jewish and witnesses the murder of her family and other Jews because of their Jewish heritage.  The Soviets didn’t identify groups there were as denial that the Nazis were targeting and killing Jews.

·       The book tries to walk a fine line to say that Elena understands that the actions that the Soviet government takes towards its people and that Soviet soldiers take on German citizens are not ethical or good.

·       I’m not sure about the time shifts in this novel.  The narrative centered on one person, Elena, but it told the story through showing different points of time during the war. It would flash from the ending of the war to the beginning when Elena was first training. I don’t think this added to the story.  It made things more confusing.  I would have liked it better if the story was just told straight through from the beginning of the war to the end.  To be honest, it made me not care as much about some of the other characters as I knew they would die.  This may have been more confusing listening to the audiobook versus reading the physical book.

·       There is a great detailed author’s note at the end of the novel as well as a very thorough bibliography. 

·       The audiobook narrator was engaging.

 Overall, The Night Sparrow by Shelly Sanders is an intriguing historical fiction novel that focuses on the little-known story of female Soviet snippers and interpreters.

The Teacher of Warsaw by Mario Escobar (Bibliolifestyle Book Tour)

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harpermusebooks for the review copy of The Teacher of Warsaw by Mario Escobar.

If you could undo the death of a fictional character who would that character be?

In 1939, Janusz Korczak is sixty years old and is a well-known author and children’s advocate in Warsaw, Poland.  He runs a large Jewish orphanage and is a widely respected man.  As the Germans take over, Korczak tries his best to keep his children fed, but will he be able to keep them safe through the war?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This was my second Mario Escobar read in June and it was another heartfelt historical fiction novel set during WWII.  I really enjoyed both books and I am ready to read more.

·       Korczak was a great man and was so compassionate.  He had many times when he could have escaped and saved himself, but he stayed to help the children.  Much of the book was him trying to find any way that he could to survive and help the kids to thrive in desperate times.

·       The story is primarily told through a journal that is said to have been found that Korczak had kept.  This part of the story was put together using a short real diary that Korczak did keep in 1942 along with other facts from that time.

·       The description of the Ghetto was horrifying as people starved and turned desperate.

·       The ending of this story is seared into my mind. 

·       The end of the novel has great historical information about the real Janusz Korczak as well as references, and discussion questions.  This would make a great book club read.

Favorite Quotes:

“The Teacher of Warsaw is much more than a story about the life of Janusz Korczak and his orphanage.  It is the memory of those who, at the some of the world’s darkest moments, when evil’s grip on Europe seemed eternal, fought to turn the hellish Warsaw ghetto into a dignified, inhabitable place.” – from the author’s note

“Everything happens for a reason.  Even the greatest misfortunes can become the sweetest blessings.”

“The best lesson we can ever teach is to show love to those around us without expecting anything in return.”

“They were taking away the only noble, beautiful thing each of us has:  Our compassion and mercy.  When anything goes, nothing is worth it anymore.”

“How is the value of a human life to be measured?  Did culture or status make one person more valuable than a beggar child or an illiterate woman?”

Overall, The Teacher of Warsaw by Mario Escobar is a historical fiction WWII story that I will not forget.  Janusz Korczak lived during some of the darkest times in history in the Warsaw Ghetto, but he kept his humanity and compassion and was with his orphans until the very end.  If you love WWII historical fiction, you must read this novel.