Category: Book Reviews

The Mademoiselle Alliance by Natasha Lester

Publication April 8, 2025-Random House Publishing-Historical Fiction-448pp.

Book Summary

How did a young Parisian mother, celebrated for her beauty and glamour, come to lead the largest spy network in occupied France?

Morocco, 1928. Marie-Madeleine Méric is not the kind of woman who stays quietly at her husband’s side. Polyglot, pianist, and pilot, she is a woman of many skills, with unconventional interests—like driving in car rallies—that earn her a daredevil reputation. But dabbling in intelligence work to assist her military officer husband and the French government helps her recognize who she is at heart: an adventurer.

Paris, 1936. As Europe teeters on the brink of war, Marie-Madeleine is living in France, her marriage now in shambles, when a chance encounter with an enigmatic spy turns her life upside down. He recruits her to help build a resistance network, and she conceals her identity—and gender—as she navigates a perilous double life.

Eventually, she steps into the role of leader of what is now known as Alliance, despite the naysayers who doubt in a woman’s ability to do so. Capture and death are only a heartbeat away for both Marie-Madeleine and the agents under her care. At the helm of Alliance, she achieves seemingly impossible feats of espionage that help turn the tide of the war. But the most impossible, and dangerous, feat of them all? Falling in love.
New York Times bestselling author Natasha Lester beautifully brings Marie-Madeleine Méric Fourcade’s story to life in this powerful, heartbreaking tale of resilience that reminds us what it means to cherish those we love and fight for them with every breath.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Natasha Lester’s dual timeline creates the World of Intelligence lead by Marie-Madeleine Meric, the only female leader of a Resistance network in France during World War II. Said to have commanded with grace, courage, humility and flair, the Alliance grew to three thousand agents, mostly military men decades her senior. Agents known by animal names came to be called Noah’s Ark.  Lester’s impeccable research, painstaking translations from French, and vast details of the Resistance movement keep the narrative moving from Moracco in 1928, to the end of the war in Paris, 1945. Marie-Madeleine’s dedication to her children and the love of her life, second in command, Leon Faye, create the angst and heart wrenching choices she faces as a mother and leader.  Crossing borders in disguise, outwitting Nazis, the highs and lows of prison escape plans, separations, and reunions; all intriguing elements that keep hope alive.  Like the Allies receiving maps of the Normandy beaches from Noah’s Ark agents, readers will discover newfound admiration and respect for the unimaginable fortitude of the Resistance fighters in The Mademoiselle Alliance. Highly recommended

Natasha Lester is the New York Times bestselling author of eight historical novels including The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre, The Paris Seamstress, The Paris Secret and The Paris Orphan,

The Wandering Season by Aimie K. Runyan

Publication April 1, 2025-Harper Muse- Romance-Women’s Fiction-368pp.

Book Summary

Unraveling the tangled roots of her family takes her places she never expected. Veronica Stratton, a specialty food broker with a business on the cusp of brilliant success that would change the trajectory of her life, visits her parents in idyllic Estes Park for Christmas. She’s fresh from a breakup with her longtime boyfriend, so she’s eager to reconnect with her beloved family in the mountains and forget about her troubles for a few days. But with the holiday comes a DNA test from her younger sister that confirms her secret suspicions: she’s adopted. Having the truth out in the open leaves her feeling unmoored in ways she didn’t anticipate. With so much of her life in upheaval, Veronica is looking for an escape. Inspired by her best friend, she plans to go to Europe to see four of the places listed on her DNA ancestry report. She treks to County Mayo in Ireland; the Dordogne region of France; the countryside of Lombardy in Italy, and Copenhagen, Denmark. She hopes to learn about where her family lived while also making connections for her rapidly expanding business, but she finds that each stop brings her visions of her ancestors that raise more questions than they answer. And among those pressing questions is how charming Irish castle keeper Niall Callahan will fit into her visions for the future.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The Wandering Season is to an avid reader what fine dining is to a foodie-perfection on every level! This culinary experience begins with an introduction to Veronica’s situation and family dynamics on Christmas Eve in snow covered Estes Park, Colorado. The wait staff is comprised of fabulous characters: Veronica’s darling, bubbly fashionista sister, Avery, her best friend Stephanie, and the loving, always supportive parents.

The main course or plot is driven by the findings of the DNA test kits given as presents from Avery. Veronica embarks on a journey planned by Avery, through four countries that correlate with her ancestors. Thank goodness for dad’s American Express and Avery’s two steps ahead planning savvy! Food sourcing vendors and new products was Veronica’s mission but visions of generations before helped guide and reveal her family background and history. Runyan’s transitions between reality and dreams fade in and out seamlessly like an adroit waiter anticipating your dining needs at every turn.

Every menu is capped with a fine dessert and so it is in The Wandering Season. Thoughts of the romantic possibility of an alluring Irish castle and its keeper will linger as Veronica explores her roots and finally realizes her own self-worth. The “close your eyes and savor” moment comes when Veronica reveals her new life plan- and the pièce de résistance- her favorite recipes from each country visited!

Aimie K. Runyan’s The Wandering Season is a delicious literary and culinary experience worthy of five Michelin stars.  

Aimie writes fiction, both historical and contemporary, that celebrates the spirit of strong women. In addition to her writing, she is active as a speaker and educator in the writing community. She lives in Colorado with her amazing husband, kids, cats, and pet dragon.

The Secret History of Audrey James by Heather Marshall

Publication February 25, 2025-Ballantine Books-Historical Fiction -464pp

Book Summary

An astonishing historical novel of one woman’s dangerous journey through World War II Germany and her life-changing friendship with a young woman decades later—from the #1 international bestselling author of Looking for Jane


Northern England, 2010. After a tragic accident upends her life, Kate Mercer leaves London to work at an old guest house near the Scottish border, where she hopes to find a fresh start and heal from her loss. When she arrives, she begins to unravel the truth about her past, but discovers that the mysterious elderly proprietor is harboring secrets of her own.

Berlin, 1938. Audrey James is weeks away from graduating from a prestigious music school in Berlin, where she’s been living with her best friend, Ilse Kaplan. As war looms, Ilse’s family disappears and high-ranking Nazi officers confiscate the house. In desperation, Audrey becomes their housekeeper while Ilse is forced into hiding in the attic. When a shocking turn of events embroils Audrey in the anti-Hitler movement, she must decide what matters most: protecting those she loves, or sacrificing everything for the greater good.

Inspired by true stories of courageous women and the German resistance during World War II, The Secret History of Audrey James is a captivating novel about the unbreakable bonds of friendship, the sacrifices we make for those we love, and the healing that comes from human connection.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

In alternating timelines between London 2010, and Berlin, 1938, Heather Marshall weaves the trauma in the lives of Kate and Audrey with the guilt of survival and complicated relationships.
Audrey, who is at the end of her life, shares her history with Kate, who is looking for a new start. Losses forge a quick bridge as Marshall’s emotionally drawn characters understand terror, guilt, and forgiveness by sharing their stories. Crossing the bridge that connects Audrey and Kate involves Kristallnacht, Resistance cells in Berlin, new identities, lifelong loves, escape plans and assassination attempts. Was Audrey a pianist, an assassin, or a spy? These threads of history intertwine!
This novel takes readers from the rubble of streets in Berlin to the rambling paths and gardens of Oakwood Inn on the Scottish border. The Secret History of Audrey James is an emotional, rewarding journey filled with secrets and survival.

About

Heather Marshall lives near Toronto with her family and their giant golden retriever. She worked in politics and communications before finally turning her attention to her true passion: storytelling.

The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn

Publication Feb. 25, 2025-Random House Publishing-Historical Fiction-384pp

Book Summary

An immersive historical drama about a young mother who starts a new life with her son in New York after faking their deaths on the Titanic—the U.S. debut of an acclaimed British novelist.
Sometimes it takes a disaster to change your life.
     Marrying above your social class can come with unexpected consequences, as Elinor Coombes discovers when she is swept into a fairy-tale marriage with the son of an aristocratic English family. She soon realizes that it was the appeal of her father’s hard-earned wealth rather than her pretty face that attracted her new husband and his family. Curtailed by rigid social rules that include being allowed to see her nanny-raised infant son for only moments each day, Elinor faces a lonely future. So a present from her father—tickets for the maiden voyage of a luxurious new ship called the Titanic—offers a welcome escape from the cold, controlling atmosphere of her husband’s ancestral home, and some precious time with her little son, Teddy.
       When the ship goes down, Elinor grasps the opportunity to take Teddy and start a new life—if they can disappear completely, listed among the dead. Penniless and using another woman’s name, she must put that terrible night behind her and learn to survive in New York City. But even in a brash new world that couldn’t be more different from her own, secrets have a way of floating to the surface. . . .
      An absorbing historical drama set between the old world of the oppressive English aristocracy and the new world of opportunity and freedom, The Lost Passenger is a grippingly dramatic story about starting over in a brand-new world, triumphing over adversity, and finding hope in the face of great loss.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

This is my first introduction to Frances Quinn’s writing and will definitely not be my last. Though she is well known in the UK, The Lost Passenger is her debut novel here in America and is a Titanic story like no other I’ve read. Main character, Elinor, is manipulated by the charming Frederick into a quick fairy tale wedding with a foreboding mother-in-law. The restrictions of society and the accepted practices of parenting are especially saddening as Elinor is only allowed a few minutes a day with her son, Teddy.  Extremely unhappy and suspicious of Frederick’s attentions, the stage for escape is set when Elinor receives tickets from her wealthy father for the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

The saga that unfolds is filled with astonishing descriptions and entrepreneurial spirit. The character development and pacing of the narrative kept me engaged, hopeful, anxious, and at times panicked! The element of historical fiction that I always appreciate is when the author sinks the reader into the scenes through sensory details. Readers will definitely get the sense of extreme differences between the divinely exorbitant amenities on the Titanic and the deplorable living conditions in the tenements of the Lower East Side of NYC.

Emotional attachments grow to overwhelming proportions as the novel progresses.  A much-disliked mistress from London’s high society crosses the Atlantic and my favorite character Tommy Jenkins from the sinking ship, makes a remarkably emotional plea. The immigrant family squished into the tiny apartment shows fortitude, ingenuity, and Quinn’s pure unbridled handling of their feelings is realistic and truthful.

Can Elinor steal a life by keeping secrets and taking risks? Becoming aware of more than one kind of happy ending is a spellbinding treat for readers of The Lost Passenger.  

Frances Quinn grew up in London and studied English at King’s College, Cambridge. She became a journalist, writing for magazines including Prima, Good Housekeeping, She, Woman’s Weekly, and Ideal Home, and later branched out into copywriting. Upon winning a place on the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course, she started work on her first novel, The Smallest Man. Her second novel is That Bonesetter Woman and The Lost Passenger is her third. She lives in Brighton, England, with her husband and three Tonkinese cats.

The Dressmakers of London by Julia Kelly

Publication Feb.18, 2025-Gallery Books-Historical Fiction-384pp

Book Summary

The author of the “enthralling” (Woman’s World) The Lost English Girl returns with a heartfelt new novel about estranged sisters who inherit their late mother’s dress shop in World War II London.
     Isabelle Shelton has always found comfort in the predictable world of her mother’s dressmaking shop, Mrs. Shelton’s Fashions, while her sister Sylvia turned her back on the family years ago to marry a wealthy doctor whom Izzie detests. When their mother dies unexpectedly, the sisters are stunned to find they’ve jointly inherited the family business. Izzie is determined to buy Sylvia out, but when she’s conscripted into the WAAF, she’s forced to seek Sylvia’s help to keep the shop open. Realizing this could be her one chance at reconciliation with her sister, Sylvia is determined to save Mrs. Shelton’s Fashions from closure—and financial ruin.
     Through letters, the sisters begin to confront old wounds, new loves, and the weight of family legacy in order to forge new beginnings in this lyrically moving novel perfect for fans of Genevieve Graham and Lucinda Riley.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The Dressmakers of London is cut from a perfect pattern, fitting pieces of reconciliation and family history right alongside personal reinvention to create an elegant, delightful outcome. Julia Kelly tailors this World War II novel of two sisters, Sylvia and Izzie learning to trust each other again, with Izzie’s intriguing assignment in a barrage balloon unit in the WAAF-Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

Food rationing and coupons are standard in WWII novels, but Julia Kelly includes fascinating details of cloth rationing that started in 1941 and lasted until four years after the war ended. The Cloth Utility Scheme regulated pleats, hemlines, buttons, and cuffs on trousers. This regulation had a huge impact on Mrs. Shelton’s Fashions and Izzie’s design dreams, which Kelly stitches seamlessly into the suspense of the shop’s survival.

The characters reveal true feelings through letters that move the plot while adding anticipation and hope. Readers learn of war details and the budding relationship from letters between young Izzie and American Staff Sergeant Jack Perry from Iowa. On the “sister front” rebuilding trust occurs slowly as Sylvia and Izzie share personal and quite different memories of their mother after their father died. Sylvia’s marriage to Horrible Hugo is another thread in the unraveled fabric of Izzie’s life; coming of age, sketching her own designs, and running the dress shop. There are some especially poignant revelations in situations between Sylvia’s socialite friends and the wise Lady Winman that knit life lessons into the narrative.

The Dressmakers of London tells of a mother’s bequest that leads to emotional, surprising results and happenings-a deep feeling for legacy and family heritage. Sylvia and Izzie would agree that their story is “an honest to goodness proper triumph!”

Julia Kelly is the international bestselling author of emotional historical fiction about extraordinary women and intriguing historical whodunnit mystery novels. Her books have been translated into 13 languages. In addition to writing, she’s been an Emmy-nominated producer, journalist, marketing professional, and (for one summer) a tea waitress. Julia called Los Angeles, Iowa, and New York City home before settling in London with her husband. Read about all of Julia’s books here: https://www.juliakellywrites.com/

Come Fly With Me by Camille Di Maio

Publication Feb. 18. 2025-Lake Union Publishing-Women’s Fiction-347pp

Book Summary

It’s 1962, the dawn of the jet-set era. Hope takes flight for two Pan Am stewardesses navigating an adventurous new life in a novel about love, friendship, and escape by the bestselling author of The Memory of Us and Until We Meet.

Welcome to a glamorous gateway to the jet age.

Judy Goodman and Beverly Caldwell have different reasons for putting continents and oceans between themselves and their disparate pasts, but they have the same desire—to earn a coveted position on an elite team of stewardesses for Pan American Airlines. For Judy, running away from an oppressive marriage in small-town Pennsylvania is a risk she must take. And for Beverly, leaving behind the gilded cage of New York society will allow her to pursue a future of her own making.

Embracing the culture, etiquette, and strict rules of a thrilling and unpredictable new world above the clouds, Judy and Beverly are bound for faraway destinations and opportunities that other women dare only to dream about. But as they build a deep friendship, encounter love and danger, and discover what’s truly important, Judy and Beverly must also confront the secrets that could change their lives all over again—and forever.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Frank Sinatra’s beloved song plays an important role in the plot of Come Fly with Me. The locations named in the lyrics are connected to the goals of main characters, Judy and Beverly, as they become stewardesses for the international airline known as Pan Am.  The details of training and testing add to the suspenseful individual quests of each young girl to escape from current life. Success at Pan Am will secure Judy’s escape from her husband and Beverly’s yearning to find out who she is on her own, without her wealthy father in control. Di Maio garners readers’ empathy for Judy’s desperation through her backstory told to new friend, Beverly. Likewise, Beverly reveals an interesting, mysterious relationship with her mother’s hairdresser. Each an “only child,” but with opposite father figures leaves plenty for readers to discuss. There is comfort in the girls’ developing romantic relationships, even one with Texas ties. There’s always the sinking feeling that plot twists are coming, keeping suspense and anticipation, even a worrisome feeling, hard to tamp down.

In Come Fly with Me, The Golden Years of Air Travel, is itself a character. Remember when people treated flying with sophistication and appreciation? Known as the Jet Set Age, readers are whisked between Miami, San Francisco, Honolulu, and even French Polynesia, while served in first class- along with the Beatles? The stories of flight are filled with ample themes for readers to explore-women friendships, career or lifestyle expectations, roles of mothers, and influence of fathers.

Soar the skies in Camille Di Maio’s long awaited Come Fly With Me. Prepare for takeoff during the early years of international air travel with Pan Am and the blue globe logo lovingly known as The Blue Meatball. Keep you seat belt buckled…

Frank Sinatra lists these places in the song: Hawaii, New York, Paris, Capri, London, Vermont, Mandalay, and Chicago!

Camille’s beautiful website: https://www.camilledimaioauthor.com/

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

Publication Feb. 11, 2025-St. Martin’s Press-Mystery-304pp.

Book Summary

London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment.

May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they’re stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden.

Inspired by a true story in Sayers’ own life, New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict brings to life the lengths to which five talented women writers will go to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of letters as they unpuzzle a mystery torn from the pages of their own novels.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Five female writers united by the love of mystery writing overcome barriers of age, class, culture, and education to form the Queens of Crime in hopes of joining the male dominated Detection Club. Dorothy Sayers convinces Agatha Christie, Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham to travel from London to France to piece together the unsolved murder of nurse, May Daniels, in order to become heroes and thus prove their worth.

Keeping in mind that May Daniels was a real person, not a character in one of their novels, the Queens of Crime band together to reconstruct the timeline leading to May’s disappearance. Marie Benedict develops the Queens so accurately through dialogue, attitude, and fashion sense, they each become recognizable and even predictable for readers. Pairing the Queens in different situations according to their individual skill sets as they “leave no stone unturned” along the Rue de Lille sinks the reader into the world of sleuthing in the 1930’s. Benedict reveals the assumptions and expectations of the male detectives and shop keepers of that era, leading them to false conclusions regarding May’s murder.  Leave it to the female mystery writers to connect theater tickets, silk dresses, letters and luggage. All these elements, character, setting, themes, and plot, come together to represent the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Marie Benedict’s Queens of Crime-a truly golden “locked door murder mystery.”  

Marie Benedict is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Mitford Affair, Her Hidden Genius, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, The Only Woman in the Room, Lady Clementine, Carnegie’s Maid, The Other Einstein, and the novella, Agent 355. With Victoria Christopher Murray, she co-wrote the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian and the Target Book of the Year The First Ladies. 
Her books have been translated into thirty languages, and selected for the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Target Book Club, Costco Book Club, Indie Next List, and LibraryReads List. 

The Indigo Heiress by Laura Frantz

Publication January 21, 2025-Revell Christian-Historical Fiction-Romance-416pp

Book Summary

In 1774, Juliet Catesby lives with her father and sister at Royal Vale, the James River plantation founded by her Virginia family over a century before. Indigo cultivation is her foremost concern, though its export tethers her family to the powerful Buchanan clan of Glasgow, Scotland. When the heir of the Buchanan firm arrives on their shores, Juliet discovers that her father has secretly arranged for one of his daughters to marry the Scot as a means of canceling the family’s debt. Confident it will be her younger, lovelier sister, Juliet is appalled when Leith Buchanan selects her instead.

Despite her initial refusal of him, an ensuing altercation forces Juliet to flee Virginia. Agreeing to marry, she sails with Leith to Scotland, hopeful of a better match for her sister, who accompanies her. But once in Glasgow and faced with the contentious, powerful Buchanan clan, she realizes that the man who saved her from financial ruin and scandal is the very one she must now save in return.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

My family heritage connecting to Scotland, along with award winning author, Laura Franz, made The Indigo Heiress a highly anticipated novel for this new year. The rumblings of pre-revolutionaries and plantation owners in 1774 Virginia and family intrigue on estates owned by tobacco lords in Scotland add to the dramatic unfolding of the life of Juliet Catesby, the indigo heiress.

Franz includes plenty of descriptions and details of indigo plantings and the processes involved in the harvesting and making of the precious blue dye. The arrival of Lord Leith Buchanan, the handsome Scottish risk taker and tobacco lord adds to the plot twists involving matchmaking, board meetings, and family betrayal. All entertaining elements.

Juliet is rooted to the family’s land in Virginia, making her journey to Scotland even more difficult. Franz eloquently captures Juliet’s emotions through dialogue with her sister, Loveday, private thoughts, and her unselfish matchmaking. Following in their mother’s footsteps, the sisters shun slave labor, concealing and assisting in the freeing of slaves.  These courageous activities are greatly inspiring.

Juliet’s travels take her from Royal Vale, Virginia to Ardraigh Hall in Scotland. Along the way Juliet and Loveday are encouraged to see a change in fortune as a gift, trusting God to make a way forward. The Indigo Heiress is a reminder that “what we once loved can never be lost to us-it is forever.” Laura Franz’s mission of reaching the heart through friendship, romance, and suspense is encouraging and accomplished.  

https://dumfries-house.org.uk/about/history The author chose the restored Dumfries House, near Glasgow , Scotland, now a site for lodging and events, as the basis for Leith Buchanan’s estate named Ardraigh Hall.

Award-winning, bestselling author Laura Frantz is passionate about all things historical, particularly the 18th-century, and writes her manuscripts in longhand first. Her stories often incorporate Scottish themes that reflect her family heritage. She is a direct descendant of George Hume, Wedderburn Castle, Berwickshire, Scotland, who was exiled to the American colonies for his role in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, settled in Virginia, and is credited with teaching George Washington surveying. Proud of her heritage, she is also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Let’s Call Her Barbie by Renée Rosen

Publication January 21, 2025-Berkley-Historical Fiction-432pp

Book Summary

She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.

When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she’s setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up.

In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything.

As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels—head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius and designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest on the success of Barbie’s fashion—she knows they’re working against a ticking clock to get this wild idea off the ground.

In the decades to come—through soaring heights and devastating personal lows, public scandals and private tensions— each of them will have to decide how tightly to hold on to their creation. Because Barbie has never been just a doll—she’s a legacy.

Includes a Readers Guide and Exclusive Vintage Barbie Photos!

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Rene Rosen’s Let’s Call Her Barbie is an enthralling look at Mattel businesswoman Ruth Handler’s mission to create a doll for young girls that would represent what it meant to be a modern, independent woman in the 1950’s. The novel opens in 1956 as Ruth returns from a vacation fired up to create an American version of a German doll. Ruth and her business partner/husband, Elliot, known as the diplomatic one, are at a Mattel company meeting surrounded by Ivy League engineers. Let the “battle for Barbie” begin!

 Rene Rosen has recreated the “World of Barbie” for many who fondly remember the remarkable doll shaped like a woman, her designer clothes collection, and her dreamhouse. Rosen’s real life Raytheon engineer, Jack Ryan and his energy jump off the page as he strives to create while battling “word blindness.” The development of the doll’s design and movement is credited to Ryan’s engineering genius. The trials and tribulations of her engineering, combined with myriad failures in designing molds and finding the right plastics, brings a whole new level of appreciation for the development of Barbie.

Ruth Handler believed the real money for Mattel would be in Barbie’s designer clothes. Designer Charlotte Johnson accepts the challenge of creating clothes on a 1/6 scale including zippers that zip and purses with silk linings that open and close! Rosen’s research includes the intricate patterns and fabric experimentation needed to design the aptly named collections that hit toy store shelves like they were designer runways.

The details of doll engineering, a bold Living Laboratory to interview moms and daughters, and a risky TV commercial aired during the popular Mickey Mouse Club show, combine to unveil the #1 ponytail Barbie in her black & white zebra striped swimsuit!  The mother/daughter interviews reveal vastly differing expectations, and the TV commercial reflects the outcome. A perfect example of Rosen’s attention to the ideals to which mothers were clinging.

The ups and downs of the toy business, family dynamics in the background and Ruth’s health struggles take Barbie fans from the 1959 offices of Mattel to Nieman Marcus in Dallas, 1976. Let’s Call Her Barbie. As the company slogan says,

“You Can Tell It’s Mattel, It’s Swell!”

This site tells the overall history of Barbie’s creator Ruth Handler: https://allthatsinteresting.com/ruth-handler

Ace, Marvel, Spy by Jenni L. Walsh

Publication January 14, 2025-Harper Muse-Historical Fiction-368pp

Book Summary

Based on the life of a very real, very incredible American icon. Alice Marble strives to have it all.

Alice tirelessly works her way up to be a #1 tennis champion, all while maintaining a growing career trajectory editing the Wonder Women comic. She enjoys her hard-earned success with her loving husband, her steadfast coach, and her dear friends—many of whom are famous and well-connected.

But then her world falls apart. Alice’s life begins to unravel when she receives a telegram informing her that her husband has been killed in action in the war in Germany. Heartbroken, she feels like she can only watch as the war wreaks havoc in every area of her life. Until an unexpected invitation arrives.

Alice is prompted to action when the US Army sends her a request: Under the guise of playing in tennis exhibition games in Switzerland, she would be a spy for them. And Alice aches for nothing more than to avenge her husband’s death. What awaits her might be her greatest challenge yet.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Ace, Marvel, Spy – based on real life tennis star, Alice Marble, takes readers match by match to center court at Wimbledon. Alice Marble’s quest for tennis accolades is the backdrop for self-discovery and finding independence on the world stage before and during World War II. Walsh has based her novel on extensive research and Alice Marble’s own memoir.

Alice’s controlling coach, Teach, is also a central character. I admire Teach for her unwavering support and confidence in Alice, but found her overbearing nature difficult to accept, and so does Alice! Settings include Hearst Castle with Hollywood star Marion Davies and William Hearst as hosts to support Alice, along with Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, and Charlie Chaplin. Alice’s tennis quests, injuries, illnesses, and comebacks take readers to Wimbledon, the All-American Comics offices of Max Gaines, where she becomes the associate editor of the Wonder Women of History series, and later to Chamonix, Switzerland as a spy for the U.S. government. Readers get to know Alice, the wife, tennis pro, and comic writer, as newspaper headlines pepper the non-linear timeline with Alice’s successes and failures.

This novel is for fans of tennis and amazingly determined women blazing a trail in American history. Alice is fighting for something bigger than herself. Ace, Marvel, Spy-Which is Alice Marble’s greatest achievement?

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Marble

Jenni L. Walsh is a USA Today bestselling author of over twelve books. Her passion lies in transporting readers to another world, be it in historical or contemporary settings. She is a proud member of the Tall Poppy writers, a graduate of Villanova University, and lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with her husband, daughter, son, and various pets.

For adults, Jenni has written historical novels Becoming Bonnie, Side by Side, A Betting Woman, The Call of the Wrens, Unsinkable, and the forthcoming Ace, Marvel, Spy. She also writes books for children, including the nonfiction She Dared series and novels Hettie and the London Blitz, I Am Defiance, By the Light of Fireflies, Over and Out, Operation: Happy, and The Bug Bandits. To learn more about Jenni and her books, please visit jennilwalsh.com or @jennilwalsh on social media.
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