Category: Book Reviews

The Fabled Earth by Kimberly Brock

Publication October 1, 2024-Harper Muse-Historical Fiction-384pp

Book Summary

Inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island, The Fabled Earth is a sweeping story of family lore and the power of finding your own voice as Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide with a changing world.

1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year’s party at Plum Orchard is a lively group: young men from some of America’s finest families come to experience the area’s hunting beside a local guide; a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week’s end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.

1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly thirty years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend – and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she’s raised a ghost–someone who hasn’t been seen since that fateful night in 1932.

As a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape and shifting tides reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along, two timelines and perspectives of three women intersect to illuminate the life-changing power of finding truth in a folktale.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

An impending storm, salty breezes, and a ramshackle cottage in the briny marsh of Cumberland Island is the backdrop for a family saga laced with folklore. Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia, is Kimberly Brock’s setting for this mysteriously tragic tale of an annual bonfire party gone awry. The novel unfolds from the perspective of three main characters. Cleo Woodbine’s account of the fateful night, aptly named Fable, set in 1932, alternates with her current life story told in the 1959 timeline. Readers are transported to the southern coastline in 1959 through two other main characters; Frances, connected by her mother to the bonfire tragedy and Audrey, a young, widowed photographer searching for purpose.

Brock’s pacing of the plot and smooth transitions through the two timelines adds palpable urgency. The Fable timeline, with cringeworthy details of Cleo’s experiences with the entitled young people, increases the suspense. Through Cleo’s moment by moment account Brock accurately captures the fears and emotions leading to turning points in the rowdy, roller coaster of events during the weekend of revelry near the river. The German folktale known as Lorelei is woven into the anxiousness and the tragic outcome surrounding the storytelling competition at the bonfire. Like the tale of Lorelei, the Fable timeline plunges readers into the murky waters to follow the siren, only to surface, gasping for air, as Cleo gets closer and closer to the truth.   

Kimberly Brock’s search for truth in family stories wrapped in a sailor’s folktale makes The Fabled Earth a suspenseful mystery with a breathtaking view of new-found life on the rocky shore.

The Siren Song of the Lorelei

Not far from St. Goarshausen, a grey cliff towers 433 feet above the River Rhine. Atop the cliff sits a woman—or is it a trick of the light?—combing her long hair and singing. Read more about the legend here: https://www.deutschland.de/en/the-siren-song-of-the-lorelei

Links to read more about Cumberland Island Mansions- Plum Orchard and Dungeness from The Fabled Earth:

Plum Orchard: https://www.nps.gov/places/plum-orchard.htm

Cumberland Island : https://www.nps.gov/articles/975727.htm?utm_source=article&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=experience_more&utm_content=small#4/31.80/-78.13

Kimberly Brock is the bestselling author of The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Townsend Prize for Fiction, and The River Witch, recipient of the Georgia Author of the Year Award. She is the founder of Tinderbox Writers Workshop and has served as a guest lecturer for many regional and national writing workshops including at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. A native of North Georgia, she now lives near Atlanta. Her latest novel, The Fabled Earth, releases October 1, 2024 via Harper Muse. Photo cred: Claire Brock Photography

Betrayal at Blackthorn Park by Julia Kelly

Publication October 1, 2024-St. Martin’s Press-Historical Fiction-Mystery-320pp.

Book Summary

With mystery, intrigue, and the hints of romance international bestselling author Julia Kelly is known for, Evelyne Redfern returns in Betrayal at Blackthorn Park.

Freshly graduated from a rigorous training program in all things spy craft, former typist Evelyne Redfern is eager for her first assignment as a field agent helping Britain win the war. However, when she learns her first task is performing a simple security test at Blackthorn Park, a requisitioned manor house in the sleepy Sussex countryside, she can’t help her initial disappointment. Making matters worse, her handler is to be David Poole, a fellow agent who manages to be both strait-laced and dashing in annoyingly equal measure. However, Evelyne soon realizes that Blackthorn Park is more than meets the eye, and an upcoming visit from Winston Churchill means that security at the secret weapons research and development facility is of the utmost importance.

When Evelyne discovers Blackthorn Park’s chief engineer dead in his office, her simple assignment becomes more complicated. Evelyne must use all of her—and David’s—detection skills to root out who is responsible and uncover layers of deception that could change the course of the war.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Betrayal at Blackthorn Park, the second in a series, features avid reader of detective mysteries, Evelyn Redfern. (Her reading list is linked below in the author bio!) Plucked from the typing pool, Evelyn is a newly trained spy for the Special Investigations Unit in London 1940. Her first mission is a security check at a country manor in Sussex, known as Blackthorn Park. Now a weapons research facility with a staff of engineers, administrators, and workers, it is the perfect setting for a mystery.

The focus of Evelyn’s mission changes from a security check for missing supplies to a murder investigation. Author Julia Kelly’s lifelong love for mysteries and detective stories lends credence to interviews of suspects, tricks of the detective trade, and summaries of clues before heading the search off in another direction.

Julia Kelly’s characters move with ease from Whitehall to Blackthorn Park. To Evelyn’s dismay her partner at Whitehall, David Poole, has been promoted to ‘handler’ in the SIU and follows her to Blackthorn. Kelly’s development of Evelyn’s view of David Poole evolves from mostly annoying to sometimes endearing, giving readers hope for a closer connection in the future. She uses clever pairings such as Mr. and Mrs. Sherman, stationmaster at Benstead and housekeeper at the manor, to make connections and confirm clues. To relax the frantic pace and drama of the mission Kelly isolates the interviews of suspects into chapters and switches to Evelyn’s London life with occasional telephone calls to best friend Moira.  

Betrayal at Blackthorn takes place in one hectic week, with a day-by-day countdown to Winston Churchill’s visit for a weapons demonstration. Interviews, journal checks, letters and a secret hiding place keep readers piecing clues together until the last explosion at Blackthorn Park.

Julia Kelly is the international bestselling author of emotional historical fiction about extraordinary women and thrilling 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. EVELYN REDFERNS READING LIST FROM BOOK #1 1AND #2 https://www.juliakellywrites.com/evelyne-redferns-reading-list

The Pink Dress by Jane Little Botkin

Publication September 10, 2024-She Writes Press-Memoir-306pp

Book Summary

Growing up in West Texas, Jane Little Botkin didn’t have designs on becoming a beauty queen. But not long after joining a pageant on a whim in college, she became the first protégé of El Paso’s Richard Guy and Rex Holt, known as the “Kings of Beauty”—just as the 1970’s counterculture movement began to take off.A pink, rose-covered gown—a Guyrex creation—symbolizes the fairy tale life that young women in Jane’s time imagined beauty queens had. Its near destruction exposes reality: the author’s failed relationship with her mother, and her parents’ failed relationship with one another. Weaving these narrative threads together is the Wild West notion that
anything is possible, especially do-overs.

The Pink Dress awakens nostalgia for the 1960s and 1970s, the era’s conflicts and growth pains. A common expectation that women went to college to get “MRS” degrees—to find a husband and become a stay-at-home wife and mother—often prevailed. How does one swim upstream against this notion among feminist voices that protest “If You Want Meat,
Go to a Butcher!” at beauty pageants, two flamboyant showmen, and a developing awareness of self? Torn between women’s traditional roles and what women could be, Guyrex Girls evolved, as did the author.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Janey’s “Pink Dress” fairy tale contains the element of three: a controlling mother, the family’s faltering financial situation, and marital stress due to affairs and addiction. The West Texas setting of El Paso lends a dry, dusty haze through which to view magical transformations and seedy manipulations involved in beauty pageants in the 1960s and 1970s. Janey reveals herself as an exhausted, starving competitor as a final encounter with El Paso, the roller coaster ride of a Guyrex Girl, and a mature understanding of her mother comes into clear view. This is an eye-opening memoir where pageant skepticisms and misgivings are confirmed in eyebrow raising revelations through the recollections of “a reluctant beauty queen,” Janey Little Botkin.

National award-winning author Jane Little Botkin melds personal narratives of American families with compelling stories of western women. Her books have won numerous awards in biography, western historical nonfiction, and women’s studies. Recently completed, The Pink Dress, Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen will release September 10, 2024 (She Writes Press). She is currently working on The Breath of a Buffalo, a biography of Mary Ann (Molly) Goodnight, tentatively scheduled for release in 2026.

Katharine, the Wright Sister by Tracey Enerson Wood

Publication September 10, 2024-Source Books-Historical Fiction -448pp

Book Summary

She helped her brothers soar… but was the flight worth the fall?

 It all started with two boys and a bicycle shop. Wilbur and Orville Wright, both unsuited to college and disinclined to leave home, jumped on the popular new fad of bicycle riding and opened a shop in Dayton, Ohio. Repairing and selling soon led to tinkering and building as the brothers offered improved models to their eager customers. Amid their success, a new dream began to take shape. Engineers across the world were puzzling over how to build a powered flying machine—and Wilbur and Orville wanted in on the challenge. But their younger sister, Katharine, knew they couldn’t do it without her. The three siblings made a pact: the three of them would solve the problem of human flight.

 As her brothers obsessed over blueprints and risked life and limb testing new models on the sand beaches of North Carolina, Katharine became the mastermind behind the scenes of their inventions. She sourced materials, managed communications, and kept Wilbur and Orville focused on their goal—even when it seemed hopeless. And in 1903, the Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight of humankind.

What followed was the kind of fame and fortune the Wrights had never imagined. The siblings traveled the world to demonstrate their invention, trained other pilots, and built new machines that could fly higher and farther. But at the height of their success, tragedy wrenched the Wright family apart… and forced Katharine to make an impossible choice that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

 From internationally bestselling author Tracey Enerson Wood, Katharine, the Wright Sister is an unforgettable novel that shines a spotlight on one of the most important and overlooked women in history, and the sacrifices she made so that others might fly.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine Wright’s promise to one another required a lifetime of sacrifice to change the course of history. Travel with the Wright brothers from the bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, to the sandy beaches of North Carolina and to fame across Europe.  Woods’ detailed descriptions of sketching and journaling birds in flight, family dinner discussions on design changes, including a myriad of flight terms, adds immensely to understanding how trial and error, years of experimentation and Katharine’s personal sacrifice led to the brothers’ success.

The theme of family complexities and how good intentions can hurt loved ones is portrayed through thoughts and dreams as siblings share in alternating chapters. Wilbur, an all-around student & athlete, with a great knowledge of physics and math, feels pressure to succeed.  Orville, blessed with mechanical abilities and resourcefulness, becomes selfish and quite maddening in his demands of Katharine. Due to their mother’s illness and early death, Katharine, becomes head of household and runs the bicycle shop. Described by Wilbur as bossy and hard driving, she is the visionary; decisive, confident, bold. Katharine’s ongoing desire to be part of the team and her inability to stand up to Orville contradicts her fear of becoming a spinster as she sacrifices her private life. This heart wrenching conundrum is frustrating as she wavers between devotion and resignation.  

Experience the history of transportation from the horse & carriage, automobiles and finally in 1903, successful human flight and eventually flying machines.  Competition and ‘red tape’ creates suspense and great anticipation as the Wrights endure  meetings with patent attorneys, demands for data, and denials by the government. Thank your lucky stars for Orville and Wilbur’s determination and Katharine’s sacrifice in the field of aviation. Dive with failures, soar with success!

Sit back and enjoy the flight with Tracey Enerson Wood’s Katharine, the Wright Sister.

Mademoiselle Eiffel by Aimie K. Runyan

Publication September 10, 2024-William Morrow-Historical Fiction

Book Summary

From the author of The School for German Brides and A Bakery in Paris, this captivating historical novel set in nineteenth-century Paris tells the story of Claire Eiffel, a woman who played a significant role in maintaining her family’s legacy and their iconic contributions to the city of Paris.

Claire Eiffel, the beautiful, brilliant eldest daughter of the illustrious architect Gustave Eiffel, is doted upon with an education envied by many sons of the upper classes, and entirely out of the reach of most daughters. Claire’s idyllic childhood ends abruptly when, at fourteen, her mother passes away. It’s soon made clear that Gustave expects Claire to fill her mother’s place as caregiver to the younger children and as manager of their home.

As she proves her competence, Claire’s importance to her father grows. She accompanies him on his travels and becomes his confidante and private secretary. She learns her father’s architectural trade and becomes indispensable to his work. But when his bright young protégé, Adolphe Salles, takes up more of Gustave’s time, Claire resents being pushed aside.

Slowly, the animosity between Claire and Adolphe turns to friendship…and then to something more. After their marriage in 1885 preserves the Eiffel legacy, they are privileged by the biggest commission of Eiffel’s career: a great iron tower dominating the 1889 World’s Fair to demonstrate the leading role of Paris in the world of art and architecture. Now hostess to the scientific elite, such as Thomas Edison, Claire is under the watchful eye not only of her family and father’s circle, but also the world.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The Eiffel Tower, a beacon of science and beauty meant to be torn down after twenty years, is the pinnacle of success for Gustave Eiffel. The Eiffel family has a gift for detail, an eye for beauty, and the insistence for perfection. Will these gifts lead to the success or the demise of the Compagnie Eiffel?

The novel opens with Claire’s witness of the destruction of Gustave Eiffel’s office in the face of legal issues. Runyan then recaps the past years filling in the details leading to the World’s Fair in 1889 and through Claire’s life in 1924.

Claire experiences the death of her mother and the overbearing presence of her grandmother, and at the age of 14 is burdened with running the household, shepherding four siblings, and assisting her father. Runyan aptly depicts Claire’s acceptance of the injustice of her sacrifice and understanding the importance of her role in securing control of the company by marriage, through a discerning portrayal of her thoughts and decisions.  

Runyan juggles the family life of sister, Laure, along with the disappointing, embarrassing shenanigans of underwhelming brother, Edouard, with the business dramas involving the tower project.  When Gustave Eiffel’s tower project is faced with construction issues, petitions, and law suits he handles these situations with intelligence, discernment and integrity. Runyan’s references to Eiffel’s designs in Europe and the United States add immensely to understanding Gustave’s worldwide renown and the reasons for his inclusion in the Panama Canal venture.  

Fans of Aimie K. Runyan know she loves to include baking and food and won’t be disappointed! Included are descriptions of stunning venues in France and Portugal, where feasts and celebrations featuring luscious dinners starring Bûche Noël and Croquembouche decorate the pages.  

Gustave’s nod to his wife’s crochet patterns, represented in the ironwork designs, embellish this amazing masterpiece of engineering. Runyan’s novel, Mademoiselle Eiffel, provides the same exhilaration and joy experienced by thousands of onlookers as they witnessed the Eiffel Tower on opening day at the World’s Fair. Enjoy the view!

For further reading on the famous monument: https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/the-monument

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida

Publication September 3, 2024-Berkley Publishing Group-Literary Fiction-336pp

Book Summary

A cat a day keeps the doctor away…
Discover the award-winning, bestselling Japanese novel that has become an international sensation in this utterly charming, vibrant celebration of the healing power of cats.

Tucked away in an old building at the end of a narrow alley in Kyoto, the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul can only be found by people who are struggling in their lives and genuinely need help. The mysterious clinic offers a unique treatment to those who find their way there: it prescribes cats as medication. Patients are often puzzled by this unconventional prescription, but when they “take” their cat for the recommended duration, they witness profound transformations in their lives, guided by the playful, empathetic, occasionally challenging yet endearing cats.

Throughout the pages, the power of the human-animal bond is revealed as a disheartened businessman finds unexpected joy in physical labor, a young girl navigates the complexities of elementary school cliques, a middle-aged man struggles to stay relevant at work and home, a hardened bag designer seeks emotional balance, and a geisha finds herself unable to move on from the memory of her lost cat. As the clinic’s patients navigate their inner turmoil and seek resolution, their feline companions lead them toward healing, self-discovery, and newfound hope.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab- For BookBrowse First Impressions

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat is a heartwarming, humorous acknowledgement of the healing powers of the human-animal connection.  Syou Ishida’s charming collection of Japanese short stories linked by cat personalities and antics has been translated to English by E. Madison Shimoda. The deep emotional and personal issues of the patients who find the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul are artfully translated so English readers experience similar perplexing inner turmoil when the smiling doctor says, “We’ll prescribe you a cat,” writes the prescription for a designated number of days and dismisses the astonished client. Ishida deftly probes loneliness, family dynamics, business relationships, and grief by examining the feelings of healing and hope found through pet connections.  We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, a gratifying, witty encouragement to test the healing powers of a cat!  

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

Publication Aug. 20, 2024-Random House-Ballentine-Historical Fiction-544pp

Book Summary

From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes a novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

This is a compelling novel supporting the idea that Emilia Bassano, known as the first female poet in England, was the author of many of William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. Jodi Picoult presents this premise in a convincing dual timeline. Emilia’s timeline is filled with Shakespearean Easter eggs, plays to visualize on sixteenth century stages and stark contrasts between the privileges of royal gentlemen and the absence of rights and voice for women in the 1500’s. Be aware that Picoult’s prose takes readers behind the bedroom doors and uses brutal, graphic descriptions of how Emilia was treated and her living conditions. These passages are balanced with compassion and discernment concerning the emotions, personal losses and decisions thrust upon Emilia. Based on primary historical resources, Picoult presents a convincing case on Emilia’s behalf. The present-day timeline shines the same light on the biases against Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, reflecting struggles that Emilia Bassano faced centuries before. Emilia and Melina emerge as viable playwrights who are no longer invisible.

Readers will pour over this novel like an English Literature textbook from college; highlighting, underlining, scribbling notes in the margin; committing lines to memory and hoping to remember all the details. There’s an overwhelming urge to just begin again. 5 stars.

Shakespearean References-Easter Eggs

A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, The Tempest, Henry V, Henry VIII, As You Like it, The Merchant of Venice, Venus & Adonis, Tragedy of Antony, Arden of Faversham, Merry Wives of Windsor, Measure for Measure

Photo by Tim Llewellyn – Summer, 2021

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 29 novels, including By Any Other Name, Mad Honey, Wish You Were Here, The Book of Two Ways, A Spark of Light, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page.

Picoult’s books have been translated into thirty-four languages in thirty-five countries. Picoult lives in New Hampshire with her husband. They have three children.

The Winged Tiara by J’Nell Ciesielski

Publication August 13, 2024-Thomas Nelson-Romance-352pp

Book Summary

Diamonds and danger dazzle in Ciesielski’s latest enchanting romp through post-war Europe as estranged spouses and jewel thieves hunt an elusive Valkyrie tiara.

November 12, 1918. It was a match made in champagne-soaked heaven, but all too soon the bubbles dried up, and Esme Fox awakens the morning after celebrating the end of the Great War to find herself shockingly and accidentally married. She gathers her belongings and slips out before her new husband can stop her. After all, she knows it’s best to leave before he does.

Four years later, Jasper Truitt, after having made a name for himself in the underground world of jewel thieves, is on the hunt for a valuable heirloom: a one-of-a-kind winged tiara–the last Valkyrie tiara ever created. So it’s with great surprise that he discovers it at a charity event atop the head of a woman he’s never forgotten. His long-lost wife . . . who happens to be pursuing the tiara for a vengeful opera diva desperate to obtain the jewel for herself.

The reunion is cut short when Esme vanishes–again–but their separation is temporary. With a hitman on their heels and a deadline looming, the pair find themselves in an epic game of cat and mouse across Europe following leads from the French Riviera to a shop of wonders in Venice, a fairy-tale castle in Bavaria, and a veritable circus thrown by a champagne heiress, all before a dramatic horseback flight through the French countryside.

In the end only one can win, and with both of their hearts on the line, the winner may well turn out to be the loser.

In her latest glamorous historical romance, J’nell Ciesielski spins a sparkling story filled with her signature snappy dialogue and vivid atmosphere that will keep you reading late into the night to see what happens next.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“May the best thief win!” – The battle-cry as the hunt for the prized Valkyrie Tiara stretches across Europe. J’Nell Ciesielski’s characters, Esme Fox and Jared Truitt, are endearing and maddening at the same time.  Four years after their marriage and separation, the famed tiara draws the two jewel thieves into competition. Esme, from the East End theater world of London, is quite a match for Jared, a war veteran with an aristocratic family tree. Their spirited banter keeps the reader alert and the wealthy aristocrats unaware.  J’Nell Ciesielski’s The Winged Tiara, a magical, entertaining mystery showcases the wit, skill, and heart of two jewel thieves as they navigate the personalities, parties, and unusual pets of the aristocrats of Europe’s grand estates! A rollicking read!

Bestselling author J’nell Ciesielski has a passion for heart-stopping adventure and sweeping love stories while weaving fresh takes into romances of times gone by. When not creating dashing heroes and daring heroines, she can be found dreaming of Scotland, indulging in chocolate of any kind, or watching old black and white movies. She is a member of the Tall Poppy Writers and lives in Virginia with her husband, daughter, and lazy beagle.

Close Knit by Jenny Colgan

Publication 8- 6- 24-Avon, Harper Voyager-Romance-Women’s Fiction-336pp

Book Summary

In the northernmost reaches of Scotland, where a string of little islands in the North Sea stretches towards Norway, lives Gertie MacIntyre, a proud island girl by birth. Her social circle is small but tight: family and friends, particularly the women in her knitting circle. In the whitewashed cottages of their hometown, everyone knows everyone, and the ladies of the knitting circle know more than most. In a place of long dark winters and geographic isolation, the knitting circle is a precious source of gossip, home, laughter, and comfort for them all. And while she knits, Gertie’s busily plotting what to do with the rest of her life.

When Gertie develops a crush on Callum Frost, who owns the local airline, she dares herself to take a job as an air stewardess on the little plane that serves the local islands. Terrifying at first, the sixteen-seat puddle jumper also offers the first taste of real freedom she’s ever known. Will Gertie’s future lie in the skies? Or will she need to go further afield to find the adventure she craves? 

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Knitting is a soothing, creative way to relax. The same can be said for reading Jenny Colgan’s Close Knit. The setting is Carso, the roof of Scotland, known as the friendliest, safest, best place in the world. Colgan stitches family, love at any age, and adventure into a comforting, satisfying pattern. Gertie Mooney lives with her mother, Jean, and grandmother Elspeth, in a tiny yarn filled cottage, which is the meeting place for the Knitting Circle. These women who essentially raised Gertie, are the town busy bodies; feared, admired, and full of advice. Colgan’s humorous descriptions and truthful hints at personalities and their favorite yarns and colors make them lovable, too. Key to the story are Gertie’s friends, Morag and Nathalie, who remind her of the stings of adolescence. Gertie’s self-talk perfectly accentuates the anxieties and hurtfulness of memories and how these feelings stick with us. Morag, a female pilot whose love for flying adds a different angle to the story, is searching for a replacement for pregnant Nathalie.  The adventure begins as Morag is to fly Dolly, the 16-seater airplane, for the epic primary school camping trip.

Colgan’s expressions describing the thrill of flying: “from beetling around on the surface…to breaking the bonds of gravity,” and her poignant descriptions of mountains, glens, and children singing, add comfort and overall joy to her prose.

Indulge your creative side with this self-soothing Scottish tale that delves into loneliness in spite of wealth, shaking free of the bonds of “sameness,” and gaining the courage to take Elspeth’s advice, “Live every day. Grab it!”  

Jenny Colgan is the author of numerous bestselling novels for adults, including Meet Me at the Cupcake Café and Little Beach Street Bakery. When Neil the puffin from Little Beach Street Bakery caught her readers’ attention, Jenny knew she needed a story of his own – and so the idea for Polly and the Puffin was born. Jenny is married with three children and lives in Scotland. For more about Jenny, visit her website and her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter: @jennycolgan. https://www.jennycolgan.com/

Favorite Things? Happy Pub Day Maria: The Story of Maria Von Trapp by Michelle Moran

Publication July 30, 2024-Random House-Ballentine-Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction-336pp

Book Summary

In the 1950s, Oscar Hammerstein is asked to write the lyrics to a musical based on the life of a woman named Maria von Trapp. He’s intrigued to learn that she was once a novice who hoped to live quietly as an Austrian nun before her abbey sent her away to teach a widowed baron’s sickly child. What should have been a ten-month assignment, however, unexpectedly turned into a marriage proposal. And when the family was forced to flee their home to escape the Nazis, it was Maria who instructed them on how to survive using nothing but the power of their voices.

It’s an inspirational story, to be sure, and as half of the famous Rodgers & Hammerstein duo, Hammerstein knows it has big Broadway potential. Yet much of Maria’s life will have to be reinvented for the stage, and with the horrors of war still fresh in people’s minds, Hammerstein can’t let audiences see just how close the von Trapps came to losing their lives.

But when Maria sees the script that is supposedly based on her life, she becomes so incensed that she sets off to confront Hammerstein in person. Told that he’s busy, she is asked to express her concerns to his secretary, Fran, instead. The pair strike up an unlikely friendship as Maria tells Fran about her life, contradicting much of what will eventually appear in The Sound of Music.


Reflections on Musicals and Maria Von Trapp

My mother, Leona, instilled my love for Broadway productions by taking me to concerts, plays, musicals, and operas. As a child and teenager I listened to recordings on the stereo, over and over, so lyrics are ingrained in my memory. Now 99 years-old, Leona remembers seeing a live performance of the Von Trapp Family Singers in 1942, as a freshman in college at University of Southwestern Louisiana. She recalls the performance quite vividly and says, “I was struck by the family’s determination and bravery it took to escape Austria under German control.” Sixty-eight years after that live concert, in 2010, we visited Stowe, Vermont, and stayed at the Trapp Family Lodge. Leona, then 75, had a memorable conversation with third daughter, Mitzi (86yo), while on a walking tour of the gardens. Mitzi, who had survived Scarlet Fever as a child, died in 2014, at the age of 100! Later that day one of Maria’s granddaughters gave a presentation to a large crowd of visitors. Leona proudly stood to share her memory of seeing and hearing the family while in college. She was the only person in the audience who had heard the Von Trapp Family in concert. These memories make it a great privilege and honor for me to read and review Maria, A Novel of Maria Von Trapp. Below the review is a link to the Von Trapp website.

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Many of the iconic songs of Oscar Hammerstein’s award-winning Broadway play and movie are ingrained in our musical memory; “Do-Re-Mi,” “My Favorite Things,” “Climb Every Mountain.” When The Sound of Music is mentioned images flash of Julie Andrews twirling amidst the Alps and the Captain realizing those are his children hanging from tree branches- in new play clothes made from curtains! Why is the movie SO different from Maria’s real story?  In 1959, with World War II fresh in viewers’ memories Rogers and Hammerstein decided to adapt Maria’s harrowing true story to a more palatable version for audiences.

Moran’s novel is based on the autobiography of Maria Von Trapp and the vehicle for moving from the Broadway script to Maria’s account is through Hammerstein’s secretary, Fran. When asked to read and give her opinion of the script Fran replies, “It’s simple and sweet and impossible not to like. Makes you wonder how much of it is actually true. A woman who finds herself married to a Baron after almost marrying herself to God?” That’s Moran’s perfect segue!

Fran’s assignment is to assuage Maria’s anger over the shocking differences between the script and her real story. Fran and Maria’s trusting friendship is Moran’s endearing element that leads to their meetings on park benches near St. Patrick’s Cathedral. These eye-opening conversations and Moran’s descriptions of New Yorkers, famous streets and buildings add to the atmospheric setting of NYC in the late 1950’s.

Discovering Maria Von Trapp’s true story as compared to the movie plot is what makes every page of this novel so compelling. Moran’s deep research reveals Maria’s childhood traumas, her education, and later her devotion to the Von Trapp children. Maria’s trust in God and her family bolstered her courage to leave the country she loved for an uncertain future in America.

After the Broadway opening Maria reminds Hammerstein that it’s not the agents, critics or managers that buy tickets; only the people do. Get your “ticket” to Maria by Michelle Moran to know the real Maria Von Trapp and the story behind The Sound of Music.

A few questions that Fran’s interview with Maria will answer through the novel and the Author’s Note.

Was Maria in love with the Captain when they married and who was the disciplinarian? How did Maria know so many folksongs? Did she really make play clothes from curtains? What’s the special meaning of the song, “So Long, Farewell?” What happened in the churchyard? Were the Nazis at the Salzburg Festival? Was Maria invited to the movie premiere in NYC? How much money did she make? And SO many more!

1947 Vermont-The engaging website for the Von Trapp Family: https://www.vontrapp.org/

Michelle Moran is the internationally bestselling author of eight historical novels. A native of southern California, she attended Pomona College, then earned a Masters Degree from the Claremont Graduate University. During her six years as a public high school teacher, she used her summers to travel around the world, and it was her experiences as a volunteer on archaeological digs that inspired her to write historical fiction. Her novels, translated into more than twenty languages, include Nefertiti, The Heretic Queen, Cleopatra’s Daughter, Madame Tussaud, The Second Empress, Rebel Queen, Mata Hari, and Maria. A frequent traveler, she currently lives with her family in England, where she is researching her ninth book.