Christmas with the Queen by Heather Webb, Hazel Gaynor

Publication Nov. 19, 2024-William Morrow-Historical Fiction-384pp

Book Summary

’Tis the season! The Crown meets When Harry Met Sally in the latest heartwarming historical novel from Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, bestselling authors of Last Christmas in Paris, Meet Me in Monaco, and Three Words for Goodbye.

December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue the tradition of her late father’s Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must evolve with the times, and the queen faces a postwar Britain hungry for change.

As preparations begin for the royal Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk, old friends—Jack Devereux and Olive Carter—are unexpectedly reunited by the occasion. Olive, a single mother and aspiring reporter at the BBC, leaps at the opportunity to cover the holiday celebration, but even a chance encounter with the queen doesn’t go as planned and Olive wonders if she will ever be taken seriously.

Jack, a recently widowed chef, reluctantly takes up a new role in the royal kitchens at Sandringham. Lacking in purpose and direction, Jack has abandoned his dream to have his own restaurant, but his talents are soon noticed and while he might not believe in himself, others do, and a chance encounter with an old friend helps to reignite the spark of his passion and ambition.

As Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmases, they grow ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret that threatens to destroy everything.

Christmas Day, December 1957. As the nation eagerly awaits the Queen’s first televised Christmas speech, there is one final gift for the Christmas season to deliver…

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

I have been a royal follower since I lived in Scotland and London in the mid 1970’s. I have watched “The Crown” over and over, and have many favorite novels based on the royal family, “Crawfie”-the nanny, Queen Elizabeth’s “gown,” and the Coronation. Now, I can add Christmas with the Queen to my shelf of royal reads. Last Christmas in Paris, a World War I epistolary novel, was the first novel from writing partners Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb. Pour a cup of tea; black, no lemon, like the Queen, and settle in for a royal Christmas treat.

Christmas with the Queen is written in alternate timelines and from three points of view. According to the authors, they wanted to explore how two ordinary people might become entangled with the royal traditions through their own jobs. This was accomplished with the intertwining of Olive Carter, an enthusiastic, endearing BBC reporter, Jack Devereaux, an orderly, predictable chef from New Orleans, and Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas messages from Sandringham. Readers get a keen sense of the euphoria of VE Day as the 1945 timeline alternates with the early years of Elizabeth’s reign in 1952, and the personal postwar struggles of Olive and Jack. The incorporation of Cajun dishes like jambalaya and shrimp and grits onto the royal menu was “lagniappe”-an added treat for this south Louisiana gal!

Chapters laced with fascinating details of estate staff cottages, the Corgis, Susan and Sugar, and references to Margaret’s headlines make the Christmases fly by! Easily imagined from years of magazine coverage and the vivid depictions in The Crown I devoured the insights into the royal couple’s tour to the South Pacific from the BBC perspective and Prince Phillip’s tour to Antarctica through the eyes of a royal chef. Simply delicious!

From the kitchens of Buckingham Palace to the country lanes leading to Sandringham and the Queen’s first televised message, this ‘will they-won’t they’ romance is a delightful Christmas adventure.

The Queen’s 1957 Christmas Broadcast was an historic event, as it was the first to be televised. It was also the 25th anniversary of the first Christmas Broadcast on the radio. The broadcast was made live from the Long Library at Sandringham, Norfolk. https://www.royal.uk/christmas-broadcast-1957

The Forgotten Italian Restaurant by Barbara Josselsohn

Publication August 21, 2024-Bookouture-WWII Historical Romance-Sisters of War Book #3-268pp

Book Summary

Italy, 1943. The girl rushes down the winding streets, tucking the handwritten menu into the wicker basket and thinking only of the code hidden on the delicate paper. Will anyone forgive her for what she’s about to do to save the man she loves?

Present day. Arriving in sun-drenched Caccipulia, Callie grips the faded restaurant menu in trembling hands. Found hidden in her family home, she is certain it will lead her to the truth about her grandmother’s life in Italy during World War Two. Why did her Nonna run away from this beautiful small town, never to return? Lost and alone in the world, could it help Callie understand who she is?

Local café owner Oliver’s dark brown eyes light up when he sees the menu. During the war, one brave family secretly fed desperate Jewish families hidden in safe houses through the village. Callie’s heart soars at the thought that her own dear grandmother was involved.

Diving into the town’s history during long walks down cobbled streets, Callie begins to feel at home under Oliver’s soft gaze. She wonders if she could build a life here with him. Until they push aside magenta flowers on a monument at the heart of the village, and uncover a secret that changes everything…

A grave mistake was made one dark night as the Nazis stalked the village, putting the whole town in terrible danger. When Callie finds out what her grandmother did, will it change the way Oliver feels about her? Will she stay and right the wrongs of the past, or be forced to leave Italy too, just like her Nonna?

A heartbreaking love story that will sweep you away to sun-drenched Italian vineyards to watch hope and bravery prevail in the darkest days of war. For fans of Kristin Hannah, Victoria Hislop and Fiona Valpy.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab First Reviewed for Historical Novel Magazine November 2024 for Historical Novel Society

Barbara Josselsohn’s Sisters of War series features Emilia as the plucky heroine in book #3, The Forgotten Italian Restaurant. As the Nazi threat intensifies, fifteen-year-old Emilia returns from a castle on the Mediterranean Isle of Parissi to her hometown of Caccipulia, Italy.

Mysteries and secrets throughout the series lead to a stunning revelation in this conclusion told in dual timeline. The timelines intersect through Callie in present day Connecticut and Emilia in 1943, Italy. Callie is traveling to the village of Caccipulia in response to newly discovered clues to her grandmother’s connection to Italy. The relationship between Callie and her older sister Pam emerges in Callie’s memories and self-talk presenting themes of sibling rivalry, guilt, and discovering home. Emilia’s timeline highlights the Nazi invasion and the family’s involvement in the Resistance. This history focuses on themes of betrayal, strength of the human spirit, and resilience. Well-developed, endearing characters Signora Jorelini, restaurant owner, and daughter, Corinna, become Emilia’s protectors, teaching her the meaning of loyalty and love. The fate of the castle and Emilia’s older sisters, Annalisa, and Giulia, becomes apparent through emotional, suspenseful, mother-daughter conversations, also enlightening Emelia to the frightening treatment of Jews during the time she was away on the island.

Josselsohn’s impeccable research and descriptions create a physical sense of the stunning architecture in the rebuilt village of Caccipulia, the aromas and tastes of luscious meals prepared by Signor Jorelini for Jewish families in hiding, and a vision of the rolling Italian countryside. An Italian feast for the senses.

A restaurant menu card with a hidden code, a train schedule, and two passports are the ingredients in this World War II mystery. The Forgotten Italian Restaurant, a portrayal of loss, dangerous relationships, and intrigue, with love for family victorious. Gratifying series finale.

The Path Beneath Her Feet by Janis R. Daly

Publication September 5, 2024-Black Rose Writing-Historical Fiction-Medical Fiction-372pp

Book Summary

THE PATH BENEATH HER FEET continues the story of Dr. Eliza Edwards’ commitment to limit suffering and save lives amid the tumultuous landscapes of 1930s and 1940s America.

In 1936, as the Depression ravages careers, Eliza re-defines her abilities. When a position calls her to Warm Springs, Georgia, to tend to a polio patient, Eliza faces the harsh realities of a society plagued by prejudice. Mirroring the pack-horse librarians’ mission to bring books to the illiterate communities of Appalachia, the American Women’s Hospitals delivers essential medical care. Eliza joins the AWH, reclaiming her purpose and rediscovering her ambitions against the backdrop of the Tennessee mountains. As family responsibilities call her home to Boston, the heartbreak of losing those dearest to her amplifies with the eruption of World War II, bringing chaos to the world and sending her sons into battle.

In this emotionally charged sequel to THE UNLOCKED PATH, Dr. Eliza Edwards marks her journey through sacrifice, love, and an unyielding pursuit of justice in an era marked by adversity. The ingénue student becomes the mature mentor, steadfast in her calling to effect social change by addressing women’s health issues and guiding others to realize their dreams.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab First Published in Historical Novel Review Magazine- November 2024 Issue for Historical Novel Society

Dr. Eliza Edwards continues to “care for the defenseless and the powerless” in The Path Beneath Her Feet, the sequel to The Unlocked Path. After the closing of her practice during the Depression, Eliza dutifully follows “the path beneath her feet” to a treatment center for polio victims in Warm Springs, Georgia, and the need for medical care in the hills of Appalachia.

Eliza faces decisions regarding her family, career, and duty to her country. The worries and complexities of women as mothers and doctors of the 1930’s and 1940’s are authentically portrayed as Eliza takes on the challenge of becoming a therapist for a pregnant Black polio patient. Robinson deftly reveals prejudice at the treatment center in Warm Springs, Georgia, through actions and dialogue typical of the times. Eliza’s determination and belief in her convictions are conveyed through Robinson’s handling of these tenuous social and personal situations. Eliza’s career path leads her to Tennessee where discerning character development and dialogue demonstrate tenacity and wisdom through Eliza’s quiet advice to gain desperately needed trust from the community. Robinson highlights the amazing work of women doctors of the American Women’s Hospitals and the building of maternity shelters in Appalachia, with an impact much like the pack horse librarians. Eliza decides whether to place responsibilities over personal satisfaction reflecting the theme of family priorities. The plot is filled with suspense and Eliza’s maternal anxiety as war looms and her sons are in harm’s way.

Follow Eliza’s path through the 1940’s: Roosevelt in the Oval Office, the First Lady and Glen Miller on the radio, LIFE magazine on the coffee table, and Jimmy Stewart on the big screen. The Path Beneath Her Feet, packed with emotion and history, brings the challenges and adversities of women in medicine clearly into focus.

Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation

American Women’s Hospitals Appalachia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-PugIBa6gw

An American Women’s Hospital doctor (in hat and “AWH” armband) administers a shot to a local woman in Jellico, Tennessee. The AWH had a mobile health clinic that included vaccinations and inoculations as part of their service to the rural Appalachian region of the United States. The AWH car is visible in the background behind a young woman.)

Echoes of Us by Joy Jordan-Lake

Publication Oct. 8, 2024-Lake Union Publishing-Historical Fiction-461pp

Book Summary

In the midst of World War II, a Tennessee farm boy, a Jewish Cambridge student, and a German POW forge a connection that endures—against all odds. But now everything that Will Dobbins, Dov Silverberg, and Hans Hessler fought for is at risk as their descendants clash for control of the corporation they founded together. In an attempt to remake its tattered corporate image, the firm hires event planner Hadley Jacks and her sister Kitzie to organize a reunion for the families on St. Simons Island, Georgia, the place that changed all three men’s lives forever. As Hadley and her sister delve into the friends’ past, they uncover the life of the courageous young woman who links them all together…and the old wounds that could tear everything apart. Told in dual timelines spanning World War II and the present, Echoes of Us follows the ripple effects of war, the bonds that outlast it, and the hope that ultimately carries us forward.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

A photo of three soldiers and a beautiful young girl– torn apart, TRAITOR scratched across the back. Who is the TRAITOR in the ripped-up photo? In the present-day timeline, many questions need to be answered as Hadley and sister, Kitzie, take over organizing a reunion for descendants of the four young people in the photo. With the backdrop of Georgia’s Golden Isles and World War II, the author immerses readers in American history seldom included in textbooks. History involving catastrophic U-boat attacks off the Eastern and Southern coasts, the WASP-Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, POWs in the U.S., and the 761^st Tank Battalion. This novel is a treasure trove of facts and background supporting the men and women who defended America and the Georgia coast and eventually became pilots in WWII. The four main characters “echo” family devotion, friendship, and romantic connections throughout the war timeline. The author’s pacing of the war timeline pairs perfectly with the urgency of the characters’ life changing decisions. In the present day timeline, surprising revelations leave readers either sympathetic or heartbroken as Hadley and Kitzie slowly put the pieces of the puzzle together at the reunion. Justification for war is a theme examined through the bonds of twins, Joannie and Sam, while betrayal is explored in pacts between Hadley and Kitzie, and in Joannie’s romantic relationships. St. Simons’ King and Prince resort is the dramatic setting for the reunion as generational interlocking pieces fall into place. A heartfelt ending filled with boundless love and kindness.

**Christ Church Frederica -St. Simons Island**

https://www.joyjordanlake.com/about

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

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

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.

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.

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