Publication April 23, 2024-Kensington Books-Historical Fiction-Teens/YA-368pp
Book Summary
Daisy Flowers is fifteen in 1978 when her free-spirited mother dumps her in Possum Flats, Missouri. It’s a town that sounds like roadkill and, in Daisy’s eyes, is every bit as dead. Sentenced to spend the summer living with her grandmother, the wry and irreverent town mortician, Daisy draws the line at working for the family business, Flowers Funeral Home. Instead, she maneuvers her way into an internship at the local newspaper where, sorting through the basement archives, she learns of a mysterious tragedy from fifty years earlier…
On a sweltering, terrible night in 1928, an explosion at the local dance hall left dozens of young people dead, shocking and scarring a town that still doesn’t know how or why it happened. Listed among the victims is a name that’s surprisingly familiar to Daisy, revealing an irresistible family connection to this long-ago accident.
Obsessed with investigating the horrors and heroes of that night, Daisy soon discovers Possum Flats holds a multitude of secrets for a small town. And hardly anyone who remembers the tragedy is happy to have some teenaged hippie asking questions about it – not the fire-and-brimstone preacher who found his calling that tragic night; not the fed-up police chief; not the mayor’s widow or his mistress; not even Daisy’s own grandmother, a woman who’s never been afraid to raise eyebrows in the past, whether it’s for something she’s worn, sworn, or done for a living. Some secrets are guarded by the living, while others are kept by the dead, but as buried truths gradually come into the light, they’ll force a reckoning at last.
Inspired by the true story of the Bond Dance Hall explosion, a tragedy that took place in the author’s hometown of West Plains, Missouri on April 13, 1928.The cause of the blast has never been determined.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab Read and Reviewed for BookBrowse: First Impressions Program
This debut historical fiction novel based on the tragic Bond Dance Hall explosion of 1928 is a multigenerational masterpiece. Anderson populates Possum Flats with a cast of endearing characters living out their lives with painfully deep emotional and physical scars from that fateful night. The devastating, mysterious details of the tragedy are revealed through flashbacks by the twin Flower sisters, Rose and Violet, and other prominent townspeople. Now 1978, Rose’s granddaughter, Daisy, an intern for the town paper, is obsessed with getting the scoop on the dance hall explosion for the 50th anniversary. Through interviews Daisy delves into the compelling backstory on the upbringing and choices of the victims and survivors of the 1928 explosion. The Flower Sisters, a twisting, psychological mystery, is a study of twin connections, the search for identity, and survivor guilt. The tragic lesson is that consequences from split second decisions can ripple for a lifetime. Captivating. Surprising. Haunting.
In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.
But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.
Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
Patti Callahan Henry’s dual time-line novel begins with the 1939 evacuation of children out of London known as Operation Pied Piper. Hazel Linden and her five-year-old sister, Flora Lea, have travelled by train to Oxford to escape the predicted London bombings. The lush description of the cottage at Binsey, the surrounding woodlands near the Thames, and the warm reception by Bridgette Aberdeen and her son Harry, allow readers a deep breath of relief. The sisters are distracted from the fears of war by “Bridie’s” daytime adventures, but at night with love and warmth, Hazel creates a fairy tale with a secret realm to comfort Flora Lea. The late-night imaginings whimsically named Whisperwood and the River of Stars, become the sisters’ personal, secret lifeline to survival. Patti Callahan Henry has created a mystical, magical, mystery within a mystery. In the depths of this novel’s soul is the disappearance of a fairy tale, Whisperwood and the River of Stars, along with Flora, into the river Thames.
Patti Callahan Henry transports readers from the banks of the Thames in 1940 to Hogan’s Rare Book Shoppe in Bloomsbury, London, 1960. Hazel has spent these last twenty years working and searching for Flora Lea, never giving up hope that she was alive. Then on Hazel’s last day at the book shop before her dream job at Sotheby’s Auction House begins, a parcel arrives from America, an illustrated children’s book with the exact title of her secret realm; Whisperwood and the River of Stars.
The characters PCH creates make surprising choices and keep secrets out of love and protection from the truth. Realizing that “grief, confessions, and memories remain long, and dark and cold,” Henry’s readers learn the fear of discovering truth and who to blame creates trauma and its effect called memory reframing. As the mystery unfolds readers hopes are lifted and dashed as Hazel attempts to find the sender of the parcel, hoping, and praying the creator is Flora Lea. This novel is filled with heartbreak and hope; how to overcome fear, loneliness, loss, and find renewal, but most of all to hold tight and “never surrender to anyone else’s idea of who and what you should believe.”
The beloved, elderly owner of Hogan’s Rare Book Shoppe once told Hazel, “Stories and books always find their rightful owners.” Life will become magical as rightful owners discover Patti Callahan Henry’s The Secret Book of Flora Lea.
Highly recommended; 5 magical stars!
A New York Times Bestselling Author Co-creator and co-host of the weekly web show and podcast Friends & Fiction. Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sixteen novels and podcast host. A full-time author, mother of three, and grandmother of two, she lives in Mountain Brook, Alabama with her husband, Pat Henry. Her newest novel, The Secret Book of Flora Lea, is set outside Oxford in the hamlet of Binsey, and will be released on May 2nd, 2023 with Simon & Schuster Atria.
Publication April 2, 2024-Harper Collins-Historical Fiction-368p
Book Summary
At this wondrous resort, secrets can easily be hidden in plain sight when the eye is trained on beauty.
April 1913—Belle Newbold hasn’t seen mountains for seven years—since her father died in a mining accident and her mother married gasoline magnate, Shipley Newbold. But when her stepfather’s business acquaintance, Henry Ford, invites the family on one of his famous Vagabonds camping tours, she is forced to face the hills once again—primarily in order to reunite with her future fiancé, owner of the land the Vagabonds are using for their campsite, a man she’s only met once before. It is a veritable arranged marriage, but she prefers it that way. Belle isn’t interested in love. She only wants a simple life—a family of her own and the stability of a wealthy man’s pockets. That’s what Worth Delafield has promised to give her and it’s worth facing the mountains again, the reminder of the past, and her poverty, to secure her future.
But when the Vagabonds group is invited to tour the unfinished Grove Park Inn and Belle is unexpectedly thrust into a role researching and writing about the building of the inn—a construction the locals are calling The Eighth Wonder of the World—she quickly realizes that these mountains are no different from the ones she once called home. As Belle peels back the facade of Grove Park Inn, of Worth, of the society she’s come to claim as her own, and the truth of her heart, she begins to see that perhaps her part in Grove Park’s story isn’t a coincidence after all. Perhaps it is only by watching a wonder rise from ordinary hands and mountain stone that she can finally find the strength to piece together the long-destroyed path toward who she was meant to be.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
The Grove Park Inn, known in 1913 as the “eighth wonder of the world,” draws readers to Asheville, North Carolina, in the glorious Blue Ridge Mountains. Asheville’s mountain setting and fresh air has become known as the perfect place for sanatoriums for tuberculosis patients. Edwin Grove and his son-in-law, Fred Seely, are investing in an amazing hotel hoping to secure Asheville’s future by recentering the economy on tourism.
At the core of Callaway’s story is the actual building of Grove Park Inn, the plight of hundreds of laborers, and a tuberculosis pandemic. Callaway lays a solid foundation of the area’s rich history filled with well researched details walled in by Belle and Worth’s intriguing social conundrums. Belle realizes her dream of following in her father’s footsteps and accepts the task of writing the story of Grove Park Inn. With this self-discovery she is immediately transfixed by the craftsmanship that this “marvel upon marvel” will require. Joy Callaway intricately dovetails details of stone masons fitting boulders into the walls of the Great Hall and descriptions of rebar and scaffolding involved in tiled roofing, with the comedic contests of the Vagabonds and the outlandish “camping” scenes of the elite socialites and the waitstaff.
A theme of unconditional love is deeply forged into the relationship of Belle and her mother, Grace. They live in fear of their past being discovered by Grace’s new husband and Belle’s betrothed, Worth Delafield. Callaway’s development of the mother/daughter relationship of secrecy and deceit is layered on top of Belle’s skewed perspective of how she views marriage and family, neither involving love. This view creates a lot of angst, frustration, and tense social scenes. Worth Delafield, dealing with the tragic loss of his family, is also operating out of fear. This plot line winds up and down the mountain roads and into the hills. Belle’s faux life also involves the villain, Marie Austen, her self-centered, irritating, deceiving “best friend.” In the midst of the marriage matches and mismatches, the Grove Park Inn is getting closer and closer to completion! Callaway creates anticipation as exhilarating as the mountain air! Finding purpose and truth is at the heart of What the Mountains Remember.
Joy Callaway is an international bestselling author of historical fiction and southern contemporary romance. She formerly served as a marketing director for a wealth management company. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Public Relations from Marshall University and an M.M.C. in Mass Communication from the University of South Carolina. She resides in Charlotte, NC with her husband, John, and her children. Joy’s beautiful website: https://www.joycallaway.com/
Publication April 2, 2024-Bethany House-Christian-Historical Fiction-Romance-368pp
Book Summary
Set in the shadow of Biltmore Estate, a poignant tale of friendship, restoration, and second chances.
Seven years ago, a hidden betrayal scattered three young friends living in the shadow of the great Vanderbilt mansion. Now, when Biltmore Industries master weaver Lorna Blankenship is commissioned to create an original design for Cornelia Vanderbilt’s 1924 wedding, she panics knowing she doesn’t have the creativity needed. But there’s an elusive artisan in the Blue Ridge Mountains who could save her–if only she knew where to begin.
To track down the mysterious weaver, Lorna sees no other way than to seek out the relationships she abandoned in shame. As she pulls at each tangled thread from her past, Lorna is forced to confront the wounds and regrets of life long ago. She’ll have to risk the job that shapes her identity, as well as the hope of friendship–and love–restored.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
George Washington Vanderbilt III first welcomed family and friends to the sprawling Biltmore Estate on Christmas Eve, 1895. Author Sarah Thomas ushers readers across the threshold of the estate twenty-eight years later; after the premature death of George Vanderbilt in 1914 and the North Carolina flood of 1916. These catastrophic events form the breathtaking, dramatic backdrop of These Tangled Threads.
George’s widow, Edith and 14-year-old daughter, Cornelia, forged ahead, running the estate and its eighty person staff. George had established Biltmore Village in 1889, which included a school, a church, hospital, and cottages to house and support the laborers and artisans working on the estate. By 1901 the Vanderbilts had created Biltmore Industries, the apprenticeship program designed to teach woodworking and weaving. This is where fictional characters Lorna, Arthur and Gentry learned their trades. The devastating flood of 1916 created a financial burden for the Vanderbilt estate, forcing Edith to sell Biltmore Industries in 1917, to Fred Seely of nearby Grove Park Inn, which had opened in 1913.
Sarah Thomas deftly weaves daily life at Biltmore House, the Village, and the Industries, with the life altering effects of the flood of 1916. Thomas uses Lorna’s deceit and guilt, Gentry’s loneliness and search for her mother, and Arthur’s rejection as a child to reveal identifiable and relatable emotions through memories and thoughts. They have endured family challenges, the loss of loved ones, and decisions made either out of love and desperation or selfishness and pride. Thomas creates angst and suspense as the defining threads in the lives of the characters unravel through heartbreak, reflection, and regret. By Lorna’s “reckoning day” the threads of illumination and understanding are rewoven into a glistening tapestry of confession and forgiveness. Through loving, compassionate conversations Sarah Loudin Thomas effectively and passionately shares that God’s grace is not earned, it is a gift. A gift of Amazing Grace. These Tangled Threads: Uplifting and Redeeming
Sarah Loudin Thomas (sarahloudinthomas.com) is the author of numerous acclaimed novels, including The Finder of Forgotten Things, The Right Kind of Fool, winner of the 2021 Selah Book of the Year, and Miracle in a Dry Season, winner of the 2015 INSPY Award. She worked in public relations for Biltmore Estate for six years and is now the director of Jan Karon’s Mitford Museum. A native of West Virginia, she and her husband now live in western North Carolina.
Facts and Photos to extend the visit to Asheville, North Carolina
The settings of Biltmore House, Biltmore Village, and Biltmore Industries each play a key role in the novel. Here are a few facts about Biltmore House.
Written by Rachel D. Carley, Rosemary G. Rennick, ISBN 1-885378-01-7-Published by The Biltmore Company-116p-Softcover
“On Christmas Eve, the country retreat George Vanderbilt has spent so long planning is marvelously decorated and full of festivity. The finished home contains more than four acres of floor space, including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. ” A wonderful site for history & timeline: https://www.biltmore.com/our-story/biltmore-history/estate-timeline/
Building Biltmore=Over a thousand artisans and six years
Naming Biltmore- “Bildt”-Dutch town of George’s ancestors, “More”-old English for open, rolling land.
Designing Biltmore-Richard Morris Hunt-architect for The Breakers and Marble House, Newport, RI, the main façade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, pedestal for Statue of Liberty and Biltmore Estate
Landscaping Biltmore-Frederick Law Olmstead-Landscape Architect- New York Central Park, U. S. Capitol grounds, Stanford University campus, Biltmore Estate
Gardening at Biltmore-Chauncey Beadle-Canadian Horticulturist remained on the estate for 60 years.
Celebrating Biltmore-Opened Christmas Eve 1895
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive.” Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, Sir Walter Scott The famous quote aptly represents the theme of this novel.
Novels Set at Biltmore House Reviewed by Grateful Reader
Publication March 19, 2024-Random House, Ballantine-Historical Fiction-416pp
Book Summary
Massachusetts, 1836. Young, brazen, beautiful, and unapologetically brilliant, Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated “Sage of Concord,” to meet his coterie of enlightened friends shaping a nation in the throes of its own self-discovery. By the end of her stay, she will become “the radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalists, a role model to young Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character of Hester Prynne and the scandalous Scarlet Letter, a friend to Henry David Thoreau as he ventures into the woods of Walden Pond . . . and a muse to Emerson himself. But Margaret craves more than poetry and interpersonal drama, and she finds her restless soul in need of new challenges and adventure.
And so she charts a singular course against a backdrop of dizzying historical drama: From Boston, where she hosts a women-only literary salon for students like Elizabeth Cady Stanton; to the editorial meetings of The Dial magazine, where she hones her pen as its co-founder; to Harvard’s library, where she is the first woman to study within its walls; to the gritty New York streets where she spars with Edgar Allan Poe and reports on the writings of Frederick Douglass. Margaret defies conventions time and again as an activist for women and an advocate for humanity, earning admirers and scathing critics alike.
When the legendary Horace Greeley offers an assignment in Europe, Margaret again makes history as the first female foreign news correspondent, mingling with luminaries like Frederic Chopin, Walt Whitman, George Sand, and more. But it is in Rome where she finds a world of passion, romance, and revolution, taking a Roman count as a lover—and sparking an international scandal. Evolving yet again into the roles of mother and countess, Margaret enters a new fight for Italy’s unification.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
I requested this novel because of the former writings of Allison Pataki, not because I knew immediately who Margaret Fuller was or what the title “finding” Margaret Fuller meant! I was surprised, impressed, and somewhat incensed that I’m just learning about her. I know of Pataki’s impeccable research from previous historical fiction novels, the latest, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post.Finding Margaret Fuller is likewise educational, entertaining, and even befuddling. Readers will remember Ralph Waldo Emmerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Louisa May Alcott from high school English, but why not the name of Margaret Fuller? She was central to the Transcendentalist movement, an author, the first woman to study in the halls of Harvard, the first female foreign news correspondent, and part of an international scandal! So, why haven’t we read about her life accomplishments or studied her writings?
Allison Pataki begins with the end in mind, revealing Margaret Fuller’s tragic fate in the opening prologue. Margaret’s search for identity unfolds in five parts, told in first person. This provides an emotional connection so readers feel personally involved as Pataki recounts the bold, daring life of an educated, brilliant, single female in the mid-nineteenth century. The descriptive settings, like characters themselves, transport readers from the wooded lanes, wildflowers, and rivers of Massachusetts to the streets of NYC; from radical conversation salons for women in Boston, through Europe as a war correspondent and governess and finally, to the revolution in Italy. Margaret Fuller lived an amazing life; just not long enough. One writer explained her well, “How do you describe a Force?”
So, thank you to Allison Pataki for “finding” Margaret Fuller, a trailblazer a century ahead of her time.
Louisa May Alcott
Ralph Waldo Emmerson
Henry David Thoreau
Margaret Fuller
Allison Pataki is a writer of adult fiction, adult nonfiction, and children’s books. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and is popular in more than twenty countries.
A former news writer and producer, Allison has written for The New York Times, ABC News, The Huffington Post, USA Today, Fox News and other outlets. She has appeared on The TODAY Show, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, Good Day New York, Good Day Chicago and MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
Publication March 12, 2024-Berkley Publishing-528p
“One of the most consequential women of modern history that you might not know about!”
Book Summary
American heroine Frances Perkins
Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.
When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.
But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.
Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
This is a compelling behind the scenes look at the life of Frances Perkins on her way to becoming the first female presidential cabinet member serving as Secretary of Labor through all four of FDR’s history making terms as president of the United States. A chance meeting of FDR at an afternoon society tea-dance is the turning point in Perkins’ career. Stephanie Dray’s impeccably researched novel keeps the reader’s focus on work-life balance as Frances juggles her burgeoning social and political activities with her family life.
I was enthralled with Frances Perkins’ determination and resolve to bring the horrid, unsafe working conditions in factories to the government’s attention and her tireless work to pass legislation calling for vast improvement in safety conditions and limiting work weeks to fifty-four hours. Dray’s unforgettable details and descriptions of a monumental time in U.S. history include tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, the Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Great Depression, FDR’s rise in the Democratic Party, Women’s Suffrage, and World War 11. I was most impressed with the courage and fortitude shown by Frances Perkins as she forged her place in history as a woman with a brilliant mind who became advisor, and confidant to our 32nd president. Her service to the U. S. is most evident in the New Deal and the Social Security Act which she was instrumental in convincing Congress to implement.
Stephanie Dray’s Becoming Madam Secretary is a terrific force, very much like Frances Perkins and her infamous tricorn hat.
The Author’s Note is filled with pages and pages of delicious details and facts that are not included in the novel. Stephanie poured over the 5000 page transcript of Frances Perkins’ oral history, newspaper headlines, appointment books and even interviewed her grandson! The novel left me so impressed and thirsting for even more background and news that I watched FDR, a documentary in three episodes. Yes, Frances Perkins is right there in the photographs!
https://francesperkinscenter.org/learn/her-life/rances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary, was the driving force behind the New Deal, credited with formulating policies to shore up the national economy following the nation’s most serious economic crisis and helping to create the modern middle class. She was in every respect a self-made woman who rose from humble New England origins to become America’s leading advocate for industrial safety and workers’ rights. More about Frances Perkins here: https://francesperkinscenter.org/learn/her-
STEPHANIE DRAY is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author of historical women’s fiction. Her award-winning work has been translated into many languages and tops lists for the most anticipated reads of the year. Now she lives in Maryland with her husband, cats, and history books.
Publication March 12, 2024-Random House, Ballantine-368pp.
Book Summary
When the Blitz imperils the heart of a London neighborhood, three young women must use their fighting spirit to save the community’s beloved library in this heartwarming novel based on true events from the author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir.
When new deputy librarian, Juliet Lansdown, finds that Bethnal Green Library isn’t the bustling hub she’s expecting, she becomes determined to breathe life back into it. But can she show the men in charge that a woman is up to the task of running it, especially when a confrontation with her past threatens to derail her?
Katie Upwood is thrilled to be working at the library, although she’s only there until she heads off to university in the fall. But after the death of her beau on the front line and amid tumultuous family strife, she finds herself harboring a life-changing secret with no one to turn to for help.
Sofie Baumann, a young Jewish refugee, came to London on a domestic service visa only to find herself working as a maid for a man who treats her abominably. She escapes to the library every chance she can, finding friendship in the literary community and aid in finding her sister, who is still trying to flee occupied Europe.
When a slew of bombs destroys the library, Juliet relocates the stacks to the local Underground station where the city’s residents shelter nightly, determined to lend out stories that will keep spirits up. But tragedy after tragedy threatens to unmoor the women and sever the ties of their community. Will Juliet, Kate, and Sofie be able to overcome their own troubles to save the library? Or will the beating heart of their neighborhood be lost forever?
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
The Blitz Spirit of 1940 comes alive in a London underground tunnel. This endearing nod to the power of books and reading is based on the true account of the bombing of the Bethnal Green Library only a few weeks into the London Blitz. Jennifer Ryan’s characters have an indomitable spirit that shines brilliantly in the darkest hours of London’s history. Told from the point of view of three young women, each with a personal need for escape in order to survive, Ryan drops readers into the routine of nightly air raids, grabbing blankets and rations, praying to survive another night of bombing. She brings each young girl’s journey to a crucial turning point and as their paths cross, they join in a common goal. Juliet is really the main character who brings everyone else together through her love of books. The novels Juliet loves to curl up with include secrets, suspense, mystery, history, and even romance. She would adore The Underground Library! Characters include key young men who are away at war, Mrs. Ottley, the Miss Ridley’s, and Marigold, each adorable quirky “readers” Juliet adds to her book club, and who play a significant role in saving the underground library. This novel is a glorious homage to reading and how it changes perceptions, broadens minds, and creates a supportive and nurturing community.
I am in awe of the spirit and human connection created in the underground communities in the tube stations all over London. These stations provided all kinds of services, theater and musical entertainment, childcare and medical facilities. The Underground Library is just like every library: a place to celebrate each other and the power of the human spirit through reading.
Jennifer Ryan is the author of National Bestseller THE CHILBURY LADIES’ CHOIR, THE SPIES OF SHILLING LANE, THE KITCHEN FRONT, THE WEDDING DRESS SEWING CIRCLE, AND THE UNDERGROUND LIBRARY. Her writing has featured in Literary Hub, Moms Don’t Have Time to Write, The Daily Mail, The Irish Times, The Express, BBC Online, YOU Magazine, The Simple Things Magazine, and Good Reading Magazine. Previously a book editor with The Economist, DK, and the BBC, she moved from London to Washington, DC after marrying, and she now lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and two children. Her novels are inspired by her grandmother’s tales of the war in Britain.
Further Reading-This is just one example. Jennifer’s Author’s Note is filled with amazing stories and suggestions for further reading. Always a favorite part of a book for the Grateful Reader!
From the website: “This photo of people sheltering from an air raid in Piccadilly Circus station was taken by Tunbridge Sedgwick.
During the intensive bombing of the Blitz from September 1940 to May 1941, thousands of people flocked to shelter in deep level Tube stations, bedding down for the night on walkways, platforms and even de-electrified tracks.
This photo is on display in our new exhibition Echoes of the Blitz, which highlights the parallels between underground sheltering in London during the Second World War and in Ukraine today.”
From the author of A Most English Princess comes a rich novel about young Princess Alix of Hesse—the future Alexandra, last Empress of Imperial Russia—and her sister, Princess Ella. Their decision to marry into the Romanov royal family changed history. They were granddaughters of Queen Victoria and two of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. Princesses Alix and Ella were destined to wed well and wisely. But while their grandmother wants to join them to the English and German royal families, the sisters fall in love with Russia—and the Romanovs. Defying the Queen’s dire warnings, Ella weds the tsar’s brother, Grand Duke Serge. Cultivated, aloof, and proud, Serge places his young wife on a pedestal for all to admire. Behind palace gates, Ella struggles to secure private happiness. Alix, whisked away to Russia for Ella’s wedding, meets and captivates Nicky—heir apparent to the Russian throne. While loving him deeply, Alix hears a call of conscience, urging her to walk away. Their fateful decisions to marry will lead to tragic consequences for not only themselves and their families, but for millions in Russia and around the globe.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
Students of history have read factual accounts of the tragic fate of the Romanovs and historical fiction novels filled with hope and the possibility that some may have survived. The Romanov Brides focuses on two granddaughters of Queen Victoria and the beginning of their journey as brides to the foot of the Russian Orthodox altar.
The opening pages are thankfully filled with the family trees of English Queen Victoria and Russian Tsar Alexander 11. I referred to these often while reading and have such respect for experts on British and Russian history. Princess Elisabeth, “Ella”, and her younger sister, Alix, “Sunny,” are the central characters, though there is detail about the lives of the other 5 siblings. Clara McHugh’s extensive research is based on the sisters’ diaries and letters, and those of people closest to them. Readers know the outcome from history, but the intrigue, manipulation and interference by Queen Victoria and the oversight of the Russian royals, add to the surprising and often maddening choices and plot lines. I felt a closeness to Ella’s many fears: the vastness of Russia, the immense palaces, a foreign tongue, the prospect of leaving her family and denouncing her religion. The descriptions and dialogue evoke all the senses and an array of feelings, from grief and despair to giddy first love sensations. Clara McHugh portrays compassionate insights into the contemplations and intense loyalties Alix deals with as she waivers back and forth in deciding whether to wed Nicky and denounce her Lutheran faith for the Orthodox doctrine.
I found myself caring deeply for both sisters and wishing someone would’ve convinced them to make different choices, though certainly not any of Queen Victoria’s suggestions, which were mostly first cousins. To Ella and Alix’s credit they marry for love and devote their short lives to being supportive wives and mothers. Clara McHugh’s The Romanov Brides gave me that curious feeling one gets upon discovering a diary, giving an over the should look to see if anyone’s watching and then opening it up for just a quick peek!
Born in London, Clare McHugh grew up in the United States and graduated from Harvard University with a degree in European history. She worked for many years as a newspaper reporter and later magazine editor. She has also taught high school history and reviewed books for the Wall Street Journal and the BaltimoreSun. The mother of two grown children, she lives with her husband in Washington, DC, and Amagansett, New York.
Further research led to Clare McHugh’s informative website with backstory and details on her writing. McHugh’s first novel, A Most English Princess, is also featured. https://www.claremchugh.com/
“Behind the Book – More about the characters, the setting, and the “truth” of The Romanov Brides“
“WHO WERE IRENE, VICTORIA, ELLA AND ALIX OF HESSE?“
Publication February 20, 2024-St. Martin’s Press-Historical Fiction-368pp
Book Summary
Set in New York City in the heady aftermath of World War II when the men were coming home, the women were exhaling in relief, and everyone was having babies, The Trouble With You is the story of a young woman whose rosy future is upended in a single instant. Raised never to step out of bounds, educated in one of the Sister Seven Colleges for a career as a wife and mother, torn between her cousin Mimi who is determined to keep her a “nice girl”—the kind that marries a doctor—and her aunt Rose who has a rebellious past of her own, Fanny struggles to raise her young daughter and forge a new life by sheer will and pluck. When she gets a job as a secretary to the “queen” of radio serials—never to be referred to as soaps—she discovers she likes working, and through her friendship with an actress who stars in the series and a man who writes them, comes face to face with the blacklist which is destroying careers and wrecking lives. Ultimately, Fanny must decide between playing it safe or doing what she knows is right in this vivid evocation of a world that seems at once light years away and strangely immediate.
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
The Trouble With You is about choosing. Making choices best for oneself or for the influencers of those decisions. Readers are swept along the bustling sidewalks of 1940’s New York City when radios were the focus for home entertainment and news. The radio series or ‘soaps’ is where Fanny finds herself working as a secretary.
Author Ellen Feldman’s narrative is filled with conflict between characters through Fanny’s personal interactions and business relationships. Feldman does an excellent job illuminating the struggle Fanny experiences in finding a personal and work life balance, connecting with modern day dilemmas. Fanny’s daily and long-term choices are influenced by her daughter, Chloe, her cousin, Mimi, and her Aunt Rose. Feldman overlaps these familial influences with social, cultural, and political events of the 1950’s and ‘60’s. The evolving popularity of television replacing radios for entertainment and news sources and the fear of polio has a direct impact on decisions involving Chloe. The mainstream news reporting on Senator Joseph McCarthy and the undercurrent of suspicions circulating in NYC and Hollywood regarding a Blacklist of alleged Soviet spies and sympathizers by the House Un-American Activities Committee, HUAC, has immediate and lifelong impact on Fanny’s decisions when/if she chooses a husband and how she declares her independence.
Feldman creates tension and relief through dialogue, activities, and decisions with the men in Fanny’s life, Max, Ezra, and Charlie. Max is the love of Fanny’s life and is an omniscient character with great influence over Fanny’s relationships. Will Fanny make her choice based on what’s best for herself or for others? In this post World War ll novel, Fanny is “raising the future” while forging a new life.
Ellen has lectured extensively around the country and in Germany and England, and enjoys talking to book groups in person or via the web.
She grew up in northern New Jersey and attended Bryn Mawr College, from which she holds a B.A. and an M.A. in modern history. After further graduate studies at Columbia University, she worked for a New York publishing house.
Ellen lives in New York City and East Hampton, New York, with her husband and a terrier named Charlie.
Publication February 6, 2024-St. Martin’s Press-Historical Fiction-480p
Book Summary
The missing. The forgotten. The brave… The women.
From master storyteller Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds, comes the story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s. The Women is that rarest of novels—at once an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics, of a generation both fueled by dreams and lost on the battlefield. “Women can be heroes, too.”
When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.
The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyric beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.
The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
The Women tells the story of a generation of young men and women grieving the loss of their innocence in Vietnam and the bonds of female friendship created between the nurses who served.
Kristin Hannah relaxes readers in the tropical setting of the lush, privileged lifestyle in Coronado, California in the late 1960’s. Just as readers are settled into the lavish parties, simple childhood activities like bonfires, beach rides and surfing, Hannah’s main “woman” Frances McGrath decides to become a nurse and follow her brother, Finley, to Vietnam. The gut punch descriptions of disgusting conditions at the Thirty-Sixth Evac hospital suck readers right in with the hot, sticky, bug ridden, rat infested living quarters. Readers will be squirming, squealing, and gagging along with the nurses as Frankie’s days and nights run into each other and she evolves into a highly regarded combat nurse. The historical background supported by Hannah’s years of research is evident in the intricate details of the jungles, scenes from helicopters, and villages visited for medical assistance, including the lifesaving operations and amputation scenes. The actual names of identifiable places are retained in the novel; Saigon, Ho Chi Minh Trail, Pleiku, Base Long Binh, and the hospitals. Hard to read; harder to believe that soldiers, doctors, and nurses had the courage and stamina to survive and endure. The turbulent world comes alive, and readers will need a break along with the nurses and doctors!
The plot continues with Frankie returning to the U. S. after two tours in Vietnam. At the airport she is shamed and spit upon and readers relive the protests, sit-ins, and despicable treatment of the returning veterans. Hannah reveals the maddening and frustrating responses during the post-war years as Frankie seeks help with anxiety, anger and guilt. The development of Frankie’s mom, “held together with vodka and hairspray,” and her guilt-ridden, workaholic dad takes readers to the depths of grief from a parent’s point of view, while they grapple with Frankie’s depression and addictions. Strong plot threads are of Frankie’s relationship with her parents, the unwavering support and encouragement from her “women” from Vietnam, Ethel and Barb, and the loves of her life.
Kristin Hannah recreates this world of the late 60’s, early 70’s as she weaves social, political, and historical details of American culture into the plot smoothly and seamlessly. “Back in the world” as the Vietnam soldiers referred to the U. S, a few of the pop music icons were Elvis, The Beach Boys, and The Beatles. Long hair, moustaches, and polyester leisure suits on men, and miniskirts, hot pants, and ironed straight hair on women were the thing! The papers were filled with the latest Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton feud, the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr, the election of Nixon, the first landing on the moon, the Paris Peace Accord, and the trial of Lt. William Calley at My Lai.
There are gaping wounds because of the treatment of the women and men who served our country during the Vietnam War. Reading The Women will certainly be a reminder to acknowledge men and women soldiers with, “Thank you for your service,” no matter when or where they have served.
Freedom is bought with sacrifice. The Women-5 Stars
Songs and Artists from The Women:
East Coast Girls, These Boots are Made for Walking, Monday-Monday, Come on Baby Light My Fire, When a Man Loves a Woman, Happy Together, Leaving on a Jet Plane, Purple Haze, Good Lovin, We Got to Get Out of This Place, Hey Jude, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Born to Be Wild, John Denver, American Pie, Nights in White Satin, Elvis, Time in a Bottle, Tie a Yellow Ribbon, Roberta Flack, Linda Ronstadt, Elton John, Hooked on a Feeling
What is the price of honor? It took ten years for Vietnam War nurse Diane Carlson Evans to answer that question—and the answer was a heavy one.
In 1983, when Evans came up with the vision for the first-ever memorial on the National Mall to honor women who’d worn a military uniform, she wouldn’t be deterred. She remembered not only her sister veterans, but also the hundreds of young wounded men she had cared for, as she expressed during a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.: “Women didn’t have to enter military service, but we stepped up to serve believing we belonged with our brothers-in-arms and now we belong with them at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. If they belong there, we belong there. We were there for them then. We mattered.”
In the end, those wounded soldiers who had survived proved to be there for their sisters-in-arms, joining their fight for honor in Evans’ journey of combating unforeseen bureaucratic obstacles and facing mean-spirited opposition. Her impassioned story of serving in Vietnam is a crucial backstory to her fight to honor the women she served beside. She details the gritty and high-intensity experience of being a nurse in the midst of combat and becomes an unlikely hero who ultimately serves her country again as a formidable force in her daunting quest for honor and justice.
The Grateful Reader 