The Hudson Collection by Jocelyn Green

Publication June 4, 2024-Bethany House-Christian-Historical Fiction-368pp

Jocelyn Green (JocelynGreen.com) inspires faith and courage as the bestselling author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books, including the Christy Award-winning The Mark of the King and Drawn by the Current and her On Central Park series.

Book Summary

Step into the beguiling world of 1926 New York and discover the power of resilience, friendship, and love from award-winning author Jocelyn Green.

Elsa Reisner’s lifelong dream of working as an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History is fading as the job begins to drain her passion. But fate takes an unexpected turn when she is assigned to catalog the bequest of a recently deceased patron whose Gothic country mansion holds secrets and treasures waiting to be discovered.

As Elsa delves into her task, she forms an unlikely bond with the estate’s delightful gardener and her daughter, as well as an architectural salvage dealer who still bears scars from the Great War. Together, they embark on a thrilling treasure hunt for a missing relic intended to safeguard the servants’ futures before the estate is sold. At the same time, Elsa’s body seems to betray her with new symptoms from a childhood disease that isn’t through with her yet.

With the brooding veteran and her handsome colleague joining the search, Elsa must navigate the tangled web of secrets and hidden motives along with the changing state of her health. As her deadline looms ever closer, will she be able to secure a new life for her friends before the estate slips from their grasp?

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

New York City’s Central Park and Elmhurst, a country mansion on the Hudson River, set the scene for Jocelyn Green’s The Hudson Collection. Green’s main character, Elsa, is sent to Elmhurst from the American Museum of Natural History to catalog the vast collection of birds, recently bequeathed to the museum. She’s just in time to join the manic search of the mansion for a valuable medieval manuscript filled with illuminated bird illustrations.

This treasure hunt takes place in the fall of 1926. Green’s narrative is filled with lush descriptions of birds, garden paths at Elmhurst, and iconic Central Park. These details add extra depth to the development and growth of the relationships between Elsa, Luke Dupont, and the gardener’s daughter, young Danielle. Mother-daughter relationships, fear of limitations, and family expectations are themes explored as tension builds and Green weaves clues to the manuscript’s hiding place with obstacles and twists.

Well known NYC historical sites like Central Park, Coney Island, Nathan’s Famous, the Plaza, and the Beresford Hotel enhance the early twentieth century feel of the novel. In contrast to the hurried Manhattan setting is the peaceful Hudson River Valley and its sprawling, fictional Elmhurst Mansion, based on the Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, New York. (pictured below)

Green presents valuable lessons as she parallels how to handle life’s challenges with Luke’s crumbling mansions and architectural salvage business. Elsa’s important personal discovery, “doing less to make room for what really matters,” is a gem. Jocelyn Green’s readers will be inspired by The Hudson Collection; an insightful, faith-based approach to dealing with how life’s choices and personal perspectives change through experiences and relationships.

**Lyndhurst Mansion- Elmhurst** in The novel

Fun Fact: The Eurasian Eagle-Owl that escapes from the Central Park Zoo in 1926 is based on Flaco, an eagle-owl that escaped from the zoo in 2023 as Jocelyn Green was in NYC for research!

Shelterwood by Lisa Wingate

Publication June 4, 2024-Random House-Ballentine-Historical Fiction, 368pp.

Book Summary

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a sweeping novel inspired by the untold history of women pioneers who fought to protect children caught in the storm of land barons hungry for power and oil wealth.

Oklahoma, 1909. Eleven-year-old Olive Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather doesn’t have good intentions toward the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie flees to the woods, taking six-year-old Nessa with her. Together they begin a perilous journey to the remote Winding Stair Mountains, the notorious territory of outlaws, treasure hunters, and desperate men. Along the way, Ollie and Nessa form an unlikely band with others like themselves, struggling to stay one step ahead of those who seek to exploit them . . . or worse.

Oklahoma, 1990. Law enforcement ranger Valerie Boren-Odell arrives at newly minted Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to balance a career and single parenthood. But no sooner has Valerie reported for duty than she’s faced with local controversy over the park’s opening, a teenage hiker gone missing from one of the trails, and the long-hidden burial site of three children unearthed in a cave. Val’s quest for the truth wins an ally among the neighboring Choctaw Tribal Police but soon collides with old secrets and the tragic and deadly history of the land itself.

In this emotional and enveloping novel, Lisa Wingate traces the story of children abandoned by the law and the battle to see justice done. Amid times of deep conflict over who owns the land and its riches, Ollie and Val traverse the rugged and beautiful terrain, each leaving behind one life in search of another.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Shelterwood is a forestry term for older, larger trees that protect the smaller, younger growth beneath. Lisa Wingate’s Shelterwood slashes through that canopy shining a blinding light on the history of “rampant graft and mindboggling land grabs during the Oklahoma statehood era.”

Wingate artfully weaves this little-known history in alternating timelines as she illuminates a mystery uncovered by a female park ranger involving the bones of “elf children.” Readers are immersed in the 1909 world of starving, indigenous “elf children” through Ollie and Nessa’s harrowing escape from harmful, greedy guardians and the community they struggle to create in the southeastern portion of Oklahoma known as the Winding Stairs. In 1990 Park Ranger, Val attempts to sort out the story of skeletal bones in a cave and the disappearance of three members of the same family. Wingate’s narrative takes readers on trails though the woods of southeastern Oklahoma peppered with crisp descriptions as she lines steep grades through Horsethief Trail National Park with obstacles to the mystery by adding suspense step by step; an abandoned car, a missing teenager, a body found in the woods. Wingate’s orphans are wily, witty, and so loveable, readers will easily forgive their crimes and even cheer for their ingenious successes. Through experiences of the “elf children” readers will gain a new understanding of survival. Readers will also appreciate Officer Curtis’ relationship with Val and Charlie, a male character with high emotional intelligence.

This adventurous mystery through the woods of Oklahoma is really about the history of the tribal lands of the Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw Nations, their legacy, and the oil found on the land allotments. Another historical thread is the untold impact of Kate Barnard’s fight for child labor laws and compulsory education. Shelterwood, Lisa Wingate’s soulful, heartfelt tale, ties the past to the present through the history of indigenous children and the horrendous lives of our nations’ youngest before child labor laws.

Eye-opening. Redemptive.

Lisa Wingate is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Before We Were Yours, which has sold more than three million copies and been translated into over forty languages worldwide. The co-author, with Judy Christie, of the nonfiction book Before and After, Wingate is an Oklahoma Book Award finalist, a Goodreads Choice Award winner, and a Southern Book Prize winner. She was named a 2023 Distinguished Alumni of Oklahoma State University. She lives with her husband in Texas and Colorado. https://lisawingate.com/

From Lisa’s wonderful website: You will want to read more!

The most shocking stories hide in places we think we know. Despite countless field trips, museum tours, and history classes growing up in Oklahoma, I heard not a mention that the most powerful politician of the state’s fledgling years was—a woman? In an era when women couldn’t even vote? The true story of Kate Barnard, her 1909 investigation of bizarre reports of “elf children living in a hollow tree,” and her eventual discovery of the children’s true identity inspired the events in Shelterwood. Told through the eyes of two girls who flee a home filled with dangers to seek safety in the wilderness, Shelterwood follows a perilous journey to Oklahoma’s remote Winding Stair Mountains, where the girls soon discover they are not alone. I hope you will enjoy meeting Ollie and Nessa along with all the characters of Shelterwood, both real and imagined. To learn more, click here for a behind-the-scenes tour including historical photos, location photos, and materials for book clubs.

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

Publication April 2, 2024-Atria Books-Historical Fiction-Paperback-384pp

**Magical Website:** https://www.patticallahanhenry.com/the-secret-book-of-flora-lea

Book Summary

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.

What the Mountains Remember by Joy Callaway

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/

GROVE PARK INN-LINK TO HISTORY & VIDEO TOUR

The Grove Park Inn History: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-park/property-details/history

Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki

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.

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.

The Queens of London by Heather Webb

Publication February 6, 2024-Sourcebooks-Historical Fiction 368p

Book Summary

Maybe women can have it all, as long as they’re willing to steal it.

1925. London. When Alice Diamond, AKA “Diamond Annie,” is elected the Queen of the Forty Elephants, she’s determined to take the all-girl gang to new heights. She’s ambitious, tough as nails, and a brilliant mastermind, with a plan to create a dynasty the likes of which no one has ever seen. Alice demands absolute loyalty from her “family”—it’s how she’s always kept the cops in line. Too bad she’s now the target for one of Britain’s first female policewomen.

Officer Lilian Wyles isn’t merely one of the first female detectives at Scotland Yard, she’s one of the best detectives on the force. Even so, she’ll have to win a big score to prove herself, to break free from the “women’s work” she’s been assigned. When she hears about the large-scale heist in the works to fund Alice’s new dynasty, she realizes she has the chance she’s been looking for—and the added bonus of putting Diamond Annie out of business permanently.

A tale of dark glamour and sisterhood, Queens of London is a look at Britain’s first female crime syndicate, the ever-shifting meaning of justice, and the way women claim their power by any means necessary, from USA Today bestselling author Heather Webb.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The Queens of London is based on real life Diamond Annie, her gang the Forty Elephants, and first female detective Lilian Wyles- or Inspector Wyles, as she quickly corrects. Readers get a sneak peek behind the swinging doors of pubs in the East End and posh entries into the shops of Mayfair. The suspenseful plot is advanced by four main characters.

The antics and heists of the female gang, the Forty Elephants, with Diamond Annie as the Queen, continue to be a major focus for Scotland Yard in 1925 London. The main character is based on the real-life Alice Diamond. Webb develops Annie so deeply that I changed from being dubious of her motives to being very anxious that she might get caught and be sent back to prison! Somewhere, deep down, Annie does have a heart covered by years of scars. Inspector Lily Wyles is also based on one of the first female detectives. She begins at Scotland Yard with “womanly duties” such as watching for shoplifters and orphan chasing. As the plot progresses this former nurse begins to question justice and her rigid rule following. Her tolerance for finding logic relaxes in a very satisfying turn of events.

Dorothy, a vibrant, unique, shop girl and aspiring designer, reveals her dreams of moving out from her mum’s flat to an independent lifestyle. A fictional character, filled with angst at finding a husband or following her dreams, she’s very typical of young girls of that time. The development arc is deftly drawn and will keep readers engaged and cheering for Dorothy.

The ten-year-old beautiful, brown skinned Hira Wickham is a heart stealer who reads etiquette books, deals with her wealthy, hateful uncle, and makes gut-wrenching decisions. Hira is smart, brave, and with her lovable, street-smart dog, Biscuit, tugs at all the emotional heartstrings.

Diamond Annie and the Forty Elephant’s next major heist is just the case that could change everything for the female crime syndicate and Inspector Wyles. An immensely nerve wracking but exhilarating chase!

Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of nine historical novels, including her up and coming Queens of London set to release in 2024, and her most recent novels, The Next Ship Home and Strangers in the Night. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was a Goodread’s Top Pick, and in 2018, Last Christmas in Paris won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. Meet Me in Monaco, was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Goldsboro RNA award in the UK, as well as the 2019 Digital Book World’s Fiction prize. Three Words for Goodbye was a Prima Magazine’s 2022 Book of the Year. To date, Heather’s books have been translated to seventeen languages. She lives in New England with her family and a mischievous kitten. (Books in bold are books I’ve read and loved!)

The Wonder of it All by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Published December 5, 2023-St. Martin’s Press-368pp

Book Summary

James Falconer–a tycoon and a self-made man–seems to have the world in the palm of his hand. But the Great War looms, and James decides to fight for king and country. The fighting is bloody and brutal, and James returns a changed man, with wounds both physical and mental. His beloved wife is dead, but a new woman returns to help nurse him back to health.

Georgiana Ward once held James in her thrall, but years have passed, and bitterness has set in. Still, the old attraction is there, and James is determined to make amends to both Georgiana and his child Leonie–now a grown woman and someone he hasn’t seen in decades. Leonie is having none of it and is embarking on a dangerous journey with a man who might very well destroy her. As James fights to return to the man he once was, he needs to find a way to heal his body, soul, and family.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The Wonder of it All is the 40^th novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford and concludes the sweeping Victorian family saga her fans know as The House of Falconer trilogy. The main character, James Falconer, and all his family connections are listed immediately to refresh reader’s memories. That was an especially welcoming segment. The novel is divided into six parts; each appropriately named and indicative of coming events. The saga continues with the fate of James, injured at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, grieving his late wife, Alexis. Readers follow Major James Falconer from Kent, 1917 through his relationship struggles with his estranged daughter, Leonie, her mother Georgiana Ward, and the nasty villain Leonie has married. Another intriguing thread is anticipating how James will overcome his past in order to have a future, avoid the toll of the postwar economic downturn, and find business solutions needed to maintain the success of his diversified company in 1919.

Barbara Taylor Bradford weaves hope, family heritage, suspense and mystery while connecting emotionally with readers through rejection, acceptance, and forgiveness. As always, vivid descriptions and period detail provide a true sense of place and the development of strong male and female characters with integrity, ambition, and drive appeals to generations of readers. Worth the wait!

**Book 2 In the Lion’s Den Review:** https://gratefulreader.home.blog/2020/09/14/in-the-lions-den-by-barbara-taylor-bradford/

Barbara gets awarded OBE from Her Majesty The Queen

Barbara Taylor Bradford OBE was born and raised in England. She left school at 15 for the typing pool at the Yorkshire Evening Post. At 16 she was a reporter, and at 18 she became the paper’s first woman’s page editor. Two years later, aged 20, she moved to London and became a fashion editor and columnist on Fleet Street. Barbara started writing fiction when she was just seven-years-old and sold her first short story to a magazine for seven shillings and sixpence when she was ten. She published her first novel, A Woman of Substance, in 1979. It went from bestseller to super seller within its first year and stayed on the New York Times’ list for 43 weeks.

Barbara’s beautiful website:
https://barbarataylorbradford.com/about/

The Lost Gift to the Italian Island by Barbara Josselsohn

Publication December 4, 2023-Bookouture-Historical Fiction-

Book Summary

Italy, 1943. With tears in her eyes, Giulia listens out for the sound of bombers flying overhead and thinks of the baby growing inside of her. Through the fabric of her lace dress her fingers touch the cold bullets carefully sewn into the seams. Luca might never forgive her, but she has to do this…

New York, present day. When Tori Coleman discovers that her mother was adopted, her whole world shatters. Jeremy, her boyfriend, wants to get married, but how can Tori commit when she doesn’t know who she truly is? The only clue to the identity of her biological family is a mysterious postcard with a photograph of an ornate wedding dress her grandmother Giulia made, which she’s told was gifted to a museum on an Italian island…

Tori arrives on Parissi Island, surrounded by turquoise Mediterranean waters, with the sweet smell of orange blossom filling the air. She soon finds the museum and learns that Giulia was Jewish, and secretly lived there during World War Two. She thought her grandmother abandoned her mother, but was she forced to leave and give up her child?

Just as she’s getting closer to answers, an unexpected call from Jeremy stops Tori in her tracks. As he passionately urges her to find out the truth, suddenly Tori wishes he were in Italy by her side, ready to propose again.

But then Tori is shocked to find bullets sewn into the lining of one of Giulia’s dresses and a notebook claiming she did something terrible during World War Two. Will the secrets in her family help her follow her own heart, or send her home from Italy with it finally broken forever?

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab-(Link to Review of Book 1 Below Author Bio)

The Lost Gift to the Italian Island, Book #2 in the Sisters of War, follows the plight of Giulia, as she escapes Parissi Island during the Nazi invasion and becomes entangled in the Italian Resistance. Barbara Josselsohn’s dual timeline alternates between 1943, Italy, and present-day New York City with several threads of mystery, betrayal, and secrecy. Josselsohn explores themes of following one’s passion and understanding identity through main character, Tori, a seamstress with goals of opening her own studio. A client sends Tori a postcard from a museum in Italy with a picture of the perfect wedding dress; some would believe this a coincidence, others God’s plan. As the designer and seamstress of my own wedding gown, this was the hook for me. Tori decides a trip to Italy to discover her past is manageable if she treats it as a dress pattern, one step at a time- the perfect analogy. Sensory descriptions of the castle, Parissi Island, and the Mediterranean are the ultimate setting as Tori discovers that mistakes and misunderstandings are the pieces to her past.

While life lessons like choose life-give the future a chance, and the antidote to mistrust is connection, are important, I believe the key to The Lost Gift of the Italian Island is that “love transcends everything.” Tori’s promise from her mother is one that connects us all. “Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”

Memorable historical details of situations with uplifting outcomes. Highly recommended.

A best-selling novelist with a background in newspaper reporting, Barbara Josselsohn loves crafting stories about protagonists facing a fork in the road. She is the author of six novels and has also written hundreds of articles and essays in major and regional publications about family, home and relationships. Barbara’s stunning website: https://barbarajosselsohn.com/

https://gratefulreader.home.blog/2023/05/11/secrets-of-the-italian-island-by-barbara-josselsohn/

Hidden Truths by Elly Swartz

Publication October 31, 2023-Random House Children’s -Middle Grade-272pp

Book Summary

How far would you go to keep a promise? Told from alternating points of view, Hidden Truths is a story of changing friendships, the lies we tell, the secrets we keep, and the healing power of forgiveness.

Dani and Eric have been best friends since Dani moved next door in second grade. They bond over donuts, comic books, and camping on the Cape. Until one summer when everything changes.

Did Eric cause the accident that leaves Dani unable to do the one thing in the world she most cares about? The question plagues him, and he will do anything to get answers about the explosion that injured her. But Dani is hurting too much to want Eric to pursue the truth—she just wants to shut him out and move on. Besides, Eric has a history of dropping things he starts. Eric knows that and is determined that this will be the one time he follows through.

But what if his pursuit brings him into direct conflict with another friend? Where does Eric’s loyalty really lie?

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The middle grade novel Hidden Truths by Elly Swartz is about the forever people in our lives. Loving them. Forgiving them. Fighting for them. It’s also about chasing dreams, finding your superpower, and forgiveness.

Elly Swartz hit a homerun with Hidden Truths. Parents, teachers, and students will become ardent fans of the main character Dani, who truly loves baseball, (it’s not just a phase), and her best friend since second grade, Eric, who loves crossword puzzles and has worn the same swim trunks for two years. (Yes, he’s smart, skinny and gets bullied at school.) The novel is told from alternating points of view, with a signed baseball for Dani’s chapters, and a crossword puzzle for Eric. Kids will love that!

Dani and Eric learn that friends can be jerks, friends lie, friends use you. Both fans of superheroes and shapeshifting, they learn that superpower is not so great among friends. An accident happens and Elly Swartz helps young readers navigate the emotions of guilt, making mistakes, and the consequences of lying or telling the truth. Readers are faced with characters who are brave, reckless, scattered (ADHD), and sideways; but all friends grow and change. Are they who we think they are? Readers will eagerly follow Dani and Eric onto the baseball field, down the school hallways, and out to the Cape to find out how Elly Swartz solves this best friend dilemma.

Readers of all ages are reminded that goodbyes are hard, not everything can be fixed with cookies and donuts, (but they help), and we all need forever people. Insightful. Enlightening. A homerun!

Elly Swartz grew up in Yardley, Pennsylvania, where she lived a happy childhood filled with laughs, family dinners, and crooked birthday cakes. She studied psychology at Boston University and received a law degree from Georgetown University School of Law. The mother of two grown sons, Elly now lives in Massachusetts with her husband.https://ellyswartz.com/

Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl by Renée Rosen

Publication April 2023-Berkley-432pp

Book Summary

It’s 1938, and a young woman selling face cream out of a New York City beauty parlor is determined to prove she can have it all. Her name is Estée Lauder, and she’s about to take the world by storm, in this dazzling new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Social Graces and Park Avenue Summer.

In New York City, you can disappear into the crowd. At least that’s what Gloria Downing desperately hopes as she tries to reinvent herself after a devastating family scandal. She’s ready for a total life makeover and a friend she can lean on—and into her path walks a young, idealistic woman named Estée. Their chance encounter will change Gloria’s life forever.

Estée dreams of success and becoming a household name like Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, and Revlon. Before Gloria knows it, she is swept up in her new friend’s mission and while Estée rolls up her sleeves, Gloria begins to discover her own talents. After landing a job at Saks Fifth Avenue, New York’s finest luxury department store, Gloria finds her voice, which proves instrumental in opening doors for Estée’s insatiable ambitions.

But in a world unaccustomed to women with power, they’ll each have to pay the price that comes with daring to live life on their own terms and refusing to back down.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab : This review was first published in the May 2023 issue of Historical Novels Review magazine.

New York City and its fashionable department store Saks Fifth Avenue is the setting for Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl. A chance encounter at a local beauty parlor turns into a complete makeover for Estée Lauder, Gloria Downing, and the cosmetic industry of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Rosen’s novel is written from fictional friend Gloria’s perspective as she is interviewed for an unauthorized biography of lifelong friend Estée Lauder. Rosen’s unique hook in the prologue is a question of whether Gloria will tell the truth or lie. Because Gloria knows everything.

Readers are familiar with the major names in the early cosmetic industry, Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, and Revlon. Estée’s goal is to become a household name. She mixes skin care products in her tiny kitchen and Gloria, due to a family scandal is reinventing herself and looking for a job. Estée’s natural beauty and charisma paired with Gloria’s fashion sense make for a dynamite team and over the decades an explosive relationship develops.

Rosen’s well researched anecdotes highlight how the unlikely friends complement each other’s weaknesses with support and encouragement. Rosen accurately depicts Estée’s brash, tenacious personality which adds humor to unlikely, sometimes awkward situations on the beaches of Florida or the executive offices in NYC. The choices and expectations of women during the depression are perfectly blended with each young woman’s dreams, giving readers insights into how they each become independent and self-sufficient. Gloria goes out of her way to avoid men, and Estée runs toward them, providing readers situations for personal analysis and discussion.

Estée Lauder’s pioneering spirit and ingenuity have certainly had a lasting impact on the cosmetic industry. In Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl Renée Rosen’s themes of friendship, reinvention and family relationships are explored like the layers of a fine perfume.

COMPANION READ:

A Beautiful Rival by Gil Paul – The story of Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein; household names by the time Estee Lauder was mixing creams in her kitchen! Here’s the Grateful Reader review for readers:

https://gratefulreader.home.blog/2023/09/05/a-beautiful-rival-by-gil-paul/

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