A Mother’s Hope for the CORNISH GIRLS

Publication February 16, 2923-Avon Books UK – Avon, 382pp

Preorder Book #4: https://www.amazon.com/Mothers-Hope-Cornish-Girls-heartwarming-ebook/dp/B0B5NRC3B6
Links to Books in the series below

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The lasting impact war and motherhood has had on the beloved girls of Cornwall is the focus of book #4 in Betty Walker’s Cornish Girls series. The Cornish girls are ‘doing their bit” at home in 1943 while sons, fathers, lovers, and friends have left to serve Britain during World War ll. Walker quickly engages readers with Lady Symmond’s announcement of her impending marriage and move to Scotland. From this point on readers are immersed in the lives of the Cornish girls; their angst, fears, worries, nightmares, and dreams for a future with their loved one at war. Some marry and become expectant mothers, some find purpose in caring for orphans or for wounded soldiers in the convalescent home. One is a mother with a son whose father is missing in action. Each of Betty Walker’s endearing mothers of Cornwall find hope in supporting one another. The mothers and the readers learn that “Love is what we fight for. That, and the next generation.” A heartwarming way to spend an afternoon with a cup of tea, while looking forward to Book #5: A Wedding for the Cornish Girls.

BOOK DESCRIPTION BY AVON :

Can the bonds of motherhood give them the strength they’ll need to get through the war? St. Ives, Spring 1943. After having given up her baby at seventeen, Sonya is inspired by her work at the orphanage to discover what happened to her daughter twenty-five years ago. Reunited, they struggle to bond whilst braving the war together. Nurse Lily has returned to St Ives to finish training as a midwife. But when old flame Tristan is brought in wounded, she realises she must put the past in the past to care for him, and perhaps then she’ll realise her own dreams of motherhood… And working at Tristan’s convalescent home, Mary longs for the romance she reads of in her novels. But her overprotective mother is making that hard for Mary at every turn…In times of war, the Cornish Girls can rely on one another to make it through. But can they lean on the bonds of motherhood for support too?

https://www.amazon.com/Wartime-Cornish-Girls/dp/0008400288

https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Cornish-Girls-heartwarming-homefront/dp/0008400318

https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Cornish-Girls-heartwarming-historical/dp/0008525145

The Seamstress of New Orleans by Diane C. McPhail

Published May 31, 2022- A John Scognamiglio Book, 304 pages

https://www.amazon.com/Seamstress-New-Orleans-Diane-McPhail/dp/1496738152

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 1900, is the sultry setting for Diane C. McPhail’s novel, The Seamstress of New Orleans. Howard, a Chicago cotton broker has mysteriously disappeared, and Benton, a New Orleans gambler has fallen to his death from a train trestle. The deaths of these two men and their widowed wives, Alice, and Constance, are intertwined like the moss hanging from the sprawling oak trees, and as murky as the Mississippi River delta. Unraveling the details of these mysteries is complicated by the social demands and politicizing of Mardi Gras balls and accounts of clandestine visits to Storyville, notorious for prostitution and crime. McPhail bases her mystery around the first all-female Mardi Gras Krewe and the gangsters known as the Black Hand. The Mardi Gras revelers and the gangsters are participants in the grand affair of death and disappearance that only Alice and Constance can unmask. A Mardi Gras ball gown is slowly pieced together and as it nears completion, symbolizes the growing independence of Alice and Constance. Bonds of friendship and secrets of the heart are tested as the Mardi Gras festivities begin. This is a delectable, intriguing jaunt behind the beaded curtains and the iron gates of the famous New Orleans Garden District. For a turn of the century peek at the “Big Easy” read The Seamstress of New Orleans.

Diane C. McPhail is an acclaimed artist as well as an award-winning author. Diane is a member of the Historical Novel Society, at whose national conference she has presented, and the North Carolina Writers’ Network. A popular retreat leader and teacher, Diane keeps herself busy in Highlands, NC, with writing and painting, with her husband, Ray, and a fuzzy white dog called Pepper.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

“The year 1900 ushers in a new century and the promise of social change, and women rise together toward equality. Yet rules and restrictions remain, especially for women like Alice Butterworth, whose husband has abruptly disappeared. Desperate to make a living for herself and the child she carries, Alice leaves the bitter cold of Chicago far behind, offering sewing lessons at a New Orleans orphanage.
Constance Halstead, a young widow reeling with shock under the threat of her late husband’s gambling debts, has thrown herself into charitable work. Meeting Alice at the orphanage, she offers lodging in exchange for Alice’s help creating a gown for the Leap Year ball of Les Mysterieuses, the first all‑female krewe of Mardi Gras. During Leap Years, women have the rare opportunity to take control in their interactions with men, and upend social convention. Piece by piece, the breathtaking gown takes shape, becoming a symbol of strength for both women, reflecting their progress toward greater independence.
But Constance carries a burden that makes it impossible to feel truly free. Her husband, Benton, whose death remains a dangerous mystery, was deep in debt to the Black Hand, the vicious gangsters who controled New Orleans’ notorious Storyville district. Benton’s death has not satisfied them. And as the Mardi Gras festivities reach their fruition, a secret emerges that will cement the bond between Alice and Constance even as it threatens the lives they’re building . ” Thanks to NetGalley for the book description and digital access.

My What If Year-A Memoir by Alisha Fernandez Miranda

Publishes February 7, 2023-Zibby Books

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“Whatif”

Last night, while I lay thinking here,

Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear

And pranced and partied all night long

And sang their same old Whatif song.

Shel Silverstein

My What If Year is a humorous, witty memoir.

Alisha “had it all.” An expanding business, a family, a dream life in London. She thought she was happy, but she really, really wasn’t. She was stuck.

Hurtling towards forty during the pandemic Alisha Miranda feared turning into a middle-aged woman whose best years were behind her. As CEO of I.G. Advisors, she and her husband helped connect companies and foundations with charitable organizations, like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, and UN Women! So yes, Alisha was successful, but unsatisfied, riddled with guilt. During a much needed night out with her friends, Alisha admitted she wasn’t sure she was “living the dream.” What resulted was a conversation centered around becoming an intern in careers she had harbored in her dreams. All the “what ifs.” The year of 2020 became Alisha’s “what if year.”

The internships included a Broadway theater, a virtual fitness studio, a London art gallery, and a luxury hotel in Scotland. Learning life lessons along with Alisha during her four internships are treats to be treasured. Just a few: How to be uncomfortable in not being the expert in the room, how to do small tasks carefully and find joy in completing them, pay attention to intentionally seeking joy, look for right brained, creative activities, find confidence in applying skills in completely different fields. And many more!

Be entertained and enlightened. Read Alisha Miranda’s My What If Year and know: “It’s never too late to say yes to second chances and explore the roads untraveled throughout your life.”

The hardcover, paperback, ebook or audiobook (oh my!) can be bought at this very moment:https://www.amazon.com/My-What-If-Year-Memoir/dp/1958506095

The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict

Published January 17, 2023-Sourcebooks Landmark-HB352 pp

From New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict comes an explosive novel of history’s most notorious sisters, one of whom will have to choose: her country or her family?

https://www.authormariebenedict.com

The Grateful Reader Review

Marie Benedict tells the compelling story of the Mitford sisters and their involvement in politics between the World Wars. Notorious for beauty, social connections and wealth, Benedict’s focus is on three of the sisters. Diana has married into the wealthy Guinness family but is recently divorced and enamored with a fascist leader. Unity’s desire to outdo Diana and her fascination with fascism leads her to Germany to become part of Hitler’s inner circle. Nancy, the eldest, a successful novelist and first member of British Society’s “Bright Young Things,” finds herself confronted with complicated choices.

Readers will find Diana and Unity’s behavior “unbelievably appalling,” which adds to the “who would do this, but it’s true?” aspect of the novel. Benedict admits that writing the part of Unity and her infatuation with Hitler was challenging, knowing what the world knows now. Those passages are convincing to a point, until background knowledge and historical facts take over and the readers’ emotions are catapulted 180*! This is a thought-provoking novel that explores how deep personal world views and political perspectives challenge family relations and call responsibility and duty into question.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters — each more beautiful, brilliant, and eccentric than the next — dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes. Though they’ve weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her wealthy husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister’s lead all the way to Munich, inciting rumors that she’s become Hitler’s mistress.

As the Nazis rise in power, novelist Nancy Mitford grows suspicious of her sisters’ constant visits to Germany and the high-ranking fascist company they keep. When she overhears alarming conversations and uncovers disquieting documents, Nancy must make excruciating choices as Great Britain goes to war with Germany.

Probing the torrid political climate in the lead-up to World War II and the ways that seemingly sensible people can be sucked into radical action, The Mitford Affair follows Nancy’s valiant efforts to stop the Nazis from taking over Great Britain, and the complicated choices she must make between the personal and the political.

Angels of the Resistance by Noelle Salazar

Publishing November 29, 2022, by Mira, 393 pp.

This review for Angels of the Resistance was honored as EDITOR’S CHOICE in the Historical Novels Review Magazine’s November 1, 2022 Issue.

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Dutch sisters, known as “the angels,” become the superheroes in Noelle Salazar’s Angels of the Resistance. Lien and Elif Vienke, teenagers responding to grief, feel called to serve the Netherlands in 1940. Inspired by the true story of Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, Salazar conjures a heart-thumping, riveting narrative with main characters that grow from sullen, angry teenagers to women of courage and strength. Their assignments start simply with distributing pamphlets, delivering messages, and forging identification cards then move on to training with pistols and daggers. Superb research into the planning of missions, then intricate details and gut-wrenching descriptions of frightening situations, evoke a range of emotions as readers follow the Angels to train stations, barns, and safe houses. The wins and losses of the missions resonate deeply with the friends and families associated with Lien and Elif. Throughout the novel feelings of betrayal and guilt are mixed with triumph and relief.

Salazar has created characters with relatable human traits, relationships that dissipate then rebuild, and those that believe in something and prove it. The description and development of family friend and mentor, Aunt Liv, gives readers insight into the social settings and advantages of the wealthy, but also the cunning, daring, bravery of those who took risks to save families and soldiers. Noelle Salazar slips in American comic creation, Wonder Woman, and Lien admiring this superhero’s boldness, is determined not to repeat past decisions that caused hesitation and failure. Like Wonder Woman, she wants to become fearless, strong, determined. In Angels of the Resistance Noelle Salazar successfully creates a triumphant celebration of real-life Wonder Women!

Book Description:

Netherlands, 1940

As bombs fall across Europe, fourteen-year-old Lien Vinke fears that the reality of war is inescapable. Though she lives a quiet life with her mother and older sister, Elif, in their small town of Haarlem, they are no strangers to heartache, having recently suffered an immeasurable loss. And when the Nazis invade the Netherlands, joining the Dutch resistance with Elif offers just the atonement Lien craves.

Trained to shoot by their late father, the sisters are deadly wolves in sheep’s clothing. They soon find themselves entrenched in the underground movement, forging friendships with the other young recruits, and Lien even discovers a kindred spirit in a boy named Charlie. But in wartime, emotional attachments are a liability she can’t afford, especially when a deeply personal mission jeopardizes everything she holds dear—her friendships, her family, and her one shot at redemption.

That Summer in Berlin by Lecia Cornwall

Publication September 2022, Berkley, 464 pp.

In the summer of 1936, while the Nazis make secret plans for World War II, a courageous and daring young woman struggles to expose the lies behind the dazzling spectacle of the Berlin Olympics.

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Written for The Historical Novels Review Magazine, Historical Novel Society, Nov. 1, 2022

Lecia Cornwall’s That Summer in Berlin is a close-up view of the 1936 Berlin Olympics through the lens of two debutantes on a holiday filled with terrible risks but great rewards. This compelling novel immerses readers from the beginning of the well-staged opening of the 1936 Berlin Olympics through the 1940 Battle of Dunkirk. Readers are submerged in different societal classes, opposing familial expectations, and varying political views and goals.

In the 1930’s, the expectation of young upper-class women was to marry and produce heirs, not pursue careers. Cornwall explores this expectation through the main character, Viviane Alden. A secretly aspiring photographer, Viviane meets journalist Tom Graham, a well-educated Scotsman hired to appear as a Fascist sympathizer, who presents her with risky career choices in Germany. Viviane chooses to accompany stepsister Julia to Count von Schroeder’s castle in Bavaria for the opportunity to follow her dreams. Viviane is settled in the politically divided household with the Count and Countess, and three sons. Viviane’s interactions uncover the prejudices of each member’s involvement in the politics of Germany and the rising Nazi regime.

Cornwall’s narrative transports readers from London’s society balls and mob riots to nerve wracking, bone chilling missions in Germany, as careers and lives are risked in conflicts involving a clearly defined Nazi enemy. Enthralled readers will be shocked as the plot twists and Viviane takes more risks with her camera. The well-researched prose immerses readers in politically charged Germany with captivating dialogue and ominous reactions in clutch situations. Viviane’s balancing act exposes political and religious tensions as she nimbly walks a fine line with members of the von Schroeder family. An engrossing, absorbing picture of the 1936 Olympics from the perspective of a “pretty young tourist taking holiday snaps.”

Lecia Cornwall, acclaimed author of numerous historical romance novels, lives and writes in the beautiful foothills of the Canadian Rockies with four cats and a wild and crazy ninety-pound chocolate Lab named Andy. She has two grown children and one very patient husband. When she is not writing, Lecia is a dedicated volunteer at the Museum of the Highwood in High River, Alberta. That Summer in Berlin is her latest novel of historical women’s fiction.

A Christmas Deliverance by Anne Perry

Publication: November 8, 2022 by Random House Publishing/Ballentine Books

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Anne Perry’s annual Victorian mystery is a holiday gift readers receive with great expectation. A Christmas Deliverance bustles readers into Dr. Crowe’s toasty warm London clinic caring for the poor near the muddy banks of the Thames, with a bubbling pot of soup ready to serve the next patient and no expectation of payment. Over a year ago Dr. Crowe cared for Eliza Hollister, only daughter of wealthy widower, Albert Hollister, after a nasty carriage accident near his clinic. Realizing he’s in love and drawn to her street, Crowe witnesses Eliza being bullied by Paul, son of shipping magnate, Silas Dolan. Overhearing the two are to be wed right after Christmas ignites Crowe’s desire to find out WHY Eliza doesn’t walk away from Paul and his troubling behavior. What is the connection between Albert Hollister and Silas Dolan?

The well-drawn characters include Will Monk, Crowe’s assistant, admired and respected for his determination and perseverance to become a doctor. Known as Scuff, he reminds Crowe that some patients only need “a listening ear, kindness, and to be believed.” An endearing patient is five-year-old Mattie, street wise, intuitive, and loveable beyond all bounds. The perfect Christmas glow that Crowe and Scuff need in their lives.

Anne Perry’s mystery of a debt between two families involving fraud and murder reminds readers that the people we love are vulnerable and possess human frailties. Dr. Crowe’s quest to unwrap a case that seems to be tied up whisks readers from the surgery table to the blustery docks, barges, and warehouses on the River Thames. Dr. Crowe is reminded that Christmas is about family and love so get cozy near a crackling fire and revel in Anne Perry’s A Christmas Deliverance.

Anne Perry is the bestselling author of fifteen previous holiday novels, as well as the bestselling William Monk series, the bestselling Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series, the new Daniel Pitt series, five World War I novels, and a work of historical fiction, The Sheen on the Silk. Anne Perry lives in Los Angeles.

A Place to Land by Lauren K. Denton

Publication: October 4, 2022 from Harper Muse Publishing

“SOUTHERN GRIT AND GRACE
HUMOR, HOPE, AND LOVE”

“**For sisters Violet and Trudy, a hidden past isn’t past at all.**” **https://laurenkdenton.com/**

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Lauren K. Denton is a Southern author whose wonderful stories of love, belonging, and finding home are set in fictional towns with characters richly drawn from her own life and imagination. In the South “your people” are the link to the past and a key to the present! Lauren’s “people” are written with deep, meaningful lives that evoke a wide range of emotions.

A Place to Land is the story of how love and a promise to a mother impacts the lives of sisters Violet and Trudy Figg. Violet, whose life is on hold to protect her sister, fills her days surveying birds for the Coastal Alabama Audubon Society. Trudy, who only communicates by writing notes, silently creates artwork for their shop, Two Sisters Art in Sugar Bend, Alabama. Now the past Violet and Trudy have tried to bury bumps right into the present when after forty years a sunken boat resurfaces on the muddy, weed filled banks of the winding Little River.

Lauren K. Denton’s plot is filled with secrets and winds around as many bends as the Little River. Denton’s novel is chocked full of stories of bird watching, lost love, hurtful tales of the “friendliest guy in town’, and a teenage victim of the foster care system. With a mysterious boat, teens Maya and Tyler searching for courage to leave their present life to forge a future, and the Figg sisters hoping love transcends past decisions, readers will get a warm, safe sense of Southern belonging and what it truly means to finally find A Place to Land.

Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren now lives with her husband and two daughters in Homewood, just outside Birmingham. In addition to her fiction, she writes a monthly newspaper column about life, faith, and how funny (and hard) it is to be a parent

Tastes Better from Scratch by Lauren Allen

Publishes September 27, 2022

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Remember the cartoon of the confused young bride searching the grocery aisles for “scratch”? Lauren Allen can help with that! She hosts a popular food blog and website, Tastes Better from Scratch, and now her well tested fan & family favorites are available in her debut cookbook. Lauren believes that “good food is essential for our physical and financial health and our social well-being.”

This cookbook is well organized with 116 recipes, colorful photos, and step-by-step instructions. Tips for key kitchen tools, ideas for getting kids or grandkids to eat the same meals as adults, and even QR codes that connect to how-to videos make this cookbook the perfect choice.

Categories include Breakfasts, Muffins & Breads, Dinners, Soups, and Desserts. The alphabetical index is also helpful with live links if using the digital edition. Tastes Better from Scratch makes a wonderful wedding gift, but also a beautiful addition to a seasoned cook’s collection.

I tried the German Pancakes. Next time I’ll use a bit smaller pan and lower the oven temperature. Delicious, as voted by my family!

Dorothy’s German Pancake right out of the oven

When We Had Wings by Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner

Publishes October 18, 2022

**A STORY OF THE ANGELS OF BATAAN**
**https://www.amazon.com/When-Had-Wings-Ariel-Lawhon**

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

When We Had Wings is a riveting account of the Japanese takeover of the Philippines after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 1941, told seamlessly by three authors through the lives of three nurses.

The three nurses representing the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and the Filipina community, Penny, Eleanor, and Lita, experience hospitals with few supplies, orphans facing starvation, and the horrors of prisons and internment camps in Manila, the Bataan Peninsula, and Corregidor Island. The Philippine assignment was considered ‘paradise’ at the time each enlisted but after the declaration of war they must come to grips with atrocities and realities of warfare.

The history of the Philippines, the political and social upheavals, along with demolished cities and details of conflicts add to compelling personal accounts as the three nurses are separated for years and wonder who survives. The detailed descriptions of their personal contributions, experiences and sacrifices evoke feelings ranging from pure disgust to extreme delight, as they became the first female prisoners of World War ll.

General MacArthur pledged “I shall return!” This commitment keeps hopeful readers interned with the “Angels of the Bataan and Corregidor” until the tanks roll in, hatches open, and they hear in a distinct American accent, “Hello, folks”. God Bless America!