Beyond the Clouds by Elizabeth Camden

Publication Jan. 2025-Bethany House-Christian-Historical Romance-368pp

Book Summary

They lost each other once before; now the clouds of war may give them a second chance.
As teenagers, Delia Byrne and Finn Delaney fell in love while flying kites and dreaming of a future together–until betrayal tore them apart. Now, as America enters World War I, Delia works for peace as a paralegal and pacifist. Her values forbid her from supporting the war effort, but she volunteers for a relief organization trying to save millions of lives in famine-stricken Belgium.
Returning to America as a decorated war hero, Finn is eager to get back to the front but is assigned to use his fame to raise funds instead. To his surprise, this mission will bring him face-to-face with Delia, the only woman he ever loved and once hoped to marry. As their shared mission draws them together, old sparks of romance begin to stir–until duty sends them behind enemy lines in occupied Belgium. Will the greatest danger be the conflict raging around them–or the possibility of falling in love again?

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab First Published in Historical Novels Review May 2026 Issue

Beyond the Clouds, third in the Women of Midtown Series, combines well researched history of pre-World War I America and 1917 occupied Belgium with a post war relationship challenged by sense of duty, courage, and fear.

Elizabeth Camden expertly weaves teenagers Finn Delaney and Delia Byrne’s backstory before World War I with their present-day situation, hopes, and fears. Years later after a betrayal, conflict ensues as war hero Finn returns to the U.S. and pacifist, Delia is working as a paralegal. The descriptions and details of Delia’s life in New York City sink readers into the social dilemmas faced by working women and the political climate in the United States pre and post-World War I.

From the initial description of Finn’s plane crash, the novel quickly draws readers into occupied Belgium, while contrasting the social and political turmoil here in the U.S. Camden focuses attention on compelling historical details of Herbert Hoover’s creation of the CRB, Commission for Relief of Belgium. A strong sense of the U. S. economic climate is provided by Finn’s experiences contacting wealthy Americans for contributions, such as Randolph Hearst, past president, Howard Taft, and many others.

A Christian romance, Beyond the Clouds spans just over a decade. From a 1917 plane crash in occupied Belgium to 1928, Times Square, New York City, this is a splendid exploration of fear, courage, duty, and love; filled with hope and possibility.

"Historical romance of second chances, sacrifice, and redemption set against World War I Belgium."

Elizabeth Camden is best known for her engaging romance novels featuring clever heroines with richly layered storylines. Before she was a writer, she was an academic librarian at some of the largest and smallest libraries in America, but her favorite is the continually growing library in her own home. Her novels have won the RITA and Christy Award, and she lives in Florida with her husband, who graciously tolerates her intimidating stockpile of books.

It Girl by Allison Pataki

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Published March 10, 2026-Ballantine-Historical Fiction

Book Summary

New York, 1900. At the dawn of a new century, the city’s streets teem with change: electricity, automobiles, a brash young President Teddy Roosevelt—and the It Girls. As artist’s muses and working models, these independent young women soar to stardom not because of their pedigrees or inherited wealth, but because of their talent, charisma, and irresistible beauty. Pop culture is born, and in a world alight with Mr. Edison’s new bulbs, no one shines brighter than America’s sweetheart, Evelyn Talbot.

But the journey to stardom is not simple or straight. While working as a young shopgirl, Evelyn is recruited as a studio model, and soon catches the eye of the preeminent artists of the age. When Broadway comes calling, Evelyn solidifies her status as the first self-made American female celebrity, a “Gibson Girl,” the most sought-after figure and face of her time. Enter a parade of powerful and power-hungry men, from world-famous architect Stanley Pierce, the visionary behind Manhattan’s mansions and iconic landmarks; to Hal Thorne, the shockingly wealthy railroad heir and premiere “playboy” of high society. Each man promises comfort, glamour, security—even love. But fame and fortune are cruel teachers, and Evelyn learns that the only person she can rely on is herself.

When Evelyn finds herself at the center of a murder of passion declared “the Crime of the Century,” she is blamed for the acts of the men in her life. In the media frenzy that spirals around her, Evelyn realizes that—to survive—she will have to write her own ending. But can this artists’ muse turned showgirl pull off the greatest act of her life?
It Girl is a breathtaking ride inspired by a singular artist and icon who captured the collective imagination of American society. Allison Pataki has crafted yet another unforgettable leading lady, a heroine who must find the power to change not only the world around her, but her own destiny.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The face of the fresh century, 1901, New York City. Evelyn is giving one of her most risqué performances, Salome, at Mrs. Vanderbilt’s with Mrs. Astor and the top of society in attendance. Her dance leaves them shocked and horrified! Such a surprising opening, it begs you to keep reading! Enter the alluring world of men that create, promote, and manipulate Evelyn Talbot, the “It” girl. All of them, maddening!

Travel with Eve from artist’s model to Broadway and Gibson Girl, and on to London, Paris, and Pittsburg. Allison Pataki adds delicious and impeccably researched details of all these settings, sinking readers into Eve’s world of wealth and indulgence. Her rise to fame, the decadent world she lives in, the evil men and the despicable mother she endures, is absolutely mind boggling. The millionaire rivals for Eve’s attention are involved in “The Crime of the Century,” but America’s Eve writes her own ending – a shocking, roller coaster, heart stopping read.

Allison Pataki is the multiple New York Times bestselling author of eleven books of historical fiction, children’s books and memoir, including the instant bestseller The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post and the critically acclaimed Finding Margaret Fuller.

The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn

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Publication Feb. 25, 2025-Random House Publishing-Historical Fiction-384pp

Book Summary

An immersive historical drama about a young mother who starts a new life with her son in New York after faking their deaths on the Titanic—the U.S. debut of an acclaimed British novelist.
Sometimes it takes a disaster to change your life.
     Marrying above your social class can come with unexpected consequences, as Elinor Coombes discovers when she is swept into a fairy-tale marriage with the son of an aristocratic English family. She soon realizes that it was the appeal of her father’s hard-earned wealth rather than her pretty face that attracted her new husband and his family. Curtailed by rigid social rules that include being allowed to see her nanny-raised infant son for only moments each day, Elinor faces a lonely future. So a present from her father—tickets for the maiden voyage of a luxurious new ship called the Titanic—offers a welcome escape from the cold, controlling atmosphere of her husband’s ancestral home, and some precious time with her little son, Teddy.
       When the ship goes down, Elinor grasps the opportunity to take Teddy and start a new life—if they can disappear completely, listed among the dead. Penniless and using another woman’s name, she must put that terrible night behind her and learn to survive in New York City. But even in a brash new world that couldn’t be more different from her own, secrets have a way of floating to the surface. . . .
      An absorbing historical drama set between the old world of the oppressive English aristocracy and the new world of opportunity and freedom, The Lost Passenger is a grippingly dramatic story about starting over in a brand-new world, triumphing over adversity, and finding hope in the face of great loss.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

This is my first introduction to Frances Quinn’s writing and will definitely not be my last. Though she is well known in the UK, The Lost Passenger is her debut novel here in America and is a Titanic story like no other I’ve read. Main character, Elinor, is manipulated by the charming Frederick into a quick fairy tale wedding with a foreboding mother-in-law. The restrictions of society and the accepted practices of parenting are especially saddening as Elinor is only allowed a few minutes a day with her son, Teddy. Extremely unhappy and suspicious of Frederick’s attentions, the stage for escape is set when Elinor receives tickets from her wealthy father for the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

The saga that unfolds is filled with astonishing descriptions and entrepreneurial spirit. The character development and pacing of the narrative kept me engaged, hopeful, anxious, and at times panicked! The element of historical fiction that I always appreciate is when the author sinks the reader into the scenes through sensory details. Readers will definitely get the sense of extreme differences between the divinely exorbitant amenities on the Titanic and the deplorable living conditions in the tenements of the Lower East Side of NYC.

Emotional attachments grow to overwhelming proportions as the novel progresses. A much-disliked mistress from London’s high society crosses the Atlantic and my favorite character Tommy Jenkins from the sinking ship, makes a remarkably emotional plea. The immigrant family squished into the tiny apartment shows fortitude, ingenuity, and Quinn’s pure unbridled handling of their feelings is realistic and truthful.

Can Elinor steal a life by keeping secrets and taking risks? Becoming aware of more than one kind of happy ending is a spellbinding treat for readers of The Lost Passenger.

Frances Quinn grew up in London and studied English at King’s College, Cambridge. She became a journalist, writing for magazines including Prima, Good Housekeeping, She, Woman’s Weekly, and Ideal Home, and later branched out into copywriting. Upon winning a place on the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course, she started work on her first novel, The Smallest Man. Her second novel is That Bonesetter Woman and The Lost Passenger is her third. She lives in Brighton, England, with her husband and three Tonkinese cats.

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

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Publication January 7, 2025- Penguin Group, Dutton-Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers-

Book Summary

The Stolen Queen will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.
      Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. That is until an unbearable tragedy strikes.
     New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.”
      Meanwhile, Charlotte is now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art. She’s consumed by her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.
     The night of the gala: One of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing, and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening. Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, and a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art while on a trip to New York City last December in anticipation of The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis. I knew that part of the novel was set at the Met leading up to and during the “party of the year” known as the Met Gala. I also knew that part of the novel was set at an archaeological dig in Egypt. What I didn’t know was that this novel would awaken a profound appreciation of Egyptology, Jackie Kennedy, and how the Temple of Dendur came to be at the Met.

Presented in dual timeline, the novel alternates between Annie, a plucky assistant to the Met’s Diana Vreeland for the gala in 1978, and a tragic event in 1936 that has a lasting effect on associate curator Charlotte Cross. Fiona Davis weaves a thrilling plot involving missing research files, the stolen Cerulean Queen, Egyptian antiquities, and a legendary curse! Smooth transitions between timelines, plenty of historical background, and helpful archaeological terminology sink the reader into the world of hieroglyphics, pharaohs, and digs in the Valley of the Kings. I appreciated the partnership between Annie and Charlotte which slowly develops into mutual respect despite the age and experience differences, as they learn from each other. Davis creates great anticipation leading up to the Met Gala as Annie stomps after Diana Vreeland into various areas of the Met. Details for the flow of hundreds of guests at the “party of the year” are mapped to the restaurant behind the Greek and Roman wing for the dinner, through the King Tut exhibition and finally to the dancing in front of the Temple of Dendur. Everyone’s nerves are tingling!

A missing child and a stolen queen take center stage in this mysterious trek into Egypt’s Valley of the Kings and one magnificent night at the Met. Mystery. Thriller. Five Stars.

I found a wonderful blog, Albertis Window: https://albertis-window.com/2016/04/abu-simbel-and-jackie-kennedy/ which explains the history of the area in Egypt, the reasons for the removal of the temples and Jackie Kennedy’s impact on the relocation of the Temple of Dendur to the United States.

F I O N A D A V I S is the New York Times bestselling author of seven historical fiction novels set in iconic New York City buildings, including The Spectacular, The Magnolia Palace, The Address, and The Lions of Fifth Avenue, which was a Good Morning America book club pick. Her articles have appeared in publications like The Wall Street Journal and the Oprah magazine. She first came to New York as an actress, but fell in love with writing after getting a master’s degree at Columbia Journalism School. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages and she’s based in New York City.

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

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

Book Summary

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

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

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

Reflections on Musicals and Maria Von Trapp

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

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

WOMEN IN HISTORY: Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Publication March 12, 2024-Berkley Publishing-528p

"One of the most consequential women of modern history the you might not know about!" — **“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 32^nd 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.

The Trouble With You by Ellen Feldman

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.

The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard by Natasha Lester

Publication: January 30, 2024-Forever (Grand Central)-Historical Fiction-496pp

Book Summary

“Vogue meets Daisy Jones & the Six,” says New York Times bestseller Kate Quinn, in this bold novel of feminism and fashion set in 1970s New York City and the historic designers’ showdown in Versailles.

Everyone remembers her daringly short, silver lamé dress. It was iconic photo capturing an electric moment, where emerging American designer Astrid Bricard is young, uninhibited, and on the cusp of fashion and feminism’s changing landscape. She and fellow designer Hawk Jones are all over Vogue magazine and New York City’s disco scene. Yet she can’t escape the shadow of her mother, Mizza Bricard, infamous “muse” for Christian Dior. Astrid would give anything to take her place among the great houses of couture–on her own terms. I won’t inspire it when I can create it.

But then Astrid disappeared…

Now Astrid’s daughter, Blythe, holds what remains of her mother and grandmother’s legacies. Of all the Bricard women, she can gather the torn, painfully beautiful fabrics of three generations of heartbreak to create something that will shake the foundations of fashion. The only piece missing is the one question no one’s been able to answer: What really happened to Astrid?

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Three generations of Bricard designers take to the runway in Natasha Lester’s intriguing mystery of a famous designer’s disappearance from the Palace of Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors in 1973. Leaving only a blood-stained white dress as a clue, the missing designer, Astrid Bricard, remains the central character as her mother, Mizza, muse to Christian Dior, and Blythe, Astrid’s daughter, reveal their own stories in alternating chapters. There are many questions to be answered and Lester’s plot unfurls like chiffon from its bolt. The patterns seem to be set, only to be redesigned and refit depending on the Bricard women’s level of guilt, pain, and pure stubbornness. Lester’s vivid settings of underground escape tunnels in Paris, the Viet Nam War, and the Equal Rights Amendment sink readers into the political events of the early years of WWll and the 1970’s. The rich and famous Jackie Kennedy, Princess Grace of Monaco, and the Duchess of Windsor make appearances at events and in the current magazines of the day, Vogue and Life. Lester capturesJohn Fairchild’sintolerable personality and keeps readers infuriated with his “In and Out” column. Scenes at real venues, Electric Circus and Cheetah, with ever present paparazzi trying to get a picture of Astrid in the silver lamé dress, along with pop culture icons Mick Jagger and Bianca, depict the ‘breakneck, brash’ vibe of NYC in contrast with the ‘sultry, aloof’ streets of Paris. Lester’s research into the details of the famous competition involving designers, situations, and interactions revealing their personalities is a treat for fashionistas as American designers Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, and Halston match wits and design creativity against French icons Yves St. Laurent, Christian Dior, and Givenchy. Changing the show order and screaming shout downs were part of the toxic atmosphere at Versailles! Was it a French or American designer? More importantly, what happened to Astrid Bricard?

Enter the strange and mysterious world of fashion as Natasha Lester’s designing women of three generations, each an expert at leaving, create their own “pièce de résistance.”

I always look forward to the author’s notes where the author separates fact from fiction. Natasha Lester’s note includes many interesting bits, so don’t skip it. She recommends the 2016 documentary Battle at Versailles for a real live look at the famous competition.

Do you remember wearing hotpants or kneeling on the floor to have the length of your skirt measured? The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard was written with you in mind!

Natasha Lester is the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Seamstress, The Paris Orphan and The Riviera House, and a former marketing executive for L’Oréal. Her novels have been translated into many different languages and are published all around the world.
When she’s not writing, she loves collecting vintage fashion (Dior is a favorite!), practicing the art of fashion illustration, learning about fashion history—and traveling to Paris. Natasha lives with her husband and three children in Perth, Western Australia.

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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