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Taming Lady Temperance By Karen Witemeyer

Publication February 17, 2026-Bethany House Publishing-Christian Historical Romance-336pp

Book Summary

When passion for justice conflicts with the heart, which will prevail?
Noreen O’Sullivan is an enthusiastic member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and believes herself called to defend the cause of prohibition. When she’s invited to join the Secret Society of Spinsters, Noreen jumps at the chance to rally others to her movement and shut down the local saloon for good. However, her passionate campaigning often puts her at odds with the men around her–including the local deputy.

Deputy James Paxton believes in preserving the peace, but Miss O’Sullivan has been disturbing his peace for months. If James wants to be elected sheriff, he can’t afford to be seen as her ally. But when Noreen ropes him into helping her plan a temperance march, their growing closeness sparks unexpected feelings. Then tensions escalate at the saloon and accusations fly. James must choose between upholding his badge and protecting the woman who’s captured his heart–knowing either choice could cost him everything.

Karen Witemeyer presents a swoony Western romance with a determined heroine, cowboys, prohibition, and the rivals-to-lovers and duty vs. desire tropes. Fans of Mary Connealy and frontier romances set in the Old West will savor this clean, historical read.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Fans of “rivals to lovers” Old West historical reads will be enamored with Book #1 in Karen Witemeyer’s newest series, The Secret Society of Spinsters. This clean Western set in Albany, Texas, features a feisty heroine and a discerning deputy. In 1894, Noreen is an active member of the Woman’s Temperance Union and the newly formed, Secret Society of Spinsters. James Paxton is a deputy aspiring to one day be sheriff. The characters surrounding Noreen in the Temperance Union and the spinsters are well developed, with memorable backgrounds and all the typical skills of capable frontier women. Readers should be apprised that themes of alcohol addiction and family abuse are possible triggers. But be assured the characters and readers are constantly reminded of God’s grace and forgiveness throughout the novel. James is portrayed as a compassionate, patient deputy with a strong sense of justice and excellent listening skills! A rare, treasured commodity. Noreen’s mother-daughter relationship, along with 15-year-old Luella’s family situation, adds to the impact and suspense of tragic events in this West Texas town. Karen Witemeyer’s bold, determined characters are learning to overcome guilt and regain trust, relatable themes developed in Taming Lady Temperance.

Taming Lady Temperance is Book #1 in The Secret Society of Spinsters Series. Book #2, Wooing the Wallflower, set in Tyler, East Texas, is due in February 2027. Karen Witemeyer, a Christy Award winner, writes historical romance with happily-ever- after endings.

“Happy Trails to you, until we meet again!”

Murder in Manhattan by Julie Mulhern

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Publication Dec. 9, 2025-Forever, Grand Central Publishing-Historical Mystery-352pp

Book Summary

Inspired by one of the first real-life female columnists at the New Yorker, this enticing historical mystery follows Freddie Archer as she solves crimes while reporting on the glamorous world of the rich and famous in 1920s Manhattan.

This writer just found her next scoop . . . and it’s deadly.

New York, 1925 – Freddie Archer frequents speakeasies and wild parties with her friends Dorothy Parker and Tallulah Bankhead. And the best part is that it’s all in a day’s work. Freddie loves her job writing the nightlife column for Gotham Magazine.

But Freddie’s latest piece just won her a bit more attention than she bargained for—from the police. A man mentioned in her column has been murdered. And Freddie is asked to keep an eye out for his fashionable female dinner companion. She’s told in no uncertain terms to stay out of the case herself.

So naturally, Freddie throws herself into an investigation that takes her from the elegant stores that line Fifth Avenue to the tenements south of Houston Street. Now between sipping gin rickeys with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and casting Broadway shows with Groucho Marx, she’s dodging bullets and dating a potentially dangerous bootlegger.

Freddie wanted adventure and excitement. But will she survive it?

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

If you’re like Freddie Archer, seeking adventure and excitement, this is the historical mystery for you! It’s New York,1925. This riveting trek takes readers from ritzy speakeasies and chic designer boutiques to the warehouses of the Lower Eastside. Freddie pals around with the famous author, critic, Dorothy Parker; readers can count on her for witty wisdom. Tallulah Bankhead, a twenty-three-year-old actress, already living at the famous Algonquin, hotspot of the literary and artistic elite, is also a frequent flyer in Freddie’s nightly jaunts to restaurants, plays, and clubs, searching for juicy gossip for her nightlife column. I loved that Freddie could write a column in her head as she sped around Manhattan in cabs following leads. Freddie consorts with Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, and even Grouch Marx makes an appearance in an unexpected way. Freddie shows up, Chanel ensemble and chic bobbed hair, sticking her detective nose into situations she’s been told, in no uncertain terms, to stay out of. Julie Mulhern has created predicaments that are humorous, harrowing, and downright spine tingling. Grab a gin rickey or a champagne cocktail to follow the clues in Murder in Manhattan, but in the complete safety of your own living room. Did I mention bootleggers and kidnapping?

The Manhattan Girls by Gill Paul

Published August 18, 2022

“**It’s a 1920s version of** **Sex and the City, as Dorothy Parker—one of the wittiest women who ever wielded a pen—and her three friends navigate life, love, and careers in New York City**.” http://gillpaul.com/

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Gill Paul’s Manhattan Girls takes readers behind the desks of New York publishers, into speakeasies, and onto Broadway in 1921, as she chooses a bridge group to connect the lives of four real New York career women, each with their own individual style. Gill Paul wins the hand by developing dialogue and moving the plot through four “players”: Dorothy Parker, writer, and Jane Grant, a reporter at the New York Times; kindred spirits of journalism, and Broadway actress Winnifred Lenihan and Margaret (Peggy) Leech, an advertising sales agent for Condé Nast. These women never saw swapping fashion tips at beauty salons or looking after a husband as their sole purpose in life. Gill Paul surrounds the main characters with husbands, lovers, friends, editors, newspaper columnists, authors, playwrights, actresses, and bootleggers! Seems a lot, but readers will be intrigued with the character interactions and entanglements. Her juicy descriptions of gatherings read like newspaper society columns.

Due to the war and more women in the work force, the four women are on the cusp of social change as the decade ends. Readers will be invested in how Gill Paul interprets the ideals and dreams of the four women and their relationships in this challenging time in history. The Manhattan Girls support each other’s strengths as they bid and win with the cards they’ve been dealt.

Gill Paul’s historical novels have reached the top of the USA Today, Toronto Globe & Mail and UK kindle charts, and been translated into twenty languages. She specializes in relatively recent history, mostly 20^th century, and enjoys re-evaluating real historical characters and trying to get inside their heads.

Blind Tiger by Sandra Brown

Sandra Brown is the author of sixty-nine New York Times bestsellers, including the #1 Seeing Red. There are over eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. She lives in Texas. For the Book Club Kit with discussion questions, recipes, and short videos check out this site! https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/sandra-brown/blind-tiger/9781538751985/

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“The Wild West ushers in the Roaring Twenties!” As Sandra Brown says, “What could go wrong?” In January 1920, Laurel, husband Derby, and newborn Pearl arrive at a shanty in Foley, Texas, in the middle of a blustery, snowy night. This austere opening is based on a true story told by author Sandra Brown’s grandmother. The novel from that point on is filled to the brim with Brown’s fictitious, industrious, and independent women struggling to become financially stable and enough “good guys and bad guys” to keep the bootleggers and law enforcement sleeping with their boots on! President Wilson’s attempt to create a more “temperate” American society with the passage of the 18^th Amendment, had the opposite effect. The result was the rise of organized crime, while Prohibition and the big business of bootlegging and “speakeasies” began. This novel is filled with enough plot twists to keep readers racing to protect the stills while “the competitors” search and destroy; hoping and praying the good guys win! Buried deep in the brambles and oilfields of West Texas Brown buries nuggets of wisdom on how to handle loved one’s struggles, how secrets erode relationships, and the treatment of each other in grief and trauma. Tangled in the fiery bootlegger wars, the secretive still building, and the murder mystery, there’s a surprising renewal of trust and establishment of boundaries in friendships.

Sandra Brown’s sharpshooter cowboy, Thatcher- with a “knack for reading people,” small town Doctor Driscoll- married to the German Mila, a snooty mayor, and a harried sheriff are the ingredients for a cocktail of high-falutin’ Mystery & Moonshine not soon to be forgotten.

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