Fans of stories centered around the Second World War won’t want to miss Julia Kelly’s The Light Over London. It’s a dual timeline novel that tells the story of two women living years apart, each struggling with questions of love and self-worth, and I’m so glad I got a chance to read it. Cara Hargraves…
I’ve been addicted to dual timeline novels lately, so Hazel Gaynor’s latest offering, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter, seemed like just the book I needed in my life. I’m happy to say it exceeded all my expectations, cementing Ms. Gaynor’s place on my list of auto-buy authors. England, 1838. Twenty-two-year-old Grace Darling can’t imagine life away…
I’d like to show you what I looked like as I read this book. No joke. Y’all, this thing is something else. Set between 2018 and 1986, Pieces of Her is a tale of a mother who would go to any lengths to protect her daughter, a daughter who chafes under her father’s authoritarian rule,…
Fans of Susanna Kearsley have waited three years for Bellewether and I think the majority will find that this novel lives up to their hopes and expectations. Charley Van Hoek doesn’t believe in ghosts, but she does believe in family. When her brother dies, Charley goes to Long Island’s Northshore to be near her niece…
I’ve been intrigued for years by things I’ve heard about Beatriz Williams’ work, but it wasn’t until I picked up her latest novel, The Summer Wives, that I realized what a master storyteller the author really is. Reading this book has been one of the high points of my summer, and I can’t wait for…
As a New Englander who knows a bit about Nantucket’s whaling history, I was looking forward to Suzanne Woods Fisher’s continuation of her Nantucket Legacy series about characters involved in this profession at its height. Sadly, a few unfortunate choices sent Minding the Light crashing into the basement. The story opens in the nineteenth century with Daphne…
In Breathless, their sequel to A Courtesan’s Guide to Getting Your Man, Celeste Bradley and Susan Donovan present readers with this enjoyable story of an amnesiac courtesan who becomes a muse and a professor of sociology discovering a yen for adventure. Assistant Professor of Sociology Brenna Anderson is at the end of her tether. She…
The first two books in Laura Spinella’s Ghost Gifts trilogy of paranormal mysteries introduces readers to Aubrey Ellis, a woman who has been able to communicate with the dead since she was a child. These novels centre around Aubrey and her husband, a hard-nosed investigative reporter, but in Echo Moon, the final book in the…
I’ve long been fascinated by the story of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, and so, when Ariel Lawhorn’s I Was Anastasia came up for review, I was thrilled to get a chance to read it. I had really high hopes for this book, but, because of some quirks in the storytelling, I found myself quite disappointed….
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James: A Roundtable Discussion Simone St. James is well-loved by the staff here at AAR, so we have been eagerly anticipating her new book. The Broken Girls is a dual-timeline story centered around a boarding school for the teenaged girls society has turned its back on, and the mysteries…