Friends. Lovers. Rivals. Enemies. The ties that bind all four are strong but malleable, especially in wartime. This fact is at the heart of Eternal, a story of three young people who find themselves in three very different positions as the Nazis and Fascism storm across Europe. Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro are known as the…
The Kitchen Front is a soapy, engrossing book in which the narrative follows a cooking contest held during World War II. But a few plot choices meant it didn’t quite reach DIK status. They come from a variety of backgrounds, but they all want one thing – to win a contest that will allow them…
Jennifer Ryan’s The Kitchen Front is a wonderful, charming tale about the healing power of friendship and how we best learn to stand on our own by first learning to lean on those who love us. One of the biggest challenges facing the home front in Britain during the Second World War is food shortages….
The Nature of Fragile Things is the mesmerizing, enchanting new novel from author Susan Meissner. A tale celebrating strong women, female friendships and the special bond between mothers and daughters, this charming book is the perfect companion to a hot cup of tea on a winter afternoon. Sophie Whalen isn’t looking for love. But she…
Angie Hockman’s Shipped is a diverting novel that suffers from an unfortunate case of whiplash as it hops between genres without warning. Henley Rose Evans works in marketing for a small-scale international cruising company, Seaquest Adventures. She fills her days with work, MBA classes, and a feud with her WFH coworker Graeme Crawford-Collins, who she…
Find Me in Havana is a difficult book to grade. Startling, original, frank and powerful, it spellbinds and breaks a reader’s heart. The book tells the tale of Estelita Rodriguez, a Cuban actress whose time in the spotlight led to a supporting role in Rio Bravo and a series of Roy Rogers films. Estelita had…
Narrated by Richard Armitage This past spring, in the early days of the pandemic, I read the complete works of Jane Austen, which, I thought, made me rather suited to taking on a review of the audiobook version of The Jane Austen Society, a gentle, quiet, sincere story that is an homage to the work…
Grace Turner – née Hyde – had it all; or so it seemed. A Hollywood starlet on the eve of a breakthrough into the serious acting world, she was plucked from England via a stroke of luck at the age of thirteen. In acting, she found a way to snag the attention of her parents…
Historicals taking place in the WWII time period are among my favorites, and I’ve loved the fact that they’re experiencing a surge of popularity right now. Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook offers a glimpse into a unique moment of that era, examining just how the Allies handled the immediate aftermath of victory. Edith Graham was…
Over the past several years, I’ve developed quite a liking for dual timeline novels, and Home for Erring and Outcast Girls, centered around a home for fallen women in the early 1900s is one of the best I’ve read. It’s a bit complicated, due to the large cast of characters and the constant shifts in…