The Paris Apartment is a compelling story told in dual timelines. The first is 1938 – 1942 during the Nazi occupation of Paris, and the second is 2017 in Paris and England after an apartment, unseen since World War II, is opened and its contents create more questions than answers. It’s 2017 and Aurelia (Lia)…
The Last Night in London is an enthralling story about the bonds of friendship, the wonder of falling in love and the often painful experience of holding on to hope in the midst of unexpected hardship. It begins with an exhibit. Ninety-nine-year-old Precious Dubose had been a model for decades and kept many of the…
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…
Stephanie Dray’s talent for historical fiction is well spent on this handsome tale featuring three women who occupy the Chateau Lafayette, the ancestral home which once belong to the famed Marquis and his wife, Adrienne, which goes through many changes over the centuries. Marthe Simone is an aspiring artist living in the early 1940s. Having…
The Consequences of Fear is the sixteenth novel in the Maisie Dobbs series. This latest volume shows our titular heroine contemplating the vagaries of war-time justice as she tries to find a murderer in an England bombarded with death due to incessant Nazi aggression. While the mystery portion might work fine as a standalone, 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….
I’m an avid gardener and a lover of Historical Fiction so I was delighted to pick up The Last Garden in England. I’m happy to report it was everything I hoped it would be! The Last Garden in England tells the story of the Highbury House garden across three different time periods. The first begins…
Our Darkest Night – a tale of how one young Jewish woman survived and thrived in WWII Italy – had me riveted from the first page to the last. Antonia Mazin’s father had been a famous doctor but by Autumn of 1943 the racial laws had stripped him of that title. Now the two of…
A young woman is dropped behind enemy lines where she faces unspeakable dangers and unexpected love in The Secret Agent. Sylvie Duchene lived in France till she was fourteen, travelling with her mother’s dance troupe and thoroughly enjoying the bohemian lifestyle Angelique provided for them. Her own intention had been to join the performers once…