In Two Wars and a Wedding, Lauren Willig explores two wars which don’t get a ton of attention in fiction – the Greco-Turkish war of 1896 and the Spanish American War. Both are seen from the PoV of a single woman who finds herself nursing troops while also fostering her dreams of being an archeologist….
Code Name Edelweiss shines a spotlight on American anti-semitism in the years prior to WWII and brings attention to some little-known history in the fight against fascism in America. Summer 1933: Liesl Weiss is the second generation of her family employed by MGM. The huge movie lots and sound stages of the massive studio have…
It’s hard to find an original angle on a World War II story at this point. The Lost English Girl manages to provide a somewhat fresh twist on the subject by exploring the strained marriage between a Christian woman and a Jewish man, and the child she places in seeming safety for the duration of…
I had no experience with author Brianna Labuskes when I picked up The Librarian of Burned Books, but I found the novel’s subject matter intriguing. Covering an underutilized piece of WWII history, the story shows three heroines who fight for something that is doubtless dear to most AAR readers’ hearts – the freedom to write,…
Marvelous is a tender, aching novel based somewhat loosely on the real life story of a man who was adopted into the French court at the age of ten for the entertainment of the king and queen. Molly Greeling fictionalizes the life story of Petrus “Pedro” Gonsalvus, who was taken from his home in Tenerife…
The Porcelain Moon splits its focus between two different Chinese women living in France at the end of World War I. They are related and harboring secrets from each other which are threatening to slip out. Easy to read and beautifully sculpted, the book provides an experience that moves with grace from chapter to chapter….
Marie Benedict’s The Mitford Affair is a fictionalized account of the infamous Mitford family, focusing primarily on the years leading up to and during the Second World War. While the novel does discuss all six of the Mitford children, it concentrates on three primary characters – the scandalous Diana, whose adulterous affair with a fascist…
Suzanne Fortin’s All That We Have Lost is an interesting but flawed story of how a widow, trying to rebuild her life, discovers a secret about a girl who lived during the Nazi occupation of France. I liked the premise a great deal, but have some caveats about the execution. Let’s start with the good….
Five people with busy, difficult lives find an oasis of friendship in their local library when they join The Blackout Book Club. It’s a story about love, war, and the pleasure of discovering a good book. When Avis’ librarian brother Anthony leaves town, he entrusts to her his position at The Cavendish Association Library. Not…
When We Had Wings is a collaboration between three popular women’s fiction authors, one of whom (Kristina McMorris) has written several heartwarming WWII-set stories. That alone had me excited to read this novel and the fact that Susan Meissner, a personal favorite, is another contributor was the cherry on top for me. Perhaps my resultant…
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