Christmas with the Queen focuses on an interesting time in the life of Elizabeth II – the Christmas season of 1952, and the first time she made a Christmas broadcast from Sandringham. These addresses were established in 1932 by King George V and broadcast around the world by BBC radio and subsequently television (from 1957)….
Cat Sebastian’s recent Regency historicals were a bit hit and miss for me, but I’ve really enjoyed the twentieth century historical romances she’s written lately, and now, this new standalone, We Could Be So Good, which is, well, just So. Very. Good. It’s set in New York in 1959, and charts the development of the…
The winner of multiple awards, Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club is the beautifully written narration of a young Chinese-American teen’s queer coming-of-age in 1954 California. The story is set in a richly depicted Chinese-American San Francisco of the 1930s through 1950s, including flashbacks to LIly’s parents and her aunt, whose career working…
Jennifer Robson’s The Gown was told from the point of view of those constructing the future Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding dress. Her latest slice of historical fiction focuses on in three wholly different people living life in London during the year of the Queen’s coronation, with the story climaxing on the very day Elizabeth takes…
Cat Sebastian’s Tommy Cabot Was Here is a short and sweet second-chance romance set in 1959 about two men who were best friends (and more) at boarding school, went their separate ways after college and who unexpectedly find each other again fifteen years later. On “Visting Sunday” – a month after the start of the new school…
I’ve been on a LaVyrle Spencer reading kick recently. I was in the mood for something quiet, emotional and deeply immersive, and Spencer’s books nearly always deliver in that regard. Her last published novel, Then Came Heaven, was an interesting read in many ways, but didn’t have the romantic depth of her previous work. In…
Once upon a time, it was de rigueur for society misses to be presented to the queen, an event which marked their entrée into society and the beginning of their Season, during which they would hopefully find a marriageable prospect. By 1957, the concept is seen as fairly antiquated, and is ready to be phased…
Aster Glenn Gray’s Honeytrap is a compelling and unique story that charts the development of the unlikely relationship between an American FBI agent and a lieutenant in the Red Army (and possible KGB agent) over a period of around thirty-five years. It’s extremely well-written, and the author does an amazing job of exploring the cultural…
COVID-19 has made us more aware than ever of the importance of the spaces we call our own. That makes this the perfect moment to read the uncanny, absorbing Mexican Gothic, a tale about the kind of location in which you most definitely wouldn’t want to shelter in place. Wealthy socialite Noemí Taboada had planned…
The charming writing of Amy Sue Nathan and the even more charming heroine she gives us deflect all of The Last Bathing Beauty’s sins. Though the plot has some predictable points, the utterly disarming story is a page turner and a great summer read. In the summer of 1951, eighteen year old Betty Stern is…
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