The Shadows of London, book six in Andrew Taylor’s fabulous series of historical mysteries set in post-Restoration London, finds our protagonists, James Marwood and Cat Hakesby (née Lovett) once again embroiled in an intricate and cleverly constructed murder mystery. Like the earlier books in the series the mystery in this one stands alone, but I’d…
The Lost Summers of Newport is, quite simply, a solid, cracking yarn, another novel in which Williams, Willig and White each take the point of view of a different women, weaving together stories of soapy scandal, heartbreak and true love in a convincing way. These three stories take place among the upmarket glitz and glamor…
A lovely look at life in Britain after World War II, Bloomsbury Girls gives us a glimpse at the time between the end of the war and the social upheavals that led to the women’s right movements of later decades. It’s a good story, but not one that engaged me deeply in the various plights…
In the Face of the Sun is an engrossing family saga filled with heartbreak and love, victory, forgiveness, and loss, and a wonderful character study of several unforgettable women. It is 1968, and a pregnant Frankie Saunders is leaving Chicago, abandoning an abusive marriage to the violent, controlling Jackson with the help of a ride…
The Lost Son is a very straightforward women’s fiction novel centering around – you guessed it – a woman’s quest to find her missing child. Julia Kruse’s mother died in childbirth. Her father, a famous chef at a luxury hotel, fears his demanding job will keep him from spending time with his two young daughters,…
The Last Daughter is an unusual, intriguing novel featuring time travel, magical artifacts and an interesting defense of Anne Lovell. It’s well-written, well-researched, engrossing and incredibly original – but the magical world-building is somewhat weak. The plot is split between two different storylines which eventually intertwine in the last half of the novel. The first…
In 1975 a movie was made of the popular biography The Hiding Place. Covering the horrific events of the Nazi’s occupation of the Netherlands, the narrative tells what happened to Corrie ten Boom and her family as members of the Dutch resistance. Chasing Shadows is a fictionalized account based on other stories of WWII resistance…
The Curator’s Daughter is a story of how women often find themselves in the most impossible situations and manage to rise above them to create a better world for themselves, those they love and all who come after them. Hanna Tillich is not a Nazi, but she is reluctantly employed by them. She worked all…
A just-all-right Salem Witch Trial drama, Hour of the Witch feels in places like The Scarlet Letter – Demi Moore’s film rewrite, not the Hawthorne classic. Yet Chris Bohjalian’s skillful way of getting into his protagonist’s head keeps this one from sinking below the midpoint mark. Mary Deerfield is the beautiful, young, and fiery second…
The Moonlight School is a prettily written if occasionally predictable inspy with a heart of gold. Its feeling for life in the Kentucky hills alone is worth the price of admission. Lucille – Lucy – Wilson carries an ugly, heavy burden with her. When she was a little girl, it had been her job to…
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