“Half an hour before Diana Snyder died, she tidied up her desk in the typists’ office of the Cabinet War Rooms.” MR. CHURCHILL’S SECRETARY by Susan Elia MacNeal “London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope…. Read more »
“Caught between green earth and blue sky, only truth kept me sane, but now lies disturb my peace.” THE TRUE STORY OF HANSEL AND GRETEL: A Novel of War and Survival by Louise Murphy A poignant and suspenseful retelling of a classic fairy tale set in a war-torn world. In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two… Read more »
To kick off 2017, I ordered myself 4 books that have been on my my wishlist. This year I plan on reading more books I choose to read, rather than orphans from my editing work (the majority of the YA books I reviewed last year), or review requests. What better way to start than by anticipating lovely, new books in… Read more »
The Spirit of Grace by Terry Lynn Thomas California, 1942. Sarah Jane Bennett has been locked in an asylum since her mother’s death the year before. Because she doesn’t remember anything from the horrific event, and was found standing over her mother’s body, she remains under suspect to those who do not believe the death to be an accident. Her… Read more »
War in My Town by E. Graziani Bruna Pucci is an eleven-year-old girl living in a small village in northern Tuscany, Italy. The story opens in 1940 with Bruna’s everyday life–going to school during her final year, doing chores and enjoying spending time with her mother, six siblings and neighborhood friends–and takes readers through the end of World War II…. Read more »
Courage & Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in WWII Denmark by Deborah Hopkinson “Only a drop in the ocean, that’s what they say. Well now, the ocean consists of drops.” – Mogens Fog An emotionally affecting story based on a collection of survivors’ memoirs, this WWII account focuses on the resistance efforts in Denmark during the five years… Read more »
“A young Italian woman risks her life to defy the injustice surrounding her in Margaret Wurtele’s The Golden Hour, a touching novel of forbidden love in war-torn Italy… It is autumn 1943 when German forces invade the peaceful vineyards and olive groves of Giovanna Bellini’s village in Tuscany. At first, the seventeen-year-old finds herself fascinated by the dashing Nazi officers…. Read more »
The Golden Hour by Margaret Wurtele Giovanna Bellini is just seventeen years old when her hometown of Lucca, Italy is occupied by German soldiers, putting a halt to all diversions and semblances of a normal life for a young lady just out of school. To make good use of her time, and offer services to the war effort, Giovanna agrees… Read more »
Dark Mirror by M. J. Putney Victoria ‘Tory’ Mansfield is a gentleman’s daughter in the year 1803. Through an act of bravery she exposes the fact that she has magical powers to the genteel society and finds herself shipped off to Lackland Abbey, where young ‘mages’ are sent to cure them of their unsavory nature. Though the common people of… Read more »
1939 Into the Dark by Paula Phelan I accepted this book for review with some trepidation, as I do with all books that aren’t in my particular favored eras (Medieval through Victorian), not because I doubt their worth; because I don’t have a lot of knowledge and experience to put into a review. I don’t know why I am so… Read more »