The Booklover's Library by Madeline Martin

The Booklover's Library by Madeleine Martin

Published by Hanover Square Press ISBN 978 13350000392

Trade paperback, $18.99, 432 pages

From the publisher:

In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.

When the threat of war in England becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In the wake of being separated from her daughter, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing and the work at the lending library forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.

As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.

My thoughts:

I truly enjoyed Madeline Martin's Last Bookshop in London (my review here ) and so I was happy to hear that her newest novel  The Booklover's Library also has books at the heart of the story.

I had never heard of lending libraries located in a chemist shop in England. The system of A subscribers (who pay a higher subscription price and get first selection of the newest and better books) and B subscribers (who pay less and get the new books after the A subscribers have read them) intrigued me. I also found it fascinating that the library workers had to take a rigorous aptitude test. As I manage a used bookshop located in a branch of the New York Public Library, I was so involved in this part of the story.

As the story went on, I became very invested in Emma and her young daughter Olivia's story. As a widowed mother who had to work to support her child, Emma struggled with her decision to keep Olivia home with her in a city that may be targeted by German bombs or send her daughter off to the countryside with strangers and then with her estranged in-laws. I empathized with Emma and would not know what to do in that situation.

Fans of WWII historical fiction should definitely put The Booklover's Library on their To-Be-Read list. Martin clearly did her research (as she details in the Author's Note at the end) and she draws the reader in with her relatable characters and the situation they find themselves in. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Fall 2024 Blog Tours.

Two Books By My Favorite Authors

Reprinted from auburnpub.com:

There are some authors whose work I will always read. Their books are filled with characters that feel like people I want to know, the stories are interesting, and writing entrances me. Lisa Grunwald and Caroline Leavitt are two of those authors, and they both have wonderful books publishing in April.

There are some authors whose work I will always read. Their books are filled with characters that feel like people I want to know, the stories are interesting, and writing entrances me. Lisa Grunwald and Caroline Leavitt are two of those authors, and they both have wonderful books publishing in April.

Lisa Grunwald’s last novel Time After Time (about a young woman who, after she dies in train crash in a tunnel in Grand Central Station before WWII, returns to life but can only exist within the walls of Grand Central Central Station, falls in love with a train conductor) is one of my all-time favorites. It’s a beautiful love story.

Her new novel, The Evolution of Annabel Craig also has a historical setting. In 1925 Dayton, Tennessee, Annabel is married to George, a lawyer. Annabel overhears a group of the town’s businessmen discussing a newspaper article that states that the American Civil Liberties Union was offering to back any teacher in Tennessee who was willing to test a new law signed by the Tennessee governor. 

The Butler Act forbid the teaching of evolution in public schools in order to protect the children from hearing something that is in direct contrast to religious teachings. The Dayton businessmen believed that this test case could be a boon to business in town. 

Luckily for them, John Scopes, a young substitute science teacher and high school football coach, had taught a class about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which is found in their science textbook. John agrees and history is about to be made.

Annabel’s husband George ends up on the defense team, and their lives immediately change. Their neighbors and friends become angry with them. Over 200 reporters descend on the town, including a female reporter named Lottie Nelson. 

Lottie befriends Annabel and opens Annabel’s eyes to a life beyond being a housewife. Annabel likes to take photos and Lottie encourages her in this pursuit, telling Annabel that “what a person wants can change”. 

The Evolution of Annabel Craig may be a historical novel, but it has so many parallels to things happening right now. The media circus, the debate over separation of church and state in schools, the country coming out of a recent horrific pandemic (the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic), it all resonates with today's issues.

If you’re familiar the play “Inherit the Wind”, you know about this story. Lisa Grunwald tells it through the lens of Annabel’s growth as a woman, discovering who she is and what is important to her. It’s a book that leaves the reader with so much to think about, I read it months ago and I still think about it. I give it my highest recommendation.

Caroline Leavitt’s new novel, Days of Wonder is more contemporary, but also tells the story of  a woman’s growth. When Ella was sixteen years old, she fell madly in love with Jude. They were inseparable and their love became nearly obsessive.

When it appears that Ella and Jude poisoned his father, a judge, after he disapproved of their relationship, Ella is sent to prison while Jude’s father moves him far away.

Ella was pregnant with Jude’s baby and Ella’s mother Helen made the decision that the baby would be given up for adoption. Six years later, Ella gets out of prison and returns home to Helen, who just wants her daughter to be safe and happy. Ella cannot forget about the daughter she gave up however and is determined to find her.

Moving to Ann Arbor, Ella doesn’t tell her mother she is going to find her daughter who has been adopted by a couple. Ella becomes involved in the lives of her daughter and the woman who has adopted the baby without them knowing who she really is.

Meanwhile, Helen, who has never had a relationship with a man since she had Ella, finds herself involved with a man who treats her with kindness and respect. Her life has opened up in ways she never believed possible.

Leavitt does a remarkable job with the characters of Helen and Ella. We watch them change and grow as they have to deal with an impossible situation and we root for them. Helen and Ella have found a place in my heart and no one writes the mother-daughter relationship in novels better than Caroline Leavitt. I also give Days of Wonder my highest recommendation, and it may be Caroline Leavitt’s best book yet.

The Evolution of Annabel Craig by Lisa Grunwald- A

Published by Random House

Hardcover, $30, 320 pages

Days of Wonder by Caroline Leavitt- A

Published by Algonquin Books

Hardcover, $29, 320 pages

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Published by Berkley ISBN 9780593437056

Hardcover, $29, 528 pages

One of the reasons I enjoy reading historical fiction is that I learn more about historical figures I knew little about. Stephanie Dray's newest novel, Becoming Madam Secretary, shares the story of the life of Frances Perkins, best known as Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor following the Great Depression.

The novel opens in 1933 with the recently elected President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt summoning Frances Perkins and offering her the job as Secretary of Labor in his cabinet. Perkins would be the first woman in history to serve as a cabinet member, but that doesn't seem to persuade her to take on the role.

Perkins had prepared a list of things that she wants to accomplish if she took the job, including eliminating child labor, limiting working hours, instituting a federal minimum wage, and creating what would become Social Security. If she thought this would discourage Roosevelt, she was mistaken. He agrees to back her and she is stuck taking the job.

The book then goes back in time and we see Perkins' start, first as a graduate student in economics studying child malnutrition in Hells Kitchen in New York City. Her dedication, work ethic, and success captures the attention of others in the social work field, and she is asked to become a lobbyist with the New York Consumers League.

Through her lobbying efforts Perkins becomes acquainted with politicians like future governors of New York Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt, and they recognize her talents and put them to good use. But being a woman in a man's world back then required a high wire act that Perkins managed to walk.

Frances also captures the attention of writer Sinclair Lewis, whose attempts to woo her are comical if unsuccessful. She does marry a man who appreciates that Frances has a career doing important work, but their union has troubled times ahead.

I found myself totally immersed in the life of Frances Perkins and I could not put Becoming Madam Secretary down. I found it reminiscent of Allison Pataki's The Magnificent Marjorie Post; both books highlighted women who accomplished so much in a time when women weren't expected to do much more than run a household. 

Frances Perkins saw a need to fix major problems in this country at a most challenging time, and she was  the woman for the job. Becoming Madam Secretary is an appropriate and excellent read for Women's History Month. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Penguin Random House for providing a copy for an honest review.

The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West by Sara Ackerman

The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West

Published by MIRA, ISBN9780778369516

Trade paperback, $18.99, 384 pages

From the publisher:

1927. Olivia ‘Livy’ Jones is a young and determined pilot with a love of adventure. She’s been bit by the flying bug and yearns to cross oceans and see the world, pioneering the way for other women pilots. When she learns of the Dole Air Race–organized immediately after Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight–a race to be the first to make the 2,400 mile Pacific crossing from the West coast to Hawaii, with a huge grand prize of $25,000–she sets her sights on qualifying. But it soon becomes clear that only men will make the cut. In a last ditch effort to take part, Livy manages to be picked as a navigator for one of the pilots, before setting out on a harrowing journey that will change her life forever.

 

1987. Wren Summers is down to her last dime when she learns she has inherited a remote piece of land on the Big Island with nothing on it but a dilapidated barn and an overgrown mac nut grove. She plans on selling it and using the money to live on, but she is drawn in by the mysterious objects kept in the barn by her late great-uncle—clues to a tragic piece of aviation history lost to time. Determined to find out what really happened all those years ago, Wren enlists the help of residents at a nearby retirement home to uncover Olivia’s story piece by piece. What she discovers is more earth-shattering, and closer to home, than she could have ever imagined.

My Thoughts:

Last week there was a news story about the possible discovery of a plane submerged in the Pacific Ocean and there was speculation that it was the plane of Amelia Earhart, who was lost at sea in 1937 during her attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world, so it's a great time to read Sara Ackerman's novel The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West.

Frequently in dual timeline novels, one storyline is stronger than the other, but in this one, I was equally invested in both stories and both women. Livy Jones is an intelligent young woman who figures out a way to make into the boys' club of aviation by working hard and taking advantage of every opportunity to be around pilots and eventually convincing one pilot to let her fly with him. 

In the 1987 timeline, when Wren's life appears to be falling apart, she leaves her home and when she sees the dilapidated barn, pulls herself together and works to make a new home for herself. Ackerman paints such a vivid portrait of the barn, I felt like if I closed my eyes I could see it.

Both characters are well-drawn and I enjoyed following the progress that Livy made during her flight to Hawaii and Wren made restoring her great-uncle's plane. There's history, romance, some interesting Hawaiian culture, and a nice twist at the end that careful readers may be able to guess. I recommend it for fans of historical fiction featuring strong women.

I reviewed Sara Ackerman's previous book Radar Girls here.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on their Winter 2024 Blog Tours.

The Roaring Days of Zora Lily by Noelle Salazar

The Roaring Days of Zora Lily by Noelle Salazar

Published by MIRA ISBN 9780778305200 

Trade paperback, $18.99, 416 pages

Noelle Salazar's fascinating novel  The Roaring Days of Zora Lily begins in 2023 with a curator at the Smithsonian Museum of American History's discovery while working on an exhibition of iconic movie costumes from 1920's through today. She finds a label underneath another label with the name of Zora Lily on it.

Who is Zora Lily and why was her label hidden underneath the label of a famous costume designer? That takes the story back to the days of Prohibition and the 1920's. Zora Hough was a teenager from a poverty-stricken family in Seattle. Zora helped her mother support her family as seamstresses, repairing clothes for others.

Zora's talents lay in designing and sewing beautiful dresses for wealthy women in Seattle. She spent all her time either in school or working to help her mother. Zora's best friend dances in a club downtown and convinces Zora to join her in some well-deserved fun at the clubs.

Zora is introduced to a whole new world in the dance clubs, and catches the eye of a handsome and wealthy man, a man whom all the other women desire for themselves. The dicotomy of her life at home and her night life in the clubs is striking.

Soon Zora's talents are put to use repairing the costumes for the dancers and when Zora's friends are drawn to the bright lights of Hollywood, Zora accompanies them and gets a job at a studio as a seamstress. 

Although Zora was led to believe that she would be designing clothes for the movies, in fact she spent all her time sewing and repairing other people's designs. She became frustrated and was set to return home for good when an opportunity arose for her to possibly realize her dreams.

Noelle Salazar transports the reader to the 1920's era in The Roaring Days of Zora Lily. You can almost hear the music in the clubs, taste the fizzy drinks, and see the beautiful dancers moving. I also liked the Hollywood setting, meeting people like Greta Garbo. Zora being torn between her loyalty to her family and her own big dreams is something people can relate to as well.

Fans of Karen White's jazz-era Wicked City trio of novels (The Wicked City, The Wicked Redhead, The Wicked Widow) and Adriana Trigiani's All The Stars in the Heavens, (a fictionalized account of actress Loretta Young's life) should put The Roaring Days of Zora Lily on their TBR list. I recommend it.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on their Fall 2023 Blog Tours.

Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders

Women of the Post by Joshunda Saunders

Published by Park Row ISBN 9780778334071

Trade paperback, $18.99, 368 pages

Historical fiction enlightens readers by expanding our knowledge of times and events through the lens of fictional characters (who are often based on real people.) Joshunda Sanders novel, Women of the Post, takes readers back to WWII and shares the stories of the Six Triple Eight Battalion.

The Six Triple Eight Battalion was an all-Black unit of women Army Corps recruits who were assigned to sort through the over one million pieces of mail that was backlogged. Their assignment took them to England where they were to catalog and get mail to and from the armed services members fighting in the war. It was felt that getting mail to these men and their families would boost morale at a critical time in the war.

Judy Washington is a newlywed whose husband is fighting overseas. At first she received regular letters from him, but that soon stopped, along with the small amount of money he was able to send home.

 Whereas white women could find factory jobs while the men were fighting overseas, Judy and her mother could only find work at what was commonly called the Bronx Slave Market.  Judy and her mother would go to the Bronx and wait for wealthy white women from the suburbs to drive up and offer a paltry amount of pay for a day's work cleaning their homes. When one woman stole money from Judy's own wallet to pay her, that is when Judy had had enough.

 Judy saw an opportunity to join the Six Triple Eight Battalion as not only a chance to make a decent wage, but also to be closer to finding out what has happened to her husband. We follow Judy through basic training in Kansas, where she makes friends with three other women, and we meet Second Officer Charity Adams, who will lead the battalion overseas. (Charity Adams was a real person, the highest ranking Black female officer in WWII.)

Each of the characters is interesting and has her own reasons for being there. Charity is hiding a relationship with a fellow female officer, and Mary Alyce discovers a secret that her family kept from her for years that changes her life forever.

I learned so much from Women of the Post. I had heard of the Six Triple Eight before, but reading of their accomplishment and how they managed to not only complete the task of getting the mail but create a cataloging system for doing so was so interesting. Joshunda Sanders takes us right into their day-to-day life in basic training, and what it was like to be an almost forgotten part of the military. I was intrigued by her characters and bond of friendship they formed.

I had never heard of the Bronx Slave Market, and I wish more people knew about this part of New York City history. It was shocking to me and yet not so unbelievable that it would exist. I'd like to read more about it. I will also be looking for more information on Charity Adams.

If you are a historical fiction fan, Women of the Post is a book to put on your list. Fans of Lauren Willig's Band of Sisters and Margot Lee Shetterly's nonfiction Hidden Figures will enjoy it, and I give it 5 stars.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Summer 2023 Blog Tours.

The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer

The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer

Published by Graydon House ISBN 9781525826689

Trade paperback, $18.99, 352 pages

As Kelly Rimmer's fascinating novel The Paris Agent opens, four women who are British spies in 1944 were captured by Nazi forces and are now on a train being transferred somewhere unknown.

Flash forward to 1970 Britain where Charlotte and her father Noah are grieving the death of Charlotte's mother, Noah's wife. Charlotte believes that her father was a plane mechanic during WWII, and she is stunned to discover that Noah was actually a top secret SOE spy operative in France during the war.

Noah has been disconsolate lately; he wants to track down the man Remy who helped him when he suffered a serious head injury during the war. He has memory loss from that time and he believes that Remy can help fill in the gaps. 

Charlotte finds a professor who is working on a history of the SOE operatives. Perhaps he can find Remy for them, but Noah seems reluctant, even more so when it appears that there was a double agent working for the Nazis who endangered the lives of SOE operatives.

As the story moves back to 1944, we meet two female spies- Chloe and Fleur- as they narrate their stories of how they came to be spies for the British government and the dangerous missions they undertook. Rimmer writes an incredibly tense scene as Chloe and Noah's mission to destroy a Nazi weapons factory is detailed. It's a real nail-biter.

These brave heroes put their lives on the line for the safety of others back home, knowing they could be captured or killed. Those who came home often wanted to put that part of their behind them or were forever haunted by it. Noah was able to put it behind him until he could no longer do so.

I was pulled deep into this story, and although at first it is difficult to keep the characters straight because they use their spy names and real names interchangeably (a chart in the beginning of the book would have been helpful), I could not put this book down.

The characters are so well drawn, we feel deeply for them when they face unspeakable danger and as we draw closer to discovering their fates, I found my heart racing. If you are a fan of WWII novels, like Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale, you'll want to read The Paris Agent.

Thanks to TLC Tour for putting me on Kelly Rimmer's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

TLC review tour schedule:

Monday, June 26th: @poisedpen 

Tuesday, June 27th: @nobookmark_noproblem

Wednesday, June 28th: @marensreads 

Thursday, June 29th: @andrea.c.lowry.reads 

Thursday, June 29th: @readthisandsteep and Read This and Steep

Friday, June 30th: @mrs._lauras_lit 

Monday, July 3rd: @wendysbookclub

Wednesday, July 5th: @megsbookclub

Thursday, July 6th: @laurasnextchapter 

Friday, July 7th: Bookchickdi

Saturday, July 8th: @addictedtobooks86

Monday, July 10th: @page_appropriate 

Tuesday, July 11th: Helen’s Book Blog

Wednesday, July 12th: @bigskybooks

Friday,  July 14th: @diveintoagoodbook

Monday, July 17th: @charliegirl.loves2read

Wednesday, July 19th: @finding_joyathome

Friday, July 21st: Girl Who Reads

Friday, July 21st: Books Cooks Looks

Monday, July 24th: @nurse_bookie

Wednesday, July 26th: @subakka.bookstuff and Subakka.bookstuff

Friday, July 28th: Eliot’s Eats

The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi

The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi

Published by MIRA ISBN 97807783386148

Hardcover, $30, 368 pages

Alka Joshi's utterly captivating Jaipur trilogy began with The Henna Artist, continued with Secret Keeper of Jaipur, and finishing with The Perfumist of Paris kept me rapt with characters I grew to care deeply about.

We met Lakshmi, the henna artist and title character in 1950's Jaipur as she created henna art on some of Jaipur's's most influential women, while also helping one of those women's husbands hide his involvement with mistresses. That relationship leads to Lakshmi's banishment from Jaipur.

In The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, Lakshmi is married and working with her husband Dr. Jay Kumar in a community health clinic in Shimla in the Himalayas, and using her knowledge of medicinal herbs and plants managing the Healing Garden Center. She gets her former assistant, young Malik, an internship in Jaipur with a friend who is managing a huge construction project- a state-of-the-art cinema. When the balcony collapses on opening night and people are injured and killed, Malik suspects foul play and his investigation puts him on the wrong side of powerful people.

Lakshmi's younger sister Radha takes center stage in The Perfumist of Paris. Radha left India to go to Paris, where she is married to a Parisian man, mother to two young daughters, and an assistant chemist at a small perfumery.

Radha loves her work and wants a promotion to perfumist at the company, where her boss is a woman. The company is tasked with creating a fragrance based on great works of art for a client, and she believes her knowledge of the basis of many perfumes that come from India can help her do that and get the promotion over two men who want the promotion.

Lakshmi offers to introduce Radha to the courtesans who took her in when she left home. These women use their knowledge of various plants and herbs to create scents that entice men, just what Radha needs to create the perfect scent to get her the promotion.

Back home in Paris, Radha has to deal with her husband Pierre, who doesn't want his wife's career to take away from their family. Radha's mother-in-law Florence also makes no secret of the fact that she thinks Radha should be home with her girls. Florence happily cares for the girls while Radha is at work, and Radha fears that the girls will become more French and lose any Indian identity they have.

When a person from her past shows up in Paris, Radha has to contend with a secret from her youth that she fears will destroy her family and the life she has built.

The setting is 1970s Paris, and more women are entering the workplace alongside men. Radha's struggle with wanting something of her own, a career she loves and can be proud of, and wanting to be a good mother is one that many women of today can relate to as well. 

I enjoyed learning about the perfume business, especially the fact that many of the French perfumes have their basis in Indian plants. As always, Alka Joshi immerses the reader in the culture and foods of India, and even if you don't like Indian food, you may find your mouth watering at the descriptions. I also loved her evolving relationship with Florence.

Alka Joshi has created a fascinating world in her Jaipur trilogy, and populated it with characters I came to care about, especially Lakshmi. I'm sad to see the trilogy end, but so glad that I got to spend time in India. I highly recommend all three Jaipur books.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Winter 2023 Historical Fiction Blog Tour.

The Lipstick Bureau by Michelle Gable

The Lipstick Bureau by Michelle Gable

Published by Graydon House ISBN 9781525811470

Trade paperback, $16.99, 464 pages

I truly enjoy a good historical novel based on real people, and after reading Michelle Gable's last novel, The Bookseller's Secret (which featured a fictionalized Nancy Mitford), I knew I would want to read her new novel, The Lipstick Bureau.

The novel opens in May 1989 as Niki and her daughter Andrea are attending a black tie dinner in Washington DC to honor the "Ladies of the O.S.S.", or as Niki says a "deceptively quaint title, like a neighborhood bridge club."  Andrea knew that her mother worked for the O.S.S., the precursor of today's C.I.A., but she was shocked to learn that her mother was not an interpreter or secretary, but she was an important member of the propaganda team called Morale Ops.

The story turns to 1943, when Niki, who speaks eight languages, manages to get herself assigned to a Morale Ops team in Algiers. A few years earlier, Niki tried unsuccessfully to convince her parents and beloved young brother Pasha to leave Czechoslovakia with her as the Nazis were moving to annex the country. 

Niki's team is soon sent to Rome during the last few years of the war and Niki hopes that she can get assigned closer to her home country where she can find out what has happened to her family. In the meantime, Niki uses her brains and creativity to find ways that Morale Ops can convince German soldiers and citizens that Hitler is losing the war and they should turn against him.

I liked Niki's creativity and her out-of-the-box thinking, even if it skirts military rules. Sometimes her ideas backfire, and when they do, she gets the blame. When her ideas succeed, her partner Will get the credit and promotions that she deserves.

Niki is brilliant, headstrong, and a terrible driver. She encourages a local Italian housewife-turned-prostitute Paloma to help her with some of her plans, and when her sister-in-law Moggy turns up (possibly to spy on Niki for Nicki's husband), Moggy becomes involved in as well.

Niki is based on the real life of Barbara Lauwers, and some of the operations in the story (code names Sauerkraut, Cornflakes, and Monte Rosa) actually happened. Gable brings her characters to vivid life, especially the women, and she gives Niki a great sense of humor. (Niki calls the O.S.S.  "a hodgepodge of army castoffs and every rich family's one stupid son.")

I didn't know much about Rome after the Nazis were driven from there, and found Gable's description of it and the Morale Ops fascinating. If you are a reader of Susan Elia MacNeal's wonderful Maggie Hope WWII series, as I am, The Lipstick Bureau is a must-read.

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on Michelle Gable's tour.

Two books featuring strong women at a crossroads

Reprinted from auburnpub.com:

The leaves are turning, the weather is cooler, it’s getting dark out earlier, and now we have more time to stay inside and read. This month’s Book Report features two books about strong women facing difficult times in their lives.


Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope WWII mysteries is one of the few series I will always read, and her latest book, Mother Daughter Traitor Spy is a fantastic standalone novel. The last Maggie Hope novel, The Hollywood Spy, had Maggie in WWII Los Angeles, where she tangled with Nazis. Mother Daughter Traitor Spy tells the story of Veronica and her mother Violet during WWII. 

When Veronica makes a bad personal choice, she loses her job in New York, and she and her widowed mother move to Los Angeles, closer to her uncle. Veronica unintentionally finds herself as secretary for someone who is heavily involved in the Nazi movement in the United States.


Meanwhile, Violet's lovely embroidery catches the eye of a Nazi leader's wife, and soon she is designing and sewing clothes for many of the women's friends. Horrified by the things they are hearing, Veronica and her mother go to law enforcement and end up working as spies for the US military.


I found myself wanting to know more about this time period in Los Angeles after reading The Hollywood Spy, and was so pleased to see that Susan Elia MacNeal was continuing to tell us more about this intriguing time in history in Mother Daughter Traitor Spy, based on the lives of a real mother-daughter team.


As I read this terrific story, I could not help but see the connections between what was happening politically in the 1940s and what is happening in our country in the last few years, and that adds to the importance of this book. I didn’t realize how many followers the Nazi had in America prior to and during WWII, it was eye-opening and honestly frightening. Mother Daughter Traitor Spy is a must-read for historical fiction fans.


Another author whose work I never miss is Anne Leigh Parrish. Her previous novels (Our Love Will Light the World, The Amendment and A Winter Night) dealt with families living in the Finger Lakes region in contemporary settings.


Her latest novel, An Open Door, is an historical novel set in the aftermath of WWII. When we meet Edith she is a young woman working at the United Nations in New York City, and married to Walt who is studying to be a lawyer and living in Boston. 

Edith enjoys her freedom working in New York and living with her husband's widowed aunt. Many people question why a married woman would choose to live and work in a different city than her husband, including her husband who pressures Edith to return to Boston.


After having watched her mother being stifled by her marriage to Edith’s overbearing father, she did not want to live a similar life. When she returns to Boston, Edith intends to continues her PhD studies in literature, but women at that time were discouraged from such a higher level of education. She saw that “the problem was what the world expected women to be, which was always less than a man.”

Unhappy in her marriage and with her life in general, Edith “wished that knowing where you didn’t belong meant knowing where you did.” When an opportunity to buy the neighborhood bookstore (along with two other people comes along), she sees this as a chance to do something more meaningful and fulfilling with her life. Edith’s life begins to revolve around the bookstore, and as someone who works in a bookstore, I so enjoyed reading about the joys, and the trials and tribulations of owning a bookstore.


No one writes characters better than Anne Leigh Parrish, and Edith is no exception. Parrish takes the reader into the heart and head of her characters so brilliantly that we relate and understand them, even when they do things with which we disagree. Edith is not perfect, and she does things that people will find objectionable.


Parrish writes so beautifully, I found myself returning time and again to her words, like this quote from her mother- “One thing I’ve learned is that kind people love kindly; careless people love carelessly; cruel people love cruelly.” She always gives her readers something deep to ponder.  I give An Open Door my highest recommendation.


Mother Daughter Traitor Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal- A

Published by Bantam

Hardcover, $28, 336 pages


An Open Door by Anne Leigh Parrish- A+

Published by Unsolicited Press

Trade paperback, $17/ Kindle $6.99, 267 pages

An Open Door by Anne Leigh Parrish

An Open Door by Anne Leigh Parrish

Published by Unsolicited Press ISBN 9781956692341

Trade paperback, $17.99, 267 pages

An author whose work I never miss is Anne Leigh Parrish. Her previous novels (Our Love Will Light the World, 

The Amendment and A Winter Night) dealt with families living in the Finger Lakes region in contemporary settings. 

Her latest novel, An Open Door, is an historical novel set in the aftermath of WWII. When we meet Edith she is a young woman working at the United Nations in New York City, and married to Walt who is studying to be a lawyer and living in Boston. 

Edith enjoys her freedom working in New York and living with her husband's widowed aunt. Many people question why a married woman would choose to live and work in a different city than her husband, including her husband who pressures Edith to return to Boston.

After having watched her mother being stifled by her marriage to Edith’s overbearing father, she did not want to live a similar life. When she returns to Boston, Edith intends to continues her PhD studies in literature, but women at that time were discouraged from such a higher level of education. She saw that “the problem was what the world expected women to be, which was always less than a man.”

Unhappy in her marriage and with her life in general, Edith “wished that knowing where you didn’t belong meant knowing where you did.” When an opportunity to buy the neighborhood bookstore (along with two other people comes along), she sees this as a chance to do something more meaningful and fulfilling with her life. Edith’s life begins to revolve around the bookstore, and as someone who works in a bookstore, I so enjoyed reading about the joys, and the trials and tribulations of owning a bookstore.

No one writes characters better than Anne Leigh Parrish, and Edith is no exception. Parrish takes the reader into the heart and head of her characters so brilliantly that we relate and understand them, even when they do things with which we disagree. Edith is not perfect, and she does things that people will find objectionable.

Parrish writes so beautifully, I found myself returning time and again to her words, like this quote from her mother- “One thing I’ve learned is that kind people love kindly; careless people love carelessly; cruel people love cruelly.” She always gives her readers something deep to ponder.  I give An Open Door my highest recommendation.

Thanks to TLC for putting me on Anne Leigh Parrish's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Review tour schedule:

Monday, October 3rd: @whatlizziereads

Monday, October 3rd: @spaceonthebookcase

Wednesday, October 5th: BookNAround

Thursday, October 6th: @thebphiles

Friday, October 7th: @abduliacoffeebookaddict23

Monday, October 10th: Girl Who Reads

Tuesday, October 11th: @mom_loves_reading

Wednesday, October 12th: @suzylew_bookreview

Thursday, October 13th: @fashionablyfifty

Friday, October 14th: Kahakai Kitchen

Monday, October 17th: @lindahamiltonwriter on TikTok

Tuesday, October 18th: Bookchickdi

Wednesday, October 19th: @nurse_bookie

Wednesday, October 19th: Books, Cooks, Looks

Thursday, October 20th: @pickagoodbook

Thursday, October 20th: @tammyreads62

Monday, October 24th: Bibliotica

Tuesday, October 25th: @cmtloveswineandbooks

Wednesday, October 26th: @wovenfromwords

Thursday, October 27th: Run Wright