Review: The First Emma by by Camille Di Maio

Still playing catch up on my ARCs.

Release Date: May 5, 2020

A fascinating true story about how a woman turns her husband's brewing company into an empire that survives Prohibition, after he is murdered by one of his mistresses. 

I knew nothing about Emma Koehler or Pearl Brewing before picking this up, but the only thing better than a dramatic story is one that's true, so I couldn't resist. It's a great story, but I think it could have been told in a slightly better way. It's as though the author attempted to tell it in dual time periods - one when Emma is elderly and hires a young woman to take notes for her autobiography, and the other as Emma's past. The problem is, we only get Emma's past as she's dictating it, so it's not always a true dual-time period story because we only really hear Emma telling us about her past, we don't get to actually see it very much. That was a little disappointing, and I felt like much of her accomplishments were brushed over, but it's still a great story about woman who wouldn't be held back by the personal tragedies that befell her. Not only did she rise above them, she became more successful and powerful than her narcissistic husband had been during a time when women didn't have the right to vote, and managed to maintain it through WWI, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and even the start of WWII.

Additional dimension is added by exploring the fictional character Mabel Hartley, the notes taker. Rather than just being a means of storytelling, she provides a much needed happier ending too.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: And They Called It Camelot by Stephanie Marie Thornton

Release Date: March 10, 2020 (still playing catch up on my ARCs, sorry)

This fictional account of Jackie Kennedy's life, as told through her own eyes, was pulling me in all different directions emotionally. On one hand, I could really see why she fell so hard for Jack, and even why she stayed with him through all his infidelity. On the other hand, her choice of men in general had me smacking my forehead. 

I didn't know much about Jackie before reading this. Obviously, I knew about the eventually tragic fates of her family members, and that she remarried at some point. This book really highlights how tragic her life was, and how she never really recovered from losing the love of her life, but also shows how strong she was to endure everything she did, and eventually find her own way in the world, in spite of the crappy way the men in her life treated her. Absolutely heartbreaking but also uplifting.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: The Red Daughter by John Burnham Schwartz

Release Date: April 30, 2019

Written in the style of a memoir, this is a novel about Joseph Stalin's only daughter, who defected to the US.

Perhaps due to the memoir style, there is a lot of "telling" rather than "showing", and the narrative feels very disjointed, hopping from one thing to the next and only briefly detailing important events in Svetlana's life that could have been used to really flesh out the characters and story.

I was really hoping this novel would give me great insight into a historical figure and subject matter I don't know much about but I feel like it didn't tell me much more than I could have learned from reading Svetlana's Wikipedia page.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: American Princess: A Novel of First Daughter Alice Roosevelt by Stephanie Thornton

Release Date: March 12, 2019

As the title says, this is a novel of Alice Roosevelt, the eldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. Always having a complicated relationship with her father, she adored him but he kept her at arms length since she reminded him too much of her deceased mother, the love of Teddy's life. Yet she was easily the most like him in personality; unapologetically strong willed, strong minded, and outspoken with a quick wit, she was likely trying to emulate him to gain his approval, and in the process made herself into one of the most fascinating characters in American political families. The daughter of this larger-than-life American president is often in her father's shadow, but deserves her own spotlight, and this book more than does her justice. I knew from the moment I started reading this, from the very first paragraph, that I would love this book and Thornton's portrayal of Alice, and I did. So well written with such great characters, this is definitely not one to miss.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: Dancing on Deansgate by Freda Lightfoot

A neglected and abused girl in wartime Manchester tries to find her way out of poverty and crime with music.

I originally picked this up because it was set during the Manchester Blitz, which my mother-in-law lived through, so I thought it might have some personal relevance. But it's really not about the Blitz. It still could have been a good story, but I found there was way too much "telling" and not enough "showing". The majority of the beginning of the book felt like a big info dump. I find I struggle to connect with the characters when that is the case because it feels more like a matter-of-fact narration than experiencing the story as the characters do. It's a shame because Freda Lightfoot has written several historical novels set in Manchester, which appeals to me since I lived there for 8 years, but not if the writing is like this.

Review: The Huntress by Kate Quinn

Release Date: February 26, 2018

There are some books that are really difficult to review because it's difficult to express just how good it is, at least not without sounding like I'm gushing or fangirling all over. This is one of those books.

In the wake of WWII, an English journalist, American translator, and Russian female pilot track down a German Nazi murderess who committed horrific war crimes before fleeing to Boston where she embeds herself in an All-American family.

Kate Quinn is a master at weaving real history into fictional characters and stories. You might think the fact that they are fictional takes away from the impact of the story but it doesn't, because although the main characters are fictional, they are usually inspired by real life historical figures, and the plot based on real life historical events. And best of all, Quinn's hallmark is her strong and compelling, yet realistic heroines.

Like "The Alice Network", this one jumps back and forth in the timeline, but only over a span of about 10 years. We see the war only through Nina's eyes, a Russian pilot who grew up in the wilderness of Siberia with an abusive father. In the scenes after the war, it's told from the point of view of Ian, a former journalist turned war criminal tracker, and Jordan, a young woman in Boston who can't get passed the niggling thought that something isn't quite right with her seemingly perfect new stepmother.

It was a little frustrating to know the whole time where "the huntress" was hiding but the characters having no way of knowing that, but it did not detract from the enjoyment of the story. For a moment in the beginning, I thought maybe Nina's identity was stolen by the huntress, but then I realized that was silly, Kate Quinn doesn't really do twists like that. It's not a mystery. But it is an incredibly good story and I had great difficulty putting it down.

Advanced review copy from publisher via Edelweiss. My opinions are my own.

Review: The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

Release Date: January 15, 2019

A great novel on an incredible woman. Honestly, if it wasn’t true, I’d hardly believe it. A Hollywood actress who escaped an abusive marriage and the Holocaust just before it came to her Austrian homeland, and became a self taught scientist and inventor, partnering with a musician to develop an unappreciated radio guidance system for torpedoes, which wasn't adopted by the US Navy until the 1960s, and later became the basis for Bluetooth and wi-fi. I know it almost sounds like I just strung a random selection of words together, but it's true and it rightfully makes a great story. My only criticism is that I felt like the ending was a bit of a let down, being somewhat anticlimactic, which I thought might be inevitable given Hedy's life story.

Hedy is a flawed but enormously strong and highly intelligent woman. She uses her beauty to the best of her advantage without compromising her integrity, yet she's not vain, and in some ways, her beauty is what holds her back, as so many people can't see beyond it. She is driven by her empathy and survivors guilt to aid the US military against Hilter. Fulfilling her acting obligations at the same time, she invents a radio guidance system that solves the problem of signal jamming, something no expert with formal education in the industry could do. Sadly, the government rejected her invention until the 1960s for a number reasons, none of them justified.

I feel a little bit like Hedy must have been something of an inspiration for Legally Blonde's Elle Woods: "Did she just wake up one morning and decide 'I think I'll go to law school'?" Did Hedy just wake up one morning and decide, 'I think I'll solve radio signal jamming today'? Of course, it wasn't that simple in reality, but it parallels the movie of an underestimated beautiful woman proving the world wrong and showing everyone just how smart and capable she really is, even if it took some time before they realized it.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Release Date: September 25, 2018

Juliet Armstrong works with MI5 during WWII, first simply (and rather boringly) transcribing recordings of conversations among Nazi sympathizers. But it's not long before the world of espionage engulfs her and she is asked to do much more.

I found myself struggling to get through this. The majority of it was just so dull, with what felt like a lot of rambling. Not badly written, just not captivating. It wasn't until about half way through that things picked up and became much more interesting. I still wasn't hugely invested in the characters, but the plot at least picked up. Or at least, I thought it did, and then the WWII story line abruptly ended and jumped forward, which I was expecting at some point, since I knew it was a dual time period plot, but moving forward in the timeline meant the plot slowed down again. There was another peak in the story line at the end, but I'm still not sure all the dribble in between was worth it.

There were some things I really like about this like the writing style and the periodic witty and dry quips in the narrative. And in some ways I think this could actually make an interesting movie (slow paced, granted), but I felt like much of it was just tedious.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

Release Date: August 28, 2018

An aspiring journalist takes a photo of questionable moral integrity, showing what the Great Depression has driven people to and it winds up being his big break. But when he returns to followup on it, he learns just how his photo and accompanying article has influenced the family in the photo and his niggling remorse over it turns into full blown regret and forces him to take a good, hard look at who he has become. Desperate to make things right, not only with the family, but also with his own parents and friends he has driven away, he embarks on a journey of atonement and self growth.

Based on a similar photo taken during the Depression (see below), the subject matter seemed compelling. It was very well written with well developed characters, but I felt like the plot dragged a little bit. I enjoy a good slow paced book, but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and this time it was more the latter. It wasn't a bad read, but it was not as 'powerful' as I thought it was going to be, given the subject matter.

The real life photo which
inspired this novel

I think particularly because the actual photo (in the novel) that wound up being published was staged, the whole book felt too far removed from the real and gritty hardships and desperation of the Great Depression. It was really more about the journalist's remorse over staging the photo and what it winds up doing to the family. The story follows him and his love interest, neither of whom are particularly struggling all that much and don't embody the true depths of despair that time period evokes. I felt like this really could have been placed during almost any time period - the question of what some journalists will sometimes do for a good story and how they deal with those questionable ethics is something that isn't exclusive to the Great Depression. I'm not saying that such a topic isn't worthy of a novel, but this is not what I expected it to be, and therefore it lost it's impact on me.

Additionally, I have to say - the idea that Ellis knew how to pick a lock with hair pins just because he had "a father who preferred tinkering with machinery to conversation" seem ridiculously unrealistic and contrived for the sake of the plot. Maybe if Ellis had an uncle or such who was a locksmith, that would have been more believable, even if still a little contrived. But I just don't know how the author is making the connection between the two. This alone wouldn't be enough for me to dislike it, but it was so silly, I couldn't let it go unmentioned.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own

Review: April in Paris, 1921 by Tessa Lunney

Release Date: July 3, 2018

Kiki Button, a former nurse and spy during WWI, is now a gossip columnist in post-war bohemian Paris who just wants to drown the memories of war with parties, booze, jazz, and sex... except her past isn't finished with her.

It sounds a little more exciting than it is. The majority of the first half of the book is primarily about Kiki hob-nobbing with the rich and famous, which is, to say the least, a bit boring. I understand it's setting the stage for the second half, but it's still boring. The author tries to keep things intriguing with sex scenes (though not very explicit) and constantly mentioning the mysterious and dangerous "Fox" character from Kiki's past and his poetically cryptic clues about finding a mole, but it fails to be quite as compelling as it's supposed to be, probably because he comes off more as creepy and stalker-ish than fascinating.

That said, it is well written with witty dialogue, and the characters do have well formed back stories. The second half was much more interesting and finally felt like there was a plot, but by that point I just wasn't hugely invested in it.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis

Release Date: August 7, 2018

Revolving around the Grand Central Terminal of New York City, we are told the story of two different women in two different time periods. Slow paced but beautifully written, we gradually learn about the growing success of illustrator and artist Clara Darden just before the Depression and a tragic accident ruins her life. Fast forward, Virginia Clay in the 1970s is still reeling from surviving breast cancer only for her husband to divorce her. When she stumbles upon an old art school that used to exist in the Grand Central Terminal, she suddenly finds meaning and purpose in discovering what happened to Clara Darden and who the mysterious artist who called himself 'Clyde' really was. That's not to say it's a mystery. This novel is very much about the journey and learning about the characters, who are well fleshed out.

I adored the detailed descriptions of artwork and fashion and although it was slow paced, it was never boring. I enjoyed reading about both women come into their own and rediscover themselves.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: Love and Ruin by Paula McLain

Release Date: May 1, 2018

An autobiographical novel of author and journalist Martha Gellhorn, the third wife of Ernest Hemingway. A little slow paced, but well worth the read. Although the majority of the book is about Martha's relationship with Ernest, I would not call it a "romance". It's actually more about a woman finding and proving herself then anything else.

In the beginning, I thought Martha was a little foolish for falling for Ernest, not because I knew that they eventually divorced, but because Ernest didn't seem hugely likable, even in the beginning, he seemed self absorbed and fickle. I was worried the book would be too romancy, and not do justice to an amazing woman in her own right, but that was not the case. It's really about how Martha slowly came to the realization that she had to stand on her own to get the respect and recognition as a writer that she deserved, and how needy Ernest just couldn't deal with that. I loved the second half of the book, watching Martha truly become the strong and independent woman she always was deep down and go onto have an incredible career, rather than be held back by a selfish man.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: Between Earth and Sky by Amanda Skenandore

Release Date: April 24, 2018

A slow paced but poignant exploration of the treatment of Native Americans in history from the point of view of a young, coming of age girl. Alma, the main character, is a young white girl in a unique position of growing up among Native American children at her father's boarding school for "civilizing" them. Naturally, she befriends them, and like them, she is caught between two worlds, but does she truly understand them and their situation? As an adult, she has to the face the ghosts of this past.

I really enjoyed the way this story was told, set in two time periods but told in parallel to each other. I know lots of book have used this method before, but few do it quite so well as this one. It's slow paced, but never boring. The chapters set in 1906 hint and foreshadow at something significant that happened in the past, while the chapters set in the past slowly evolve to show you what happened. Eventually, the past catches up and it all comes to a head.

Beautifully written with realistic, three dimensional, sympathetic characters, and complex relationships, this is easily the best novel on this subject matter I've read so far. I definitely look forward to what this debut author has to offer in the future.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: The Bookworm by Mitch Silver

Release Date: February 6, 2018

There are two different plots in this book: one about a Russian historian who is given crucial new information about WWII, and another about a political oil scheme in Alaska. I thought for sure eventually, they'd somehow come together but by the end, I still felt like they really didn't have anything to do with one another. It just didn't make much sense and too much of the plot(s) and premise felt contrived.

The writing was okay, and the characters started off well, but wound up doing things which also didn't make much sense. Characters who don't even know what's going on somehow wind up involved but don't even question it, they just jump right in.

The ending was the worst of this - Lara gets back together with the husband that constantly cheats on her and tried to steal half her furniture and possessions? It felt like the author was just trying to make the ending unexpected, but instead it just felt like it didn't make sense.

Then there's the fact that the "bad guys" who got her to investigate the WWII recordings were supposedly doing it to get her to track down Hitler's Bible, which they apparently couldn't do on their own, even though it proved incredibly easy. Lara found it in a matter of hours with some simple internet searches. She didn't use any kind of special resources or skills, yet we're supposed to believe this makes her a master internet detective and the only one who could track down this bible. It's beyond ridiculous.

Needless to say, the premise felt flimsy, the plots disjointed, and the characters artificial.

Advanced review copy from publisher via Net Galley. My opinions are my own.

Review: You Were There Before My Eyes by Maria Riva

Release Date: October 10, 2017

A young woman, desperate to escape the dullness and rigidity of her rural, early 20th century Italian village and dazzled by stories of America, marries the first young man from her village to return there looking for a wife. He sweeps her off to Detroit, where they seek the American Dream.

I really struggled with this one because the dialogue was terrible, there wasn't much of a plot, the characters were flat, and the author liked to head-hop. While there's nothing wrong with a character novel that doesn't have much of a plot, or a plot driven novel that has somewhat one-dimensional characters - but there has to be a strength in one of them and this has neither. Add to it the cringe-worthy dialogue and the head-hopping narrative, and I just feel like it was poorly written.

It was disappointing because like many Italian-Americans, this story is one very similar to those of my own ancestors: from a rural Italian village, came to America in the late 19th/early 20th century as a young family seeking better opportunities for their future and their children's. It did reflect much of the cultural history I'd found in my genealogy research, but that's about the only good thing I can think to say about this novel. I so wanted to love this - hell, I would have settled for just liking it - but I couldn't.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.

Review: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

I thought this was a very interesting way to essentially tell the story of Louise de Bettignies, a French female spy for the British during WWI. It covers two time periods, one during WWI, and the other just after WWII. It was strange the way Europe was still recovering from WWII in the later time period, and yet in the "flashback" chapters, we're in the midst of WWI, not in the midst of what created the devastation we see in 1947. I had to remind myself sometimes that two different wars were at play in this story. It put into perspective the fact that the World Wars weren't that far apart, and that the effects of war are inevitably the same.

But it was also about so much more than just Louise de Bettignies. It tells her story, and does her justice, but it also tells the story of many fictional characters, and in spite of being fictional, their stories are very real. It deals heavily with issues of PTSD and the human side of war, but it's also about a young woman finding her way in life, and an older woman coming to terms with her past.

It was wonderfully well written with characters that fully come alive, and a compelling plot that literally made it impossible to put down at times. I can't say enough good things about it - just read it and see for yourself.

I only have one question - is that a morally questionable hat on the cover?

Review: Becoming Bonnie by Jenni L. Walsh

Release Date: May 9, 2017

This novel about Bonnie Parker, of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde, is so well written I didn't even notice at first that it's written in present tense, which I normally don't like.

The characterization was very well done too, with the best part being the evolution of Bonnie becoming the figure we picture her as (it's certainly an appropriately titled novel). Although this is a novel about how Bonnie met and fell in love with Clyde, I wouldn't call it a romance. It's more about a young woman finding herself in a chaotic world and learning what she really wants from it and from the people in her life. Blanche's character was compelling too and I almost wish for a sequel done in Blanche's voice. Knowing in real life, Blanche is the only survivor out of their group, her voice would make a good narrative for a sequel, but I don't know if the author has plans for a sequel at all.

Additionally, although Bonnie is a teenager throughout the book and there is nothing inappropriate in it for teens to read, I wouldn't call it a young adult novel (nor is it marketed as such, though I see some people on Goodreads have tagged it). Bonnie is very young, but she's very much living her life as an adult, and it deals with adult themes, so it doesn't have a young adult feel to it.

There are a few deviations from the factual timeline in the beginning but it does come together. At first, it seemed like Clyde was being introduced way too early, but then it became clear that he and Bonnie don't really formally meet until much later and so he was more of this shadowy, mysterious, background figure. It wound up working really well and made an excellent, believable story line. Keep in mind, this is not a tale of Bonnie and Clyde's life together, it's really about Bonnie's life before Clyde and everything that led them together. They don't really meet till near the end and the novel ends well before their crime spree. You might think that would make it boring, but it really doesn't. I read the entire second half of it in one day, I felt so compelled to finish it.

Advanced review copy from publisher via NetGalley. My opinions are my own.