Review: When We Had Wings by Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner

Harper Muse; 1st edition (October 18, 2022)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 18, 2022

Set in 1941 in the Philippines, three nurses from different backgrounds (a US Army nurse, a US Navy nurse, and a Filipina nurse) become friends. Each author took a character, but honestly you can’t tell. The story is well blended with one voice.

While the circumstances were dire, each nurse ended up being imprisoned by the Japanese in different places and witnessed horrifying things not to mention starvation, there were signs of hope to hold on to. It all seemed very real. Not surprising since the fictional characters were based on real women, the first female POWs.

Each of the women experienced hurt in their previous lives that needed healing. Caring for others while still being held as prisoner delayed their ability and capacity to heal those wounds. After their releases they saw each other briefly but not the three of them together. Their ultimate reunion would have to wait. While no longer the women they were before the war due to their experiences, they still had to deal with the things they had try to avoid by becoming nurses. The way they manage to face what they’d previously avoided is inspiring, and not easily predictable. Nothing is rushed. No artificial happy conclusions, which is what I like about how these authors write their stories. But like I said, there is hope and a satisfying ending.

Historical fiction buffs will enjoy this one. Highly recommended.

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Reviewed by Cindy Thomson, www.cindyswriting.com

I was given an advanced copy by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review, although no review was required.

Book Review: The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris

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The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris

Pub Date 06 Sep 2022  SOURCEBOOKS Landmark

The Ways We Hide features the protagonist Ida Vos, a woman we first meet as a magician, having designed and created illusions for the stage in the early 1940s. This alone is interesting but as we get to know her we learn that she carries with her a sense of loneliness and independence due to bringing raised in an orphanage after her alcoholic father dies. Prior to his death she experienced a trauma that only the young boy, Arie, who suffered it with her understands. She ends up living with his family. As she grows up Arie is her stability and the two of them practice magic tricks together.

Without giving away too much, I’ll tell you that they are separated and then during the war their paths cross again in London. He is in intelligence, and she’s been recruited to help develop tools that can be hidden to help Allied Forces, maps, knives, and all sorts of things a soldier behind enemy lines might need.

Ida ends up pushing herself into a mission that she thinks will help save Arie in Nazi occupied Holland. Nothing ends up as she imagined. Ida is confronted with the horrors of war and she and Arie must save a young girl who lives with a Nazi officer but who has Jewish roots that may soon be discovered. How Ida manages to overcome the trauma from her childhood that still haunts her, danger from being discovered by the Nazis, her natural distrust of strangers that she now must depend upon (the Dutch resistance during WWII was incredible and deserves attention), grief that continues to find her, together make for a thrilling tale that once I got halfway through the book kept me intrigued as though I watched it unfold on a screen.

The author does a superb job with descriptions and characterizations. Her notes at the end are not to be missed as so much is explained and examined. An incredible amount of research was put into this novel and it shines because of that effort. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and recommend it to all who enjoy historical fiction.

I received an advance complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher through NetGalley without obligation of any review.

Reviewed by Cindy Thomson, http://www.cindyswriting.com

Book Review: Bluebird by Genevieve Graham

 Simon & Schuster (April 5, 2022)

This novel opens in WWI with Adele Savard, a nurse from Canada, who is treating injured soldiers. She meets Corporal Jeremiah Bailey of the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company and they make an immediate connection. They are both from the same town. Adele and her fellow nursing sisters are nicknamed Bluebirds from the color of their uniforms, thus the title of the book. Jerry goes back to the front and they aren’t sure they’ll see each other again, but they hope to. After the war Jerry and his brother return home to discover their parents have died from Spanish Flu. It’s Prohibition and everyone in town, including Jerry’s late father, have been making money rumrunning. Adele works for a local doctor and she and Jerry reunite after he saves her from his devious rival, a man he has a history with since childhood.

Their romance is tender and sweet, and best of all in my opinion, it is not rushed. They form a friendship that blooms with time.

The story contains a present day thread in which a young woman named Cassie is a historian who used to live in the Bailey House but lost her mother there in an accident. When the current owner finds bottles of whiskey hidden in the walls of the house, the two work to unfold the mystery, which is part of Cassie’s family history. I love family history connections!

I found the modern thread to be brief and while interesting, not too well developed. However, the story of Adele and Jerry is compelling and I love a book that teaches me history I wasn’t aware of. The rumrunning in Windsor, Canada was linked to the US due to its proximity to the border across the Detroit River and the fact that Prohibition ended in Canada long before it did in the US. (The author’s note at the end is not to be missed!)

The story is gritty at times, but just enough to draw you into the story. It involves two bloody periods in history after all. The ending is quite intense, but the conclusion unveils hope and illustrates how those who lived it endured and continued to live their lives. Those who love history, like all of our readers on this blog, will enjoy this one.

I received an advance copy from the publisher for the purpose of review and all opinions are my own.

Reviewed by Cindy Thomson

www.cindyswriting.com

Book Review: Count the Nights by Stars by Michelle Shocklee

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Tyndale House Publishers

978-1-4964-5993-0

This is a very engaging dual-time period novel set in 1897 and 1961. I love historicals I can learn from and this one revealed a lot of Nashville’s history from both time periods. The story revolves around the Maxwell House Hotel. (Yes, like the coffee. I enjoyed this historical tidbit!) The earlier time period is set during the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, which is an interesting historical event to learn about. The later time period looks back to that event through the scrapbook of a resident of the hotel during the decline of the hotel. Both Priscilla from 1897 and Audrey from 1961 learn to step out of their comfort zones to help those in need. The plight of immigrants and the exploitation of young girls who are either desolate or too innocent is one of those needs. Civil rights and the education of special needs kids is another. These things could overwhelm a novel but instead Shocklee explores how her characters choose to respond to the people in peril. The title comes from a proverb one of the characters tells Priscilla.

I won’t share any spoilers but this is a book that I’m glad I read and highly recommend.

Read the first chapter here.

Reviewed by Cindy Thomson

I was given a digital copy (via NetGalley) from the publisher for the purpose of review, but no review was required. This is my honest opinion.

Book Review: Three Words for Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

On the eve of World War II, two sisters embark on a journey that changes everything.

William Morrow Paperbacks (July 27, 2021)

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In 1937 two estranged sisters are sent by their dying grandmother on a European trip to deliver messages to people from their grandmother’s past. I was transported to Paris, Venice, and Vienna through these pages. The authors are wonderful writers, highly skilled at drawing readers into the times and places they write about. The sisters travel on the Queen Mary, the Orient Express, and the Hindenburg, which indicated that the ending was going to be dramatic. But the inner journey each sister takes is more impactful. They learn what it means to be a family, even when the family looks different from what they imagined.

I liked the format, alternating between each sister’s point of view with a few chapters from their grandmother’s point of view as she waits for their return. The voices were distinct and effective at showing their different personalities and reactions to events. There is a love interest for each sister but the authors do not take the easy way out with either. The sisters do not instantly fall into a man’s arms because of the romantic setting, even though they are told many times it could happen. I love how talented, strong-willed, but not impulsive these characters are. This story explores the importance of relationships in the midst of challenges, dangers, misunderstandings, and mishaps. You’ll enjoy this one!

Review by Cindy Thomson, https://www.cindyswriting

Book Review: The Winter Rose by Melanie Dobson

Affiliate link used. I receive a small compensation if you purchase through this link.

Release: January 11, 2022

Hardcover | 978-1-4964-4421-9 | $25.99

Softcover | 978-1-4964-4422-6 | $15.99

400 pages | Tyndale.com

A stunning cover to go with a stunning story. I love learning history I wasn’t familiar with before. I love time slips when a lesson is learned from the past. I love it when an author dares to write something a bit different from typical wartime fiction. Just when I thought I’d read all the WWII fiction I cared to, this book comes along, not about Nazis, not about soldiers, not about the Holocaust, although all those things are mentioned because all those things affect the characters greatly. This is a story about how the people who were affected, the innocents, dealt with what they experienced for the rest of their lives.

Grace Tonquin is an American Quaker working to rescue Jewish children in France during the war. Decades later Addie Hoult is looking for the Tonquin family because her mentor is dying from a genetic disease. But these women from the different storylines and time periods also need rescuing in ways they don’t truly grasp until the end of the story. All the characters are deeply wounded from both what they did and what was done to them. Restoration doesn’t come easily, but there is hope.

I think it’s fair to say no one does time slip novels better than Melanie Dobson. Many times I prefer the historical timeline to the contemporary one but this one had me totally engaged with both. I highly recommend you read this one!

*I was given a copy by the publisher for the purpose of review without compensation or expectation. I have given my honest opinion.


Reviewed by Cindy Thomson

www.cindyswriting.com

Book Review: Last Christmas in Paris: A Novel of World War I by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Published October 2017 by William Morrow Paperbacks

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Affiliate link used. If you purchase through the link, I will receive a small kickback but it won’t cost you any more.

This story, told mostly as an epistolary novel, was so well done and so touching that I was completely engrossed by the characters of Evie and Thomas as they corresponded throughout the war. The letters are filled with humor and fun banter between childhood friends and as the war progresses they turn more serious at times and deep with soul-searching thoughts and ideas and finally with desperation. Sprinkled throughout we see the elderly Thomas in 1968, obviously without Evie but it isn’t until the end we understand why he’s come back to Paris to read all the letters they had exchanged plus a new one he doesn’t open until he finishes the wartime letters. The description of the agonies the characters endured plus their hopes and dreams feels so real as I imagine they were, although not usually spoken, for those who lived through those times.

I can imagine these two authors, quite successful as solo novelists, took on particular characters as the voices are as distinct as they would be with real people, and that is the strength of this novel, in my opinion. It’s a love story, but not just a love story. It’s filled with history, as we who love to read historical fiction look forward to when we open a book.

Highly recommended!

—Reviewed by Cindy Thomson

Book Review: The Wish Book Christmas by Lynn Austin

Tyndale House, Sept. 2021

Best friends Audrey Barrett and Eve Dawson are looking forward to celebrating Christmas in postwar America, thrilled at the prospect of starting new traditions with their five-year-old sons. But when the 1951 Sears Christmas Wish Book arrives and the boys start obsessing over every toy in it, Audrey and Eve realize they must first teach them the true significance of the holiday. They begin by helping Bobby and Harry plan gifts of encouragement and service for those in their community, starting by walking an elderly neighbor’s yellow Lab—since a dog topped the boys’ wish list for Santa. In the charming tale that follows, Audrey and Eve are surprised to find their own hearts healing from the tragedies of war and opening to the possibility of forgiveness and new love.

If you’ve read Lynn Austin’s If I Were You (reviewed here) you’ll recognize the characters Audrey and Eve. You might even have wondered what happened to them. While this novella helps to answer that question, it’s also a wonderful nostalgic story. Who doesn’t remember looking at toy catalogs at Christmas time and circling the things you most wanted? Parents often struggle with how to balance their children’s wishes with what is most important about the season, and Audrey and Eve are no different. Having struggled through WWII in England, these characters now have children who have no experience to compare, and little understanding of what it’s like to go without. The lessons learned in this story, however, are not just for the kids. Audrey and Eve learn something as well.

Grab some hot cocoa and a Christmas cookie and snuggle down for this delightful read!


About the Author:

Lynn Austin has sold more than one and a half million copies of her books worldwide. A former teacher who now writes and speaks full- time, she has won eight Christy Awards for her historical fiction and was one of the first inductees into the Christy Award Hall of Fame. One of her novels, Hidden Places, was made into a Hallmark Channel Original Movie. Lynn and her husband have three grown children and make their home in western Michigan. Visit her online at lynnaustin.org.

Book Review: Chasing Shadows by Lynn Austin

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (June 8, 2021)

You can always count on Lynn Austin to provide interesting and intriguing historical details in her stories. Chasing Shadows is about the Dutch people’s resistance when occupied by the Nazis in WWII. Three basic storylines are presented: Lena, a farm mother who learns to trust God with the lives of her family; Ans, her young adult daughter who leaves home to find her way and ends up entering the dangerous world of the resistance fighters; and Miriam, a young Jewish girl escaping the worst and getting separated from her baby and husband. These are hard things to read about but Austin paints her stories with hope and bravery in the face of very real terror and despair.

While most of us cannot begin to understand how these people survived and rebuilt their lives and their country, novel like this one help take us there and make us appreciate their actions. We may never face what they did but we can learn about strength and faith and how those things can carry us through what we deal with in our lives.

And that cover? Gorgeous!

There is quite a lot of Christianity in this book: characters including “sharing faith” and remembering Bible verses. Knowing that some readers look for that and others avoid it, it should be mentioned. It’s written by a strong Christian believer and published by a Christian evangelical publisher, so that should come as no surprise. Even so, in real life these people did depend on their faith to see them through. As my late father used to say, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” I for one cannot imagine emerging from such oppression, brutality, and starvation without depending on God.

I enjoyed this book. It took me a little longer to read, perhaps because of its intensity, which is not a bad thing. But because I put it down so much I had a little trouble remembering which character was which. A chapter title would have helped. But that’s a small complaint. Historical novel lovers will like this one!

Read the character interview here.

Book Review: Miss Wetherham’s Wedding: The Brides of Mayfair, Book Three by Linore Rose Burkard

Lettie Wetherham lost her husband Steven to searching for more diamonds in a previously productive mine. Her resulting reduced circumstances and the promises she made to him hang like a pall over her future. She resorts to becoming a “hobby” matchmaker, relying on the generosity of those families for whom she has helped find mates for their loved ones. But her services are never advertised as that would be beneath her station in life and those whom she hopes to influence. 

Nick Dellacourt, a spoiled gentleman who is used to having his own way, can’t stand the thought of the subject of his recent affections so easily becoming engaged to an earl without any thought to his sentiments. He’s sure that she doesn’t love the other man and it galls him to have her out of reach. Nick may have the reputation of being a rogue and he may not intend to marry the young lady but being out of control of the situation is unthinkable!

When he observes the attractive young widow, Miss Wetherham, as they call her, at a gathering at Almack’s, he hatches a scheme. Soon he approaches her with his devious plan. Would she be willing to help him lure his former love interest away from her current intended and perhaps ensnare a loveless, but very rich match for herself—for hire?

Lettie is aware of Dellacourt’s reputation but finds herself and close relatives in a pickle because of the loss of funds in the diamond mine. If she’s willing to do the unthinkable and work for him it may bring the security she lacks. Yet, it goes against her Christian ethics, and her promise to Steven that if she marries again, it would be to a good man she loves. If only Dellacourt wasn’t so persuasive and… handsome! 

Linore Rose Burkard again weaves a wonderful Regency romance with historic detail and believable characters which draw you into their world. While it may seem to start a little slow, it sets up the characters’ conflicts, plot, and pace nicely. The author also takes on a little-used point of view: omniscient. This takes you outside of the heads of the characters to that of a narrator or observer. Omniscient POV seems very appropriate for a Regency novel and is reminiscent of Jane Austen’s writing and that of other 18th century authors. 

Lettie is a bit of a different heroine, though she is young and beautiful, she is also a widow, still bound by her love for her dead husband. Ms. Burkard delivers depth of character and Lettie is someone the reader will want to see have the best outcome. With Nick Dellacourt’s character, the author hints beyond the hero’s seeming impenetrable surface to the depth of his pride and surprising care for others which becomes evident as the story moves along.

As always, the detail of her Regency world is impeccable. It there’s an unfamiliar word or a term cannot be deciphered via context, there is a helpful glossary at the end of the book.

Miss Wetherham’s Wedding delivers the expected conundrums of marrying for love or money, misunderstood intentions, and evasive social interactions that fans of Regency romance have come to expect. There is a hint of a faith basis which fits with the time. It is a fun, sweet, and clean read I truly enjoyed. Brava, Ms. Burkard!