Review: Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio Published: August 3, 2021 Source: Print – Personal Copy / Audio via Library   Summary: Kaia Alderson’s debut historical fiction novel reveals the untold, true story of the Six Triple Eight, the only all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps, who made the dangerous voyage to Europe to ensure American servicemen received word from their loved ones during World War II. Grace Steele and…

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Review: Half-Life by Jillian Cantor (print/audio)

Publisher: Harper Perennial / Harper Audio Published: March 23, 2021 Source: Print – Paperback via Publisher / Audio via Library   Summary: The USA Today bestselling author of In Another Time reimagines the pioneering, passionate life of Marie Curie using a parallel structure to create two alternative timelines, one that mirrors her real life, one that explores the consequences for Marie and for science if she’d made a different choice. In Poland in 1891,…

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Review: The Steal by C.W. Gortner & M.J. Rose

Publisher: Blue Box Press Published: August 10, 2021 Source: GetRedPR   Summary:  They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend – until they’re stolen. Ania Throne is devoted to her jewelry company. The daughter of one of the world’s most famous jewelers, she arrives in Cannes with a stunning new collection. But a shocking theft by the notorious thief known as the Leopard throws her into upheaval – and plunges…

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Review: Three Words for Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb

Publisher: William Morrow Published: July 27, 2021 Source: ARC Paperback via William Morrow   Summary: From Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, the bestselling authors of Meet Me in Monaco, comes a coming-of-age novel set in pre-WWII Europe, perfect for fans of Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Kate Quinn.   Three cities, two sisters, one chance to correct the past . . . New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine Sommers learn…

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Review: The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore (print/audio)

Publisher: Kensington Books / HighBridge Audio Published: July 27, 2021 Source: Print: ARC Paperback via Kensingbooks & Bibliolifestyle / Audio: Library   Summary: The glamorous world of a silent film star’s wife abruptly crumbles when she’s forcibly quarantined at the Carville Lepers Home in this page-turning story of courage, resilience, and reinvention set in 1920s Louisiana and Los Angeles. Based on little-known history, this timely book will strike a chord…

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Review: What’s Left Unsaid by Emily Bleeker (print/audio)

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing / Brilliance Audio Published: July 27, 2021 Source: Print: ARC Paperback via Uplit Reads / Audio: ALC via Brilliance Audio   Summary: An enthralling novel of secrets, second chances, and confronting the past by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of When I’m Gone. After a series of devastating losses, Chicago journalist Hannah Williamson has landed in Senatobia, Mississippi, to care for her bedridden grandmother and endure grunt work…

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Review: In the Month of the Midnight Sun by Cecilia Ekback

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Published: June 14, 2016 Source: Personal Copy   Summary: An orphaned boy brought up to serve the state as a man. A rich young woman incapable of living by the conventions of society. Neither is prepared for the journey into the heat, mystery, violence and disorienting perpetual daylight of the far North. Stockholm 1856. Magnus is a geologist. When the Minister sends him to survey the…

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Review: A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe (audio)

Publisher: Macmillan Audio / St. Martin’s Press Published: July 20, 2021 Source: Audio: Netgalley via Macmillan Audio / Print: ARC Paperback via St. Martin’s Press   Summary: From “a master of historical fiction” (NPR), Karin Tanabe’s A Woman of Intelligence is an exhilarating tale of post-war New York City, and one remarkable woman’s journey from the United Nations, to the cloistered drawing rooms of Manhattan society, to the secretive ranks of the…

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Review: Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow/ Harper Audio Published: March 2, 2021 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Publisher / Audio via library   Summary: A group of young women from Smith College risk their lives in France at the height of World War I in this sweeping novel based on a true story—a skillful blend of Call the Midwife and The Alice Network—from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig. A scholarship…

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Review: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

Publisher: Berkley Books Published: June 29, 2021 Source: Netgalley   Summary: The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian–who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray. In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired…

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Review: The Forest of Vanishing Stars (audio)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio / Gallery Books Published: July 6, 2021 Source: Audio – ALC via Simon & Schuster Audio / Print: Netgalley   Summary: The New York Times bestselling author of the The Book of Lost Names returns with an evocative coming-of-age World War II story about a young woman who uses her knowledge of the wilderness to help Jewish refugees escape the Nazis—until a secret from her past threatens everything. After…

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Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy (audio)

Publisher: Macmillan Audio / St. Martin’s Press Published: July 6, 2021 Source: Audio via Netgalley / Print: ARC via St. Martin’s Press   Summary:  A dazzling portrait of a young woman coming into her own, the youthful allure of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and what we lose – and gain – when we leave home. Once in a lifetime, you can have the time of your life. The…

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Review: Sisters of the Resistance by Christine Wells (print/audio)

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks / Harper Audio Published: June 8, 2021 Source: Print: Paperback via Publisher / Audio via Library   Summary:  Two sisters join the Paris Resistance in this pause-resisting new novel inspired by the real-life bravery of Catherine Dior, sister of the fashion designer and a heroine of World War II France – perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Jennifer Chiaverini. “As dazzling as a Dior gown! With…

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Review: The Secret Wife by Gill Paul

Publisher: Harper 360 Published: August 25, 2016 Source: Netgalley via Book Club Girl Free Friday Program   Summary: A Russian grand duchess and an English journalist. Linked by one of the world’s greatest mysteries… Love. Guilt. Heartbreak. 1914: Russia is on the brink of collapse, and the Romanov family faces a terrifyingly uncertain future. Grand Duchess Tatiana has fallen in love with cavalry officer Dmitri, but events take a catastrophic…

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Review: The Accidental Suffragist by Galia Gichon

Publisher: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing Published: June 1, 2021 Source: Author via Suzy Approved Booktours   Summary: It’s 1912, and protagonist Helen Fox is a factory worker living in New York’s tenements. When tragedy strikes in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Helen is seduced by the Suffragist cause and is soon immersed, working alongside famous activists. As Helen’s involvement with the cause deepens, she encounters myriad sources of tension that test her…

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Review: The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley

Publisher: Blue Box Press Published: May 27, 2021 Source: Netgalley via Social Butter PR   Summary: The six D’Aplièse sisters have each been on their own incredible journey to discover their heritage, but they still have one question left unanswered: who and where is the seventh sister? They only have one clue – an image of a star-shaped emerald ring. The search to find the missing sister will take them…

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Review: Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams

Publisher: William Morrow Published: June 1, 2021 Source: Publisher   Summary: The New York Times bestselling author of Her Last Flight returns with a gripping and profoundly human story of Cold War espionage and family devotion. In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family’s sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service?…

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Review: The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal

Title: The Doll Factory Author: Elizabeth Macneal Published: August 2019, Atria/Emily Bestler Books Format: ARC Paperback, 368 pages Source: Publisher Summary:  Obsession is an art. In this “sharp, scary, gorgeously evocative tale of love, art, and obsession” (Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train), a beautiful young woman aspires to be an artist, while a man’s dark obsession may destroy her world forever. In 1850s London, the…

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