The Gem of Ireland’s Crown by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Cullen’s Celtic Cabaret Book 4

Book Blurb:

The opportunity of a lifetime lands in Peter Cullen’s lap and nothing is going to stop him taking full advantage, not even the misgivings of his wife. Cullen’s Celtic Cabaret has been flying high, but the real goal, the secret desire of Peter’s heart, America, is finally, incredibly, looking like a reality.

The troupe are not at all prepared for what awaits them in prohibition era Atlantic City and they are dazzled by the bright lights. Keeping discipline and ensuring everyone remains focused drives Peter to the edge of his patience, but he soon realises that this is the least of his problems, as the gloss and sheen of the New Jersey shore reveals a dark side, and somehow his cabaret has fallen foul of it.

My Review:

When last we left Cullen’s Celtic Cabaret, the troupe was experiencing the dark side of the troubles between the Irish and the English during the twenties. Political tensions created drama for Peter’s brother and Nick acknowledged his aristocratic status with an extended visit to Brockleton.

Book four introduces the cautious decision to sail to America where they have an eye-opening introduction to prohibition era Atlantic City, New Jersey. Maud Flynn owns the theatre where the cabaret will play as well as the troupe’s residential accommodations. She has made extensive arrangements for them and laid down rules and expectations. It appears to be a clean, tight ship surrounded by sights and sounds, as well as slang and colloquialisms.

As “Oscar Wilde’s line in his short story ‘The Canterville Ghost’: ‘We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language.”

There were interpersonal struggles as well between those who found romance from within their group, but were not exactly free to act on their passions. May and Peter have a daughter now, Aisling, who has become somewhat of a darling of the troupe. Many of the members have discovered her intelligence and aptitude for learning either their particular skill or language. There may have been no booze, but the living was rowdy.

“The old Irish adage that ‘twas often a fella got his nose broken by his mouth’ was particularly true here.”

Despite the wildly successful splash they’ve made with their acts, their interpersonal relationships begin to force hard decisions. Tension escalates as each has to take a hard look at status quo. Additionally, there is an ever-darkening atmosphere as people and activities at arm’s length hide behind those bright lights and change the course of plans. Issues with Peter’s brother Eamonn become seriously tragic.

I can imagine that Atlantic City during prohibition was probably a wide-open port city during prohibition, entertaining everything from bootlegging, speak-easies, and the Boardwalk to summer resorts. There were bound to be gangsters as well.

The widely diverse characters are a strong hook in this series as well as the descriptive location in this installment. Any threads previously hanging were handled quickly in an Epilogue—almost too quickly—but settled the characters and issues.

I received a review copy of this book from the author who in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Women’s Sagas, Saga Fiction, Family Saga Fiction
ASIN: B0CNGFLT6R
Print Length: 354 pages
Publication Date: February 7, 2024
Source: Author

Title Link(s): Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)

The Author: JEAN GRAINGER – USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

SELECTED BY BOOKBUB READERS IN TOP 19 OF HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS.

WINNER OF THE 2016 AUTHOR’S CIRCLE HISTORICAL NOVEL OF EXCELLENCE

Hello and thanks for taking time out to check out my page. If you’re wondering what you’re getting with my books then think of the late great Maeve Binchy but sometimes with a historical twist. I was born in Cork, Ireland in 1971 and I come from a large family of storytellers, so much so that we had to have ‘The Talking Spoon’, only the person holding the spoon could talk!

I have worked as a history lecturer at University, a teacher of English, History and Drama in secondary school, a playwright, and a tour guide of my beloved Ireland. I am married to the lovely Diarmuid and we have four children. We live in a 200 year old stone cottage in Mid-Cork with my family and the world’s smallest dogs, called Scrappy and Scoobi..

My experiences leading groups, mainly from the United States, led me to write my first novel, ‘The Tour’. My observances of the often funny, sometimes sad but always interesting events on tours fascinated me. People really did confide the most extraordinary things, the safety of strangers I suppose. It’s a fictional story set on a tour bus but many of the characters are based on people I met over the years.

[Truncated]

Many of the people who have reviewed my books have said that you get to know the characters and really become attached to them, that’s wonderful for me to hear because that’s how I feel about them too. I grew up on Maeve Binchy and Deirdre Purcell and I aspired to being like them. If you buy one of my books I’m very grateful and I really hope you enjoy it. If you do, or even if you don’t, please take the time to post a review. Writing is a source of constant contentment to me and I am so fortunate to have the time and the inclination to do it, but to read a review written by a reader really does make my day.

#TuesdayBookBlog

Netflix Series All the Light We Cannot See vs #eBook by Anthony Doerr– #Drama

Introduction

I was thrilled to learn that the book I was reading was also going to be a Netflix miniseries, so of course I had to stick around and view the screen adaptation of that powerful book. It’s always fun to compare the scenes with the visuals conjured from reading the narrative, putting the buildings, the location, and in this instance, the sea to reality.

The Netflix MiniSeries

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

My Thoughts

Sometimes when Netflix gets ahold of a popular, ground-breaking book, they manage to make hash of it. Not so this time.

While the novel is not based on a true story, it could so easily echo stories untold from WWII. Netflix managed to create such realistic scenes it was not uncommon to cringe or cry depending on the setting. The actors include newcomer Aria Mia Loberti and Louis Hofmann as well as Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie. Apart from Ruffalo’s accent (now almost a running joke), all turned in remarkable performances.

Directed and executive produced by Canadian filmmaker Shawn Levy, it is described by Netflix as “an epic story of hope, love, and connection.” The story plays out in four parts inducing a binge watch.

Overall Impression

The scenes are explosive and brilliant, at times played against a peaceful sunrise or streetscape. War scenes or not, it’s a visual feast, often heart-pounding. Netflix smooths out the timelines a bit and creates a slightly more hopeful and palatable ending.

The eBook

Editors’ pick Best Literature & Fiction (Audiobook)
#1 Best Seller in War Fiction
Winner of the 2015 Audie Award for Fiction
Goodreads Choice Award Winner for Best Historical Fiction 2014

Book Blurb

*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti*

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is 12, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

My Thoughts

I was lost to the book almost from the first page. The child, Marie-Laure, is going blind, and her thoughtful father finds a way to teach his daughter the streets of Paris. Picturesque, vibrant, breath-taking in the historic grandeur of the location, the buildings, the artsy atmosphere. But the tension is there. The world is changing. And so too, must Paris.

Beautiful writing style, emotional, powerful prose and it is the prose in the storytelling that drives the reader as well as the storyline and characters.

“If your same blood doesn’t run in the arms and legs of the person you’re next to, you can’t trust anything.”

The novel is set for the most part in Brittany, (St. Malo) France, however, and follows the plot line of the blind girl surviving in an ever-escalating Nazi environment. She spends a tremendous amount of time in hiding.

“A dozen pigeons roosting on the cathedral spire cataract down its length and wheel out over the sea.”

Werner Pfenning, a German orphan, discovers parts from a radio and curious, intelligent, and inventive manages to create a crude radio. That fascination grows into an expertise, one that he will use as an escape from being forced into the coal mines when he turns sixteen. Instead, he will be recruited into the Hitler youth using his proficiency with radios to find those in the French resistance sending communications. It will define his life but the results of his success wear on him.

A third thread—that of a German officer Von Rumpel rabid to find a stone worth “three Eiffel Towers” and said to have magical powers is the driving force in his collection of valuables from those the Germans occupy. The girl’s father who worked at the National History Museum where it was said to be housed may be in possession of that stone and von Rumpel will stop at nothing. When they fled Paris for St Malo—did he take it with him?

“You know the greatest lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history. We act in our own self-interest.”

The two and then the three are bound to collide. The author throughout has pulled no punches; it’s a war. There are shocking moments, the worse coming in the conclusion. My heart broke.

Nooo!…I’m still naively looking for the happy ever after.

The Author

Anthony Doerr has won numerous prizes for his fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Carnegie Medal. His novel, ‘All the Light We Cannot See,’ was a #1 New York Times Bestseller and his new novel, ‘Cloud Cuckoo Land,’ published in September of 2021, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Learn more at http://www.anthonydoerr.com.

Book Details

Genre: War Fiction, Military Historical Fiction
Publisher: Scribner (Reprint edition May 2014)
ISBN: B084TPDQRR
ASIN: B00DPM7TIG
Print Length: 552 pages
Publication Date: May 6, 2014
Source: Local Library
Title Link: All the Light We Cannot See [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK

Overall Impression

There is considerable discussion over the plot being divided between three POVs as well as the jump in timelines. It is disconcerting at first. But then the rhythm of the narrative begins a familiar pattern that actually draws the scenes together, and completes a total picture. The book is so compelling, the characters so well developed that there is considerable sympathy for the condition of the time and engagement with each child—caught in a circumstance neither can control–only attempt to survive. It’s suspenseful, hair-raising, alternately sad and triumphant in small victories. Von Rumpel provides the perfect foil, the antagonist easy to hate.

I absolutely loved the book and breezed through it as if it were a novella. I understood at some point reality would take a big bite, but it was still crushing nonetheless. Dramatic irony: The idea that we know what’s coming but are still unable to look away.

Conclusion

The book is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel full of prose, beautifully written. It’s a lengthy read but one you won’t want to put down. It’s easy to become invested in the two main characters, one controlled by a disease that renders her blind in a treacherous and dangerous time in France. The other is an orphan using only his wits with a radio to keep him from following in his father’s deadly steps deep into a coal mine. The sub-plot adds a suspenseful line to the well-plotted and paced book but is hampered somewhat by introducing several POVs and non-chronological timelines. It’s easy, however, to be completely absorbed by mind-blowing prose.

The Netflix miniseries cinematography is stunning, the actors do an amazing job pulling at your heart and selling their roles. The leading actress, Aria Mia Loberti is legally blind. (She turned in a masterful inaugural performance in this series and we watched mesmerized. The series might be worth watching simply for her compelling presence.)

True, Netflix puts a softer Hallmark spin on the original novel, softening some of the blows and smoothing out an often confusing timeline switch. It crafts a beautifully compelling tale of the young caught in a conflict they may not survive only briefly experiencing what possibilities life might have held for them.

The book may be a challenge given the length and you’ll get a condensed Reader’s Digest version if you choose the series. Perhaps you are a reader, like myself, who enjoys seeing/reading and comparing the two. Either way, you can’t go wrong and please let me know which you choose.

#TuesdayBookBlog

Blurb Storyline courtesy IMDB
Netflix image in banner courtesy Lighthouse

Audiobooks! Great Books On Your Buds – #Audiobooks – Free!

Audiobooks Great Books On Your Bud--Free!

Tired of those old TV shows? Watched everything on Netflix? Well, the good news is that audiobooks work as well as an old radio show.

While you are too young to remember George and Gracie or the Encore Theater, audiobooks can fire your imagination and narrate some wonderful stories just like the “old” days. The best news is that I get my audiobooks free through my local library. There are a number of apps that allow you to borrow an audiobook–including Hoopla (you just need a library card)—mine used to be Overdrive (now Libby).

Our schedule lately off the rails, I managed to get in several audiobooks ahead of reviews that include a legal thriller, humorous fiction, and family life fiction. Links on thumbnails are to Amazon (but check with your library first!)

Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly

Book 7 Lincoln Lawyer

Best Books of the Year 2023 – (The #1 TV show on Netflix) (Kindle)
#1 Best Seller in Legal Thrillers (audiobook)

Defense attorney Mickey Haller is back, taking the long shot cases, where the chances of winning are one in a million. After getting a wrongfully convicted man out of prison, he is inundated with pleas from incarcerated people claiming innocence. He enlists his half brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, to weed through the letters, knowing most claims will be false.

Love it when Mickey Haller teams up with Harry Bosch (now retired LAPD detective) to work on his cases. These cases are complex, intelligent, and deeply involved legal battles seeking the release of a wrongly convicted man. It is a tension-filled, grinding investigation that is gripping and dramatic. The legal maneuvering is always fun—so many ways to work the law! It’s a legal thriller and half the fun is listening to Titus Welliver narrate in addition to Peter Giles and Christine Lakin.

ASIN B0BT24RVJH Released on November 7, 2023 by Little, Brown & Company

Easy 5 stars

Savannah Blues by Mary Kay Andrews

Eloise Foley, known to her friends as Weezie, has been through the divorce from hell. Her ex-husband Tal (aka Talmadge Evans III) was awarded their house in Savannah’s historic district, the house that Weezie had spent years painstakingly restoring to its original splendor. Weezie was awarded the two-bedroom carriage house on the same property…Weezie is running her antiques business out back.

Chocked full of down home, southern sensibilities, southern drawl, food, and a smashing good primer on the purchase and sales of antiques, the sense of humor is true to tickle your funny bone and bring relief from the trauma of the daily news.

“…my father always calls the obituaries, the Irish Sports Page.”

As in many unique businesses, there can be some dirty dealings afoot. It’s good that Weezie can sniff them out and save herself from becoming a distant memory at the same time. A delightful romp in the heat and humidity without the sweat and palmettos (cockroaches).

Narrated by Susan Ericksen ASIN B00WGRH25G Released on May 5, 2015 by Macmillan Audio

4 stars

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

Award nominee (Kindle)

Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

But be careful what you wish for. . . .

A totally unique premise for me, Jack Masterson announces he’s written a new book—one copy. Lucy’s childhood idol creates a contest to be held at his home on the real Clock Island, site of so many of her treasured childhood books and master author. It would not only be a massive prize, but the chance to adopt seven-year-old Christopher with whom she has bonded and would change both her life as well as the boy. The contest, however, might be more difficult than she ever imagined.

Interesting vibe with the iconic island being so isolated. Others in the competition are cunning, sneaky, and provide scary issues. I could almost visualize Lurch lumbering through the dark halls of the castle. Different, but could be a bit slow in places and the conclusion became rather predictable.

Narrated by Rachel L. Jacobs, Paul Boehmer ASIN B0BNQXQK7Q Released on May 30, 2023 by Random House Audio

3.5 stars

Always something to look forward to—continuing a neat story! Next up is a historical fiction and a memoir—Henry Winkler. If you are still avoiding audiobooks, now’s the time to look into the possibilities. It’s a gargantuan library right in your own home that takes no space and gathers no dust.

Bayou Beloved by Lexi Blake – #AudiobookReview – #ThrowbackThursday

Butterfly Bayou #6

Book Blurb:

When a woman returns home to Louisiana’s Butterfly Bayou, her high school crush finally notices she exists, in a small-town contemporary romance from New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake.

Quaid Havery always planned to follow in his father’s footsteps. He went to law school and then came home to take over his dad’s legal practice. Being the only lawyer in small-town Papillon, Quaid is pretty sure he’s seen everything. After all, he was once asked to sue an alligator for defamation of character. He’s prepared for anything the town can throw at him, until he encounters Jayna Cardet. She’s gorgeous, smart, funny, and unlike any woman he’s met before….Except he has.

Jayna never thought she’d return to Papillon, but when her life gets turned around she must learn to live in the close-knit community again. She certainly never dreamed she would practice law in her little town, but she finds herself in the courtroom, and the opposing counsel is her former high school crush, Quaid. It wouldn’t be so bad if the man had developed a beer belly, but Quaid is more handsome than ever. And instead of ignoring her like he did in high school, he’s made it plain that he wants to get to know her.

Thus begins a courtship destined to end in a wedding or a war. Either way, the locals are popping some corn and eagerly awaiting the outcome.

My Review:

Another case for biting on the book because of the cover—a dog, of course. Still, once again I’d appreciate some kind of warning re content.

This is the MC moving back to her hometown of Papillon after her escape and vow never to return trope, including the old crush now looking just as fine as before, except that this time he’s looking back.

Jayna Cardet lived on the wrong side of the tracks but managed to go to law school. When she comes back to the small southern town, she discovers she’s on the other side of the courtroom from ex-crush, Quaid Havery, who was the only lawyer in town until she moved back. Her move is meant to be temporary. (She fled a high-powered firm in NY following a messy divorce.)

Of course, his childhood circumstances were better financially and he’s now enjoying a successful life in a town where he was born, grew up, and knows everyone. It’s a cushy life.

The small town setting is typical, everyone knows everyone and their business. Gossip is the major recreation and it makes for some interesting support characters. In addition to discovering they are opposing counsel, they also discover a contentious and steamy sparks-flying relationship.

Besides the case each is handling, both have major family issues and when they aren’t steaming up the windows, enjoy a lot of pillow talk. Having gotten his or her side of the problem, the other can view it dispassionately and share unbiased, helpful thoughts.

The case they are opposing is a hoot and probably what kept me reading despite the romance description that goes from Hallmark to X-rated pretty quick. Nooo, I don’t need the graphic details—I have an imagination—let me use it instead. Also, I got a little tired of her whining about how her plans were to leave town. Poor baby.

So, yes, if you enjoy hot and heavy in a fairly predictable storyline, you’ll enjoy this contemporary romance. The lawsuit is almost worth it. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
ASIN: B0BLJ87BFW
Listening Length: 8 hrs 53 mins
Narrator: Jessica Almasy
Publication Date: March 28, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Bayou Beloved [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

The Author: New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband and three kids. Since starting her publishing journey in 2010, she’s sold over three million copies of her books. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance that she found success. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings.

For more information about her books, her appearances, and her wacky life, visit her Facebook page at AuthorLexiBlake.

To Slip the Bonds of Earth by Amanda Flower – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

While not as famous as her older siblings Wilbur and Orville, the celebrated inventors of flight, Katharine Wright is equally inventive – especially when it comes to solving crimes – in USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower’s radiant new historical mystery series inspired by the real sister of the Wright Brothers.

December 1903: While Wilbur and Orville Wright’s flying machine is quite literally taking off in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with its historic fifty-seven second flight, their sister Katharine is back home in Dayton, Ohio, running the bicycle shop, teaching Latin, and looking after the family. A Latin teacher and suffragette, Katharine is fiercely independent, intellectual, and the only Wright sibling to finish college. But at twenty-nine, she’s frustrated by the gender inequality in academia and is looking for a new challenge. She never suspects it will be sleuthing…

Returning home to Dayton, Wilbur and Orville accept an invitation to a friend’s party. Nervous about leaving their as-yet-unpatented flyer plans unattended, Wilbur decides to bring them to the festivities . . . where they are stolen right out from under his nose. As always, it’s Katharine’s job to problem solve—and in this case, crime-solve.

As she sets out to uncover the thief among their circle of friends, Katharine soon gets more than she bargained for: She finds her number one suspect dead with a letter opener lodged in his chest. It seems the patent is the least of her brothers’ worries. They have a far more earthbound concern—prison. Now Katharine will have to keep her feet on the ground and put all her skills to work to make sure Wilbur and Orville are free to fly another day.

My Review:

Living in the shadow of her two upcoming famous brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, isn’t easy, especially for a woman at the turn of the century. Katherine is also the youngest of the Wright children in a progressive patriarchal household. Losing her mother at the age of fifteen has catapulted her into the role of household manager and caretaker as well as manager of their bicycle shop.

Back when women were thought to be best left uneducated, she was privileged to attend and graduate from Oberlin College. Her education and smarts have created a strong-willed woman at twenty-nine who is fiercely independent. She also teaches Latin at the local school in competition with a male teacher with less expertise in the language arts.

When her brothers triumphantly return from Kitty Hawk, they do not receive quite the accolades expected. When Wilbur decides to keep his unpatented plans with his wing-warping notes with him to a party, they go missing about the same time as the assumed main culprit is found murdered. As the problem solver, it falls on her to discover the truth.

For most of the book, Katherine is a solid intelligent woman and at times I found her grating though she becomes a bit clumsy near the conclusion. She could be both impressive and sad at the same time, assumed dedicated and accepting of the Wright family and home for life.

I enjoyed the historical tidbits of early flight interwoven into the storyline along with Katherine’s investigation of both the murder and the theft, drawn to a satisfying conclusion.

An easy, entertaining read, well-plotted and paced. I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Biographical Fiction, Historical Mysteries
Publisher: Kensington Books
ASIN: B0CGN3RCCL
Print Length: 301 pages
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over thirty-five mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she had been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World. She currently writes for Penguin-Random House (Berkley), Kensington, Hallmark Publishing, Crooked Lane Books, and Sourcebooks. In addition to being a writer, she was a librarian for fifteen years. Today, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their two adorable cats.

Visit her at http://www.amandaflower.com

Happy New Year!

The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen – #BookReview – #OrganizedCrimeThrillers

Book Blurb:

A determined reporter and a reluctant FBI agent face off against fascist elements in this gripping historical thriller set in World War II-era Boston.

Reporter Anne Lemire writes the Rumor Clinic, a newspaper column that disproves the many harmful rumors floating around town, some of them spread by Axis spies and others just gossip mixed with fear and ignorance. Tired of chasing silly rumors about Rosie Riveters’ safety on the job, she wants to write about something bigger.

Special Agent Devon Mulvey, one of the few Catholics at the FBI, spends his weekdays preventing industrial sabotage and his Sundays spying on clerics with suspect loyalties―and he spends his evenings wooing the many lonely women whose husbands are off at war.

When Anne’s story about Nazi propaganda intersects with Devon’s investigation into the death of a factory worker, the two are led down a dangerous trail of espionage, organized crime, and domestic fascism―one that implicates their own tangled pasts and threatens to engulf the city in violence.

With vibrant historical atmosphere and a riveting mystery that illuminates still-timely issues about disinformation and power, Thomas Mullen delivers another powerful thriller.

His Review:

Anne is a reporter for the Boston Star when she should be home keeping house and making babies! This was the attitude of most Americans at the start of WWII, but she was attempting to expose gun thefts and smuggling around the area. The major German immigrant population in the area felt that America should have allied with Germany, not England, during the War.

Anne discovers a case of M-1 rifles in a warehouse obviously stolen from a nearby military base. She is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and expose the culprits! This does not set well with the editor of her paper and most of the citizens of Boston. Their opinions are that she should be writing for the local gossip column and not reporting on such matters.

Thomas Mullen has written a very convincing tale of intrigue and espionage during the war. Some of the richer people in the area were making handsome profits by stealing and selling weapons to other countries. Anti-Semitism is rampant and Jew as well as German nationals and Japanese are restricted from working in Allied war industries.

The segregation of these people along with blacks who want to work in war related industries keeps the workforce mostly white males. However, the need to increase production seems to be stifling production and the war effort. Yes, although the Jews are a major population being decimated by Hitler, they are seen as money grubbing profiters during the war.

This book uncovers the long perceived notion of non-patriotism by these ethnic groups and the paranoia that was rampant in America during WWII. The book is well written and a very engaging and entertaining read. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. These are my own opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Organized Crime Thrillers, Historical Thrillers, Crime Thrillers
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN-10: ‎ 1250842778
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1250842770
ASIN: B0C1X7FHM6
Print Length: 368 pages
Publication Date: February 27, 2024
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Thomas Mullen is the author of Darktown, an NPR Best Book of the Year, which has been shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Southern Book Prize, the Indies Choice Book Award, has been nominated for two Crime Writers Association Dagger Awards, and is being developed for television by Sony Pictures with executive producer Jamie Foxx; The Last Town on Earth, which was named Best Debut Novel of 2006 by USA Today and was awarded the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for excellence in historical fiction; The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers; and The Revisionists. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and sons.

Christmas tree

The Twelve Dogs of Christmas by Susan Wiggs – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

The ultimate holiday gift from New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs: a delightful novel about a Christmas transport of rescue puppies that’s guaranteed to warm readers’ hearts.

Brenda Malloy wants nothing to do with Christmas ever again. Last year, Brenda and her husband rushed their beloved dog Tim to the emergency vet on Christmas eve. The good news: Tim survived after the vet cleared the obstruction–a pair of women’s lace undies. The bad news: the undies were not Brenda’s.

A year after the breakup, Brenda has put her life back together. She’s trained for a marathon, is writing a children’s novel, and she’s found purpose and healing as a volunteer with a dog rescue organization in Houston, Texas. The rescue partners with a program in Avalon, New York–a small, snowy town deep in the Catskills. Now Brenda is arranging the transport of rescued dogs from Houston to Avalon—just in time for a merry Christmas with their forever families. Brenda’s friends worry about her driving a van two thousand miles with twelve dogs in crates, but she shrugs off their concern. How hard can it be? She knows the way, and she’s just looking to escape the Christmas overload for a while.

But a blinding snowstorm, an escaped mutt, and a life-saving encounter with Adam Bellamy—a single dad and paramedic—means Brenda has to stay in Avalon longer than she planned. As she drops off each precious pup at their new homes, some of the comfort and joy of the season begins to creep up on Brenda despite her determination to avoid the holidays. Perhaps you can bring Christmas into your heart after all…if you have the right furry friends to guide the way.

My Review:

Yes, this time of year, it’s understood there’ll be sweet Christmasy winter-time romance stories, dripping with sentiment, and time-honored storylines. Add in twelve dogs and it’s bound to be a winner.

Brenda Malloy has been soured on Christmas—there’s been more than one tragedy with that timing—and she views each coming Christmas with a sinking heart. Brenda, however, has an outlet that she’s found satisfying revolving around a dog rescue. So far, her biggest challenge is the paperwork involved in gleaning good applications and pairing them with appropriate dogs looking for their furever homes.

While being an advocate for the doggos, she generally works out of her home. This year she’s been volunteered to help drive twelve dogs (including her own) to the northern regions for placement in time for Christmas. The trip went beautifully until the winter storm hit just outside of their destination resulting in a serious accident with her co-worker in the hospital and one canine escapee.

As luck would have it, the eye-candy paramedic (Adam) who rescued her is also the recipient of one of the dogs intended for his son—he’s divorced. Also, luckily, his mother is another recipient and she is very well to do, advocates in her own way offering bath and bedroom quarters while Brenda waits out the storm and their van is restored to serviceable.

Lately, I can’t seem to avoid romances, some of which have gotten quite steamy. This one stayed more generally G-rated while Brenda fought her ideas of the north, the weather, the town, and her attraction to the EMT. She managed to connect with the recipients of the dogs and deliver them to almost all the right people, finding one slight mismatch that she resolved well. The reader is treated to a little info regarding the dogs and the homes they went to and for about the first 75% or so of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed.

Then, I’m not sure what happened. While the first two-thirds was well-paced, well-plotted, and engaging, the last third got gooey, bogging down with the romance (her refusal to accept an insta-love), with a drop in reading level from adult to adolescent.

Well, grrrr….

Undaunted though and because I enjoy books about dogs, I’ll look for other novels by this author. In the meantime, if a simple romance with predictable storyline is your jam, you may very well enjoy this one.

I received a copy of this book from my handy dandy library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Friendship Fiction, Holiday Fiction, Christmas Holiday Romance eBooks
Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN: ‎ 0063253518
ASIN: B0BSFRMS2R
Print Length: 254
Publication Date: October 17, 2023
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

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Susan Wiggs - author — Susan Wiggs – author

The Author: [Amazon] I like to believe I am the person my dogs think I am.

I phone my parents every day, as they are elderly and adorable, and they read me stories every day of my freakishly normal childhood. I was a writer before I learned to read, by creating scribbles on paper and dictating the stories to my saintly mother. You can see examples here: https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/104585203815605467940/albums/5587379107269629729?banner=pwa&partnerid=pwrd1.

Untold eons later, I still read and write everyday and I’ve gotten very good at it. I live in a ridiculously gorgeous place in the world–an island in Puget Sound, Washington where we have a lot of the same flowers you grow in the UK. But bigger slugs. Much bigger slugs.

I have lots more to tell you, so please join me on Facebook and check out pictures of my dogs and tell me what’s on your mind. https://www.facebook.com/susanwiggs

[Goodreads] Susan Wiggs‘s life is all about family, friends…and fiction. She lives at the water’s edge on an island in Puget Sound, and she commutes to her writers’ group in a 17-foot motorboat. She serves as author liaison for Field’s End, a literary community on Bainbridge Island, Washington, bringing inspiration and instruction from the world’s top authors to her seaside community. (See www.fieldsend.org) She’s been featured in the national media, including NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” and is a popular speaker locally and nationally.

According to Publishers Weekly, Wiggs writes with “refreshingly honest emotion,” and the Salem Statesman Journal adds that she is “one of our best observers of stories of the heart [who] knows how to capture emotion on virtually every page of every book.” Booklist characterizes her books as “real and true and unforgettable.” She is the recipient of three RITA (sm) awards and four starred reviews from Publishers Weekly for her books. The Winter Lodge and Passing Through Paradise have appeared on PW’s annual “Best Of” lists. Several of her books have been listed as top Booksense picks and optioned as feature films. Her novels have been translated into more than two dozen languages and have made national bestseller lists, including the USA Today, Washington Post and New York Times lists.

The author is a former teacher, a Harvard graduate, an avid hiker, an amateur photographer, a good skier and terrible golfer, yet her favorite form of exercise is curling up with a good book. Readers can learn more on the web at www.susanwiggs.com and on her lively blog at www.susanwiggs.wordpress.com.

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