As Hitler’s armies pour across the Polish border, three lives are forever changed.
Jewish refugee Felix Wolff believes he has found safety in England, but he is arrested and thrown into a British internment camp as a suspected Nazi spy. To clear his name and join the fight against Hitler, he must break free of a system that mistakes him for the very evil he fled.
Fresh off his ruthless campaign in Poland, Sicherheitsdienst agent Karl Vogt is sent on a chilling mission: to devise a system for controlling the growing Jewish population within the Reich. His cold efficiency lays the groundwork for a coming horror the world has yet to comprehend.
In Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, Adela Beran risks everything to pass secrets from a weapons factory to the Czech resistance. When she’s asked to help assassinate Heinrich Himmler in Berlin, she faces a terrifying choice: stay in the shadows or strike a deadly blow against tyranny.
His Review:
The Nazi war machine has the whole European continent in chaos. Poland and its army had weapons woefully inadequate against the German war machine. As the Germans advance, the Poles are pushed back quickly. The choice was total destruction of their country or surrender. There was no real option. The Jewish people were then systematically rounded up and placed into restricted areas or simply killed outright.
This book follows three individuals who are followed through the conflict. Some in Poland and others in Czechoslovakia where a giant munitions factory is working twenty-four hours a day to produce weapons for the Third Reich. Those who do not meet quotas of production are simply taken out and eliminated. One of the factory supervisors is a brother of Herman Goering. Goering is not as fanatic as is his brother; however, his connections help to protect his workers.
This story is very well thought through and challenges some of the impressions other writers have developed regarding German factory efficiency. Ever present is the threat of torture at the hands of the Gestapo. Some of the patriots in the factory work on ways to hamper production. The results are weapons or bombs that do not function properly. This book is a true mind-awakening journey. 4 stars – CE Williams
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.
Rosepoint Publishing:Four Stars
Book Details:
Genre: Historical Biographical Fiction, Historical German Fiction, Biographical Historical Fiction Publisher: 700 Miles Publishing ASIN: B0FW59K17F Print Length: 424 pages Publication Date: January 8, 2026 Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Award-winning author Denny S. Bryce and USA Today bestselling author Eliza Knight collaborate on a brilliant novel that uncovers the boundary-breaking, genuine friendship between Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, and iconic movie star Marilyn Monroe.
One woman was recognized as the premiere singer of her era with perfect pitch and tireless ambition.
One woman was the most glamorous star in Hollywood, a sex symbol who took the world by storm.
And their friendship was fast and firm…
1952: Ella Fitzgerald is a renowned jazz singer whose only roadblock to longevity is society’s attitude toward women and race. Marilyn Monroe’s star is rising despite ongoing battles with movie studio bigwigs and boyfriends. When she needs help with her singing, she wants only the best—and the best is the brilliant Ella Fitzgerald. But Ella isn’t a singing teacher and declines—then the two women meet, and to everyone’s surprise but their own, they become fast friends.
On the surface, what could they have in common? Yet each was underestimated by the men in their lives—husbands, managers, hangers-on. And both were determined to gain. Each fought for professional independence and personal agency in a time when women were expected to surrender control to those same men.
This novel reveals and celebrates their surprising bond over a decade and serves as a poignant reminder of how true friendship can cross differences to bolster and sustain us through haunting heartbreak and wild success.
My Review:
Marilyn died in 1962, the year we were married. Many historical events happened the same year and I must confess many of them were lost in my own life concerns at the time. Born in 1926, Marilyn was thirty-six. Born in 1917, Ella passed in 1996 at 79 years. Both achieved legendary status, and while it is true that they did form a friendship, this is a fiction accounting of that friendship.
At times, the palaver got so thick, I completely discounted the incident. Indeed, it’s explained at the end of the book that (remember) it is a work of fiction.
What isn’t fiction is that given the time in the civil rights movement, Monroe’s support of Ella could have hurt her career which was already flourishing. It was because Marilyn was up for a pic in which she was to sing that she began hounding Ella to coach her as Ella was admittedly one of her singing idols.
Ella was well-known and successful but struggled for the level of acceptance and the better gigs as that of Lena Horne, Dinah Washington, and Nina Simone. And Ella was a big woman. The Mocambo wanted small and pretty; Marilyn helped her get into the Mocambo.
While I was fully engaged in the voice of Ella in the audiobook, I found the voice of Marilyn annoying at times, cloying, sure she did not use her public persona voice during all the private conversations.
An audiobook, I hoped for a tidbit of one of Ella’s songs. And then there was the iconic Happy Birthday song to President Kennedy by Marilyn—that breathy, sexy song so familiar to generations of fans.
The book jumps between reflections of Ella and Marilyn, sometimes creating a disjointed narrative, Ella coming over as most authentic. I enjoyed the different stories of both ladies and their families, including the account of Ella’s Aunt Virginia! Marilyn’s story inevitably covered failed marriages, including the extremely physically abusive Joe DiMaggio marriage, although Arthur Miller—while not physically abusive—swung just as hard to the mental side of abusive and was just as damaging.
“There is something in the bond of an honest friendship between women that a lover can never breach and that fake friends will never understand.”
To her credit, Ella didn’t drink, smoke, or do drugs and that became a heavy wedge between their friendship. While Ella decried Marilyn’s increasing dependency on drugs and booze, she couldn’t be a part of it.
Lots of literary license here, still there are tidbits to be gleaned between dramatic recreations or fictionalized accounts of what may have or could have happened. The authors spent untold hours in research. Perhaps the most telling is the insight given in the epilogue.
If you enjoy biographical accounts, historical accounts of some of our famous personalities, you might very well enjoy this collaboration. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.
Rosepoint Publishing:Four Stars
Book Details:
Genre: Biographical Fiction, Friendship Fiction, Biographical Historical Fiction Publisher:HarperAudio ASIN: B0C7DXY8TW Listening Length: 11 hrs 15 mins Narrators: Karen Chilton, Caroline Hewitt Publication Date: March 5, 2024 Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections) Title Links: Can’t We Be Friends [Amazon-US] Amazon-UK Barnes & Noble Kobo
The Authors:
Eliza Knight is an award winning, USA Today and international bestselling author. Her love of history began as a young girl when she traipsed the halls of Versailles and ran through the fields in Southern France. She can still remember standing before the great golden palace, and imagining what life must have been like. Growing up in the Washington, D.C. area, her weekends were filled with visits to museums, and historical reenactments. Escape into history for courageous heroines, irresistible heroes and daring escapades. Join Eliza (sometimes as E.) on riveting historical journeys that cross landscapes around the world. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society and Novelists, Inc., the creator of the popular historical blog, History Undressed, a co-host on the History, Books and Wine podcast and a co-host for the true crime podcast, Crime Feast.
While not reading, writing or researching for her latest book, she tries to keep up with her three not-so-little children. In her spare time (if there is such a thing…) she likes daydreaming, wine-tasting, traveling, hiking, staring at the stars, watching movies, shopping and visiting with family and friends. She lives atop a small mountain with her own knight in shining armor, three princesses, two very naughty Newfies, and a turtle named Fish.
Look for STARRING ADELE ASTAIRE a story full of glitz and glam, delving into the life of Adele Astaire, a spirited and talented woman who served up smiles and love both on and off the stage—with and without her also famous brother Fred Astaire— along with a determined young dancer with rags-to-riches dreams. Coming in June 2024, THE QUEEN’S FAITHFUL COMPANION.
For more information about book club visits, downloadable reader guides, upcoming author events, book news, newsletter and more, visit her website: http://www.elizaknight.com
If you love history and want to dive in for some fun, visit Eliza’s popular, award-winning blog:
To connect on social media, visit/follow Eliza at the following:
Twitter: @elizaknight
Denny S. Bryce is a best-selling, award-winning author of historical fiction. A former dancer and public relations professional, Denny is an adjunct professor in the MFA program at Drexel University, a book critic for NPR, and a freelance writer whose work has appeared in USA Today and Harper’s Bazaar. She is also a member of the Historical Novel Society, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Tall Poppy Writers. Originally from Ohio, she likes to call Chicago her hometown but currently resides in Savannah, Georgia. You can find her online at DennySBryce.com.
A Biographical Novel of Mark Twain (Great American Authors Series Book 2)
Rosepoint Publishing:Five Stars
Book Blurb:
John Isaac Jones’s new biographical novel on Samuel Langhorne Clemens, A/K/A Mark Twain, brings the fascinating life of America’s most famous humorist to you in vivid, captivating detail.
His time – 1840s-1910 America. Westward movement begins; the trail of tears; telegraph is invented; California gold rush; War between the States; Lincoln assassinated; the golden spike; Custer massacred; invention of electric light, the telephone and the automobile; the Spanish American war; the tumultuous presidency of Teddy Roosevelt; events leading to WWI.
His loves – His strait-laced, highly-religious mother Jane who vowed he was “born to be hanged!”; Laura Hawkins, his childhood sweetheart whom he was unable to commit to; Ina Coolbrith, the beautiful California poetess and lover who vowed to hold him; his beloved wife Olivia who urged him to become “a serious writer;” his oldest daughter Susan whom he worshipped from the day she was born until the day of her death.
His genius – Samuel Langhorne Clemens, news reporter, steamboat pilot, gold miner, lecturer, world-traveler, adventurer, author of the classic Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn books; the first man to circumnavigate the world on a steamship; singlehandedly invented the travelogue genre when he wrote Innocents Abroad; later books, including A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Roughing it, Life of the Mississippi and the short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, earned him the title “The father of American literature.”
His Review:
Growing up along the Mississippi River, Samuel Clemens was always getting into mischief. He and a boyhood friend, Tom Blankenship, are always having problems. Finally, Sam’s parents determine that Tom is leading their son down the road of perdition and forbid him to have any further contact with him. This relationship was the basis for the character Huckleberry Finn.
Sam’s boyhood town, Hannibal, Missouri, is located on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River. The town is a major port city and with deep water is able to take in many of the steamboats that ply the river. Sam falls in love with the idea of becoming a steamboat captain and sailing the route between New Orleans and Hannibal.
But he becomes a newspaper reporter and decides to head west to broaden his experience. He is swept up in the search for gold and he and a couple other guys search for the elusive metal near Carson City, NV and then the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The three manage to eke out $8.00 per day after grueling twelve-hour days and decide this is not for them. They take their hard-earned savings and try to double it in San Francisco.
Sam marries a young lady and they decide to move and live back east. Life gives him many harsh lessons including losing his daughters and ultimately his wife. Life is not easy for Samuel Clemens and his alternate ego, Mark Twain, who with an abundance of life experience to write about, then becomes a great traveling orator and humorist. This book, however, reveals the difficult life that this American legend lived and the many tragedies that he experienced. 5 stars – CE Williams
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.
Book Details:
Genre: Historical Biographical Fiction, Biographical Fiction, Biographical Historical Fiction Publisher: John Isaac Jones (1st Edition) ASIN: B0C55VKF7N Print Length: 506 pages Publication Date: May 12, 2023 Source: Publisher and NetGalley
The Author:John Isaac Jones is a retired journalist and novelist currently living and writing at Merritt Island, Florida. For more than thirty years, “John I.,” as he prefers to be called, was a reporter for media outlets throughout the world. These included local newspapers in my native Alabama, The National Enquirer, News of the World in London, the Sydney Morning Herald, and NBC television. His latest book, A Quiet Madness, is a work of historical fiction about the life of Edgar Allan Poe, author of the short story classics, The Tell-tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado. Jones is the author of ten novels, two short story collections and five novellas. You can find “John I.” on his website, johnisaacjones.com, or on Facebook at author john Isaac Jones.
This book follows three individuals who are followed through the conflict. Some in Poland and others in Czechoslovakia where a giant munitions factory is working twenty-four hours a day to produce weapons for the Third Reich. Those who do not meet quotas of production are simply taken out and eliminated. One of the factory supervisors is a brother of Herman Goering. Goering is not as fanatic as is his brother; however, his connections help to protect his workers.
The Author: Michael Reit writes page-turning historical fiction. His books focus on lesser-known events and people in World War II Europe.
Sam marries a young lady and they decide to move and live back east. Life gives him many harsh lessons including losing his daughters and ultimately his wife. Life is not easy for Samuel Clemens and his alternate ego, Mark Twain, who with an abundance of life experience to write about, then becomes a great traveling orator and humorist. This book, however, reveals the difficult life that this American legend lived and the many tragedies that he experienced. 5 stars – CE Williams
Rosepoint Publishing 