For All The World by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

Cullen’s Celtic Cabaret – Book 1

Book Blurb:

Dublin, Ireland and Valencia, Spain 1917.

Peter Cullen has no money and no prospects, but he has talent and the will to succeed. All he needs now is luck.

May Gallagher is determined to make her own way in life, even if it means defying her parents’ plans for her.

Nick Gerrity is ready to turn his back on his past and start anew, but his secrets might just catch up with him.

And Aida Gonzales, destitute and alone, discovers an unexpected lifeline in the midst of the carnage of World War I.

Together, as the war to end all wars wipes out an entire generation, these four young people will take a chance to break free of society’s shackles and forge a new future of glamour, glitter, and greasepaint.

My Review:

One thing you know you will get from a Jean Grainger book is disparate characters. But even for Ms Grainger, this is quite the departure from her Irish family dramas which have been captivating and compulsive.

These charismatic characters begin in late WWI with the story of Peter—coveting a role in the theater and grabbing the first one available—but that’s a female role–he’ll dress up. It’s a transgression and embarrassment to his volatile father that results in his ejection from the family. No big loss—his Dublin neighborhood is one of poverty and misery.

Well, fine! He’ll enlist in the military!

Next we are introduced to Nick who is one of several sons in a well-to-do family with an unfortunate stutter. He discovers, however, that with his education he can speak in a foreign language or sing a ballad sweet enough to cause tears without the stutter. But his family? Nope.

Fine! He’ll sneak off and enlist in the military!

Peter is easy going, happy go lucky and doesn’t worry about Nick’s stutter when they discover each other in the trenches of France. Then begins the introduction of additional characters from widely different parts of the world including Enzo—an Italian from London, talented Ramon from Spain and later his dance partner Aida, and Two Soups, a Scotsman and comedian.

As serendipity will happen, they manage to meet up in the ugly circumstances of the final stages of war and discover each other’s talents. An impromptu opportunity to perform is just the beginning. They later go on to entertain their own troops and later the wounded in military hospitals.

It was Peter’s girlfriend May who encouraged Peter to pursue his theatrical goals. She has designs on Peter that he isn’t quite her equally enamored. There are other possible romantic liaisons brewing which we’ll have to wait and read about in the next installment of the new series which is showing a strong start.

I love it when the author takes off in a new direction with a strong series promise. These characters are engaging and the theatre background immersive. I’m anxious to see where this is going with that teaser Epilogue included at the end.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts. As always, I’m thoroughly intrigued!

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Irish Fiction, Historical British & Irish Literature, Women’s Historical Fiction
ISBN: ‎ 1914958950
ASIN: B0C94MD3H5
Print Length: 284 pages
Publication Date: August 17, 2023
Source: Author
Title Link(s): For All the World [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—please see her full bio on her Amazon author page]

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.

Rosepoint recommended

A Silent Understanding: The Kilteegan Bridge Story Book 5 by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – Historical Irish Fiction

in Historical Irish Fiction

Book Blurb:

Kilteegan Bridge, Co Cork, Ireland. 1975

Lena Kogan is thrilled when her son Emmet invites her to the opening of his first building in San Francisco. It’s awkward that she will be staying with Emmet’s father Malachy Berger, but he’s in a serious relationship now, and anyway, he knows how Lena feels about Eli, so surely they can just be friends.

Her sister Emily, is less adventurous. She’s happy to stay at home with her family and a thriving business, that is until her daughter Nellie drops another bombshell on her about what she plans to do next. A move nobody could have anticipated and few support.

Her brother Jack is living contentedly on his farm with Skipper, until a couple of late-night visitors cause them to risk everything they’ve guarded so carefully. Intervening to help could mean exposure in a state where men like them are on the wrong side of the law, but some things are just too important to ignore.

In this final book of The Kilteegan Bridge Story, the O’Sullivans come to a silent understanding of each other and of themselves.

My Review:

I’ve read each of the episodes in this series and must admit that Book 4 (When Irish Eyes are Lying) hit hard and unexpectedly. So it was with some trepidation that I began Book 5.

This installment in the Kilteegan Bridge series brings back the tragedy with Lena and Eli, the story of Nellie and her ill-fated visit to San Francisco and continued the sweet and tentative interest between Emmet and Wei. It also sees additional development with Rosa Abramson and her pursuit of WWII reparations for Jews. Following Malachy’s new knowledge of his father’s and grandparents’ involvement in the theft of property during that time, he volunteers a project that would benefit the people as well as involve his biological son, Emmet.

In the meantime, new characters Katie and Maggie O’Neill are runaways from the local Catholic orphanage where their treatment is less than loving. But they cannot continue to hide with Jack and Skipper, two bachelors, and given their relationship must find other safe quarters for the young girls.

While the author’s books can get complex with multiple sub-plots, each is interwoven within the tight family and small rural, primarily Catholic-based community. Nellie has decided on a vocation unexpected that shocks her mother. Nellie’s new BFF, Sister Martina becomes a solid sympathetic character as well as one who provides a consistent story with that sense of humor we’ve come to expect of a Jean Grainger novel. (Wish I’d known about St Columbanus, the patron saint of motorcycles, back when I was riding my motorcycle, but have to admit St Michael kept his hand on me more than once.)

The atmospheric visions of rural Irish life that include an enormous family line that extends in all directions provide a gripping and emotional plot. It is a well-paced and complicated storyline that manages to confront a number of topical domestic issues.

At this point, having fully engaged in previous installments, there are issues most readers will want to see settled as they hope. The conclusion neatly gathers all remaining strings left hanging or unresolved and carefully addresses each issue and in the Epilogue quietly closes all disturbing threads. As with all families, particularly large extended ones, there are multiple and private issues, and within the family perhaps while quietly acknowledged—still remain private.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the author and publisher that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts. Currently on pre-order.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Irish Fiction, Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction, Family Life Fiction
Publisher: Gold Harp Media
ASIN: B0BRNYGRM5
Publication Date: March 1, 2023
Source: Author ARC

Title Link: A Silent Understanding (Amazon)

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

[truncated—please see her full bio on her Amazon author page]

Enjoy your day

When Irish Eyes Are Lying: The Kilteegan Bridge Story-Book 4 by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

in Historical Irish Fiction

Book Blurb:

Kilteegan Bridge, Ireland. 1975

Despite the best efforts to the older generation to maintain standards, short skirts, long hair and loud music are all the rage in Kilteegan Bridge.

Emmet Kogan has set his sights on an education at the prestigious Stanford University in California, while his cousin Nellie also longs to get away, but for very different reasons. If she’s to escape too, it will mean wrapping herself in a web of lies, but it’s a price she’s willing to pay.

Lena and Eli are terrified they will lose their boy to the bright lights of America forever, while Emily and Blackie make a decision to keep a dangerous secret, despite knowing the damage such duplicity can do.

On the exciting streets of 1970s San Francisco, two young Irish people have to learn to navigate this new world of wonderful opportunities and dangerous vices, and learn that no matter how open and accepting a society is, there are always rules.

Rules that if broken, carry a heavy penalty.

My Review:

This installment in the Kilteegan Bridge series had me ripping one direction and then another. I felt at the beginning like it might have been a bit of déjà vu with Lena.

Several storylines in this episode that included Nellie (déjà vu Lena), Nellie’s cousin Emmett and his birth dad Malachy, as well as Fintan Slattery’s misunderstanding of the power of the “Good People.”

Granted, I loved the insight into the “fairy” tales (the Good People) who can get downright dangerously vindictive when crossed. So many origins in our customs today that stem from ancient myths, gospels and superstitions handed down and still observed. (Leave the Hawthorn tree alone and do not violate the fairy ring!!)

To escape Nellie’s unhappy experience, she is invited and allowed to go to Palo Alto where Malachy is living with his birth father in preparation for going to Stanford. Another very eye-opening storyline that had me remembering my grandmother’s dread of what was happening in San Francisco. Totally involved in our own drama at home, however, none of that scary scene really touched me at the time. The drug and free love culture was spreading far afield, but I don’t remember it hitting Sacramento quite that hard. Or, maybe I was just that far removed.

Meanwhile, back at home in Kilteegan Bridge, Lena and Eli immersed in helping family Emily and Blackie takes a tragic turn, one that was gut-wrenching. I haven’t recovered from that yet and not happy with the turn the narrative has taken also hope it doesn’t go the way I suspect Book 5 will lead. Ms. Grainger pulled no punches in this one!

I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed each of the entries in the series, the last one More Harm Than Good, following each of the characters so well developed they are part of the neighborhood, I know and love them, each with immersive stories of their own. But this one hurt.

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

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Irish Fiction, Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction, Saga Fiction
Publisher: Gold Harp Media
ASIN: B0BLTP1YCY
Print Length: 285 pages
Publication Date: January 17, 2023
Source: Author ARC
Title Link(s): When Irish Eyes Are Lying [Amazon]

The Author: JEAN GRAINGER is a 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

[truncated—please see author’s page for full bio]

#TuesdayBookBlog

More Harm Than Good: The Kilteegan Bridge Story-Book 3 by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

“He always joked that in other cultures, there was a lot of talk and very little action, whereas in Ireland the reverse was true.”

Book Blurb:

Kilteegan Bridge, Ireland 1974

For each member of the O’Sullivan family there are turbulent times ahead.

Eli’s need to do his best for his patients is a cause for a bitter divide in the community. Emmet seems hell bent on going down a path in life his parents dread but they’re unable to stop him. Jack’s life and liberty are in grave peril as his secret faces exposure, while Emily’s troubles are, it seems only just beginning with the return of someone she would much rather had disappeared forever. And Maria must decide, is blood really thicker than water, and should family always come first, no matter the cost?

In More Harm than Good, the Kilteegan Bridge Series continues, as the modernity of the 1970’s challenges Irish traditional ways, and generations clash, sometimes with deadly consequences.

My Review:

Master Irish storyteller Jean Grainger adds Book 3 to the emotional family drama Kilteegan Bridge series. Book 3 has progressed to the mid-70s (from the 50s in Book 1) to a strong climate of changing Irish attitudes. It’s hard to change and change doesn’t come easy.

Eli and Lena have seen their little ones become teens and the teens are exploring and rebelling as teens are wont to do. Some of the rebellion is serious and will spell major upheaval for both Lena and Eli as well as the extended family, all of whom face desperate problems of their own.

What secrets are Jack and Skipper keeping? Emmet and Nellie? Too young to know what they don’t know, too young and naïve to be aware they are being played. Too inexperienced to know what to do or where to turn. But they are family. And family sticks together always and takes care of one their own—in one way or another.

Don’t they?

I love the way the author builds her characters into flesh and blood. The village of Kilteegan so real, atmospheric, the people under the heavy hand of the Catholic Church that governs with an iron fist and manipulates their lives.

I love that daft sense of humor she brings to her tales. The analogies often break the tension just when it’s needed and never fail to bring a smile or chuckle.

“…sometimes you’re as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.”

The narrative needs an occasional break from the serious turn into themes of religious control, homosexuality, unwed pregnancy, and mental illness. A couple issues are dealt with strongly and sympathetically, possibly revealing a more lenient attitude than the issues provided at the time.

I love it when Jean Grainger releases another novel in one of her series. I read both Book 1 The Trouble with Secrets and Book 2 What Divides Us and loved this addition, although it could be read as a standalone. The author can weave a historical chronicle into an Irish family drama that clutches at the heart and leaves ripples of familiarity. Few have not confronted a similar situation and easily understand the impact.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts and I’m looking forward to Book 4. Recommended!

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Irish Fiction, Historical British Fiction, Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
ASIN: B0BFXLYXJK
Print Length: 280 pages
Publication Date: November 15, 2022 – Happy Release Day!
Source: Author contact

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Author: JEAN GRAINGER is a 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

[truncated—please see author’s page for full bio]

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What Divides Us: The Kilteegan Bridge Story – Book 2 by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

“May the roof above us never fall in and those beneath it never fall out.”

Book Blurb:

Kilteegan Bridge, Ireland 1963.

On the face of it, life is idyllic for Eli and Lena Kogan. Living in their beautiful house in the Irish countryside, their children are growing up happy and safe surrounded by a loving community. So when a letter arrives one day threatening to shatter their peaceful and prosperous world, Lena and Eli have no option but face the dark reality of their situation. How best to do that, is something that drives a wedge between them.
As a Jewish child, escaped from Germany in 1939, Eli is all for letting those dark days where they belong, for him, there’s no future in the past.
But for Lena, it’s different. She knows that the only way she can move her family forward in peace is to first go back, and there is only one man who knows the whole truth.
From rural Ireland to wartime France, What Divides us, tells a tale of loyalty and love, resentment and revenge, that has far reaching consequences for the Kogan family, the unravelling of which might just destroy their future.

My Review:

If Jean Grainger comes out with a new book, particularly in one of her series, you know I’ll be front and center. Book 2 of the Kilteegan Bridge Story digs deeper into the story of Eli and Lena Kogan. Now in 1963, some five years after The Trouble with Secrets introduced us to the unusual couple, they have Sarah and Pádraig in addition to Emmet—the baby that began the storyline.

The family is living in a beautiful home in a small community surrounded by family, support, and prosperity. When Lena receives a letter addressed specifically to her, it’s bad news. Eli, a Jewish child of Germany, wants nothing to do with the past, that ugly and tragic history. He and Lena have vastly different ideas on how to handle it but for her, there is only one way.

“…they ran with the hares and hunted with the hounds.”

A mother and a wife but she’s not entirely without resources and she begins a concerted effort to get to the bottom of it and assure that it will not impact neither her family nor the immediate family firmly entrenched within their boundaries.

It’s not just about the house or the land, however, it goes somewhat deeper and her first line of offense is to contact Malachy Berger, whose family originally held title. It was his loathsome father that separated her and Malachy years ago. His family and hers have a dark history, one they’ve not shared with anyone except Eli, stemming from the last great war.

“There are such things as kind untruths…”

In the first book, I wasn’t sure about the character of Eli. He is closed mouth about his background but has otherwise proven to be a loving father and responsible member of the medical community. Lena has matured with three children but this time I had a bit of a problem with her very female severe overreaction to the situation, enumerating the issues and then repeating them several more times. It is a big problem, of course, with repercussions not just for her and Eli. She does, after all, have a valid point and with typical fighting Irish sensibilities tends to expand a conflict into a battle, one she’s prepared to fight.

The author crafts a well-plotted and fast-paced storyline that grips from the beginning. Lena doesn’t shy away from traveling to meet persons with info and dip into a dark background that stuns the soul as it reveals brutal and shocking truths.

I love it when Jean Grainger releases another in one of her series. I’ve read most of them and marveled at the way she can weave a historical chronicle into an Irish family drama that touches the heart and takes so many of us with some Irish ties home.

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

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Irish Fiction, Jewish Historical Fiction, Jewish Literature & Fiction
ISBN: ‎ 1914958993
ASIN: B09YMBVS5S
Print Length: 266 pages
Publication Date: September 29, 2022
Source: Author Request

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Jean Grainger - author — Jean Grainger – author

The Author: 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

[truncated]

My current series, The Queenstown Series, centres on twelve year old Harp Devereaux and her mother Rose and the first book opens on the day Titanic sails from Queenstown, Co Cork on her last fateful journey. It is a bestselling series and people really seem to connect to the precocious Harp and her hard-working mother as they battle to survive in a society where conforming and playing by the rules was paramount. It is so far a three book series, The West’s Awake, and The Harp and the Rose being the next two books but I’m currently writing book four.

#TuesdayBookBlog

Growing Wild in the Shade by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – Women’s Detective Fiction – #happyreleaseday

Growing Wild in the Shade by Jean Grainger

A Mags Munroe Story (The Mags Munroe Series Book 2)

Book Blurb:

If you want to disappear, start again, make a new life, a small Irish village is probably not the wisest place to go, since anonymity is not something we do well here.

The arrival of someone new is always a cause for twitching curtains and whispered conversations.

But here, like everywhere, people have their secrets, and as the local sergeant I’m expected to have my eyes peeled for anything unusual.

And I do.
Usually.
Until I don’t, and the consequences are potentially fatal.

My Review:

Once past St. Patrick’s Day, if you need an “Irish fix” there is none better than picking up a Jean Grainger book. The author has that understated ability for placing you in the center of the Irish village set in the book you are reading—in this instance—Ballycarrick, Ireland.

It’s a book filled with characters, the MC being Mags Munroe, a newly promoted Sargeant in the local Garda. She has taken on the duty of coaching her community, settle conflicts, prejudices, and little offenses. She is married to Kieran, an independent roofer. Also prominent is Mags mother and Delia, newly minted Garda and also a Traveller, which is the main focus of this narrative.

As always, however, there are several under-plot threads one being her mother’s new love life and Mags own grapple with menopause. Her husband is living in fear of her being hurt again, last time seriously and they must come to terms with that aspect of her job.

It sounds like the little town of Ballycarrick is torn right down the middle regarding moving the Travellers from an area for which they’ve long been occupants without benefit of ownership. There are those who would move them to the area of another family of Travellers who are not so carefully or cleanly law-abiding. The Travellers are looked down on in any case and this provides an opportunity for proselytizing. Some good arguments here that sound as if they’d be the same for many of similar situations around the globe.

“She is only the monkey; Joanna Burke is the organ grinder.”

It is the everyday life though that the author manages to wheedle out of the pages, the little struggles, triumphs, and solutions brought about through thoughtful consensus. It is life in every village, every city—human life with bits of candor and clarity–and that iconic Irish sense of humor.

I received an advance copy of this book from the author that in no way influenced this review. These are my unbiased thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Women’s Detective Fiction, Women’s Crime Fiction, Women’s Literary Fiction
ISBN: ‎1914958012
ASIN: B09VCLSQX6
Print Length: 246 pages
Publication Date: Happy release! July 18, 2022
Source: Author request

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Author: 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

[truncated]

The Trouble With Secrets: The Kilteegan Bridge Story by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

The Trouble with Secrets by Jean Grainger

Happy Release Day!

in contemporary British & Irish Literature

Book Blurb:

Kilteegan Bridge, County Cork 1958

For eighteen year old Lena O’Sullivan, life is predictable and dull. A future of hard work, marriage to a local boy, and a family of her own one day is all she has to look forward to. People from her background know not to expect too much, but Lena yearns for something different.

Malachy Berger was different, for him, the world is at his feet. An only child of a wealthy, if peculiar father, a large inheritance, a beautiful house and a fine education are his due.

Nobody is in favour of Lena and Malachy’s friendship, but why not? What harm are they doing? Why is everyone so dead set against it?

Then fate takes a hand, and Lena realises that secrets and lies have bound her and Malachy in an impossible situation. And their future seems determined by events that happened long before they were born.

From rural Ireland to post-war Cardiff, Lena and Malachy’s story winds its way back to wartime Germany and occupied France in a web of deceit that threatens to destroy them both.

My Review:

It’s a given that if Jean Grainger comes out with a new book, I’m going to be reading it—having done so for most of her books, series or standalones. Of course, I have my favorites.

This one tells the story of Lena O’Sullivan and her family in the Irish countryside of Kilteegan Bridge and is one of the reasons I love the author’s books so much—the authentic atmosphere she brings to her storytelling. It’s palpable. It’s the late 1950’s and apparently as in America during that time, a young lady finding herself in a family way, unmarried, was dealt with in one of several (often severe and) shameful ways.

Lena was luckier than most, however, having a loving father, Paudie, who took good care of his wife who would probably now be diagnosed as bi-polar. She tended to have manic episodes and when Paudie dies in a tragic accident, Lena is left with her fragile mother and siblings.

The baby’s daddy comes from a well-to-do family who has familial problems of their own and resides in Kilteegan House. Malachy Berger’s father carries a vendetta against the O’Sullivan’s and makes sure Malachy won’t be involved further with Lena.

I loved most of the support characters, railed against the Berger father who made a despicable antagonist and loved the character of Doc, Lena’s godfather. Eli made a great character, but almost too good to be true, and it was fun to watch Lena’s maturation process.

The trouble with secrets is that they almost always are exposed (sooner or later). The journey through the process of devising a credible story to satisfy the people of the village is an interesting one—but one I fear hangs like a loose tooth. And I have a feeling we haven’t truly gotten the whole story yet.

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

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Contemporary British & Irish Literature, Historical Irish Fiction, British & Irish Literary Fiction
ASIN: B09V5MWCP5
Print Length: 313 pages
Publication Date: May 2, 2022
Source: Author
Title Link: The Trouble with Secrets [Amazon]

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

[Truncated. Please read her full bio on her Amazon book pages.]

The Harp and the Rose: The Queenstown Series Book 3 by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – #historicalfiction

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

Historical British Fiction

Book Blurb:

Queenstown, County Cork. 1920

For twenty-year-old Harp Devereaux, life should be idyllic. At university, she feels for the first time in her life that she belongs, her mother Rose is running the Cliff House as a successful business, and her childhood sweetheart JohnJoe is by her side, but the storm clouds of war grow ever darker.For eight hundred years Ireland has made numerous bids for her freedom but now, at last, liberation from British rule is tantalisingly close, if the men and women of the revolution can just hold on.
Harp, her family, and her friends find themselves in the thick of the fight, but the Crown Forces are not the only enemy. A sinister force from the past is lurking and will stop at nothing to exact his revenge.

My Review:

The third in the Queenstown series and it is a hard-hitting, high impact narrative that relates Ireland’s long struggle for freedom from the British in an entertaining novel that tells the continuing story of Harp Devereaux.

Harp and her mother Rose have turned the Cliff House mansion where her mother worked into a thriving B&B. Now at twenty, she has a special beau in JJ, along with characters from the previous entries to the series. She is currently home from university and working undercover with the Devlin sisters in aid of the freedom movement.

Harp has recently met Marianne, a young bride given to British General Beckett most recently from Shimla, India to help stamp out the IRA organization currently causing havoc across Ireland. Marianne was given to the much older Beckett by her family and she feels lost and alone and quickly forms a friendship with Harp.

Amazing how the author develops characters sure to mirror those of the time, fleshing them out, making them real, sympathetic. The stories are heart-felt, she is passionate about her Irish history and the love of her home in Cork shines through the prose. The novel is compelling, strongly engaging and hard to put down as the pace never waivers.

The climax developed into a most satisfying conclusion and certainly as this reader hoped, but there is an epilogue that sets up an unsettling scenario with Henry’s brother, Ralph, that is obviously to be a story for another time. ARGH! Ralph is a miserable person, a despot! This can’t be good!

I have read many books written by this prolific author, some as standalones, as well as other series: Robinswood, The Tour, and the Conor O’Shea series. The Star and the Shamrock, Return to Robinswood, Trials and Tribulations, and The Homecoming of Bubbles O’Leary. The latter was particularly poignant. Her characters are always engaging and relatable, the stories entertaining, and most unique in their plots and pacing.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley and these are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: British & Irish Literary Fiction, Historical British Fiction, Historical Irish Fiction
ASIN: B096M8FXLV
Print Length: 217 pages
Publication Date: Just released August 23, 2021
Source: Author
Title Link: The Harp and the Rose [Amazon]

The Author: JEAN GRAINGER