read a romance month Archives - Read-A-Romance Month

Chanel Cleeton – Storms Aplenty In Last Train To Key West

August 12, 2020 Leave a Comment

After her two powerhouse historical fiction novels—Next Year In Havana and When We Left Cuba – chronicling the Perez family after the Cuban Revolution, Cleeton shifts tone and historical eras for LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST. (There is a connection to the Perez family here, though. One of the three main female characters is the aunt of the main characters in those two books.)

The book takes place in 1935, in the period just before, during and after the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, which basically decimated the Keys. Cleeton does an amazing job bringing this catastrophe to life through the eyes of the novel’s characters, especially the women who are facing watershed moments in their own lives. Their seemingly random interactions and the fateful timing that bring them together on the eve of the devastating storm will have unexpected consequences, offering redemption and freedom in that strange way life does sometimes, even in the wake of destruction.

Cleeton’s affinity to Florida, Cuba and these areas’ history makes for some very unique storylines, and her ability to research these threads and then bring them to life through realistic characters living through such complicated times gives us a huge gift in exploring past events we haven’t seen much of in historical fiction.

Perhaps most interesting, aside from the characters’ individual struggles, were the spotlights on the WWI veterans’ camps that were ultimately destroyed by the hurricane, as a snapshot on the way those men were treated when they returned from arguably the worst battle experience in modern history.

Cleeton threads a lot of people, history and experiences together in this book, and as they all tie up together in the end, it makes for a very satisfying read indeed!

I loved this one, and all of her Perez family titles.

Find the books:
Chanel Cleeton @Amazon https://amzn.to/3iBa1jO
Last Train To Key West @Amazon https://amzn.to/3fTf7pO
When We Left Cuba – https://amzn.to/37oTD0n

THE LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST

In 1935 three women are forever changed when one of the most powerful hurricanes in history barrels toward the Florida Keys.

For the tourists traveling on Henry Flagler’s legendary Overseas Railroad, Labor Day weekend is an opportunity to forget the economic depression gripping the nation. But one person’s paradise can be another’s prison, and Key West-native Helen Berner yearns to escape.

After the Cuban Revolution of 1933 leaves Mirta Perez’s family in a precarious position, she agrees to an arranged marriage with a notorious American. Following her wedding in Havana, Mirta arrives in the Keys on her honeymoon. While she can’t deny the growing attraction to her new husband, his illicit business interests may threaten not only her relationship, but her life.

Elizabeth Preston’s trip to Key West is a chance to save her once-wealthy family from their troubles after the Wall Street crash. Her quest takes her to the camps occupied by veterans of the Great War and pairs her with an unlikely ally on a treacherous hunt of his own.

Over the course of the holiday weekend, the women’s paths cross unexpectedly, and the danger swirling around them is matched only by the terrifying force of the deadly storm threatening the Keys.

Happy Reading!

(This review is part of Read-A-Romance Month. Hope you’ll come back every day to check out my book recommendations. You can find the calendar here. Also check out The Romance of Reading, a Facebook “book club” where we’ll have great authors guest hosting every week.)

Some post and image links are connected to an affiliate portal. A small percentage of your purchases supports my work and this page. Thanks so much!

Enjoy!

Fiona Davis – Women & Empowerment in The Lions of Fifth Avenue

August 12, 2020 Leave a Comment

Fiona Davis has carved an interesting niche in female-focused historical fiction by picking New York buildings and constructing rich, compelling stories around them. They are mostly fictional in the broad strokes, but she weaves fascinating tidbits of the past into the details that not only ground the storytelling in specific historical eras, but also remind us that many of those details have been buried in the sands of time—especially the ones that men didn’t find important, or didn’t want remembered. She does a great job of digging them up again, and blowing off the dust and cobwebs, to shine a little light on their fascinating facets.

Her latest, THE LIONS OF FIFTH AVENUE, revolves around the iconic New York Public Library, and it touches on the radical ideas New York women were discussing as they laid the essential foundations for movements that would truly take hold in the generations to come, when women in ever-increasing numbers would fight for social, political and financial access and freedom.

Against this backdrop is a mystery of books stolen from the library that begins in the early 1900s and echoes into the mid-1990s, with unexpected connections and consequences that can both heal and harm a family eight decades later.

It’s a great read and a good reminder that though we still have work to do, we women have come a long way, baby!

Find the books:
Fiona Davis @Amazon – https://amzn.to/2wdxxwZ
The Lions of Fifth Avenue @Amazon – https://amzn.to/3kCERdE

THE LIONS OF FIFTH AVENUE

In nationally bestselling author Fiona Davis’s latest historical novel, a series of book thefts roils the iconic New York Public Library, leaving two generations of strong-willed women to pick up the pieces.

It’s 1913, and on the surface, Laura Lyons couldn’t ask for more out of life—her husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library, allowing their family to live in an apartment within the grand building, and they are blessed with two children. But headstrong, passionate Laura wants more, and when she takes a leap of faith and applies to the Columbia Journalism School, her world is cracked wide open. As her studies take her all over the city, she is drawn to Greenwich Village’s new bohemia, where she discovers the Heterodoxy Club—a radical, all-female group in which women are encouraged to loudly share their opinions on suffrage, birth control, and women’s rights. Soon, Laura finds herself questioning her traditional role as wife and mother. But when valuable books are stolen back at the library, threatening the home and institution she loves, she’s forced to confront her shifting priorities head on . . . and may just lose everything in the process.

Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie Donovan struggles with the legacy of her grandmother, the famous essayist Laura Lyons, especially after she’s wrangled her dream job as a curator at the New York Public Library. But the job quickly becomes a nightmare when rare manuscripts, notes, and books for the exhibit Sadie’s running begin disappearing from the library’s famous Berg Collection. Determined to save both the exhibit and her career, the typically risk-adverse Sadie teams up with a private security expert to uncover the culprit. However, things unexpectedly become personal when the investigation leads Sadie to some unwelcome truths about her own family heritage—truths that shed new light on the biggest tragedy in the library’s history.

Happy reading!

Some post and image links are connected to an affiliate portal. A small percentage of your purchases supports my work and this page. Thanks so much!

Enjoy!

M.J. Rose – The History & Creativity of Cartier’s Hope

August 12, 2020 Leave a Comment

I love M.J. Rose and everything she writes, but this year’s CARTIER’S HOPE was an interesting departure for her in some ways.

A socialite living a secret double life as a reporter, diving into the disparate economic realities of the Gilded Age, confronts the many social issues of the day—the dire living conditions and roiling social discontent of New York’s tenement poor; the Suffrage movement and the flaring frustration of working women; virulent sexism and anti-Semitism; and the threat to expose a homosexual love affair that was so frightening it led to suicide.

And yet, despite the many problematic issues and events the characters face in the book, the overall tone is uplifting and hopeful, and the story is highly entertaining. There’s romance, criminal hijinx, some awful characters doing awful things who meet their commeuppance; some awesome characters doing some questionable things that turn out to be retribution for past injustices; and in the middle of it all is the Cartier jewelry store and its dramatic, charismatic owner, who plays a variety of roles that ultimately help the good guys win and the bad guys suffer.

Rose brings her outstanding capacity for description to every detail of this book, so the nitty is gritty and the beauty is breathtaking, and she races us along a deep, twisty plot that keeps us entertained and intrigued, even as we’re taking in the complexity of the times and the valiant efforts of the people.

Another rich, vibrant effort from this exceptional author. (And doesn’t she have the most gorgeous covers?!)

Looking forward to her next title, THE LAST TIARA (@Amazon) – it sounds fascinating! (I love almost anything with a Romanov theme.)

Find the books:
M.J. Rose @Amazon
Cartier’s Hope @Amazon

CARTIER’S HOPE

New York, 1910: A city of extravagant balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and poor immigrants crammed into crumbling Lower East Side tenements. A city where the suffrage movement is growing stronger every day, but most women reporters are still delegated to the fashion and lifestyle pages. But Vera Garland is set on making her mark in a man’s world of serious journalism.

Shortly after the world-famous Hope Diamond is acquired for a record sum, Vera begins investigating rumors about schemes by its new owner, jeweler Pierre Cartier, to manipulate its value. Vera is determined to find the truth behind the notorious diamond and its legendary curses—even better when the expose puts her in the same orbit as a magazine publisher whose blackmailing schemes led to the death of her beloved father.

Appealing to a young Russian jeweler for help, Vera is unprepared when she begins falling in love with him…and even more unprepared when she gets caught up in his deceptions and finds herself at risk of losing all she has worked so hard to achieve.

Set against the backdrop of New York’s glitter and grit, of ruthless men and the atrocities they commit in the pursuit of power, this enthralling historical novel explores our very human needs for love, retribution—and to pursue one’s destiny, regardless of the cost.

Happy Reading!

Some post and image links are connected to an affiliate portal. A small percentage of your purchases supports my work and this page. Thanks so much!

Enjoy!

Quan Barry – Taking Flight With We Ride Upon Sticks

August 11, 2020 Leave a Comment

Today’s books all have quirky storylines and a subtle touch of something beyond natural in them! Be sure to check out the posts for Josie Silver & Rebecca Serle too!

I’ve told more people about this book than almost any other this year, especially people who have a connection or affinity to the 1980s. First I tell them, “You have to read this book!”

Then I tell them, “Just read the description of the book, and if you think it sounds good, then know it’s ten times better than it sounds.”

Because that’s how I feel about it.

Here’s the write-up:

Acclaimed novelist Quan Barry delivers a tour de female force in this delightful novel. Set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts, where the accusations began that led to the 1692 witch trials, We Ride Upon Sticks follows the 1989 Danvers High School Falcons field hockey team, who will do anything to make it to the state finals—even if it means tapping into some devilishly dark powers. In chapters dense with 1980s iconography—from Heathers to “big hair”—Barry expertly weaves together the individual and collective progress of this enchanted team as they storm their way through an unforgettable season.

Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the infamous Salem accuser Ann Putnam) and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza (whose bleached blond “Claw” sees and knows all), the Falcons prove to be wily, original, and bold, flaunting society’s stale notions of femininity in order to find their glorious true selves through the crucible of team sport and, more importantly, friendship.

This book is simply enchanting. Both a really fun read and at the same time a thought-provoking look at a variety of issues women deal with through-out life, and how a set of fierce, devoted friends can change everything.

I don’t know if anyone read Eleanor Brown’s fascinating title The Weird Sisters (2011), but one of the things that made that book quite unique was a kind of collective POV, meaning that no sister had her own chapter or scene, but that the whole narrative was kind of one voice that represented all of them. I recommend that book, but I bring it up here mostly because Quan has taken the same kind of narrative style/voice, and I think it really works in this book, and makes it even smarter, quirkier and more interesting.

There is a lot of quirky here, though, and it makes the book hilarious and whimsical, especially if one lived through The Eighties. There are pop culture references throughout, including a few magical touchstones that Quan is a little coy on – Was it magic? Or not?

It’s kind of left to the reader to decide, because the collective consciousness of the team isn’t telling how it feels, and the girls individually are pretty mum on the subject. Magic happened, for sure, but whether it was magic magic or friendship magic is a little hard to say.

I loved this book—one of my favorites so far this year—and hope, if you read it, you’ll find it as fun, joyful, touching and magical as I did.

I have not read her other fiction title, She Weeps Each Time You’re Born, but it also looks amazing, though maybe less light-hearted? This might be of particular interest to anyone of Vietnamese descent.

Find the books:
Quan Barry @Amazon
We Ride Upon Sticks @Amazon – https://amzn.to/2UyxNni

Some post and image links are connected to an affiliate portal. A small percentage of your purchases support my work and this page. Thanks so much!

Enjoy!

Rebecca Serle – The Sly Magic Of In Five Years

August 11, 2020 Leave a Comment

Today’s books all have quirky storylines and a subtle touch of something beyond natural in them! Be sure to check out the posts for Josie Silver & Quan Barry too!

Rebecca Serle has a few backlist titles, but I’d say her breakout book was 2018’s THE DINNER LIST, which I listened to and loved when it released.

Then came this year’s IN FIVE YEARS, which was a much bigger hit and, in my opinion, was an even more creative concept. Or at least was a more sly concept.

This is a great book that keeps us guessing the whole time as to what we think is happening vs. what is actually happening. You can get a sense of the “what just happened?” thing in the description below, but how that plays out over the course of the next five years, and how Serle ratchets up the tension around the experience and its aftermath, are simply brilliant storytelling achievements that keep us compulsively turning pages and asking ourselves what the heck is going to come out of all of this.

We are not disappointed, but we are pretty stunned.

Imaginative plots populated with realistic characters backed by fantastic writing.

Brava, Ms. Serles. I’m a fan.

Find the books: @Amazon
In Five Years – https://amzn.to/2DM2FeH
Rebecca Serle – https://amzn.to/2WOTGjF

IN FIVE YEARS

Perfect for fans of Me Before You and One Day—a striking, powerful, and moving love story following an ambitious lawyer who experiences an astonishing vision that could change her life forever.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Dannie Kohan lives her life by the numbers.

She is nothing like her lifelong best friend—the wild, whimsical, believes-in-fate Bella. Her meticulous planning seems to have paid off after she nails the most important job interview of her career and accepts her boyfriend’s marriage proposal in one fell swoop, falling asleep completely content.

But when she awakens, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. Dannie spends one hour exactly five years in the future before she wakes again in her own home on the brink of midnight—but it is one hour she cannot shake. In Five Years is an unforgettable love story, but it is not the one you’re expecting.

Enjoy!

Some post and image links are connected to an affiliate portal. A small percentage of your purchases support my work and this page. Thanks so much!

Enjoy!