The Tuscan Child

I mostly read advance reader copies of recent novels, but sometimes I like to pick up something a little older. The Tuscan Child was a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Historical Fiction in 2018, so I thought it was worth a try. Rhys Bowen’s novel weaves together the lives of two characters: Hugo Langley, a British bomber pilot in 1944, and his daughter, Joanna Langley, in 1973. During World War II, Hugo’s plane is shot down over German-occupied Tuscany. Badly injured, Hugo is found and hidden in a ruined monastery by a local woman named Sofia Bartoli. As they work together to ensure Hugo’s safety, a deep connection forms […]

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A Captivating Tale of Identity and Resilience in the Antebellum South

The Kitchen House is a gripping historical novel set in the late 1700s on a Virginia plantation. Lavinia, a young Irish girl who becomes orphaned during her voyage to America, is at the center of the story. The plantation owner takes her in and assigns her care to Belle, a black slave working in the kitchen house, for her care. Lavinia grows up among the slaves, forming deep bonds with her new family, yet she also struggles with her identity and place in the world as she is neither fully accepted by the slaves nor the white family. The narrative unfolds through the perspectives of Lavinia and Belle, revealing the […]

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Age is Just a Number in This Thrilling, Humorous Mystery

“Just then Fogerty emitted an unpleasant noise accompanied by a smell I knew too well. The human body has over sixty sphincters, and every one of them relates in death.”—Deanna Raybourn, Killers of a Certain Age. Killers of a Certain Age sweeps readers away on a wild, action-packed adventure that defies the typical portrayal of women over sixty. The novel introduces us to Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie—the first all-women assassin team of the secretive organization known as the Museum. After forty years of eliminating the worst of the worst, these formidable ladies are forced into retirement, deemed too old-school for modern times. However, their send-off—an all-expenses-paid Caribbean cruise—turns […]

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Mixed Feelings About Violeta

Violeta by Isabel Allende, a nominee for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction in 2022, is a bit of a mixed bag for me. It’s the life story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose 100 years span the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century, told through letters to her grandson. This setup promises a lot—emotional depth, historical insights, and the personal touch that comes with such a narrative form. And while Allende is no slouch in the storytelling department, this journey felt uneven. Starting off in the stormy year of 1920, during the Spanish flu pandemic, Violeta’s life is undeniably epic. I could almost see the […]

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The River We Remember

“Our lives and the lives of those we love merge to create a river whose current carries us forward from our beginning to our end. Because we are only one part of the whole, the river each of us remembers is different, and there are many versions of the stories we tell about our past.”–William Kent Krueger, The River We Remember. William Kent Krueger has done it again with The River We Remember, a captivating mystery set in the heart of small-town Minnesota. Set on Memorial Day 1958, the story opens with the discovery of the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn in the Alabaster River, dead from a […]

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Black Cake

Eleanor Bennett left a puzzling inheritance for her children, Byron and Benny. It includes a note, a USB drive with an audio recording, and a traditional black cake from a family recipe found in the freezer. In her message, Eleanor shares the story of her life. In 1965, a young woman fleeing an arranged marriage and suspicion of murder disappears into the surf. Cutting all ties, she crosses oceans, reinvents herself, and makes heartbreaking choices to take control of her life hoping to reunite with her first love. Byron and Benny haven’t seen each other in years. Can they set aside their differences to deal with their mother’s hidden past? […]

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