⭐⭐⭐½ Women doing daring, mostly unrecognized work during WWII? That is usually my reading catnip, and Propaganda Girlsshould have been an easy win. Lisa Rogak introduces Betty MacDonald, Zuzka Lauwers, Jane Smith-Hutton, and Marlene Dietrich—who used forged orders, phony newspapers, radio broadcasts, songs, and carefully planted rumors to rattle Axis soldiers. Some of their schemes were wonderfully audacious. A fake “League of Lonely War Women” suggested German women were keeping soldiers back home company, while bogus Japanese military instructions encouraged troops to surrender rather than fight to the death. Marlene Dietrich even used broadcasts and her famous voice to slip messages to German listeners. Honestly, how did I not fly […]
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A Chilling Journey Through the Darkest Corners of Paris: A Review of Skylark
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Skylark by Paula McLain is an atmospheric, deeply researched novel that brings the darker side of historical Paris vividly to life. I found it highly educational, especially the sections involving the Salpêtrière asylum and the cruel treatment of the thousands of women confined there. Equally fascinating were the Paris catacombs, where human remains were interred after the city’s above-ground cemeteries grew too full of bodies. The images of the bones of more than six million people, carefully arranged beneath the crowded streets of Paris, are absolutely chilling. The novel follows two parallel stories. In 1664, Alouette Voland, the daughter of a master dyer at the Gobelin Tapestry Works, is […]
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A Literary Treasure Hunt: A Review of The Lost Story of Even Fuentes
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Chanel Cleeton swings big with The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes, and for the most part, it works. This globe-trotting novel moves from Havana to London, Edinburgh, Boston, and Key West, weaving together three timelines and three women connected by a single, dangerous book. It’s an ambitious, intriguing premise—and one I enjoyed far more than Next Year in Havana. The strongest thread, for me, was Pilar’s story in 1960s Cuba. Her quiet courage as a librarian risking everything to protect forbidden books adds real emotional weight. Margo’s present-day hunt for the last surviving copy brings a sense of urgency—especially after an early murder raises the stakes—but the suspense never fully delivers […]
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A Moving Story of Survival—and What Comes After: A Review of The Lost Baker of Vienna
⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’ve read many WWII novels, but The Lost Baker of Vienna explores a part of history we don’t often see: what happened to Holocaust survivors after liberation. The story unfolds across two timelines. In 2018, Zoe Rosenzweig is grieving the loss of her beloved grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. Her grief leads her to search for answers about what really happened to her family during the war. In 1946 Vienna, Chana Rosenzweig has survived the horrors of war and is finally free with her mother and younger brother. But freedom isn’t what they imagined. They must still contend with hunger, danger, and the daily struggle to earn a living in […]
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The Gourmet Bookworm’s 5-Star Reads of 2025
I read a record-breaking 206 books in 2025. Two hundred and six. Even I had to sit down when I counted them up. Relatively few books earn top marks from me. I’m selective; in fact, my average rating is 3.77. If a book made this list, it did more than entertain—it lingered, stirred something, or flat-out impressed me. This year delivered—historical fiction, thrillers, literary standouts, faith-centered reads, and stories that stayed with me. I even ventured into a couple of memoirs, which isn’t typical for me. Growth! Below are my five-star reads of 2025, listed alphabetically. Across the Ages — Gabrielle Meyer Genre: Historical Fiction | Time-Slip | Christian Romance […]
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An Interesting Premise Buried Under Heavy-Handed Storytelling
⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende sets out to tell a sweeping, emotional story about displaced children across generations—but for me, it never quite found its footing. The novel moves between 1938 Vienna and modern-day America, following Samuel Adler, a young Jewish boy escaping the Nazis via the Kindertransport, and Anita Díaz, a child separated from her mother at the U.S. border. On paper, it’s a powerful parallel. In execution, it feels overworked. There are simply too many storylines competing for attention, and it’s no surprise when they eventually converge in a way that feels more predictable than profound. Allende leans heavily into her trademark mysticism, but […]
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Books, Codes, and Quiet Courage in WWII Europe
⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Librarian Spy is a thoughtful WWII spy novel inspired by the true history of America’s little-known “library spies.” I enjoyed learning the fascinating ways books, newspapers, and printed materials were gathered, analyzed, and transformed into intelligence during the war. The story follows two women on parallel paths. Ava, a librarian at the Library of Congress, is recruited by the U.S. military and sent to neutral-but-dangerous Lisbon, where she works undercover collecting and microfilming enemy publications. Across the ocean, Elaine joins the French Resistance through a clandestine printing press, fully aware the Nazis are hunting both the press and those who run it. Their stories connect through coded messages and […]
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Four Women, One Kibbutz, and the Long Road to Healing
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Anita Diamant’s Day After Night opens in 1945, in a British detention camp in Palestine, where four very different women are thrown together after surviving the Holocaust. I’ll admit, I didn’t even know these holding camps for so-called “illegal immigrants” existed, so that piece of history immediately pulled me in. Each woman carries her own kind of damage—physical, emotional, moral—and Diamant treats them as individuals, not symbols. This is very much a character study, focused on what happens after survival, when freedom turns out to be messy and complicated. The friendships feel tentative, sometimes prickly, sometimes deeply moving, and often shaped by what these women can’t say out loud. […]
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A Tense Premise That Never Quite Heats Up
⭐️⭐️⭐️½ I’m a fan of Pam Jenoff, but I’ll be honest—her books tend to run hot and cold for me. Code Name Sapphire landed squarely in the middle. Lukewarm. Set in 1942, the novel follows Hannah Martel, a Jewish woman who escapes Nazi Germany after her fiancé is killed in a pogrom. When her ship to America is turned away, Hannah finds refuge with her cousin Lily and her family in Brussels. With no safe way out of occupied Europe, Hannah is drawn back into the resistance, joining the Sapphire Line. When a devastating mistake leads to Lily’s family being arrested and placed on a train bound for Auschwitz, Hannah faces an impossible […]
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A Tender, Sweeping Story of Love, Loss, and the Ties That Bind
⭐⭐⭐⭐½ Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash is a quiet, deeply moving novel that sneaks up on you and then stays put. Set during World War II, it follows eleven-year-old Beatrix Thompson, sent from London to live with a family in Massachusetts as part of the wartime evacuation of British children. What begins as a temporary arrangement stretches into years, and Bea grows up shaped by two homes, two families, and two very different versions of herself. Spence-Ash handles this emotional balancing act with real grace. Bea’s American host parents are kind, flawed, and loving in their own ways, while her mother back in England remains a powerful, aching presence—distant […]
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