Felicity's War

by

Jean Fullerton

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1941. Whilst London is battered by air raids, Felicity ‘Fliss’ Carmichael has troubles of her own. Reeling from her fiancé’s betrayal, she flees to her family home at St. Winifred’s Rectory.

 Though heartbroken, Fliss finds purpose again as a journalist. On assignment, she crosses paths with Detective Inspector Timothy Wallace, who shares

her passion for truth and justice - though not necessarily her political beliefs. Despite their differences, an instant spark ignites between them.

 In a city under siege, Fliss and Tim forge an unlikely bond. But can their blossoming romance endure the perils ahead?

 Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Felicitys-War-Jean-Fullerton-ebook/dp/B0CRMRHDL4

https://www.amazon.com/Felicitys-War-Jean-Fullerton-ebook/dp/B0CRMRHDL4

 

Review

When Felicity (Fliss) catches her fiance in bed with his Secretary, it is the final straw and she tries to find solace in a bottle of gin, only to be found by a Policeman and taken back to her parents house.

Fliss is a journalist and whilst staying with her parents she finds work locally. This is where she meets up with Detective Inspector Timothy Wallace. They lock horns several times, but as they say, opposites attract!

Can Fliss find love again, especially after giving her heart to someone who deceived her so badly? 

This was a great wartime story, with likeable characters (mostly!). The author has a great knowledge of WWII and I love reading her stories. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author Bio – Born and bred in East London Jean was a District Nurse by trade working throughout East London. She had published twenty-three sagas, including the popular WW2 RATION BOOK, which like all her books is set in East London. Jean has also written her autobiography A Child of the East End, about growing up in post-war Stepney and Wapping. She is currently working on first book of her new four book WW2 series.    

Social Media Links –

 http://jeanfullerton.com/

Facebook:            https://bit.ly/3sjifVL

X (formally Twitter):  JeanFullerton_

Instagram:           https://www.instagram.com/jean_fullerton/

Amazon:              Jean’s Amazon Page https://amzn.to/3GSWMam

The Bookshop Ladies

 The Bookshop Ladies

by

Faith Hogan

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Review

Joy and her husband Yves are on their way back from his retirement party when they are involved in a car accident and Yves is critically injured, causing him to have a heart attack. He knows he is dying and so he tries to speak, but Joy keeps trying to calm him down, but he is adamant he has something to say and when his last words to her were that he has a daughter, Joy feels so many different emotions she finds it hard to comprehend, especially as they were never able to have children of their own.

When Joy attends the solicitor for the reading of the will, she finds out that Yves daughter is called Robyn Tessier and that he has left her a very valuable painting (he was an art dealer) and that Robyn lives in a village called Ballycove in Ireland. 

Robyn owns a bookshop and when Joy goes into the shop to confront Robyn, she just can’t bring herself at that point to say who she is and Robyn thinks she has turned up to work in the shop! 

Joy gets to know Robyn more and begins to settle into the village and they both discover each others secrets. 

A lovely heartwarming book of friendship, family, love and deceit. Who could ask for more from a book!

Love, Julie

 Love, Julie

by

Jamie Anderson

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Love, Julie

A Poignant and Humorous Journey of Self-discovery, Resilience, and Redemption

Once, Julie dreamed of a life filled with love and laughter. Now, in her mid-forties, she faces a starkly different reality. She's single, lonely, and reeling from breaking her hard-earned sobriety in front of her family and friends.

Opting for self-recovery over romance, Julie dives into planning her best friend Kate’s wedding. However, sharing this task with the irritatingly cheerful best man, single dad Luke, proves to be an unexpected challenge.

As Luke’s persistent kindness chips away at her icy exterior, a friendship forms, stirring a longing she’d sworn to suppress. But with self-forgiveness as her biggest hurdle, and her past ready to sabotage her future, can Julie confront the shame and trauma that have darkened so much of her life and find the courage to love again? Or will her demons shatter both her and Luke’s hearts in the process?

Jamie Anderson, author of the hilarious and heartwarming Someone to Kiss, is back with another witty, acerbic, and relatable story. Love, Julie is a richly emotional tale of recovery, forgiveness, and romance that readers have praised for “nailing the humor and snarky nature of our generation.”

 Review

Julie has been sober for nearly a year when she has a drink at the engagement party of her brother and her best friend Kate and so starts the slippery slope of alcoholism. She embarrasses herself and knows she has to do something about it now and so signs up to the local AA group.

When she meets Luke at the meeting, little did she know that he is her brother’s friend and that he is going to be best man!

As part of her healing process and to help keep her mind off the drink, Julie asks her brother Ben and her friend Kate if she can be their wedding planner. They reluctantly agree, but with one condition - that Luke helps her with the arrangements!

This is a story that touches the often taboo subject of alcoholism, but it deals with it with compassion and also humour. 

Purchase Links

https://mybook.to/lovejulie

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D135N3R8
 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D135N3R8
 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0D135N3R8
 https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0D135N3R8

 

Author Bio –

Jamie Anderson is based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. A proud Canadian and Saskatchewanian, she wanted to set her first two novels in the place she was born and raised.

She’s been writing for as long as she can remember, and has been reading for longer than that. She lives happily with her mountain of books, her TV and her two plants.

 

You can read Jamie’s first novel Someone to Kiss here: https://mybook.to/someonetokiss

 

Social Media Links – https://linktr.ee/jamieandersonwrites

https://twitter.com/jandersonwrites

 Mrs England

by

Stacey Halls

West Yorkshire, 1904. When newly-graduated nurse Ruby May takes a position looking after the children of Charles and Lilian England, a wealthy couple form a powerful dynasty of mill owners, she hopes it will be the fresh start she needs. But as she adapts to life at the isolated Hardcastle House, it becomes clear there's something not quite right about the beautiful, mysterious Mrs England.

Ostracised by the other servants and feeling increasingly uneasy, soon a series of strange events will force Ruby to question everything she thought she knew . . .

Review

When Ruby May qualifies from the prestigious Norland Nanny College in London in 1904, no one is more surprised than her and she is soon placed with a family in London, but as they are emigrating to America, she feels she cannot go because of her own family in Birmingham, so when she finds out about a post in Yorkshire to look after 4 children whose parents own a cotton mill and are in need of a nanny, she asks to be placed with them. 

Charles England runs a cotton mill which belongs to his wife Lilian's family and at first Ruby thinks that Lilian behaves very strangely. She is distant to the children and spends most of the day in her bedroom, but as the weeks go on, it is Charles whose behaviour is taking Ruby by surprise. 

Ruby takes to the children immediately and soon builds a bond with them, but when they send their eldest daughter away to school, it sees the start of a turbulent time at Hardcastle House and Ruby feels out of her depth.

I loved this book (as I did all of this author's previous books) and the way the author describes the characters and places is fabulous. All her books are very well researched and this clearly shows in her writing. 

The Romanov Brides

 The Romanov Brides

by

Clare McHugh

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From the author of A Most English Princess comes a rich novel about young Princess Alix of Hesse— the future Alexandra, last Empress of Imperial Russia—and her sister, Princess Ella. Their decision to marry into the Romanov royal family changed history. They were granddaughters of Queen Victoria and two of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. Princesses Alix and Ella were destined to wed well and wisely. But while their grandmother wants to join them to the English and German royal families, the sisters fall in love with Russia—and the Romanovs. Defying the Queen’s dire warnings, Ella weds the tsar’s brother, Grand Duke Serge. Cultivated, aloof, and proud, Serge places his young wife on a pedestal for all to admire. Behind palace gates, Ella struggles to secure private happiness. Alix, whisked away to Russia for Ella’s wedding, meets and captivates Nicky—heir apparent to the Russian throne. While loving him deeply, Alix hears a call of conscience, urging her to walk away. Their fateful decisions to marry will lead to tragic consequences for not only themselves and their families, but for millions in Russia and around the globe. The Romanov Brides is a moving and fascinating portrait of two bold and spirited royal sisters, and brings to vivid life imperial Russia—a dazzling, decadent world on the brink of disappearing forever.

REVIEW

In this book we follow the four granddaughters of Queen Victoria. The Queen is desperate for the girls to marry into the English or German royal family, but Ella and Alix have fallen for members of the Russian royal family (Romanovs).

Ella has fallen in love with the Tsar’s brother Serge who woos her and gives her jewels to entice her to St Petersburg. She agrees to marry him, but she soon realises after the wedding that Serge does not want to be intimate with Ella and this crushes her as she loves Serge and will do anything to make her husband happy and she desperately wants children, but this is unlikely to happen if they cannot consummate their marriage.

Alix falls in love with Nicky who is the Tsar’s eldest son, but she has second thoughts and initially turns down his proposal, but eventually agrees to marry him and arrives in St Petersburg for the wedding. They have a much happier marriage until the end of their lives, which was tragic and brutal.

I have read a few books based on the Romanovs and have always been fascinated by them. They all found a tragic end which changed the course of history and this book has been thoroughly researched and is a great read for those who enjoy historical fiction, but based on real people. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Clare McHugh is the author of A Most English Princess, a historical novel about the family of Queen Victoria, and The Romanov Brides. A former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, McHugh graduated from Harvard College with a degree in European history. She currently lives in London and in Amagansett, NY

 Queen of Diamonds

by

Beezy Marsh

London, 1922. Orphan girl Alice dreams there's more to life than toiling long hours in Pink's jam factory. Inspired by stories about the legendary Queen of Thieves, Mary Carr, who terrorised the streets of Victorian London, Alice decides to set up her own gang: The Forty Thieves.

Sly seamstress Kate Felix from Whitechapel has the same plan and will stop at nothing to keep Alice and her pals off her turf in the West End shops. But Alice is determined to win at all costs, hitting the headlines as the Bob-Haired Bandit.

It isn't long before they make some powerful enemies, and Alice must sacrifice more than she ever thought if she is to become Queen of Diamonds.

But the toughest and most beautiful diamonds are formed under pressure.

Review

This is the third in the series about the infamous Alice Diamond and we also learn about Mary Carr and how her life intertwines with Alice. 

Kate Felix is from Whitechapel and also wants to be top dog, so can she and Alice ever become friends?

This is yet another fabulous story about the life of "hoisters" from South East London and how they pray on top notch department stores to steal fur coats, silk clothing etc to order and sell on at a fraction of the cost. This can be a dangerous way of life, especially if you were caught, but Alice and her followers try every trick in the book to escape that!

Another fabulous story from the lovely Beezy Marsh. I really can't get enough of these books and will wait eagerly for the next one!

The Wartime Book Club

by

Kate Thompson

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Jersey, 1943. Once a warm and neighbourly community, now German soldiers patrol the cobbled streets, imposing a harsh rule on the people of the island. Grace La Mottée, the island's only librarian, is ordered to destroy books which threaten the new regime. Instead, she hides the stories away in secret. Along with her headstrong best friend, postwoman Bea Rose, she wants to fight back. So she forms the wartime book club: a lifeline, offering fearful islanders the joy and escapism of reading. But as the occupation drags on, the women's quiet acts of bravery become more perilous - and more important - than ever before. And, when tensions turn to violence, they are forced to face the true, terrible cost of resistance... 

Review

Bea and Grace are the best of friends and live on the island of Jersey during the occupation of the Germans in 1943. 

Grace is a librarian and even though the Germans tried their hardest to ban many books, Grace manages to find copies and distribute them among the people of her community, putting herself and everyone around her in danger.

Bea is smitten with Grace's brother Jimmy and is absolutely distraught when he is killed, but when a few weeks after his death, she misses her "monthly", she panics and tries to hide the pregnancy for as long as she can. 

When Bea gets a job as a Postie, she puts herself in danger by delivering messages to people warning them that the Germans were going to raid their property as some people were hiding Americans. Once such soldier was "Red" who takes a real shine to Grace and she to him, but love never does run smooth in war time and they try to hide their feelings during the invasion. 

This was such a lovely and sometimes emotional read. I loved that every chapter started with the name and description of a book that the Germans banned for whatever reason. The research that the author did for this book was second to none and it makes you think how close the Germans came to the British Isles during WWII.

Thank you Kate for writing such a thought provoking and interesting story about the lives of the people of Jersey and how a library and the books inside kept a community together during the war. I can't wait for your next one! My dear Mum would have loved this book. 

You can also listen to the author's podcast "From the Library with Love" about the people of London during the war. It is such a great podcast.

About the Author

Kate Thompson is an award-winning journalist, ghostwriter and novelist who has spent the past two decades in the UK mass market and book publishing industry. Over the past eight years Kate has written twelve fiction and non-fiction titles, three of which have made the Sunday Times top ten bestseller list. Find Kate online: X: @katethompson380 Website: www.katethompsonmedia.co.uk Kate’s new podcast, ‘From the Library with Love’, is available to listen to now.