Month: August 2022

The Friday 56 #TheFriday56

BonnieReadsAndWrites10 Comments

The Friday 56 is sponsored by Freda’s Voice.

* Grab a book, any book.

*Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your e-reader.
If you have to improvise, that is okay.

*Find a snippet, short and sweet, and post it.

The rules are here: Friday56 Rules.

From Page 56 of When Stone Wings Fly by Karen Barnett:

PAGE 56 SNIPPET:

“Rosie retrieved the wooden crate of Ma’s keepsakes and carried it over to the table. Her folks were seldom far from her thoughts, but holding special pieces of their lives often made them seem uncomfortably close. Almost like Pa would come busting through the door and demand to know why she’d moved the precious object from its place of safety and honor.”

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Kieran Lucas’s grandmother is slipping into dementia, and when her memory is gone, Kieran’s last tie to the family she barely knows will be lost forever. Worse, flashbacks of her mother’s death torment Granny Mac and there’s precious little Kieran can do to help.

In 1931, the creation of the new Great Smoky Mountains National Park threatens Rosie McCauley’s home. Rosie vows the only way the commission will get her land is if they haul her off in a pine box. When a compromise offers her and her disabled sister the opportunity to stay for Rosie’s lifetime, her acceptance sets her apart from the other mountain folk. And the bond she’s forming with ornithologist and outsider Benton Fuller only broadens the rift.

Eighty-five years later, Kieran heads back to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to find answers to her great-grandmother’s mysterious death and bring peace to Granny Mac before it’s too late. Park Historian Zach Jensen may be the key to locating both the answers. But what Kieran needs clashes with the government regulations Zach is sworn to uphold. Can she trust God for a solution to heal this generations-old wound?

I’m reading this one for the November edition of Historical Novels Review, so I’ll put a review up after November 1st. You can read more about the book on Amazon by clicking on the cover.

Book Blogger Hop #bookblogger

BonnieReadsAndWrites18 Comments

The Book Blogger Hop was originally created by Jennifer @ Crazy-For-Books in March 2010 and ended on December 31, 2012. With Jennifer’s permission, Billy @ Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer relaunched the hop on February 15, 2013. Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end the following Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book-related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to their own blog.

Have you ever switched reading genres? If so, why?

(submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

ANSWER: I have never read or reviewed just one genre, as many of you know. I’ve had just about everything on this blog, from fiction to nonfiction.

However, my favorite genre is time travel, and in 2013 I discovered Jodi Taylor’s first book, Just One Damned Thing After Another, Book 1 of the Chronicles of St. Mary’s series. That’s when I became fascinated with Historical Fiction, because Ms. Taylor weaves multiple history lessons into all of her time travel books. So a time travel/historical fiction mashup is my favorite thing to read. When I started this blog in October 2020, however, I did not limit myself to just one genre, and I still don’t.

The genres I don’t like to read are horror, because it affects my dreams and politics, because it gives me a headache.

LINK TO THE CHRONICLES OF ST. MARY’S SERIES (CLICK ON COVER)

What about you? What’s your favorite genre or do you read many different genres?

#bookreview of The Pilot’s Girl #CatherineHokin #Bookouture

BonnieReadsAndWrites4 Comments

This is a review I did back in June for the August edition of The Historical Novel Society. Per their policy, I was not able to post it until after August 1st.

The Pilot’s Girl is the second book in the Hanni Winter series.  While it can be read as a standalone, I would recommend reading book one, The Commandant’s Daughter, first.  In Berlin in 1948, Hanni is still working as a crime scene photographer for the police department but is also helping the U.S. government with some publicity shots.  She continues to investigate an evil person from her past, trying to bring everything to light and make things as right as she can. In addition, she is fighting her growing feelings for detective Freddy Schlüssel because she knows he can never accept her history. When a series of seemingly unrelated murders occurs, Hanni and Freddy are sure they are connected and begin to investigate.

This novel transports us back to Berlin after World War II.  The Nuremberg trials have taken place, but many Nazis have escaped, some remaining very close by.  The politics of the era and the upheaval in Berlin are portrayed very skilfully.  The murder mystery is unique in that the reader is introduced to the killer early on.  Hanni’s struggles are very real for the time.  She desperately wants to bring her evil father’s crimes to light but knows it may destroy her life as well, as he continues to manipulate and turn the tables on her. The weaving together of history, mystery, thriller, and love story is very well done.  The character development is outstanding, especially when it comes to the villains.  Full of intrigue, surprise, and a dose of romance, this mystery series will keep you enthralled.

While I had begun to tire of WWII fiction after the book world was inundated with it, this book set in post-WWII when many Nazis were on the run is fascinating.

4.5 stars, rounded up to five on sites with no half-star option.

I received a free copy of this book from Bookouture via The Historical Novel Society. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catherine Hokin

(In her own words on her Amazon page)

Welcome to my Amazon page and – if you’ve been here before – my brand new author image which was taken by my very brave husband (I’m not an easy person to catch with a camera). I seem to have followed a rather meandering career, including marketing and teaching and politics (don’t try and join the dots), to get where I have always wanted to be, which is writing historical fiction. I am a story lover as well as a story writer and nothing fascinates me more than a strong female protagonist and a quest. Hopefully, those are what you will encounter when you pick up my books.

I am from the North of England but now live very happily in Glasgow with my American husband. Both my children have left home (one to London and one to Berlin) which may explain why I am finally writing. If I’m not at my desk you’ll most probably find me in the cinema, or just follow the sound of very loud music.

Catherine’s Social Media: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

BUY LINKS FOR BOTH BOOKS IN THE HANNI WINTER SERIES

AMAZON| AMAZON UK

I was excited to see that both of the books in this series are on Kindle Unlimited. Kindle Unlimited subscribers can read the series for free. That is a great value! Both books are highly rated on Amazon and already have 1500 reviews between the two of them. If you choose to purchase them instead, the ebooks are only $3.99 each, a very reasonable price for ebooks these days.

Blog Tour and #bookreview: The Orphan’s Mother

BonnieReadsAndWrites11 Comments

BOOK DESCRIPTION

1945, the German-Polish border: With Nazis on one side and Soviet forces approaching on the other, a mother and her little boy are torn apart, and so begins an unforgettable tale of courage, heartbreak and motherhood in wartime.

“If you ever get lost, Jacob, you need to stay where you are and wait, because I’ll come looking for you. And I’ll always find you.”

In the icy grip of winter, Emma is trying to escape Poland, with her two young children and little more than the clothes on their backs. With the Russian Red Army advancing, she knows their safety relies on them crossing the border. She swears to herself that she’ll do whatever it takes to keep their family together.

But before they can reach the border, her little boy Jacob falls ill, his once-sparkling blue eyes getting dimmer with each moment that passes. And Emma knows she has to get him to a hospital, where she hands him to a kind nurse.

She feels sure they will be reunited the next day. But then the bombing starts. And when she reaches the hospital again, she finds it deserted, her darling son gone.

Though her heart tells her she has to stay and find him, she faces an impossible choice. She would risk her own life for Jacob in a heartbeat, but as her daughter Sophie’s cold, little hand slips into her own, Emma is forced to make a heartbreaking decision. Unable to find any trace of her beloved son, she knows she must at least get her daughter to safety.

But she can never forget the promise she made to her little boy. That if they were ever separated, she’d come looking for him. That she’d always find him.

Whatever the danger, whatever the risk. She knows what she has to do. Because there is nothing stronger than a mother’s love…

An utterly unforgettable and devastating story, perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Stolen from her Mother and Sold on a Monday.

BOOK REVIEW

This is a heartbreaking novel set in post World War II Poland and Germany. It is about a mother who takes her very ill son to a hospital and then loses him when the hospital is deserted after the Red Army invades. It is also about another mother who takes the boy, Jacob, into her home and heart. There are so many casualties in war, even if you survive. Jacob, Emma, and Irena all suffer in this story about war, losses, sons, and mothers. How does a little boy acclimate to losing his mother twice in different ways? How does a mother find a child in the aftermath of a war where so many are missing? How does a woman who lost a child, gained a child, and then lost a child again cope with all this misery? This story takes a look at that and more. The bottom line of all of this is that war puts innocent people into horrible situations that are out of their control. How do the innocent cope?

I received a free copy of this book from Bookouture via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marion Kummerow was born and raised in Germany before she set out to “discover the world” and lived in various countries. In 1999 she returned to Germany and settled down in Munich where she’s now living with her family.

Inspired by the true story about her grandparents, who belonged to the German resistance and fought against the Nazi regime, she started writing historical fiction, set during World War II. Her books are filled with raw emotions, fierce loyalty, and resilience. She loves to put her characters through the mangle, making them reach deep within to find the strength to face moral dilemmas, take difficult decisions or fight for what is right. And she never forgets to include humor and undying love in her books, because ultimately love is what makes the world go round.

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Buy Links

Amazon | Amazon UK