Historical Fiction

Folly At The Fair by Kari Bovee

 

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from iRead in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Folly At The Fair by Kari Bovee was an interesting book but not one of my favorites.  I had a tough time getting interested in this book.  I found that I would put it down and then force myself to pick it up again.  I am not sure why I had such a hard time with this book.  The one thing I can tell you is that I hated Frank right from the start, and my thoughts didn’t change by the time that I finished the book.  I didn’t find that this book was super suspenseful, but I did enjoy the mystery parts of this book.  I wouldn’t recommend this book to you if swearing in books bothers you.  It doesn’t bother me, but it might be bothersome, so I wanted to make people aware of that.  I did like that this book was about a person that I have heard so much about.  I know that the things that happened in this book didn’t happen but I loved that the main character was someone that I had heard of.  If you are a fan of historical fiction books I would give this book a shot. 

About The Book

Book Title: Folley at the Fair (An Annie Oakley Mystery) by Kari Bovee
Category:  Adult Fiction (18 + yrs), 322 pages
Genre:  Historical Mystery
Publisher:  Bosque Publishing
Release date:   June 2020
Content Rating:  R for some swearing, violence, and mature themes.

Book Description:

She never misses a target. But unless she can solve this murder, she’ll become one… Chicago World’s Fair, 1893. “Little Sure Shot” Annie Oakley is exhausted from her work with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. But when a fellow performer scuffles with a man who threatens her harm, she has to keep her eyes peeled. And when the heckler is found dead under the Ferris Wheel, Annie won’t rest until she proves her defender is innocent. Before she can rustle up any clues, an old friend asks Annie to protect her young daughter. And as more bodies turn up around the grounds, she’s going to need all her sharpshooting skills just to stay alive. Can Annie live up to her reputation and put a bullseye on the killer? Folly at the Fair is the third book in the Annie Oakley Mystery historical fiction series. If you like strong heroines, Wild West adventures, and suspenseful twists and turns, then you’ll love Kari Bovee’s fast-paced whodunit.

About The Author

When she’s not on a horse, or walking along the beautiful cottonwood-laden acequias of Corrales, New Mexico; or basking on white sand beaches under the Big Island Hawaiian sun, Kari Bovee is escaping into the past—scheming murder and mayhem for her characters both real and imagined, and helping them to find order in the chaos of her action-packed novels. Empowered women in history, horses, unconventional characters, and real-life historical events fill the pages of Kari Bovée’s articles and historical mystery musings and manuscripts. An award-winning author, Bovée was honored with the 2019 NM/AZ Book Awards Hillerman Award for Southwestern Fiction for her novel Girl with a Gun. The novel also received First Place in the 2019 NM/AZ Book Awards in the Mystery/Crime category, and is a Finalist in the 2019 International Chanticleer Murder & Mayhem Awards and the International Chanticleer Goethe Awards, as well as the Next Generation Indie Awards. Her novel Grace in the Wings is a Finalist for the 2019 International Chanticleer Chatelaine Awards and the International Chanticleer Goethe Awards. Her novel Peccadillo at the Palace is a Finalist in the 2019 International Chanticleer Murder & Mayhem Awards and the 2019 International Goethe Awards, as well as a Finalist in the 2019 Best Book Awards Historical Fiction category. Bovée has worked as a technical writer for a Fortune 500 Company, has written non-fiction for magazines and newsletters, and has worked in the education field as a teacher and educational consultant. She and her husband, Kevin, spend their time between their horse property in the beautiful Land of Enchantment, New Mexico, and their condo on the sunny shores of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

​Connect with the author:  Website ~ Goodreads ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Instagram
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The Takeaway Men by Meryl Ain

 

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from iRead Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Takeaway Men by Meryl Ain was an amazing book.  If you have read any of my other reviews you know how I feel about WWII books but this is the first book I have read about the aftermath of the war.  It never crossed my mind how hard it would be for people and kids to adjust after the war.  This is the first book I have read by this author and I really enjoyed her writing.  She is an author that I know I will read more books by her in the future.  I also think I am going to see if I can’t find other books like this one because of how much I enjoyed this one.  I fell in love with these characters right from the start of the book and I was sad when I was done with this book because I missed these characters.  This book left me feeling sad because of everything these poor people went through and then move to the US and crazy things happen here.  If you are looking for a different WWII book to read I would recommend this one to you and I am sure you will love it as much as I did.

About The Book

Book Title:  The Takeaway Men by Meryl Ain
Category:  Adult fiction 18 yrs +,  264 pages
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Publisher:  Sparkpress
Release date:   August 4, 2020
Content Rating:  PG-13 + M because there are references to extra-marital affairs. There is no explicit sex in the book.

With the cloud of the Holocaust still looming over them, twin sisters Bronka and Johanna Lubinski and their parents arrive in the US from a Displaced Persons Camp. In the years after World War II, they experience the difficulties of adjusting to American culture as well as the burgeoning fear of the Cold War. Years later, the discovery of a former Nazi hiding in their community brings the Holocaust out of the shadows. As the girls get older, they start to wonder about their parents’ pasts, and they begin to demand answers. But it soon becomes clear that those memories will be more difficult and painful to uncover than they could have anticipated. Poignant and haunting, The Takeaway Men explores the impact of immigration, identity, prejudice, secrets, and lies on parents and children in mid-twentieth-century America.

About The Author

Meryl Ain’s articles and essays have appeared in Huffington Post, The New York Jewish Week, The New York Times, Newsday and other publications. The Takeaway Men is her debut novel. In 2014, she co-authored the award-winning book, The Living Memories Project: Legacies That Last, and in 2016, wrote a companion workbook, My Living Memories Project Journal. She is a sought-after speaker and has been interviewed on television, radio, and podcasts. She is a career educator and is proud to be both a teacher and student of history. She has also worked as a school administrator. The Takeaway Men is the result of her life-long quest to learn more about the Holocaust, a thirst that was first triggered by reading The Diary of Anne Frank in the sixth grade. While teaching high school history, she introduced her students to the study of the Holocaust. At the same time, she also developed an enduring fascination with teaching about and researching the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case. An interview with Robert Meeropol, the younger son of the Rosenbergs, is featured in her book, The Living Memories Project. The book also includes an interview with Holocaust survivor, Boris Chartan, the founder of the Holocaust Museum and Tolerance Center of Nassau County, New York. Meryl holds a BA from Queens College, an MA from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an Ed.D. from Hofstra University. She lives in New York with her husband, Stewart. They have three married sons and six grandchildren.

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A Child Lost by Michelle Cox

 

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from iRead Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

A Child Lost by Michelle Cox was an interesting book.  There are five or six books before this one in the series and I was able to just jump in with this book and understand what was going on.  I did at times wish that I knew the back stories of the characters but it was only because I am noisy and not because you needed to know it all in order to understand what is happening in this book.  This book also reminded me of how things were different when it comes to people having epilepsy back when this book took place and how we treat people who have it now.  Even though the author rated the content of this book as an “R” I didn’t  find any spot that made me feel like it needed to be that rating.  I am not the biggest fan of historical fiction but I really did enjoy this story and this one made me add this author to my ever growing lists of authors that I want to read more books by in the future.  If you are looking for a different type of book to read this summer I would pick this one up and check it out.

About The Book

Series Title:  A CHILD LOST (A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel #5) by Michelle Cox
Category:  Adult Fiction (18+)
Genre:  Historical Mystery
Publisher:  She Writes Press
Release dates:   April 2020
Content Rating: R: My book is rated R for 2 sex scenes that are somewhat explicit but which are tastefully done. There is periodic swearing (not excessive), but no violence.

A spiritualist, an insane asylum, a lost little girl . . .

When Clive, anxious to distract a depressed Henrietta, begs Sergeant Frank Davis for a case, he is assigned to investigating a seemingly boring affair: a spiritualist woman operating in an abandoned schoolhouse on the edge of town who is suspected of robbing people of their valuables. What begins as an open and shut case becomes more complicated, however, when Henrietta―much to Clive’s dismay―begins to believe the spiritualist’s strange ramblings.

Meanwhile, Elsie begs Clive and Henrietta to help her and the object of her budding love, Gunther, locate the whereabouts of one Liesel Klinkhammer, the German woman Gunther has traveled to America to find and the mother of the little girl, Anna, whom he has brought along with him. The search leads them to Dunning Asylum, where they discover some terrible truths about Liesel. When the child, Anna, is herself mistakenly admitted to the asylum after an epileptic fit, Clive and Henrietta return to Dunning to retrieve her. This time, however, Henrietta begins to suspect that something darker may be happening. When Clive doesn’t believe her, she decides to take matters into her own hands . . . with horrifying results.

About The Author

Michelle Cox is the author of the multiple award-winning Henrietta and Inspector Howard series as well as “Novel Notes of Local Lore,” a weekly blog dedicated to Chicago’s forgotten residents. She suspects she may have once lived in the 1930s and, having yet to discover a handy time machine lying around, has resorted to writing about the era as a way of getting herself back there. Coincidentally, her books have been praised by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and many others, so she might be on to something. Unbeknownst to most, Michelle hoards board games she doesn’t have time to play and is, not surprisingly, addicted to period dramas and big band music. Also marmalade.

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2020 Margaret Margaret

So Others May Live by Lee Hutch

 

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Audiobookworm in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

So Others May Live by Lee Hutch I really enjoyed this book and I loved that the narrator is from the United Kingdom because it made me get even more into the story.  I am also the biggest fan of books like this that take place during WWII because it is one of my favorite times in history. I really enjoyed this book and I was sad when it ended because I really enjoyed these characters and the author’s writing.  When I was listening to this book I had to slow down the speed of the book because I did find it hard to understand the narrator when I was listening to it at the speed that I usually listen to them at. I do love that this author included some of the horrible things that really happened to people during WWII but didn’t go into so much detail that made it hard to listen to.  I would warn you that if you are triggered by things that happen in war than this might not be the book for you because he doesn’t go into a ton of details but there are some so be aware of that.  Also if I being honest I loved this book but it didn’t wrap up all of the storylines and that bugged me.  I am not sure if he is going to write another book in this series or if this is just a one-off book.  So be aware that not all of the storylines get finished and it may leave you wondering what happened to the rest of the characters. If you reading/listening to books that take place in WWII I think you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

About The Book

Author: Lee Hutch

Narrator: Siobhan Dowd

Length: 8 hours 50 minutes

Publisher: Brady L. Hutchison⎮2019

Genre: Historical Fiction

Release date: Dec. 31, 2019

Synopsis: In the space of a single night, four lives collide as Berlin staggers under the weight of British bombs. Mick, a Lancaster pilot, proposed to Grace on his last leave but one more mission stands in between him and the end of his tour. Grace harbors a secret, one which she fears might change the nature of their relationship forever. Unsure of how he will respond, she has decided to tell him upon his return knowing that to do so risks losing him forever.

Seven hundred miles away in Berlin, war-weary firefighter Karl is haunted by the images he’s seen both on the home front and in Russia. Now he takes command of a group of teenage auxiliaries who find themselves on the front lines of Germany’s defenses against a nightly rain of fire. On a call, he meets Ursula, a young woman who lives near his station. Karl quickly finds himself falling for her, unaware that she is playing a dangerous game, one which might place his own life in danger.

As the raid unfolds, they face choices which will forever change them, and those they love.

About The Author

Award winning author Lee Hutch grew up on the Texas/Louisiana border. As a child, he enjoyed reading history books and hanging around fire stations. As an adult, he entered the fire service and worked as both a firefighter and then an arson investigator before an injury led to his retirement. Along the way, he picked up a BA and an MA in History and an MS in Criminal Justice. He now teaches history for a community college in Southeast Texas. He loves books, cats, boxing, the Red Sox, and the New Orleans Saints.

His historical interests include the history of the fire service, particularly how firefighters have adapted to wartime conditions, the American Civil War, and the World Wars. When he’s not in the classroom or in his office, Lee can be found reading or listening to either a Red Sox or a Saints game on the radio with his cat Anastasia. His next novel is set in Civil War era New York.

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About The Narrator

I record High Quality Voiceover in variations of my native South London accent – I can offer both bright and enthusiastic commercial reads, or a more laid back and enigmatic explainer style. 

I have lots of experience in Explainers, E-Learning, Commericals, Audiobooks, and more.

I work in VO full time, and deliver high quality audio from my fully equipped home recording in South West London, always including amends or pick ups as needed to ensure complete client satisfction. 

I use Source Connect or Cleanfeed for remote record-directed sessions and I can travel in and around London and the South East for studio based jobs.

Please have a look (and listen) around my site and get in touch by email, phone, or via social media if you’d like any more information on my services or to book a job.

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The Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas

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FTC: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas was a good historical fiction novel.  I say that because I haven’t been a huge fan of books in this genre lately, but this book is one that I fell in love with right from the start.  I believe that I have read at least one other book by this author and I don’t even remember if I liked it, but I really did enjoy this book.  This book showed me that I should judge a book just because of what genre the book is in.  I feel in love with the characters in this book right from the start of the book.  I was able to figure out what was going to happen before it did happen but that didn’t bother me while I was reading this book.  I liked West right from the start because I have a thing for the “bad” boys in books that am reading.  I also fell in love with Phoebe’s kids because they both seemed super sweet.  I at times got annoyed with Phoebe but that just comes with reading a book and the author being able to make the characters come to life for me and I am reading the book.  I you love historical romance books than I would pick this book and up and give it a read.  If you have read it what did you think about it?

About The Book

Although beautiful young widow Phoebe, Lady Clare, has never met West Ravenel, she knows one thing for certain: he’s a mean, rotten bully. Back in boarding school, he made her late husband’s life amisery, and she’ll never forgive him for it. But when Phoebe attends a family wedding, she encounters a dashing and impossibly charming stranger who sends a fire-and-ice jolt of attraction through her. And then he introduces himself…as none other than West Ravenel.

West is a man with a tarnished past. No apologies, no excuses. However, from the moment he meets Phoebe, West is consumed by irresistible desire…not to mention the bitter awareness that a woman like her is far out of his reach. What West doesn’t bargain on is that Phoebe is no straitlaced aristocratic lady. She’s the daughter of a strong-willed wallflower who long ago eloped with Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent—the most devilishly wicked rake in England.

Before long, Phoebe sets out to seduce the man who has awakened her fiery nature and shown her unimaginable pleasure. Will their overwhelming passion be enough to overcome the obstacles of thepast? Only the devil’s daughter knows…

About The Author

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas graduated from Wellesley College with a political science degree. She’s a RITA award-winning author of both historical romance and contemporary women’s fiction. She lives in Washington State with her husband Gregory and their two children.

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Appointment in Prague by Michael McMenamin & Kathleen McMenamin

 

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Pump Up Your Book in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Appointment in Prague by Michael McMenamin & Kathleen McMenamin was a quick read for me and it is one that I really enjoyed.  I am a huge fan of books that take place during WWII, so I really enjoyed that about this book.  I was able to read this book quickly because it is shorter than some of the books that I have read lately.  This is a book that I think most people would enjoy because it isn’t a heavy book like some other books are that have to do with WWII.  I think that this book would be good for teenagers to read if they are wanting to learn more about WWII.  I am going to go back and read the other books in this series because I really did enjoy this book and the author’s writing.  Have you read this book and if so what do you think of it?

About The Book

Title: APPOINTMENT IN PRAGUE: A MATTIE MCGARY + WINSTON CHURCHILL WORLD WAR II ADVENTURE
Author: Michael McMenamin & Kathleen McMenamin
Publisher: First Edition Design Publishing
Pages: 160
Genre: Historical Thriller

In the novella, Appointment in Prague, one woman, a British secret agent, sets out in May 1942 to single-handedly send to hell the most evil Nazi alive—SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the SD, the domestic and foreign counter-intelligence wing of the SS; second in rank only to the head of the SS himself, Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler; and the architect of  “The Final Solution” that will send millions of European Jews to their doom.

When British Prime Minister Winston Churchill authorizes the SOE—the ‘Special Operations Executive’— in October 1941 to assassinate Heydrich, he is unaware that the entire operation has been conceived and is being run by his Scottish goddaughter, the former Pulitzer Prize-winning Hearst photojournalist Mattie McGary. The SOE is Churchill’s own creation, one he informally describes as the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and, at his suggestion, Mattie becomes one of its Deputy Directors.

Mattie has a history with Heydrich dating back to 1933 and a personal score to settle. In September 1941, when the man known variously as ‘The Blond Beast’ and ‘The Man With the Iron Heart’—that last coming from Adolf Hitler himself—is appointed Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, the remnants left of Czechoslovakia after the Germans had dismembered it in 1939, Mattie is determined—now that he is no longer safely within Germany’s borders—to have him killed. She recruits and trains several Czech partisans for the task and has them parachuted into Czechoslovakia in December 1941.

An increasingly impatient Mattie waits in London for word that her agents have killed the Blond Beast. By May 1942, Heydrich still lives and Mattie is furious.  The mother of six-year-old twins, Mattie decides—without telling her godfather or her American husband, the #2 man in the London office of the OSS—to parachute into Czechoslovakia herself and  “light a fire under their timid Czech bums”. Which she does, but her agents botch the job and Heydrich is only wounded in the attempt. The doctors sent from Berlin to care for him believe he will recover.

On the fly, Mattie conceives a new plan to kill Heydrich herself. With forged papers and other help from the highest-placed SOE asset in Nazi Germany—a former lover—Mattie determines to covertly enter Prague’s Bulovka Hospital and finish the job. After that, all she has to do is flee Prague into Germany and from there to neutral Switzerland. What Mattie doesn’t know is that Walter Schellenberg, Heydrich’s protégé and the head of Foreign Intelligence for the SD, is watching her every move.

About The Authors

Michael McMenamin is the co-author with his son Patrick of the award winning 1930s era historical novels featuring Winston Churchill and his fictional Scottish goddaughter, the adventure-seeking Hearst photojournalist Mattie McGary. The first five novels in the series—The DeValera Deception, The Parsifal Pursuit, The Gemini Agenda, The Berghof Betrayal and The Silver Mosaic—received a total of 15 literary awards. He is currently at work with his daughter Kathleen McMenamin on the sixth Winston and Mattie historical adventure, The Liebold Protocol.

 

Michael is the author of the critically acclaimed Becoming Winston Churchill, The Untold Story of Young Winston and His American Mentor [Hardcover, Greenwood 2007; Paperback, Enigma 2009] and the co-author of Milking the Public, Political Scandals of the Dairy Lobby from LBJ to Jimmy Carter [Nelson Hall, 1980]. He is an editorial board member of Finest Hour, the quarterly journal of the International Churchill Society and a contributing editor for the libertarian magazine Reason. His work also has appeared in The Churchills in Ireland, 1660-1965, Corrections and Controversies [Irish Academic Press, 2012] as well as two Reason anthologies, Free Minds & Free Markets, Twenty Five Years of Reason [Pacific Research Institute, 1993] and Choice, the Best of Reason [BenBella Books, 2004]. A full-time writer, he was formerly a first amendment and media defense lawyer and a U.S. Army Counterintelligence Agent.   

 

Kathleen, the other half of the father-daughter writing team, has been editing her father’s writing for longer than she cares to remember. She is the co-author with her sister Kelly of the critically acclaimed Organize Your Way: Simple Strategies for Every Personality [Sterling, 2017]. The two sisters are professional organizers, personality-type experts and the founders of PixiesDidIt, a home and life organization business. Kathleen is an honors graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and has an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. The novella Appointment in Prague is her second joint writing project with her father. Their first was “Bringing Home the First Amendment”, a review in the August 1984 Reason magazine of Nat Hentoff’s The Day They Came to Arrest the Book.  While a teen-ager, she and her father would often take runs together, creating plots for adventure stories as they ran.

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