A Potpourri of Opinions

  A Noble Cunning: The Countess and the Tower Patricia Bernstein Publication date: March 7, 2023 by History Through Fiction Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 5 👢👢👢👢👢 Summary:  Based on the true story of Winifred Maxwell, a Catholic in anti-Catholic England. Scotland, 1716 - Traveling alone through a frightful snowstorm, Bethan Glentaggart is desperate to get to London where her husband languishes in the Tower of London. As the date of Gavin's beheading rapidly approaches, Bethan has only her wits and her women friends to support her against King George. Will she be able to free Gavin? Will she even be allowed to see him? My Thoughts: Extraordinary story! Bernstein showcases a keen ability for storytelling in this debut novel. In what seems to be nothing short of unfathomable, Bernstein unveils the true tale of a woman who defied the odds to save her husband from the Tower of London. Although this book could very easily have fallen into a quagmire of facts, Bernstein ensur...

  The Courtesan's Daughter Susanne Dunlap Publication date: April 25, 2023 by Atmosphere Press Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 3 🍷🍷🍷 Summary: What happens when a daughter’s dream and a mother’s sordid past collide? 1910 New York. Seventeen-year-old Sylvie and her French-immigrant mother Justine eke out a living doing piecework in a tenement on the Lower East Side, while Sylvie attends school so that she can escape their life of poverty by becoming a teacher. At least, that’s what her mother believes should happen. Sylvie, though, has a different dream. She wants to be a star in the new moving pictures, just like the beautiful Vitagraph Girl. When she meets a dangerously handsome Italian boy at church one Sunday and he encourages her ambitions, she begins secretly taking steps toward the career she knows her mother won’t approve of. But Sylvie isn’t the only one with secrets. Justine has kept her sordid past from Sylvie ever since they came to New York fifteen years before, sti...

  The Myrtle Wand Margaret Porter Publication Date: October 11, 2022 by Gallica Press Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 4 🍷🍷🍷🍷 Summary:  The Myrtle Wand, a retelling and a continuation of the classic ballet Giselle, restores original story elements to transform a tale of blighted romances and betrayals into a quest for redemption and restorative love. Princess Bathilde de Sevreau, unlike her school friend Myrte and the peasant Giselle, doubts the existence of legendary vilis, ghostly maidens who rise from their graves by night to roam the forest to take revenge on faithless lovers. Until she, too, has cause to fear being ensnared by that spectral sisterhood . . . Destined for a marriage of convenience with Albin, Duc de Rozel, Bathilde leaves her ancestral château for the Sun King’s sophisticated and scandalous court. As participants in royal ceremonies and entertainments, the princess and the soldier gradually recognize deep feelings for each other and mutual hopes for ma...

The Portraitist: A Novel of Adelaide Labille-Guiard Susanne Dunlap Publication Date: August 30, 2022 by She Writes Press Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 5 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷  Summary:  Based on a true story, this is the tale of Adélaïe Labille-Guiard's fight to take her rightful place in the competitive art world of eighteenth-century Paris. With a beautiful rival who's better connected and better trained than she is, Adélaïde faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her young instructor in oil painting gives rise to suspicions that he touches up her work, and her decision to make much-needed money by executing erotic pastels threatens to create as many problems as it solves. Meanwhile, her rival goes from strength to strength, becoming Marie Antoinette's official portraitist and gaining entrance to the elite Académie Royale at the same time as Adélaïde. When at last Adélaïde earns her own royal appointment and receives a massive commission from a member of the royal family, ...

Title: The Crimson Thread Author: Kate Forsyth Publication Date: July 5, 2022 by Blackstone Publishing  Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 5 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 Summary:  In Crete during World War II, Alenka, a young woman who fights with the resistance against the brutal Nazi occupation, finds herself caught between her traitor of a brother and the man she loves, an undercover agent working for the Allies. May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks, and kitchen knives. During the bloody eleven-day battle, Alenka, a young Greek woman, saves the lives of two Australian soldiers. Jack and Teddy are childhood friends who joined up together to see the world. Both men fall in love with Alenka. They are forced to retreat with the tattered remains of the Allied forces over the towering White Mountains. Both are among the seven thousand Allied soldiers left behind in the despe...

The Valley: The Druid Chronicles Book 2  A. M. Linden Publication date: June 28, 2022 by She Writes Press Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 5 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 Summary:  Llwddawanden is a hidden sanctuary where remnants of a once-powerful pagan cult carry on their ancient ritual practices, supported by a small but faithful following of servants, craftsmen, and laborers. Cut off from the outside world by both geography and conviction, the Druids of Llwddawanden continue to venerate the Great Mother Goddess and to view themselves as the first-born and favorite of Her mortal children. While the belief that the most important of all divine beings gave birth to their ancestors and that Her spirit inhabits the body of their highest priestess is a tenuous conclusion in view of their reduced lot in life, the Druids of Llwddawanden believe it and are, for the most part, committed to carrying on the traditions handed down to them by their forbears. Herrwn, the shrine’s chief priest and master ...

  Title: The Nurse's Secret Author: Amanda Skenandore Publication date: June 28, 2022 by Kensington Publishing Corporation Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 5 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 Summary:  Based on Florence Nightingale’s nursing principles, Bellevue is the first school of its kind in the country. Where once nurses were assumed to be ignorant and unskilled, Bellevue prizes discipline, intellect, and moral character, and only young women of good breeding need apply. At first, Una balks at her prim classmates and the doctors’ endless commands. Yet life on the streets has prepared her for the horrors of injury and disease found on the wards, and she slowly gains friendship and self-respect.    Just as she finds her footing, Una’s suspicions about a patient’s death put her at risk of exposure, and will force her to choose between her instinct for self-preservation, and exposing her identity in order to save others. My Thoughts:  Within the pages of this book readers will find...