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Showing posts with the label Historical Fiction

REVIEW: Rare Objects by Kathleen Tessaro

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Rare Objects by Kathleen Tessaro Audiobook Narrated by Susan Bennett Synopsis Maeve Fanning is a first generation Irish immigrant, born and raised among the poor, industrious Italian families of Boston’s North End by her widowed mother. Maeve has a dangerous fondness for strange men and bootleg gin—a rebellious appetite that soon finds her spiraling downward. Maeve becomes an unwilling patient in a psychiatric hospital, where she strikes up a friendship with an enigmatic young woman, who is unable to control her un-lady-like desire for freedom. Once out, armed with a bottle of bleach and a few white lies Maeve lands a job at an eccentric antiques shop run by an elusive English archeologis

REVIEW: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

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Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye Audiobook Narrated by Susie Riddell My rating: 1.5 out of 5 Stars Synopsis Like the heroine of the novel she adores, Jane Steele suffers cruelly at the hands of her aunt and schoolmaster. And like Jane Eyre, they call her wicked - but in her case, she fears the accusation is true. When she flees, she leaves behind the corpses of her tormentors. A fugitive navigating London's underbelly, Jane rights wrongs on behalf of the have-nots whilst avoiding the noose. Until an advertisement catches her eye. Her aunt has died and the new master at Highgate House, Mr Thornfield, seeks a governess. Anxious to know if she is Highgate's tr

REVIEW: The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

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The Wonder by Emma Donoghue Audiobook Narrated by Kate Lock My rating: 1 out of 5 Stars Synopsis The Irish Midlands, 1859. An English nurse, Lib Wright, is summoned to a tiny village to observe what some are claiming as a medical anomaly or a miracle - a girl said to have survived without food for months. Tourists have flocked to the cabin of eleven-year-old Anna O'Donnell, and a journalist has come down to cover the sensation. The Wonder is a tale of two strangers who transform each other's lives, a psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil. Donoghue’s ninth novel – her first historical one set in her homeland of Ireland - was a

REVIEW: The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin

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The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin Audiobook Narrated by Kimberly Farr My rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars Synopsis An intimate portrait of the close friendship and powerful creative partnership between two of Hollywood’s earliest female superstars: Frances Marion and Mary Pickford. Hollywood, 1914. Frances Marion, a young writer desperate for a break, meets “America’s Sweetheart,” Mary Pickford, already making a name for herself both on and off the screen with her golden curls and lively spirit. Together, these two women will take the movie business by storm. This is a novel about power: the power of women during the exhilarating early years of Hollywood,

REVIEW: The Lake House by Kate Morton

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The Lake House by Kate Morton Audiobook Narrated by Caroline Lee My rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars Synopsis June 1933, and the Edevane family's country house, Loeanneth, is polished and gleaming, ready for the much-anticipated Midsummer Eve party. Alice Edevane, sixteen years old and a budding writer, is especially excited. Not only has she worked out the perfect twist for her novel, she's also fallen helplessly in love with someone she shouldn't have. But by the time midnight strikes and fireworks light up the night skies, the Edevane family will have suffered a loss so great that they leave Loeanneth forever. Seventy years later in the attic writing

REVIEW: Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

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Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly Audiobook Narrated by Cassandra Campbell. Kathleen Gati. and Kathrin Kana My rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars Synopsis New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France. An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. Fo

REVIEW: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

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Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate Audiobook Narrated by Emily Rankin and Catherine Taber My rating: 3 out of 5 stars Synopsis Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth.