In the middle of the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, sisters Helen and Lutie (Lucretia) sell their family home in Iowa and move to Denver. They buy a home with a basement apartment. Maud, Ronald, and 10-year-old Dorothy Streeter are their tenants. Maud dies from the flu; Ronald disappears; and Dorothy is left alone. Helen and Lutie want to adopt Dorothy.

Helen is a nurse, and her boyfriend Gil is a doctor. Lutie works as a fashion illustrator for a downtown department store which caters to wealthy customers. Lutie is engaged to Peter Howell, a seminary student, who enlists. When Peter is killed his parents are very supportive of Lutie, Helen, and little Dorothy.

When Ronald Streeter reappears to retrieve Dorothy, he is stabbed to death and Helen is left holding the bloody ice pick. Helen confesses that she killed him. Gil helps Helen dispose of the body. They leave the body on the side of the road assuming a “death wagon” patrolling the streets will pick it up.

There is so much more to the story. It is an emotional novel full of love, loss, and family support.

~Emma

The family had been hiding in the backwoods of the Kentucky mountains all of Honey Lovett’s life. Now it is 1953 when 16-year-old Honey’s parents are in jail for intermarrying between blue and non-blue folk. (The blue condition is called methemoglobinemia. It is a blood disorder in which an abnormal amount of methemoglobin is produced. This causes the skin to show blue tones.) Honey needs to marry or find a guardian. If not, Honey will be taken to the Kentucky House of Reform until she turns twenty-one.

Sadly, Honey’s guardian passes away and she is alone again. A very independent Honey takes on her mother’s old packhorse librarian route delivering books to isolated people in the county. She even rides her mother’s ornery but protective mule, Junia. Most people are happy to have the book delivery service again, but a couple of individuals make her life miserable. To avoid trouble with the state and social service officials, lawyer Bob Morgan offers to represent her in a bid for legal emancipation. Despite lies told in court, friends come to Honey’s aid to testify to her character and to her ability to be independent.

This is a terrific book for readers of historical fiction. You will want to start with the first title in the series – The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek published in 2019.

~Emma

After her mother dies, Hanna Rombauer is sent to live with wealthy Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Otto in Berlin. Their goal is to find her a high-ranking SS officer to marry, and Hanna soon learns that she has no choice in the matter. Klara Schmidt, Hanna’s friend, is also expected to marry an SS officer.

Gifted seamstresses Mathilde Altman (Tilde) and her Jewish mother run a fabric shop. Tilde who looks Aryan waits on customers while her mother hides upstairs. Tilde’s Aryan father left his family when it became dangerous for Jews in Germany. Eventually Tilde’s mother immigrates to the United States.

Hanna and Tilde are barely aware of each other, but their lives soon become entangled. Hanna is sent to a “Nazi Bride School” to learn to become the proper Nazi wife. Tilde is pregnant, her Jewish husband has disappeared, and she needs a safe place to give birth. Klara, one of Tilde’s customers, is also attending the school and is aware of Tilde’s predicament. Klara discovers an abandoned cabin near the school where Tilde can be relatively safe. Both Hanna and Klara take extraordinary risks when Tilde and her newborn are discovered.

For fans of historical fiction, this is a tale of love, loss, and survival.

~Emma

When 13-year-old Stefan Silbermann’s mother died, his father sent him away to a boarding school in Leipzig. (Gottfried Silbermann made and serviced church organs.) At the school Johann Sebastian Bach is the cantor. Stefan’s beautiful voice attracts the attention of Bach which causes bullying from the other boys. They are extremely jealous. Bach is aware of the bullying and invites Stefan to live at his home with his wife and children. Everyone lives and breathes music at the Bach home. All are required to practice and perform for the family. Anna Magdalena, Bach’s second wife, is a talented vocalist, but women are not allowed to sing publicly in church. She spends time with Stefan helping him to learn new music Bach composes on a regular basis. Catharina, Bach’s oldest child, becomes a favorite of Stefan.

The novel is told from Stefan’s point of view decades later. It’s a novel of love, loss, and grief.

~Emma

Maryam Priscilla Grace was born in West Africa around 1758. She was abducted by slave traders at age 10. Maryam had a gift for learning languages which served her well over time. While crossing the Atlantic a pirate, named Caesar, captured the ship Maryam was traveling on. He freed all the slaves but her. She became his translator. Maryam learned healing and midwifery which eventually made her more valuable than a field worker when she was eventually sold to a Virginia plantation owner. Maryam married James and had two sons who are sold to pay off a debt. Maryam is sold again to a widowed Scottish farmer who treated his slaves, his property, fairly. During this time, she became the mother to a baby boy whose mother died in childbirth. It was also during this time she helped runaways and became pregnant with her owner’s child. He gave Maryam, her son and their unborn child freedom and eventually settled in Ohio.

This historical epic is loosely based on the life of a 112-year-old woman the author discovered in the 1870 U.S. Census for Ohio. It is the story of one woman’s hard harsh journey.

~Emma

Sisters of Night and Fog by Erika Robuck

This book is based on the lives of Virginia d’Albert-Lake and Violette Szabo. Both Virginia and Violette had important roles during WWII. Both were captured by the Germans and eventually sent to Ravensbruck where they endured horrific conditions.

Violette’s husband was killed in North Africa. She refused to leave France despite having a young daughter at home. She was a sharpshooter fluent in multiple languages. Her talents were quickly realized, and she became part of the SOE (Special Operations Executive). Formed in 1940, the Special Operations Executive was an underground army that waged a secret war in enemy-occupied Europe and Asia.

Virginia and her husband Philippe became part of the Comet Line, a Resistance organization in occupied Belgium and France during the Second World War. Their job was to help Allied soldiers and pilots shot down over occupied Belgium evade capture by Germans and eventually return to Great Britain.

Their stories connected at Ravensbruck. When it was finally discovered that Virginia was an American, she was released. Violette did not survive. At just twenty-three, she was executed with other women who were part of the SOE.

From what I can gather, the book closely follows the lives and experiences of these two women. The author’s thorough research is evident throughout.

~Emma

(There is a 1958 movie based on the life of Violette Szabo called “Carve Her Name with Pride”.)