Review: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (audio)

Publisher: Viking Books / Penguin Audio Published: October 5, 2021 Source: Print – Personal copy via BOTM / Audio – Personal copy via Libro.fm   Summary: The bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility and master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction returns with a stylish and propulsive novel set in 1950s America In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of…

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Review: The Wicked Widow by Beatriz Williams

Publisher: William Morrow Published: October 26, 2021 Source: Publisher   Summary: Gin Kelly, the wicked redhead, is back! Readers will delight in next installment of the Wicked City series by New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams.  June 1925. Audacious Appalachian flapper Geneva “Gin” Kelly prepares to trade her high-flying ways for respectable marriage to Oliver Anson Marshall, a steadfast Prohibition agent who happens to hail from one of New York’s most distinguished…

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Review: The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman (audio)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Published: October 12, 2021 Source: ALC via Publisher   Summary: Master storyteller Alice Hoffman brings us the conclusion of the Practical Magic series in a spellbinding and enchanting final Owens novel brimming with lyric beauty and vivid characters. The Owens family has been cursed in matters of love for over three-hundred years but all of that is about to change. The novel begins in a…

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Review: The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman (audio)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Published: October 10, 2017 Source: Library   Summary: Find your magic For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man. Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are…

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Review: Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman (audio)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio Published: October 6, 2020 Source: Library   Summary: In an unforgettable novel that traces a centuries-old curse to its source, beloved author Alice Hoffman unveils the story of Maria Owens, accused of witchcraft in Salem, and matriarch of a line of the amazing Owens women and men featured in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic. Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin?…

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Review: The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark Published: October 5, 2021 Source: Paperback via Publisher   Summary: In the autumn of 1707, old enemies from the Highlands to the Borders are finding common ground as they join to protest the new Union with England. At the same time, the French are preparing to launch an invasion to bring the young exiled Jacobite king back to Scotland to reclaim his throne, and in Edinburgh the…

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Review: The Women’s March by Jennifer Chiaverini

Publisher: William Morrow Published: July 27, 2021 Source: ARC Paperback via Giveaway win   Summary: New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini returns with The Women’s March, an enthralling historical novel of the woman’s suffrage movement inspired by three courageous women who bravely risked their lives and liberty in the fight to win the vote. Twenty-five-year-old Alice Paul returns to her native New Jersey after several years on the front lines of the suffrage…

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Review: No One Goes Alone by Erik Larson (audio)

Publisher: Random House Audio Published: September 28, 2021 Source: ALC via Libro.fm   Summary: From New York Times best-selling author Erik Larson comes his first venture into fiction, an otherworldly tale of intrigue and the impossible that marshals his trademark approach to nonfiction to create something new: a ghost story thoroughly grounded in history. Pioneering psychologist William James leads an expedition to a remote isle in search of answers after…

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Review: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio Published: March 9, 2021 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Publisher / Audio – via library   Summary: The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over. 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very…

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Blog Tour & Excerpt: What Passes As Love by Trisha R. Thomas – with link to #BookGiveaway

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for What Passes as Love by Trisha R. Thomas. Thank you @OTRPR for inviting me to participate. As part of the book tour, there is a giveaway…but the giveaway is happening on my Instagram page!!! Enjoy this spotlight and the excerpt and then you can find out where to enter the giveaway below!   Publisher: Lake Union Publishing…

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Review: The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia (audio book)

Publisher: Amazon Crossing/ Brilliance Audio Published: August 16, 2019 Source: Personal Copy (print & audio)   Summary: From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel—her first to be translated into English—about a mysterious child with the power to change a family’s history in a country on the verge of revolution. From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of…

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Review: The Riviera House by Natasha Lester (audio)

Publisher: Forever / Hachette Audio Published: August 31, 2021 Source: Print: ARC Paperback via Forever / Audio: ALC via Libro.fm via Hachette Audio   Summary: The New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Secret weaves a lush and engrossing novel of World War II inspired by a true story and perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Pam Jenoff. Paris, 1939: The Nazis think Éliane can’t understand German. They’re wrong. They think she’s merely…

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Review: The People We Keep by Allison Larkin (audio)

Publisher: Gallery Books / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: August 3, 2021 Source: Print: Personal copy via BOTM / Audio via Library   Summary: The People we Keep is about a young songwriter longing to find a home in the world. Little River, New York, 1994: April Sawicki is living in a run-down motorhome, flunking out of school, and picking up shifts at the local diner. But when April realizes…

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Review: My Mistress’ Eyes are Raven Black by Terry Roberts

  Publisher: Turner Publishing Company Published: July 27, 2021 Source: Publisher   Summary: Ellis Island, 1920. New York Harbor’s immigration and public health authorities are slowly recovering from the war years when a young, pregnant Irish woman disappears from the Isolation Hospital on Ellis Island. Stephen Robbins, a specialist in finding missing persons, is assigned the case. Yet when he arrives at the isolation hospital, he discovers an inexplicable string…

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Review: Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson (print/audio)

Publisher: Scribner / Simon & Schuster Audio Published: August 3, 2021 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Publisher / Audio – ALC via Publisher   Summary: An epic, immersive debut, Damnation Spring is the deeply human story of a Pacific Northwest logging town wrenched in two by a mystery that threatens to derail its way of life. For generations, Rich Gundersen’s family has chopped a livelihood out of the redwood forest along…

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Review: Sisters in Arms by Kaia Alderson (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio Published: August 3, 2021 Source: Print – Personal Copy / Audio via Library   Summary: Kaia Alderson’s debut historical fiction novel reveals the untold, true story of the Six Triple Eight, the only all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps, who made the dangerous voyage to Europe to ensure American servicemen received word from their loved ones during World War II. Grace Steele and…

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Review: Half-Life by Jillian Cantor (print/audio)

Publisher: Harper Perennial / Harper Audio Published: March 23, 2021 Source: Print – Paperback via Publisher / Audio via Library   Summary: The USA Today bestselling author of In Another Time reimagines the pioneering, passionate life of Marie Curie using a parallel structure to create two alternative timelines, one that mirrors her real life, one that explores the consequences for Marie and for science if she’d made a different choice. In Poland in 1891,…

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Review: The Steal by C.W. Gortner & M.J. Rose

Publisher: Blue Box Press Published: August 10, 2021 Source: GetRedPR   Summary:  They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend – until they’re stolen. Ania Throne is devoted to her jewelry company. The daughter of one of the world’s most famous jewelers, she arrives in Cannes with a stunning new collection. But a shocking theft by the notorious thief known as the Leopard throws her into upheaval – and plunges…

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Review: Three Words for Goodbye by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb

Publisher: William Morrow Published: July 27, 2021 Source: ARC Paperback via William Morrow   Summary: From Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, the bestselling authors of Meet Me in Monaco, comes a coming-of-age novel set in pre-WWII Europe, perfect for fans of Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Kate Quinn.   Three cities, two sisters, one chance to correct the past . . . New York, 1937: When estranged sisters Clara and Madeleine Sommers learn…

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Review: The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore (print/audio)

Publisher: Kensington Books / HighBridge Audio Published: July 27, 2021 Source: Print: ARC Paperback via Kensingbooks & Bibliolifestyle / Audio: Library   Summary: The glamorous world of a silent film star’s wife abruptly crumbles when she’s forcibly quarantined at the Carville Lepers Home in this page-turning story of courage, resilience, and reinvention set in 1920s Louisiana and Los Angeles. Based on little-known history, this timely book will strike a chord…

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Review: What’s Left Unsaid by Emily Bleeker (print/audio)

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing / Brilliance Audio Published: July 27, 2021 Source: Print: ARC Paperback via Uplit Reads / Audio: ALC via Brilliance Audio   Summary: An enthralling novel of secrets, second chances, and confronting the past by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of When I’m Gone. After a series of devastating losses, Chicago journalist Hannah Williamson has landed in Senatobia, Mississippi, to care for her bedridden grandmother and endure grunt work…

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Review: In the Month of the Midnight Sun by Cecilia Ekback

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Published: June 14, 2016 Source: Personal Copy   Summary: An orphaned boy brought up to serve the state as a man. A rich young woman incapable of living by the conventions of society. Neither is prepared for the journey into the heat, mystery, violence and disorienting perpetual daylight of the far North. Stockholm 1856. Magnus is a geologist. When the Minister sends him to survey the…

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Review: A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe (audio)

Publisher: Macmillan Audio / St. Martin’s Press Published: July 20, 2021 Source: Audio: Netgalley via Macmillan Audio / Print: ARC Paperback via St. Martin’s Press   Summary: From “a master of historical fiction” (NPR), Karin Tanabe’s A Woman of Intelligence is an exhilarating tale of post-war New York City, and one remarkable woman’s journey from the United Nations, to the cloistered drawing rooms of Manhattan society, to the secretive ranks of the…

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Review: Band of Sisters by Lauren Willig (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow/ Harper Audio Published: March 2, 2021 Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Publisher / Audio via library   Summary: A group of young women from Smith College risk their lives in France at the height of World War I in this sweeping novel based on a true story—a skillful blend of Call the Midwife and The Alice Network—from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig. A scholarship…

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Review: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray

Publisher: Berkley Books Published: June 29, 2021 Source: Netgalley   Summary: The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian–who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray. In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired…

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Review: The Forest of Vanishing Stars (audio)

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio / Gallery Books Published: July 6, 2021 Source: Audio – ALC via Simon & Schuster Audio / Print: Netgalley   Summary: The New York Times bestselling author of the The Book of Lost Names returns with an evocative coming-of-age World War II story about a young woman who uses her knowledge of the wilderness to help Jewish refugees escape the Nazis—until a secret from her past threatens everything. After…

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Shoulder Season by Christina Clancy (audio)

Publisher: Macmillan Audio / St. Martin’s Press Published: July 6, 2021 Source: Audio via Netgalley / Print: ARC via St. Martin’s Press   Summary:  A dazzling portrait of a young woman coming into her own, the youthful allure of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and what we lose – and gain – when we leave home. Once in a lifetime, you can have the time of your life. The…

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Review: Sisters of the Resistance by Christine Wells (print/audio)

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks / Harper Audio Published: June 8, 2021 Source: Print: Paperback via Publisher / Audio via Library   Summary:  Two sisters join the Paris Resistance in this pause-resisting new novel inspired by the real-life bravery of Catherine Dior, sister of the fashion designer and a heroine of World War II France – perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Jennifer Chiaverini. “As dazzling as a Dior gown! With…

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Review: The Secret Wife by Gill Paul

Publisher: Harper 360 Published: August 25, 2016 Source: Netgalley via Book Club Girl Free Friday Program   Summary: A Russian grand duchess and an English journalist. Linked by one of the world’s greatest mysteries… Love. Guilt. Heartbreak. 1914: Russia is on the brink of collapse, and the Romanov family faces a terrifyingly uncertain future. Grand Duchess Tatiana has fallen in love with cavalry officer Dmitri, but events take a catastrophic…

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Review: The Accidental Suffragist by Galia Gichon

Publisher: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing Published: June 1, 2021 Source: Author via Suzy Approved Booktours   Summary: It’s 1912, and protagonist Helen Fox is a factory worker living in New York’s tenements. When tragedy strikes in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Helen is seduced by the Suffragist cause and is soon immersed, working alongside famous activists. As Helen’s involvement with the cause deepens, she encounters myriad sources of tension that test her…

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Review: The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley

Publisher: Blue Box Press Published: May 27, 2021 Source: Netgalley via Social Butter PR   Summary: The six D’Aplièse sisters have each been on their own incredible journey to discover their heritage, but they still have one question left unanswered: who and where is the seventh sister? They only have one clue – an image of a star-shaped emerald ring. The search to find the missing sister will take them…

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Review: Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams

Publisher: William Morrow Published: June 1, 2021 Source: Publisher   Summary: The New York Times bestselling author of Her Last Flight returns with a gripping and profoundly human story of Cold War espionage and family devotion. In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family’s sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service?…

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Review: The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal

Title: The Doll Factory Author: Elizabeth Macneal Published: August 2019, Atria/Emily Bestler Books Format: ARC Paperback, 368 pages Source: Publisher Summary:  Obsession is an art. In this “sharp, scary, gorgeously evocative tale of love, art, and obsession” (Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train), a beautiful young woman aspires to be an artist, while a man’s dark obsession may destroy her world forever. In 1850s London, the…

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