Please Note:  I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This did not influence the opinions in my review in any way.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amongst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses's life for the next four decades.

As Ulysses returns home to London, reimmersing himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parrot -- a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics -- he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate, and returns to the Tuscan hills.

With beautiful prose, extraordinary tenderness, and bursts of humor and light, Still Life is a sweeping portrait of unforgettable individuals who come together to make a family, and a richly drawn celebration of beauty and love in all its forms.

Review:

This is a novel that grows on you.  While the first chapter, taking place in Italy during WWII, is charming, the next few chapters have various characters who I didn't initially love.  But that's one of the joys of Still Life, by Sarah Winman.  As with a still life painting, the seemingly simple characters reveal hidden depths as the novel progresses.  This book covers a long time period, with characters growing up, aging, and (sometimes) dying. This gave me time to get to know the characters, and appreciate how they change and grow over the years.  

I also loved this book because of how several characters decide to move from their predictable hometowns to unknown Italy.  I loved this, as I have lived in three countries, and hope to add a few more to my list in the future.  The idea of searching for a new life is appealing, and shows how resilient people can be, even out of their comfort zone.

What I Liked:

Characters:

The story mostly follows Ulysses, a young British man who begins the story as a soldier in Italy during WWII.  Although the circumstances are horrific, with death all around, Ulysses sees the beauty of classic works of art and of kind people he meets along the way.  When he returns home to England, he tries to reunite with his wife, and find a way to live a more quiet existence.  Much of what happens in Italy is Ulysses trying to find a way to live that is true for himself.  

The character of Peg, Ulysses wife, was harder for me to like, as she seemed initially  very cruel to Ulysses.  Peg's character is complicated with parts of her I hated, and many parts of her I loved.  She is fiercely independent, yet yearns for a man to whisk her away and take care of her.  She loves her daughter (named Alys), but knows she will be terrible with the day to day care of her.  So she lets Ulysses raise Alys.  Again, you want to hate that decision, initially.  But the author shows that this is actually the right choice for these characters. 

I also loved Alys, Peg's daughter.  We see her grow from a precocious toddler, to a lonely child among all the grown ups, to a sulky teen, and finally into a strong young person.  I loved her story arc!  She loves creating art and music.  She also is attracted to females. Thinking of the time periods where the story takes place, this was challenging for Alys to find her place in the world.  Like Ulysses, she takes a while to find a life that works for her.

Side Characters & Found Family:

There are many characters we are introduced to at the pub where Ulysses works and they all have endearing personalities.  There's the pub owner, Col, who's fiercely protecting of his developmentally disabled daughter, Ginny.  Cress, an older patron of the pub, always seems to have great advice.  And Pete, a piano player at the pub, is full of surprises.

All of these characters make up a found family for Ulysses, and Alys.  Like a family, there are loud, opinionated members, people who get themselves into trouble. But, these people look out for one another and would (literally) be the ones to call to bury a body, if the occasion ever arrives.

Impactful meetings: 

Ulysses has one of those personalities that people are drawn to.  As a soldier, Ulysses meets Evelyn, an older fellow British woman, who briefly shows him the importance of art.  He shows her the beauty of life, even in times of terror.  This makes quite an impression on both of the characters.  Over the course of the novel, they try many times to reconnect, often just missing each other turning a street corner!

Story:

The story starts during WWII and ends in 1979!  It covers Ulysses quest (as in the Odyssey) to find a place to call home.  But what really makes a home?  Is it the geographic area, or the people?  There a little bit of both in this story.  Ulysses really enjoys Italy.  Over time, the people in his section of Florence, are as dear to him as the ones he grew up with back in England.  But he also maintains his ties to his oldest British friends.  I loved how he was able to take chances, in order to live a more interesting, fulfilling life.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date:  November 2nd, 2021

Author:  Sarah Winman

Publisher:  G.P. Putman's Sons

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Page Length:  464 Pages

Source:  NetGalley

Format:  E-Book

Recommendation:  This book grew on me.  Once you get to know the characters, you will love the little expat community they create.  A wonderful Historical Fiction novel.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

In 1942, London, Nancy Mitford is worried about more than air raids and German spies. Still recovering from a devastating loss, the once sparkling Bright Young Thing is estranged from her husband, her allowance has been cut, and she’s given up her writing career. On top of this, her five beautiful but infamous sisters continue making headlines with their controversial politics.

Eager for distraction and desperate for income, Nancy jumps at the chance to manage the Heywood Hill bookshop while the owner is away at war. Between the shop’s brisk business and the literary salons she hosts for her eccentric friends, Nancy’s life seems on the upswing. But when a mysterious French officer insists that she has a story to tell, Nancy must decide if picking up the pen again and revealing all is worth the price she might be forced to pay.

Eighty years later, Heywood Hill is abuzz with the hunt for a lost wartime manuscript written by Nancy Mitford. For one woman desperately in need of a change, the search will reveal not only a new side to Nancy, but an even more surprising link between the past and present…

Review:

Although I already posted an excerpt from this book as part of a blog tour, I wanted to make sure and post a review as well.  I found The Bookseller's Secret, by Michelle Gable, to be a wonderful mix of historical and contemporary. We learn so much about an author who is becoming popular again, thanks to an recent adaptation of her most famous book, The Pursuit of Love.  Nancy Mitford's life was full of larger than life people, and events.  She and her family were the Kardashians of their day. The six sisters were mostly famous for being beautiful, and for courting controversy.  Several of them wrote books, with the most famous author amongst them being the oldest daughter, Nancy.

I really enjoyed learning about Nancy and her family, as well as the contemporary story of Katie, an American author looking for inspiration, as she looks into letters that Nancy wrote.  The historical details were rich, and the characters were well drawn in both time periods.  Along with the characters, the romances were wonderful.  The only thing I could have liked better, was if the pace was a bit quicker.  But, as author Michelle Gable says at one point, what's important is the journey, not the destination.

What I Liked:

Historical Details:

I really didn't know anything about Nancy Mitford's life, or the so-called Bright Young Things that she and her friends had been referred to in their youth.  Nancy's portion of the novel takes place in her middle years, after all the escapades of her twenties.  Her contemporaries were some of the most celebrated writers of the age, including, Evelyn Waugh, who wrote Brideshead Revisited.

But, aside from all the small details about life in England during WWII, what really caught my attention was how the author captured the attitudes of many of these elites.  I've always thought that, since England was at war with Germany, nearly all British people hated the Nazis.  I've heard rumors about the former King Edward VIII being a Nazi sympathizer.  But he seemed to be an outlier.  Apparently, that was not the case.  Many people of Nancy' social class admired Hitler, and didn't understand why his persecution of the Jews was such a big deal.  I found this quite shocking!  But, I think it rings true.  

Characters:

Nancy is the oldest of seven children, six of whom are female.  In her family, if you wanted to be noticed, you had to do something outrageous.  By the time we meet Nancy in middle age, one sister is in jail for being a fascist, another is an outspoken communist, and still another had been a mistress of Hitler!  While Nancy had written a few books, she hadn't really hit her stride yet as an author.  With such familial chaos, and a world at war, Nancy starts to finally understand that she wants to live life on her own terms.  That means finding love outside of her loveless marriage, and devoting the rest of her energy to writing.  This means bucking social expectations just as much as her infamous sisters do, which is terrifying.

Katie, the American in the modern part of the story, is also in transition.  She is reeling from a broken engagement, and can't find any ideas for her next book.  After one solid hit publication, she is under immense pressure to churn out a sequel.  But she bristles at the idea.  She has always been a fan of Nancy Mitford, so when she has the chance to read her letters, and solve a mystery surrounding her life, Katie jumps at the chance.  While Katie isn't faced with the same rigid social expectations that Nancy had in her day, she still has set the bar pretty high for herself.  And her family is almost as messed up as Nancy's was!  

Romances:

Both Nancy and Katie find love in unexpected places.  Nancy meets a French military man who, while not attractive in the traditional sense, is immensely charming and full of confidence.  Nancy has never had any qualms about having an affair.  But she finds such a connection with this man, that she realizes that her marriage is intolerable.  She has to fight her husband on getting a divorce, or at least letting her go.  It's a pretty brave struggle at a time when men considered their wives to be practically their property.

Katie, who has been with the same man since they were children, doesn't even know how to rebuild her life.  Given that everyone in her family worshipped her fiancé, it took a lot of guts for her to realize that they weren't really a good match, after all.  Then she meets an Englishman who is as obsessed with Nancy Mitford as she is.  He is trying to find a lost memoir that Nancy allegedly wrote during the war.  But why is he looking for it?  Their romance happens so quickly that Katie doesn't quite know if she can trust her feelings.  Also, if they stand any chance of a long term relationship, she would need to move to England.  How is this going to work?  Love will find a way. 

What I Was Mixed About:

Pacing:

As I said in my introduction, the book moves very slowly, particularly in the WWII portion.  While a lot of time passes over the course of the war, not much happens to Nancy herself.  To be fair, writing a novel is not an exciting, heart-racing endeavor.  It take time to gather ideas, write, and then polish a manuscript.  But, there are many long scenes with dialogue between Nancy and her writer friends, and little else occurring.  I wish there were more about her childhood and her wild sisters, the inspiration behind her most famous novel, The Pursuit of Love.

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date: August 17th, 2021

Author:  Michelle Gable

Publisher: Graydon House

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Page Length:  400 Pages

Source:  Publisher Blog Tour

Format:  E-Book

Recommendation:  If you are interested in Nancy Mitford, this book will whet your appetite for reading more about her.  A very enjoyable, but slow, read. 

Please Note:  I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This did not influence the opinions in my review in any way.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Three women. One mission. Enemies everywhere.
May 1944. When spy Elisabeth de Mornay, code name Cécile, notices a coded transmission from an agent in the field does not bear his usual signature, she suspects his cover has been blown– something that is happening with increasing frequency. With the situation in Occupied France worsening and growing fears that the Resistance has been compromised, Cécile is ordered behind enemy lines.
Having rendezvoused with her fellow agents, Léonie and Dominique, together they have one mission: help the Resistance destabilise German operations to pave the way for the Normandy landings.
But the life of a spy is never straightforward, and the in-fighting within the Resistance makes knowing who to trust ever more difficult. With their lives on the line, all three women will have to make decisions that could cost them everything - for not all their enemies are German. 

Review:

I read author Mara Timon's previous novel, City of Spies, last year.  Although it doesn't advertise it as such, Resistance, her latest book, is a sequel to that WWII spy thriller.  And I couldn't be more pleased!  Elisabeth de Mornay's first adventure takes her to Portugal, where she met (and married) a German officer.  She gets sent back to England, leaving her new husband behind.  Now she's back in the thick of the action in France.  Pretending to be a German, she is actually working with the Resistance.  But will someone recognize her from Portugal?  And where has her husband gone to?

This novel was filled with action, and heart-stopping suspense.  The story follows Elisabeth, and two other women who must each pretend to be helping the Germans.  But how far does one go for the cause?  There are no right or wrong answers, but each woman's ethics are constantly challenged.  If you love spy thrillers, you are sure to enjoy this book!

What I Liked:

Historical Details:

All the details about the Resistance, from how the group operated, to what precautions they took to keep themselves from discovery were fascinating.  There were codes used to check each other's identities (how else can a wireless operator authenticate the information they are receiving?), and backstories to fool the Germans and locals alike.  

The author also doesn't shy away from how challenging these situations were.  Just parachuting in to France, Elisabeth nearly breaks her ankle.  She then must devise a plausible explanation for her injury.  There are also wounds that must be dealt with (often without a doctor), diseases to avoid, and the constant lack of food that made performing at one's best difficult.

Characters:

Elisabeth is a practical person.  She has a mission and will do almost anything to see it through.  But, inside, she is not pleased to be pretending to be a German.  She knows how much she is hated by the local French people.  But she knows that her skills as a wireless operator are invaluable to preparing the Allies to invade France.  I loved how strong she was, but she wasn't a perfect super spy!  She takes a lot of chances that puts the mission in jeopardy when she meets someone from her past.  Her hatred of Germans is also strong enough to cloud her judgement at times.  

Léonie and Dominique, her fellow spies, are also working hard for the Resistance.  Each has strong motivations for hating the Nazis.  And both are even more ruthless than Elisabeth when it comes to getting the job done.  Léone, in particular, is hell bent on revenge.  She is so lost in her hate that she has no plans for the future, other than stopping the war.  When your that driven, you have nothing to lose.

Although this is a female driven novel, this is not a heart-warming story of female friendship.  I believe this is due to each of the women having their own private agendas for being spies.  But what I did like about their interactions was that, like good co-workers should, they kept each other accountable.  They each questioned one another when someone was taking too many risks.

Story:

The story takes place in France just before the Allied invasion in 1944.  As a reader, you know what they don't know:  the invasion will commence soon.  It's critical that the Allies get information on what the Nazis are doing prior to the attack.  I loved the suspense of knowing that time is not on their side. 

Two of the three women (Elisabeth and Léonie) are pretending to be German.  Dominique is posing as a collaborator.  It's fine that they are actually helping the French and English. But who is going to know this when the bullets start flying?  There is a real possibility that the locals, who are unaware of their true allegiances, will kill the women for helping the Nazis.  So while the invasion is wonderful and exciting, it is the most dangerous time for these spies.  

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date:  September 2nd, 2021

Author:  Mara Timon

Publisher:  Zaffre

Genre:  WWII Historical Fiction/Spy novel

Page Length:  432 Pages

Source:  NetGalley

Format:  E-Book

Recommendation:  This book was exciting, fun, and made me stay up very late on a week night because I couldn't put it down.  If spy thrillers are your thing, you are going to love this book. 

Please Note:  I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  This did not influence the opinions in my review in any way.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Millie Mosbach and her brother David escaped to the United States just before Kristallnacht, leaving their parents and little sister in Berlin. Now they are both back in their former hometown, haunted by ghosts and hoping against hope to find their family. Millie works in the office responsible for rooting out the most dedicated Nazis from publishing. Like most of their German-born American colleagues, the siblings suffer from rage at Germany and guilt at their own good fortune. Only Millie’s boss, Major Harry Sutton, seems strangely eager to be fair to the Germans.

Living and working in bombed-out Berlin, a latter day Wild West where the desperate prey on the unsuspecting; spies ply their trade; black markets thrive, and forbidden fraternization is rampant, Millie must come to terms with a past decision made in a moment of crisis, and with the enigmatic sometimes infuriating Major Sutton who is mysteriously understanding of her demons. Atmospheric and page-turning, The Living and the Lost is a story of survival, love, and forgiveness, of others and of self.

Review:

I think one of the things that draws me to WWII historical fiction is that there are so many different perspectives that an author can write from.  I've read WWII books about soldiers, civilians, female spies, families, the LGBTQ+ community, and more.  But, as with her previous novel, Paris Never Leaves You, author Ellen Feldman focuses on those who escaped Nazi Germany to start a new life in America.  I wasn't overly fond of Paris Never Leaves You because (to be honest) the protagonist was a German woman who pretended to be Jewish in order to immigrate to the U.S.  I found it hard to have empathy for her.

The Living and the Lost is a tale of a woman learning empathy for everyone affected by the war.   I found the characters complex and the story to be haunting.  The book did not make me feel sorry for Nazis.  But it did show the protagonist, Millie (as well as me), that no one was untouched by the war.  Some scars are obvious, while many more are psychological.  And each person shows their trauma in a different way.  As one character tells Millie, "Don't be so quick to judge others".  Clearly I need that reminder, as well.

What I liked:

Setting:

The majority of the book takes place in post-war Berlin.  Millie, a German-Jew who escaped to America in 1938, returns to her hometown to help with the rebuilding efforts.  She left Germany during the oppression of Jews, but before the war.  So she can hardly recognize the city.  Many of the buildings are destroyed, and the once proud German people are starving, fighting over anything to eat, or to sell on the black market.  But how do you figure out who are the civilians and who are the Nazis?  Who is deserving of sympathy and who should be put on trial for war crimes?

Characters:

Most of the American characters in Germany are German-born Jews who fled to the U.S. years earlier.  But all have lost family members who couldn't get out in time.  They have a lot of survivors guilt, and anger with the German people.  Each person has their own reasons for returning.  Some are looking for lost relatives, while others want revenge for what happened to their family.  Some genuinely want to reclaim Germany and show that Jews could not be eliminated.  For most, it's a mixture of each.

Millie and her brother left Germany and were hopeful that her parents and youngest sister would join them.  But they never did.  David, Millie's brother became a soldier so he could fight in the war, and kill some Nazis.  That is how he begins to deal with the guilt.  But Millie doesn't have that option.  Instead, she goes to college and, when the war is over, returns to Germany as a translator.  She is part of a team of investigators who interview Germans seeking to work in the media.  The United States doesn't want former Nazis in these highly coveted positions, so her mission is to weed them out.

Even though Millie wasn't in a concentration camp, she still is traumatized by the what lead to her leaving her family behind.  And she can't forgive herself for surviving when her parents and sister did not.  This comes out in several ways.  Even though the city has changed, Millie still has panic attacks in places like the main train station.  She looks at children and swears she sees her sister.  And she has immense anger towards Germans.

Other characters, like her brother David, and her boss Harry, feel they need to do as many good deeds as possible to justify their survival.  Other characters are so filled with rage that they will beat up Germans at the slightest provocation.  What I was really surprised about was the rage that the German civilians felt.  These people were not Nazis, but they also didn't exactly jump in to defend their Jewish neighbors either.  Nevertheless, these were people who also lost loved ones, who were terrorized by nightly bombings, who were brutally raped by Russian soldiers.  And they knew that no matter what they suffered, they were not allowed to receive sympathy.  The world was holding every German accountable for the atrocities done to the Jews.  For Millie, as well as other Jewish characters in the book, finding a way to, while perhaps not sympathize, but at least empathize with these Germans was a challenge.

Story:

The story follows Millie and her fellow German-Jews, on a path of survival, and then the guilt that follows.  Each character must face the fact they they made it through, but most of their family did not.  What a horrible feeling to lose everyone you love to war.  

With such complex characters, it was so helpful to have the many flashbacks to their different experiences getting to America, and dealing with being German (and Jewish) during the war.   At times, other Americans treated them as dirty Jews, not letting them into restaurants and hotels.  Other times, they were treated as German spies who couldn't bee trusted.  It was a no win situation.  But Millie and her brother know that no matter how hard they have it, the Jews left in Germany had it worse.

I think that is the big takeaway I had from the book.  Anyone who has been through trauma can remember that someone, somewhere else, has had worse things happen to them.  But, that doesn't mean that their suffering is any less.  People tend to compare suffering, but we shouldn't.  

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date:  September 7th, 2021

Author:  Ellen Feldman

Publisher:  St. Martin's Griffin

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Page Length:  352 pages

Source:   NetGalley

Format:  E-Book

Recommendation:  A complex novel of survivorship, this is an historical fiction that you will remember for a long time.  Highly recommended.

I was so happy to be asked to participate in the Blog Tour for The Bookseller's Secret, by Michelle Gable!  

This novel has everything I love about books.  It creates a story with real-life people (in this case the author Nancy Mitford) amid a larger historical backdrop.   I am enjoying the settings, the characters, and the historical details too much to rush through this novel, so I have not finished it yet.  But I know if you love historical fiction, particularly novels set around WWII, then you are in for a treat!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

From New York Times bestselling author Michelle Gable comes a dual-narrative set at the famed Heywood Hill Bookshop in London about a struggling American writer on the hunt for a rumored lost manuscript written by the iconic Nancy Mitford—bookseller, spy, author, and aristocrat—during World War II.

In 1942, London, Nancy Mitford is worried about more than air raids and German spies. Still recovering from a devastating loss, the once sparkling Bright Young Thing is estranged from her husband, her allowance has been cut, and she’s given up her writing career. On top of this, her five beautiful but infamous sisters continue making headlines with their controversial politics.

Eager for distraction and desperate for income, Nancy jumps at the chance to manage the Heywood Hill bookshop while the owner is away at war. Between the shop’s brisk business and the literary salons she hosts for her eccentric friends, Nancy’s life seems on the upswing. But when a mysterious French officer insists that she has a story to tell, Nancy must decide if picking up the pen again and revealing all is worth the price she might be forced to pay.

Eighty years later, Heywood Hill is abuzz with the hunt for a lost wartime manuscript written by Nancy Mitford. For one woman desperately in need of a change, the search will reveal not only a new side to Nancy, but an even more surprising link between the past and present…

Here is an exclusive excerpt from the novel:

April 1946

Hotel de Bourgogne, Paris VII

There they are, held like flies in the amber of that moment—click goes the camera and on goes life; the minutes, the days, the years, the decades, taking them further and further from that happiness and promise of youth, from the hopes…and from the dreams they dreamed for themselves.

—Nancy Mitford,The Pursuit of Love

“Alors, racontez!” the Colonel said, and spun her beneath his arm.

Nancy had to duck, of course. The man was frightfully short. 

“Racontez! Racontez!”

She laughed, thinking of all the times the Colonel made this demand. Racontez! Tell me!

“Allô—allô,” he’d say across some crackling line. “Were you asleep?”

He might be in Paris, or Algiers, or another place he could not name. Weeks or months would pass and then a phone rang in London and set Nancy Mitford’s world straight again.

“Alors, racontez! Tell me everything!”

And she did.

The Colonel found Nancy’s stories comical, outrageous, unlike anything he’d ever known, his delight beginning first and foremost with the six Mitford girls, and their secret society. Nancy also had a brother, but he hardly counted at all.

“C’est pas vrai!” the Colonel would cry, with each new tale. “That cannot be true!”

“It all happened,” Nancy told him. “Every word. What do you expect with a Nazi, a Communist, and several Fascists, in one family tree?”

“C’est incroyable!”

But the Hon Society was the past, and this gilded Parisian hotel room was now, likewise Nancy’s beloved Colonel, presently reaching into the bucket of champagne. How had she gotten to this place? It was the impossible dream.

“Promise we can stay here forever,” Nancy said.

“Here or somewhere like it,” he answered with a grin.

Nancy’s heart bounced. Heavens, he was ever-so-ugly with his pock-marked face and receding hairline, the precise opposite of her strapping husband, a man so wholesome he might’ve leapt from the pages of a seedsman catalogue. But Nancy loved her Colonel with every part of herself, in particular the female, which represented another chief difference between the two men.

“You know, my friends are desperate to take a French lover,” Nancy said, and she tossed her gloves onto the bed. “All thanks to a fictional character from a book. Everyone is positively in love with Fabrice!”

“Bien sûr, as in real life,” the Colonel said as he popped the cork.

The champagne bubbled up the bottle’s neck, and dribbled onto his stubby hands.

“You’re such a wolf!” Nancy said. She heaved open the shutters and scanned the square below. “At last! A hotel with a view.”

Their room overlooked Le Palais Bourbon, home to l’Assemblée nationale, the two-hundred-year seat of the French government, minus the interlude during which it was occupied by the Luftwaffe. Mere months ago German propaganda hung from the building: DEUTSCHLAND SIEGT AN ALLEN FRONTEN. Germany is victorious on all fronts. But the banners were gone now, and France had been freed. Nancy was in Paris, just as she’d planned.

“This is heaven!” Nancy said. She peered over her shoulder and coquettishly kicked up a heel. “A luncheon party tomorrow? What do you think?”

“Okay, chéri, quoi que tu en dises,” the Colonel said, as she sauntered toward him.

“Whatever I want?” Nancy said. “I’ve been dying to hear those words! What about snails, chicken, and port salut? No more eating from tins for you. On that note, darling, you mustn’t worry about your job prospects. I know you’ll miss governing France but, goodness, we’ll have so much more free time!”

Nancy was proud of the work the Colonel had done as General de Gaulle’s chef du cabinet, but his resignation made life far more convenient. No longer would she have to wait around, or brook his maddeningly specific requests. I’ve got a heavy political day LET ME SEE—can you come at 2 minutes to 6?

“It’s really one of the best things that could’ve happened to us,” Nancy said. “Oh, darling, life will be pure bliss!” 

Nancy leaned forward and planted a kiss on the Colonel’s nose.

“On trinque?” he said, and lifted a glass.

Nancy raised hers to meet it.

“Santé!” he cheered.

Nancy rolled her eyes. “The French are so dull with their toasts. Who cares about my health? It’s wretched, most of the time. Cheers to novels, I’d say! Cheers to readers the world over!”

“À la femme auteur, Nancy Mitford!” The Colonel clinked her glass. “Vive la littérature!”

Excerpted from The Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable, Copyright © 2021 by Michelle Gable Bilski. Published by Graydon House Books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

MICHELLE GABLE is the New York Times bestselling author of A Paris Apartment, I'll See You in Paris, The Book of Summer, and The Summer I Met Jack. She attended The College of William & Mary, where she majored in accounting, and spent twenty years working in finance before becoming a full-time writer. She grew up in San Diego and lives in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, with her husband and two daughters. Find her at michellegable.com or on Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest, @MGableWriter.

SOCIAL LINKS:

Author website: https://michellegable.com/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MGableWriter 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mgablewriter/

The Bookseller's Secret : A Novel of Nancy Mitford and WWII 

Michelle Gable

On Sale Date: August 17, 2021

9781525806469

Trade Paperback

$16.99 USD

400 pages

Please Note:  I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.   This did not influence the opinions in my review in any way.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Clementine is a seventy-two year-old reformed con artist with a penchant for impeccably tailored suits. Her life of crime has led her from the uber-wealthy perfume junkies of belle epoque Manhattan, to the scented butterflies of Costa Rica, to the spice markets of Marrakech, and finally the bordellos of Paris, where she settles down and opens a legitimate shop bottling her favorite extracts for the ladies of the cabarets.

In 1941, as the German's stranglehold on the city tightens, Clem's perfume-making attracts the notice of Oskar Voss, a Francophile Nazi bureaucrat, who comes to demand Clem's expertise and loyalty in his mysterious play for Hitler's favor. Clem has no choice but to surrender fully to the con, but while she knew playing the part of collaborator would be dangerous, she never imagined it would be so painfully intimate. At Oskar's behest, and in an effort to win his trust, Clem recounts the full story of her life and loves, this time without the cover of the lies she came to Paris to escape.

Complete with romance, espionage, champagne towers, and haute couture, this full-tilt sensory experience is a dazzling portrait of the underground resistance of twentieth-century Paris and a passionate love letter to the power of beauty and community in the face of insidious hate. 

Review:

Historical fiction centered around WWII could be an entire genre in and of itself.  There's All The Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and The Paris Library, just to name a few.  One would think that everything on this subject has already been written.  And you'd be wrong.  I believe this is because WWII really was a world-wide event, that everyone on the planet was affected in one way or another.  The Perfume Thief, by Timothy Schaffert, comes from the perspective of people on the fringe of Parisian society:  gays and lesbians, prostitutes, singers, actors, and entertainers.  These are people who the Nazi's either loved or hated (or both).  If you were a member of one of these groups, you could never feel safe, as the Nazis would applaud them one day, and then round them up and send them to camps, the next.  

Perfume is actually the perfect metaphor for this ever-changing state of danger.  Fragrance evokes powerful memories, and yet can smell different on different people, or in different seasons. And the same smell can make each person react differently.  It's all in the eye (or nose) of the beholder.  

This is a story, not just of WWII, but of memories.  Clementine, who is in her seventies, is hardly your typical senior citizen.  She has lived an extraordinary life as a lesbian in eras from the Gilded Age in America through the Roaring Twenties, the Great War, and now WWII.  Her memories are held as various perfumes and what meanings they had for her.  This was a more cerebral book than I thought it would be.  The characters, unusual storytelling, and insight into the world of perfume made this an outstanding reading experience.

What I Liked:

Historical Details:

Clementine's entire world is centered around perfume.  She uses it to help people recall memories of lost loves, nostalgic childhoods, exciting vacations, or whatever her clients want to cling to.  The language used in this book is lush in its details that conjure images of steamy nights, and exotic locales. 

 There are also details that I hadn't known about concerning Paris during the occupation.  Jewish businesses, seized by the Nazis, became private department stores of pilfered Jewish goods.  Rich Parisians, Nazi Officers, and others had their choice of what was stolen from the Jews,  It was quite disturbing.

The novel also details the cabaret and bordellos of Paris.  These establishments mostly catered to Nazis. But the novel shows that the people who ran these businesses couldn't have chosen to turn the Germans away. It's sad to remember that many of the women who became pregnant by Nazis were tormented at the end of the war, and often killed, for being seen as collaborators.  But most of them had no choice in the matter.

Characters:

I love how Clem forms many strong friendships with people of different ages.  She has friends her own age, but she also befriends young people, as well.  But she does not take on the role of a parent to these younger people.  I found this refreshing.  Older people don't need to become a "mentor" to people just based on their age difference.  But she does worry about her friends as the Nazi occupation drags on.  As more and more homosexuals are targeted and sent away to camps, Clem is very concerned with protecting her young male friend named Blue.  As Blue starts to take risks, Clem worries that she is the only one to see the danger ahead. 

Day is another memorable character.  Fashioned after the great Jazz signer, Josephine Baker, Day is an African-American woman who has settled in Paris after years of missed opportunities in America.  With one mega hit song to her credit, she is a popular entertainer in Paris.  But even though she is not French, she takes risks moving information from Nazi's to the Resistance.  I loved Day's spirit.  

Zoe is another entertainer in the nightclub that Clem frequents.  This is one of those situations where you can't tell, from first glance, how she is resisting.  She is having an affair with a Nazi officer, after all.  But, really, she doesn't have a choice in the matter.  If a Nazi officer wants to make you his mistress, their is little a woman can do.  But Zoe remains strong.

Storytelling:

As Clementine narrates the story, we read snippets of her extraordinary, long life.   From a girl on a farm, to an woman who daringly wears men's clothing, Clem has lived life on her own terms.  There are letters between Clem and her one great love, spanning decades.  In order to ingratiate herself with a Nazi, she tells stories of her life as a con artist and thief.  These elements, as well as Clem simply recalling her many exploits, makes for a rich tapestry of storytelling. 

Ordinary People Fighting Back:

All of the people in this book, each in their own way, find ways to resist the Nazi's.  Although it would seem like the people working in the brothels are collaborating with their oppressors, that is far from the case.  Several of the prostitutes are spying on the soldiers, and they find ingenious ways to send messages to the established Resistance.  Plus, many of the characters resist in other ways.  The singers in nightclubs might sings songs in English.  People go out in the evening, daring the Nazi's to round therm up for being out past curfew.  Even Clem's choice to wear men's clothing is a risk, as a Nazi might decide she is a lesbian and make an example of her.

Perfume:

The depictions of the perfume industry was truly fascinating.  From the design of each bottle, to the ways in which the perfumes were manufactured, this was a true marriage of science and art.  The story centers around a mysterious diary of a famous Jewish perfume maker.  One of the characters is related to the creator of the diary, and if this connection is discovered, it would be a death sentence.  Clem vows to find the document before the Nazis do.  This leads to a journey of reflection as Clem uses her immensely interesting life to entertain the Nazi officer who is also in search of the elusive object.  It's a game of cat and mouse that will keep you on the edge of your seat.  

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date:  August 3, 2021

Author:  Timothy Schaffert

Publisher:  Doubleday Books

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Page Length:  368 Pages

Source:  NetGalley

Format:  E-Book

Recommendation:  Filled with lush descriptions, this historical novel of WWII is unlike any other.  A reminder of how the resilience of people, even in direst of situations.

Please Note:  I received an advance copy of this novel as part of a blog tour to promote this book.  If I did not enjoy the book, I had the option to withdraw my participation.

Synopsis:

Daisy Wilder prefers the company of horses to people, bare feet and salt water to high heels and society parties. Then, in the dizzying aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Daisy enlists in a top secret program, replacing male soldiers in a war zone for the first time. Under fear of imminent invasion, the WARDs guide pilots into blacked-out airstrips and track unidentified planes across Pacific skies.  

But not everyone thinks the women are up to the job, and the new recruits must rise above their differences and work side by side despite the resistance and heartache they meet along the way. With America’s future on the line, Daisy is determined to prove herself worthy. And with the man she’s falling for out on the front lines, she cannot fail. From radar towers on remote mountaintops to flooded bomb shelters, she’ll need her new team when the stakes are highest. Because the most important battles are fought—and won—together.

This inspiring and uplifting tale of pioneering, unsung heroines vividly transports the reader to wartime Hawaii, where one woman’s call to duty leads her to find courage, strength and sisterhood.

Review:

As a lover of historical fiction, I was thrilled to be asked to take part in the blog tour to promote Radar Girls, by Sara Ackerman.  This novel tells the little-known story of the women who became radar technicians in Hawaii during WWII.  I loved the historical details, strong female friendships, and a swoon-worthy romance.  This novel was both entertaining, and enlightening.

What I Liked:

Historical Details:

Once again, I learned something new with this novel.  We've all heard about "Rosie The Riveter", but I had no idea that women worked directly with radar technology.  These women quickly learned all about radar, and aerial navigation so they could identify and guide planes among the Hawaiian Islands.  This was to free up the men for fighting.  But this was an opportunity for women to shine.  Women still faced men who doubted they were intelligent enough to master the skills necessary for this type of work.  And they faced sexual harassment, as well. 

Main Character:

Daisy is not a likely main character.  She is a loner, who doesn't think very highly of herself.  Although she has a talent for training horses, she rarely receives any praise,  This all changes when the war breaks out and Daisy, like so many women of her time, is called upon to get out of her comfort zone, learn some new skills, and make a contribution to the war effort.  

I love how Daisy rises to the challenge, despite her trepidations, to find that she is rather good at technical things!  As her confidence grows, she starts to develop friendships with some of the other women, and even with Walker, the son of the rich landowner who's ranch she has worked at for years.  But can Daisy overcome her self-doubt?  

Female Friendships:

Daisy, usually a loner, starts to form friendships with the other women in the WARD unit.  Yes, there are the usual petty squabbles that happen when you put many different young women together.  At times, jealousies over men made for a high school-like atmosphere.  But, more often than not, the women were supportive, and helped each other.  Where Daisy was quick to understand the complex computations needed to guide planes, she wasn't great at communicating.  Other women were talented speakers but found the math parts challenging.  The women shared what they knew and helped out others who needed tutoring.  

The reason for this was simple. This was wartime.  Anyone who lived in Hawaii witnessed, first-hand, the attacks on Pearl Harbor.  The residents wanted to do anything they could to prevent that from happening again.  But the women were also sensitive to when someone lost a husband, brother, or boyfriend fighting in the war.  There was plenty of misery, as the American losses mounted.  And each woman knew they could be the next person to feel such a loss.  So, I really appreciated how kind the group was to each other.

Romance:

It wouldn't be a book about war without a desperate romance.  Daisy has grown up in working with horses on the ranch of a rich and powerful family.  She was always considered one of the workers, and the family always made sure that Daisy knew her place.  When the dashing son of the ranch owner, Walker, starts to pay attention to her, Daisy feels confused.  He couldn't actually be interested in her, right?  But, slowly it becomes apparent that Walker has always found Daisy fascinating.  I liked that their relationship progressed slowly and was based on mutual interests, as well as attraction. 

Story:

The story centers around how the women become an integral part of the war effort as radar technicians.  It shows us a technical side to the war effort that was really complex and interesting.  There is always the threat of another invasion to Hawaii, and that propels all the residents of the Island into action.  I liked how the author was able to build tension in the story from this threat, and the everyday threat of airplane pilots getting lost and not making it back to the landing strip.  The women's work was literally savings lives each day.

There was also a side story involving Daisy's family and Walker's family that provided added obstacles for the couple.  Although this was a minor part of the book, it was something that was threaded throughout the novel, and was part of a satisfying resolution at the end of the story. 

What Was Missing:

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I wish there would have been more than a passing acknowledgement of the Japanese-American's who were placed in internment camps during the war.  I know this wasn't the focus of the story, and the author perhaps felt this wasn't her story to tell.  But I wish Daisy and her friends would have known a Japanese-American family and showed concern for what was happening to them.  I think it would have added to the story, and given an even deeper insight to life on the Island during the war.

Trigger Warning for sexual assault

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date:  July 27th, 2021

Author:  Sara Ackerman

Publisher: MIRA Books

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Page Length:  368 Pages

Source: Publisher's blog tour

Format:  E-Book

Recommendation:  If you love historical fiction, this book is your ticket to adventure.  I highly recommend this book!