Peace Lily by Alex Martin

The Katherine Wheel #2 series

REVIEW

The aftermath of World War I is evident everywhere, the heartbreak is still fresh, when the two young women return to Cheadle Manor. Cassandra Smythe returns as the sole heir, after her brother Charles lost his life in the war. She has to take over the role of executive manager of the estate from her grieving and ageing father, but her mother is not ready to accept the new role of women in society. 

Kathy Phipps returns to her husband, Jem, and her family who all work for Lord Robert and Lady Amelia on their vast estate. The camaraderie of the war is soon forgotten when the old order returns between working class and gentry.

A new reality awaits them in which life throws them several new curve balls. Jem lost an arm in the war, and is no longer able to continue his work as a gardener. Like all the disabled veterans, he is dumped on the trash heaps of history and must fend for himself. Kathy, who was trained as a mechanic in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, is no longer wanted in the army. The jobless couple must face an uncertain future, while life at the manor, with class conscious Lady Amelia in the lead, slowly picks up speed again.

Jem Phipps:  "Both sets of parents - Bert and Agnes; George and Mary - they still had to scratch about to put enough food on the table for their families. The manor was unchanged. Sir Robert and Lady Amelia were still lording it over the rest of them. What right had they to live in that fucking great mansion when he and Katy - and God knows she'd worked as hard as any man during that Godforsaken war - were bunked up with the Beagles in the tiny lodge house that guarded their posh, locked gate?"

Lady Amelia's bitterness over her only son's death leads to the dismantling of relationships, even Cassandra's American fiance Douglas Flintock, leaves for Boston in a fury. It would lead to new paths for both girls when they sail over the Atlantic to rescue love, but run into trouble in the country for the brave and the free, where class differences are defined differently but just as cruel.

The young people have to battle and adjust to an environment where the part of the population who did not participate in the war, do not understand the trauma and its aftermath for those who are trying to overcome their memories and nightmares of the battle front. The peace lilies deceptively grace the halls and homes. There is a cruel irony in their beauty.

This is a light read, in comparison with the outstanding first book 'Daffodils'. The spirit of hope is the the main ingredient in the story. Family relationships, love, and social prejudice throws obstacles on the road to recovery for the four young people: Kathy and Jem, Cassandra and Douglas. 

Loyalty between husband and wife, between friends, between family, determine the outcome of Kathy's difficult journey. She is the main character, who has to overcome the one obstacle after the other to survive the past and future. She becomes the victim of circumstances and must find her way back to self-respect and hope. Like an old-fashioned corset, she could hardly breath or move easily without feeling crushed.

Cassandra's hardship will be on a different level, where money is no object, job security is not an issue, and prejudice is not a threat. In the end, their friendship will be tested in ways they have never seen coming.

A very relaxing read.

_________________________________________

BLURB
After the appalling losses suffered during World War One, three of its survivors long for peace, unaware that its aftermath will bring different, but still daunting, challenges.
Katy trained as a mechanic during the war and cannot bear to return to the life of drudgery she left behind. A trip to America provides the dream ticket she has always craved and an opportunity to escape the strait-jacket of her working class roots. She jumps at the chance, little realising that it will change her life forever, but not in the way she’d hoped.
 
Jem lost not only an arm in the war, but also his livelihood, and with it, his self esteem. How can he keep restless Katy at home and provide for his wife? He puts his life at risk a second time, attempting to secure their future and prove his love for her.
Cassandra has fallen deeply in love with Douglas Flintock, an American officer she met while driving ambulances at the Front. How can she persuade this modern American to adapt to her English country way of life, and all the duties that come with inheriting Cheadle Manor? When Douglas returns to Boston, unsure of his feelings, Cassandra crosses the ocean, determined to lure him back.

As they each try to carve out new lives, their struggles impact on each other in unforeseen ways.__________________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Life has been full to date. Now I have a window, a pause, in which to explore my first passion - writing. I have a shed in the garden where I can be found bashing both brain and keyboard. I'm attempting to express those thoughts and ideas that have been cooking since I was seven, and learned to read. 

There was an old black and gold typewriter knocking about my childhood home. When I wasn't skinning my knees climbing trees or wandering aimlessly in the countryside with my dog and my dreams, I could be found, as now, typing away with imaginary friends whispering in my ear.

My first novel, The Twisted Vine, is based on a happy time picking grapes in France in the 1980s. I met some amazing people there but none as outrageous as those that sprang to life on my screen. The next one, Daffodils, is now published on KDP and in paperback with www.feedaread.com is based in Wiltshire, where I grew up. It attempts to portray how ordinary lives, and the rigid social order, were radically altered by the catalyst of the First World War.

The next one, as yet un-named, is a ghost story. I'm just listening to the whispers from the other side to get the full picture....

You can keep up to date with my progress on alexxx8586.blogspot.com 

__________________________________________

BOOK INFORMATION

Genres: Historical fiction, Britain, WWI, Family, Relationships
Number of pages: 336
Formats: Kindle, Paperback
Publishers:Alex Martin
Publication date: October 3, 2014
ISBN13: B00O694ET4
Edition language: English
Purchase links: Amazon USA | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

This Little Piggy by Bea Davenport

REVIEW
This is a psychological thriller beyond belief!

In 1984, the coal miners of Britain went on a strike that eventually would take two to three generations to recover from.

Clare Jackson is a reporter who missed a promotion due to personal reasons and had to recover from both events happening simultaneously while being sent on an investigation into the death of a nine month old baby, Jamie, on the housing estate where many of the miners resided.

She is a reporter for a local newspaper in the North East of Britain and basically acted as a one-man-band who never stopped for anything, as long as she could prove that she was the better choice for the promotion and shame her bosses.

She meets Amy, a little girl in the dilapidated flats, who had many stories to tell, some were fact and some fiction, and could not share everything she knew with the people around her. Nobody wanted to believe her.

Amy's situation spurred Clare on to become more than just a reporter. She instinctively wanted to protect and nurture the little girl despite warnings from her friends to stay away and stop her unprofessional attachment to 'a story'. But Clare was convinced that she could help Amy to become the adult she would like to be. She did not want to disappoint a little girl who had nobody else to take her hand and believe in her. 

Clare became Amy's first real friend; a person she could trust. With Clare, being in the emotional state she was, combined with the psychological connection she felt she had with Amy, events started very soon to spiral out of total control for everyone involved. Clare related to Amy's situation. She was another statistic in the same column of history than Amy. She is an older version. She simply understood. 

With her own unresolved issues influencing her actions, Clare tried to cover the human story of the baby, while also reporting on the situation behind the picket line where miners and police were increasingly moving into a volatile situation.

While being a walk down memory lane for us who remembered the strikes and its profound aftermath, this book also exposed human behavioral patterns which are not only possible, but scary as hell.

This is the second book I read of the author. The first one was 
In Too Deep .

Both books have the same theme of little girls who were ostricised, rejected, socially isolated by their peer groups for different reasons. The effect it had on them manifested itself in their later relationships and actions.

I was so impressed with Bea Davenport's first novel, that I recommended it to many many people who love this genre. It is still one of the best books in this stable that I have read. This Little Piggy, with its powerful plot; various strong support characters; constant, relentless, and never-ending suspense; detailed and vicious psychosomatic, as well as somatopsychic undercurrent, is a brilliant second try for a seasoned journalist in her own right. It is just as much a strong historical fiction-candidate as it is a psychological thriller

My goodness, what a story! It was simply brilliant.

The review copy was provided by Legend Press via Netgalley. THANK YOU for this wonderful opportunity.

_____________________________________________

BOOK BLURB
It’s the summer of 1984 and there is a sense of unease on the troubled Sweetmeadows estate. The residents are in shock after the suspicious death of a baby and tension is growing due to the ongoing miners’ strike. Journalist Clare Jackson follows the story as police botch the inquiry and struggle to contain the escalating violence. Haunted by a personal trauma she can’t face up to, Clare is shadowed by nine-year-old Amy, a bright but neglected little girl who seems to know more about the incident than she’s letting on. As the days go on and the killer is not found, Clare ignores warnings not to get too close to her stories and in doing so, puts her own life in jeopardy.

___________________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (Goodreads bio): 

Bea Davenport is the writing name of former print and broadcast journalist Barbara Henderson.Her first crime/suspense novel, In Too Deep, was a runner-up in the Luke Bitmead Bursary and is published by Legend Press on 1st June 2013. Bea spent many years as a newspaper reporter and latterly seventeen years as a senior broadcast journalist with the BBC in the north-east of England. She has a Creative Writing PhD from Newcastle University where she studied under the supervision of award-winning writer Jackie Kay and renowned literature expert Professor Kim Reynolds. The children's novel produced as part of the PhD, The Serpent House, was shortlisted for the 2010 Times/Chicken House Award and Bea has also won several prizes for short stories. Originally from Tyneside, she lives in Berwick-upon-Tweed with her partner and children. 

___________________________________________

BOOK INFORMATION
Genres: Psychological drama, Historical fiction, Suspense, Thriller, Murder Mystery

Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman

REVIEW
My first reaction to the book was one of an indifferent feeling of laissez faire. 

The first note-to-self asked : "and what is the point, exactly?"

What was the purpose of the book, was my question after reading the first few essays. Was it a creative writing class assignment at one point in time? 

"Write an essay on the life of any historical female icon, in which you capture the essence of her being, as though she appeared in a dream to you. Capture the person in the personality. Use carte blanche to weave tales around the woman, based on their true life stories. Climb into their lives. Become a close friend. Create bytes of some definitive moments and bring these women alive to generations who never knew them. Have fun!" 

Or something like that.

Initially the book did not make me pirouette on the coffee table with excitement, nor did I dance with joy. I looked at the number of pages, took a glimpse at the clock and wondered how much time it was going to take, and should it be taken, to venture further into the prose.

But I did the book a favor, thought I would safe my own sanity, and ventured off onto the internet, finding profiles of these women. 

That's where it happened for me. Suddenly the color rushed into the black-and-white photographs, the glazed-over eyes in the paintings lightened up, forgotten names and short biographies came alive. 

I was hooked.

Only then, did the book made me sit up straight. It masterfully captured the spirit, of these women who
- were exclamation points in history;
- had glamour and bravery;
- possessed almost savage femininity;
- often had more panache than money;
- experienced a flash of greatness;
- were brave but not imbeciles;
- possessed heroic femininity
- did not know the luxury of being mediocre;
- were able to call a man chickenshit to his face and get away with it;
(paraphrasing from the book)

The author put the reader inside the skin of each woman, and did so with vivid immediacy.

Some of the personas who made it into the book (Thank you Wikipedia):
Marlene Dietrich(December 27, 1901, to May 6, 1992) - famous actress;
Marion Barbara 'Joe' Carstairs (1900 – 18 December 1993)- a wealthy British power boat racer known for her speed and her eccentric lifestyle;
Violet& Daisy Hilton (5 February 1908 – January 1969) - a pair of British conjoined twins or Siamese Twins;
Romaine Brooks, born Beatrice Romaine Goddard (May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970) - an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portraiture and used a subdued palette dominated by the color gray; 
Tiny Davis Trumpet player for the first racially integrated woman's swinging jazz band, the International Sweethearts Of Rhythm
Lucia Anna Joyce (26 July 1907 Trieste - 12 December 1982 Northampton) - the daughter of Irish writer James Joyce and Nora Barnacle. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the Burghölzli psychiatric clinic in Zurich. She was placed in an institution in Ivry-sur-Seine, France, in 1935
Hazel Marion Eaton Watkins (July 4, 1895 – December 22, 1970) - was one of the first "mile-a-minute girls" to ride an Indian motorcycle in a carnival motordrome known as the Wall of Death;
Clara Allegra Byron (12 January 1817 – 20 April 1822), initially named Alba, meaning "dawn," or "white," by her mother, was the illegitimate daughter of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron and Claire Clairmont, the stepsister of Mary Shelley. (wikipedia info - mmmm .... did she have two fathers, I wondered)
Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen (January 8, 1911 – December 22, 1995) - an American actress. Originally a dancer, McQueen first appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind. She donated her body to science.
Dorothy Ierne Wilde, known as Dolly Wilde, (July 11, 1895 – April 10, 1941) niece of Oscar Wilde - an Anglo-Irish socialite, made famous by her family connections and her reputation as a witty conversationalist.
Beryl Markham(26 October 1902 – 3 August 1986) - a British-born Kenyan aviator, adventurer, racehorse trainer and author. During the pioneer days of aviation, she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to make it from London to New York nonstop. 

In 1925 Ernest Hemingway, in a letter to California restaurateur George Gutekunst, wrote

"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, West with the Night? ...She has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But this girl, who is to my knowledge very unpleasant and we might even say a high-grade bitch, can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers ... it really is a bloody wonderful book."

The tales were not sterile biographical paintings in color. Delving into these women's lives, doing research for the book, brought insight for the author as well.

"Or maybe I knew less. Maybe what I knew was that there was more mystery and hurt than I could have imagined. Maybe the world had been bad to its great and unusual women. Maybe there wasn’t a worthy place for the female hero to live out her golden years, to be celebrated as the men had been celebrated, to take from that celebration what she needed to survive."

The prose, undoubtedly, establishes Megan Mayhew Bergman as a promising master of historical fiction.
(Some examples of the prose in the book

"All around me, killers. My brother. My neighbor. My countrymen. My enemies. Everyone has a saturation point."

"This is what the war has taught me: we kill each other and we kill ourselves. Even though we sleep in nice hotels on soft French linens. Even though we have dresses we never wear. Even though we drink champagne while others work in coal mines or the trenches of Vimy Ridge, smelling of gangrene. We have always been this way, killers inside. It is the human condition."

"The world folds in on itself in a ball of fire."

"She went back to leaning against the stable. She sipped the wine and watched enormous, salmon-colored clouds of flamingos drag their overturned heads across the muddy shallows of Nakuru. Deafening birdlife meant a constant stream of shit on the racetrack, but her horses were too well trained to stop and smell it, or lick at it the way her dogs did."

"The British soldiers opened the box and threw tubes of lipstick at the crowd, and we wanted it — we were surprised how badly we wanted it — and we walked the halls, some of us still without adequate clothing, some of us with piss-drenched blankets tossed over our shoulders like shawls, with scarlet lips. We rubbed the lipstick over our mouths. Over and over. We had pink wax on our rotten teeth. We were human again. We were women."

I am not a short story reader, neither spend much time with essays. I love long fictional journeys through the winding roads of history. Therefore I found the collection of moments in these women's lives lacking, extremely well presented though, but way too short. It is brilliantly written. In fact, should the author decide to write historical fictional novels about each of these women, I will read them all. The prose is just that good!

In my opinion the book resort more in the mixed genre category in that each story is a blend of some elements of fiction with elements of nonfiction used in a very deliberate way. Some of them are very short, more like essays, and others are more expanded. The research was excellent as is clear from the text. The selected women deserved the show case - another shot at fame. They also deserved the color that was added back to their pictures in history books. If I did not take the time to read up on these women, I would never have discovered their remarkable place in history, nor appreciated their stories, and not enjoy this book as much as I did in the end. 

The book inspired me to spend long hours on the internet, reading about these women, adding fuel to my bibliophylic addiction. I even ordered another book "Scandalous Women" by Elizabeth Kerry Mahon.

The author's note at the back of the book explains her inspiration to choose these particular women and provides her sources of research used to write it. I was so involved in the stories that I simply could not believe my eyes when there was nothing more to read at the end. Four stars it is for the entertainment value and brilliant writing. 

Note to fellow readers: do your homework before you read each story. Make friends with Google! You won't regret doing just that and then enjoy the masterful compassionate prose in Almost Famous. I simply loved the entire experience. In the end I did THE pirouette and THE dance!

The book is destined for publication Jan 6, 2015. A Simon & Schuster | Scribner publication through NetGalley. My sincerest thanks for the opportunity to read this book.

_____________________________________________

BOOK BLURB
From "a top-notch emerging writer with a crisp and often poetic voice and wily, intelligent humor" (The Boston Globe): a collection of stories that explores the lives of talented, gutsy women throughout history.

The fascinating lives of the characters in Almost Famous Women have mostly been forgotten, but their stories are burning to be told. Now Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, resurrects these women, lets them live in the reader's imagination, so we can explore their difficult choices. Nearly every story in this dazzling collection is based on a woman who attained some celebrity—she raced speed boats or was a conjoined twin in show business; a reclusive painter of renown; a member of the first all-female, integrated swing band. We see Lord Byron's illegitimate daughter, Allegra; Oscar Wilde's troubled niece, Dolly; West With the Night author Beryl Markham; Edna St. Vincent Millay's sister, Norma. These extraordinary stories travel the world, explore the past (and delve into the future), and portray fiercely independent women defined by their acts of bravery, creative impulses, and sometimes reckless decisions.

The world hasn't always been kind to unusual women, but through Megan Mayhew Bergman's alluring depictions they finally receive the attention they deserve. Almost Famous Women is a gorgeous collection from an "accomplished writer of short fiction"

_____________________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo source

Megan Mayhew Bergman is the author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise, a collection of stories forthcoming from Scribner in March 2012. Birds of a Lesser Paradise is a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection for spring 2012 and an Indie Next Pick for March. 

Megan's work has appeared in the New York Times, Best American Short Stories 2011, New Stories from the South 2012, Ploughshares, One Story, Oxford American, The Kenyon Review, Narrative and elsewhere. 

Raised in North Carolina, Megan now lives on a small farm in Vermont with her two daughters, veterinarian husband, and a host of rescue animals.

Visit the AUTHOR'S WEBSITE for more information
_____________________________________________________________

BOOK INFORMATION
Genres: Historical fiction, Short Stories, Essays, Megan Mayhew Bergman, Women's History
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, Nook, Kindle,
Number of pages:
Edition language:
Publication date: January 6th 2015
Publishers: Scribners

• ISBN-10: 1476786569
• ISBN-13: 978-1476786568

Purchase links: Amazon USA | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | More purchase links

After Before by Jemma Wayne

_____________________________________________________

MY REVIEW:

For the widow Lynn, her two sons John and Luke, as well as Luke's fiancé, Vera, and Rwandan refugee Emily, happiness were abandoned a long time ago.

Secrets and hurt After Before, led them slowly and quietly into darkness. Mentally, emotionally, as well as physically, they were slowly dying because of the wounds from their respective pasts that were still mentally bleeding them dry. 

Luke found solace in his dedication to Jesus. It did not matter how his insecurities or strong urge to control, reflected on other people. He was the responsible one; the decision maker, the one calling the shots.

John found his solution in theater and making people laugh.

Lynn had her valuable porcelain collections and her paintings behind a locked door. She gave up her dreams of becoming a historical fiction writer, to fit into her late husband Philip's world and raise her two boys. She secretly treasured her own ambitions and dreams, painting it all onto multiple-colored canvasses where nobody could see them behind the locked door of her studio. 

Vera wanted her savior to be Luke. She wanted to start a new life after drugs, a tragedy, and a mentally abusive relationship with Charles. She wanted to be pure and good and keep her secret hidden from her family and fiancé. But the estrangement from her parents, her decision to become religious and her fear of losing Luke, brought her to a point where the silence became devastating.

Emily, the Rwandan Tutsi refugee, had to endure the truth behind her mother's words: you can outrun the things outside your body, but not the truth hidden inside it. Her lonely road deeper into hell was non-negotiable. She wanted to be left alone with her sorrow in her own silent world that deafened her.

" And all at once, there was an alternative" which none of them ever explored until terminal cancer was diagnosed in Lynn. 

They were forced to open up the chest of darkness, exposing their inner turmoil to searing light. None of them was able to escape while time was running out. The resentment, hatred, insecurities and traumatic memories began their ascend towards light, towards real forgiveness and redemption.

This is a powerful, intense, introspective novel. One that leaves the reader in deep reverie and retrospection. Very well written. There were gentleness, and brutality; insecurity and grace.

I think of the concept 'emotionally charged' when I think back on the experience. A beautiful read. It is a book I would like to read again and can highly recommend it. However, the ending was too much of a cliffhanger in some ways, to really complete the emotional roller coaster ride. But still a very commendable read despite of it. The Rwandan genocide places this book in the historical fiction genre, since an important part of African history is highlighter in the book. I am, however, not sure if it was meant to be classified as such. But it was done brilliantly.

I want to thank Legend Press, through Netgalley, for the opportunity to review this book. 

______________________________________________________

BOOK BLURP:

“That was the day that Mama made the rules: If they come, run. Be quiet and run. But not together. Never together. If one is found, at least the other survives….”

During a cold, British winter, three women reach crisis point. Emily, an immigrant survivor of the Rwandan genocide is existing but not living. Vera, a newly Christian Londoner is striving to live a moral life, her happiness constantly undermined by secrets from her past. Lynn, battling with an untimely disease, is consumed by bitterness and resentment of what she hasn’t achieved and what has been snatched from her. 

Each suffering their own demons, their lives have been torn open by betrayal: by other people, by themselves, by life itself. But as their paths interweave, they begin to unravel their beleaguered pasts, and inadvertently change each other’s futures.

‘Rich, haunted, gripping, painful and beautifully entwined’ Ruth Padel

‘A powerful novel. It's characters will haunt you long after their stories have been told.’ Naomi Gryn 

‘A fearless and meticulously observed examination of pain transformed by the redeeming power of friendship’ Vanora Bennett

‘Cosy domestic scenes in suburban London, brilliantly described, are used to contrast with experiences of absolute horror at the heart of a deep and shaming secret. For life to move on, all must be forgiven, no matter how difficult this may be.’ Phillip Knightley

‘Jemma Wayne has very skilfully managed to weave together not only the alternating strands of her compelling narrative but also passages of intense action with reflective inner monologue. A highly accomplished debut!’ Gerald Jacobs, The Jewish Chronicle(less)

_____________________________________________________

BOOK INFORMATION:

Genres: Historical fiction, Rwandan Genocide, Drama, Family, British author, Jemma Wayne, Literature   
Formats: Paperback | Nook | Kindle
Number of pages: 256 pages
Publisher: Legend Press
Publishing date: June 01, 2014
Edition Language: English
ISIN: B00HWQ19ZK
Purchase links: Amazon USA | Amazon UK  | Barnes & Noble

____________________________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Born to an American musician father, and English mother, Jemma grew up in leafy Hertfordshire and studied Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University and Broadcast Journalism at the University of Westminster. She began her career as a journalist at The Jewish Chronicle and now works freelance splitting her time between journalism, writing for stage, and prose. Her first play, Negative Space, was staged in 2009 at Hampstead's New End Theatre, receiving critical acclaim.

The idea for After Before was first spawned after attending a SURF charity event organised by her husband, in aid of survivors of the Rwandan genocide. It was there that Jemma heard first-hand some of the lingering effects of the 1994 war.

Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

____________________________________________________________
REVIEW:
"Family isn't always blood. It's the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are; the ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what." - author unknown.

This is the expression I was thinking of when I read this book. And after reading it, I had to let it simmer for a while. Yes, it is one of those books! 

Lucky Us is so multidimensional that it will take a while to think it over. There's the moral dilemmas versus the unscripted destinies; the narcissism versus altruism; the versions of history written by ourselves versus the one written for us by others. And when all these elements blend into each other, a story such as Lucky Us becomes possible. Profound, shocking, endearing, and mostly believable. It is as much relevant as historical fiction as it is about family and the bonds that are redefined: old ones negated and new ones formed out of necessity as prescribed by destiny. 

1939 - 1949
The theme of the book is not new. The Holocaust - pre- and post events. What makes it different, and worth reading, is the American history, some events in America itself, impacting the family's lives, added to the millions of books written about the subject. This story revolves around a father, Edgar V. Aton, and his two daughters, Eva & Iris, who found themselves destined for hardship or happiness when his first wife dropped off Eva at his second wife's home after the latter passed away. Iris was the daughter from his second marriage. From Ohio to Hollywood, to New York, to Germany, to Israel: the journey to finally come to terms with their own choices. Destiny would lead them through avenues of flimflammery, of surrealism, to be ultimately confronted by the truth, which none of them ever thought possible. Deception and dishonesty finally collided with reality and integrity. Hope finally wrote their own new history. 

The rich cast of characters include:

Eva: autodidact, who becomes the biggest con artist of them all: the psychic, with a sign in her shop window stating "ASSOCIATION FOR METAPHYSICAL RESEARCH" . The young girl who had to clean up after everyone else, and who eventually concluded that : "father had been a beaker of etiquette and big ideas, Iris was a vase of glamour, and I was the little brown jug of worry." 
Iris: narcissistic, yet surprisingly kind when it suited her; 
Francisco: the make-up artist, the Mexican gay man who would become Eva's mainstay;
Edgar V. Acton(né Isador Vogel): the conman, womanizer, but also wise mentor in his children's lives;
Clara Williams - twenty years younger than Edgar, the Negro woman with the magical voice and the conscience
Torellis - fairy-tale Italian family - who made their lives bearable;
Reenie & Gus (who became Karl Hauser, then Gersh Hoffman, Jewish schoolteacher) - the cook and the mechanic, who brought substance and meaning into their lives;
Then there is Carnie, Bea and Ozzie Patterson and finally Danny, the orphan, who found an unlikely bond within the newly chosen family. Love has a magical way of defining destiny for all of them.

The well-written prose (particularly the epistolary alternation in the rhythm of the tale), the story line, the surprise elements, the constant drama and the detailed history in the book, kept me glued to the story. I was constantly awed by the immense, mind-blowing, detail behind the characters' thoughts, geographical-, as well as historical surroundings, the music, cuisine, literature, day-to-day activities, political landscape, landmarks, everything! It was also my first encounter with the author's work and it will not be the last. This quality of prose does not pass one by often. 

RECOMMENDED TO EVERYONE! In fact: a must-read for the more serious reader.

The book is destined for publication in July, 2014.
It was provided as an ARC by Random House through  http://edelweiss.abovethetreeline.com

___________________________________________________________
BOOK BLURB
"My father's wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us."

So begins this remarkable novel by Amy Bloom, whose critically acclaimed Away was called "a literary triumph" by The New York Times. Brilliantly written, deeply moving, fantastically funny, Lucky Us introduces us to Eva and Iris. Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star, and Eva, the sidekick, journey across 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris's ambitions take them from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island.

With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine through a landscape of big dreams, scandals, betrayals, and war. Filled with gorgeous writing, memorable characters, and surprising events, Lucky Us is a thrilling and resonant novel about success and failure, good luck and bad, the creation of a family, and the pleasures and inevitable perils of family life. From Brooklyn's beauty parlors to London's West End, a group of unforgettable people love, lie, cheat, and survive in this story of our fragile, absurd, heroic species.

Follow the travels of Eva & Iris
_________________________________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo credit: Beth Kelly

Amy Bloom is the author of "Come to Me," a National Book Award finalist; "A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You," nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award; "Love Invents Us"; and "Normal." Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Short Stories, The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, and many other anthologies here and abroad. She has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Slate, and Salon, among other publications, and has won a National Magazine Award. Bloom teaches creative writing at Yale University
Visit the author's WEBSITE





___________________________________________________________
BOOK INFORMATION

Genres: Historical fiction, Drama, Family, Holocaust, American fiction, Literature   
Formats: Hardcover | Nook | Audio CD | Audio book
Number of pages: 256 pages
Publisher: Random House
Publishing date: July 29, 2014
Edition Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400067243
ISBN-13: 978-1400067244
Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble |  Audio book
     

       

The River Wife by Jonis Agee

Genres:Historical fiction, Drama, Suspense, Mississippi, Family, Relationships

Formats: Paperback, Kindle, Hard cover, Audio CD, Audible
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Edition: Paperback
Edition Language: English
Publishing date: May 27th, 2008(reprint)
Page count: 432 pages
ISBN-10: 081297719X
ISBN-13: 978-0812977196
Purchase links: Amazon | Amazon UK, | Barnes & Noble

______________________________________________________

BOOK BLURB:
In 1811, moments after a devastating earthquake, French fur trapper Jacques Ducharme rescues Annie Lark from the ruins of her family home on the shores of Mississippi. While Jacques nurses her back to health, Annie learns to love the strong, brooding man and becomes his "River Wife."

More than a century later, in 1930, Hedie Rails comes to Jacques' Landing to marry Clement Ducharme, a direct descendant of the fur trapper and river pirate. When, night after late night, mysterious phone calls take Clement from their home, a pregnant Hedie finds comfort in a set of old leather-bound journals. But as she reads of Jacques' disturbing history-- his tragedy-stricken romance with Annie; his exploits with Omah, a freed slave who joins him as a river raider; his life with his second wife, Laura, and their daughter, Little Maddie, who inherits her father's dream and passion for the land-- Hedie fears that history is repeating itself with Jacques' kin.

Through intertwined stories, Agee vividly portrays a lineage of love and heartbreak, passion and deceit, as each river wife comes to discover that blind devotion cannot keep the past from haunting the present.

______________________________________________________

BOOK REVIEW
This will probably be the lamest review of a book I have ever written. The reason is that it was so brilliantly constructed: characters, plot, historical detail, drama, suspense, you name it, that trying to sing the praise of this tale in multiple adjectives or superlatives will simply, as well as undeservedly, cheapen this rich story around the Ducharme family of Mississippi.

The masterful prose in the book, describing the women in one man's life and ambitions, felt like becoming part of ancient truths, mixed with modern introspection about love, ambition, destitute, happiness, magic and a huge dollop of mystery. French fur trapper, Jaques Ducharme, ensured his legacy in every single person who ever crossed his path. He transformed maiden angels into villainous witches using love and cruelty to fuel their high-spirited dedication to him, even after their death. He was Deity and Devil, but most of all, an ambitious survivor of life during The New Madrid Quake, beginning December 16th 1811, and ending March of 1812. It produced more than 2000 after shocks. The quake became a metaphor in the lives of the women who became part of Ducharme's life and legacy.

As a non-American citizen, this fictional tale captured everything: imagination, curiosity, interest, passion and compassion to such an extent that it became impossible to put it down. All the elements in the book were perfectly balanced and developed yet detailed enough to feel part of the old house with all the people who once lived in it or passed its front door through the different periods of American history. Then there was the family grave yard to consider...

A brilliant read. In fact, I am leaving a part of myself there, closing the book.

ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED TO EVERYONE!!
______________________________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jonis Agee was born in Omaha, Nebraska and grew up in Nebraska and Missouri, places where many of her stories and novels are set. She was educated at The University of Iowa (BA) and The State University of New York at Binghamton (MA, PhD). She is Adele Hall Professor of English at The University of Nebraska — Lincoln, where she teaches creative writing and twentieth-century fiction. She is the author of twelve books, including five novels — Sweet Eyes, Strange Angels, South of Resurrection, The Weight of Dreams, and her most recent, The River Wife — and five collections of short fiction — Pretend We've Never Met, Bend This Heart, A .38 Special and a Broken Heart, Taking the Wall, and Acts of Love on Indigo Road. She has also published two books of poetry: Houses and Mercury.

In her newest novel, The River Wife (Random House, 2007), five generations of women experience love and heartbreak, passion and deceit against the backdrop of the nineteenth-century South. The book has been selected by the Book of the Month Club, the Literary Guild, and as a main selection by the Quality Paperback Book Club.

Jonis Agee's awards include ForeWord Magazine's Editor's Choice Award for Taking the Wall and the Gold Medal in Fiction for Acts of Love on Indigo Road; a National Endowment for the Arts grant in fiction; a Loft-McKnight Award; a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction; and two Nebraska Book Awards (for The Weight of Dreams and Acts of Love on Indigo Road. Three of her books — Strange Angels, Bend This Heart, and Sweet Eyes — were named Notable Books of the Year by The New York Times.

Jonis owns twenty pairs of cowboy boots, some of them works of art, loves the open road, and believes that ecstasy and hard work are the basic ingredients of life and writing.

Visit the author's homepage