Novel Maven

Summary: Becky Farwell prides herself on doing a great job taking care of the funds for Pierson, Illinois, while stealing money to fund her art collecting habit. Her art aficionado persona is Reba Farwell, and she spirals out of control, taking more and more money to buy designer clothes, art, and even a condo in Chicago. Becky covers her activity by paying money back into her work accounts with art sales. She goes from Chicago to NYC and back to Pierson with regularity for her art business. Eventually, the market for fine art crumbles and Becky has trouble covering her debt to Pierson. She abandons the condo in Chicago and turns her rural barn into a secret art storage unit. She continues to take more money, and make millions in sales at venues like Christie's in New York City. She sees herself in high society photos in magazines and hopes no one in Pierson subscribes to these fancy publications. Eventually the town is facing declaring bankruptcy, and Becky starts to panic as the

Trigger warnings: rape, suicide, miscarriage, murder, slavery, physical abuse Summary: Peasant girl Marta goes through a long series of misfortunes before ending up in a Russian military camp and becoming the mistress of Tsar Peter of Russia. After almost a decade of being his mistress, she marries him and becomes Catherine. After Peter's death, she schemes to become Tsarina. Ellen Alpsten  creates an epic story following almost the whole of Marta's life. She goes from simple peasant girl to servant with benefits, then lives with a clergyman and his family, then is taken by a Russian general, which is how she comes to the tsar's attention. She frequently miscarries the tsar's children while hoping to provide him with a son and heir. I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through  Netgalley  in exchange for an honest review. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Read my  Disclosure Policy  for more information. History is

Summary: Diana Foyle is a graduate student studying architectural history when World War II begins. She has a passion for Christopher Wren's churches and is recently married to theology professor Brent Somerville. Brent was injured during the war while working carrying stretchers, and Diana spent the war codebreaking at Bletchley Park. After the war, Diana is still trying to solve the mystery of clues left behind in Wren's churches by Russian agents. She feels distant from her husband because of her inability to tell him what she is working on and what she did during the war. His nightmares don't help their tense relationship. But then Brent becomes entangled in the plot surrounding "Eternity" and the dangers Diana faces by investigating the church clues. I received an electronic audio recording ARC of this title from the publisher through  Netgalley  in exchange for an honest review. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Read my  Disclosure Pol

Summary: Princess Elizabeth has a girlhood crush on Prince Philip of Greece, and is determined to marry him. The story follows both Philip and Elizabeth through the years of their separation because of the war, and leads up to their engagement and the disapproval of Elizabeth's' royal family at her choice of the pauper Prince Philip. The novel ends with their royal wedding. I received an electronic ARC of this title from HarperCollins UK through  Netgalley  in exchange for an honest review. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Read my  Disclosure Policy  for more information. Earlier this year, I picked up a book called The Queen's Secret: A Novel of England's World War II Queen by Karen Harper and I was disappointed in its content and that it centered on Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother instead of Queen Elizabeth II. This is the book I wish I had picked up instead! Flora Harding creates a sweet love story between the Princess Elizabeth and Prince

Summary: Laura Lyons lives with her family inside the New York Public Library, where her husband Jack is the superintendent. She finds her life as a 1930s wife and mother of two unfulfilling, and begins journalism school and an exploration of women's rights as a way to inject meaning into her dull life. When priceless first editions go missing in the library, Jack and his family may be the prime suspects. Sadie Donovan is Laura's granddaughter and a librarian at the NYPL in the 1990s. She is promoted to the curator of the Berg Collection right before an important exhibit, and pieces slated for display begin to go missing. If Sadie can figure out what happened to the books that went missing in the 30s, maybe she can figure out how the books are being stolen in the present.   I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through  Netgalley  in exchange for an honest review. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.   Read my  Disclosure Poli

Summary: Eva Traube is a Jewish girl living in Paris and working in a library during WWII. After seeing her father taken by the SS, she uses her artistic ability to forge papers for her and her mother so that they can escape to a fictional village in rural France. While this town may have just been a stop on their journey out of France, Eva feels it is her duty to stay and forge papers for Jewish children fleeing France into Switzerland. To preserve the children's Jewish identities, Eva and one of her forging partners come up with a code for saving the child's given name and their fake names, so that they may be one day reunited with their families. Using a code based on the Fibonacci sequence, they record the names in an old book in the church library. Eva is separated from the book, only to find it again as an old woman. I received an electronic galley from the publisher via  Netgalley  in exchange for an honest review.  As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Summary: When Leena is given paid time off from work after having a panic attack during a meeting with a client, she decides to leave London life behind and go live in the country with her grandmother. Leena's grandmother Eileen is newly single, and decides to swap places with Leena and trades simple country living for the bustle of London. Each woman finds herself and a bit of romance along the way.   I received an electronic galley copy from the publisher through  Netgalley  in exchange for an honest review. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Read my  Disclosure Policy  for more information. The age differences in this book were refreshing. Typically women's fiction focuses on one age group, but having a young woman interacting with her grandmother's friends and having Eileen interact with young, hip Londoners made the story feel original. Each character had a romance, but they were one part of the story rather than having the whole book focus on the

Summary: Madeleine Levy is the Jewish granddaughter of the famous Alfred Dreyfus. Because of her family's status as high-profile Jews, they must change their identities and move to a new location outside of Paris during WWII. Madeleine takes it upon herself to be the guardian and safe passage out of France for Jewish children, and works to gather money and supplies to help send children to safe locations. But Madeleine must also survive being a Jew in France during the Nazi occupation.   I received an electronic galley copy from the publisher through  Netgalley  in exchange for an honest review. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Read my  Disclosure Policy  for more information. This book was not as engaging as other WWII fiction I've read, even though it is based on a real person. This could be because Gloria Goldreich was limited by the historical facts that survived. My beef with Madeleine is that she keeps making the wrong decisions. Half of her famil