Paris Never leaves You by Ellen Feldman

Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman is a quick reading page-turner filled with conflicted characters who are damaged survivors of WWII.

In occupied Paris, Charlotte runs her family's book shop. A war widow, she struggles to keep her baby daughter Vivi alive. A German army doctor visits the shop and takes an interest in her baby daughter, secreting in food and medicine. Charlotte reluctantly accepts his gifts and trust and friendship grow, putting them both at risk.

Years later, Charlotte's choices come back to haunt her in her new life in New York City where she works for a publishing house. Teenaged Vivi is pressing to know more about her father and heritage. Charlotte's boss, a paraplegic, knows that war destroyed the enlightened man he had been. Charlotte has been trashing the unopened letters from the German doctor.

I appreciated how Feldman incorporated less known WWII history, including the privations of occupied France and post-war retaliation against collaborators. Her handling of the character's moral struggles was of special interest to me. There are several strong romance stories that will appeal to readers of women's fiction.

Surviving the war brings guilt for having survived, their decisions and actions kept secret. Admitting their shameful truths brings healing and the possibility of a new life.

I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Paris Never Leaves You
by Ellen Feldman
St. Martin's Griffin
Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 9781250622778
PRICE: $16.99 (USD) trade paperback

The Light After the War by Anita Abriel

Inspired by her mother's story, Anita Abriel's The Light After the War takes readers across the world following the paths of girlhood friends Vera and Edith from Budapest to escaping the Nazis and hiding out in Austria, to Italy and Venezuela.

Believing they had lost their families and loved ones, the girls try to move on with their lives after the war. Edith dreams of becoming a fashion designer and Vera had hoped to be a playwright but settles for copywriting.

The background of Jews migrating to more tolerant societies was new and interesting. There is referred violence and death relating to the Holocaust and the girls must resist predatory men, but there is nothing graphic in the story. The concentration is on their determination and friendship, and the charmed luck their beauty brings in the form of helpers and aides along their journey.

Easy to read and easy to digest, with star-crossed lovers and jealousy, the novel felt more like a romance than heavier WWII-era historical-fiction fare. The resolution will satisfy those who believe in fate and true love.

I was given access to a free book by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The author has published under Anita Hughes with several books becoming Hallmark Channel movies.

The Light After the War
by Anita Abriel
Atria Books
Pub Date 04 Feb 2020
ISBN 9781982122973
PRICE $36.00 (CAD)

The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter by Mimi Matthews

She was a prim vicar's daughter. He was a notorious rake. They were ill-suited by societal standards, but the attraction between them was too strong to ignore.

Valentine's beautiful society mother was pregnant and alone when the vicar married her to save her. Val grew up understanding her mother was a fallen woman, a sinner, and her father endeavored to ensure that Val did not follow her mother's path.

The death of her father brings Val to be the companion of a vain and shallow beauty who forces Val to wear dowdy clothes and glasses. Val dreams of escape by going into missionary work abroad.

Unaware, Val is brought to a gathering of dissolutes, ensembled for a drunken and adulterous spree. There she meets Viscount St. Ashton, the devilishly handsome rake with a score of conquests behind him, an heir to fortune who has made nothing of his life. St. Ashton is attracted to the girl and when he makes advances he is not repulsed. He proposes to Val, but she believes he is motivated only by societal expectations, expiating for a drunken and unwise moment of passion. A time apart is forced upon them.

As St. Ashton tries to prove he is a changed man, both to his father and to Val, she discovers her true heritage and is offered other options. Misunderstandings arise as St. Ashton constrains his desire. The road to love is rarely smooth. And in Victorian society it is fraught with concerns that have little to do with the human heart.

Mimi Matthews employs her deep understanding of the Victorian world of 1861 in this romance.

Learn more about Matthews books and blog at https://www.mimimatthews.com

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter: A Victorian Romance
by Mimi Matthews
Perfectly Proper Press
Publication January 23, 2018
Ebook: $2.99
ISBN: 9780999036426

Mini Reviews: The Queen Reads and a Victorian Romance

Alan Bennett's short comic novel The Uncommon Reader was my local library book club pick of the month.

The plot involves the Queen of England stumbling into reading, a habit her family and staff do not approve of. As she becomes immersed in her books she becomes bored with her public life and neglectful in her dress. She begins to think, and that leads to writing. A dangerous past time for sure!

An early abettor in her hobby is a young gay staff member whose reading preferences inform his choices for the Queen. Later the Queen picks up books by people she met, or who were connected to titled families.

Authors and book titles are often dropped without the context of what the Queen thought about the books or how they specifically influenced her. We do know she did not care for Jane Austen, the late Henry James, or the early George Eliot. I wanted know more.

I was familiar or had read many of the books mentioned, but not all. Not knowing, for instance, Nancy Mitford's work it would have been nice to know a bit about the books and what the Queen liked and why. Without familiarity, it felt like I was missing an inside joke.

I did resonate to the Queen's interest in what people are reading. As a teen and young woman I always had a book with me, almost like a talisman which might draw other readers to me. I am afraid that for at least forty years I have judged people by the books they read. I am endlessly boring people about the books I am reading.

A charming, slight read with some laughs.

*****

The title of Mimi Matthew's novel The Lost Letter: A Victorian Romance tells you what to expect. It is a romance novel set in the Victorian Age in which a lost letter leads to the separation of true love. Each believes they have been rejected by the other.

I have been reading Mimi Matthew's blog (https://www.mimimatthews.com/blog/) for several years. It has high style, great writing, deep research on subjects relating to Victorian Age literature, history, and romance. I pre-ordered The Lost Letter.

Sylvia Stafford "was the first and only woman he had ever loved." Sylvia was so drawn to Sebastian Conrad she did not resist their mutual attraction, acquiescing to give him a lock of hair and even, gasp, a kiss! Then he was called to war.

Sylvia wrote Sebastian a letter of declaration, but received no letter in return. She taught herself to give him up. When her father's finances toppled and he killed himself, Sylvia was shunned by society.  Now on her own, she hired out as a governess.

Sebastian's sister, Lady Harker, has come to her door and requested that Sylvia pay her and her brother a visit. Sebastian has suffered brutal war injuries, and his sister implies that he is disconsolate. Only Sylvia can save him.

Informed by Beauty and the Beast with a touch of Jane Eyre, this romance has more misunderstandings and twists as the lovers misunderstand each other while fighting against their strong attraction. It is a charming read with just the right amount of historical detail.

Publisher: Perfectly Proper Press
Published: September 2017
ISBN-10: 978-0-9990364-1-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-9990364-0-2

I will be reviewing Matthew's next novel, The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter soon!

Meanwhile, Back in Braintree...

In 1818 Lizzie Boyleston prepares her dear friend Abigail Adams for burial. Together they had endured great hardships keeping their family farms going while their men were caught in Revolution--Abigail a 'widow to the cause' when her husband John Adams and their son John Quincy went to France, and Lizzie as a war widow. Lizzie was trained in herbal remedies and midwifery. The Midwife's Revolt by Jodi Daynard tells the story of their home front experience.

On June 16, 1775 Lizzie heard the noise of battle and walked to Penn's Hill to look down upon Boston Harbor. The British were attacking Boston. Abigail Adams and her son John Quincy were also drawn there, and the older woman befriends twenty-one-year-old Lizzie. In her first unladylike act of courage, Lizzie borrowed the Adams horse to ride into Boston and learn her husband's fate. He had been with Colonel Prescott, trying to take Bunker's Hill. It was Prescott who gave the famous command, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!" (To save gun powder!)

Making her way through Cambridge, Lizzie is shocked by carnage and suffering. She discovers the body of her beloved husband. Devastated, she loses all interest in life. But community was important in those distant days, and Abigail Adams and other neighbors bind together for support and succor. She rouses and becomes determined to make it on her own.

Abigail Adams from Remember the Ladies by Nancy Bekofske

Lizzie takes in Martha, daughter of Loyalists who returned to England, and her sister-in-law Eliza whose wealthy Loyalist parents disapprove of her involvement with an 'unsuitable attachment' that has led to pregnancy. Lizzie is attracted to Martha's brother; later Martha becomes attached to Lizzie's brother when he returns from sea. Meantime a stranger in town uses his charms on Lizzie.

Wooed by two men, Lizzie must determine if she can love again, and if so which man is worthy of her love. One of them may be a Loyalist spy. When two strange deaths show signs of belladonna poisoning, Liza decides to become a spy herself, dressing as a boy to infiltrate local pubs. The novel then focuses on a Loyalist plot to kill John Adams upon his return from France. A subplot about Eliza and her son will be spun off into Daynard's second novel in the series.

Daynard has done wonderful research. I had read Bunker Hill by Nathaniel Philbrick last year and thought of it while Lizzie looked down upon the battle in Boston. See my post at http://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2014/05/when-yankees-realized-they-had-declared.html
I had also read a lot of biographies on Abigail and John Adams and their son John Quincy in recent years. Daynard's Abigail seems quite reasonable a portrait. There are a few issues of characters or an event not being in keeping with their times. But why quibble over a few details? It was an engaging read.

I received a free e-book in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Midwife's Revolt
Jodi Daynard
Lake Union Publishing
ISBN:9781477828007
$14.95 paperback
Publication April 7, 2015