11. Murder on the Red River by Marcie Rendon

#1 Cash Blackbear

listened on Libby

320 pgs.

2017
Adult Mystery/Historical Fiction 
Finished 2/28/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.7
My rating: 4
Setting: 1970 1970 Fargo/MN state line

My comments: Cash is 19; smart, feisty, Native American, and really close to being an alcoholic, which is hard to watch.  She spends her life driving trucks for the local farms during the day and playing pool each night.  She drinks and smokes hard, has no friends except for the local sheriff who first met her when she was three years old, and lives a pretty solitary, empty life.  Then there's a murder nearby, and she helps the sheriff investigate.  Making it even more interesting, it's set in 1970. At only 6 hours long it was the perfect length, didn't drag on and on, and I enjoyed all the indigenous information.

Goodreads synopsis:  Set in 1970s along Red River Valley, Marcie R. Rendon's gripping new mystery follows the life of a young Ojibwe woman as she struggles to come to terms with the callous murder of a Native American stranger, bringing to life the gritty, dark reality of a flawed foster care system and the oppression of indigenous people.

Renee "Cash" Blackbear, a 19-year-old, tough-as-nails, resilient Ojibwe woman, has lived all her life in Fargo, sister city to Minnesota's Moorhead, just downriver from the Cities. Her life revolves around driving truck for local farmers, drinking beer, playing pool, smoking cigarettes, and solving criminal investigations through the power of her visions. She has one friend, Sheriff Wheaton, who's also her guardian and helped her out of the broken foster care system. Together they must work to solve a murder across cultures in a rural Midwest community layered in racism, genocide, and oppression.

48. Lightning in a Mason Jar by Catherine Mann

read on Kindle

270 pgs.

2025
Adult CRF/HF
Finished 10/28/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.16
My rating: 4
Setting: 1970s and contemporary Bent Oak, SC

My comments: Took forever to read, but was ultimately an excellent story.  Told in two voices: Bailey Rae's in 2025 and Winnie's years previously in the late 70s, we learn the backstory and the current story of a 25-year-old who has lost her "adoptive" mother...Winnie.  Abusive marriages, abused children, and found families versus blood families are the huge themes in the story.

Goodreads synopsis:   In South Carolina, a woman discovers her aunt’s profound secrets in an emotional novel spanning decades about trauma, survival, and the bonds of female friendship.

Since Bailey Rae Rigby’s adoptive aunt Winnie passed, Bent Oak, South Carolina, doesn’t have much of a hold on her anymore. So it seems.

Bailey Rae aims to settle the small estate and, armed with her aunt’s inspiring personal cookbook, buy a food truck with an ocean view in Myrtle Beach. Everything goes awry when a distraught young mother arrives in town clutching a copy of that same cookbook. Embedded inside is a code that promises a safe place in Bent Oak for desperate women on the run. For Bailey Rae it opens up a world of questions. Who really was the beloved aunt she’s known most of her life?

Winnie Ballard’s story reaches back fifty years—one of a Southern debutante’s harrowing marriage, of her escape and reinvention, and the galvanizing friendship of three resilient women who overcame their traumas, created a shelter, and found purpose. But there’s more to Winnie’s deliverance and long-held secrets than Bailey Rae imagines.

With each revelation, Bailey Rae draws on her aunt’s courage to find purpose herself. For now, whatever threats may come, Bailey Rae isn’t going anywhere.

15. The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Lusbuskes

listened on Audible (purchased)

464 pgs. (13:20)

2025
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 3/31/25
Goodreads rating: 4.17
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Early 20th century Montana

My comments: Three points of view:  1930s Millie, 1920s Alice, 1910s Colette, all coming together in the end.  The story is set in Montana in various small towns and cities.  It is Alice's vision to have a library in a boxcar that travels from lumber camps to mining sites throughout Montana.  Conditions are super hard for the working men, and "the company" is the royal ruler of all.  Colette's father is a miner and a union man. Alices's father is an extremely rich mayor and supporter of "the company."  Millie is an orphan from Texas who now works in Washington DC and comes to observe the group of people that are writing a travel summary for the government.  Once I began to easily tell the three women's voices apart the story became quite fascinating.

Goodreads synopsis:  Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.

Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes. 

Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

The three women’s stories dramatically converge in the search to uncover what someone is so desperately trying to what happened to Colette Durand.

Inspired by the fascinating, true history of Missoula’s Boxcar Library, the novel blends the story of the strong, courageous women who survived and thrived in the rough and rowdy West with that of the power of standing together to fight for workers’ lives. And through it all shines the capacity of books to provide connection and light to those who need it most.

2. The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

listened on Audible (purchased)

339 pgs. (10:18)

2025
Adult Historical Fiction Mystery
Finished 1/18/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.11
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Egypt, 1930s & 1978; NYC 1978

My comments: As likable as the story was, I had to suspend belief on some of the coincidences that too easily occurred in places in this story.  Spoilers ahead!  Annie and her point of view were likable and heartfelt, but also pushy and nosy, pushing the plot uncomfortably.  And since Charlotte kept her name and had a prominent position in the Egyptian antiquities community, it's very hard to believe that someone in the same business, albeit in a different country than the US, would not have realized that she was still alive.  And I truly can't believe that in the late 1970s anyone would be just allowed into any of the closed-off tombs like Charlotte and Annie were, no matter their expertise or credentials.  Lots of coincidences and incongruities, unfortunately.  Set in the mid 1930s in Egypt and in 1978 New York, it flip-flopped back-and-forth between those two time periods with the same protagonist.  Such mixed feelings I have about this book!  So much to love, so much to frown about.  3?  3/5?  4?  Eek!

Goodreads synopsis:  From New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis, an utterly addictive new novel that will transport you from New York City’s most glamorous party to the labyrinth streets of Cairo and back.

Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be the same.

New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.” Though Annie soon realizes she’ll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana’s capricious demands and exacting standards.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She’s consumed with her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.

That is, until the night of the gala. When one of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing . . . and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening.

As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they’re to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.

77. The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan

listened on Libby

384 pgs.

2024
Adult Mystery
Finished 11/1/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.60
My rating: 4.25 
Setting: southern Maine coast community

My comments:   Ending seemed incomplete.  Loved all the historical facts that some readers considered "preachy." Took place in southern Maine with lots of social/feminist thinking.

Goodreads synopsis:  A novel of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine, by the New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers.

On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.

Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted—perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers—of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism—is even older than Maine itself.

Enthralling, richly imagined, filled with psychic mediums and charlatans, spirits and past lives, mothers, marriage, and the legacy of alcoholism, this is a deeply moving novel about the land we inhabit, the women who came before us, and the ways in which none of us will ever truly leave this earth.

75. A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner

listened on Libby

370 pgs.

2014
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 10/9/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.09
My rating: 2.5
Setting: NYC 1911 & 9/11

My comments: Not a huge fan of this book, for a couple of reasons.  Told in two voices, one of a nurse, Clara, who survived the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 to "hide" on Ellis Island and a quilt shop fabric-lover, Taryn, who lost her husband on 9/11.  The majority of the story is told by nurse Clara ... whom I didn't like.  At all.  Her inconsistent personality (she flip-flops between a mamby-pamby-scared-everything watcher-of-the-world to a brazen in-your-face do-gooder) drove me nuts. A minority of the story was told by Taryn, ten years after 9/11, still bruised and barely living, which was more powerful and believable.  But not enough!  And the connection of this scarf was feeble, to say the least.  I didn't rate it lower because I enjoyed the history it shared and the 9/11 portion, but the 1911 lengthy section didn't work for me at all.

Goodreads synopsis:  A beautiful scarf, passed down through the generations, connects two women who learn that the weight of the world is made bearable by the love we give away....

September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries …and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her? 

September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers …the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. Will a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life?

67. The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

listened on Libby

355 pgs.

2021
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 7/27/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.95
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1888 Dakota Territory

My comments: Entrancing historical fiction based on true events where on January 12, 1888 an unforgiving blizzard belted the Dakota territory and killed many people, mainly kids that were walking home from school on the prairie.  We follow a number of main characters for many years, finding the outcomes of all their lives.  Good , but sad story.

Goodreads synopsis:  The New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator's Wife reveals a little-known story of courage on the prairie: the freak blizzard that struck the Great Plains, threatening the lives of hundreds of immigrant homesteaders--especially their children.

The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a long cold spell, warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota territory to venture out again, and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats--leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At just the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard struck without warning. Schoolteachers as young as sixteen were suddenly faced with life and death decisions: keep the children inside, to risk freezing to death when fuel ran out, or send them home, praying they wouldn't get lost in the storm?

Based on actual oral histories of survivors, the novel follows the stories of Raina and Gerda Olsen, two sisters, both schoolteachers--one who becomes a hero of the storm, and one who finds herself ostracized in the aftermath. It's also the story of Anette Pedersen, a servant girl whose miraculous survival serves as a turning point in her life and touches the heart of Gavin Woodson, a newspaperman seeking redemption. It is Woodson and others like him who wrote the embellished news stories that lured immigrants across the sea to settle a pitiless land. Boosters needed immigrants to settle territories into states, and they didn't care what lies they told them to get them there--or whose land it originally was.

At its heart, this is a story of courage, of children forced to grow up too soon, tied to the land because of their parents' choices. It is a story of love taking root in the hard prairie ground, and of families being torn asunder by a ferocious storm that is little remembered today--because so many of its victims were immigrants to this country.

43. The Women by Kristin Hannah

listened on Libby
480 pgs. (14:56) read by Julia Whelan

2024
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 5/11/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.67 (you never see them this high, and there's a reason!)
My rating: 5+
Setting: first half: Vietnam, 1967-1969; second half Coronado Island, southern California (and other places around the US) from 1969 - 1982, ending at the dedication of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. in November of 1982.

My comments:   Oh my.  Once you start this book, there's no putting it down.  I had very little idea of what it was about, which is probably best because I don't think I would have read it.  I was in high school at the time this book was set.  I was a young married mom when it the war was "over."  This story, about the women of the war in Vietnam is potent, real, all-consuming, and beautifully written.  I didn't shed a tear until I listened to Kristin Hannah read her acknowledgements.  This was a very powerful, masterfully written story that I don't imagine I will forget.

Goodreads synopsis:  An intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over- whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

40. The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

listened on Libby
355 pgs.

2023
Adult Historical Fiction/Mystery
Finished 5/4/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.07
My rating: 4
Setting: England, flipping between 1939 and 1960

My comments: Two sisters are sent off to the countryside with hundreds of other kids to be billeted with families to keep them safe from the upcoming bombings of London at the beginning of WWII.  Luckily, these two girls find a home with a wonderful woman and her son.  This is a story of loss, love, and grief.  There were not enough surprises in the retelling, most was told at the beginning and just recapped with a few more details, which made it a little boring in places.  Lovely writing.  I loved the settings.

Goodreads synopsis:  When a woman discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II are revealed.

In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars . Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.

27 Light and Air by Mindy Nichols Wendell

read on Kindle
218 pgs.

2024
Middle grades Historical Fiction
Finished 3/28/24
Goodreads rating: 4.39
My rating: 4
Setting: 1935 upstate New York

My comments: The lovely cover definitely beckoned to me.  I can remember in second grade a lot of talk about tuberculosis, haven't really heard too much about it since.  The story was eye-opening and interesting with a brave and sassy 10-year-old protagonist.  Quite memorable.  Would sanitoriums be available nowadays that treat people with such humanity?  I don't think so.....

Goodreads synopsis:  It's 1935, and tuberculosis is ravaging the nation. Everyone is afraid of this deadly respiratory illness. But what happens when you actually have it?

When Halle and her mother both come down with TB, they are shunned—and then they are sent to the J.N. Adam Tuberculosis Hospital: far from home, far from family, far from the world.

Tucked away in the woods of upstate New York, the hospital is a closed and quiet place. But it is not, Halle learns, a prison. Free of her worried and difficult father for the first time in her life, she slowly discovers joy, family, and the healing power of honey on the children's ward, where the girls on the floor become her confidantes and sisters. But when Mama suffers a lung hemorrhage, their entire future—and recovery—is thrown into question....

Light and Air deals tenderly and insightfully with isolation, quarantine, found family, and illness. Set in the fully realized world of a 1930s hospital, it offers a tender glimpse into a historical epidemic that has become more relatable than ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Halle tries to warm her father’s coldness and learns to trust the girls and women of the hospital, and as she and her mother battle a disease that once paralyzed the country, a profound message of strength, hope, and healing emerges.

25. Signal Moon - Short story by Kate Quinn

listened on Audible
57 pgs.

2022
Adult Historical Fiction/SciFi Short Story
Finished 3/24/24
Goodreads rating: 4.33
My rating: 5
Setting: 1943 & 2023 London

My comments: Two time periods, two Navy radio operators.  One in 1943, one in 2023.  One British, one American.  Talk about long-distance relationships!  One saves the other.  SciFi....love it more and more each time I read one.

Goodreads synopsis:  A short story about an impossible connection across two centuries that could make the difference between peace or war.

Yorkshire, 1943. Lily Baines, a bright young debutante increasingly ground down by an endless war, has traded in her white gloves for a set of headphones. It’s her job to intercept enemy naval communications and send them to Bletchley Park for decryption.

One night, she picks up a transmission that isn’t code at all—it’s a cry for help.

An American ship is taking heavy fire in the North Atlantic—but no one else has reported an attack, and the information relayed by the young US officer, Matt Jackson, seems all wrong. The contact that Lily has made on the other end of the radio channel says it’s… 2023.

Across an eighty-year gap, Lily and Matt must find a way to help each other: Matt to convince her that the war she’s fighting can still be won, and Lily to help him stave off the war to come. As their connection grows stronger, they both know there’s no telling when time will run out on their inexplicable link.

20. Weyward by Emilia Hart

listened on Libby - borrowed from library

416 pgs.
2023
Adult Historical Fiction/Magical Realism

Finished 3/10/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.10
My rating:/
Setting: Cottage in England during three different time periods:  1619, 1942, contemporary

My comments: LOVE the cover!  Told from the point of view of three women in the Weyward family:  Altha, in 1619, on trial for practicing witchcraft, supposedly using a spell to have a farmer's cows trample him to death.  Violet, in 1942, living a hugely restricted life with her brother, being intimidated by a hateful father.  And then there's Kate in 2019, never leaving her flat because of an abusive, controlling husband, until she finally takes matters into her own hands.  Three really interesting stories of three strong women, bonded by blood and history and the huge touch of magic that connects them with the natural world, the birds, the bees, the bugs, and all growing things.  It was hard to put down and beautifully narrated by three different female voices.

Goodreads synopsis:  I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.

8. The GIlded Cage by Luisa A. Jones

listened on Audible

2023
332 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 1/26/24
Goodreads rating: 4.23
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Very beginning of the 20th century, England

My comments: The Goodreads synopsis gives a taste for the story, which was actually quite mesmerizing, so I won't mention here.  I used to, years ago, love the "gothic" novels of Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt, which this reminded me of -- EXCEPT there was a little bit more description of the sexy parts.  There was a lot of physical abuse, mainly referred to but not described much (a good thing?), and plenty of psychological abuse, which was not glossed over.  Other than feeling depressed and frantic for the things that were happening to the protagonist at the hands of a husband she did not speak up against, I looked forward to returning to this narration as frequently as I could.  

Goodreads synopsis:  1897. Rosamund bows her head and steps slowly down the aisle. The satin of her gown whispers against the stone floor and a single tear falls into the bunch of yellow roses twisted in her trembling hands. Despite rumours of his cruelty, Rosamund has no choice but to become this man’s second wife. After her wedding, Rosamund finds herself trapped in Sir Lucien Fitznorton’s lonely country estate. As she wanders the chilly halls, made shadowy by drapes of heavy velvet, she longs for the lost comforts of her childhood home, where she was the beloved only daughter to a doting father, now buried miles away. As a young woman with no fortune of her own, only death can release her from this misery. Until she meets Joseph , her husband’s gruffly handsome new chauffeur. With his mop of salt-and-pepper hair and lilting accent, Joseph is from another world. One of clambering children and tea at scrubbed kitchen tables, the hollow scratch of hunger and long hours of hard work. Despite their differences, they find themselves increasingly drawn to one other. But Sir Lucien is not only cruel, he’s devious too, and soon Rosamund finds herself caught in a dangerous web of secrets and lies. Is Rosamund’s fragile marriage nothing but a golden cage, trapping her between two men who desire her… and to what end? One holds her captive and the other offers a hope of escape… but who really holds the key to Rosamund’s gilded prison? A gripping and emotional historical novel, fans of Lucinda Riley and Tracy Rees won’t be able to put this book down.

15. The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman

listened on Libby

2022
320 pgs.
Adult CRF/Hist Fict
Finished 2/14/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.21
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary & early 20th century NYC

My comments: I very much enjoyed the metamorphosis that modern-day Abby went through, from learning the divorce-lawyer ropes from an unscrupulous mentor to trying to help divorcing partners come to the true reality of their situations.  The grandmother's story was also fascinating.  A truly memorable story.  Cool cover, too

Goodreads synopsis:  Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.

Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?

16. Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N. Holmberg

#1 Whimbrel House

both read on Kindle and listened on Audible

2022
347 pgs.
Fantasy & Historical Fiction
Finished 2/14/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.28
My rating: 3.5
Setting: 1846 secluded island off RI & Boston

My comments: 1846, a world where magic has survived through the centuries but is getting diluted with each generation so there's not much magic left.  A house on an island near Boston is haunted by a ghost - well, actually, the actual house itself is the ghost.  An interesting premise.  A 31-year old writer and a prim, similarly aged housekeeper with slightly magical abilities work together to make the house "livable" at the same time they're being stalked by a powerful foe.  I took a great deal of time reading this, since most of it was off and on while eathing out.  So it went slowly, both literally and physically.

Goodreads synopsis:  Rhode Island, 1846. Estranged from his family, writer Merritt Fernsby is surprised when he inherits a remote estate in the Narragansett Bay. Though the property has been uninhabited for more than a century, Merritt is ready to call it home—until he realizes he has no choice. With its doors slamming shut and locking behind him, Whimbrel House is not about to let Merritt leave. Ever.

Hulda Larkin of the Boston Institute for the Keeping of Enchanted Rooms has been trained in taming such structures in order to preserve their historical and magical significance. She understands the dangers of bespelled homes given to tantrums. She advises that it’s in Merritt’s best interest to make Whimbrel House their ally. To do that, she’ll need to move in, too.

Prepared as she is with augury, a set of magic tools, and a new staff trained in the uncanny, Hulda’s work still proves unexpectedly difficult. She and Merritt grow closer as the investigation progresses, but the house’s secrets run deeper than they anticipated. And the sentient walls aren’t their only concern—something outside is coming for the enchantments of Whimbrel House, and it could be more dangerous than what rattles within.

13. The Fire and the Ore by Olivia Hawker

listened on Audible

Read for the BookGirls February Challenge

2022
400 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 2/9/23
Goodreads rating: 4.09
My rating: 4
Setting: Mormon Trail, 1856

My comments: The story, based on true family history of the author, is a fascinating piece of historical fiction.  I had to set aside my religious and spiritual beliefs and really look into the personalities of the three main characters, three sister wives.  The first half of the book tells the individual harrowing travel tales of Jane and Tamar as the make their way to Utah and the huge Mormon settlement there.  It puts light on the backgrounds of multiple marriages and how it arose in the Mormon faith.

Goodreads synopsis:  Three spirited wives in nineteenth-century Utah. One husband. A compelling novel of family, sisterhood, and survival by the Washington Post bestselling author of One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow.

1856. Three women—once strangers—come together in unpredictable Utah Territory. Hopeful, desperate, and willful, they’ll allow nothing on earth or in Heaven to stand in their way.

Following the call of their newfound Mormon faith, Tamar Loader and her family weather a brutal pilgrimage from England to Utah, where Tamar is united with her destined husband, Thomas Ricks. Clinging to a promise for the future, she abides an unexpected surprise: Thomas is already wedded to one woman—Tabitha, a local healer—and betrothed to still another.

Orphaned by tragedy and stranded in the Salt Lake Valley, Jane Shupe struggles to provide for herself and her younger sister. She is no member of the Mormon migration, yet Jane agrees to marry Thomas. Out of necessity, with no love lost, she too must bear the trials of a sister-wife.

But when the US Army’s invasion brings the rebellious Mormon community to heel, Tamar, Jane, and Tabitha are forced to retreat into the hostile desert wilderness with little in common but the same man—and the resolve to keep themselves and their children alive. What they discover, as one, is redemption, a new definition of family, and a bond stronger than matrimony that is tested like never before.

36. Thornyhold by Mary Stewart

read on Kindle

1988
207 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 5/1/2022
Goodreads rating: 3.83
My rating: 5
Setting: southern England

My comments: I’m sure I read this book years and years ago when I first got married… I read a lot of Mary Stewart that I found at the Northeast Harbor Library, where I hung out while Steve was at basic training. However, since this one was written in 1988 and Steve's basic training was in 1971, I must be wrong.  I did read lots of Mary Stewart's back then, though!

     I decided to read this book instead of listen to it. So I was able to digest it a little more slowly, and I completely enjoyed it. The Gothic feel of it, the witchiness, the description of cleaning out an old, isolated house in southern England… it’s flowers and brambles and old gardens. … with a thoroughly lovely, satisfying ending!

Goodreads synopsis:  The story is about a lonely child who is made to see the world through her cousin's unusual eyes. When the child becomes a young woman, she inherits her dead cousin's house, as well as her reputation among the local community as a witch. However, as she finds out, this is no normal community, and worries quickly present themselves.

70. Runes of Destiny by Christina Courtenay

listened on Chirp

narrated by Eilidh Beaton

Unabridged audio (12:24)
2020
352 pgs.
Adult Time Travel/Historical Fiction
Finished  6/27/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.23 - 342 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary and 9th century Sweden

First line/s: "Kneeling in a muddy trench in the middle of an archaeological dig might be considered a dirty and boring job by some, but it was just what Linnea Berger needed right now."

My comments: Ninth Century Vikings!  This is the story of a six-month expedition from Sweden through the rivers of eastern Europe to current-day Istanbul on two Viking ships/long boats in the late 800s.  Linnea, fluent in ancient Norse (how convenient!), after being transported to the past, is found by Hrafn and claimed as his slave/thrall.  HEA and fun  read with all the usual guaranteed fixtures in a romance - complete with antagonist and huge misunderstanding near the end, lol.  Quite clean, just one place not-quite-so.

Goodreads synopsis:   From the author of Echoes of the Runes comes a thrilling new timeslip novel, filled with adventure and romance, perfect for fans of Barbara Erskine, Diana Gabaldon and Vikings.
        Separated by time. Brought together by fate.
        Indulging her fascination for the Viking language and losing herself in an archaeological dig is just what Linnea Berger needs after her recent trauma. Uncovering an exquisite brooch, she blacks out reading the runic inscription, only to come to, surrounded by men in Viking costume, who seem to take re-enactment very seriously.
        Lost and confused, Linnea finds herself in the power of Hrafn, a Viking warrior who claims her as his thrall and takes her on a treacherous journey across the seas to sell her for profit. Setting sail, she confronts the unthinkable: she has travelled back to the ninth century.
        Linnea is determined to find a way back to her own time, but there's a connection forming with Hrafn that she can't shake. Underneath his hard exterior, he is brave, clever and caring―not to mention attractive. Can she resist the call of the runes and accept her destiny lies here with Hrafn?

67. The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

listened on Libby - borrowed from the library

narrated by Alana Kerr Collins

Unabridged audio (10:39)
2021
384 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 6/24/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.29 - 18,653 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1906 San Francisco, CA, a tiny town south of SF near San Jose, and Tucson, Arizona

First line/s: "Thank you again for coming.  Could you please state your full name, age, birth date, and the city where you were born, for the record, please?"

My comments:  The story is an unfolding mystery including elements that I love, including mail-order-brides.  It's about how women bod and take care of one another.  Beautifully read, though the Irish accent was very slight.

Goodreads synopsis:  April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.
        Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right.
        Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved.
        The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.
        From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War and As Bright as Heaven comes a gripping novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity.

65. The Planters by Victor Zugg

#2 A Ripple in Time

read on Kindle

2020
371 pgs.
Adult Time Travel
Finished 6/21/21
Goodreads rating: 4.30 - 624 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: 1720 South Carolina coastline

First line/s: "Nathan Sims eyed the sword's sharp point, hovering inches from his throat."

My comments: Most of this episode taes place on the open sea as Mason, Charlie, Jeremy, and Nathan travel back-and-forth between the plantation and the Spanish fort in Saint Augustine where they sell the rice so that they can pay the first installment that they owe Mrs. Stevens in New York for the purchase of the plantation.  At the end, the rotten Nthan has died and Karen is nearing the end of her pregnancy.  

Goodreads synopsis:  A continuing struggle for survival in a time long past.

        Former Federal Air Marshall Stephen Mason has again done the impossible. He has passed back through an unexplainable time portal and reunited with the three people he cares about most.
        It’s 1720, Charles Town, Carolina Colony, a time and place fraught with hardships and hazards. Carving out a life here will be challenging, especially for these modern-day transplants. There are few people they can trust, none in whom they can confide. But they have each other. And they have a rice plantation.
        With no apparent way home, the plan is simple: grow, harvest, sell, and make life as comfortable as possible, without getting too far ahead of history. But with a million ways things can go wrong, the execution may prove considerably more complicated.
        New to a new world, can Mason, Karen, Jeremy, and Lisa navigate the hard realities they are only beginning to understand?