Icon Tag: War

Madame Pommery – Creator of Brut Champagne by Rebecca Rosenberg

Madame Pommery – Creator of Brut Champagne by Rebecca Rosenberg Series: Champagne Widows Published by Lion Heart Publishing on March 21, 2023 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 400 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads A Champagne Widows Novel Champagne, France, 1860. Madame Pommery, an etiquette teacher and orphanage founder, loses her husband and is forced to support her family. With no experience, the forty-year-old widow decides to make champagne. Her unique vision is to change it from a sweet dessert beverage to a dry, crisp wine to be enjoyed anytime. When champagne makers refuse to teach her their craft, she forges ahead on her own and secretly begins the excavation of champagne caves under the Reims city dump. Soon after, her son and her entire crew are conscripted to fight the Franco-Prussian war, leaving Madame Pommery alone to struggle with her champagne dreams. After Napoleon and a hundred thousand French troops are captured, the Prussians invaded France, and Prussian General Frederick Franz occupies Madame Pommery’s house as his army headquarters. Undaunted, Pommery uses her secret wine caves to hide the Francs-Tireurs, resistance fighters for France, while she plans to build a spectacular castle winery above […]

Posted March 31, 2023
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F. Scott Fitzgerald: American Spy by Murray Sinclair

F. Scott Fitzgerald: American Spy by Murray Sinclair Published by Eclectic Books on February 15th, 2023 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 248 Format: ARC Source: Reedsy Discovery Buy on Amazon Goodreads Did you know that, in the Spring of 1940, the once famous author F. Scott Fitzgerald was recruited by an agent of the French Resistance to assassinate the premier of Vichy France? Fitzgerald had hijacked the “Jazz Age” and made it his own in the Roaring 20s, but now a struggling, impecunious alcoholic, his only real comforts are multiple Coca-Colas and the elusive embrace of his paramour, gossip columnist Sheilah Graham. Hemingway has become the real ticket, making the big money, but when our narrator Henri Duval, a double agent for the Vichy government and the French Resistance, surfaces in Hollywood at the legendary Garden of Allah hotel on Sunset Boulevard across the street from the star-studded Schwab’s Pharmacy, he hatches a harebrained scheme that might just change the entire course of history and restore Fitzgerald to his rightful position on the top of the literary heap. As we peruse Duval’s secret correspondence to his colleague in Washington D.C., we eavesdrop on wild nights with the Marx Brothers, intrigues engineered […]

Posted February 15, 2023
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The Wartime Matchmakers by Lauren Smith

The Wartime Matchmakers by Lauren Smith on October 1st, 2022 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 650 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads When the world went to war… they fought for love. England, 1939: The world is on the brink of war when Elizabeth Mowbray breaks her engagement with a tea planter in India and returns home to the English countryside. Desperate to escape a stifling life under her parents’ roof, she moves to London seeking adventure and excitement. With German forces sweeping across Europe, she has little hope of finding steady, fulfilling employment as England readies itself for war. A chance encounter with Henrietta, Brigadier General Byron’s daughter, sets Elizabeth on a course that will forever change her life and the lives of others. Henrietta, a recently divorced and statuesque beauty, is not a hopeless romantic like Elizabeth, but her new friend inspires her to embrace life, even as the dark fog of war creeps across the English Channel. The two enterprising young women come up with a brilliant idea to open London’s first matchmaking agency. They face numerous challenges in establishing their business in the midst of air raid drills, food and clothing […]

Posted October 8, 2022
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The Tale of Arthur Tobias by JG Pennington

The Tale of Arthur Tobias by JG Pennington on June 20th, 2022 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 270 Format: ARC Source: Reedsy Discovery Buy on Amazon Goodreads Since graduating from Hamilton, Maxine Hauser exists to pack up the past lives of some of New York’s Jewish elite. It’s business as usual until she is hired to box up the former home of Francis Tobiah. While packing away his earthly possessions, Maxine discovers a similarity in her client and best-selling author, Arthur Tobias. Maxine picks up Arthur’s best selling work, Sarah, and is transported back to walking in the shoes of a young, single, mother navigating a new country during World War II. Through reading Sarah, Maxine makes it her mission to not let Francis’ identity or his mother’s story die with him. The Tale of Arthur Tobias is about a young Jewish woman, Maxine Hauser who runs a successful business packing up the lives of New York’s Jewish Elite when they pass away and the family, or Estate Executors, do not know what to do with their possessions and memorabilia. Just from that sentence and the synopsis of this book, the reader already expects a historical novel and a life story […]

Posted August 2, 2022
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Lucifer’s Game by Cristina Loggia

Lucifer’s Game by Cristina Loggia Published by Lume Books on October 14th, 2021 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 340 Format: ARC Source: Netgalley Buy on Amazon Goodreads Rome, 1942. Cordelia Olivieri is a young, determined hotel owner desperate to escape Mussolini’s racial persecution. But as Fascist leaders gather in Rome, Cordelia is suddenly surrounded by the world’s most ruthless and powerful commanders. In an effort to keep her Jewish heritage a secret and secure safe passage out of Italy, Cordelia forms a dangerous alliance with the British army who want to push the Axis out of North Africa once and for all. Going undercover, Cordelia begins obtaining and leaking military intelligence to a British agent, hoping the intel will secure her freedom. But the more Cordelia uncovers, the greater the risks – especially for one handsome German Afrika Korps officer. How far must Cordelia go to protect her identity and secure passage out of Rome? Spies, military secrets, and a personal crusade for freedom… don’t miss this utterly gripping World War II thriller. Italy 1942. The world is at war and not even the ancient city of Rome and its citizens are spared from the fear and devastation. Cordelia Olivieri, a […]

Posted March 28, 2022
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Love and Retribution by Catherine McCullagh

Love and Retribution by Catherine McCullagh Published by Big Sky Publishing on January 5th, 2022 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 400 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads It’s July 1943 and the world has been at war for almost four long years. One morning, young widow Emmy Penry-Jones discovers two men washed up on the beach below her house on the west coast of Cornwall. Emmy is used to rescuing washed-up sailors, the deadly Battle of the Atlantic exacting a heavy toll on shipping. But these men are not like the shipwrecked sailors she has rescued before and Emmy is soon drawn into a web of intrigue that will test both her ingenuity and her patriotism. Rocked by accusations of war crimes against a man she knows to be innocent, Emmy launches a bid to defend him, all too aware that the accusers could turn on her. The trial marks a turning point and Emmy is drawn further into a deadly cycle of post-war retribution from which only one man can save her. If Historical fiction is one of your favorite genres, what is it that draws you to it? “The more you know about […]

Posted January 15, 2022
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Secrets and Showgirls by Catherine McCullagh

Secrets and Showgirls by Catherine McCullagh Published by Big Sky Publishing on February 3rd 2021 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 360 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Le Prix d’Amour, a vibrant Paris cabaret, is caught in the crossfire of the occupation. Everyone is being watched, and some of Le Prix’s colourful performers are hiding dangerous secrets. Monsieur Maurice manages Le Prix d’Amour, a successful Parisian cabaret, which boasts glitzy performers and sassy showgirls. But with the German occupation in June 1940, Maurice treads a fine line between his German patrons, the French police and the Gestapo as he hides the dark secrets of his performers. Two of his lively showgirls, Lily and Poppy, soon join Maurice in the hunt for an informer who threatens to betray them. With the Allied landings, the tension builds and Maurice is pushed to his limits as his performers finally take the fight to the invader in their own flamboyant way. Secrets and Showgirls portrays an occupied Paris in which exotic cabarets existed uneasily under the heel of the invader. It follows the antics of Maurice, Lily and a glittering array of characters, but never loses sight of the […]

Posted October 20, 2021
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The Ice Swan by J’nell Ciesielski

The Ice Swan by J’nell Ciesielski Published by Thomas Nelson on July 6th 2021 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 400 Format: ARC Source: Netgalley Buy on Amazon Goodreads Amid the violent last days of the glittering Russian monarchy, a princess on the run finds her heart where she least expects it. 1917, Petrograd. Fleeing the murderous flames of the Russian Revolution, Princess Svetlana Dalsky hopes to find safety in Paris with her mother and sister. But the city is buckling under the weight of the Great War, and the Bolsheviks will not rest until they have erased every Russian aristocrat from memory. Svetlana and her family are forced into hiding in Paris’s underbelly, with little to their name but the jewels they sewed into their corsets before their terrifying escape. Born the second son of a Scottish duke, the only title Wynn MacCallan cares for is that of surgeon. Putting his talents with a scalpel to good use in the hospitals in Paris, Wynn pushes the boundaries of medical science to give his patients the best care possible. After treating Svetlana for a minor injury, he is pulled into a world of decaying imperial glitter. Intrigued by this mysterious, cold, and […]

Posted August 26, 2021
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The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn on March 9th 2011 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 624 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart. 1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by […]

Posted July 17, 2021
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Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Salt to the Sea by Rita Sepetys on February 02, 2016 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 391 Format: Paperback Source: Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known January 30, 1945 sinking in the Baltic Sea by a Soviet submarine of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army. The ship was overcrowded with more than 10,500 passengers — the intended capacity was approximately 1,800 — and more than 9,000 people, including 5,000 children, lost their lives. Sepetys (writer of ‘Between Shades of Gray’) crafts four fictionalized but historically accurate voices to convey the real-life tragedy. Joana, a Lithuanian with nursing experience; Florian, a Prussian soldier fleeing the Nazis with stolen treasure; and Emilia, a Polish girl close to the end of her pregnancy, converge on their escape journeys as Russian troops advance; each will eventually meet Albert, a Nazi peon with delusions of grandeur, assigned to the Gustloff decks. Paperback 390 pages Read 09 August 2016 Published February 2016 Goodreads Blurb: Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets. Each […]

Posted August 12, 2016
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Icon Tag: War

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