Source: The History Quill Book Club

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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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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A Lady Newspaperman’s Dilemma by Eileen Joyce Donovan

A Lady Newspaperman’s Dilemma by Eileen Joyce Donovan Published by Woodhall Press on September 6, 2022 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 256 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Based on actual events, this story is set in a newspaper office in Eastern Montana in 1926. A time when the American public was obsessed with newspaper horror stories of what most today would consider ordinary murders or other man-made catastrophes. Anything that could contribute to the roar of the Roaring 20’s was commercialized, became sensational news overnight, and newspaper fodder for many days thereafter. Hence, a flood that could destroy a town became a front-page event. More than anything, Alex wants to be a journalist for a major metropolitan newspaper. A field dominated by men. Harriet Quimby and Nellie Bly notwithstanding. Although she’s covered other front-page stories, including a murder of a much loved and respected rancher, this flood will affect everyone living in Sunset Valley, if they survive. When this life changing story falls into her lap, her editor threatens to assign it to a more seasoned male reporter, or maybe cover it himself. Alex becomes frustrated at being cast aside and is determined to […]

Posted September 8, 2022
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Between the Lines by D. Hale Rambo

Between the Lines by D. Hale Rambo Series: The Planar Pages #1 on July 27th, 2022 Genres: Fantasy Pages: 305 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Life flourishes in the Book, a realm of stacked worlds, like the pages of a novel. Each more unique than the last. Those who can travel through them are page turners. Blessed with the power to go from one page to the next. For investigator Fiona Thorne, being a turner is normal life. Solving mysteries is where the excitement lives. Minor cases are still work to be done, people to be helped, and she’s determined to make an impact in the Book, no matter what. Blaze, the page of fire, is wasting away. Fire elementals are being smuggled out in waves, but by whom? Fiona is on the job and nothing will hold her back, not even the overbearing Travel Guild. They may run the Book, but they don’t rule her. With the fire page and its creatures on the brink of winking out, she has to race to unravel who the smugglers are and how to stop them. Is there more to this case than it seems? […]

Posted July 30, 2022
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Cragside: A 1930’s Murder Mystery by M.J. Porter

Cragside: A 1930’s Murder Mystery by M J Porter on April 14th, 2022 Genres: Mystery Pages: 258 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads From the author of The Erdington Mysteries, a classic 1930s murder mystery house party. Lady Merryweather has had a shocking year. Apprehended for the murder of her husband the year before, and only recently released, she hopes a trip away from London will allow her to grieve. The isolated, but much loved, Cragside Estate in North Northumberland, home of her friends, Lord and Lady Bradbury, holds special memories for her. But, no sooner has she arrived than the body of one of the guests is found on the estate, and suspicion immediately turns on her. Perhaps, there are no friendships to be found here, after all. Released, due to a lack of evidence, Lady Ella returns to Cragside only to discover a second murder has taken place in her absence, and one she can’t possibly have committed. Quickly realising that these new murders must be related to that of her beloved husband, Lady Merryweather sets out to solve the crime, once and for all. But there are many who don’t want […]

Posted April 15, 2022
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The Other Side of Silence by Dodie Bishop

The Other Side of Silence by Dodie Bishop Series: Silence and Shadow #1 Published by Next Chapter on January 19th, 2022 Genres: Historical Fiction Pages: 328 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads Against a backdrop of murder and intrigue at the dissolute court of King Charles II, can Susannah and Raphael save their friend and find each other along the way? After a three-year absence mired in anxiety and trapped by her lack of speech, portrait miniaturist Susannah Gresham gathers her courage and returns to Whitehall Palace and her godfather, the King. Encountering Florentine jeweller Raphael Rossi, who appears to her just another court libertine, she is not immune to his appeal. With help from his patron, King’s mistress the Duchess of Richmond, Raphael sets out to win her. When Susannah’s closest friend Sam Carter is sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, Susannah and Raphael must race against time to uncover the real killer. But nothing is as it seems, for Sam has dangerous enemies who are determined to see him die… Content Warnings: Swearing Blasphemy Adult Content (if you are an innocent white kitten like myself, you will blush […]

Posted March 18, 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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The Automobile Assassination by M J Porter

The Automobile Assassination by M J Porter Series: Erdington Mysteries #2 Published by M J Publishing on November 25th, 2021 Genres: Historical Fiction, Suspense Pages: 253 Format: ARC Source: The History Quill Book Club Buy on Amazon Goodreads A 1940s mystery Erdington, September 1944 As events in Europe begin to turn in favour of the Allies, Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is once more prevailed upon to solve a seemingly impossible case. Called to the local morgue where a man’s body lies, shockingly bent double and lacking any form of identification, Mason and O’Rourke find themselves at Castle Bromwich aerodrome seeking answers that seem out of reach to them. The men and women of the royal air force stationed there are their prime suspects. Or are they? Was the man a spy, killed on the orders of some higher authority, or is the place his body was found irrelevant? And why do none of the men and women at the aerodrome recognise the dead man? Mason, fearing a repeat of the cold case that dogged his career for two decades and that he’s only just solved, is determined to do all he can to uncover the identity of […]

Posted December 4, 2021
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Weekend Book Friends #25

Greetings you guys! Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends in America! May it be time of reflecting, giving thanks and stroking your cat. It’s very windy and rather cold here with us (no, we did not move. We are still in SA, the weather is just a bit like a teenager at the moment.) What else is there to do but stay indoors and read a good book? We are currently busy with an ARC for The History Quill Book Club and once again, what a brilliant read. Let’s share this thrilling mystery with our Weekend Book Friends. For our first stop, we will pay a visit to Gilion over at Rose City Reader to share our Book Beginnings. We’ve also decided to join Carrie over @ Reading is my Super Power for First Line Friday. Every Friday you can link up and share the first sentence of your current read (or the one you plan to devour over the weekend), as well as your initial thoughts and impressions. The Automobile Association opens with a prologue. We love prologues and going back to them when the book is finished to see how much it really gave away: He made his way through […]

Posted November 26, 2021
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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
4 Comments

Source: The History Quill Book Club

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