Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 20

Saying Goodbye To Warsaw by Michael Cargill

This is the second book that I've read by Michael Cargill.   My first was the anthology Shades of Grey which I reviewed on Goodreads here.  Saying Goodbye To Warsaw was selected as the Book of the Month for June on the GR group Books, Blogs, Authors and More. I belong to this group and participate in it. It's a WWII novel that takes place in the Warsaw Ghetto, and I received it for free from the author in return for this honest review.

What I liked most about this book was Alenka, a character who appeared late in the novel.  She was spirited, resourceful and optimistic in a situation that left little room for optimism.  She played an important role in Cargill's version of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.  I also found her believable unlike the nine year old protagonist, Abigail.

Another review said that Abigail became unbelievable only toward the end of the book during the uprising.  I disagree. I think she was always too good to be true.  She had no flaws other than being young and innocent which was too temporary in her horrifying environment to be a real flaw.  All the children in the Warsaw Ghetto had to grow up in a hurry.   Abigail became much more seriously unbelievable toward the end of the book.  She not only acquired skills too quickly, she was better at them than anyone else.  Credibility went out the window.

I should state at this point  that I took a course on the Holocaust from the Jewish Theological Seminary.  One of the books I read in that course was The Theory and Practice of Hell by Eugen Kogen who was a political prisoner in Buchenwald.  I am mentioning this so that readers are aware that I have also read books from the perspective of non-Jewish Holocaust victims.

Kogen's book shows that the Nazis were quite rigorous about separating non-Jewish prisoners from Jewish prisoners.  The Nuremberg Laws actually required them to make sure that Jews had no contact with other types of prisoners.  They were afraid of "race pollution".  Separation of Jews from non-Jews was also the main reason for their establishment of  Jewish ghettos like the one in Warsaw.  So they wouldn't have deliberately sent someone who was legally non-Jewish to a Jewish ghetto.  From the Jewish perspective, they did send quite a number of non-Jews to Jewish ghettos.  This is because the definition of who is a Jew according to Jewish law was more restrictive than the Nuremberg Laws.

I am bringing up this issue because there is a character in this book who was sent to the Warsaw Ghetto even though he was non-Jewish.  This may seem like a minor point to other readers.  He was portrayed very movingly and I liked the role he played in the novel, but it bothered me that the author didn't understand something very basic about the Nazi mindset.  

Cargill also mentions Israel a few times.  Israel didn't exist until 1948 which was after WWII.  There is a statement made by a character in this novel that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was partly funded by "our friends in Israel".  This is highly improbable.  At the time, Jews in America were sending funds to Palestine to help with the struggle of Jewish settlers against the British Mandate.   For more information see the article on the Jewish Insurgency in Palestine on Wikipedia.

I'm picky about the historical details discussed above because they matter to me.  They probably wouldn't even be noticed by many readers.  

From a storytelling perspective, I thought that Saying Goodbye To Warsaw was well-plotted and well-paced.  I also liked the final scene.   It affirms the centrality and sacredness of family.  In the end, family is what matters most.

                                        
                                                                                                         

Take an adventure with Treasured Secrets by Kendall Talbot

Get ready for your own treasure hunt in Treasured Secrets by Kendall Talbot.

This was a unique story. There was more to this story then just romance. As a reader you're taken on a treasure hunt. The author did a great job in her writing and I could really see her descriptions. This is a story about a second chance at love. Rosalina spent a lot of time investing in Archer but he would never fully open up to her, so she left which gave Archer the wake-up call that he needed. Rosalina isn't as easy to win back over as he would like. Her character is strong and independent. She needs to know he is really serious this time before she invests in him again.

I really enjoyed the journey this book took me on as I traveled along with them characters, getting the clues and trying to figure them out. It was a fun read. One I would recommend to someone looking for a little mystery as well as some romance. This book has a lot of story packed in, so be ready to sit down and read it from start to finish.




Lacey's Rating:
About the book:
The last place Rosalina expected the clue to a 700-year-old mystery to lead is back into the arms of Archer, the one man who broke her heart. But neither can solve the puzzle without the other, so together they set off on a new adventure, weaving from Tuscany’s underbelly to Archer’s luxurious yacht in the Greek Islands, trying to ignore the sparks that still fly unhindered between them.

Archer desperately wants to salvage the relationship he shattered years before, but fighting for Rosalina’s love soon takes a back seat to fighting for their lives. They aren’t the only one on the trail for the treasure, and their competition isn’t bothered by ethics and morals to achieve their goals. With evil close on their trail, and Archer wrestling with the remnants of a childhood tragedy, Rosalina begins to wonder if perhaps there are some secrets that were never meant to be revealed.

Balm: A Post Civil War Novel of Healing Review and Giveaway

About Balm • Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Amistad (May 26, 2015)

The New York Times bestselling author of Wench—called "a fascinating and tragic story" by NPR.org, "deeply moving" by USA Today, and "lyrical and devastatingly beautiful" by People magazine—returns to the Civil War era to explore history's next chapter in this powerful story of love and healing.
The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie, and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life.
Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others' suffering and ease it, but she cannot heal her own damaged heart. To mend herself and continue to help those in need, she must return to Tennessee to face the women healers who rejected her as a child.
Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she, too, cannot fully engage her gift.
Searching for his missing family, Hemp arrives in this northern city that shimmers with possibility. But redemption cannot be possible until he is reunited with those taken from him.In the bitter aftermath of a terrible, bloody war, as a divided nation tries to come together once again, Madge, Sadie, and Hemp will be caught up in an unexpected battle for survival in a community desperate to lay the pain of the past to rest.
Beautiful in its historical atmosphere and emotional depth, Balm is a stirring novel of love, loss, hope, and reconciliation set during one of the most critical periods in American history.


REVIEW


I’ve read books dealing with slavery and the emancipation of the slaves after the American Civil War.  I’ve read books dealing with traditional herbalists from a variety of cultures. I’ve also read books that deal with trance mediums who can contact the spirits of the dead. Yet I’ve never read a book that focused on all three of these themes.  Balm by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is that book.  I received two copies of this book for free in return for this review. They are a paperback ARC directly from the publisher, and a digital ARC via Edelweiss. 
Because I have two copies, I decided to give away the copy of the print version to a lucky reader. Scroll down for the Rafflecopter Giveaway.   
The slavery and emancipation theme was movingly portrayed through the perspective of Hemp Harrison.   Since he found his slave name demeaning, he decided to name himself after the crop at the plantation where he was a slave followed by the surname of his former owner.  I have often wondered why emancipated slaves chose to identify with slave owners.   Hemp actually had an important reason.  He was trying to reunite with his wife who had been sold away. He had no idea where he would find her.  Hemp thought that his name might be a way for his wife to recognize that it was him searching for her.  A great many slaves were in his situation after the Civil War.  Dolen Perkins-Valdez depicts the affliction of separated African-American families through Hemp’s story. 
Madge, an African American woman who was born free, was the herbalist.  She was brought up in a family of rootworkers who made their living as healers.  Herbalists were often suspected of practicing witchcraft.  Madge did have a paranormal gift that facilitated her diagnosis of the conditions of her patients.  She wanted independence and a successful career, and she was confident that she could achieve these goals.  Yet something was missing in her life, and it took her some time to discover what that was. 
The medium who heard the voices of the dead was Sadie, a white Civil War widow.   I was particularly impressed by the fact that Sadie’s talent was genuine.  I’ve read many books dealing with fraudulent mediums who are eventually exposed.  I find that story line predictable and formulaic.  Sadie had to deal with the voice of a dead man who sometimes came to her involuntarily without being summoned.   She had to struggle to reclaim her freedom from that voice.  She was in a state of inner conflict about her mediumship.  I appreciated the complexity of Sadie’s characterization.
 Sadie decided to employ Madge as a servant.  The relationship between the two women was unsentimental and honestly portrayed.  So if you’re looking for a novel about a heartwarming friendship that transcends the post-slavery rift between the races, Balm is not that book.  I'm glad it isn't that sort of book since I don't subscribe to the delusion that two women could somehow cut through centuries of prejudice within a single generation. 
This is a book that is primarily about healing.  It's about the slow process of healing from the wounds of slavery, divided families and the mental anguish that resulted from these experiences.  I am grateful for the artistry of this author that allowed her to shape a tale of three individuals that is also the story of the beginning of America's emergence from a terrible time in its history.  
                                                                                                 

Purchase Links
| IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
About Dolen Perkins-Valdez Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Wench. Her fiction has appeared in the Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, StorySouth, and elsewhere. In 2011 she was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction. She was also awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She teaches in the Stonecoast MFA program in Maine. A graduate of Harvard and a former University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, Dolen Perkins-Valdez lives in Washington, D.C., with her family.

Find out more about Dolen at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.



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Gender Bias in Mystery and Romance Publishing by Anna Faktorovich

This is an academic study, but I thought I would try asking myself what a general reader would want to know about this book.  I reviewed The Romances of George Sand by Anna Faktorovich on Book Babe.  I also interviewed her.  More recently, I received a free copy of Gender Bias in Mystery and Romance Novel Publishing from the author in return for an honest review. 

                                               

                                           
First, I’d like to discuss what Faktorovich did right from the perspective of general non-academic readers.
1) She was honest about the fact that she usually didn’t read these genres, and didn’t portray herself as an authority about them. 2) She selected both 19th century and 20th century writers in each genre so that long-term trends could be identified. 3) She showed that in the mysteries she studied, authors of both genders tended to be disturbingly sexist in their character portrayals.  In fact, I read the results as showing that mysteries are more sexist than romances because women in most of the romances she studied are active characters, and romance tends to portray the male and female protagonists as having equal social and professional status. 4) She was willing to consider the idea that erotic romances might be explorations of women’s sexuality and could have a feminist impact for authors and readers.5) She included short biographies of authors that contained interesting facts about their lives which aren’t well known.
Now I’d like to enumerate some serious flaws in this book.
1) She chose mysteries as the most male dominated genre.   Actually, science fiction is more male dominated.2) She had outdated notions of both the mystery and romance genres.  Both genres have developed in directions that weren’t addressed in this study.3)  She was completely unaware of mystery sub-genres.  The cozy and paranormal mystery sub-genres which are dominated by female authors would have been particularly relevant to this study.4) She biased the sample of her survey by mainly distributing it on listservs for educators or librarians.
Although this was an interesting book, Faktorovich missed a great deal in her exploration of these genres.

                                                                                         

The Harem Midwife by Roberta Rich

This book is the sequel to The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich which I read and very much liked.  In this novel we find that  the Jewish midwife Hannah Levy and her husband Isaac, who had fled persecution in the Christian world, took refuge in the Islamic world.  This is what many Jews had done in the medieval period.  Jews continued to find sanctuary in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century which is when The Harem Midwife took place.   This may seem ironic to contemporary readers, but the current divisions between some Jews and Muslims are politically motivated and aren’t inevitable.  

                                                     

                                                         
                                               The plot of this sequel was a tumult of events which were suspenseful.    I also thought that Hannah’s difficult experiences during the course of this novel ultimately strengthened her marriage and caused her to grow as a character. 
 On the other hand, I learned little about the Jewish community in Constantinople because Hannah and Isaac were still culturally identified with Venice, and didn't seem very integrated with the local Jewish community. I felt as if this book was missing a dimension that would have anchored the protagonists in their new home.

                                                 
                                                      

If The Oceans Were Ink: The American Woman Journalist and the Islamic Scholar

American journalist Carla Power has had an ongoing friendship with Mohammed Akram Nadwi, an Islamic scholar who teaches in the Islamic Studies program at Oxford University.  Power calls him Akram since Nadwi is the name of the school where he studied Islamic law.  She is a secularist whose parents also didn't practice the religions in which they had been brought up.   I wanted to find out about why Carla Power wanted to explore Islam when she wasn't religiously oriented.  

                                             
                                           After having read the memoir she’s written about her friendship with Akram and her study of the Koran with him, I think that Power wants to be reassured about Islam.  
Akram preaches against involvement in politics.  He also respects women.  He said to Power that women’s scholarship is purer than men’s because they aren’t paid for it.  Their only motivation is spiritual.   This is why he was motivated to write The Women Scholars of Islam which is a forty volume study.  Only the introduction has been published.  His publishers are seeking funding for the remaining thirty nine volumes.  I wanted to know more about these women, but only a few of them are even mentioned in this book which is disappointing. 
Power only writes intermittently about her discussion of the Koran with Akram.  I was intrigued as always by the Bible stories in the Koran.  Akram tells his students that you must be familiar with the Bible to read the Koran.  Actually, if you are familiar with the Bible and its historical context, you are likely to find the Koran’s versions of Biblical personages really strange. I consider this an experience in cognitive dissonance. 
Let me give one example.  Akram spoke at a mosque in England about what the Koran has to say about the Virgin Mary who is called Maryam in Islam.  He said that she was called to serve at the Jewish Temple.  He implies that she was a priestess of some sort.  From a woman’s spirituality perspective, this is a lovely story.  From a historical perspective, it couldn’t have happened.   It isn’t just a matter of women’s status in Biblical times, or the fact that Mary didn’t belong to a priestly family.  Jews had prophetesses, but no priestesses.  The reason is that priestesses are associated with Pagan religions.   Jews wanted to avoid any similarity to the practices of Pagans.  When you add in the element that Mary became pregnant out of wedlock, then you have a reminder of the Sacred Prostitutes of Astarte.  Islam has also tried to avoid any practices similar to the pre-Islamic religions of Arabia.  So they should understand why Jews might consider this idea that Mary was a priestess in the Jewish Temple rather offensive.   Akram said that the Koran wanted to honor Mary.  Perhaps the intention was to show that her virginity was protected in a sacred place, so it couldn’t be that Mary became pregnant as a result of sex.  Neither the Koran’s version nor the New Testament version of the story of Mary could be considered sex positive, but I would love to see a variorum edition which shows each Bible story and its Koran equivalent side by side. 
Power is also a friend of Akram’s family and devotes a great deal of space to his daughter Sumaiya.  As an indicator that Sumaiya made her own decisions, Power tells us that Sumaiya went against her father’s opposition to dying her hair.  She consulted another Muslim scholar who gave her a fatwa (which means an opinion on Islamic law) that hair dying is permissible, and she proceeded to dye her hair.  This also shows that Islamic scholars aren’t united in their interpretations.
There is a bibliography at the end of this book which includes the first volume of Akram’s study on Islamic woman scholars which I would like to read as well as such books as Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism edited by Omid Safi and Inside The Gender Jihad by feminist Amina Wadud.  
 Unfortunately, If The Oceans Were Ink is not as interesting or insightful as I had hoped.  My feeling is that a secularist like Power, without any religious background, probably won’t ever have an in-depth understanding of Islam.

                                                                                            

In Defense Of Being Alone by @Lexi_Herrick

I read this essay on Huffington Post Women yesterday.  It inspired me. It conveys so well how I often feel, have felt, and yet the words have failed me. But I don't need to find the words, because this woman, this Lexi Herrick, has already done it so well. I received permission from her to repost it here. Remember, there's no shame in being alone. Don't stay somewhere you aren't happy just because you are afraid of being alone. You can do it, ladies. If you find love, great, hold on to it while you can. I know I will. But if you don't...or it doesn't work out, you can stand on your own feet. I too recently discovered that fear of the unknown, fear of being alone, often keeps us stuck in place when we don't need to be.  Recently, someone questioned my affinity for red wine. My answer, like most of my answers, was probably not at all what they expected."We bonded," I said, laughing and taking a sip from the glass that had inspired such a question."Well, I used to hate it. I was going through a difficult time when I started to drink the dry, red wine. It was just so strong and raw. It was powerful and bold. That's what I wanted to be. For the first time in my life, I just wanted to be those things, on my own. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to be fearless and bold. I wanted to be a strong, powerful red wine."Isn't it strange to realize you actually want to be alone? It was for me. It was weird. It was weird to genuinely not desire the things I used to need so desperately, and always had. It was weird to change into a woman I both admire and fear, because she can appear unrecognizable at times. But that's OK, because I think we all need to lose ourselves, to find ourselves. I think we all need to be left alone, to learn how to stand alone. I think we all need to choose to stand alone, to know we need no one else to be the strongest, most incredible versions of ourselves.Why do we feel so pressured to need a counterpart? What's so wrong with taking some time? We don't give ourselves enough damn time. We need time to breathe. We need time to think and to learn. We need time to shake a couple hands, get lost in a few pairs of lovely eyes and share stories with strangers that make us laugh. We don't need to jump into the arms and beds of different people until one of them decides to stay for a little while longer than the rest. We don't need titles and commitment that's rushed, or done so for any reason influenced by others. Why love someone if you don't love yourself? Why settle in life to satisfy some ridiculous human-made complex of being inadequate as a single-status person? We don't need that. We need adventure. We need friendship. We need natural confidence and bravery. We need to make the choices that are best for us and for our own happiness. We need funny stories, big pizzas, long drives, bright stars, brilliant ideas and moments that make us feel infinite and proud. That's what I need, at least.I just want to be alone for a while. I don't want to owe anyone anything. I don't want to have to explain why I'm guarded. I don't want to hurt anyone, because I'm not ready, and a person's heart is not something I would ever place into hands I don't trust. I don't want to have to make excuses. I don't want to worry about anyone. I don't want to be pressured. I don't want to make my decisions with or for anyone else. I don't want to be told what to do, where to go or who to be. I don't want to make promises I'm not ready to keep. I don't want to be concerned with what he wants or needs from me. I don't want to feel guilty for choosing myself for once.It's OK to want those things. For god's sake, it's OK to be a little selfish sometimes. It's OK to want to fall in love with your career and passions. It's OK to want to stay out way too late with your friends and get a little lost sometimes. It's OK to laugh so hard that you cry and make a few mistakes. It's OK to pack up your bags and go on trips at a moment's notice. It's OK to take chances. It's OK to do and say things you may have been fearful to before. It's OK to want to spend a little time loving yourself.There's nothing wrong with wanting that. There's nothing wrong with you. It doesn't make you heartless or cold. It doesn't make you undesirable or unwanted. It won't make you incapable of happiness or future relationships. You'll have those loves one day, and when you do, you'll be happy within yourself. You'll have that light in your heart, and fall in love with the way you see it shine in someone else. You'll want them, not need them. You'll know the difference. You deserve to."So, did it happen then? Did you become like the red wine?"I smiled."We're getting there."***Lexi writes to you from central Pennsylvania, where she blogs, works in corporate marketing and continues to study the fabulous field of communications. She's addicted to caffeinated beverages and people who make her smile. She's an advocate for equality, knowledge, healthy relationships, compassion, self-confidence, integrity and above all, love. The most incredible gift she has been given through writing is the ability to connect with the remarkable people in this world who read her work. She wants to thank them for teaching her, growing with her and changing her life. 

To read more, you can check out her blog at www.SerendipityandCreativity.com

The Intriguing Life of Ximena Godoy by Graciela Limón

What drew me to this novel was the promise of...I'll just quote it, "evolving rules that determine women s lives in both Mexico and America."

To be frank, except for women's sexuality, I didn't see anything about evolving women's rules or rights. There's one thing in the book that classifies as evolving women's issues: Ximena's promiscuity and exploration of liberal sex. She has sex because she wants to, with whom she wants to, and the book shows us how unacceptable this was to men who did the same. Double standard much?

Also appealing to me was the promise of revolution, but while Ximena does indeed join the revolution, it's completely without passion for the cause. I don't think she even knows what the revolution is about. She has no desire to help the working class. She just thinks it looks cool to ride around with a sombrero. While the story mentions this supposed battles she fights in, the details are relegated to her fornicating, fights with other women, and smoking weed.

She than abandons her daughter and dares to feel upset when she goes to claim her seven years later. Only then does she realize she had something precious. Beyond this, Ximena is merely a club manager. I didn't find her life intriguing at all. I actually couldn't care less about her or her life by the time I made it to 70%. I was nodding off.

 Besides the above, the story was also very telling, no showing. Borderline biography style.

Much thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital file, but it wasn't for me.

Review: Ryder: Bird of Prey #Giveaway

Blurb:
Fans of Steve Berry and James Rollins will devour Ryder: Bird of Prey, the latest white-knuckle thriller featuring Palestinian-born, British-educated adventurer Ayesha Ryder. She’s one of fiction’s boldest heroines—and now she’s rewriting royal history.

According to the last words of a dying man, the Maltese Falcon was no mere legend: The fabulously jeweled golden bird really existed—still exists, in fact. And Ayesha Ryder is hot on its trail. Rumor says the Falcon conceals clues to the burial place of Harold II, the conquered Anglo-Saxon King of England—and to an artifact of astonishing significance that few besides Ryder would understand.

Hunted by Scotland Yard, MI5, and those who seek the Falcon to break up the United Kingdom, Ryder joins forces with Joram Tate, a mysterious librarian with a reputation for turning up things that don’t want to be found. Soon Ryder and her handsome, erudite new companion are venturing through lost tombs and ancient abbeys, following a trail left ages ago by the Knights Templar.

Ryder knows she’s close to a game-changing secret, hidden for a thousand years beneath an English castle. But with ruthless killers waiting in the wings, Ryder must go medieval—to defend her life, her country, and the world as we know it.

Review:

What appealed to me about this book was that it had a kick ass heroine. Ryder was a great character and I enjoyed following her through this tale as she finds the Maltese Bird and the mystery around it. When I started this book, I felt like I was mid-story in something. The characters already knew one another (or so it felt to me as a reader for the first time in this series) and so much had already happened. It was then I discovered this was book 3 in a series and it doesn't feel as though I could read this one as a stand alone. I still did read this because I found the plot interesting and the writing good, but to anyone reading this review, make sure you read the first two books or you'll find yourself very lost in the beginning.

There are several point of views in this book with different angles. It took me a good few chapters before I had a grasp on each character and looked forward to their next section. It was nice to see how people reacted to this Ryder did to them in the book.

Ayesha was a character I enjoyed getting to know. I felt like the author did a good job with character development and letting us learn new things about them as the story went on, instead of a lot of back story in the beginning.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. I did have times my mind went off wandering and thinking about my daily activities. This isn't a genre I usually read, so it was nice stepping out of my comfort zone.

Rating:




About Nick Pengelley

Nick Pengelley is the author of the political thrillers Ryder, Ryder: American Treasure, and Ryder: Bird of Prey. Australian by birth, he’s had careers in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom as a law professor, legal consultant, and analyst on Middle East politics, which is his passion. Pengelley lives in Toronto with his family.

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Nick Pengelley’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, May 4th: A Fantastical Librarian

Monday, May 4th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Tuesday, May 5th: Vic’s Media Room

Wednesday, May 6th: My Book Retreat

Thursday, May 7th: Bell, Book & Candle

Friday, May 8th: Joyfully Retired

Monday, May 11th: Reading Reality

Wednesday, May 13th: Brooke Blogs

Thursday, May 14th: Read Love Blog

Monday, May 18th: Reading to Distraction

Monday, May 18th: Queen of All She Reads

Tuesday, May 19th: Book Nerd

Wednesday, May 20th: Dwell in Possibility

Thursday, May 21st: Patricia’s Wisdom

Tuesday, May 26th: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews

Thursday, May 28th: Book Babe


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The Reading Radar 5/23/2015 @GillPaulAUTHOR @readingthepast @_secondstory @sbkslandmark

What's the Reading Radar? It's just a list of books that caught my interest in the last week, why they caught my interest, and HOW. Having been an author myself once upon a time, I was always curious about how to reach readers. I type this up every week to share with readers books they may be interested as well and to let the authors know how they're being "discovered".

Discovered on Netgalley and promptly requested: No Place for a Lady by Gill Paul. (I love Victoria Hislop and I will be recording Poldark. Hm.)
1854. England is in the grip of a gruesome war.

Lucy Harvington, ill-educated beyond how to be a wife, has travelled to the Crimea with her handsome and impetuous officer husband Charlie.
As the day of battle dawns she can only pray her husband survives. If he doesn’t, what will become of her?

Dorothea Gray, volunteer nurse at the Westminster Hospital, is determined to follow her little sister Lucy to the front and to serve her country alongside her heroine Florence Nightingale and the pioneering nurses already risking their lives.

But neither sister could possibly have known the horrors they are about to witness – the courage, the cowardice, the danger – and the excitement – nor could they have guessed the risks they must take, the passion they will taste, and the simple fact that they may never see one another again …

If you love POLDARK, Gone With The Wind or the storytelling of Victoria Hislop, this is the perfect summer escape for you.

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Spotted on one of my favorite blogs, Reading the Past by Sarah Johnson, the upcoming Canadian title hit the wishlist:  The Farmerettes  by Gisela Tobien Sherman.

A diverse group of young women just out of high school live together during the summer of 1943 on a farm as part of the Farm Services - tending the fields and the livestock - doing the work of the men who are off fighting the war in Europe. We follow the stories of Helene, who sends her wages home to support her single mother; Peggy, a flirt with a secret she is desperate to keep; Binxie, whose rich family doesn't approve of her; Isabel, who pines over her fiance who is off fighting; the mysterious "X", who of all the girls feels most out of place; and Jean, whose family farm has been taken over by this group of "farmerettes." As the Second World War rages across the ocean, friendship, romance, hardship, and heartbreak shape their summer, and no one will be left unchanged.

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Spotted on Edelweiss. I've read about this empress before and this one sounds like a more intriguing twist. The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel. Almost a year wait for this one.

The gripping story of one woman's rise to royalty as China's first and only female emperor.

After her father's death, Mei finds herself in the impossible position of supporting her poverty-stricken family. But a prophecy once predicted that Mei could have the power to do the unthinkable—to become the first female ruler of China. And when an edict summons Mei to the emperor's palace to serve as one of his concubines, the prophecy no longer seems so far-fetched.

In the heart of the emperor's city, Mei faces a thousand other women, all vying for the emperor's favor. She manages to deftly manuever around the plots of wily courtiers and ambitious princes fighting for power. Then, just as she is in a position to seduce the emperor, she falls in love with his son instead. Now Mei must fight not only to gain favor with the emperor, but also to protect the man she loves.