I liked this book. It's well-written with decent character development. As a reader, I grew to care about the characters (and despise others). World War II books abound nowadays yet this offers a different perspective. The war is the setting for a complicated parent/child relationship and a more supportive one. The two protagonists -- Viv, who's been raised in a strict Catholic family and Joshua who's from a Jewish family, are living in Liverpool in the 1930s when they briefly meet and then Viv becomes pregnant. They have left the altar when Viv's stern mother offers Joshua a deal that he feels he cannot turn down. Each protagonist makes choice after choice with the information that each has at that given moment in their lives. While I have read volumes about the Kindertransport during World War II, this is the first time that I read anything about Operation Pied Piper. I would have welcomed more development on author Julia Kelly's part about the psychological and emotional traumas rendered by this part of history. Nonetheless, Kelly does an admirable job of bringing everything together at the end. This is not a happily-ever-after novel in the traditional sense. But it whets one's appetite to research and learn more about this part of history. Job well done, Julia Kelly.

This review has several well known sayings because they are all relevant.

First -- Truth is stranger than fiction. Bryn Turnbull's debut novel is an engrossing piece of historical fiction that proves this adage true.

When I was growing up, my late mother talked about Edward, Prince of Wales, who chose the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. By doing so, he thereby gave up his rights to the Throne of England. Yet I had never heard of the woman before Simpson, Thelma Morgan, the sister of Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt. Thelma's husband Viscount Duke Furness introduced her to Edward and an affair ensured. Thelma traveled (via ship) to New York to support her sister through her well publicized divorce and custody trial. Before she set sail, she asked her trusted friend Wallis to take care of Edward. I wondered how history would have been different had Wallis not taken such good care of Edward. The rest is history. Cherchez la femme, as the French say.

Thelma and Gloria are the proverbial "poor little rich girls." There's glamour, fame, wealth but not much else. Both love and lose big time.

This sliver of juicy history occurs in a time period when journalism was about newspapers, photographers and radio. Imagine today's paparazzi feasting on these characters and their stories. There'd be many more applicable adages.

Paris, the City of Lights, is the backdrop to what appears to be extraordinarily well coordinated multi acts of terrorism. But then it’s not. Without giving too much away, this page turner reveals some of the more base sides of people. And that revenge can destroy worlds. It’s a worthwhile read that unfolds and surprises at every twist and turn.

Set in 3 different eras, Rita Woods' debut novel is a home run that deals with African American women of assorted ages in situations of flux and peril, including a female slave named Abigial who leaves behind during the revolution in Haiti everyone she loves in order to escort to safety her mistress. The unifying theme is a hidden stop on the underground railroad. Woods' character development is detailed to the point that these characters enter the reader's psyche and you think about them while putting the book down and even after finishing the book.

Two stories parallel and intersect one another is this novel about the behind-the-scenes of the epic book-turned-film Dr. Zhivago and the cadre of women in this country who were recruited to be spies. The author admirably works the threads together of different groups of people on different continents who really are only 2-3 degrees of separation from one another yet impact each other. This book is clearly a labor of love for Prescott.

Sarah Rose's D-Day Girls is a worthwhile addition to the tsunami of both fiction and non-fiction about World War II that has proliferated and continues to do so. The war had to be "turned around" and with necessity being the mother of invention, some of the Allies recruited and trained women.

Rose's engaging book, which will undoubtedly make for a great movie, is meticulously researched through a plethora of sources, including primary interviews. The reader not only gets the facts but also is invited into the "heads" of the key characters so you connect with them and feel what they felt.

Rose depicts the anti-Semitism within the ranks and how the Jewish recruits were perceived and treated. The contemporary relevance is remarkable.

D-Day Girls is one ambitious piece of writing and Rose has done it well. She has uncovered a piece of history that hitherto had been concealed.

Reading books is a passion but I was pushed hard on this one. It was bogged down in local detail that detracted from what might have been a more engaging story. For those who read reviews, you know this is not usual.

What a YUMMY, DELECTABLE book. These are three awesome women who are powerful, gentle, funny, self-confident and humble -- And all these qualities at the same time. To top it off, they are all outstanding writers. The themes they cover -- from food to love to marriage to the battle of the bulge to addictions to religion to Mom/daughter stuff, sister/sister love and hate -- span the spectrum. One of the strengths of this book is the universal in the particular. Most of us crave human intimacy and meaningful connections. We value knowing where we come from and the kind of enduring legacy we wish to leave. Food here is simply the medium through which so much is discussed and achieved. And Love is the bridge and is expressed through food through all the generations. It brings to mind that the Hebrew word for love is "ahava," to root of which is "hav," to give. These women know how to give.

Just one challenge which I'd love to put out there for them: Ladies -- How about making these recipes kosher? :) I loved your book and perhaps one day we could meet for lunch?!

Ben's boundless rage careens with Maddy's brain injury so that the top of the Illica marriage is blown off and the foundation of the family is compromised. Clearly, Meyers knows the world of emotional abuse and battered families and brings it into 20-20 vision. While ACCIDENTS OF MARRIAGE moves slowly in some moments and its editing could be tweaked slightly, the reader becomes invested in the characters. One wonders what happens to adolescent Emma who, underneath it all, is just a kid. It makes one realize that a functional, growing and thriving marriage is essential to raising emotionally healthy children.

I'll admit it up front -- It took me a while to get into this book. In this "selfie" age when memoirs on just about anything proliferate, especially when a 20-something is trying to find herself, I groaned. Yet Kelly Corrigan is not run-of-the-mill. Her worldwide odyssey was not Mom-and-Dad financed. Rather, she worked. Her commitment to the motherless Australian family is laudatory and all the more so since she had no idea how this experience would shape how she'd see her mother as well as herself as a mother. I ached when she disclosed that the Aussie kids never sought her out when they became adults. Her conclusion though about who loses out when a Mom dies was right on and refreshingly honest. Kelly -- When you make it out to the East Coast, I'd love to have dinner with you.

Hannah's and Olivia's worlds intersect in what some may call serendipity and others say G-d. Does it matter how? In any event, each woman has made life decisions, journeying different courses yet bonded in a way unfathomed. They and Maddie benefit from the friendship which appears initially contrived, yet proves true the age old adage, "Blood is thicker than water." Hatvany creates believable characters. The reader is able to climb into each person's head, get what's going on, and then enjoy a deceptively simple story that raises the question each stage in each character's life: What would I have done?

JoJo Moyes has a unfailing gift of creating characters who get under your skin, staying with you long after you finished reading her books. Sophie is a deliciously warm, kindhearted person who goes to all ends to help her family and fellow townsmen during the German occupation of France during World War I. The reader will have a special place in their heart for Edith, a "fallen woman" who is more three-dimensional than most of the people in town. Modern-day Liv, whose own circumstances are rather individual as she is a young widow, is at a crossroads in her life. She nevertheless stands by her principles as did Sophie and Edith decades earlier. And who would think that a child to whom Sophie gave a home holds the cards in the end? Well-written, JoJo Moyes paints a picture of little known details about World War I. Keep them coming, JoJo!

Articulate, intelligent, tenacious, loving and lovable, Holocaust survivor Ben accuses Elliot Rosenzweig, a well known Chicagoan leader, of being a former Nazi officer. According to Ben, his family in Poland gave Elliot, then known as Otto, a home. The Solomons raised, fed and education Otto who morphed into a perpetrator of evil, killing many Jews who crossed his path. The wealthy Elliot launches an offensive, denying the accusations. Ben chooses a young but troubled female attorney who, impressed with Ben's principles and values, values her heart, professionally and personally. Once We Were Brothers is an enjoyable, quick-read book that is chock full of factual history about one of the bleakest periods known to mankind. Although predictable, the end is nonetheless heartwarming and uplifting.