Reviews by Jeanne W. (Colorado Springs, CO)

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The House on Biscayne Bay
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
Pure Pleasure Reading (1/1/2024)
Chanel Cleeton does historical fiction so well! This very gothic novel is done in two timelines. The first is around 1920 with Anna and Robert Barnes, who are looking to join the up and coming Miami area. Robert builds Marbrisa, an enormous showy house, as a gift to Anna; …more
Becoming Madam Secretary
Becoming Madam Secretary
by Stephanie Dray
Historical Fiction at Its Best (11/14/2023)
What a great book! I'm embarrassed to say I knew nothing of Frances Perkins nor her incredible achievements. A fiction book that sends the reader searching for more information must be a great book and this is one of them. She was such an accomplished woman, for her times …more
All You Have to Do Is Call
All You Have to Do Is Call
by Kerri Maher
A Tale of Then and Now? (6/20/2023)
Kerri Maher's 'All You Have to Do is Call' is a sobering reminder of the direction our country is headed unless women are given the autonomy of their own bodies. Based on a real-life organization in Chicago, the Janes run an illegal abortion clinic and provide other …more
Mrs. Plansky's Revenge
Mrs. Plansky's Revenge
by Spencer Quinn
Good but not great; I miss Chet! (4/11/2023)
Mrs. Plansky is a 70-year-old widow living in Florida. When she receives a late-night emergency call from her grandson, of course she wires him the $10,000 he says he needs. Problem is, when she gets up the next morning every penny in all of her accounts is gone. She's been …more
Homestead
Homestead: A Novel
by Melinda Moustakis
I'm sorry I didn't like this book! (1/21/2023)
I wanted to like this story of Lawrence and Marie, a newly married couple, strangers to each other, trying to eke out a living on Lawrence's Alaskan homestead. I liked both characters and wanted to know more about their lives, but I really disliked the writing style. I know …more
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
by Colleen Oakley
A fun little romp across the country (10/26/2022)
Tanner is funny in her panic and her horror at old people and Louise is stereotypically crusty and that makes them an unlikely and enjoyable pair as they go "on the lam" and try to reach Louise's old friend George. Little breadcrumbs are dropped along the way to clue in the …more
The Lies I Tell
The Lies I Tell: A Novel
by Julie Clark
Twisty-turny Thriller (4/5/2022)
I loved this thriller! Julie Clark has a real flair for this back and forth kind of story-telling. You expect to not like some of the characters but the two leads are very likable and Clark does an excellent job of explaining why Meg and Kat are the way they are. I felt …more
The Widow Queen
The Widow Queen: The Bold #1
by Elzbieta Cherezinska
Disappointingly incomplete (11/19/2020)
An imagined life story of a 10th century princess in what are now known as Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, there is great potential here to tell a story that most fans of historical fiction are unfamiliar with. The unfortunate thing about receiving an advance copy is that …more
The Woman Before Wallis
The Woman Before Wallis: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and Royal Scandal
by Bryn Turnbull
A Great Backstory to a Major Moment in History (7/21/2020)
This book picked me up and set me down in the 1930s. Clothing, cars, nightclubbing all felt so authentic. I've never been a member of British high-society, but I am still appalled by how they "raised" their children. In his first 6 months, I don't think baby Tony saw his …more
He Started It
He Started It
by Samantha Downing
A Twisty, Turn-y Road Trip (2/6/2020)
A family of not-very-nice people goes on a road trip to scatter Grandpa's ashes and thus fulfill the conditions of his will and inherit his fortune. Everybody is a liar and only out for themselves. Because you never know what the truth is the book twists and turns until you' …more
The Women with Silver Wings
The Women with Silver Wings: The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II
by Katherine Sharp Landdeck
More WWII Unsung Heroes (1/7/2020)
This is truly an untold story. It starts out like a basic nonfiction book about a group of women and their piloting escapades, but very quickly you're brought into the details of these women's lives and suddenly you're right there with them. There were 1100 women trained to …more
The Girl in White Gloves
The Girl in White Gloves: A Novel of Grace Kelly
by Kerri Maher
Too Good to be True? (11/7/2019)
This is a fictionalized book about Grace Kelly aka Princess Grace. Grace had a rough but well-heeled childhood with a father who could never be pleased and a mother who never seems to have stood up for her children. The book starts with Grace as a struggling ingenue and …more
The Big Finish
The Big Finish
by Brooke Fossey
Getting Old is Not for Wimps! (10/10/2019)
While the plot itself is nothing unique, the assisted-living community and its senior residents are unusual. The book makes you really understand how fragile our bodies become as we age and the uncertainties we'll face as we struggle with old age.

I'm not sure that younger …more
The Secrets We Kept
The Secrets We Kept: A novel
by Lara Prescott
Great Cold War Intrigue (7/11/2019)
Lara Prescott does a wonderful job making these three women come alive. Daily office life at the CIA has a kind of Mad Men feel to it while Olga's life in Russia feels more 19th century than 20th century. Olga's experiences in the gulag compared with Boris' relatively …more
D-Day Girls
D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II
by Sarah Rose
Long Overdue (3/26/2019)
A treasure trove of WWII-era documents was released several years ago, leading to some great books like this one. It's about time that women who served in such critical roles got their due. Rose's book concerns a handful of these women. Trained up like men, dropped behind …more
My Lovely Wife
My Lovely Wife
by Samantha Downing
Mixed Review (10/6/2018)
It's hard to rate a story about a married pair of serial killers. If I say I liked it, what does that say about me? It was well-written and a fast read; the twists and turns just keep coming. But the idea of this couple picking out young women to capture, torture and kill …more
Vox
Vox
by Christina Dalcher
A not-too farfetched future? (5/11/2018)
There will probably be a lot of comparisons to A Handmaid's Tale and that's an apt description, but Vox stands on its own merits. In a world where women are controlled by means of a band on their wrists limiting them to 100 words a day, no longer allowed to work and urged …more
The Summer Wives
The Summer Wives
by Beatriz Williams
I'm glad I'm not rich! (4/21/2018)
This is my first novel by Beatriz Williams and it won't be my last. On tony Winthrop Island the extremely rich spend their summers in the 50s and 60 with the year-round people who support and serve the summer people. In the summer of 1951 Miranda Schuyler and her mother …more
Les Parisiennes
Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation
by Anne Sebba
WWII wasn't just the big battles (7/25/2016)
Anne Sebba's meticulous research into the lives of Parisian women during WWII is truly remarkable and an epic achievement. It's wonderful that so many stories of those "behind the lines" are now being told. Unfortunately, there are so many characters that there seems to be …more
The Light in the Ruins
The Light in the Ruins
by Chris Bohjalian
Great mix of historical fiction and mystery (2/20/2016)
This is the first of his books that I've really enjoyed. It's WWII historical fiction set in Italy mixed with a mystery. In 1943, the Rosati family owns a large estate near Florence in a small village. As WWII escalates, the Nazis begin imposing themselves on the family and …more
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