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Reviews by Becky H

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A Death of No Importance
A Death of No Importance: A Mystery
by Mariah Fredericks
A good mystery with great characters (4/28/2019)
The backstairs folk always see more than the upper class folks think. Lady’s maid Jane sees and thinks. The writing is good with great characterization, good atmosphere, a realistic portrayal of time and place. Fredericks throws in some real people and real incidents to …more
The Farm
The Farm
by Joanne Ramos
Exploitation or a Godsend (4/25/2019)
An idea – pay poor women large sums to be the surrogate for busy, important, wealthy, lazy women who want their own child, but don’t want the bother, time commitment, inconvenience of actually bearing them.
Ramos has written a novel that presents that idea carried out to …more
Maud's Line
Maud's Line
by Margaret Verble
Absorbing and thought-provoking (4/6/2019)
Maud, her father and brother live on Maud’s mother’s allotment in the former Indian Territory. Her family is (mostly) Cherokee. Maud has a desire for better things. Electricity, a refrigerator, an inside toilet. It is 1928.
This tale of Cherokee families living in Oklahoma …more
Daughter of Moloka'i
Daughter of Moloka'i
by Alan Brennert
Daughter of Moloka'i is here! (3/14/2019)
The long awaited sequel to MOLOKA’I is here! Rachel’s daughter Ruth, taken from her the day Ruth was born, is the main character in this family tale that extends from Hawaii to California to Japanese internment camps and back to California.
Brennert excels in incorporating …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
This is "real history" (3/12/2019)
I had to keep reminding myself that this was "real non-fiction" and keep reading. Unfortunately I had just read a fictionalized account of the resistance in France that covered many of the same women/events in this book.
D-DAY GIRLS is well researched and well written. It …more
The Last Collection
The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel
by Jeanne Mackin
Fascinating couture and politics (2/23/2019)
I was fascinated by the personalities of Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli and the intricacies of Haute Couture and politics in Paris just before and during WWII. But I was also intrigued by the daily life of various classes of people (upper class, middle class, merchants, …more
The Gown
The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding
by Jennifer Robson
Rich details make this book come alive (2/20/2019)
The intimate details of every day life in 1947 England, still suffering from the austerity required by the devastation of WWII, are clearly rendered in the lives of two embroiderers working on Princess Elizabeth’s wedding gown. One woman will become world famous, the other …more
The Word Is Murder
The Word Is Murder
by Anthony Horowitz
Is it murder..or suicide? (1/30/2019)
A woman plans her funeral in great detail, leaves the funeral home and six hours later is murdered – or maybe it was suicide. The writing form used for this book (the actual author is a pretend/actual author telling the tale) is a bit off putting, but once you get beyond …more
Lethal White
Lethal White: A Cormoran Strike Novel
by Robert Galbraith
Complex characters and murder most foul (1/30/2019)
LETHAL WHITE by Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling)
Although very long (647 pages) this outing for investigators Cormoran and Robin is compelling. Strangled children, murder, crooked politicians, assumed identities, money and reputations, horses, and conflicted personal …more
Where the Crawdads Sing
Where the Crawdads Sing
by Delia Owens
Don't miss this one! (1/3/2019)
WOW! Just WOW! This is a great book. Murder, abandoned child, growing up alone, nature, young love, sex, ecology, love, poetry, betrayal, education, redemption, forgiveness, treachery -- it is all here. Well written with strong characters and even stronger biology, Owens …more
Vox
Vox
by Christina Dalcher
Vox --- a thrilller (12/11/2018)
The United States has been taken over in an election by seriously ultra conservative politicians. Laws have been passed restricting females to just 100 words per day and enforce this directive with punishing electric shocks for every word beyond the allotment. The novel …more
The Last Year of the War
The Last Year of the War
by Susan Meissner
A must read (11/4/2018)
Well-written and well-researched, this book is one that should not be missed. Mariko and Elise, both American citizens, meet at an internment camp for aliens suspected of being Nazi or Japanese sympathizers because their fathers have been wrongly accused. Although one is …more
A Well-Behaved Woman
A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the Vanderbilts
by Therese Anne Fowler
Money isn't eveything, but it helps (10/12/2018)
Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont was anything but a well- behaved woman. Left near-penniless as she approached marriageable age in the 1870’s, she set her aim for a wealthy man. William Vanderbilt, a younger son in the ultra-wealthy but socially ignored family, caught her eye, …more
The Great Alone
The Great Alone
by Kristin Hannah
a terrifying love story (10/3/2018)
Which would you rather do? Die by freezing, starving or being mauled to death by “Alaska” or die at the hands of your abusive, PTSD addled father?
Hannah has written a tense, terrifying love story. But is it a story of love for the beautiful wildness of Alaska or the wildly …more
Girl in the Blue Coat
Girl in the Blue Coat
by Monica Hesse
THE GIRL IN THE BLUE COAT by Monica Hesse (8/7/2018)
A young woman living in Holland during the Nazi Occupation is forced into smuggling and utilizing the Black Market in order to feed her family and friends. One of her “regulars” asks her to find “the girl in the blue coat” and that is where the mystery begins. Secrets, …more
The Twelve-Mile Straight
The Twelve-Mile Straight: A Novel
by Eleanor Henderson
Too long, but worthwhile (maybe) (7/25/2018)
Oh my, incest, moonshine, sharecropping, KKK, lynching, twins (one white, one black), chain gangs and everything else bad about 1920’s Georgia. It is all here along with a meandering timeline, numerous plots and sub-plots and the “N” word. If this sounds exhausting – it is. …more
The Weight of Ink
The Weight of Ink
by Rachel Kadish
Good, but too long (7/14/2018)
This somewhat disturbing tale is the story of a young Jewish girl living in exile in Holland (Amterdam) in 1660 when tragedy forces her to live with an aging Rabbi in England. Ester’s own father, also a rabbi, had encouraged Ester’s education in defiance of community norms. …more
Salt Houses
Salt Houses
by Hala Alyan
Salt Houses (6/14/2018)
The meaning of the title is noted three fourth of the way through the book when the family patriarch, Atef, reminisces, “the houses glitter whitely…like structures made of salt before a tidal wave sweeps them away.” His family – 4 generations – leave behind houses as war …more
Varina
Varina
by Charles Frazier
I should have loved it! (5/30/2018)
The person is eminently interesting – the wife of the Confederate President. The era is interesting – the decades before, during, and after the American Civil War. The episodes are fascinating – a Southern white woman raising an enslaved child as her own: the escape of …more
Music of the Ghosts
Music of the Ghosts
by Vaddey Ratner
Lovely writing (4/2/2018)
Oh my goodness! What to say about this book. First the good. The writing is lyrical. Some phrases are exquisite. The word usage is wonderful. Then there is the story. I am SOOOOO confused. I tried very hard to like this book, but just couldn’t do it. The Old Musician and …more

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