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Reviews by Margaret A. (Cornelius, NC)

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Let's Call Her Barbie
by Renée Rosen
Let’s Call her Barbie (3/5/2025)
I found this book fascinating. Rosen brings to life the personalities of the staff working to make the doll. The story narrates all the problems in bringing an idea into an actual product and then selling that product to the consumer.

Ruth Handler, co-founder of Mattel Toymore
Pony Confidential
by Christina Lynch
Pony Confidential (6/19/2024)
I enjoyed this book. It was a unique plot for a murder mystery. At times it felt the story was aimed at a young adult audience. However the first person narrating and character personalities were very enjoyable
The Nurse's Secret: A Thrilling Historical Novel of the Dark Side of Gilded Age New York City
by Amanda Skenandore
A Nurse's secret (2/24/2023)
A Nurse’s secret is a murder mystery wrapped in a historical fiction. In the 1880’s Bellevue Hospital has become a training school for nurses following the principles of Florence Nightingale.
At the same time a young woman, Una, is forced to live on the streets throughmore
Sisters of the Lost Nation
by Nick Medina
Sisters of the Lost Nation (11/11/2022)
This is a coming of age/coming into ones own and much more. The main characters are two Native American teenage sisters and their family living on the reservation. They attend a local school and work in the luxury hotel of a recently built Casino on the reservation.
Themore
The Empire of Dirt: A Novel
by Francesca Manfredi
The Empire of Dirt (6/12/2022)
Manfredi's English-language debut is an evocative tale of one young woman's coming-of-age in 1990s rural Italy.

Valentina lives with her mother and grandmother in the Italian countryside. There is talk of a curse and the town calls them witches. When Valentina turns twelvemore
Dirt Creek: A Novel
by Hayley Scrivenor
Dirt Creek (3/7/2022)
This is a very well written crime story set in rural small town Durton, Australia (known by its locals as Dirt Town).

A 12-year-old girl named Esther Bianchi has gone missing and her body is found four days later Everyone in the small town has issues and is suspect. Whenmore
The Paris Bookseller
by Kerri Maher
The Paris Bookseller (12/31/2021)
The Paris Bookseller is a historical fictitious version of the true story of Sylvia Beach, the founder of Shakespeare and Company in Paris and champion of modern literature The book does a great job of transporting you to the time and place of Paris in 1918 through the1930s.more
All the Little Hopes: A Novel
by Leah Weiss
All the Little Hopes (6/17/2021)
All the Little Hopes by Leah Weiss is a coming of age story set during the last years of World War II
The chapters alternate between the perspectives of two North Carolina girls that, through fate, become best friends. The girls are raised in the same state, yet have verymore
Ariadne
by Jennifer Saint
Ariadne (2/27/2021)
Ariadne is a retelling of a Greek myth. Her father is King Minos and her brother the Minotaur. This retelling is from the perspective of King Minos's two daughters, Ariadne and Phaedra. The consequences the women bear due to the actions and whims of the Olympian Gods, theirmore
The House on Vesper Sands
by Paraic O'Donnell
House on Vesper Sands (2/15/2021)
I had been wanting to read this book and then was fortunate enough to win it in a book giveaway. That however does not influence this review.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and hope to read more by Paraic O’Donnell. The plot is a mystery wrapped up in Victorian spiritualism.more
The Widow Queen: The Bold #1
by Elzbieta Cherezinska
The Widow Queen (12/3/2020)
The story is not lost in translation!
The Widow Queen is a historical fiction masterpiece set in the time period from 984 A.D. - 997 A.D. The story focuses on the Piast dynasty of Poland and the Vikings in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Norway

Duke Mieszko of Poland is amore
Big Girl, Small Town
by Michelle Gallen
Big Girl, Small Town (10/25/2020)
Big girl, small town is about a week in the life of Majella O”Neil (big girl) in the small town of Aghybogey in Northern Ireland in the time after The Troubles. The book uses local vernacular which I enjoyed and is written in vignettes titled under Majella's list of likes (more
Piranesi
by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi (8/17/2020)
From the first line the story grabs your attention. The writing style may take some getting used to in that the story seems to be a mystery and/or a fantasy blended with reality.
Piranesi and "the Other are the only two in a house with infinite halls and statues. Piranesimore
Miracle Creek
by Angie Kim
Truth and consequences (4/9/2020)
The book grabbed my interest from the first page. An explosion of a hyperbaric chamber killing some of the patients. A mystery of who set the fire that caused the explosion. It seemed a cautionary tale for how quickly people judge one another based on their own experiencesmore
The Mountains Sing
by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
The Mountains Sing (1/15/2020)
I am familiar with the Vietnam war only from an American perspective. This story is beautifully and compellingly told by Nguyen Phan Que Mai whose family lived through Vietnam's 20th century history starting with the Land Reform, Communist rule and the Vietnam war.

Throughmore
The Almost Sisters
by Joshilyn Jackson
Perspective (6/1/2017)
The story takes place in the South. It is about one family in particular and one sister is the main protagonist. That being said it is about family dynamics, lifestyles, hopes and wishes. Perspectives on family, neighbors and even different perspectives of the south. Andmore
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