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Reviews by Susan R. (Julian, NC)

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The Berry Pickers: A Novel
by Amanda Peters
Love and Loss (12/13/2024)
I missed this book when it published last year and after reading all of the great reviews, I knew that I had to read it. I loved it. The writing is beautiful and the characters are well written. This is a book that needs to be read slowly so that you don't miss any of themore
Three Days in June: A Novel
by Anne Tyler
Fantastic (12/12/2024)
If you are a fan of Anne Tyler, you're going to love this book and it may become your favorite of her books like it did mine. If you haven't read Anne Tyler before, you need to read this. You'll find out how wonderful her storytelling is with wonderful and insightful looksmore
The Rose Arbor: A Novel
by Rhys Bowen
Historical Fiction Mystery (8/15/2024)
This well written novel has an intriguing main character and a page turning plot. It's dual time line with one time line in 1943 and the other in 1968. Most of the action takes place in 1968 with the 1943 time mainly used for background to the story. The book also hadmore
Look on the Bright Side
by Kristan Higgins
Family and Love (7/15/2024)
Look on the Bright Side is family fiction at its best. This family is just like many families in real life - they love each other but when they get together there is a lot of teasing and bickering ...just like it was at the house that I grew up in. There are three strongmore
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
Family Saga (2/18/2024)
This well written, character driven novel has dual time lines that take place in 1928 and 1978 in a small Missouri town. The story line is based on the Flowers sisters - identical twins Violet and Rose. In the 1978 time line, we also meet Lettie -Rose's daughter and Daisy -more
The Divorcees
by Rowan Beaird
Divorce in the 1950s (11/8/2023)
In the early 1950s, there was only one way for a woman to get a divorce if she had the money. She would stay at a ranch in Nevada for 6 weeks to establish residency and then go before a judge and tell him that she intended to stay there - even though most of them didn'tmore
The Roaring Days of Zora Lily: A Novel
by Noelle Salazar
Coming of Age (9/6/2023)
This historical fiction book is very well written and researched. It's a dual timeline book but not really. The modern day part of the story is only about 10 of the novel to introduce Zora and the mystery surrounding her at the beginning and the result of the research atmore
The Lost English Girl
by Julia Kelly
Fantastic WWII novel (2/12/2023)
This is a beautifully written and well-researched novel about the human toll of Operation Pied Piper in England in 1939. The war was ramping up and the government made people in the cities send their children to assumed safety in the rural areas of England. Almost 3 millionmore
The Mitford Affair: A Novel
by Marie Benedict
Historical Fiction (1/1/2023)
The Mitford family was a prominent part of English society in the years between World War I and II. The six sisters were considered the Bright Young Things of their time and they were all outspoken and strong women and were very close. Marie Benedict has written amore
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
by Colleen Oakley
Unlikely Friendship (10/22/2022)
Twenty-one year old Tanner doesn't want to do much but sleep and play video. In the past, she had great plans but an accident caused her to lose her scholarship and she had to come home. She is so upset with the changes in her life that she doesn't exert any energy tryingmore
Cradles of the Reich: A Novel
by Jennifer Coburn
Historical Fiction (10/15/2022)
I read a lot of WWII fiction and it always amazes me that there are still parts of the war that have never been written about in popular fiction. Jennifer Coburn did extensive research of Nazi state supported homes where unwed mothers who were deemed to be perfectly Aryansmore
The Ways We Hide: A Novel
by Kristina McMorris
Fantastic Book (9/17/2022)
I read a lot of WWII fiction and am always amazed when I read a book that looks at the war from a different perspective and is full of new things for me to learn. The author did considerable research and it shows on every page. This is a dual time line book that looks atmore
Shadows of Berlin: A Novel
by David R. Gillham
Fantastic Book (5/6/2022)
The novel starts in 1955 in New York City where Rachel lives with her husband Aaron. Rachel has only been in the United States for several years after entering the country from Germany as a displaced person with her uncle, her only family left alive after the war. She triesmore
Two Storm Wood: A Novel
by Philip Gray
After WWI (12/5/2021)
Amy is from a well to do family and believed that she would never find love. When she met Edward at a church, they both became interested in each other and went on many secret dates before he enlisted in the army. Their dates had to be secret because her parents would nevermore
All the Little Hopes: A Novel
by Leah Weiss
Southern Fiction (6/29/2021)
My two favorite genres are historical fiction and southern fiction. So this book set in North Carolina in the early 1940s was a perfect book for me. It's one of few books that after I read the last page, I wanted to go back and read it for the first time again. I ammore
Raft of Stars
by Andrew J. Graff
Friendship (11/6/2020)
This is a book that I'd have never picked up -- a coming of age story about boys! Really? I won a copy from BookBrowse and knew I had to give it a chance. Wow - am I ever glad that I did. This debut novel was fantastic -- it not only featured the two young boys but also themore
And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
by Stephanie Marie Thornton
The Real Jackie (11/29/2019)
On her author page, Stephanie Thornton says that she "retells the stories of history's forgotten women". Jacqueline Kennedy is not exactly a forgotten woman in American history but what Americans remember about her was often very different than the real person that she was.more
I Want You to Know We're Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir
by Esther Safran Foer
Family Memories (11/9/2019)
This is a memoir of Esther's family - four generations who are unable to pass her mother's stories to each generation because her mother's memories were so terrible that she refused to talk about them. She would occasionally give a small amount of information but wouldmore
The Big Finish
by Brooke Fossey
The Importance of Friendship at Any Age (10/9/2019)
Duffy lives in an assisted living home and Carl is his roommate. During the years that they've both been residents here, they've become best friends (in fact, Carl is the only friend that Duffy has ever had) and know everything about each other's lives. Or do they? Duffymore
The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt: A Novel
by Andrea Bobotis
Southern Fiction (7/14/2019)
I read this beautifully written debut novel very slowly so that I didn't miss any of the lyrical writing and character development. This novel is Southern fiction at its best.

The year is 1989 and Judith Kratt is 75 years old and living in the large family home in Bound, SCmore
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