History from a Woman's Perspective- A Book Blog

The Real Queen Charlotte: Inside the Bridgerton Court Author: Catherine Curzon Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: Pen and Sword History Release Date: 2022 Pages: 224 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Known to millions as the imperious matriarch of Bridgerton ’s court, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was still a teenager when she was chosen to be the bride of King George III. Shy, innocent, and sheltered, the orphaned princess and her youthful groom carried the hopes of a nation on their shoulders.      The placid and unassuming young couple symbolized a new beginning, but soon those hopes began to sour. Charlotte and George’s marriage lasted for nearly 60 years and produced more than a dozen children, but it was beset by unrest at home, war in the colonies, and the king’s encroaching madness.      As the royal couple battled against their critics, their political opponents, and sometimes even their own family, Charlotte learned what

The American Adventuress Author: C. W. Gortner  Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: William Morrow Release Date: 2022 Pages: 384 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: The story of Jennie Jerome Churchill, mother of Winston, a New York born heiress who always lived life on her own terms.      Daughter of New York financier Leonard Jerome, Jennie was born into wealth—and scandal. Upon her parents’ separation, her mother took Jennie and her sisters to Paris, where Mrs. Jerome was determined to marry her daughters into the most elite families. The glamorous city became their tumultuous finishing school until it fell to revolt.       Fleeing to Queen Victoria’s England, Jennie soon caught the eye of aristocrat Randolph Spencer-Churchill, son of the Duke of Marlborough, one of Britain’s loftiest peers. It was love at first sight, their unconventional marriage driven by mutual ambition and the birth of two sons. Undeterred by premature widowhood or society’s

  Mother, Daughter, Traitor, Spy Author: Susan Elia MacNeal Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Bantam Release Date: 2022 Pages: 321 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: A mother and daughter find the courage to go undercover after stumbling upon a Nazi cell in Los Angeles during the early days of World War II—a tantalizing novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Maggie Hope series.      June 1940. France has fallen to the Nazis, and Britain may be next—but to many Americans, the war is something happening “over there.” Veronica Grace has just graduated from college; she and her mother, Violet, are looking for a fresh start in sunny Los Angeles. After a blunder cost her a prestigious career opportunity in New York, Veronica is relieved to take a typing job in L.A.—only to realize that she’s working for one of the area’s most vicious propagandists.      Overnight, Veronica is exposed to the dark underbelly of her new home, where Ger

Madame Pommery by Rebecca Rosenberg Publication Date: March 21, 2023 Lion Heart Publishing Genre: Historical Fiction      Champagne, France, 1860 . Madame Pommery, an etiquette teacher and orphanage founder, loses her husband and is forced to support her family. With no experience, the forty-year-old widow decides to make champagne. Her unique vision is to change it from a sweet dessert beverage to a dry, crisp wine to be enjoyed anytime. When champagne makers refuse to teach her their craft, she forges ahead on her own and secretly begins the excavation of champagne caves under the Reims city dump.      Soon after, her son and her entire crew are conscripted to fight the Franco-Prussian war, leaving Madame Pommery alone to struggle with her champagne dreams. After Napoleon and a hundred thousand French troops are captured, the Prussians invaded France, and Prussian General Frederick Franz occupies Madame Pommery’s house as his army headquarters. Undaunted, Pommery uses her sec

The Call of the Wrens Author: Jenni L. Walsh Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: Harper Muse Release Date: 2022 Pages: 368 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: The Call of the Wrens introduces the little-known story of the daring women who rode through war-torn Europe carrying secrets on their shoulders.      An orphan who spent her youth without a true home, Marion Hoxton found in the Great War something other than destruction. She discovered a chance to belong. As a member of the Women’s Royal Naval Service—the Wrens—Marion gained sisters. She found purpose in her work as a motorcycle dispatch rider assigned to train and deliver carrier pigeons to the front line. And despite the constant threat of danger, she and her childhood friend Eddie began to dream of a future together. Until the battle that changed everything.      Now twenty years later, another war has broken out across Europe, calling Marion to return to the fight. Meanwhile others, like

  Miss Aldridge Regrets (Canary Club Mystery #1) Author: Louise Hare Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Suspense Publisher: Berkley Release Date: 2022 Pages: 368 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: The glittering RMS Queen Mary. A nightclub singer on the run. An aristocratic family with secrets worth killing for.      London, 1936. Lena Aldridge wonders if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married lover has just left her. But Lena has always had a complicated life, one shrouded in mystery as a mixed-race girl passing for white in a city unforgiving of her true racial heritage.      She’s feeling utterly hopeless until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York. After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better, an

A Shape on the Air by Julia Ibbotson Publication Date: October 9, 2021 Genre: Historical Mystery Series: Dr. DuLac, Book 1 Source: This book was given to me by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis:  For fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, Christina Courtenay      Can echoes of the past threaten the present? They are 1500 years apart, but can they reach out to each other across the centuries? One woman faces a traumatic truth in the present day. The other is forced to marry the man she hates as the 'dark ages' unfold.       How can Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, unlock the secrets of the past? Traumatised by betrayal, she slips into 499 AD and into the body of Lady Vivianne, who is also battling treachery. Viv must uncover the mystery of the key that she unwittingly brings back with her to the present day, as echoes of the past resonate through time. But little does Viv realise just how much bot

The Orchid Hour by Nancy Bilyeau Publication Date: August 10, 2023 Lume Books Genre: Historical Thriller      There is a certain hour, in the dead of night, when the orchid’s scent can put you under a spell…      " Nancy Bilyeau has created a beautifully layered and utterly seductive tale… and, at its living, tender heart, a strong-willed and magnetic heroine. " – Emilya Naymark, author of Behind the Lie , finalist for the 2023 Sue Grafton Award      Nancy Bilyeau, author of The Crown and The Blue , returns with a tantalizing novel about one woman caught up in a secret nightclub that one can only reach through a certain florist on a cobblestone street.      New York City, 1923. Zia De Luca’s life is about to be shattered. Having lost her husband to The Great War, she lives with her son and in-laws in Little Italy and works at the public library. But when a quiet poetry lover is murdered outside the library, the police investigation focuses on Zia. After a second tr

Sister, Mother, Warrior Author: Vanessa Riley Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: William Morrow Release Date: 2022 Pages: 480 Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Acclaimed author of Island Queen Vanessa Riley brings readers a vivid, sweeping novel of the Haitian Revolution based on the true-life stories of two extraordinary women: the first Empress of Haiti, Marie-Claire Bonheur, and Gran Toya, a West African-born warrior who helped lead the rebellion that drove out the French and freed the enslaved people of Haiti .       Gran Toya : Born in West Africa, Abdaraya Toya was one of the legendary minos—women called “Dahomeyan Amazons” by the Europeans—who were specially chosen female warriors consecrated to the King of Dahomey. Betrayed by an enemy, kidnapped, and sold into slavery, Toya wound up in the French colony of Saint Domingue, where she became a force to be reckoned with on its sugar plantations: a healer and an authority figure among the e