Book Reviews – Historical Bookworm

January 6, 2024September 22, 2024

Review: The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater by Jamie Jo Wright

THE BOOK

It promises beauty but steals life instead. Will the ghosts of Barlowe Theater entomb them all?

Barlowe Theater stole the life of Greta Mercy’s eldest brother during its construction. Now in 1915, the completed theater appears every bit as deadly. When Greta’s younger brother goes missing after breaking into the building, Greta engages the assistance of a local police officer to help her unveil the already ghostly secrets of the theater. But when help comes from an unlikely source, Greta decides that to save her family she must uncover the evil that haunts the theater and put its threat to rest.

July 12, 2023September 22, 2024

Remember Me by Tracie Peterson

The audio version of this review was first shared in Episode 66:A Bookchat about After the Shadows with Amanda Cabot & a Review of Remember Me by Tracie Peterson

The Book

From the Yukon to Seattle, the hope of a new beginning waits just around the corner.

Addie Bryant is haunted by her past of heartbreak and betrayal. After her beau, Isaac Hanson, left the Yukon, she made a vow to wait for him. When she’s sold to a brothel owner after the death of her father, Addie manages to escape with the hope that she can forever hide her past and the belief that she will never have the future she’s always dreamed of.

Years later, Addie has found peace in her new life as a photographer, training Camera Girls to operate and sell the Brownie camera. During the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Expo in Seattle, Addie is reunited with Isaac, but after the path her life has taken, she’s afraid to expose the ugliness of her former life and to move toward the future they had pledged to each other.

When her past catches up with her, Addie must decide whether to run or to stay and face her wounds in order to embrace her life, her future, and her hope in God.

June 25, 2023September 22, 2024

Fairest of Heart by Karen Witemeyer

The audio version of this review was first shared in Episode 65: A Bookchat about The Metropolitan Affair with Jocelyn Green & a Review of Fairest of Heart by Karen Witemeyer.

The Book

Beauty has been nothing but a curse to Penelope Snow. When she becomes a personal maid for a famous actress whose troupe is leaving Chicago to tour the west, she hides her figure beneath shapeless dresses and keeps her head down. But she still manages to attract the wrong attention, leaving her prospects in tatters—and her jealous mistress plotting her demise.

After his brother lost his life over a woman, Texas Ranger Titus Kingsley has learned to expect the worst from females and is rarely disappointed. So when a young woman found in suspicious circumstances takes up residence with the seven old drovers living at his grandfather’s ranch, Titus is determined to keep a close eye on her.

June 13, 2023September 22, 2024

The Blackout Book Club by Amy Lynn Green

The audio version of this review was first shared in Episode 64: A Bookchat about Remember Me with Tracie Peterson & a Review of The Blackout Book Club by Amy Lynn Green

The Book

In 1942, an impulsive promise to her brother before he goes off to the European front puts Avis Montgomery in the unlikely position of head librarian in small-town Maine. Though she has never been much of a reader, when wartime needs threaten to close the library, she invents a book club to keep its doors open. The women she convinces to attend the first meeting couldn’t be more different–a wealthy spinster determined to aid the war effort, an exhausted mother looking for a fresh start, and a determined young war worker.

May 29, 2023September 22, 2024

A Bookchat about The All-American with Susie Finkbeiner & a Review of Where the Last Rose Blooms by Ashley Clark

Susie Finkbeiner joins us for a chat about her beloved state of Michigan, what draws her to write stories set in the 50s and 60s, and her latest release The All-American. Don’t forget to enter to win a copy of this great book! Widow Minerva Jenkins has lived alone in her small mountain home for 40 years where she has guarded her husband’s deathbed request. When a young reporter comes calling and inquires about a rumored box of gold on her property, an unlikely friendship forms. Will she go to her grave with her husband’s secret, or will the weight of it be the death of her?

May 29, 2023September 22, 2024

Where the Last Rose Blooms by Ashley Clark

The audio version of this review was first shared in Episode 63: A Bookchat about The All-American with Susie Finkbeiner & a Review of Where the Last Rose Blooms by Ashley Clark

THE BOOK

Alice runs a New Orleans flower shop alongside her aunt, but thoughts of her mother, who went missing during Hurricane Katrina, are never far from her mind. After getting off on the wrong foot with a handsome yet irritating man who comes to her shop, Alice soon realizes their worlds overlap—and the answers they both seek can be found in the same place.

May 13, 2023September 22, 2024

Yesterday’s Tides by Roseanna M. White

The audio version of this review was first shared in Episode 62: A Bookchat about Code Name Edelweiss with Stephanie Landsem & a Review of Yesterday’s Tides by Roseanna M. White.

THE BOOK

In two world wars, intelligence and counterintelligence, prejudice, and self-sacrifice collide across two generations

In 1942, Evie Farrow is used to life on Ocracoke Island, where every day is the same–until the German U-boats haunting their waters begin to wreak havoc. And when special agent Sterling Bertrand is washed ashore at Evie’s inn, her life is turned upside down. While Sterling’s injuries keep him inn-bound for weeks, making him even more anxious about the SS officer he’s tracking, he becomes increasingly intrigued by Evie, who seems to be hiding secrets of her own.

May 1, 2023September 22, 2024

The Thief of Blackfriars Lane by Michelle Griep

The audio version of this review was first shared in Episode 61: A Bookchat about The Sound of Light with Sarah Sundin & a Review of The Thief of Blackfriars Lane by Michelle Griep.

THE BOOK

Constable Jackson Forge intends to make the world safer, or at least the streets of Victorian London. But that’s Kit Turner’s domain, a swindler who runs a crew that acquires money the old-fashioned way—conning the rich to give to the poor. When a local cab driver goes missing, Jackson is tasked with finding the man, and the only way to do that is by enlisting Kit’s help. If Jackson doesn’t find the cabby, he’ll be fired. If Kit doesn’t help Jackson, he’ll arrest her for thievery. Yet neither of them realize those are the least of their problems.

April 22, 2023September 22, 2024

The Premonition at Withers Farm by Jaime Jo Wright

The audio version of this review was first shared in A Bookchat about Forged in Love with Mary Connealy & a Review of Premonition at Withers Farm by Jamie Jo Wright

THE BOOK

In 1910 Michigan, Perliett Van Hilton is a self-proclaimed rural healer, leaving the local doctor convinced she practices quackery. It doesn’t help that her mother is a spiritualist who regularly offers her services to connect the living with their dearly departed. But when Perliett is targeted by a superstitious killer, she must rely on both the local doctor and an intriguing newcomer for assistance.

March 22, 2023September 22, 2024

The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham

The audio version of this review can be found on Episode 58: A Bookchat about Daughter of Eden with Jill Eileen Smith & a Review of The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham.

THE BOOK

Will the magic of Christmas bring these two newlyweds closer together, or will the ghosts of the past lead them into a destructive discovery from which not even a Dickens’s Christmas can save them?