Emma's Review: Family Ties for the Village Midwife by Tilly Tennant

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Zoe Padbury is a big believer in second chances. She’s been so happy since she started over in the village of Thimblebury. Especially now she’s moved into Hilltop Farm with her boyfriend Alex and can be on hand to help his daughter when her baby arrives.

All that changes when Zoe’s father arrives, arm in arm with his newly pregnant fiancée Chantal. Chantal is bowled over by Thimblebury’s picture-perfect charm, and before Zoe’s had a chance to draw breath, they’ve made plans to get married in the old stone church, make Zoe their future baby’s midwife and move into the cottage next door.

Worried about her mum’s broken heart and how Alex feels about having her family so close by, at first Zoe doesn’t notice that Chantal’s brother has also moved in and is determined to make trouble, ruining the lives of the people who have made her feel so welcome. With the villagers up in arms about his behaviour, Zoe is torn in two. Can she protect her new life and love without losing her family?

Book Link: Kindle

Emma's Review: The Girl with the List by Shari J. Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Day in, day out, servant Rosalie is forced to aid in the harrowing medical selections at Auschwitz, marking prisoners as “fit” or “unfit” with trembling hands. She once thought “unfit” meant they’d get the help they needed. Now she knows the devastating truth: “Fit” means they live another day, “unfit” means they don’t…

Every day, her heart breaks further as she hopelessly scans the crowds for the face of the man she loves, torn from her a year ago simply for being Jewish. Praying that he’s still alive, Rosalie desperately tries to save as many other men as she can—risking everything by marking them as fit and hoping her act of rebellion isn’t noticed.

Then one icy morning, she looks up from her list into the stunning green eyes of the man in her line—the man her heart beats for. And now the real fight begins, as Rosalie risks her life to save Stefan’s again and again. But then one morning, Stefan isn’t there. Rosalie frantically searches for him, blood turning to ice. He’s gone. But how far will she go to find him? And can he stay alive without her until she does…?

Book Links: Kindle 

Emma's Review: The Tuscan Sister's Promise by Daniela Sacerdoti

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Throughout her childhood, Mia has watched her beloved sisters leave their Tuscan villa and start their own families. Now it’s her turn and, having promised them that she will follow her heart, she hopes she will finally be brave enough fall in love herself…

Not long after she arrives in London, Mia meets Ben, a bookseller with warm hazel eyes and thick brown hair. As they spend more time together, Mia finds herself enchanted by his gentle smile. But just as she feels her affection for him growing, Ben tells her he can never leave London. Falling in love and building a life with him would mean saying goodbye to her home in the Tuscan hills forever.

As she thinks about her future, Mia finds a locket hidden in the house where she is staying, along with a long-forgotten love story that mirrors her own. As she uncovers diary entries from the eve of the First World War, she learns of a forbidden romance, and a woman who also once shared Mia’s desire to find her place in the world.

But will the story Mia unravels inspire her to keep her promise to embrace the future, and let Ben into her heart at last? Or will she return to Italy, leaving behind the only man she has ever truly loved? 

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: Once We Were Sisters by Ann Bennett

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Paris, 1940. Shops are being boarded up, Jewish children are loaded onto buses and eighteen-year-old Elise’s heart beats hard as she runs down the cobbled streets under the shadow of swastikas. She hates her father with all her heart: he is working with the Nazis and has forbidden her to be friends with Myriam and Salomé, the Goldman sisters who are closer to her than her own family.

Elise will do anything to help the girls she loves as sisters, including sharing her father’s secret business. Every day she creeps out to their apartment, avoiding the cold-eyed soldiers who stalk the streets. But in trying to save them, will she bring terrible danger to their door?

Years later, newly pregnant Jeanne stares at the photograph of three young girls on the beach. She recognises her mother Elise in the centre of the picture, but who does her mother have her arms around?

Jeanne feels such love for the tiny new life inside her and feels desperate to connect with the mother who has always shut her out. Could finding these lost sisters, laughing and vibrant in the crumpled black and white photo, help Jeanne understand her mother and lay the ghosts of the past to rest? 

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Vicar's Daughter at the Lodging House by Natalie Meg Evans

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

When Jess discovers the letter from her older sister Charlotte tucked into an old typewriter, her world is shaken. It’s dated two days after their father, the vicar, said she died. How could he lie about that? Desperate to uncover the truth, Jess must find her sister. The London location in her sister’s letter is her only clue…

Leaving her quiet life in the country as a vicar’s daughter behind, now Jess is in the city in wartime, her gas mask slung around her shoulder. Her one refuge is her room at a Mayfair lodging house with two other girls. Wealthy Betony is all style and charm, but she’s trying to shake her aristocratic airs and graces. Irish nurse Grace with her easy smile is much more down to earth, but Jess is certain she’s keeping a secret…

With war throwing the three girls together, can Jess’s new friends help find her missing sister, despite the secrets between them? Or will they be torn apart for good?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback