Emma's Review: The Sunrise Swimming Society by Rosie Hannigan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

The day Heather, Niamh and Lauren met, they promised to be best friends for life, and that instant connection only grew stronger with their weekly sunrise swims in their stunning local lake. When they left school, they agreed that, no matter where life took them, every year on midsummer’s dawn, they would meet at their old spot and swim together.

Now, fifteen years later, the tradition has disappeared in the face of life’s realities. In fact, they don’t speak any more – not since that night . . .

But this summer, they find themselves back in their Irish hometown and realise this could be their last chance to recapture what they have lost. Will their return to sunrise swimming heal each of them, and help them rekindle the friendships they once treasured?

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Emma's Review: The Little Board Game Cafe by Jennifer Page

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

When Emily loses her job, house and boyfriend all within a matter of days, she's determined to turn a negative into a positive and follow her dream of running a small cafe in the gorgeous Yorkshire village of Essendale.

But she quickly finds she's bitten off more than she can chew when the 'popular' cafe she takes over turns out to secretly be a failing business. Emily desperately needs a way to turn things around, and help comes from the unlikeliest of places when she meets local board game-obsessed GP Ludek. But when a major chain coffee shop opens on the high street, Emily is forced to question if she'll ever be able to compete.

Has she risked everything on something destined to fail? Or can a playful twist, a homely welcome, and a sprinkle of love make Emily's cafe the destination she's always dreamed of?

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Emma's Review: A Letter from Italy by Rose Alexander

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

1945. The tiny bundle in her arms barely stirs as she hurries out into the dark street. Remembering Villa Teresa, a thousand miles away in sun-soaked Italy, Betty thinks of the letter she had to write to stop the bombing and save Gianni. Instead it cost her everything… And she will never see her beloved again. Now, letting her little baby go will tear her apart, but she knows it is the only way to keep her child safe…

Naples, present day. With nothing but the name of crumbling palazzo Villa Teresa scribbled on the page, Sadie clutches the scrap of a letter she desperately hopes will help her find her birth mother. It’s her only clue to go on. But with the heady scent of fresh lemons carrying on the breeze, and handsome local guide Luca by her side, she knows in her bones this is the right place.

Then, lost in the local newspaper archives, the pair makes a shocking discovery about the woman Sadie believes is her mother… How she did something terrible during the war. Shattered, Sadie must ask herself if she should continue searching for a woman who did her best to disappear.

Deep down, Sadie knows she can’t give up. But what really happened in that beautiful palazzo all those years ago? What led a mother to give away her baby? And will uncovering this devastating secret destroy Sadie’s heart for good? 

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Emma's Review: The Girl with the Red Hair by Imogen Matthews

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

1942, Amsterdam. The Nazi occupation has shattered the lives of inseparable best friends Hannie and Sonja. The canals and rainy cobbled streets they once strolled down are now patrolled by soldiers day and night, who arrest people at will and beat those who resist.

Hannie can’t stand by and watch the lives of the innocent be destroyed by the evil occupiers. At great danger to herself, she joins the underground resistance, where she meets the charming and mysterious Jan. She covers her bright red hair to avoid detection by the Nazis while distributing fake IDs. And she makes a promise to Sonja and her little sister Maya, who are Jewish – she will hide them and keep them safe, no matter the cost.

But as the German grip on the country tightens with each passing day, Sonja’s worst fears come true when members of her family are taken prisoner. With Jan by her side, Hannie goes undercover as a nurse to try to free them. But she’s devastated when she discovers they’ve been taken to a concentration camp in the isolated far east of the country. Is she too late to save them?

And when Sonja goes missing, Hannie is terrified the worst has happened – has someone betrayed her best friend? Hannie knows her most dangerous task is now ahead of her. Can Hannie save Sonja, and will she have to make the biggest sacrifice of all to bring her home?

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Emma's Review: Secrets of Malta by Cecily Blench

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Malta, 1943. The war in the air above Malta is over, but the battle for Europe is about to begin.

Margarita, a young singer in a Valletta nightclub, has seen her former lover Henry Dunn only once since breaking off their affair. His wife Vera, an enigmatic archaeologist, arrives at the club to tell her that Henry has disappeared, presumed dead. While investigating, Margarita stumbles upon the hunt for a notorious and dangerous spy: Nero.

As an unlikely bond develops between the two women, and strange secrets emerge, an urgent quest to unmask Nero starts - before he can enact a deadly plan that may threaten the course of the war.

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Emma's Review: A Gift from the Cottage by the Loch by Kennedy Kerr

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

When Bel Tipton catches her husband cheating on her, the devastating betrayal sends her running to her sister Sally in the beautiful village of Loch Cameron. Bel needs Sally’s warm laugh and sage advice now more than ever, and she knows curling up with her on the sofa and gossiping late into the night will make her feel whole again.

Bel did not expect her rented cottage overlooking the loch to come with handsome gardener Christian McDougal, and she’s determined to be unmoved by his flirty smile and broad shoulders. The last thing she needs is another man she can’t trust. But when Bel sees an empty storefront on the high street for rent, it’s Christian who notices how her eyes light up. He encourages her to set up a business in the village and she realises he’s everything her ex was not.

Then Bel hears a rumour in town that Christian is not all he seems. And, clearing out her store, she finds a collection of letters tied with a worn blue ribbon stashed on a high shelf in the back room. The letters reveal a devastating secret that shook the village generations ago, and Christian’s family are at the heart of it…

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Emma's Review: The Paris Spy's Girl by Amanda Lees

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

As war rages across France, English exile Christine has become the most deadly asset the British Secret Service has in occupied Paris. But when Suzanne, her best friend and the sole agent who knows the details of the top-secret D-Day landings, is betrayed to the Nazis by someone at the heart of their spy network, she is devastated. Going undercover with Charlie – a handsome but elusive American spy with an agenda of his own – is her only chance to catch the traitor in their midst.

Pretending to be not only Nazi collaborators but lovers too, they must save Suzanne from almost certain death and prevent the D-Day landing plans from ending up in the wrong hands. But as Christine and Charlie’s pretend desire turns to true love, her past – and the real reason she had to leave England forever – puts their whole mission in terrible danger.

With the Nazis closing in and Suzanne’s life on the line, Christine is forced into one last, desperate act: heading back into deepest, darkest enemy territory, knowing her disguise could have been exposed. With even her trust in Charlie shaken, will Christine have to choose between her love for him, her best friend’s life, and freedom for France? And who will pay the ultimate sacrifice…? 

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Emma's Review: I Have to Save Them by Ellie Midwood

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

Betrayed by her own husband for being a German resistance fighter, Orli has no one left in the world as she stumbles from the cattle truck onto the frostbitten grounds of Auschwitz. She has arrived expecting to be sentenced to certain death. Instead, as a trained nurse, she is assigned to work in the infirmary to assist Dr Josef Mengele.

Soon, Orli learns Mengele is known as the Angel of Death, and is the most feared man in Auschwitz. At his hands, thousands of healthy inmates are cruelly killed and experimented on: and Orli is expected to assist him. She realises that her resistance work is not over. From inside the infirmary, she will secretly try to save as many souls as she can.

Orli starts to smuggle medicine to the most desperate of patients. But when Mengele instructs her to find children, she knows it isn’t enough… she has to keep him away. With the help of her fellow nurses, Orli plans to fake a typhus outbreak.

But can Orli really fool one of the most powerful men in Auschwitz? And if Mengele discovers her plan, will the cost of saving others be her own life?

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Emma's Review: The Berlin Wife's Resistance by Marion Kummerow

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

1943. Fleeing Germany had been Edith Falkenstein and her Jewish husband Julius’s last hope, selling their remaining precious possessions to make the gruelling journey. But to their horror, they are turned away at the Swiss border. Devastated, they return to the tiny Berlin apartment they share with other Jewish families, with its peeling wallpaper and bare kitchen cupboards. It is a world away from the heady glamour of their lives before.

Edith’s worst fears come true when Julius is brutally arrested and imprisoned alongside thousands of other Jewish men, destined for the camps. When she hears the news, Edith feels her heart crack wide open with unbearable grief.

But then she hears of women gathering outside the prison in their hundreds—wives and mothers from every walk of life whose relatives have also been taken. They are united by a single, desperate wish. She links arms with the woman next to her and takes up the chant.

Standing among these brave women offers Edith a flicker of hope. But can they really save their loved ones? And as Edith faces the lines of German soldiers with cold savagery in their eyes, will she pay the ultimate price for this small act of courage? 

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