Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Patrick Murphy has charm to burn and a singing voice to die for. Many people will recognise his talent. Many women will love him. Rose, the sweetheart he leaves behind in Ireland, can never forget him and will move heaven and earth to find him again, long after he has married another woman. Ava, the heiress with no self-confidence except on the dance floor, falls under his spell. And tough Sheila Klein, orphaned by the Holocaust and hungry for success as a music manager, she will be ruthless in her determination to unlock his extraordinary star quality.
But in the end, Patrick Murphy's heart belongs to only one of them. Which one will it be?
Top voices in historical fiction deliver an intensely moving collection of short stories about loss, longing, and hope in the aftermath of World War I—featuring bestselling authors such as Hazel Gaynor, Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig and edited by Heather Webb.
A squadron commander searches for meaning in the tattered photo of a girl he’s never met…
A Belgian rebel hides from the world, only to find herself nursing the enemy…
A young airman marries a stranger to save her honor—and prays to survive long enough to love her…The peace treaty signed on November 11, 1918, may herald the end of the Great War but for its survivors, the smoke is only beginning to clear. Picking up the pieces of shattered lives will take courage, resilience, and trust.
Within crumbled city walls and scarred souls, war’s echoes linger. But when the fighting ceases, renewal begins…and hope takes root in a fall of poppies.
Excerpt from “Hour of the Bells”
A short story included in Fall of Poppies
Beatrix whisked around the showroom, feather duster in hand. Not a speck of dirt could remain or Joseph would be disappointed. The hour struck noon. A chorus of clocks whirred, their birds popping out from hiding to announce midday. Maidens twirled in their frocks with braids down their backs, woodcutters clacked their axes against pine, and the odd sawmill wheel spun in tune to the melody of a nursery rhyme. Two dozen cuckoos warbled and dinged, each crafted with loving detail by the same pair of hands—those with thick fingers and a steady grip.
Beatrix paused in her cleaning. One clock chimed to its own rhythm, apart from the others.
She could turn them off—the tinkling melodies, the incessant clatter of pendulums, wheels, and cogs, with the levers located near the weights—just as their creator had done before bed each evening, but she could not bring herself to do the same. To silence their music was to silence him, her husband, Joseph. The Great War had already done that; ravaged his gentle nature, stolen his final breath, and silenced him forever.
1940s Hollywood. A new life. A new love.
A mother's
love, a woman's ambition and a Hollywood romance in a time of war. Land of
Dreams is the stunning third novel in the Ellis Island trilogy which began with young, determined Ellie Hogan's arrival in New York from the poverty of rural Ireland in the 1920s.
The 1940s sees a threat to Ellie's idyllic and bohemian family lifestyle on Fire Island when her eldest son, Leo, runs away to Hollywood to see his fame and fortune. Ellie is compelled to chase after him, uprooting her youngest son and long-time friend and confidante Bridie as she goes.
Ellie fashions a new home amongst the celebrities, artists
and movie moguls of the day to appease Leo's star-studded dreams. As she carves
out a new way of life, Ellie is drawn towards intense new friendships. Talented
composer Stan is completely different to any other man she has previously
encountered whilst kindred spirit Suri opens Ellie's eyes to a whole new set of
injustices.
Ellie sees beyond the glitz of 1940s Hollywood, realising that the
glamorous and exciting world is also a dangerous place overflowing with vanity
and greed. It is up to Ellie to protect her precious family from the
disappointments such surroundings can bring and also from the more menacing
threats radiating from the war raging in Europe.
