The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain

One of the greatest things to come with diving into the social world of the love of reading is discovering new authors. I discovered Diane about 3 years ago, and have loved her books ever since. I wish I had known about her for much longer!

Thank you St Martin’s Press for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis: When Kayla Carter’s husband dies in an accident while building their dream house, she knows she has to stay strong for their four-year-old daughter. But the trophy home in Shadow Ridge Estates, a new development in sleepy Round Hill, North Carolina, will always hold tragic memories. But when she is confronted by an odd, older woman telling her not to move in, she almost agrees. It’s clear this woman has some kind of connection to the area…and a connection to Kayla herself. Kayla’s elderly new neighbor, Ellie Hockley, is more welcoming, but it’s clear she, too, has secrets that stretch back almost fifty years. Is Ellie on a quest to right the wrongs of the past? And does the house at the end of the street hold the key? Told in dual time periods, The Last House on the Street is a novel of shocking prejudice and violence, forbidden love, the search for justice, and the tangled vines of two families. 

Diane’s books are just some of the most wonderful stories I’ve read that stick with you for the rest of time. This is one of those stories. While many of my readers know that I’m not a huge fan of alternating timelines, I get so excited when I find authors that do it well. This is one of those authors. The historical context was captivating and impeccable. I found myself wanting to know more outside of the book. I highly recommend this book for you to read.

5/5 Stars

The Hollows by Jess Montgomery

Am I the only one who is absolutely in love with this cover?!

Thank you to Minotaur Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis: Ohio, 1926: For many years, the underground railroad track in Moonvale Tunnel has been used as a short cut through the Appalachian hills. When an elderly woman is killed walking along the tracks, the brakeman tells tales of seeing a ghostly female figure dressed all in white.
Newly elected Sheriff Lily Ross is called on to the case to dispel the myths, but Lily does not believe that an old woman would wander out of the hills onto the tracks. In a county where everyone knows everyone, how can someone have disappeared, when nobody knew they were missing? As ghost stories and rumors settle into the consciousness of Moonvale Hollow, Lily tries to search for any real clues to the woman’s identity.
With the help of her friend Marvena Whitcomb, Lily follows the woman’s trail to The Hollows—an asylum is northern Antioch County—and they begin to expose secrets long-hidden by time and the mountains. 

This is the second installment of the Kinship series. I want to mention that I have not read the first one yet, The Widows. I love the time frame of this novel! Jess does a great job at making you feel like it wasn’t oh so long ago. The chapters are alternating by the two main characters which isn’t my favorite thing, but wasn’t bad in this book. You really could read this as a stand alone and not feel left out of the story. It’s the perfect mix of historical fiction and mystery! What an intriguing ending for sure!

4/5 Stars

A Golden Grave by Erin Lindsey

Before you go any further, ask yourself, have I read the first book in the Rose Gallagher series? If not, GO READ IT! It was one of my top three FAVORITE books of 2018!

Thank you Minotaur Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis: Rose Gallagher always dreamed of finding adventure, so her new life as a freshly-minted Pinkerton agent ought to be everything she ever wanted. Only a few months ago, she was just another poor Irish housemaid from Five Points; now, she’s learning to shoot a gun and dance the waltz and throw a grown man over her shoulder. Better still, she’s been recruited to the special branch, an elite unit dedicated to cases of a paranormal nature, and that means spending her days alongside the dashing Thomas Wiltshire. But being a Pinkerton isn’t quite what Rose imagined, and not everyone welcomes her into the fold. Meanwhile, her old friends aren’t sure what to make of the new Rose, and even Thomas seems to be having second thoughts about his junior partner. So when a chilling new case arrives on Rose’s doorstep, she jumps at the chance to prove herself – only to realize that the stakes are higher than she could have imagined. Six delegates have been murdered at a local political convention, and the police have no idea who–or what–is responsible. One thing seems clear: The killer’s next target is a candidate for New York City mayor, one Theodore Roosevelt. Convinced that something supernatural is afoot, Rose and Thomas must track down the murderer before Roosevelt is taken out of the race–permanently. But this killer is unlike any they’ve faced before, and hunting him down will take them from brownstones to ballrooms to Bowery saloons. Not quite comfortable anywhere, Rose must come to terms with her own changed place in society–and the fact that some would do anything to see her gone from it entirely.

I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH! I have bragged about this book to everyone I know. This has got to be one of my top 5 favorite series of all time! It just has a little bit of everything you want – adventure, thrills, mystery, romance, the supernatural, and more! It’s a great mix of historical fiction, romance, and suspense genres. Drop everything and go read this!

5/5 Stars

Rouge by Richard Kirshenbaum

I’m falling in love with this cover and feel like I need to dress-up and go out on the town to celebrate the publishing of this one!

Thank you FSB Associates and St Martins Press for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis: This fast-paced novel examines the lives, loves, and sacrifices of the visionaries who invented the modern cosmetics industry: Josiah Herzenstein, born in a Polish Jewish Shtlel, the entrepreneur who transforms herself into a global style icon and the richest woman in the world, Josephine Herz; Constance Gardiner, her rival, the ultimate society woman who invents the door-to-door business and its female workforce but whose deepest secret threatens everything; CeeCee Lopez, the bi-racial beauty and founder of the first African American woman’s hair relaxer business, who overcomes prejudice and heartbreak to become her community’s first female millionaire. The cast of characters is rounded out by Mickey Heron, a dashing, sexy ladies’ man whose cosmetics business is founded in a Hollywood brothel. All are bound in a struggle to be number one, doing anything to get there…including murder. 

I’m proud of myself for diving into something I wouldn’t have normally read and actually enjoying it! This book spans in a long period of time which was super cool to see such vast change in one book. Want to know what the American Dream looks like in each generation? This book is perfect for it! A intricate historical memoir of women with such sophisticated writing. I feel like I was supposed to be born in the 1940s and this book just touched at all my heart strings for that. A little slow to start, but it was absolutely beautiful!

4.5/5 Stars

I’ve got a special treat for you on this one: a preview of the first chapter! Enjoy!

From Rouge: A Novel of Beauty and Rivalry. Copyright © 2019  by Richard Kirshenbaum and reprinted with permission from St. Martin’s Press. 

Chapter 1

HOLLYWOOD DREAMS

New York City, 1933

A Technicolor sky hung over the city even though it was only early May. At times, even New York City seemed to have caught the bug. The pear trees that bloomed like white fireworks every April may as well have sprouted palm trees. Everyone, it seemed, had just stepped out of a Garbo movie, and Josephine Herz (née Josiah Herzenstein) would be damned if she would not capitalize on this craze.

A young, well-kept woman was the first to grace her newly opened, eponymous salon on Fifth Avenue. With bleached-blond “marcelled” hair, a substantial bust, and a mouth that looked as though it had been carved from a pound of chopped meat, her new client had all the ammunition to entrap any man in the city, to keep him on the dole, and her cosmetic hygienist, in this case Herz Beauty, on the payroll. She lowered herself onto the padded leather salon chair like a descending butterfly and batted her eyes as though they too might flutter from her face.

“I want thickah,” she whined. She said this in a Brooklyn accent that would have killed her chances had she been an actress transitioning from silent to talkies.

Josephine nodded and reached into her arsenal, procuring the favored Herz moisturizer for a dewy complexion. She removed and unscrewed the glass jar, leaned over her client, and began to apply it to her cheekbones in soft, round swirls.

“No!” The client swatted her hand away as though to scold and dispose of a landed bug. “Not my skin,” she said. “My lashes.”

“Oh.” Josephine withdrew her hand and held it, poised high above her client’s face, as though hovering a spoon over a boiling pot.

“I want thicker lashes,” said the blonde. “Like Gloria.”

“Gloria?” Josephine was perplexed.

“Swanson!” the client said, shaking her head, miffed that she was not understood.

“I see.” Josephine replaced the glass jar in her holster bag and procured a separate, zippered case. “For the thick-eyelash look, you have two options: tinting or application.” She removed both a small black cake and a moistened brush to apply the pigment and a plastic box of spidery lashes and displayed them as though they were a cache of jewels. The tube of adhesive gum came next.

The blonde’s eyes widened. She shook her head and sat bolt upright on her chair. A convalescent, revived from the dead. “Ya don’t mean you want to glue them on?”

Josephine took a long, deep breath. “How else do you think women get them?” she said. “If there were a drink ve could drink to grow them, I assure you I’d let you know,” she said in her Polish-tinged English.

“I just assumed…,” said the blonde. Miffed, she reached into her pocketbook and produced a magazine clipping from a crumpled stash. She unfurled a luminous, if wrinkled, image of Gloria Swanson, the Hollywood glamour girl, from the latest issue of Motion Picture. All lips, pouting like a put-out princess. She had the brow of an Egyptian goddess, the same distinctive beauty mark, and the eyelashes of a jungle cat. “Like that,” she said, pointing at her eyes. “I want to look like that for a party tonight.”

Josephine’s perfectly lacquered blood-red nails grazed the wrinkled page. She studied Gloria’s fabulous face, the brow, the lash, the pout.

“Application,” Josephine said, returning the image.

“Geez,” said the client. “You’d think by now you people would come up with something better than that.”

It was her duty, Josephine had come to feel, to tolerate stings and slights like this. But a new thought occurred to her as she prepped the lashes for application, as she meticulously heated and applied the adhesive gum. Her client was right. She often worked the floor to do just that: to listen to her patrons, her clients. And now that she was in New York, she knew enough never to be too far away from what real American women wanted. And so she took in the woman’s request with deep reverence, as she knew nothing was more important to her future sales than her clients’ needs. Blanche or Betty—or whatever the tacky blonde’s name was—was right. It was high time someone came up with something better. Josephine was certainly up to this task. The only problem was that across town, a woman named Constance Gardiner was doing the very same thing.

* * *

Josephine Herz was not, of course, the first to invent mascara. But she would be the first to invent one devoid of mess and fuss and to make it available to the masses. As early as ancient Egypt, women found their facial fix. Considered to be a necessary accoutrement in every woman’s and man’s daily regime, kohl, a combination of galena, lead sulfide, or copper and wax, was applied to the eyes, the eyebrows and lashes, to ward off evil spirits and to protect from sun damage. Most any image of Egyptian gods or goddesses will reveal hieroglyphs, not only on pyramid walls but on the Egyptians’ faces. The bold, black lines on the female face lost fashion over the centuries, especially in more recent times when Victorian ladies eschewed color of all kind on the face. But it was not long before women craved—and chemists created—a new brand of adornment for the eye. Coal, honey, beeswax—all the traditional ingredients had to be tested and tried. Josephine could smell a market maker from a mile away, and in this, she sensed a new moment for the eye. From Los Angeles to Larchmont, women were craving new ways to look like the stars of the silver screen, new ways to dress, look, and behave in a modern woman’s ever-changing role. These women needed a product that would make them look and feel like Garbo or Swanson, something simpler, cleaner, and quicker than the application of false eyelashes every six to eight weeks. These women needed a product that was cheap, fuss-free, and less mess than the old option made from charcoal, which, in the very worst cases, caused blindness.

Copyright © 2019 by Richard Kirshenbaum

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

RICHARD KIRSHENBAUM is the author of Rouge: A Novel of Beauty and Rivalry. He is CEO of NSG/SWAT, a high-profile boutique branding agency. He has lectured at Harvard Business School, appeared on 20/20, was named to Crain’s New York Business’s “40 under 40” list, and has been inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame. He is the author of Under the Radar, Closing the Deal, Madboy, and Isn’t That Rich? and the New York Observer’s “Isn’t That Rich?” column. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children. Follow the author on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

The Last Collection by Jeanne Mackin

My aunt and cousin (who works in the fashion industry) have introduced me to Coco Chanel as a child and I’m pretty much in love with this plot.

Thank you Berkley for gifting me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis: Paris, 1938. Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli are fighting for recognition as the most successful and influential fashion designer in France, and their rivalry is already legendary. They oppose each other at every turn, in both their politics and their designs: Chanel’s are classic, elegant, and practical; Schiaparelli’s bold, experimental, and surreal. When Lily Sutter, a recently widowed young American teacher, visits her brother, Charlie, in Paris, he insists on buying her a couture dress–a Chanel. Lily, however, prefers a Schiaparelli. Charlie’s beautiful and socially prominent girlfriend soon begins wearing Schiaparelli’s designs as well, and much of Paris follows in her footsteps. Schiaparelli offers budding artist Lily a job at her store, and Lily finds herself increasingly involved with Schiaparelli and Chanel’s personal war. Their fierce competition reaches new and dangerous heights as the Nazis and the looming threat of World War II bear down on Paris

This is another one of those books set in the 1930s-1940s era that has completely captivated me. Jeanne did an amazing job researching for this book. There is so much history and intricate fashion detail that it was truly mesmerizing to read. The tension between these two women was nail-biting as you read which added a whole new layer to this book. What a neat premise and so beautifully written!

4/5 Stars

Montauk by Nicola Harrison

I think I may actually be starting to love historical fiction books, who knew?! Get a load of this new book release:

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis: Montauk, Long Island, 1938. For three months, this humble fishing village will serve as the playground for New York City’s wealthy elite. Beatrice Bordeaux was looking forward to a summer of reigniting the passion between her and her husband, Harry. Instead, tasked with furthering his investment interest in Montauk as a resort destination, she learns she’ll be spending twelve weeks sequestered with the high society wives at The Montauk Manor—a two-hundred room seaside hotel—while Harry pursues other interests in the city. College educated, but raised a modest country girl in Pennsylvania, Bea has never felt fully comfortable among these privileged women, whose days are devoted not to their children but to leisure activities and charities that seemingly benefit no one but themselves. She longs to be a mother herself, as well as a loving wife, but after five years of marriage she remains childless while Harry is increasingly remote and distracted. Despite lavish parties at the Manor and the Yacht Club, Bea is lost and lonely and befriends the manor’s laundress whose work ethic and family life stir memories of who she once was. As she drifts further from the society women and their preoccupations and closer toward Montauk’s natural beauty and community spirit, Bea finds herself drawn to a man nothing like her husband –stoic, plain spoken and enigmatic. Inspiring a strength and courage she had almost forgotten, his presence forces her to face a haunting tragedy of her past and question her future. Desperate to embrace moments of happiness, no matter how fleeting, she soon discovers that such moments may be all she has, when fates conspire to tear her world apart

You guys, this book was BEAUTIFUL! I LOVED Nicola’s style of writing. I am now a huge fan! I felt like I was catapulted into the late 1930’s and was sitting right along with Bea the entire time. The character development was truly exceptional and I pretty much want to be best friends with Bea and Dolly. I always felt like I should’ve been born in the 1940s and this book truly confirmed that for me, haha. ALL THE STARS!

5/5 Stars

Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen

It’s rare to find historical fiction reviews on my account, but this is a game changer! Cosmopolitan is my guilty pleasure, so I just had to read this book!

Thank you Berkley books for my gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis from Goodreads: New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big city dreams and unexpectedly lands the job of a lifetime working for Helen Gurley Brown, the first female Editor-in-Chief of a then failing Cosmopolitan Magazine. Nothing could have prepared Alice for the world she enters as editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller, Sex and the Single Girl. While confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands, someone tries to pull Alice into this scheme to sabotage her boss. But Alice remains loyal and becomes all the more determined to help Helen succeed. As pressure mounts at the magazine and Alice struggles to make her way in New York, she quickly learns that in Helen Gurley Brown’s world, a woman can demand to have it all.

I absolutely devoured this book! It was the most perfect Spring Break read – I took it with me everywhere! It’s the fictional story of how Alice found her dream job through the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown. This story is written so well that I had to convince myself many times that this wasn’t real! It made me all the more fascinated about how the magazine revolutionized women’s role in the workplace. Truly remarkable. I have so much more respect for all involved. A must read this summer!

5/5 Stars

Master of His Fate by Barbara Taylor Bradford

I’m excited to share that this is my first Barbara Taylor Bradford book I’ve read, and what a beautiful book cover this is!

Thank you Get Red PR and St Martin’s Press for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

From Goodreads: Victorian England is a country of sharp divides between rich and poor, but James Lionel Falconer is everything a self-made man should be: handsome, ambitious, charming, and brimming with self-confidence. Even as a boy working in his father’s market stall in Camden, he was determined to become a merchant prince. Through hard work and a single-minded determination, James rises quickly through the ranks, with a loving wife, devoted children, and a lofty position in the Malvern & Malvern Company. But when back-to-back tragedies strike the Falconer home, shattering this idyllic life, it seems as though James might never recover his former glory…until a royal summons gives him the chance to prove that he truly is a master of the game. This is the first book in it’s series.

This book review is based a lot on personal preference. I’m not much for a historical fiction reader, but I am always open to new opportunities. I really enjoyed Barbara’s descriptions of Victorian style. It was beautiful and elegant and gave this a really cozy-read feel. I enjoyed that it had a romance AND suspense, two favorite genres of mine. I was not the biggest fan of James’ character which I think turned me off from wanting to read more books from this series. There are a lot of characters to keep track of that made this book seem like it dragged out a little longer than I would’ve liked. Like I said, it’s more of a personal preference for me. I will be picking up other books by Barbara in the future to get a better taste of what this author has to offer.

3/5 Stars

Harbor of Spies by Robin Lloyd

You may not find me reading a lot of Historical books, but when a Historical thriller lands in my lap, you bet I’m excited to read it right away!

Thank you Get Red PR and Lyons Press for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

From Goodreads: HARBOR OF SPIES is an historical novel set in Havana in 1863 during the American Civil War, when the Spanish colonial city was alive with intrigue and war related espionage. The protagonist – a young American ship captain by the name of Everett Townsend – is pulled into the war, not as a Naval Academy midshipman, as he had once hoped, but as the captain of a Havana-based blockade-running schooner. Even as Townsend gets entangled in the war effort, he also finds himself being pulled into the dangerous investigation of a murdered English diplomat which threatens his own life. Townsend becomes ensnared in the investigation of the Backhouse murder by rescuing a man from the sea, who turns out to be a prison escapee from El Morro Castle. That good deed to help this stranger condemns the protagonist himself to a Spanish prison, and sets in motion a plot where Townsend struggles to maintain his own sense of identity. He falls into the clutches of a Spanish merchant, who is making money off the American war, who introduces him to a world of spies, slave traders, and Spanish seductresses. From the bars, to the docks, to the dance halls, Townsend takes us into colonial Havana and then to the slave plantations in the interior even as he prepares his ship to run the blockade. The protagonist’s trouble-ridden experience leads him to become emotionally involved with the daughter of an American innkeeper in Havana. Together they help each other grapple with the uncertain moral terrain of a city caught up in the American war and the growing controversy over slavery.  Throughout the novel, Townsend can never shake loose the mystery about the man he helped save. As a foreigner and an outsider, he finds himself trapped by mysterious forces and circumstances beyond his control which ironically help him discover his own family roots in Cuba, and finally convince him to become a spy for the North. The novel is not only a richly drawn portrait of Spanish colonial Havana in the days when Cuba was flush with sugar wealth, but also provides a realistic look at the blockade runners that helped form the supply line into the South’s Gulf ports. A little-known fact about blockade running in the Gulf of Mexico in the early years of the Civil War is the important role that sailing schooners played in bringing arms and ammunition into the shallow harbors, bays and inlets that line the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas. 

What a cool book! I think what was most exciting about this book is seeing that Robin Lloyd, a former foreign NBC correspondent, was the author. He really added something special to this book with his prior knowledge and experience of the area. His writing really made me feel like I was right there in Havana, a place I honestly don’t have personal knowledge of myself. Such a vibrant setting for this book! I was completely intrigued by the murder investigation more than I was about the civil war references (that’s just my personal preference). I highly recommend this book for those who love historical fiction, and it’s a wonderful book for thriller lovers to step-out of their comfort zone.

4/5 Stars

The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain

I have just recently become a Diane Chamberlain fan. Where has she been my whole life!? I have a lot of catching up to do with her books, but this was a great place to start.

Thank you St Martin’s Press for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Carly Sears has recently lost her husband in the Vietnam war and just found out that her daughter that she’s pregnant with has a fatal heart condition. For it being 1970, there is no sucess rate for the pregnancy. Carly is devestated. In comes her brother-in-law Hunter with a life-changing soultion. He can help her travel to the future to get the procedure needed and save her daughter’s life. Does she decide to make the travel? Does her daughter survive?

This book captured my attention right away and I could not put it down. I don’t want to give away too many details about this one because I feel like it spoils the whole experience for you if I do. I will say that about half way through the book, I got mad. I felt all the frustrations of Carly and I wanted to throw the book across the room. But, I digress….I had to keep going to find out what happened and I’m so glad I did. The twist at the end of the book was so well worth it and the ending was absolutely perfect.

4/5 Stars