Rachel Reads & Reviews

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Tag: #historicalfiction

  • Book Highlight: Our Narrow Hiding Places

    While in my happy place of Barnes & Noble, my mother and I stumbled upon an author’s promotion. Kristopher Jansma, like the rest of us, got to spend quality family time during the pandemic and it is in this isolation he got to learn more about his grandmother’s history in the Netherlands where she endured…

  • Ranking Fifth Avenue Rebels

    Shupe’s latest Gilded Age romance delivers on opulence, scandals and simmering romance so let’s get to it.

  • Top 5 Caroline Years

    After reading Laura Ingells Wilder’s classic Little House on the Prarie series, and then the sequel inspired by her daughter, The Rose Years. It’s only fitting to go back in time to mid 19th century to see the coming of age of Caroline Quiner, the beloved Ma of America’s famous pioneer family.

  • Vanessa Riley Interview

    Vanessa is the prolific, best-selling author of the Lady Worthing Mysteries series, Queen of Exiles, Rogues and Remarkable Women, and much more. From mystery to historical to regency, Vanessa puts strong, dynamic Black women and women of color in her novels in all their joy and complexity. She graciously took the time to answer my…

  • Book of the Month: Lessons in Chemistry

    Don’t let that gorgeous hair and sassy look fool you, Elizabeth Zott takes chemistry and cooking seriously. In fact, she takes everything seriously. She rarely smiles, and she has good reason to. Being a female scientist in the early 60s is just hell. No respect, constant comments from men and women, no one likes her…

  • July Books

    Bloomability by Sharon Creech I’ve always liked the cover of this book but I never actually read it. Until this month that is. It’s about a young girl, Domenica aka Dinnie who’s been kidnapped to Switzerland. Well, not really kidnapped. Her family is having lots of dysfunction that the eleven year old doesn’t comprehend so…

  • Book of the Month: The Duke and I

    After my friend’s sister insisted she choose this book for book club with the “It’s like a modern Jane Austen,” we finished and my friend’s expectations fell short. Very short. As she kept saying when we finished “This isn’t like Jane Austen at all. Jane Austen didn’t write about horny people. I mean, they probably…

  • Magic Tree House: Merlin Missions

    I have finished my mission to read all the Merlin Missions. And the series except for the latest book because it has a long waiting list as it should. Some series don’t stand the test of time much less resonate with a new generation (usually by retconning the old which makes no one happy) but…

  • Patriot Hearts Review

    After going on that Hamilton binge, I needed to read more about our Revolutionary Founders. Or as Abigail Adams said, “Remember the Ladies.”

  • May Books

    Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon Sophie and Nick have been best friends since they were toddlers, next door neighbors playing in the mud and blending the artistic talents as dancer and piano-player respectively to create “Terrible Twosome” performances. They know each other better than anyone, love each other and respect each other…