Tag: historical fiction

#BookReview Tomboy by Shelley Blanton-Stroud

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TomboyAbout the Book

It’s 1939. On the brink of World War II, Jane Benjamin wants to have it all. By day she hustles as a scruffy, tomboy cub reporter. By night she secretly struggles to raise her toddler sister, Elsie, and protect her from their mother. But Jane’s got a plan: she’ll become the San Francisco Prospect’s first gossip columnist and make enough money to care for Elsie.

Jane finagles her way to the women’s championship at Wimbledon, starring her hometown’s tennis phenom and cover girl Tommie O’Rourke. She plans to write her first column there. But then she witnesses Edith “Coach” Carlson, Tommie’s closest companion, drop dead in the stands of apparent heart attack, and her plan is thrown off track.

While sailing home on the RMS Queen Mary, Jane veers between competing instincts: Should she write a social bombshell column, personally damaging her new friend Tommie’s persona and career? Or should she work to uncover the truth of Coach’s death, which she now knows was a murder, and its connection to a larger conspiracy involving US participation in the coming war?

Putting away her menswear and donning first-class ballgowns, Jane discovers what upper-class status hides, protects, and destroys. Ultimately – like nations around the globe in 1939 – she must choose what she’ll give up in order to do what’s right.

Format:  Paperback (312 pages)   Publisher: She Writes Press
Publication date: 28th June 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Tomboy is the second in the author’s historical mystery series featuring cub reporter Jane Benjamin. I can reassure readers who, like me, haven’t read the first book in the series, Copy Boy, that Tomboy works perfectly well as a standalone. The references to events in the earlier book provide new readers with a tantalising glimpse of Jane’s colourful journey to date. I say colourful but much of that colour is of a pretty dark hue as the occasional flashbacks to her early life demonstrate. She’s had a tough upbringing, witnessing violence and neglect as part of a family with an itinerant lifestyle. It’s given her a strong survival instinct.

Jane is feisty, resourceful, ambitious and determined her gender shouldn’t be an obstacle to achieving her journalistic ambitions. She’s had to learn to rely on herself from an early age but now finds herself with responsibility for her baby sister, Elsie. It’s a responsibility she feels quite conflicted about; she loves her little sister but she also wants to advance her career and the two don’t mix well. Jane’s clear-eyed about her own shortcomings and honest enough to admit she often makes decisions that adversely affect other people.

I really enjoyed the lively writing style and how the author recreated the atmosphere aboard the ocean liner Queen Mary from the luxury suites to the celebrities hobnobbing in the exclusive Verandah Grill (such as Charles Boyer, Irene Dunne and Fred Astaire) and, at the other end of the scale, the crew members in the bowels of the ship making their own amusement in the ‘Pig ‘n’ Whistle’.  Thrust into an unfamiliar luxury lifestyle through her friendship with tennis star Tommie O’Rourke, Jane finds herself at sea, both literally and metaphorically. A bang on the head and a broken nose don’t help.

The mystery at the heart of the book is not quite of the ‘locked room’ variety as the suspicious death has already occurred before the Queen Mary sets sail, but all the people who might have been involved are amongst the passengers and as Jane delves deeper she uncovers some unexpected things, not always by legitimate methods. I thought things got a little jumbled up towards the end of the book (or perhaps that was just me) and Jane’s angst over whether she was doing the right thing seemed to overshadow the unravelling of the mystery. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my first encounter with Jane in whose company life is never going to be dull.

Tomboy is published today as an ebook and will be available in paperback on 11th August 2022. My thanks to Tabitha at She Writes Press for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

In three words: Lively, characterful, intriguing

Try something similar: The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear

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Shelley Blanton-StroudAbout the Author

Shelley Blanton-Stroud grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field and into the city. She taught college writing for three decades and consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and she serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference. Tomboy is the second book in her Jane Benjamin series. Her debut novel, Copy Boy, was the first. Shelley and her husband live in Sacramento with an aging beagle and many photos of their out-of-state sons.  (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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#BookReview Kezia and Rosie by Rebecca Burns

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Kezia and RosieAbout the Book

When sisters Kezia and Rosie arrive at their grandparents’ house in the summer of 1986 they aren’t sure when they’ll see their Mum and Dad again.

While her younger sister Rosie is content playing on the allotment gate and having picnics in the garden, Kezia begins to realise that things aren’t quite what they seem. While embraced in Granddad and Grandma’s loving care, it’s not long before seven-year old Kezia begins to notice strange looks between them, hushed whispers, and secret phone calls. She realises she must step into the frightening adult world if she is to make sense of her parent’s troubled marriage.

Format: Paperback (128 pages)       Publisher: Dahlia Publishing
Publication date: 26th March 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Although described as a linked short story collection, I would characterise Kezia and Rosie as more like a novella.  There is a narrative thread that runs through the book which means that, in my opinion, the ‘stories’ are best read in sequence rather than dipping in and out in the way you might do with a short story collection.

Narrated from the point of view of seven-year old Kezia, the author really captures the experience of being at an age where you start to understand things you hear whilst not understanding others. In just one of the imaginative metaphors in the book, ‘Words give answers and are windows but sometimes the glass is glazed’. Her mind is full of questions: just why has their mother gone away, and to another country, why do her grandparents need to talk to Roy’s son, and why is their grandmother so antagonistic towards their father? There are also memories of an incident that she tries to push away.

As someone with a younger sister, whom of course I love, I could appreciate Kezia’s occasional frustration with her sister’s maddening antics and the way she is indulged by their grandparents. Sometimes a two year age gap can seem much more and the role of elder sibling can feel like an unwelcome burden especially when her grandfather reminds her ‘there are things that can’t be said around Rosie’. No wonder Kezia comes to think of the adult world as a ‘maze… a lattice of things that can and cannot be said’. Her frustration occasionally comes out in little acts of vandalism, such as the tearing to pieces of a flower.

The girls’ grandfather and grandmother are beautifully drawn characters. Although they find themselves in the unexpected position of looking after the two girls with their established domestic routine disrupted, their love and care for Kezia and Rosie is quite wonderful to witness. And, as we learn, they too have experienced sadness in their lives.

Whilst many scenes in the book are touching and funny, there’s a persistent sense of unease. Something not quite right has occurred in the family but for a long time we don’t know what. Kezia feels she has been thrust into an adult world she can’t understand. ‘The summer has been a mosaic of hints and overheard remarks. They gather around Kezia like stepping stones.’  However, whatever happens, Kezia and Rosie can rest assured they have the love and support of their grandparents. ‘For now, it’s enough to slip underneath Grandma’s arm and wedge into the warm space of her armpit, and elbow Rosie gently to tell her she loves her. And for Grandad to giggle to himself and head over to the allotment to fetch raspberries for tea.’

I really liked how the time period of the 1980s was evoked. Anyone old enough to remember that period will recognise the references to shopping in Fine Fare, or watching television programmes together such as The Generation Game, The Dukes of Hazzard or (Kezia and Rosie’s grandmother’s favourite) Wogan. Those of a certain age will experience a real sense of nostalgia and perhaps give a wry smile at the girls’ excitement at watching the wedding of Prince Andrew and Fergie.

I really enjoyed Kezia and Rosie. It’s a delightful, beautifully written book. My thanks to the author for my digital review copy.

In three words: Tender, insightful, heartwarming

Try something similar: Only May by Carol Lovekin

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Rebecca BurnsAbout the Author

Rebecca Burns is an award-winning writer of short stories. Her story collections, Catching the Barramundi (2012) and The Settling Earth (2014) were both longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Award. Her debut novel, The Bishop’s Girl, was published by Odyssey Books in September 2016, followed by a third short story collection, Artefacts and Other Stories (2017). Beyond the Bay, a sequel to The Settling Earth, was published in 2018. Her first novella, Quilaq, was published by Next Chapter in 2020. (Photo: Author website)

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