Tag: NetGalley

#BlogTour #BookReview The Dust Bowl Orphans by Suzette D. Harrison @bookouture

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It’s a pleasure to be hosting the first stop on the blog tour for The Dust Bowl Orphans by Suzette D. Harrison which is published today. My thanks to Sarah Hardy for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Bookouture for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Robin at Robin Loves Reading, Bookstagrammer booksreadbyprairiegirl and Carla at Carla Loves To Read.

The Dust Bowl OrphansAbout the Book

The dust cloud rolls in from nowhere, stinging our eyes and muddling our senses. I reach for my baby sister and pull her small body close to me. When the sky clears, we are alone on an empty road with no clue which way to go…

Oklahoma, 1935. Fifteen-year-old Faith Wilson takes her little sister Hope’s hand. In worn-down shoes, they walk through the choking heat of the Dust Bowl towards a new life in California. But when a storm blows in, the girls are separated from their parents. How will they survive in a place where just the colour of their skin puts them in terrible danger?

Starving and forced to sleep on the streets, Faith thinks a room in a small boarding house will keep her sister safe. But the glare in the landlady’s eye as Faith leaves in search of their parents has her wondering if she’s made a dangerous mistake. Who is this woman, and what does she want with sweet little Hope? Trapped, will the sisters ever find their way back to their family?

California, present day. Reeling from her divorce and grieving the child she lost, Zoe Edwards feels completely alone in the world. Throwing herself into work cataloguing old photos for an exhibition, she sees an image of a teenage girl who looks exactly like her, and a shiver grips her. Could this girl be a long-lost relation, someone to finally explain the holes in Zoe’s family history? Diving into the secrets in her past, Zoe unravels this young girl’s heartbreaking story of bravery and sacrifice. But will anything prepare her for the truth about who she is…?

Format: Paperback (360 pages)         Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date: 7th February 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Dust Bowl Orphans on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Although the fact that people of colour have faced discrimination over the centuries is well-known, through the story of Faith and her sister the author really brings to life their actual day to day experience in 1930s America: segregation, racial prejudice and discrimination enshrined in law.  The book also introduced me to the ecological disaster of soil erosion, drought and intense dust storms that ‘turned daytime skies into midnight’ leaving families like the Wilsons as ‘farmers without produce or product’, forced to migrate West in search of a better life.

Narrated partly from the point of view of Faith starting in 1935 and Zoe in the present day, I particularly loved the voice the author created for Faith and the power of her story. Her sense of responsibility for her young sister, Hope, and the sacrifices she was prepared to make for her were truly heartbreaking even when she was at her wits end, alone in a strange city. ‘I was all Hope had and couldn’t afford to go crazy. I needed all my good sense to keep us safe, and to face whatever came next on this tempestuous journey.’ I admired Faith’s strength of spirit in steadfastly clinging to the belief that she will be reunited with her parents and brother. Faith’s later blossoming as she is able to fulfil her natural talent, made possible through an act of charity, is wonderful to witness.

Although I found myself less engaged with Zoe’s story, I enjoyed the way parallels between the two women’s lives begin to emerge. One of these is their mixed experiences of men. In Zoe’s case, there’s a stark contrast between the behaviour of her estranged husband, Vince, and the man she meets who not only exhibits the tenderness and compassion Zoe needs to heal but provides an important clue in her search for her family’s history. And although Faith is cruelly treated by a man who takes advantage of her desperate situation, she also encounters another man whose actions more truthfully reflect Christian teachings.

I loved following the story of Faith and Hope and the book’s heartwarming conclusion that illustrates the importance and healing nature of family bonds.

In three words: Powerful, authentic, emotional

Try something similar: The Girl at the Back of the Bus by Suzette D. Harrison

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Suzette D HarrisonAbout the Author

Suzette D. Harrison, a native Californian and the middle of three daughters, grew up in a home where reading was required, not requested. Her literary “career” began in junior high school with the publishing of her poetry. While Mrs. Harrison pays homage to Alex Haley, Gloria Naylor, Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, and Toni Morrison as legends who inspired her creativity, it was Dr. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings that unleashed her writing. The award-winning author of Taffy is a wife and mother who holds a culinary degree in Pastry & Baking. Mrs. Harrison is currently cooking up her next novel…in between batches of cupcakes.

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The Dustbowl Orphans - Blog Tour

#BookReview The Man in the Bunker (Tom Wilde 6) by Rory Clements @ZaffreBooks

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The Man in the BunkerAbout the Book

Germany, late summer 1945 – The war is over but the country is in ruins. Millions of refugees and holocaust survivors strive to rebuild their lives in displaced persons camps. Millions of German soldiers and SS men are held captive in primitive conditions in open-air detention centres. Everywhere, civilians are desperate for food and shelter. No one admits to having voted Nazi, yet many are unrepentant.

Adolf Hitler is said to have killed himself in his Berlin bunker. But no body was found – and many people believe he is alive. Newspapers are full of stories reporting sightings and theories. Even Stalin, whose own troops captured the bunker, has told President Truman he believes the former Führer is not dead. Day by day, American and British intelligence officers subject senior members of the Nazi regime to gruelling interrogation in their quest for their truth.

Enter Tom Wilde – the Cambridge professor and spy sent in to find out the truth…

Format: Hardback (460 pages)          Publisher: Zaffre
Publication date: 20th January 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller

Find The Man in the Bunker (Tom Wilde #6) on Goodreads

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Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Rory Clements’ books featuring Cambridge professor turned spy, Tom Wilde, have become one of my absolute favourite series. I’ve devoured every one of them and The Man in the Bunker was no exception. (I’m also a fan of his John Shakespeare series set in Elizabethan England.)

Who do the intelligence services in Britain and the United States call on when they’ve a tricky problem to solve? Why Cambridge professor of history turned spy Tom Wilde of course – much to the exasperation of his wife, Lydia, in this case.

The brilliantly dramatic and chilling opening chapter is a prelude to everything you could possibly want from a spy thriller: plenty of action scenes, car chases, narrow escapes, assassins waiting in the shadows, wily and ruthless villains, double-crosses galore. There are also a host of interesting secondary characters, such as the colourful Boris Minsky, Jerzy ‘the boy with the camera’ and the dedicated Dr. Angie Gray.  The skilfully crafted plot means there are plenty of side stories the reason for whose inclusion remains deliciously intriguing for a large part of the book.

Wilde is assigned a companion in his investigation, Lieutenant Mozes Heck. Heck is a wonderfully drawn character. Whilst, as readers of the previous books will know, Wilde has his own share of traumatic memories, Heck’s are beyond imagining. His first-hand and very personal experience of the atrocities committed by the Nazis has given him a deep-seated hatred of those Nazis who survived the war and ‘an overpowering hunger’ for revenge. As a result he is utterly ruthless – shoot first, think later – meaning at times he is difficult for Wilde to control.  ‘Heck was in a blood-red world of his own, and no amount of reasoning was going to alter that.’ On the other hand, Heck’s sharp-shooting skills, physical resilience and ability to pass unnoticed are definitely things you want in a difficult situation, and Wilde and Heck experience plenty of those.

Wilde’s investigation into whether Hitler remains alive takes him to the heart of post-war Germany giving the reader a vivid insight into the destruction visited upon cities such as Berlin by Allied bombing and the advance of the Russian army.  ‘This is real life, this is the detritus of war, right here.’ Berlin has become a place of ruined buildings, piles of rubble and people trying to eke out a living in the shattered remains of their city. It’s a dangerous place as well.  ‘The problems start after dark when the desperate and the dispossessed come out and defy the curfew. It’s kill or be killed.’

There also unsettling scenes in the makeshift camps for people displaced by the War including those who survived the concentration camps. And a visit to a particular site in Berlin brings Wilde a chilling reminder of the evil of the Nazi regime. ‘He did not believe in the occult, nor even an afterlife, yet he could hear the children’s cries.’

I can’t say much more about the plot without giving too much away. But, I hear you ask, does Wilde discover if Hitler survived the Berlin bunker? Sorry, not telling. Read the book and find out.

I thought The Man In The Bunker was absolutely fabulous, another masterly spy thriller from the pen of Rory Clements. A few loose ends left subtly dangling at the end of the book leaves me hoping this is not the last outing for Tom Wilde. In the meantime Tom, Lydia deserves her holiday.

In three words: Compelling, action-packed, suspenseful

Try something similar: V2 by Robert Harris

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Rory ClementsAbout the Author

Rory Clements was born on the edge of England in Dover. After a career in national newspapers, he now writes full time in a quiet corner of Norfolk, where he lives with his wife, the artist Naomi Clements Wright, and their family. He won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award in 2010 for his second novel, Revenger, and the CWA Historical Dagger in 2018 for Nucleus. Three of his other novels – Martyr, Prince and The Heretics – have been shortlisted for awards.

To find out more about The Man In The Bunker and the previous books in the series, join the Rory Clements Readers’ Club via the link in his website. (Photo credit: Author website)

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The Man in the Bunker