Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE HIDDEN LETTER AT BLUEBELL FARM (Wildflower Secrets Book #3) by Rebecca Alexander on this Bookouture Blog Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
Book Description
Arriving at Bluebell Farm in the English countryside, historian Tasha has never felt more alone. Her twins have left for university, her marriage is over, and she’s said goodbye to the place she thought would always be her home. Exploring the tumbledown farm and striking up a friendship with elderly Maud, whose prickly exterior masks a warm heart, offers the distraction Tasha desperately needs.
Together with Ryan, a silver-haired, motorbike-riding archaeologist, Tasha digs into the farm’s history. Soon she finds faded photographs and a sealed, yellowing letter that calls to her. But Maud’s eyes fill with tears as she insists the long-lost letter must never be opened. Could it be from Maud’s father, who went missing after the Second World War?
Intrigued by the stories hidden behind Maud’s sharp blue eyes, Tasha and Ryan unearth a heart-wrenching secret. Maud’s father’s disappearance is not the only mystery hidden on this farm. If Maud reads the letter after all these years, will it reveal all?
And with Maud’s encouragement,can Tasha have a second chance at love with kind-hearted Ryan? Or will the heartache in their own pasts keep them apart?
THE HIDDEN LETTER AT BLUEBELL FARM (Wildflower Secrets Book #3) by Rebecca Alexander is an emotionally gripping, heartbreaking, and wonderful dual timeline historical fiction/women’s fiction addition to the Wildflower Secrets series. This book, like the others in the series, are easily read as standalones with the location of Dartmoor, England being the main linkage between all the books with minimal story content crossover.
Bluebell Farm in the farming community of Dartmoor is the setting of both timelines. The main character of both timelines is Maud. She is a young girl during WWII as she lives and works on her family’s farm in the historical timeline starting in the 1940s. She is a 95-year-old woman in the present-day timeline when The National Trust buys her farmhouse, barn, and land for historical preservation.
Tasha is a divorced mother of grown twins who is searching for a change. She decides to take the assignment of staying on Bluebell Farm to catalogue and restore historical finds. At first, Tasha finds Maud brusk and secretive, but as she works to understand and help Maud, the two become closer and Tasha feels responsible for Maud. But Maud’s secrets from her early years on the farm begin to surface. The boy and then man she could never have and all she had to endure over the years comes to light.
Keep the tissues close for this one. Maud is a character I will remember for a long time to come. Her strength and perseverance were amazing, and she is more than just an assignment to Tasha. All the stories in this series are emotional but having had a grandma who lived to be 102, this one got to me personally. A well written story with a memorable main protagonist and blend of two plotlines that kept me turning the pages to the very end.
I highly recommend this inspiring historical fiction/women’s fiction dual timeline story!
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About the Author
Rebecca Alexander was born in Malta and grew up on the south coast of England, becoming a psychologist. She escaped parenting six children to study writing in 2011, and the Secrets series of novels was published in 2013. A Baby’s Bones and sequel followed. Rebecca lives in a haunted 300-year-old cottage in Devon where she grows fruit, paints, and bakes. She reads and writes all sorts of genres, from women’s fiction to fantasy to crime. She is married with four chickens, two grandchildren and a cat.
On a brisk February morning while walking to the diner where she works, 24 year-old Ruth Foster is stopped by the local sheriff. He insists she accompany him to a health clinic, threatening to arrest her if she doesn’t undergo testing in order to preserve decency and prevent the spread of sexual disease.
Though Ruth has never shared more than a chaste kiss with a man, by day’s end she is one of dozens of women held at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women. Some are there because they were reported for promiscuity by neighbors, husbands, strangers. Some were accused of prostitution. Others were just pretty and unmarried. Or poor and “suspicious.” One was eating dinner alone in a restaurant. Another spoke to a soldier.
Josephine’s sin was running a business as a single woman. Maude’s was trying to drown her sorrows. Frances had lost her mind. Opal married a man with a mean streak. Some, like 15-year-old Stella, are brought in because they’re victims of assault. She’s too naive and broken to understand how unjust this imprisonment is.
Superintendent Dorothy Baker, convinced that she’s transforming degenerate souls into upstanding members of society, oversees the women’s medical treatment and “training” until they’re deemed ready for parole. Sooner or later, everyone at the Colony learns to abide by Mrs. Baker’s rule book or face the consequences—solitary confinement, grueling work assignments, and worse.
But some refuse to be cowed. Some find ways to fight back – at any cost…
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Elise’s Thoughts
Women of a Promiscuous Nature by Donna Everhart is a compelling and fascinating read. This historical fiction sheds light on a lesser-known subject of how women were wrongly imprisoned. There are vivid scenes and compelling characters who fought their injustice with determination.
The story was told from multiple points of view: two of the girls, Ruth Foster and Stella Temple, as well as the Superintendent Dorothy Baker. This allows readers to get an understanding of the situation of the girls.
Women were picked up, sent to the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women, and subjected to involuntary medical treatment for venereal disease. One of those women was twenty-four-year-old Ruth Foster who was on her way to work and seized by the sheriff for looking suspicious. She was forced to remain in the custody of a reform colony where she underwent horrendous isolation and shots that made her sick. She witnessed group punishment that she refused to take part in and was then put in solitary confinement for disobedience.
Another girl, fifteen-year-old Stella Temple found herself at the colony after her parents realized she was pregnant. While there she was involuntarily sterilized. Even with all that she still sees the colony as a refuge and something better than she had while living with her parents since she has a bed, clothing, and food.
Dorothy Baker is the superintendent of the colony. Although she thinks she is doing the right thing in helping the girls, readers see how she never tolerates anyone who protests. If the girls break the rules, they face sadistic and cruel punishment. If they try to run away, they are sent to the meditation room where they are given only scraps of food, a bucket to dispose of their humanly waste, and are isolated.
This book is riveting and will keep readers turning the pages. People will take the journey with the characters, cheering for Ruth as she exhibits courageous behavior and weeping for Stella as she is forced to confront what happened to herself. They will despise Mrs. Baker for her corporal punishment techniques. The twists and turns as well as the surprise ending add to the intensity of the story where readers will be on the edge of their seats.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
Donna Everhart: I write southern historical fiction. This is about some sterilization but more importantly the mass incarceration of women. I have not thought of my books as historical fiction, but they do fall into that category. At first, I thought about writing on reform schools for girls in the state of North Carolina. When I landed on farm colonies and the mass incarceration of women the story unfolded. Even though the story is fictional most of what took place happened.
EC: Were Samarcand and the Colony true?
DE: They were each an hour from me in opposite directions. I read this book, Bad Girls at Samarcand: Sexuality and Sterilization in A Southern Juvenile Reformatory by Karin L. Zipf, which was a resource for me. The goal was to combat the spread of venereal disease. Any woman could by arrested within a five-mile radius of a military base. If the woman was found infected, they could be sentenced to a farm colony to be cured. After learning about the Chamberlain-Kahn Act, the American Plan, I discovered that some girls sent to these reform schools operated as very young prostitutes. Another resource was a non-fiction book by Scott W. Stern, The Trials of Nina McCall: Sex, Surveillance, and the Decades-Long Plan to Imprison Promiscuous Women.
EC: What was true?
DE: The meditation room where Ruth was placed was true: dingy, not enough food, had to pee in a bucket. They were able to run the colony through slave labor. I have four books that were actual biennial reports of that time that went to the North Carolina Governor. There was a board of directors, a superintendent, on site psychologists, a medical director, as in my book. The fires in the farm colonies dormitories are true.
EC: Was Ruth Foster based on Nina McCall?
DE: Yes, loosely based. Nina was walking to the post office and picked up, while in my book Ruth was walking to work and picked up. ‘Walking while beautiful’ was the thinking of the time to pick up a woman. Ruth Foster was beautiful. She was put in the Colony because she supposedly had a positive test for VD. But like Covid, there were a lot of false positives. She represented those women who had to have treatment for no reason and this treatment was debilitating. She also represented how the women were deprogrammed, structuring the way they thought and lived. They wanted to break Ruth down and then build her up in the name of reform. Nina McCall, as with Ruth, were shamed into subjecting themselves to get the physical exam and found to have VD and sent off. Ruth represents the innocent women who were surveilled, picked up, forced to undergo an evasive exam, and put into a facility, locked up, without due process.
EC: How would you describe Ruth?
DE: Ruth had a high IQ, independent, confident, stubborn, and a non-conformist. They tried to break her and make her docile. She was smart and savvy.
EC: How would you describe Stella?
DE: Stella had a very high IQ, with a photogenic mind. She was obedient, innocent, invincible-like, goes along to get along, and a tattletale. Stella had an abusive father and became submissive. She wanted to fit in but became elusive and stayed to herself. She contrasts with Ruth because Stella felt at the Colony she was saved. I hope readers ask given her circumstances was Stella better off at the Colony, was it a haven for her?
EC: What about Mrs. Baker?
DE: She was a strict disciplinarian, abrupt, calculating, manipulating, rigid, aloof, and abusive. She believed in what she was doing, helping these women. She wanted to teach them to learn to read and write, cook, can, and clean. Baker thought she was a savior to these women. I consider her a fascinating character. I think she is a product of her time. All the real superintendents of the farm colonies were like Baker. They wanted to break the girls’ spirits.
EC: You had this quote in the author’s notes: “This is the story of women held against their will without due process. But it is also the story of women who believed what they were doing was for the greater good.” Did you want readers to understand Mrs. Baker?
DE: Yes, I did. Some do and some don’t. Some thought she had no redeeming qualities and some readers sympathized with her. I wanted readers to be conflicted about her. I thought Baker had some redeeming qualities.
EC: What about Baker’s assistant Mrs. Maynard?
DE: She was a sadist, mean, and hateful. I fashioned her after the nun in the ‘Yellowstone series.’ There was a nun who was perverse. Mrs. Maynard got off in whipping these girls.
EC: What about the letters the girls like Ruth were forced to write?
DE: In Mrs. Baker’s mind she wanted to coerce the board into giving more money to expand the colony. The letters showed what a successful program she was running. She wants to control Ruth, but Ruth was not going to lie, to write something to help Baker. This infuriated her. This is where Ruth’s strength, non-conformity, and independence come in. Baker saw Ruth as a troublemaker and was intimidated by Ruth who saw things were not right. Ruth and Baker butt heads. Ruth could not be persuaded to fold as a lawn chair.
EC: What do you want readers to get out of this book?
DE: Good entertainment. But also, an awareness that this really happened. I hope it creates discussions. This is such an important story.
EC: Next book?
DE: I am working on another book, no title yet. The plot has an elderly woman who gets displaced with eminent domain. This will probably come out in January 2028.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Art historian Mia is running out of time to prove her theory that the sculptor of an unearthed erotic statue was a courtesan erased from history—a scandal no one will believe. Chasing through Venice, she tracks down hidden details of Sofia, a powerful courtesan who seems to have left a trail of sex-fueled art buried across the city, but Mia’s now being followed, and even her boss might be in on the lie.
Meanwhile, in 1609, Sofia defies Venice’s unfair laws to create illicit art that could ruin her future. Her aspirations to become a great artist go up in flames when her patron’s wife steals her work and threatens her lover.
Four hundred years later, it’s up to Mia to discover the truth, but now she’s uncovered a world of art theft that could leave her ousted—or, worse, right in the crosshairs of the most powerful crime family in Italy, who will stop at nothing to force her to authenticate the famous statue. Mia’s only hope is to prove Sofia’s existence before everyone involved silences them both forever.
THE SECRET COURTESAN by Kerry Chaput is a dual timeline historical fiction novel with an interesting and somewhat unique historical timeline set in Renaissance Italy. I found the historical timeline emotional and fascinating as it pulled me into Sofia’s life, and while the present-day timeline with Mia is interesting regarding her art research, I found the suspense plotline not as compelling or believable.
Dr. Mia Harding is an art historian hired to authenticate a sculpture which she believes is not sculpted by the famous male Renaissance artist it is accredited to, but by a female artist erased by history. The historical timeline has a courtesan named Sofia Rossi, traded to an artist while she has longed her entire life to be an artist, which is not allowed in Renaissance Italy. While both women faced discrimination of a kind in their own timelines, I sincerely felt Sofia’s anguish of not being able to be recognized for what she was born to do and her fight to break the rules; while Mia did face professional discrimination, I never felt she moved forward on her own, but kept feeling sorry for the situation she put herself in. Also, Mia’s romance and run in with people trying to stop her from proving her belief in a female sculptor never hit me as emotionally as Sophia’s story.
I found the research and beautiful emotional writing of Sofia’s story kept me reading this novel to the end and I wish Mia’s present-day story made me feel more. Overall, this is worth the read for the atmosphere, emotion, and history of Sophia’s story, while Mia’s story is not bad, I was hoping for more than an average romantic suspense plot.
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About the Author
Kerry Chaput is a multi-award-winning author inspired by badass women in history. Born in California, she now calls the Pacific Northwest home, where she spends her days hitting the trails, chasing historical rabbit holes, and feeding her addiction to espresso and doggy cuddles.
Six years ago, Cinnamon Scott was a young writer on the rise in New York City. But since the sudden loss of her parents, she’s been stuck in place, retreating to a life of endless partying—made possible by the massive fortune she’s inherited. Despite their tragic loss, she and her older sister Rosemary have always had each other to lean on. But now, with Rosie living in London and about to give birth to twins, Cinnamon feels more lost than ever.
When Rosie is put on bedrest, Cinnamon flies to her sister’s side, where she’s temporarily living at The Savoy. Immediately swept away by the beauty and history of the legendary hotel and its famed American Bar, Cinnamon finds ample opportunity to distract herself. When the late shift bartender tells her the story of Ada Coleman, the woman who crafted the cocktail recipes The Savoy popularized in its famous handbook a century ago, Cinnamon is inspired by the bartender’s vivid stories of Ada’s fearlessness and can’t understand why Ada’s name is nowhere to be found.
After meeting a handsome historian researching the hotel and realizing that Ada is likely to be once again overlooked, Cinnamon must decide if she can overcome her demons and stand up for Ada’s story. And, along the way, she might just save her own story too.
LAST CALL AT THE SAVOY by Brisa Carleton is an engrossing story with two intertwined timelines. The women’s fiction timeline is set in the present featuring two sisters at an emotionally charged moment in their lives and the second timeline is historical fiction set in the early 1900’s featuring the first female bartender in The American Bar in the London Savoy.
Cinnamon Scott is taking a break from her rich New York girl’s party life to fly to London to help her sister, Rosemary, who is on bedrest with a twin pregnancy at the Savoy while her new flat is being renovated. While Rosemary is a successful attorney, Cinnamon has struggled since leaving college early due to a scandal and the death of their parents in a plane crash. While Cinnamon hoped to be a famous writer, the last ten years have been nothing but partying with no writing.
Bored just hanging in their Savoy suite, Cinnamon goes to The American Bar in the hotel. She meets Joe, the older nightshift bartender, who regales her each night with a new story of the glamorous past of the bar and its first female bartender, Ada “Coley” Coleman, who is responsible for the famous Savoy Cocktail Book. At the same time during her stay, she continues to run into a sexy celebrity historical writer who is researching the Savoy.
Cinnamon becomes entranced with Ada’s story, even as her personal struggles and past demons are coming to a head.
Both timelines were interesting and pulled me into the story to keep me reading and the ending was not what I was expecting but was very satisfying as well as a bit surprising. Cinnamon was a flawed character with terrible coping skills, and she was very immature, but there was also something compelling about her because her sister always believed the best of her. The sisters were forced to deal with many issues, and yet their love for each other always persisted. The historical fiction timeline about Ada’s life was extremely interesting. From famous and inventive mixologist to a not surprising ending, Ada, like most women of her time had her history written by men and that seems to never go well.
This is a compelling read with many interesting historical facts, historical people, and cocktail recipes interwoven throughout the story as well as being an emotional women’s fiction story of sisters.
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About the Author
Brisa grew up in the Pacific Northwest before moving to Midtown Manhattan to turn her passion for musicals and “flare for the dramatic” into an award-winning career as a Broadway producer. Three Tony’s later, she’s worked on numerous productions including Hamilton, Beautiful and Moulin Rouge. In 2019 at the request of HSH Prince Albert of Monaco Brisa joined his foundation to lead philanthropy efforts in theater, dance and film on behalf of his mother, Princess Grace Kelly. Most recently she turned her entrepreneurial spirit to actual “spirits,” launching Literati Spirits, a premium vodka created by book lovers for book lovers. She now spends her days traveling to literary destinations with a martini in one hand and a manuscript in the other, collecting stories with her husband Mark and her long-haired chihuahua, Mister Big.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE LIFEBOAT ORPHANS (The Runaway Evacuees Book #2) by Ellie Curzon on this Bookouture Books on Tour blog post.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Fifteen-year-old Connie is leaving war-torn England for the safer shores of America, looking after a nine-year old orphan boy with sad blue eyes. But the ocean is rife with Nazi vessels. And when their boat is torpedoed, in the fear and chaos Connie can’t stop thinking about handsome Jack, who stayed behind in London. Will the orphans survive, and will Connie ever be reunited with her first love?
Back in London, sixteen-year-old Jack desperately misses Connie, his brave, kind friend, after their tearful goodbye when her ship set sail. As bombs set the skies ablaze, he listens to an old radio for any news about the dangerous Atlantic crossing. When he intercepts a secret message that could change everything, he races to the war office. Will they listen to a young lad like him, and can he save Connie and countless other lives?
THE LIFEBOAT ORPHANS (The Runaway Evacuees Book #2) by Ellie Curzon is an emotional roller coaster of a historical fiction novel featuring a young group of WWII orphans who form their own family and come to be known as “The Blitz Kids” to all of England. This is the second book featuring this group and I feel you should read the first book, The Lost Orphans, to fully enjoy and understand their exploits, character development, and the secondary cast of characters surrounding them in both books.
I cannot get enough of all the characters, the Blitz Kids, Lisette, Mr. Wyngate, and all their friends in both books. Ms. Curzon made me feel as though I was right there in London during the air raids and feeling the loss of friends and/or family. The kids pull at your heartstrings, and you want them to stay safe, but they all want to help their friends, neighbors, and even strangers.
When Connie, Ned, and Mr. Wyngate leave for America to get Ned the operation he needed, I was on the edge of my seat worrying about their safety from German U-boats. The tale of their crossing, the disaster, and devastating news not only has you pulling out the tissues but realizing how true this story was for many during the war.
I highly recommend both Runaway Evacuees books. They are gripping and poignant historical fiction stories of family, love, endurance, and faith during WWII.
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About the Author
Ellie Curzon is the pen name of Catherine Curzon and Helen Barrell. Catherine and Helen began writing together in the spring of 2017 and swiftly discovered a shared love of the past and a uniquely British sort of story. They drink gallons of tea, spend hours discussing the importance of good tailoring and are never at a loss for a bit of derring-do.
Catherine Curzon is an author and historian of old Hollywood and even older royalty. In addition to a series of eighteenth century biographies and a sell-out play, she has written extensively for a number of international publications, and has spoken at venues and events across the United Kingdom. Catherine lives in a haze of Dean Martin atop a steep Yorkshire hill, with a rakish gentleman and a very woolly dog.
Helen Barrell has written two books on Victorian crime, and has appeared on BBC1 and Radio 4. She loves researching family history and rummaging in libraries and archives. Originally from the south-east of England, Helen now lives somewhere in the Midlands with a large ginger cat, who resembles a Viking, and a well-stocked 1960’s cocktail bar.
Since her arrest for disobeying orders and going ashore at Iwo Jima almost a decade earlier, combat correspondent Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle has been unmoored. Her military accreditation revoked, her marriage failing, and her savings dwindling, Dickey jumps at the next opportunity. In the aftermath of a an assignment gone wrong, a flame is lit deep inside Dickey—to survive in order to be the world’s witness to war from the front lines.
Never content to report on battles unless her own boots are on the ground, Dickey and her camera journey with American and international soldiers from frozen wastelands to raging seas to luscious jungles, revealing one woman’s extraordinary courage and tenacity in the face of discrimination and danger. And it’s along the way, in Dickey’s desire to save the world, she realizes she might also be saving herself.
At a time when a woman’s heroic spirit often gave way to homeland reality, Dickey blazed a trail for the revolutionary hearts inside us all.
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Elise’s Thoughts
The Last Assignment by Erika Robuck delves into the life of a trailblazing woman photojournalist, Georgette “Dickey” Meyer Chapelle, known for her work as a war correspondent from WWII through the Vietnam War. Through the novel, readers will understand her desire to capture the raw, human side of war, and shows her bond with the troops she was embedded with.
The story shows how she was very supportive of the Marines, who considered her a partner. She trained with them and went to war with them. Most of the book centers on her life during the 1950s and 1960s. It starts with her floundering, having her photo credentials revoked from the military because she disobeyed orders while embedded with the troops at Iwo Jima, the battle fought during WWII. She also had her relationship with her live-in partner crumbling and unable to find a job.
Readers take a journey with her feeling that they are amid a war zone whether in Hungary during the Cold War, Cuba during the revolution of Fidel Castro, and Laos, and South Vietnam. There are potent scenes of her time in a Communist prison after being captured while working in Hungary. Her next assignment takes her to Cuba, where she covers the rebels in the Sierra Maestra and witnesses the revolution of Fidel Castro against Batista’s regime. In 1961 she went to Laos and showed the true horrors of what was happening there. After that she was off to Vietnam and knew that she needed to show her support for the soldiers there.
She wanted to be known as the person who would document the realities of war. She often put herself in danger to make sure that Americans could see what was going on in war zones. Robuck does a wonderful job of showing how Dickey would risk everything to uncover the truth.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Do you have any military influences?
Erika Robuck: I have grown up around the military. My father-in-law served in the Army in Vietnam. I have always been interested in that area, ever since I was a teenager. There were a lot of movies that came out around that time. Living in Annapolis I am around the Naval Academy. My grandfather was in the Navy. I was always immersed in the world of the military. A lot of my most recent fictions have been about women involved in the world of military intelligence.
EC: Why write about Georgette “Dickey” Meyer Chapelle?
ER: I was looking through a photograph book of Vietnam where I discovered her pictures and then learned about her personal story. I think of this book as historical fiction or bio fiction where the story is very close to the truth. It has facts but I make up the dialogue. Plus, I sometimes consolidate characters.
EC: Why the setting of Hungary, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam?
ER: She served in seven conflicts. I chose those that were united in theme. The more research I did, the Cold War became the subject of personal fascination. The time, 1955 to 1965, had the most significant conflicts where she had the deepest relationships and the highest stakes.
EC: Do you think she supported American troops?
ER: Yes, I have this book quote, “American men are dying for the protestors right to free speech and democracy, yet they villainize them.” They are doing it to make sure Americans can retain their freedom. We are spoiled where we are. It is easy to comment when people enjoy their coffee while at their computer.
EC: Why did Dickey become a photojournalist of war zones?
ER: Freedom was an important theme within her philosophy. She was willing to go into very dangerous situations. She wanted to be the eyes and ears of the people so they could understand what was happening. She wanted to see it herself and was always looking for the pictures that showed the collateral of war.
EC: Was she a complex character?
ER: She had a pacifist upbringing but supported the troops and photographed war. My thoughts are that her thirst for adventure was a sort of rebellion as a young person in her pacifist household.
EC: How would you describe her?
ER: She was an optimist, risk taker, courageous, resilient, had self-doubt, gutsy, restless, impulsive, and sometimes she did not think through what she was doing. She was very hopeful.
EC: What role did Tony play in her life?
ER: He taught her about photography. He saw the glamor in her and drew out her feminine side. She came into herself as a woman, an awakening in the early years of their relationship.
EC: Was she affected by being arrested for disobeying the order in Iwo Jima?
ER: It wounded her. Because she did not respect the chain of command she got cut off and had to face the consequences when she lost her military credentials. This was a period of real darkness for her. She learned that if she went into combat, she had to follow the rules.
EC: After she was captured in Eastern Europe, did it make an impact on her?
ER: She was tortured, interrogated, put in solitary confinement, and threated with death daily. She lost a large amount of weight. This fueled her fire to fight for democracy even more after her experience in a Communist prison. This why she wanted to go to regions where they fought Communism.
EC: What do you want readers to get out of the story?
ER: She also lived in New York where she led the glamourous life, between conflicts. People can learn a lot about the human conditions through her. Going into these places with her was like traveling with Forest Gump.
EC: Next book?
ER: I am writing a woman in intelligence military history.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
