ARC Feature Post and Book Review: The Last Assignment by Erika Robuck

Book Description

Manhattan, 1954.

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.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220481308-the-last-assignment?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=hOS3HkDeXo&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE LAST ASSIGNMENT by Erika Robuck is a historical biographical fiction story featuring the later portion of photojournalist Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle’s life. Ms. Robuck does a wonderful job of bringing her to life not only writing about her achievements, but also her impetuosity which could get her into dangerous and terrible situations. This standalone story is a look at an impressive woman in history that I knew nothing about.

Dickey Chapelle led an awe-inspiring life photographing and writing about her favorite men, the Marines, on Iwo Jima during WWII, Europe’s reconstruction, Hungary’s revolution, dictators, refugees, and strife in foreign countries, all the way up to once again being with her Marines during the Vietnam War until her death in country. Her photography and stories were featured in many major magazines, and she received many awards, but that was never her goal. She always wanted to take that one picture that would end all wars. While her family and friends always worried about her, she could never sit still on the sidelines when she believed her photography could shine a light on injustice.

This is an intensive look into this female photojournalist’s later life. She always wanted to be first on the ground to uncover the truth. She was interested in the Civil Rights Movement, and it would have been safer for her to stay home in the states, but she needed and preferred to be out in the world and covering international conflicts. Dickey was by no means perfect and got in trouble, even imprisonment in Hungary for her actions, but it was always because she truly cared about the people she was covering.

This historical biography is brought to life through Dickey and with the obvious extensive research of Ms. Robuck. It is interesting to follow Dickey through this period and remember how the stories she covered were portrayed at that time and then the changes, or not, in perspective, as it became history to be analyzed and studied.

I highly recommend this engaging historical biographical fiction story, and I am very glad to be able to go back myself and see the important work Dickey left for the world.

***

About the Author

Erika Robuck is the national bestselling author of historical fiction including SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, and HEMINGWAY’S GIRL. Her articles have appeared in Writer Unboxed, Crime Reads, and Writer’s Digest, and she has been named a Maryland Writer’s Association Notable Writer of 2024. A boating enthusiast, amateur historian, and teacher, she resides in Annapolis with her husband and three sons.

Social Media Links

Website: http://www.erikarobuck.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErikaRobuck

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erobuckauthor/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-last-assignment-by-erika-robuck

Feature Post and Book Review: Memories of Heather House by Rebecca Alexander

Book Description

Ruby blinks back tears and gazes across the violet-studded moors from the doorstep of Heather House before she turns and lifts the key. What heart-wrenching secret will she discover in her childhood home?

When Ruby inherits her family’s crumbling old house in the wild English countryside, she is devastated to think it might be sold. Heather House was once an artists’ haven filled with Ruby’s family and their colorful friends. Ruby has always been captivated by the glamorous Clara, a famous pilot whose love story came to a tragic end. Now black-and-white photographs transport her back to World War Two…

With the future of Heather House uncertain, Ruby loses herself in history. But it seems romance is not only a thing of the past when Jake, a jumper-clad American author with silver-flecked hair turns up at her door. Jake is investigating a wartime mystery about Clara, and he soon falls in love with the historic home. But when Clara shows him a view of the moors ablaze under the setting sun, his dark green eyes cause another flame to spark …

Together Ruby and Jake begin to unravel the secret hidden in the past. But can they find a way to save Heather House, or will Ruby be forced to sell it before the truth about Clara is at last unearthed and her new love has a chance to bloom?

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223871670-memories-of-heather-house?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Vct1mr4C5g&rank=1

***

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

MEMORIES OF HEATHER HOUSE (Wildflower Secrets Book #2) by Rebecca Alexander is an emotional dual timeline women’s fiction story featuring generations of strong, independent woman. While this is the second book in this series, the books are connected by their small village location on the moors in the English countryside with minimal character crossover so they each easily stand alone.

Ruby is a genealogist and historian who has inherited the run-down countryside mansion of her childhood when her mother dies of cancer. For many years she just wanted to get away, but now it is her only connection to her matriarchal line of artistically talented women. Once an artists’ haven filled with bohemian characters, now only two of the elderly occupants remain.

With the future of the mansion uncertain, Ruby is also dealing with a handsome American who is researching her family’s famous WWII female ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary) pilot for an American who believes she is also related to the mysterious Clara. As the two work together to dig up Clara’s secrets and try to come up with a solution to save Ruby’s home, they discover not only secrets from the past, but possibly a new love in the present.

This is a wonderful dual timeline story featuring Ruby in the present and Clara during WWII. While Ruby’s story is interesting with its search for Clara and her growing interest in Jake at times, I was frustrated with her always fluctuating in her beliefs that Jake had ulterior motives. It got to be a bit too often and should not have lasted as long as it did in the plotline because it felt repetitive. I was really pulled into the story when it switched to Clara’s WWII story. The WWII research is skillfully slipped into the story without feeling like a data dump. Clara is an amazing and compelling character that lived life to the fullest even in the middle of a terrible war and the tragic ending of her life, which is not a spoiler, was still so sad.

I highly recommend this dual timeline second book in the Wildflower Secrets series and I am anxiously looking forward to the next.

***

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.

Social Media Links

Website: http://www.rebecca-alexander.co.uk/

Bookouture Page: https://bookouture.com/authors/rebecca-alexander-366/

Email sign up: https://www.bookouture.com/rebecca-alexander/

Book Tour/Feature Post and Mini Book Review: Echoes on the Wind by Helaine Mario

ECHOES ON THE WIND

by Helaine Mario



June 23 – August 1, 2025 Virtual Book Tour

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for ECHOES ON THE WIND (Maggie O’Shea Romantic Suspense Book #4) by Helaine Mario on this Partner In Crime Virtual Book Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, and excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links, and a Kingsumo giveaway. Enjoy!

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Book Description

TWO STRONG WOMEN, GENERATIONS APART, CONNECTED BY MUSIC…

In 1943 war-torn France, a young woman on the Night Train to Paris has a chance meeting with two very different men who will change her life, setting in motion a Dual Timeline story that will resonate like ripples on water for generations to come.

Many years later, classical pianist Maggie O’Shea is drawn to Brittany by a long-lost letter from her French grandmother and the stirring music of Chopin, whispering like echoes across the years. But as Maggie discovers the secrets of her past, her life spirals out of control, threatening her upcoming wedding and those she loves.

Set against the backdrop of World War II France, Maggie learns her grandmother’s story, chord by chord, through Chopin’s emotional Preludes. And, in one shocking moment, Maggie’s love story will take a heart-breaking turn that will change her life and echo into her future.

Past and present converge in this haunting tale of loss and sacrifice, friendship and family, courage and survival – and the transcendent power of hope, music and love.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214953814-echoes-on-the-wind

Echoes on the Wind

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Published by: Suncoast Publishing
Publication Date: June 18, 2024
Number of Pages: 364
ISBN: 9781735184975 (ISBN10: 1735184977)
Series: A Maggie O’Shea Romantic Suspense, Book 4

***

My Mini Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

ECHOES ON THE WIND (Maggie O’Shea Romantic Suspense Book #4) by Helaine Mario is the exciting finale of the Maggie O’Shea series. This story has a dual timeline featuring Maggie in the present and her French grandmother during WWII. I have been waiting for this culmination of love vs. vengeance anxiously and was not disappointed. These books should be read in order because there are over-arching threads throughout the series with Maggie and the other main characters continually evolving.

WOW! I could not put this book down. Not only do you get Maggie in a final showdown ending, but you get the survival story of her grandmother Clair, who was in the French Resistance during WWII written in dual timelines with alternating chapters. The main characters are all fully developed, more so if you have read the entire series, and I feel like they could walk right off the page. This is an extremely emotional book in both timelines, but as in the entire series, family, love, and music, carry the main characters through the worst that is thrown at them.

All the books are intriguing, pull you in, and are worth reading. This series also had me continually listening to the classical music pieces mentioned throughout that Maggie practiced for her concerts, which was a fun reminder of my trips to the Cleveland orchestra when I was younger.

I highly recommend this harrowing romantic suspense/WWII historical fiction mash-up and the entire engaging series!

***

Excerpt

OVERTURE

“Like so many things that matter, it began with an accident.”       David Ignatius, 12/28/98

NOVEMBER, 1943.  THE NIGHT TRAIN TO PARIS

Light and dark.

The bleak November landscape rushed past the train’s window.  Black tree branches against the dark night sky, then a sudden flash of light.  Then blackness again.  

The blackout had claimed the streetlamps and cottage windows.  Clair Rousseau stared out the rain-streaked glass, waiting for the next glimpse of light.  A lone lantern. Car headlights tilted down, a sliver of gold beyond a cracked curtain.  Sheet lightning over distant hills, a glimmer of light on water.  But all she saw was the blurred, pale oval of her reflection staring back at her.  Dark hair scraped back, framing huge eyes beneath winged brows, sharp cheekbones, the too-wide mouth. 

No hint of the emotions flowing through her, except for the deep purple shadows beneath her eyes.

The dim, four-person compartment was cold, and she pulled her coat more tightly around her body.  The seat beside her was still empty, thank God.  Across from her, two German officers.  One asleep, snoring loudly, his hands slack between thick gray-green uniformed knees.  The other awake, a Gauloises cigarette clamped between thin lips, a jagged line of white scars marring his left cheek.  The narrow fox-like face stared at her through thick round glasses and wreathes of curling blue smoke.  His jacket was heavy with insignia, oak leaves, medals.  Military Intelligence, she thought with a sudden chill.  A high rank, SD or Abwehr.  What was he thinking?  

The watchful, unblinking eyes made her afraid.  Like a snake’s eyes, waiting to strike.  She looked away, forcing herself not to reach for her satchel, touch her identity papers for reassurance.  

The carriage’s glassed door slid back and forth with an unnerving rattle as the train rocked around a bend.  From the hallway came the sharp scent of burning coal, wafting back from the old steam engine several cars ahead.  A cloud of steam billowed past the window like sudden fog.   

She could feel the vibration beneath her, hear the rumble of the train’s wheels speeding along the tracks.  The lonely call of a train whistle, echoing in the night.  A quick flare of light, illuminating the rain like silver threads streaming down the window.

Light and dark.  Light and dark.

Movement at the edge of her vision.  A tall figure appeared in the hallway, beyond the door.  Her chest tightened.  Would she ever feel safe again?

A sharp crack of thunder, a sudden bright flash lighting her face.

Mademoiselle Clair?”

Startled, her head came up.  The stranger had stopped, was staring into the compartment.  Across from her, the watchful German stiffened and slid pale eyes toward the voice.

Be careful.

There was something familiar about the gaunt face, the faint, questioning smile just visible above a thick woolen scarf.  She stood quickly, stepping between the German and the carriage door to block the officer’s view.  

Oui,” she said softly, peering into the dim hallway.  The man nodded and moved closer.  Something about those gentle eyes, the arch of silver brows.  Memory surged.  Father Jean-Luc.

She flashed him a warning glance for silence and stepped into the train’s narrow corridor, closing the door firmly behind her.  “Mon Père, is it really you?”

Oui, ma petite, c’est moi.”  The priest pulled the scarf down to offer a glimpse of his white Roman collar, then lost his smile as he gazed over her shoulder and saw the Germans.  “But we cannot talk here.  Come with me.”

He slipped a hand beneath her elbow and guided her to the end of the dark passageway, where an open exit door led across shifting metal plates to the train’s next car.  She felt the sudden bite of night wind on her face, cold and wet with mist.  Here the clatter of the train wheels was loud enough to hide their conversation. 

They sheltered just inside the doorway, in the shadows, away from the rain.  Outside, the countryside of France rushed by, then disappeared in a billow of black smoke.  In the dim corridor, the planes of the priest’s face were lit by a tiny, flickering overhead bulb. 

Light and dark.  Light and dark.

The priest looked down at her, shook his head.  “Little Clair Rousseau,” he murmured.  “Now such a beautiful young woman.  It’s been – what? – four years since we met?  You were just thirteen, I think.  Playing the piano in your parents’ apartment.  Bach, yes?  It was so beautiful, so stirring.  I hope you are still playing?”

She shook her head.  “You need hope to create music, Père.”  She looked back toward her carriage compartment.  The hallway was empty.  “But I remember that day.  The war was coming.  You asked us to help you remove the stained-glass windows from Sainte-Chapelle.  To save them from the bombing.”  

“You were fearless, Clair.  I remember watching you, swaying at the top of that impossibly high ladder.  The morning light was coming through the stained glass, spilling over you like shimmering jewels.  I’ll never forget it.  I told myself, Clair means light, she is perfectly named.”

He leaned down.  “And I can still see your sister, Elle – too young to help us, bien sûr – dancing around the altar.”

Her expression softened.  “Elle loved to dance.  It was the last happy day I can remember.”  She lifted her eyes to his, took a breath.  “Paris was another lifetime, Père.”

“You cannot lose hope,” he told her.  “The glass pieces are in a safe place.  Beauty and goodness cannot be destroyed.  You will see the stained-glass windows back in Sainte-Chapelle when the war is over.  I know it.”

She shook her head.  “I wish I had your faith.”  

“God has his plans.  There is a reason we’ve met by chance on the night train to Paris.”  Concern flashed in his eyes.  “But you’ve been in Brittany?  Dangerous times for a young woman to be traveling alone, Clair.”

She looked out at the black trees rushing past the doorway, and felt the blackness deep in her heart.  “I am alone now, Père.”

Mon Dieu.  What happened?”

“My father knew that war was inevitable.  Not long after we saved the glass my parents moved us from Paris to the coast near Saint-Malo to be safe.  Such irony.  They had no idea how dangerous Brittany would become.  And then…”  

She could not stop the sudden rush of tears that filled her eyes.  “The Gestapo shot my father last year, in a retaliation roundup for an act of sabotage by the Resistance.  He was with the Liberty Network, they had bombed a train track.  He stepped forward, admitted it, hoping to save the others.  But still they took thirty innocent people from our village, murdered them in the square.” 

“Oh no, Clair.”  The priest made a quick sign of the cross.  “I am so sorry.  And your mother, your sister?”

“I don’t know, Père.  I was studying in Paris, I begged them to come stay with me.  But Maman refused.  When I returned last month to see them, the house was empty.  They were just… gone.  The neighbors said the Germans took them, in the night.  The mayor was told they were being relocated to Poland.”   

The priest paled.  “Désolé.  I will pray for their souls.”  

Anger erupted, spilled out.  “Prayers did not help my family!  I have no time for prayer now.  Or sorrow.  Even avenging my father will have to wait.  I need all my energy now to find my mother and my sister.”

He bent toward her.  “I am afraid you are still too fearless for your own good.  Tell me what you’re doing, little one.”

She turned once more to scan the dark hallway, then leaned closer.  “I excelled in languages in my lycée studies these last years,” she whispered.  “I am fluent in several languages, including German and English.  I hope to find a new job, in the Hotel Majestic in Paris, where the German High Command is quartered.  Then I will join the Resistance, find a way to get news of Maman and Elle.  I must find them!”  

He gazed down at her for a long moment, then put a hand on her shoulder.  

“Perhaps I know of another way,” he murmured.

The sound of a door opening.  Wavering shadows spilled into the train’s corridor.  Then the red glow of a cigarette, a spiral of smoke.  She froze as the German officer turned toward them.  

“Find me at Èglise Saint-Gervais, in the Marais,” the priest whispered quickly.  “I am with the Resistance there.  You could work with me, we need someone like you to –”

A sudden terrifying screech of metal wheels.  Clair felt herself thrown to the floor as the train braked, slammed to a shuddering stop.  Stunned, Clair reached out, felt the still body of the priest beside her.  “Mon Père…”

Shouts in German in the darkness, the clatter of heavy boots.  When she raised her head she saw flashing blue lights against the night sky.

Light and dark.  Light and dark.

Copyright June 2020

***

Author Bio

Best-selling author Helaine Mario grew up in NYC and is a graduate of Boston University. Now living in Arlington, VA, this mother of two, grandmother of five, and passionate advocate for women’s and children’s issues came to writing later in life. Her first novel, The Lost Concerto, won the Benjamin Franklin Award Silver Medal. Echoes on the Wind is her fifth novel and the fourth in her Maggie O’Shea Classical Music Suspense Series. Royalties from her books go to children’s music and reading programs. Helaine recently lost her husband, Ron, after 57 years together. Her new book echoes with loss, grief, and, ultimately, the healing power of love.

Catch Up With Helaine Mario

HelaineMario.com
Amazon Author Profile
Goodreads
BookBub – @helainemario
Instagram – @helainemario.author
Facebook – @helaine.mario

Purchase Links

ECHOES ON THE WIND (Book 4)

Amazon – https://pictbooks.tours/2VGD8cbW

BN – https://pictbooks.tours/SzoO3yjp

Goodreads – https://pictbooks.tours/djXve0d5

BookShop.org – https://pictbooks.tours/1gkhrUom

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KINGSUMO GIVEAWAY

https://kingsumo.com/g/1072ev3/echoes-on-the-wind-by-helaine-mario-gift-card

Feature Post and Book Review: Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini

Book Description

In June 1917, General John Pershing arrived in France to establish American forces in Europe. He immediately found himself unable to communicate with troops in the field. Pershing needed telephone operators who could swiftly and accurately connect multiple calls, speak fluent French and English, remain steady under fire, and be utterly discreet, since the calls often conveyed classified information.

At the time, nearly all well-trained American telephone operators were women—but women were not permitted to enlist, or even to vote in most states. Nevertheless, the U.S. Army Signal Corps promptly began recruiting them.

More than 7,600 women responded, including Grace Banker of New Jersey, a switchboard instructor with AT&T and an alumna of Barnard College; Marie Miossec, a Frenchwoman and aspiring opera singer; and Valerie DeSmedt, a twenty-year-old Pacific Telephone operator from Los Angeles, determined to strike a blow for her native Belgium.

They were among the first women sworn into the U.S. Army under the Articles of War. The male soldiers they had replaced had needed one minute to connect each call. The switchboard soldiers could do it in ten seconds.

Deployed throughout France, including near the front lines, the operators endured hardships and risked death or injury from gunfire, bombardments, and the Spanish Flu. Not all of them would survive.

The women of the U.S. Army Signal Corps served with honor and played an essential role in achieving the Allied victory. Their story has never been the focus of a novel…until now.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58984691-switchboard-soldiers?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Yh5s4Y3V3M&rank=1

***

My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

SWITCHBOARD SOLDIERS by Jennifer Chiaverini is an engaging and informative historical fiction novel featuring the first young women ever to be able to enlist in the US Army’s Signal Corps and serve overseas as switchboard operators during WWI. The story follows three main protagonists from different parts of the country with varying immigrant family stories as they serve in the great war overseas.

As General John Pershing arrives in France to oversee American forces to fight alongside the French and British forces in the “war to end all wars” against the Axis forces, he realizes he needs professional female operators fluent in both French and English to be able to communicate all over the fields of operation. AT&T operators answered the call to serve from all over the country.

Grace Banker is an AT&T switchboard instructor in New Jersey and an alumnus of Barnard College, Marie Miossec is in Cincinnati with her French parents who are professional musicians working in the states, and Valerie DeSmedt an operator in Los Angeles whose family has immigrated from Belgium, are all accepted after an arduous vetting. Deployed to France, they cross the dangerous waters of the Atlantic facing dangerous German U-boats, the bombardments of the enemy forces throughout France as they are assigned to work closely to the frontlines, the danger of mustard gas and the Spanish flu.

These women served throughout France with honor and valor and were essential to the success of the Allied forces.

I had no idea that these American women switchboard operators were involved in the war effort during WWI. You hear about nurses and the YWCA volunteers, but not this group. I was so impressed by the magnitude of research throughout this novel. The author’s descriptions brought me right into the action. This story does jump around a bit as you follow the different paths and experiences the three main characters follow so occasionally, I felt it was a little disjointed, but in a way, it needed to be, so it fit in with the different journey of each. Just like so many other historical women’s stories in history, these brave young women were not recognized as true soldiers of the Army and received no VA benefits or legal recognition until 1977.

I highly recommend this story of amazing women answering the call to service.

***

About the Author

Jennifer Chiaverini is the New York Times bestselling author of FATES AND TRAITORS, MRS. LINCOLN’S DRESSMAKER, MRS. LINCOLN’S RIVAL, THE SPYMISTRESS, MRS. GRANT AND MADAME JULE, and other acclaimed historical novels. She also wrote the beloved Elm Creek Quilts series, as well as six collections of quilt patterns inspired by her books. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, she lives with her husband and two sons in Madison, Wisconsin. About her historical fiction, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, “In addition to simply being fascinating stories, these novels go a long way in capturing the texture of life for women, rich and poor, black and white, in those perilous years.”

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.jenniferchiaverini.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferChiaveriniAuthor

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jchiaverini.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferchiaveriniauthor/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/switchboard-soldiers-by-jennifer-chiaverini

Feature Post and Book Review: Blonde Dust by Tatiana de Rosnay

Book Description

Pauline, a young chambermaid who works at the legendary Mapes Hotel in Reno, Nevada, is asked to step in for a colleague and clean Suite 614. Although she was told the rooms were empty, a dazed, sleepy woman appears before her. This is Mrs. Miller, aka Marilyn Monroe, whose stay in Reno coincides with the breakdown of her marriage to Arthur Miller and the filming of what was to be her last film, The Misfits.
 
Set in the American West in 1960 where the mustang horses run wild, an unexpected friendship unfolds between the most famous movie star in the world and a young cleaning woman whose life will be changed forever through the course of a few weeks. A testament to the enduring power of female friendship and a reimagining of a side of Marilyn Monroe that has never been seen before.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222139778-blonde-dust?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=N2kOECCNN7&rank=1

***

My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5

BLONDE DUST by Tatiana De Rosnay is a spellbinding mash-up of historical fiction and women’s fiction that features a first-generation young French woman’s life as well as how in the heat of Reno, Nevada in 1960, a mega movie star’s unlikely friendship changed the course of her life. This standalone story will pull you in and take you on an emotional and nostalgic journey.

This story features three timelines while telling Pauline’s life story. You have the description of how Pauline came to America, fell in love with the wild mustangs, and became a single mother and maid with no prospects at The Mapes Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada. You also have a timeline which shows the development of Pauline and Marilyn Monroe’s friendship as she cleans Marilyn’s Suite 614 while she is filming on location for The Misfits, her last full-length movie. And the final timeline has Pauline looking back on her life and friendship with Marilyn as she attends the January 30, 2000, demolition of The Mapes.

The descriptions of both downtown Reno in 1960 and the landscapes outside of town on the film set and the mustang rescue ranch made me feel as though I was right there. As the timelines interweave, I was never lost or confused because each part of the story always left me wanting more. The research is obvious and blended throughout the story without interrupting the story.

There are so many aspects of this story to love; the unlikely friendship, the trajectory of a life changed, both emotionally and physically, the wild mustangs of the West, and a researched look into three short months in Marilyn Monroe’s tumultuous personal life. There are also dark moments of alcoholism and drug abuse, sexual coercion, and animal cruelty interspersed throughout.

I recommend curling up in a comfy chair and letting this mash-up of historical fiction and women’s fiction take you away.

***

About the Author

Tatiana de Rosnay was born on September 28th, 1961 in the suburbs of Paris. She is of English, French and Russian descent.

Tatiana was raised in Paris and then in Boston, when her father taught at MIT in the 70’s. She moved to England in the early 80’s and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English literature at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. Returning to Paris in 1984, Tatiana became press attaché for Christie’s and then Paris Editor for Vanity Fair magazine till 1993.

Sarah’s Key was published in 40 countries in 2007 and has sold over eleven million copies worldwide. Kristin Scott-Thomas stars in the movie adaptation by Gilles Paquet-Brenner (2010).

Her novels are published in many countries and five of her books have become movies. Tatiana lives in France with her family.

Social Media Links

Website: (In French) https://www.tatianaderosnay.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tatianaderosnay

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tatianaderosnay.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tatianaderosnay/?api=1%2F

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/blonde-dust-by-tatiana-de-rosnay

Feature Post and Mini Book Review: Solitary Walker: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft by N.J. Mastro

Book Description

England, 1787. Mary Wollstonecraft is an avowed spinster. At 28, she moves to London to live independently as a writer. With her publication of A Vindication for the Rights of Woman a few short years later, she emerges as a leading figure for women’s equality. But when a humiliating faux pas threatens her reputation, Mary travels to Paris to write about the French Revolution, where she unexpectedly falls in love with American adventurer Gilbert Imlay. Her ill-timed affair occurs just as the Reign of Terror begins, forcing Mary to decide whether to leave Paris—and Imlay. Her writing has branded her a revolutionary. If she stays, she is sure to face a trip to the guillotine. The choice Mary makes alters her life forever.

Readers of biographical fiction will embrace this carefully researched novel about the woman historians widely consider the world’s first feminist. Told against the backdrop of Wollstonecraft’s incredible rise as a writer, the French Revolution, and a solo journey along the remote shores of Scandinavia, Solitary Walker is the timeless story of women forging their own path.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223914620-solitary-walker?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=DXMjWpefiL&rank=1

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My Mini Book Review

SOLITARY WALKER: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft by N.J. Mastro is a captivating biographical historical fiction about a woman many consider one of the leading and most influential eighteenth-century writers on women’s rights and rational feminism. This book covers her life from 1787 when she was 28 and moved to London to attempt to make a living by her writing to her death only ten years later in 1797.

In this short number of years, she was a prolific author and reviewer in London, moved to Paris during the French Revolution, went on solo travels through Scandinavia, and returned to London for her final year before her death. While I knew of her philosophy of equality for all people, I did not know the more personal aspects of her life which are well researched and written into this engrossing tale. Her interactions with the men in her circle of society, who were also notable philosophers, writers, and artists of the time, led to triumphs and heartbreaks. This is a more personal look at her personal emotions and motivations. Also, the author’s writing made me feel like I was back in the late 1700s as I was reading with vivid descriptions of the buildings, clothes, economics and historical events of the time.

I highly recommend this biographical historical fiction.

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About the Author

N.J. Mastro is historical fiction writer and book blogger who publishes Herstory Revisited, a blog dedicated to biographical novels about audacious women from the past, Mastro has a master’s degree and a doctorate in educational leadership. Besides being an experienced public speaker, she is also an avid reader, master cook, and wine enthusiast.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.njmastro.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/njmastro

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nancy.a.mastro/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/solitary-walker-a-novel-of-mary-wollstonecraft-by-n-j-mastro