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.
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.
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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.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE DRESSMAKER’S WAR by Michelle Vernal on this Bookouture Books-On-Tour 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!
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Book Description
She gazes at her mother’s face in the black and white photograph, her vision blurring as tears build. Could this wartime wedding portrait be the key to finding out why her mother went missing, all those years ago?
Brides of Bold Street is filled with beautiful, brand-new ivory gowns. But dressmaker Sabrina loves it when brides-to-be wear vintage, family heirloom dresses. Seeing wedding day photographs of future mothers and grandmothers beaming – as if knowing the happiness they feel will be passed down to their daughters – is a bittersweet reminder of the mother she’s never known.
And as she and her handsome beau, Adam Taylor, start talking about marriage, not having her mother by her side weighs on Sabrina’s heart more and more each day.
But when a bride walks into the store with a family dress made of rare parachute silk from World War Two, Sabrina feels hope rise again in her chest. Because the bride also has a photograph. A photo Sabrina is sure shows her mother’s face…
With the answers to what happened all those years ago almost within reach, Sabrina decides to risk another journey through the past – and this time, with Adam by her side. He’d never let her travel alone, to a time when air raid sirens broke the silence of the night and bombs fell on Liverpool.
Together, will they finally solve the mystery of Sabrina’s real family? Or will the dangers of the darkest days of World War Two prevent Adam and Sabrina from returning to their own time?
THE DRESSMAKER’S WAR (Brides of Bold Street Book #3) by Michelle Vernal is another captivating dual timeline adventure featuring wedding dress maker, Sabrina in 1982 Liverpool, England who is able to time slip into the past. While each book has Sabrina helping a different couple in different years and could be read as standalone stories, I preferred reading them in order as those around Sabrina continue to evolve in their relationships to Sabrina in her present.
In 1982, Sabrina’s work at Brides of Bold Street and her relationship with Adam are going well and right now she has no plans to attempt a time slip to find the mother she was separated from. When a bride-to-be walks into the shop to have her grandmother’s dress altered for her own wedding, she shows Sabrina a wedding photo from her grandmother’s wedding. Sabrina is shocked to see not only herself and her boyfriend, Adam, in the photo, but she is sure she sees her mother’s face also.
Now in 1945, Sabrina and Max have slipped to the day before the celebrations for VE Day and to meet Lily, whom readers have been following in the other of the dual timelines in this story. Before the time slip, we follow Lilly’s young life during the war up to the time she meets Sabrina.
A night around the celebratory VE DAY bonfires changes everything for Sabrina.
Every book just gets better and better. I love this series and all the characters; both the main group that appear in every book and the new couple we are introduced to in each past story. This book once again had me completely engrossed as I turned the pages. Ms. Vernal’s descriptions of each time period pulled me right into the era’s history and clothing and it is especially fun and brings back good memories when she lists what music Sabrina and her friends are listening to in 1982. This is a beautiful story that is full of emotional ups and downs, love, family, and surprising revelations.
I highly recommend this mash-up of time travel, romance. and mystery!
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About the Author
Michelle Vernal is a New Zealand author who writes stories that will take you onto the page with her characters and make you feel part of their lives. She writes with humor and warmth, and her readers describe her books as unputdownable, feel good and funny. Her writing has been likened to Maeve Binchy but with a modern-day vernacular. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Love Stories Award. In 2020 she won the Reader’s Favorite Gold Medal Award for Chick lit, and in 2021 was shortlisted for the Page Turner Book Awards.
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.
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.
The Hunt for The Peggy C and Rescue Run by John Winn Miller has life and death decisions that lead to daring escapes. The stories display how the hero, Captain Jake Rogers and the heroine, Miriam Maduro, have both courage and resilience. Both books’ plots show how the hunter and the hunted navigate their way through the war zones of the North Sea, the Atlantic, Europe, and the Mediterranean.
The Hunt for The Peggy C has Captain Jake Rogers of the aging tramp steamer, The Peggy C, smuggling contraband merchandise, for money. While in Amsterdam he is paid by Miriam’s father, Mr. Maduro, to smuggle to Gibraltar his most perilous cargo, a Jewish family of six: Uncle Levy, a rabbi; his three young children; and two sisters, Miriam and Truus. But things do not go as planned when a U-Boat commander forces the ship to be boarded by three of its crew members in search of contraband. Unfortunately, they see too much, and the Peggy C crew is forced to take them prisoner. Out for revenge for being humiliated, the U-boat commander Viktor Brauer doggedly pursues the ship hoping to torpedo it to smithereens.
The sequel, Rescue Run, has Captain Jake Rogers returning to the North Atlantic as commander of a US Liberty ship with many of his crew. Unfortunately, it breaks down and they end up in Ireland. While there, Rogers learns from Dutch sailors that the Nazis have arrested the father of Miriam Maduro and have deported him to a concentration camp. In the first book Miriam and Rogers have become lovers and realize they care for each other. Rogers and crew sneak back into Holland aboard a gun-running ship from neutral Ireland and contact a resistance group to help them get Maduro to safety. While in Holland they learn that Miriam is in grave danger in a Nazi prison and has been tortured. Determined to rescue her they once again ask a resistance group to help in a daring rescue attempt. This is where the cat and mouse games begin, as a Nazi bounty hunter is in hot pursuit to get the reward put on Miriam’s head. Now the heroes must navigate informants, imposters, gangsters, and double agents to escape to safety by using disguises, fake documents, subterfuge, and guns.
These stories have nonstop adventure and intrigue that keep readers in a perpetual state of suspense. The nail-biting tension mixed with heartwarming moments makes for a page turner. A bonus are the true historical details about the war and the countries involved that lend to a powerful authenticity. If readers want to learn more about the characters at the end of the second book are additional reading materials, research notes, and blurbs about the historical figures and their fate.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
John Winn Miller: Years ago, I watched a bad TV adventure movie with my family. I knew I could write a better story. The next day I woke up from a dream and knew the first scene, the last scene, and the name of the ship. Because I had no personal experiences with U-boats, Merchants ships, or the settings in the plot, I took several years to do the research and get the facts straight.
EC: What was the role of Peggy C in the first book?
JWM: It is the name for the cargo ship. A Jewish family was rescued by the ship’s captain, Jake Rogers. The ship is chased by a Nazi U-boat. It is thirty years old but did well in the cat and mouse game with the U-boat. I wanted to use a slow ship to make it hard to get away. The ship was like a character in the story.
EC: What was real in the story?
JWM: The drug Pervitin was used to give the Nazis a jolt of energy and euphoria. It made them confident, courageous, and fearless. It helped people stay awake for several days. Hitler’s pirates are real. Pirates originated from the idea of Winston Churchill during WWI. The Nazis decided to use that idea in WWII. The more bizarre, the more I made sure it was real.
EC: There is a powerful quote in the book that can also be used today after October 7th. Please explain
JWM: You are referring to, “You and your kind make evil leaders like Hitler possible and yet you pretend you are only fighting for country.” It was the typical defense of the Nazis; I was just following orders. There is no moral responsibility to stand up to evil whether soldiers in the German army or collaborators in the occupied countries, apart from Denmark.
EC: How would you describe the U-boat Commander Brauer?
JWM: He is based on three real U-boat captains. He is deranged and cruel. I took the worst traits of the worst U-boat captains. He is very much convinced of the righteousness of what he is doing. He is a war criminal and what he did is based on a true story. I based him on a real captain that had a troubled career. Brauer wanted revenge against Rogers after being humiliated.
EC: How would you describe the heroine, Miriam?
JWM: A reader, smart, impulsive, courageous, fighter, tough, optimist, and determined. She starts out to a damsel in distress but becomes a hero by the end of the story.
EC: Do you think Miriam changed in the second book after she was tortured by the Nazis?
JWM: Yes. She got a heavier heart, became more suspicious, not trusting, with feelings of gloom, anxiety, dread, and anger. She was a young medical student but now had to fight back and become tough to save her family. She grows more than anybody in these books. She realizes that those who told her not to fight back were wrong and thinks of them as fools, especially the Jewish Council in Amsterdam.
EC: How would you describe the hero, Rogers?
JWM: He is a cynic, loyal, a good navy man, clever, caring, with a bit of a temper. He is self-educated.
EC: What about the relationship?
JWM: Rogers and Miriam have a bond they share with the love of books. They care for each other but must navigate their differences because they come from entirely different cultures and religions.
EC: Why did you make a cat and mouse plot in both books?
JWM: I love the Bourne movies and realize that the tension is ratcheted up, especially as they get closer to each other in proximity. I enjoy the chase where they are trying to outrun and outsmart the enemy. Rogers realizes he is not as strong as the enemy, so he must use his brains to escape, many times getting ideas to think his way out from the books he read.
EC: Why the quote at the beginning of the second book, Rescue Run?
JWM: You mean this one, “To the brave heroes and heroines who gave their all, and often their lives, to defeat fascism’s heinous ideology of intolerance, racism, nationalism, and anti-Semitism.” There were soldiers and others who had the courage to stand up. Many of them are actual historical figures where I tried to remain true to who they were. For example, Miriam’s friend, Tineke Butcher, who hid them. She, her mother, and her grandmother, hid more than 100 Jewish refugees. The Gestapo raided her home eight times, arrested her nine times, and beat her; yet she never revealed any secrets. Even at great personal peril.
EC: Was the resistance leader, Miss 2000, real?
JWM: Yes. Very few did I make up. She was the only woman to create and lead a resistance movement during the war. She and her group sheltered more than 4,500 during the occupation, providing them with food, clothing, rations, and false identity papers, as I wrote about in the books. I hoped I highlighted her courage and her wanting to stand up for what was the right thing to do.
EC: What about Hitler’s bounty hunters like the character, Janssen?
JWM: I stumbled across this book, Hitler’s Bounty Hunters, about them and could not believe it. Janssen has no morals and no convictions. He was in it for the money and what made it more fun for him is that he did not like Jews. He has pure greed.
EC: What about your next book?
JWM: The title is Miriam in The Shadows and will be published March 2026. The plot has Miriam and Rogers sent to France on separate missions by the English Intelligence Agencies. There will be double crosses, double agents, and interjacencies that have dirty deals.
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.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE ENGLISH WIFE by Anna Stuart on this Bookouture Books-On-Tour blog post.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Her husband is trying to save the country, but can she save him?
1940, England: Clementine Churchill stands alone on a rooftop in London as bombs rain down on the city. A nearby explosion almost knocks her off her feet, but she gets back up again and shouts into the night: ‘Hitler will not take Britain; not on my watch.’
Rushing back to 10 Downing Street, Clementine is relieved to see the famous building is still standing despite the heavy bombing. It means the Prime Minister – her husband – is alive. Stepping through the door and into Winston’s arms, she is reassured by his steady heartbeat. Every day has been a fight for survival, with people losing loved ones all around her. She prays that this war will not cost her Winston.
Her husband has always dreamed of being Prime Minister; she knew from the moment they married thirty years ago that he wanted to lead the country. Since then, they’ve been a partnership in love and in politics. But, with the war against Hitler, it’s a much bigger responsibility than either of them ever expected. The world needs Winston, and Winston needs her.
While Winston co-ordinates battles across Europe, Clementine finds herself in the spotlight for the first time. Her husband’s name may be on the lips of every soldier and politician but she knows as she visits hospitals and air raid shelters, that the ordinary people speak her name just as much. She realizes she has the potential to make a difference – not as Winston’s shadow in the background but as Clementine Churchill.
One evening, as she looks into Winston’s dear face, Clementine can tell his bravery comes at a cost. Can she help the man she loves finish the fight for freedom – or will this war cost them everything?
This is a fictional novel inspired by the remarkable life of Clementine Churchill. It is a story of the power of love and courage. It is the story of how a husband and wife saved the world. It is a story like no other…
THE ENGLISH WIFE by Anna Stuart is an engrossing and inspiring historical fiction novel with dual narrators, Clementine Churchill, the wife of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Jenny Miller, a fictional American journalist from the beginning of WWII to V-E Day in England. While featuring the life of Clementine Churchill, the author gives the reader insight into two strong, fascinating women during war.
Clementine Churchill knew what she was getting into when she agreed to marry Winston Churchill. They are a love match and while they have the freedom in their marriage to pursue their personal passions, Clementine always will be by his side to support him, and this is especially evident during England’s darkest hours during WWII.
Jenny and Ned Miller are a young married couple who are journalists sent to England to cover the turmoil in Europe for CBS radio. While Ned’s star is rising, Jenny is only allowed to report on women’s social issues. The two soon become known to the Churchill’s and while Winston is interested in Ned’s ability to aide in war correspondence, Jenny becomes friends with Clementine and the two soon are working together on issues for the English war time population while also dealing with personal issues in their homes.
This is a wonderful look at Clementine’s life, not only as Winston’s wife and soulmate, but as a woman who learns she is stronger and more capable than she believes during these terrible years of war. Jenny and Ned Miller appear to be loosely based on Edward R. Murrow and his wife during their time in England. Clementine and Jenny are friends that emotionally bolster each other through personal difficulties, they demonstrate the differences between American and English sensibilities, and they also discuss and display the differences in their beliefs in the liberation of the women. The historical characters and places throughout the novel are well researched and interesting. In just the short number of years this novel covers, Ms. Stuart takes the reader on an emotional journey that is heart wrenching as well as heartwarming and I found it difficult to put this book down.
I highly recommend this engaging historical fiction novel!
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Author Bio
Anna Stuart lives in Derbyshire with her campervan-mad husband, two hungry teenagers and a slightly loopy dog. She was hooked on books from the moment she first opened one in her cot so is thrilled to now have several of her own to her name. Having studied English literature at Cambridge university, she took an enjoyable temporary trip into the ‘real world’ as a factory planner, before returning to her first love and becoming an author. History has also always fascinated her. Living in an old house with a stone fireplace, she often wonders who sat around it before her and is intrigued by how actively the past is woven into the present, something she likes to explore in her novels. Anna loves the way that writing lets her ‘try on’ so many different lives, but her favourite part of the job is undoubtedly hearing from readers.
When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she’s setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up.
In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything.
As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels—head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius and designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest on the success of Barbie’s fashion—she knows they’re working against a ticking clock to get this wild idea off the ground.
In the decades to come—through soaring heights and devastating personal lows, public scandals and private tensions— each of them will have to decide how tightly to hold on to their creation. Because Barbie has never been just a doll—she’s a legacy.
LET’S CALL HER BARBIE by Renee Rosen is an engaging historical fiction book that follows the inspiration and creation of an entirely new type of doll called Barbie and the lives of the people involved in bringing her to the world. Barbie was a part of my childhood, even though I was more of a tomboy, my girlfriends would all get together and play with our Barbies. I found this story fascinating and it reminded me of how many and how large the strides in women’s rights made in the short period of time covered by this novel.
Ruth Handler is a brilliant example of “a woman before her time” and while the benefits were many, so were the difficulties and heartaches. The main characters, both historical and fictional, are fully developed and believable. Their personal lives show the cultural shifts throughout the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s vividly. Ms. Rosen’s research is evident in her ability to integrate all the new technology involved in getting Barbie made and mass produced without breaking up the flow of the story.
I recommend this historical fiction story that looks into the inception and worldwide phenomenon called, “Barbie”.
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About the Author
Renée Rosen is the USA Today bestselling author of LET’S CALL HER BARBIE, FIFTH AVENUE GLAMOUR GIRL, THE SOCIAL GRACES, PARK AVENUE SUMMER, along with 4 other historical novels and the YA novel, EVERY CROOKED POT.
Renée lives in Chicago where she is at work on a new novel.
