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In 2013 Sarah Blake is struggling. After releasing a well acclaimed and popular book, Sarah has yet to publish anything since. She yearns to write a unique story and thinks she might have found it after going through some of her family’s heirlooms and discovering artifacts relating to her great-grandfather, killed when the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915. As Sarah travels to England and works closely with a fellow Lusitania descendent, the stories of Caroline and Tessa are also told. In 1915, Southern belle Caroline is married to Gilbert, a highly successful and rich businessman who seems more interested in his work than his relationship with Caroline. Bored and alone, Caroline soon finds herself in the company of an old love aboard the Lusitania, forcing her to make painful decisions about the men in her life. Tessa does not have the same issues. A thief working with her sister to make ends meets, Tessa travels aboard the Lusitania to pull off a heist. But as Tessa works to fulfill her end of the bargain she begins to sense that something might be amiss.

I’ve been looking forward to picking this book up for a while. As an ocean liner buff I am always looking out for books set on famous passenger ships that aren’t always the Titanic (though those suggestions are always welcomed). The Glass Ocean was one of the first books I saw that takes place on the Lusitania and I decided to finally pick it up.

Despite this story being written by three different authors, I found the book to be written well and seemingly written by just one person. The authors did an excellent job keeping the same voice and it wasn’t at all obvious where one author stopped writing and the other started. I also thought Caroline’s storyline was fairly well developed and her final decision did surprise me.

Yet there were also quite a few things I didn’t like about the book. My first, and major complaint, is that even though it takes place on the Lusitania, it could have taken place on any other vessel during World War One as there was very little description of the ship and almost no interaction with any of the real passengers and crew. Having studied the ship before, I learned of several interesting figures that were on the ship and I wish this book would have included more of that. Granted, this isn’t everyone’s preference but it is something I wish the authors would have expanded on. The sinking of the vessel itself was also very brief, about two chapters. Granted, the Lusitania sank in eighteen minutes, but as it was the climax of the story, I felt it should have been longer. Again, if you aren’t going to go into detail on what the ship is famous for, then why not just have it any other passenger ship?

Additionally, I didn’t like the three competing storylines and I found Sarah and Tessa’s stories to be pretty uninteresting. While Tessa’s story did add to the overall plot, Sarah’s felt like it was crammed in there and as a character in general I greatly disliked Sarah. She came off as very entitled, bitter, and annoying, which is unfortunate since I think she really could have added to the story.

While this book is a very good effort on the authors’ part to share the story of the Lusitania. Unfortunately, The Glass Ocean does fall short in several regards.

3 out of 5 stars

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In this nonfiction book, author Siân Evans examines the lives and careers of women who faced the unknown and took jobs aboard passenger liners from the early 1900s until the end of the 1940s. In these four decades, women worked, fought, and preserved to have successful careers at sea and often pave the way for women in the coming decades. Yet, we hear surprisingly very little about these women in today’s literature and Ms. Evans attempts to fill this gap by sharing the stories of a variety of women, all in the context of the changing landscape of the twentieth century.

I have had a love and interest for the “golden age” of passenger liners from an early age, in part due to my fascination with the Titanic. However, as I have grown older and learned more about the other liners that traveled to and from Europe during this time, my interest has continued to grow. Yet, in my research I find very little information concerning the women who worked alongside their male counterparts. They are mentioned in generalizing terms and it is often hard to come by any real information about them. So when I discovered Ms. Evans’ book (courtesy of a YouTube video) I decided to impulsively pick this up.

For the most part I’m glad I did that. The book is very well-researched and looks at several different women during the time period. It is also a fairly easy read, with no too much jargon that can confuse the reader. I can honestly see myself returning to this book as a resource for future research and historical blog posts.

There are some aspects of the book I was not particularly fond of, mainly the broad generalization Ms. Evans gives to the male crew members and their behavior towards their female co-workers, and the focus on female passengers. For the first point, I found that Ms. Evans’ description of male crew members, particularly ship officers, to be a bit vague and perhaps not always 100% true. There is no doubt that these women faced sexism and harassment from their male counterparts, but I’ve also done a fair amount research to find that this wasn’t always the case and some of these individuals could be quite progressive in their way of thinking about females and their roles in society. Again, perhaps this was a rare occurrence but I thought the broad generalization could have been taken back a little bit. The second issue, concerning the focus on female passengers, I found a bit boring and repetitive. I was much more interested in learning about the female crew members than the women traveling aboard the passenger ships.

Overall this is an excellent resource for anyone wishing to not only learn more about passenger liners during this time period but also of the crew members who spent their lives sailing the seas, looking for adventure.

4 out of 5 stars

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Jane thinks she hits the lottery when she meets Eddie Rochester, a young, handsome, rich widower living in the neighbor where Jane walks dogs. While it’s not hard to see Jane’s attraction for Eddie, Jane has more reasons than most to want to escape her current existence. Fleeing her past in Arizona, Jane moved to Alabama for a fresh start which included changing her name so no one could discover her past. She dreams of a better life, but lacks the skills to get her there. It seems she’s doomed to a life of dog walking and sharing an apartment with her sleazeball of a roommate, John.

That is until she meets Eddie and the life Jane so desperately wanted is within reach. Everything about Eddie and his life is perfect, and Jane seems certain her days of struggling are over. But, there’s just one tiny problem; Eddie’s first wife.

Bea Rochester was the envy of everyone. She was a millionaire thanks to her business, was gorgeous, and had Eddie before Jane. But, none of that could save her when she went out on her boat along with her best friend and neighbor, Blanche. Seemingly one thing led to another and now both women have been missing for months. Many, like Jane, presume them both dead but something isn’t right and the more Jane chips away at Eddie’s perfect façade, the more the ugly truth begins to reveal itself.

The Wife Upstairs is a Jane Eyre retelling, and it was that reason why I picked it up. I love Jane Eyre and was interested in how Ms. Hawkins would work with the story to give it a new, fresh feeling. For the most part she did that very well. The Jane Eyre story frame was there but Ms. Hawkins did a lot with it to make it different and not a nearly identical style, which I really appreciated. The last 40% of the book goes quickly as more of the truth is revealed and Ms. Hawkins through in a little twist at the end that I didn’t expect.

Yet while this book is classified as a thriller/mystery I’ll be honest and say there isn’t much mystery to this story. Fairly early on you learn a good chunk of what actually happened, based on how Ms. Hawkins writes the story. I didn’t necessarily hate that, but I also wasn’t a fan of it. It more became a question of whether or not Jane would discover the truth, but even that seemed little bit obvious. That’s why I did appreciate the little twist Ms. Hawkins tossed in towards the end. The ending is a little ambiguous which may frustrate a few readers but I didn’t bother me.

What did frustrate me, and the reason why I gave this book a four stars, is because the author never really reveals what Jane is running from in Arizona. We get clues throughout and a little bit of explanation, but it didn’t feel like enough to explain why Jane changed her identity and fled her life in Arizona. It was by no means a pleasant experience in Arizona, but I thought there was going to be a bigger punch and that it somehow would connect with Eddie, Bea, and Blanche. But it didn’t and I was left a little unsatisfied with Jane’s story.

Overall this is a good, fairly well-written story that takes the Jane Eyre story and gives it no life. But, if given the choice between the two books, I think I’ll go with Jane Eyre every time.

4 out 5 stars

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Jessica Miller is everything she aspired to be when she arrived was a freshman at the prestigious Duquette University; beautiful, successful, confident, enviable. It is the latter characteristic that is driving Jessica’s excitement in attending her university’s ten year anniversary weekend. Not even the unsolved murder of her friend and fellow East House Seven member Heather, committed ten years ago when Heather was stabbed seventeen times with a pair of scissors, can damper Jessica’s enthusiasm. This is going to be her time, her opportunity to show everyone at school who they were missing.

But other people have different ideas.

As Jessica is reunited with her former East House Seven friends, dark secrets and untold truths bubble to the surface and within twenty-four hours the murderer will be revealed along with a damning truth that none of them could have seen coming.

I have become fascinated with dark academia books and this one certainly fits the bill; a gothic university, a group of friends hiding who they truly are from each other, a murder, and tons of atmospheric tension. As a result, I scored this book very highly and found the greatest strength of the book to be its characters.

Before I begin to discuss the various personalities that make up the East House Seven I will state that these characters are not for everyone. With the exception of maybe two or three characters, the people inhabiting this story are not exactly ones I would personally keep, including Jessica herself. Jessica is a very complicated character, set on reinventing herself into the person she so desperately wants to be. She’ll push, scheme, and take out anyone who gets in the way, even if she knows it’s wrong (and that’s an important thing to remember throughout the book). At the same time, I also found myself sympathizing with Jessica. Her home life is a disaster and she, above all else, wants to belong. This is something I feel a lot of people can relate to, the desire to be seen and listened to. That being said, not all of us do what Jessica does to make sure she is seen.

And the “gems” she chooses to be friends with aren’t much better. Without revealing anything, I will say that the East House Seven are the type of students that you see across the hallway in the school, desperately wish to be friends with them, and then when the dirt comes out, you have a breath of sigh and think “Thank God I’m not friends with those people!” At times, it was really hard to find anything likeable about them.

All of this further complicates the main question at hand. Who killed Heather? Everyone will be blamed at least once, but when the true culprit (or culprits maybe?) are revealed, the reader will be left wondering how had this missed it?

5 out of 5 stars

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Dora Davidsohn’s life has changed rapidly, and not for the better. Having left the traditional home of her childhood, Dora has forged a new beginning in Berlin, enjoying the liberties she can take advantage and making new, unashamed friends. However, when Hitler comes to power and Dora is horribly verbally assaulted at her job, the writing on the wall is obvious to Dora and she flees Germany. Years later, after escaping an internment camp, Dora joins the French Resistance and takes on her biggest challenge yet; posing as an Aryan secretary and working for the Gestapo. It’s a dangerous assignment but one, if Dora plays her cards right, could lead to hundreds of others living another day.

If you have followed my reviews and reading choices over the last few years, you will know very well that I am a huge Ellie Midwood fan. Her books are always exceptionally well-researched, superbly written, and very engaging. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to read some of her newest works due to my own hectic reading schedule. However, after reading the summary of this one and learning it is based off a true story, I knew I had to pick it up and read it as soon as I could. A woman posing a secretary and working for the Gestapo in occupied France? How can one not pick that up!

Dora, and many of the supporting characters, are complex characters. Prior to the war, we learn that Dora joins the Communist Party and while you can fully understand Dora’s reasons for doing so, being there are the only other “force” actively fighting Hitler and fascism, Dora does seem naïve in believing that Communism is free of any sins. We see her temporarily questioning her political ideology after she hears about the famine Stalin created for the Ukrainians, but this doesn’t really go anywhere. This could be frustrating to some readers, but my only comment would be is that war doesn’t always give us black and white answers and sometimes, like Dora mentions in the book, we have to choose the lesser of two evils. In any case, I find these dilemmas to be fascinating to read about as it adds another dimension to the characters. They come off as more human.

As always, I would recommend Ms. Midwood’s newest book. It was a quick read and a story I will probably re-read in the future.

5 out of 5 stars

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Evelyn Hugo is a legend. An Academy Award winning actress with a career spanning several decades, Evelyn is not only talented but gorgeous. Perhaps one of the most beautiful women from Old Hollywood. To top it all off, Evelyn has been married a legendary seven times, each marriage more fascinating than the last. However, she has been notoriously tight lipped and, as she fades into her twilight years, it appears it will remain that way.

Until journalist Monique gets an unexpected invitation, from Evelyn herself, asking for Monique to interview her. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity and despite some misgivings Monique agrees. But, the story Evelyn has for Monique is one far from what anyone could have guessed.

Perhaps like many people who have picked up this book, I was inspired to read it after all the praise and hype it’s gotten. I have said it before but I tend to be apprehensive about reading books that have received a lot of attention, given that I often find it falls short of my expectations. My most recent example of this was another loved book of Ms. Reid’s, Daisy Jones & The Six. Loved by many but one I couldn’t really see all the hype about. Despite this, I decided to give Ms. Reid another chance.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is an excellent read, with detailed story telling and an engaging storyline. As a fan of Old Hollywood, I instantly recognized the stars that inspired Ms. Reid’s characters and it was fun to read the author’s own take on what a famous celebrity like Evelyn would have felt and dreamt of. Evelyn herself is a great character; confident, talented, and a bit flawed in her choices. Nevertheless, there is something about her that instantly has the reader entranced in her story.

I am not going to comment much about Evelyn’s true love in the book, that becomes fairly obvious less than half way through. Despite knowing the answer to this question fairly early on, Ms. Reid manages to keep the reader invested in Evelyn’s story. This is partially done through another, small mystery the reader begins to theorize about half way through the story. That answer is revealed at the end and, admittedly, I found that to be the only real drawback of this story. This big surprise the reader is served didn’t leave much of a punch for me and, if anything, I found it distracting from Evelyn’s story and not necessarily needed.

The true strength in his book, however, is it’s lesson about timeless love. Regardless of your background or sexual orientation, Ms. Reid’s story about two people who love and fight for each other over the course of several decades is moving, beautiful, and something that can be applied to everyone. It was sad, yet heart warming at the same time.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It was thoroughly enjoyable, if sad at times but with excellent characters and a great romance story that will stand the test of time.

5 out of 5 stars

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Paloma knows little of her father’s life in Argentina in the 1970s, a time where a military dictatorship seized control and resulted in hundreds of people disappearing without a trace. Having never given it much thought, Paloma is surprised when a woman named Grace appears at one of her family’s parties and introduces herself to Paloma as an old friend of her father’s from their days at university. Intrigued by the mysterious woman, Paloma embarks on a journey to discover what secrets her father is hiding, and some may just be too much to comprehend. Running parallel to Paloma’s story is Santiago’s, beginning in 1974 when he meets and falls in love with Valentina, a confident woman with dreams of a brighter future. As their country is rocked by political changes, Santiago and Valentina find themselves in danger and forced to make decisions that will shape their futures.

The Dirty War was a topic in history that, despite occurring less than fifty years ago, gets little coverage in the historical fiction genre. During this violent time thousands of innocent civilians were arrested, tortured, and eventually killed, often without any of their loved ones knowing. It has left an undeniable mark on Argentina today and I was therefore fascinated to pick this book up.

For the most part I thought the story was well done. I hesitate to use the word “enjoyable” as the subject is very heavy and you can feel the characters’ pain when discussing what happened to loved ones who vanished without a trace and no justice being carried out. Nonetheless, I felt Ms. Clark handled the subject matter very well and I learned quite a bit while reading.

As the summary suggests the book contains a dual storyline which sort of works. I found Paloma’s story to be the most interesting, as she unravels what her father did during this time and also learning about a woman she had never heard before she began her journey. I thought the second storyline, following Paloma’s father, Santiago, and his love interest, would have been stronger if the author had focused on telling events from just one of their points of view. The storyline starts off with Santiago, giving the impression we will be following him but it often went back and forth between him and Valentina, the woman he falls in love with. This could have worked but it felt a bit scattered and sometimes the point of view changed in the same section, making for some slightly complicated reading. To be honest, I would have preferred to have the entire second storyline told from Valentina’s perspective as, quite frankly, most of the story seemingly revolves around her. She was a fascinating character and very well developed and I wish I could have gotten more of her thoughts and feelings. Because it didn’t I felt the story suffered a little bit as I found myself skimming Santiago’s story, hoping to get back to Valentina, and trying to figure out from who’s perspective an event is being seen through.

The story is very engrossing and, in a feat I haven’t been able to accomplish since perhaps high school, I managed to finish this story in one weekend. The story does manage to catch your attention and hold it. However, there were a couple of times where I did struggle as there were some sections that probably could have been caught out. I felt some of Paloma’s sections could have been tightened up and explained a bit more. I would have love to read more about her investigating her father’s past and working that in to what was happening in the second story line. The two story lines weren’t really in tandem and if that had been worked out a bit more I think the story would have been much stronger.

Overall I have to applaud Ms. Clark for tackling such a serious topic and doing it was grace. I would recommend this book but only to someone who is really interested in this time in history as, since I felt the book did struggle in a few places, it could have someone casually reading the book to lose interest. Still, I don’t think what I learned during this dark time in history will leave me anytime soon.

3 out of 5 stars