historical – The Spine View

All That Glitters by John Anthony Miller

Rating: 5 Stars Pub Date: 13-Mar-2023

This WWII thriller, by John Anthony Miller, is an edge of your seat kind of story about a female spy, working for French Intelligence, who is given a near impossible task. I immediately fell into this one and was captivated by the outstanding story telling of the author.

Camille is the heroine of the story. She along with her partner, Roger, in this operation are tasked with stealing industrial grade diamonds from a vault in Belgium. There is one catch, the Germany army has already invaded Belgium and the town in which the vault is located will shortly be overrun by Germans. These diamonds are not only highly valuable, but of the highest importance to the war effort since they are being used for advanced technologies. It will be a race to see who can get there first.

Camille and Roger beat the Germans to the vault, but only barely. They know that the German army is already in the city and hear them getting closer. It will not be long before they reach their location. They work quickly to open the vault and remove the diamonds. As they are making their escape the Germans arrive and Roger is killed. Fortunately, Camille is able to get away with the diamonds; however, her escape car is damaged by the gun fire and she is forced to abandon it along the roadside in a rural part of Belgium.

She must now find another way to get out of Belgium and to England, the final destination of the diamonds. To do so she needs to contact her handler, Nichols, in Paris. Fate seems to be smiling on her when she runs into Dr. Lucien Bouchard, a physician that once saved her life. With his assistance and the help of others in the French Resistance, she heads for Paris where the diamonds will be rerouted to England. However, there are others nefarious players, i. e. the Gestapo and a German spy who is married a high ranking French Official, who also want desperately to have the diamonds.

The plot is full of surprises and unexpected players. In addition, two other things are worth mentioning about the plot. First, is the complexity., There were lots of moving parts and everything had to work just right for Camille to achieve her goal. Also, the romantic development between Camille and Lucien added a lot of depth to the plot, and characters, that made the story realistic which, in turn, caused me to become further invested in the outcome.

Then the danger of what she, and later Lucien, were attempting took my breath away at times. I felt like at any moment some little something, or twist of fate could happen, and all would have been for nothing. This made the tension almost unbearable at times. Whether you call it “nail biting” or an “edge of your seat” suspense, this expertly executed story is one that will stay with me for a long time.

In summary, All That Glitters is much more than your average thriller. It also a story about love and redemption among other things. It will appeal not only to lovers of Thrillers, Historical Fiction, and Romance, but also to a more general audience that enjoys a complex plot and memorable characters. I highly recommend this to everyone.

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Minister’s Wife by John Anthony Miller

I was first drawn to The Minister’s Wife, by John Anthony Miller, because I was intrigued by the idea of a woman spy during the Revolutionary War. I love books that highlight strong women in unusual circumstances and this book delivered. I need more books like this!

Abigail, the minister’s wife, has just returned to Philadelphia from New York with her new husband. She comes home to find, in her absence, the city has been captured by the English and the redcoats are everywhere she looks.

However, some things have not changed. Ian Blaine, her former lover, still lives in the city and when he is accused of being a traitor to the crown old feelings begin to rise in her. Though he is able to prove he is innocence, the English are watching him closely, especially the English Commander Duncan.

Soon it becomes obvious that Ian still loves Abigail and he just can’t stay away from her. As Abigail is pulled into the web of patriot spies, there are lies and deceit that abound that will threaten both her and Ian.

This story is full of twists and turns you will not see coming. The plot is fast paced and the suspense was almost unbearable at times. I was on the edge of my seat with worry about Ian and Abigail being caught. They took far too many chances, in my opinion, and it made my heart skip a beat every time they took an unnecessary risk. Then the dramatic ending just sealed my love of this story.

Not only did I got caught up in the drama of the story early on, but it was also the character of Abigail that made me really love this book. She was so brave. She knew she was taking big risks; yet, she found the courage to do what she thought was right.

The type of suspense, and the characters, in this book are what I feel makes a good story great. Perfect book for fans of Historical Thrillers. I also think it will appeal to those Romance readers who enjoy a story that is not all fluff and has a bit of bite to it.

I received a free copy in exchange for by honest review.

The Drop by John Anthony Miller

Set in Havana, Cuba just prior to Castro, this suspense/thriller The Drop, by John Anthony Miller, is a wild ride full of surprises. Written with great prose and meticulous attention to detail in both setting and characters, makes it a real winner.

A very interesting and diverse set of characters in The Drop. First there is, Jimmy Foster who is the uber wealthy Wall Street guy. He is married to, Darlene, who is gorgeous and a gold digger. He loves Havana, and he and Darlene come often to enjoy the sun, pool, music and sometimes the casinos in the city. They have everything going for them and should be the perfect couple. Yet some people are never satisfied, and the grass is always seems greener on the other side. So when Jimmy is kidnapped, she is not overly distraught.

There is another beautiful woman involved in this story, Ariana. She and her family where once wealthy until it was all taken away by Batista. Now she is out for revenge. However, revenge costs money, lots of money. Steal from the mob… no problem. Kidnaping, well maybe not so good.
Especially, when a wife has everything to gain from a missing husband and everything to lose if he is found.

Lastly there is the private detective, Harry, that has a mysterious air about him. Is he in Havana on behalf of a jealous husband or is there something else going on? He is definitely in the all the right places at the right times and seems better prepared than the police to find Jimmy.

So many little twists and subtle hints of what is to come as the story progresses. However, as I have mentioned in the past, I hate spoilers. Instead, I am leaving with this vague overview and hope that I have given you enough to peak your interest.

I loved the setting of this book; because, I am starting to feel worn out on historical books set either during WWI or WWII and this book felt like a breath of fresh air. Also, I am highly appreciative that the author took great care in the scene descriptions. It enhanced the story and allowed me to place myself in the characters’ shoes.

The characters were well done and there was a lot of subtly in their actions. I didn’t always understand their actions and that made the book more interesting. However, it all comes together neatly in the end and I got why the characters did what they did.

I can’t fail to mention just how good the plot was. There was a twist at the end that I never saw coming. Even after several days to noodle on the ending, I am still left shaking my head. It was alluded to; however, I never put two and two together, which is unusual for me. Well done!

This book had everything going for it and Miller has become one of my favorite authors. If you are looking for a historical fiction story in an unusual setting and a twisty plot, then this the book for you. I highly recommend you read it.

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Ride of her Life by Elizabeth Letts

This is the fascinating true story of one women’s dream to see the Pacific Ocean and how she, along with her dog, fulfills it by riding across America on her horse. A truly heartwarming story about one women’s determination and experiences on this epic journey. Highly entertaining and informative!

Annie Wilkins is 63 and her health is failing. She has worked hard all of her life and yet has little to show for it. She has hardly any money and she is on the cusp of losing her home. She feels she has nothing to lose; therefore, she buys a horse, a Morgan named Tarzan, packs a few belongings and heads out on the road alone with no one but her dog Depeche Toi.

She plans to ride from her hometown of Minot, Maine all the way to California. California is a long way from Maine, even in a car! Yet, Annie is undaunted. Despite the lack of money she sets out with purpose. She plans to sleep in barns and stop when needed to work to raise money along the way. She soon discovers that hospitality is still abundant in America. More often than not, she usually can find someone willing to stable her horse and even provide a hot meal and bed.

As she slowly winds her way across the country she meets all kinds of people who offer her assistance. Sometimes just a simple meal, other times it might be shoes for her horse and even a second horse to help carry the load. The media picks up her story and people everywhere want her to stop in their town. She finds herself giving interviews to newspapers, lectures to civil clubs and participating in parades throughout her journey.

I am truly amazed at the feat she managed to accomplish. I have been a rider all my life and currently own a horse that I enjoy immensely and my bum hurts just thinking about all the miles she did in a saddle and without the luxury of a fancy gel saddle cushion. She embodies the very idea of a pioneer woman. What a truly amazing individual!

What I loved about this story was Annie’s tenacity, indomitable spirit and love for her 4 legged friends. In addition, I found this to be well researched and loved all the history that the author included about the places Annie visited and the people she meet.

The author truly did justice to Annie’s story and there is something in this book for everyone. I highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy true stories around strong women.

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

Song of Gabrielle by John Anthony Miller

Song of Gabrielle is a historical fiction novel, set in medieval times. It is full of romance, sorcery and wonderful prose. I found it to be well researched and highly imaginative. I was totally absorbed from start to finish.

Gabrielle’s story is told by a traveling Troubadour years later and begins in Normandy, France in 1216 where she has just arrived at a convent that sits along the coast. The English are raging a war upon France and the French forces are scattered and retreating. Montague of Rouen, a solider of the king, asks the Reverend Mother to shelter Lady Gabrielle a lady of the king’s court and his love. The convent is well known to Lady Gabrielle and her to the convent. Therefore, the request is easily granted and Montague leaves, to reassemble the scattered forces of the king, knowing she will be sheltered and safety away from the English.

Unfortunately, the English army come upon the convent and ask that the nuns help treat the injured soldiers. Gabrielle is a skilled healer and helps the nuns in administering treatment to injured and dying men. Despite the nuns disguise the Reverend Mother insists Gabrielle wear to hide her identity, she is recognized by Captain Carney the leader of the English army of Sir Michael Marston. By a stroke of bad luck, she is now a prisoner of war and becomes a pawn in the power struggle between two great forces.

Captain Carney knows what the value of Lady Gabrielle will be to the English. They can hold her as a political pawn to their advantage. Unhappily, Gabrielle is shipped off to Marston as a political prisoner of war. Once she reaches England she is treated kindly and with respect by Marston even though she is truly a prisoner. However, there is much a foot in England and several forces are converging on Marston’s castle with goals that will have a far reaching affect if they are achieved. Marston may not be able to protect Gabrielle, a women he is attracted to and maybe even beginning to love.

This is just the type of story that I crave and love to lose myself in. There is political intrigue, wizards, magic and all sorts of nefarious people that had me cringing hoping that they would be the ones on the short end of the stick. The plot was fast paced and there were enough surprises that I was never bored.

In addition, I felt a connection with Gabrielle because the author did an amazing job with the character development. I loved that she was a strong character and though she pined to be in France, in the arms of Montague, she did not let it cloud her judgement. She was able to recognize the goodness in Marston despite her circumstances.

I would not do this book justice if I did not mention how much I enjoyed the prose. It was descriptive but not overly so that it over shadowed the action and characters. It is such a fine line to do enough to help the reader understand the setting without bogging the story down in overly flowery and totally unnecessary language.

There is something to love in this book for most every reader. However, I think readers of Historical Fiction and Romance will find this book especially enjoyable. Highly recommend!

I received a free advanced copy from the author in exchange for me honest review.

The Last Green Valley by Mark T. Sullivan

The Last Green Valley is an amazing story of courage, family, hope and survival. Just as with Sullivan’s earlier novel Beneath a Scarlet Sky, this book is based on the true story of the Martel family and how they escaped the advancing Russian army with nothing but the few possessions they could pack into a single wagon.

The war is in full force in Europe. The Germany army is retreating on both fronts and the Martel family must decide if they want to stay in the Ukraine and again be under Stalin’s rule or as “pure” Germans be relocated to Germany. For Emil, the decision is easy. He knows what it is to live under Russian rule and he wants to be free and dreams of a better life in the West. He even dares to dream about immigrating to the United States.

However, to make his dream come true he will have to move his wife and two young sons through the war ridden countryside. The family, along with other refugees, follow the Germany army as they retreat before the oncoming Russians. While the Germans have offered to resettle them, their help will come at a price. The Martels will face many trials in their journey to freedom in the West.

This is such a moving story. I can’t begin to imagine how hard it was to survive during WWII. The tenacity of Emil and Adeline was incredible. Most would have given up their dreams and just lived under Stalin’s rule when faced with the hardships and unknown.

The story is well researched and told with beauty and compassion. The prose was descriptive and I felt he did justice to the characters. In short, it was outstanding and it is books like this that fuel my passion for historical fiction.

A must read for all lovers of history and historical fiction. In addition, this is a great book club pick because the topics this book covers a vast array of topics of the time that are still relevant today.

Voices From the Past: A year of great quotations by W. B. Marsh

I am a history buff and Voices From the Past by W. B. Marsh is the perfect book to satisfy that craving for history and knowledge. As the title suggests, it is a quote per day from well-known historical figures such as Napoleon and Julius Caesar. Each quote is followed by a brief history lesson on the origin of the quote.

On the aesthetics side, I loved that the book is well indexed. Several times I used it to look up quotes I had read and wanted to refresh my memory on. The layout is nicely done also. I particularly liked that the book has a satin ribbon to mark your place or a particular quote you like.

As for the quotes themselves, I found them interesting and they represented a large span of time. The author put a lot of thought into the ones that were included in this book. Quotes are a dime a dozen. All you have to do is look on any website about quotes and it will usually contain thousands of them. However, as a rule, they do not have the interesting historical tidbits behind them. And the tidbits is what makes them so fascinating and why I enjoyed this book so much.

I highly recommend this book for any quote and/or history lover. It would make a great gift. Also, it looks nice on my coffee table and has started a few conversations.

I received a free copy from the publisher, via LibraryThing’s early reviewer program, in exchange for my honest review.

Renia’s Diary by Renia Spiegel

Pub. Date: 24-Sep-2019
Rating: 3.5 Stars

Renia’s Diary is just that, a diary of a young Jewish girl from Poland. She was just 14 when she started her diary because she wanted a friend. Actually, she had friends, I feel more likely that she wanted a confidant and some way to express all her hopes, dreams and sorrows without fear of ridicule from pears.

As you can imagine, the diary entries are about Renia’s daily life. When she starts the diary, she is living with her grandparents. Her parents are in Warsaw and have been traveling with her sister who is a child actress. As expected, most of the writing is centered around school, her friends and her longing for her family, mainly her Mother. At the beginning, she does speak occasionally of the troubling times and a few of the historical events.

As Renia gets older, she talks about going to parties with friends, dating and dreams about the future. She goes to movies and takes long walks with Zygument (Zygu), her boyfriend. In December of 1941 she decides to start writing about the war. She says, “Blood is flowing, cities are ruined, people are dying.” Despite her declaration, most of her writing remains the same.

It is obvious Renia is deeply religious. All throughout the diary she periodic asked God to take care of her and her family. Later in the diary, most entries end with a plea, “You will help me, Bulus and God”. Even though she did not mention the trying times often, they must have weighed heavily on her mind. Sadly, her life ends shortly after her 18^th birthday. The final few diary entries are made by Renia’s boyfriend, Zygu, because she along with his parents are shot in July 1942.

The prose I struggled with because it was written by someone so young and was of course immature. She talked about life with her friends and petty things that happened to her and others. As she gets older, the discuss turns to going to parties and boys and finally falling in love.

It is difficult to compare this book to other works of nonfiction because it is a diary and not a book. It was never written for or intended to be read by an end consumer. Therefore, I struggled with how to assign any kind of rating to a nonliterary work? Ultimately, I choose my rating mostly based on the poetry contained in the diary.

There was a lot of poetry in the diary. Enough for an entire collection to be published of just the poetry. There were all types of poems, long (some ran several pages) to short, some sad, some lively and some longing. Regardless of the theme, they were lovely. The poems are the real star of the book. I found it to be not only good, but contemplative. For the prose to be so immature, the poetry was the exact opposite. I am left wondering what her poetry would have been like if she had lived. Would she have been a great poet in the 20^th century?

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

The Lane Betrayal by John A. Heldt

Heldt always gives the reader a story to devour and The Lane Betrayal is no exception. Filled with lots of action, danger and a tad of romance, this fast paced tale is sure to satisfy that craving for adventure in every reader.

Mark Lane, a gifted physicist, has made the breakthrough of the century, maybe the millennia, with his device that allows time travel. He should be elated. Instead, he has discovered that his business partner, Robert Devereaux, in Janus Enterprises is planning to use the device for wicked ends. In an attempt to thwart Robert, Mark has planned to steal the two working devices and escape with his family into the past. This escape plan also includes alerting the authorities to what Robert is up to and sabotaging the project.

Mark has been planning his escape for months with the help of his colleague Randy who has decided to stay behind and assist where he can with the escape. On the day of the planned escape, Robert gets wind that something is a foot and is coming to confront Mark. With just a few minutes head start, courtesy of Randy, Mark manages to whisk his family to 1865 around the closing days of the Civil War. It looks like things are finally going as planned. Then a turn of bad luck occurs when one of the keys for the devices is forgotten in a cabin in Virginia and the second device is impounded by the government.

The government thinks the device might be something to aid the Rebel Army in the closing days of the war. Mark, now a prisoner of the Union Army, and suspected of being a rebel sympathizer, is taken to Washington, D.C. The family has no choice but to follow. To make matters worse, Robert has hired a hit man, Silas Bain, to travel back in time and finds the Lanes and kill them. Will anything go right for the Lane family?

I loved how the author allowed the tension to build slowly. By the end of the story you are sitting on the edge of your seat to see if the Lanes will stay a step ahead of Silas Bain. Therefore, it is no surprise that action is the key element of this book and it worked very well with the plot. Overall great pacing.

Sometimes stories with lots of action lack character development. Not so here! As with other books I have read by this author, the character development is critical to the story. Heldt knows how to get and keep the reader’s attention with the characters he builds. He delves deeply into the psyche of his characters to make them memorable and invest the reader.

I filed this book under science fiction, but fiction is the operative word here. There is really no science just a great story about, love, family and what binds us all together. Perfect book for fans of Nora Roberts and similar authors. Highly recommend!

Disclosure: While I used my Kindle Unlimited account to read this book, the author did request a review.

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

As suggested from the title, Stalking Jack the Ripper, is a YA horror/murder mystery book (very) loosely based on the real murders of young women in London during the 1880s. The author, Kerri Maniscalco, has presented the reader with a young protagonist who will capture your heart with her courage, defiance and tenacity as she works to solve the murders.

Audrey Rose Wadsworth is an educated young woman and daughter of a Lord. Ladies of her standing are expected to be prime and proper. Yet, she finds the society demands upon her restricting and she rebels against them. Even though her father has expressly forbidden it, she has been learning forensic science through her Uncle who is an expert in the field. So naturally she is thrilled to help her Uncle examine the first victim of Jack he Ripper.

Then when her Uncle of all people is arrested for the murders, she vows to find out the truth. For Audrey Rose this is the being of a very dangerous path. One that could lead even to her death.

I appreciated the fast pace of the book and it had plenty of twists to keep you guessing. The prose was also good and I liked the attention to detail given to the scenes. Pace will only take the reader so far and this book had a good mix of both.

I liked the characters in this book, especially Audrey Rose. In truth, I felt her character was a little bit of a stretch for the times but it worked so well in the story I can’t really find fault. Sometimes a little creative license is necessary for a good story. After all it is fiction meant to entertain. At the end the author does give you the facts of what happened in London during this time and shows how those facts were used to create the story.

This book has been on my TBR list for almost a year. I wish I had read it sooner because if was entertaining and just what I needed as a distraction amid this virus lockdown. The book definitely has a Holmes and Watson vibe to it, albeit a younger male/female version. I highly recommend for those readers that like this type of book. Being a historical book with a light touch of romance I think there will be a wider audience that will enjoy it and recommend you give it a read.

I received a free copy from the publisher, at BookExpo 2019, in exchange for my honest review.