Book picks similar to
When Hannah Played Ragtime by Vera Jane Cook


historical
netgalley
readers-favorite-giveaway
women-s-fiction

The Girl in the Baker's Van


Richard Savin - 2018
    There are those who will kill her to get it back. Ever since the German occupation, Evangeline Pfeiffer has worked at the bakery in the small French town of Turckheim. Each morning, with Alain her brother, she helps make the bread and pastries for Joseph, the baker. It is a life of routine and order. But when Alain is arrested by the Gestapo, her life is turned upside down. Unwittingly, she becomes an accomplice in the murder of Nazi agent Ludwig Kraus. Thrown together with the killer, a Polish spy, Kasha, her only hope is to escape to Spain. Taking the baker’s van she and Kasha drive south. She has burnt her bridges – there is no going back. She is on the run – but the spy running with her is not all he seems. Behind them as they twist and turn across Occupied France, their pursuers are closing in: the Gestapo, the German spy catchers (Sicherheitsdienst) and, most terrifying of all, the ruthless French secret police, La Carlingue. If they catch her she knows she will be violated then executed. In the city of Dijon Kasha is captured. On her own, her chances of escape fading she flees south, the net tightening around her. Then in Lyon she meets Grainger, a British SOE agent – he could be the game changer. If she can persuade him to help her, this could be her ticket out. Grainger is reluctant, he has his own mission, he can’t afford passengers – but she’s sticking to him. She’s not about to let go…

A Mother for her Birthday (Mail Order Brides of Arkansas)


Susannah Calloway - 2020
    

The Mudlark Orphan


Rosie Darling - 2019
     Abandoned as a baby Maise never gave up hope that one day her mother would return to claim her as her own, but as she stood in the dirty river water that dream soon washed away. She soon learnt that life was like the river; dark, fast moving and dangerous. Life would teach her lessons she had never wanted to learn, but would fate mend what had been broken, before she succumbed to the Thames as so many had before her?

The Desert Flowers - Rose


Judith S. Keim - 2021
    He’s dying of cancer and needs her help overseeing the sale of his hotel, the Desert Sage Inn, to another hotel group. With her marketing skill and as the owner of a very successful blog, she’s his perfect choice to make the sale a smooth transition while ensuring the new owners will maintain the reputation and image of the upscale property after the sale. She arrives to find Alec has summoned two other women to help with the project. Lily Weaver was once Alec’s assistant, and Willow Sanchez was like a daughter to him. They join forces to help him, lovingly accepting his nickname for them—the Desert Flowers, similar to the well-known Charlie’s Angels of TV fame.When Rose is assigned to work alongside Hank Bowers, an independent consultant to the hotel company’s team, she shudders at his reputation as an outgoing guy who always uses sports analogies and is certain they won’t get along. But Alec counsels her to give Hank a chance and, later, as they work together as a team, Rose is left to wonder if falling for one another is part of Alec’s secret plan even if one of Hank’s grown daughters fights the idea.A series for those who love stories about strong women facing challenges and finding love and happiness along the way.

On the Trail of the Yorkshire Ripper: His Final Secrets Revealed


Richard Charles Cobb - 2019
    until now.Using ground breaking new research together with the original police reports, newspaper descriptions and eye witness testimony, we can finally present the truth about what actually happened.For the first time in over four decades we re-examine the crime scenes and deliver the real story of the Yorkshire Ripper murders.

The Girl in the Maze


Cathy Hayward - 2021
    The past is often best left exactly where it is.’Emma Bowen has never had a close relationship with her mother, barely speaking with her in the last years of her life. But after her mother’s death, Emma finds something that might just explain the distance between them.Discovering letters between her mother and grandmother, it seems to Emma that her mother has always been difficult.As she searches for answers about her own childhood, Emma is drawn into the mystery of her mother’s enigmatic life. The more she finds, the more lost she feels, but Emma is determined to uncover her mother’s past, and the secrets held within it, whatever the cost.An enthralling story of three women, generations apart, linked by one terrible tragedy.

The Post Office Girls


Poppy Cooper - 2021
    On Beth Healey's eighteenth birthday, she hopes that she will be able to forget the ghastly war and celebrate. But that evening, her twin brother Ned announces that he has signed up to fight. No longer able to stand working in her parents' village shop while others are doing their bit, Beth applies to join the Army Post Office's new Home Depot on the Regent's Park, and is astounded to be accepted. She will be responsible for making sure that letters and parcels get through to the troops on the front line. Beth is thrilled to be a crucial part of the war effort and soon makes friends with fellow post girls Milly and Nora, and meets the handsome James. But just as she begins to feel that her life has finally begun, everything starts falling apart, with devastating consequences for Beth and perhaps even the outcome of the war itself. Can Beth and her new friends keep it all together and find happiness at last?The Post Office Girls is perfect for fans of Johanna Bell, Daisy Styles and Nancy Revell. EADERS LOVE THE POST OFFICE GIRLS! 'A superb debut novel' - 5 STARS'Entertaining, enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable' - 5 STARS'I absolutely loved this book and I am already eagerly awaiting book two in the series' - 5 STARS'The book gave a wonderful in sight into postal-service life during the war. Well done, Poppy' - 5 STARS'An excellent WW1 book' - 5 STARS

A Gown of Thorns


Natalie Meg Evans - 2015
    Devastated, she accepts an offer in France from an old family friend - to be au pair to the woman's grandchildren. Within a week, Shauna is deep in the Dordogne. With little to do other than organise her two charges' busy social diaries, she has endless hours in which to explore the magical landscape that surrounds her. Her new home is the ancient Chateau de Chemignac with its vineyards and hidden secrets, including a locked tower room where she unearths a trove of vintage gowns, one of which feels unsettlingly familiar. Then Shauna falls asleep one afternoon in a valley full of birdsong, and has a strange dream of a vintage aircraft circling threateningly overhead. So when she suddenly awakes to find charming local landowner Laurent de Chemignac standing over her - Shauna wonders if the dashing aristocrat might be just the person to help her untangle this unexpected message from the past.

A Duke’s Winter Promise: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel


Harriet Caves - 2021
    

The Daughters of Ironbridge


Mollie Walton - 2019
    The brightest child in her road and the first in her family to learn to read, Anny has big dreams. So, when she is asked to run messages for the King family, she grabs the opportunity with both hands.Margaret King is surrounded by privilege and wealth. But behind closed doors, nothing is what it seems. When Anny arrives, Margaret finds her first ally and friend. Together they plan to change their lives.But as disaster looms over the ironworks, Margaret and Anny find themselves surrounded by secrets and betrayal. Can they hold true to each other and overcome their fate? Or are they destined to repeat the mistakes of the past?'The Daughters of Ironbridge has that compulsive, page-turning quality, irresistible characters the reader gets hugely invested in, and Walton has created a brilliantly alive, vivid and breathing world in Ironbridge' - Louisa Treger

The Memory Box


Kathryn Hughes - 2021
    

The Jam Factory Girls


Mary Wood - 2020
    Caring for her siblings and working long hours at Swift's Jam Factory in London’s Bermondsey is exhausting. Thankfully her lifelong friendship with Dot helps to smooth over life’s rough edges.When Elsie and Dot meet Millie Swift, they are nervous to be in the presence of the bosses’ daughter. Over time, they are surprised to feel so drawn to her, but should two East End girls be socializing in such circles?When disaster strikes, it binds the women in ways they could never imagine. Long-held secrets are revealed that could change all their lives...

Susan, a Jane Austen Prequel


Alice McVeigh - 2021
    One is apt to expect that an impudent address will naturally attend an impudent mind – but her countenance is absolutely sweet. I am sorry it is so, for what is this but deceit?" (from Lady Susan, by Jane Austen) Sixteen-year-old Susan Smithson – pretty but poor, clever but capricious – has just been expelled from a school for young ladies in London. At the mansion of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, she attracts a raffish young nobleman. But at the first hint of scandal, her guardian dispatches her to her uncle Collins’ rectory in Kent, where her sensible cousin Alicia lives and “where nothing ever happens.” Here Susan inspires the local squire to put on a play, with consequences no one could possibly have foreseen. What with the unexpected arrival of Frank Churchill, Alicia’s falling in love and a shocking elopement, rural Kent will surely never seem quite so safe again.AUTHOR'S NOTE: This book is a prequel to Jane Austen's Lady Susan, in which a beautiful and manipulative young widow of 35 descends on her sister-in-law to escape the wrath of her lover’s wife, and almost succeeds in marrying the young heir of the household. The idea first occurred when I began to wonder what Lady Susan might have been like when she was only sixteen. I have set it five years after Pride and Prejudice and have – possibly rashly! – dared to ‘borrow’ several characters from P&P, including Lady Catherine and Mr Collins, plus Frank Churchill from Emma, which I hope is forgivable! I was frankly pretty overwhelmed to have received a rating of 10/10 stars for this book in Publisher's Weekly's BookLife Award competition. It has also been VERY kindly "recommended" by the US Review of Books, Indies Today and by all three editorial reviewers for Readers Favorite (all five stars). Susan will be released on June 30th. Grateful thanks to all of you here who have read it as an ARC, in advance of publication. AM

The Senator's Wife


Julia Gabriel - 2019
    Scandal. Ooh la la. Marie Witherspoon is having a terrible year. Her boss (aka her mother) fires her so she can concentrate on having babies. Her husband (aka a United States Senator) dumps her for his mistress—who regularly humiliates Marie in her “style” (aka gossip) blog. Marie has gone from being one half of the young It Couple in Washington, DC to being … well, she’s not sure what anymore. But Marie does have one very powerful weapon on her side: her best friend Nishi Bhat, a ball-breaking public relations maven who was never a big fan of Marie’s senator husband to begin with. It was her idea to burn Marie’s wedding dress and dump the ashes in the Potomac River. And her idea for Marie to rekindle an old hobby with one sexy-as-hell French artist who claims that (a) he can teach Marie how to draw and (b) “not all seeing is done with the eyes.” A young wife cast aside. A dark and brooding French artist. An ambitious politician up for re-election—and his equally ambitious mistress. Throw in an artistic collaboration involving (ahem) risqué paintings and not even Nishi can anticipate what will happen next ... Perfect for fans of Lauren Weisberger and Sophie Kinsella, The Senator’s Wife is a sexy, on-the-edge-of-your-seat romp that will have readers turning the pages late into the night. “White hot”—Kirkus Reviews (The Senator's Wife was previously published in two volumes as Drawing Lessons and Chiaroscuro.)

River People


Margaret Lukas - 2019
    River People is a novel of inspiration, love, loss, and renewal.