Reviewed by Makeda Cummings for Readers' Favorite

Between the Clouds and the River by Dave Mason tells the moving story of two characters whose lives are connected by the aftermath of World War II. Bernhardt Lang is a German officer forced to confront the brutal realities of war. His journey gradually shifts from the battlefield to his attempt to live a civilian life many years after the war. On the other hand, Joseph Holliman is a twelve-year-old boy struggling to cope with abandonment by his mother and an abusive father. Young Joseph is a constant victim of his father’s cruelty and bitterness. Intriguingly, he develops an impactful friendship with Frank Gardner, the man whose shed he deliberately burned down. Bernhardt and Joseph go on a lifelong journey, searching for their identities. This book details their breathtaking story!

Between the Clouds and the River is a masterful demonstration of storytelling by Dave Mason. I love how the author converges Bernhardt's and Joseph's stories. Bernhardt's journey commences in 1943, while Joseph's story begins in 1965. Although Bernhardt and Joseph vary in age, life experiences, and timeline, they are both trapped in life events that they desperately try to escape. Thus begin their captivating journeys of self-discovery and perseverance. Mason's vivid writing style beautifully reinforces their profound story arcs. From the beginning of the tale, I could easily visualize the various layers of Bernhardt's and Joseph's lives. I felt their anxieties, loss, and tribulations. I connected with these characters immediately and was drawn into every significant event that transpired throughout their lives. Their fight for identity and survival will leave a lasting emotional imprint on each reader. I sincerely hope that all fans of historical fiction will read this heartwarming book.

Reviewed by Keith Mbuya for Readers' Favorite

It was 1933 and a powerful campaign to expand the Third Reich’s superiority had taken Germany by storm. Fifteen-year-old Christa’s life is about to take a sharp turn, but she does not know it yet. Coming from a progressive German family, Christa’s family openly disagreed with some of the Fuhrer’s views, especially those that promoted antisemitism. They were wise enough to keep their doubts and skepticism behind the walls of their home, except for Christa’s brother Jurgen. He lands himself in trouble while defending a Jewish friend, and is shipped off to Rugen Island, where his family is barred from any contact with him. While visiting an old friend with her grandmother, Christa meets Paul, a Jewish boy she falls head over heels for at first sight. In the middle of all the tension and chaos driven by the antisemitic wave sweeping the country, does their young love stand a chance to blossom? Find out in Paulette Mahurin’s Two Necklaces.

Lovers of historical novels anchored in a compelling backstory of love and romance will not be able to stop reading Paulette Mahurin’s Two Necklaces. With evocative depictions, Mahurin brings 1930s Germany to full color on the pages, uniquely capturing the mood and setting of that era. All this alongside the well-nuanced accounts allowed me to experience what it was like to live through Hitler’s reign both as a German and a Jew. It was a tight cycle of tension, spying, blackmail, persecution, torture, and untold agony. Mahurin brings out the cast’s intricate emotions, juxtaposing their complex traits. This made it easy to connect with them. The pain and suffering some of the families were subjected to was harrowing. I could only imagine what it must have felt like to have your loved ones grabbed by the Gestapo and have no power at all to save them from their terrifying fate. There is suspense, drama, adventure, and so much more in this novel.

Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

Talmadge Farm by Leo Daughtry immerses readers in rural Southern life in the mid-20th century, offering a vivid portrait of its settings and characters. The Talmadge family is a fixture in the Eastern North Carolina community, and the story opens with their annual dove hunt. Beginning in September 1957, the narrative unfolds against the backdrop of Talmadge Farm—a sprawling estate encompassing hundreds of acres of tobacco fields and the imposing Talmadge mansion. Gordon Talmadge is a typical Southern patriarch obsessed with maintaining his family's legacy and fortune through the bank he controls. He cares very little about the welfare of the sharecroppers on his farm, especially the Sanders family, highlighting the stark contrasts between their privileged existence and the struggles of those bound to the land. The tension grows at different levels and escalates between Gordon and the Sanders family when Junior, Gordon’s son, attacks Ella Sanders. The fallout has dire ramifications.

Leo Daughtry has crafted a character-driven narrative with a solid historical setting. The characters are finely drawn, and watching them evolve through multiple conflicts is interesting. Gordon Talmadge is an ambitious man with domestic issues and hints at an underlying strain in his marriage with Claire, creating suspense. The dynamics between the Talmadges and the Sanders family, notably when sharecropping is at play, highlight the social and racial tensions and the disparity in their social standings, exacerbating misunderstandings and conflicts. Daughtry deftly illustrates the South's racial and class tensions, revealing how the social fabric frays when underlying injustices surface. The characters are not black-and-white caricatures but flawed individuals who react to their circumstances with varying degrees of morality. Talmadge Farm is an engaging tale that transports readers into an intriguing historical moment and place.

Reviewed by Rich Follett for Readers' Favorite

Boy With Wings by Mark Mustian is a magical, highly imaginative tour de force featuring, as its title suggests, a boy whose unusual birthmark gradually turns into a set of functional wings as he approaches adulthood. As Johnny Cruel drifts through the Depression-Era deep South, he encounters the full diapason of life in all its human absurdity, including baseless hatred, rampant ignorance, depravity, usury, violence, and even unexpected kindness. As he struggles to find identity, acceptance, and a way to fit into a world of self-described freaks, Johnny’s journey of self-discovery leads him to revelations that will resonate deeply with readers attempting to embrace and accept their own idiosyncrasies and differences. Mustian’s Johnny Cruel is a modern-day Everyman—a sojourner set apart by burning self-doubt and questions that only real-world experience can answer. His quest for identity is an aching reflection of the human condition in an increasingly complicated world.

The list of possible markers for which Johnny’s quest serves as an allegory is virtually endless: any reader with a self-perception of being outside the norms of society (or has known/loved such a person) will no doubt feel intimately connected to Johnny’s struggle, told in Mark Mustian’s staccato, yet magically real and detailed storyteller’s voice. The narrative is presented in chapters spoken by featured characters in succession, revealing widely differing thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. It is virtually un-put-downable, with each chapter adding depth and richness to the artfully woven tapestry of Johnny’s extraordinary life. Boy With Wings is a boldly original and unexpectedly profound novel that will leave readers thinking about life, growth, and identity long after they have turned the final page.

Reviewed by Steve Leshin for Readers' Favorite

In the Shadow of the Pyrenees: The Freedom Trail to Spain by Kathryn Gauci takes place in the early years of the war in the Donezan region in southwestern France. The Nazis begin their conquest of Europe and the quiet life for the rural residents of Mont-Saint-Jean, in the Ariege region bordering the Pyrenees, is about to change for the worse. A local schoolteacher, Armand Joubert, is recruited by Dr. Theo Berdu, a childhood friend, to help him. The good doctor is secretly helping Jews, communists, Allied soldiers, and escapees to flee from the Nazis or at least to hide from certain capture and death by execution on the road or in concentration camps. Gauci introduces us to life for the residents of this region of southern France bordering Spain.

Through her well-crafted characters, some based on real-life heroes, we are drawn in to care for these people. Despite the real and present danger when the Nazi and Vichy collaborators take over the small village where most of the story takes place, we want to know more about what happens to each one. In the Shadow of the Pyrenees by Kathryn Gauci is an extraordinary tale of bravery, love, and sacrifice heightened by the historical backdrop of World War II. Using first-person eyewitness accounts by some major characters to describe key events, the author keeps the reader focused on how extraordinary events affect the actions and motivations of ordinary people. You care about Justine, the daughter of Armand, who risks her life to help the many seeking escape through an arduous and dangerous route through the Pyrenees to avoid Nazi troops. The writing is crisp and clear and keeps the reader engaged. In the Shadow of the Pyrenees is historical fiction at its best.

Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

Daughters of Green Mountain Gap by Teri M Brown is a moving, multi-generational story of three rural North Carolina women at the end of the nineteenth century. Maggie McCoury is a healing woman, known as a Granny Woman, and is much sought after around Green Mountain Gap for her knowledge of plants and medicinal herbs. She has garnered much of her healing knowledge by listening to and learning from the local Cherokee medicine man. Although the God-fearing townsfolk dislike and distrust the Cherokee, they do appreciate Maggie’s ability to cure ailments. Maggie’s daughter Carrie Ann, though, is less enamored with her mother’s abilities and secretly blames her mother for being unable to save her father when he was sick. She has studied to be a nurse and is determined to bring science and “real” medicine to Green Mountain Gap. Carrie Ann’s daughter Josie Mae, however, believes in her grandmother’s power and wants to be just like her. The three women have to negotiate their fragile relationships and the constant reality of sickness and death from unknown and dangerous contagions in this era between science and faith.

Daughters of Green Mountain Gap is a fantastic and illuminating read of a seminal period of history as science and faith intersected and often clashed. Author Teri M Brown has created three utterly engaging characters; strong, independent, and fiercely loyal women who are not afraid to speak their minds and stick to their convictions. I particularly enjoyed the constant emotional tension between Maggie and Carrie Ann as well as that between Carrie Ann and Josie Mae. I appreciated the irony that whilst the people of Green Mountain Gap were happy to embrace the cures and medicine Maggie provided, they still had an intense fear and distrust of the Cherokee people from whom she had learned much of her trade. I also liked that the doctor, Daniel, was so open to Maggie’s healing and could see the gift that she had, whereas her daughter was too blinded by her anger and belief in modernity to see what was glaringly obvious to others. The concept of balance resonated with me when they discussed the fact that both modern medicines and some herbal remedies had two sides to them, both a negative (poisonous side) and a positive (healing side). Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this wonderful story is the importance of belief and attitude in the healing process, not only for the patient but for those who administer the medicine and the patient’s loved ones. This is a wonderful read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Reviewed by Lucinda E Clarke for Readers' Favorite

The last words from Hinda’s father (Tatae in Yiddish) were: “You will live, and you will tell.” It has taken many years for her story to be written from eleven audio tapes that Hinda Mondlak Goldman recorded before she died in 1985. Tatae’s Promise by Sherry Maysonave and Moises J Goldman is partly historical fiction but closely based on the true story of two sisters whose families were persecuted under the Nazi regime. They were thrown out of their house in Poland, sent to a ghetto with no amenities and only minimal food, and then later the girls were transported to the Auschwitz death camp. The descriptions of their fight for survival, the inhumanities, the torture, cruelty, and deprivations were horrendous, but at every turn, Hinda used her wits and intelligence to keep herself and her younger sister Rachel alive. She was truly inspiring. It has been recorded that only two hundred people ever escaped from Auschwitz and Hinda and Rachel were two of them. But even when they walked out of the gates, their problems were not over.

I have read many books about this period of European history, but few have touched me as deeply as this one. Tatae’s Promise by Sherry Maysonave and Moises J Goldman is earth-shattering. The descriptions of Auschwitz are almost too horrific to believe they could possibly be true. The story is told through the eyes of Hinda and her sister, who had promised their father to live and tell the world the real facts about their persecution. As a Jew, Hinda was marked as part of the Final Solution yet she planned to escape, one of very few to succeed. But this is only part of the tale; nowhere in Poland are she and her sister safe. I held my breath as the escapees searched for places to hide while the war raged around them. I could not put this book down. I walked every step with Hinda, every chapter made me gasp, and, in the end, I felt humbled and ashamed that our world could create the conditions she had to overcome. This is a true testament to what actually happened and it should be on every prescribed book list for every school so we never let it happen again. A truly great story, beautifully written, and one that will change your life. I will never forget this book.

Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite

Max’s War: The Story of a Ritchie Boy by Libby Fischer Hellmann takes readers inside Germany during the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party from a Jewish family’s perspective. As persecution and discrimination against Jews grew inside Germany, Max and his family knew they needed to leave. Max’s first love, Renée, and her family had already decided to emigrate to Shanghai, while Max and his parents decided to head for The Netherlands. There they felt accepted and safe until Germany invaded in 1940. Leaving his family behind, Max heads for Chicago where he finds work as a mechanic. When he discovers that his parents have been murdered by the Nazis, he is consumed by a burning desire to kill Nazis and he enlists in the U.S. Army. With the ability to speak German, Dutch, English, and a smattering of French, Max is quickly identified as a prime candidate for Army Intelligence. He is sent to Camp Ritchie in Maryland and trained in interrogation and counterintelligence. Seconded to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Max is sent to Europe to conduct and supervise covert operations. Max’s war has truly begun.

Max’s War is the compelling story of the personal impact of antisemitism on a young boy growing up in post-WWI Germany. Author Libby Fischer Hellmann does a wonderful job of describing that frightening transition from loyal Germans to unwanted non-Aryans that Max observed growing up in Regensburg. As their rights were slowly but surely whittled away by the emergence of the powerful Nazi movement, many Jews were confronted with the reality that they were considered “less than” in their own country. Max’s father had fought for Germany in WWI, their family had lived in Germany for three generations, they had a successful business, and established community ties, yet suddenly they were being told they were less than vermin. Many Jews who loved Germany refused to leave and paid the ultimate price in the death camps. Even those, like Max’s family who sought safety in The Netherlands or France, were mistaken in thinking they could outrun Hitler’s insane plans for them. What I appreciated most about Max’s War was that despite all the mistreatment and horrors perpetrated on Max and his family, he managed to retain his humanity and judge people by their actions, rather than blame all Germans for what had happened in their country. The story is well-written, fast-paced, and ultimately, despite being about one of the most inhumane times in recent history, is also a sweet and beautiful love story. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and highly recommend it.

Reviewed by Stephanie Lynn for Readers' Favorite

A Suitable Fortune by Laura Beers, the seventh installment in the Lords and Ladies of Mayfair series, takes a dedicated teacher and a war-weary earl on an unexpected journey in an elegant tale of friendship and mystery. When Miss Emilia Hembry finds herself present at the reading of a will for a wealthy lord, her life changes overnight. Now, as the recipient of a sizable fortune, she finds that not only has her living situation changed, but also her very identity. When she is forced to learn the ways of London high society overnight as the new Lady Sutherland, she is blessed to find friends in Lady Anette and Lord Chatsworth. The question remains, will her newfound friends be enough to help her win over the ton, avoiding ruination before she has even begun? With hidden enemies and spies lurking about, things are about to get interesting for this unlikely pair.

A Suitable Fortune by Laura Beers is such a fun read. I quickly fell in love with the cast. I was especially thrilled to find out about Emilia and Anette's friendship. I've been fond of Anette and her eccentric personality from the start of the series and I loved seeing her take Emilia under her wing in this book. They make for quite an interesting pair and never lack amusing topics to discuss. Lord Chatsworth is another endearing character, and I enjoyed the glimpse into his espionage exploits along the way. The love blooming between Emilia and Lord Chatsworth brings its own set of challenges, and I loved the slow-burn approach used here. The friends-to-more romance was a nice touch and made the unfolding love story all the more precious. A Suitable Fortune is well written and sure to please fans. With themes of friendship, family, and finding one's path in life, the story kept me reading well into the night. The mysteries kept me guessing, and I absolutely loved the banter between the characters. Overall, this is a wonderful story and I'm so happy to have read another in this delightful series.

Reviewed by Munir Muhammad for Readers' Favorite

Kate's War by Linda Stewart Henley is a poignant and gripping novel that explores the complexities of human relationships and the impact of war on individuals and families. Set against the backdrop of World War II, the book delves into themes of love, loss, resilience, and the enduring power of the human spirit. At the heart of the novel is Kate, a strong and determined protagonist who finds herself navigating the realities of war, and its aftermath and is forced to put her dream of a singing career on hold when war breaks out. Her journey is compelling, and readers are likely to empathize with her struggles and triumphs. She also develops a close friendship with a young Jewish girl, who has been forced to flee her home in Germany. The characters are well-developed and feel genuine, making it easy to become emotionally invested in their fates.

Linda Stewart Henley's writing style is emotive and immersive, capturing the atmosphere of the period with vivid detail. The historical setting is brought to life through rich descriptions of the era, from the challenges of wartime to the cultural norms and societal expectations. The novel portrays the hardships and sacrifices faced by those left behind, as well as the difficulties and traumas endured by soldiers. The intricate dynamics between the role-players showcase the nuances of love, loyalty, and the obstacles that arise during trying times. With its well-developed characters, evocative writing, and exploration of universal themes, Kate's War is likely to resonate with fans of historical fiction and anyone seeking a moving story of love and resilience during tumultuous times.