Tag Archives: Revell

EMBERS IN THE LONDON SKY by Sarah Sundin ~ compelling, powerful, riveting. 5 stars!

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EMBERS IN THE LONDON SKY is a superb story from an author who delights us with every book.

As the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940, Aleida van der Zee Martens escapes to London to wait out the Occupation. Separated from her three-year-old son, Theo, in the process, the young widow desperately searches for her little boy even as she works for an agency responsible for evacuating children to the countryside.

When German bombs set London ablaze, BBC radio correspondent Hugh Collingwood reports on the Blitz, eager to boost morale while walking the fine line between truth and censorship. But the Germans are not the only ones Londoners have to fear as a series of murders flame up amid the ashes.

The deaths hit close to home for Hugh, and Aleida needs his help to locate her missing son. As they work together, they grow closer and closer, both to each other and the answers they seek. But time is running short—and the worst is yet to come. [back cover copy]

EMBERS IN THE LONDON SKY is jammed with drama and hard choices—even before factoring in the war!

Sundin is a marvelous storyteller, skilled at creating a sense of place. We feel as if we’re there, whether on a road through the low countries teeming with frightened people fleeing before the German invasion, walking in London over wet cobblestones below a fleet of barrage balloons or heels sinking in muddy parkland, or through smoke-filled streets amid noise of planes, bombs, sirens, cries. And the roar of a fire.

Sundin’s characters, achingly real, appealed to me immediately. Aleida, despite losing her son and arriving in England with very little, has gumption, grit, and hope. And Hugh, despite his upper-class status is working for the BBC, broadcasting from Dunkirk and among the ravaged buildings and populace of London, has warmth, equanimity … and a secret. A cast of vibrant and interesting secondary characters are also very involved.

Weaving these vivid locations and vibrant characters into the inherent drama of war —  bombings, people living on top of one another, families separated, danger, illness, politics, espionage—would be a good story. But Sundin, with great skill, goes well beyond, creating a plot that twists and turns like a living thing, giving readers a satisfying story on every level.

But pointing to the various elements Sundin provides to give us a great story falls short of revealing how good this powerful story of love, courage, and sacrifice is. I think one aspect I love about Sundin’s writing is her ability to reveal something about a character in a tiny detail. A small action. A concise bit of prose.

On page 91, for example: Hugh and Aleida have become acquainted and Hugh goes to her apartment unexpectedly to give her a list, promised her by Hugh’s uncle, of homes and institutions to check in her search for Theo. Aleida isn’t home so he waits for her on the street and takes glee in surprising her when she returns. They go inside.

“Hugh paused inside the door, and his smile collapsed. On the coatrack hung Theo’s little gray cap and blue coat.

‘When I find him,’ she said, ‘I’ll be ready.’”

We learn so much about Hugh’s sensitivity and Aleida’s love, hope, and determination despite already searching 6 months for Theo. If Sundin can pack that into just 29 words, imagine the story packed into 369 pages!

Photo credit: Barrage balloons, London damaged bldg- Wikipedia, London Blitz; plane-wallup.net; Building with flowers: Ray Bullen; Elephant-World Wildlife Fund

THE SEAMSTRESS OF ACADIE ~ a stellar story by Laura Frantz! 5-star review

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THE SEAMSTRESS OF ACADIE is yet another of the stellar works by Laura Frantz. 

As 1754 is drawing to a close, tensions between the French and the British on Canada’s Acadian shore are reaching a fever pitch. Seamstress Sylvie Galant and her family–French-speaking Acadians wishing to remain neutral–are caught in the middle, their land positioned between two forts flying rival flags. Amid preparations for the celebration of Noël, the talk is of unrest, coming war, and William Blackburn, the British Army Ranger raising havoc across North America’s borderlands.

As summer takes hold in 1755 and British ships appear on the horizon, Sylvie encounters Blackburn, who warns her of the coming invasion. Rather than participate in the forced removal of the Acadians from their land, he resigns his commission. But that cannot save Sylvie or her kin. Relocated on a ramshackle ship to Virginia, Sylvie struggles to pick up the pieces of her life. When her path crosses once more with William’s, they must work through the complex tangle of their shared, shattered past to navigate the present and forge an enduring future. [back cover copy]

The Acadian expulsion from Nova Scotia is an event that is seldom used as novel settings. It’s a sad chapter in history, and Frantz makes great use of every opportunity for drama in this engaging story. And while the true events are tragic, Frantz in her typical way creates a story worth reading and easy to stick with. (I have started some books that were so disturbing, I could not make myself finish them. This is not such a book.)

Frantz gives us characters we root for, who grow and change through their trials, and are so appealing and interesting we just have to keep reading.

The settings come alive such that you may shiver in the cold, slip your shoes off thinking they are sopping wet, mop the sweat from your brow, or startle at a creak thinking it is a twig snapping as someone creeps up on you. I admire how well Frantz depicts her settings. I am drawn in every time.

We meet the Acadian families in their natural setting and enjoy their lives and celebrations.

But as British ships amass in the bay, the people who, for over a century, have lived simply, worked the land, fished the waters, and found ways to live peaceably with their neighbors sense their way of life is being threatened. Deceit and treachery abound and we are shocked along with them when they are piled aboard dilapidated vessels, forced to leave almost everything behind, then find families are broken apart.

Hardships multiply—filth, disease, storms, Disaster strikes—even to sinking ships. And we hope that those who survive will find peace and wholeness in the new land.

But humanity is there and humanity brings its own kind of wickedness, and hanging on to integrity and hope can be a very long battle.  Add the clash of cultures, few friends and new foes—discerning who is friend or foe becomes critically important.

After reading a Frantz tale, I often try to figure out what it is that makes her novels superior quality. She gives us intriguing plots with many surprises, characters who, though flawed, possess integrity, honor, and kindly ways; and settings that come alive. But something beyond that makes her stories ones where I pause and re-read a scene because it’s so compelling. She has a way of imbuing characters with significance—especially those from less valued echelons of society—children, minorities, the elderly.

Another admirable skill Frantz demonstrates is her ability to choose the perfect, tiny action to focus on to elicit powerful emotional responses from her characters and thus from readers. For example, how often have you been brought to tears watching someone wash a shirt? Or from noticing the wallpaper in a new room you enter? Tiny, almost inconsequential actions that have a profound impact in the story as she tells it.

I suspect there are many other skills Frantz employs that I have not yet identified. But identifying them is not necessary to enjoying this captivating story.  And we can be assured that Laura Frantz will always end on a hope-filled note.

You can purchase THE SEAMSTRESS OF ACADIE anywhere books are sold. And meet Laura online at her website or from there on social media.

Book Review – THE SEA BEFORE US by Sarah Sundin

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A 5-star read, I loved The Sea Before Us and read many passages to my husband, an avid reader of World War II history. The story opens with a bang (one of the best I’ve read!) and captivated me with appealing characters, a compelling plot, and settings that shimmered with life in my living room. Here are just some of the things I liked about it.

sea before us

In The Sea Before Us, Sarah Sundin has crafted a rich, gripping tale of love, loyalty, and duty thriving despite opposition. U.S. Naval officer Wyatt Paxton and British Wren Dorothy Fairfax are thrown together while working on the Allies’ preparation for D-Day. Complications and confusion come at them from every side—family, friends, culture, the military, romance, duty, personal and professional values. As the world hurtles toward the critical turning point of D-Day, Wyatt and Dorothy hurtle to their own turning point and must learn to trust each other if success is to be won.

BIG BEN by Laura Climent

BIG BEN by Laura Climent

Each character faces intense personal challenges. As their lives intersect, the challenges are magnified. Skills, perceptions, priorities, and alliances shift. Yet Sundin always keeps us near the beating heart of the story ~ as when Wyatt and Dorothy look at her paintings, she says, “I liked watercolors then, so sheer and ephemeral. But they’re naïve…. Oils, the density … show the world the way it is.” We feel with aching clarity that the world has cracked open and memory will be forever split into BW, before the war, and AW. Sundin weaves this absorbing tale so well that all surprises flow reasonably from the story line and characters. No groaner-coincidences here. But plenty of tension and jaw-dropping moments.

I love World Ward II stories, and The Sea Before Us carried me away to dark, uncertain days in England. Sundin braids new, riveting history into the characters’ journeys. And her research is so thorough that she was able to surprise my husband (that WW II buff). No easy task. The D-Day preparations are fascinating to read; the training and battle scenes come to life. Sundin skillfully displays various skirmishes in detail sufficient to make you chilly as survivors are pulled from the cold Channel waters, but with a restraint that protects readers from gruesome detail such as in the opening scenes of “Saving Private Ryan.”

Under Sundin’s pen, fact and fiction meld seamlessly. As I noted in my April 2018 review of Kate Breslin’s For Such a Time, I’m grateful when authors inform readers exactly where that dividing line falls. This is my first Sarah Sundin novel, though she’s been on my authors-to-read list for a long while. I won’t make the mistake of putting many books ahead of hers in the future! And because this is book 1 in her Sunrise at Normandy series, I won’t have to wait too long.

Book Review: THE LACEMAKER by Laura Frantz ~ a story painted with words

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THE LACEMAKERLaura Frantz’s THE LACEMAKER is set in 1775, pot-boiling days leading up to The Revolutionary War, when allegiances were strained and loyalties shifting. And Williamsburg, Virginia seems at the center of it all.

Into this turmoil Frantz drops Lady Elisabeth Lawson, dutiful daughter of the British lieutenant governor of the Virginia Colony. At her father’s arranging, Elisabeth is betrothed to a man of low morals and even lower integrity—a total rake.

As the story opens, Elisabeth is at the mercy of the decisions made by the men in her life, and I wanted her to stand up to them. When very soon, most of them prove their utter selfishness by abandoning her, she does set out to determine her own course, relying on naught but her own resources. But in this time of great uncertainty, she has no guarantee of success.

Frantz skillfully weaves history and story to bring this time alive for us. We have likely never lived in a time and place where one’s every move and word is watched, evaluated, and judged with life or death being the consequence. But just such immense stakes are the hinge of this story, so well told that we ache under the weight of each decision.

AnwylydThis is one of Frantz’s most overt romances and it works very well. The object of Elisabeth’s affections, the master of Ty Mawr estate and Independence Man Noble Rynallt, is a hero beyond expectation! The barriers to any relationship for these two are huge. When they seem insurmountable, I expected to leave the story with only bittersweet memories and the echo of Anwylyd. But noble sacrifices, exactly what one expects from a larger-than-life hero, emerge out of nowhere and bring sighs and hope and, as Frantz always promises ~ hints of HEA (happily-ever-after).

I will happily read this marvelous story repeatedly. Frantz’s ability to paint with words introduces us to characters as if in person, presents scenes we can experience with all our senses, and plaits a story that wends its way into our hearts. I usually include snippets and gems to entice a review reader to become a book reader ~ but have heard that practice sometimes robs a reader from discovering jewels of her own. So I will limit myself to this one when Elisabeth is woken from a fretful sleep by a drunken, rowdy crowd. As the mob pillages her home, she learns she’s alone save two servants.

She sensed danger. For the first time in her sheltered, cosseted life, she felt it hovering like a dark presence … Papers lay like leaf litter … Moonlight spilled through shards of broken window glass … Elisabeth stood looking at her harp, the only thing in the music room that seemed to have withstood the night’s onslaught … carpet bore tar and feather boot marks. Both windows overlooking the garden were shattered … She kept her eyes on her instrument, lovingly counting the strings like a mother counted the fingers and toes of her newborn …The doorway darkened … Noble Rynallt’s searching stare seemed to strip away her forced composure … She felt as exposed as if she was in her underpinnings. Her humiliation was complete … There was a sympathetic light in his face … that drew her dangerously near the edge of her emotions. “This isn’t about you, you know,” he said quietly. “I know.” “I’m not the first to come.” … He was proceeding carefully. Did he sense she was as fragile as the broken glass all around them? … “No one offered you safe harbor?”  “Nay.”

Oh, Elisabeth, I want to hug you and walk you to a place of respite. Dear reader, don’t you?

Good stories are those where the characters capture us and compel us to join them on their journey. Frantz’s cast does that flawlessly. We have characters aplenty to root for, and many a scoundrel to cheer when calamity befalls them. For good or ill, we care what happens to these characters. I use flags to make finding favorite passages easy. My “visual review” to the right shows I heartily recommend THE LACEMAKER!