Month: May 2021

My Review

I love reading historical fiction and taking a step back in time, in this story we meet Nellie as she is forced from her family home to work by her mother on her 15th birthday.

Throughout the story Nellie is faced with challenges and heartbreak as she finds that you can’t control who you fall in love with and she starts to understand the hostility her mother has always displayed towards her.

I liked Nellie as a character she had real grit about her and rather than complain she kept her head down worked hard and stayed determined to learn and achieve her goals. She demonstrated to all those around her that you could turn your life around if you worked hard enough and made some wonderful friends who became her family.

Another enjoyable read by Rosie Clarke set just before the outbreak of World War II with a glimpse of pre war London as we follow Nellie’s story as she grows from her teenage years into her younger adult years.

Book Blurb

A new stand-alone saga set in Yorkshire around out the outbreak of the second world war and the unlikely relationship between a master and servant.

As a small child, Nellie Peace was always dreaming but sensed her mother’s rejection.  

Abandoned and sent into service at Beaumont House at an early age, Nellie is lost and alone until she meets the unpredictable and reclusive artist, Lucas Harrington and falls in love with him.

This unlikely association between master and servant is encouraged by Lucas’s gentle natured Aunt Alice as Lucas sees something unusual in Nellie and is compelled to paint her. 

Broken promises lead to inevitable heartbreak and Nellie flees Beaumont House in disgrace for London. 
Alone again, Nellie must learn to live and fend for herself and her new-born child.

Can Nellie win a second chance of happiness and can she solve the mystery of her mother’s tortured past?

Available to purchase here

Meet the Author

Rosie Clarke is a #1 bestselling saga writer whose most recent books include The Mulberry Lane series. She has written over 100 novels under different pseudonyms and is a RNA Award winner. She lives in Cambridgeshire. Rosie’s brand new saga series, Welcome to Harpers Emporium began in December 2019.

Social Media Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rosie-clarke-119457351778432

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneHerries

Newsletter Sign Up Link: http://bit.ly/RosieClarkeNewsletter

Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/rosie-clarke

Many Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation to join the blog tour. Please remember to like and share to help spread the book love

Thanks for visiting Love the Smell of a Book today and I hope you have a great day!

Daisy & Kel x

My Review

A superb book that I struggled to put down as I just wanted to keep reading. This story was historical fiction at its best, this is one of my favourite eras but this is the first book I’ve read where the story is based in Berlin and we see it from the perspective of the citizens of Berlin.

When we look back at World War II we rarely stop to think that many Germans who weren’t Jewish also didn’t agree with Hitler and just wanted the bombing and destruction of their wonderful city to stop.

Written on a dual timeline we meet Beth who is moving to Berlin to work in the zoo, she is keen to solve a puzzle from her mothers past and through this we get to visit the zoo and its keepers in Berlin at the height of the war.

A compelling read based on the history of the Berlin zoo, it grips you as you read about the poor living conditions for both the zoo keepers and the animals as they struggle to keep as many animals as possible alive. By the end of the war they were left with less than 100 animals due to the heavy fire that the zoo undertook. I have learnt so much about what the citizens of Berlin faced through the war torn years and how severe the punishments were if anyone spoke out against what was happening around them.

These wonderful characters will stay with me for a long time from across both timelines as well as the memories of the wonderful animals they lost and those they fought so hard to save from not only from the constant bombings but also the arrival of the Red Army.

A heartwrenching story that pulls you in and breaks your heart as you keep turning the pages.

Book Blurb

Two women. One shocking wartime secret. And a family mystery just waiting to be discovered…

Berlin Zoo, 1943:Ten-year-old Adelaide and her newborn sister are orphaned after a devastating night of bombing. Heartbroken and frightened, Adelaide runs to her mother’s closest friend, Katharina Heinroth, and the kind zookeeper takes the two little girls under her protection. As the bombing intensifies, Adelaide tries to shut out the horrors of war by caring for her tiny sister and playing with the adorable baby monkeys. But when Katharina organises a dangerous operation to enable children and animals to escape the battle-scarred city, something goes wrong. And Adelaide has to promise her adopted mother to keep a shocking secret. A secret that will change Adelaide’s life forever.

Berlin Zoo, 2019: Bethan Taylor notices the elderly lady sitting on the bench next to her seems confused, her thoughts flitting between past and present. Ada talks of her childhood, played out in an underground bunker beneath the animal enclosures during the war. As Ada’s story unfolds, Bethan is surprised to hear a name she recognises…

Katharina Heinroth is at the top of a list of German names Bethan found in a hidden compartment of her late mother’s jewellery box. Bethan’s father couldn’t tell her anything about the crumpled piece of paper and she’s been searching for the meaning ever since.

As the two women are brought together by the pain of the past can they help each other to heal? And after decades of silence, can Ada help Bethan to uncover a long-buried family mystery?

An unforgettable and heart-wrenching novel of a brave orphan girl and a shocking wartime secret. Inspired by a true WW2 story and perfect for fans of Orphan Train, The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Alice Network.

Available to purchase here

Meet the Author

Anna Stuart lives in Derbyshire with her campervan-mad husband, two hungry teenagers and a slightly loopy dog. She was hooked on books from the moment she first opened one in her cot so is thrilled to now have several of her own to her name. Having studied English literature at Cambridge university, she took an enjoyable temporary trip into the ‘real world’ as a factory planner, before returning to her first love and becoming an author. History has also always fascinated her. Living in an old house with a stone fireplace, she often wonders who sat around it before her and is intrigued by how actively the past is woven into the present, something she likes to explore in her novels. Anna loves the way that writing lets her ‘try on’ so many different lives, but her favourite part of the job is undoubtedly hearing from readers.

Social Media Links

You can reach her on Facebook @annastuartauthor or Twitter @annastuartbooks.

Many thanks for the invitation to read and review your latest release.

Massive thanks to everyone who has stopped by to visit my blog, please remember to like and share to help spread the book love far and wide!

Have a great day

Daisy, Jacks & Kel x

My Review

Today I am delighted to be helping kick off the blog tour for the latest story in the Ration Book saga. I absolutely loved revisiting the wonderful Brogan family, this time we spent more time getting to know Cathy and her young son Peter.

Cathy is continuing to cope the best she can with a demanding and quite frankly horrid mother in law, Violet is a character that you take an instant dislike too and it makes you root for Cathy as she continues to make Cathy’s life as miserable as possible.

Whilst the bombs continue to fall around them in London, Cathy and her family continue to do the best they can to look out for others and support the families finding themselves without homes and possessions due to being bombed out.

We also get to meet the wonderful bomb disposal team that are stationed near by and the stories are so vivid you can literally picture the team trying to safely diffuse the unexploded bombs that are falling around London and embedding themselves under buildings. I found the more I read about Cathy and her life the more I wanted to keep reading to see if she would ever find a way to shed her violent husband and awful mother in law.

A superb addition to this saga with Queenie once again providing her wisdom as we join the family as they welcome baby Victoria into the fold. I am excited yet sad to hear there will be one more book as I will be disappointed when I reach the end of my journey with the Brogan family.

Book Blurb

Not even the Blitz can shake a mother’s love.

Cathy was a happy, blushing bride when Britain went to war with Germany three years ago. But her youthful dreams were crushed by her violent husband Stanley’s involvement with the fascist black-shirts, and even when he’s conscripted to fight she knows it’s only a brief respite – divorce is not an option. Cathy, a true Brogan daughter, stays strong for her beloved little son Peter.

When a telegram arrives declaring that her husband is missing in action, Cathy can finally allow herself to hope – she only has to wait 6 months before she is legally a widow and can move on with her life. In the meantime, she has to keep Peter safe and fed. So she advertises for a lodger, and Sergeant Archie McIntosh of the Royal Engineers’ Bomb Disposal Squad turns up. He is kind, clever and thoughtful; their mutual attraction is instant. But with Stanley’s fate still unclear, and the Blitz raging on over London’s East End, will Cathy ever have the love she deserves?

Available to purchase here

Meet the Author

Born and bred in East London Jean is a District Nurse by trade and has worked as a NHS manager and as a senior lecture in Health and Nursing Studies. She left her day job to become a full-time writer in 2015 and has never looked back.

In 2006 she won the Harry Bowling Prize and now has seventeen sagas published over three series with both Orion and Atlantic all of which are set in East London.

She is an experienced public speaker with hundreds of WI and women’s club talks under her belt, plus for the past fifteen years she has sailed all over the world as an enrichment speaker and writing workshop leader on cruise ships.

Social Media Links

Website: http://jeanfullerton.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jean-Fullerton-202631736433230/?ref=bookmarks

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/JeanFullerton_

Giveaway to Win 6 x A Ration Book Daughter Paperbacks (Open to UK Only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Click here to enter via rafflecopter

Many Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation to join the blog tour. Please remember to like and share to help spread the book love

Thanks for visiting Love the Smell of a Book today and I hope you have a great day!

Daisy & Kel x