To catch up with reviews, I’m posting three historical fiction mini-reviews of books I’ve read and enjoyed recently.

Histfic Mini-Reviews:

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons

In 1938, Gertie is grieving the loss of her beloved husband and pondering how to proceed with their business venture, Bingham Books. She’s considering retirement when she is urged by a friend to take in a teenage Jewish refugee from Germany. Hedy is headstrong and demands all Gertie’s time and energy. The Blitz complicates everything and Gertie and Hedy come up with a plan to start an Air Raid book club. They will need the strength of the community and the comfort that books can provide to endure the coming challenges.

I always love a “found family” theme!

4 Stars

The Underground Library by Jennifer Ryan

Told from three perspectives, The Underground Library is a “saving the books” story as bombs rain down on London during the Blitz. Before that though, Juliet must demonstrate that a woman is capable of running a library. Katie is one of the library workers and is hiding a secret. Sofie is a young Jewish refugee and the library is a place of escape and safety. When bombs destroy the library, it forces the three women to salvage what they can and move stacks to the local underground station. As the city’s residents take shelter and the women face personal challenges, books keep up their spirits.

Jennifer Ryan, author of The Kitchen Front, The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle, and The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir, writes compelling and page-turning stories of women on the home front during WWII.

4.5 Stars

A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K.Runyan

Told in two timelines (1870 and 1946), A Bakery in Paris tells the story of one Paris bakery and two women of the same family generations apart. In the 1870s when Prussia is determined to starve Paris and take it over, Lisette leaves her comfortable home and opens a bakery to help feed a suffering neighborhood. In the 1940s, Micheline enrolls in a baking academy at the same time she’s searching for her mother who went missing during WWII and caring for her young sisters. Micheline is encouraged by a kind friend and a romantic interest at school to reopen the bakery her great-grandmother Lisette started.

Both women are strong and resilient and find happiness and a purpose in life through their baking. I enjoyed both timelines and their warmhearted main characters equally. Recipes are included throughout the book!

4 Stars

Today I’m Recommending all three!

• well-told and solidly written hisfic stories
• likable main characters
• heartwarming and compelling

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QOTD:

Have you read one of these or are they on your TBR?

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Happy Reading Book Buddies!

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke

“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection! Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text

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***Blog posts may contain affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, I can earn a small percentage of your purchase price.

I purchase or borrow from the library all books I review unless explicitly stated that the book is free (arc).

Amazon or an author’s (or publisher’s) website receives all credit for book covers and author photos.

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