August 1, 2019

REVIEW: The Whistle Stop Canteen by Barb Warner Deane

JayneBook Reviews / C+ ReviewsAmerican historical / epistolary / Historical / librarian / military hero / older heroine and hero / War / Military / Womens-Fiction / World War IINo Comments

A wartime train station encounter changes a lifetime… After losing her fiancé in WW1, Margaret Parker settled into a quiet, lonely life as the town librarian in North Platte, NE. After the US enters WW2, Margaret volunteers as the historian for the Servicemen’s Canteen organized by the women of North ... more >

February 14, 2019

REVIEW: The Adventurers by Jane Aiken Hodge

JayneA- Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended ReadsAgent/Spies/Undercover / France / Historical / Napoleonic wars / older heroine and hero / second chance at love / War / Military8 Comments

‘You may be an adventurer, but you strike me as a gentleman.’ After the French suffer a bloody defeat at the battle of Leipzig, the survivors of Napoleon’s army retreat through Germany. Plundering and pillaging along their way, a group of stragglers attack the Von Hugel estate. Hiding in the ... more >

December 31, 2018

Jayne’s Best of 2018

JayneBook Reviews / Reading Lists / Recommended Reads / Top Ten Lists#ownvoices / 16th-century / 1950s / alcoholism / ancient-Egypt / ancient-Rome / Artificial Intelligence / Athletes / bookstore / cats / child in jeopardy / childrens-books / journalism / London / Native American / older heroine and hero / Sci-fi / Sports Themed Romance / Tudor-England / War / Military / World War II15 Comments

Sugar and Snails by Sarah Tsiang and Sonja Wimmer My Review A novel twist to a classic rhyme. Who says that little girls are made of “sugar and spice and everything nice?” Or that boys are made of “frogs and snails and puppy dog tails?” What if girls were made ... more >

October 25, 2018

REVIEW: Cupcakes for Christmas by Kate Hewitt

JayneB Reviews / Book Reviewsbaker / category length / Christmas / Contemporary / England / mental health / musician / older heroine and hero3 Comments

Always the baker, never the bride… Olivia James has always been happy running a tea shop and bakery in the Cotswold village of Wychwood-on-Lea, and helping her friends find their happily-ever-afters, topped by the perfect wedding cake. But as Christmas approaches, Olivia is home alone and questioning her choices while ... more >

July 31, 2018

REVIEW: Sadie in Love by Rochelle Distelheim

JayneB Reviews / Book ReviewsAmerican historical / immigrants / Jewish characters / New York City / older heroine and hero / turn of the 20th century4 Comments

In her warmly comical and deliciously entertaining debut novel, master storyteller Rochelle Distelheim sweeps us back to 1913 and the world of struggling Jewish immigrants in New York City’s Lower East Side. Sadie Schuster—fortyish, plumpish, a suffragette, and recently widowed—spends more time now talking to her late husband, Fivel, than ... more >

May 5, 2018

REVIEW: We’ll Always Have Paris by Sue Watson

JayneB- Reviews / Book ReviewsContemporary / England / First-Person / older heroine and hero / second chance at love / self discovery2 Comments

Does first love deserve a second chance? During her first week at art college, Rosie Jackson, almost seventeen, locks eyes with the charismatic Peter from across the room of their nude figure drawing class, and the course of her life is changed forever. Now, on the cusp of sixty-five and ... more >