Jencey's Corner

Are you ready for the journey? Pam Jenoff delivers another great novel in the Orphan's Tale.  This story is based off of an account of a real orphan train and a Jewish circus.  It also includes friendship between two unlikely women. This friendship will be test in many ways. Synopsis:  Astrid learns that her Nazi officer husband must divorce her because of her Jewish heritage.  Hitler will not allow his SS officers to be tainted by Jewish blood.  So Astrid journeys back to her roots which began in the circus begins, but when she arrives home her family is gone.  There is a neighboring circus nearby and Astrid visits Mr. Neuhoff the owner and ringmaster to see if he might know something about her family.  He does not but he makes an offer she can’t refuse.  Astrid becomes part of the flying trapeze act in his circus.  She hides in the circus from the Gestapo.   A few years later a women comes to the circus.  Noa ha...

Welcome to 2018 on Writer’s Corner!  Today Jennifer Laam is stopping by to share her new novel The Lost Season of Love and Snow.    I have an excerpt from this novel below provided by St. Martin’s Press.  Jennifer is a popular author in historical fiction, and writes about Russian history. Excerpt: A man says he will die for you. A woman is taught to lower her gaze and blush before hiding once more behind a silken fan. Men are given to self-aggrandizement, while women flatter egos and keep men tied to this earth. Such is the way of the world, or so I was taught in the days before I gained a reputation as the villain of St. Petersburg. I know better now. When a man declares he will die for you, sometimes a woman must take him at his word. For to allow one’s husband to perish on the field of honor is a shameful affair, worse even, than murdering him by your own hand. The solemn men who gather at our flat fall silent as my husband draws his final br...

Another year has passed and it is time for the 2017 best picks.  There were many great selections of this year.  I am excited to share them all with you today.  These books were read in 2017 and may not necessarily have been published this past year. So let’s start with suspense.  This year includes authors Terri Blackstock, Emily Carpenter, and Kimberly Belle. These books are compelling page turner from start to finish.  That is what a good suspense book should be.  Readers will want to read their next books.   If I Run by Terri Blackstock The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle          Burying the Honeysuckle Girls by Emily Carpenter   Next let’s turn to historical fiction.  These books are true page turners with compelling stories.  New to the group this year is Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.  This story covers the scandal in the Memphis children’s home. Then we have Tr...