Just Another Girl On The Road by S. Kensington

I've always found it difficult to post from my iPad reviews, but I'm going to try.

The setting of WWII for stories is always emotional and evocative. There is so much courage, bravado, grit and determination shown and at the same time the lesser attributes of betrayal, cowardice and envy and very often the more basic " fear for your life" and for those around you.

This story encompasses all that is a girl of mixed background who found herself in circumstances and places beyond her control and displayed a sense of compassion to the dying which was not understood by all.

Displaying courage way beyond her 18 years our heroine is made of sterling stuff.

Slightly different to the usual settings of WWII.

The book was sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Troubadour Books.

Death at Ivy House by Betty Rowlands

Sukey Reynolds is not a detective. She is a photographer of crime scenes but that does not prevent her from having her own ideas of how and why murder happens. Her instincts have proven her right before but it does not go down well with her superior officer who thinks she is giving in to her fancies of how and why things should be done.

When a young woman is found battered to death in a gruesome way, many incidents at the same time seem to be linked to this crime but not in an apparent way. The links are hard to find and sometimes surface accidentally, and in some cases after a long time but there are many links and Sukey manages to connect the dots.

Sukey going off on her own investigation however brings with it, its own hidden dangers and the killer is now on guard knowing that the net is drawing closer and closer.

Old fashioned detection, though I did not care very much for the attitude of the senior detectives towards the women working in the force!

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Bookouture.

The Tuscan Secret by Angela Petch

Anna's mother has died and has left her a sort of diary, scribbles in Italian in her native language. Her mother died of dementia and her siblings scoff that the writings amount to anything very much. Anna however feels that there is a message somewhere. Being at the cross roads of her life, with a broken relationship behind her Anna decides to go to Tuscany and try to bring some sort of comprehension to her mother's life, which was not a happy one.

Going back decades to WWII, to partisans, to traitors and to the resistance in Italy is the story and Anna's mother's role in this story in this small village who tried to hold out against the Nazi invasion.
Generations later, very few want to talk of the past but Anna wants to get to the bottom of her mother's story. What she found was unexpected and very sad, but Anna finds closure of some kind and love for the future. She discovers family which was totally unexpected and explains why she always felt that she did not quite fit in with her English family.

Delicately told of the horrors of the war and invasion, the deprivation of livelihood of food and basics and making do. Of not knowing who was your enemy, and who would betray you must have been living on the edge. The descriptiveness of this part of Tuscany was particularly beautiful.

As usual another story set in WWII depicted very well.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Bookouture.

The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt by Andrea Bobotis

The Kratts were a power to reckon with in the town of Bound. Father had built up a store from nothing and one which sold everything and monopolized the sale of everything in the town. That he ended up in poor circumstances, embittered was another story.

Here we deal with Judith and her unerring love of things, the value she puts on stuff with a long ago sell by date, inventorying all that she has and reminiscing about what she has lost. She also lives in the past remembering past days, the intricacies of her Mamma's history and her involvement with a man of colour (unheard of in those times), and her brother's murder which sent her father into a spiral downwards and finally the return of the prodigal sister home.

It was a complicated story. Whether it was meant to depict a family from the South of the time I couldn't say but it was not a "nice" family that much for sure. Segregation was very much part of the scene and it was disquieting when one of the family got involved with the help. The remedy was drastic.

Disquieting story anyway.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Sourcebooks, Landmark.

There is No Going Home by Madalyn Morgan

Another story with two separate time lines. A bit different though WWII related. Ena Green recognises a woman who is dead, whose funeral she attended. She is also very sure of this woman as she worked with her for four years and was a very good friend.

That there is something fishy in the discovery, and that the discovery will not be good for Ena is apparent from the beginning. Ena worked for the Secret Service and her husband Henry still does. Ena now works on cold cases at the Home Office and it becomes more and more apparent that many people are being used in a cover up because the entire case history has disappeared from the archives.
When people whom Ena interviews or talks to start getting beaten up and murdered both Ena and Henry particularly are worried that Ena will be their next victim. What is being hidden in this story which is a good depiction of history of the time.

Very descriptive and with good characterization the two time lines though not very far apart were distinct and well detailed.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of General Fiction (Adult)

Lucy's Last Straw by Debbie Viggiano

After a number of very suspenseful reads this was a lighter read but the moral of the story was not light at all. It was couched in a very light hearted style in both language and setting but it undermined the very important part that marriage plays in society.

Lucy and Leo are married for 25 years. Three children who do not live at home and Lucy is now getting exasperated with Leo. His obsession with his pension, and then being made redundant overshadow their life and now he is insistent on moving to a derelict cottage giving up their big comfortable home because he feels that for just the two of them, the enormous house is too much.

When Leo unexpectedly lands a job which involves travel, a nymphomaniac of a neighbour who decides that Leo is her next target and when Lucy meets Will the builder who ignites all her senses in the most irrational way , you do know fireworks are in the offing. Whether Lucy and Leo will let rationale and common sense prevail or go with the flow is the story.

Add to this the travails of three children who feel they have a right to tell their adult parents what to do, how to do and when to do stuff, you end up with a thoroughly modern marriage which has to be navigated carefully.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Bookouture.

The Violin Maker's Daughter by Sharon Maas

Any story which has a WWII background whether it is from any country involved in the war is poignant and very emotional. This one is no different.

Even when the Nazis walk into Colmar Josef a secular Jew believes he will be safe. He produces beautiful violins for a living and thinks that it is all a question of too much hype. When the actual situation dawns on him it is very late, and he has to think of a way to get his children away. He succeeds with his eldest sent at the age of 17 from an extremely protected background to one where subterfuge and lies becomes a way of life.

Sarah's painful and difficult journey across France from being a Jew to being a German from Alsace with a change of name and personality to match her goal is Poitiers.  It is not smooth the journey and meeting Ralf who saves her from rape, and then becomes a deserter from the German army is not going to help matters at all. Germans are the enemy and having Ralf as a protector is not helping at all.

Love and loyalty, a lot of sacrifice and plenty of betrayal make this a wonderful story for lovers of historical fiction.

Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Bookouture.