Book Review: The Resistance Knitting Club By Jenny O’Brien
Please join me in welcomin Jenny O’Brien to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, The Resistance Knitting Club.
Inspired by the true story of a woman who used knitting patterns to encode intelligence during World War Two.
Guernsey, 2010. After a stroke, an elderly woman shocks her family by speaking perfect French – a language they never knew she possessed. As her granddaughter unravels seventy years of silence, a hidden wartime story emerges…
Paris, 1941. After her brother is declared missing in action at Dunkirk, eighteen-year-old Lenny Gallienne vanishes into Churchill’s secret army. In a bookshop on Rue de la Pompe, she poses as a simple shop girl while encoding intelligence from Nazi headquarters into knitting patterns. Each sweater smuggled to prisoners contains flight paths. Each scarf holds radio frequencies. Each mistake means execution.
Fellow agent, Harry Dennison is the only person who knows her real name. But when the SS close in, Lenny faces an impossible choice in the Metro tunnels beneath Paris – one that will haunt her family for generations. Because in the resistance, the most dangerous secrets are the ones you keep from those you love most.
*****
It’s 2010. An elderly lady sits in a hospital bed and, out of nowhere, begins to speak French. This is a complete surprise to her family. It’s 1941, Lenny is grieving the loss of someone close to her. She decides to join the war effort by working at the war office. When this takes an unexpected turn, this will change the course of Lenny’s life forever.
I couldn’t be happier to be invited onto the blog tour for The Resistance Knitting Club. When I read the blurb for this book, there was something about this story that drew me to it.
by 
Book Review & Giveaway: Under a Southern Sky By Clare Flynn
It’s a joy to be welcoming Clare Flynn to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, Under a Southern Sky.
After a German fighter sinks her husband’s ship in the icy Atlantic, grief-stricken Hannah Kidd flees the rubble and ration queues of wartime Liverpool for a new life on the other side of the world. In sun-soaked Sydney, she discovers more than just refuge from nightly bombing raids—she finds unexpected family connections, meaningful work, and the handsome Eddie Greenbank.
As Hannah explores the golden beaches of Sydney’s eastern shores, the misty valleys of the Blue Mountains, and the rolling scenery of the Hunter Valley, she begins to believe that happiness isn’t lost forever. But even in Australia, the war’s long shadow threatens everything she’s begun to rebuild. Hannah must decide: will she let grief define her, or will she fight for the future she never thought she’d have?
A sweeping story of resilience and renewal set against the dramatic backdrop of wartime Australia, Under a Southern Sky explores how far we must sometimes travel—both in miles and in spirit—to find our way home.
*****
Hannah has just moved to Australia at the beginning of World War II. Living in Sydney, she is doing what she can to take her mind off the recent death of her husband. She finds a job and a place to live but there is still something she needs to do – find her long lost Aunt. When she meets Eddie, her life will take a turn she couldn’t have predicted.
I do love myself a great historical novel and Under A Southern Sky was a book I looked forward to starting. This was the first book from Clare Flynn I’ve had the opportunity to read.
I am going to try and review without giving too much away.
by Book Review: The Funeral Crashers By Joanna Nell
‘There are a lot of lonely people in the world, Martin. Especially when you get to our age. This is the one place you can come where nobody judges. Besides, you don’t need to have known somebody personally to celebrate their life.’
Retired academic Martin Pottinger‘s romantic aspirations for the delectable head of his former university’s archaeology department, Professor Mary Blake, seem about to be realised. If only he could devise a plan to manage the demands of his eccentric elderly mother, Edwina.
Recently bereaved Grace Cavendish spends her days helping out at All Souls Church, making it her mission to drown out the Reverend Rod’s tone-deaf hymn-singing and give each funeral recipient a hearty send-off. Yet the peace she craves remains elusive despite the comforts offered by psychic medium Rhondda and her eight-year-old son, Hudson.
When Martin and Grace meet and bond at an All Souls service, they unwittingly set off a chain of events with far-reaching consequences. They become funeral crashers. But who could have predicted that crashing funerals might have such life-changing and life-affirming outcomes?
*****
Grace has been alone for a long time. She struggles to fill her days. When she meets a young boy named, Hudson, she can see he is someone who needs help.
Martin is getting a little impatient with his mother invading his space. He is distracting himself with a crush he has on colleague, Mary.
When a funeral brings Grace and Martin together, some luck comes their way. As they get to know each other, will their friendship blossom or will they have nothing in common?
by Book Review & Giveaway: The Croatian Island Library By Eva Glyn
Please join me in welcoming Eva Glyn to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her latest book, The Croatian Island Library.
Where books are borrowed, and friendships are forged…
When her beloved grandfather dies, Ana Meštrović buys a catamaran in his memory, which she names Dida Krila – Grandad’s Wings.
For the summer months, it will be transformed into a travelling library, delivering books to children living across the Croatian islands.
Joined by crew members Natali, a young mechanic afraid of her own shadow, and Lloyd, an older widower who needs a fresh start, the newly-formed trio all have their own reasons for needing the floating library to be a success.
Embarking on an adventure that will change them for good, they each discover that a new chapter is only a boat ride away…
*****
Ana is a woman who is living with guilt when it comes to family expectations. Lloyd is trying to run from grief after the loss of his wife. Natali is a young woman who is fearful of many things and hides from the world.
These three different people are due to come together for one summer. Can they help each other find what they’re missing, are looking for and have lost? Can the power of books bring them together?
I am pleased to be welcoming Eva Glyn back to Novel Kicks. Despite featuring this author previously, The Croatian Island Library is the first of her books I’ve read.
by Book Review: The Locked Room By Holly Hepburn
Please join me in welcoming Holly Hepburn to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her lateset book, The Locked Room.
Join Harriet White in 1930’s London for another glorious Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery, for fans of Nita Prose and Janice Hallett.
After a very close call on the Norfolk Fens, Harriet White is about ready to hang up her deerstalker and settle back into her normal life, working in a bank on Baker Street. Until she discovers a letter in The Times newspaper challenging Sherlock Holmes to prove his status as the world’s greatest detective, by solving an impossible mystery. The letter, signed Professor James Moriarty, advises Holmes that the crime will be committed within the following seven days. There will be no further clues – Holmes himself must deduce which crime is the correct one to investigate.
Dismissing the letter as a prank, Harry goes about her business until news breaks of the theft of valuable jewel collection from a safe in an apparently locked room in a Mayfair townhouse.
Intrigued in spite of her misgivings, Harry dons a disguise and investigates. But as she begins to unpick the puzzle, a body is found. And now, a stranger, and far more deadly mystery begins to unfold around her…
*****
Harry White takes her job as Secretary to Sherlock Holmes seriously. However, when a seemingly real challenge set by Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty is laid down, it’s not long before Harry is pulled into a potentially dangerous game.
Having read the premise for this book, I jumped at the chance to be part of the blog tour. I couldn’t wait to get started.
by Book Club
