Canadian Historical Fiction Review: Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham

Letters Across the Sea by Genevieve Graham

Published: April 27th, 2021

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Genre: Historical Fiction/Canadian Fiction/WWII Fiction

# of pages: 384

My rating: 5 stars

Acquired this book: From the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for honest consideration

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1933

At eighteen years old, Molly Ryan dreams of becoming a journalist, but instead she spends her days working any job she can to help her family through the Depression crippling her city. The one bright spot in her life is watching baseball with her best friend, Hannah Dreyfus, and sneaking glances at Hannah’s handsome older brother, Max.

But as the summer unfolds, more and more of Hitler’s hateful ideas cross the sea and “Swastika Clubs” and “No Jews Allowed” signs spring up around Toronto, a city already simmering with mass unemployment, protests, and unrest. When tensions between the Irish and Jewish communities erupt in a riot one smouldering day in August, Molly and Max are caught in the middle, with devastating consequences for both their families.

1939

Six years later, the Depression has eased and Molly is a reporter at her local paper. But a new war is on the horizon, putting everyone she cares about most in peril. As letters trickle in from overseas, Molly is forced to confront what happened all those years ago, but is it too late to make things right?

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Genevieve Graham is single-handedly bringing little-known aspects of Canadian history to light - and to life - through her thought-provoking, emotional, heartbreaking, beautiful books. After reading five of Graham’s books, I think it’s safe to say I’ve learned more about Canadian history from her than I ever did in school.

 

Letters Across the Sea illuminates yet another aspect of Canadian history I knew nothing about. Starting in Toronto, Ontario in the early 1930s, the Great Depression permeates every aspect of daily life. Jobs are hard to come by, people are working hard for little money, and families are going hungry. Add to that the hatred and antisemitism making their way around the globe, in large part thanks to Hitler and the rise of the Nazis, and tensions are running high across the city. People who were once friends and neighbours now have an ‘us versus them’ mentality, and there’s a rise in white supremacist and anti-Jewish hate groups. All of this culminates in the Christie Pits Riot, which tears apart families and friends, and changes life as Molly Ryan and Max Dreyfus know it. 

 

Told in alternating points of view between Molly and Max, we see things through the eyes of a young Protestant woman and her Jewish neighbour and lifelong friend, who’s also the older brother of her best friend. We see the hatred, fear, pain, and confusion experienced from both perspectives, along with the friendship and longing between the two. Nothing is ever the same for Molly and Max - or their families - after the riot.

 

Time passes and life moves on. The Depression continues, although things slowly improve. When war is declared, Max enlists, along with Molly’s brothers and many of their mutual friends. This leads into another little-known aspect of Canadian history: the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941, and Canadians being held in Japanese POW camps for years under horrendous conditions.

 

Like Graham’s other books, Letters Across the Sea wasn’t an easy read. It was painful - gut wrenching at times - but it was an incredible story about enduring love, bravery, tenacity, and hope. It was difficult reading about the horrible things people are capable of, and that pain was made sharper by the contrasts to today’s racial and religious tensions and injustices. It was a painful reminder that in many ways, things haven’t changed that much in the last 80-90 years. People were gathering for protests and marches back then the way they are now, and it’s easy to believe something like the Christie Pits Riot could happen today. Books like this are a reminder that we need to do better and there’s still a lot of work to do, despite the tireless work of many.

 

Graham’s wonderful, realistic characters and skillfully woven plot ensured Letters Across the Sea was yet another unforgettable read.

Have you read Letters Across the Sea or any of Genevieve Graham's other books? Do you enjoy books about lesser-known aspects of history?

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Romance Review: The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarros

The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarros

Published: February 23rd, 2021

Publisher: Entangled: Amara

Genre: Contemporary romance mixed with historical romance 

Heat level: 🔥🔥

# of pages: 429

My rating: 5 stars

Acquired this book: From the publisher in exchange for honest consideration

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Twenty-eight-year-old Georgia Stanton has to start over after she gave up almost everything in a brutal divorce—the New York house, the friends, and her pride. Now back home at her late great-grandmother’s estate in Colorado, she finds herself face-to-face with Noah Harrison, the bestselling author of a million books where the cover is always people nearly kissing. He’s just as arrogant in person as in interviews, and she’ll be damned if the good-looking writer of love stories thinks he’s the one to finish her grandmother’s final novel…even if the publisher swears he’s the perfect fit.

Noah is at the pinnacle of his career. With book and movie deals galore, there isn’t much the “golden boy” of modern fiction hasn’t accomplished. But he can’t walk away from what might be the best book of the century—the one his idol, Scarlett Stanton, left unfinished. Coming up with a fitting ending for the legendary author is one thing, but dealing with her beautiful, stubborn, cynical great-granddaughter, Georgia, is quite another.

But as they read Scarlett’s words in both the manuscript and her box of letters, they start to realize why Scarlett never finished the book—it’s based on her real-life romance with a World War II pilot, and the ending isn’t a happy one. Georgia knows all too well that love never works out, and while the chemistry and connection between her and Noah is undeniable, she’s as determined as ever to learn from her great-grandmother’s mistakes—even if it means destroying Noah’s career.

Ohhh lordy, this book. I finished reading The Things We Leave Unfinished about a week ago and I’m still thinking about it. I’ve also been talking about it - so much so that four people have told me they bought it because of me (two of them have already read it and loved it too) - a book lover’s dream!

This book was absolutely incredible. It was romantic, emotional, surprising, heartbreaking, hopeful - it basically had everything. I can’t remember the last time I got so deeply invested in a novel. The ultimate surprise for me is that dual timeline and WWII stories aren’t typically favourites of mine (dual timeline can be confusing or make a book feel draggy, and WWII stories - war stories in general, really - are often too heavy, stressful, and sad for me), but both things were done so beautifully, so intricately, and with so much heart, it made me fall completely in love with this book.

The Things We Leave Unfinished features two epic love stories woven together. In present day, Georgia has recently lost her beloved Gran, Scarlett, and has just gone through a divorce. She’s still reeling, but she’s doing the best she can to put her life back together. As the wife of a famous director, she was known as the Ice Queen; what people didn’t see was that it was a facade she erected to keep herself safe because her husband was a cheater and an opportunist. She meets her match in Noah, the rich playboy and famous Nicholas Sparks type author who’s been tasked with completing her Gran’s only unfinished work: her own love story. That love story is where the dual timeline comes in and we’re taken to 1940s England where Scarlett, a plotter for the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, meets and falls in love with Jameson, a pilot for the RAF.

I loved these characters so, so much. Georgia was fierce, strong, smart, driven, and had her walls firmly in place after being hurt not only by her husband, but also by her selfish mother, who abandoned her continuously as a child. All she really wanted was to be loved unconditionally, the way her Gran loved her, but people only ever seemed to want something from her. I loved her and Noah together - their banter, their chemistry, how he really saw her, cared about her, and wanted her for HER, not what she could do for him. Scarlett and Jameson had that lightning strikes, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love that was full of chemistry and passion and unshakable love. Their love for each other radiated from the pages. I felt like I was part of both stories, like I lived the heartache and triumphs of both couples.

I know with 100% certainty The Things We Leave Unfinished will make it to my list of 2021 favourites. If you’re looking for a compelling story with two beautiful romances that will pull at your heartstrings, make you swoon, and keep you guessing, this is a must read.

Have you read The Things We Leave Unfinished? Do you enjoy books told in dual storylines? How about books set in World War II?

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The Roommate by Rosie Danan: Humour, Scorching Sexytimes, and All the Feels

The Roommate by Rosie Danan

Published: September 15th, 2020

Publisher: Berkley Romance

Tropes: Forced proximity, opposites attract, roommates

Heat level: 🔥🔥🔥

# of pages: 336

My rating: 5 stars

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House Rules:

Do your own dishes

Knock before entering the bathroom

Never look up your roommate online

 

The Wheatons are infamous among the east coast elite for their lack of impulse control, except for their daughter Clara. She’s the consummate socialite: over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable. But every Wheaton has their weakness. When Clara’s childhood crush invites her to move cross-country, the offer is too much to resist. Unfortunately, it’s also too good to be true.

 

After a bait-and-switch, Clara finds herself sharing a lease with a charming stranger. Josh might be a bit too perceptive—not to mention handsome—for comfort, but there’s a good chance he and Clara could have survived sharing a summer sublet if she hadn’t looked him up on the Internet...

 

Once she learns how Josh has made a name for himself, Clara realizes living with him might make her the Wheaton’s most scandalous story yet. His professional prowess inspires her to take tackling the stigma against female desire into her own hands. They may not agree on much, but Josh and Clara both believe women deserve better sex. What they decide to do about it will change both of their lives, and if they’re lucky, they’ll help everyone else get lucky too.

  

 

The Roommate has been so hyped over the last few months, I was honestly a bit nervous to read it. I also didn’t know what a ‘raunch-com’ was, and I didn’t read the synopsis or any reviews before starting, so I had no idea what was in store for me.

So, what was in store? A whole lot of laughs and swoons. Great characters that were easy to root for. Sexytimes that nearly set my Kindle on fire. Without a doubt, The Roommate completely lived up to the hype and is one of my favourite books of 2020 so far.

 

I loved Clara. She was wonderfully quirky and she made me giggle so much. She was someone I could see myself being friends with, and I wanted her to see how wonderful she was and that she deserved good things, despite feeling like her family was cursed. She’d lived a safe life doing what was expected of her and doing her best to live up to the family name. The first spontaneous, out-of-character thing she ever did was move across the country to live with her best friend - and unrequited crush - only to discover he was actually ditching her right from day one to go on tour with his band.

 

Enter Clara’s new roommate, Josh. Oh, Josh. He was so swoony! Total book boyfriend material. He and Clara were so different, but they had sizzling chemistry and their banter was hilarious. I loved how the way he saw Clara was so at odds with how Clara saw herself, but he slowly pulled her out of her shell and made her see that she deserved better than unrequited love and living only to please her family.

 

I also loved how sex-positive this book was. It shone a light on the porn industry and humanized sex workers when a lot of people are quick to dismiss and demonize the industry and all people involved. I especially appreciated the emphasis on women’s pleasure and how women deserve to enjoy sex as much as anyone else. You know how people often refer to romance in derogatory terms like ‘lady porn’? Well, this book was lady porn in all the best ways and was simultaneously a love letter to romance and also a big ‘eff you’ to everyone who talks crap about the genre and the things that bring women pleasure.

 

So yes, The Roommate completely lived up to the hype. I loved the characters, I loved the romance, I loved the banter, the flirting, the sexual tension, and all the emotions. The Roommate is a fun, flirty, fantastic must-read for all romance fans.

Have you read The Roommate? What did you think? What's the last sex-positive book you read?

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*Please note I'm an Amazon affiliate, and some of the links in this review are affiliate links. All income made through affiliate sales goes directly back into maintaining Ramblings of a Daydreamer. Thank you for your support!

 

The Beat Match by Kelly Siskind: Banter and Chemistry Galore!

The Beat Match (Showmen #3) by Kelly Siskind

Published: September 16th, 2020

Publisher: CD Books

Tropes: Brother’s best friend, secret identity, opposites attract, friends to lovers, forbidden romance, slow burn

Heat level: 🔥🔥🔥

# of pages: 310

My rating: 5 stars

Acquired this book: From the author in exchange for honest consideration

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Two DJs. One beat. An off-limits romance neither of them expected.

 

Weston Aldrich is known for his devastating looks and crisp Italian suits. He's been groomed to take over his family business and is on the brink of closing a massive merger. Only two wild cards can derail him.

 

Wild Card One: If anyone learns he moonlights as a masked DJ, his credibility will be toast.

Wild Card Two: Annie can’t-hold-a-job Ward.

 

The Annie Ward he promised to help raise after her brother died. The scatterbrained girl who makes it her mission in life to drive him crazy. The gorgeous woman he’s not supposed to fantasize about, let alone kiss.

 

Annie hates Wes’s insanely overprotective nature, and how his ridiculous bone structure makes him look like a Greek god. His jokes about her plethora of jobs are beyond irksome. She has no plans to tell him about her latest aspiration, to match beats as a budding DJ. Until she learns what Wes does at night. Now she plans to prove Weston Aldrich has met his match.

 

  

Out of all the new-to-me authors I’ve read in 2020, Kelly Siskind has risen to the top of my list of favourites. First with New Orleans Rush, then Don’t Go Stealing My Heart, now with The Beat Match, Siskind has officially earned a place on my auto-read list. She writes such fun, whimsical stories with tons of heart, great banter, sizzling chemistry, and realistic characters.

The Beat Match had all those things and then some. One of the things I love most about Siskind’s books, and this one in particular, is how realiastically flawed the characters are. They’re far from perfect, but that’s what makes them so relatable. They have so much depth, so many layers, and they leap off the pages, suck you in, and make you root for them. Her heroines are wonderfully quirky and eccentric, and I can not only see myself in them, I can also easily see being friends with them. Her heroes are hella swoony and become instant book boyfriends. Basically, she writes characters who are completely one-of-a-kind and I’m here for it!

Annie and Wes have known each other for years and are tied together forever by their shared grief over the loss of Annie’s older brother, Leo. So many of their decisions in life have been tied to what Leo would want, what he’d think, what he’d do. They want to honour him any way they can, and they remain in each other’s lives even though they drive each other bonkers most of the time. Annie’s free-spiritedness is the opposite of Wes’s buttoned-up, brooding professionalism. These two together were alternately hilarious and frustrating. I loved their banter and their chemistry, and it was so much fun watching them take their friendship to the next level. They had plenty of obstacles to face, both internal and external, but they were easy to cheer on, and I appreciated that they had to work for their happy ending because it made it that much more realistic.

 

The Beat Match is a heartfelt, funny, sexy story about friendship, grief, honouring those you love while also honouring your own desires, and following your heart. I laughed and cried and swooned, and finished reading with a big smile on my face. I can’t wait for the next Showmen book, The Knockout Rule!

Have you read The Beat Match? Have you read any of Kelly Siskind's other books? Who was the last author you added to your auto-read list?

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*Please note I'm an Amazon affiliate, and some of the links in this review are affiliate links. All income made through affiliate sales goes directly back into maintaining Ramblings of a Daydreamer. Thank you for your support!

Paradise Cove by Jenny Holiday: A Perfect Balance of Emotion, Humour, and Steam

Paradise Cove (Matchmaker Bay #2) by Jenny Holiday
Published: July 28th, 2020
Publisher: Forever
Tropes: Small town romance, friends-to-lovers, fling to forever
Heat level: 🔥🔥🔥
# of pages: 368
My rating: 5 stars
Acquired this book: From the publisher in exchange for honest consideration
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Dr. Nora Walsh has just been dumped in spectacular fashion, making it the perfect time for a major life change. She figures taking over the medical practice in tiny Matchmaker Bay for a couple of years will help her get over her broken heart, and then she can head back to the big city. But when the first man she sees looks like a superhero god, she wonders if maybe there's something to small-town living after all.

Jake Ramsey also has a broken heart--one he never expects to heal. He doesn't need people anyway and is content hiding out in his secluded cottage on the beach. But after helping Nora with a medical emergency, he finds himself opening up to the witty, warmhearted doctor. Soon the local matchmakers are working overtime to pair them off, and Jake begins to wonder if his campaign to get Nora to stay is for the town or because he can't bear the thought of her leaving.

I enjoyed Mermaid Inn, the first in Jenny Holiday’s Matchmaker Bay series, and I was excited to return to this charming Canadian small town and its quirky collection of residents.

I was curious about Jake in Sawyer and Eve’s story - he was a man of few words, one who had obviously been hurt, and who mostly preferred to keep to himself. Nora was new in town, and her stay was meant to be a temporary one before moving back to Toronto for good. Neither of them was looking for any sort of romantic entanglement, which any seasoned romance reader knows will lead to lots of delicious push and pull, will-they-won’t-they, and emotional highs and lows. Paradise Cove delivered on all of that and then some.

From their adorable meet-cute to the two of them working together during a medical emergency, to Jake quietly stepping in to fix Nora’s new house and clinic without any sort of expectation or ulterior motive, these two were a joy to watch. They developed a beautiful, close friendship where they relied on each other while still maintaining their own lives and independence. They had fantastic chemistry and hilarious banter, and I loved watching them grow closer and fall for each other without realizing it.

This book was funny and super sexy, but it packed an emotional punch too. It handled grief in an open, realistic way. As someone who is unfortunately well-acquainted with grief, it really resonated with me and made me love this book even more. Jenny Holiday did a fantastic job of balancing really deep, often painful emotions with humour and sexytimes. This book had it all.

Come for the pizza and zombie movies, stay for the giggles, feels, and swoons. I can’t wait to return to Moonflower Bay in the near future, and I’ll definitely be recommending this series to fellow romance lovers in the meantime.

Read my review of Mermaid Inn

Have you read either of the Matchmaker Bay books? What's the last book you read that felt perfectly balanced?

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The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan: A Royally Good Romance

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
Published: April 7th, 2015
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Royal Romance
# of pages: 558 (Mass Market Paperback)
My rating: 5 stars
Acquired this book: Won on Instagram
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American Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasized about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it's Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Great Britain's future king. And when Bex can't resist falling for Nick, the person behind the prince, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit, under a spotlight she is not prepared to face.

Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick's sparkling and far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is much thornier and more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he's fated to become.

Which is how she gets into trouble.

Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she's sacrificed for love-her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself-will have been for nothing.

The Royal We has been on my radar since 2015. I kept saying I would read it, but I always put it off, and after all these years I have to admit the hype had me nervous to finally start. The hype was justified, though, and I loved this book for so many reasons.

I’ve been a ‘royal watcher’ since I was a child. Like many, I adored Princess Diana, and I mourned with the world when she died. I’m halfway between Princes William and Harry age-wise, and having lost a parent myself just a few years before, watching them publicly grieve made me feel a strong connection to them. I paid slightly less attention to them as I grew up, but Will and Kate’s engagement rekindled my interest. The fact The Royal We is basically Will and Kate fanfiction was a huge draw for me, and it didn’t disappoint.

My favourite part of the book was the beginning, when Bex and Nick were in Oxford, largely in their own little world, separate from the duties and responsibilities of Nick’s usual life as a prince who would one day be king. I enjoyed watching them become friends and then watching as their friendship blossomed into something more. This part of the book was the most relatable - watching them fall in love, watching Bex make new friends, adjust to life in England, miss her family back home, and basically have a normal college experience except for the fact she was friends with a prince.

I did thoroughly enjoy the royal aspect of the book too. You could feel Bex’s frustration and pain at not being able to go public with Nick while still having to deal with the press. I loved her friendship with Nick’s brother Freddie (the ginger-haired spare who was known for being a partying playboy...hmm, I wonder who he was based on?), and I appreciated the complexities of her relationship with her twin sister, Lacey. One of the things that really stuck with me is just how pervasive the media is. I don’t think I ever quite grasped the lengths people will go to for a story or a photo of a member of the royal family (or any celebrity). I’ve always been aware of the gossip - I make a point to scan the ludicrous headlines of the tabloids in the grocery store waiting line, just for giggles - but I try not to believe anything unless it comes from an official source. Many people don’t feel the same way, though, and will treat any and every crumb of gossip as fact, even if it’s wildly false. This book really makes you think about how things can be twisted and turned for the sake of a headline, how relationships can be damaged or ruined, and the strain it puts on the people who aren’t able to step outside their door without having it turned into a story.

Royal romances can be hit or miss for me, but this one knocked it out of the park. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, romantic, and it pulls at your heartstrings. Part of me regrets waiting so long to read it, while the other part of me is grateful I let the hype monster keep me away for so long because it meant I got to start the sequel, The Heir Affair, immediately and spend more time with these characters who came to mean so much to me.

Have you read The Royal We? Do you like royal romances? Have a favourite?

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*Please note I'm an Amazon affiliate, and some of the links in this review are affiliate links. All income made through affiliate sales goes directly back into maintaining Ramblings of a Daydreamer. Thank you for your support!