In 1937, Mary Margaret Joyce is born in the Tuam Home for unwed mothers. After spending her early years in an uncaring foster home, she is sentenced by a judge to an industrial school, where she is given the name Peg, and assigned the number 27. Amid 100 other unwanted girls, Peg quickly learns the rigid routine of prayer, work, and silence under the watchful eye of Sister Constance. Her only respite is an annual summer holiday with a kind family in Galway.
At the tender age of 13, Peg accidentally learns the identity of her birthmother. Peg struggles with feelings of anger and abandonment, while her mother grapples with the shame of having borne a child out of wedlock. The tension between them mounts as Peg, now becoming a young adult, begins to make plans for her future beyond Ireland.
Based on actual events, The House Children is a compelling story of familial love, shameful secrets, and life inside Ireland’s infamous industrial schools.
Review
Peg is one of the house children. She started out in a terrible foster home. When that deteriorated, a judge sentenced her to one of Ireland’s industrial schools. She is one of the few orphans, out of the many in the home, which actually gets to go on holiday. Peg has no idea why she has been chosen to go on holiday. But as time goes on, secrets begin to unravel.
Peg is a scared little girl. And her situation tears at my heart. The whole situation in Ireland for the children and the unwed mothers during this time period is appalling.
This is a unique book and to know it is based on a true story is even more amazing. I don’t think I have read a book about Ireland’s orphanages. So, this was interesting to say the least.
The narrator, Lauren Reilly is more straightforward than I like. it is almost like she is just stating the facts instead of reading a story. But, the book itself is very well researched and heart wrenching in places.
Need a good historical fiction book…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.
I received this audiobook from the publisher for a honest review.
From Tracey Garvis Graves, the best-selling author of The Girl He Used to Know, comes a love song of a story about starting over and second chances in Heard It in a Love Song.
Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready.
Layla Hilding is 35 and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past – her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a 10-year marriage to a man who never put her first – Layla’s newly found independence feels a lot like loneliness.
Then there’s Josh, the single dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where Layla teaches music. Recently separated, he’s still processing the end of his 20-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He chats with Layla every morning at school and finds himself thinking about her more and more.
Equally cautious and confused about dating in a world that favors apps over meeting organically, Layla and Josh decide to be friends with the potential for something more. Sounds sensible and way too simple – but when two people are on the rebound, is it heartbreak or happiness that’s a love song away?
A Macmillan Audio Production from St. Martin’s Press
Review
Josh is struggling through his divorce. Layla has just recently divorced. Neither one is looking for love. But, as you can guess, these two have a connection.
Josh has a beautiful daughter and Layla is her music teacher. So they see each other every day. This opens up some doors for both of them. But, can they make rebound love work..you must read this to find out!
The characters, as usual, are fabulous. They are each struggling but they stay sane. That is important! Trust me! These two are perfect together. Throw in the cute dog and the sweet little girl and you have a good read!
I also loved the narrator, Andi Arndt. I have heard her narrate on several books and she does a great pace and wonderful inflection.
I absolutely love this author. However, this book is not my favorite, but it is still a good read. Her books just usually have a different twist. This one is just a normal romance, nothing wrong with that. I still enjoyed it, especially with all the music references. Brought back a ton of memories.
Need a good romance which will make you smile…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review
Shot through with hope, purpose and an unflinching love, it’s a story that must be read.” —Newsweek
Award-winning columnist and author David Magee addresses his poignant story to all those who will benefit from better understanding substance misuse so that his hard-earned wisdom can save others from the fate of his late son, William.
The last time David Magee saw his son alive, William told him to write their family’s story in the hopes of helping others. Days later, David found William dead from an accidental drug overdose.
Now, in a memoir suggestive of Augusten Burroughs meets Glennon Doyle, award-winning columnist and author David Magee answers his son’s wish with a compelling, heartbreaking, and impossible to put down book that speaks to every individual and family.
With honesty and heart, Magee shares his family’s intergenerational struggle with substance abuse and mental health issues, as well as his own reckoning with family secrets—confronting the dark truth about the adoptive parents who raised him and a decades-long search for identity. He wrestles with personal substance misuse that began at a young age and, as a father, he sees destructive patterns repeat and develop within his own children. While striving to find a truly authentic voice as a writer despite authoring nearly a dozen previous books, Magee ultimately understands that William had been right and their own family’s history is the story he needs to tell.
A poignant and uplifting message of hope translates unimaginable tragedy into an inspirational commitment to saving others, as David founded the William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing at the University of Mississippi. His mission to share solutions to self-medication and addiction, particularly as it touches America’s high school and college students, emphasizes that William’s story is about much more than a tragic addiction—it’s an American story of a family broken by loss and remade with love.
Dear William inspires readers to find purpose, build resilience, and break the cycles that damage too many individuals and the people who love them. It’s a life-changing book revealing how voids can be filled, and peace—even profound, lasting happiness—is possible.
Review
Let me do a…kind of disclaimer. I have met David Magee…he probably does not even remember it. We met at Ole Miss. My husband and David were in the same pledge class at Sigma Nu and I was a Sigma Nu Little Sister…back in the day….way back in the day. But, when I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it. Let me say, my 5 star rating has nothing to do with our previous interactions. This book is outstanding on so many levels!
David Magee has had his share of troubles growing up. He comes clean in this memoir about his mistakes, his own alcohol use, and his family dynamics. Life tends to throw us curve balls. How we react to these curve balls is what it is all about. It took David a while to come to terms with everything which occurred in his life. But, it has made him stronger and wiser. And this comes out strong in this memoir.
This is a book everyone should read. It will open eyes and possibly help others in this situation. This book is expressive and must have been cathartic to write. Nothing can ever ease the pain of losing a child and you can feel the author’s pain and guilt all through this memoir. But, you can also feel purpose. The purpose to help someone else through his loss.
What an outstanding man William was. He had such a bright future. But life turned on its axis. Hopefully this tragedy will help someone else in trouble. If you know anyone which needs help and guidance, please reach out: Magee Center at Ole Miss
Need a life changing story you will not soon forget…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
What an absolute blast October was! Finally starting to open up more in the book community. A friend of mine and I headed to Novel in Memphis to meet…non other than Elin Hilderbrand. She is amazing!
It was also our annual family pumpkin carving. My husband thinks he is the best…uh…no! But we have a blast!
Now on the the Escapes
This month I included all of my books, Audible and physically reading.
I am listening to a ton of books since I am driving so much. I am knocking out a lot on my TBR!
Set during the heroism and heartbreak of World War I, and in an occupied France in an alternative timeline, Sarah Adlakha’s Midnight on the Marne explores the responsibilities love lays on us and the rippling impact of our choices.
Set during the heroism and heartbreak of World War I, and in an occupied France in an alternative timeline, Sarah Adlakha’s Midnight on the Marne explores the responsibilities love lays on us and the rippling impact of our choices.
American solider George Mountcastle feels an instant connection to Marcelle Fournier, a young nurse and secret French spy. But in times of war, love must wait. Soon, George and his best friend Philip are fighting for their lives during the Second Battle of the Marne during which George stops Philip from a brave act that would have won the battle at the cost of his own life.
Germany has won the war—and Philip can’t shake the feeling that something is terribly wrong. After escaping from a German POW camp along with Philip and Marcelle’s twin sister Rosalie, George and Marcelle start a new life and family together, finding love and joy where they can in a brutally occupied France.
Years pass, and tragedy strikes. George wakes up back in 1918, knowing that he must make different choices for the greater good. Playing with time is a tricky thing, though. If he chooses to change the course of history on this pivotal battlefield, he will surely change his own future—and perhaps not for the better.
About The Author:
Sarah Adlakha is a native of Chicago and a practicing psychiatrist who now lives along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi with her husband and their three daughters. She Wouldn’t Change a Thing is her first novel.
Fan Club : A Novel Erin Mayer On Sale Date: October 26, 2021 9780778311591 Trade Paperback $16.99 USD 320 pages
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In this raucous psychological thriller, a disillusioned millennial joins a cliquey fan club, only to discover that the group is bound together by something darker than devotion. Day after day our narrator searches for meaning beyond her vacuous job at a women’s lifestyle website – entering text into a computer system while she watches their beauty editor unwrap box after box of perfectly packaged bits of happiness. Then, one night at a dive bar, she hears a message in the newest single by international pop-star Adriana Argento, and she is struck. Soon she loses herself to the online fandom, a community whose members feverishly track Adriana’s every move. When a colleague notices her obsession, she’s invited to join an enigmatic group of adult Adriana superfans who call themselves the Ivies and worship her music in witchy, candlelit listening parties. As the narrator becomes more entrenched in the group, she gets closer to uncovering the sinister secrets that bind them together – while simultaneously losing her grip on reality. With caustic wit and hypnotic writing, this unsparingly critical thrill ride through millennial life examines all that is wrong in our celebrity-obsessed internet age and how easy it is to lose yourself in it.
About the author
Erin Mayer is a freelance writer and editor based in Maine. Her work has appeared in Business Insider, Man Repeller, Literary Hub, and others. She was previously an associate fashion and beauty editor at Bustle.com.
I’m outside for a cumulative ten minutes each day before work. Five to walk from my apartment building to the subway, another five to go from the subway to the anemic obelisk that houses my office. I try to breathe as deeply as I can in those minutes, because I never know how long it will be until I take fresh air into my lungs again. Not that the city air is all that fresh, tinged with the sharp stench of old garbage, pollution’s metallic swirl. But it beats the stale oxygen of the office, already filtered through distant respiratory systems. Sometimes, during slow moments at my desk, I inhale and try to imagine those other nostrils and lungs that have already processed this same air. I’m not sure how it works in reality, any knowledge I once had of the intricacies of breathing having been long ago discarded by more useful information, but the image comforts me. Usually, I picture a middle-aged man with greying temples, a fringe of visible nose hair, and a coffee stain on the collar of his baby blue button-down. He looks nothing and everything like my father. An every-father, if you will.
My office is populated by dyed-blonde or pierced brunette women in their mid-to-late twenties and early thirties. The occasional man, just a touch older than most of the women, but still young enough to give off the faint impression that he DJs at Meatpacking nightclubs for extra cash on the weekends.
We are the new corporate Americans, the offspring of the grey-templed men. We wear tastefully ripped jeans and cozy sweaters to the office instead of blazers and trousers. Display a tattoo here and there—our supervisors don’t mind; in fact, they have the most ink. We eat yogurt for breakfast, work through lunch, leave the office at six if we’re lucky, arriving home with just enough time to order dinner from an app and watch two or three hours of Netflix before collapsing into bed from exhaustion we haven’t earned. Exhaustion that lives in the brain, not the body, and cannot be relieved by a mere eight hours of sleep.
Nobody understands exactly what it is we do here, and neither do we. I push through revolving glass door, run my wallet over the card reader, which beeps as my ID scans through the stiff leather, and half-wave in the direction of the uniformed security guard behind the desk, whose face my eyes never quite reach so I can’t tell you what he looks like. He’s just one of the many set-pieces staging the scene of my days.
The elevator ride to the eleventh floor is long enough to skim one-third of a longform article on my phone. I barely register what it’s about, something loosely political, or who is standing next to me in the cramped elevator.
When the doors slide open on eleven, we both get off.
…
In the dim eleventh-floor lobby, a humming neon light shaping the company logo assaults my sleep-swollen eyes like the prick of a dozen tiny needles. Today, a small section has burned out, creating a skip in the letter w. Below the logo is a tufted cerulean velvet couch where guests wait to be welcomed. To the left there’s a mirrored wall reflecting the vestibule; people sometimes pause there to take photos on the way to and from the office, usually on the Friday afternoon before a long weekend. I see the photos later while scrolling through my various feeds at home in bed. They hit me one after another like shots of tequila: See ya Tuesday! *margarita emoji* Peace out for the long weekend! *palm tree emoji* Byeeeeee! *peace sign emoji.*
She steps in front of me, my elevator companion. Black Rag & Bone ankle boots gleaming, blade-tipped pixie cut grazing her ears. Her neck piercing taunts me, those winking silver balls on either side of her spine. She’s Lexi O’ Connell, the website’s senior editor. She walks ahead with her head angled down, thumb working her phone’s keyboard, and doesn’t look up as she shoves the interior door open, palm to the glass.
I trip over the back of one clunky winter boot with the other as I speed up, considering whether to call out for her attention. It’s what a good web producer, one who is eager to move on from the endless drudgery of copy-pasting and resizing and into the slightly more thrilling drudgery of writing and rewriting, would do.
By the time I regain my footing, I come face-to-face with the smear of her handprint as the door glides shut in front of me.
Monday.
…
I work at a website.
It’s like most other websites; we publish content, mostly articles: news stories, essays, interviews, glossed over with the polished opalescent sheen of commercialized feminism. The occasional quiz, video, or photoshoot rounds out our offerings. This is how websites work in the age of ad revenue: Each provides a slightly varied selection of mindless entertainment, news updates, and watered-down hot takes about everything from climate change to plus size fashion, hawking their wares on the digital marketplace, leaving The Reader to wander drunkenly through the bazaar, wielding her cursor like an Amex. You can find everything you’d want to read in one place online, dozens of times over. The algorithms have erased choice. Search engines and social media platforms, they know what you want before you do.
As a web producer, my job is to input article text into the website’s proprietary content management system, or CMS. I’m a digitized high school janitor; I clean up the small messes, the litter that misses the rim of the garbage can. I make sure the links are working and the images are high resolution. When anything bigger comes up, it goes to an editor or IT. I’m an expert in nothing, a master of the miniscule fixes.
There are five of us who produce for the entire website, each handling about 20 articles a day. We sit at a long grey table on display at the very center of the open office, surrounded on all sides by editors and writers.
The web producers’ bullpen, Lexi calls it.
The light fixture above the table buzzes loudly like a nest of bees is trapped inside the fluorescent tubing. I drop my bag on the floor and take a seat, shedding my coat like a layer of skin. My chair faces the beauty editor’s desk, the cruelest seat in the house. All day long, I watch Charlotte Miller receive package after package stuffed with pastel tissue paper. Inside those packages: lipstick, foundation, perfume, happiness. A thousand simulacrums of Christmas morning spread across the two-hundred and sixty-one workdays of the year. She has piled the trappings of Brooklyn hipsterdom on top of her blonde, big-toothed, prettiness. Wire-frame glasses, a tattoo of a constellation on her inner left forearm, a rose gold nose ring. She seems Texan, but she’s actually from some wholesome upper Midwestern state, I can never remember which one. Right now, she applies red lipstick from a warm golden tube in the flat gleam of the golden mirror next to her monitor. Everything about her is color-coordinated.
I open my laptop. The screen blinks twice and prompts me for my password. I type it in, and the CMS appears, open to where I left it when I signed off the previous evening. Our CMS is called LIZZIE. There’s a rumor that it was named after Lizzie Borden, christened during the pre-launch party when the tech team pounded too many shots after they finished coding. As in, “Lizzie Borden took an ax and gave her mother forty whacks.” Lizzie Borden rebranded in the 21st century as a symbol of righteous feminine anger. LIZZIE, my best friend, my closest confidant. She’s an equally comforting and infuriating presence, constant in her bland attention. She gazes at me, always emotionless, saying nothing as she watches me teeter on the edge, fighting tears or trying not to doze at my desk or simply staring, in search of answers she cannot provide.
My eyes droop in their sockets as I scan the articles that were submitted before I arrived this morning. The whites threaten to turn liquid and splash onto my keyboard, pool between the keys and jiggle like eggs minus the yolks. Thinking of this causes a tiny laugh to slip out from between my clenched lips. Charlotte slides the cap onto her lipstick, glares at me over the lip of the mirror.
“Morning.”
That’s Tom, the only male web producer, who sits across and slightly left of me, keeping my view of Charlotte’s towering wonderland of boxes and bags clear. He’s four years older than me, twenty-eight, but the plush chipmunk curve of his cheeks makes him appear much younger, like he’s about to graduate high school. He’s cute, though, in the way of a movie star who always gets cast as the geek in teen comedies. Definitely hot but dress him down in an argyle sweater and glasses and he could be a Hollywood nerd. I’ve always wanted to ask him why he works here, doing this. There isn’t really a web producer archetype. We’re all different, a true island of misfit toys.
But if there is a type, Tom doesn’t fit it. He seems smart and driven. He’s consistently the only person who attends company book club meetings having read that month’s selection from cover to cover. I’ve never asked him why he works here because we don’t talk much. No one in our office talks much. Not out loud, anyway. We communicate through a private Morse code, fingers dancing on keys, expressions scanned and evaluated from a distance.
Sometimes I think about flirting with Tom, for something to do, but he wears a wedding ring. Not that I care about his wife; it’s more the fear of rebuff and rejection, of hearing the low-voiced Sorry, I’m married, that stops me. He usually sails in a few minutes after I do, smelling like his bodega coffee and the egg sandwich he carefully unwraps and eats at his desk. He nods in my direction. Morning is the only word we’ve exchanged the entire time I’ve worked here, which is coming up on a year in January. It’s not even a greeting, merely a statement of fact. It is morning and we’re both here. Again.
Three hundred and sixty-five days lost to the hum and twitch and click. I can’t seem to remember how I got here. It all feels like a dream. The mundane kind, full of banal details, but something slightly off about it all. I don’t remember applying for the job, or interviewing. One day, an offer letter appeared in my inbox and I signed.
And here I am. Day after day, I wait for someone to need me. I open articles. I tweak the formatting, check the links, correct the occasional typo that catches my eye. It isn’t really my job to copy edit, or even to read closely, but sometimes I notice things, grammatical errors or awkward phrasing, and I then can’t not notice them; I have to put them right or else they nag like a papercut on the soft webbing connecting two fingers. The brain wants to be useful. It craves activity, even after almost three hundred and sixty-five days of operating at its lowest frequency.
I open emails. I download attachments. I insert numbers into spreadsheets. I email those spreadsheets to Lexi and my direct boss, Ashley, who manages the homepage.
It’s 1971 in Connecticut, and sixteen-year-old Sharon’s parents think that, because she’s a girl, she should become a clerical office worker after high school and live at home until she marries and has a family. But Sharon wants to join the hippies and be part of the changing society, so she leaves home and heads to California.
Upon arriving in California, Sharon is thrown into an adult world for which she is unprepared, and she embarks on a precarious journey amid the 1970s counterculture. On her various adventures across the country and while living on a commune, with friends and lovers filtering in and out of her life, she realizes she must learn quickly in order to survive—as well as figure out a way to reconcile her developing spirituality with her Catholic upbringing.
In this colorful memoir, Sharon reflects upon the changes that reshaped her during the 1970s women’s movement, and how they have transformed society’s expectations for girls and women today—and, through it all, shares moments of triumph, joy, love, and awakening.
Review
At 16, Sharon has had enough. She is not cut out to be what her parents expect her to be. So, she leaves and heads out to California. California is not exactly what she thought it would be. And she has to make some drastic decisions and drastic mistakes.
This is a story which had me guessing my choices…you mean I could run off and live wild and free. It never occurred to me. I honestly do not see how this author survived. I love that she took her experiences and made herself so much better. It is just not in my DNA not to plan. I am envious of her ability to just roll with it! And believe me…Sharon rolled with everything! I totally understand why she left her home and it worked out for her in the end. But I could not help but feel sorry for her parents. They tried their best. But Sharon had to make her own way. And she did a great job!
This is a unique coming of age memoir not to be missed. It is full of sex, drugs and rock and roll! GRAB YOUR COPY TODAY!
I received this audiobook for a honest review.
About The Author: Sharon Dukett has been a computer programmer, deputy director in state government, cocktail waitress, and project manager (PMP certified), and she has designed and embroidered handmade clothing. She travels extensively using loyalty points and avoiding tourist traps. When she is home, she and her husband live in central Connecticut in a house he built that overlooks the Connecticut River–the house where they raised their family. When not writing or blogging, she is reading, skiing, biking, golfing, spending time with family and friends, creating clutter, and committing to more activities than she probably should. She loves reading memoir from a variety of backgrounds–to learn how others feel, experience life, and deal with their struggles. No Rules is her debut memoir. https://sharondukett.com/
Enchanting, mysterious, and deeply romantic, The Lighthouse follows a young woman’s breathtaking journey far from home to discover where she truly belongs.
Something strange is happening in Seabrook. The town’s lighthouse – dormant for over 30 years and famously haunted – has inexplicably started shining, and its mysterious glow is sparking feverish gossip throughout the spooked community.
Amy Tucker is only visiting for the night and has no plans to get caught up in the hysteria, but that changes when she meets Ryan, the loyal, hard-working son of a ranch owner who lives on the outskirts of town.
Their chance encounter turns into an unforgettable weekend, and against the backdrop of the lighthouse-obsessed town, the two of them forge a deep connection, opening their hearts, baring their souls, and revealing secrets long kept hidden.
But as they grow closer, and as the lighthouse glows ever brighter, a startling discovery about Ryan leaves Amy questioning everything she thought she knew. To uncover the truth about her new friend, Amy will need to enter Seabrook’s ominous tower, where waiting inside she will not only find the reason why fate has brought them together…but a shocking secret that will change the course of their lives forever.
Review
Amy is struggling with the death of her mother. And Her dad just doesn’t know how to deal with it. So, they head out for a short trip hoping to reconnect. Amy has a chance encounter with Ryan and it changes her whole world!
Ryan is an all around good guy! He is struggling to keep the family ranch going after his father’s stroke. It is so much harder than he ever thought possible. He absolutely stole my heart. And Amy is so sad and in desperate need for help that Ryan ends up being her saving grace in more ways than one!
I am all over the place about this novel. I swear…I cried, I laughed and I wanted to throw something. I am still so attached to all these characters! Ryan is my absolute favorite…and I do not want to give anything away…but you better have tissues ready!
The narrator, Braden Wright, is one of my all time favorites. He does an excellent job with all the voices and emotions.
Need a good story which gives you all the feels…THIS IS IT! GRAB YOUR COPY TODAY!
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
In the newest installment of New York Times bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey’s Peachtree Bluff series, three generations of the Murphy women must come together when a hurricane threatens to destroy their hometown—and the holiday season in the process.
When the Murphy women are in trouble, they always know they can turn to their mother, Ansley. So when eldest daughter Caroline and her husband, James, announce they are divorcing—and fifteen-year-old daughter Vivi acts out in response—Caroline, at her wits end, can’t think of anything to do besides leave her with Ansley in Peachtree Bluff for the holidays. After all, how much trouble can one teenager get into on a tiny island?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
As the “storm of the century” heads toward Peachtree Bluff, Ansley and her husband, Jack, with Vivi in tow, are grateful they’re planning to leave for the trip of a lifetime. But Vivi’s recklessness forces the trio to shelter in place during the worst hurricane Peachtree has ever seen. With no power, no provisions, and the water rising, the circumstances become dire very quickly…and the Murphy sisters, who evacuated to New York, soon realize it’s up to them to conduct a rescue mission. With the bridges closed and no way to access Peachtree Bluff by land or air, they set sail on Caroline’s boat, The Starlite Sisters, determined to rebuild their beloved town—as well as their family.
In “pitch perfect tones” (Publishers Weekly) and written with her signature Southern charm, New York Times bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey explores the magic of Christmas, the power of forgiveness, and the importance of family in a tale that reminds us that, no matter the circumstances, home is always where we belong—especially during the holidays.
Review
A big storm is headed to Peachtree Bluff just as Ansley and Jack are about to head out for the trip of a lifetime. Their 15 year old granddaughter, Vivi, decides to prove a point and ends up lost in the storm. This takes the whole family, far and wide, to help bring her home and to fix the town up as good as new!
This story had a rough start for me. Luckily, I trust this author and knew it was going to turn out to be a good read! I highly recommend you read the other books in this series so you can keep up with all the characters which are in the first part of the book. Kristy Harvey brings everyone in for the holidays and it can be overwhelming to keep up with who is who and what is what. But, like any good author, she turns this into an amazing story. I love how all the characters are moved around like chess pieces! Very well done!
I enjoyed the tension brought on by the storm. It created such a wonderful twist to a Christmas story. It helped bring the family together and show what Christmas is all about!
Need a good Christmas story with intensity and wonderful family…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.
I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.
It’s Pittsburgh, 1910—the golden age of steel in the land of opportunity. Eastern European immigrants Janos and Karina Kovac should be prospering, but their American dream is fading faster than the colors on the sun-drenched flag of their adopted country. Janos is exhausted from a decade of twelve-hour shifts, seven days per week, at the local mill. Karina, meanwhile, thinks she has found an escape from their run-down ethnic neighborhood in the modern home of a mill manager—until she discovers she is expected to perform the duties of both housekeeper and mistress. Though she resents her employer’s advances, they are more tolerable than being groped by drunks at the town’s boarding house.
When Janos witnesses a gruesome accident at his furnace on the same day Karina learns she will lose her job, the Kovac family begins to unravel. Janos learns there are people at the mill who pose a greater risk to his life than the work itself, while Karina—panicked by the thought of returning to work at the boarding house—becomes unhinged and wreaks a path of destruction so wide that her children are swept up in the storm. In the aftermath, Janos must rebuild his shattered family with the help of an unlikely ally.
Impeccably researched and deeply human, Beneath the Veil of Smoke and Ashdelivers a timeless message about mental illness while paying tribute to the sacrifices America’s immigrant ancestors made.
Review
Janos and Karina are struggling to survive. Janos works in the steel mill and Karina is a maid for one of the mill supervisors. They are chasing the American dream. But the long, dangerous hours and little pay are taking their toll. Karina decides she has had enough and she starts chasing something else. This changes the course of so many lives.
This is a very good story with just a few minor problems. The conversations are a bit stilted or canned. But, the characters and the rich history will keep you reading and enjoying so much of this story.
Karina is a character I despised, then felt sorry for. Janos is the good guy…the really good guy. Pole is hardworking and he stole my heart. There are several more I could talk about but these are the three which make such a huge impression. Add in the setting of the steel mills and the coal mines of Pennsylvania and you have a wonderful story you will not soon forget!
Need a book with tons of history and great characters…This is it! Grab your copy today!
reecaspieces 