The PIlot's Daughter by Meredith Jaeger

 

This book came out of nowhere thanks to an invite to read and review it (thank you Dutton/Penguin/Random House).  I just got back from vacation and found it in a pile of books while I was unpacking and immediately started reading it. I'm not exaggerating when I say I couldn't put it down. I spent quite a bit of Sunday on the couch reading this historical novel that bounced between 1920's New York ad 1945 San Francisco. 

Ellie Morgan is a secretary at the San Francisco Chronicle and has recently become engaged to a handsome officer stationed in San Francisco as World War 2 rages on. She chafes against societal rules that keep her career limited to housewife or secretary--when all she wants to do is write for the newspaper and wear trousers like Katherine Hepburn. 

However this all falls to the wayside with a telegram stating that her father, a pilot, is missing and presumed dead over the Adriatic Sea near Italy in December, 1944. Devastated, she refuses to believe he's dead--after all, her father was a resourceful man, and surely he survived. The arrival of her father's personal effects is a blow, and comes with an unwelcome surprise: a package of letters from a woman named Lillian in New York, which clearly illustrate a decades long love affair. What??!!

This sends Ellie on a trip to New York City with her Aunt Iris, determined to find Lillian and see if she has any information on her father. What Ellie finds out from her Aunt Iris, as well as the discoveries she makes in New York City change her life forever. 

This did remind me of Fiona Davis novels, in that it took place in NYC and set in the early to mid-20th century. The 1920's portion of the novel involves the Zigfeld Follies, rich men, and an unsolved murder. Yes, it ties into Ellie's quest in 1944 very neatly-you'll see as you read. I just found it fascinating. 

Many parts were predictable, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment at all. I blazed through this story and am eager to read more of Meredith Jaeger's novels. 

Definitely fans of World War 2, early-mid 20th century history, Broadway history, San Francisco, journalism-you name it, this has a little bit of everything in it. It's also about societal and familial expectations, and how going against them can ruin a woman, or set her free. 

A big thanks to Dutton (part of Penguin/Random House) for the chance to read and review this novel. I found an author I enjoy, and that's always a gift. 

This novel is available in trade paperback, ebook, and audio.

Rating: 5/6 for a fast paced historical novel that didn't disappoint-it definitely transported me to the glam of 1920's NYC, and the foggy streets of San Francisco. Likeable characters and definitely a few bad apples, too. 

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The PIlot's Daughter by Meredith Jaeger

Savage Girl by Jean Zimmerman

Jean Zimmerman writes historical fiction that demands you pay attention and weave your way through incredible detail.  All  while attempting to figure out just what is going on and why.  

That's what happens in Savage Girl, a fascinating look at late 19th century New York high society and the attempts of the Delegate family to "rescue" and refine a young woman thought to be brought up in the wild.  

The Delegate family are filthy rich.  As in hard-to-imagine-rich.  Hugo is the spoiled son, attending Harvard as an anatomical student, obsessed with drawing anything anatomical. He has a weird obsession with the human body.   The story is told through his eyes, and they are a bit unreliable.  Hugo is sickly, and has blackouts where he doesn't remember what happened or what he did during those times.  His life is altered when his family, traveling on a private train to Virginia City, come upon a dingy side-show down a dark alley.  That side show is savage girl, a young women who runs on all fours and seems pretty vicious, yet incredibly intelligent.  Hugo's father decides he needs to rescue her and  bring her back to New York City.  Here Hugo's parents will educate and refine savage girl and introduce her to society.  She's a big experiment.  

But this experiment has some dark baggage, and that baggage is murder.  Men are being found dead and mutilated wherever savage girl goes.  As savage girl slowly transforms into a young lady,  and begins speaking (her name is Bronwyn), she's even more mysterious.  Where did she come from, and what does she know?  Is she the killer?  Is it Hugo, who hallucinates from drink and blacks out whenever there's a murder? This mystery keeps you on your toes.  

Nature vs nuture is a big theme in this novel.  It's a fascinating look at people and motives with a mystery added to the mix.  

Rating:  8/10 for the writing, descriptions of 19th century New York City, and a clever plot.  

Available in hardcover, audio, and ebook.  

Thanks to Viking/Penguin for a review copy.

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Savage Girl by Jean Zimmerman

The Wedding Bees by Sarah-Kate Lynch

I read Sarah-Kate Lynch's Blessed are the Cheesemakers a few years ago and fell in love with her writing style.  I can't get enough of what most people call "magical realism".  I firmly believe life is full of magical moments, people, and things and any book that includes this belief of mine is destined to find its way into my home and on my bookshelves.

So goes The Wedding Bees.  It has actually given me an idea for a paper I have to write for school.  I have a cousin who lives in the 'burbs of Chicago who is raising his own bees;  the combination of this book and Steve's beginning phase of "suburban farmer" have peaked my interest in all things bees and honey.  

Sugar Wallace is a young woman who travels around the US with her bees.  Her queen bee, Elizabeth the 6th, is placed on a map and wherever she stops, that's where Sugar moves to for exactly one year.  Then she pulls out the map and moves again.  This time she's landed in New York City, in the Alphabet City area known for it's quirkiness.  She lives in the top floor of an apartment building filled with people who are all doing what Sugar does:  hiding from what they could be and should be.  This group of people are wonderful and you'll fall in love with each one of them and want to live in this apartment building.  And there's Theo, the Scottish lawyer who meets Sugar on her first day in New York City and immediately knows they are meant for one another.  But the path to love and happiness is not easy, and Sugar struggles with her attraction to Theo and her reasons for being on the run from Charleston for 15 years.  Thankfully, Theo is not one to give up.  

I adored this novel.  I love the South; so combine that with some interesting tidbits about bees, beekeeping, honey, and a colorful, vibrant city, and I've got a novel that made me smile.  

Highly recommend this sweet novel.  Yep,  I said it.  Sweet.  Sweet as honey.

Rating:  8/10 for a great setting, colorful characters, and just enough information about bees and beekeeping to make it all interesting.  

Available in paperback and e-book.

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The Wedding Bees by Sarah-Kate Lynch