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LEAVES OR LARKS

A NOVEL

A mix of fantasy and history that’s consistently intriguing and enjoyable.

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As political turmoil roils medieval England, one girl’s ability to conjure magic may be the key to peace in DeLaurentis’ fantasy novel.

As Abrielle d’Alençon, the daughter of a knight, grows up in Chateau Montancien in Normandy, she slowly becomes aware of her supernatural abilities. One day, she changes the leaves of a tree into larks; the only witnesses are two boys—one of whom is her future husband, Jules. As she watches her family and friends become embroiled in the politics of the monarchy, she sees her mother, Lady Cherise, use her own magical premonitions to steer the present path to a better future for all. Also at Montancien is Earl Edouard de Montancien and his two sons, Curtis and Destin, who Lady Cherise predicts will end up in different roles than those that were chosen for them; Jules and Josette, his sister, are Curtis and Destin’s cousins. Vardon, the child of an abusive local weaver, takes a wayward path in life but later connects back to Abrielle and her friends. When King Richard dies and is succeeded by the mercurial and egotistical King John, the country and the lives of those around Abrielle are soon put in danger. The story, which starts in 1194 and leads up to the signing of the Magna Carta, delves into political intrigue of the era as well as painting a picture of the daily lives of people in medieval England and Normandy. The pace is steady and never falters, framing major historical events within engaging scenes. DeLaurentis also delivers wonderful imagery throughout, immersing readers in such settings as a Normandy chateau, English manors, and the city of Paris. Abrielle and Jules’ romance is appealing and wholesome, and it never sacrifices the characters’ complexity. DeLaurentis expertly give many characters their own distinct arcs, which all knit together into a compelling story.

A mix of fantasy and history that’s consistently intriguing and enjoyable.

Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-73379-207-3

Page Count: 390

Publisher: Writing Studio LLC

Review Posted Online: March 31, 2022

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THE WOMEN

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

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A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.

When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781250178633

Page Count: 480

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

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THE NIGHTINGALE

Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.

Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.

In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.

Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.

Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3

Page Count: 448

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014

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