American Blonde: A Novel by Jennifer Niven

American Blonde: A Novel. Jennifer Niven. Plume Books. July 2014. 416 pp.  ISBN#: 9780452298210.

Velva Jean Hart returns to America as a WASP war heroine, having rescued her own brother from the enemy and having endured that same enemy’s brutal treatment.  But now all is glory and as the world celebrates the end of the war, she and her brother are caught up in the newsreels, making her famously beloved in the eyes of America! 

Her return home is brief as she receives a phenomenal offer of an actress job with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films.  There it seems like a fairy tale as she is trained in acting, voice, etc and remade in the image of “Kit Rogers.”  She is about to be casted as Betsy Ross in a war picture that the company hopes will become famous as well as a box favorite in sales.  Meanwhile, while this whirlwind of a change begins to develop, Velva Jean gets to know her fellow actors, actresses, directors, stage hands, a novelist and script writer, as well as a former boyfriend and her brother who has begun what seems to be a successful singing career. 

Velva Jean’s best friend, also a former WASP, is Mudge, also a hugely popular actress who has several secret lovers and seems to love the booze a bit too much.  However, she is a loyal and fervent friend to Velva Jean, giving her a home and important tips about their profession.  She’s also quite frank about how Metro owns them and runs their lives, but she finds ways around their machinations, all of which proves to be mysterious to Velva Jean.  All seems like a fairy tale world to Velva Jean, but she’s also a smart character who is always observing and assessing the obvious facts and circumstances, as well as the double standard of lies, secrets and deceptions all too real in this Golden Hollywood Age.  Stardom is costly it seems in more ways than one!

The bubble crashes one night at a party when Velva Jean finds her best friend dead.  The remainder of the novel is about her efforts to find out who killed her, even though MGM does everything in their immense power to cover up the murder and couch it as an accident.  Velva Jean knows she will lose everything she has worked so hard to obtain if she continues seeking the truth but her integrity is far stronger than her fear of the stooges following and threatening her.  In the course of this exploration, she will find out what kind of person she really is, the tough stuff she’s made of, and discover a world of possibility  that she had never dreamed of previously.

American Blonde: A Novel is wonderfully constructed, with an amazingly shocking end showing the story to be a great thriller as well as a work of romance and historical fiction.  Highly recommended – loved this story!!! Watch for more from this writer – someone who hopefully will go far!

The Major's Daughter: A Novel by J. P. Francis

The Major’s Daughter: A Novel.  J. P. Francis. Penguin Group (USA). July 2014. 400 pp.  ISBN#: 9780452298699.

Collie Brennan and her father, Major John Brennan, are now living in Camp Stark in New Hampshire.  They’re getting ready to house German prisoners of war, a new role neither has experienced previously.  Major Brennan is not in the best of health as he suffers left-over illness from being gassed in WWI.  Now it’s WWII they are dealing with and this is the story of life in the prison camp.  At first the anticipation is worse than the reality.  Then Collie, who helps her father by translating German into English, very slowly grows fond and fonder of a German POW, Private August Wahrlich. 

Her best friend, Estelle, at the same time has fallen in love with an Indian gardener in Ashtabula, Ohio.  She must decide whether to yield to that growing feeling between them or marry someone safe and stable!

This is a novel about the way war heightens prejudice, the feeling that the enemy induces in those who are already apt to believe every outlandish rumor floating in small communities and in those who have radically suffered from service on the battlefields of Europe.  Today it’s called post-traumatic stress syndrome.  It may be further fueled by alcohol or by jealousy, but it pervades every town across America.

The hatred that is often couched in patriotic beliefs and words is also present in the German POW camp.  There are die-hard Nazis who punish those who aren’t of like mind and those who are weaker.  It’s a parallel universe, a microcosm of the larger world’s classification and persecution of Germans and anyone sympathetic or averse to them.

In the midst of so much ugliness is the beauty of poetry and the enthralling specter of beautifully grown plants and flowers, spiked by the pine forests and immense mountains surrounding the Brennan’s military camp.

No spoilers here, just a beautiful story that is just as often filled with ugliness and beauty beyond what nature and humans can produce.

For those who are open to a different way of thinking, it will leave questions that demand squarely facing all the issues inherent in WWII mentality.  The readers’ points of view will affect whether one loves or hates this complex memorable work of historical and/or romantic fiction.

Collie knows who she is and what she must sacrifice by making a choice to play it safe with another love-sick wooer or risk it all for the love of her life.  The Major’s Daughter has crafted a powerful, memorable work of historical fiction, one that parallels the world in which our young men and women are being held prisoner and returning from unspeakable horrors that our contemporary global conflicts generate.  J. P. Francis has told a simple yet endearing story that will linger in the memory for a long time after the end of reading this particularly moving story!

Fast Track:A Novel by Julie Garwood

Fast Track: A Novel.  Julie Garwood. Dutton Adult: Penguin Group (USA). July 2014. 352 pp.  ISBN#: 9780525954453.

Cordelia Kane sits by her father’s hospital bed, knowing he is dying and hearing from his lips shocking words.  Her mother, who was thought to be dead, is alive and well.  After her father’s death and funeral, Cordelia finds her mother’s last letter to her father in which she states she wanted a different life than the one she found with him.  In it she leaves Cordelia to him and asserts she wants no further contact.  Along with that letter are the numerous letters from Cordelia’s father to her mother, marked “Return to Sender.”

Cordelia is a complex character.  She has just earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and is a well-loved teacher of at risk students, but she decides to take off for a year and find her mother.  She has no idea what she will do when she finds her but is determined to at least see and meet this mother who abandoned her and hurt her father in a way that scarred the rest of his life. However, there are complications, to say the least.  For now, she finds out through friends that her mother is living in Sydney, Australia; so Cordelia’s itinerary begins to take shape, albeit with much interference!

Aiden Madison is Cordelia’s past boyfriend who now reappears and in his usual aggressive way begins to take over Cordelia’s life.  In the beginning it’s not clear why he does so other than his desire to wow her with his sexual prowess.  Here is where Cordelia becomes an enigma.  Although she mildly protests Aidan’s constant presence, commands and insistence that she will be in danger if she carries out her plans to travel to Sydney, she never really protests loudly enough to change his mind.  The reader is not even sure that would make a difference if it were to happen.  Still time will prove Cordelia does have need of protection; and as she really is in a vulnerable position from the shock of losing her father and finding she has an alive mother, this may be the reason she constantly gives in to Aidan.

This is the story of her journey, her discoveries about her mother and her mother’s family, Aidan’s wooing and passionate love-making, and some very dire scenes meant to block from Cordelia from making any announcement in Sydney about her connection to her mother.  It seems her mother had given a false name when she initially married Cordelia’s father. Now, all secrets are out and about to have some disastrous results.

Fast Track is another well-crafted contemporary, dramatic novel written by an author who perfectly plots a complex story and adds rivetingly dangerous scenes in just the right places.  Nicely done again, Julie Garwood – a pleasing novel full of ample thrills and romance to please every reader.

The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn

The Last Summer. Judith Kinghorn. NAL Trade. December 2012. 464 pp.  ISBN#: 9780451416636.

Clarissa Granville introduces the reader to idyllic world of her home, Deyning Park, an English country home of the aristocracy.  She spends her days learning to be the proper English wife of another upper class gentleman but the majority of her early story concerns her long, rambling walks around the estate. It’s a dreamy, solitary world she loves which is beginning to be tainted by talk of impending war in Europe (WWI).  Early on in the novel, she falls in love with a servant’s son, Tom Cuthbert.  Tom is the “bastard” child who because of that association has been granted the unheard of privilege of attending Oxford University to prepare for a career in law.  Clarissa’s mother does everything in her power to block this “friendship” from growing but impressively fails to deny what has already grown roots.  Clarissa’s father is sidetracked by failing finances, unknown to the rest of the family, and her brothers are intent on living life to the fullest and then doing one’s patriotic duty for England in the War.

Clarissa’s romance bears tragic consequences and her friends manage to help her repress her tremendous depression with parties, drink and “morphia.”  But eventually it all comes crashing down, along with other terrible losses, exemplified by stark descriptions of the battle fields abroad teeming with blood, gas, life-altering wounds and death in all its grisly reality. 

The novel continues to progress from that naive dreamlike state to an almost surrealistic brutality in which every character’s life is dramatically, emphatically changed forever.  But love will survive and it does so for Clarissa and Tom in spite of marriages, separation by an ocean and years, and the interfering efforts of well-intentioned but hypocritical family members who preach what they do not practice. 

The novel is obviously well-researched regarding WWI and its effects on members of all classes.  What is particularly outstanding about this story, however, is the beautiful quality of Kinghorn’s prose which parallels the mental and emotional ambiance of each time period portrayed before, during and after the war.  While some have compared this novel to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this reviewer found the similar aspects of both novels to be more credible herein as the gaiety is more of a desperate attempt at escapism than anything else, not really a celebration in any true sense of the term.

While the characters may be somewhat stereotypical, the complex plot of this novel is extraordinary and holds the reader mesmerized from the first to last page. Extraordinary historical fiction and highly recommended.

The Steady Running of the Hour: A Novel by Justin Go

The Steady Running of the Hour: A Novel.  Justin Go. Simon & Schuster. April 2014. 480 pp.  ISBN#: 9781476704586.

An American citizen, Tristan Campbell, receives a summons to the law office of an attorney in London, England.  It involves a mysterious inheritance that must remain a secret.  The entire inheritance will be Tristan’s if he can find paper proof of his grandmother, Imogen Soames-Andersson, in only seven weeks.  It sounds like an easy job except that no one has heard of Imogen for years; indeed there is some sort of mystery about the marriage of Imogen to the once famous mountain climber, Ashley Walsingham.  So the quest begins!

The novel moves back and forth between Tristan’s search (eighty years after the life of Ashley and Imogen) and Ashley’s experiences as a mountain climber, soldier in WWI, the lover and husband of Imogen, and then as a mountain climber again.  Tristan and Ashley could not be more different if they tried.  Tristan remains very quiet and unbelievably, solidly methodical, considering what the outcome could be.    He travels from London to Europe researching paper trails for Imogen and her sister Eleanor. The trail is fascinating as Eleanor was an artist of some talent and assumed more of a motherly role to her sister.  Imogen is mentioned here and there by name only so it is Eleanor who is the link to provide the full story of the turbulent love story of Imogen and Ashley. Tristan then goes to the places where these sisters and Ashley Walsingham actually lived.

Ashley is truly the most powerful figure in this novel.  He is a talented, intelligent man who has a chiefly unruly and daring spark to his personality that endears him to both Imogen and his fellow mountain-climbing and military peers.  Imogen will try to make him choose between her and the war, but Ashley’s sense of patriotic duty exceeds even his deep, deep feelings for her.  One wonders what lies ahead for these star-crossed lovers who cannot live without each other.

Justin Go’s writing talents clearly excel in the way he provides descriptions of the stark brutality of the war as well as the incessant tension present in the mountain climbing experiences of these characters, undaunted by innumerable, formidable obstacles to success.  Add to that a heightened sensitivity and perception that every character in this novel possesses and one has the perfect combination for a phenomenal read. This is historical fiction depicting a side of cultural history rarely exposed to the public.  There’s something for everyone herein, adventure to romance to mystery to warfare, et al.  Fascinating, literate fiction crafted by a talented writer!

The Never Never Sisters by L. Alison Heller

The Never Never Sisters.  L. Alison Heller. New American Library. June 2014. 352 pp.  ISBN#: 9780451416247.

Dave Reinhardt has been told to stay home from work until a storm in his company blows over. His wife, Paige, a marriage counselor, is totally unaware of the trouble brewing in her own marriage; instead she worries about Dave’s lack of communication and unstable emotional condition.  Paige wonders if this is another Bernie Madoff scandal in Dave’s company about to become public, with accompanying arrests and public denouncement a la media, which love a scandal that will guarantee comments galore.  Even if all is well, the implied crimes in the financial world just about guarantees the end of a bright, successful career.  But Dave is silent, shutting his door and shutting Paige out of whatever darkness may or may not exist in his career and thus perhaps their marriage.

Meanwhile, Paige’s sister, Sloane, has just reappeared after a twenty year absence.  Once a troubled addict and trouble-maker, Sloane has changed substantially, arriving with a fiancé and other friend but still dripping sarcasm or total boredom when with her mother, Vanessa.  As the novel progresses, Paige comes across her mother’s journals, written on the express direction of their therapist and which prove to be amazing revelations that belie the confident, assertive woman Paige knows.

Paige is also presently working with a couple who state they want to stay together and work on their marriage but whose body language, cancellations, and lack of response to direct or indirect questions indicates otherwise.  She finally realizes something about how troubled marriages can begin to work to renew their relationship but her advice in her own life isn’t proving to be as easily attainable!

Just how far will Paige go to finally discover what is really going on in Dave’s work world?  Do her acts indicate a lack of trust that could completely demolish the fragile state of their connection right now? Why is Sloane visiting and can Paige reestablish what was once a normal sisterly relationship?  They have more in common than either initially realizes.

The Never Never Sisters is a captivating read with enough complexity, wit and secret surprises to keep the reader flipping the pages to discover more.  L. Alison Heller shows a remarkable perception about people that is the highlight of this novel, moving the reader through issues that every reader recognizes to some extent!  Very nicely crafted story, L. Alison Heller!

Terminal City: A Novel by Linda Fairstein

Terminal City: A Novel.  Linda Fairstein. Dutton Adult. June 2014. 384 pp. pbk. ISBN #: 9780525953884.

Assistant District Attorney Alex Cooper is called to the scene of another horrific murder.  This time the victim is a young woman who was obviously raped and knifed by a vicious killer.  One odd piece of evidence remains; a carving on the woman’s body that looks like a precisely carved ladder.  Add to this that the murder took place in the famous Waldorf Astoria, the notable hotel in which the President of the United States is to be a resident in a few days. 

Hundreds of videos need to be screened, dozens and dozens need to be interviewed, and of course relatives need to be notified.  Mercer and Mike are among others required to find the killer before POTUS arrives in three days.

Meanwhile, what seemed to be a unique crime is followed by other murders, each with the singular carving of what appears to be a ladder. A few days later while searching for anyone who would have seen someone carrying a large case into the hotel, the mystery becomes more complex.  An underground city exists with residents who are homeless but who feel safe in this putrid, filthy place with its caves and rules and regulations.

So the search continues. A mystery also concerns Mike who had taken a three month leave of absence and is now lying to Coop (Alex Cooper) for her own safety, supposedly. She’s not quite buying it!

Terminal City: A Novel is a fast-moving, intriguing criminal mystery that will satisfy readers who like this genre as well as new readers.  Linda Fairstein knows how to pace the tension and clues, while adding many funny moments to deflect the horror of the crimes that rear their heads during the investigation.  Nicely done, Linda Fairstein!