www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/12/books/romance-novel-quiz.html

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/books/bridget-jones-romance-books.html

An e book bargain today

The summer is not quite over yet! Here is a fun book for those last lazy days whether at the beach, on the porch or in the AC.

Phoebe writes greeting cards for a living. It has all gone a bit sour as her latest romance ended with her partner getting ready too marry someone else (the nerve!). So, this Brit goes to visit her wealthy sister in LA. Readers will enjoy watching how her California dreams come true.

Lindsey becomes friendly with Bel who has a massive crush on Ren. In a modern take on Cyrano, Phoebe tries to move this relationship forward. But…who would make the best couple? Read this one to fine out!

The descriptions of LA, food, houses, beaches, etc are all designed to give readers a great armchair travel experience. There are times to laugh and also some moments of deeper emotion.

All in all, a pretty perfect summer read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper 360 for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 05 September 2023

PW calls this one a treat.

From the Publisher

I have read a number of the historical fiction titles written by Ms. Jenoff. She has mastered the craft of telling involving stories that feature characters about whom readers will care. That is certainly the case in this story which echoes the trauma of WWII and is told through two principal narrators. There are sadnesses, mystery and a department store in these pages. Intriguing for sure.

It is easy to recommend this title to those who already know this author and/or to those who are coming to her stories for the first time. Fans of historical fiction will enjoy this one.

Many thanks to the team at HTP for the invite to this blog tour.

The book:

Last Twilight In Paris

By Pam Jenoff

On Sale: February 4, 2025

ISBN: 9780778307983

Park Row Hardcover 

Price: $28.99

What it is about:

“A fast-paced and vibrant wartime tale of holding on to love against the odds and learning to fight for the truth.” –Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Daughter

A Parisian department store, a mysterious necklace and a woman’s quest to unlock a decade-old mystery are at the center of this riveting novel of love and survival, from New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff

London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a department store in Paris, and she is certain she has seen the necklace before worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe —and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend Franny during the war. 
 
Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise seeks help from her former boss Ian, with whom she shares a romantic history.  The necklace leads them to discover the dark history of Lévitan—a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison, and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there, torn apart from her husband when the Germans invaded France.
 
Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the department store and Franny’s death. But nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever. Inspired by the true story of Lévitan, Last Twilight in Paris is both a gripping mystery and an unforgettable story about sacrifice, resistance and the power of love to transcend in even the darkest hours.

The author:

Pam Jenoff is the author of several books of historical fiction, including the NYT bestseller The Orphan’s Tale. She holds a degree in international affairs from George Washington University and a degree in history from Cambridge, and she received her JD from UPenn. Her novels are inspired by her experiences working at the Pentagon and as a diplomat for the State Department handling Holocaust issues in Poland. She lives with her husband and 3 children near Philadelphia, where she teaches law.

Start reading (you will want to keep going)

Prologue

Helaine

Paris, 1943 

Darkness. 

Helaine stumbled forward, unable to see through the black void that surrounded her. She could feel the shoulders of the others jostling on either side. The smell of unwashed bodies rose, mingling with Helaine’s own. Her hand brushed against a rough wall, scraping her knuckles. Someone ahead tripped and yelped. 

Hours earlier, when Helaine had been brought from her underground cell at the police station into the adjacent holding area, she was surprised to see other women waiting. She had not encountered anyone since her arrest. She had studied the women, who looked to be from all walks of life, trying to discern some commonality among their varied ages and classes that had caused them to be here. There was only one: they were Jews. The yellow star they wore, whether soiled and crudely sewn onto a worn, secondhand dress or pressed crisply against the latest Parisian finery, was identical—and it made them all the same. 

They had stood in the bare holding area, not daring to speak. Helaine was certain that her arrest had been some sort of mis take. She had done nothing wrong. They had to free her. But even as she thought this, she knew that the old world of being a French citizen with rights was long gone. 

An hour passed, then two. There was nowhere to sit, and a few people dropped to the floor. An elderly woman dozed against the wall, mouth agape. But for the slight rise and fall of her chest, she might have been dead. Hunger gnawed at Helaine and she wished that she still had the baked goods she purchased at the market just before she was taken. The meager breads, which had seemed so pathetic days earlier, now would have been a feast. But her belongings had been confiscated at arrest. 

Helaine looked upward through the thin slit of window near the ceiling. They were still in Paris. The sour smell from the city street and the sounds of cars and footsteps despite the curfew were familiar, if not comforting. How long they would stay here, she did not know. Helaine was torn. She did not want to remain in this empty room forever. Yet she also dreaded leaving, for wherever they were going would surely be worse. 

Finally, the door had opened. “Sortir!” a voice ordered them out in native French, reminding Helaine that the policemen, who had brought them here and who were keeping them captive, were not Germans, but their own people. 

Helaine had filed into the dimly lit corridor with the others. They exited the police station and stepped outside onto the pavement. At the sight of the familiar buildings and the street leading away from the station, Helaine momentarily considered fleeing. She had no idea, though, where she would go. She imagined running to her childhood home, debated whether her estranged mother would take her in or turn her away. But the women were heavily guarded and there was no real possibility of escape. Instead, Helaine breathed the fresh air in great gulps, sensing that she might not be in the open again for quite some time. 

The women were herded up a ramp toward an awaiting truck. Helaine recoiled. They were being placed in the back part of the vehicle where goods should have been carried, not people. Helaine wanted to protest but did not dare. Smells of stale grain and rotting meat, the truck’s previous cargo, assaulted her nose, mixing with her own stench in the warm air. It had been three days since she had bathed or changed and her dress was wrinkled and filthy, her once-luminous black curls dull and matted against her head. 

When the women were all inside the truck, the back hatch shut with an ominous click. “Where are they taking us?” someone whispered. Silence. No one knew and they were all too afraid to venture a guess. They had heard the stories of the trains headed east to awful places from which no one ever returned. Helaine wondered how long the journey would be. 

As they bumped along the Paris streets, Helaine’s bones, already sore from sleeping on the hard prison cell floor, cried out in pain. Her mouth was dry and her stomach empty. She wanted water and a meal, a hot bath. She wanted home. 

If home was a place that even existed anymore. Helaine’s husband, Gabriel, was missing in Germany, his fate unknown. She had scarcely spoken with her parents since before the war. And Helaine herself had been taken without notice. Nobody knew that she had been arrested or had any idea where she had gone. It was as if she simply no longer existed. 

To distract herself, Helaine tried to picture the route they were taking outside the windowless truck, down the boulevards she had just days earlier walked freely, past the cafés and shops. The familiar locations should have been some small comfort. But this might well be the last time she ever came this way, Helaine realized, and the thought only worsened her despair. 

Several minutes later, the truck stopped with a screech. They were at a train station, Helaine guessed. The back hatch to the truck opened and the women peered out into pitch blackness. “Raus!” a voice commanded. That they were under the watch of Germans now seemed to confirm Helaine’s worst fears about where they were headed. “Schnell!” Someone let out a cry, a mix of the anguish and uncertainty they all felt. 

The women clambered from the truck and Helaine stumbled, banging her knee and yelping. “Quiet,” a woman’s voice beside her cautioned fearfully. A hand reached out and helped her down the ramp with an unexpectedly gentle touch. 

Outside the truck it was the tiniest bit lighter, and Helaine was just able to make out some sort of loading dock. The group moved forward into a large building. 

Now Helaine found herself in complete darkness once more. This was how she had come to be in an unfamiliar building, shuffling forward blindly with a group of women she did not know, uncertain of where they were going or the fate that might befall them. She could see nothing, only feel the fear and confusion in the air around her. They seemed to be in some sort of corridor, pressed even more closely together than they had been. Helaine put her hand on the shoulder of the woman in front of her, trying hard not to fall again. 

They were herded roughly through a doorway, into a room that was also unlit. No one moved or spoke. Helaine had heard rumors of mass executions, groups of people gassed or simply shot. The Germans might do that to them now. Her skin prickled. She thought of those she loved most, Gabriel and, despite everything that had happened, her parents. Helaine wanted their faces, not fear, to be her final thought. 

Bright lights turned on suddenly, illuminating the space around them. “Mon Dieu!” someone behind her exclaimed softly. Helaine blinked her eyes, scarcely daring to believe what she saw. They were not in a camp or a prison at all. Instead, they were standing in the main showroom of what had once been one of the grandest department stores in Paris.

Excerpted from LAST TWILIGHT IN PARIS by Pam Jenoff. Copyright © 2025 by Pam Jenoff. Published by Park Row Books, an imprint of HTP/HarperCollins.

Links:

Buy Links:

HarperCollins: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/last-twilight-in-paris-pam-jenoff?variant=42640819388450 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=9780778307983&tag=hcg-02-20 

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/last-twilight-in-paris-pam-jenoff/1145679315?ean=9780778387794 

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-department-of-stolen-heirlooms-original-pam-jenoff/21476022?ean=9780778307983 

Social Links:

Author Website: https://pamjenoff.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamjenoff/ 

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/213562.Pam_Jenoff 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pam-Jenoff/1216746581800099 

Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/PamJenoff 

From the Publisher

Over 100 Fun Games, Puzzles, and Journal Prompts!

by Jen Tousey

Do you know (or have) a child who is always on a screen when you travel? Would you like to offer a more old fashioned alternative that does not require charging? If so, definitely think about getting this book that provides a good deal of entertainment within its pages.

There are many different kinds of activities in here, beginning with a map to (literally) map out the trip. The old fashioned license plate game comes up next followed by street sign (and some other) bingo games. From there, move on to riddles, word searches, codes, mazes and more. Throughout this book is filled with colorful illustrations.

So…pack some pencils and see if your child can complete some of these challenges while en route. They offer some good diversion.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Callisto Kids for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 11 March 2025

Transient Desires

A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery

by Donna Leon

Transient Desires is Donna Leon’s thirtieth (!) book about Guido Brunetti. What an accomplishment to have kept a series fresh over so many novels..

In thinking about this title, I concluded that it is a story of place and character, as compared to a classic mystery. There are people good and bad, those with and without morals, those who get caught up in situations with difficult consequences, vicims, various types of love and more. Venice is also critical part of this story. Areas of the city that were new to me were in this book as were the canals, cafes and tourist sites along, of course, with Brunetti’s home.

My favorite of all of the people in this novel is Brunetti. His desire to do right, his willingness to apologize when wrong, his trying to help others and his love of lunch and Paola (his wife) all play their part.

The plot is not dense. Two young girls are injured and left at a hospital. The story goes from there as it impacts a number of others.

If you are going to be a new reader of Brunetti, start at the beginning with Death at La Fenice. All other Leon fans welcome our Commissario back! Now I just have to wait for #31.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Native Hawaiian Ackerman sets her newest novel in a place she knows well and clearly loves. I am sure that, like Iwa, she is concerned about the ecology of the island.

Two people meet. They are Iwa and Dane. Each has feelings for Hawaii though their work and hopes for the island may differ. When they meet, what will happen? How will their pasts influence their futures? Throw is rain forests, surfing, Portugal and the novel moves forward.

Those who like books with settings that are vividly brought to life will enjoy this title. The same is true for those who like to read romances.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the team at HTP for this title. All opinions are my own.

From the Publisher

Close to Death is a take on an AgathaChristie style mystery with the additional spin of this author”s cleverness. It is the latest in the series that features Detective Hawthorne and, yes, the character Anthony Horowitz.

This time the structure of the book is a bit different. Hawthorne, who gives Horowitz case material for his novels, is revealing a past puzzler. Some of the novel is a take on those events and other parts involve the perspectives of the two protagonists.

A close is a kind of dead end street. In this upscale one, a number of neighbors detest the newest family. The annoying, inconsiderate and very wealthy Kenworthy is murdered. The suspects include a GP, a retired barrister, two elderly former nuns, a chess grandmaster, a dentist and those around them. Whodunnit? Why? The pages turn as readers wait to fond out.

Last year I heard the author speak. He was very entertaining, just as he is in his writing. i think that he was enjoying himself here. The book offers a good read.

Note that, although this is part of a series, it can be read on its own.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 16 April 2024

Mary Kirk, Bessiewallis Warfield, Diana Spencer…their stories entwine in this historical novel that is largely based on truth. It is a page turning and fascinating look at life in America and Europe from 1912 until 1997.

Mary and Wallis became friends in their teens; Wallis married an American pilot; Mary married a French pilot. Wallis divorced and subsequently married Ernest Simpson. You probably all know who her third husband was… but do you know who Mary married next? I won’t spoil the book by telling you.

Mary and Wallis’s stories come alive in a glittering London. The story of Alex and Rachel, who are impacted by Diana’s death, takes place in 1997. Choices are made by all with implications and consequences. I truly enjoyed this book and suggest it highly to fans of historical fiction.

The best historical fiction of 2025 — so far

https://www.thetimes.com/article/e8af2ef0-6403-490e-b666-74122addbd86?shareToken=42b7b186b6a13154872690b99fb6517e