Although the societal shifts that happened after World War I might have been more ground-breaking, by the 1940s, women were still mostly confined to traditional roles as wives and mothers or to a few “approved” careers, such as secretaries, sales clerks, or nurses.  The advent of World War II and the resulting manpower shortage once again opened opportunities—and challenges—for women to explore vastly different and sometimes dangerous occupations.  This month’s selection of stories transports the reader from England to Russia to the Hawaiian islands as intrepid ladies in difficult times take on exciting, essential, and unprecedented work. In roughly chronological order, we begin with THE ROSE CODE by Kate Quinn.  As German submarines ravage British shipping, Bletchley Park, a stately house in Buckinghamshire, is converted into the top-secret headquarters of a group of academics, scientists, mathematicians, and puzzle fanatics whose goal is breaking the German military communication code.  Included in this group are three very unlikely code-breakers: Canadian debutante Osla, beautiful, wealthy and one of Prince Phillip’s flirts; East-Ender Mab, who burns to utilize her wits and expertise to rise from poverty to make a genteel marriage, and shy spinster Beth, whose brilliance at solving puzzles soon turns her into…

For most of us, one of the delights of the holiday season is the yearly celebration of traditions, both personal family ones, and ones like holly, Christmas trees, carols, and decking the house with greenery that have been passed down for generations.  Which makes the holiday season the perfect time to delve into that time of tradition and pageantry, the medieval past, where brave and determined women defied the norms of their times to exercise power and influence. Beginning with the earliest, we have THE IRISH PRINCESS by Elizabeth Chadwick. War is the norm of the day, both in England, where Henry II has prevailed in the civil war between his mother Empress Mathilde and her cousin, Stephen of Blois, and in Ireland, where Diarmit, King of Leinster, is forced into English exile after losing his battle against the Irish High King.  Seeking support to recover his lost lands, Diarmit appeals to Henry, who is still sorting out how to control and reward those who fought for and against him. With Henry’s permission, he recruits Richard de Clare—later known as Strongbow—the former Earl of Pembroke who was stripped of his title for supporting Stephen.  In return for his fighting prowess,…

I wrote a romance starring a quirky bookseller named Claire who adores historical romance. Namely, Regency romances featuring dukes. In the story, you’ll see that she is even a member of a club called the Triple Ds, which stands for the Dashing Duke Diehards. They meet the third Thursday of every month to see their chairwoman read a spicy scene with a real-life male romance cover model. It’s a hoot and everyone has a great time. Anyway, I digress. That was just one of the many cute and funny moments in my debut romance, HOW TO SURVIVE A MODERN-DAY FAIRY TALE, which came out on November 30th. Claire’s love of historical romance is one of the few things she and I have in common. I began my life-long love affair with romance after picking up a medieval romance by Elizabeth Lowell when I was thirteen years-old. Since then, I’ve read hundreds, but I’ve been particularly smitten with stories about dukes. So in keeping with this Duke-ish theme, here are Claire’s top 5 favorite historical romances starring Dukes: THE BEAST OF BESWICK by Amalie Howard Blurb: Lord Nathaniel Harte, the disagreeable Duke of Beswick, spends his days smashing porcelain, antagonizing his…

As we approach the long grey months of winter, this month we’ll extract from the dim past some new and fascinating versions of Ancient Greece’s legends and myths from Ancient Greece, told from the perspective of little-known participants.  Were these slaves and queens real historical characters, or only the legends from a myth?  Regardless, their stories are compelling and offer a on the dynamic of male power that is still a force today. We begin in nearer times with a more classic love story, Taylor Caldwell’s GLORY AND LIGHTNING: A NOVEL OF ANCIENT GREECE.  Born in the Greek city of Miletus to a wealthy father who refused to raise any female children, the infant Aspasia was spirited away.  Growing up in the Persian harem of Al Taliph, she is trained to become the most seductive and intelligent of courtesans. It is there that she meets and captivates Pericles, ruler of Athens. She will become his lover, confidante, friend and advisor who sees him through the political upheavals of Athens, the Peloponnesian War, revolt, and natural disasters. Based on the life of a real but obscure woman, Taylor’s novel immerses us in the richness of ancient Greek and Persian culture, where…

History was one of my least favorite classes in school. Don’t get me wrong–I had some great teachers and I enjoyed a lot of the South Carolina history we were taught, but a lot of what we learned seemed far off and not relevant to my life. I knew that wasn’t true because one of my awesome teachers quoted us time and again about not forgetting the past or being doomed to repeat it, but I didn’t see it reflected through the history books we studied. Very little was taught about the various individual lives of people, in particular the women in history. Anne Frank’s story brought to life what the Jewish people suffered under Hitler, but I learned about her mainly through my literature classes. In fact, it was through literature classes that I learned about how women were treated as property or outcasted from society for exhibiting behaviors identical to the men of their times. Now here I sit, many, many years later, and I am still learning through literature. Whether it’s a graphic novel, such as PERSEPOLIS by Marjane Satrapi, or a novel such as BRIGID OF KILDARE by Heather Terrell, there is so much history to…

As lazy late summer beckons toward fall, we turn to stories about extraordinary women from the Far East, the circumstances, and actual characters of several based on real events. Beginning chronologically, John J. Healey’s THE SAMURAI’S DAUGHTER presents the unusual tale of a little-known episode in history.  In 1614, Japan sent a delegation to Spain to establish trade and cultural relationships with King Phillip III.  One member, samurai Shiro, became a popular figure at court and won the heart of a noble Spanish lady.  The story is narrated by their daughter, Soledad Maria, called Masako by her father, who is raised as both a samurai and a European.  After her mother’s death, Masako’s father decides to return them to Japan, sending them on a peril-filled journey halfway across the world.  Once back in Japan, they face new dangers from enemies at home.  Throughout this transition, Masako must decide who she really is—Spanish lady or samurai nobility.  Full of detailed descriptions of the customs and privileges of upper-class Europeans and Japanese at the time, Healey’s story illuminates Masako’s struggle between personal desires and family duty. Autumn Bardot’s DRAGON LADY brings us a fictionalized account of an amazing real-life woman in 18th…

A new school year is starting, and thoughts typically would be on the fun new school clothes, the location of one’s locker, the squeak of tennis shoes on the gym floor, or if a best friend or favorite teacher is in one’s classroom. Instead, we find ourselves stuck with another wave of Covid and so many uncertainties about what to do and how to stay safe. I work in the school system and the fear and uncertainty are real, especially for someone like me with an underlying health condition that already impacts my breathing. Rather than focusing on the negative, and all of the things that are out of my immediate control, I’ve instead indulged myself in reading and enjoying books centering around the school system. Any time favorite books featuring a school theme are mentioned, Denise Swanson is the first author who comes to my mind! Denise Swanson was a school psychologist before she became an author, and her wealth of knowledge and empathy for students and teachers shows in each one of her books (with the exception of that horrid social worker in MURDER OF A ROYAL PAIN lol). BODY OVER TROUBLED WATERS features school psychologist Skye Denison-Boyd…

When you read this blog post, I’ll probably be flying through the air on my way across the country to see family I haven’t seen in person in well over a year. I’m beyond excited to get on a plane and go somewhere I haven’t been for some time, see people I adore, and get out of my house! I’m also traveling with my mom and we’re having a tiny girls’ trip before we reach our final destination of Southern California. We are PUMPED. That being said, over the last year+, books have really been my salvation and a way for me to travel, so to speak. I love when a sense of setting is just as important to the story and I feel immersed in the place the characters are figuring out their lives. Here are a few recent reads where I felt like I was truly there, and felt a sense of escapism through reading: SCANDAL IN THE VIP SUITE by Nadine Gonzalez When two people accidentally get double-booked in the same luxurious suite at a gorgeous resort in Miami, instead of trying to find different rooms, they just decide to share. What could happen? A whole lot!…

Although marriages take place all during the year, June was traditionally the month of brides and weddings. For this June, as we emerge from isolation to actually be able to attend events like weddings again, we’ll look at novels that relate the stories of some famous romances and marriages based on real events. Starting with the royal, we have BEFORE THE CROWN by Flora Harding.  In the years before World War II, young Princess Elizabeth’s visit with her family to the Royal Naval College leads to her meeting the naval cadet detailed to escort and entertain them—Prince Phillip, son of the deposed Greek king and nephew of her uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, who becomes the major supporter of the romance.  Smitten with the handsome blond prince, Elizabeth’s attachment never waivers.  Nine years later, with the Prince a decorated combat veteran intent on a brilliant naval career, Elizabeth will fight tenaciously against her family’s reluctance and the court’s disapproval to insist on marrying none but this penniless foreign prince.  A tale of “royal secrets and forbidden love.” A commoner who became royal stars in our next selection, THE GIRL IN THE WHITE GLOVES by Kerri Maher.  Defying her proper family to…

Alma Katsu is an award-winning novelist who happens to have spent 34 years in intelligence with CIA and NSA. Her first spy novel, Red Widow, the story of two women CIA officers pitted against one another in a race to find a deadly mole inside Langley, was named a NY Times Editors Choice and has been optioned for TV by FOX. In the world of espionage, it seems there’s finally a place for women—at least on television and, to a lesser extent, movies. Carrie Mathison (Homeland). Elizabeth Jennings (The Americans). Sydney Bristow (Alias). Maya (Zero Dark Thirty). If you look at lists of espionage novels, you’ll see that this is where things break down a little. Lists of the most popular spy novels tend to be dominated by male writers and male protagonists. If women write in the field, it tends to be historical fiction, standalone novels about women in the resistance during World War II or toiling away in the steno pool during the Cold War. And while these books are inspiring, as an intelligence professional it was a little disappointing to not see the work of my female peers being represented in literature. This was my main motivation…