Standalone Title – Page 21 – Flippin' Pages Book Reviews

The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin

Tracy’s Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone Title

Release Date: September 10, 2024

Life has never been easy for single mothers and their children, but late summer of 1939 was especially hard for young widow Emma Taylor and her daughter Olivia. With England on the brink of joining WWII, Emma is doing her best to provide for her child, but with her meager savings running low and prices rising, she is beginning to feel desperate. She would willingly work, but with a marriage bar prohibiting married women and widows with children from working most jobs, she is having a hard time finding a job that will enable her to earn a living, but still care for her daughter. Her luck seems to take a turn for the better when she happens to be in the right place at the right time – in this case, the café in Boot’s the Chemist store. She overhears a librarian resigning her position as she is to be married, and she takes the opportunity to ask about a position and is hired to work in the Boot’s Booklover’s Library – a Lending Library. But with war looming, even having a job, might not be enough to keep her daughter safe, decisions will have to be made about Olivia’s future, decisions that no parent wants to make. Keep your child close and potentially in harm’s way or send them away to live with strangers and hopefully away from air raids?

This story is a heartwarming and at times heartbreaking story of not only a woman struggling to keep her tiny family together during the war but rediscovering her own love of books and sharing that love with her daughter and the patrons of the lending library and maybe even finding a happy ending for herself. The story takes place at the start of England’s involvement in the war and gives the reader a glimpse of life in Nottingham during the terror of the blitz, as well as Emma’s volunteer efforts and her relationship with her young daughter, her friends, coworkers and library patrons. In addition to a fantastic story, fans of Ms. Martin’s novel, The Last Bookshop in London, will be delighted when Emma is sent to London and happens upon Primrose Hill Books and meets Grace and Mr. Evans. If you enjoy well-researched, emotional Homefront WWII fiction with relatable characters and literary references, then look no further, you have found your next read!

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *

A Rogue’s Reckoning by Jane Charles

Tracy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: Revenge of the Wallflowers, #27

Release Date: September 3, 2024

Five years ago, Lord Seth Claxton broke Frances “Franny” Hawthorn’s heart when he suddenly ended their ten-year friendship and told her that if he saw her in London, he would ignore her. Stunned and betrayed, Frances tries to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and move on. She finally makes it to London and finds a way to support herself that does not include marriage, she along with her dear friend Bethany Grey move into a house in Mayfair that is also the location of Athena’s Salon, a literary salon and gambling den owned by Bethany and another friend the Duchess of Ellings. It is also the source of Franny’s freedom, as the ladies have employed her as the manager of the gambling side of the business. She finally feels like her life has meaning and that she can once again be happy. But all that changes when she attends a ball with Bethany and sees HIM. Shocked that he actually wants to rekindle their relationship, Franny decides to teach Seth a lesson, she will let him believe that the past between them is all water under the bridge and that she is willing to be friends again, and then she will destroy him like he did her, she just has to make sure she protects her heart this time.

Lord Seth Claxton met Franny on one of the worst days of his life and she quickly became his best friend and the love of his life. But the closer they grew, the more Seth worried about losing another person he loved and finally he broke things off with her and moved to London to make his fortune. In London Seth opens a gaming club and develops a reputation as a rogue and soon he withdraws from proper society. But a chance meeting at a masked ball makes him realize that walking away from Franny was the biggest mistake of his life and he will do anything to win back her love, even risk his heart. But Franny is not about to make it easy for him, leaving him to wonder if his attempt to save himself from losing her has actually cost him his chance at HEA.

This was a well-written, nicely paced story about friendship, love and second chances served with a healthy helping of revenge. I am not a fan of the revenge trope – I get it, I understand it – I just don’t like it. I felt that Frances was justified in her anger and her hurt but stooping to pretending to forgive him just to further her need for revenge made her appear petty. I would have had more respect for her if she admitted that she still loved him, let go of her need to hurt him and instead forced him to explain why he left her. But I guess that would not have been much of a story, so instead this was a book filled with emotion, anger, angst, deceit, revenge, hope, fear and finally forgiveness and a HEA. This book is part of the author collaboration series “The Revenge of the Wallflowers” and can be read as a standalone title with no issues. While this book was not one, I would read again, it did end nicely and if you like revenge stories – this book would be perfect for you.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by the publisher/author. All opinions in this review are my own. *

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