Review: Every Time We Say Goodbye

I’ve been reading Natalie Jenner’s work since her debut novel, The Jane Austen Society, was released in 2020. She writes really thoughtful and quite interesting historical fiction stories with characters who feel so familiar even though they lived so long ago. Every Time We Say Goodbye is her latest and readers will recognize some of the characters in this tale and will feel as though it’s like revisiting an old friend.

Here’s the book’s description:

In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry's last chance for a dramatic career. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job in as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. There she finds a vibrant movie making scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy.
As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé. Every Time We Say Goodbye is a brilliant exploration of trauma and tragedy, hope and renewal, filled with dazzling characters both real and imaginary, from the incomparable author who charmed the world with her novels The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls.

There was something niggling at me while reading this one, making me wonder why I wasn’t loving it as I expected to. As talented as I think Jenner is, I didn’t feel like she quite brought all the stories together in a cohesive way. There was a lot going on - in two timelines - with a lot of characters. Probably too many characters. I appreciated that Jenner wanted to include some of the real folks who would have been in Italy at that time (Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner to name two), but I felt they didn’t really add anything to the story. Another blogger put it well when we were talking about why this one didn’t hit as we expected. We both love Natasha Lester’s novels and she is a master at sharing information about a specific topic (usually fashion in Lester’s case and the film industry in Jenner’s) and weaving a historical story around it. The weave in Jenner’s story was loose and I think that’s why we were struggling a bit.

All that said, I didn’t find this to be a bad book. I was still interested in the story and wanted to find out how it all ended. I was invested in Vivien’s life and wondered how the tale of la scolaretta would unfold. How did a young, female resistance fighter tie into Vivien’s story? (You’ll have to read it to find out, obviously!)

I remember learning about the Hollywood blacklist and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) way back in university. It’s a fascinating and heartbreaking part of history. So many folks in the film industry were pressured to give up information on their colleagues during the witch hunts simply because Hollywood was trying to prove they were patriotic and not supporting communism. Jenner’s novel didn’t feature the hearings or what was happening in Hollywood. Instead, it showcased how many American filmmakers fled to Europe (the reverse of what happened during the war) to avoid persecution. I don’t think I’ve come across many novels that feature this so heavily and I’d be interested in reading more fiction stories about it.

Even with the inclusion of the WWII storyline, Jenner’s novel is a quieter historical fiction tale. She’s explored topics and a point in time that some may not have read about (I certainly haven’t seen it often in novels) and gives us a glimpse of what life could have been like in 1950s Rome. The war is behind them, but the effects of it were still being felt strongly and on an almost daily basis. It’s not going to be for everyone but if you’re genuinely interested in history and getting a feel of what the time period could have been like? Jenner’s novels are for you.

Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner wasn’t a winner for me but I’m still glad I read it. I enjoyed getting a glimpse into the film industry of 1950s Rome and revisiting characters I had met in her previous novels.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, St. Martin's Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.* 

Review: Lighting Strikes the Silence

Gather around, my friends. It's the time of year when I write, in length, about how amazing the Lane Winslow mystery series is. Iona Whishaw has created a heroine and a series I absolutely cannot get enough of. Lightning Strikes the Silence is the latest installment (the eleventh!) and it was everything I needed it to be!

Here’s the book’s description:

A warm June afternoon in King’s Cove is interrupted by an explosion. Following the sound, Lane goes to investigate. Up a steep path she discovers a secluded cabin and, hiding nearby, a young Japanese girl injured and mute, but very much alive.
At the Nelson Police Station, Inspector Darling and Sergeant Ames, following up on a report of a nighttime heist at the local jeweller’s, discover the jeweller himself dead in his office, apparently bludgeoned, and a live wire hanging off the back of the building.
As Lane attempts to speed the search for the girl’s family with her own lines of inquiry, Darling and his team dig deeper into a local connection between the jeweller and a fellow businessman that leads across the pond to Cornwall and north to a mining interest on the McKenzie River.
Offices are being ransacked and someone is following Lane. Through the alleyways of Nelson onto the country roads and woods trails of King’s Cove, the latest Winslow mystery is a study in bygone promises and lingering prejudice.

I love Whishaw’s novels for a number of reasons so I’ll go through them all and how I felt about them while reading this latest book. The first is the mystery element. I’m almost always surprised with how things turn out but not in a jaw-dropping, I-never-saw-this-coming kind of way. Part of the surprise, for me, could be because there are usually two cases happening simultaneously, sometimes connected, sometimes not. There’s always something Lane finds herself caught up in (much to Darling’s dismay!) as well as a case the police in Nelson are working on solving. I find the two mysteries allow me to just go along for the ride, trusting that all will be revealed at the right moment. In this book, I had a feeling I knew who the murderer was a little earlier than usual but the reasoning and how it all unfolded was still enough of a surprise to satisfy me.

Speaking of the mystery, I was lucky enough to see Whishaw at an event the week before publication day. She was interesting, delightful, and so much fun. I’m really glad I made the trek to the event! Given the multiple mysteries in her books, I was surprised to learn that Whishaw is an absolute pantser. She doesn’t plot out her stories and sometimes doesn’t even know who the murderer may be. She also said (and I love this) that when a dead body comes along as she’s writing, she has a personal rule that the body must stay and she just has to figure out what to do about it. Fascinating!

I also adore the historical aspect of these novels. I’m always learning a little nugget (or two…or three…) when I read Whishaw’s books, which I love. Recorded Canadian history may be a little more recent than history from other countries, but it is vast and so much is unknown or not talked about nearly enough. In this novel, Whishaw shines a light on the expulsion and internment of Japanese folks during World War II. This was yet another moment in history when white settlers thought they knew best and banished a group from a particular area. And for those who say that at least Canada wasn’t as bad as the US? Not in this case. It took far longer for Japanese individuals to be allowed to move back to the coastal areas of British Columbia than it did their counterparts in the United States. It took until 1949 until those of Japanese descent (even those born in Canada) were allowed to move freely throughout the country.

Finally, I love the characters Whishaw has created. Lane is based on her mother (she said during the event that people always ask why she “had” to make Lane so beautiful. She says it’s because Lane is based on her mom and her mom was beautiful, therefore Lane must be beautiful, too!) but even with Whishaw’s mom as the inspiration, Lane is very much her own woman and I love her so very much. There are many, many characters in King’s Cove (based on the real town of Queen’s Bay, as I learned) and Nelson but every single one of them has a purpose and a history. The novels just wouldn’t be the same without the extremely strong cast of secondary characters. I particularly liked getting to see another side of one King’s Cove character in this story!

Lighting Strikes the Silence was an absolute joy to read. Iona Whishaw has written another winner in her Lane Winslow mystery series and I cannot wait for everyone to read it. And if you haven’t started the series yet, well, what are you waiting for? Get reading!

*An egalley was provided by the publisher, Touchwood Editions, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: Disturbing the Dead

Presenting: the book that caused a major reading slump! I loved every second I spent reading Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong and had no idea what to do with myself when it was over. It’s the third book in her Rip Through Time series and it’s by far my favourite - they just keep getting stronger!

Here’s the book’s description:

Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. Though inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray, and is developing true friends―and feelings―in this century.
So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn't that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body.

A friend mentioned that she got a little bit bored with the mystery and I can kind of see what she means. While I was invested in finding out what happened to the “modern” mummy, the other bits of the story were slightly more compelling. I wasn’t bored by it though and enjoyed the other characters I got to “meet” while Mallory and Gray tried to help solve the murder (except for, you know, the murderer - not a fan of them!).

I very much enjoyed getting back to Victorian Scotland, especially since I was just in Edinburgh (again) over Christmas. I found myself constantly Googling areas and checking my photos to see if we had ended up in some of the same places Mallory had been describing. The city, even now, is full of history that is almost impossible to fathom, especially for a tourist who’s only there for a week or so. (As busy as it was over Christmas, something I wasn’t quite expecting for some reason, it was still a remarkable place to spend the holidays.)

At the risk of being too spoilery, we get a bit more information about the time travel aspect of the story in this book. Which is kind of why the mystery took a bit of a backseat. I think my jaw was hanging open for a good portion of the story because I really wasn’t sure how it was all going to turn out!

This series may frustrate history buffs but for those of us who enjoy history but don’t actually study the Victorian era? Oh, it’s perfect. I love the time period, the location, the characters, the time travel, and the mysteries. It’s everything I love wrapped up in one hell of a compelling series. One that I really hope continues!

Historical fiction and mystery lovers will thoroughly enjoy Kelley Armstrong’s latest book, Disturbing the Dead. The Rip Through Time series is incredibly entertaining and is well worth a read. (Even if it did give me a huge book hangover!)

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Review: The Lost Lover

The Lost Lover is the third in a four book historical fiction series by Karen Swan that gets the reader ever closer to solving a mystery that’s been teased and alluded to over three books. In this book, we get to hear Flora’s side of the story and it went in a direction I wasn’t expecting, which helped me keep turning the pages to see how much was going to be revealed.

Here’s the book’s description:

Young Flora MacQueen has always dreamed of more than a hard life on the small Scottish island of St Kilda. And when she catches the eye of visiting adventurer and wealthy businessman James Callaghan her future seems brighter.
Only, as the islanders prepare to leave their homes for the final time, Flora finds her dreams shattered. With her beauty her only currency she must step forward in ways that would have been unthinkable back home in order to support her family. Soon Flora is the toast of glamorous Paris. Fame and fortune are hers for the taking but she knows only too well by now that rich men make empty promises.
But then a secret comes to light that will change everything . . .

I think if you haven’t read The Last Summer or The Stolen Hours, the first two books in the Wild Isles series, don’t read The Lost Lover. You’ll be, well, lost! And you really won’t understand why you’re reading about certain things and what kind of importance they have. I think that’s kind of why I didn’t find this one to be as strong as the others. I don’t know if it was my mood or the book itself, but it really just felt like a placeholder until we get the fourth book, FINALLY start moving forward in time again, and find out what, exactly, happened on that island.

This book tells Flora’s story as the residents of St. Kilda spend their last winter on the island before being evacuated to the Scottish mainland (can you call another island “mainland”?Main island? Big island?). The story starts back at the beginning where we meet all three young women and then follows them as important (in the plot sense) characters visit (and leave) the island. The thing is, the reader has already experienced some of the major plot points in Effie’s story (book one) and then in Mhairi’s story (book two). By this point, I felt kind of over it and wanted new information. Which I didn’t really get until the very last page of the book (there was another bit of news part way through but it didn’t surprise me nearly as much as the reveal at the end).

I found that Flora’s story really emphasized how difficult it would have been for the St. Kilda residents to be plucked off their island and set down in a large town (or even a city) full of sights, sounds, smells, and tastes that they’d never, ever experienced before. And were definitely not prepared for. The islanders didn’t even use money on St. Kilda - how were they to navigate paying for anything? Or even knowing what they needed to pay for? I feel like some of the folks would have been able to gain understanding of their new world at a more leisurely pace (though it would have felt breakneck to them) but Flora was thrust into a completely different world, one the average person would have struggled with. She had no idea what was being asked of her and it infuriated me that those she met didn’t try to explain it. It wasn’t that they were trying to take advantage of her naivete. It was more, they knew she didn’t know any better and just…didn’t care to help her learn. Sure, she learned how to be presented like a shiny object, how to look beautiful, and how to perform. But social skills? Those she was severely lacking in the world she now found herself in. All I could do was hope that things would work out for her.

Reviewing a book in a series is always tricky but this one feels harder, somehow. If I say too much, the first two books may get spoiled. Too little and it’s just a bunch of words on a screen that aren’t really saying much of anything. I’m glad I got to read Flora’s side of the story in The Lost Lover but I found myself wishing we could just get to book four in Karen Swan’s Wild Isles series sooner rather than later. I’m still very much looking forward to that last book and am so impatient because I must find out what happened on that island!

*A copy of this novel was provided by the Canadian distributor, Publishers Group Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*