The Trouble With You: one woman's choice between playing it safe and risking it all

The Trouble With You by Ellen Feldman is a story of a young woman in post WWII New York City when she is faced with the choice between playing it safe and risking everything for what is right. As the fighting men are coming home from war, the country is on a high note and settling into the life of marriage, family and a booming economy. In an instant, the rosy future of Fanny Fabricant was turned upside down. Educated for a career as a wife and mother, she is torn between being the “nice girl” like her cousin Mimi and being the rebel like her Aunt Rose. Fanny takes a job in radio serials and forges friendships with an actress and a man who writes the series and comes face-to-face with the blacklist and McCarthyism. Will she follow her heart or will she allow societal norms to dictate her actions? 

I thoroughly enjoy Ellen Feldman’s stories as she writes about the stories in the aftermath of war, a time most stories gloss over or forget. The Trouble With You features a scary time in the United States as the Cold War begins to heat up and the fear of communism is everywhere and the one man leading the charge. It is an interesting story; however, I would have liked to see and feel more of the impact of the blacklist and the panic going on with McCarthyism. It was talked about but I feel it didn’t quite come across as how much of an impact the Hollywood blacklist had spread. I enjoyed Fanny as she struggles with her choices. Overall, I enjoyed The Trouble With You  and I look forward to reading more stories from Ms. Feldman. If you are interested in stories of life after the war, I recommend The Trouble With You. 

The Trouble With You is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook

Hold You Down: an emotional ride for single Black mothers in 1980s New York City

Hold You Down by Tracy Brown is a story about the perils of love and the ties that bind us. Mercy and Lenox Howard have always had each other. Abandoned by their mother, raised by their grandmother, they grew up on the mean streets of Harlem. As single moms with young sons, they are determined to survive and give their sons brighter futures. Mercy is the quiet, straight laced, playing the book and yet struggles to make ends meet. Lenox is the diva, the wild child, always looking for excitement and making it big in life. Their boys, Judah and Deon, are more brothers than cousins, and have forged a bond that seems unbreakable. When Lenox believes that success and power is hers for the taking as she heads down a path that will forever alter the course of her life as well as the life of her loved ones. 

I read Ms. Brown’s previous book, Single Black Female and knew I was in for an emotional ride. Hold You Down takes place in New York City during the late 1980s into the 1990s. It is a powerful, heartfelt story of a family trying to better themselves and the challenges they face. There were beautiful moments of celebration and family joys. There were gut wrenching moments of tears and devastation. I admire the strength of the characters as they come to grips with their lots in life and do their best to overcome them. Ms. Brown gives readers a hard-hitting, gritty, no-holds-bar story of life for black single mothers in 1980s New York. She does not hold back from the realities that Mercy and Lenox face and the Catch-22 they live in. Be prepared to laugh and cry with Mercy, Lenox and their sons. I highly recommend Hold You Down. 

Hold You Down is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook

Paris Never Leaves You: a story of love and the cost of survival

Paris Never Leaves You by Ellen Feldman is the story of Charlotte Foret who survived the Paris Occupation in WWII with her young daughter, Vivi to escape to New York City where she works as an editor for a publishing company. She receives a letter from someone she has no desire to speak to, wanting the past to remain the past, she ignores it. Vivi is now 14 year and has many questions about their life in Paris, the war and her father who died in battle. Charlotte is unsure how to answer her questions as she desperately wants to leave the past in the past. The alternates between Paris, 1944 and New York City, 1954, as she tries to leave the past in the past, a story she desperately wishes would be ignored. She is no stranger to hardship, as she is a survivor. Is her most challenging situation coming? What will her survival cost her? Will she be forced to tell the story she is so reluctant to reveal? The war may be over, but will the past stay in the past?

Paris Never Leaves You is a beautiful story of resilience, love, and impossible choices for survival. Alternating seamlessly between 1944 and 1954, the reader is taken on a journey of an extraordinary struggle to survive as Charlotte is faced with choices many of us hope we never have to make. The switch between timelines is very subtle that if you are not paying attention you will miss it. This book is a story that you must take your time with and take in the imagery that Ms. Feldman paints and the story she weaves, the twists and turns. It is not the story one would expect. Paris Never Leaves You is a change from the WWII stories I have read before. I enjoyed each character as they felt real with their virtues and faults. I loved the relationship between Charlotte and Vivi. At times it was like a normal mother-teenage daughter relationship and at others, it was a very unique relationship. It leaves you wondering what you would have done if you were in Charlotte’s shoes. I highly recommend Paris Never Leaves You.

Paris Never Leaves You

is available in hardcover, paperback, eBook, and audiobook

We were Strangers Once: a touching immigrant story

We were Strangers Once by Betsey Carter is the story of immigrants in America. A story told in three parts. Part 1 opens in the Old Country, Germany 1890 with 21 year old Elisabeth Arnstein meeting with Professor Rudolph Schneider about an illustration job for his books. The two eventually marry and have their son, Egon. Egon grows to love animals as his parents do but when it’s time to head to university, he decides to study medicine. At university, he meets his roommate, Meyer Leavitt, who is there to be a writer. As Egon graduates and establishes his practice, the outside world starts to intrude. It soon becomes apparent that it is no longer safe for Egon to be in Germany. He leaves in 1928. Part 2 opens in the New Country, New York City 1904 with Rose McFadden in Hell’s Kitchen when she meets Ryan Walsh. They are both Irish immigrants from County Mayo. They marry and have four children which only two survives. Ryan soon finds himself unable to care for his young family and he leaves for Chicago never to return. Rose now must raise her children, Catrina and Kiefer, on her own. Catrina grows up head strong and her path of failed love, she meets Egon. Part 3 opens as the war in Europe is raging but America has yet to join the fight. Catrina, who was born in America and Catholic, and Egon and his German friends, who are recent immigrants and Jewish, learn to interact and live in the land of the free. Some find it hard to assimilate and find the anti-German, anti-Semitic sentiment become too hard to endure. When Egon is threatened to be deportation and returned to his certain death, friends of all races and religions band together to fight to keep Egon in the country. Will they be successful? Will Egon have his American Dream?

I thoroughly enjoyed We were Strangers Once. While reading it, I will guarantee you will be on a roller coaster of emotions. Sadness, fear, elation but the one I felt the most was anger. Anger at the horrible attitudes Egon and his friends experience as they try to rebuild a life in American after the horrors they left behind. However, I feel it is an accurate depiction of what immigrants experienced as they came to the land of the free with dreams and promises of opportunity. Their fight is real and the tensions are high. But somehow the different cultures learn to come together when it matters. The story ends in June 1941. I would have liked to have seen the characters’ reactions in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack. I highly recommend We were Strangers Once

We were Strangers Once

will be available September 12, 2017

in hardcover and eBook

The Pattern Artist: one woman's courage to fulfill her dream

The Pattern Artist by Nancy Moser is the story of one woman’s dream to make her life better than what she lived before. Annie Wood is a housemaid for a wealthy English family. She has dreams of becoming a lady’s maid in the household as she travels with Lady Newly and her daughter, Miss Henrietta, to America. When she realizes that her dream isn’t going to become a reality, she strikes off on her own in New York City.

Set in 1911, Annie is a young woman with a natural talent for fashion and her skills for alternations and sewing are used to the advantage of the lady’s maids.  She sets out with Iris and Danny Dalking, servants from the household that she’s visiting. Alone on the streets with nothing to their names, the trio is taken in by a family who runs a bakery. Knowing that working in a bakery isn’t where she wants to be, Annie sets off and tries to get a job at Macy’s. To her surprise, she does and immediately begins to establish herself with great customer service and an eye for the fashions her customers desire. She soon gets involved with a pattern salesman, Sean Culver, who helps open another door which will lead her closer to a new dream of design fashions for the everyday woman. As she works, more and more doors of opportunity open. Does she dare walk through them, knowing there is no return? Can she trust God to guide her through those doors?

The Pattern Artist is a great story of the American Spirit where “humble beginnings are a badge of honor. It’s not where you begin but where you end up.” I loved Annie who struggles with her own worth but had the bravery to try anyway. I loved all the characters she meets along the way especially Sean. The budding romance between the two is sweet and heartwarming. The story has romance, suspense, heartbreak and joy. I highly recommend The Pattern Artist.

The Pattern Artist

is available

in hardcover, paperback and Kindle/Nook

on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

Orphan Train: a story of a piece of unknown history

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is the story of one woman’s story of her experience on the Orphan Train. The Orphan Train is the nickname of the time when more than 200,000 orphaned, abandoned and homeless children from New York City were transported to adopted homes in the Midwest between 1854-1929. Many of the children, were first-generation Irish-Catholic immigrants and often found themselves in situations of indentured servitude rather than adopted families. The program was founded by Charles Loring Brace who believed that work, educated and firm but compassionate Christian family values would save these children was a life of poverty.

The story opens with Molly, a teenager in a foster home. Her foster father really tries to do right by this commitment to being a foster parent and his wife who wants nothing to do with Molly. Molly is in trouble because she tried to steal a book from the local library and now has to do community service in order to stay out of juvie. She agrees to help organize the attic of Vivian Daly, an elderly widow who lives in a mansion. As she is organizing the attic, Vivian tells Molly the history behind each piece which leads her to tell the story of her life in America. The story then flashback to 1929, 9 year old Niamh is taking care of her baby sister when tragedy strikes. She is the only survivor in a tenement fire. She is sent on the Orphan Train where she is sent to family and family. Each one worse than the one before. She must endure harsh working conditions to even harsher living conditions when a horrific incident occurs and she is rescued by a community who sees the life she has been sent to live. Through Vivian’s story, Molly learns that someone can rise above a situation they did not ask for or did nothing to deserve.

I enjoyed Orphan Train as it told a piece of history that I was aware of but didn’t know much about. I also enjoyed how Vivian’s experience help Molly rise above her situation. However, I felt certain areas were left underdeveloped, for instance her foster mother’s hostility. Why did she agree to be a foster parent when it was obviously she didn’t want to be one? Also how Molly ended up in foster care is barely mentioned and there were hints as to why but I feel wasn’t fully explained. Despite these questions, I enjoyed the story. There were moments of shock and horror as Vivian lived in situations that she couldn’t get out of knowing that there was some truth to what these children faced. I highly recommend Orphan Train.