Category Archives: Susan Meissner

February 1, 2021 · 12:02 am

Review: The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

Title: The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Historical, Women’s Fiction
Length: 384 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.

Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin’s silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin’s odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn’t right.

Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved.

The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.

From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War and As Bright as Heaven comes a gripping novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity.

Review:

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner is a captivating mail-order bride novel that takes place in the early 1900s.

Sophie Whalen immigrated from Ireland to New York but she is ready for a change. She works long hours for not much pay and shares a room with several other women. When she spies Martin Hocking’s advertisement for a mail-order bride, she does not hesitate to write to him. Sophie is thrilled when he chooses her to marry him and take care of his five year daughter Kat. Traveling across the country to San Francisco, Sophie settles into her new life.  She is surprised by how much time he spends away from home due to his job, but she and Kat settle into a new routine. But the night before the San Francisco earthquake, Sophie is shocked when a visitor arrives on her doorstep and turns her world upside down.

Sophie might be young but she is smart and quite savvy. She is pragmatic but loving so she relishes caring for Kat. The young girl is clearly traumatized by the death of her mother, but Sophie is patient with her stepdaughter. She is taken aback by how distant her new husband is, but she uses this time to get to know him.  He has opened up a little to her about his past but he reveals little about his job or the company he works for. Although their marriage finally takes an intimate turn, Sophie is stunned by how little she knows about Martin after learning stunning news about him.

After she gets over her shock at what she discovers when Belinda knocks on her door, Sophie finally does much needed investigation into Martin.  She and Belinda have barely come to terms with jaw-dropping information when the earthquake strikes and they are suddenly homeless. They emerge unscathed and after a few days, Sophie, Kat and Belinda begin the next stage in their new lives. Sophie puts Kat’s needs ahead of her own and she wonders what the future will hold for both her and her stepdaughter.

The Nature of Fragile Things is a thoroughly engrossing novel that is impossible to put down. Sophie is a wonderful young woman who does whatever it takes to protect herself and anyone she cares for.  Through a series of interviews, startling details emerge that could destroy the life Sophie has created for herself.  Susan Meissner brings this enchanting novel  to an uplifting conclusion. I absolutely loved and highly recommend this riveting novel to fans of the genre.

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Filed under Berkley, Historical, Rated B+, Review, Susan Meissner, The Nature of Fragile Things, Women's Fiction

March 18, 2019 · 11:56 pm

Review: The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner

Title: The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Historical (’40s), Fiction
Length: 397 pages
Book Rating: A+ & A Recommended Read

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager whose life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp during World War II.

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943–aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her.

The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.

Review:

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner is a poignant, informative novel that highlights a little mentioned, shameful  piece of American history.

In 1943, fourteen year old Elise Sontag, her younger brother Max and her German immigrant parents’ peaceful life in Iowa is torn asunder. Elise’s father is arrested by the FBI then sent to an internment camp which leaves the rest of the family struggling to make ends meet. With her mother not handling the situation well, her father makes the decision to ask for the family to be reunited and sent to live together at the Crystal City internment camp in Texas. There, Elise and her family live side by side with Japanese American and Italian American families.  

Shocked to find themselves living behind fences with armed guards, Elise forms a close friendship with Mariko Inoue, a Japanese American teenager whose family is from Los Angeles. Elise and Mariko are inseparable during the eighteen months before the Sontag family is repatriated to Germany and the Inoues wait to learn if they will repatriate to Japan. Clinging to the plan she and Mariko make to reunite after they turn eighteen, Elise and her parents are stunned by the life which awaits them in Germany. Will Elise and Mariko return to America? Or does fate have other plans for the two young women?

Despite their German heritage, Elise and Max have been raised to be Americans. They do not speak German nor have they ever stepped foot in Germany.  Like everyone else in their community, they are touched by the effects of World War II but they are not viewed as they enemy. Elise and her small family are shocked by her father’s arrest and how quickly their friends and neighbors turn on them afterward. Elise soon realizes her mother does not have the strength to endure their situation without her husband, so she understands her father’s decision to move all of them to Crystal City. However, she is shocked by their repatriation to Germany where the Allies are quickly defeating the Reich.

Life in war torn Germany is dangerous and Elise clings to her friendship with Mariko and continues to dream of their reunion. As months pass without word from her friend, Elise gradually adjusts to her new circumstances. She never sees herself as anything but American as she begins to realize Max and her parents are becoming more entrenched in Germany. When her hopes are dashed that she will ever see Mariko again, Elise’s friendship with American soldier Ralph Dove leads to an unexpected decision that will forever change her life.

The Last Year of the War is an unflinching portrait of the hardships endured by German, Japanese and Italian immigrants who were viewed as the enemy after America enters World War II.  These families endured harsh conditions in internment camps and many were forced to return to their mother countries in exchange for Americans caught behind enemy lines. Elise’s and Mariko’s friendship transcends their differences and sustains them as they are forced to leave the United States. With impeccable research, a compelling storyline and appealing characters, Susan Meissner brings this little known part of America’s past vibrantly to life. I was absolutely captivated throughout this deeply affecting, heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting novel.  A must read that details a very dark time in American history.

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Filed under Berkley, Fiction, Historical, Historical (40s), Review, Susan Meissner, The Last Year of the War

January 3, 2016 · 11:57 pm

Review: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner

stars over sunsetTitle: Stars Over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner
Publisher: NAL
Genre: Historical, Women’s Fiction
Length: 386 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

In this new novel from the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life, two women working in Hollywood during its Golden Age discover the joy and heartbreak of true friendship.

Los Angeles, Present Day. When an iconic hat worn by Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind ends up in Christine McAllister’s vintage clothing boutique by mistake, her efforts to return it to its owner take her on a journey more enchanting than any classic movie…

Los Angeles, 1938. Violet Mayfield sets out to reinvent herself in Hollywood after her dream of becoming a wife and mother falls apart, and lands a job on the film-set of Gone With the Wind. There, she meets enigmatic Audrey Duvall, a once-rising film star who is now a fellow secretary. Audrey’s zest for life and their adventures together among Hollywood’s glitterati enthrall Violet…until each woman’s deepest desires collide. What Audrey and Violet are willing to risk, for themselves and for each other, to ensure their own happy endings will shape their friendship, and their lives, far into the future.

Review:

Set against the backdrop of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Stars Over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner is a truly captivating novel that explores the bonds of friendship.

The past intertwines with the present when vintage clothes store owner Christine McAllister discovers a hat from Gone with the Wind. How did the hat end up in the attic of a bungalow that she soon realizes has unexpected ties to her childhood? The answer lies in the distant past and a long ago friendship between two women who worked together during the filming of the epic movie.

When life throws her an unexpected curve, Violet Mayfield moves from Alabama to Hollywood to work for Selznick International. Working as a secretary on the set of Gone with the Wind, she is befriended by Audrey Duvall, another secretary who still dreams of stardom. In a world where close friendships are rare, Violet and Audrey quickly become bosom buddies despite their different backgrounds and personal dreams. Their relationship becomes complicated when Violet begins to fall in love with Audrey’s close friend, Bert Redmond, a kindhearted young man who makes no secret that he would like more than friendship with Audrey.

Violet is a proper southern belle who has been groomed for marriage and motherhood. After an unexpected loss shatters her lifelong dream, she is eager to start over in a new place. She genuinely cares for Audrey but her love for Bert soon eclipses their friendship. When the opportunity to drive a wedge between Audrey and Bert presents itself, Violet impulsively makes a decision that she will eventually deeply regret in the later years of their friendship.

Years earlier, Audrey’s movie career was over before it began but she never stops hoping for another big break. She is vivacious and fun-loving, but she has endured her share of heartache. After meeting Violet, Audrey’s hopes for the future are revitalized and she renews her efforts to make it as an actress. Just as Violet achieves personal happiness, Audrey despairs her chance at stardom has passed her by but she finds surprising success in the theater. However, a failed relationship has repercussions that forever change the course of her professional life and her friendship with Violet.

An engaging and emotional novel that tugs at the heartstrings, Stars Over Sunset Boulevard by Susan Meissner is a beautiful story of a friendship that manages to survive despite deceit, betrayal and jealousy. A fascinating and entertaining novel that I highly recommend to fans of historical women’s fiction.

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Filed under Historical, Historical (30s), Historical (40s), NAL, Rated B+, Review, Stars Over Sunset Boulevard, Susan Meissner