The Lincoln Highway

Author: Amor Towles
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2023
Pages: 592
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, this father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction - to the City of New York.

Review: The title of this book piqued my interest and was right up my alley, but it's deceptive too. While The Lincoln Highway was a part of this book, it wasn't the focus, which was disappointing. Over the course of this novel, I learned one important thing - epic journeys/odyssey's/coming-of-age novels annoy me. Stop making one bad decision after another. Stop letting the characters around you make bad decisions. I just can't.

Telling myself that this was 1954 didn't do anything to ease my frustration.

Woolly's brother-in-law should have read the riot act to all of the participants in this ridiculous novel, but at least someone in this novel had a modicum of common sense.

The Lincoln Highway was superior to This Tender Land, which I did not enjoy at all, but I'll be avoiding this subgenre in the future. I feel like I miss the point and I need to ask someone who loves this genre, what exactly they like about it. I just end up completely unsatisfied.

Meet Me in Paris

Author: Kristin Harmel
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2026
Pages: 368
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Julia Glover has brought her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Piper, to Paris for the first time - but they know it will also be their last trip here together. Julia is dying, and as the mother and daughter desperately try to make memories together as the clock ticks down, the world opens up around them. Piper meets a cute French waiter, who might just understand her better than anyone she's ever met, and Julia meets a man at a dive bar and struggles with how to tell him the truth about her future.

Rock star Jackson Quick's glory days are behind him. He had a handful of hit songs thirty years ago, but he hasn't toured in a decade. This week, he'll launch his reunion tour in Paris, the city where it all began. But he wants more out of life than being defined by fame. When he meets a woman who finally sees him for who is as at his core, the ground shifts beneath his feet.

Henry McGee has been writing hit songs for decades - including Jackson Quick's biggest hit, City of Light. But his secret is that every love song he's ever written is for a woman named Celeste, whom he loved a lifetime ago, when they were both teenagers in Paris during World War II. He has spent eighty years believing she died - but when a letter arrives telling him the opposite, he's on the first flight to France. Can he break through the haze of her dementia, using the songs he's written all these years, to remind her of who they once were to each other - and to tell her he came back for her.

Henry's granddaughter, Melanie, has just discovered that her husband of twenty years, Gilles, a French cosmetics executive, is having an affair. When she confronts him, he tearfully apologizes and begs her to forgive him. But can she? And, perhaps even more importantly, does she want to? Or is there a different kind of life out there for her if she chooses to be alone.

These intertwining stories - plus several others - unfold over a few breathtaking spring days, as an unforgettable group of Americans in Paris must find their way to their own versions of happily ever after in the City of Light.

Review: Kristin Harmel was an author of fiction prior to falling into historical fiction. I like her as a fiction author, and I enjoyed my armchair getaway to Paris. Fiction doesn't have to be fluff, and I wish she would have given us more depth. That said, highly recommend.

Kristin Harmel Novels
The Paris Daughter
The Sweetness of Forgetting
The Winemaker's Wife

Stars over Sunset Boulevard

Author: Susan Meissner
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2016
Pages: 400
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: 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.

Review: Susan Meissner wrote a novel against the backdrop of the filming of Gone With the Wind and the Golden Age of Hollywood. There isn't any book that she's written, that I won't read. I loved the setting, the characters, and the plot. This novel was a treat.

Nellie's Promise

Author: Valerie Tripp
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Pleasant Company Publications, 2004
Pages: 85
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Nellie O'Malley has a home again. She and her little sisters, Bridget and Jenny, are happily settling in with Samantha's family in New York City. Best of all, Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia want to adopt the girls. Now Nellie's best friend Samantha will be her sister, and Bridget and Jenny will be protected and cared for, just as Nellie promised her mother. Then Uncle Mike shows up again and threatens to ruin everything-including Nellie's friendship with Samantha!

Review: This book was written years after the Samantha series, but since I'm reading up on all things Samantha, I decided to read it for the first time. I'm glad they included a book about Nellie, especially since this is juvenile historical fiction. It may introduce that age group to a time/circumstances of which they know very little.

My Husband's Wife

Author: Alice Feeney
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Flatiron Books, 2026
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into, Spyglass, an enchanting old house in Hope Falls, nothing is as it should be. Her key doesn't fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that the stranger is his wife.

One house. One husband. Two women. Someone is lying.

Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner called Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls. But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person's date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel, and as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.

Review: This is the first Alice Feeney novel that I've read. It started out slow, but once I was in, I was all in. Very quickly I realized that I was going to have to "let go" of trying to figure this out if I was going to enjoy the story. What a ride.

Changes for Samantha

Author: Valerie Tripp
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: American Girl Publishing, Inc., 1988
Pages: 61
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Samantha Parkington is a bright Victorian beauty being raised by her wealthy grandmother in 1904. Samantha's stories describe her life during this important period of change. Her own world is filled with frills and finery, parties and play. But Samantha sees that times are not good for everybody. That's why she tries to make a difference in the life of her friend, Nellie, a servant girl whose world is nothing like Samantha's. 

Review: This book may seem like a copout, but I promise that it isn't. Fiona Davis has a new book coming out on October 13, 2026 called Samantha: The Next Chapter. Written for adult fans in honor of the 40th anniversary of the American Girl dolls debut. Should Kiersten and Molly's stories also be continued, I'm here for them.

In preparation for the book launch, I wanted to reacquaint myself with Samantha. I was aging out of dolls in 1986, but the historical fiction nature of the series captured my imagination. My sister and I used to browse the catalogs, but neither of us ever received a doll.

Samantha Saves the Day

Author: Valerie Tripp
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: American Girl Publishing, Inc., 1988
Pages: 61
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Samantha Parkington is a bright Victorian beauty being raised by her wealthy grandmother in 1904. Samantha's stories describe her life during this important period of change. Her own world is filled with frills and finery, parties and play. But Samantha sees that times are not good for everybody. That's why she tries to make a difference in the life of her friend, Nellie, a servant girl whose world is nothing like Samantha's. 

Review: This book may seem like a copout, but I promise that it isn't. Fiona Davis has a new book coming out on October 13, 2026 called Samantha: The Next Chapter. Written for adult fans in honor of the 40th anniversary of the American Girl dolls debut. Should Kiersten and Molly's stories also be continued, I'm here for them.

In preparation for the book launch, I wanted to reacquaint myself with Samantha. I was aging out of dolls in 1986, but the historical fiction nature of the series captured my imagination. My sister and I used to browse the catalogs, but neither of us ever received a doll.