Top voices in historical fiction deliver an unforgettable collection of short stories set in the aftermath of World War I—featuring bestselling authors such as Hazel Gaynor, Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig and edited by Heather Webb.
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month...
November 11, 1918.
After four long, dark years of fighting, the Great War ends at last, and the world is forever changed. For soldiers, loved ones, and survivors the years ahead stretch with new promise, even as their hearts are marked by all those who have been lost.
As families come back together, lovers reunite, and strangers take solace in each other, everyone has a story to tell.
In this moving anthology, nine authors share stories of love, strength, and renewal as hope takes root in a fall of poppies.
Publication Date: March 1, 2016
William Morrow Paperback &
eBook; 368 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction/Anthology
****
The theme of Fall of Poppies is the end of World War I.
Penned by 9 different authors, seven of which I am familiar with, this collection of short stories pulls at the heart strings and reminds the reader that even if the war is over mentally and physically it lives on.
"Not even the end of the war means the war is over.
It will never be over for some of us."
I will admit to being new to the short stories genre, my fear has always been that the stories will be light and fluffy, lacking depth and the ability to connect with the characters in such a short time. The stories here averaged less than an hour to read each, so really how can the writer provide the reading experience that I enjoy? As I am slowly learning it can be done and it was done quite nicely here.
This book is a collection of stories of love, hope and survival. Told from the both the male and female pov's it wasn't hard to connect and feel compassion. I won't go into details about what each of the stories were about, but will say that they were all different. From a young mother in Belgium who lived through the horrors of war, she survived caring for others and learned to trust again. Another mother seeking revenge on Germany when her son is missing and presumed dead. There are pilots. an English midwife fighting to save to life of a newborn and more.
I had my favorites here, Jennifer Robson's "All for the Love of You" because of the connection to her last novel and I love her writing style. Her's was an interest subject, the making of face masks for those disfigured. She was able to not just explain the process but threw in a good love story to boot.
Jessica Brockmole's "Something Worth Landing For" also hit the mark for me. An unlikely union, but watching the relationship evolve through letter writing reminding me so much of why her book
Letters from Skye was one of my 'best of 2015'. Her writing style is flawless, witty and a treat to read.
The stories here are varied, each stand alone's but focus on Armistice, bringing that time to life with different struggles, misunderstandings, relationships and romance. Definitely one that I recommend and one that has me adding new authors to my tbr pile.
About the Authors
Jessica Brockmole is the author of the internationally bestselling Letters from Skye, an epistolary love story spanning an ocean and two wars. Named one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2013, Letters From Skye has been published in seventeen countries.
Hazel Gaynor is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home and A Memory of Violets. She writes regularly for the national press, magazines and websites in Ireland and the UK.
Evangeline Holland is the founder and editor of Edwardian Promenade, the number one blog for lovers of World War I, the Gilded Age, and Belle Époque France with nearly forty thousand unique viewers a month. In addition, she blogs at Modern Belles of History. Her fiction includes An Ideal Duchess and its sequel, crafted in the tradition of Edith Warton.
Marci Jefferson is the author of Girl on the Golden Coin: A Novel of Frances Stuart, which Publisher’s Weekly called “intoxicating.” Her second novel, The Enchantress of Paris, will release in Spring 2015 from Thomas Dunne Books.
Kate Kerrigan is the New York Times bestselling author of The Ellis Island trilogy. In addition she has written for the Irish Tatler, a Dublin-based newspaper, as well as The Irish Mail and a RTE radio show, Sunday Miscellany.
Jennifer Robson is the USA Today and international bestselling author of Somewhere in France and After the War is Over. She holds a doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford, where she was a Commonwealth Scholar and SSHRC Doctoral Fellow. Jennifer lives in Toronto with her husband and young children.
Heather Webb is an author, freelance editor, and blogger at award-winning writing sites WriterUnboxed.com and RomanceUniversity.org. Heather is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and she may also be found teaching craftbased courses at a local college.
Beatriz Williams is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of The Secret Life of Violet Grant and A Hundred Summers. A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA from Columbia, Beatriz spent several years in New York and London hiding her early attempts at fiction, first on company laptops as a corporate and communications strategy consultant, and then as an at-home producer of small persons. She now lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore, where she divides her time between writing and laundry. William Morrow will publish her forthcoming hardcover, A Certain Age, in the summer of 2016.
Lauren Willig is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven works of historical fiction. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, awarded the RITA, Booksellers Best and Golden Leaf awards, and chosen for the American Library Association’s annual list of the best genre fiction. She lives in New York City, where she now writes full time.
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Giveaway
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Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and The Great War
