Joy That Long Endures - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

     If you like historical fiction set in the Old West, you'll enjoy Joy That Long Endures as much as I did. Author Alethea Williams tells the tale of men and women working to succeed in Wyoming Territory in the days after completion of the Great Transcontinental Railroad. Although hordes of men and women headed west in search of gold, the people who were most successful were those who provided services to the fortune seekers. This book tells the story of Devin Cavanaugh, a former ironworker who now hauls freight; Dulcinetta Jackson, who owns a saloon; and other characters with ambition and drive.
     This book stands alone; however, it is the second volume in Williams's Irish Blessings series. I blogged about the first book (Walls for the Wind) HERE.
I have also enjoyed and blogged about Alethea Williams's other books: 
Náápiikoan Winter
Willow Vale

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of Joy That Long Endures in exchange for an honest review. The author also included a dictionary with the book, defining the colorful slang of the times.

Beginning: 
     HAAWWWW, HAAAWWWW!
     Well might the mule sound amused, Devin Cavanaugh thought, as he pondered the present state of his life while hoisting another bag atop the pile in the wagon. It took only a glance for the man to resolve anew that this Wyoming Territory was a rough, raw place. The harsh landscape proved hospitable to equally raw weather: the wind had finally let up after an earlier blow so ferocious that loose dirt spiraled in a brown cloud two miles high. Now, with a sudden streak of lightning and vicious crack of thunder, rain cascaded in blinding sheets, turning the normally mindless job of loading the wagons into a wet, miserable business indeed. And to top off the whole soggy mess, there was Caleb Wilson and his fit of temper, accompanied by a veritable geyser of raw language. Wilson's tantrum was coarse enough that Devin almost expected clouds of steam to emanate from the man's mouth along with the steady flow of heated cussing aimed at one of the lead mules.
     "Ya bacon-faced baggage, I'll strip the hide from yer jingle-brained gawdamned bones! Hold still, ya stinkin' Tom turd jilt! By gawd, I'll whip the skin clean off from yer scrawny fundament once I get ya fully hitched, ya useless scraggy whorepipe!"

Teaser (from Page 96):
     Devin said, "I was a big city guttersnipe. My parents died within a few years of arriving in this country - at least I know my mam is dead and I think my da is. He just never came home one night, and Mam died a year or so after that."

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 170 Pages (trade paperback) plus a reader's group guide.
Amazon Link: Joy That Long Endures
Author Blog: Alethea Williams - Western Historicals

Synopsis:
Joy that Long Endures is the second of the Irish Blessings series of historical novels that began in Cheyenne with Walls for the Wind. The series tells the stories of Irish immigrants set along the tracks of the new transcontinental railroad in Wyoming Territory. A former iron man for the Union Pacific, Devin Cavanaugh labors day after day to transport loads from the little railroad town of Bryan 100 miles over dirt trails to South Pass City. He wants only one seemingly unattainable thing: to be his own man. Dulcinetta Jackson, taught from childhood how to profit from the dreams of desperate men, wants the one thing denied her by her life of fabulous wealth: the place bestowed on those accepted in respectable society. What happens when very different people with different ambitions team up to gamble on achieving their dreams? 

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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All the Light We Cannot See - #TeaserTuesday and First Paragraph / First Chapter / Tuesday Intros

Marie-Laure Leblanc: A blind girl lives with her father in Paris, near the Museum of Natural History where he works.
Werner Pfennig: An orphan, enchanted by a makeshift radio, grows up in a mining town in Germany.
Anthony Doerr's fascinating novel about these two young people in Nazi Germany and France during World War II is unforgettable. From the blurb on the book's back cover: "Marie-Laure and Werner, from warring countries, both having lost many of the people they loved, come together in Saint-Malo, as Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another."



Here's the opening:

7 August 1944
Leaflets

At dusk they pour from the sky. They blow across the ramparts, turn cartwheels over rooftops, flutter into the ravines between houses. Entire streets swirl with them, flashing white against the cobbles. Urgent message to the inhabitants of this town, they say. Depart immediately to open country.

Teaser from Page 156 in trade paperback copy:
He pulls up a ring in the center of the floor. Beneath a hatch waits a square hole out of which washes a damp, frightening smell. "One step down, hurry now."

Synopsis:
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Genre:  Historical Fiction
Amazon Link: All The Light We Cannot See
Book Length: 545 Pages
Author Website: Anthony Doerr
NOTE: I downloaded this ebook from the library.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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A Memory of Violets - First Paragraph / First Chapter / Tuesday Intros and #TeaserTuesday

I enjoyed this novel about orphaned flower sellers in 1870s London (remember Eliza Doolittle?) with a second plot that takes place in 1912. The author's descriptions were beautiful, the plots held my attention, and I cared about the characters. Her depiction of the grim life of impoverished children in London during that time was vivid and must have been the result of extensive research. The only slight complaint I have is that some aspects of the story were a little too coincidental to be believable to me. Are you bothered by coincidences?

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 386 Pages
Amazon Link: A Memory of Violets
Author Website: Hazel Gaynor

First Paragraph:
     Mammy once told me that all flowers are beautiful, but some are more beautiful than others. "Same with babies," she said, 'cause I was after saying that little baby Rosie looked like a rotten old turnip, what with her face all purple and scrunched up. "All babies look like rotten old turnips at first," Mammy said. "She'll be all smoothed out by Lady Day. You wait and see."
     She was, too. All smoothed out. After turning into a real pretty little thing she was then, 'specially with that hair. Red as the flames in the costers' smudge-pot fires.

Teaser (from Page 162 in the paperback):
In the north, nobody would know anything about them. In the north, they could be whoever they wanted to be and, perhaps, if they were farther away from London, farther away from the memories, Violette might forget about her sister.

Synopsis from Amazon:

Step into the world of Victorian London, where the wealth and poverty exist side by side. This is the story of two long-lost sisters, whose lives take different paths, and the young woman who will be transformed by their experiences.

In 1912, twenty-year-old Tilly Harper leaves the peace and beauty of her native Lake District for London, to become assistant housemother at Mr. Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls. For years, the home has cared for London’s flower girls—orphaned and crippled children living on the grimy streets and selling posies of violets and watercress to survive.

Soon after she arrives, Tilly discovers a diary written by an orphan named Florrie—a young Irish flower girl who died of a broken heart after she and her sister, Rosie, were separated. Moved by Florrie’s pain and all she endured in her brief life, Tilly sets out to discover what happened to Rosie. But the search will not be easy. Full of twists and surprises, it leads the caring and determined young woman into unexpected places, including the depths of her own heart.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.

Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

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Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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The Secret Wife - #BookBeginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

Love this book! Two separate plots - one beginning in 1914, one in 2016. They come together to create an enchanting book. I learned more about Russian history from this story than I expected and in an entertaining way. The author did a great job of tying everything together. It is definitely worth reading.

Book Beginning:
Lake Akanabee, New York State,
19th July 2016
     It was twenty-nine hours since Kitty Fisher had left her husband and in that time she had travelled 3,713 miles. The in-flight magazine had said there were 3,461 miles between London and New York, and the hire car's Sat Nav told her she had driven 252 miles since leaving the airport. A whole ocean and half a state lay between her and Tom. She should have been upset but instead she felt numb.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
She grasped the letter and hugged it tightly to her chest as she wept like a child, with complete abandon. There was a painful spot deep inside and she hoped the crying jag might shift it but when she clambered up to the cabin and pulled herself into bed fully clothed, it was still there.

Genre: Historical Fiction / Mystery
Book Length: 417 Pages
Amazon Link: The Secret Wife
Author Website: Gill Paul

Synopsis (from Amazon):

A Russian grand duchess and an English journalist. Linked by one of the world’s greatest mysteries . . .

Love. Guilt. Heartbreak.

1914

Russia is on the brink of collapse, and the Romanov family faces a terrifyingly uncertain future. Grand Duchess Tatiana has fallen in love with cavalry officer Dmitri, but events take a catastrophic turn, placing their romance – and their lives – in danger . . .

2016

Kitty Fisher escapes to her great-grandfather’s remote cabin in America, after a devastating revelation makes her flee London. There, on the shores of Lake Akanabee, she discovers the spectacular jewelled pendant that will lead her to a long-buried family secret . . .

Haunting, moving and beautifully written, The Secret Wife effortlessly crosses centuries, as past merges with present in an unforgettable story of love, loss and resilience.

Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Dinah Jefferies.

               

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
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The River of Corn - #BookBeginnings on Friday & The #Friday56

     In school I learned about the conquistadors who explored the Americas -  Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and others who were portrayed as heroes. Of course, there was more to the story! In The River of Corn, author John Rose Putnam fleshes out the conquests of Hernando de Soto and his armies in a vivid and engrossing tale. The protagonist is an African slave, called "Gomez" by his captors, who yearns for freedom. His point of view provides a different slant on this history and the effects of the conquistadors on Native Americans.
     If this sounds like a dry history, I can assure you it is not. There's drama, romance, friendship, and treachery, and a great plot to keep you turning pages. Readers who enjoy historical fiction, lots of action, and a compelling story will definitely like The River of Corn.

FYI: I have previously featured Putnam's Hangtown Creek (a California Gold Rush novel) on my blog HERE.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Length of Book: 203 Pages
Amazon Link: The River of Corn (Only 99¢ in ebook format!!)
Author Website: John Rose Putnam
(You can read Chapter 1 from Putnam's newest book on his website.)

Book Beginnings:
     The thunder of many animals running together grew louder. He tensed when far more creatures than he had fingers to count loomed into view. Larger than the forest elk, each carried a warrior on its back. The tales of the old ones, so often mocked by the young, were true.

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
You will soon see the true wealth of the Chicora, my friend, for we go to the heart of my country along the River of Corn that is our very soul. But much trouble besets my people there for the plague passes up the river even as we speak. The Chicora suffer terribly from it.

Synopsis:

In 1540 Hernando de Soto and 600 Spanish conquistadors crossed the Savannah River into what is now South Carolina and thus entered the empire of the Chicora, the largest and most powerful Native American civilization in the Southeast. Modern archaeologists have yet to find any trace of that once vibrant society. 

Although now considered a lost civilization, when the Spanish arrived the Chicora were led by a beautiful queen and had a magnificent temple filled with the remains of their honored ancestors. Did Hernando de Soto, a ruthless conquistador with a lust for gold, bring about their downfall? THE RIVER OF CORN is a powerful tale of the destruction of these American Indians told by an experienced South Carolina fiction writer who spent his youth in the locales he writes about, places that match the Spanish accounts almost exactly.

Who were the Chicora? What really happened to them?

               

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
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The Sea Between - #TeaserTuesday and #FirstChapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

Australia and New Zealand are at the top of my must-visit list. Through the pages of The Sea Between, Margaret Sutherland took me to those countries as they existed in the early 1900s. What a trip! The book follows Dot from childhood to motherhood and shows daily life and social mores during the Roaring Twenties, First World War, and Great Depression. If you like family sagas, you'll enjoy this "Trans-Tasman Story" too.

FYI: I've featured another book by this author previously. Link here: Saving Shelby Summers 
Margaret's latest release is Her Valentine Romance: Link here.

Here's the First Paragraph from the Prologue:
Auckland, 1919
   It was here - the day she was leaving the world - and, even now, life was asking Dot to reconsider. As she stepped down from the tram and began to walk, the clean scent of rain steamed from the drying road. Bright flowers in front gardens lifted sodden faces to the sun. The grass was as green as a Granny Smith. Sparrows hopped, pecking, sipping; and, somewhere in the canopy that overhung the convent wall, hidden birds opened their small throats in a pure and rapturous singing.

Teaser (from 7% on my Kindle):
   Writers were grand people. He wouldn't mind being one, except that he had nothing to write about. 

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 344 Pages
Amazon Link: The Sea Between
Author Website: Margaret Sutherland

Synopsis (from Amazon):

     Growing up in New Zealand during the unsettled years of the First World War, Dot Butler is deserted by her father when she is eleven. Shattered, unable to hate and blame him as her mother and siblings do, she decides his going must be her fault.     

     At the age of eighteen, seeking safe and lasting love, she decides to leave the provincial Irish-Catholic life of Wellington and enters the convent. Her health breaks down and she finds herself, a misfit, back in the changing world of the twenties.

     Moving to Sydney, she tries various careers and samples the flapper’s fun-loving life. Working as a nurse at St. Vincent’s hospital, she meets Chas, an English seaman. Serious, resourceful and handsome, he is a complete contrast to the juvenile men who have partnered Dot to dances, parties and the beach. Opposites in nature, Dot and Chas fall in love, and their impulsive courtship becomes a headlong marriage.

     Six years on, in 1933, it is the depths of the Depression. Restless as ever, and hating country life, Dot persuades Chas to take the family home to New Zealand and her fantasy of secure love. Instead she meets conflict of every kind. Her brother is in jail, her mother is ill, and her worldly sister is making eyes at Chas. Dot must face her worst fear and meet the father who left without a goodbye. When she finds he isn’t the villain she has come to believe in, their reconciliation frees her to examine her life and see that her options for happiness lie in her own hands.

     With a wide cast and significant background of war, epidemic and Depression, this trans-Tasman story follows the Butler men and women in their pursuit of love. God, romance, money and sex lure them on, across oceans and into the answers of the heart.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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Náápiikoan Winter - #BookBeginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

    Readers who enjoy stories set in the era of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada and the western U.S. will love Náápiikoan Winter by Alethea Williams. Told from the point of view of Native Americans, as well as through the eyes of an indentured employee of the Hudson's Bay Company and others, this epic adventure kept me enthralled. The story is even more meaningful because it's based on a real person's experiences.
    Although at first the unfamiliar Native American names slowed down my reading, I soon became comfortable with them. Their inclusion adds color and authenticity to the story. (The author includes a list of "connections.") The author's meticulous research shows up in her portrayal of the characters and their way of life. No wonder Alethea Williams has won so many awards for her writing!

Disclosure:
The author provided me with a free ebook copy of Náápiikoan Winter. I have featured other fine books by Alethea Williams on my blog before: Willow Vale and Walls for the Wind.

Book Beginning:
     Isobel, a light sleeper, woke in darkness to the sounds of her parents' habitual nighttime dispute.
     "Will you do nothing? Stupid, lazy bitch! No better than a dog in heat - you breed bastard children from different men and leave them to raise themselves. You're like a mangy cur bitch on a leash of gold. I wish I'd never set eyes on you!"

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
All the chiefs stood, extending a hand, and Saahkómaapi and the Orator grasped each in turn. Then the Piikáni approached the Whites, a short line of oddly-dressed, stunted and pale men who reminded Saahkómaapi of the tobacco spirits, in Piikáni legend dwarfs no more than one foot tall. Every one of them looked wan and sick, the mature one’s faces matted with hair just like dogs, exactly as the Káínaawa messenger had described them.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 295 Pages
Amazon Link: Náápiikoan Winter
Author Website: Actually Alethea

Synopsis (from Amazon):

At the turn of a new century, changes unimagined are about to unfold.

THE WOMAN: Kidnapped by the Apaches, a Mexican woman learns the healing arts. Stolen by the Utes, she is sold and traded until she ends up with the Piikáni. All she has left are her skills--and her honor. What price will she pay to ensure a lasting place among the People?

THE MAN: Raised in a London charitable school, a young man at the end of the third of a seven year term of indenture to the Hudson's Bay Company is sent to the Rocky Mountains to live among the Piikáni for the winter to learn their language and to foster trade. He dreams of his advancement in the company, but he doesn't reckon the price for becoming entangled in the passions of the Piikáni.

THE LAND: After centuries of conflict, Náápiikoan traders approach the Piikáni, powerful members of the Blackfoot Confederation. The Piikáni already have horses and weapons, but they are promised they will become rich if they agree to trap beaver for Náápiikoan. Will the People trade their beliefs for the White Man's bargains?

Alethea Williams is the author of Willow Vale, the story of a Tyrolean immigrant's journey to America after WWI. Willow Vale won a 2012 Wyoming State Historical Society Publications Award. In her second novel, Walls for the Wind, a group of New York City immigrant orphans arrive in Hell on Wheels, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Walls for the Wind is a WILLA Literary Award finalist, a gold Will Rogers Medallion winner, and placed first at the Laramie Awards in the Prairie Fiction category.

Partially based on the works of Canadian trader, explorer, and mapmaker David Thompson, Náápiikoan Winter spans a continent, examining the cultures in flux at the passing of one era and the painful birth of another.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
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The Midwife of Hope River - The #Friday56 and #BookBeginnings on Friday

Patricia Harman's Hope River novels vividly capture life in West Virginia during the Great Depression. In The Midwife of Hope River Patience Murphy delivers the babies of Appalachian mothers whether rich or poor, black or white, often under difficult circumstances. The author takes the reader to dangerous coal mines, explores racial attitudes, and shows the reality of childbirth during that era. The plot captured me from the very first as I watched Patience deal with a difficult past (she'd been orphaned and widowed and had been accused of a crime) and yet find joy in bringing new life into the world. The story is touching, funny, and eye-opening. One of the most memorable books I've read.

The Midwife of Hope River is Book #1 in the Hope River Series. I featured The Reluctant Midwife (Book #2) on my blog earlier: Here.  Both books stand alone, and I highly recommend them. 
FYI: Patricia Harman worked for over thirty years as a midwife and has an MSN in Nurse-Midwifery. She knows her stuff.

Book Beginning:
Stillbirth
     "How long do you think my baby's been dead?" Katherine turns toward me, and I can tell she's still crying.
     "Five days, maybe less," I answer my patient. "I heard the heartbeat when I checked you last Friday, and you said the baby moved during church. Shut your eyes now. Try. You need to rest."

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
     At last we are getting produce from the garden, small peas that we eat without shelling, lettuce, and chard. We enjoyed Hannah's bacon and we fish in the river, but we are down to a cup of flour, the sugar is gone, and our money jar is empty except for a few last coins. I stare at them now, scattered on the table, as I pull on my town shoes.

Genre: Historical Women's Fiction
Book Length: 403 Pages
Amazon Link: The Midwife of Hope River
Author Website:  Patricia Harman

Synopsis (from Amazon):
A remarkable new voice in American fiction enchants readers with a moving and uplifting novel that celebrates the miracle of life. In The Midwife of Hope River, first-time novelist Patricia Harmon transports us to poverty stricken Appalachia during the Great Depression years of the 1930s and introduces us to a truly unforgettable heroine. Patience Murphy, a midwife struggling against disease, poverty, and prejudice—and her own haunting past—is a strong and endearing character that fans of the books of Ami McKay and Diane Chamberlain will take into their hearts, as she courageously attempts to bring new light, and life, into an otherwise cruel world.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
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Hangtown Creek - A Tale of the #California Gold Rush - First Paragraph / First Chapter / Tuesday Intros and #TeaserTuesday

    In this epic saga, John Rose Putnam paints a real and gritty picture of life in the Gold Rush era through the stories of each of his characters. A red-haired woman, her husband and son dead from cholera; two army veterans; a widowed man and three sons; three ruthless killers - all of them heading for California. Their quests make for a gripping tale.
    My reading tastes are eclectic, and a good book will keep me up late at night, reading when I should be asleep. That was definitely the case with Hangtown Creek. Putnam drew me into the world of gold panning, saloons, traveling by horseback, and much more with his excellent storytelling, filled with memorable characters, vivid description, and historical detail. I'll be reading more books by this talented author.   

Genre: Historical Fiction / Western
Length: 288 Pages
Amazon Link: Hangtown Creek
Author Website: John Rose Putnam

First Paragraph:
Fall 1846
    The earth, rutted deep from hundreds of wheels, churned raw by thousands of hooves, bore witness to the recent passing of a large immigrant party - all save one battered wagon that sat alone and untended, a loose pot clanking in the cold north wind. Here the trail followed the Truckee River, strangled by a long, dry summer into a trickle of shallow pools, and looking as pitiable as the forlorn wagon.
[Read the rest of Chapter One on John Putnam's website: HERE]

Teaser from 13% on my Kindle:
    All week she had watched them as they mined along the creek. The older one, gray showing in his hair and beard, reminded her of her father, but it was the other one, the tall one with the broad shoulders, who had brought her hope, the same slim hope she carried week after week.

Synopsis:
The majestic landscapes of Brett Harte's California unite with Larry McMurtry's epic old west realism in an explosion of love, lust, murder and betrayal that comes to a powerful climax along a beautiful stream, home to the largest strike in the mines, where a burning barn ignites the passion of a gold rush boomtown and, in one dark night of revenge, earns that stream the name it bears to this day—HANGTOWN CREEK.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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Stella Bain - #TeaserTuesday and First Paragraph / First Chapter / Tuesday Intros

    Anita Shreve is such an excellent writer! I've just finished reading Stella Bain (published in 2013), and I loved the story. The plot takes place in Europe during World War I, before the United States became involved in the conflict. I don't want to include spoilers, so I'll just say that when the story opens, the main character has lost her memory.
    The author included vivid descriptions of the treatment of wounded soldiers during that war, and also gave me an appreciation of the way women were perceived. For example, a diagnosis of "shell shock" in men was deemed "hysteria" in women. Stella Bain's story unfolds slowly, as the protagonist recovers her memory, and the author goes deep inside her characters. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that I would have liked a little more time and attention given to the ending. But maybe that's because I didn't want the story to end! Otherwise, this is a fascinating book that I enjoyed immensely.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 261 Pages (Hardback)
Amazon Link: Stella Bain
Author Website: Anita Shreve Books

First Paragraph(s):
Marne, March, 1916
    Sunrise glow through canvas panels. Foul smell of gas gangrene. Men moaning all around her. Pandemonium and chaos.
    She floats inside a cloud. Cottony, a little dingy. Pinpricks of light summon her to wakefulness. She drifts, and then she sleeps.
    Distinct sounds of metal on metal, used instruments tossed into a pan. She tries to remember why she lies on a cot, enclosed within panels of canvas, a place where men who die are prepared for burial away from the rest of the wounded, a task she has performed any number of times.
    She glances down and finds that she is wearing mauve men's pajamas. Why do her feet hurt?

Teaser (from Page 57 of my hardback copy - I cheated and included three sentences):
    Stella has a sudden and intense desire to flee, but she cannot run away from the man beside her. Instead, she freezes rigid on the spot, unable to move a limb, unable to make sense of anything happening around her. She reaches for the back of her neck, certain that someone or something is about to grab her.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
    When an American woman, Stella Bain, is found suffering from severe shell shock in an exclusive garden in London, surgeon August Bridge and his wife selflessly agree to take her in.
    A gesture of goodwill turns into something more as Bridge quickly develops a clinical interest in his houseguest. Stella had been working as a nurse's aide near the front, but she can't remember anything prior to four months earlier when she was found wounded on a French battlefield.
    In a narrative that takes us from London to America and back again, Shreve has created an engrossing and wrenching tale about love and the meaning of memory, set against the haunting backdrop of a war that destroyed an entire generation.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Jenn of Books and A Beat. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please!

Link at Books and A Beat

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

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