Thursday, August 22, 2019

Book Review: The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman


Hi all,

I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of Alice Hoffman’s newest novel, The World That We Knew. Here is more about the book and my thoughts.


The World That We Knew


Alice Hoffman


Book Description:

In 1941, during humanity’s darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites Alice Hoffman. 

In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it’s his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked.

Lea and Ava travel from Paris, where Lea meets her soulmate, to a convent in western France known for its silver roses; from a school in a mountaintop village where three thousand Jews were saved. Meanwhile, Ettie is in hiding, waiting to become the fighter she’s destined to be.

What does it mean to lose your mother? How much can one person sacrifice for love? In a world where evil can be found at every turn, we meet remarkable characters that take us on a stunning journey of loss and resistance, the fantastical and the mortal, in a place where all roads lead past the Angel of Death and love is never ending.

Publish Date: September 24, 2019

Preorder now on:





My 5-Star Review:

Alice Hoffman has once again written a novel that mixes reality with magical elements and brings unforgettable characters to life. The World That We Knew centers around the tragedy of WWII in Germany with Jewish characters fleeing to survive while others in the resistance fight against the Nazis. The characters are woven though the story, connected in ways but not always together. It’s an amazing story of love, sacrifice, and loss – a story so deep that you will be touched by it long after you put the book down. Do not miss out on this novel – highly recommended!


About the Author:

Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston and New York. 

Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. She credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard, and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become Property Of, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff's magazine, American Review. 

Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published a total of eighteen novels, two books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte's masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Her advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman (Women's Cancer) Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. Blackbird House is a book of stories centering around an old farm on Cape Cod. Hoffman's recent books include Aquamarine and Indigo, novels for pre-teens, and The New York Times bestsellers The River King, Blue Diary, The Probable Future, and The Ice Queen. Green Angel, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale about loss and love, was published by Scholastic and The Foretelling, a book about an Amazon girl in the Bronze Age, was published by Little Brown. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year. In January 2007, Skylight Confessions, a novel about one family's secret history, was released on the 30th anniversary of the publication of Her first novel. Her most recent novel is The Story Sisters (2009), published by Shaye Areheart Books.

Hoffman's work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay "Independence Day" a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, Self, and other magazines. Her teen novel Aquamarine was recently made into a film starring Emma Roberts.

Friday, August 16, 2019

The Women of Great Heron Lake Giveaway

We have two winners! 
Rita W. and Susan C.

Thank you to everyone who entered. 

The Women of Great Heron Lake
Giveaway!

August 16th - September 10th 


In anticipation of the release of
The Women of Great Heron Lake
I'm having a Giveaway!

Enter below using the Rafflecopter insert. 
Or, you can leave a comment below to enter.

Winners will be randomly chosen on 
September 10, 2019

Good Luck!

And don't forget to preorder your copy of 
The Women of Great Heron Lake!




Friday, August 2, 2019

Cover Reveal & Preorder: Chasing Bailey (A Lake Harriet Novel) by Deanna Lynn Sletten

Hi everyone!

I'm so excited to finally share with you the cover of my upcoming contemporary romance novel 

CHASING BAILEY
A Lake Harriet Novel
Book 3


The cover was created by my amazing designer
Deborah Bradseth of Tugboat Design



First we met Kristen and Ryan in Walking Sam. Then we met Mallory and James in As the Snow Fell. Now, we'll meet two more residents of the Lake Harriet neighborhood and a wiley dog named Bailey in the sweet romance, Chasing Bailey.

Book Description:


A Lake Harriet Novel

In the charming Lake Harriet neighborhood where we first met Kristen, Ryan, and their dog Sam in Walking Sam, two people are struggling to put their lives back together with the help of a rambunctious dog named Bailey.

Lisa Evan’s life has been in turmoil since her husband, Andrew, left her nine months earlier. With two-year-old Abby to care for and a new full-time job as a school nurse, she’s just trying to keep her head above water both emotionally and financially. It didn’t help that her ex-husband gifted a rambunctious puppy to Abby for her second birthday. But Abby instantly fell in love with Bailey, so Lisa didn’t have the heart to say no. Even though Lisa’s quiet neighborhood is a great place for kids and dogs, there’s one neighbor who isn’t thrilled about Bailey—the hermit across the street. And try as she might, Lisa can’t keep the dog from digging his way out of the yard and running to the hermit’s house. But after one particularly nasty clash with the hermit, Lisa discovers that maybe the man across the street isn’t as terrible as she’d once thought.

Avery McKinnon moved to the quiet neighborhood to hide out after an extremely nasty divorce. In one year his entire world has fallen apart. His wife left him, he lost his house, and his novels are no longer selling as well as they used to, taking a bite out of his income. He’s bitter and angry and the last thing he wants is to become chummy with all the annoyingly happy people in his neighborhood. When the puppy across the street keeps running over to his house and digging up his yard, Avery explodes. Can’t that annoying woman across the street control a puppy? But when he finally sees Lisa for who she is, he realizes that maybe he’s been angry long enough. Maybe it was time to let someone back into his life. And then her ex-husband comes back into the picture and ruins everything.

Contemporary Romance
Sweet Romance

Release Date: October 8, 2019

You can Preorder now on:


Paperback and Audiobook Coming Soon!


If you loved WALKING SAM and AS THE SNOW FELL, you will love CHASING BAILEY!