This week...

I'm reading...

I started reading The Women's Pages by Victoria Purman this week. Originally this book was supposed to be released in April but it was delayed until now due to COVID. I guess it is ironic that the release was delayed and yet, here we are, still in lockdown. It feels like there are so many things that have been delayed that we will have some great things coming our way soon!

I loved the starting point of this book. It starts on the day that the end of World War II was announced, and it bought to mind that old saying that every ending is a new beginning!

I was excited to see that RIP XV has been announced for this year. That's fifteen installments! Obviously I haven't participated in all of them given that I wasn't reading or blogging about books for quite some time, but it is always an exciting time in the book blogging community. This years it is going to be a more social media oriented event than blogging, but that's okay right?

Readers Imbibing Peril runs in September and October each year and focusses on those darker reads, perfect for the lead up to Halloween, so if you fancy reading some Mystery, Suspense.Thriller, Dark Fantasy, Gothic.Horror,Supernatural and want to share with likeminded people check out the socials! I'm not sure I have too much that fits this category in my TBR but I will find something if I can!

I'm watching....

Last week I took advantage of the fact that the Edinburgh International Book Festival is online this year to watch Alexander McCall Smith talk. I have enjoyed the sessions that I have watched so far, and I have to say that they were all pretty relaxed and accessible. Maybe that was just the sessions that I chose to watch! I am thinking that I might sneak one more session in before the festival ends. We'll see. And if you haven't checked out any of the sessions yourself, check out the website because there are more than 100 sessions that are still available to watch.

We also finished watching second season of The Umbrella Academy. We are officially fans! Whilst it is dark, it is also fun, and laugh out loud funny! We will definitely need to find a new show to watch now. We are thinking about maybe watching Warrior Nun. Has anyone watched it?

Come to think of it, both Umbrella Academy and Warrior Mind could count for RIPXV.

We also started watching a new cooking show called State of Origin. It features Gary and Matt, who used to be judges on Masterchef Australia, teaming up with Manu who is a judge on My Kitchen Rules for the first time. The idea is that there are two team members who cook their national cuisine against another team. For example, last night it was Australia versus China. I enjoyed the first night. I am not sure that the husband is on board just yet, but we will see.

Life

It doesn't take much to excite Melburnians these days. We are four weeks into a strict lockdown with another two weeks to go. As a result, when it is announced that they are going to start livestreaming the penguins at Philip Island you can bet we are all watching! Attending the Penguin Parade down a Philip Island is one of the must do things if you are in Melbourne! It turns out that they are going to be livestreaming it nightly so we probably didn't all need to watch that first night. It does mean though that if you are interested in watching the penguins as they do their dash from the water across the sand and into the dunes to their homes, you can. Check it out on Youtube here.

We are trying to be optimistic that things will be somewhat normal next year and so we have booked tickets to go and see Hamilton in Sydney in July. We haven't booked flights or hotels or anything like that, but hopefully it will all work out. It's something to look forward to at the very least.

Don't forget you can now follow my blog on Facebook here.

Posts from the last week

The Switch by Beth O'Leary
Weekend Cooking: August Baking
Bestsellers Around the World: Canada and Australia

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Bestsellers Around the World: Canada and Australia

A couple of months ago I came up with an idea to start a regular feature where I take a look at the bestseller lists for a particular country and compare them to the Australian one! The first month I looked at the British bestseller list, and then last month it was France.  This month I am taking a look at a Canadian bestseller list.

Here is the Top 10 Fiction list from the Toronto Star for the week ending August 19:

1. The Book of Lost Names, Kristin Harmel Gallery 
2. American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins, Flatiron 
3. The Silent Wife, Karin Slaughter, William Morrow 
4. The End of Her, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada 
5. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens, G.P. Putnam’s 
6. The Midwife Murders, James Patterson, Richard DiLallo, Grand Central 
7. The Woman Before Wallis, Bryn Turnbull, Mira 
8. The Guest List, Lucy Foley, William Morrow 
9. Their Last Secret, Rick Mofina, Mira 
10. The Order, Daniel Silva, HarperCollins Canada 

And here is the Top 10 for Australia as at 15 August from BetterReading.com

1. When She Was Good by Michael Robotham (Hachette)
2. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (Hachette)
3. The Yield by Tara June Winch (Hamish Hamilton)
4. 1st Case by James Patterson (Century)
5. The Order by Daniel Silva (HarperCollins)
6. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton (Harper Collins)
7. Say No More by Karen Rose (Hachette)
8. A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville (Text Publishing)
9. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams (Affirm Press)
10. The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter (HarperCollins)

The last time I looked at the Australian bestsellers list was in mid June. Of the books on this current list Boys Swallows Universe, The Dictionary of Lost of Words and Where the Crawdad Sing were there two months ago.  I still need to get around to reading the first two of these books. I own Dictionary of Lost Words having bought it when it first came out, but I haven't quite managed to crack it open yet.

The two other books on this list that call to me are both Australian authors, and I heard them speaking at Melbourne Writers Festival. I am very interested in reading The Yield by Tara June Winch  and the other is A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville. I have read Grenville's previous historical novels so I will get to this one eventually.

It is interesting that Where the Crawdads Sing is still appearing on lists around the world even thought the book was released two years ago. I don't see this book disappearing off the lists any time soon given that there is now going to be a movie made of it.

When I look at the Canadian list, the two historical fiction novels are the two that I am drawn to the most. The Book of Lost Names is a WWII novel based on a true story. The title of The Woman Before Wallis is kind of self explanatory if you have any knowledge of 20th century English history but it also includes links to American "royalty", the Vanderbilts. It sounds like quite a read.

The two Canadian authors are Shari Lapena and Rick Mofina. Both of these novels are crime novels, with Shari Lapena's appearing to be a twisty turny suspense novel. It turns out that Mofina has written around 25 novels, and won multiple writing prizes, and he has a very interesting life story.

Are there any of these titles that you find interesting? Have you read any of these books or authors?

Next month, I am planning to take a look at the bestsellers list in South Africa!

I am sharing this post with Sunday Salon, which is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

Weekend Cooking: August Baking

It's the last Saturday of the month and that means it is time to share my baking for this month. I started doing this earlier this year because otherwise every Weekend Cooking post would be about something sweet, which might be a bit much.

This is what what I cooked during August!

Weekender cookies - This was one of the Queen Baking Club fortnightly challenges. They are cookies with currants and rolled in cornflakes.

Apple and ginger self saucing pudding - I made this one last month as well. It is so good it was worth trying again!

Banana cake with cream cheese frosting - I have had a go to recipe for choc banana bread for years, which I still love, but we had some bananas and my husband has a thing for cream cheese frosting so we tried this recipe, and it was good.

Macarons with chocolate passionfruit filling - I was sent a kit to try making macarons. I posted about making them here.

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies - these were another fortnightly challenge, and these were oh so good. You definitely only need to eat one of these cookies per sitting!

Strawberry Eton Mess Cupcakes - The final Queen challenge for this month. We enjoyed eating these,and there was an added bonus of  many leftover meringue kisses, which my husband thought was a treat something like peanuts. You can just eat them and eat them until they are all gone!

Weekly Meals

Saturday: Beef Bourgignon with mashed potato
Sunday: Beef Bougignon with rice
Monday: Baked zucchini, tomato and parmesan risotto
Tuesday: Thai Green Chicken Curry Pie
Wednesday: Bacon, Zucchini, mushroom pasta
Thursday: Steak, mushroom, broccolini, pea
Friday: Takeaway Friday - pizza

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

Alphabet 2020: R is for a review of The Switch by Beth O'Leary

What's this? A review? Why yes it is! And there could be another in the next couple of days! Definitely worth including in my Alphabet 2020 themes for this year! Yes, I confess, I am trying to meet two objectives with one post! It's a bit of a stretch but I am counting it.

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Last year, we went on holidays to America. Remember holidays? I do. What that means for those of us living in Australia is very, very long flights. On that occasions the flights were delayed for a day, then we flew from Melbourne to Sydney, then to Houston and then finally to New Orleans. What do you need for so many and such long flights? Entertainment! And that was when I read Beth O'Leary's debut novel, The Flatshare. It was a perfect plane book. I laughed, I cried, and it was my only 5/5 read last year. There was therefore never any doubt that i was going read this book when it came out.

When Netgalley announced that they were starting to provide audiobooks for review through their new app, and I saw that this was one of the audiobooks, I jumped at the opportunity to listen to it.

Leena Cotton is the perfect career woman. She is driven, respected, ambitious, with a handsome and loving boyfriend. She has it all!  So what if she is having panic attacks before major presentations and her performance is dropping. So what if her relationship with her mother is non existent? So what if she is still struggling to deal with the loss of her beloved sister to cancer the year before.  It turns out that those are major issues, so much so that she is ordered to take a two month sabbatical from her job in London.

Leena's 79 year old grandmother Eileen lives in a small village in Yorkshire. She is one of the people who keeps the village going. She's a member of the Neighbourhood Watch, she helps organise the village fete every year, she watches out for those around her. She is, however, lonely, after her husband of many years leaves her. She is ready to get back on the dating scene, but there are slim pickings in the small town. The local doctor....no. Her grumpy next door neighbour Arnold. Absolutely not!

When Leena comes to visit her grandmother, the idea that they should swap lives is born. Leena can take the time to rest and recuperate, and maybe fix her relationship with her mother while Eileen can try life in London for two month and while she is there she might get a second chance at love.

It isn't quite as simple as that. For Leena, life in a small village is very busy. She has to take on the responsibilities that Eileen has left behind, which means committee meetings, organising others, walking the handsome school teacher's boisterous dog. And of course, small villages being as they are, finding herself in the middle of the village gossip circles. Leena doesn't necessarily get off to the best start, especially with Arnold and Eileen's best friend Betsy. And as for a long distance relationship with her equally career driven boyfriend - the plans to have him visit on weekends didn't last very long. There were always excuses as to why he couldn't make the trip up north.

For Eileen living in London is an eye-opening experience. She doesn't understand how her new flatmates live their lives, barely acknowledging the other people who live in the flats, unsuccessfully  trying to date with unreal expectations as to what or who they were looking for. It doesn't take Eileen long to start organising the people around her, coming up with the idea to create a safe place for other older people in the local community to meet up as a social club., Once Leena's bestie gives Eileen a lesson in online dating, she is also launched onto the dating scene. But Eileen hasn't yet learnt to look out for the warning signs, given that she accepts everyone at face value.

It is interesting to me that the story that I was most interested in was Eileen's. She is thirty years older than I am and definitely has way more get up and go than I do!  She took the opportunities that came her way, getting to know the other occupants in the building far more than Leena and her flatmates ever had. She embraced dating and sex with a joy that was a bit surprising given that she is nearly 80 and soon was helping out her flatmates with their lives as well. But there was always going to be a time when she had to go home. And what then? Is that it for love and adventure for Eileen? And will her desire to protect her daughter and grand daughter at any cost go awry?

Leena was a bit more problematic for me. I got that she was grieving and mentally exhausted. She just didn't seem to have the ability to really see the people around her. Whilst that was initially understandable, it did seem to drag on for a while and there were times that I wanted to just lean into the book and tell her to wake up!

Whereas The Flatshare was a 5 star read for me, this was a good read without being spectacular. Having said that, am I already excited about this author's next book, The Roadtrip, which is due out next year? You bet I am!

I mentioned that I listened to this book. The narrators were Alison Steadman as Eileen and Daisy Edgar-Jones from Normal People as Leena and I did enjoy their performances. However, the Netgalley app itself was a bit glitchy. It kept on stopping every time I got a notification on my phone or when I got to the end of a chapter. I am hopeful that these issues will be resolved as the app gets developed further.

Rating 4/5

Goodreads Description

Eileen is sick of being 79.
Leena's tired of life in her twenties.
Maybe it's time they swapped places.. 

When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen.

Once Leena learns of Eileen's romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.

Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn't as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect - and distractingly handsome - school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?

This week.....

I'm reading...

I really need to find some more reading time from somewhere. I did finish reading The Last Charm by Ella Allbright which was a nice book. I would hope to have a review up within the next couple of days.

I did start reading the short story collection, The Deadly Hours. The first story is by one of my favourites authors of all time, Susanna Kearsley. The collection follows a cursed watch as it changes owners. Kearsley's short story brings together characters from some of her previous books which is a real treat and i have been taken right back into her world. I am looking forward to reading more, and also to see how the other stories tie into the watch.

After spending a lot of time watching sessions from Melbourne Writer's Festival over the last couple of weeks, I did take the opportunity this week to watch a couple of the sessions from Edinburgh International Book Festival and I will watch a couple more during this week. I watched Hilary Mantel talk about the third and final book in the Thomas Cromwell trilogy. I also watched Jenny Colgan interview Marian Keyes. That was a delight, although it did feel a bit like eavesdropping on a random conversation between two friends!

I'm watching....

After starting the Umbrella Academy last week, we have now finished season 1, and I think there is every chance we will go straight into season 2. It is a lot of fun, with a great soundtrack. I guess once we finish season 2 we will go back to watch other shows, but I think this one will keep us occupied for a bit longer yet.


Life

It's been a pretty quiet week really. I am super busy at work and, as a result of working from home, it makes it really easy to work very long hours. We are still only half way through our current lockdown period. We have at least another three weeks, and then I guess it will depend on the numbers as to whether restrictions will be eased or not.

We did finish the puzzle we started last week. It was a puzzle made from a photo that we took when we were in New York three years ago when we were at the Top of the Rock.  It was a challenging puzzle but it has turned out great. I think we will probably start another new puzzle in the next couple of weeks. We have a couple here to do still and another three on their way from a Kickstarter project that we backed a couple of months ago. We expect to receive those in September or October I think.

Here on the blog I was very excited to relaunch the Why I Love feature that we used to run at Historical Tapestry, and I can't wait to share more posts in the future. Please check out the guest post from Donna Russo Morin about American Suffragettes if you haven't done so yet.

Don't forget you can now follow my blog on Facebook here.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Why I Love
You Were Made for Me by Jenna Guillaume
Why I Love American Suffragettes
Weekend Cooking: When you can't go on holidays...

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Weekend Cooking: When you can't go on holidays...

We have been in lockdown of some degree of another now for more than 5 months, and currently we are in stage 4 which is our strictest restriction level yet. That's a long time to have to find new ways to entertain yourself, or at least not to get too stuck in a humdrum routine.

It turns out that food is a real motivator for us. We have tried all different kinds of foodie things over the last months. There was the week where we ate different flavoured gourmet marshmallows, a few different types of fresh pastries, different flavours of macarons, we've made our own pasta, we've used our pressure cooker, and we've made macarons from scratch. And there is a fair chance I have forgotten something too.

One of the things we have done over the last 5 weeks is something called Atlas Masterclass, which is a concept that spun out of a restaurant called Atlas Dining.  The idea behind Atlas Dining is that every few months the menu at the restaurant changes to a different country around the world. The chef, Charlie Harrington (who has been on Masterchef Australia as a guest at least once), has taken that idea and changed it during COVID to Atlas Masterclass.

With the masterclass, each week there is a new cuisine, and anyone who orders it is sent a box which contains everything you need in order to create that week's menu, from the protein to pre-prepared sauces, eggs and vegetables.  There are two menus for each cuisine, one with two meat/chicken dishes and one vegetarian dish and the other menu is all vegetarian.  There are then videos on the website that you watch to help you recreate the dishes at home.

For the three of us, we purchase the four person box which costs us around $109 for three meals, which is pretty good value. We have a couple of single friends who are also doing it and they are saying that there are always leftovers, even when you order the box for one, and we also often have some leftovers. We are also catching up online to compare out dishes and then eat together. It's almost, but not quite, look going out for dinner.

The ingredients are restaurant quality, the veggies are always great quality, and there are always far more veggies than we would normally eat on our plates. And the best thing, all of the dishes are surprisingly easy and quick to make.

While we don't get the from scratch recipes, we have learnt a lot from doing these classes. For example, in British week there were baby carrots that we sauteed with the meat, which I would never have done but they tasted so good.

The first week we did this, it was Moroccan week, and the menu was:

Marinated Chicken, Caramelised Onion and Olive Sauce with Cous Cous (pictured)

Lamb Kofta, Tomato Sauce, Egg with Moroccan Carrot Salad
Vegetable Tagine

The chicken was delicious but the cous cous was a revelation. We will definitely trying to be a more adventurous when we next make cous cous. The way the kofta was plated was also interesting. You formed a donut shape with the meat  and then cracked an egg into the centre before serving it with a tomato sauce, which is something you could do in any cuisine I think.

We have decided to do every second week, so we skipped Portugal and instead did Britain. The menu that week was:

English Roast Chicken, Sauteed Vegetables, Rosemary Gravy 

Bangers and Mash with a tomato and onion sauce (pictured)

Mushroom and Leek Shepherd's Pie

The pie was a revelation. The leeks were around the side of the pie dish, kind of forming what would have been the crust, and instead of putting mash on top, it was seasoned grated potato with a some sauce to hold it together. And the rosemary gravy...yum.

We missed Italian week, although there was a pork dish that looked amazing, and this week it is Japan week. And this week, I remembered to take photos of everything, which I neglected to do in previous weeks. This week's menu is:

Teriyaki Chicken, Udon Noodles, Daikon Salad

Beef Tataki, Cucumber & Wakame Salad, Ponzu Sauce

Mushroom Okonomiyaki, Egg, Daikon

So, out of all of these ingredients, we made all of these dishes, and still had some veggies left over!

Over the coming weeks there are boxes for countries including Taiwan, Indonesia, Croatia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. There is also a favourites box which takes dishes from countries and mixes them together.

If you are in Victoria or New South Wales, I would definitely recommend giving those a go.

For those who are not, do any of these boxes sound appealing to you? How do you try new cuisines?

Weekly Meals

I have also decided that we will be recording our meals for the week here to to try and help us keep track of our meal planning and helps us keep some variety in our meals.  Of course, the first week when I have tried to do this it has been quite a challenge to remember what we had last Saturday!

Saturday: Beef stew
Sunday: Pork herb schnitzel, mash potato and beans
Monday: Lasagne
Tuesday: Chilli
Wednesday: Teriyaki chicken, udon noodles, daikon
Thursday: Beef tataki, cucumber & wakame salad, ponzu sauce
Friday: Mushroom okonomiyaki, egg, daikon






Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

Blog Tour: Donna Russo Morin on Why I Love American Suffragettes

I am super excited to welcome Donna Russo Morin today as part of the blog tour for her latest book Gilded Dreams. Part of the reason I am so excited is that this is also the launch of the Why I Love series here at my blog. Previously we used to run this series at Historical Tapestry, a group historical fiction blog I was part of for many years. Donna Russo Morin had previously contributed to the series with a post about Venice, so it seemed fitting to have her be the person to do the first post for the relaunch.

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To understand my love of American Suffragettes, we need to take quick look at how it all started.

One of the most admirable aspects of American Suffragettes is that they were born out of the Anti-Slavery and Abolitionist movements of the mid-1800s. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a founding member of the American Suffrage Movement, and Lucretia Mott were barred from attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention by male abolitionists who deemed it was not their (women’s) place to participate, they turned around, came back to the States, and began plans for a convention in America.

In today’s climate, I think it highly important to note that the suffrage movement was born in the anti-slavery movement. These (Caucasian) women were not just about equality for women, they were dedicated to equality for all.

It took them only eight years to organize the first Women’s Right Convention, held in Seneca Falls, NY. At this convention, much like at the Continental Congress during the Revolution, Ms. Cady Stanton (whose father often told her he wished she had been born a boy) wrote “The Declaration of Sentiments”, a document that, in its familiarity with “The Declaration of Independence”, set the purpose and mission of the suffrage movement.

At the 1850 and 1851 National Women’s Rights conventions held in Worcester, Massachusetts, not only were many abolitionists on hand, such as the likes of Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, but many men as well…William Lloyd Garrison (journalist), Reverend Harry Ward Beecher (one of the nation’s most popular preachers), and Horace Mann (columnist for the New York Tribune). Such alliance firmly establishes that the women’s suffrage movement was a very inclusive crusade, further evidenced when, in1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the American Equal Rights Association, whose purpose was suffrage for all, regardless of gender or race.

Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, of New York and Newport (featured in both GILDED SUMMERS and GILDED DREAMS) not only funded the national suffrage party to a great extent as well as local parties in New York and Newport, she made it a priority to recruit women to the cause from all ranks of society, from servant girl to socialite.

While not as violent or as extreme as their UK counterparts, US suffragettes suffered just as many hardships and traumas, though their fight always remained non-violent; one of their longest and most impactful activities (and ultimately physically harmful and traumatic for the women), was their works as Silent Sentinels, wherein they stood for hours, days, weeks, months, and years in front of government buildings in DC and around the country, never speaking a word, holding placards calling President Woodrow Wilson to task for his lack of support. As a pacifist as well as a feminist, this only endeared them to me more.

Despite imprisonment, torture (in a few cases leading to death), ostracism, divorce and abandonment, and more, these women carried on. Despite the fact that the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment” as the 19th Amendment was nicknamed, was officially defeated four times, despite that it took seventy-two years, years in which many of the founding members of the movement passed away without seeing their efforts come to fruition, for it to become a law of our land, these women kept fighting the good fight.

The story of the American Suffragettes is not only a story of equality and inclusion, it is one of steely determination and never backing down in the face of extreme opposition and hatred. It is a cautionary tale not that we should but that we must always fight for what is right and just.




Thank you so much Donna for a fascinating post! To visit more stops on the blog tour check out the details below.

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GILDED DREAMS
BY DONNA RUSSO MORIN

Publication Date: June 16, 2020
Magnum Opus
Paperback & eBook; 495 pages

Series: Newport’s Gilded Age, Book 2
Genre: Historical Fiction

From the bestselling author of GILDED SUMMERS comes a powerful novel of the last eight years of the American Women’s fight for suffrage.

The battle for the vote is on fire in America. The powerful and rich women of Newport, Rhode Island, are not only some of the most involved suffragettes, their wealth – especially that of the indomitable Alva Vanderbilt Belmont – nearly single-handedly funded the major suffrage parties. Yet they have been left out of history, tossed aside as mere socialites. In GILDED DREAMS, they reclaim their rightful place in history.

Pearl and Ginevra (GILDED SUMMERS) are two of its most ardent warriors. College graduates, professional women, wives, and mothers, these progressive women have fought their way through some of life’s harshest challenges, yet they survived, yet they thrive. Now they set their sights on the vote, the epitome of all they have struggled for, the embodiment of their dreams.

From the sinking of the Titanic, through World War 1, Pearl and Ginevra are once more put to the test as they fight against politics, outdated beliefs, and the most cutting opponent of all… other women. Yet they will not rest until their voices are heard, until they – and all the women of America – are allowed to cast their vote. But to gain it, they must overcome yet more obstacles, some that put their very lives in danger.

An emotional and empowering journey, GILDED DREAMS is a historical, action-packed love letter to the women who fought so hard for all women who stand on the shoulders of their triumph.

AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE | INDIEBOUND

About the Author

Donna Russo Morin is an award-winning historical fiction author. Donna has dabbled as a model and actor, working on Showtime’s Brotherhood and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. Branching out with her storytelling skills, Donna is now a screenwriter. A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, Donna lives on the south shore of Rhode Island close to the ocean she loves so very much. She is the proud mother of two sons, Devon and Dylan, her greatest works in progress.

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS

Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, August 10
Review at Books, Cooks, and Looks

Wednesday, August 12
Review at Gwendalyn’s Books

Friday, August 14
Review at Books, Writings, and More

Saturday, August 15
Review at Reading is My Remedy

Monday, August 17
Review at Amy’s Booket List

Wednesday, August 19
Review at Book Bustle

Friday, August 21
Guest Post at The Intrepid Reader

Monday, August 24
Review at Books and Zebras

Tuesday, August 25
Feature at What Is That Book About

Wednesday, August 26
Review at The Love of Books

Friday, August 28
Interview at Passages to the Past

Monday, August 31
Review at Passages to the Past

Wednesday, September 2
Excerpt at Bookworlder

Friday, September 4
Review at A Darn Good Read

Giveaway

During the Blog Tour, we are giving away a copy of the book + a painting of a scene from the book painted by the author! To enter, please use the Gleam form below.

Gilded Dreams

Giveaway is open to US residents only and on September 4th. You must be 18 or older to enter.

Direct Link: https://gleam.io/competitions/WMDYN-gilded-dreams