This week I wanted to review two books rather than my usual one book per post. I also wanted to see if I could write shorter reviews but they are not that easy to write either. Thankfully the Amazon summaries listed below have come to the rescue. I enjoyed both of these historical novels which have been well received y the critics.

And though the time periods are over 100 years apart both novels are very well written, the authors have done a nice job with the historical research and both books focus on women navigating difficult circumstances but banding together to see each other through. Here are the Amazon summaries:

The Daring Ladies of Lowell (2014) by Kate Alcott

“Eager to escape life on her family’s farm, Alice Barrow moves to Lowell in 1832 and throws herself into the hard work demanded of the mill girls, but when her friend Lovey is found dead under suspicious circumstances, a sensational trial brings workers’ unrest to a boiling point, leaving Alice torn between finding justice for her friend and her growing passion for the man with whom she had no business falling in love” – Amazon

The Briar Club (2024) by Kate Quinn

“At Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the nation’s capital, mysterious widow Grace March draws her oddball neighbors—flawed English beauty Fliss, entangled Nora, WWII baseball star Beatrice, and gung-ho Arlene—into unlikely friendship through weekly attic-room dinner parties. Though Grace’s sun tea and dinners act as a healing balm, she hides a terrible secret of her own, and when a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst?” – Amazon