Favorite Books of 2022

 By Kelly Bridgewater

One of my favorite posts of the year. I love being able to share of the 144 books that I read this year which ones are my favorite. I hope that you have read them and possibly own them. 

Here they are: (All covers come from Goodreads!)

Souls of Lost Lake by Jaime Jo Wright

In Love's Time by Kate Breslin

Madness in Wonderland by Tabitha Bouldin

Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner

RJ and York Trilogy (Out of the Night, I Will Find You, and No Matter the Cost) by Susan May Warren

Milestone of Doubt by Erica Vetsch

The Debutante's Code by Erica Vetsch

What about you? Did any of these hit your favorites this year? Any that I missed?

Lawhon, McMorris, and Meissner: When We Had Wings

By Kelly Bridgewater

From three bestselling authors comes an interwoven tale of a trio of World War II nurses in the Pacific who wage their own battle for freedom and survival.

The Philippines, 1941. When US Navy nurse Eleanor Lindstrom, US Army nurse Penny Franklin, and Filipina nurse Lita Capel forge a friendship at the Army Navy Club in Manila, they believe they’re living a paradise assignment. All three are seeking a way to escape their pasts, but soon the beauty and promise of their surroundings give way to the heavy mantle of war.

Caught in the crosshairs of a fight between the US military and the Japanese Imperial Army for control of the Philippine islands, the nurses are forced to serve under combat conditions and, ultimately, endure captivity as the first female prisoners of the Second World War. As their resiliency is tested in the face of squalid living arrangements, food shortages, and the enemy’s blatant disregard for the articles of the Geneva Convention, they strive to keep their hope—and their fellow inmates—alive, though not without great cost.

In this sweeping story based on the true experiences of nurses dubbed “the Angels of Bataan,” three women shift in and out of each other’s lives through the darkest days of the war, buoyed by their unwavering friendship and distant dreams of liberation.

 

My Thoughts:

When We Had Wings by Ariel Lawhon, Kristian McMoriss, and Susan Meissner is a unique story set in the Pacific War during World War II. The story is told from three friends who are nurses as they face the military might of the Japanese army. Most World War II stories are set in Europe, so it was a nice change to see the war from a different perspective. The realistic elements of the war waging all around the characters rang true and horrific to the story. The heroines were wanting a little adventure when the story began, but as the story progressed, much more adventure awaited each individual woman. The writing is realistic, gritty, and horrifying. I had no issues with seeing what was happening. It was nice to put the characters in a realistic situation and show their real emotions as they deal with the horrors of what was happening around them. As for any romance, there was a slight thread, but nothing that took away from the horrors of the war and bombs flying everywhere. While the story is different and unique, the plot read like a documentary. Kind of dry with facts after facts listed. I had a really hard time staying focused as I read the plot. Wanted more personal fictionalized storyline to the story. Overall, When We Had Wings by Lawhon, McMorris, and Meisnner pictured a Pacific World War II story with plenty of realistic images, but I found majority of the story dry and did not capture my attention.

I received a complimentary copy of When We Had Wings by Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMoriss, and Susan Meissner from Harper Muse Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating:   4 out of 5 stars

Purchase When We Had Wings

Susan Meissner: The Last Year of the War

By Kelly Bridgewater

From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager whose life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp during World War II.

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943--aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her.

The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.

From Amazon

My Thoughts:

Set against the American and German front, Susan Meissner's newest novel The Last Year of the War focuses on a little teenage girl as she experiences prejudice and hate because of her heritage. I have read plenty of novels that feature World War II, but majority of them focus on the German's reign across Europe and through London, so it was nice to actually see what the Americans were doing at the same time. The Last Year of the War is an original story with a frame narrative told as a flashback of an older woman experiencing Alzheimer's. For readers who usually stay away from World War II fiction because of all the violence, there really isn't much in this book. We understand the world from a fifteen-year-old who feels trapped and betrayed. Even though the story was different, there were moments, I felt like the story just kept going and going. When was it going to end? Then it sped up, and there wasn't many pages left in the novel. The meeting between the heroine and her friend seemed a major disappointment too. (It could be just me.) The romance wasn't really an plot point either. Overall, The Last Year of the War was a nice change to focus on for World War II, so I learned more about the war. But would I pick it up again and read it? Probably. It was entertaining enough for a second pass through.

I received a complimentary copy of The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner from Berkley Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

About the Author:

From Amazo

I cannot remember a time when I wasn't driven to write. I attribute this passion to a creative God and to parents who love books and more particularly to a dad who majored in English and passed on a passion for writing.

I was born in 1961 in San Diego, California, and am the second of three daughters. I spent my very average childhood in just two houses. I attended Point Loma College in San Diego, majoring in education, but I would have been smarter to major in English with a concentration in writing. The advice I give now to anyone wondering what to major in is follow your heart and choose a vocation you are already in love with.

I'm happy and humbled to say that I've had 17 books published in the last dozen years, including The Shape of Mercy, which was named one of the 100 Best Books in 2008 by Publishers Weekly, and the ECPA's Fiction Book of the Year, a Carol Award winner, and a RITA finalist. I teach at writers' conferences from time to time and I've a background in community journalism.

I'm also a pastor's wife and a mother of four young adults. When I'm not at work on a new novel, I write small group curriculum for my San Diego church. Visit me at my website: http//:susanmeissner.com on Twitter at @SusanMeissner or at www.facebook.com/susan.meissner (Taken from Amazon.)

Susan Meissner: A Bridge Across the Ocean

By Kelly Bridgewater

Wartime intrigue spans the lives of three women—past and present—in the latest novel from the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life.
 
February, 1946. World War Two is over, but the recovery from the most intimate of its horrors has only just begun for Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French Résistance spy.

Now the two women are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned RMS Queen Mary to cross the Atlantic and be reunited with their American husbands. Their new lives in the United States brightly beckon until their tightly-held secrets are laid bare in their shared stateroom. When the voyage ends at New York Harbor, only one of them will disembark...

Present day. Facing a crossroads in her own life, Brette Caslake visits the famously haunted Queen Mary at the request of an old friend. What she finds will set her on a course to solve a seventy-year-old tragedy that will draw her into the heartaches and triumphs of the courageous war brides—and will ultimately lead her to reconsider what she has to sacrifice to achieve her own deepest longings.

From Amazon

My Thoughts:

Let me tell you how much I love Susan Meissner's newest book, A Bridge Across the Ocean. First, it takes place during World War II and present day. The setting, part of the time, takes place on the Queen Mary, which is Titanic's twin sister. I have been obsessed with the story of the Titanic since I was a little girl, so for Meissner to take a World War II novel and twist up with the Queen Mary grabbed my attention. The story is told in four different point of views. At first, it was a little confusing, and I had a hard time figuring out who was talking and what the connection between the three main characters were, but as the story unfolds, I was drawn in so quickly. This story has romance, justice, and a mystery that kept me glued to the page. I finished it in three hours because I couldn't put it down. It was an amazing story! I really enjoyed how Meissner allows me to think that I have the character's personalities down, but then she throws me for a loop and has the characters do something I didn't see coming. Similarly, Meissner does a great job at bringing the horrors to life of World War II, but isn't afraid to share a little light with her engrossing tale. As Meissner ends her tale, she allows a character to state, "Life will send us across a bridge we did not want to cross, but when we finally open our eyes on the other side, we see that there had been nothing to fear after all. " As a word of caution, there is mention of ghosts communicating with the present day character. There is also a descriptive rape scene that I would be cautious of for younger viewers. I highly recommend this book for fans of World War II and/ or fans of the Titanic. This is a story worth coming back to again and again!

I received a complimentary copy of A Bridge Across the Ocean from Berkley Press and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Like A Bridge Across the Ocean, it combines my love of World War II and the "Titanic" era of ships, have you found a book that combines two historical items or genres into one? If so, share some suggestions.

Stars Over Sunset Boulevard: Susan Meissner

By Kelly Bridgewater

Synopsis (From Amazon):

In this new novel from the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life, two women working in Hollywood during its Golden Age discover the joy and heartbreak of true friendship.

Los Angeles, Present Day. When an iconic hat worn by Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind  ends up in Christine McAllister’s vintage clothing boutique by mistake, her efforts to return it to its owner take her on a journey more enchanting than any classic movie… 

Los Angeles, 1938.  Violet Mayfield sets out to reinvent herself in Hollywood after her dream of becoming a wife and mother falls apart, and lands a job on the film-set of Gone With the Wind. There, she meets enigmatic Audrey Duvall, a once-rising film star who is now a fellow secretary. Audrey’s zest for life and their adventures together among Hollywood’s glitterati enthrall Violet…until each woman’s deepest desires collide.  What Audrey and Violet are willing to risk, for themselves and for each other, to ensure their own happy endings will shape their friendship, and their lives, far into the future.

From Amazon

My Thoughts:

I have personally never read anything by Susan Meissner, but the idea of a story set during the 1930’s Hollywood and 1940’s interested me, so I jumped at a chance to read her new book Stars Over Sunset Boulevard. The story is told from Violet Mayfield, a southern belle transported to the hills of Hollywood, and Audrey Duvall, a woman from northern California who wants to become a huge star. Meissner’s latest book carries all the aspect of a historical fiction and will captive readers alike.

I really enjoy how much research Meissner has done with the production of Gone With the Wind to make it come to life for the reader. I really felt like I was on the studio stage as the Hollywood stars and producers were making Gone With the Wind. Following the lives of two secretaries who want more out of their individual lives, Audrey and Violet show the inner workings behind this popular movie. (As a side note, I had to watch this movie in graduate school, and I really DON’T like it. Too long. Too boring.)

Audrey and Violet’s friendship glues the whole plot together. Audrey and Violet meet because Violet needs somewhere to stay when she comes to Hollywood. A lifelong friendship is born. There is plenty of tense moments and many ups and downs to make the relationship realistic. I enjoyed watching them change and transform throughout the novel.

I did have a hard time staying focused when it came to the middle of the book. It kind of drags. Meissner spent the first sixty percent of the book, showing the story in three years time, but then she jumps through seventy years in the last forty percent. It felt really rushed to me. The story should have ended before the last part and the story would have worked out fine.

Like a historical novel, Meissner does a great job at capturing the time period and transporting me to the late 1930’s. Meissner reminded me that friendship is valued above everything else in life.  Fans of Lorna Seilstad and Jessica Dotta would devour this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Penguin Group publishing the opinions stated are all my own. 

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Purchase Stars Over Sunset Boulevard