#Giveaway #SolitaireBlogTour “Five Christmas Book Recommendations” @janethynne

‘TO SAVE HER OWN LIFE, WILL SHE SACRIFICE ANOTHER?’

Today I have a very exciting stop on tour with author Jane Thynne. Jane has just released Book 5 in the Clara Vine series, Solitaire, with Simon & Schuster. Described as ‘a captivating novel of intrigue and survival’, this series is a must for all lovers of historical fiction. I purchased, read and thoroughly enjoyed the first three books in the series before I ever starting blogging, so to be invited on tour with a fabulous guest post and…….wait for it….a GIVEAWAY…is a real honour for me.

First off I will tell you a little about Solitaire, followed by five fantastic book recommendations from Jane Thynne.

I have a lovely Giveaway of two Solitaire mugs from Jane Thynne. This is a flash Twitter giveaway (UK & Ireland) so please do RT my pinned post @swirlandthread to be in with a chance to WIN.

GOOD LUCK everyone and enjoy!!

Book Info:

June 1940: the first summer of the war. Berlin is being bombed and nightly blackouts suffocate the city. Then France falls and a shadow descends.

A shadow has fallen over Clara Vine’s own life, too. She is an Anglo-German woman in a country that hates England. Then she is summoned to meet the Propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who has decided that Clara should adopt a new role – as his spy.

Much as she dislikes the idea, Clara realises this might be the chance to find an escape route to England. But Goebbels has other ideas and soon Clara is drawn into a web that threatens to destroy her. As everything she holds dear is taken as ransom, she must fight to protect her family – and to survive…

Purchase Link ~ Solitaire

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood:

This cult novel about life in a misogynist dystopia was a huge influence on my writing about women in Nazi Germany.

In the Third Reich women were also valued primarily as breeding machines, stripped of rights, and their lives closely controlled.

Researching The Winter Garden, which is set in the Berlin Bride School where girls took a six week course in being a good wife, the parallels with Atwood’s handmaids couldn’t be more plain.

Purchase Link ~ The Handmaid’s Tale

Ma’am Darling by Craig Brown

No royal was more waspish than Wallis Simpson, who appears in Solitaire, but Princess Margaret ran her a close second.

I loved this sideways look, full of anecdotes and diary items, about difficulties of being – and indeed knowing – the Queen’s younger sister.

By turns cruel and hilarious, there’s also a nugget of sympathy for this difficult and controversial princess.

Purchase Link ~ Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret

The Cleaner by Elisabeth Herrmann

I found this at Tegel airport and it gripped me right to Heathrow. Definitely one of my books of the year.

The east Germany of the Stasi era is relatively unexplored territory for thrillers, and this brilliantly original story, set in modern day Berlin, has its roots in that dark time.

Judith is a cleaner who grew up in a state orphanage and through a gruesome discovery, finds a file about her real identity. Cue the CIA, the Stasi, and a claustrophobic race for the truth.

Purchase Link ~ The Cleaner

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

Living with a writer is hard enough. But what if both partners are writers? Who takes precedence?

This superb novel, now a film starring Meryl Streep, tells the story of Joan Castleman, travelling with her husband Joe to collect the prestigious literary prize he has won.

By turns wry and heartbreaking, it peers inside their marriage to reveal the horrors of an egocentric partner and the downside of literary life.

Purchase Link ~ The Wife

HHhH by Laurent Binet

The Heydrich assassination is promising material for a thriller.

The notorious head of the Nazi security service was cut down by British trained Czech commandos in Operation Anthropoid, unleashing terrible retalliation for the Czech people.

The title comes from the popular saying Himmler’s Hirn heisst Heydrich – Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich – because Himmler’s number two was intelligent, cunning and perhaps even more sadistic than his boss.

Part biography, part thriller, this highly original book is like no other novel you’ll find.

Purchase Link ~ HHhH