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What Remains is Hope by Bonnie Suchman
Today’s Coffee Pot Blog Tour features What Remains is Hope, a Holocaust saga. I’m providing an excerpt (see below), but first, take a look at the book description:
Beginning in 1930s Germany and based on their real lives, four cousins as close as siblings—Bettina, Trudi, Gustav, and Gertrud—share the experiences of the young, including first loves, marriages, and children.
Bettina, the oldest, struggles to help her parents with their failing business. Trudi dresses in the latest fashions and tries to make everything look beautiful. Gustav is an artist at heart and hopes to one day open a tailoring shop. Gertrud, the youngest, is forced by her parents to keep secrets, but that doesn’t stop her from chasing boys. However, over their seemingly ordinary lives hangs one critical truth—they’re Jewish—putting them increasingly at risk.
When World War II breaks out, the four are still in Germany or German-occupied lands, unable or unwilling to leave. How will these cousins avoid the horrors of the Nazi regime, a regime that wants them dead? Will they be able to avoid the deportations and concentration camps that have claimed their fellow Jews? Danger is their constant companion, and it will take hope and more to survive.
Book Review: The Disgraced Knight's Redemption by Ella Matthews
As I hadn’t read the other two novels, I never really understood the details of the disgrace Sir Tristan had suffered, but it was clearly not his fault, and he was clearly an honourable man who just wanted to help out his friends (who’d had their own adventures in the previous books) and a great knight. He had a mission to fulfil on behalf of the king so he could overcome his ‘disgrace’. That mission, which he chose to accept, was to convince a young Welsh heiress to leave her castle and lands and go to court, so a man could take over.
The only problem was that she and her castle and small group of very loyal people were already under attack, about to be besieged by a treacherous neighbour who wanted her lands and castle.
Sir Tristan to the rescue! He, being a capable (and incredibly handsome) knight, trained the people and helped them withstand the siege. But he still intended on taking her to the king after, and fulfilling his mission.
What he didn’t reckon for (and neither did she) was the instalove and mutual attraction they’d find in each other.
How could he complete his mission when he was falling for her? How could she look after her people when she was distracted by him?
All in all, a lovely romance with themes of love, found family, redemption, honour, and ultimately a satisfying ending.
If you love classic love stories with a medieval flourish - castles, sieges and the like, then this one’s for you!
LADY OF LINCOLN longlisted for the Chaucer Award!
LADY OF LINCOLN has been longlisted for the 2025 Chaucer Award for early historical fiction!
This award ‘recognizes emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Early Historical (Pre- 1750) Fiction’, celebrating stories that transport readers deep into the past, and I’m thrilled that the amazing Nicola de la Haye’s story is being recognised amongst other great novels.
For more news on LADY OF LINCOLN and my other stories, please subscribe to my reader list.
She Wasn’t Supposed to Matter…
She didn’t set out to defy anyone. She didn’t burn with ambition, or plot her way to power. She was young. She wanted love. She was raised to trust men to handle the weight of responsibility. And yet, by the time her story was done, she’d held command of one of England’s greatest castles, faced down rebellions, navigated the treachery and ambition of the marriage market, and made choices that shaped the future of a kingdom.