September | 2022 | Coffee And Ink

Our Daughters’ Last Hope by Elaine Stock

Publication Date: September 19, 2022
Amsterdam Publishers

Genre: Historical Fiction/WWII
Series: Resilient Women of WWII, Book 2

A mesmerizing story, set during one of the world’s most harrowing carnages, of two mothers as they cross enemy lines for the sake of their daughters’ futures.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands 1940 Herta, and her family, Jewish refugees, are living contentedly until the Nazi invasion, which echoes the persecution and fear they experienced before fleeing Germany. Across town, another wife and mother, Julia, also faces upheaval when her husband becomes more involved in the Nazis’ effort in controlling the world.

When their husbands go missing, one accused falsely of crimes and the other to fight on behalf of the Nazis, Herta, despite the heartache, takes charge and places her daughters into hiding believing they’ll keep safe. Meanwhile, Julia, as the only parent home, chooses to redefine family. These unexpected developments bring Herta and Julia together… until their true identities surface and they’re thrown into dangerous consequences that could harm not only them but their daughters.

Following We Shall Not Shatter, Book 1 of the Resilient Women of WWII Trilogy, this story of friendship questions whether two mothers, acting to ensure their children’s future, can put aside the issues of faith and heritage that could bring the Nazis right to their doorstep.

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About the Author

Elaine Stock writes Historical Fiction, exploring home, family and friendships throughout time. She enjoys creating stories showing how all faiths, races, and belief systems are interconnected and need each other.

Elaine’s grandparents, on both sides of her family, narrowly escaped World War II by immigrating from Poland and Austria to the US. Fascinated by the strong will of people to overcome the horrors from this era, she wrote We Shall Not Shatter, Book 1 of the Resilient Women of WWII Trilogy inspired by her deaf great aunt who was left behind as a teenager in Poland and perished in the Holocaust, while her other deaf siblings were permitted to enter the US when their young ages helped them to circumvent medically-revealing exams. Other extended family members also remained in Poland to lose their lives in the Holocaust.

Although multi-published in award-winning Inspirational Fiction, and a past blogger and online magazine contributor, Elaine now pens novels for the General reading audience. She is a member of Women’s Fiction Writers Association and The Historical Novel Society. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she has now been living in upstate, rural New York with her husband for more years than her stint as a city gal. She enjoys long walks down country roads, visiting New England towns, and of course, a good book.

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Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, September 19
Feature at Passages to the Past

Tuesday, September 20
Review at A Baker’s Perspective
Feature at What Is That Book About

Monday, September 26
Review at The Page Ladies

Tuesday, September 27
Feature at Reading Is My Remedy

Thursday, September 29
Review at Books, Writings, and More

Friday, September 30
Feature at Coffee and Ink
Feature at CelticLady’s Reviews

Giveaway

Enter to win a copy of Our Daughters’ Last Hope by Elaine Stock (paperback or eBook, winner’s choice).

The giveaway is open to the US only and ends on September 30th. You must be 18 or older to enter.

Our Daughters’ Last Hope

The Portraitist: A Novel of Adelaide Labille-Guiard by Susanne Dunlap

Publication Date: August 30, 2022
She Writes Press

Genre: Historical Fiction

Based on a true story, this is the tale of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard’s fight to take her rightful place in the competitive art world of eighteenth-century Paris.

With a beautiful rival who’s better connected and better trained than she is, Adélaïde faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her young instructor in oil painting gives rise to suspicions that he touches up her work, and her decision to make much-needed money by executing erotic pastels threatens to create as many problems as it solves. Meanwhile, her rival goes from strength to strength, becoming Marie Antoinette’s official portraitist and gaining entrance to the elite Académie Royale at the same time as Adélaïde.

When at last Adélaïde earns her own royal appointment and receives a massive commission from a member of the royal family, the timing couldn’t be worse: it’s 1789, and with the fall of the Bastille her world is turned upside down by political chaos and revolution. With danger around every corner in her beloved Paris, she must find a way to adjust to the new order, carving out a life and a career all over again—and stay alive in the process.

Buy The Portraitist

Praise

“An imaginative work that brings the story of a little-known artist to vivid life.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Deeply researched and imagined, The Portraitist offers a fascinating and dramatic plunge into the world of a brilliant female artist, struggling to make her mark before and during the turbulent and treacherous era of the French Revolution. I loved this novel.” –Sandra Gulland, international bestselling author of The Josephine Trilogy

“Written with breathless drama, The Portraitist follows the rise of the gifted portraitist Adélaïde Labille-Guiard in Paris during the last years of the late eighteenth century. The novel is a luminous depiction of Paris and those terrible times seen through the astute, compassionate eyes of a woman who had to paint. Every bit of lace, or royal carriage or bloody cobblestone is alive in the writing. The rain drumming on the skylight and a misbuttoned coat speak. Go to those streets with this book in your hand to follow her footsteps and those long-gone turbulent times will come alive to you as if they were yesterday.” –Stephanie Cowell, award-winning author of Claude and Camille

“In The Portraitist, Susanne Dunlap skillfully paints a portrait of a woman struggling to make her way in a man’s world — a topic as relevant today as it was in Ancien Regime France. Impeccably researched, rich with period detail, Dunlap brings to life the little known true story of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, who fought her husband and society to make a name for herself as a painter to the royal family, the very apex of success– only to find everything she had built threatened by the Revolution. A stunning story of determination, talent, and reversals of fortune. As a lifelong Elisabeth Vigée-LeBrun fan, I am now questioning my allegiances!” –Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Country and Band of Sisters

“[The Portraitist is a] luminous novel of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, whose livelihood and longing for respect are threatened by the institutions that deny women artists their due, compounded by the tumultuous events of the French Revolution. Deftly written and impeccably researched. Highly recommended.” –Michelle Cameron, award-winning author of Beyond the Ghetto Gates

About the Author

Susanne Dunlap is the author of twelve works of historical fiction for adults and teens, as well as an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. Her love of historical fiction arose partly from her studies in music history at Yale University (PhD, 1999), partly from her lifelong interest in women in the arts as a pianist and non-profit performing arts executive. Her novel The Paris Affair won first place in its category in the CIBA Dante Rossetti awards for Young Adult Fiction. The Musician’s Daughter was a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Bank Street Children’s Book of the Year, and was nominated for the Utah Book Award and the Missouri Gateway Reader’s Prize. In the Shadow of the Lamp was an Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award nominee. Susanne earned her BA and an MA (musicology) from Smith College, and lives in Biddeford, ME, with her little dog Betty.

For more information, please visit Susanne Dunlap’s website. You can follow author Susanne Dunlap on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram, Pinterest, and BookBub.

Review by Coffee & Ink

From the opening sentence of the powerful first paragraph and every page thereafter, we know Adelaide is a woman unlike many of the women of Paris in the late 18^th century. Every sentence is soaked in the colors and landscape of Adelaide’s discerning artist’s eye. She is running from her marriage into the unknown with only the beating soul of art to both push and guide her.

I love Adelaide’s voice—both practical and poetic. Nothing is ever easy for her, not the separation or supporting herself. She fights hard to paint every moment she has, to learn and grow her art.

It almost goes without saying there are tremendous barriers to being a woman artist in pre-Revolution Paris, to come to the attention of the massive male-dominated world of the Académie and its world. To be a part of it and gain the coveted patronage of the royal family, with the aim of becoming the royal portraitist.

I love the other characters in the story—students, lover, her ex. The artist rival Mademoiselle Vigee. Very well drawn and believable, stepping out of history to take part in Adelaide’s story.

I found the story hard to put down, guided effortlessly around late 18^th century Paris and the life of the artist Adelaide Labille-Guiard.

Highly recommended, a ten-star read for history and art lovers.