Nadine Feldman, Author

celebrating strong female characters and whatever else strikes my fancy

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Book Review: All That Shines and Whispers

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I’ve been lost in folktales and 19th-century Scotland for a long time now. I decided to take a break and visit a very different era and location. All That Shines and Whispers by Jennifer Craven is set in Switzerland and Austria during the time of the Nazis.

We meet Marlene and her doctor husband Gerald in Switzerland after their escape from Nazi-held Austria. There they are working hard to re-establish their lives with their many children, from 18-year-old Lara to baby Erich. Marlene is a loving stepmom who has managed to soften Gerald’s hard edges. There are a few gentle nods to The Sound of Music, though this is a very different story.

The loving family is hiding a big secret, one which I will not reveal here. I will say, though, that the book worked better for me once I found out what was going on. Up until then I struggled with it a bit. After, though, I was hooked.

The strengths of this story lie in the family relationships and willingness to stick together. The love of a parent knows no bounds in this story, even when that parent makes a poor decision out of that love.

A Visit From the Fey

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The Factory Girl and the Fey was never meant to be a fairy tale. The original idea was straight historical fiction, and I had done a lot of research on the era (19th century), location (Scotland), and the lives of the working class.

There’s a mysterious process that happens when we start to put a story down, however. In this case, two of the Fair Folk showed up in a dream: Gentle and Rain, now known as Flora and Coira. Before I knew it, there was a Queen, Donella, and a whole host of others who showed up once Flora and Coira had established their presence.

Flora and Coira are sisters, but they are a yin and yang sort, with the former a gentle, sweet woman, and the latter sarcastic with a hint of danger.

I tried ignoring them, preferring to write straight historical fiction. Over and over I tried. I knew nothing about fairy tales. Hadn’t read them since childhood. Hadn’t even watched a lot of Disney movies. I was clearly in over my head. But they wouldn’t leave. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t write the story without them.

There was only one solution: do more research. I started reading Neil Gaiman. I studied Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner. I found books that were retellings of fairy tales, such as Janet Yolen’s Briar Rose (sleeping beauty) and The Girls at the Kingfisher Club (The Twelve Princesses) by Genevieve Valentine. Day by day, I sought out those who could teach me what I needed to know. I found The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic and enrolled in some of their courses.

I had believed, mistakenly, that fairy tales were for children. The Factory Girl and the Fey is definitely not a children’s book, with some controversial topics in it. I wondered what adult would want to read my “weird little book.” Turns out, there’s a whole world of people who love all things Fey and Folklore.

Over time, I fell in love with the Fey. I am still learning, but I’ve learned enough to know that my story is oddly on track, despite my ignorance. Perhaps the fairy tales of my childhood were informing me, despite the decades in which they gathered dust in my brain. Or perhaps the storytelling aspect of fairy tales is hardwired within us, so it comes naturally once we allow our imaginations to carry us aloft.

Either way, I no longer try to shoo them away. They get to stay. And I suspect they have much more to tell me.

Book Review: The Accidental Gatekeeper

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*NOTE: I received an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.*

Carla Rehse’s new release, The Accidental Gatekeeper, is the first of a trilogy centered around Everly, a middle-aged woman who turned her drug-dealing husband into the Feds, and returned to her Central Texas hometown for safety…only to find she’s jumped from the proverbial frying pan into the fire.

Sitting next to Hell’s Gate, the town of Crossing Shadows, Texas, isn’t your ordinary Texas town. It may look like it, but it’s a chaotic mix of angels, demons, hellhounds, and a variety of other magical beings. Everly left years ago, denying her status as a “Marked” human, so she doesn’t get the warmest of welcomes upon her return.

Her main goal is to keep her grown daughter safe, a daughter who knows nothing of the family legacy. But before saving her daughter, she’s drawn into saving the town.

I liked Everly, in part because she’s not young. She has creaky knees and hot flashes, so she’s an unlikely heroine. I also loved the cheeky, snarky humor of the story. It kept me wanting to turn the page. The major characters were distinctive and fun, and the story moves less like a freight train and more like a supersonic jet…lots of action all the time.

This isn’t the type of book I normally read, so if you love what I’ve already written, you’ll enjoy this book. And I did, too, to a point. I would have liked to catch my breath here and there. The pace was a bit too breakneck for me. It also seemed like there were too many varieties of magical beings, which got a bit confusing.

Also, I am assuming (hoping) that since mine was a downloaded advance copy, the text formatting will get fixed in the final version. The formatting is inconsistent, making the book harder to read.

As a series, this book makes a good lead-in. It’s a complete story but leaves some unresolved threads as bread crumbs for the books to follow. I will probably want to know what happens next with Everly. (I have a pet peeve when a series book doesn’t have an actual ending, but this one does.) For an author writing a series, a reader wanting to continue is the ultimate goal.

The Factory Girl and the Fey comes out October 15! Coming soon: sample chapter and cover reveal. Stay tuned!

Update on The Factory Girl and the Fey

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We interrupt this regularly scheduled book review column because exciting things are happening with The Factory Girl and the Fey!

First, my copyeditor, Esther White, has completed her diligent work, and I am making the final tweaks to the manuscript based on her guidance. Kudos to Esther for her help!

Next, I have a cover! Happy dance! Lynne Hansen has outdone herself this time, and I can’t wait to share it. The good folks at Historical Virtual Book Tours will soon reveal the cover, and I can’t wait!

I’ll spend the rest of the month tidying up the manuscript, and I plan to put it on NetGalley by mid-July for advance reviews.

It’s definitely crunch time with all of this happening, but I’m very excited! I’m proud of this book and in the coming weeks will share more details about it. For more information or to add it to your Goodreads list, click here.

Book Review: The Girls at the Kingfisher Club

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While working to finish The Factory Girl and the Fey, I went looking for books that might compare. Having not expected to write a “fairy tale,” I wondered if anyone else had written a story in the way I have.

My search has led me down an exciting rabbit hole, one where I am finding people who love folklore and fairy tales. It’s an exciting search, and The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine is one of the nuggets of gold I found along the way. It’s not similar to my story, but it’s still a lot of fun and well worth mentioning here.

The Girls at the Kingfisher club is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, a German fairy tale that’s part of the Brothers Grimm collection (which themselves are retellings!). In the original story, twelve princesses were locked in their room every night by their father, but each night they would sneak out and go dancing. Every day their shoes were worn out. He invited suitors to vie for the right to marry one of the princesses. They had three days, and the requirement was for them to figure out how they were getting out of the house. If the prospective suitors didn’t figure it out in three days, they were put to death. Many men tried and failed, reaching their brutal end. Because it’s a fairy tale, though, someone figured out how they did it. He was rewarded with marriage to the oldest daughter.

In the retelling, the setting is Manhattan during the Roaring 20s. Our princesses are twelve daughters of a wealthy man who has no interest in his daughters whatsoever. His wife died in a final attempt to bring forth a son. Jo, the oldest, and Lou, the sister to which she is closest, fall in love with dancing and teach the younger girls how to do it. They sneak out into the night to the speakeasys to dance.

Naturally, problems arise, especially once the father catches on to what they’re doing.

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club is a tale of patriarchy, but it is also a tale of the resilience and strength of women. It is also a glimpse into a fascinating period of American history. There are no fairies in this fairy tale, but it’s a great example of how fairy tales can be used as a basis for new and enjoyable stories. I’ll be sharing more of these in future blog posts.

If you enjoy this blog, please consider purchasing one of my books. More information on the titles can be found here. The Factory Girl and the Fey will be available in October 2021. Stay tuned for more details!

Book Review: The Lost Apothecary

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In this stunning debut by Sarah Penner, The Lost Apothecary weaves the reader between present day and the late 18th-century London. Part mystery, part women’s fiction, part history, I found this to be a page-turner. Particularly intriguing is the apothecary herself, Nella, who provides poisons to women whose men done ’em wrong. Her body is rebelling against her, in large part, she believes, because of her guilt about her work. Basically, Penner turns a serial killer into a sympathetic character, which is no easy feat.

Caroline, the protagonist of the present-time story, has arrived in London for what would have been her tenth anniversary…but arrives alone. Like many women, she allowed life and marriage to take over and forgot her own dreams. On an outing, she finds an apothecary bottle that awakens her interest in history. Soon she is sleuthing the past to learn more about the woman who owned that bottle.

Nella keeps a record of every woman who came to her shop, including their name, the person who is to be poisoned, and the substance used. It is her way of keeping these women from disappearing entirely. Yet she herself was to disappear before Caroline rediscovered her.

As a side note, my upcoming novel, The Factory Girl and the Fey, also tells of a woman who disappeared from history, and is my attempt to give her the recognition she deserves. Perhaps that is why this story intrigued me so much, the pain of having women fall into obscurity.

I could not put this book down. Enjoy!

If you enjoy this blog, please consider purchasing one or more of my books. The Factory Girl and the Fey, a historical fantasy, is coming this fall, so stay tuned for more details! For more info on my contemporary women’s fiction, click here.

Starting in June, I’ll add a second blog post about topics not related to book reviews. Stay tuned!