FROM SARAH:

Susan Meissner is my very favorite adult novelist, and this is the book I recommend most often for teens who are just getting started with her work. It's also a great place for mamas! Weaves together two tales—one from 9/11 and the other from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. And in traditional Susan Meissner form, your heart will be bigger by the time you finish.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Two stories thread together: one of Clara Wood, who must sort out her world after the catastrophic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, and the other of Taryn Michaels, who is rebuilding her life after losing her husband in the 9/11 attacks. A testament to the power of the shape of history on our life in the present.

FROM SARAH:

Susan Meissner is my all-time favorite author, and this is my favorite of her books so far. A historical fiction novel set during WWII that you won't forget. Especially delightful on audio. (Audible | LibroFM).

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden—one that will test her convictions and her heart.

FROM SARAH:

Susan Meissner is my very favorite living writer. If she writes it, I read it! This is one of my favorites, and tells a story we don't hear often—about the Germans who were sent to internment camps in the U.S. during WWII. Highly recommended for historical fiction lovers. I tend to recommend Susan Meissner's books for ages 16+, and that's about right for this one.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

In 1943, Elise Sontag is a typical American teenager from Iowa—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.

FROM SARAH:

Susan Meissner is my favorite author, hands-down. If she writes it, I read it! This is one of my favorites. Best for ages 16+, I think.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 

April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 

Widows and Orphans is the debut novel in the new Rachael Flynn mystery series by critically acclaimed author, Susan Meissner.  The perfect new series for readers who enjoy CBA authors Dee Henderson, Angela Hunt, and Brandilyn Collins.

FROM SARAH:

This is Susan Meissner at her best. I love everything she writes, but in particular, this story explores eugenics through an American girl with Synesthesia and an Austrian girl with physical deformity. It's astounding and unforgettable. Heads-up for one open-door scene that is, in fact, necessary for the story (and handled extremely well by the author). I'd recommend this one for 18+.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant. Banished by the Calverts, Rosanne believes she is bound for a home for unwed mothers. But she soon finds out she is not going to a home of any kind, but to a place that seeks to forcibly take her baby – and the chance for any future babies – from her.

Austria, 1947—After witnessing firsthand Adolf Hitler’s brutal pursuit of hereditary purity—especially with regard to “different children”—Helen Calvert, Truman’s sister, is ready to return to America for good. But when she arrives at her brother’s peaceful vineyard after decades working abroad, she is shocked to learn what really happened nine years earlier to the vinedresser’s daughter, a girl whom Helen had long ago befriended. In her determination to find Rosanne, Helen discovers a shocking American eugenics program—and learns that that while the war had been won in Europe, there are still terrifying battles to be fought at home.