The Hidden Palace

 OK, this may sound strange when talking about a book in the fantasy genre, but I think this plot was too far fetched .  The Hidden Palace written by Helen Wecker is a follow up to her really great novel, The Golem and the Jinni.  The original book about a Golem who is created by a disgraced Rabbi and then shipped to New York City, to marry a man who inconveniently dies and leaves her alone, and a Jinni, released from a bottle but captured in human form, who also finds himself alone in New York, was improbable but by the end of the book was captivating and almost believable.  

I was excited to see that Wecker had brought back the Golem, Chava, made of river clay, and the Jinni, Ahmad, who is created fire, continuing to develop their awkward but sweet romance.  Chava, who can hear what mortals are thinking, works in a bakery and helps humans in trouble, sometimes to her own detriment.  Ahmed, who spends his days as a smith, enjoying the heat and hard labor of bending tin into beautiful objects.  At night the two come together and wander the streets of Manhattan.

In building this relationship between Chava and Ahmad, there is coming together  Jewish and Arabian folklore in harmony.  But in this new novel, Wecker shakes up the peaceful relationship between our two main characters, showing their more dangerous sides.  The undercurrent that is never really gone, from their characters.  As Chava and Ahmad become more human, the negative qualities of their makeup threatens to pull them apart and could ultimately destroy them.  Around them in the early days of the 20th century, history also affects their lives, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory  fire and the sinking of the Titanic are two historical events mentioned int he book.

But then into the reality of their world the author beings in two more characters, Yossle, a Golem who is brought to life and only thinks to destroy to protect its master and Dima, a wild jinni, made of wind and fire, selfish in her wish to deceive and destroy a human to get what she wants.  These characters add a bit of suspense and anticipation to the plot but also for added a feeling of forced believability to a storyline that I was really enjoying develop.

The Matzah Ball

 The Matzah Ball is the book everyone is talking about right now, written by Jean Meltzer.  This entertaining novel is hitting bookstores just in time for giving as a fun Hanukkah gift.  

It is a fun, quirky and a little kooky plot that really does carry a deeper meaning.  It brings to the forefront so much of the difficulty Jews have struggled with for centuries in America, though I hesitate to write the overused theme, “the December dilemma” this time for adults.  It also looks at the 

Rachel Rubinstein-Goldberg has grown up feeling the scrutiny of being the Rabbi’s daughter. Her mother is the Rabbetzin extraordinaire and Rachel has felt the pressure to always behave and appear as the proper role model.  So when she decides that Christmas is a much more romantic, colorful holiday, she feels a need to keep her obsession secret.   She earns her living writing Christmas romance novels under a pseudonym and collecting Christmas tchotchkes.   She keeps this all hidden in her Upper East Side, New York apartment.  

The only friend who knows her secrets is Mickey, a childhood friend.  They have been friends since they were eight and even experienced Rachel’s greatest disappointment, when her first love at summer camp played a mean prank on her.  She has never forgiven Jacob Greenberg for the embarrassment she remembers.  

Jacob, of course, saw the incident differently and has held onto his feeling of abandonment all these years.   When the now successful party planner comes back to New York to throw the biggest fundraiser party of his career, the extravaganza, Matzah Ball Max, their lives all cross paths again.

When Rachel’s editors tell Rachel she must write a Hanukkah romance this year and she decides to get a ticket to the Hanukkah soiree hoping to find the inspiration she needs to change her mind about the minor Jewish holiday not having enough magic to create a romance novel around.

Of course added to the misunderstanding of their childhood, Rachel and Jacob have to work through a few current disagreements, which brings us to the crux of the plot, girl meets boy, wonders if she can trust him, they argue, and it all leads to romance.  Though along the way  there is laughter, tension, suspense and the big finale..the eighth night of Hanukkah!

The Light of Luna Park

The Light of Luna  Park is  written  by Addison Armstrong. She has written  this novel at the age of 24 and that gives her a long career of writing more interesting and entertaining historical novels.   I  enjoyed this book, though I did not think it was the most sophisticated writing style I have faith she will improve with experience.  

The subject matter of this plot carries the book. Looking at the idea of high infant mortality rates in this  country during the early 20th century.  We look  back to the beginning of neonatal care in hospitals.   To  think that it was pushed forward by a man who set up incubators at Luna Park, Coney Island, NY and on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ.  He was really  using the babies who were premature and could survive if started out in an incubator as a tourist attraction, but amazingly he was really onto a serious scientific sound idea.  He was able to save hundreds of babies.

In this novel, Armstrong takes the idea and creates a nurse who has seen the incubators and has delivered babies prematurely, who are going to die in the hospital.  She decides that even though the babies are on display, the chance of survival might be worth it.  Challenging the doctor she works with in the hospital is risking her career as a nurse, but finally it is one child too many that is left to die.  The doctor and the parents don't believe int he possibility of the incubator.

Althea Anderson is a young woman on her own going to nursing school at Bellevue Hospital.  Life for a woman alone in 1926  is difficult, but one night Althea decides to risk it all for a baby born two months too early.  She decides to save a baby's life against the order of the doctor and the wishes of the father.

It will drastically change the trajectory of her life.  This story line is told along side that of 25 year old Stella Wright,  a young, newly married school teacher.  Her mother has just died and she is having a crisis of faith in her teaching ability.   Working with special needs students that she is not properly trained for, she doubts herself.  She misses her mother and when she goes to close up the apartment she grew up in she begins to uncover a confusing past. 

Althea tells her story as Stella slowly discovers hers.  Stella's husband Jack is there dealing with his own demons following his return from war.   The year is 1950.  Stella and Jack are working to keep their marriage together as they both deal with their secrets.

The writing is a bit stilted but the story  is entertaining and the history is interesting so you will want to keep reading until the end of this novel.

The Faberge Secret

I fell in love with Charles Belfoure after reading The Paris Architect,

a fascinating story about an architect who designed secret spaces during World War II,

risking his life to help others.  I also really  enjoyed reading Belfoure's, House of Thieves,

again a novel based on an architect who makes an ethical decision when designing homes in

1880's Manhattan.  His next novel, The Fallen Architect, takes the reader to London. 

When a theatre balcony collapses and people are killed the architect knows the flaw is not

in his design but this time in a twisty historical thriller, Belfoure brings us the story of a man

who must clear his name by digging through the debris of his past and correcting his personal mistakes.

Now we come to Charles Belfoure's newest novel, The Faberge Secret.  This one is not as

memorable as his past works.  In this novel we meet architect Prince Dimitri Markoff, a close

friend of Nicholas II and Alexandra, the Tsar and Tsarina, the Imperial Court of Russia. 

This novel takes place as the pogroms and persecution of Jews is happening outside St Petersburg

in 1903.  

Prince Markoff is living a life of luxury and good fortune, as an architect to the Tsar because

he loves the work not because he needs the money.  His wife the Princess Lara has tired of him

and prefers a life of gossip and parties.  When Markoff meets  the educated and passionate

Doctor Katya Golitsyn, he falls in love with her and begins to see a world outside the palace walls.

During this time period in Russia there is an undercurrent of unrest and violence brewing. 

We are leading up to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904.  The Tzar is becoming unpopular.

Markoff witnesses the Easter Sunday pogrom, where the police force fires on agitators demonstrating

for constitutional monarchy or the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.  Markoff tries to warn

Nicholas about his increasing unpopularity.  But Nicholas tells him the Jews themselves were to blame.

Markoff cannot forget what he has seen.  He and Katya, who has discovered she has Jewish

ancestry are determined to take a stand and try to make a difference.  The results could be costly.

This is another fascinating historical novel, but though Markoff is an architect, Belfoure does not

use the  profession to assist in the solving of a problem in  this novel. The career role is not as

important to the plot line in this novel.  I think that is the downfall of this book.  Though a story

that holds your attention, the ultimate unique factor that makes Belfour's other novels so special

is missing this time.