Sweet Tease Novel Tea Book Club

This is such a brilliant combination of historical and women's fiction, as well as a tribute to Jane Austen's Persuasion It begins in England in the Regency era and travels to Buenos Aires, in the beginnings of a fight for the South American colonies' independence from Spain. Abigail Isaacs fears ever again falling under the power of love and dedicates her life to studying the heavens. However, upon her father’s demise she finds herself in reduced circumstances and must write to her brother, who has long been away at sea. When instead Captain Wentworth of the HMS Laconia sends a tragic reply, Abigail is asked to set aside her own ambitions and fulfill her brother’s dreams in the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. 313 pages          4.5 Amazon 4.5Goodreads

This fascinating, deftly-plotted and well-characterized novel by the author of The Ambassador's Wife follows a family of Jewish musicians in the 1930's, Austrian natives who never suspect that their loyalty and citizenship will be soon challenged by the darkest of political force. When, in 1939, the borders of most of the world's countries had closed to the Jews, there was still one window. Bolivia, that landlocked country whose Andean capital looms at 12,o00 feet, was accepting applications for visas. Exile Music is the story of one family's emigration to that farthest shore, and encompasses several overlooked corners of history. 414 pages 4.1goodreads  4.6Amazon

While Licco Hazan, the narrator of this novel, was held captive at a Bulgarian labor camp in World War II, he could hardly imagine that one day hed have a much brighter future in the far-off, frightening Amazon.Accompanying the lives of this character and his family and people, Ilko Minev reconstructs the little-known and intriguing story of how Bulgaria's 50,000 Jews were saved from the gas chambers during the heinous Nazi domination of Europe.  234 pages 4.8Amazon 4.1goodreads