Book Spotlight: What Remains is Hope by Bonnie Suchman

 

Beginning in 1930s Germany and based on their real lives, four cousins as close as siblings—Bettina, Trudi, Gustav, and Gertrud—share the experiences of the young, including first loves, marriages, and children.

 

Bettina, the oldest, struggles to help her parents with their failing business. Trudi dresses in the latest fashions and tries to make everything look beautiful. Gustav is an artist at heart and hopes to one day open a tailoring shop. Gertrud, the youngest, is forced by her parents to keep secrets, but that doesn’t stop her from chasing boys. However, over their seemingly ordinary lives hangs one critical truth—they’re Jewish—putting them increasingly at risk.

 

When World War II breaks out, the four are still in Germany or German-occupied lands, unable or unwilling to leave. How will these cousins avoid the horrors of the Nazi regime, a regime that wants them dead? Will they be able to avoid the deportations and concentration camps that have claimed their fellow Jews? Danger is their constant companion, and it will take hope and more to survive.

 Praise for What Remains is Hope:

"Readers will find this follow up to Suchman's prior novel, Stumbling Stones, both a heartbreaking reminder of the Holocaust's atrocities and a compelling tribute to a family's refusal to surrender to despair...Richly compelling Holocaust account, centered on the power of hope."

~ Booklife by Publishers Weekly

 "Author Bonnie Suchman has a way of making every moment count with her characters in a narrative that feels powerfully real as she spins deeply personal stories against a sweeping and tragic backdrop of history. ..What Remains is Hope is historical fiction at its best, and I'd highly recommend it to fans of gripping fiction that's emotionally resonant and grounded in truth."

~ K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite

 

 Buy Link:

 Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/mvJNLV

 This book is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

 

 

Bonnie Suchman has been a practicing attorney for forty years. Using her legal skills, she researched her husband's 250-year family history in Germany, publishing the award-winning, non-fiction book, Broken Promises: The Story of a Jewish Family in Germany, as a result.

Those compelling stories became Suchman's Heppenheimer Family Holocaust Saga. The first in the series, Stumbling Stones, was a Finalist for the 2024 Hawthorne Prize for Fiction, and recently, her family traveled to Frankfurt, Germany, to install stumbling stones for her husband's Great Aunt Alice and her husband Alfred, the real-life characters in the book.

What Remains is Hope is the second novel in the saga. In her free time, Bonnie is a runner and a golfer. She and her husband reside in Potomac, Maryland. 

  Author Links:

 Website: www.bonniesuchman.com

Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/BonnieSuchman

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556457672565

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonniesuchmanauthor/

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Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/bonnie-suchman

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Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/stores/Bonnie-Suchman/author/B09L3BDVRQ

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/236761983-what-remains-is-hope

Book Spotlight: The Lydiard Chronicles: The Lady of the Tower (Book #1) By Love Divided (Book #2) Written in Their Stars (Book #3) by Elizabeth St.John

 

Duty, passion, and power collide in The Lydiard Chronicles, a gripping trilogy inspired by

true events. Follow three courageous women—survivors, strategists, and storytellers—who defy the constraints of society to shape their family’s fate and England’s future. Their voices echo through time. Their legacy changed a nation.

The Lydiard Chronicles is an award-winning, best-selling historical family saga which brings to life the remarkable true stories of the St.John family. Spanning three compelling novels—The Lady of the Tower, By Love Divided, and Written in Their Stars—the series follows the legacy of resilient and intelligent women who lived as spies, courtiers, and diarists during England’s most turbulent century, navigating the quicksand of love and war, political upheaval, and personal sacrifice.

Bound by fierce family loyalty and unforgettable love, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles defy the limits of their time with passion, courage, and unshakable independence. They endure captivity in the Tower of London, exile in the Louvre Palace, and the heart-wrenching divisions of the English Civil War—fighting not just for survival, but for their beliefs, their families, and the right to choose their own fate. Meticulously researched and vividly told, this epic saga reveals how these women created history from the shadows, leaving a legacy of resilience, defiance, and enduring influence.

Rooted in original diaries, letters, and family papers, The Lydiard Chronicles offers an intimate, biographical portrait of women who moved behind the scenes of power. Serving as trusted secret agents, military wives, and confidantes of kings, they were deeply engaged in the political and religious conflicts of their time. Through tragedy and triumph, the women of The Lydiard Chronicles shape their destinies—and the fate of a nation—in this richly researched and vividly told historical epic.

 Buy Links:

Universal Series Buy Link: https://geni.us/TheLydiardChronicles

These titles are available to read on #KindleUnlimited

 Hot Summer Reads:

 *Each novel is priced at just 99c / 99p July 1^st - 15^th, 2025*

 

 

Elizabeth St.John’s critically acclaimed historical fiction novels tell the stories of her ancestors: extraordinary women whose intriguing kinship with England's kings and queens brings an intimately unique perspective to Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times.

Inspired by family archives and residences from Lydiard Park to the Tower of London, Elizabeth spends much of her time exploring ancestral portraits, diaries, and lost gardens. And encountering the occasional ghost. But that’s another story.

Living between California, England, and the past, Elizabeth is the International Ambassador for The Friends of Lydiard Park, an English charity dedicated to conserving and enhancing this beautiful centuries-old country house and park. As a curator for The Lydiard Archives, she is constantly looking for an undiscovered treasure to inspire her next novel.

Elizabeth's works include The Lydiard Chronicles, a family saga set in 17th-century England during the Civil War, and The Godmother's Secret, which unravels the medieval mystery of the missing princes in the Tower of London. Her latest release, The King’s Intelligencer, follows Franny Apsley in the treacherous court of Charles II as she risks everything to uncover the dangerous truth behind the discovery of the princes’ bones.

Author Links:

Website:         https://www.elizabethjstjohn.com/

Facebook:       https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethJStJohn/

LinkedIn:        https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethjstjohn/

Instagram:       https://www.instagram.com/elizabethjstjohn/

Threads:          https://www.threads.net/@elizabethjstjohn

Bluesky:          https://bsky.app/profile/elizabethstjohn.bsky.social

Book Bub:       https://www.bookbub.com/profile/elizabeth-st-john

Amazon Author Page:     https://geni.us/AmazonElizabethStJohn

Goodreads:      https://geni.us/GoodreadsElizStJohn

Book Spotlight: Stumbling Stones by Bonnie Suchman

 

"Alice knew that Selma sometimes felt judged by their mother and didn't always like it when Alice was praised and Selma was not. Alice glanced over at her sister, but Selma was smiling at Alice. In what Alice understood might be Selma's last act of generosity towards her sister, Selma was going to let Alice bask in the glow of Emma's pride toward her elder daughter. Then the three shared a hug, a hug that seemed to last forever."

Alice Heppenheimer, born into a prosperous German Jewish family around the turn of the twentieth century, comes of age at a time of growing opportunities for women.

So, when she turns 21 years old, she convinces her strict family to allow her to attend art school, and then pursues a career in women's fashion. Alice prospers in her career and settles into married life, but she could not anticipate a Nazi Germany, where simply being Jewish has become an existential threat. Stumbling Stones is a novel based on the true story of a woman driven to achieve at a time of persecution and hatred, and who is reluctant to leave the only home she has ever known.

But as strong and resilient as Alice is, she now faces the ultimate challenge - will she and her husband be able to escape Nazi Germany or have they waited too long to leave?

 

 

Buy Link:

 

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/4ND1x8

 

Bonnie Suchman is an attorney who has been practicing law for forty years. Using her legal skills, she researched her husband's family's 250-year history in Germany, and published a non-fiction book about the family, Broken Promises: The Story of a Jewish Family in Germany. Bonnie found one member of the family, Alice Heppenheimer, particularly compelling. Stumbling Stones tells Alice's story. Bonnie has two adult children and lives in Maryland with her husband, Bruce.

 Author Links: 

Website: www.bonniesuchman.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BonnieSuchman

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556457672565

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonniesuchmanauthor/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bonniesuchman/

Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/bonnie-suchman

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Bonnie-Suchman/author/B09L3BDVRQ  

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21796158.Bonnie_Suchman