Cover Reveal: The Next Ship Home

 

The Next Ship Home: A Novel of Ellis Island
by Heather Webb

Publication Date: February 8, 2022
Sourcebooks Landmark

Genre: Historical Fiction

Ellis Island, 1902: Two women band together to hold America to its promise: "Give me your tired, your poor ... your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

A young Italian woman arrives on the shores of America, her sights set on a better life. That same day, a young American woman reports to her first day of work at the immigration center. But Ellis Island isn't a refuge for Francesca or Alma, not when ships depart every day with those who are refused entry to the country and when corruption ripples through every corridor. While Francesca resorts to desperate measures to ensure she will make it off the island, Alma fights for her dreams of becoming a translator, even as women are denied the chance.

As the two women face the misdeeds of a system known to manipulate and abuse immigrants searching for new hope in America, they form an unlikely friendship―and share a terrible secret―altering their fates and the lives of the immigrants who come after them.

Inspired by true events and for fans of Kristina McMorris and Hazel Gaynor, The Next Ship Home holds up a mirror to our own times, deftly questioning America's history of prejudice and exclusion while also reminding us of our citizens' singular determination. This is a novel of the dark secrets of Ellis Island, when entry to "the land of the free" promised a better life but often delivered something drastically different, and when immigrant strength and female friendship found ways to triumph even on the darkest days.

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About the Author

Heather Webb is the USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author of historical fiction. In 2017, LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS won the Women's Fiction Writers Association award, and in 2019, MEET ME IN MONACO was shortlisted for both the RNA award in the UK and also the Digital Book World Fiction prize.

Up and coming, Heather's new solo novel called THE NEXT SHIP HOME: A NOVEL OF ELLIS ISLAND is about unlikely friends that confront a corrupt system altering their fates and the lives of the immigrants who come after them, and it releases in Feb 2022. Also, look for her third collaboration with her beloved writing partner, Hazel Gaynor, THREE WORDS FOR GOODBYE, releasing this July! (2021)

When not writing, Heather flexes her foodie skills, geeks out on pop culture and history, or looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world.

For more information, please visit Heather's website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.

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Julie's Review: Meet Me in Monaco

Author: Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb
Series: None
Publication Date: July 23, 2019
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 384
Obtained: publisher via Netgalley
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: Romance with a dash of history added in
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab

Summary: Movie stars and paparazzi flock to Cannes for the glamorous film festival, but Grace Kelly, the biggest star of all, wants only to escape from the flash-bulbs. When struggling perfumer Sophie Duval shelters Miss Kelly in her boutique to fend off a persistent British press photographer, James Henderson, a bond is forged between the two women and sets in motion a chain of events that stretches across thirty years of friendship, love, and tragedy. James Henderson cannot forget his brief encounter with Sophie Duval. Despite his guilt at being away from his daughter, he takes an assignment to cover the wedding of the century, sailing with Grace Kelly’s wedding party on the SS Constitution from New York. In Monaco, as wedding fever soars and passions and tempers escalate, James and Sophie—like Princess Grace—must ultimately decide what they are prepared to give up for love. ~amazon.com 

Review: Grace Kelly and her visit to the Cannes Film Festival is the catalyst for Sophie Duval and James Henderson meeting but she is not responsible for the sparks that fly between them. She brings them together by trying to outwit James by coming into Sophie's parfumerie and hiding in the office. By happenstance they meet again only to cause Sophie to start questioning why she's always been a non-risk taker. Does she have what it takes to save her business, her passion?

Sophie has been happy to create her perfumes in her factory/lab in Grasse but it's the sales part of the business she struggles with in Cannes, until Grace Kelly commissions one of her fragrances for her wedding to the Prince of Monaco. Will she be able to capitalize on her notarity? Will she also take Grace's advice and follow her heart.

James is battling his own issues at work. He's too gifted of a photographer to be working in a newspaper. So when the opportunity to work for a gallery and do the work he truly wants to do arises, he takes the matters into his own hands. It doesn't hurt that the gallery puts him in great proximity to Sophie.

It is the romance between James and Sophie that you get caught up in. How they get to know each other between their letter correspondences while they are apart. How they fall in love with who the other is before even having a proper kiss. I feel that there is something to that in these days of instant gratification. Their loved developed on pages before they had a chance to spend time together.

One thing I was missing was the true essence of the friendship between Grace and Sophie. I wanted their friendship to bloom outside of correspondence and I didn't get that. I do feel that there was a mutual appreciation and affection but friendship is a stretch. Grace Kelly is the backdrop to the story that is James and Sophie.

If you are looking for a romance in a beautiful location, then definitely pick up Meet Me in Monaco.


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