Another spectacular novel by Genevieve Graham!
History, mystery, intrigue, romance and dual timelines, exactly what I love in a book, and it’s done so well in this book. Ms. Graham’s stories always reveal something about Canadian history that is so compelling and frankly not well known. For instance, when I thought about prohibition, I always pictured it as something that occurred in the US, I had no idea Canadians had the same restrictions. Granted it didn’t last as long as it did in the US but it did happen here too, temperance movement and all.
Bluebird tells the story of Adele Savard, a nurse who is stationed at a field hospital in Belgium during WW1. It is there she meets Jerry Bailey, a tunneller who has been brought in for care after a tunnel explosion and collapse. Over the course of his care, they find out they are from the same area in Windsor, ON and hope to meet again when the war is over.
Switch to present day and we meet Cassie Simmons, who comes to learn of a cache of whisky that has been found during a home renovation. Cassie’s story is intriguing as it’ll having you wondering how her story connects to both Adele and Jerry. I would have like to see more of Cassie’s story played out towards the end but it takes nothing away from the overall story.
Besides prohibition and the bootlegging industry, I learned the Canadian nurses were referred to as Bluebirds because of their uniforms. I also learned that originally, only nuns were sent to work the battlefields but it was quickly realized more help was needed and so it was opened to all nursing personnel. I learned all Black porters were called George as if they didn’t have their own identity, they were also unpaid and relied solely on tips from patrons. I learned that not only did the WW1 veterans have to deal with PTSD and crippling injuries, they also returned to a world being decimated by the Spanish Flu (not fun to read while we’re going through our own pandemic). There was a line about the horses being used to pull the wagon ambulances. I never gave a thought to how the war affected the animals in the war until I read that line and it shook me hard.
Once again, the research is impeccable and just when you think you’re finished, you’ll learn even more in Ms. Graham’s “A Note to Readers”. She provides you with information on rumrunners, The War Amps Foundation and there’s also a wonderful Reading Group Guide for Book Clubs.

Sincere thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love Historical fiction, and this was one of the best. An unknown branch of our allied forces, the nursing women of Canada called Bluebird, for their blue uniforms and white caps, set the scene for a very interesting story.
Nursing Canada’s fighting men, stationed in Belgium, many of them as tunnelers, digging underground to detect German movement and to plant explosives, their dangerous mission put them in field hospitals, where they were cared for by this special team of nurses.
Scroll ahead to post war Canada and the era of prohibition and the rum runners, ferrying their products across to dry Detroit, and the dangers that was always a threat from rival runners as well as the feds.
Years later a young girl, working in a small museum in the town of Windsor in Canada, meets a contractor renovating a house where the museum curator grew up, and finds a stash of 100 year old whiskey, which begins a journey back to the days of prohibition and her family of rum runners.
This is an extremely well research novel, with wonderful characters, that will keep the pages turning.
A new author to me, Genevieve Graham will be one that I revisit again. Well written and deserving of five stars, my appreciation to NetGalley, Simon and Schuester Canada for the ARC. I loved it! All opinions are my own.

I liked the book well enough, but felt that there were spaces that moved too fast. Or perhaps just didn't give enough information. If all the information for a story is given out all at once as you come to it, the pace moves really quickly, but there isn't any mystery to the story.

For me, this story felt like there was so much potential for conflict and development that just wasn't there. There was little character development, no backstory, no... anticipation I guess. No wondering if something would happen or not happen. Nothing that would keep me up at night because I just had to find out what happened next. Overall the story felt a bit predictable.

I have always loved reading stories about post Great War History. It was a time of such major social change especially for women. Bluebird, by Genevieve Graham, taught me things about the war itself that I had never heard. The story then delves into a whole different aspect of post war history, prohibition and rumrunners. Besides the fascinating historical aspect of this book, it is an endearing love story and a story about families and siblings. It I wanted to know this Bailey family and see more of their lives! I loved this book!

Thank ou to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this early book. Genevieve Graham is my new favorite author of history. From the Wartime era and the rum runners it takes us through all the hardships they endured to survive. The love story of jerry and Adele is heartwarming. As he named the whiskey Buebird after her , I didn’t realize the Canadian nurses were named Bluebird.. well researched and written! I loved it!

I loved reading this book! Adele and Jerry and John were great characters. I really enjoyed going through the war with them and what happened after the war. Cassie digging up her ancestry was a nice added touch!

I would highly recommend this book!

This was a really good read! The story is told by three characters. Adele, Jerry and Cassie. I really enjoyed Jerry and Adele's stories and how they merged together. Adele was such a good character! I didn't enjoy Cassie's point of view that much and thought it could have been developed more. Overall though it was a great read and it was interesting to read about a period of time I wasn't familiar with. Definitely recommend giving this one a read!

I really enjoyed the story of the bootlegging and Prohibition days of the roaring 20s. Post war where soldier and nurse find love and the ways their lives intertwine. Very likable characters and quite an emotion towards the end that brought me some tears. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. I do not remember requesting this book but glad it showed up in my que! Very enjoyable

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: April 1, 2022
Canadian author Genevieve Graham’s newest historical fiction novel, “Bluebird”, is a dazzling and poignant tale full of rum running, prohibition and love both lost and found.
Museum curator Cassie Simmons loves history, especially Canadian rum runners who ran alcohol across the border to Detroit during Prohibition. So when she comes across cases of whiskey, buried in the wall of her old home, and uncovered during a home renovation, she seeks to find the origin and the secrets that the whiskey brings.
Jerry Bailey is a “tunneller” with the Canadian army, digging tunnels and trenches underground to sneak up on the enemy during wartime. When he is taken to the war hospital after being injured, he meets beautiful nurse, Adele, and they develop an instant connection. Both have seen tragedies too great to mention, and when they both return home to Windsor, they become involved in another risky activity- rum running during Prohibition.
“Bluebird” of course, is based on real life happenings during the early 20th century in Canada (most specifically Windsor and surrounding areas), just after the First World War. It is clear that Graham’s story is well-researched, and the novel shed light on a part of Canadian history that I was not familiar with. I always love to learn a little bit as I read, and this novel fit the bill!
Told from the perspectives of Cassie, Adele, and Jerry (in their respective timelines), Graham builds a suspenseful plot with easy to root for characters that oozes with romance. As the plotlines intersect, Graham is able to bring the novel to its satisfying conclusion with ease and creativity.
Graham’s other novels include “The Forgotten Home Child” (which I loved by the way) and “Letters Across the Sea”, and I think “Bluebird” lies among one of Graham’s best. For those with an interest in the seedy underbelly of rum running, or reconnected love after the desolation and desperation of war, “Bluebird” is a can’t-miss!

Genevieve Graham's Bluebird shows us yet another part of Canadian history that is not widely known. Taking place during WW1, several years after and in the present, Graham gives us the history of Bluebird nurses and tunnelers who served in the war as well as prohibition and rumrunning in Canada.

Although a work of fiction, the author has done tons of research and provides sources at the end of the novel for which the story is based on.

I really like the relationship between Adele and Jerry, even if predictable! I do wish that Cassie and Matthews relationship was explored a bit more. It sort of felt like the present point of view story didn't get enough time to play out.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves historical fiction especially those who love books about lesser known events in Canadian history and who want to learn more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an advanced copy of Bluebird.

Genevieve Graham delivers an enthralling look at WWI and Prohibition with a Canadian viewpoint. Bluebirds is filled with historical tidbits about Canada after WWI, including the Temperance Movement and treatment of wounded veterans, as well as racism (train porters were all called "George" and only paid by tips). I knew Canadian distilleries supplied whiskey to US bootleggers during Prohibition, but never realized Canada also adopted Prohibition laws. The detail of the Canadian laws (federal and provincial) and how they functioned was fascinating.

Bluebirds opens with the discovery of prohibition era whiskey in the wall of a Canadian house being renovated. The renovator seeks help from the assistant Windsor Museum director to learn the provenance of the bottles. Unknown to him, she is the last living descendent of the rumrunners who distilled the whiskey. This storyline appears sporadically throughout the book, but with limited development and impact.

The real story begins in WWI Europe where Jerry and John Bailey serve in the Canadian Tunnelling Company digging tunnels beneath enemy trenches and planting mines to explode under the Germans. The Germans are doing the same and Jerry gets caught in an explosion. Rushed to a field hospital, Canadian nurse Adele Savard (nicknamed Bluebirds because of their blue uniforms) nurtures Jerry back to health, but then loses contact after he is sent back to the front.

Once the war ends, Adele returns to Canada to find her sister and parents estranged over the politics of Prohibition, as well as the role of women in "modern" society. Meanwhile the brothers arrive home to find their parents dead from the Spanish Flu. But they inherit their father's journals detailing his rumrunning business along with his still. Three years later their paths (finally) cross and sparks fly.

Graham gives a vivid look at the wild west atmosphere of rumrunning with all its profitability, rivalries, turf battles and violence. Well researched and written, I enjoyed reading the Canadian experience. I've read many WWI books from US and UK viewpoints, but this one was unique for me and I'm very glad NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada sent me an ARC to read.

I loved Bluebird, by Genevieve Graham. I didn't know much about prohibition in Canada in the 1920s, but Graham did a fine job of integrating selected events of the Great War with the violence of prohibition. She educated me about prohibition, without me being aware that I was being educated. The characters were wonderfully drawn, including Ernie, who wasn't just a villain. He had layers of complexity and obsession that made him an interesting character. However, Adele, Jerry, and John were so well drawn that I hated to finish the book. Their stories are described in such a way that this reader feels like she knows them well.

This is a book set in two distinct times, a hundred years apart. Graham makes this look effortless, but I know this is a technique that is difficult to pull off successfully. This is the first novel that I have read by Genevieve Graham. However, I enjoyed this novel enough, though, to seek out some of her other novels.

I do want to thank the author and Simon & Schuster Canada for providing this ARC for me to read. And thank you also to NetGalley for introducing me to yet another wonderful new author.

Historical fiction, particularly when it’s set in World War I and the Roaring Twenties is my favorite genre, so I was thrilled to receive an ARC copy of “Bluebirds” by Genevieve Graham. “Bluebirds” sheds light on little known aspects of World War I history, specifically the “Bluebirds,” the nurses who served in Belgium and France during World War I in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, and the soldiers who served in the Canadian Tunnelling Company that planted mines in the tunnels beneath enemy trenches.

The book focuses on Adele Savard and Jerry and John Bailey. Adele meets Jerry and John when John brings his brother Jerry to the field hospital where Adele works as a nurse. Jerry had received severe facial injuries when Germans bombed a tunnel he was digging. While treating Jerry, Adele falls in love with him, but doesn’t know his fate until they cross paths three years later in Windsor, Ontario. Jerry and John have become bootleggers during the Canadian Prohibition Era, manufacturing and distributing whiskey to businesses in both Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan across the Detroit River from Windsor.

The narrative is occasionally interspersed with two modern day characters: Cassie Simmons, an assistant Museum Director in Windsor and Matthew Flaherty, who meets Cassie when he seeks her assistance with the provenance of whisky bottles dating back to 1920 that he discovered hidden in the walls of an old house he bought and is renovating. Unknown to Matthew, the house belonged to Cassie’s great-grandfather, Jerry Bailey. (Unfortunately, these interludes with Cassie and Matthew do not appear to add much if anything to the narrative).

The book is a well-researched, fascinating glimpse into both Canada’s involvement in World War I, and the Canadian experience during Prohibition, filled with rivalries, turf battles and rumrunners. The writing style was a bit more simplistic than I like and the characters were not very nuanced, but these are minor quibbles resulting from my own personal reading preferences. The portion of the book that I thought was better from both a plot and character standpoint was the World War I portion. The novel will interest anyone who wishes to learn more about Canada’s experiences during World War I and Prohibition.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me an ARC copy of this book for my review.

Whenever I read a book by a new author I never know what to expect. Well what a wonderful surprise Bluebird by Genevieve Graham was for me. The early 1900's where women were not in a place to do to much of anything. Adele Savard went to nursing school and found herself in the middle of the war treating men who might not make it home, and some would heal and then be sent right back to the front. Enter Jerry Bailey and his brother John. John and Jerry dug tunnels so that the Germans were kept at bay until one terrible day. John was able to get Jerry to the hospital camp where Adele became his nurse. Well from there Adele promised John she would take care of Jerry, while she helped him heal she found out they grew up in towns very close to each other. They shared so much while they both weathered the horrors of war. A bad air strike brought them closer together until the dreaded day that Jerry was sent back to the front.

Now the war is over Adele leaves behind the horrors of the past years. The lose of the many lives she tried to help save. The lose of her friend Minnie and the guilt she carried about her death. The lose of the friends she had made and who now started new lives for themselves. Yet the one person she couldn't forget was Jerry.

Now enter Cassie Simmons an assistant curator to a museum who has a secret that she does not share with anyone.. Until a young contractor enters the museum with a whiskey bottle that changes Cassie in many ways. The house she has avoided for years, the secret shes been hiding and who the Bailey Brothers really were.

I totally could not put this book down. I read it in one day. Ms. Graham told a beautiful story of love, family and how secrets once they are told can bring happiness and freedom for people. I liked the way the story went from the past to the present. The author blended both time periods nicely without getting the reader lost. The characters were allowed to grow throughout the book. It was a fast moving story which kept me so engaged I needed to get to the end. Beautifully written, love the time periods loved the characters.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and look forward for Ms. Grahams next book. She could be my new favorite author.

Bluebird
By Genevieve Graham

This is a love story; but it is much more. The love story begins in Belgium during the "Great War" between a Canadian nurse, Adele, and a Canadian tunneller, Jerry, who has been badly wounded when an enemy bomb destroyed the tunnel. His brother, John, rescued him from certain death and brought him to Adele at a field hospital. As Jerry survives and recuperates, he and Adele fall in love. But Jerry is sent back to the front and they lose track of each other until a few years after the end of the war.

After the war, Jerry and John return to their home to find that their parents succumbed to the Spanish flu a month before their return. The Bailey brothers decide to become "rumrunners" – producing and smuggling illegal whiskey to the States during prohibition. This part of the book deals with how the trade grows more and more violent as the profits become larger. Adele and Jerry do meet again and that meeting affects their future as well as John's.

But there is another story here – the present day story of a man named Matthew, who buys the old Bailey home to renovate, and discovers in the process a cache of Bailey Brothers Best hidden inside a wall. Matthew turns to Cassie, a historian working in a local museum for help in solving the mystery of the whiskey. He doesn't know that Cassie is, in fact, a direct descendent of Adele and Jerry. Their search for clues as to what happened almost a hundred years earlier brings them closer together and rounds out the story.

I enjoyed this book, both from the romantic and the historical perspectives. It is entertaining and educating at the same time.

I laughed, I cried, I smiled, I tensed in anticipation of the next encounter, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Bluebird.

A historical romance beginning in the Belgium battlefields of WW 1, through the Spanish Flu that followed and home to Windsor ON Canada and Prohibition. The Canadian nurses who served overseas in WW 1 wore robin's egg blue dresses and white veils, hence the name "Bluebirds" Adele is one of those nurses whose patient Jerry and his brother John are tunnellers. The Bailey Brothers will become an important to Adele.

The realities of war are described to bring the era to life. The struggles for women to allow them freedom of choice is begun in this period when their traditional roles come with the added need for workers to replace the men who are fighting overseas. Rumrunning between Windsor and Detroit Michigan was a dangerous but profitable occupation for those returning home from war.

I know I can depend on Genevieve Graham for an in depth look at Canadian History even when that history is not always pleasant. This time I have no tears from atrocities but from social injustices that even I witnessed in my lifetime. She did not disappoint!

I love when books provide information in the sneaky form of entertainment - and this book does that. Being in the US and born after the time periods this story is set in, I was totally unaware of the lives of people living during that time period. Two time periods are intertwined to flush out the storyline and the history in this work. The story brings you into the time periods and the people involved. A well written and researched book.

Thank you NetGalley and Genevieve Graham for sharing this book.

I wish to express my sincere thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for this enthralling, meticulously-researched ARC in return for an honest review. Genevieve Graham has become my favourite writer of informative, thrilling historical novels based on little-known facts and incidents in Canadian history, always with an emotional and romantic appeal. Although my entire education was in Canada, none of our history texts at that time contained any Canadian history. We grew up thinking it was too uneventful and dull to be part of the curriculum. Genevieve Graham has shattered that belief with novels based on exciting, ground-breaking incidents in our history. Her characters are compelling and believable, and grounded in factual historical events. Her books bring our history to life. The cover of the book is beautiful!

Bluebird was our wounded soldiers' name for our nursing sisters during WW1 because of their bright, distinctive blue uniform. Of 2,000 applications for Canadian nurses to serve in field hospitals during the First World War, 75 were selected and tended to wounded soldiers with skill, care and compassion. They displayed great courage, often facing injury or death during enemy attacks while protecting hospitalized soldiers. One of these nurses was Adele Savard from Ontario, who roomed with three women, two from NB and one from NS. These four nursing sisters became friends. Adele tended to the care of Jerry Bailey, who was severely injured with a damaged face and broken ribs. Jerry, along with his brother, John, was part of the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company with the agonizing task of digging tunnels beneath enemy trenches and planting explosives. After being rescued by his brother, Jerry was hospitalized and recovers under Adele's care. They form a strong bond. Jerry is from Windsor, Ontario, and Adele is from a nearby town. Jerry is to be sent back to the front, and they hope to meet again after the war ends. After four years of experiencing the horrors the war inflicted on the wounded, Adele returns home.

The war has ended, and Jerry and John Bailey return to Windsor and find much has changed. Their parents have died from the Spanish flu, which killed countless others. They see Windsor has become prosperous due to prohibition and the rum-runners becoming wealthy by brewing rum and smuggling it across the border into Detroit. The two Bailey brothers go into the illegal activity of manufacturing a prized form of rum and hiring unemployed former soldiers to assist in the brewing and delivering it to Detroit businesses.

One day Jerry sees Adele for the first time since their return. She is being confronted in anger by Ernie, a man she had been dating and is trying to break up with him. This man is the most powerful and wealthy head of the rum-running gangs. He and Jerry had had a strained personal history. Ernie carried a grudge against Jerry for his brother's drowning when they were boys. With his fury directed at Jerry, he becomes his rival in the liquor business. Ernie's men begin to steal from the Bailey Brother's rum shipments and warehouses, even firing on boats bound for Detroit. Adele has a sister who left nursing for marriage and children. Her sister's husband will not let her visit Adele, as he considers Windsor a city of sin and danger. Jerry and Adele marry, and the rift between the two sisters is healed. Adele is worried about Jerry's involvement in the liquor business and the possibility that rival gangs may kill him. She pleads for the company to be shut down.

In the present day, Cassie, a lonely curator, is approached by a man who finds a cache of 100-year-old liquor hidden in the walls of an old house he is renovating. This is the house where Cassie grew up, and she holds grief and guilt for something that happened there. Cassie has been researching the history of the house, and this discovery of the bottles of rum intensifies her research. She finds that John Bailey and Ernie Willoughby are absent from any records, reports, or documents after Bailey's business shut down. Where did they go? What Happened to them? There is plenty of information on Jerry.

An informative historical novel that transports the reader from tent hospitals during WW1 to post-war prohibition with bootlegging and rum-running in Windsor, Canada. Its speakeasies and danger from rival gangsters. The divisions and transformations in society, a small beginning for women's rights, and an emotional love story. Recommended!

I received an ARC from the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent historical fiction focused on the WWI nurses, Canadian soldiers and their lives during prohibition after the war.

This is the story of the Bailey family. There is a dual story between the last of the family line in present day and the Bailey family in the early 1900s. There is a beautiful love story of Adele and Jerry which started in the medical tents of Belgium when Jerry is injured and treated by nurse Adele. Fast forward to the war ending with everyone returning home and adjusting to the new normal. The Bailey Brothers restart their dads rum-running business, Jerry finds Adele again and the ending has a bit of tragedy.

This is a well written tale. I loved the strength of Adele and the growth of the brothers. Although I knew what wAs coming, I did not mind!! Recommend!!!

#goodreads

***I received an ARC from Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for my honest review.***

An amazing fiction novel with threads of history woven throughout. This love story follows Cassie as she grows closer to Matthew while they dig into the past of her great-grandparents who, after surviving a war and still finding each other (again), we’re tossed right back into the period of prohibition. Cassie and Matthew make some amazing discoveries along the way bringing them closer with each new discovery. Be careful with this book, it’ll likely lead to you digging into your own ancestral history!