A wonderful dual timeline story going between WWI, prohibition and present day. The storyline revolves around the Bluebird nurse Adele, a tunneller Jerry and a museum curator, Cassie. The writing is beautiful. Ms. Graham brings the story to life with her words. If you like historical fiction, you will enjoy this novel.

Thank you #NetGalley, #Simon&SchusterCanada and #GenevieveGraham for the copy for my honest review.

I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this! It’s been awhile since I’ve liked an historical fiction novel, but this one worked so well for me.
The prologue grabbed me right away, and I was invested in the characters until the very end. Overall, a sweet story about surviving and finding your purpose.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Adele was a young Canadian nurse who volunteered to work on the front lines in Belgium during World War I. Even though she tried to maintain a distance with her patient's Jerry Bailey is different and he grew up not far from her. After he heals and is sent back to the front she wonders if they will see each other again. Back in Canada Jerry and his brother, John, become rumrunners, while Adele takes a job with a local doctor.

The story is told from both Adele's and Jerry's points of view after the war and during Prohibition and a third time line set in the present is Cassie, a young woman working in a museum with a special interest in Prohibition. One day a young man comes in with a bottle of whiskey he found in the wall of a home he is renovating and they try to unravel the mystery.

I could have done without the Cassie time line. I don't feel it added much and there was wasn't much development of Cassie other than her research.

I really enjoyed Adele's and Jerry's relationship and the love Jerry and his brother, John, had for each other. They worked so well together in their business but there was too much evil surrounding them.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me with a digital copy.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2023 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2023/01/2023-reading-list-announced-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Bluebird by Genevieve Graham is a beautiful story about second chances, hope and determination set during the Great War and postwar Prohibition in Windsor, Ontario. I loved this story and learned so much about rumrunners!

The story is told with a dual timeline, following Jerry Bailey and Adele Savard in 1819 and Cassie Simmons in the Present Day. I found this very well done and it really added to the suspense and the mystery of the story,

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Genevieve Graham is one of my favourite historical authors. The fact that she is Canadian adds to my enjoyment. I love how she is able to take a real piece of history and shape a fictional tale around that. Readers are able to learn new things about Canadian history, but also connect to the characters.

A story that involves a museum curator is obviously one I want to read as a fellow museum worker/lover. I always really enjoy Graham’s novels because they involve lesser known points of history and she makes it really engaging and exciting. This is a very bingeable novel for a stay at home snowy day! Also extra points for such a gorgeous cover.

I enjoy reading historical fiction books though WWI is not one of my favorite time periods. However, the author has done a great job of pulling you into the story. The characters were well developed and the tremendous amount of research conducted was evident in how invested you become in the story and the lives of the characters. The dual timeline aspect of the book was appealing. This is a beautiful story about having a second chance and having the opportunity to start over.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

Interesting historical fiction about something I knew very little about. I like how the characters met during WWI and then reconnected later in Canada. The modern storyline was sweet as well.

Really enjoyed this historical fiction, especially since I usually read books based on time periods that were further back. I also really identified with the characters as I used to be a nurse and my husband used to be a soldier.

WWI Belgium, Jeremiah Bailey, a wounded corporal from Canada is cared for by a nurse by the name of Adele. She belongs to a nursing group called “Bluebirds”. Her sweet voice brings him great comfort and as he slowly recovers he is delighted to learn she is from a town very close to his. When Jerry recovers and is sent back out to dig tunnels, they both secretly hope this isn’t the last they have seen of each other.

Both of them are emotionally marred by the ravages of war when serendipity brings them together. Their town is in the heyday of the Prohibition Era and despite the dangers that surround them, they take a chance and start their life together.

Cassie Simmons is working at a museum when a contractor unearths a crate of whiskey labeled “Bailey Brothers Best” during a home remodel. Cassie has been avidly researching bootleggers and is especially interested in the families involved.

As she digs into the past, trying to understand the present, she learns about legends, love, loyalty and truth.

Thank you @gengrahamauthor @simonandschuster @netgalley

This just was not for me. I can appreciate that it’s well written but the story itself just did not compel me like I anticipated it would.

While fiction that uses multiple POVs and timelines is all the rage, this was a novel that could have been improved by doing away with the later. Bottles of whiskey are found in a house that's being renovated. That leads to a look back in time for the story of how/why they got there. The fact the house is where a woman grew up did not lend anything to the story. In fact, it slowed down what was already a rather (too) slow-paced novel. Although the interruptions of present day were infrequent, they took me away from the real story. What's more, the characters were flat and clearly included simply to "wonder" on the page, as to what those bottles could mean. Prohibition was an interesting time, but I had to force myself to finish this.

A big thank you to the author Genevieve Graham, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for my candid review.

What a cool book! It is about the Canadian presence in World War One and gives insight into the Canadian Volunteer Nurses, Bluebirds, and the soldiers who dug underground tunnels in order to get to German trenches. I found it fascinating. Then the two main characters return to Windsor, Ontario during the the 1920's during prohibition. I live in the Detroit area and was fascinated in the stories of smuggling liquor across the Detroit River from Canada. The story is a good one and a great read!

I love when I learn something about my own country for historical fiction. Gen Graham is the queen of being able to open up unknown history and share it with the world.

While I learned a lot from this book and I loved the secondary romance, I didn’t love the part in the present day. The beginning was so strong for me and then I got a bit bored in the middle.

Will still recommend this as the writing is intriguing and the subject matter is interesting but not my fave HF.

3.5 stars

This was a great story of patriotism and heroism. Fascinating history of bootlegger's survival and Prohibition. An author I would like to read further.

Genevieve Graham is one of my favourite authors so ofcourse I had to read her newest book.

I absolutely loved Bluebird so much that I read it twice and I already bought myself a copy.

Such a fantastic story that I just couldn’t put down

I do recommend this one .

4.5 / 5.0 Stars

From the frightening trenches of WWI’s the Somme and a Belgian field hospital to the exciting and treacherous days of Prohibition Era of Windsor, Ontario, this is one captivating and well-researched historical fiction piece.

This dual timeline story juxtaposes modern day museum curator, Cassie Simmons and contractor, Matthew Flaherty against the lives of WWI Canadian nurse, Adele Savard and her wounded charge, Jerry Bailey. Jerry is carried into the Belgian field hospital by his older brother, John, and Adele is quick to attend to Jerry’s wounds. A friendship is born and then it’s back to the battlefield for Jerry. Will they ever meet again? Only time will tell. Move forward to the current day, when Mathew finds a collection of whiskey bottles walled up in a house he’s renovating. Out of curiosity, he seeks the assistance of Cassie at the local museum, trying to piece together the history of the old Bailey home. From such beginnings a wonderful story is born.
The writing is solid, engaging, and enlightening. The mise en scene is so specatularly delivered that one imagines the busy streets of Windsor and can smell the lingering gunpowder of a German raid on a field hospital or the cloying scent of spilled liquor on a speakeasy floor. On top of all that, author Genevieve Graham knows well her Canadian history and deftly writes an engaging and emotionally charged story. She certainly never fails to disappoint this reader. If solid and well crafted historical fiction is your jam, then this may well be the perfect book for you.
I am grateful to author Genevieve Graham and her publisher, Simon & Schuster for having provided a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Their generosity, however, did not influence this review – the words of which are mine alone.

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy of Bluebird.
The cover and the story definitely drew me in for this one. I really enjoyed all the characters and history. I didn't know much about bootlegging and found the history behind this risky work very interesting. Same with the history surrounding the Bluebirds in the war.

I enjoyed this book! I love how Graham brings together little known historical facts, and she teaches me so much through her books. I ended up loving this book by the end. Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book!