‘Scandalous’ Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann meet in a page-turning new novel

Though international bestselling novelists Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann never met, this clever dual narrative — featuring a fictional Manhattan editor who introduces the two — shows how marvellous that pairing could have been and how plausible it would have seemed.
Both women dare to write frankly about sex at a time when they are publicly lambasted and even denounced by feminists, including Gloria Steinem. They also shoulder private woes, secrets they hold tightly, that they do not want splashed across the tabloids.
With a bevy of pop culture references that delight and burnish the time in which the women’s popularity with readers soars the — ‘60s and ‘70s — Paul has written an immersive page-turner highlighted by indelible portraits of two legendary women who brazenly changed the publishing game.
When two steamships, the SS Mont-Blanc and the SS Imo, collided in Halifax Harbour on Dec. 6, 1917, nearly all structures within an 800-metre radius were obliterated and approximately 2,000 people died. It is the greatest tragedy the city has faced and Alward tells this story of the wounded survivors and the people who cared for them with affecting grace.
Nora Crowell, a “bluebird” nurse with the Canadian Army Nursing Corps, finds herself at the heart of the drama, not only tending to the wounded but also dealing with personal trauma in the wake of the explosion. Her path crosses unexpectedly with Charlotte Campbell, a young war widow, their lives altering through grief and redemptive joy.
The kindness of strangers strengthens community and reveals the gifts that ordinary people share during extraordinary times.
Feisty, independent-minded Lizzie Donoghue hopes to escape the Northern Ontario mining town in which she’s been raised with her siblings. She wants to live a life on her own terms, one that pushes up against the patriarchal norms of the time.
But, in 1938, she falls for mining manager Michael Power and the days ahead fill with her capitulation to convention, including marriage. When Michael is punished for taking an ethical stance on the treatment of workers and sent alone to Finland as war threatens in Europe, Lizzie must rely on herself and adjust to life while he’s away.
Fahner examines sacrifice, selflessness and resilience in this affecting debut about the price of love.
Raised in restrictive, socialist East Berlin, where citizens are controlled by any means necessary, medical student Lise Bauer longs for a life of intellectual and moral freedom.
It’s August 1961, and newly engaged Lise and her engineer fiancé Uli Neumann find themselves unexpectedly torn apart as barbed wire splits East and West Berlin into hostile sectors: the Berlin Wall is raised, the border is sealed and patrolled.
Devastated, but moved to action, Uli and his friends form a plan to get Lise and other relatives and companions out safely to the democratic West Berlin through a tunnel they dig by hand. They understand the great risk: if they’re caught, the border guards will shoot to kill. Nonetheless, driven by love, compassion and moral courage, they proceed.
Weaving effectively back and forth from 1959 through 1979 and driven by secrets — some ensuring safety and others stoking ego — this richly imagined, deeply researched, heart-pumping tale enthralls on every page.