I’M RUNNING A GIVEAWAY OF PATTI’S BOOKS—SEE BELOW.

There’s something magical about Patti Callahan Henry’s novels, at least the ones I’ve read. A common thread runs through them: books, literature, fairy tales—the stories that shape us.

I’m particularly grateful to Patti for endorsing my novel, A Hundred Magical Reasons, published by Scrivenings Press last month. My novel spotlights L. Frank Baum and embraces the magic of his stories, showing how he spurs the imagination of a young girl he befriends.

Similarly, Patti’s Once Upon a Wardrobe features C. S. Lewis with glimpses into the origin of Narnia as revealed through the eyes of a student attending Oxford where Lewis tutors.

Teaser for A Hundred Magical Reasons

Most fairy tales have happy endings, but is it too late for this one? After all, Mrs. Gordon is 88.

This split-time fiction set in 1980 and the early 1900s encompasses . . . 

• A child’s unlikely friendship with The Wizard of Oz author, L Frank Baum, & his influence across 4 generations
• A young woman following a risky dream
• An old woman haunted by regret as she reveals her past

If you like historical fiction and character-driven stories—with a touch of romance—this novel fits the bill. If you like fairy tales, that’s another bonus.

If you’re a fan of Wicked, the musical or the movie, you’ll get a chance to see where all the Oz hoopla originated—with the inimitable L. Frank Baum.

If you’re a Baum fan, you’ll get the feel of what it was like to be with him.

If you’re unfamiliar with Baum, you’re in for a treat, for you’ll have the pleasure of getting to know him.

Read more and watch the book trailer on my website here.

You can purchase the book on Amazon.

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Now I want to put the Patti back on center stage. I’m sharing three of her books today—ones I’ve read and heartily recommend.

Today I’m running a GIVEAWAY!

Comment below on any of Patti’s books for a chance to win the paperback of your choice. 

Blurb for Becoming Mrs. Lewis — Thomas Nelson; Reprint edition (October 2, 2018)

Meet the brilliant writer, fiercely independent mother, and passionate woman who captured the heart of C.S. Lewis and inspired the books that still enchant and change us today, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Book of Flora Lea.

When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford professor and the beloved writer of The Chronicles of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters.

Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, found a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.

In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice—and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had.

At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story—a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.

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My Thoughts

I watched the film Shadowlands and saw a stage play about thirty years ago, so I only had the bare bones of the story in my mind when I read Becoming Mrs. Lewis. It was  fascinating to watch Jack and Joy’s relationship evolve over the years. The author includes numerous situations perhaps not commonly known to the average reader. (They’re listed at the back of the book: 10 Things You May Not Know About Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis’s Love Story.) I thoroughly enjoyed seeing those ten things woven through this poignant story, unfolding bit by bit. Nothing is sugar-coated, and I got to know Joy Davidman with her strengths and weaknesses, through her many gifts, wounds, and insecurities. She was her own person, leaving no doubt as to why Jack was drawn to her.

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Blurb for Once Upon a Wardrobe — Harper Muse (February 7, 2023)

College student Megs Devonshire sets out to fulfill her younger brother George’s last wish by uncovering the truth behind his favorite story. What transpires is a fascinating look into the bond between siblings and the life-changing magic of stories.

1950: Margaret Devonshire (Megs) is a seventeen-year-old student of mathematics and physics at Oxford University. When her beloved eight-year-old brother asks Megs if Narnia is real, logical Megs tells him it’s just a book for children, and certainly not true. Homebound due to his illness, and remaining fixated on his favorite books, George presses her to ask the author of the recently released novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a question: “Where did Narnia come from?”

Despite her fear about approaching the famous author, who is a professor at her school, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with C. S. Lewis and his own brother Warnie, begging them for answers.

Rather than directly telling her where Narnia came from, Lewis encourages Megs to form her own conclusion as he shares the little-known stories from his own life that led to his inspiration. As she takes these stories home to George, the little boy travels farther in his imagination than he ever could in real life.

After holding so tightly to logic and reason, her brother’s request leads Megs to absorb a more profound truth: “The way stories change us can’t be explained. It can only be felt. Like love.”

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My Thoughts

Sometimes I felt like a child reading this book, like young George hungering for more information about “the story behind the story.” Megs aims to grant her brother’s wish while she, too, is drawn into the allure of C. S. Lewis’s invitation to hear more stories rather than offer straight answers about what inspired Narnia. 

Megs, George, and their parents are real and endearing. George’s illness is problematic, his time limited—a great weight on the family. I cared deeply for them.

If you ever wondered what it would be like to sit and converse with C. S. Lewis, this book gives you that opportunity. 

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Blurb for The Secret Book of Flora Lea — Atria Books (May 2, 2023)

When a woman discovers a rare book with connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood in the English countryside during World War II are revealed in this “beguiling blend of hope, mystery, and true familial love” (Sadeqa Johnson, New York Times bestselling author).

In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own.

But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves.

Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. 

Check out my blog post for my review of The Secret Book of Flora Lea and the Q & A.

Here’s an excerpt:

Which of your novels is the best introduction to you for a new reader? Why? 

The Secret Book of Flora Lea — it has hints about the things I care the most about. 

What was your inspiration for writing The Secret Book of Flora Lea? What’s your personal connection to the setting or situation? 

When I was writing Once Upon a Wardrobe I ran across a little known fact — that the operation to keep children safe in England during WWII was called “Operation Pied Piper.” I was intrigued by this choice as the pied piper is a terrible legend about lost and drowned children. Why, I wondered, would the British government name a scheme to keep children safe after such horror? 

My imagination was off and running. My personal connection to the setting comes from my time spent in the Oxfordshire countryside while researching both Becoming Mrs. Lewis and Once Upon a Wardrobe. I love the area and since Oxford is one of the places the government sent children, it was a perfect setting for me. 

In addition, Binsey is a story-soaked place that lent itself to a story about stories. 

How do you want this story to resonate with readers? 

I want readers to take with them what is most important to them. On Friends and Fiction, we often talk about what the story is about and what it is really about — and for me, this story is really about the power of story, about women making the choices to have autonomy over their own life through courageous stories, and about love in all its forms. 

REPLY IN THE COMMENTS BELOW FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A PAPERBACK OF YOUR CHOICE!

Coming soon . . .

Blurb for The Story She Left Behind (to be launched on March 18)

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.

By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters—the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.

Told in Patti Callahan Henry’s lyrical, enchanting prose, The Story She Left Behind is a captivating novel of mystery and family legacy that captures the profound longing for a mother and the evergreen allure of secrets.

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Patti’s other books

I have two of Patti’s books in the queue of my Kindle: The Bookshop at Water’s End and The Favorite Daughter. Besides the novels set in England, many of Patti’s books qualify as  Southern fiction and literary fiction, and explore the tensions of family dynamics.

Check out her books on Amazon or her website: contemporary and historical.

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Patti Callahan Henry Bio

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of seventeen novels. She is the recipient of The Christy Award “Book of the Year”; The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for Becoming Mrs. Lewis. She is the co-host and co-creator of the popular weekly online Friends and Fiction live web show and podcast. She’s published in numerous anthologies, articles, and short story collections. A full-time author, mother of three, and grandmother of two, she lives in Mountain Brook, Alabama with her husband, Pat Henry. Learn more on her website.

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Join me next time for a visit with author Suzanne Woods Fisher.

Meanwhile, have you read any of Patti Callahan Henry’s books? Do you have a favorite? Answer in the comments below.

COMMENT BELOW ON PATTI’S BOOKS FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A PAPERBACK OF YOUR CHOICE!

Ever reading,

Laura

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