Bluebird by Genevieve Graham is an amazing love story that starts during WWI and continues into the prohibition period. The author finds such amazing stories of Canadian history that have been overlooked or totally forgotten about. The story centers around Adele who is a nurse commonly called a "Bluebird" because of the blue uniforms they wore during WWI. and a patient she cares for named Jerry. They vow that after the war is over they will meet each other again. Jerry and his brother John return home to Windsor Ontario which becomes a huge center of rumrunners during the 1920"s. Adele seems lost after being a nurse for so long she doesn't know what to do with herself. Will these two meet again and find the love they deserve? It's a great ride finding out!

While the story is well written with interesting information on tunnelers, nurses and rum runners during the early 1900s in Canada it didn’t really offer more than that. It could have gone in numerous other intriguing directions yet it stuck with a romance and a side story that didn’t provide much. And some of that story even seemed like it was incomplete or left hanging.

I absolutely adored this story! What a fantastically researched and written story about a little-known (to me) part of Canadian history! While this is a dual-timeline story, the majority of the book follows the perspectives of Jerry and Adele.

Jerry and his brother John are tunnellers during WWI -- something I'd never heard of before this novel. When Jerry is wounded, he meets Adele, a "Bluebird" nurse on the front lines. Not only do they realize that they grew up quite close to each other back home in Ontario, they also begin developing feelings for each other. After the war, the two return home -- the brothers to start up a whiskey running business in the midst of prohibition, and Adele continues nursing.

Not only is this story full of intriguing historical tidbits, it was beautifully written. The characters were clearly touched by war and grief, and yet, also had such a sweet and hopeful romance. I would highly recommend this book to fellow historical fiction fans, and am so glad to see an author featuring and writing about Canadian history!

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley for my e-arc of BLUEBIRD in exchange for an honest review. This book publishes April 5, 2022!

I read LETTERS ACROSS THE SEA last year by this author, and loved it! So I was very excited and happy to get an early copy of her newest book. I quite enjoy historical fiction, and even more so when it’s Canadian, and takes place in Canada! Bonus points for being set in Ontario (where I’m from!) Windsor is a few hours from where I live, but I definitely recognize the place.

I really enjoy historical fiction novels that make my cry, because a lot of what happened in our history, especially Center we around the wars, is sad. This book was no different, and I definitely shed a few tears. The relationship between Jerry and Adele is so heartwarming, but also heartbreaking at the same time, because they both fall in love while away at war, and don’t know if they will ever see each other again.

I also love historical fiction because it usually reaches me something about the country or places I didn’t know before. In this book, I learned a great deal about rumrunning and the prohibition laws surrounding alcohol after the First World War. And how risky it was.

Adele is a strong female character, whom I loved. She did what wasn’t expected of her during that time. Instead of staying home and “keeping house” she used her skills to help those in their time of need, by joining Canada’s nursing sisters and being known as bluebirds, based on their uniform. When Adele returns home after the war, she got some backlash about being a women who was in the war, and then also for continuing to work as a nurse back home instead of becoming a housewife and mother right away. This shows just how much we need strong women like Adele to be portrayed in books from this time period, back before women had next to no rights and privileges.

If you are a fan of this CANADIAN author, historical fiction, learning more about Canada’s history, and strong female characters, I highly recommend this book!

My thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for this winner of a book!
Cassie Simmons is a museum curator approached my Matthew a house flipper that found old bottes in a wall of a home he is working on wanting to know if any value. The house was Cassies childhood home. The first time line of the story is Cassie researching the bottles and where they came from.

The second time line goes back to the war , Cassie s ancestors and how the bottles came to be in that wall.


LOVED this book. I've read many historical fiction books but this was different because it focused on Prohibition. Excellent research and highly recommend. Great characters.

Meticulously researched and detailed, BLUEBIRD is a page-turning story that reads like a rollicking Canadian version of Peaky Blinders. Set in post WWI Ontario, brothers Jerry and John Bailey return from war and fire up their father's still to take advantage of the rum-running business during Prohibition. Dangerous rivalries threaten their security, especially when Jerry reunites with Adele, the nurse he fell for when injured in Belgium. Meanwhile, in the present day, the last remaining Bailey uncovers the truth about what really happened to her family... and it's not what we expect. Recommended read!

Genevieve Graham is a go to author for me. She is a Canadian author who loves history especially Canadian history and it shines through in her books. I love how she goes off the beaten track with pieces of history that I am totally unfamiliar with and keeps me entertained while being educated at the same time.

Bluebird is a dual timeline story set in present day and also beginning in 1917 - Belgium during World War I. While the majority of the story is the latter time. It following the lives of Jeremy Bailey and nurse Adele as they return home, each of them scarred in their own ways from the war. Set in Windsor, Ontario across the river from Detroit during Prohibition. I loved the setting, the speakeasies, rum runners and learning about the Canadian Tunneling Company from the war - see what I mean, educational.

Again Graham has written a captivating story, it was well written (as usual) that kept me intrigued, she had me caring about Jerry and Adele and rather intrigued how the past played into the current storyline. Definitely an author and book I highly recommend.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster CA (via Netgalley) for a digital arc in exchange for honest review.

Bluebird by Genevieve Graham is set in Canada, just across from Detroit. It begins in present day, as Museum Curator, Cassie Simmons, is investigating some artifacts that have been found in an old house that once belonged to her family. Flashback to World War I Belgium, and tunneled soldiers injured in explosions. The soldiers are being cared for by Canadian Nurses called Bluebirds because of their blue uniforms and caps. Nurse Adele Savard develops an attachment to one of her patients , Jerry Bailey, a fellow Canadian whose hometown is very near where Adele has grown up. Adele misses Jerry when he ships back home to recover . She thinks of him often as the war ends and she returns home and settles in to a job in a doctor's office. A couple of years pass, and Jerry and Adele meet again. By now he has joined his brother’s whiskey manufacturing business, a questionable business during prohibition. Suspense heightens and make for some intense page turning situations that make this a quick enjoyable read. There is a lot of information about the whiskey manufacturing, and history of Prohibition. I wanted more in the story about the nurses and the soldiers on the battlefront. The author does a nice job of sharing her reasearch on these Canadian Nursing Sisters in an epilogue. I appreciate the opportunity for an advance read of this book in exchange for an honest review in my own words.
#NetGalley. #Bluebird
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This was a really interesting book about a subject most people don't know about. I'm kind of ambivalent about the author's choice to tell the story from two points of view. I feel like the story could have been as well served without the present-day aspect, although it did prove to be a convenient way to move the main story along in time.

I like the author's style and will probably seek out more of her work.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

This story starts out in Belgium in WWI. The heroine, Adele, is a nurse in an army hospital. These women were called Bluebirds because of their uniforms of light blue and white. Adele has been there for a while and has been able to keep her distance from the injured men she helps treat. The nurses are encouraged not to become personally involved with the patients and Adele works hard to not get attached..

Then a tunneler named Jeremy is brought in wounded severely and requiring a lot of care. These tunnelers were vital to the war effort and spent all their time underground setting explosives to aid their comrades who were fighting above ground. Jerry’s brother, John is also a tunneler and saves Jerry from an explosion by the enemy and makes sure his brother is brought to the hospital. The nurse assigned to Jerry is Adele.

At first, due to his injuries, Jerry can’t talk. Adele spends time with him reading to him and chatting. They draw close, but eventually, Jerry heals and heads back to the front and they lose contact.

Both Jerry and Adele are Canadian and from the same general area of Ontario. When Jerry returns home with his brother, he tries to find Adele but is unsuccessful and fears she died in Belgium. Adele is likewise sure Jerry didn’t survive.

The story follows each of them as they rebuild their lives. This part of the book seemed to drag a bit. Honestly, a lot of the story was slow moving and it took me many days to get through that middle part.

The action eventually picked up after the two of them found their niches in the world. Adele went to work for a local doctor. Jerry and his brother entered the dangerous line of work of running illegal alcohol to the United States during prohibition. This was when the book picked up the pace.

Run-ins with a former friend turned enemy brought a sense of urgency to the plot and this reader enjoyed the new quicker pace of the tale.

It was obvious the author delved deep into research of the era, including the nursing corps of Canada in WWI, the tunnelers of that war and the prohibition era dangers to the smugglers and competitors in the business. There were a lot of intriguing parts such as the various ways the rum-runners got their liquor across the border to sell it, including all the ways they hid bottles in the automobiles. It was also interesting to learn about the way the restaurants in Canada offered free liquor if the patron ordered food as a way to get around the laws in place. This reader wasn’t familiar with Canada’s laws during prohibition, so a lot of the information was new. The author was deft at sliding in the historical details without making the story read like a history lesson.

Overall, the book was good and well-developed. Parts were slow, but I enjoyed the characters and the real history of the times being artfully inserted. I’d recommend this one. 4 stars.

It was refreshing to read this historical fiction novel set during the end of World War I and the Prohibition years. I especially liked that it featured Canadian characters, and when it was time for the prohibition story line to read about Windsor, Ontario. It was an exciting, dangerous time, one that not many people may know about.

Bluebird was a beautiful and tender love story with engaging characters and a historical setting of WWI and prohibition. I enjoyed how the stories intertwined from the present day all the way back a hundred years. The author did the same thing with the main characters, showing how small the world really can be. I liked alternating between the three main characters' perspectives through the story and how everything blended together. I also liked the intrigue and mystery surrounding what kicked the story off -- how did the bottles of whiskey get into the wall. The details of the time period were spectacular and felt honest and real. This is so important in historical fiction. This time period is so fascinating and I appreciated learning more about it.

Great historical fiction is always a pleasure to read. But great historical fiction that teaches me something new about the past makes for such an enriching experience. Reading Bluebird was an enriching experience. The writing was engaging and so compulsively readable, packed full of nuanced emotion that brought me to tears and rich historical detail. Following characters through WWI and Prohibition, two such interesting periods of history, was a brilliant decision by the author that showed how the effects of the war carried into the roaring twenties. I fell in love with Adele, Jerry and John's characters. The connection to present day Cassie built another fascinating layer to the tale. Bluebird is a must read for historical fiction fans!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for access to this arc.

Bluebird by Genevieve Graham is a gripping story of the realities of the Great War and prohibition during the roaring Twenties in Canada. The story also has a parallel story in present times with this character having ties to their great-grandparents stories of the past. I would highly recommend reading this book. Thank you to Netgalley for a free copy of this book for an honest review.

There are a handful of authors that I have read every book they have published. Genevieve Graham is one of those authors that I treasure. She did need not disappoint with another beautifully told story in Bluebird which I received as an ARC.

Bluebird tells the story of a young couple that meet during the horrors of their service to the Canadian military during World War 1. Adele is a kind and gentle nurse when she meets an injured Jerry and his brother John. As she cares for Jerry, a romance begins but they are separated when Jerry returns to the front after he recovers. WW1 thankfully ends and the two are sent home not knowing if the other survived.

Fast forward a few years and Adele and Jerry meet again. I’m not a fan of giving away all the spoilers so will just say that the story is laced with whiskey and rumrunners, danger, heartbreak and love.

Interestingly, the story has a modern day component as Cassie, a historian, has a connection to Adele and Jerry. She is the last of her family in the present time but is drawn back into her memories of family and their stories from the unearthing of some old whiskey bottles. I was left wanting more of Cassie’s story. Perhaps we will see her in a future book.

The author has written several historical fiction novels based on Canadian history. It’s a topic I was not familiar with but I have enjoyed her books and reading more on the topics on my own. I love the way she retells stories from the past with her fictional characters. She makes Canadian history come alive in her storytelling. I’m already looking forward to her next book and this one hasn’t even been released yet!!! Thank you Genevieve Graham for the hours of enjoyment that Bluebird brought to me.

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Rating:

4.8/5 stars!

The seamless transition between dual POVs and dual timelines worked for me and I really appreciated that. There are two stories - present day Canada and wartime Europe during the first World War.

The writing was beautiful and the characters were vivid.

Content warning: Bootlegging

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of BLUEBIRD.

A lovely book that blends the past and the present through the story of WWI tunnel diggers, Canada’s nursing sisters, and post-war bootleggers.

What a brilliant, captivating read this was that took control of me from the very first page to the very end. It is told in a dual timeline with various narrators beginning in the present day when Museum Curator Cassie Simmons has a visit from a man who brings in an old bottle of whisky with a Bailey Brothers' Best label on it. He inquires as to the origin of it and wonders about the history behind it.

Flashback to 1918 in a field hospital in Belgium during the Great War when a nurse Adele Savard, from Windsor Canada, is treating wounded. Corporal Jeremiah Bailey who was brought in by his brother, John. The Baileys are members of the 1st Canadian Tunneling Co. and it is their job to dig tunnels under the enemy bunkers. Jeremiah suffered multiple facial lacerations and broken ribs and Adele sews him up. John is not hurt so he goes back to his tunneling while Jeremiah is admitted and will be a patient there for a while. After the war is over, everyone returns home to Windsor and to Post War Prohibition. This is such a fantastic read which covers so many different emotions you will not be able to put it down.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this page-turner that was very well researched and very well written.

I almost passed on this novel because I have read so many stories set during war, but I am really glad I read it! It is set in both Europe and Canada, and there are two timelines: 1918 and present day. The 1918 timeline is riveting and was my favorite part, and the present day timeline is interesting as well.

The present day timeline has Cassie, a museum curator in Canada, approached by a man who has bought a house in the area. He had knocked down a wall and found a hidden room full of 100-year-old liquor that has a small bluebird on the label. The house happens to be the house that Cassie grew up in and she wants to find out why the liquor was hidden in the wall. There's a mystery here to be solved.

The 1918 timeline is dramatic. Adele Savard, a brave woman has volunteered as a nurse and ends up in Belgium working in a hospital taking care of soldiers who are sick and injured during World War I. These nurses, mostly nuns, are called "Bluebirds" by the soldiers because of their blue uniforms. While there Adele meets Jerry Bailey, a fellow Canadian, whose face was badly injured while he was working as one of the men digging tunnels under enemy lines and planting explosives. Adele and Jerry are very attracted to each other, but after and extended recovery, Jerry was sent back to digging tunnels. After the war Adele returns to Canada. She thinks about Jerry, but doesn't know if he made it out alive. However, they cross paths later and get together. Jerry had returned from the war with his brother, John, to find their parents both dead from the Spanish flu. Jerry and John become part of the lucrative, illegal rumrunning business during Prohibition, running liquor from Canada to the United States. (I didn't know Canada had Prohibition too!)

This was a page-turner and I found it exciting and filled with action. The writing was delightful! I'm definitely going to read some of Graham's previous books.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster Canada through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on April 5, 2022.

This book by the Canadian Queen of Historical Fiction did not disappoint! The book is set during and immediately following WWI. The main character is Adele Savard, who has enlisted as one of Canada's nursing "sisters." With their blue gowns and white caps, these nurses were dubbed "Bluebirds" by the soldiers they cared for. Jeremiah Bailey is one of these soldiers, and he and Adele form a strong relationship as he comes under her care. But the war must go on, and the two are separated, hoping to see each other again in Windsor, Ontario after the war is finally over, if they both survive.

In present day, Cassie Simmons, a museum curator, is thrilled with the discovery of a stash of bottles of whiskey in a prewar home in Windsor that is undergoing renovations. She's always been interested in the Prohibition years, and these bottles of Bailey Brother's Best Whiskey are a clue to a long-unsolved mystery. Also, Cassie has a secret about why she's particularly interested in these bottles and this house.

The best part of the book is the story of Jeremiah and Adele. The present-day is almost an afterthought, and I was slightly annoyed when the older story was interrupted. Perhaps if there was more to the characters in Cassie's story, I would have been more invested.

The character development in this story is extraordinary, and one can't help but be drawn in by Jeremiah and Adele. The factual details are so interesting, and I can't imagine how much work must have gone into the research! This is an important and eventful era in Canadian history, and I know and care more about it after reading this story. Love the women's rights issues that are stirring throughout the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Shuster Canada for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. And thanks to Genevieve Graham for continuing to write Canadian historical fiction - please don't stop!