Thursday, September 1, 2022

Spotlight of Two Questions by Danielle Murray


PHOTO SOURCE:
TYPORAMA

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TWO QUESTIONS
DANIELLE MURRAY
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ALL INFORMATION IN THIS POST IS COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
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PRAISE FOR TWO QUESTIONS:

Absolutely loved this book from the first page right onto the last. The characters are wonderful, the story is interesting, the writing is superb and fast paced and funny. Five stars.

Surprisingly unpredictable and simultaneously delightful.

Lyrical, witty and heartfelt.

A well written and researched book with a major twist at the end that will make you want to read the book all over again.

Amazing, well written and easy to read.

I'm not going to tell you the ins and outs of the book... It is exceptional and provoked me to feel.

Not to be missed…  Keeps the reader enthralled until the climax of the book. The author has a writing style that evokes memories of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye.

Great writing that brought characters to life through conversations and letters of current women who have traded in their country for love and flashbacks to historical women who did the same thing for love. I loved this story.

Great book. I love reading a story which shows the author has done significant research and Murray nailed it with out-and-out mentions of foreign women, famous or not. Such a great way to learn history.

Such a fun read!

Happy go lucky look at the perils of international relationships. Really engaging and a page-turner.

I smiled, laughed, got sad, cried and then smiled some more. So much truth.

THERE are SO MANY great lines in this book.

This book is a beautiful read. I really loved the author's research and narration of Marie Antoinette and Alix of Hesse, how she was able to sew these two women's stories into a current setting.

I started into this book and ended up reading it cover-to-cover in one night.

Well written, touching, funny, made me think and taught me all sorts of fascinating stuff about foreign queens. Loved it.

Unique style of writing which intertwines the past and the present in a humorous but educational way.

A really good read, it's a fascinating story but also full of interesting facts about international marriages throughout history.

Beautifully written and the descriptions of the complex emotions that women experience when leaving their home countries for love were so accurate that they hurt my heart to read.

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ABOUT TWO QUESTIONS:

Tish Louise, World War Two GI Bride. And Megan, Lucie and the mysterious missing Annie.

Four different women from different corners of the world and in different periods in time who fall in love with a foreigner and follow him home.

First comes romance, then comes reality.

Who doesn’t like the idea of meeting a handsome stranger from a far-away land and flying off into the sunset?

This is the story of what happens when you get there.

And then some.

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INFORMATION OF INTEREST:

 

TWO QUESTIONS is about international marriage and how it plays out for the partner who changes country because the other partner has asked him/her to do just that.  Forgo family, friends, favourite foods, career, culture and way of life for just one person. It’s something the author knows about first hand because she did it too. And, as a journalist and feature writer, she has spent the last twenty years interviewing others who have done this also. Including several dozen WWII War Brides.

 

But TWO QUESTIONS is not a memoir or autobiography – it’s a work of fiction. With some familiar bits here and there because, well, according to the author, you write what you know. So yes, the part about the fly shit on the wall and cluttered rooms which sulk is all her. The part about Mildred (not her real name), the crazy ex who wears really nice shoes, is not.

 

TWO QUESTIONS is not a love story. It’s quirky and fun with lots of fascinating historical tidbits about other famous foreign wives throughout the years – think ‘let ‘em eat cake’ Marie Antoinette, beautiful but batshit Tsarina Alexandra, the sultry and sexy Lady Randolph Churchill (Winston’s mom) and ‘That Woman’ Wallis Simpson. This is so the reader can explore this particular immigrant experience from all angles. And this also explains why there is more than one voice in the book – to see how the decision to leave your home country behind for another impacts over the course of a lifetime. 


Perhaps this novel is niche market and of interest only to women who have fallen in love with a foreigner and followed him home but so far reviews are pretty good and the author is feeling confident that it might have wider appeal. Just to be sure, she threw in a secondary story and as it weaves its way through the pages, you might start to wonder about what exactly did happen to Fletcher and Bubbe in Brooklyn all those years ago. Or why the last Queen of France dyed her sheep pink. And was a royal family feud the real cause of World War One?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Danielle Murray grew up in Montreal where she fully intended to stay until she fell in love with a wonderful Kiwi and followed him home. This is not her story.

TWO QUESTIONS is a work of fiction based on information gathered in conversations with World War II War Brides and modern-day foreign wives as the author waited for decent bagels to arrive in New Zealand.

It took far too long and so she met with a whole lot of women. This is their story.

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SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES:

Instagram:  twoquestions.daniellemurray

Facebook: Danielle Murray - author 
Facebook page: DanielleMurray - Two Questions

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