Bestseller Lauren Willig launches BAND OF SISTERS and celebrates Women’s History Month virtually

Join bestselling author Lauren Willig in launching her new book, Band of Sisters, with fellow authors Marie Benedict, Kristen Harmel, and Vanessa Riley on March 1st at 8PM! This is a ticket-only virtual event (via CrowdCast) with the ticket price being the cost of the book with shipping (signed copies) and special bookmarks with charms created for this book. We are honored to co-host this event in partnership with Foxtale Book Shoppe, Shakespeare & Co, Warwick's, and Titcomb's Booskhop.

Register Here

Band of Sisters

by Lauren Willig

• • •

A group of young women from Smith College risk their lives in France at the height of World War I in this sweeping novel based on a true story—a skillful blend of Call the Midwife and The Alice Network—from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig.

A scholarship girl from Brooklyn, Kate Moran thought she found a place among Smith’s Mayflower descendants, only to have her illusions dashed the summer after graduation. When charismatic alumna Betsy Rutherford delivers a rousing speech at the Smith College Club in April of 1917, looking for volunteers to help French civilians decimated by the German war machine, Kate is too busy earning her living to even think of taking up the call. But when her former best friend Emmeline Van Alden reaches out and begs her to take the place of a girl who had to drop out, Kate reluctantly agrees to join the new Smith College Relief Unit.

Four months later, Kate and seventeen other Smithies, including two trailblazing female doctors, set sail for France. The volunteers are armed with money, supplies, and good intentions—all of which immediately go astray. The chateau that was to be their headquarters is a half-burnt ruin. The villagers they meet are in desperate straits: women and children huddling in damp cellars, their crops destroyed and their wells poisoned. 

Despite constant shelling from the Germans, French bureaucracy, and the threat of being ousted by the British army, the Smith volunteers bring welcome aid—and hope—to the region. But can they survive their own differences? As they cope with the hardships and terrors of the war, Kate and her colleagues find themselves navigating old rivalries and new betrayals which threaten the very existence of the Unit.

With the Germans threatening to break through the lines, can the Smith Unit pull together and be truly a band of sisters?  

Lauren Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty novels, including The Summer Country, The Ashford Affair, and The English Wife, as well as the RITA Award–winning Pink Carnation series. An alumna of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a JD from Harvard Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband, kindergartner, toddler, and vast quantities of coffee.

Once a New York City lawyer, Marie Benedict had long dreamed about a fantastical job unraveling the larger mysteries of the past as an archaeologist or historian -- before she tried her hand at writing. While drafting her first book, she realized that she could excavate the possible truths lurking in history through fiction, and has done so in The Other Einstein, the story of Mileva Maric, Albert Einstein's first wife and a physicist herself, and Carnegie's Maid, the story of a brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie toward philanthropy. Her newest novel, The Only Woman in the Room, released in January of 2019. She is a graduate of Boston College and the Boston University School of Law, and lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

Kristin Harmel is the New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling, and #1 international bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names, The Winemaker's Wife, The Room on Rue Amelie, and a dozen other novels that have been translated into 28 languages and sold all over the world. A former reporter for PEOPLE magazine, Kristin has been writing professionally since the age of 16, when she began her career as a sportswriter, covering Major League Baseball and NHL hockey for a local magazine in Tampa Bay, Florida in the late 1990s. After stints covering health and lifestyle for American Baby, Men's Health, and Woman's Day, she became a reporter for PEOPLE magazine while still in college and spent more than a decade working for the publication, covering everything from the Super Bowl to high-profile murders to celebrity interviews. Her favorite stories at PEOPLE, however, were the "Heroes Among Us" features--tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. In addition to a long magazine writing career (which also included articles published in Travel + Leisure, Glamour, Ladies' Home Journal, Every Day with Rachael Ray, and more), Kristin was also a frequent contributor to the national television morning show The Daily Buzz and has appeared on Good Morning America and numerous local television morning shows. Kristin was born just outside Boston, Massachusetts and spent her childhood there, as well as in Columbus, Ohio, and St. Petersburg, Florida. After graduating with a degree in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from the University of Florida, she spent time living in Paris and Los Angeles and now lives in Orlando, with her husband and young son. She is the co-founder and co-host of the popular web series and podcast FRIENDS & FICTION.

Vanessa Riley writes Historical Fiction and Historical Romance (Georgian, Regency, & Victorian) featuring hidden histories, dazzling multi-culture communities, and strong sisterhoods. She promises to pull heart strings, offer a few laughs, and share tidbits of tantalizing history. This Southern, Irish, Trini girl holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and a MS in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. She also earned a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Penn State University. Yet, her love of history and lattes have overwhelmed her passion for math, leading to the publication of over 20+ titles. She loves writing on her southern porch with proper caffeine. Vanessa has a very diverse background. She has been a radio anchorwoman and church announcer. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and President-Elect of The Beau Monde, a specialty RWA Chapter. She is also a member of Georgia Romance Writers, NINC, and Historical Novel Society. She is on the Board of Directors of Christian Book Lovers Retreat where readers escape for a weekend of fun, faith and connection to the author community. Her latest release, A Duke, The Lady, and A Baby is an Amazon Best of the Month Selection and a Publishers Weekly Summer Reads 2020 Editors' Pick. A Duke, The Lady, and A Baby has been reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Library Journal, and the New York Times and received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. She's currently working on Island Queen for William Morrow, a novel centering on Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a formerly enslaved person who becomes one of the wealthiest women in the Caribbean. Vanessa loves cooking her Trinidadian grandma's cake recipes and collecting Irish crochet lace and writing on her southern porch with proper caffeination.