Welcome to the Takeover + Review Blitz for The Brunswick by Callie Murray, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
About the Book
In 1939 Georgia, far removed from the war brewing overseas, Cora Cain's world feels small--and shrinking. There, she runs The Brunswick, her family's once-grand hotel, which is now struggling as the town's general store. When Thomas Watkins arrives seeking work and solace after his mother's death, a connection sparks between them. Through Thomas, Cora glimpses a life beyond obligation and her war hero father's unpredictable moods.
But everything changes when Cora is asked to turn The Brunswick into a sanctuary for Jewish children fleeing persecution in Germany. As Cora and Thomas prepare for the children's arrival, they struggle to confront their pasts--and the prejudice of their neighbors--as their fragile hope is put to the test. Meanwhile, in Vienna, ten-year-old Charlotte is offered refuge in America. But even with the horrors she sees around her, she wonders how her parents could possibly send her away. As war's shadow begins to reach small-town Georgia, each person must face what love demands and decide what to hold on to and what to let go.Book Excerpt
The salty streaks on Charlotte’s face suggested that she had cried, and the circles of mud on her stockings, that she had fallen to her knees. Yet she did not remember doing either. She did not remember much of anything after her father was taken, but somehow she and Mama found themselves on Tante Hermine’s couch in a small and crowded apartment in Vienna. Charlotte rested her head in her mother’s lap, her wild curls covering Mama’s legs like a blanket.
“The two of you will sleep here, on this couch. The other rooms are full,” Tante Hermine said, placing a mug of steaming tea on the table beside them. The room smelled of stew, and Charlotte’s stomach felt like the crinkled leaves she watched fall just hours earlier. Had they missed lunch?
Dinner?
She heard Tante Hermine’s infant son, Wilheim, crying on the other side of the wall. Someone at the kitchen table was talking to someone else who was washing dishes. “It’s tight, but we share our rations here,” Tante Hermine told Mama.
“I’ll go by the consulate tomorrow and see about getting you and Charlotte visas so you can leave Austria.”
“No, no, I can’t possibly leave Austria,” Mama said, her voice barely louder than all the sounds of the apartment. “Not without Otto. Not ever.”
Charlotte’s stomach ached again, but it was a different feeling.
Tante Hermine knelt beside them and placed a steadying hand on Mama’s arm. “We just don’t know when or even if Otto will return,” she said, drawing out each word. “Emilie, you are in charge now. You need to make very careful decisions.”
“But I cannot do this without Otto,” Mama whispered. “I don’t have his faith, his bravery.”
“I’ve been in your shoes, sister. I’m in your shoes.” Charlotte felt her aunt lean in close to kiss Mama’s forehead. “Listen, sometimes bravery just looks like love,” she whispered as she laid a gentle hand on Charlotte’s head. “And love, you have.”
Mama’s body began to shudder as she tried to stifle a sob. She scooped Charlotte into her arms and held her tightly for the briefest of moments before laying her on one side of the couch. Then Mama curled into a ball on the other, her arms wrapped around her calves.
Charlotte, too, pulled her knees to her chest and squeezed her eyes as tight as they would go, as if to erase the shock of it all. She thought of home— the grove, the farmhouse, her papa—and she imagined she was back there, in the trees.
But in the darkness behind her closed eyes, she continued to hear the officer’s words and the gasp that escaped her father’s lips when the gun was pressed to his back. Then she heard Tante Hermine’s gentle whispers, pleading with Mama to take charge. And for the first time in Charlotte’s life, she heard a dark voice in her own head, saying her father would not come for her as he promised.
Charlotte wanted her papa, her lifeboat. Will he carry me home?
But all she had now was her mother.
Charlotte looked at her, curled up on the couch, and the dark voice spoke again. What good is an anchor when the ship is already sinking?
The Brunswick • Callie Murray
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group © 2026 used by permission
About the Author
Tour Giveaway
(1) winner will receive a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card!
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I liked the excerpt.
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