J.E. Leak’s Getting Rec’d

Feb 3, 2023 | Authors Getting Rec'd

Author Jo Havens recommends In the Shadow of Truth by J.E. Leak

Welcome to Authors Getting Rec’d! Each week, we’ll bring you a new sapphic book recommendation from a favorite sapphic author. Find out what authors are reading and why, plus read about the personal connections between authors and books.

This week, Jo Havens, who is good friends with J. E. Leak, (they’re even planning a co-write together, so stay tuned!), explains why In the Shadow of Truth is a must read.

Jo was a beta reader for this book and is loving seeing it out there in the world. This sapphic historical fiction novel has it all, from an eye-catching cover to an excellent tagline and blurb. Jo considers J.E. to be an author whose work is always enjoyable, and even better, the book is part of a fantastic series.

Let’s hear more from Jo about why In the Shadow of Truth is a must read:

Aside from the absolutely sumptuous covers (created by the author herself – what a talent!), I am so thoroughly invested in the two main characters and their very real struggle to make their love work in the middle of wartime.

If you’ve been reading/listening to J.E. Leak’s Shadow series then you’ve probably been busting to know what happens next.

This is the book that shows what an absolute master storyteller J.E. Leak is. All the threads and strands and hints from the first two books are now woven into events that are more intricate than I first imagined they might be. The Big Bad is more clearly revealed and it is horrifying. The women face tough times and agonising decisions. Sometimes they flounder and make errors that make you want to slap them. Sometimes they fall into each other’s arms and the softness and love is the kind of glorious fluff you want to roll around in and lose yourself forever.

There’s all the gorgeous detail I love about the period – jazz, elegance, hair-pins, secret dossiers in actual brown cardboard folders. J.E. is an historian with an exquisite eye for those little particulars that allow you to slip completely into her world. And… she’s merciless. You know in your heart as you read that things are only going to get tougher for our leading ladies. J.E. isn’t going to go easy on them. Or you, dear reader. But that’s kinda why we love her, right?

(And if I may skite for a moment, I’ve already read Book 4 in its beta form and hoo-weee! You’re going to love it!)

Tempted? You can get J.E.’s book here:

Jo Havens is the author of Once in Berlin, which may be the perfect companion piece to J. E. Leak’s series.

Here’s Jo to tell us more:

If the elegance of the 1930s and 1940s blows your skirt up (so to speak) then Once in Berlin is the perfect companion piece to J.E. Leak’s Shadow series. My book takes place in … well … Berlin but in the year just before the war. There are, of course, all the requisite delights — gorgeous women in tuxedos, ludicrously stylish motorcars, slim fitting evening gowns and stockings with seams, sexy times and sweet, fluffy love bits — but with far fewer Nazis (sorry J.E.) 🙂

J.E. Leak and I met online when I admired her instagram posts about restoring vintage fountain pens and her photographs of ration books from the war. I shamelessly begged to ARC her first book in the Shadow series and, since then, we’ve each beta read everything the other has written. We’re currently embarking on a co-write, details of which are Top Secret until we get all our stuff in the one sock.

Thank you, Jo, for sharing what book is on your nightstand right now and paying it forward by showing some book love to a fellow SapphFic author!

Here is how you can connect with Jo Havens:

Jo Havens lives near Sydney, Australia with her daughter and a cat named Howl. (Yes, after the wizard.) Jo is not ashamed to admit that she completely sucks at author bios so here is a short list of things she likes: Green tea, dark chocolate, house plants, the jazz standards, Mahler, Cate Blanchett, lighthouses, lists, the fragrance of gardenias, and writing about herself in the third person.

Visit Jo’s website

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Are you a SapphFic author who would like to give a shout out to another SapphFic author whose book is one of your “5-star Reads?” Let us know!