Welcome to the Takeover + Review Blitz for The Brunswick by Callie Murray, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
About The Book
Title: The Brunswick
Author: Callie Murray
Publisher: Revell
Release Date: May 19, 2026
Genre: Christian Historical Romance
When Cora provides a safe haven for Jewish refugee children, she discovers that opening her doors means risking everything, including her heart.
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.
Excerpt
She had been born the very month her father, Ralph Cain, opened The Brunswick. “My twins,” he sometimes said of them. The Brunswick quickly became a well- known destination for those escaping the bustle of Atlanta, balancing Parisian drama with Southern charm.
The hotel was a two- story colonial with ironwork balustrades encasing each floor’s wide porch, and it was situated just across the street from the train station. For the first ten years of Cora’s life, The Brunswick provided for her family in abundance, its twenty rooms rarely vacant. Guests poured in, as did money, and Cora fell asleep each night to the clinking of glasses in the lobby, the sounds of happy tourists drunk on leisure and smuggled alcohol. But as the realities of the Great Depression settled in, the guests stopped coming, and Cora’s father slipped into a depression of his own.
Standing now at what used to be the hotel’s registration desk, Cora opened and quickly scanned a letter from the bank before pushing it aside with a sigh. She then fumbled through a mess of delivery tickets so she could determine what she needed to package and load into the truck. Today’s route would be a busy one, taking her into the farmlands east of town and then back, where she would return to do paperwork until she went to bed and could start all over again in the morning.
When she and Billie used to dream of their futures, Cora never imagined staying at The Brunswick to manage the family business like she was. They were both supposed to fall in love at the same time, go to college together, move away.
Billie was following the plan, but Cora had detoured unwillingly.
She slumped behind the desk and sat on the floor, resting her head against the wood, coveting her friend’s nap, but she was interrupted by the scraping of the front door. From her hidden spot, she called, “I’m sorry, but we’re closed for afternoon deliveries!”
An unfamiliar voice called back, “But what if you didn’t have to be?”
Cora craned her neck around the desk and was met with leather loafers just ten feet away. Tracing the tall frame upward, she found tweed trousers and a white linen shirt, its sleeves rolled up to the elbows, hugging the arms inside tightly. The top button of the shirt hung open, and then there was the day- old scruff of a beard and a slight scar on lips that, as she rested her gaze on them, quirked into a grin.
“I’m looking for a job,” the stranger said. “Perhaps if I worked here, I could keep the store open while you make deliveries. Or I could make deliveries while you keep the store open.”
Cora nodded mutely, though she was unsure he could see her from her position behind the desk. In all the years she had managed The Brunswick, she had not once considered hiring help. That would require money, and that resource was in perpetually short supply.
She had also never met someone who caused her words to gum up in her brain like this. Pressure was building like a stream behind a dam.
The man continued, “I’ll come by tomorrow morning before you open, if that’s okay. For an interview. Does that work?”
The dam burst, and Cora blurted, “I’m all yours.” She felt her cheeks blush, and her brain fired off a list of much less embarrassing responses she could have given. “I’ll see you then.” “That works for me.” Perhaps a simple, “Sure.”
She watched the lips again lift into a smile. “Great,” he said, tipping his chin and returning to the porch, leaving Cora alone with the hall clock, which chimed the quarter- hour, reminding her she was late.
She stood and watched the man’s figure through the window as he crossed to the other side of the town. Who was that? Norcross was a tight- knit place, and Cora felt as if she knew everyone who called the small town home.
The man appeared to know a bit about The Brunswick— the fact that it was now a general store, that it closed each afternoon for deliveries, that she was the only one working. She wished she had asked for his story— or even his name. She wished she had tempered his expectations. She had no money for a new hire, after all. She wished she would have said just about anything other than what she had. Perhaps tomorrow morning she would be a little more coherent. At least by then she’d be standing.
The Brunswick • Callie Murray
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group © 2026 used by permission
PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Baker Publishing Group | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Christianbook | Bookshop | BookBub
About The Author
Tour Giveaway
(1) winner will receive a $50 Barnes & Noble gift card!
Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule linked below. Giveaway began at midnight June 3, 2026 and lasts through 11:59 PM EST on June 10, 2026. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
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Tags: Callie Murray, historical romance fiction
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