Meri misses her mother every day since an accident took her life. She also tries to emulate and understand her mother’s artwork. Meri wants to become an artist too. Her friend Rose was able to help her get an interview to be considered to participate in the City Art Program that Meri’s mother was such a big part of before her death. Meri has a successful interview but notices strange and suspicious things happening around her. Among them, she sees someone drop paper, a traitorous and wasteful act. Her curiosity gets the best of her and she thinks she’s figuring out some of her mother’s painted clues, so she goes to sights that she believes her mother meant for her to go to. She’s given a piece of paper with the word verify written on it and talked to by a young man. She eventually learns what truly happened to her mother and the underground she was a part of in the last eighteen months of her life. Meri falls down the rabbit hole! Action, intrigue and friendship pull the story along, 4 stars and I’m ready to read the sequel, Disclose.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review All This Time by Rachel Lippincott! A long-lasting relationship broken. A conversation harshly interrupted. A devastating reality. Those are the beginnings of this story. Kyle and Kim have broken up seven times over the course of their relationship. Now Kyle wishes he could go back and let her go and give her the freedom to be happy. He realizes how self-absorbed he’s been since his football accident and his relationships suffered because of it. He moves on and feels accomplished after his loss until he receives another eye-opener! Great writing and a unique storyline and if I give details, I will spoil it for future readers. Fantastic book full of hope, perseverance and love, 5 stars!
I received an arc in exchange for voluntary review consideration and all opinions and thoughts are my own.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I read a paper by a student and her analysis and description of this book drew me into the story, so much that I purchased the book right away. World War II, 1939, France is the beginning setting of the narrator’s memories.
Vianne watches her husband Antoine leave for war with a terrified heart. She recalls the state of the World War I soldiers when they returned home and she doesn’t want these men to go through the horrors of war too, as her father did. Vianne and her daughter Sophie return home. Vianne’s eighteen-year-old younger sister, Isabelle, is sent away by their father, to live with Vianne. Vianne has always been a rule follower and Isabelle has always been a rebel. When a German soldier is sent by authorities to live in their home, Vianne frustratingly complies and Isabelle can hardly contain her anger. Vianne sacrifices everything she can to keep her daughter Sophie as safe and healthy as possible. Isabelle is discovered by the resistance and decides that she will do everything in her power to help them, so she moves back to Paris and is known as The Nightingale because of her covert activities. Meanwhile, Vianne tries to help her neighbor and best friend, Rachel, to run to a safe zone. Rachel takes her sleeping baby Ari in a wheelbarrow and her daughter Sarah walks next to her with Vianne. When they reach trees by the checkpoint barrier, Vianne watches Rachel and her children walk to the queue. Almost immediately, a machine gun sprays the crowd with bullets. Rachel runs with her children back to the trees but her young daughter Sarah gets riddled with bullets across her chest. The horror of the French government turning on their Jewish people who have husbands fighting in the war and are prisoners of war is too terrible to grasp but add the slaughter of innocent children and other family members to that and it’s a completely unfathomable nightmare that truly happened less than 80 years ago! The details of the struggles, loss, torture, love and sacrifice make this book a true historical fiction classic for the ages! The Nightingale continues to tell the story of the two sisters and both of their World War II ordeals. I absolutely love this book! Great character growth and strength and the resilience of the human spirit is awe-inspiring! 5 stars!
The story feels a bit scattered because Jocey is relaying information that way. The more I read, the more I wondered what is holding Jocey together. She received a letter coded in a way that only herself, Noah and her deceased brother knew about so she’s bound and determined to find her brother alive. Jocey, Jack and Noah lived in a foster home together when they were younger. The three of them were best friends and stuck up for each other and trusted no one else. Joecey’s latest discovery has her traveling to the Peace Tower to hopefully find her brother or at least another clue. With Noah’s help, Jocey decodes and chases clues, tries to avoid danger and hunts for anything to do with Jack. If I say anymore, I’ll spoil the storyline. This story is a riddle with a unique and unexpected ending. The twist is mind-boggling and the author did a fantastic job pulling everything together, 5 stars for a wonderfully twisted mystery thriller.
Freheit!: The White Rose Graphic Novel by Andrea Grosso Ciponte Thanks to Plough Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this graphic novel. Based on the actual White Rose group that spread leaflets against Nazi rule and actions during World War II. Several members were arrested and quite a few of them were executed by use of a guillotine. I didn’t realize that anyone in that era was executed by any means other than shooting. A highly impactful graphic novel that sums up the growth and activities of The White Rose and also includes the real writings on the original leaflets. Amazing strength, integrity and bravery sums up The White Rose members! A must for history buffs, 5 stars!
I received an advance reader copy of this book for volunteer review consideration and all opinions and thoughts are my own.
Fable is on her own, trying to survive long enough to get off the island her father left her on years ago. Her mother died in a shipwreck and her father deserted her and left her to survive completely on her own. She’s tough and has gained survival skills all by her wits. She manages to get off the island by buying passage aboard the Marigold, a ship that she later discovers is one of her father’s. She finally reaches Saint and he’s just as cold to her as she expected, even though she hoped for more. He does give her the inheritance her mother would have left her but nothing is given easily or with any help when Saint is involved. She also figures out why Saint carved into her arm all those years ago. Fable bargains cleverly and becomes a true part of a crew and she finally feels like she has a place where she belongs. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, a pirate adventure with strong characters, great character development and dangerous setting, 5 stars!
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly Mattie is the eldest of her three sisters and helps her father take care of everything, farm and family, since their brother Lawton left and their mother is no longer with them. Mattie loves words and treasures the dictionary she inherited from her mother. She teaches her siblings new words every day. Mattie loves to read and write and she’s attending school as often as she can to earn her high school diploma. In 1906, women didn’t have voting, purchasing, or really any legal rights. Men decided pretty much everything. There wasn’t really any birth control except abstinence so that changed the course of many lives. Mattie observes others and analyzes their actions to understand their behavior better and empathize with them. So much around her is complicated and more than the eye, or gossip, can see. She also listens to the judgmental gossip and realizes how selfish the gossiping people are and how they see that people need help but they don’t help at all, instead they just enjoy talking about them. The grit, roughness, grief, joy, hardwork, and the everyday living details are included in this story and that makes a wonderfully, realistic historical fiction read! I love Jennifer Donnelly’s writing style and have read all of her books except one, Tea Rose is on my to-be-read pile. 5 stars for a satisfying historical read!
Quinn has inherited a curse that follows the females in her family. This curse shows the future but each female’s version is a bit different from the others. Quinn’s mom saw choices and Quinn sees the death of each person she touches. She meets Griffin at the museum and then discovers he’s her new neighbor. He’s moved from states away for a fresh start. Quinn’s vision of Griffin shows his death by a gunshot, in the near future. Quinn struggles to change his fate and the two of them go on a relationship roller coaster. In the meantime, someone is doing cruel things to Griffin and Quinn and she’s determined to get to the bottom of it all. Someone breaks into Griffin’s apartment and smashes his guitar into pieces and later cuts the brake line on his car. The pranks don’t end there. The problem is revealed and Quinn is devastated by what she finds out. The story is an interesting mystery with a touch of romance, 4 stars!
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