Author: Vikki Lynn Sorensen

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Woman with the Blue Star

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Pam Jenoff

1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents amid the horrors of the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous sewers beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.

Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. Scorned by her friends and longing for her fiancé, who has gone off to war, Ella wanders Kraków restlessly. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it’s a girl hiding.

Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds. Inspired by harrowing true stories, The Woman with the Blue Star is an emotional testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive.

“The triumph of the human spirit”

I’ve fallen in love with historical fiction stories. I’m not sure why but there’s a certain vibrancy of human spirit on display in these stories. Pam Jenoff doesn’t miss a beat telling this story based on real life history of holocaust survivors. There’s something about these stories that fascinate me and break me. I know my own cowardice enough to know had I lived back then, I would have been neither brave nor selfless so it always astounds me to read about what folks survived and how they managed. 

Sadie and her family are forced to live in the sewer at the beginning at the story and that’s pretty much where she stays the whole time. While her surroundings don’t change, her circumstances so and it all changes her from a young girl to a brave young woman. She loses people she loves and does her best to stay alive as well as find a way of escape for her family and others with her. 

Elsa is a Polish girl. She has a warm bed, water and enough food but living in a home her late father shared with her stepmother brings its own challenges. For one, her stepmother has an affinity for German soldiers and entertains them frequently. She is abusive and degrading and often reminds Elsa she is not wanted. 

Elsa sees Sadie through the sewer grate and the two become entwined in each other’s lives. Elsa risks much to bring Sadie and those living with her food while Sadie does her best to try to figure out what their next move is going to be. 

As deplorable as Sadie’s conditions are, I love the growth we see in her. I don’t find her to be a spoiled character in the beginning but losing her father early on and taking on the strength of her mother, we see a beautiful woman emerging. She doesn’t take anything for granted (how could she) and yet, is willing to risk much to free them all from living in the sewer. 

Elsa also is another unspoiled character and yet we see her world grow from just herself and her harsh existence with a stepmother who hates her to a much bigger world, helping Sadie and coming to terms with her “lavish” lifestyle. She uses her blessings to be a blessing and that made me completely love her. 

The strength of the human spirit cannot be denied here. By the end of the book, when we discover what happened with both women and how they both fared, I was truly touched. This is a very moving story full of heart and hope. 

My rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: 

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Ice Out

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Susan Speranza

Francesca Bodin has a near-perfect life as an accomplished music teacher and professional flutist living in the Vermont countryside with her husband Ben, and their four-year old daughter, Addie. This ends suddenly when a snowmobiling accident traps the three of them in a frozen lake. Ben, after escaping onto the ice, leaves her and Addie to die.

Francesca believes she sees their dog pull Addie from the lake and drag her into the nearby woods. Desperate to help her daughter, she crawls from the icy waters and follows them. Once she enters the forest, however, she finds herself trapped in a sinister, dream-like world where night never ends, where Addie’s whereabouts remain hidden from her, and where she encounters a group of women who, like Francesca, have been left to die and now seek to unleash their revenge on those who have harmed them. When they have Ben in their sights, Francesca realizes that if she is ever to escape this nightmare and save her daughter, she must first save the husband who abandoned them. 

If I had to sum up my initial reaction to this book, it would be one phrase – What the…..? And not in a good way!

I must have missed the point of this. Francesca falls through the ice at the beginning of the book. Then it takes most of the book for her to get out of the ice all the while reliving her life in flashbacks. A very normal, ordinary life. This takes so long by the time I got to the end of her part, I was a little muffed to discover that we now had to read Ben’s side of the story. 

Thankfully, Ben’s side doesn’t take as long. 

But then, it goes into this weird fantasy world that makes no sense about this group of women led by a  White Witch who encourages this group of women to some sort of strange afterlife torturing and “killing” of the men who killed them. 

Or something like it. 

Then the story comes into read time where we learn Ben left her on the ice just because he was scared (what a guy!) and the book ends not really on a great note? 

I really didn’t understand the point of this book. What story was being told? I couldn’t really grasp a theme or reason and couldn’t really relate to any of it. 

My rating: :star:

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Dunmoor

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: London Clarke

England, 1818. Lady Helena Winters hasn’t seen her husband in over a year—not since he disappeared without a trace. Torn between seeking a new purpose for her life and longing for her husband to return, Helena travels with her father to Dunmoor House for a fundraising ball. Although the estate was once her husband’s ancestral home, it has recently been purchased by Luke Lennox, a gentleman planning to establish a foundling hospital.

Helena quickly finds herself battling memories of life with her husband and searching for answers to what might have happened to him. Even so, she is drawn to Luke Lennox and his dream of saving and educating children—a passion she shares.

Within Dunmoor’s decaying walls lies a long and sordid history, a legacy of evildoers perpetrating unspeakable acts of wickedness. Now, the corridors echo with voices. Vines grow inside the house, and shadowy figures plague the children at night.

But in the dark forest on the edge of the property, a terrible secret awaits, and what Luke and Helena uncover there will endanger both their lives.

NOTE: Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Read with the lights ON!

Last night, I sat up reading this book, doing the “just one more chapter” thing until it was well past midnight. I’m a huge fan of gothic horror/suspense/ghost stories and this one was right up my alley. 

I was drawn quickly into this story, into every character and their lives. I love Helena’s strength, charisma, intelligence and compassion. I totally fell for Luke and his wanting to save the world attitude. His friend, Alex, provided comic relief as well as that reckless hero figure. The backstory was wonderful, filled with curses and folklore. I love when folklore is written in such a way that it gives life to inanimate objects. I never look at a tree the same way again!

The settings were very well written. I love when a scene in a story’s setting is cold, damn and chilly and I find myself reaching for a cup of tea and a blanket. It’s the perfect marriage between setting and suspense that leaves me wondering if the chill running down my spine is from terror or from the cold. 

Some potentially triggering moments…I understood the folklore to be very dark, very tragic, and very sinister. However, some of the human suffering factors, especially where the children were concerned, was a bit much. It’s not a hidden fact that orphans in the 1800’s were treated horribly.  That being said, I understand the author is also trying to bring attention to the very real modern day problem of sex trafficking. Kudos to her for doing that so well with this story. 

And that ending!! Woah! I’m already there for the next book and new adventures with Helena and Luke. 

My rating – :star: :star: :star: :star: 

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Children on the Hill

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Jennifer McMahon

1978: At her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when’s she home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love.

Then one day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family. Iris—silent, hollow-eyed, skittish, and feral—does not behave like a normal girl.

Still, Violet is thrilled to have a new playmate. She and Eric invite Iris to join their Monster Club, where they catalogue all kinds of monsters and dream up ways to defeat them. Before long, Iris begins to come out of her shell. She and Vi and Eric do everything together: ride their bicycles, go to the drive-in, meet at their clubhouse in secret to hunt monsters. Because, as Vi explains, monsters are everywhere.

2019: Lizzy Shelley, the host of the popular podcast Monsters Among Us, is traveling to Vermont, where a young girl has been abducted, and a monster sighting has the town in an uproar. She’s determined to hunt it down, because Lizzy knows better than anyone that monsters are real—and one of them is her very own sister.

The Children on the Hill takes us on a breathless journey to face the primal fears that lurk within us all. 

This book was very unique. 

As a serious nod to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it works well as a mystery/thriller story. 

The hook does grab you and drags you into the story quite quickly. Then, there’s a few bumps and hiccups in the 1st third of the book as you get introduced to the characters, timelines, etc. 

Once you’re there and you know who is who and what is what, the middle lags just a tiny bit I found myself wanting to just get to the good stuff and it took a while. However, as it’s taking a while, you’re treated to chills and such great atmospheric writing, I could almost smell the crisp in the air and the fire burning. 

Then you get to the last third and it’s incredible with a lot of WOWS and OH MY GOODNESSES to keep you sitting on the edge of your seat long after you finish the book. I was exhausted by the time I finished, which was within 24 hours of starting. 

I’m off to find more by Jennifer McMahon. I have to read more of her books!

My Rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: 

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Half Sisters

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Virginia Frankel

A single lie becomes a defining moment in a family’s life in an unforgettable novel of psychological suspense.

After being gone for two decades, Maddy’s half sister, Emily, is back in town to settle their late father’s estate. Emily’s not the troubled girl Maddy remembers from their volatile childhood. Apparently, all is well. It can’t possibly matter anymore that Maddy married Emily’s first love, but the pictures Maddy finds on her husband’s phone tell a different story. Suspicions of an affair are hard to ignore.

Then again, Maddy hasn’t been herself lately. She’s increasingly confused. She’s losing items that are precious to her. She forgets where she’s going. The line between what’s real and unreal has become a blur. Even the damning photos have disappeared. Though her state of mind starts to become everyone’s cause for concern, Maddy refuses to believe she’s losing her grip on reality. But the one thing she can’t deny is the secret from the past that rewrote all their lives—a secret that’s ready to come out. 

NOTE – Thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an eArc in exchange for an honest review. 

ALSO NOTE – POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!

This book was really, really….odd. 

The synopsis says one lie becomes a defining moment. While one lie might have started the whole ball rolling, it takes several to unravel it. Very strange. 

Let’s talk about the characters. I couldn’t find one character that I could really get behind. But then again, there’s so many lies and twists and turns that I’m not sure we’re really allowed to get to know them. And none of them are likable which was disturbing to me. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where I completely disliked every single character in it. Even Maddy’s parents aren’t all that great and we don’t really get too much of them. 

If there is any character development, it’s that they all wound up as even uglier versions of themselves than when the story started. 

The storyline was quite predictable. I knew right away Maddy was being gaslighted. But even if she wasn’t, there was no one in her life who wanted to help her. Everyone immediately took sides and there really was no explanation as to why. That was confusing to me. 

The ending was also confusing. The story ramps up, comes to a climax and then…that’s it! Maddy drives away and it’s all over. It’s almost like the writer just petered out, stopped writing and turned in an incomplete assignment. 

Overall, I can’t recommend this book at all. 

My rating: :star: