Tag: historical fiction

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Opera Sisters

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By Marianne Monson

NOTE – Special thanks to NetGalley and Shadow Mountain Publishing for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

British sisters Ida and Louise Cook use their love of opera as means to travel back and from between Germany and England while saving the lives of Jewish people.

Lately, it seems like every time I read historical fiction, I learn something new. This book was so different. I had no idea these two women existed and I was completely unaware of their bravery. Also, while I knew London got hit hard during this war, I found myself really saddened by just how hard. I wasn’t aware how many civilians lost their lives. I also didn’t know that Hitler actually did declare war on the United States and looked forward to taking her down. So this book was quite an education. 

What worked really well for me: 

  1. This book was very well researched. From opera to historical facts, research poured into every page. Footnotes were included at the bottom to give resources from where information came from. 
  2. There was a lot of emotion in this story. There wasn’t one character that didn’t make me feel something. 
  3. The story itself was brave and bravely told. It kept a good pace but the story itself kept you going, wanting to know what was next and who was saved..and who didn’t make it.
  4. The character growth was really present. Louisa and Ida are made completely different by the war and their actions during the war. Their whole family changes.  

What didn’t work for me: 

  1. The ending seemed a little abrupt. Although, that could have been me because I really wanted to know so much more about these ladies. 
  2. If you don’t know opera, there were some spots that got quite technical. I grew up on opera so I was able to fully appreciate those moments. 

Out of all the historical fiction you may read, make this book one that you do. One quote especially resonated with me after experiencing these past couple of years: 

“My dears, the past few years have enlightened us all,” Rosa told them. “It’s easy to think there are sharp lines dividing the good people and bad people, but most humans have dark passions inside waiting to be stirred up. It’s easier than we think to become convinced that decency is for the weak, that democracy is naive, that kindness and respect for others are ridiculous. The whole world has been reminded these past few years that the things we care about have to be nurtured and defended because even seemingly good people have the potential to do hideous things.”

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

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Hideaway

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Norma Curtis

Heidi (Hedi) Fischer is a WWII camp survivor, mother of one daughter, grandmother of one granddaughter and she just said goodbye to the love of her life, her husband Harry. She hasn’t seen her daughter in many years due to a fallout they had and therefore, hasn’t seen her granddaughter since she was a toddler. At 90 years old, her plan now is just to die. 

Thea is her granddaughter who has never really settled into any one job, one place, one relationship and is on the move again when she comes apon a small home by a small lake needing some love and attention. She decides to rent it out for the summer. Then she gets a call from her mother saying her grandfather has just died and would she attend the funeral. Maggie, her mother, lives far away and due to her broken relationship with her parents doesn’t want to attend. Thea agrees. 

Thea meets up with Hedi at the funeral and they share lunch afterwards. The plan is for Thea to return to her life while Hedi goes home to die. Hedi’s spiteful neighbor has been watching Hedi get rid of everything in her home. Her husband’s books, furniture, clothing, everything is gone and, after a confrontation with Hedi, she calls social services on her. Social services calls Thea to come and look after her grandmother after which Thea decides to bring Hedi to the summer home she’s renting. 

Hedi decides to confide in her granddaughter all that she never told her mother about her life at the camps, how she met her husband and the promises they made to each other never to talk about what they both went through. A bond forms between the two women and by the end of the story, Thea realizes what a treasure Hedi is and nothing like her mother described. 

I really liked this story. Hedi is a fiery woman full of flaws, regrets and imperfections. She’s also full of a lot of love. As her story unravels, I really loved how we get to see the contradiction between her and Harry; Hedi is strong and fierce and very much an in-your-face type of person while Harry is quiet, gentle and very forgiving. Same with Thea and Maggie. While Maggie very much a supporting character, she’s very quick-tempered, bold and outspoken, like her mom. Thea is gentle, kind and forbearing. 

Here’s what really worked for me: 

  1. Character development – There is a nice character development in this story. I would imagine it would be hard to do this with a 90 year old character since most people are set in their ways however, Norma Curtis handles this with ease in the character of Hedi. 
  2. The setting was lovely – Set in England just outside of London, the house feels like every summer home I’ve ever wanted to visit, up to and including the outhouse. (Although, if I’m being honest, I’m an indoor plumbing girl all the way.) 

3. The relationships – The relationship between Thea and Hedi is so moving. It made me wish to talk to my grandmother again.

Here’s what didn’t work for me –

  1. Maggie – I’m not really sure what she was so upset about. Either I missed it or it wasn’t written well enough. But I really didn’t like her at all. She was too cold. Too much without heart. Her anger, or whatever it was, felt forced.
  2. The ending – It was beautiful but again, the character of Maggie was really hard to believe. First she hated her mother so much that she thought her dead and, in one short conversation, she’s all over it!
  3. The relationship between Maggie and Thea – First, I was curious as to why first names were used and not titles. For example, Thea called Maggie “Maggie” and not “Mom”. But I really couldn’t understand why their relationship was strained. 

Overall, this is a lovely story. I loved Hedi over and over and wished for her to be my grandmother so many times. Then I wished for my own grandmother and wished I could introduce her to my girls.

NOTE – Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

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

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Lieutenant’s Girl

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Shari J Ryan

NOTE – Special thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pearl Harbor meets The Notebook.

Those are vibes I got reading this book by Shari J Ryan. This is the story of Elizabeth Salzberg, a young Jewish girl living in Hawaii at the time of the Pearl Harbor attacks. Her dad is a lieutenant on base and very protective of his family since losing his wife. Elizabeth, wanting to make a difference, is studying to be a nurse when Pearl Harbor is attacked. She enlists shortly afterwards and is shipped overseas where her courage is tested as she witnesses horror after horror.

As a huge fan of Shari Ryan, I was surprised to find I didn’t LOVE this book. I didn’t hate it or even dislike it but I didn’t LOVE it like I’ve loved her other books.

Here’s what I really enjoyed:

  • The character growth of all the characters in this story. They all were affected by the war and what they’d witnessed and were forever changed by it.
  • The writing was real. Real emotions. Real scenic descriptions. Real noises. I heard and felt it all.
  • We got a complete story. Beginning to end. Watching Elizabeth grow in this story reminded me very much of watching Rilla grown in LM Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside.

Here’s what I didn’t enjoy:

  • The dual timelines. Most of the time, I enjoy it but in this story, I found it distracting. It really was a little too much like The Notebook and honestly, while I never read the book, I’m in the minority that hated that movie. (I also hated the movie Pearl Harbor.) For some reason, I had a hard time keeping the family members all straight so it really didn’t add anything to the story to have Elizabeth’s current story being told while her past was unfolding.
  • The pacing of the book. It felt unsteady to me. At times, it lagged and then it was fast forward and then we were in the present for a short time and then in the past where it would lag and then fast forward. I could just be a “me” issue but it made it difficult to read.

Overall, this was a nice book and a good story. I wish a few things had been different and it didn’t seem to fit in with the storytelling I’d grown accustomed to by Ms. Ryan but it was enjoyable.

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

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Soldier’s Letters

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Shari J Ryan

This is the third book in a trilogy by Shari J Ryan chronicling the life of Charlie Crane and Amelia Baylin and their family. This is Charlie’s story. 

For some reason, this is a very hard review to write. Not because the book was bad – it wasn’t. The book was brilliant and so beautifully written, I couldn’t put it down. However, it’s hard to praise a book told from “the enemy’s” perspective. Especially when talking about the Nazis. So it was intriguing to read a note from the author saying she also struggled to write this book. I could tell. This story wasn’t written in a rush of creativity but rather it was the manifestation of a ton of soul-searching and introspect. 

Charlie is a Nazi soldier, reluctantly drafted and voluntold into being in the SS. From the very start, we see how antisemitism didn’t happen overnight. It was the well-thought out brainwashing that took place over a number of years. Charlie is warm, compassionate and has his whole world stripped from him when he’s chosen to become one of Hitler’s followers. I liked how carefully Ryan handles this piece – there’s not a lot of excuses given. We get a simple clear view of a young boy who didn’t have a choice. She’s very factual but in a way that slices into your heart. 

He meets a young Amelia Baylin at one of the most horrific moments of her life. The enemy in her story, we see how this begins to unravel him. He follows her to a concentration camp and begins a forbidden relationship with him. Over the next few years, he experiences every ramification of the horrors he not only witnesses but has to inflict. I mean – is it even possible to feel sorry for a Nazi? Ryan expertly handles this in a way that doesn’t distract from the fact that Nazis WERE evil! Hitler was evil personified and six million Jews were sacrificed at the alter of his madness. Ryan doesn’t downplay this fact at all. 

As Charlie’s story goes on, switching between the past and current day, we’re invited further into the psychological breakdown that he experiences. We see his love for Amelia as the only link to life and we see how that love and hope not only kept him alive, but exhorted him to try to make amends for being a Nazi. 

Ultimately, this story is about forgiveness. But not the kind of forgiveness that’s blown around like a dandelion, light and fluffy and gone with the next wind. This is hard forgiveness, the kind that comes from deep within and see beyond evil. It’s the forgiveness that anchors itself and stays steady and strong and true, surpassing even the passing of time. 

I loved this story. It made me cry and it made me think and it made me hurt. This trilogy isn’t an easy read but it is a necessary one. One that I would highly recommend.

NOTE – Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

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

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Girl With the Diary

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Shari J Ryan

Emma is a girl in a dead-end relationship and a career that’s sucking up all her time and energy. She gets a call saying her grandmother is in the hospital and doing poorly. Upon arrival at the hospital, her grandmother, in and out of consciousness, calls for someone named Charlie and tells Emma to find the book that will tell her who Charlie is. 

Emma finds the book and in doing so, she finds more than just a simple story. She learns her grandmother was a survivor of the concentration camps. She learns Charlie was the enemy and she learns that true love can be found amidst incredible hate. 

Another tearjerker of a story by Shari Ryan. This is beautifully written, very descriptive and takes you on a journey of such raw emotion, you won’t be able to put this down.

Emma is a woman standing still in her life, moving neither forwards or backwards but growing stale in the life she’s leading. I think we’ve all been where Emma is at some point in our lives, in need of some miraculous but true story to reset our lives, give us new perspective and new meaning in life. 

There wasn’t a character in this story I didn’t love. Even Mike. I loved to dislike him! LOL! The relationship between all the women in this story is so beautiful and so very real. Emma;s grandmother’s matchmaking brought back memories of my own Italian grandmother and how she always had a friend who had a son who needed a wife. My sisters and I grew up having carrots in the form of houses, money and such dangled before us if only we would marry these poor mama’s boys. The only thing we were ever sure of was there had to be something wrong with them if their mama’s wanted to get rid of them so much. 

Emma is a completely different person by the end of the book, having been changed by the past only it wasn’t her past she was changed by; it was Amelia’s. Amelia’s story is told in such heartbreaking detail – I still cannot even imagine what these precious people went through or the courage it took to survive. These books have led me on a very introspective journey and my mind cannot even begin to comprehend living through such circumstances. 

Yet, Amelia survives and while her secrets threaten her happiness, she did everything out for love. And she gives that gift of love to her daughters and the story of it to her granddaughter. 

The end of this story is nothing short of the most beautiful triumph ever. Love wins all! And in the most shocking way. 

I highly recommend this book and commend the author for this lovely, lovely story. I am hiding the message of this story deep in my heart of hearts.

NOTE – Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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