Tag: historical fiction

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

Three Muses

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Martha Anne Toll

Three Muses is a love story that enthralls: a tale of Holocaust survival venturing through memory, trauma, and identity, while raising the curtain on the unforgiving discipline of ballet. In post-WWII New York, John Curtin suffers lasting damage from having been forced to sing for the concentration camp kommandant who murdered his family. John trains to be a psychiatrist, struggling to wrest his life from his terror of music and his past. Katya Symanova climbs the arduous path to Prima Ballerina of the New York State Ballet, becoming enmeshed in an abusive relationship with her choreographer, who makes Katya a star but controls her life. When John receives a ticket to attend a ballet featuring Katya Symanova, a spell is cast. As John and Katya follow circuitous paths to one another, fear and promise rise in equal measure. Song, Discipline, and Memory weave their way through love and loss, heartbreak and triumph

NOTE: Thank you to Netgalley and Regal House Publishing for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. This review may contain spoilers. 

Three Muses takes you on a journey through time. It’s also a journey through the lives of Katya Symanova and John Curtin, both broken, both haunted, seeking to find their place and purpose in their worlds. 

This book starts out as two separate stories. We meet Janko, later known as John, a small boy given up by his mother to the Nazis hoping his talent for singing saves his life. As he sings for those who killed his family, a chasm forms deep in his heart separating him from his love for song. Upon rescue, he travels to America where he is placed in the care of a family who recently lost their son in the war. They become his replacement family and he becomes their replacement son. He adopts the name of John Curtin and becomes a psychiatrist. 

John was my favorite character in this story. I loved how his first patient really was himself. He’s shy and courageous and respectful and so kind and he’s all these things while dealing with PTSD from WWII. I love how we get to see his transition from a scared little boy to a young man trying to please his new American family and finally, into an adult. John struggles to understand the meaning of love in all its selfless facets until he meets Katya, who helps him understand that to love is to sacrifice. 

The other story is Katherine Sillman who is gifted with ballet lessons after her mother’s death. As she grows into a proper ballerina, she catches the eye of the choreographer/composer, Boris Yanakov, who changes her name to Katya Symannova, putting the curtain up between her and everyone else in her life but him. As he grooms her, she becomes entranced with him and by him. 

Katya is probably my least favorite character in this story. While we do see a beautiful character arc and wonderful development, I cringe at the idea of any woman losing herself in a man to the degree Katya did. She allowed him to rob her of everything, her friends, her family (in a way) and finally, her relationship with John. He literally chains her to him for the duration of her life. It was sad to me to see her disregard warnings from her friend, Maya, and completely forget she even had a father. She only remembers him when he gets hurt and needs help. 

I also found her to be a little self-serving in her relationship with John. He said she gave him a lot when he said she gave him back his Papa. However, I can’t really see where she gave more than he did. The deception of it all was upsetting also in light of her relationship with Boris. John was too sweet to hurt that way. 

I will always always love when authors take their time telling a story. It’s a gift to be able to do this without making the book too long or causing it to lag in places. I didn’t have any fault with the pace of this book. It picks you up and takes you on this lovely, very visual, highly emotional yet gentle ride. I felt all the feels. And the language, the imagery was simply stunning. 

I loved how the two stories converged and then disconnected with only the very smallest tether left at the end. Wonderfully written. 

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

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Memory Keeper of Kyiv

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Erin Litteken

It’s the 1930s and Stalin’s troops have invaded Ukraine and inflicted a man-made famine that claimed millions of lives. Katya is a young girl in a small village affected by the famine. She watches as friends and neighbors disappear until it finally hits closer to home than she ever dreamed. What starts out as something the village hopes will eventually go away if they just yield to government demands turns into a fight to survive as food initially becomes scarce and then non-existent. Through it all, love holds Katya and her family steadfast to themselves and to each other. 

Years later, a young widow named Cassie travels with her daughter to live with her grandmother hoping for a new start. She discovers a journal belonging to her grandmother which takes her on a journey to the past. 

This book broke my heart in a thousand pieces. It was so well written and so beautiful and so sad – I read it in on. 

I’m ashamed to admit that I had no clue the Holodomor ever happened. I knew atrocities were committed under Stalin but I had no clue of the total brutality of it. This was a bit of a history lesson for me and boy, was it hard to read. The choices people had to make and just the total definition of survival was so painful to read. 

My dad lived through WW2 while in Italy under Mussolini. He’s told me stories of how my grandmother and him struggled to survive. They lost their home and if it weren’t for the fact that my grandmother was a master seamstress, they wouldn’t have eaten. Like one of the characters in the book, my dad still doesn’t let food go to waste and will eat anything. As a young girl I used to ask if there was any food he didn’t like and he would say no because he remembers not knowing when he was going to eat next. So part of me was thinking about that knowing the author took from her own family history to build the story. Somehow, we are all a part of our family history and I loved how well this was honored in this story. 

There are two stories being told simultaneously. 

Cassie is still reeling from her husband’s sudden death, as is her daughter. One year into her grief journey and she still struggles with immediate loss, how to cope and move forward and how to help her daughter as she grieves. Her mom suggests she move in with her grandmother, who is beginning to have some dementia-type symptoms. Cassie agrees hoping the change will elevate her from a grieving widow to some sort of functional human being again. 

While there, she find’s Bobby’s (her grandmother) journal. The journal chronicles Bobby’s life in Ukraine starting at the time of Stalin’s invasion. 

The story transport you back in time where we meet young Katia and we learn of the Holodomor. Katya’s story is a story of survival but it’s also a story of love – not the mushy kind of love full of long, slow kisses (although there is that) but the kind of love that’s hard where choices to love and survive make you want to hate those closest to you.  

I fell completely in love with Cassie and Katya. Both women are strong survivors of life’s circumstances. Neither had a choice but to go forward in the best way they knew how. I really loved how Cassie grew and healed as she read Bobby’s journal. I felt like she was forever changed, taking a chance on new love and the idea of life beyond loss. 

Katya’s story was heartbreaking in the extreme. I felt each tear and tear of her heart. Katya is a heroine of the past whose story should not ever be forgotten as though she were more than a fictional character. History tells us this character was based on many such survivors. 

For the beauty of this story, the history behind it and all the emotions this book puts you through, I highly recommend it! So very well done! 

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

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

Posted in Bookish and Bingeable

The Missing Girls of Alardyce House

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Heather Atkinson

This book was…..weird. And not in a good way. 

Amy Osbourne’s parents are lost at sea prompting her to move from London to Edinbugh to live with her aunt and uncle at Alardyce House. The house is depressing and her aunt has mega control issues along with her son, Henry, who is a failed attempt at a broody Mr Darcy only meaner. Amy does get along with her uncle and the other son, Edward. Both men seem amiable and reasonable. Also, for added fun, there’s rumors of a serial killer on the loose with a taste for local, young girls and it would seem, has eyes on Amy for their next victim. 

Intrigued? I sure was. 

Set in Edinburgh in the 1880s, this story spans about 10 years, making both the story and book longer than it should have been. I usually like my stories to start with a jolt and then settle into the story – sort of like an espresso before my coffee kicks in. Unfortunately, there was no espresso and no coffee. Just lots of watered down tea. 

And lots of missed opportunities for trigger warnings. So let me include those here. This book deals with lots of torture, mental illness issues, rape, BDSM and sexual addictions. I’m sure I’m missing a couple. 

If you haven’t guessed it yet, I did not like this book. I’d never heard of this author before but, as this book was labeled as historical fiction and mystery, it never occurred to me there would be so much sex in it. Not a fan at all. Nevertheless, as I skimmed over those very unnecessary scenes, I found this story really wasn’t all that mysterious. 

I gave it two stars for the writing style. The descriptions of the era and time were well done and nicely researched. I didn’t get lost in the language so while it was appropriate for the times, it was easy to read. The book also held a nice pace, for the most part. No lagging or sagging anywhere. 

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD – YE HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

For the characters, I couldn’t really find one with any redeeming qualities. Amy never really grew on me. I had a hard time seeing her as a heroine of any kind. Edward and Matthew turned out to be less than stellar men (and that’s putting it mildly), Lenore was a total witch, Arthur was a wet mop of a man and Henry really was so noodly that I couldn’t believe him at all as a hero. 

Ok, for the story itself, much of it was predictable. Like, the quarterback-letting-everyone-know-the-play-before-he-ever-throws-the-ball predictable. For example, the second Amy mentioned being nervous about getting pregnant, I knew she would wind up pregnant. I also knew who the killer was before the killer was ever revealed so no surprise there. 

What I wasn’t prepared for, outside of the all the sex, was the torture. It went beyond the extremes of human suffering and the level of detail was unnecessary. I had to skim over those parts as well as it was too disturbing. 

As for the storyline itself, I couldn’t really understand what story was being told. The whole idea of a serial killer really was more of a backstory than a major part. Until the killer was revealed, which was half-way through the book, it really was more about Amy and how she was going to escape. So not a lot of mystery at all. 

I also wasn’t a fan of how it ended. I would say more but it’s completely unbelievable to me that it could possibly end on the cliffhanger that it did. Unfortunately, as this was the first in a trilogy, I won’t be reading on to see what actually happens. 

Overall, I felt like this has all the ingredients of great mystery and even a good ghost story but too many triggering elements plus all the sex and torture ruined it for me.

My rating: :star: :star:

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

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

The Last House on the Street

Posted on by Vikki Lynn Sorensen

By: Diane Chamberlain

1965

Growing up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill, North Carolina, Ellie Hockley was raised to be a certain type of proper Southern lady. Enrolled in college and all but engaged to a bank manager, Ellie isn’t as committed to her expected future as her family believes. She’s chosen to spend her summer break as a volunteer helping to register black voters. But as Ellie follows her ideals fighting for the civil rights of the marginalized, her scandalized parents scorn her efforts, and her neighbors reveal their prejudices. And when she loses her heart to a fellow volunteer, Ellie discovers the frightening true nature of the people living in Round Hill.

2010

Architect Kayla Carter and her husband designed a beautiful house for themselves in Round Hill’s new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. It was supposed to be a home where they could raise their three-year-old daughter and grow old together. Instead, it’s the place where Kayla’s husband died in an accident—a fact known to a mysterious woman who warns Kayla against moving in. The woods and lake behind the property are reputed to be haunted, and the new home has been targeted by vandals leaving threatening notes. And Kayla’s neighbor Ellie Hockley is harboring long buried secrets about the dark history of the land where her house was built.

Two women. Two stories. Both on a collision course with the truth–no matter what that truth may bring to light–in Diane Chamberlain’s riveting, powerful novel about the search for justice.

It’s rare when a book stays with me and haunts me. I finished this book almost a week ago and it’s still marinating in my heart. 

Stories like this should be told over and over lest we forget. I’m not a huge fan of books with a political agenda however, this book wasn’t like that at all. It merely educated as I had no clue SCOPE ever existed. 

That aside, I think I found myself more drawn to Ellie’s story than Kayla’s. Kayla’s story was more of a sub-plot to help Ellie’s story reach the very end. I had a more emotional attachment to Ellie in this story also. 

Kayla’s grief was well-written, including her not wanting to live in the house she designed with her husband. I really liked her relationship with her daughter and her dad. It was honest and open. Kayla’s intrepidations over living the new house are well-founded as she begins to receive threatening messages urging her not to move in. There’s a creepy woman who has some aggressive things to say to her also. The all over creepiness of living in a house with mostly windows and a dark forest is threaded through the book and leaves a significant chilling imprint all over Kayla’s story. 

Ellie is a beautiful character from start to finish. She broke my heart over and over again and as her life is shattered, I felt like mine shattered along with her. It’s rare for me to have such a strong reaction. Her story is one of strength, power, dignity and passion. She’s a character so real and so important that I wanted to go find her so I could sit down and have a chat. 

The subject matter is intense and should not be taken lightly, especially in this day and age when racism is still a hot topic. As a white woman, I felt uncomfortable and challenged and broken. 

I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Over and over and all day long. 

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