Tag: shari J Ryan

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: