Action Presidents: Abraham Lincoln~ Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey [@HarperChildrens @fredvanlente]

Action President #2: Abraham Lincoln
Ryan Dunlavey, illustrator
HarperCollins
February 06, 2018
129 pages
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Where the history is real and the jokes are fake!

The second Action Presidents book is just as fun—and funny—as the first. Legendary lumberjack and paramount president Abraham Lincoln practically jumps off the page.

Wimpy Kid meets the Who Was… series in these hilarious new graphic novels from New York Times bestselling comic book author Fred Van Lente and award-winning cartoonist Ryan Dunlavey.

Did you know that Lincoln never went to college, and that he kept important documents in his famous top hat? Even the most reluctant reader won’t be able to put this graphic novel down, and they’ll learn about an American icon along the way.

U.S. history comes to life like never before! Historically accurate and highly entertaining, Action Presidents is perfect for curious minds. With timelines, maps, charts, and more, readers will keep learning until the last page.

The critics agree that the Action Presidents should not be missed. "A delightful, educational spin on history—and plenty of jokes," said School Library Journal of the first book in the series, George Washington. "Sheer joy," praised Booklist in a starred review.

The second installment of the Action Presidents series tells readers the story of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. The book does a great job - starting with the back cover - of letting you know, right away, that it includes information you, likely, do not already know.

The blending of things you probably did not already know about Lincoln - even small things like why he grew a beard - with the more known facts of his presidency with his early career really help readers to assemble a full picture of who Abraham Lincoln was. Both the public, political figure and the man he was in private.

There are smart descriptions of the whys, wheres and hows of not only the start of the Civil War, but its battles, strategies, leaders, victories and defeats (both Union and Confederate). The telling does keep the age of its intended readers in mind but doesn't gloss over things or try to sanitize them - something that seems especially important at present.

Readers, beyond the eight to twelve-year-old range, will like being able to learn more about both President Lincoln and the Civil War in a format other than a more in depth, denser nonfiction book.




Action Presidents #3: Theodore Roosevelt! will be released July 24th





finished copy received from publisher, for review consideration

Action Presidents: George Washington ~ Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey [@HarperChildrens @fredvanlente]

Action Presidents #1: George Washington
Ryan Dunlavey, illustrator
HarperCollins
February 06, 2018
128 pages
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Where the history is real and the jokes are fake!

The first Action Presidents book will turn even the most reluctant reader into a history buff. George Washington, ultimate founding father and awesome American, practically jumps off the page.

We all know that George Washington was our first president and a hero of the American Revolution, but did you also know that he didn’t want to be president and had teeth so bad that he hated to smile?

Wimpy Kid meets the Who Was … series in these hilarious new graphic novels from New York Times bestselling comic book author Fred Van Lente and award-winning cartoonist Ryan Dunlavey.

U.S. history comes to life like never before! Historically accurate and highly entertaining, Action Presidents is perfect for curious minds. With timelines, maps, charts, and more, readers will keep learning until the last page.

This series has the weirdest narrator: a turkey named Noah the Historkey. There is an explanation for his name and why he's off telling these kids about history and the presidents - but it's still odd. Odd that gets your attention and makes the book a bit different, though.

This first Action Presidents has a logical choice for its subject, the first United States President, George Washington. While 'Presidents' is in the title, the book starts with Washington's early life. I will admit to knowing very little about his childhood (other than the infamous - and fictional - story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree). I liked that the book started there and told readers both that it was untrue and how it came to to be.

The book addresses Washington's adolescence,  his time in the Revolution and then as President. There was a good mix of his military life, accomplishments and setbacks and his personal life - his marriage to Martha, how his career impacted their lives, etc.

Action Presidents #1: George Washington will probably appeal more to boys than girls (at least the dysentery jokes) but is a good way to introduce or refresh American History to readers not likely to read it in other forms. (And as a fun way to get toe information, even if you will read/learn it elsewhere.)

I do wish these books had page numbers. It is easier to keep track of where you are in a book or to remember where in the book a bit of information was that you wanted to remember or share with someone.



Action Presidents #2 focuses on Abraham Lincoln . .






finished copy received from publisher, for review consideration

Dread Nation ~ Justina Ireland review [@justinaireland @epicreads @harperteen @BalzerandBray]

Dread Nation (#1)
Balzer + Bray
April 03, 2018
455 pages
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Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

I love alternate history stories . . . butt I get a bit nervous when the thing they make 'alternate' about history is something we can all (or should all) agree was something good/positive/that needed to happen.

In Jane's America, slavery has ended but things are far from equal. The dead have risen, putting a stop to the War Between the Sates and leaving everyone with a whole new danger, a new enemy. TO keep people safe  the Native and Negro Reeducation Act, declares that Jane (and other African American and Native American children) will be trained to kill the dead. To protect white people. As is their place.

Here is the thing about a novel where character think that way (you know, that racial superiority is a thing and that it makes sense): It is a brilliant way of demonstrating the fallacy of that precise way of thinking. It is easy to see the wrongs when a story is set during the time of slavery in the Untied States, but the injustices can be less obvious when set afterwards.

In Dread Nation author Justina Ireland gives readers a time when slavery was gone, but the dichotomy of how whites and blacks (and 'Natives') is nearly as profound. Without technical slavery there as a backdrop, we are able to see (and hear) more of how the characters think, how they justify the inequality (and wow is a lot of it not only horrible, but also out there - which is worse because it wasn't out there to them).

That's not to say, though, that Dread Nation is only about the societal structure of Jane's America and full of sociopolitical lessons on race and equality. (There's also bits about gender, as well.) It is a fresh and unique sort of historical fiction, zombie book. Much as the 'why' was bad, the idea of the combat schools was pretty awesome.  I like that these people were so sure that they were 'superior' that their plan involved training the 'inferior' people in combat. Yeah.

I really loved how thoroughly different, yet still very similar and recognizable this alternate America was to what happened.

The characters are very well written. There are some that you really, really want to get shot or bitten or something, and others that you want to help defend (whether or not they need it). I appreciated how the relationships developed during the book and how we learned more about the characters and their history.

Knowing what I do now of how and where things are in Jane's time and of her past, and being truly invested in the characters, their stories, and their relationships, I very much want to read Book 2 and find out what happens. And how close - or how very far - things may get to real history.

Hamilton & Peggy! ~ L.M. Elliott review [@L_M_Elliott @KatherineTegen ‏@epicreads @KTegenBooks]

Hamilton and Peggy!: A Revolutionary Friendship
Katherine Tegen Books
February 13, 2018
448 pages
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The ebook of Hamilton and Peggy! is currently only $1.99, so hurry up and buy it! (Kindle / Nook)

For fans of the extraordinary Broadway musical Hamilton, New York Times bestselling author L. M. Elliott delivers a richly detailed historical novel about the lively Peggy Schuyler and her devoted friendship to Alexander Hamilton during the drama of the American Revolution.

Revolutionary. Friend. Lover. Sister.

Peggy Schuyler has always felt like she’s existed in the shadows of her beloved sisters: the fiery, intelligent Angelica and the beautiful, sweet Eliza. The three of them have a magnetic pull—they are stronger together than they are alone. But it’s in the throes of a chaotic war that Peggy finds herself a central figure amid Loyalists and Patriots, spies and traitors, and friends and family. Charming, quick-witted, and clever beyond compare, Peggy is determined to use her talents to make her own mark on the Revolutionary War.

When a flirtatious aide-de-camp, Alexander Hamilton, writes an eloquent letter to Peggy asking for her help in wooing the earnest Eliza, Peggy finds herself unable to deny such an impassioned plea. A fast friendship forms between the two, but Alexander is caught in the same war as her father, General Philip Schuyler, and the danger to all their lives is real. Everything is a battlefield—from the front lines to their carefully coded letters—and Peggy must put herself in harm’s way to protect the people she loves. But will her bravery and intelligence be enough to keep them all safe?

It has been far too long since the last time I read a truly captivating historical fiction YA novel - something that Hamilton and Peggy! absolutely was.

Aside from some of those Dear America books I read in middle school, I have read remarkable little about the American Revolution. Most of what I know about it probably from history class and a few TV documentary type shows. It was really interesting and enlightening to read something that showed me the people behind some of those Names I knew factually.

I really, really loved how L.M. Elliott showed us Peggy Schuyler through a modern eye but still in keeping with the time period and what is known about her, her family, the time, etc.

"...Would consider any man "a poor thing," who seeks to entertain and garner the friendship of other men by gossiping and criticizing women." (pg 304)

As her author bio for the book says, this story combined "her passions for research, American history, theater, ad early feminism." Pairing the hopes and desires of Peggy (and several other female characters) with the fight for American independence was very well done; it is a logical pairing.

That the men were working so hard for independence, for freedom and the ability to make their own choices while still subjugating women and owning slaves is confounding, to say the least, when you think about it. But I am happy that the author did not ignore either fact, it really helps you to recognize how frustrated - and later, disappointed - some must have been when 'freedom' was won.

Peggy -and really the entire Schuyler family are people I am sorry I did not previously know more about. Her story and how it fits with that of Alexander Hamilton (whether you know it from the musical or reading or just what was mentioned in school) really beings the Revolution to life.

Hamilton and Peggy! is a fantastic YA historical fiction. The author does a great job using both historical fact and a bit of (reasoned, logical) imagining to allow us to meet Peggy and, through her, learn about some of the less often portrayed elements of the period and the war.








finished copy received, for review consideration, from publisher

The Lost Season of Love & Snow ~ Jennifer Laam (erac) review [@jenlaam @StMartinsPress]

The Lost Season of Love and Snow
St Martin's Griffin
January 02, 2018
352 pages
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The unforgettable story of Alexander Pushkin’s beautiful wife, Natalya, a woman much admired at Court, and how she became reviled as the villain of St. Petersburg.


At the age of sixteen, Natalya Goncharova is stunningly beautiful and intellectually curious. But while she finds joy in French translations and a history of Russian poetry, her family is more concerned with her marriage prospects. It is only fitting that during the Christmas of 1828 at her first public ball in her hometown of Moscow she attracts the romantic attention of Russia’s most lauded rebel poet: Alexander Pushkin.

Enchanted at first sight, Natalya is already a devoted reader of Alexander’s serialized novel in verse, Evgeny Onegin. The most recently published chapter ends in a duel, and she is dying to learn what happens next. Finding herself deeply attracted to Alexander’s intensity and joie de vivre, Natalya hopes to see him again as soon as possible.

What follows is a courtship and later marriage full of equal parts passion and domestic bliss but also destructive jealousies. When vicious court gossip leads to Alexander dying from injuries earned defending his honor as well as Natalya’s in a duel, Natalya finds herself reviled for her alleged role in his death.

With beautiful writing and understanding, Jennifer Laam, and her compelling new novel, The Lost Season of Love and Snow, help Natalya tell her side of the story—the story of her greatest love and her inner struggle to create a fulfilling life despite the dangerous intrigues of a glamorous imperial Court.

The Lost Season of Love and Snow proved to not only be an enjoyable novel but also a wonderful discovery of both a time period and people I knew very little about. Most of what I have read - both fiction and nonfiction - set in Russia took place about a century after Natalya's story. In the early nineteenth century, there was still fear of the  Tsar but so, at least among Natalya and her family's social circles, of appearing seditious.

I did not already know really anything about Pushkin, so seeing him through Natalya's eyes as well as through her family's and society's was both informative and intriguing. The author does a great job with Natalya's character and showing us how much stock is put in her beauty and how much it's depended upon to help her family's future. We also see how Natalya would rather be valued for her mind than her face.

This makes her courtship with Alexander Pushkin both that much more believeable and that much sweeter. I appreciated that the author seemed to hold to what would have been historically relevant - both Pushikin's past associations and his future income potential.

I also loved that we got what seemed like a very real glimpse into society at that time: the balls, the relationships, the Tsar's influence and presence, etc. We see how much of the upper class spoke French (which, side note, I still think the articles in French vs Russian would be tricky) and how flirting (or coquette) was so commonplace. All of this: the balls, playing the coquette, Pushkin's past, his current/future writings, and how women were viewed at the time are crucial parts of Alexander and Natalya's story.

Author Jennifer Laam does a brilliant job giving us a story that is true to it's historical setting and that mindset while viewing her characters (particularly Natalya)  and their words and actions with a modern eye. It was truly a pleasure to discover more about Russia in the nineteenth century and Alexander Pushikin but even more so his romance with Natalya, their life together, and how the time viewed her and where or how that might not be accurate. I really look forward to reading more of Laam's work.





digital review copy received from publisher via NetGalley

The Breathless ~ Tara Goedjen (earc) review [@TaraGoedjen @DelacortePress]

The Breathless
Delacorte Press
October 10, 2017
368 pages
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No one knows what really happened on the beach where Roxanne Cole’s body was found, but her boyfriend, Cage, took off that night and hasn’t been seen since. Until now. One year—almost to the day—from Ro’s death, when he knocks on the door of Blue Gate Manor and asks where she is.

Cage has no memory of the past twelve months. According to him, Ro was alive only the day before. Ro’s sister Mae wouldn’t believe him, except that something’s not right. Nothing’s been right in the house since Ro died.

And then Mae finds the little green book. The one hidden in Ro’s room. It’s filled with secrets—dangerous secrets—about her family, and about Ro. And if what it says is true, then maybe, just maybe, Ro isn’t lost forever.

And maybe there are secrets better left to the dead.

The Breathless is a YA, paranormal, Southern Gothic but what sets it apart from from other paranormal, YA, Southern Gothics is its setting, the characters and their history. I loved that it was set in Alabama, along the Gulf Coast as most seem set in Louisiana or the Carolinas and the addition of the proximity of the water played an important role in the story.

Parts of the novel are set in the mid-nineteenth century giving us a glimpse into the past of Blue Gate, the once grand but now crumbling home of Mae and her family. It was both different and enjoyable that, despite it being the nineteenth century in the Southern United Sates, this story didn't involve slavery. It also gave us a fresh portrayal of magic and how it came into the characters' lives. (If I really think about it, I'm not sure how that family didn't have some kind of help, paid or otherwise but , oh well.)

We have a mystery in not only Ro's death - what happened, how it happened, who's to blame, why - but in where Cage has been for the past year. The questions around Cage's reappearance, where he's been, why he was gone - and why he doesn't seem to know Ro is dead - add an extra layer of intrigue and uncertainty to the story.

I really liked how Mae had to try to figure out if Cage could be trusted, to find out what happened to her sister, to understand the green book and her family's history all while still grieving. It impacts her decisions, how other characters are behaving or would react and why seems 'right.'

The Breathless had an original setting and origins of both the characters and paranormal elements and the mystery was well done and surprising at times. When the book was finished, though, there were a few things left unexplained (Some that could be inferred, maybe, from things said in story but some I just don't know about.). I wish we'd been given more explanation about these things or, if there were answers, that they'd been more prominent.

I am still puzzling out a few things but this was a fun, original read and I would like to read more from Tara Goedjen.







digital copy received for review from publisher, via NetGalley

The Stolen Marriage ~ Diane Chamberlain (earc) review [@StMartinsPress @D_Chamberlain]

The Stolen Marriage
St Martin's Press
October 03, 2017
384 pages
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From perennial bestseller Diane Chamberlain, a compelling new novel

In 1944, twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life when she marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina, a small town struggling with racial tension and the hardships imposed by World War II. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night, hides money from his new wife, and shows no interest in making love. Tess quickly realizes she’s trapped in a strange and loveless marriage with no way out.

The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain, especially after one of the town’s prominent citizens dies in a terrible accident and Tess is blamed. Tess suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not? Feeling alone and adrift, Tess turns to the one person who seems to understand her, a local medium who gives her hope but seems to know more than he’s letting on.

When a sudden polio epidemic strikes the town, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in nursing the young victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behavior and save her own life?

I don't think I have changed my mind about characters o much (both in frequency and degree) in any other book as I did in The Stolen Marriage. There were characters I thought were innocent and sweet, then they would do or say something and I would realize they were a bit more hardened. Or, characters that seemed horrible would prove they had a heart. I really enjoyed getting such a full picture of the characters, and of their character.

The Stolen Marriage is about a time in American history about which much has been written - both fiction and fact - but includes things that have not been written about so heavily. I knew a tiny bit about polio and approximately when it was such an issue but this novel does a fantastic job putting all of the elements of the time together: the polio epidemics, World War II, issues of race and religion. Seeing everything within the context of the time period (and the North Carolina setting) really made it feel more real and helped you relate to the characters.

I really liked the way Tess's personal beliefs and her views on current, social issues were presented. Not because I always liked what she thought or how she felt about things but because it all seemed a very good representation of where and how she was brought up. I appreciated that the author did not make her someone affected by our hindsight. She was a young, Italian nursing student from Baltimore in the 1940's and the book was better for the fact that she fit within that time period but we also got to see her grow and her world view evolve.

Diane Chamberlain's The Stolen Marriage is an enjoyable historical fiction, about something within the World War II era that doesn't feature so often in fiction: the polo epidemic. The characters seem very true of the time period, they change and grow and everything from their relationships to their secrets play a part in everything coming together.

(Was Tess supposed to make me think of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by the way? Or rid it make anyone else think of her/the book?)








digital copy received from publisher for review

Sparks of Light ~ Janet B Taylor (earc) review ]@HMHKids @Janet_B_Taylor]

Sparks of Light (Into the Dim #2)
Houghton Mifflin
August 01, 2017
448 pages
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For the first time in her life, Hope Walton has friends . . . and a (maybe) boyfriend. She’s a Viator, a member of a long line of time-traveling ancestors. When the Viators learn of a plan to steal a dangerous device from the inventor Nikola Tesla, only a race into the past can save the natural timeline from utter destruction. Navigating the glitterati of The Gilded Age in 1895 New York City, Hope and her crew will discover that high society can be as deadly as it is beautiful.

There is not a lot of recapping of Into the Dim in this second book, Sparks of Light, so if you have either not read that book or largely forgotten it, you may feel a bit left out at certain points. Of course, the larger, more major parts of Into th Dim we are reminded of simply by who is or is not present when Sparks of Light beings and what we thn learn of their current location or state. Though there were a few things I wanted to go back to Into the Dim and refresh myself on, I liked the focus on the now.

I liked that each book, so far, at least, seems more self contained. Yes, you will be spoiled for some parts of Into the Dim if you read Sparks of Light first (some pretty big things so I really don't recommend it) but it's still possible.

I appreciated that in this book, Hope is familiar with the Viators, with the Dim, how it works and its limitations. There is both their immediate plan and worry, in 1895 New York City with Tesla, but also a larger, overreaching goal. The author does a great job focusing very much on the here and now (whenever that may be), with great attention to detail and historical fact and accuracy but simultaneously making it all a part of a larger whole. This is true of both the Viators characters and for history and what's supposed to happen.

I loved that gender, race and class played into the time travelling and what they encountered or experienced.  Paired with Hope's memory and her knowledge of the time, it felt like a very true representation of the period. It is also extra enjoyable that it isn't simply: go back in time, say this to this person, don't do this and then come home. Their plans are often foiled, inadvertently or purposefully or both and it makes for a bit more excitement and danger.

This series does a great job of giving us fun, thrilling and often dangerous time travel adventures, fantastic character relationships and accomplishing one, isolated mission somehwere in time while also having something larger they're still working towards in the present. This is a series where I would gladly read several more installments.









digital review copy received from publisher via NetGalley

The Library of Light & Shadow ~ M.J. Rose (earc) review [@mjrose @AtriaBooks]

The Library of Light and Shadow (Daughters of La Lune #3)
Atria Books
July 18, 2017
384 pages
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In this riveting and richly drawn novel from “one of the master storytellers of historical fiction” (New York Times bestseller Beatriz Williams), a talented young artist flees New York for Paris after one of her scandalous drawings reveals a dark secret—and triggers a terrible tragedy.

In the wake of a dark and brutal World War, the glitz and glamour of 1925 Manhattan shine like a beacon for the high society set, which is desperate to keep their gaze firmly fixed to the future. But Delphine Duplessi sees more than most. At a time in her career when she could easily be unknown and penniless, like so many of her classmates from L’École de Beaux Arts, in America she has gained notoriety for her stunning “shadow portraits” that frequently expose her subjects’ most scandalous secrets—for better or for worse. Most nights Delphine doesn’t mind that her gift has become mere entertainment—a party trick—for the fashionable crowd. Though her ancestor La Lune, the legendary sixteenth-century courtesan and—like Delphine—a witch, might have thought differently.

Then, on a snowy night in February, in a penthouse high above Fifth Avenue, Delphine’s mystical talent leads to a tragedy between two brothers. Horrified, she renounces her gift.

Devastated and disconsolate, Delphine returns to her old life in the south of France where Picasso, Matisse, and the Fitzgeralds are summering. There, Delphine is thrust into recapturing the past. First by her charismatic twin brother and business manager Sebastian in his attempts to cajole her back to work and into co-dependence, then by the world famous opera singer Emma Calvé, who is obsessed with the centuries-old Book of Abraham, written by the fourteenth-century alchemist Nicolas Flamel. And finally by her ex-lover Mathieu, who is determined to lure her back into his arms, unaware of the danger that had led Delphine to flee Paris for New York five years before.

Trapped in an ancient chateau where hidden knowledge lurks in the shadows, Delphine questions and in many ways rejects what and who she loves the most—her art, her magick, her family, her brother, and Mathieu—as she tries to finally accept them as the gifts they are and to shed her fear of loving and living with her eyes wide open.

The Library of Light and Shadow is the third Daughters of La Lune novel, following The Witch of Painted Sorrows and The Secret Language of Stones. The books do not need to be read in order, but I definitely recommend reading, at least, the first book, The Witch of Painted Sorrows first; it is where everything started and introduces readers - and the characters - to La Lune and what being one of her descendants means. I did notice that, beyond that, M.J. Rose seemed careful not to include things in The Library of Light and Shadow that was spoilery for The Secret Language of Stones.

As much as I wanted to know more about those characters, now that several years have passed, I also liked that you could read that second book after reading this one, the third. (Opaline's story was fantastic and should be read, before or after Delphine's.)

I loved that this story took place both in France and in New York. It was a nice echo of that first book, with Sandrine. With the story taking place in 1925, but Delphine's sort-of diary giving us a window into five years earlier, we start with the after effect of something and get to see ohw deeply it's impacted her life, before really seeing what happened. Or what came before and thus why it affected her so.

I loved that this book does show us more of Delphine's family's life - both pieces of their childhood and now, in the present, than either of the first two books did. It not only felt like a nice epilogue of sorts to Sandrine's story but really connected teh characters form all three books that much more.

There was one element, in regards to a character and what they were really about, that was hinted at in quite a heavy handed way. It didn't 'ruin' anything so much as it left me qondering why other characters weren't catching on, as well.

I really loved how some characters we might have met, albeit (usually) briefly, in the first two Daughters of La Lune novels played more of role here and how their past and/or relationships were also a part of the story or how Delphine interacted with them.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Library of Light and Shadow and seeing even more of what being a Daughter of La Lune means and getting to know more of the women (and to better know the men, too) in this family. It is a wonderful mystery, a great romance and a wonderful piece of historical fiction.

Now there has to be a fourth book about the youngest Duplessi sister, Jadine - there has to be. (And those mentions of Victor Hugo have me really wanting to read the author's Seduction.)








digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

The Disappearances ~ Emily Bain Murphy (earc) review [@HMHKids @ebain]

The Disappearances
HMH Books for Young Readers
July 04, 2017
400 pages
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What if the ordinary things in life suddenly…disappeared?

Aila Quinn’s mother, Juliet, has always been a mystery: vibrant yet guarded, she keeps her secrets beyond Aila’s reach. When Juliet dies, Aila and her younger brother Miles are sent to live in Sterling, a rural town far from home--and the place where Juliet grew up.

Sterling is a place with mysteries of its own. A place where the experiences that weave life together--scents of flowers and food, reflections from mirrors and lakes, even the ability to dream--vanish every seven years.

No one knows what caused these “Disappearances,” or what will slip away next. But Sterling always suspected that Juliet Quinn was somehow responsible--and Aila must bear the brunt of their blame while she follows the chain of literary clues her mother left behind.

As the next Disappearance nears, Aila begins to unravel the dual mystery of why the Disappearances happen and who her mother truly was. One thing is clear: Sterling isn’t going to hold on to anyone's secrets for long before it starts giving them up.

The Disappearances was much more of a fantasy than I was (for reasons that make no sense) expecting. Author Emily Bain Murphy had a fantastic premise with Sterling's "Disappearances" but it was how well thought out everything was that really made for a fantastic story.

The novel is set in the early 1940's and that added stressor - the danger, risk of injury or death and uncertainty - not only gives a plausible reason for Aila and Miles to move to Sterling but is something always on Ail'a mind.

The lack of technology also fits the world, Sterling, the Disappearances, who does or doesn't know about them, and the rumors that spread. It is easier to see Sterling as an isolated town and to have Aila more removed from her life back home.

I liked that the Disappearances were a bit of a known entity to those in Sterling, but that they also did not have all of the answers. All of their suppositions and theories and how they involve Juliet and pull Aila into the unknowns of her mother's past, made for a great mystery. It was both a young girl wanting ot find out about the parts of her recently deceased mother (and her mother's past) that she was previously unaware of, but more, too because it was also about solving a mystery.

The literary connections Aila tries to find, the possible clues and links were all very imaginative while also making perfect sense. You can understand both how she's able to find potential answers and how others could have failed to do so.

The Disappearances is a great mystery set at just the right time of real history, with a wonderfully imaginative fantasy world and lovely characters.







digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

Blacksouls ~ Nicole Castroman (earc) review [@nicolecastroman @Simonteen]

Blacksouls (Blackheart #2)
Simon Pulse
April 11, 2017
400 pages
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Nicole Castroman brings the dangerous pirate ports of the Caribbean to life in this vibrant sequel to Blackhearts—the reimagined origin story of history’s most infamous pirate, Blackbeard.

Edward “Teach” Drummond is setting sail to the Caribbean as first mate on the most celebrated merchant ship in the British fleet—until he rebels against his captain. Mutiny is a capital offense and Teach knows it could cost him his life, but he believes it worth the risk in order to save his crew from the attacking Spanish ships.

Sailing on the same blue waters, Anne barely avoids the Spanish attack, making it safely to Nassau. But lawless criminals, corrupt politics, and dangerous intentions fill the crowded streets of this Caribbean port. Soon, Anne discovers that the man entrusted to keep the peace is quite possibly the most treacherous of them all—and he just happens to hold Teach’s fate in his terrifying hands.

Life and death hang in the balance when Teach and Anne are given a dangerous mission. It’s a mission that will test their love, loyalty and devotion, forcing them down a path neither one could have ever imagined.

After the ending of Blackheartsyou knew it was not going to be a Happily Ever After for Teach and Anne - at least not an easy one. Even when things started to look up, like they were going more positively for the two something else would happen (or be looming over them with the possibility of happening) that I started to despair at them ever not being separated.

Nicole Castroman does a fantastic job giving readers a glimpse at life in Nassau and aboard different kinds of ship in the late 17th, early 18th century. It seemed that here was greater attention (versus in Blackhearts) given to Anne's place in a white world (with a Caribbean mother and white father). Slavery and slavers are more present and a part of this book. We can see how slavery affects Anne both emotionally and mentally but also in how others view her. It is more that Anne and Teach have to contend with and a smart inclusion.

Even if you think you know Blackbeard and can guess where things are going, how something will happen or even what will happen, Blacksouls will surprise you. Everything fit incredibly well with the time period and location, even with some of what we know historically, while also being unpredictable and surprising. Castroman takes a more modern approach to who Blackbeard might have been - and why. It makes for a great read.

I loved Anne even more in this book than the first. She is strong and smart, she loves Teach, she doesn't quite seem to fit in and is looking for somewhere she does. I liked that we (and she) got to see more of the world and a look at her place in it.

The new characters we meet in Blacksouls were all great additions to the story - even those who were amazingly not great people - and I enjoyed the roles they played in the characters lives. (Along with the possibilities they presented for the future, both within the book and after the story ended.)

Blackhearts and Blacksouls were everything I wanted this 'origin pirate story' to be but so, so much more. The characters are smart the attention given to the time period, views on race in both England and the Caribbean (and slavery), and how women were viewed and treated is fantastic. This is a great romance that builds through the tow books - and that faces more than a few hardships. The Blackhearts books are a must read.








digital copy received for review from publisher via NetGalley

Beyond the Wild River ~ Sarah Maine (earc) review [@SarahMaineBooks @AtriaBooks]

Beyond the Wild River
Atria Books
April 18, 2017
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For fans of Kate Morton and Beatriz Williams, a highly atmospheric and suspenseful historical novel, set in the 1890s about a Scottish heiress who unexpectedly encounters her childhood friend in North America, five years after he disappeared from her family’s estate the night of a double murder.

Nineteen-year-old Evelyn Ballantyre has rarely strayed from her family’s estate in the Scottish Borderlands, save for the occasional trip to Edinburgh, where her father, a respected magistrate, conducts his business—and affairs of another kind. Evelyn has always done her duty as a daughter, hiding her boredom and resentment behind good manners—so when an innocent friendship with a servant is misinterpreted by her father as an illicit union, Evelyn is appalled.

Yet the consequence is a welcome one: she is to accompany her father on a trip to North America, where they’ll visit New York City, the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and conclude with a fishing expedition on the Nipigon River in Canada. Now is her chance to escape her cloistered life, see the world, and reconnect with her father.

Once they’re on the Nipigon, however, Evelyn is shocked to discover that their guide is James Douglas, the former stable hand and her one-time friend who disappeared from the estate after the shootings of a poacher and a gamekeeper. Many had assumed that James had been responsible, but Evelyn never could believe it. Now, in the wilds of a new world, far from the constraints of polite society, the truth about that day, James, and her father will be revealed…to stunning consequences.

Beyond the Wild River did not pull me in as much or as quickly as I was hoping, despite being set in both a great time and great places.  The story is set in 1893, in both Chicago at the World's Fair and later in Canada on the Nipigon River. Events that happened five years earlier at the Ballantyre estate in Scotland are alluded to and sometimes glimpsed and play an crucial role in the characters' modern day.

Not knowing just exactly what happened in Scotland, what was said or not said about it, and who believed what does help give the story some mystery. Yet, it also made it harder for me to relate to the characters. For most of the book, I had trouble really knowing who they were, why they were certain ways. It both worked that we did not get a full accounting for the events in 1888 and their aftermath, and did not work.

The last third or so of the novel, when both characters and readers are more aware of the truth (and the lies and half truths that were substituted) was the most compelling and engrossing. It was then that I really felt for the characters, understood better who they were, and felt more invested in what happened to them.

The 'current' setting, both Chicago and  where the fishing expedition takes the characters, was very well portrayed. The author did a great job capturing the changes that were impacting each locale and its people. The inclusion of how the development and the industry were changing both the physical landscape and the native peoples was fantastic. I liked, as well, that it addressed where women were in society while keeping it all a part of the story.

I love that author Sarah Maine takes places or times that I thought I was (at least somewhat) familiar with and shows me a new angle, a new perspective, a new setting. I do look forward to more from her.






digital review copy received, via NetGalley, thanks to publisher

The Wtichfinder's Sister ~ Beth Underdown (earc) review [@bethunderdown ‏@penguinrandom]

The Witchfinder's Sister
Ballantine Books
April 25, 2017
304 pages
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'VIVID AND TERRIFYING' Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

The number of women my brother Matthew killed, so far as I can reckon it, is one hundred and six...

1645. When Alice Hopkins' husband dies in a tragic accident, she returns to the small Essex town of Manningtree, where her brother Matthew still lives.

But home is no longer a place of safety. Matthew has changed, and there are rumours spreading through the town: whispers of witchcraft, and of a great book, in which he is gathering women's names.

To what lengths will Matthew's obsession drive him?
And what choice will Alice make, when she finds herself at the very heart of his plan?



'A richly told and utterly compelling tale, with shades of Hilary Mantel' Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat

'Anyone who liked Cecilia Ekback's Wolf Winter is going to love this' Natasha Pulley, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

'Beth Underdown grips us from the outset and won't let go...at once a feminist parable and an old-fashioned, check-twice-under-the-bed thriller' Patrick Gale, author of Notes from an Exhibition

'A tense, surprising and elegantly-crafted novel' Ian McGuire, author of The North Water

'Beth Underdown cleverly creates a compelling atmosphere of dread and claustrophobia... Even from the distance of nearly four hundred years, her Matthew Hopkins is a genuinely frightening monster' Kate Riordan

The Witchfinder's Sister is different than other novels about witch hunts or witch trials from the very beginning: rather than being about the accused or the accuser, it's character is the sister of the man to whom people take all of those accusations. It offers a different perspective than other books I have read focused on similar events and also allows readers and outside view of those who are accused or making the accusations. It's at once both more objective and that much more personal.

We see how Alice and Matthew's relationship was when they were children - how they were with each other, how other's treated him - and know that relationship is now very strained, without at first having a the full reason why. Knowing both how they were and how they are let's us infer more about both of them while also adding an element of uncertainty, maybe even danger, to Alice's tale.

This novel does an excellent job portraying of what little concern women - especially those who were not your mother or your wife - were to men at the time. Through the different accusations made against women, most especially when we learn what they're for and the circumstances around which they came to be - as well as how people react, what they'll believe, if they care even if they don't, etc we really get the bigger picture, too.

You can understand much more, after reading The Witchfinder's Sister, how so many women came to be accused of witchcraft, why other women were often their accusers and how things could spread so quickly. Having Matthew at the center of things, and viewed through his sister Alice, suggests some possible reasons (historically accurate or not) why someone would help fan these fears and doubts. You can see why people didn't try to calm things, why there was the hysteria.

I would not have assumed this was Beth Underdown's debut novel; it is well researched with fantastic characters. The characters and the historical setting work together to give us a tale both fitting within the period but with great modern day relevance. I am very much looking forward to more from this author.








digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

Duels & Deception ~ Cindy Anstey (earc) review [@CindyAnstey @SwoonReads]

Duels and Deception
Swoon Reads
April 11, 2017
368 pages
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Miss Lydia Whitfield, heiress to the family fortune, has her future entirely planned out. She will run the family estate until she marries the man of her late father's choosing, and then she will spend the rest of her days as a devoted wife. Confident in those arrangements, Lydia has tasked her young law clerk, Mr. Robert Newton, to begin drawing up the marriage contracts. Everything is going according to plan.

Until Lydia—and Robert along with her—is kidnapped. Someone is after her fortune and won't hesitate to destroy her reputation to get it. With Robert's help, Lydia strives to keep her family's good name intact and expose whoever is behind the devious plot. But as their investigation delves deeper and their affections for each other grow, Lydia starts to wonder whether her carefully planned future is in fact what she truly wants…

Duels and Deception is written by Cindy Anstey, author of last year's Love, Lies and Spies. Though the new novel is also a Regency romance, it does not overlap with the characters of Love, Lies and Spies or their lives. While I wouldn't have disliked seeing those characters again, I also liked that this was a wholly separate tale. It allows this to really be about Lydia, her family, Robert, his life and how it all intersects.

There is definitely still that wit, charm and humor that I loved in Anstey's first novel and I couldn't have been happier about that. There were whole passages I highlighted because the interaction between the characters, the way the societal norms were taken and (while still mattering greatly) spun on their heads a bit for humor. These characters absolutely felt the need to abide by what was expected, proper and decent but also managed to be completely not what you would expect from someone being proper decent or as expected.

At times it was a bit difficult to see that bigger picture that everything was a part of; it seemed like vents weren't always part of some larger plot but more just happening. It was all a part of some bigger, overall story, however. I liked that you could get so involved in what was currently happening that you forgot where it played in the grand scheme of things.

I enjoyed that details about Regency life, about what was expected of the different classes and genders, and how things worked were included and a part of the story. It not only lent a more realistic air to things but was great fun (and interesting).

The romance(s) in Duels and Deception are fantastic with the right amounts of chemistry, frustration (in regards to the era and how things must take place but also the different characters' involvements), humor and charm. It all makes for a superb read and I am absolutely, completely, one hundred percect looking forward to Cindy Anstey's next novel, 2018's Suitors and Sabotage.










digital copy received for review, from publisher, via NetGalley

Bad Blood ~ Demitria Lunetta ((earc) review [@demitrialunetta @DelacortePress]

Bad Blood
Delacorte Press
March 14, 2017
272 pages
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A girl discovers a family secret and a past full of magic that could both save her and put her in mortal danger in this suspenseful novel that’s perfect for fans of Katie Alender and Natasha Preston.

All sixteen-year-old Heather MacNair wants is to feel normal, to shed the intense paranoia she’s worn all year like a scratchy sweater. After her compulsion to self-harm came to light, Heather was kept under her doctor’s watchful eye. Her family thinks she’s better—and there’s nothing she wants more than for that to be true. She still can’t believe she’s allowed to spend her summer vacation as she always does: at her aunt’s home in Scotland, where she has lots of happy memories. Far away from all her problems save one: she can’t stop carving the Celtic knot that haunts her dreams into her skin.

Good friends and boys with Scottish accents can cure almost anything…except nightmares. Heather can’t stop dreaming about two sisters from centuries ago, twins Prudence and Primrose, who somehow seem tied to her own life. Their presence lurks just beneath the surface of her consciousness, sending ripples through what should be a peaceful summer. The twins might hold the key to putting Heather’s soul at rest…or they could slice her future deeper than any knife.

The premise of Bad Blood and all that goes into it is a lot of fun and very intriguing. The main character, Heather, feels a compulsion to cut herself (there maybe should be a warning on this for those who self-harm; it isn't glossed over or portrayed abstractly), even after her stay in Great Lakes Wellness Center. It's something she can sometimes control, but not always - nor does she always wish to do so. There may be a more supernatural element to what she does - or at least why - though.

Adding in her trip to Scotland, the things afflicting her aunt and grandmother, and her nightmares about two twin sisters, Prudence and Primrose, who lived and died centuries ago and it is a very original tale.

I loved that the book really felt set in Scotland. We didn't have characters waxing poetic about the beauty of the land, so it wasn't overdone but it also didn't feel written by someone who'd only researched Scotland. Heather spends her summers in Edinburgh and you feel that she really knows the city.

That we are able to experience things from both Prudence and Primrose's points of view gives readers a better understanding of who the sisters were and what their relationship was like, which only makes some of the latter revelations better. (Or harder/more painful, I suppose.)

By the end, I didn't feel that we knew Heather as well as I would have liked. Her love of filmmaking and who she was beyond the dreams, the compulsions and the paranoia seemed somewhat ignored. As the book was so focused on the here and now, on the immediacy of the threat(s), I didn't mind much but would have liked to know her better.  Her personality does shine through in her talks with her parents, especially. We do learn some great things about her friends and they're a lot of fun.

Bad Blood is a fun, enticing read full of magic, family, Scotland, and history and I recommend it.





digital copy received, for review, thanks to publisher via NetGalley

The Hollywood Daughter ~ Kate Alcott (earc) review [@doubledaybooks]

The Hollywood Daughter
Doubleday Books
March 07, 2017
320 pages
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From the New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker and A Touch of Stardust, comes a Hollywood coming-of-age novel, in which Ingrid Bergman's affair with Roberto Rossellini forces her biggest fan to reconsider everything she was raised to believe

In 1950, Ingrid Bergman - already a major star after movies like Casablanca and Joan of Arc - has a baby out of wedlock with her Italian lover, film director Roberto Rossellini. Previously held up as an icon of purity, Bergman's fall shocked her legions of American fans.

Growing up in Hollywood, Jessica Malloy watches as her PR executive father helps make Ingrid a star at Selznick Studio. Over years of fleeting interactions with the actress, Jesse comes to idolize Ingrid, who she considered not only the epitome of elegance and integrity, but also the picture-perfect mother, an area where her own difficult mom falls short.

In a heated era of McCarthyism and extreme censorship, Ingrid's affair sets off an international scandal that robs seventeen-year-old Jesse of her childhood hero. When the stress placed on Jesse's father begins to reveal hidden truths about the Malloy family, Jesse's eyes are opened to the complex realities of life and love.

Beautifully written and deeply moving, The Hollywood Daughter is an intimate novel of self-discovery that evokes a Hollywood sparkling with glamour and vivid drama.

The Hollywood Daughter is a fantastic example of storytelling. Kate Alcott uses individuals (and their stories) to tell a/the story that is broader end more far reaching than that of the individual. The 1940's and 50's were a turbulent time in Hollywood and in the United States, from World War II to the influence of the Catholic Church and censors to McCarthyism,

Those are things that most of us are aware of, at least on a surface level but this novel lets readers to see things on a more human level. They were things I knew of but I never really examined for how much the could mean for one person or for one family's life. The Hollywood Daughter really allows readers to personalize some large, known if not really understood events in the history of the country and of Hollywood.

Ingrid Bergman's story and the way pubic attitudes and perceptions towards her mirrored what the county st large was grappling with frame the story well. It is a book about Bergman and Jesse's relationship with her, but so much more as well.  You do learn about Bergman, her life and career but it is't only about her.

The Hollywood Daughter is a great rad about a dramatic time in Hollywood an din America. I loved that this book was not as much about Ingrid Bergman as much as it was about who and what she represented to people and how that changed over time. Using both Ingrid Bergman and Jesse, the journey they each take, their growth, loss, grief, trial, tribulations and successes is a smart choice and makes for a more layered, thoughtful tale.

digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

The Second Mrs Hockaday ~ Susan Rivers (earc) review [@AlgonquinBooks]

The Second Mrs. Hockaday
Algonquin Books
January 10, 2017
272 pages
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“All I had known for certain when I came around the hen house that first evening in July and saw my husband trudging into the yard after lifetimes spent away from us, a borrowed bag in his hand and the shadow of grief on his face, was that he had to be protected at all costs from knowing what had happened in his absence. I did not believe he could survive it.”

When Major Gryffth Hockaday is called to the front lines of the Civil War, his new bride is left to care for her husband’s three-hundred-acre farm and infant son. Placidia, a mere teenager herself living far from her family and completely unprepared to run a farm or raise a child, must endure the darkest days of the war on her own. By the time Major Hockaday returns two years later, Placidia is bound for jail, accused of having borne a child in his absence and murdering it. What really transpired in the two years he was away?

Inspired by a true incident, this saga conjures the era with uncanny immediacy. Amid the desperation of wartime, Placidia sees the social order of her Southern homeland unravel as her views on race and family are transformed. A love story, a story of racial divide, and a story of the South as it fell in the war, The Second Mrs. Hockaday reveals how that generation--and the next--began to see their world anew.

I loved that The Second Mrs. Hockaday wasn't told in the normal, chronological order. We begin at what feels like an ending (not the ending, but an ending nonetheless), only to then go back to the beginning through Placidia's correspondence with a relative. We see how she and Major Hockaday met, their fast courtship and marriage and the new life she finds herself in, alone.

With her husband off at war, there is much for Placidia to do: responsible for a whole farm, a young stepson and all without any sort of transition period We get a glimpse into how Placidia - and other women like her - faced dangers different from those of armies and war, but no less real.

The author does a great job giving readers a look at how life could be difficult for those in the South while also giving us a main character who's more than ready for the war to be over and has no delusions that the world is about to be very different.

Through focusing on Placidia's life during the civil war, the circumstances of her marriage and separation from her husband, managing the Holland Creek farm and those working it, and who she is (and is not) able to rely on, we also get a broader picture of life at the time. We see who did and did not go to the war and why those that did not didn't and we see how different people view what is happening and what's likely to happen. It shows much about them and their charcter.

Though we go back to when Major Hockaday and Placidia met and move forward from there, it is not a straight line back to where we began the book. Just when it seems that we are on the verge of getting the answers Placidia has been so careful to conceal, we move to a different time. We're able to see the aftermath of things and then see how other characters deal with the news before working back to things. It is a way of telling the story that not only keeps you in a bit of suspense but draws you more closely in to the characters, their relationships and emotions than if the story had just been told straight through beginning to end.

The Second Mrs Hockaday is Susan Rivers' first novel and its writing, characters and story have me looking forward to what she writes next.







review copy received, via NetGalley, thanks to publisher

The Secret Horses of Briar Hill ~ Megan Shepherd (earc) review [@DelacortePress @megan_shepherd]

The Secret Horses of Briar Hill
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
October 11, 2016
240 pages
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There are winged horses that live in the mirrors of Briar Hill hospital. In the mirrors that line its grand hallways, which once belonged to a princess. In those that reflect the elegant rooms, now filled with sick children. It is her secret.

One morning, when Emmaline climbs over the wall of the hospital’s abandoned gardens, she discovers something incredible: a white horse with broken wings has left the mirror-world and entered her own.

Tucked into the garden’s once-gleaming sundial, Emmaline finds a letter from the Horse Lord. He is hiding the wounded white horse, named Foxfire, from a dark and sinister force—a Black Horse who hunts by colorless moonlight. If Emmaline is to keep the Black Horse from finding her new friend, she must collect colorful objects with which to blind him. But where can Emmaline find color when her world is filled with gray?

In her author's note at the end of the book, Megan Shepherd mentions books like The Secret Garden, "which combined reality with dreams, history with fantasy, darkness with heart, and,  most of all, contained true magic." It is what she has created with The Secret Horses of Briar Hill.

Emmaline, Briar Hill hospital, the other children, the nuns, Thomas, and the World War II setting combine to form this magical, fantastical, but also realistic and identifiable world. The winged horses Emmaline sees in the hospital's mirrors are that final bit of (perfect) magic.

The book has enough basis in fact - with the children at a remote mansion turned into a hospital during the war - that it's recognizable and something you can identify with. I loved Emmaline's character from her love of horses (those in the real world and those in the mirror world), how she couldn't be contained by the Sister's rules and the house but needed the outdoors, even with the danger that posed, but most of all I loved her heart. Her love for Anna, her belief in the horses, even if no one else believes, and her refusal to give up or give in make her a truly endearing character.

I love the way that magic and fantasy blend with reality and fact - and that it is not always clear where, or even if, there is a line between the two. The juxtaposition of wartime Britain with its air raids and gas masks with Emmaline's winged horses in the mirrors, of the gray with rainbows of color was brilliantly done.

The Secret Horses of Briar Hill is another wonderfully written book by Megan Shepherd full of real magic, heartfelt characters and a world you won't forget.







digital review copy received, via NetGalley, thanks to publisher

Cloud and Wallfish ~ Anne Nesbet (earc) review [@annenesbet @Candlewick]

Cloud and Wallfish
Candlewick Press
October 04, 2016
400 pages
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Slip behind the Iron Curtain into a world of smoke, secrets, and lies in this stunning novel where someone is always listening and nothing is as it seems.


Noah Keller has a pretty normal life, until one wild afternoon when his parents pick him up from school and head straight for the airport, telling him on the ride that his name isn’t really Noah and he didn’t really just turn eleven in March. And he can’t even ask them why — not because of his Astonishing Stutter, but because asking questions is against the newly instated rules. (Rule Number Two: Don’t talk about serious things indoors, because Rule Number One: They will always be listening). As Noah—now "Jonah Brown"—and his parents head behind the Iron Curtain into East Berlin, the rules and secrets begin to pile up so quickly that he can hardly keep track of the questions bubbling up inside him: Who, exactly, is listening — and why? When did his mother become fluent in so many languages? And what really happened to the parents of his only friend, Cloud-Claudia, the lonely girl who lives downstairs? In an intricately plotted novel full of espionage and intrigue, friendship and family, Anne Nesbet cracks history wide open and gets right to the heart of what it feels like to be an outsider in a world that’s impossible to understand.

I don't think I realized how little I knew about the Iron Curtain, East and West Berlin before reading Anne Nesbet's Cloud and Wallfish. I have read a couple of other books set in or around there but I think they focused more on the characters than where or how they lived.  I had not, before, gogten such a full look at, in particular, life in East Berlin.

Cloud and Wallfish is a Middle Grade book but one that absolutely should appeal to older readers, as well. Noah is the ideal main character for this story. The perspective that his age gives him  - along with the facts he is or is not aware of, what he knows of history and how he sees people and the world around him is perfect for the story. He and his character are a great fit not only for MG readers but those of us who aren't full educated on the time or facts. The understandable naivete on some things that his age gives him really lets readers be introduced to new information while also seeing things in an unexpected but realistic way.

Noah's stutter (his Astonishing Stutter) also makes his character any interesting one for the center of this story. From the social trouble it causes him - both in the US and now in East Berlin - to how, in 1989, it is viewed by those there. It brought out several aspects of East German life I don't think would have otherwise been known.

I really loved Noah and Cloud-Claudia, their relationship, the struggles they faced and how the author used it all to show us life in East Berlin in 1989 while still making it very much about Noah and Cloud. There's a fantastic balance between fiction and nonfiction in Cloud and Wallfish. (The inclusion of the Secret Files at the end of the chapters that give you real, historical insight without needing the characters to be aware of those facts is a great addition both for readers' education and for how we view the characters' lives.)







 thank you to the publisher for my review copy, via NetGalley