I reeeaaallly need to get better about blogging sooner on my book reviews haha, I am sitting here looking at these books and thinking I cannot remember at all what I want to say about them! Maybe I will just start making notes as I go… I blame motherhood for my lack of memory haha!
Overall I enjoyed this month of reading… I feel like some months are kind of ehh when I look at the group of books that I read, but I really enjoyed a few of these books a lot.
I loved “The Book of Lost Names.” Kristin Harmel is a little hit or miss for me, but this was a hit. You know I read WW2 fiction all the time, and I enjoyed this point of view of a Jewish woman who fled her city to the countryside trying to make it to Switzerland, but ended up staying and helping a circuit forge documents for others to get out of the country. Of course a love story is involved, and there is amazing information on forging during this time in this book, especially in the back of the book. I used to never read the information in the back but any time I read a historical fiction book, I always read the notes after the story to see what was real, and what was based on facts in a fictional way. I enjoyed this book a lot and would recommend it if you’re into historical war fiction.
“Bringing Down the Duke” was a first for me, I have never read anything set in the Victorian era, unless you count high school English required reading haha! This was your basic chick lit book, focusing mainly on women’s rights (or lack thereof) during this time period and a group of women set on changing that. I loved this story, it was fun to read, although it was quite scandalous at times I will tell you that! There were some scenes that may have overshared if you know what I mean, and then also there was some language in this one but I don’t remember it being overwhelming.
I really enjoyed “The Giver of Stars” as well. I really enjoy Jojo Moyes’ writing, it just is easy to become invested in her characters and really follow them through the story. This one was also set in a time period I have been reading more of lately, Depression-era America. A young English woman, Alice, meets her husband in England while he is traveling, they get married and she follows him back to the Kentucky country where he lives. There are just so many issues here in this community, mistreatment of women, mining issues (treatment of workers/working conditions/destruction of land), poverty, racism, poor education…there is a lot covered in this book. As you can imagine, Alice is way out of her comfort zone here and struggling to fit in and live with her husband and father-in-law. She joins a group of women called the Packhorse Librarians, and begins riding trails to bring library books to people living in secluded areas away from town, thereby helping them learn to read and educate themselves. There is a lot to learn from this one, I walked away feeling extremely grateful for the time period I live in and the rights and freedoms allotted to me. Really enjoyed this read.
Kristy Woodson Harvey wrote the Peachtree Bluff Series that I just really enjoyed reading last year, so I was SO excited when she came out with her new book “Feels Like Falling.” Maybe my expectations were set too high, but I didn’t enjoy this as much as I anticipated. I had a hard time connecting to some of the characters, and just even a hard time accepting some of the plot, but overall I enjoyed reading this, it just wasn’t my favorite this month or as good as I thought it might be. Gray has lost her mother to cancer, her husband recently cheated on her and her sister got married and went off the deep end with this extremist cult. (See what I mean? A LOT to accept, and that’s just one character!) There are some intense characters, some of the plot was just out there, but overall it was an entertaining read.
Not entirely sure what I want to say about “The Woman in the Window”… I always enjoy a good psychological thriller, but this one felt more anxious than I prefer, and with the main character being an alcoholic, she was just constantly drinking throughout most of the book, and self-medicating…it was just a lot, I kept yelling in my head, “Stop! Help yourself!!” Anna is afraid to go outside, lives alone, and spends the majority of her time watching her neighbors. As you can very well imagine, she sees a lot of things. But because of the issues I listed above, she is not a creditable witness. There are some twists, the story line overall is good, I just wish there was less alcohol involved, it was just exhausting to read about so much. There is a decent amount of language in this as well, I don’t feel like this would be high up on my list of recommendations.
Well there is September for you! If you want to see my other book reviews from this year or follow me on Goodreads…
What I’m Reading: January, February & March 2020
What I’m Reading – August 2020
Sounds like some of these books had some pretty intense plots and characters. I admire that you take the time to read.