The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman

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Set against the burgeoning Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and then just before the outbreak of the Civil War, The Freedom Maze explores both political and personal liberation, and how the two intertwine.

In 1960, thirteen-year-old Sophie isn’t happy about spending the summer at her grandmother’s old house in the Bayou. But the house has a maze Sophie can’t resist exploring once she finds it has a secretive and mischievous inhabitant.

When Sophie, bored and lonely, makes an impulsive wish, she slips back one hundred years into the past, to the year 1860. She hopes for a fantasy book adventure with herself as the heroine. Instead, she gets a real adventure in the race-haunted world of her family’s Louisiana sugar plantation in 1860, where she is mistaken for a slave.  

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is still two years in the future. The Thirteen Amendment—abolishing and prohibiting slavery—will not be not passed until April 1864.

Muddy and bedraggled, Sophie obviously isn’t a young lady of good breeding. She must therefore be a slave. And she is.




This book feels a lot like Kindred for the Young Adult crowd: time travel; modern girl/woman turned slave; and two historical fiction books in one.

And it's SO good!

I've been trying to get my mother to read Kindred for over a year, but she has no interest in reading sad stories anymore, so she's sticking to Romance.  I think I could get her to read this one, though.  It's not as graphic as Octavia E. Butler's writing, and there's more of a happy ending.

There are definitely some creepy moments; you can't take a subject like slavery and make it all rainbows and unicorns.

This is the first book I've read by Delia Sherman; I will be sure to read more.

The Girl You Left Behind, by Jojo Moyes

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What happened to the girl you left behind?

In 1916 French artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything - her family, reputation and life - in the hope of seeing her true love one last time.

Nearly a century later and Sophie's portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting's dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv discovers that the first spark of love she has felt since she lost him is threatened...

In The Girl You Left Behind two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for the thing they love most - whatever the cost.





I love Jojo Moyes.  She makes her characters so real and imperfect and TRUE.  I love how she intertwined the lives of Sophie and Liv through the painting and went back and forth between their stories.

Like Me Before You and Honeymoon in Paris, The Girl You Left Behind is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel.   I cried several times, especially near the end.  Thankfully, I wasn't as emotionally overcome as when I read Me Before You; there is more of a sense of relief and hope in this story than in her previous work.

There is one continuity problem between The Girl You Left Behind and Honeymoon in Paris regarding how Liv's husband purchases the painting, but it doesn't affect the story.

I will definitely purchase this book for my personal collection.

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for my honest review.

The Crooked Maid, by Dan Vyleta

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Vienna, 1948. The war is over, and as the initial phase of de-Nazification winds down, the citizens of Vienna struggle to rebuild their lives amidst the rubble.

Anna Beer returns to the city she fled nine years earlier after discovering her husband's infidelity. She has come back to find him and, perhaps, to forgive him. Traveling on the same train from Switzerland is 18-year-old Robert Seidel, a schoolboy summoned home to his stepfather's sickbed and the secrets of his family's past.

As Anna and Robert navigate an unrecognizable city, they cross paths with a war-widowed American journalist, a hunchbacked young servant girl, and a former POW whose primary purpose is to survive by any means and to forget. Meanwhile, in the shells of burned-out houses and beneath the bombed-out ruins, a ghost of a man, his head wrapped in a red scarf, battles demons from his past and hides from a future deeply uncertain for all.




Apparently, this is the sequel to The Quiet Twin, which I didn't know until after I was done reading the book.  The Crooked Maid works as a stand-alone novel, but I hate reading series out of order.  If I had known that this was a follow-up, I wouldn't have requested this from NetGalley.

That being said, Vyleta's writing is beautiful and I fell in love with the imagery he presented.  This is definitely an "intelligent" book, so be prepared to read this without any distractions.  If you're looking for a light, fluffy novel, find something else and come back to this when you're ready to crank those brain cells.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Promises Made Under Fire, by Charlie Cochrane

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Lieutenant Tom Donald envies everything about fellow officer Frank Foden—his confidence, his easy manner with the men in the trenches, the affectionate letters from his wife. Frank shares these letters happily, drawing Tom into a vicarious friendship with a woman he's never met. Although the bonds of friendship forged under fire are strong, Tom can't be so open with Frank—he's attracted to men and could never confess that to anyone.

When Frank is killed in no-man's-land, he leaves behind a mysterious request for Tom: to deliver a sealed letter to a man named Palmer. Tom undertakes the commission while on leave—and discovers that almost everything he thought he knew about Frank is a lie…


 

Well color me impressed.  I honestly wasn't expecting much from this short story; it's hard to create a world in just over 50 pages.  But Cochrane did it: she made me believe that this happened and that these characters existed during WWI.

I really wish this were a full-length novel so I could read more about: 1) Frank's background and his relationship with his wife; 2) the time Tom and Frank spent together during the war; and 3) what happens to Tom when the war is over.

My jaw dropped when I read that Charlie Cochrane is a woman.  Most female authors who write m/m romances are so over-the-top that I've mostly stopped reading their works.  I will definitely read more from Ms. Cochrane, especially if she ever considers extending this story (pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!).

Recommended for fans of Jojo Moyes.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Heretic Queen, by Michelle Moran

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In ancient Egypt, a forgotten princess must overcome her family’s past and remake history.

The winds of change are blowing through Thebes. A devastating palace fire has killed the Eighteenth Dynasty’s royal family—all with the exception of Nefertari, the niece of the reviled former queen, Nefertiti. The girl’s deceased family has been branded as heretical, and no one in Egypt will speak their names. A relic of a previous reign, Nefertari is pushed aside, an unimportant princess left to run wild in the palace. But this changes when she is taken under the wing of the Pharaoh’s aunt, then brought to the Temple of Hathor, where she is educated in a manner befitting a future queen.

Soon Nefertari catches the eye of the Crown Prince, and despite her family’s history, they fall in love and wish to marry. Yet all of Egypt opposes this union between the rising star of a new dynasty and the fading star of an old, heretical one. While political adversity sets the country on edge, Nefertari becomes the wife of Ramesses the Great. Destined to be the most powerful Pharaoh in Egypt, he is also the man who must confront the most famous exodus in history.

Sweeping in scope and meticulous in detail, The Heretic Queen is a novel of passion and power, heartbreak and redemption.




Michelle Moran is absolutely brilliant.  She has the ability to weave historical events and people with fictional accounts.  I loved her previous novel, Nefertiti, and The Heretic Queen is just as amazing.  

I've always had a interest in Ancient Egypt and I love the imagery that Moran presents.  I felt like I was right there in Thebes and Pi-Ramesses, praying to the Gods and loving my husband & country, all while the populace condemned me for my ancestors' actions.

I was so caught up the story that I forgot that this is--ultimately--a work of fiction.  Much is unknown about the 19th Dynasty, but Moran fills in the gaps beautifully.  She has given me a better understanding of a fascinating time period, prompting me to research further.

Honeymoon in Paris, by Jojo Moyes

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For fans of Jojo Moyes' Me Before You, who can't wait for her new novel The Girl You Left Behind - out in September - here is an irresistible ebook-only prequel novella, Honeymoon in Paris.

At the heart of Jojo Moyes' heartbreaking new novel, The Girl You Left Behind, are two haunting love stories - that of Sophie and Edouard Lefevre in France during the First World War, and, nearly a century later, Liv Halston and her husband David.

Honeymoon in Paris takes place several years before the events to come in The Girl You Left Behind when both couples have just married. Sophie, a provincial girl, is swept up in the glamour of Belle poque Paris but discovers that loving a feted artist like Edouard brings undreamt of complications. Following in Sophie's footsteps a hundred years later, Liv, after a whirlwind romance, finds her Parisian honeymoon is not quite the romantic getaway she had been hoping for...

This enthralling self-contained story will have you falling in love with Liv and Sophie, and with Paris then and now, and it is the perfect appetizer for the The Girl You Left Behind, a spellbinding story of love, devotion and passion in the hardest of times.

Honeymoon in Paris is a teaser / prequel to The Girl You Left Behind, which will be released in August. It's a short novella -- only 75 pages -- but it still packs a punch. 

If you're at all familiar with Jojo Moyes' writing, you won't be surprised to hear that this book packs in ALL THE FEELS. Like Me Before You, Honeymoon in Paris is full of sweetness, heartfail, passion, and glorious happiness. 

I CAN'T WAIT to read The Girl You Left Behind next month. 

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. 

Weather Witch (Weather Witch #1), by Shannon Delany

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In a vastly different and darker Philadelphia of 1844, steam power has been repressed, war threatens from deep, dark waters, and one young lady of high social standing is expecting a surprise at her seventeenth birthday party–but certainly not the one she gets!

Jordan Astraea, who has lived out all of her life in Philadelphia’s most exclusive neighborhood, is preparing to celebrate her birthday with friends, family and all the extravagance they might muster. The young man who is most often her dashing companion, Rowen Burchette, has told her a surprise awaits her and her best friend, Catrina Hollindale, wouldn’t miss this night for all the world!

But storm clouds are gathering and threatening to do far more than dampen her party plans because someone in the Astraea household has committed the greatest of social sins by Harboring a Weather Witch.




World-building is extremely important, whether you're creating a universe from scratch, or simply modifying a location for the purpose of telling your story.  The idea of Delany's Steampunkish world is compelling; the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Within the first few chapters, we are treated to many details about Philadelphia and the individuals who reside there.  Many many many details.  It feels very much like an infodump: all of this data is presented to the reader with no relational map.  And the Proper Nouns.  Oh, the Proper Nouns.  Every new Thing or Group we meet is a new Classification.  And because all of these Proper Nouns are simply dumped into the reader's lap, one is left wondering how they all fit together.  While there is a plethora of information in one regard, there is a lot that seems to have been left out.  

I found it incredibly confusing and dense, especially considering it's a Young Adult novel.

I really disliked Jordan, our fearless (ha!) heroine.  The very first time we meet Jordan, she gives us a list of her faults and goes all emo on us because she's not perfect.  

I'm so tired of reading about I'm-so-pretty-but-I-think-I'm-ugly female characters.  It's such a stereotype in YA literature and I'm over it.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Moloka'i, by Alan Brennert

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This richly imagined novel, set in Hawai'i more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place---and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.

Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning.

With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death. Such is the warmth, humor, and compassion of this novel that "few readers will remain unchanged by Rachel's story" (mostlyfiction.com).

Dear Alan Brennert,

Aloha!  I must apologize for not having read this book sooner.  It's been on my To Read list for quite some time, and I even own the audiobook.  I should have listened to my friends and read your novel sooner.  

I am in love.

Rachel is my new favorite person.  I don't care that she's a fictional character.  She is strong.  Caring.  Quick-witted.  I can't imagine being a young child separated from my family and sent to live in a new place with complete strangers.  Though Rachel's first few years are tough, she is tougher.

I was completely captivated by her life, by the Hawai'i you described (I miss it!), and by the clash of cultures throughout Rachel's time in the settlement.  I cried ugly tears (stupid onion-cutting ninjas!) at several points, but the heartache was soon replaced with understanding.

What a powerful novel.

Eleanor & Park Redux

Read my original review here, published on May 2, 2013.

You know those annoying people who are all ZOMG!!1! THIS IS THE BEST BOOK EVA! and who insist on telling everyone they meet that they simply MUST read this book right now right now right now?

I am that person.

And this is that book.

I have just finished listening to Eleanor & Park for the second time in as many weeks. I took my time and listened to certain parts twice. I paced myself so I would end each evening on a swoon. I WANTED TO JUMP INSIDE AND MARRY THIS BOOK.

Seriously. Go buy your copy NOW.

Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell

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"Bono met his wife in high school," Park says.
"So did Jerry Lee Lewis," Eleanor answers.
"I’m not kidding," he says.
"You should be," she says, "we’re sixteen."
"What about Romeo and Juliet?"
"Shallow, confused, then dead."
''I love you," Park says.
"Wherefore art thou," Eleanor answers.
"I’m not kidding," he says.
"You should be."

Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.




This was me throughout the book:

You guys.

I love this book.  HARD.

There aren't many books that I will borrow from the library, then go out and purchase in multiple forms.  This book is right up there with The Fault in Our Stars, Sea of Tranquility, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: it will have a spot in my permanent collection.

 Spoilers after the jump.

Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4), by Diana Gabaldon

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It began at an ancient Scottish stone circle. There, a doorway, open to a select few, leads into the past--or the grave. Dr. Claire Randall survived the extraordinary passage, not once but twice. Her first trip swept her into the arms of Jamie Fraser, an eighteenth-century Scot whose love for her became a legend--a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Her second journey, two decades later, brought them together again in the American colonies. But Claire had left someone behind in the twentieth century. Their daughter, Brianna...

Now Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the circle of stones and terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and father she has never met, she is risking her own future to try to change history...and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past...or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong...



An excellent next book in the Outlander series. I love Jamie & Claire; Gabaldon writes them with such witty repartee that it's hard not to see them as people I would love to hang out with, flaws and all.

Speaking of flaws... I couldn't give this book five stars for one reason: Roger. 

Spoilers after the jump.

Voyager (Outlander #3), by Diana Gabaldon

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Their passionate encounter happened long ago by whatever measurement Claire Randall took. Two decades before, she had traveled back in time and into the arms of a gallant eighteenth-century Scot named Jamie Fraser. Then she returned to her own century to bear his child, believing him dead in the tragic battle of Culloden. Yet his memory has never lessened its hold on her... and her body still cries out for him in her dreams.

Then Claire discovers that Jamie survived. Torn between returning to him and staying with their daughter in her own era, Claire must choose her destiny. And as time and space come full circle, she must find the courage to face the passion and pain awaiting her...the deadly intrigues raging in a divided Scotland... and the daring voyage into the dark unknown that can reunite—or forever doom—her timeless love.


I must have read this one too quickly because I had all sorts of "wait, what just happened?" moments. I was so keyed up and wanted to know exactly what happened next that I didn't let everything sink in. Big mistake. I'll need to do a re-read of this book at some point. Assuming I ever get through my TBR list, of course!

I do need to take a break before delving into Drums of Autumn. I love the world that Gabaldon has created, but I need to read something short before I read another of her tomes.

Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander #2), by Diana Gabaldon

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For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland’s majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ... about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ... and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his....

Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire’s spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ... in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ... and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves....


Oh my holy hell.

I hated how this book started. As soon as I finished Outlander, I opened the next in the series. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Claire was back in the present time and no longer with Jamie. WTF, Diana Gabaldon?!?!?

I'm a bit irked at the heartfail this caused; Pepcid, however, received a great boost in sales. And my kids learned some new words.

Thankfully, I have book #3 ready to go on my Kindle. I NEED to know where the story goes from here. 

Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler

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Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South.
 
Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back, again and again, to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will grow to manhood and father the daughter who will become Dana's ancestor.
 
Yet each time Dana's sojourns become longer and more dangerous, until it is uncertain whether or not her life will end, long before it has even begun.



For a book club challenge, I had to read a book by a black author or about a black character. I had not heard of Octavia Butler prior to doing a Goodreads Listopia search to find a good book. I am incredibly glad that I chose this work: the writing flows naturally, even across centuries; the premise is one that I had not encountered before; and it is a story that will stay with me long after I return my copy to the library.

The combination of historical fiction and time travel -- as told through the eyes of a modern* black woman -- presents us with a host of questions! There are the standard time travel questions of whether or not changing the past will change the future. But then there are the deeper questions: How does a strong, well-educated black woman survive in an era when slaves are considered property, not human beings? How do you remember who you are in the present when you're told that you're "too black" and "too white" in the past?

An amazing read that keeps you thinking. I look forward to reading more of Butler's works!

Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal, by Mal Peet

 


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When her grandfather dies, Tamar inherits a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. Out of the past, another Tamar emerges, a man involved in the terrifying world of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Holland half a century before. His story is one of passionate love, jealousy, and tragedy set against the daily fear and casual horror of the Second World War -- and unraveling it is about to transform Tamar’s life forever.

From acclaimed British sensation Mal Peet comes a masterful story of adventure, love, secrets, and betrayal in time of war, both past and present.
 


I purchased this book as part of the Kindle Daily Deal and wasn't quite sure what to expect. I'm really glad I decided to buy it, though.

The book starts in the middle of the story, where we learn how the protagonist got her name. From there, the story alternates between the mid-1940s to 1995. It alternates between multiple POVs, which I think really makes the book stand out.

Like most wartime historical fiction novels, this was not always an uplifting read. It's hard to read about people doing atrocious things to other people. The closer you get to the end of the war--and therefore the book--the more uncomfortable the situations. I felt very nervous for the characters and was very upset with how some of the scenes turned out.

At times, I felt like it was very obvious how the story would play out, but Peet kept me guessing and questioning my assumptions until the end.

Definitely a worthwhile read.