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Book Review: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Feb 1, 2016

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Pages: 400
Publish date: 4 February 2016
Publisher: Puffin
ISBN: 9780141347400
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

In 1945, World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia, and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, almost all of them with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer toward safety.

Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.

Salt to the Sea:

I received an e-arc of Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys from Puffin via NetGalley. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

Everyone has to read Salt to the Sea. And if you are not prepared to cry – then don’t bother reading.

When I started this novel I wasn’t expecting to love it. At first it was really hard grasp because there is 3 protagonists and with the e-arc I had they weren’t on separate pages so when the chapter changed therefor a different perspective it was hard to remember who was who. However, after I had the grasp of the characters this novel was magical.

Salt to the Sea set in 1945 in Germany, tells the journey of protagonists; Joana, Emilia and Florian whos lives cross paths on their way to the ill-fated Wilhelm Gustloff. They are forced to unite. They find strength, courage and trust in both themselves and one another. They are tested even when they think they are safe.

And when they think that they finally have freedom – the worst happens and they have to fight for their lives again with ten thousand other people. There are so many characters in Salt to the Sea and every one of them has a story to tell.

What a sorry group we were, brutalized and bandaged, yet luckier then most.

Joana a nurse that had been given a pass into Germany now flees to find her way back home, holds a secret that is tearing her apart inside.

Emilia, a girl in a pink hate holds something that will bring light into the world that was brought by darkness.

Florian an artist with a fever and a shrapnel injury that needs to be fixed holds something deep in his shoe.

I loved all three protagonists. I loved their story, finding out how they got to where they are and where they want to be. They were all written beautifully and their character arcs where really fantastic. The reader is able to see them all grow and become brave and strong.

The fear never disappeared but with each year it retreated slightly, a tide of memory sliding back out to sea.

I loved how the first few chapters started with —- is a hunter. It was a brilliant way of starting them and then bringing it all together with the last couple of chapters having the same line in it.

I cried during Salt to the Sea. I am not going to lie. Multiple times. It’s a book that centres around war.

The writing though is so beautiful, I was captivating from the first moment. It pulls you in and you cannot stop reading once you start. Each like forms into another and you are finished in the blink of an eye. I haven’t read any of Ruta Sepetys other books but as from now they are on my tbr.

My war had been so long, my winters so cold. But I had finally made it home. And for the first time in a long time, I was not afriad.

You could tell by the writing and the story that a lot of research went into it. It doesn’t have fact, after fact but people, things that happened even to the littlest detail was based on fact. It was really interesting to someone like me who is a massive history buff and I was picking things here or there or typing them into google. It gave this novel more depth.

Beautiful, captivating, extraordinary. Salt to the Sea is a gorgeous novel that brings to light a catastrophe that seems to be forgotten. With stunning writing and intriguing characters Ruta Sepetys brings a novel that tells a story that everyone needs to read.

Book Review: In Place of Never by Julie Ann Lindsey

Jan 29, 2016

In Place of Never by Julie Ann Lindsey

Pages: 269
Publish date: Febuary 2nd 2016
Publisher: Lyrical Press
ISBN: 160183487X
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Can the truth set her free?…

A part of Mercy died the summer her sister tragically drowned. Now Mercy has a chance to discover if Faith’s death was an accident—or murder. Her first step is to confront the lead suspects: a band of traveling gypsies—the last people who saw her sister alive. But Mercy finds an unexpected ally in Cross, the soulful musician in their ranks. He’s a kindred spirit, someone who sees into her heart for the first time in, well, forever. Yet stirring up the past puts Mercy in danger…

Suddenly someone is shadowing Mercy’s every move, making her even more determined to uncover the facts. With Cross by her side, she is ready to face it all, even if that means opening up to him, knowing he may one day leave her. What she discovers is a truth that rocks the foundation of her small river town—and a love worth risking everything for….

In Place of Never:

I received an e-arc of In Place of Never by Julie Anne Lindsey from Lyrical Press, Kensington Books via NetGalley. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I don’t know what I was expecting when I started this book. I hadn’t heard much about, I read it on a whim as the synopsis intrigued me and I am glad I did.

In Place of Never follows protagonists, Mercy as she tries to come to terms with the death of her sister. Even though it happens years before, something died in Mercy when her sister did. So when the last people that saw her alive comes back to town – she has to confront them, however everything isn’t all it seems. She finds an expected ally is Cross who sees her for her for the first time and not someone from the outside.

Mercy is a troubled one. Her life has been school and boys. She had to suffer through the terrible drowning of her sister Faith and then the suicide of her mother, leaving her with her overprotective father. And herself. Mercy suffers with depression and heartache, all I wanted to do was wrap her in my arms and hug her. Everyone treats her differently and all she wants is answers. So when the traveling gypsies come back to town she knows where to get them. Everything isn’t what it seems and then she meets Cross.

I loved Cross, he was such a loveable character that you couldn’t help, but smile every time he was mentioned. Maybe it was because of Mercy and how she felt about Cross or maybe it was since Lindsey was such beautifully written. I normally hate when characters are musicians in novels simply as I think it’s so cliquey and I have seen it so many times before, but there was something about Cross, that it didn’t matter.

The storyline of In Place of Never was truly intriguing, I wanted to know what happened to Faith. As each step into the novel, we find out stuff that leads us in one direction and then boom! We are in another. It was thrilling and I couldn’t get enough of it. I liked how everything unfolded slowly and not until the end. However, I felt the ending was rushed and wasn’t intense enough for the situation at hand.

The writing was beautiful. Julie Anne Lindsey is captivating and brings the reader on the journey with both Mercy and Cross.

The family dynamics. True, but upsetting. I didn’t like Mercy’s dad, at all. I know that he behaved that way because he already lost his wife and daughter and couldn’t lose what he had left. However he was obsessed and not in the way that Mercy was, he was determined that the traveling gypsies were to blame, but he didn’t ask the questions. He didn’t have much character development

In Place of Never is a heartbreaking novel about finding the truth, death, depression, sacrifice and what it’s like to live when everything else is falling apart. Julie Anne Lindsey writes a beautiful novel that lets the reader pond upon life and what it’s truly like to live. It’s about love, faith and finding all the little things that count.

Book Review: Hallowed Ground by Rebecca Yarros

Jan 27, 2016

Hallowed Ground by Rebecca Yarros

Pages: 410
Publish date: 25 January 2016
Publisher: Entangled: Embrace
ISBN: 1633755428
Purchase: Book Depository– Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

There are some debts you can’t repay.

Josh Walker is loyal, reckless, and every girl’s dream. But he only has eyes for December Howard, the girl he’s craved since his high school hockey days. Together they have survived grief, the military, distance, and time as they’ve fought for stolen weekends between his post at Ft. Rucker and her college at Vanderbilt. Now that Josh is a medevac pilot and Ember is headed toward graduation, they’re moving on—and in—together.

Ember never wanted the Army life, but loving Josh means accepting whatever the army dictates—even when that means saying goodbye as Josh heads to Afghanistan, a country that nearly killed him once before and that took her father. But filling their last days together with love, passion, and plans for their future doesn’t temper Ember’s fear, and if there’s one thing she’s learned from her father’s death, it’s that there are some obstacles even love can’t conquer.

Flight school is over.
This is war.

Hallowed Ground:

I wasn’t prepared for Hallowed Ground by Rebecca Yarros, not at all. If you are going to start reading it, them please do yourself a favour and have a box of tissues nearby. This will contain spoilers from all the previous books.

Hallowed Ground is book 4 in The Fight and Glory series and a sequel to book 1 – Full Measures. It’s set 2 years after the events of the first book and follows protagonists, December (Ember) and Josh as they set into life of living together, except now he is expected to go back to where he was nearly killed before and the place that took her father’s life – Afghanistan.

I love and hate this book. I loved it because the series finished with something really beautiful and we got to see the characters that we have come to previously love. However this book torn me to shreds.

I loved seeing Ember and Josh again, it had been quite a while since we had seen them, sure they came up in parts of the other books, but we didn’t see them, and it was nice to see.

I loved Ember as a character, her character arc is quite amazing from the first book. She has grown so much from the first time we have seen her. Throughout Hallowed Ground all I wanted to do is hug her. Ember broke me. She had been through so much before and in this book, she is ripped apart.

“I don’t care how you come home. I don’t care what parts of you are broken, or bleeding, or… anything, just as long as you come home. As long as your heart is beating, I will want you, do you understand me? I don’t care what happens there as long as you come home.”

Josh, my love for Josh is unexplainable, but gosh did I want to slap him around a bit. I understand most of the things he did and that I am not even fussed about, however the things that happened with Ember towards the end of the book. It’s like Josh she loves you, why are you doing this to her and yourself.

They have survived through so much and I wasn’t sure they were going to survive this novel, especially with Josh being back in Afghanistan.

It was really great to see the military aspect of Hallowed Ground. We saw it a little in the last novel, however it wasn’t that prominent, with this novel being half in Josh point of view it made sense. I love military planes, there is something about there. Here is Victoria, where I live we have a thing called the Airshow every 2 years, where military planes and others come and put of a show. I love the feeling of hornets flying by. So I truly enjoyed seeing the military aspect.

One thing that annoyed me with Hallowed Ground was the consent separation between Ember and Josh, not the physical separation, but the emotional and it killed me. I just wanted everything to be okay, and it wasn’t, not in the slightest.

Hallowed Ground is emotionally draining. I cried for most of this book, bad things kept happening, all I wanted was for it to be over. Not because it was horrifying, because it hurt my heart.

“I cannot imagine a future where you’re not mine, because I’m yours in every sense of the word.”

Nevertheless, Hallowed Ground is probably my favourite of all 4 books. It had so much and more. There is a chance that I won’t read the middle two books again, for something in this book will make it impossible.

Although, many sad and emotionally heartbreaking things happened in Hallowed Ground there was so many beautiful moments that were heart lifting. The epilogue was just beautiful and I smiled the whole time reading it.

Overall, Hallowed Ground was a beautiful read that intertwined, family both by blood and friendship. Loss that can bring people closer together or tear some apart. About doing what is right for you and the ones that you love and forgiveness and what it truly means to forgive not only others but yourself.