Girl in the Blue Coat

World War II stories are hard to read at times. This one is no exception.

Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke (the audiobook had it sound like Hanika) works in her own little way to resist the Nazi occupation by being a black-marketeer in finding things that people need. But suddenly one of the ladies she normally finds things for has a missing girl that she wants found. Only this girl isn't supposed to be there. She is a Jew and has somehow vanished. She can't go to the guard, obviously, or other authorities, so how is she going to find this girl in a blue coat?

This was a very well done piece. It was written well and kept me very engaged the whole time. While Hanneke and the rest of the characters may be fictitious, the actions and events were very historically sound. The black market, the college resistance fighters, the theater and nursery across the street that helped save hundreds of people who would have died... These are all amazing things that Monica Hesse has portrayed beautifully, realistically, and powerfully. I very much enjoyed this and am even more interested in the other stories Monica Hesse has written.

I enjoyed the characters and how they felt lifelike. There situations and reactions to their circumstances were real and made me worry for them more than I worry for many of the other characters I read about.

I think Monica Hesse was a very brave woman to end the story the way she did. This is war and wars often down have happy endings for everyone involved. The ending was fulfilling and the focus of the story was different than most would suspect, which is also a very brave move for the author to do walking the fine line between what the plot needs and what the audience wants or expects. And I think she pulled it off well.

Good on you Monica Hesse. It was a very good book and one that I probably wouldn't mind reading or listening to again.

The Wrath & the Dawn

The Wrath & the Dawn is first in a series with the same name by Renee Ahdieh.

It is a retelling of the classic Arabian Nights story where the Caliph marries a new girl every day and every dawn has her killed. As to why is normally unknown. Shahrzad (Not spelled the traditional way), instead of running away, volunteers to become the Caliph's bride even in fear of the dawn in hopes that she can kill him for killing her cousin just a few mornings previously. She hates him with all her heart and wants to seem this boy-king dead. In order to do that she has to stay alive past the dawn, which she does by leaving the Caliph "hanging" with cliff hangers to the many stories she tells that last all night. He won't kill her, she thinks, if he's so intrigued by her stories and wants to know the end.

I listened to this as an audio book.  The reader, Ariana Delwari, did a spectacular job. She has a very nice voice and one that I wouldn't mind listening to again in future audio books.

I will say this, though, that my review may be a bit hindered by the fact that it took me a few months to complete the series. Not that it wasn't a good book, but time is an issue as well as the one big critique that I have to give... Shazi is so very annoying at the beginning. She irritated me badly with her mood, tone, and all out "Imma be ticked off and I have no redeeming qualities because REVENGE!!" It got very boring really fast and she has the same idea and stigma for a good third of the book (or so). I was more than happy to have her kiss the Caliph and actually start liking him.

The love triangle thing going on between her, the Caliph and her past love was kind of obnoxious. It took away from the traditional stories suspense of surviving to the dawn and the artful way of keeping the crazy king intrigued, and slid the in a rebellion, magic, and "I must save this girl who doesn't actually like me anymore because she likes the guy who killed her cousin." I didn't care for the past love interest. He was hot headed and seemed to only have a one track mind without thinking of repercussions. He didn't even think of Shazi's feelings on the subject, and every time she yelled at him to stop he wouldn't listen--killing some of her friends that she actually made in the palace. No points to you past love interest.

And one other thing, maybe because it was an audio book and not me reading it off the pages, but I had a hard time keeping some of the name in check. Shazi = main character, Khalid = Caliph, Jalal = kings cousin and captain of the guards?, T guy = past love interest, Despina = Shazi's maid servant and friend in palace, but pretty much everyone else's name got muffled in my brain and I had to rely heavily on context clues, which I didn't get all that often. With story names--which stories didn't last very long as plot points--as well as "irl" names, I got very confused.

The book did seem to flow well and the plot was constantly moving which was nice. Part of me though feels like it had major dollops of "Beauty and the Beast" put into it too. She goes from lots of hate and disdain to very much in love with him and tries to tell off the love from her past/Gaston-ish who would get slaughtered by the Caliph/Beast. While it flowed, I think there were many cliches for the YA market. There wasn't much that was "different" to really make it exciting and make me want to read it again. I might look at a Sparknotes for the second book, but I don't think I'll take the time to read or listen to the next one.

It was good for what it was, a retelling of an old classic put into YA form. It was written well with enough setting to keep us from the dark, though not much more than that. I liked Jalal, he was probably my favorite character and would have liked more of him, but he is obviously not the main character. Some of the others I didn't care for as much.

If you're wanting a simple, "traditional" YA read, feel free to pick it up.

Hero at the Fall

Hero at the Fall is the final installment of the A Rebel of the Sands novels and, boy, was it great.

After finally escaping the Sultan's harem while spying for the Rebel Prince, she finds herself trapped behind a magic wall inside the city with only half of rebellions leaders. The others have been captured and somehow taken out of the city to an unknown location. Amani, being a Djinni's daughter and also somehow injured, she's had trouble grasping onto sands she once controlled. After kidnapping the princess that betrayed them and finding how to get out, they start a long trip to find their Rebel Prince. They end up encountering more Djinni, Shadowalkers, invading armies, and old family, not to mention the golden killing machines that can vaporize people who are being commanded by the Sultan and power by her Djinni father and that's before they even get to Prince Ahmed and the others. She is steps up, feeling very much inadequate to lead the rebellion against the Sultan that always seems three steps ahead and always moving forward.

My favorite thing of this whole series is the voice. Even after a year waiting for this book to come out, I instantly felt at home back on the sands with Amani and Jin. There are some books that it takes a while to get back into the groove of a story. Not here. Alwyn Hamilton's voice that she presents is distinct and memorable  making it easy to step back into Amani's shoes and pick up right where we left off.

What makes this book great too is every moment there is something going on. We don't have a fall interest though the action tempers when people talk and discuss. We see the internal debate that is fighting insider her: the feeling of inadequacy because she's just seventeen and getting people killed, not intentionally of course, as wells as the "gifts" the Sin Maker that would help people live. Then, of course, there are the amazing moments when she sails over the Sea of Sands or faces the Destroyer of the World, and that is even before she reaches the Sultan. There is constantly something happening that kept me engaged and wanting more.

The books is mainly about Amani and there isn't much conversation between her and Jin or her and Shazad. There isn't much dialog in general comparatively to internal thought and storytelling. But that is okay here. It is set up as a storyteller would have told it and it fits well here.

The relationship between her and Jin is rocky here because of the stress Amani is under and does rely heavily on the previous stories. So if the reader comes to this book first, they would probably be disappointed in the building of this relationship because in Hero at the Fall is isn't really there. It is told of, but not given the opportunity to be shown here and, again, I'm okay with it.  There reaches a point toward the end when Jin and Amani become intimate. The moment is descriptive of her feelings more than physical touches. It was modestly done while still getting the point across. So, if that makes you uncomfortable, you can easily skim through and read the dialog or skip to the next chapter. If it doesn't bother you so much, I think it was done well.

I also have nothing bad to say about the characters. They didn't change/flip flop on themselves or do something uncharacteristically them. They grew as people do. They had their virtues and vices. We were given the internal dialog for Amani and her struggles that change throughout the book. I enjoyed getting to know them.

It was great fun and I'd like to read them again. The books before are A Rebel of the Sand and Traitor to the Throne.

Traitor to the Throne

Traitor to the Throne is the sequel to Rebel of the Sands. I would recommend when you read this, make sure you read the first book right before you read this one. There are lots of little things that correlate between the two books that I had a hard time remembering, because I read the first one last year. 

This is about Amani and the Rebellion that wants to dethrone the Sultan. They are in full blown rebellion mode when their camp gets ambushed and they are forced to flee. A few of the rebels follow her out. While there, and after a fight with Jin, she gets knocked out and finds herself waking up in the Sultan's Palace as his prisoner. But he doesn't want to simply lock up this Demji (forgive my spelling if it's wrong) whose power he can use, but he wants to show her off. Placing her in his harem, not to be touched by anyone. 

Surrounding her are "ghosts of her past," almost literally, and betrayal is around every corner. She doesn't know who she can trust and ends up being somewhat sympathetic to the Sultan, the man whom the Rebellion is trying to over throw. I know I was sympathetic to him at points in the story. 

If you can stand the info dump in a few places, especially toward the beginning, you will enjoy the book. 

The main characters are very strong individuals. They have strong presences and make them believable people. Not everyone is solely bad or completely good. I do wish the side characters were more fleshed out. They blended together and sometimes it was hard to tell them apart. This hindered parts of the story especially when certain ones die. One of Amani's "ghosts" dies and I cried for this character. I felt her/him. But when other of the rebellion die, named and named, I have much harder time feeling for them. I hope in the next book, we get more background for these characters, especially if they are going to die on us. 

The world building is amazing. Hamilton spent a lot of time developing the stories and backgrounds of different people and mythologies. But she tends to info dump to get a point across. That can be jarring and send you out of the book. 

Some of the betrayals I didn't see coming, others I did. The plot was very well thought out, even for a second book in a trilogy. It felt like a sequel, but it held its own for the most part. 

I was really put off by the abrupt ending of this book though. It is in set up for the third book, but I was initially thinking that it was only a two book series. I was mistaken and disappointed in a way. I was prepared for it to end, but it left me hanging. 

The next one is Hero at the Fall.