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.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

I've had this book for years and only finally was able to read it. And I have mixed feelings about it.

in 1895,Gemma witnesses the murder of her mother, the murderer was some kind of shadow. How can she explain that to anyone? Months pass and she is sent to live in an all girls school and learn how to be a lady and curb her boisterous tendencies. Making friends is hard and making enemies is far too easy. To top it all off, shadows and ghost stories haunt her. She finds a diary of a girl who used to go to the same school and saw the same things she did; this girl had the same odd powers Gemma seems to be acquiring. What is is going on and who is the strange boy who followed her from India all the way to England?

I really liked the historical representation that was depicted her. A life of a lady was not an easy one and many felt silenced and purchased for potential wedding contracts. The idea of "lay back and think of England" instead of making love to a spouse is one of the many ways that this is shown here--nothing graphic though I guess there is some nudity which is probably unneeded. The idea of being a quiet, proper "lady" is very prominent and has many of the girls feeling stifled. So before all of their independence is snatched away they will occasionally do things that would get them in serious trouble if they are caught: necking is a gypsy boy, stealing the priest's wine/whiskey reserves, getting up at all hours of the night, going into the woods for meetings/gypsy fortune telling/whatever else. Then Gemma introduces her strange power to some of the girls and more craziness happens. But the idea of being stifled, silenced, and putting on a fake smile with even worse conversations only about "the weather and the queens health" was something that they had to deal with back then and now too in some instances though not as dramatically. It's sad and Libba Bray portrays that very well.

I think the characters were well developed and each was different and developed enough that I understood. I enjoyed learning about them and at times I felt very sorry for them. The characters were a very strong reason I finished the book.

That being said, I almost didn't finish. I am not an occult fan. This had a feel of the Salem Witch Trials to me, tarot cards, talking to the dead through medians, sacrifices to give black shadow/spirits power, and other witchy things was turning me off for a lot of it. I don't read it, because "bad ju ju feelings" are a thing and I don't need it around me. I did finish it though because the plot was very good. It was a very engaging read that had me turning pages quickly. I finished it in less than a week.

It is a good book and written very well. The reason I gave it a four instead of five stars would be because of the occult theme and the fact that it got a bit darker than I wanted. I can see this series being a good one that has many people very engaged, but as this moment I'm not going to be picked up the next one, sadly.

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.