Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

 This is a super cute book that is for anyone wanting to read something sweet. 

Written in letters after the end of WWII, the story is about a woman named Juliet who gets a letter from a man on Guernsey who came into possession of one of her old books by Charles Lamb. They begin correspondence and she finds out that in order to deal with being occupied by Germans during the war, this small group of odd neighbors begin a literary society--with an interesting story as to how it started and its name. The Society has continued on after the war and from the society begin to open up about their experiences in the war. Juliet was also a writer for a local British news paper and wants to write a book with their collection of letters. Of course, Juliet has her own life back in London, men, writing, friends, post-war happenings. 

It is a great story with full characters, many of them with fascinating stories. This is one of the best parts of the books. So many different people with different points of view, with different happenings, ways of coping with trauma, and different ways of being heroic in times of difficulty. 

I also greatly enjoyed the romance part of it. Rich American guy who is charming and witty and a lowly country boy from Guernsey. A little love triangle without being high school dramatic. They are adults here and act as such, for the most part. It wasn't heavy on the sappy romance, which was good, but there was sweetness and a comedy about it. 

There isn't really anything that I dislike about it. It was written well. However, the audio book that I listened to for it was misleading. The gentleman they had voicing the younger men wasn't that young sounding. So the younger men sounded like they were in their sixties instead of late twenties, early thirties. When she started liking a certain person, I was concerned that she liked the oldest gent in the literary society. It wasn't until I looked at the Netflix cover that I realized, "Oh, he's much younger" which was a relief. 

I very much enjoyed it and will reread it again. I've also heard the Netflix movie did it justice, so I'm going to be taking a look at that soon. 

A Spy's Devotion

If you're looking for a light reading and okay with a dose of cheese amongst the pages, then this one's for you.

A Spy's Devotion is about Julia, her extended family, and a recently returned and injured army Captain. Julia is an orphan that has been taken in by her pompous aunt, aggressive and angry uncle, and spoiled cousin. She has always done her best to stay back and support her cousin in every avenue she decides, and right now that is to help her gain the affections of Mr. Nicholas Langdon, the talk of the Town. Throughout the course of balls and dinners Julia and Nicholas find out, rather early on, that her uncle is a nefarious man who intends to assassinate important generals in the war with France. Julia is now tied between helping King and Country and not hurting her family and their interests--both of love and of money.

In my opinion, it was okay. There were parts that were extremely cheesy and, for those who've done the research into the Regency Time period, somewhat technically unbelievable. Small things, but they kind of irked me. The ending was also much longer than it needed to be. They could have wrapped things up a good seven chapters earlier without needing the trip to the Athertons or past loves coming into the story needlessly. It elongated it and didn't seem to be needed except for her to write her letter to him to tell how she truly felt. Yes, we get that being a governess is not the most amazing job and that there are many trials that come from it, but we got that with Sarah's "adventures" and letters. I feel we didn't necessarily need first hand accounts.

I think the characters were different enough to be distinct, but some of them I felt were simply stereotypical. Some of them had the same exact interests as similar characters from Jane Austen's books. Udolpho which is a rather scandalous novel from the time period. Even Julia is an orphan with no money to her name and is forced to live with angry/obnoxious relatives who are beyond wealthy (everyone is beyond wealthy here, making triple of what Mr. Darcy makes in Jane Austen's books and Pemberly is huge!). Ms. Dickerson pulled a lot, probably too much from Jane Austen and Jane Eyre.

If you want a regency book with a simple thrill of spy-ness, go for it. I wouldn't recommend this one very highly though.

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.

Delilah Dirk and the Pillars of Hercules

Delilah Dirk is one of my favorite people. Top 5 favorite characters from anything I've read. Easy. I was so excited to see than Tony Cliff wrote and illustrated another one of her adventures. It is definitely on my "I will buy ASAP" list.

Delilah is nearly always after some type of treasure, unless she is helping someone she likes--which often has some type of treasure or something along side it because she's picking on a bigger bruit than the guy that needs help. *breathes* While helping a bunch of sailor into a harbor, Delilah Dirk style, she meets a European with a tale of treasure. Not only do they find a slew of it in an unknown cave not far away, but also a clue to a larger horde and bigger price. Delilah doesn't turn down a challenge. Mr. Selim, Delilah, and the European writer (who ends up chronicling their tale) start their Indiana Jones-style archaeological dig.

Delilah is fantastic. At one point she is in jail, again, chipping away at the wall with a rock. The jailer looks down at her and asks what she's doing, she promptly states "Escaping" which she does. Awesomely!

I also love the way Mr. Selim and Delilah work together. It appears that by now they have done so many things together that they rely on each other (though not super heavy, they are their own people after all). I also really like the way he tells a general off. That was fun and I want more of it.

I also felt so sad at the very last picture in the back of the book. So sad... I loved the little boop she gave. It hurt my heart.

The artwork is beautiful. The adventure is fun. And I really want to read it again, even after just finishing it.

P.S. I'm going to be Delilah for Halloween and it is going to be awesome. More people should know Delilah Dirk. No, no, no, everyone should know her. She's just fantastic.

All Fall Down

Ally Carter has done it again in making a world of intrigue and deception. Unlike The Heist Society, though, All Fall Down is set at the international embassy in Adria. Here all of the world's embassy's live on the same street. Russia, Iran, Israel, and the USA bumping elbows and sharing the same paperboy can become rather hostile when someone sneezes in the wrong direction. One wrong move and it all falls down into WWIII.

But Grace has her own problems. Still trying to cope with her mother's death, she tries to be normal. She returns to the embassy where her grandfather resides as ambassador and where she spent many of the summers of her childhood. But she's not "normal," she's not "fine." Grace sees monsters everywhere still and conspiracy runs in every gutter. She feels like she can't trust anyone and for good reason.

The thing I like most about this book is how our narrator is unreliable. There have been few books where we are given an unreliable narrator and where you question, more than once, if she is actually sane. Grace has PTSD after seeing her mother murdered by a Scarred Man, but that is all she has to go on. Doctors and family say it was "an accident" "an accident" "an accident," but Grace knows that it's more than that. And more importantly she knows she's not crazy. But I came to times when trying to take the foreshadowed events and question if she really was crazy. Grace reminded me of Kat, from Heist Society, as the go-get-em kind of girl. The girl that would skulk into a secret tunnel after whom she thinks is the bad guy. (Do not try this at home.) She was different than most; the PTSD hangs over her heavily and I'm interested to see how much more she changes in the rest of the series.

I did like the world that Ally Carter set up. Making a new country, one neutral ground so then no one's toes were being stepped on was smart. I liked that Adria is a traditionalist place where balls can happen. It gave it that fantasy feel, at least for a bit, that I like. Making Grace feel like a princess in froofy dresses even though she actually feels like a penguin on stilts. I like that the kids on Embassy Row are really just that, kids. Letting crushes grow while others simply want to find a friend--all the while trying to not start an international crisis.

The writing itself is well done, though set for a mid-YA audience. For an easy, action book, this is what you'd want to read. If I had been dedicated and not sick for the last month and surrounded by crazy life, I could have finished it within two or three days.

I do want to see more of Grace and the other kids. Rosie was pretty cute and Megan's computer skills were pretty awesome, but I want more from them. I don't want the kind of romance Ally had in other books. I want more than just another Simon or Bagshaw brothers; they are great, but they had their book. I hope Grace and Alexei, Rosie and Noah have their own moments of awesomeness and that it's not just a reprise of Heist Society, good though it was. I want more, new awesomeness and I think I'm going to get it.

The Historian

The Historian dives into the world of the most well known vampire: Vlad Dracula.

In the story, many people have died when they've started to research the true Dracula (Vlad Tepes) and his actual resting place. "A young woman"/"the narrator" finds a mysterious book in her father's library with an ornate wood carving in the center of the book. What is this book, why is Drakuya written it it. Every question she has more mysterious things happen, even the death of her cat as a warning to stop looking. Mysterious figures and strange stories from her father keep her investigating even though her cat isn't the only one killed.

Kostova did a great job in researching the affairs that correlate here. Knowing a lot about Vlad Dracula and Bram Stoker as well as the places "the narrator" visits wither her father. Way to do your research!

However, I didn't finish the book. It was sooooo slow. Her father is so scared of his shadow and can only tell his story behind the book that it takes the girl months go get anything. They travel all around Europe and only get snippets of the story. It is so stock full of description and travel (unless they are eating) that it is hard to get to the actual context of the book. It also jumps from letters, to her father's stories, to her own "adventures" that it is hard to follow in parts. There were parts were she met with another girl who was reading Bram Stokers Dracula, the chapter jumps to letters and what I thought was her own adventures, but then it jumped back to her sitting at the charol in the library across from the girl again. I was so confused. It jumped so badly and went so slowly...

Also, why doesn't she have a name? It's not that hard to give characters names and use them.

It is a large book with nearly 700 pages but I could only get through 115 or so (with Hadi Girl somewhere in the middle). It was kind of depressing and dark (large portions of the story taking place at night, in dark libraries, etc. as well as people getting killed mysteriously) and I've sooo not been in the mood for that. It seemed to actually make my mood worse. So I'm stopping and probably won't pick it up again.

If it was written differently, more engaging, less jumpy, I probably would read on because the idea was interesting, but I don't want to read a 700 page book on how to research the undead and the murder warnings that happen.

If you don't mind slow reading or are super into descriptions, this book is for you. Not for me. Good luck.