Category Archives: Historical

Review: All the Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry

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All the Truth That’s In Me
Julie Berry
Viking Children’s/Penguin Group
Published September 26, 2013

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Judith returns to her small Puritan community at Roswell Station after a two year disappearance. She remains unable to speak, since her captor removed half her tongue. Her mother grudgingly allows her to live in her home, but rumors about Judith are whispered along the edges of her hearing. No one seems able to believe that she returned with her virtue intact.

Despite the murmurs and dirty looks, Judith tries her best to be kind to the townspeople, especially to her childhood friend Lucas. When an attack by … Continue reading →

Review: Shades of Mercy by Anita Lustrea and Caryn Rivadeneira

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Shades of Mercy by Anita Lustrea and Caryn RivadeneiraShades of Mercy (Maine Chronicle #1)
Anita Lustrea and Caryn Rivadeneira
River North Fiction/Moody Publishers
Published September 1, 2013

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Mercy Millar just wants her father to see her for who she is, instead of the son he wishes he had. She does enjoy the freedom to come and go the way her father’s son would, though. She is even allowed to drive to the edge of town and pick up the Maliseet workers unescorted. She looks forward to that drive each morning because it’s the only place she and Mick, a Maliseet boy, can be together. They … Continue reading →

Review: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye J Walton

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The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye WaltonThe Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Leslye J. Walton
Candlewick Press
Published March 27, 2014

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Ava Lavender comes from a long line of peculiarly gifted women who’ve been unlucky in love. She relates her family history beginning with her great-grandparents and their journey from France to the United States in the early 1900s. Ava’s grandmother is the surviving member of her small family by the time she marries. Desperate to escape the bitter memories of her lost loved ones, Emiliene and her husband head west, finally settling in a small Washington town. Emiliene bears one child, Ava’s mother, before her husband dies. Each member of Emiliene’s family bears … Continue reading →

Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

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Code Name Verity
Elizabeth Wein
Disney/Hyperion
Published February 6, 2012

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After enduring long hours of torture, Verity, a prisoner in an abandoned hotel in Nazi-occupied France, promises to tell her German captors everything she knows. She begins with recollections of her best friend and pilot, Maddy. As Verity writes Maddy’s story, she recounts the early days of friendship and recruitment as a wireless operator in England. Life for Maddy, a simple country girl with a gift for mechanical engineering, drastically changes on the day she meets a bold woman pilot whose plane needs repair. For Maddy’s friend, a lost German pilot becomes the catalyst that sets in motion her own transformation.

While some … Continue reading →

Review: In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

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In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Cat Winters
Amulet Books
Published April 2, 2013

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After Mary Shelley’s father’s arrest as a traitor, Mary Shelley flees to her aunt’s home in southern California. There she hopes to find safety from the ugliness of war and the Spanish Influenza epidemic. When Mary Shelley arrives, she learns the flu epidemic is as alive and dangerous as it was in her Oregon hometown. She also discovers her childhood sweetheart, now a US soldier, apparently missing.

With so many families grieving loved ones lost to war or disease, many people turn to Spiritualism, seeking help from famed photographer who claims to capture spirits of dearly departed in his portraits … Continue reading →

Ten Books I Can’t Wait to Read

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OutcastsOutcasts by Jill Williamson

Release date: 1/7/14

Three brothers and a young girl fight for survival within the towering walls of the Safe Lands. Despite its name, the city is ravaged with disease and infested with corruption. Each brother follows a mission: to find a cure for the sick; to free the captives; to take down the Safe Lands in a rebellion.

The second in her Safe Lands series, Outcasts is quickly earning a reputation as an intense story set in a captivating world. As a fan of Williamson’s fantasy series, Blood of Kings, I’ve been eager to get lost in another story by this worthy author.

The Captive MaidenThe Captive Maiden by Melanie Dickerson

Release date: 11/9/13

Lonely Gisela … Continue reading →