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Showing posts with the label world war 2

Book Review: The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White

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The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White is the story about Phoebe Manigault returning home to Mt. Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, to help her sister with their ailing mother. When past memories resurface, Phoebe is thrown back into some childhood turmoil. I requested an Advanced Readers Copy ARC of The Last Carolina Summer from NetGalley, and I was ecstatic when the provided me with a copy for free in exchange for my honest review. So, a big thank you goes out to them! When I began reading this story, I just happened to be vacationing in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. I loved hearing about the different places, including streets and a bridge called the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which I had to cross to get into Mt. Pleasant as well as Isle of Palms. It's always nice to be able to visualize the places and author writes about. With that being said, I'm not a fan of traveling over bridges, and one of the scenes of The Last Carolina Summer mentions a car going off ...
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Book Review: The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

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Book Review: The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel opens in the present day in Florida with Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian, falling on a photograph of a book in a magazine. The accompanying article describes the looting of libraries during World War II by the Nazis. Recognizing the book she hasn't seen in sixty-five years, Eva makes plans to fly to Berlin to retrieve it, and ends up reminiscing of her life in Nazi occupied France as a Jewish woman. I recently joined a new book club, and The Book of Lost Names  by Kristin Harmel was the selection for March 2025. I literally only had 2-3 days to read the book before the meeting. Needless to say, I wasn't able to get the entire book read before the meeting, but I did end up finishing the story the day after my book club met.  Let me begin by saying that Kristin Harmel is a talented storyteller and author. I found myself immediately drawn into the story of Eva Traube Abrams...
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Book Review: Stepping on the Cracks (Gordy Smith, #1) by Mary Downing Hahn

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While in middle school, I discovered a book by the name of The Time of the Witch written by Mary Downing Hahn. I immediately fell in love with that book and the author. After that, I checked out every book by her in my school library. One of the books I ended up checking out was Stepping on the Cracks (Gordy Smith, #1) . I didn't realize it then, but it was my first foray into reading historical fiction. Stepping on the Cracks (Gordy Smith, #1) written by Mary Downing Hahn follows best friends Elizabeth and Margaret as they enter the sixth grade while both of their brothers are off fighting the Nazi's in World War II. Both girls are extremely patriotic and support the war, but they are more worried about their own personal war with Gordy Smith, who is the class bully. When Elizabeth and Margaret decide to get even with Gordy and his best friends, Toad and Doug, the girls uncover a secret that the boys rather them not know. Even as an adult rereading Stepping on the Cr...
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Book Review: Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #2) by Ransom Riggs

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Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #2) by Ransom Riggs picks up immediately where Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1) left off. Jacob and his peculiar friends escape the island they've lived and make the trek to London, England to find help for Miss Peregrine. When I first picked up Hollow City , I had a bit of trouble getting into the story line because I was too worried that it wouldn't live up to the first book in the series. However, once I got into the book a little, I was pleasantly surprised and couldn't wait to find out what happened. There were a couple of nights that I read it right before falling asleep and ended up having such strange dreams because of it, that I woke up in the middle of the night more than once with my heart pounding. Don't get me wrong, the book isn't scary, but Hollow City is definitely suspenseful and a little on the dark side. Isn't it strange h...
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