The Girl You Gave Away

The Girl You Gave Away by Jess Ryder

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.

Fourteen-year-old Erin found herself in a very peculiar situation. Typical teen looking for parents attention gets involved with a sketchy crowd. As a result, Erin develops a drinking habit, and the biggest surprise of all – falls pregnant. Underaged teen is unable to keep the child, and without her parents’ moral and financial support is forced to place her daughter for adoption.

Twenty-six years later, Erin receives a birthday card, signed “the girl you gave away“. From that moment forward – her life is flipped upside down and very quickly fills with lies, betrayals, blackmail, and revenge.

“The Girl You Gave Away” is full of twists that make the reader glued to the pages, absorbing narrators, and entertaining and mysterious characters. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advanced and free copy of the novel, and Jess Ryder for another phenomenal thriller.

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Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930-1944

Chanel’s Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930-1944 by Anne de Courcy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Chanel’s Riviera is entertaining and easy to read with many captivating facts about Côte d’Azur and Paris during the 1930s through late 1944.

The novel is divided into two parts, the first half describes Coco’s life and rise to power, her powerful friends, affairs. In this part of the book, the reader is introduced to multiple high society figures that at one point or another were a big part of Chanel’s life. Not knowing much about Coco’s life in general, this book has shed lite on her business and love lives. It’s short, well detailed. I’ve learned many interesting facts about the days of the Chanel empire and the designer herself.

The second part of the novel discusses the life of Coco and her circle of friends during the war, their fall of power, and struggles. The novel covers many lives of famous and non-famous people, as a comparison between the social classes and roles it played in their survival.

The novel was well written, with many interesting facts. I found myself enjoying the life of Riviera prior to WWII as it had more new info for me rather than the years of the war. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press publisher for a free and advanced copy of the book.

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The Other Mrs

The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Spine chilling and extremely captivating novel that has everything any thriller lover longs for: unreliable narrator, multiple twists, “what-in-the-world” moments.

Just a few weeks after Sadie and Will move their family from busy Chicago to quiet Maine a gruesome murder takes place in the neighboring house. Suddenly, Sadie evolves a big interest to the victim that she never got a chance to meet (or has she?). After a few chats with the police detective, she starts her own investigation, and the shocking facts she discovers – point to her family home. Shocker, I know! But this is only the beginning…

With “The Other Mrs” an author keeps the readers on their toes as she continually shocks and surprised them with the plot twists. Nothing is ever what meets the eye. Everything is interconnected in an elaborate way. Not one fact and story are wasted here in order to build atmosphere, everything is said with purpose and brought back up in due time. Thank you NetGalley and Park Row publisher for an advanced and free copy of the novel and Mary Kubica for a phenomenal story!

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The Words I Never Wrote

The Words I Never Wrote by Jane Thynne

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve read so many books that took place during WWII, it was a pleasure to read “The Words I Never Wrote” by Jane Thynne as the novel takes place and tells the reader a story of the years prior to the great war.

During a hot summer day, Juno Lambert, a photographer, and the occasional writer find herself in an antique shop where she comes across an old 1931 Underwood typewriter that once belonged to a journalist Cordelia Capel. To her amusement, the old typewriter came with a bonus, a manuscript/biography hidden in its case. The script has lured Juno into its pages with an appealing story of two sisters who fought the same great war, from the opposite sides.

Regrettably, the sisters’ relationship is torn apart by the horrific war. Newly married Irene joined her German husband in the heart of Germany – Berlin, at the same time as her younger sister Cordelia, a journalist in training was sent to France. During the years prior to WWII sisters often exchange letters that contain their political views and social life in pre-war Berlin and Paris. As the warning of the upcoming war becomes real, young Cordelia learns that Irene’s husband is a Nazi sympathizer and urged her sister to leave her husband’s side and return home before it’s too late. With no explanation, Irene chooses not to follow Cordelia’s pleas, and in result sisters’ communications stops, and their lives go into different directions.

The biography is cut short, leaving Juno yearning for more. After throw research, she finds very little on Irene and Cordelia’s lives during and after the war. Why Cordelia has not set her foot in Europe after 1945? Has Irene survived the war? Has Cordelia ever forgiven her sister for betraying their beliefs and home county? Juno packs her bags and boards the plane to the place that might hold answers to all her questions – Berlin.

I was immersed in the story of the triumph of the human spirit, and courage, as well as the strength and perseverance of strong women. Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books publishers for a free and advanced copy of this wonderful novel.

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