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10-year-old Virginia Wrathmell is glad to be out of the orphanage where she has lived since her parents died, but she's not quite sure what to think of her adoptive home and family.  Salt Winds is a strange, lonely place.  With its remote location on the moors, it feels otherworldly, sad, and somehow, dangerous.  While Virginia's new father, Clem, is warm and kind, the same can't be said of Lorna, her new mother, whose glamorous facade hides a temperament as shifting as the tides.  While she can't quite understand the tension in her adoptive parents' marriage, she knows it has something to do with Max Deering, the charismatic widower who lives nearby. 

With war raging in other parts of Europe, it's only a matter of time before the conflict comes to Salt Winds.  When Clem and Virginia spy a German airman making a risky parachute landing on their beach, Clem rushes to help him.  His kind act sets in motion events that will rock young Virginia to her core and threaten everything she's come to love about the place she's just beginning to think of as home.

The Orphan of Salt Winds, a debut novel by Elizabeth Brooks, features some of my favorite fictional elements—a moody, broody setting; a haunting Gothic vibe; and family skeletons bursting from hidden closets.  Unfortunately, for me, these appealing pieces didn't quite come together to create a satisfying whole.  While I found the story compelling enough to keep me reading, I also thought it was cold, stark, sad, and depressing.  Overall, I just didn't love it.  It turned out to be an okay read, but definitely not a memorable or captivating one.

(Readalikes:  The book's setting and premise reminded me of Kate Morton's novels, although the former lacks the warmth and charm of the latter.)  

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a couple F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, sexual content, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

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There is plenty about her confinement in the Crystal City internment camp during World War II that Elise Sontag Dove would gladly forget.  But as Alzheimer's slowly eats away her 81-year-old memory, there is one part of her internment experience she's desperate to remember—her best friend and fellow internee, Mariko Inoue Hiyashi.  After being repatriated to Japan, Mariko's parents forced her to remain in their homeland.  Elise hasn't heard from her in almost seven decades.  Now, with the help of Google, Elise must secretly engineer a reunion so she can—at last—thank Mariko for the girlhood friendship that changed Elise's life.

As Elise makes her clandestine plan, she reminisces about her unbelievable experience as the American-born daughter of unnaturalized German immigrants during the war.  From internment to expatriation to seeing firsthand the awful devastation of bombing in Germany, it's a harrowing story of sorrow, injustice, and, ultimately, hope.

I've read dozens of novels set during World War II, but I think this is the first time I've really encountered one about the plight of German-Americans during the war.  I knew about people of Japanese descent being interred, but not about those of German lineage suffering the same fate.  It's a fascinating piece of history about which I definitely wanted to know more.  The premise of The Last Year of the War, the newest dual-timeline historical novel by Susan Meissner, definitely interested me.  Unfortunately, the plot itself gets uneven and disjointed.  While the story centers on a friendship forged in the dusty Texan desert, only a tiny part of the tale actually takes place there, making the key theme of the novel feel less significant than it should have.  Other than that, The Last Year of the War is an enjoyable novel that stars sympathetic characters acting against a fascinating historical backdrop.  While I didn't end up loving this one, I did find it an intriguing and moving tale.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other novels by Susan Meissner, including A Sound Among the Trees; A Fall of Marigolds; Stars Over Sunset Boulevard; A Bridge Across the Ocean; and As Bright As Heaven)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), violence, and mild, non-graphic sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of The Last Year of the War from the generous folks at Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

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As part of the blog tour for The Last Year of the War, Penguin Random House has authorized me to give away a paperback copy of Susan Meissner's last book, As Bright As Heaven.  It's a heart-wrenching novel about a mother and daughter living in Philadelphia during the horrific outbreak of the Spanish flu in 1918.  Good luck!

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Nestled on the floor of a canyon at the place where Sulphur Creek and the Fremont River meet sits tiny, remote Junction, Utah.  It's 1888 and seven families affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) live in the small community, which has become an in-between place for in-between Saints.  

Raised in a polygamist family, Junction resident Deborah Tyler wants nothing to do with the practice.  More devout members of the faith may question hers, but Deborah's happy with her two decades of marriage to kind, hardworking Samuel, even if their union has not produced the children they long to have.  Still, Deborah has much to keep her busy—household chores, her glove-making business, and finding ways to fill the long hours she spends alone while Samuel is working in southern Utah and Arizona as a traveling wheelwright. 

One night while Deborah is worrying about Samuel, who's been gone much longer than expected, a stranger shows up at her door seeking refuge.  Helping a polygamist on the run from the law—which is what this man obviously is—could get her in big trouble.  Still, her bleeding heart gets the best of her.  When a U.S. marshal comes along soon after, Deborah finds herself in deeper trouble than she could have ever imagined.  With Samuel away, she has only his stepbrother, Nels Anderson, to help her.  And he's just as guilty as she ... 

As the two try to figure out how to get themselves out of the very hot water they're now in, Deborah must wage a fierce internal battle between right and wrong, justice and safety, and hope and despair.

The Glovemaker, a new historical novel by Ann Weisgarber, tells a tense, compelling tale that kept me turning pages to find out what was going to happen next.  The setting is unique, the historical details intriguing, and the characters sympathetic.  Deborah and Nels are both realistically flawed, making them relatable in their authenticity.  While Weisgarber in no way romanticizes plural marriage, her portrayal of the practice among early Church members is surprisingly sensitive, even empathetic, which makes the story even more absorbing.  Overall, The Glovemaker is engrossing, interesting, and hopeful.  I enjoyed it.

(Readalikes:  Hm, I can't think of anything.  Can you?)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs) and violence

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of The Glovemaker from the generous folks at Skyhorse Publishing via those at Edelweiss.  Thank you!

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When 17-year-old Chloe Holden accidentally runs into a stranger in a convenience store, she's shocked by his reaction.  Yes, she knocked into the teen guy and made him spill his slushie, but it was a total accident, so what's with the hateful threats?  She's never seen the guy before.  Why is he acting like he knows exactly who she is?  

Chloe starts at her new school only to find herself the subject of a death glare from the same strange kid.  She finds out he's senior Cash Colton, a foster kid who's known for making trouble.  When Chloe finds herself defending him after a fight at school, the two become tentative friends.  As they get to know each other better, Cash explains his weird initial reaction to Chloe—his foster parents' toddler was kidnapped 15 years ago and Chloe, who was adopted at 3 years old, looks just like her.  Shocked by the very idea, Chloe begins to question everything she's ever known—and not known—about herself.  Who is she, really?  The more she and Cash dig into her past, the more disturbing and dangerous the present becomes ...

In Another Life by C.C. Hunter boasts an intriguing premise, the kind that usually pulls me right in.  While I found the idea at the center of the novel compelling, the execution didn't quite do it for me.  Chloe, Cash, & Co. feel like flat, generic stereotypes and the plot gets more far-fetched and melodramatic as it goes along.  Several points don't make sense, like why Cash doesn't just grab some DNA samples on the sly and have them tested, which made the story feel illogical to me.  All in all, then, I didn't love this one.  It kept me engrossed enough to finish, true, but overall, I just wasn't that impressed.  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of The Stranger Game by Cylin Busby; Never Missing, Never Found by Amanda Panitch; Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra; and Good As Gone by Amy Gentry)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a handful of F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, sexual innuendo, and mild sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of In Another Life from the generous folks at St. Martin's Press.  Thank you!