Rainy Day Reads

This is the prequel to "Code Name Verity" which I absolutely loved. So when this started bouncing around Booktube I knew I had to read it. We follow Julia when she is a young girl, she had her 16th birthday part near the end of the book. She returns to the ancestral home of her grand parents, a large estate sold off when her grandfather dies living massive debts behind him. While Julia's family is packing and organizing the last few heirlooms Julia strikes up a friendship with some local Travellers (can they be local when they are Travellers?) and gets herself involved in a murder mystery when a scholar cataloguing her grandfather's archaeological collection comes up missing. Julia is at the very center of the mystery as it slowly unravels dragging almost everyone into its nets. I really enjoyed this book. It gave me a slight Downton Abbey vibe which I am always down for, and had a real sense of nostalgia with the fading summer days and the unraveling of an ol...

This is a companion novel to ”Code Name Verity” which I have also read and reviewed (and loved!). In this one we see a few of the same people, but since it is a companion novel we mostly meet entirely new people. As with ”Code Name Verity” this book is set during WWII and the main protagonist is a young American woman, Rose, who has come to England to work for the ATA ferrying planes for the Royal Air Force. During one of her flights, she is captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. The book then follows her experience in this camp and with the people she meets there. The book was well-written and the story compelling, but I must say it was not as good as ”Code Name Verity”. That one had a few twists and tricks, that ”Rose Under Fire” did not have. This was more a straightforward story-telling. There is nothing wrong with straightforward, but ”Code Name Verity” kept you guessing all along, while ”Rose Under Fire” just didn't have that quality. The story was ...

Book Haul So I bought some books...again! I have to retract my previous statement of not being one to buy many books/buying new books before I have finished my TBR pile. I still have a few unread books from my last book haul, yet here I am buying more! But I had a voucher that needed spending and there was free shipping....so I had to, right? Anyway, here are the books: The first one was actually a birthday gift and it is “Love Poems” by Pablo Neruda. I always enjoy his writing, but this is the first book I actually own of his. The second book is “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” by Benjamin Alire Saenz. I actually don't really know anything about this book, but I have seen it raved about on Youtube, so I thought I would give it a try. I just hope it doesn't disappoint me, like a few other Youtube favourites have done lately. The next book is “Rose Under Fire” by Elizabeth Wein. It is a companion novel to “Code Name ...

Holy smokes, this book was just what I needed! Finally a good book after I have been struggling with some less than great books these past weeks. The story is set during World War II and follows two British women who both work in the war effort. The book had me gripped tight right from the start, the writing is beautiful and the story is compelling.  I feel like I shouldn't give too much away about the plot, but basically the two women end up in France behind enemy lines. One of them is caught and questioned by the Gestapo, and she must reveal her mission or face torture.  Beware of spoiler-ish notes below!!! The book is divided into two parts. The first is like a set up of the story and telling how Verity came to be in the Gestapo headquarters. During the entirety of this part the author had me questioning if Verity really was telling the truth or if she was somehow trying to cheat the Gestapo and buy more time for herself. But the story she told, the information she gave awa...