Net Galley
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Book Review- The Hunger
Title: The Hunger Author: Alma Katsu Published: 5th April 2018 Pages: 376 Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction Rating: 4/5 Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere. Tamsen Donner must be a witch. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the pioneers to the brink of madness. They cannot escape the feeling that someone–or something–is stalking them. Whether it was a curse from the beautiful Tamsen, the choice to follow a disastrous experimental route West, or just plain bad luck–the 90 men, women, and…
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Book Review- Estoril
Title: Estoril Author: Dejan Tiago-Stankovic Published: 8th March 2018 Pages: 352 Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 3/5 stars Set in a luxurious grand hotel just outside Lisbon, at the height of the Second World War, Estoril is a delightful and poignant novel about exile, divided loyalties, fear and survival. The hotel’s guests include spies, fallen kings, refugees from the Balkans, Nazis, American diplomats and stateless Jews. The Portuguese secret police broodingly observe the visitors, terrified that their country’s neutrality will be compromised. The novel seamlessly fuses the stories of its invented characters with appearances by historical figures like the ex-King Carol of Romania, the great Polish pianist Jan Paderewski, the British…
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Book Review- The Belles
Title: The Belles Author: Dhonielle Clayton Published: 08 February 2018 Pages: 448 Genre: YA, Fantasy Series: The Belles #1 Rating: 2.5/5 Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orléans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orléans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful.But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite—the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orléans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the…
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Book Review- The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Title: The Tattooist of Auschwitz Author: Heather Morris Published: 11th January 2018 Pages: 288 Genre: Fiction, Historical Rating: 5/5 The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on the true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, two Slovakian Jews who survived Auschwitz and eventually made their home in Australia. In that terrible place, Lale was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival – literally scratching numbers into his fellow victims’ arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust. Lale used the infinitesimal freedom of movement that this position awarded him to exchange jewels and money taken from murdered Jews for…
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Book Review- Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
Title: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore Author: Matthew J. Sullivan Published: 13th June 2017 Pages: 336 Genre: Fiction, Mystery Rating: 4/5 stars When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this fiendishly clever debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s…