Hi.

Welcome to Hasty Book List, where I document and review the books I read. Hope you have a nice stay!

Books Publishing This Week

Books Publishing This Week

Books Publishing This Week: April 7 - 13

I want to note that I do not get paid to do these posts, I just love authors and the book industry. However, they do take time and energy to create. If you want to donate a few dollars to my coffee fund, which keeps this blog going, you can do so here: https://venmo.com/AshleyHasty or here: http://paypal.me/hastybooklist.

Imagine this:

As you settle into the cozy corner of your favorite armchair, you glance out the window to see the gentle sway of trees, their branches adorned with the tender buds of early spring. The air is infused with a soft warmth, carrying the promise of longer days and blooming flowers. It's an April afternoon, the kind that begs for leisurely pursuits and moments of quiet reflection.

In your hands rests a new book, its cover pristine and enticing, promising adventure, knowledge, or perhaps a journey into the depths of imagination. You run your fingers over the smooth surface, feeling the slight indentations of the title and the subtle texture of the artwork. There's something inherently thrilling about cracking open the pages of a freshly minted book, its secrets waiting to be unveiled.

With a sense of anticipation, you flip open the cover, greeted by the crisp scent of ink and paper. The first few pages are a blank canvas, inviting you to immerse yourself in the world that lies within. As you delve into the introductory paragraphs, you feel a sense of excitement building within you, like a traveler setting out on an uncharted path.

The words on the page dance before your eyes, weaving intricate tapestries of imagery and emotion. With each sentence, you find yourself drawn deeper into the narrative, losing track of time as the outside world fades into the background. The characters come to life in your mind's eye, their voices echoing in the silent corners of your thoughts.

Outside, the world carries on its bustling rhythm, but within the confines of your reading nook, time seems to stand still. You are transported to distant lands, swept away by the currents of imagination. Through the pages of the book, you explore realms both familiar and unknown, encountering challenges, triumphs, and moments of profound insight.

As the afternoon wears on, you find yourself completely engrossed in the story, turning page after page with eager anticipation. The hours slip by unnoticed, swallowed up by the captivating tale unfolding before you. Occasionally, you pause to savor a particularly poignant passage or to ponder the deeper meanings hidden beneath the surface.

The sunlight filters through the window, casting a warm glow over the room, casting long shadows that stretch across the floor. The soft hum of distant traffic drifts through the open window, a gentle reminder of the world beyond your reading sanctuary. But for now, you are content to remain lost in the pages of your book, surrendering yourself to its enchanting embrace.

As the sun begins to dip below the horizon, painting the sky with hues of pink and gold, you reluctantly tear yourself away from the story, marking your place with a well-worn bookmark. Though you may have reached the end of today's reading session, the journey is far from over. You eagerly anticipate the next opportunity to lose yourself in the world of words once more.

With a satisfied sigh, you set the book aside, its pages whispering promises of future adventures. As you rise from your chair and stretch, you can't help but feel a sense of gratitude for the simple pleasure of a quiet afternoon spent in the company of a good book. And as you bid farewell to the characters who have become like old friends, you know that you will return to their world again and again, seeking solace, inspiration, and the boundless magic of storytelling.

Scroll down to find out what book you might be reading…

Weekends with You by Alexandra Paige

For fans of Beth O’Leary and Josie Silver, a heartwarming and romantic debut told over the course of one year in monthly weekend installments, about found family, new love, and the magic of London.

Flowers have always been the best communicators. They’ve mastered falling over one another in the perfect way to announce exactly what they need: sunlight, water, space. They do not rush. They do not bloom before their time. They do not take without giving in return…

They are nothing like the rest of London.

Between trying to keep her north London flower shop, The Lotus, afloat and falling for a flatmate, Lucy Bernstein is going to have to rethink everything she knows about “creative arrangements.”

Unwillingly becoming one of eight flatmates in a quirky warehouse conversion would have been difficult enough without any romantic entanglements, but when Lucy lays eyes on Henry Baker, the traveling photographer who only comes home twelve weekends a year, she knows her hands will be full with more than just posies. As each weekend progresses, Lucy also finds herself unexpectedly falling for all her new flatmates, along with this bustling but ultimately sweeter home.

Can Lucy learn from the flowers she tends to and bravely reach for all that she needs to bloom?

Next To You By Hannah Bonam-Young

Two friends battle feelings for each other as they work together to renovate a school bus into a home in this charming romance novel from the viral TikTok author of Next of Kin and Out on a Limb.

“Warm, sexy, and vulnerable . . . Hannah Bonam-Young needs to be on your romance radar.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Hannah Grace

Lane is in the middle of an identity crisis. Her friends are all partnered up, her career is heading nowhere, and simply put, she’s not happy. So, after a night out celebrating her birthday, she makes one hell of an impulsive purchase: a giant yellow forty-eight-passenger school bus that she intends to make her home.

With little-to-no renovation experience but a large sum of inheritance money, Lane enlists the help of her friend Matt—a mechanic by trade, handyman by practice, and hottie by nature.

While their mutual attraction is undeniable, Matt and Lane have silently agreed that a friendship is the only thing that can ever exist between them. Matt’s a total family guy with “settle down with me” tattooed across his forehead, whereas Lane is entirely commitment averse. It could never work . . . right?

A Promise of Peridot by Kate Golden

Arwen Valondale is sailing for the mysterious Kingdom of Citrine after the battle of Siren’s Bay. Reeling from shocking revelations and her newfound powers, Arwen directs all of her pain and rage toward the man who betrayed her: King Kane Ravenwood.

Kane’s presence is unavoidable as he travels with Arwen and her friends to seek the Blade of the Sun, a legendary weapon inextricably tied to her fate and the future of the realm. Even an uneasy truce proves difficult as Arwen fights against her unresolved feelings for Kane, who is willing to become darkness itself to protect her.

As Arwen faces creatures, foes, and magic beyond her wildest imaginings, she must discover the secrets of her past to defeat the monstrous Fae king Lazarus. But finding the light within might mean the death of her and everyone she loves.

The ManServant Guide to Modern Chivalry by Dalal Khajah and Josephine Wai Lin

A vibrant and feminist rewrite of the rules of chivalry in the spirit of Porn for Women and Men to Avoid in Art and Life.

Tired of bros and do-nothing daddys, sick of misogynistic behavior in the boardroom, and frankly dreading yet another bachelorette party with a stripper, Dalal Khajah and Josephine Wai Lin founded the service company ManServants Inc. What is a ManServant, you ask? The ManServants are “chivalrous gentlemen for nonsexual service,” who treat women like queens for a day.

The ManServant Guide to Modern Chivalry is the gift that every woman with a well-intentioned but clueless husband, boyfriend, guy friend, or son should buy for all the women in their life. From doing laundry, carrying shopping bags, cleaning the bathroom, or watching the kids, this book details how men should treat women in the 21st century. Including short essays, tips, and best practices aimed towards helping a budding ManServant please his lady of leisure, this visually intelligent, stylistically bold, and ardently feminist guide is a perfect navigation for men in the post-#MeToo movement world.

Murder on the Dodder by Keith Bruton

ASKS:
Get Gun
Kill Doyle
Save Jack

The eagerly awaited sequel to The Lemon Man, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best International Novel and a Deadly Pleasures Magazine Top 10 Paperback of the Year.

Patrick Callen is a bike-riding hitman with mild OCD trying to save his crumbling relationship with his live-in girlfriend while racing through Dublin to save his kidnapped mentor from execution. The ransom: ticking off a to-do list of murders that will make Patrick a target of the police, the mob, and his closest friends...and doom his romance...if it doesn't get him killed first.

Praise for The Lemon Man

"A fast-paced crime novel that is both hilarious & hardboiled, its main character both ruthless and oddly sympathetic." ABC News

"Sparkling prose, a well-realized setting, and appealing characters make this offbeat crime novel a winner. Bruton is definitely an author to watch." Publishers Weekly

"Keith Bruton's passion for his hometown of Dublin and for crime fiction shines like a beacon in his glorious debut novel. His quiet, domestic set pieces are as rewarding, and as exciting in some ways, as his riveting action scenes." Mystery Scene Magazine

An Enchanting Case of Spirits by Melissa Holtz

When a fortieth birthday celebration leads to a ghostly visitor, four friends find themselves navigating surprising mysteries and spiritual hijinks, in this clever debut from Melissa Holtz.

Alyssa Mann isn’t adventurous, not since her husband died and she found herself the single mom of a teenage daughter. But there’s no way to avoid celebrating the big 4-0, so when her best friends drag her out for drinks and a tarot reading, she throws caution to the wind and decides to see what the spirits have to say. It’s all fun and games, until she wakes up the next morning with a wicked hangover—and a ghost perched on the edge of her bed.

Sheer panic sends her running to get help from Nick West, the (very attractive) detective who lives next door. When he finds no one inside, Alyssa has to accept that she really did see a ghost. As the dearly departed keep appearing, Alyssa and her friends do their best to learn how to control her newfound power. Trading insults with ghosts, tracking down family heirlooms, and getting closer to the skeptical but helpful Nick is more fun than Alyssa imagined. But when looking into one ghost’s past reveals unexpected—and unwelcome—facts about Alyssa’s late husband’s death, she discovers she just may be in over her head.

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland

Once a young woman uncovers a dark secret about her neighbor and his mysterious new wife, she’ll have to fight to keep herself—and the woman she loves—safe in this stunning queer reimagining of the classic folktale “The Selkie Wife.”

When a sharp cry wakes Jean in the middle of the night during a terrible tempest, she’s convinced it must have been a dream. But when the cry comes again, Jean ventures outside and is shocked by what she discovers—a young woman in labor, drenched to the bone in the bitter cold and able to speak barely a word of English.

Although Jean is the only midwife for miles around, she’s at a loss for who this woman is or where she’s from; Jean can only assume that she must be the new wife of the neighbor up the road, Tobias. And when Tobias does indeed arrive at her cabin in search of his wife, Muirin, Jean’s questions continue to multiply. Why has he kept his wife’s pregnancy a secret? And why does Muirin’s open demeanor change completely the moment she’s in his presence?

Though Jean learned long ago that she should stay out of other people’s business, her growing concern—and growing feelings—for Muirin mean that she can’t simply set her worries aside. But when the answers she finds are more harrowing than she ever could have imagined, she fears she may have endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby. Will she be able to put things right and save the woman she loves before it’s too late, or will someone have to pay for Jean’s actions with their life?
*
* * *

No More Empty Spaces: A Novel by D.J. Green

It’s 1973 and Will Ross, a divorced American geologist, has signed on to work on a troubled dam in a remote, rugged part of Turkey. Due to his ex-wife's advancing alcoholism, he takes his children to Turkey for their usual two-week stint of shared custody. He doesn't share that he has no plans to send them home. Alongside these emotional conflicts, he, his children, and everyone else involved in the dam face powerful external forces, including landslides and earthquakes. Science can help them understand those forces and engineering can help control them, but each character gradually comes to realize that the landscape they stand upon, and the landscapes of their lives, will shift and shake regardless of the choices they make. The question, then, is: how will they respond?

Ghost Station by S. A. Barnes

A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence.

Space exploration can be lonely and isolating.

Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she's assigned to a small exploration crew, she's eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something.

While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure than opening up to her.

That is, until their pilot is discovered gruesomely murdered. Is this Ophelia’s worst nightmare starting—a wave of violence and mental deterioration from ERS? Or is it something more sinister?

Terrified that history will repeat itself, Ophelia and the crew must work together to figure out what’s happening. But trust is hard to come by…and the crew isn’t the only one keeping secrets.

Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology.

In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. But as with all things that offer hope when hope had gone, the tale came with a warning.

Every wish demands a price.

Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong.

Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two choices: to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time-hope.

But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape…that of the dragonfruit itself.

Kate's War by Linda Stewart Henley

Set in a London suburb during the first year of WWII, and inspired by a little-known event from 1940 in which the author’s father participated, KATE'S WAR tells the story of a young teacher and her family facing the dangers of war, especially when sheltering one of her pupils, a Jewish German refugee. This poignant and gripping tale of bravery and hope will appeal to fans of WWII novels like The Paris Library, The Nightingale, and Beneath A Scarlet Sky, in which ordinary people do extraordinary things.

When Happily Ever After Fails by Courtney Deane

Twentysomething Abigail Gardner’s life is circling the drain. Her parents are dead, her “like a brother” is in love with her, and her nascent career as an art teacher was fully squashed by an unfortunate viral incident involving sophomores and Spanx. But just as that whirlpool feels poised to suck her down completely, she’s granted a second chance: she lands a teaching job at Excelsior Primm, one of Philadelphia’s oldest and most prestigious preparatory academies. Only problem is, instead of teaching art she’ll be stuck teaching her least favorite subject—literature—and her least favorite theme: tragedy.

Tired of being stuck in her own tragic tale, Abigail starts rewriting every sad ending she can get her hands on, in and out of the classroom. To her surprise, her life soon starts to resemble the fairy tales she adores—great job, hot guy, a career gaining recognition. But when an unexpected plot twist threatens to derail her happy ending, Abigail begins to realize why these conclusions are so hard to come by.

Highest Bidder by Sara Cate

He's not just rich...he's filthy rich.

When Daisy Bennett started working at Salacious Players' Club, she never expected to end up on the auction block ready to grant a date to the highest bidder. She only took the waitressing job to learn more about a mysterious man from her mother's past--Ronan Kade.

So when Ronan, the richest man at the club, wins the date, Daisy can't say no. But he's too old. Too rich. Too cocky. And, oh yeah...he once dated Daisy's mother.

Ronan knows there's something about Daisy he can't get enough of, but he has no idea who she is or why they seem to have an undeniable connection. All he can say for sure is that he loves the way she calls him Daddy. One date inevitably leads to more, and Ronan is ready to put his heart on the line, but both he and Daisy will have to be honest about the secrets they've been keeping if they want their chance at something real...

The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton

Risk-averse event planner Amerie Price is jobless, newly single, and about to lose her apartment. With no choice but to gamble on her shaky start-up, the last thing she needed was to run into her smug ex and his new, less complicated girlfriend at Amerie's favorite coffee shop. Panicked, she pretends to be dating the annoyingly sexy man she met by spilling Americano all over his abs. He plays along—for a price.

Half the single men in Houston claim to be astronauts, but Vincent Rogers turns out to be the real deal. What started as a one-off lie morphs into a plan: for the three months leading up to his mission, Amerie will play Vincent's doting partner in front of his loving but overly invested family. In exchange, she gets a rent-free room in his house and can put every penny toward her struggling business.

What Amerie doesn't plan for is Vincent's gravitational pull. While her mind tells her a future with this astronaut is too unpredictable, her heart says he's exactly what she needs. As their time together counts down, Amerie must decide if she'll settle for the safe life—or shoot for the stars.

A Killing On the Hill by Robert Dugoni

The Great Depression. High-level corruption. And a murder that’s about to become Seattle’s hottest mystery. It’s the kind of story that can make a reporter’s career. If he lives to write about it.

Seattle, 1933. The city is in the grips of the Great Depression, Prohibition, and vice. Cutting his teeth on a small-time beat, hungry and ambitious young reporter William “Shoe” Shumacher gets a tip that could change his career. There’s been a murder at a social club on Profanity Hill—an underworld magnet for vice crimes only a privileged few can afford. The story is going to be front-page news, and Shoe is the first reporter on the scene.

The victim, Frankie Ray, is a former prizefighter. His accused killer? Club owner and mobster George Miller, who claims he pulled the trigger in self-defense. Soon the whole town’s talking, and Shoe’s first homicide is fast becoming the Trial of the Century. The more Shoe digs, the more he’s convinced nothing is as it seems. Not with a tangle of conflicting stories, an unlikely motive, and witnesses like Ray’s girlfriend, a glamour girl whose pretty lips are sealed. For now.

In a city steeped in Old West debauchery, Shoe’s following every lead to a very dangerous place—one that could bring him glory and fame or end his life.

Last Days in Plaka by Henriette Lazaridis

Today's Athens is a city of contradictions and complexity—it is grand and scruffy, ancient and modern, full of strivers, refugees and old-timers—and nowhere more so than the neighborhood of Plaka, where the Parthenon looms overhead and two women grapple with what is right and what is true, and how to live your life when you are running out of time.

Searching for connection to her parents’ heritage, Greek-American Anna works at an Athens gallery by day and makes street art by night. Irini is elderly and widowed, once well-to-do but now dependent on the charity of others. When the local priest brings the two women together, it’s not long before they form an unlikely bond. Anna’s friends can’t understand why she spends so much time with the old woman, yet Anna becomes more and more consumed by Irini’s tales of a glamorous past. As they join the priest’s tiny congregation to study the Book of Revelations in preparation for a pilgrimage to Patmos, Anna sinks deeper into Irini’s stories of an estranged daughter and lost wealth and the earthquake damage to her noble home.

Looking for revelation of her own, and driven by a sense that time is running out, Anna makes a decision that puts her in peril, exposes Irini's web of lies, and compels Anna to confront the limits of her own forgiveness.

The Final Victory by Roger Jones

In a novel that fuses the riveting action of The Boys in the Boat with the emotional heft of The Fault in Our Stars, twenty men and women with cancer-ridden bodies compete in a grueling race only to discover that real victory is achieved within.

After he is diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, Tripp Avery feels like all is lost. He finds himself coaching a team of twelve men and eight women with cancer diagnoses of their own, hoping to qualify for the Mixed Masters Dragon Boat national championship and defy their prognoses. If they win, they will represent the United States at the International Dragon Boat races in Hong Kong.

But things soon get complicated, as four of his teammates struggle against their physical limitations and the psychological weight of their conditions. In the summer heat of Chattanooga, their resolve grows thin—along with Tripp’s patience. After a devastating loss to the defending national champions, Tripp can only see the finish line, and he pushes the team even harder. Soon, the team starts to fall apart.

As members of the team collapse under the pressure and one is hospitalized, he must confront his own failings and find a way to move forward. He begins to question his motives, wondering if the win is worth the trauma and what that says about him. Despite the odds, he resolves to rally the team toward a comeback that seems impossible, if only for one final victory.

The Darkness Rises by Stacy Stokes

A gripping speculative thriller perfect for fans of Lauren Oliver and Ginny Myers Sain, about one girl with the power to see death before it happens—and the terrible consequences she faces when saving someone goes wrong.

SOMEONE WANTS REVENGE…

Whitney knows what death looks like. Since she was seven, she’s seen it hover over strangers’ heads in dark, rippling clouds. Sometimes she can save people from the darkness. Sometimes she can’t. But she’s never questioned if she should try. Until the unthinkable happens—and a person she saves becomes the perpetrator of a horrific school shooting.

Now Whitney will do anything to escape the memory of last year’s tragedy and the guilt that gnaws at her for her role in it. Even if that means quitting dance—the thing she loves most—and hiding her ability from her family and friends. But most importantly, no one can know what really happened last year.

Then Whitney finds an ominous message in her locker and realizes someone knows her secret. As the threats pile up, one thing becomes clear—someone wants payback for what she did. And if she’s going to survive the year, she must track down whoever is after her before it’s too late.

The Vacancy In Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass

This explosive novel follows two women at a run-down apartment complex. Anna is trying to piece together the truth after her husband called her, said he’d killed someone, and then turned up dead himself. Cass wants to stop Anna from finding the truth.

The Songbird of Hope Hill by Kim Vogel Sawyer

A young woman sings of God’s love—even if she doesn’t believe He can forgive her—in this heartwarming novel inspired by historical events, from the bestselling author of A Tapestry of Grace.

“An unforgettable story of God’s grace and redemption.”—Kathleen Y’Barbo, author of The Black Midnight

Driven by survival to a life at a house of ill repute, Birdie Clarkson now longs only for escape. So when Reverend Isaiah Overly and his son, Ephraim, appear and offer a better life, she jumps at the chance. Ignoring the furious raging of the madam, Birdie climbs into the back of the preacher’s wagon.

The men take her to Hope Hill, the haven the reverend and his wife, Ophelia, founded so women like Birdie can be taught skills to help them rise above their pasts. Soon a resistant Birdie finds herself singing in the choir Ephraim leads at revival meetings, even though she’s certain she’s the last person who should be representing God.

Reverend Overly teaches that no one is irredeemable, but even as Ephraim is falling in love with her, Birdie remains convinced that she’s past saving. After all she’s been through, can she ever believe that God’s redemption wipes every soul clean? And can Ephraim convince her that God loves her more than she can grasp—and that he does, too?

The Widow Spy by Megan Campisi

The author of the “magnificent…complex, vivid” (New York Journal of Books) Sin Eater returns with a rousing and propulsive novel based on the astonishing true story of the first female Pinkerton detective whose next assignment could end the Civil War.

Kate Warner is many things: the country’s first female detective, a Pinkerton agent, and a union spy.

It’s August 1861, and her latest assignment could finally end the bloody war and bring the fractured United States together again. All she has to do is win the trust of her captive: Confederate spy and socialite Rose Greenhow. But with Rose well aware of Kate’s working-class background and belief in abolitionism, it seems an impossible task. Worst, Kate has secrets that make her vulnerable, such as her forbidden love affair with a colleague.

With time running out, Kate faces not only the moral and political divides between herself and Rose but also the ones she made in her own heart and life. Can she make the difficult decision over which divides are worth crossing? Or will she fail the most important assignment of her career in this spellbinding and moving new novel from Megan Campisi?

The British Booksellers by Kristy Cambron

A tenant farmer’s son had no business daring to dream of a future with an earl’s daughter, but that couldn’t keep Amos Darby from his secret friendship with Charlotte Terrington . . . until the reality of the Great War sobered youthful dreams. Now decades later, he bears the brutal scars of battles fought in the trenches and their futures that were stolen away. His return home doesn’t come with tender reunions, but with the hollow fulfillment of opening a bookshop on his own and retreating as a recluse within its walls.

When the future Earl of Harcourt chose Charlotte to be his wife, she knew she was destined for a loveless match. Though her heart had chosen another long ago, she pledges her future even as her husband goes to war. Twenty-five years later, Charlotte remains a war widow who divides her days between her late husband’s declining estate and operating a quaint Coventry bookshop—Eden Books, lovingly named after her grown daughter. And Amos is nothing more than the rival bookseller across the lane.

As war with Hitler looms, Eden is determined to preserve her father’s legacy. So when an American solicitor arrives threatening a lawsuit that could destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to preserve, mother and daughter prepare to fight back. But with devastation wrought by the Luftwaffe’s local blitz terrorizing the skies, battling bookshops—and lost loves, Amos and Charlotte—must put aside their differences and fight together to help Coventry survive.

From deep in the trenches of the Great War to the storied English countryside and the devastating Coventry Blitz of WWII, The British Booksellers explores the unbreakable bonds that unite us through love, loss, and the enduring solace that can be found between the pages of a book.

The Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson

Inspired by true events, The Wartime Book Club is an unforgettable story of everyday bravery and resistance, full of romance, drama, and camaraderie and a tribute to the joy of reading and the power of books in our darkest hour.

The Isle of Jersey was once a warm and neighborly community, but in 1943, German soldiers patrol the cobbled streets, imposing a harsh rule.

Nazis have ordered Grace La Mottée, the island's only librarian, to destroy books that threaten the new regime. Instead, she hides the stories away in secret. Along with her headstrong best friend, she wants to fight back. So she forms the Wartime Book Club: a lifeline, offering fearful islanders the joy and escapism of reading.

But as the occupation drags on, the women's quiet acts of bravery become more perilous – and more important – than ever before. And when tensions turn to violence, they are forced to face the true, terrible cost of resistance . . .

Based on astonishing real events, The Wartime Book Club is a love letter to the power of books in the darkest of times – as well as a moving page-turner that brings to life the remarkable, untold story of an island at war.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive compensation if you make a purchase using this link. Thank you for supporting this blog and the books I recommend! I may have received a book for free in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
Authors Advice for Young Writers

Authors Advice for Young Writers

Book Mail

Book Mail

0