August 2018 Book Review

August was my slowest reading month of the year where I only read 5 books. It was largely due to one book that was pretty slow, but I definitely had some winners this month! If I read 8 books/month the rest of the year, I will hit 100 books for the year. That's probably a little extreme, but it's crazy to think it's even a possibility!

The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams - OMG. Barely a few pages in, and I was enamored of this book, and it's main character, Vivian. Vivian is a young girl in the upper crust of New York society in the early 60s and ends up receiving a suitcase that belonged to her aunt {she never knew existed} right before the outbreak of WW1. Violet, her aunt, wanted to be a scientist and ran off to Europe to escape and make her dreams come true, but no one knows what happened to her. The story jumps from Vivian to Violet as Vivian unravels the mystery of Violet. I loved this book SO much and was so invested in both stories. I highly recommend this one!

A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley - I think I've read almost all of Susanna Kearsley's books now and have had mixed results with them. Most of them are amazing {The Winter Sea being my favorite} but some are a bit on the dull side. A Desperate Fortune started out on the dull side but ended up really enjoyable. This is another story that jumps back and forth from present to past. Sara is a code-breaker who is trying to break the code of a journal written by young Mary in the 1700s as a possible Jacobite. It took me longer to get into Mary's story than Sara's but both ended up very good, and I really liked how it all unraveled and ended up.

Named of the Dragon by Susanna Kearsley - Unfortunately, this story took the other end of the spectrum for Susanna's books - it was very slow, and I kept waiting for the pace to pick up like the other slow-starts for Susanna have ended up...except this one didn't until the VERY end. I did like the ending but it was a lot of not much to get us there, ugh. Lyn is an agent who is invited by one of her clients to a small town in Wales over the holidays. She is trying to escape some bad events from her past and views this as a chance to escape. While in Wales she continues to have nightmares that have plagued her for years, but the nightmares now seemed to be linked to a neighbor...what is their connection?? Unfortunately this one just didn't quite live up to how intriguing the premise was.

Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce - Aaaand I'm back with another plucky English girl during WW2! {grin} Emmy has high hopes to be a journalist and because of this ends up taking a job at a women's magazine helping with the advice column for a woman living in another, more proper, century. Emmy can't help feeling for the people who write in whose letters Mrs. Bird deems as Unpleasant which lead Emmy into trouble. She and her best friend, Bunty, also have to deal with hardships that were all too familiar during the Blitz in London. I loved Emmy, Bunty, and their story! My only complaint is that I really could have used another couple of chapters or at least an epilogue - the ending was great but seemed a bit rushed.

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah - I've now read 5 books by Kristin Hannah and while this one is no The Nightingale, it is a very good read. Leni is growing up in the 70s with a father suffering from PTSD after being a POW during the Vietnam War and a mother who just wants to help her father. It's a very challenging childhood that only gets more challenging as her father up and decides that they will move to an unsettled part of Alaska to get away from the corrupt US government. This book follows their family over the next decade as they adjust, and in Leni's case, flourish, in the wilds of Alaska. Another solid read where I stayed up too late because of it!

There are some great books coming out in September {the latest Robert Galbraith book, for example} and several I've already checked out from the library - can't wait for a great month of reading!