REVIEW: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

REVIEW

If you are following along, it's evident that I went on a Kristin Hannah kick; I was so curious about the novels that the interwebs kept raving about, so I got on the Libby waiting list for The Nightingale. Here's what I'm starting to understand about Kristin Hannah books: 

• prepare for the emotional rollercoaster
• are set in historically accurate and important time periods
• the novel will be well researched
• there's a twist (because, duh, what novel doesn't have that?), but it's usually not hard to predict

I can definitely see why readers fell in love with this novel: it features a time period that is important, and currently relevant: WWII, has two wildly different sisters who experience the war very differently, has lots of interesting and horrifying details, and spans decades--so it feels like a rich and satisfying read. I, too, enjoyed (if you can say that you enjoy reading about truly horrifying events?) reading this novel, and I'm pretty selective these days about which WWII novels I read. I'll be honest, I was prepared not to like it because I thought it might be overhyped, but it was actually really interesting and I cared about Vianne and Isabelle. They each had such varied and different experiences and handled the hard upbringing and hardships and obstacles of WWII very differently, and yet, the love that they had for each other and the people they surrounded themselves with was deep and abiding, though not always obvious to each other. 

The Nightingale probably won't beat out The Women, but it's probably on par with it. They're both memorable and engaging and will leave any reader with experiences that are hard to forget.

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SYNOPSIS:

In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.

 

REVIEW: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

 

OUR REVIEW:

After reading The Women by Kristin Hannah, I found myself very curious about her other works, so when this The Great Alone went on sale, I grabbed it. After reading it, I can definitely see that her curiosity about the impacts of Vietnam had to have been piqued, as it feels like the little sister novel of The Women. She explores PTSD via a male secondary character and his family. We see the damage that it wreaks on a family as they learn to survive in the beautiful, but unforgiving, land of Alaska. Leni and her mother try to weather the storms of her father, but as the days get darker and shorter, living with him gets harder and harder. 

The novel is filled with the beautiful and wild landscape of Alaska, as well as the people who migrate there. It's harsh and yet filled with community and love...and paranoia. We follow Leni from her early teen years to her adulthood as she struggles to find herself and what makes her heart sing. It's not the easiest novel to read, and not my favorite of Kristin Hannah's, but it was definitely a compelling read. 

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SYNOPSIS:

Alaska, 1974.
Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.

REVIEW: The Wedding People by Alison Espach

 

OUR REVIEW:

I have no idea how I came across The Wedding People but I found it or it found me and so with the thanks of the Libby app, I got to see what all of the hype was about. 

The novel doesn't have traditional chapters and is instead divided by days of the week, leading up to the wedding. And truth be told, after reading day one, I wasn't sure if I was going to finish it. It felt a little weighed down in details and in a headspace I wasn't sure I wanted to be in. It felt a little slow. But, I try to abide by my 20% rule (to give a novel up to 20% to hook me before I decide whether or not I want to keep reading it or not) and so I stuck with it and ended up really enjoying it. 

It starts with Phoebe drowning in a pit of despair and loathing. She's arrived at a most magnificent resort-like inn to off herself. Little does she know that she has checked herself into a place that was reserved for a wedding. She finds herself swept up in the wedding festivities--the wedding of Lila--and it's just the thing to dissuade her from her original plans. She gets to know Lila--a mix of spoiled and observant and honest and dishonest--and her groom, as she also gets to know herself. In the span of a week, Phoebe has an opportunity to reinvent herself, to become the woman that she wants to be, not the woman she felt like she should be or had to be, and through that finds a chance to live a life that feels more like her. 

After the first wedding day, the rest of the novel felt lighter and more entertaining and engaging. I found that I liked Phoebe and understood her so much better than I thought I could. The wedding party was filled with characters ...and I do mean characters. 

As the days of the week passed, I enjoyed the novel more and more and found that it had some pretty insightful moments. I'm glad I stuck with it. 

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SYNOPSIS:

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

REVIEW: Heartwood by Amity Gaige

OUR REVIEW:

 A contemplative read about mother's and daughters and what happens when you feel loved and seen and heard. While the story itself is about a woman who is missing on the Appalachian Trail, it's really a story of how these women see themselves in the lives they lead and how they view their relationships with their mothers and how those relationships seemed to color a lot of the way they moved through the world.  And as deep as that may sound (or not), it was not as profound as I thought it would be...interestingly enough. I enjoyed it and found the ending to be satisfying, but I think I was hoping for some sort of deep truth, and that didn't happen for me. Instead what I got was a solid read that was entertaining and thoughtful. 

*Comes out April 1st, 2025*

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SYNOPSIS:

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.

Heartwood is a “gem of a thousand facets—suspenseful, transporting, tender, and ultimately soul-mending,” (Megan Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning) that tells the story of a lost hiker’s odyssey and is a moving rendering of each character’s interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found. At its core, Heartwood is a redemptive novel, written with both enormous literary ambition and love.