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The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert

Winter Book Review

The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert was a book I knew I was going to like because it takes place during WWII and I love almost all books that take place during that time period.  I loved this book  because I really loved Gretl from the start of the book.  I was amazed at how she was able to go through what she did and still keep going.  I don’t think I could do the same if I were in her shoes.  I also enjoyed Jakob because of how he treated Gretl and how he was willing to take care of her when he could have just as easily ignored her and let her figure it out on her own.  I can’t say enough good things about this book and I know if you love historical fiction books then you will love this book like I do.

The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert

About The Book

A sweeping international love story that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit over the inhumanities of war and prejudice.

Six-year-old Gretl and her sister jump from a train bound for Auschwitz, her mother and grandmother unable to squeeze between the bars covering the windows. The daughter of a German soldier, Gretl understands very little about how her grandmother’s Jewishness brought her first to the ghetto, then to the train, and now, to the Polish countryside where she wanders, searching for food and water for her dying sister.

Soon, Gretl finds refuge with Jakob, a Polish freedom fighter, and his family, where she is sheltered until the end of the war. Gretl is then sent away to a new life, a new name, and a new faith in Apartheid-era South Africa. As she comes of age in this strange place, she confronts its prejudices as she hides the truth of her past from her new family.

When Jakob makes his way to South Africa many years later, Gretl and Jakob are reunited in a love story that transcends time and distance and survives the ravages of hatred and war.

About The Author

International bestselling author Irma Joubert was a history teacher for 35 years before she began writing. Her stories are known for their deep insight into personal relationships and rich historical detail. She’s the author of eight novels and a regular fixture on bestseller lists in The Netherlands and in her native South Africa. She is the winner of the 2010 ATKV Prize for Romance Novels. Facebook: irmajoubertpage

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Crimson Path Of Honor by M.B. Tosi

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Crimson Path Of Honor by M.B. Tosi was so different  from anything that I have read before.  I have read a ton of historical fiction books but none that dealt with Native Americans like this book does.  This is the third book in “The Indian Path Series” but you don’t have to read the other two books to know what is going on in this book.  It is the third book but all books can stand alone because they all focus on a different Indian tribe.  I love watching and Luci turn into Morning Star after she is captured and taken with them instead of being killed when the other people in her party were killed.  This was an amazing book and I am so glad that I chose to review.  I can’t wait to read the other books in this series in the future.

Crimson Path Of Honor by M.B. Tosi

About The Book

Each of the three books in The Indian Path Series focuses on a different Native American tribe during the Indian Wars in the late 1800s, and the lives of fictional characters are woven into the true events. The books can be read in any order as each book stands alone with different characters, tribes, settings, and events in the Indian Wars.

In the newest book, The Crimson Path of Honor (Book Three), the Civil War is over, and a violent period known as the Indian Wars is erupting. Ignoring the danger, a feisty young woman from Boston rebels against her tyrannical father’s plans to marry her off to a family friend, and she seizes an opportunity to go west to teach. On the way to the Oregon Territory, her stagecoach is attacked, and she is captured by a marauding band of Lakota (Sioux) Indians who call the Rocky Mountains home.

Accepting her perilous situation, the young woman courageously confronts the daily hardships inherent in early Native American life. At first treated like an outcast, she eventually adapts to her circumstances and comes to respect the camaraderie of the Indians, even falling in love with her captor. Over time, she begins to challenge her abductor’s traditional views on bloodletting and violence as the path of honor. Torn by her inability to justify her growing feelings for her captor in a culture of violence,she continually wonders why God has abandoned her in such a desolate place.

The theme of The Indian Path Series is how to find life’s purpose and a path of peace, love, courage, and faith in times of trouble. As American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”

Other books in The Indian Path Series include The Sacred Path of Tears (Book One) and The Secret Path of Destiny (Book Two). In The Sacred Path of Tears, a young Cheyenne woman in Kansas is torn between two worlds at war and the two men she loves after the Sand Creek Massacre. The Secret Path of Destiny is about the Comanche in Texas and a young German-American girl who seeks refuge with the Comanche when her wicked stepfather pursues her.

MB Tosi

About The Author

M.B. TOSI is the bestselling author of The Indian Path Series, which includes Book One The Sacred Path of Tears, Book Two The Secret Path of Destiny, Book Three The Crimson Path of Honor. Book Four, The Thundering Path of Spirit, and Book Five, The Solitary Path of Courage. She also has been an editor of non-fiction books and a weekly newspaper. She teaches piano and has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s degree in education. Born in Pierre, South Dakota, she has lived in Alexandria, Virginia; Bucks County, Pennsylvania; and Toledo, Ohio. She has three children and five grandchildren.

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Never Said by Carol Lynch Williams

Book Review

Never Said by Carol Lynch Williams was a very interesting book.  I really enjoyed this book and it was a super quick read because it is a YA fiction.  This was a great break from the books I have read.  I loved that the author didn’t shy away from topics that kids really have to deal with in today’s society.  I love when authors take on hard to talk about subjects because it opens the door for people to talk about them.  I loved seeing how Sarah & Annie interacted and how much they changed from the start of the book right up until the end of the book.  I felt like I could relate to Sarah the most because we have very similar personalities.  If you love YA fiction or you have a teenager in your life you need to read this book.

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About The Book

From bestselling author Carol Lynch Williams (The Chosen One), a contemporary YA novel about a family that has been caught up in what doesn’t matter and how two sisters realize that their relationship—no matter how different the two of them are—is most important.

In this contemporary YA novel by bestselling author Carol Lynch Williams (The Chosen One), fifteen-year-old fraternal twins Annie and Sarah are sisters, but that is where their interaction ends. Then Annie begins to withdraw from the family, forcing Sarah to investigate why-and the secret she uncovers changes their relationship forever.

Never Said explores not only the effects of abuse but also our world’s reliance on self, beauty, and other people’s perceptions. With themes of forgiveness, love, sacrifice, and hope woven throughout the story, teens and other fans of young adult fiction will be drawn to this story of two sisters who must find a way to come together and find the healing they both need.

Never Said

About The Author

About the Author: Carol Lynch Williams, a two-time winner of the Utah Original Writing Competition, is the author of several books for children, including two novels about the Orton family of New Smyrna, Florida: Kelly and Me and Adeline Street. A starred School Library Journal review of The True Colors of Caitlynne Jacksonpraises Williams as she “again demonstrates her facility at mood and character development… Truer colors are hard to come by.”

Her most recent novel, If I Forget, You Remember, is a moving intergenerational story that stresses the bonds that hold families together through difficult times–a help since over 19 million Americans have a family member with Alzheimer’s disease.

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Detained by Don Brown

Book Review

Detained by Don Brown was an amazing book.  I wasn’t sure when I requested this book to review that I was going to like it but I really enjoyed reading it.  I think part of that is because I wondered if things like this really happen because it wouldn’t shock me if they really did happen.  Anyway I loved the author’s writing and how could make you feel as if you are there with the characters.  I felt so bad for Nijib & Hasan and had to keep reading because I had to know what happened to them.  This book wasn’t a hard read and it is something that I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery book.

Detained by Don Brown

About The Book

A dream-trip to America becomes a tortuous nightmare at the Guantanamo Bay military prison camp.

When a Navy Petty Officer is arrested and accused of terrorism, Navy JAG Officer Matt Davis is called on to right a wrong. Davis’ clients are incarcerated indefinitely on trumped-up “terror” charges, and one faces execution. Somewhere between the war-torn plains of Northern Lebanon and the secret torture chamber of Guantanamo lie the keys to justice. But can Davis expose the truth in time to save the lives of those being accused, and at the same time, escape with his own life?

Don Brown

About The Author

Don Brown is the author of Thunder in the Morning Calm, The Malacca Conspiracy, The Navy Justice Series, andThe Black Sea Affair, a submarine thriller that predicted the 2008 shooting war between Russia and Georgia. Don served five years in the U.S. Navy as an officer in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps, which gave him an exceptional vantage point into both the Navy and the inner workings “inside-the-beltway” as an action officer assigned to the Pentagon. He left active duty in 1992 to pursue private practice, but remained on inactive status through 1999, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He and his family live in North Carolina, where he pursues his passion for penning novels about the Navy. http://www.donbrownbooks.com Facebook: Don-Brow

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Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2015 Margaret Margaret