[REVIEW] The Nightingale

title: The Nightingale
author: Kristin Hannah
genre: adult fiction, historical fiction
publish: February 3, 2015 by St. Martin's Press
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 5 / 5 stars
goodreads

The bestselling novel that has captured readers across the globe -- a story of two sisters, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France. 

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 places 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, money, nor hope, as danger escalates all around them, Vianne is forced to make on impossible choice after another to keep her family alive. 

Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians match 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 everything she has to save her fellow countrymen -- even her own life.

a MUST READ WWII novel.

I've been hoping to read this book in like FOREVER because: (1) it's historical fiction (and you know my goal: read all those historical fiction!! no alternate history/fantasy history for me though, sorry); (2) it' set in WWII (probably the most widely written time period at the moment. probably); (3) I've SEEN this book recommended everywhere!! just EVERYWHERE!! (along with All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr).

[REVIEW] Girl in the Blue Coat

title: Girl in the Blue Coat
author: Monica Hesse
genre: young adult, historical fiction
publish: April 5, 2016 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 4 / 5 stars
goodreads

Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days finding and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the German army invaded. Her illegal work keeps her family afloat, and Hanneke also likes to think of it as a small act of rebellion against the Nazis. 

On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman’s frantic plea to find a person: a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such a dangerous task but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations—where the only way out is through. 

Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary, unforgettable story of bravery, grief, and love in impossible times.

a beautiful story of love, friendship, and bravery during war times

Girl in the Blue Coat was an auto-buy for me simply because: (1) it's historical fiction (because I HAVE to read ALL the historical books out there. lol.), (2) it's set in WWII (it may be the most widely written historical period but there are still too much we do not know about it!!), (3) that cover is too bEAUTIFUL (GAH! I just know I need this in my shelf the moment I saw it!!)!!