The Anastasia series was one of my favorite book series as a kid - partly because the main character's name was Anastasia, and partially because it's just such a cute series. I couldn't believe when I stumbled across one of the Anastasia books at a thrift store, and of course bought it & read it for the first book in my "YA of the 80's & 90's" book challenge.

The book is cute, full of kid-drama, and reminds me of life when I was that age.

First, the disclosure: I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read & review on my kindle, but did not receive any compensation for the review.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed the book. I have never read a Kreitzer book before, though I have heard great things about her other books. I won't get into the plot of PU as there are already a ton of reviews out there for this book, with a lot of detail.

Summer is a very likeable character, as is the entire supporting cast. You hate the bad guys just enough. One thing that drove me nuts, throughout the book, is the repeated talk of all of the trauma, anguish, and torture Summer went through as a slave, and it's very true that she did go through a lot, including an attempted rape, but I really never understood exactly why she stopped talking. I mean, I understand what Kreitzer wrote - every time Summer talked or cried or yelled, she got whipped. But, there have been slaves for hundreds of years, who went through a hell of a lot more than Summer went through; or people today (non-slaves) who have gone through worse abuse at the hands of their own parents or family members, and they didn't stop talking. To me, if she was that badly abused that she'd stop talking, she wouldn't be mouthing words. I can sort of see the accidental giggling -- and definitely the flinching -- but I don't know, that whole thing just really bugged me throughout. And, as always with this type of book, the fact that she just magically met a wonderful guy who starts to fall in love with her, and would do anything for her, and she trusts him with no reason to... another little thing that drove me nuts.


I really wish a little bit more time was spent talking about the pirate ship. I realize this has nothing really to do with the series other than to help you know who Summer is as a character, but that part really interested me. Same with the future world - I wish we had gotten to know that world more, other than just a lot of action that took place in that world.

All of those things aside, however, I am still giving the book 5 stars. My personal rule of thumb is that I only give out "5 star reviews" to books where I really fall in love with one or more characters, and I really loved some of the minor characters in the book, and I really did like Summer & felt for her throughout.

I sat here for several minutes, not knowing where to begin writing this review. It's a serious book & deserves a serious review, but that's not my review or blogging style. I write like I talk - casual, chatty, and a little bit of babble. This book is about how one woman survived Hell - Auschwitz & Birkenau. I read history because history is more interesting then fiction half the time, and how does that old quote go? Something about learning about the past so you aren't doomed to repeat it? I read history for that reason, too.

Anyways, it's a tough book to read, and another one of those books that I read in short bits at a time in order to think about what I actually read. Your stomach churns at reading most of it. Lengyel writes very dispassionately, I think perhaps as her way of coping with the horrors? But the dispassionate doesn't take away any part of learning about her experience; in fact, I think you really feel it all the more for her calm way of explaining what happened to her.

This book is worth reading, but I wouldn't make it my number one suggestion, either.

Though it took me a month to read & finish this book, that is no reflection upon the quality of the book or how much I enjoyed it. I got sucked into the book from the very first page, fell in love with all of the characters, and worried about the family & what was going to happen to them. It would have been a very quick read, if I had actually made the time to read.

My only criticism is how quickly the book ended. Because of how the book ended, you knew how the book was going to basically end, but I still wasn't prepared for the fast ending & would have really liked to have known more of "what happened next".

I received a free copy of this book to read & review from goodreads.

I was very excited when I first heard about this book, and was thrilled when I received a review copy. The book sucks you into the drama of Brendan Prescott from the first page. Every time you "meet" a historical character for the first time in the book, such as Elizabeth or William Cecil, you get a little "thrill". It reminded me of when Star Wars was re-released in the theaters, and every time a main character entered the screen for the first time, the audience loudly applauded.

Being called "The Tudor Secret" obviously the book had its secrets & mysteries. I was hoping for a little more romance & magic that I love to find in historical fiction books, but the characters are well written.

I received a copy of this book to review from the author.

I first read Babi Yar as a teenager, maybe for school? I always hate to say that I "enjoyed" a book about something as horrific as the Holocaust, but I did enjoy reading the book back then. I recently got a box of books about the Holocaust & have been slowly going through them, separating the ones I wanted to read or reread from the rest. I decided to reread Babi Yar. It's a very honest & blunt look at the horror of the event. I don't remember it being so slow-going when I read it the first time, but as an adult I did notice the pace seemed slow. This is not a bad thing, however, as I think the pace gives you more time to digest & think about what is going on. It is of course one of those classic Holocaust books that every amateur historian needs to read at least once.

I read this book for my "YA of the 80's & 90's" challenge. I vividly remember reading this series in school, and not only do I remember reading the series, but I found a few penpals through the books as well. It's hysterical to read the book now as an adult, and there definitely some things I wanted to nickpick about the book (for example, all of the friends were so supportive & understanding off one of the girls when she decided to lie. 13 year old girls are not known to be understanding of anyone!) But the charm of the book just shines through, and I admit to laughing out loud, literally, on more than one occasion & sharing bits of the book with my coworkers (of my age group) who I knew would enjoy the flashbacks (for example, one of the characters dresses up as She-Ra for a costume party). This is a must read!

I was thrilled at the chance to read & review The boxcar Children. I remember reading this as a kid, along with Nancy Drew & the Bobbsey Twins & all the other great children's series. I daydreamed about how much fun it would be to swim in the pond, and have a campfire & sleep outside all the time. Reading it as an adult, it was equally just as good, just as fun, and still made me dream about how much fun it would be! I would love to hunt down other books in the series to reread them.

This is an engaging book cowritten by two Christian women, one Amish, and one every day American Christian. They take turns writing about their lives, their families, their faith, their hardships, and their friendship.

I was hoping to see a little more insight into Miriam's life, like a lot of people, I'm fascinated by the Amish because they lead lives so similar to our pioneer past. Naturally I respect their privacy, but I was disappointed that I didn't really "learn" anything about their lives, though I was interested to see that some Amish families do have telephones in a location separate from their actual home.

The book also includes recipes, a few I bookmarked to try later on, bits of Bible verses, and so on.

I was very disappointed with this book on several levels.

First of all, it's so incredibly short - 90 pages. I don't understand how anyone can write about a person's life in such a short number of pages. It's very badly edited & is completely full of grammatically & spelling errors. Some sentences start at present tense, switch to past tense, and then switch to future tense - all in the same sentence. I also found the author completely looked down about the reader, explaining every time she mentioned a person what the family relationship was - every time. In a book as short as this, I think I can retain who the son is for 5 minutes. I also don't understand why she was writing a memoir as a third person point of view - I found it extremely distracting & it took away from the importance of educating people with the disease.

I was also incredibly disappointed in the author's lack of knowledge about the disease. I have relatives who have/had Alzheimer's & I have worked in nursing homes with Alzheimer's patiences. I have never been a primary caregiver for someone with the disease, but I knew more about the illness then the author who devoted her life to caring for this individual. I also found it extremely insulting that she just assumed all nursing homes are bad - the author never outlined if she did any research into nursing homes, if she had any options into which nursing home she placed her grandmother in, but to just assume all nursing homes are bad is the same as assuming all blondes are stupid.

I really wanted to like this book, I really wanted to shout about this book from the rooftops because I do think people need to be educated about the disease, but there's not much to recommend on this book. I think if the author spent some time editing it, it would make for a much better book & though I disagree with the author's point of view, I would recommend it after those changes were made.

I received a review copy of this book from the author.