Sort of melancholy but feel-good in the end, Christmas oriented book, tho I’d classify it more as a women’s fiction than a mystery. There was some mystery but it was easy to piece together rather early on, so it didn’t really feel like a mystery, just something no one in the book wanted to talk about. It had a weird speed - overall really slow and introspective, then fairly dramatic, from reactions, to all the exclamation points, to the characters themselves. It felt a little forced and weird at times. 

The culture and setting of Norway was nice to walk thru - those pieces were descriptive and well described. 

The blurb for the book about the whole Advent thing was weird to me. I didn’t get that vibe from the book at all so I’m not sure why it was marketed that way. It was just like a regular chapter progression. 

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperColins for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

I’ve read only one other book that deals with the Halifax Explosion and it’s crazy to me that it’s talked about so little. Really interesting but so sad as a landscape and scenario. 

I enjoyed learning about the event itself but also how people dealt in the aftermath picking up the pieces but also in the midst of WW1 and the constant death layered on top of it. 

I did find the book to be rather repetitive - going over Nora or Charlotte’s feelings or thoughts repeatedly and almost verbatim multiple times. I wish it was a little more concise and not so dragged out. 

The only reason I picked this up was because I needed to read a book set in Venezuela for a reading challenge, and my available alternatives to borrow were on the history of Hugo Chavez. Maybe I should have picked that instead. 

For starters, the info on this felt more like clickbait than the actual subject presented by the time I was halfway thru. It’s not about how a missionary wife was an OSS spy and how she helped the war efforts with her skill. It was actually about how she decided to have an affair with a then-Nazi, and friend of her husband while her husband was away working as an OSS spy. 

The affair was often in romanticized detail (keep in mind this is about his mother. Ew), all while both the author and the cheating wife excuse the morality of this choice as ok and just something that was part of the situation they were in, or even manipulated CS Lewis’ writing to imply sexual boundaries are self-imposed. And then the husband knows about the affair and does nothing. Just lets his wife have at it and pretends it isn’t happening even with the guy sitting in the room. Insane. 

The writing was bizarre. It is classified as a fiction book but half of it was actually nonfiction - the author stepping in to give backstory on the events or setting, or talking about his mother’s journal or opinions on her life. The dialogue in the fictionalized parts was forced and awkward and sometimes the flow of the plot made no sense. 

I can’t believe I took this much time on this book to write a review but maybe it’ll help some other unsuspecting person like myself. All I left with was that Alexis was spoiled, selfish, and a disloyal and betraying spouse who did whatever made her happy, and I have zero respect for her.

Good information on both WW1 and the Lusitania sinking. The first half of the book was mostly about the setting of the US and President Wilson, and England and how they responded to the war, and also a lot on Germany’s UBoat operation. There was a lot of detail and backstory I got a little lost in but at the same time I get it, it has to set the stage. Really well researched and well told. So sad how that all happened and the aftermath of it both with the people lost and the survivors. I can’t imagine.

Loved the romance of an already married couple, who’ve drifted away from each other once they’re empty nesters, and learn to find each other and fight for each other again. Super relatable and loved both Mia and Bode and how real they were. 

Very insightful and accurate look at how an autistic person views the world and often struggles with reading people and situations, or being misunderstood by neurotypical people. Loved the friendships and those around Molly who showed compassion and patience. 

I liked the premise of a group of famous female writers getting together and befriending each other, as well as supporting their work, and trying to be seen as equal in a male-biased landscape. But I had a hard time connecting to the characters in the story and kept losing interest in the plot line. 

The mystery itself was rather slow, and often repetitive, as well as very predictable. I wanted to like it but I just kept getting bored, I think in part because the characters felt a little flat to me, and at times, not believable. 

All in all, interesting concept in general and was glad to be introduced to the authors I knew little about. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine. 

So fun. Perfect mix of funny and serious. I was laughing out loud multiple times and also appreciating the depth and relatability in both characters. Even lacked some of the uber predictability most RomComs have. Thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I liked the intrigue and suspense of the story, and the threads from multiple generations of women in the book. But there were so many other themes in the book I wasn’t a huge fan of. Just dark and negative thru the entire thing even at the end. Even the character growth was based in revenge and rage.

Lots of great aspects of WW2 in France going on in this book - fashion in Paris, gangsters making the most of the war, resistance espionage and escorting escapees out of the country. It showed well how sometimes things aren’t what they look like on the surface and often ethics or choices can be very grey. War blurs so many lines and makes things rarely black and white. 

All the main themes worked really well tied all together pretty seamlessly. I liked the characters and perspectives of Paulette, Nicolle, and Sabine. I thought they complemented each other and I liked their storylines. 

There were some weird transition gaps, missing details or jumps in scenes or character actions that would have made more sense if they were fleshed out more but maybe by the time the book is published it’ll be edited a little more. 

The crossover between the other books was great but apparently it actually was more like a series, at least with The Widows of Champagne and this, and there were tie ins with Paris Housekeeper. I read Paris Housekeeper awhile ago but never Widows. I wish I’d known they were in sequence and were listed as an actual series so I could’ve read them that way. This one can stand alone, but it would’ve given more context to Paulette if I’d read the other first. 

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine.