Devastating but incredibly insightful and moving. Just the way each of the characters’ perspectives and viewpoints is written, it’s like a look at raw humanity. Its motivations and reasoning, the effects words can have, what shame vs bravery can do, and what friendship and wanting to belonging does in both a good and bad way. So well done. 

Loved this so much. The story is a heavy one, filled with very real loss and grief, that so many of us have walked thru but I think oftentimes doesn’t get talked about. The book presented that in a way that was compassionate and understanding, while I thought it was completely beautiful. 

If you, like me, can identify with Avalee and Rowan’s loss, following their story will be hard and hit so close to home, and yet feel in a way itself like home - welcoming and compassionate and me-too. Even tho my response in my own losses was very different than Avalee’s, I felt their loss in such a real way and could empathize with what they both felt. Their story was really well written, and I loved both the sorrow and the redemption the book presented. It was perfect the way the book showed that wholeness and healing may look different than we originally plan or expect. So so many good nuggets of wisdom. Make sure you have the tissues at the end. 

I think I loved just about every character in the book, but my favorite was Rowen. But I won’t give any of that away. ;)

(Side note: the forward in the book alludes to the content and type of loss it deals with. For some of my fellow readers who have just walked thru this also, this may be one you want to be aware of before you begin. See StoryGraph content warnings if so. Absolutely the perfect heartfelt read, and a new favorite, but we all know some wounds need to heal a little if they’re too new first)

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

I really enjoyed this a ton. It was  really unique mix of historical fiction, contemporary mystery, a little bit of romance and a little fantasy. But it just was done so well, it was so intriguing and interesting to me. For me, even when I knew what the mystery was, I didn’t know how the details were going to go or where all the pieces fit. 

Really interesting and inspiring learning of a Nigerian princess training as a nurse midwife in England during WW2. 

The book was a dual timeline, following Ade during WW2, and Yemi, her great niece in 2019, I wish the whole book just focused on Ade and fleshed out her story instead. I struggled to feel invested and interested in Yemi’s story. And both stories at times, but especially Yemi’s just felt very slow going and repetitive. 

I did really appreciate the picture that was painted of the odd contradictory, as Ade said, racism that was prevalent during the 40’s in England. As heartbreaking as that was (tho inspiring when they stood up against the Americans), I enjoyed learning from the book as a whole and liked the culture aspects it presented. 

Just a lot of uber Christian-ese phrases and thought processes without depth at least in the first 10% and weird family dynamics that got annoying. Lost interest fast 

Incredible story of bravery and endurance by the Australian nurses and fellow women in the pacific POW campus during WW2. 

It was amazing hearing their stories of how they cared for each other and didn’t allow their situation to turn to bitterness or lashing out at each other, but all chipped in the majority of the time to help each other. The way they poured themselves into music to nourish their spirits and pull together was inspiring. Definitely interesting how the afterword said the women’s spirits were in much better shape than the men’s and I’m sure all that contributed. 

I was not a fan of the writing style, however, and was my only reason for dropping my rating. It had good dialogue but was very narrative based and a bit gappy. I also had a hard time reconciling other books I’ve read about Japanese POW camps and the lack of brutality in this one. Maybe it really wasn’t as horrific, but it seemed disparate. Loved the story tho and leaning about the women. Great information. 

Really intriguing and the strategy in this is pretty incredible. I felt like some situations were a little too perfect but overall really great suspense/thriller. 

It took me a bit to get into but I ended up really enjoying it. I don’t normally like short stories but they were weaved into an interesting picture that felt intriguing and either not wholly predictable or at least the rollout of the plot was not predictable. 

So much to unpack in this book. It was so heartbreakingly sad at times and full of grief, but so beautiful and hopeful. I think I loved how relatable and raw it was the most. It was a slower moving book but so deep and relatable in many ways, I just really enjoyed it despite how sad it was.  

I loved how it told the story of marriage being just as much about the mundane and the imperfect and the difficult, as it is about the romantic and belonging-filled, starry-eyed that we go into it with. Love is both. That, as the book title alludes to, those are the times that prove the deepest love. 

The vulnerable view of the characters’ struggles with regrets, the messiness and struggle of parenthood, of wanting to be seen by your spouse, of disappointment and grief, of hoping and pursuing and loving, walking thru sickness. It was all just so raw and honest and relatable. 

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

Well that took a turn…. I liked Diem in the first book and absolutely hated her in this one. She was so incredibly mean to Luther, to the point of cruel when he was the most upstanding and best character in the book IMO. I wanted to slap her so often, the book just made me angry (obviously) and I DNF’d it at 62% after reading the other reviewers that the rest of the book is the same. 

The plot itself was good and I wanted to know what was going to happen, how everything was going to pan out, the dialogue was good (aside from the unfounded angst), but Diem made such a gross deviation from the first book I couldn’t do it. The selfless recklessness and passion she had in the first book was for others and for justice, but with empathy. This one it was reckless to the point of stupidity and cruelty, full of the prejudice that she hated in others, and with constantly taking any suggestion someone made about anyone else’s character or motives to her as gospel without evaluating whether it lined up with someone’s character. I just don’t get it.