So hard to put down and wasn’t entirely predictable. The ending made me sad and the way Hannah handled the whole navigating-a-teenager made it seem easy, which I can tell you first hand is not lol. But overall a really great mystery/thriller that kept me interested.

I’ve never read about China during WW2 so I enjoyed learning the history while following Aiyi’s and Ernest’s stories. I was not a fan of the writing style - plot driving vs character driven, and fairly stiff and forced at times.

Great WW2 story with mystery and plenty of hidden secrets. While I started figuring out pieces of the story early on, many of the whys and details were nicely hidden till the end. It’s amazing how much fear and deception can destroy so much good, and how love and forgiveness can give so much purpose.

Loved the statements at the end of reinventing yourself and rewriting your story is possible when you finally believe you’re worthy of love.

Interestingly, we just went thru a class on human trafficking at work and how to recognize it, and the parts of some of this story very accurately portrayed much of real life exploitation. I don’t think I’d have realized this part of the book was not at all far fetched had I not just learned about it (without giving away spoilers about the story).

Such an insane and tragic, based on a true story, event.
Well written and engaging story and characters.

I knew about Operation Pied Piper at the beginning of the war, evacuating British children, but did not know there was a 2nd wave sending kids to Canada, Australia, and NZ. So unbelievably devastating that so many kids died, yet incredible how the survivors of boat 12 survived that long after an oversight and then chance fly-over. I can’t fathom being a parent of one of those kids after warring with yourself about sending them at all.

Also, I love how the author’s note included how it spurred the change that eventually saved 4000 lives. If an event like that happens, as much as it doesn’t change how it affects the parents, I’d want something good to come of it if it was me.

This was beautiful and painful and inspiring and horrific. I think probably anything in the South during the Civil Rights movement is. The book was very well written - told during 2 timelines, 1965 focused on Ellie who got involved in the SCOPE movement, and then 2010 focused on Kayla who moves into the street where Ellie grew up in and they later meet and connect stories. I loved (and was saddened) by both women’s stories and loved Ellie’s courage and strength.

I’ve never heard of the SCOPE program and it was really interesting to learn about. The horrible attitudes and treatment of black people in the south, especially so descriptively told at the end of the book with Win, was shocking but also realistic, I am aware. It made your heart break that people can treat each other like that and do that to another human being.

I think we need more books like this to bring awareness about what America looked like in it’s not so distant history, and how some of those same attitudes permeate society in slivers (or even vivid color in some places). Beautifully written and told and was hard to put down.

I loved this book. In the story of Anna and Brody, they navigated thru loss and grief and the resulting anxiety and being stuck in it, while also finding friendship and love in the process.

Thru a bit of an accident, they “meet” each other via phone call and become the support and empathy each other has been missing but truly needs to move forward. The author did an amazing job wading thru what grief really looks like, the raw honesty and vulnerability of it, with Brody and Anna, along with the difficult back and forth that happens with grief and trauma and the risk you have to take when you try to grow and move forward. She highlights how much people really need each other even tho it’s easier to stay isolated and hide what you feel.

Obviously the theme of loss and grief is a heavy one not everyone is going to love but it was so well written in this love story and it resonated so much with me and my experiences, and those of people I know, that I thought it was excellent.

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was very hard to put down and sucked me in. Loved the mystery, the action/thriller, and the love story. Win all the way around.

By the time I was done, I honestly had to pause and take a little bit to process this one before writing my review as, and after, I finished the book. There were so many things to unpack and contemplate, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about pieces of it, which doesn’t happen often for me. If a book can do that, that’s a really great book in my view. I love to think and consider and mull things over; to be challenged. And this book, as is typical of Charles Martin’s books, did that for me.

The characters of Joe and Pockets were fantastic and relatable. I loved them both. The character development was excellent with both of them, although I would have loved more of Pockets in the story but I get that Joe was supposed to be the more forefront character, and Pockets, a mystery.

The concept of brokenness and sacrifice were beautifully described and lived out in Joe’s and Pockets’ relationship. It was a well laid out portrayal of what that can look like in a very unconventional, but compelling way. And the drug addiction piece of that was also done well, I felt. It’s not an easy subject, nor is it a simple one, in both who it affects and how much of a grip it has on the addicted. Joe’s miscarriages were also heartbreaking and realistic, from my perspective as someone who’s been thru it.

The only part in this that was a little bit of a hesitation for me on the story was the court scene at the end. I get there needed to be a come-to-Jesus point of answers and explanation by then, but felt a little unrealistic to happen that way to me.

Really well written and will probably still be chewing on it for awhile. Well done.

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