Tell Me More was such a relatable, funny, candid, and insightful read. As a fellow cancer survivor, wife, mom of girls, etc, I felt understood and like I could apply all the things Ms Corrigan shared.

There was a lot of loss and grief processing in the book, so some of it was sad and heavy, but a “good sad”. An “I Know” sad as Ms Corrigan talked about. A sad that made me feel like, as she shared her grief with honesty and, at times, humor, I felt like I had permission to process my grief as well. A lot of people don’t understand that, and she made it ok in that way. Really enjoyed and will apply in my own conversation and outlook as well.

This was a sad and informative look at some dark periods in America’s past you don’t hear much about. I’ve read about the Eugenics program during the 60s and 70s before in NC, and how it targeted poor women for sterilization but had not heard about the even further and more frequent reach with Black women, as well as the lawsuit surrounding it. While the book is not a direct characterization of the real historical girls and the lawsuit, it is inspired by it.

I thought the writing was good and it gave a good glimpse into the abuses and injustices happening at the time, how important education is and how the uneducated were exploited, as well as the disparity between classes.

I did find it an odd and somewhat unfortunate insertion when it came to the comments and storyline regarding abortion. It’s amazing to me that in one part of the book Civil attempted to excuse her decision because she believed a baby and pregnancy were not the same thing, and yet she constantly thought about and referred to it as being a baby later on. It felt very telling how that doesn’t hold up for long. I also thought it put a very authentic and practical spotlight on how the fathers can be affected, and how much emotional trauma it can cause much later.

However, it felt both sad and ironic that the contrast between abortion vs sterilization was that abortion is giving a choice while sterilization is taking the choice away. Except the choice in abortion is really only giving a choice to one party. It’s still taking a choice away from someone else in the end. In Civil’s case it took it away from 2 people - Ty and the baby. It would seem that would put both actions in the same category.

Really enjoyed the mystery and suspense with a music focus. Also loved that this highlighted an autistic woman with synesthesia, which compounded the obstacle of being black in the early 1900s. From first hand experience living in that world with an autistic child, she as well portrayed and authentic in her responses, outlook and naivety.

The minority and marginalizing struggles that Bern and Eboni and Josephine fought with also felt realistic, and at times heartbreaking, and made me invested in them as characters, rooting for them to find justice in their situations.

I also had no clue that computer analysis and research was a thing for music scores so that was super fun being more up my alley. The music aspects, research and cyber security made this feel like it hit a lot of the intriguing and fascination markers for me on the mystery and suspense level.

2.5⭐️ rounded up. I was super conflicted on this one and almost abandoned it a couple times. The story was really interesting and kept my attention but there were significant gaps in context to details, I had no concept of the time elapsing, and whenever Drue and Nicola were around each other they both acted like petulant children and I disliked both of them.

I found myself frustrated often with the lack of detail and context, forcing me to re-read sections I thought I must have missed but didn’t. Someone would be riding a horse in once sentence and the next, they would be standing next to someone; details in the scenes were not nearly descriptive enough to paint a good picture; Nicola or others would make judgments about people and you would have no idea why; etc. and then found out towards the end of the book 2 years had apparently lapsed. When?? It just didn’t make a lot of sense.

Also Drue, a skilled assassin/fighter/royalty couldn’t control his explosive temper, freaking out at the very slightest challenge or argument from a women. Not realistic. Someone like that would be forced to have good control over himself, and while sure, could have a temper, he wouldn’t just lose it and stalk off like a toddler immediately. Same for Nicola - she was super naive and foolish and would antagonize Drue with no good sense and also stalk off like a child, however towards the 2nd half of the book she thankfully got better. Overall neither had much grace or kindness towards each other when the slightest difference between them came up, especially Drue.

It just all made the book have points of being obnoxious in what could have been a really great story with tons of potential.

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

Surviving Savannah had the potential to be a great book but I felt like, at least for me, the story of the Pulaski was ultimately dwarfed by the present day story of Everly and the grief that she felt over the death of her best friend. The historical fiction portion felt like a minority of the book in comparison.

While grief is certainly a heavy and difficult thing to wade thru, and the correlation was made to what the survivors of the Pulaski experienced with so many lost loved ones, it was just a constant battle portrayed that felt more the focal point than the Pulaski or the stories of Lilly and Augusta that were also highlighted. At times it felt like beating a dead horse, so to speak, when that’s not really what I wanted to read about when I picked the book up. The author did do a good job of the back and forth that come with situations of grief and that envelope an individual, and how each person can ultimately choose how they respond to it - either for the better or the worse. Going thru difficult things is sort of like squeezing a soaked sponge. It only shows you and exaggerates what was already there to begin with. That was a very valuable observation and thought process she went thru, it was just not the focal point I had expected or what was advertised when I chose the book.

As a side item, I did also enjoy the historical and geographical descriptions, being that I live in NC and have visited Charleston and Savannah, and actually grew up in Saratoga Springs and Ballston Spa in NY.

A good mixture of humor and seriousness, fun things and heavy things. Much truth about real love in a marriage and the need for honesty so assumptions and wrong conclusions aren’t made

The 3rd book in the Lilac Girls series, Sunflower Sisters by Martha Hall Kelley was an excellent end. While fictional in much of the content, the book is based on some parts of true stories and real historical characters.

Ms Kelley does a fantastic job describing the scenes, characters, events and emotions in the story and makes you feel like you’re actually there or watching things unfold right in front of you. The 3 main characters that are portrayed in the book were well done, and you felt the frustration and anger at the discrimination against the female nurses but also determination and care for friends and family with Georgy, the horrendous treatment and grief endured but perseverance portrayed by Jemma, and you despised and hoped for judgement against the awful villain, Anne-May. All in all, the book held your attention and was hard to put down. Really enjoyed this novel, it was an excellent read.

Thank you to Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Gosh this book was so good. If you’ve ever suffered in a significant way and want to find God’s purpose and hope thru it, this will be a huge encouragement to you.

As a 2 time stage-3 cancer survivor, and mom of kids with medical or cognitive issues, so many of what they said in their book was identical to what I said and believed myself a few years ago during my last bout with cancer. It’s so similar to what I struggled and warred with in my own walk with God even tho the circumstances were different from Katherine’s. The book offered compassionate honesty to anyone still in their war on how to reframe their situation and find Jesus no matter how dark things got, offering so many practical tools on how to do that while not shaming or judging someone still feeling like they were in the mud and not there yet.

Absolutely loved it and their brilliant way of conveying things in empathy, with compassion that felt like a friend coming alongside the sufferer. Loved the sections on using their pain and dark times to bring purpose for both themselves and others and how that would not be possible if things were easy or void of their suffering.

Highly highly recommend to someone struggling with a life that doesn’t resemble what they thought it would be, into seeing that their misery can be both theirs and someone else’s miracle. If you’re trying to support someone else in their season of suffering, the Wolfs also had some great resources and guidelines for you to do this well and not unknowingly wound the person in the process.