“Men tell stories,” I say. It is the truest, simplest answer to his question. “Women get on with it."
If you're looking for an in depth ww2 book, this ain't it. As much as I enjoyed reading this, thoroughly, I gotta admit this is a simple book. An easy read by the way of its writing and story flow.
Sure it did portray the ugliness of war; but I can't help to group this book more as a YA genre. It just- it doesn't have that heaviness of ww in it, you get what I mean? It feels... tame? In comparison to other ww book.
Perhaps because its focused more on the characters? The forced-fed idea of "love wins" made it sound so cliche.
And yet, I'm giving this 4 stars. Why? Because I loved it. I loved the easy read, the flow of the story, the headstrong Isabelle, the strongwilled Vianne. Maybe I'm biased because this book showed the strength of women and their roles during ww2 and I don't mind being biased!!!! Okay??!!! Women were there too!
And the ending? Oh my god.
“He limped toward her and took her in his arms.
She brought her shaking hands up and put her arms around him. For the first time in days, weeks, a year, her heart was a reliable thing, pumping with life. When he drew back, he stared down at her and the love in his eyes burned away everything bad; it was just them again, Gaëtan and Isabelle, somehow falling in love in a world at war.
"You’re as beautiful as I remember,” he said, and she actually laughed, and then she cried."
It wrapped up beautifully. I cried. I fucking bawled. In front of my family!! And I'm not ashamed of it!!!!!
If you love to read a heavy themed book but easy to read (I didn't even realised I finished reading this in one day) and you love some cute love story despite the hardship, the war, the struggle; and if you just simply love reading strong female characters; PICK THIS BOOK UP!!!!!!
Solid 4 from me. A fucking 4!!!!
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
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