Carole's Monday : The girl from Vichy

 

Author: Andie Newton 
Title: The Girl from Vichy
Genre: Historical Fiction
Format: ebook
Published: August 13th 2020
Where I Got It: My shelf (Netgalley)



Summary: 1942, occupied France.

As the war in Europe rages on, Adèle Ambeh dreams of a France that is free from the clutches of the new regime. The date of her marriage to a ruthless man is drawing closer, and she only has one choice – she must run.

With the help of her mother, Adèle flees to Lyon, seeking refuge at the Sisters of Notre Dame de la Compassion. From the outside this is a simple nunnery, but the sisters are secretly aiding the French Resistance, hiding and supplying the fighters with weapons.

While it is not quite the escape Adèle imagined, she is drawn to the nuns and quickly finds herself part of the resistance. But her new role means she must return to Vichy, and those she left behind, no matter the cost.

Each day is filled with a different danger and as she begins to fall for another man, Adèle's entire world could come crashing down around her.

Adèle must fight for her family, her own destiny, as well as her country. 

Review:
I couldn't wait to read this! I loooooove spy novels and wwii stories. 

The story follows Adele who started as a girl just running away from a terrible man who she is being forced to marry as war in Europe rages on. She hides and takes refuge at the Sisters of Notre Dame de la Compassion. From the outside this looks like a simple nunnery, but the sisters are secretly helping the French Resistance. Adele is drawn to the nuns and quickly finds herself part of the resistance, but her new role means she has to return home. Adele must fight for her family, destiny, love, and for her country. 

I will admit the beginning did not capture me right away. It took a while for me to really warm up to our characters and the story itself. It was a little slow while we were waiting for Adele to figure out the truth about the nunnery. 

Once a certain event happened and Adele's world went spiraling to the spy world then I was invested and finished reading the rest of the book in one day. I simply could NOT put this down!!! SOOOO good. 

Poor Adele. I was so mad at her dad and her sister. They were just soooooo blind. I would've had a hard time dealing with them and keeping a straight face. I get it...family is family....but still.....they needed a good shaking. 

I adored Luc. I wish we had more time with him overall. 

Adele's partner (I won't name names because that is a huge spoiler) was my hero. I felt so bad for this character but I had to applaud for the character's bravery and loyalty.

OOOOoooOOOOoooOOOOooooOOOOOO that ending was amazing. I did get a little tear of joy there. That was so powerful. 

Overall, I really liked this book. The beginning was a little rough for me but after a certain event I simply could not put it down. This had everything you would want in a spy novel during wartime. Action, romance, drama. That ending even gave me a little tear of joy. I'll give this 4 stars. 

Visa citerad text

Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

 

Paperback, 213 pages

Published September 19th 2019 by Picador (first published December 6th 2015)

Original Titleコーヒーが冷めないうちに

Edition Language: English

Geoffrey Trousselot (Translator)

Fiction

Library

Series: Before the Coffee Gets Cold #1

At first I was interested, but it missed something. Maybe it was just too straightforward, because in the end I come out of it with only a sense of it being ok.

There is a café, if you sit in a certain seat you can travel in time. But only to that seat. So yes, why bother. You can only sit in that seat and only for a moment. And people accept this as truth, and some travel.

And that is what this book is about. People travelling in time. A woman who wants to see her ex again. A man and woman who wants to meet again. Someone looking for a missed opportunity. And then we get some of their pasts too, but it is a short book. A short glimpse into the past and future.

I mean I did like it, but at the same time, yeah, only ok.

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?

Re-listen: Nice dragons finish last by Rachel Aaron

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

Series: Heartstrikers, Book 1

Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 11-18-14

Language: English

Publisher: Audible Studios

Urban fantasy

Own

Re-listen:

I suddenly had the urge to re-listen cos I had no other books lined up.

All the feels!

I still adore Julius, he is the best.

Justin! Bob! Marci! My fav kitty ghost!

They all rock.

And the most important thing, Vikas Adam. He is amazing narrating this. Love him to bits.

This is a must listen. You all need to get it now

My first review back in Nov 2017

As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: keep quiet, don’t cause trouble, and stay out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn't fly in a family of ambitious magical predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience.

Now, sealed in human form and banished to the DFZ--a vertical metropolis built on the ruins of Old Detroit--Julius has one month to prove that he can be a ruthless dragon or kiss his true shape goodbye forever. But in a city of modern mages and vengeful spirits where dragons are considered monsters to be exterminated, he’s going to need some serious help to survive this test.

He only hopes humans are more trustworthy than dragons..

Audio: Come tumbling down by Seanan McGuire

Narrated by: Seanan McGuire

Series: Wayward Children, Book 5

Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 01-07-20

Language: English

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Portal fantasy

Library

Either this one was the worst one, or it was the fact that the author narrated. I just could not focus or be interested. And I adore this series. I never felt invested.

Blah blah adventure, Jill and Jack are back. Have to go back to the moors. I, yeah I was just not that invested. I love her books, but maybe her narrating just wasn't for me.

You can just skip this one in the series.

When Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister - whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice - back to their home on the Moors.

But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome.

Eleanor West's "No Quests" rule is about to be broken.