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centuries, from Renaissance Italy to the present day, Chevalier's story skips through deadly plague, war

Warren, the FBI Profilers, and the PI Tessa Leoni series. 02 All Our Yesterdays: A Novel of Lady Macbeth mother's death; the cruelties of her husband, to whom she was wed at 15; the surrounding, constant wars

Ship of Brides (mentioned in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War

Yarros's experience as a romance author remains showcased in book two through teen-angst-dramaaatic, romaaantic dialogue. My favorite elements were the action sequences, the opportunities for humor, and the pacing of this 640-page story. I wanted to love Fourth Wing, the first in this series, (talking dragons! dragon riders! dragon-rider training!). I was distracted by the ultra-dramatic young-adult teen angst and sometimes-clumsy dialogue, yet the promise of the dragon element kept me reading with fingers crossed that the story would take off and eclipse the pacing and the forced-feeling will-they/won't-they-focused conflicts (spoiler: they will). Yet Yarros's thrilling, twisty ending hooked me to find out what would happen in book two. I do love a dragon book, and the second in the Empyrian series offers more page time for the talking dragons, some surprises, and a more deftly paced story, with stronger character development--along with dramaaaaatic, romaaaaantic dialogue and super steamy scenes, as also seen in the first installment. Yarros offers a villainous teacher so over the top, there's no way he could be allowed to live through the book. Yet she also serves up an unexpected (as in, we thought he was dead, so: very unexpected) second chance at redemption for a character who was presented as a villain in book one. Violet's mother is shown to have depth, show some caring for Violet, and demonstrate plausible deniability related to atrocities occurring at the border. These all seem aimed at tempering the impression Violet has that her mother is without a heart. Yarros's romance-novel background is evident with the very specific sex scenes (no detail is left unshared), as well as the ongoing (and drummed-up-feeling) dramatic angst from Violet regarding Xaden (I can't trust him, because he doesn't tell me everything) despite what felt like a book-one resolution to the will-they/won't-they tension between the two. There's an added bump in the road for the couple in this book related to Violet's mother that predates Violet's relationship but affects Xaden. I was so distracted by the frequency of "f*ck" in book one that I searched on my Kindle version and found that there were 257 instances in Fourth Wing. In book two, I wasn't sure about Violet's use of "damn" and "damned" ("I'm still really damned angry with you" felt odd; the type of "damn if" compliments about Xaden's body seemed silly). Violet and Xaden are verrrry flowery about their feelings (“You want to know something true? Something real? I love you. I’m in love with you. I have been since the night the snow fell in your hair and you kissed me for the first time."). These elements follow from the romance-novel feeling of Fourth Wing. But there's some funny dialogue here that made me laugh, and Yarros allows the characters to be less earnest and more playful and to invoke a little bit of dark humor at times (my favorite kind) in Iron Flame. The melding of two fighting forces offers additional interesting characters, conflicts, complexities, and interactions, which I liked. Violet's physical condition and chronic illness is referred to in Iron Flame but is far less of a key element than it was in Fourth Wing. One of my favorite dragons is almost completely absent from the book (sleeping for hundreds of pages), with a grand reveal at the end, the impact of which felt a little lost on me. The action scenes and battles were the highlight for me in Iron Flame. Yarros ends this one with a bang that hooks the reader for book two just as they might be wavering on reading a third 500+ page book--as she did for me with book one. I listened to Iron Flame as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Click here for my review of Fourth Wing. Have you read the fantastic Temeraire series by Naomi Novik? It's got all the talking dragons, dry humor, battles, and military strategy you'd want. The tone is very different from the Empyrian series--no teen angst or steamy scenes.

The Invisible Woman is historical fiction about the real-life World War II-era spy Virginia Hall. She's beginning to wonder if good can possibly overcome evil in this interminable war, but her ragtag

The Skylark's Secret has a dual timeline; the story is set in rural Scotland during World War II and Flora and her village are supporting the war effort, temporarily taking in children from Great Britain's She's eager to dig in and learn more about her mother's wartime history, yet desperate not to be defined Valpy also wrote The Dressmaker's Gift, another World War II-era story (this time, set in Paris) with

Would there have been the same wars, massacres, persecutions, and crusades?

fiction based on the real story of a family escaping through Eastern Europe at the cruel end of World War gripping, detailed, life-and-death period in the life of an ethnically German family at the end of World War tells a tale of a family's incredible bravery and determination in the waning, cruel days of World War fiction around the true story of an ethnically German family running from the Ukraine at the end of World War When she angers a local warlord and becomes eager to escape her world, she's relieved to secure promises

Chenneville, titular character John Chenneville is a former Union soldier who has spent a year since the war

A survivor of the World War II Warsaw Ghetto, Jaryk Smith arrives in New York City and falls in love

all worth looking at under a microscope and demanding the many changes in the legal system that are warranted and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre ​ The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War is a wonderfully paced and skillfully recounted Cold War-era story of spy intrigue, paranoia, bravery double agent for Britain’s MI6, to be appointed Resident in the KGB—and to ultimately help end the Cold War He does an excellent job of immersing the reader in Cold War-era mindsets, priorities, and sometimes

Come Home; A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes's woman-centric account of events surrounding the Trojan War listening to Haynes read her highly entertaining woman-centric version of events surrounding the Trojan War

The Phoenix Crown; I'm listening to We Must Not Think of Ourselves, historical fiction about life the Warsaw Suzanne recently suggested that I read this book despite my recent feelings that I'm maxed out on World War begins, it's November 1940, and Adam Paskow is one of the thousands of Jews newly imprisoned in the Warsaw

In a world of the near future, a young (unnamed) woman is one of several civil servants offered a mysterious

For my full review of this book, see Apeirogon. 02 The Light After the War ​ I’m dying to know how closely traces the inspiring events from her mother’s incredible experiences before, during, and after World War dread—intermixed with sparks of hope—that sustained Vera and Edith in Hungary and Germany during the war ; in Naples as they adjusted to post-war floods of food, fashion, and joy; as they found themselves in For my full review, see The Light After the War. 03 The Book of Longings ​ This was a fascinating story

True Biz, by the author of Girl at War, is a coming-of-age story that also explores the importance society

Now Is Not the Time to Panic, about two teenage misfits; and I'm reading the recently published heart-warmer 01 Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson It's 1926 in London, and recovery from the Great War inspires the

Robinson that's focused on a meandering romance between an unlikely pair of characters just after World War Marilynne Robinson, focuses on a meandering romance between an unlikely pair of characters just after World War

Thistlefoot includes some scenes in which World War II atrocities are central; delves into the desperation

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading an upcoming book by a favorite author, Katherine Arden, The Warm 01 The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden Armageddon was a fire in the harbor, a box delivered on So I'm excited to read her upcoming book The Warm Hands of Ghosts, scheduled for publication February In The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Arden sets a story of Laura, a combat nurse, who is searching for her brother Freddie, against the backdrop of the Great War.

In twentieth-century Idaho, Zeno has lived a long life filled with yearning, war, and unexpected late-in-life Cloud Cuckoo Land also explores devastating environmental destruction, human culpability, cruel wars,

A survivor of the World War II Warsaw Ghetto (haunted by ghosts from his childhood and the desperate same play his orphanage director and father figure, Pan Doktor, once put on with the children in the Warsaw

points of view regarding the same chain of events in this rural South Carolina community after World War

Rash's newest Appalachian-set novel explores a small town shaken by upended expectations, the Korean War When his best (and only) friend Jacob is sent to serve overseas in the Korean War, Blackburn promises

McMinn County unless the corrupt Machine profited by it...until the local GIs returned home from World War The young men of McMinn County, Tennessee, are coming home after fighting in World War II.

But others' visions for the story involve her eco-warrior main character morphing into a teen beauty witnesses Athena's death and then mysteriously comes up with a story about Chinese laborers during World War When Jaryk learns that his like-a-brother friend Misha from his childhood World War II-era orphanage a play--the same play his orphanage director and father figure once put on with the children in the Warsaw

In The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After , Wamariya recalls her experiences

In 1942, as World War II disrupts the world, Violet is stuck in her family's ramshackle estate when she

She is made a concubine warrior and is expected to die in her first battle, but Zetian instead shows

review of Natalie Haynes's A Thousand Ships, a woman-centered retelling of events surrounding the Trojan War

relationships, found family, growing up, and balancing two lives, all set against the backdrop of World War That, the Sea tells the story of two families on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean during World War

worth looking at under a microscope and using to demand the many changes in the legal system that are warranted and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War is a wonderfully paced and skillfully recounted Cold War-era story of spy intrigue, paranoia, bravery double agent for Britain’s MI6, to be appointed Resident in the KGB—and to ultimately help end the Cold War He does an excellent job of immersing the reader in Cold War-era mindsets, priorities, and sometimes

all of those elements and more, unraveling the workings of a family in the South during the Vietnam War ; brothers at odds; complex issues surrounding prison, war, and violence; and a brother's unfailing loyalty

Chen writes a deeply felt warring of emotions and conflicting responsibility and duty. I especially love how Chen explores Kin's emotions in both of his realities, his warring loyalties,

In Ian McEwan's newest novel, we're introduced to characters living in a 2119, post-global-warming, post-nuclear war existence in which the population has been cut by more than half, inland seas spread across the The corona takes on a mythical quality and morphs to serve as a poignant, powerful climate-change warning

by Chris DeRose The young men of McMinn County, Tennessee, are coming home after fighting in World War The book's subtitle is And How World War II Veterans Won the Only Successful, Armed Rebellion since the

Jaouad Suleika Jaouad was preparing to graduate from college and pursue her career dreams of becoming a war

Sylvie's torn feelings and warring sense of duty and desire for youthful joy and carefree moments felt

And war is coming.

01 The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner “Mom couldn’t teach me that because she didn’t know herself. Ruth Wariner was the thirty-ninth of her father's forty-two children, and she grew up on a farm in rural memoir details the former American intelligence officer's true story of her family during the Cold War For more nonfiction spy stories about the Cold War, check out two great books by Ben McIntyre, the gripping Sonya and a book I loved even more, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

NetGalley. 02 The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan A rich family story, a personal look at the legacy of war and all of this against a background of Beirut, a city shaped by and "smoldering with the legacy of war

main protagonist Talin must figure it out before things potentially unravel for her and her fellow warriors Lu has written the Legends, Young Elites, and Warcross series. 02 The Skylark's Secret by Fiona Valpy The Skylark's Secret has a dual timeline; the story is set in rural Scotland during World War II and Flora and her village are supporting the war effort, temporarily taking in children from Great Britain's She's eager to learn more about her mother's wartime history, yet desperate not to be defined and constrained

young woman while stumbling into her iconic lifetime role as Princess Leia; The Invisible Woman, World War Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher In The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher considers the phenomenon of Star Wars Invisible Woman by Erika Robuck The Invisible Woman is historical fiction about the real-life World War becomes the legendary character of Merlin); and the complicating factors of bloodthirsty vengeance and war

Out Front the Following Sea, new historical fiction by Leah Angstman, it's 1689 and King William's War

In The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After , Wamariya recalls her experiences

memoir about her Japanese-American grandparents and their experiences in an internment camp during World War

access to health care, domestic abuse, and emotional abuse, as well as a personal reckoning in which the warring

becomes the legendary character of Merlin); and the complicating factors of bloodthirsty vengeance and war

There's a minor, secondhand, yet powerful focus on the brutality and destruction of war, but also significant But when the warden drops him off at home, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm hitched In twentieth-century Idaho, Zeno has lived a long life filled with yearning, war, and unexpected late-in-life

Migrations follows Franny as she travels farther from civilization and safety--and as she considers what