There's a ton to unpack here, including the exploration of the good and evil warring within each of us

Lost Queen #3) by Signe Pike I loved the first story in this series, The Lost Queen , which offered warriors When book three begins, the story's key characters have been reunited, but the warrior Artúr is myst There is talk of war's return, and three warriors will shape the future of the land of Vigrid: a noblewoman

about her great-great-aunt, an American who led a powerful underground resistance to the Nazis in World War great-great-aunt Mildred Harnack, American leader of one of the largest underground resistance groups of World War An American PhD candidate in Germany as World War II unfolded, Mildred witnessed the emergence of Nazi

to try to avoid coping with the difficulties of life; and I'm listening to The Librarian Spy, World War this link for my review of Andrew Sean Greer's Less. 03 The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin As World War

The world is unraveling on the cusp of World War II, and three strong women will be tested beyond anything they imagined before the end of the war and the end of the book. My book club read this refreshing twist on one of my favorite historical fiction book topics, World War The Light After the War is another World War II title I recently really liked.

dark secrets, zany hijinks, and redemption; Beyond That the Sea, historical fiction set during World 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 Her explorations threaten to destroy her relationship with her mother even past the world-war-level disagreements

Reading Now I'm listening to The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher's memoir focused on the early Star Wars reading Agent Sonya, Ben Macintyre's nonfiction book about a famous female Russian spy during the Cold War reading The Invisible Woman, historical fiction from Erika Robuck based on the life and work of World War behind-the-scenes peeks at Cold War intrigue from Ben Macintyre. Here, Fisher considers: the phenomenon of Star Wars, which drew her into its unprecedented whirlwind

But wars are being waged, and Rae quickly figures out that she's not the heroine of the story.

of more and more powerful people, including the king--who is desperate for an advantage in Spain's 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 It's 1926 in London, and recovery from the Great War inspires many in the city to dive into the wild

The story's later timeline takes place in the time of World War II as Daphne, an intelligent and educated

She is made to be magically "obedient" to her mother, and as such she is incapable of warning others personal and societal circumstances in mid-1800s London and imagining his efforts to teach thievery to his wards the place and time, exposes Victorian London's stark class contrasts, and presents the filthy rabbit warren In Patrick Ryan's literary fiction title Buckeye , which begins before World War II and spans to the war existence in which the population has been cut by more than half, inland seas spread across the

Before the war, she had spied against fascists and anti-communists, Chinese, Japanese, and German; during the Allies; after it, and henceforth, she would be spying against the West, the new enemies in a Cold War Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy is made up of vividly recounted behind-the-scenes peeks at real-life Cold War intrigue from the talented author Ben Macintyre. revelations about clandestine operations and the workings of the Soviet spy network during the Cold War

I loved this post-World War II book about bravery and rural life for middle-grade readers. Betty moves to town and begins to push people around, cruelly setting her sights on Toby, a local World War I veteran who hasn't been the same since the war. Rural life just after World War II, a godawful bully, an odd but lovely area wanderer, a sometimes claustrophobic

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

It's 1926 in London, and recovery from the Great War inspires many in the city to dive into the wild

Brooks-Dalton This gorgeously written postapocalyptic climate-fiction story offers up a future in which civilization The shadow of real-life global warming and weather changes add to the power of the story, and the touch

Quinn's newest historical fiction, based on a real-life Russian bookworm turned sniper during World War Quinn Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is Kate Quinn's most recent historical fiction, a World War

There is talk of war's return, and three warriors will shape the future of the land of Vigrid: Elvar, But wars are being waged, and Rae quickly figures out that she's not the heroine of the story.

witnesses Athena's death and mysteriously comes up with a story about Chinese laborers during World War

Sheriff Brody Dern must face his own postwar demons when he confronts a Native American World War II

Emily Tesh's debut novel is a space opera about war, duty, brainwashing, escaping limitations, and reinventing

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

#mysterysuspense, #deadlywaters 02 Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook ​ It's 1945. do more: she wants to help the British Control Commission rebuild what they can in Germany after the war --and maybe even help them prosecute war crimes. World War II historical fiction, a tough female protagonist, a mission of uncovering war criminals in For my full review, see Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook.

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

Natalie Haynes's mythological retellings put women at the center of many scenes surrounding the Trojan War listened to Haynes read her highly entertaining woman-centric version of events surrounding the Trojan War

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

Sara Nović is also the author of Girl at War and the illustrated nonfiction work America Is Immigrants

Reading Now I'm reading Down Comes the Night, a young adult fantasy story featuring magical healing and warring ruthless, and he's Wren's sworn enemy, a deadly force who has destroyed her countrymen and women in the wars That We Knew--featured in the Greedy Reading List Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm in for World War II-set books with tough, brave female protagonists, and especially female pilots I sometimes think that I'm about to max out on World War II historical fiction.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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