Sunday 17 July 2016

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Published: Philomel Books, February 2nd, 2016
Pages: 391
Source: Hardcover, purchased
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5

How I Felt: Another beautiful historical fiction from Ruta Sepetys. The talent and passion while reading her books is quite evident. I hope she continues to write books in this genre in the future because they are so good and she is so talented.

I cried so much. I loved all of these characters. I loved how each one was so distinct and I never forgot whose perspective I was reading from. They were all so unique and had such strong voices. I grew to love the majority of them very much. I say majority because I hated Alfred. He creeped me out. Badly. I hated his perspective because it was so majorly warped. He was so delusional I couldn't tell if it was an act or if this guy was for real. And the whole thing with this Hannelore girl was a little weird too. To sum up, Alfred is weird and I don't like him.

I'm so happy we got to see what happened to Joana. In Between Shades of Gray Lina is constantly wondering how her cousin is doing. By getting to see from Joana's perspective we learn about what caused Lina's family to be arrested and what happened in those few years between the last chapter and the epilogue of Between Shades of Gray.

Florian is a precious cinnamon roll and must be protected at all costs. I love Florian.

Emilia had me sobbing the most. I felt so attached to her after getting to know her full story. When revelations were made about her past, I bawled my eyes out. I felt so bad for her, and she was so young. The ending also had me bawling my eyes out for her. Gosh, these books make me cry like nobody's business.

Another character I loved was the Shoe Poet. I loved getting to hear him describe people based on their shoes. He was so wise. I love elderly in books. It's so important that they share their story.

I love how Ruta writes books on topics ignored by many others. The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff had a much higher casualty toll than the Titanic, yet hardly anyone knows about it. I love how Ruta is able to make me care so deeply for these fictional characters, yet also inform and educate me on an important and devastating tragedy from history that most often gets neglected.

Overall, I loved this book. I don't know which of Ruta's two books that I've read is my favourite. I love them both so deeply. I highly recommend you read this one as well. This story deserves to be heard. I would suggest reading Between Shades of Gray before this one so you can connect the story lines together, but it isn't necessary to understand either novel. Beautiful.



Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*
*Images taken from Google.ca 

Tuesday 5 July 2016

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Published: Speak, April 3rd, 2012
Pages: 352
Source: Paperback, purchased
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 5/5

How I Felt: Oh my gosh what do I even say? Nothing could ever do this book justice. It was beautiful, brilliant and emotional. I loved it; I'm so glad I read it. I honestly think everyone needs to read this book. It's so eye-opening, Ruta Sepetys is brilliant.

Firstly, I want to say that I loved the writing. Absolutely loved it. I love how she ends chapters. They end on such powerful one-liners that either make you cry or make you think. Too good ugh.

Let me just say that this book had me bawling like a baby. Reading Lina's reactions to things and how everyone around her rallied together to support each other had me feeling all the emotions. So many heartfelt moments. And what made this book all the more emotional was that this was based on true events, events that not too many people talk about. What made me cry the most, was how cruel the secret police were, and yet the prisoners were always kind to them. Always.

This has become one of my favourite books of all time and I will forever recommend it to every person I ever meet. Lina's story is one that needs to be shared with people; everyone should be made aware of the injustices done to these people.

I love Lina, I love Jonas I just love this book so much. I highly recommend it if you haven't yet picked it up. It's a heavy read because of all the horrible things that happened, but it's definitely worth it. Perfection. I want to read all of Ruta's books now.


Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I definitely recommend it to everyone, even if you aren't the biggest fan of historical fiction. Despite the heavy topic, Ruta's writing is so easy to read. I flew through this book and I can't wait to read more of her works in the future. 

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

*Info on book taken from Goodreads.com*
*Image taken from Google.ca 

Sunday 3 July 2016

My Summer TBR!

Sorry for the recent lack of posts! Exams have finally ended and I spent a whole week just binge reading to decompress from the school year and it felt so good. Now that I've had a break I'm ready to jump back into blogging!

I don't usually make TBRs for myself because I'm the worst at sticking to them, but I decided to share a list of the books I plan on reading this summer. Now that school's over, like I said, I've had so much free time on my hands so I've been filling it with reading! To add to my current mess of a TBR pile, my birthday is coming up so I will be spending a lot of birthday money at the bookstore (oops?). Anyways, enough rambling, let's get to it!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo- the fact that I haven't read this yet is a little ridiculous. I got it when it first came out and I've heard nothing but good things so there's really nothing holding me back.



Winter by Marissa Meyer- I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna finish this series. I've been putting this one off because I don't want it to enddd. I love this world and these characters so much!







Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid- I swear every TBR I've made has had this book on it. I just am never in the mood to pick it up and I'm not sure if I'll like it or not. Excuses, excuses.








Riders by Veronica Rossi- I loved the Under the Never Sky series and this one is about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Need I say more?












Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld- I have been trying to read this book for about 2 years. I don't know what it is about Scott Westerfeld's writing but I've never been able to get into it or enjoy it. I love the concept for this book so I do hope I am able to like it.







A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro- This being a Holmes and Watson retelling immediately piqued my interest. Finding out that this is a series has made me want to put it off a bit but now I just want to read it because I have high hopes that I'll like it.







How to Love- I have had my eye on this for a while. I don't know why I've never picked it up before but now that I own it I have no excuse. This to me, seems like the perfect book to read in the summer.







Alright, I'm going to keep this list brief so I don't set myself up for too much disappointment. I hope I'll be able to read all these and not get extremely lazy and just sleep all summer like I usually do. What are your reading plans for the summer?

Thanks for reading!
~Birdie

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