lilacsandliterature's reviews
319 reviews

Isabelle and Vianne are sisters from France who must decide who they are and what they are willing to do when the Nazis occupy France. Vianne’s husband is called up to fight for their country so Vianne is left to raise their daughter alone. Isabelle does not have her own family but instead decided she will find her own way to fight, and will not lay down quietly. Both women are remarkable in their own right but together they are a force to be reckoned with. They learn that things are not always what they seem, and parents do not always have the answers for their children. We’re all still students of the world, no matter our age.

This book was an emotional tale of two sisters fighting their own battles during the war. I highly recommend this book, it will stay with you for a long time to come.

This Scent Keeper follows the life of Emmeline who lives on an island with her father, and spends her days exploring and foraging for food. Her father has built a wall of tiny drawers in their remote cabin, and they are filled with small bottles of scents which he produces on a special machine. Emmeline doesn’t understand how it’s possible; is it magic? Her father won’t tell her how they are made, but scent has been part of her entire world and she doesn’t go a day without letting her nose find her way. Soon Emmeline finds her world completely changed and she must find her way to new challenges and learn about the secret bottles, and in turn learn about herself.
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I was completely enamored with this book from the beginning. The writing is absolutely beautiful and has such a rich lyrical quality that you can’t help but feel transported to this tiny remote island with Emmeline and join her world. This book was full of emotion and yearning for warmth and comfort of family and who you really are. I can’t recommend it enough!

The Huntress follows the story of Nina Markova, a young woman raised in Russia who leaves her unsafe surroundings to join a group of women pilots as a bomber during the Nazi reign of terror. We learn of her past and what has led her to track down a woman called The Huntress who has murdered many innocent people. We also meet two men, Ian and Tony who are also searching for The Huntress for their own reasons. Our third main character is Jordan, a young woman who lives in Boston with her widowed father who soon becomes engaged to a German widow who escaped the war. They will all come together in their search for answers.


I was a huge fan of Quinn’s page turner The Alice Network so I had high hopes for this novel, and it certainly did not disappoint. I never thought I would be a fan of historical fiction but it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite genres. Quinn is able to write women in such a way that you’re cheering them on throughout the story and can’t help but join the fight with them. This seemed to love a little slower for me than The Alice Network but no less enjoyable. An amazing read.

Tierney James has turned 16 and therefore must be banished from society with others her age for what is called The Grace Year. The young girls are believed to have magic inside them that must be released before they are allowed to return to their families, and to wed their selected husbands. But Tierney may not be like many of the girls who have gone before her, and she will not go quietly into the night never to be heard from again.

The Grace Year is an amazingly addictive dystopian novel that truly is the definition of a page-turner. Those who are fans of The Handmaids Tale and The Hunger Games will not be disappointed. The dark tale of what young girls will do to survive leaves you shocked and scrambling right down to the very last page. Would highly recommend!

Jessica Farris sneaks into a psychology study run by a professor she doesn’t know since she isn’t even in college. What follows is a study on morality and ethics that questions everything Jessica thinks about herself. She becomes wrapped up in a cat and mouse game with people who were strangers just a few weeks before.
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I was intrigued by this book as soon as I started and became hooked quickly. But as the book continues, the “twists” that come eventually lose their momentum and it becomes predictable and somewhat mundane. I was continually waiting for something more to happen, something shocking or that I could claim I never saw coming but that all fell flat for me. Overall I closed the book disappointed.

“If you leave a door half open, soon you’ll hear the whispers spoken...”
The Whisper Man is the story of a man and his young son who move to a new town after the death of his wife. The town has a horrible history, however, of a serial killer whose victims were young boys and who is now in jail. But soon another young boy goes missing and the man Tom and his son Jake are entwined in this story far more than they even know.
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The Whisper Man was the proclaimed “creepy” book of the summer, which people warned you would need to keep all the lights on while you read, but unfortunately that fell short for me. I think it might have been over-hyped in my head but none of the “creepy” elements ever held much weight. There were a few heart-pounding moments but at the times when I was looking for a spicy thriller I found it to be a quiet mystery more than anything else. I wasn’t shocked by the ending or surprised by any major “twists” as I hoped to be. Overall it was a high 3

The story of Stella and Michael follow a young woman with asperger’s syndrom and a male escort. Stella is trying to learn how to “be good at sex” and Michael is trying to pay the bills. It’s a typical story in that boy meets girl and they fall in love. However their circumstances are obviously quite interesting with how they meet.

I found this book overall incredibly uncomfortable. The writing was pornographic and written in such a way that it was meant to be “sexy” but didn’t work that way. It was predictable and I felt the main character Stella was being taken advantage of. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone, even a romance fan which I am not. The only redeeming part was that it was a very quick read.

Vic McQueen is a young girl desperate for freedom which she finds on her Raleigh Tuff Burner, riding it to escape her parents arguing. What she finds is literally an entirely different world, one where she can ride across a bridge and end up somewhere completely different than where she started. But soon Vic finds herself biting off more than she can chew when she runs into Mr. Charles Talent Manx. Mr. Manx takes children for a ride in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith, a car with a license plate that reads NOS4A2, as in the ancient word Nosferatu for vampire. Manx takes children to Christmasland, a world where they will never hurt or be afraid again. A world where there is nothing but laughter and cocoa and presents. But is this world saving them or killing them? As we follow Vic in her journey in life, she soon must face Manx again in the fight of her life.

This book sucked me in from its very first terrifying pages and didn’t let go until the very last page. Hill writes a protagonist for the ages, a woman who will stop and nothing to take down the very man- or thing- of her dreams. You can’t help but root for Vic McQueen through every page, willing her to come out unscathed on the other side. This book is terrifying, unsettling, and brings every nightmare possible into the forefront of your mind. A wild ride in every sense of the word. But literally unputdownable.