This OR That #Giveaway Week 33 ~ The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner OR The Perfect Son by Lauren North #TheLastYearOfTheWar #ThePerfectSon

 

I have sooooo many books! 

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. It's a way for me to cull my collection and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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The Last Year of the War

Susan Meissner

ARC ~ Pub date March 2019

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943--aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

Read my thoughts here

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The Perfect Son

Lauren North

ARC ~ Pub date August 2021

A disturbing and shocking debut novel of psychological suspense about a recently widowed mother, her young son, and the lengths she'll go to in order to keep him safe.

When Tess Clarke wakes up in the hospital the day after her son Jamie's eighth birthday, she's sure of these things: She's been stabbed, her son is missing, her brother-in-law and her grief counselor are involved. But no one is listening to her.

After her husband, Mark, died suddenly in a terrible accident a few months earlier, the only thing keeping Tess together is Jamie. As they struggle to make sense of their new life without Mark, they find joy in brief moments of normalcy like walking to school and watching television together. Life is hard without Mark, but Tess has Jamie, and that's what matters.

But there in the hospital, confused and surrounded by people who won't listen, Tess’s world falls apart. To save her son, she must piece together what happened between Mark's death and Jamie's birthday, but the truth might just be too much for her to bear.

Read my thoughts here

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Release Day! The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner ~ My Thoughts #Tall Poppy #TheNatureOfFragileThings #NetGalley

  Release Day! 

Congrats Susan
on the release today of 
The Nature of Fragile Things!

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
Historical Fiction, 384 pages

Published February 2nd 2021 by Berkley Books

April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.

Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right.

Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved.

The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.

From the acclaimed author of The Last Year of the War and As Bright as Heaven comes a gripping novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity.

My thoughts about The Nature of Fragile Things ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)

First lines—"Interview with Mrs. Sophie Hocking. Conducted by Ambrose Logan, U.S Marshall. Case Number 069308. Official transcript. San Francisco, CA. November 6, 1906."

Honestly, I haven't read a book by this author that I didn't just love. The Nature of Fragile Things was no different. I realize it's early in the year but this one is probably going to one of my favorites of the year. Such a memorable story!

Susan has created a enthralling, believable story centered around an Irish immigrant, a woman who comes to the United States for a chance of a better life. Sophie is thrown into a challenging world but strives for what she knows is important. 

  

I love Susan's writing. She has such an wonderful, flowing writing style. I felt very comfortable with her characters and setting from the start. I have always been fascinated with this time period in San Francisco and what the residents had to go through in that catastrophic earthquake of 1906, so this story captivated me. 

The Nature of Fragile Things is a story that I highly recommend! It's beautiful, heartwarming, and one that you won't soon forget. I know I won't. 

I received an ARC of The Nature of Fragile Things via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

About the author

Susan Meissner is a USA Today bestselling novelist with more than half a million books in print in fifteen languages. Her critically acclaimed works of historical fiction have been named to numerous lists including Publishers Weekly’s annual roster of 100 best books, Library Reads Top Picks, Real Simple annual tally of best books, Goodreads Readers’ Choice awards, Booklist’s Top Ten, and Book of the Month.

She attended Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and is a former managing editor of a weekly newspaper. Susan’s expertise as a storyteller and her thoroughly researched topics make her a favorite author of book clubs everywhere. Her engaging and warm speaking style appeal to all manner of women’s groups, literary organizations, libraries and learning institutions, and service clubs.

When she is not working on a new novel, she enjoys teaching workshops on writing and dream-following, spending time with her family, music, reading great books, and traveling.  ~ Goodreads

Connect with Susan

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Release Day! The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner #TheLastYearOfTheWar #TallPoppyWriter

Congrats Susan
on the release today of 
The Last Year of the War!

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
Print and e-book, 400 pages
Published March 19th 2019 by Berkley

From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager whose life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp during World War II.

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943--aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her.

The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.

I loved The Last Year of the War! 

You can read my thoughts here.

About the Author

Susan Meissner was born in San Diego, California, the second of three. She spent her childhood in just two houses.

Her first writings are a laughable collection of oddly worded poems and predictable stories she wrote when she was eight.

She attended Point Loma College in San Diego, and married her husband, Bob, who is now an associate pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves, in 1980. When she is not working on a new novel, she is directing the small groups ministries at The Church at Rancho Bernardo. She also enjoy teaching workshops on writing and dream-following, spending time with my family, music, reading great books, and traveling. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Susan

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner ~ My Thoughts #TheLastYearOfTheWar #TallPoppyWriter #NetGalley

The Last Year of the War

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
Print and e-book, 400 pages
Expected publication: March 19th 2019 by Berkley

From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager whose life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp during World War II.

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943--aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her.

The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.

My thoughts about The Last Year of the War ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)

First line—"I've a thief to thank for finding the one person I need to see before I die."

The Last Year of the War is an amazing story which taught me a bit about US history that I knew little or nothing about. I knew of the Japanese people being moved to internment camps during the war but was unaware that Germans were as well. Susan takes that bit of history and weaves a beautiful tale of two girls from different backgrounds, who become life-long friends while living in the camp.

Circumstances pulled them in different directions but the friendship bond remained even though they didn't see or hear from each other for years. Life was hard for Elise and Mariko as they grew into womanhood, surviving the war the best way that they could.

This is a wonderful story—a story that was kind of hard to read sometimes as their lives got hard. This tale drew me in from the very start as I fell in love with these two girls and as I watched their friendship and lives unfold.

About the Author

Susan Meissner was born in San Diego, California, the second of three. She spent her childhood in just two houses.

Her first writings are a laughable collection of oddly worded poems and predictable stories she wrote when she was eight.

She attended Point Loma College in San Diego, and married her husband, Bob, who is now an associate pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves, in 1980. When she is not working on a new novel, she is directing the small groups ministries at The Church at Rancho Bernardo. She also enjoy teaching workshops on writing and dream-following, spending time with my family, music, reading great books, and traveling. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Susan

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner and a Giveaway

“We understand what we want to understand.”

Leaving a life of privilege to strike out on her own, Lauren Durough breaks with convention and her family’s expectations by choosing a state college over Stanford and earning her own income over accepting her ample monthly allowance. She takes a part-time job from 83-year-old librarian Abigail Boyles, who asks Lauren to transcribe the journal entries of her ancestor Mercy Hayworth, a victim of the Salem witch trials.

Almost immediately, Lauren finds herself drawn to this girl who lived and died four centuries ago. As the fervor around the witch accusations increases, Mercy becomes trapped in the worldview of the day, unable to fight the overwhelming influence of snap judgments and superstition, and Lauren realizes that the secrets of Mercy’s story extend beyond the pages of her diary, living on in the mysterious, embittered Abigail.

The strength of her affinity with Mercy forces Lauren to take a startling new look at her own life, including her relationships with Abigail, her college roommate, and a young man named Raul. But on the way to the truth, will Lauren find herself playing the helpless defendant or the misguided judge? Can she break free from her own perceptions and see who she really is? ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

My thoughts about The Shape of Mercy ~~

I read this book in March of 2011 and posted my thoughts then. Let me tell you, I loved it! And then I loaned it to a friend and forgot that she had it. She returned it to me the other day and I was once again reminded of how much I loved the story.

Now, I have to admit, there is no way that I can keep all the books that come into my house (you probably know all about that) so I am going to offer The Shape of Mercy to one lucky follower of The Book Bag.

Here are my thoughts from March 2011 and a link to the original post. It's kind of amazing to me to see how my posts have evolved since then.

This book caught my eye because I have always been fascinated by the subject of the Salem witch trials. This is a story about a young woman, Lauren, who has been hired to transcribe a diary that was written by a young woman, Mercy, who was accused in the trials. This starts a journey for Lauren to discover who she is and to examine how she feels about her life of privilege.

One of the great lines from this book ~~"When you only do what is expected of you, you never learn what you would've done had you chosen for yourself." ~~ is exactly what Lauren is struggling with.

The Shape of Mercy is very well written and I found myself caring for both Lauren and Mercy from the very beginning. We also meet the owner of the diary, Abigail, an older woman who reveals in one of their transcribing sessions ~~ "He was the man I should have married." Lauren is determined to find out what she means by that statement but she also wonders if she, herself, in too concerned with what she 'should' do.

I enjoyed this book immensely and will be recommending it to my friends!

The author's website says she writes "Fiction for the Restless Reader". I am pretty sure that I am a restless reader and I know that I am going to be reading more of Susan Meissner's books!

~~ I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

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