It’s time to play “guess that book” and also watch our TBRs weep.
Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and is all about the first line of a current/upcoming read. Friday 56 is a meme hosted by Freda’s Voice, where you turn to page 56 (or 56%) in what you’re reading a find a snippet that jumps out at you.
First Lines
Barbed wire, rusty metal knots. I was being transferred.
56% Snippet
“Let’s get this dress off me and murder it,” Breine agrees.
Book Reveal
Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to eighteen-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else–her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja–they went left.
Zofia’s last words to her brother were a promise: Abek to Zofia, A to Z. When I find you again, we will fill our alphabet. Now her journey to fulfill that vow takes her through Poland and Germany, and into a displaced persons camp where everyone she meets is trying to piece together a future from a painful past: Miriam, desperately searching for the twin she was separated from after they survived medical experimentation. Breine, a former heiress, who now longs only for a simple wedding with her new fiancé. And Josef, who guards his past behind a wall of secrets, and is beautiful and strange and magnetic all at once.
But the deeper Zofia digs, the more impossible her search seems. How can she find one boy in a sea of the missing? In the rubble of a broken continent, Zofia must delve into a mystery whose answers could break her–or help her rebuild her world.
Reasons to Read
✿ World War II book, but set AFTER the war, rather than during.
✿ Super sweet story of sibling bonds.
✿ Uplifting story about determination and healing.
✿ Beautiful, descriptive prose that sucks you in.
✿ Characters that are easy to root for.
✿ All the feels, whether you want them or not.
This is a new weekly meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook meant to take place on Mondays, but since Fridays tend to be my TBR-focused post, I’ve decided to combine them here. Next week’s prompt is: Heartwarming.
Now, I’ll admit, this isn’t my go-to type of book, but hey, I sometimes read them, okay? It’s not all stabbiness and murder on my TBR. Just … you know, 90% of it. Okay, so, I haven’t actually read these, so I don’t know if they’re truly heartwarming? But they strike me as the sort of book that tears you down just to build you back up into something greater.
The descriptions pull me right in. Thanks for sharing. Here’s mine: ”SOMETHING SHE’S NOT TELLING US”
It was a great read! Very well written.
How about stabby and heartwarming? That’s my favorite combo. Like Hollow Kingdom? Have to plug that book whenever I can🤣 They went Left sounds really good, and more of an uplifting story about WWII.
Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy recently posted…The Friday Face-Off: Atmospheric
Stabby and heartwarming is the BEST possible combination, and I obviously recommend reading all those books. But sometimes it’s hard to find them that combination, for some reason. xD People are silly.
I knoooow. I’m definitely going to read that. It’s haunting me at this point lol.
It was such a good read! Definitely a different approach to the whole WWII era.
I would really appreciate something uplifting and heartwarming right now! Thank you for sharing this book 🙂
Konna @ The Reading Armchair recently posted…Book Beginnings / Friday 56 – The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams
Hmmm … maybe I should be more specific. It’s an absolutely emotionally tough book, because of the aftermath of the concentration camps and PTSD and loses and experiences, etc. But to me, it’s really uplifting to see these characters, who have been through hell, coming out the other side and finding themselves and piecing their lives back together and having hope, despite everything. So it’s by no means a light, fluffy read, but I do think it’s still full of hope. 🙂
Something struck me as odd about people who had experienced such tragedy talking in such an offhand way about a dress murdering them. Dark humor I guess? I would like to see how it fits with the rest of the story.
The Boy Who Steals Houses distracted me. It looks good.
It’s a little counter-intuitive, but when you read that part, it makes sense. It’s a brief moment of levity between new friends, who have decided to seize the joy in front of them and are preparing for a wedding.
There are a lot of little moments like that in the book, where even though the book is heavy, there’s some lightness, and I thought it worked really well.
Oooh, that cover for Miraculous is really intriguing! Pretty and mysterious and just draws you right into it.
Nicole @ BookWyrmKnits recently posted…The Sparrow by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Right?! I’m all sorts of interested in that book, between the cover and the synopsis. It sounds like it’ll be fabulous.
Sounds like a great read!! Happy Easter weekend, stay safe!
Freda Mans-Labianca recently posted…The #Friday56 #Instagram56
Happy Friday!
Today I’m sharing from chapter 27 in The Happy Camper by Melody Carlson.
“Still needing to get groceries for tonight’s dinner with Jordan, Dillon was tempted to skip the Silver Slipper altogether.”
Hope you have a great Easter weekend. 🙂❤📖
Happy Reading. Take Care!
Such a sad sounding book. How are you doing reading it in this day and age of depressing news? Hope you are staying safely away from the nasty virus. My Friday Quotes
It’s such a curious thing, but I’ve realized that I’ve been reading a lot of dark fantasy or darker books lately, because I love the thrill of seeing characters overcome and persevere.
In this book, especially, it’s the aftermath of atrocities, and these characters have survived so much, but they still have so much hope in their life. To me, that’s really beautiful and uplifting. I guess I just view things in a really weird way, so my reading is a little wonky to reflect that. xD
Gah, I just finished reading this and I’m a sobbing hot mess. This one hit me in the heart feels repeatedly — but what book set in this period doesn’t? I’m convinced I’m the biggest masochist because these books always gut me but I can’t stop reading them?! <3 Hope you enjoyed it just as much! Lol great first lines!
Ugh, yes. It was a constant hammer to the feels. We can be masochists together, because I just can’t resist haha. I did love this, and I really appreciated the more novel setting of AFTER the war.
That’s a great first line!
Isn’t it? I thought it was a really unique concept for the book, too.
This is going on my tbr right now.
I hope you enjoy it! I was surprised by how much I loved it, but it was a very unique read as far as WWII books go, which I appreciated. 🙂