MINI REVIEW | Anna and the Swallow Man

Series: N/A
Author: Gavriel Savit
Genre: young adult, historical fiction
Publish: January 26, 2016
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

Kraków, 1939. A million marching soldiers and a thousand barking dogs. This is no place to grow up. Anna Łania is just seven years old when the Germans take her father, a linguistics professor, during their purge of intellectuals in Poland. She’s alone.  

And then Anna meets the Swallow Man. He is a mystery, strange and tall, a skilled deceiver with more than a little magic up his sleeve. And when the soldiers in the streets look at him, they see what he wants them to see.  

The Swallow Man is not Anna’s father—she knows that very well—but she also knows that, like her father, he’s in danger of being taken, and like her father, he has a gift for languages: Polish, Russian, German, Yiddish, even Bird. When he summons a bright, beautiful swallow down to his hand to stop her from crying, Anna is entranced. She follows him into the wilderness.  

Over the course of their travels together, Anna and the Swallow Man will dodge bombs, tame soldiers, and even, despite their better judgment, make a friend. But in a world gone mad, everything can prove dangerous. Even the Swallow Man.  

Destined to become a classic, Gavriel Savit’s stunning debut reveals life’s hardest lessons while celebrating its miraculous possibilities. 

[REVIEW] Golden Son

Series: Red Rising #2
Author: Pierce Brown
Genre: young adult, adult, science fiction, dystopia, war, fantasy, adventure, space
Published: January 6, 2015 
Publisher: Del Rey

As a Red, Darrow grew up working the mines deep beneath the surface of Mars, enduring backbreaking labor while dreaming of the better future he was building for his descendants. But the Society he faithfully served was built on lies. Darrow's kind have been betrayed and denied by their elitist masters, the Golds - and their only path to liberation is revolution. And so Darrow sacrifices himself in the name of the greater good for which Eo, his true love and inspiration, laid down her own life. He becomes a Gold, infiltrating their privileged realm so that he can destroy it from within.

A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love - but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind's destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution - and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo's principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.

[REVIEW] The Confidant

Series: Lost Locket of Lahari
Author: Janna Jennings
Genre: young adult, historical fiction, war
Published: October 7, 2014
Publisher: Patchwork Press

Purchase: Amazon

This book is also available in the LOST LOCKET OF LAHARI ANTHOLOGY. Save 50% versus buying the five books in the collection individually, plus receive an additional BONUS ORIGIN STORY! 

It began with a locket. Slipped to Emma as her mother is arrested by the Japanese police, the keepsake from her dead father contains much more than memories. In the final days of World War II, Emma is armed with stolen information vital to the liberation of Manila.  

Caught up in a confidant’s web of deception and lies, she finds herself suddenly a spy. The enemy hunts her as she makes her way to the American soldiers still hiding in the hills. Faced with the threat of capture and torture Emma wonders if she’ll ever see her mother again.

[REVIEW] Between Shades of Gray

Series: N/A
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Genre: young adult, historical fiction, war
Published: April 3, 2012 (first published March 22, 2011)
Publisher: Speak

Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother’s was worth a pocket watch. 

Lithuania, June 1941: Fifteen-year-old Lina was preparing for art school and looking forward to summer. In the dark of night here is a knock at the door and life is forever changed. Soviet secret police arrest Lina, her mother, and her younger brother, tearing their family apart. The three are hauled from their home and thrown into cattle cars, where they soon discover their destination: Siberia. Separated from her father, Lina embeds clues in her drawings and secretly passes them along, hoping they will reach her father’s prison camp. In this dramatic and moving story, Lina desperately fights for her life and the lives of those around her. But will love be enough to keep her alive?

[REVIEW] Code Name Verity

Series: Code Name Verity #1
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Genre: young adult, historical fiction, war
Published: May 7, 2013 (first published February 6, 2012)
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
ISBN: 978-142315288-0

Oct. 11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. 

When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. 

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

[REVIEW] Red Rising

Series: Red Rising #1
Author: Pierce Brown
Genre: young adult, science fiction, dystopia, survival, mythology, war
Published: February 18, 2014 (first published January 28, 2014)
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 978-0-553-84125-1

Synopsis:

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making surface of Mars livable for the future generations. 

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. 

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow – and Reds like him – are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.