Book Review: The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke // east berlin, untold stories, and magic balloons

Title: The Girl with the Red Balloon

Author: Katherine Locke

Published: September 1, 2017

Pages: 256

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

Amazon / Barnes & Nobles / Book Depository / Goodreads

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Ellie grew up hearing the stories of the magical red balloon that saved her late grandfather from a German WWII concentration camp.

When she took a school trip all the way to Berlin from the USA, Ellie expected to practice her German while she finally explored Germany—a country her grandfather never forgave for all his heartache. Instead, her life turned on its axis after she noticed and latched onto a floating, red balloon reminiscent of the ones from her grandfather’s tales. In a blink of an eye, she was flung back and trapped in 1988 East Berlin where the past, present, and future were fantastically more entangled than anyone knew.

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Book Review: Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson // a charming Regency romance

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Title: Edenbrooke

Author: Julianne Donaldson

Published: March 27, 2012

Pages: 264

Genre: Romance, Historical Fiction

Amazon / Barnes and Nobles / Goodreads

Goodreads Description: Marianne Daventry will do anything to escape the boredom of Bath and the amorous attentions of an unwanted suitor. So when an invitation arrives from her twin sister, Cecily, to join her at a sprawling country estate, she jumps at the chance. Thinking she’ll be able to relax and enjoy her beloved English countryside while her sister snags the handsome heir of Edenbrooke, Marianne finds that even the best laid plans can go awry.

From a terrifying run-in with a highwayman to a seemingly harmless flirtation, Marianne finds herself embroiled in an unexpected adventure filled with enough romance and intrigue to keep her mind racing. Will Marianne be able to rein in her traitorous heart, or will a mysterious stranger sweep her off her feet? Fate had something other than a relaxing summer in mind when it sent Marianne to Edenbrooke.

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I learned about Edenbrooke through one of Brookie’s posts when she mentioned how she has re-read it four times already.

Being someone who rarely re-reads books, I was curious as to what she saw in it. 

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Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett // as good as the movie

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Title: The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett

Published: February 10, 2009

Pages: 444

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Amazon / Barnes and Nobles / Goodreads

Goodreads Description: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step….

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

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It had been about two years since I last watched The Help and I still found myself thinking about how much I enjoyed it. Instead of watching it again, I decided to read the book to see what wasn’t included. I was pleased to discover that the movie was very true to the book, and I found the movie scenes playing out in my head as I was reading.  For that reason, it almost feels like I’m reviewing both the book and movie.

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