Month: Aug 2019

Summer of 69 by Elin Hilderbrand – Review (spoilers below)

TW: Depression,Alcoholism, domestic violence, a character suicide, grooming

This is my first book by Elin Hilderbrand and what a great first book to read, I have also found out that this is her first historical fiction novel, and that all/most of her books are set in Nantucket. i would have to say that Elin is a natural in the historical fiction genre after just reading this book. It was just that good.

This book is set in the backend of the 60’s and follows the lives of one family, the levins who in this book go through so many emotions, dilemmas and lots of family drama.

Every summer the Levin’s always go to Nantucket and everyone usually are excited and happy to be going. But this year so many scenarios have played out and the family are not really excited anymore.

As we follow the lives of this family we see the ups and downs of this at times dysfunctional family. Such as Blair the oldest daughter has found out she is pregnant with twins and is mainly at home on her own most of the time as her husband Angus who is working with NASA is out most of the time either busy at work or is he keeping a secret ?

The middle daughter Kirby who is all about brining unity and rights to America to ensure everyone lives freely. Kirby has also not came to Nantucket this year as she has found at job working at Marthas vineyard then eventually a hotel.

The youngest daughter Jessie who is the only one going to Nantucket with her mother and grandmother is not really feeling up for it but has to go anyway but while she is there we see her character develop and see her be put in a very horrible situation. But also through this she meets a boy who is staying at the house called pick and we see this relationship unfold and many truths start to come out of the woodworks.

We also see a little bit of Tiger the only son in the family who has gone into the army to serve for a America in Vietnam and through the book we see the worry that the family face in wether they will see their son/brother/grandson ever again and the when we see letters get delivered in the book you can just fell the emotions and nervousness of the letter and the family not trying to fear the worst just before they see the letter.

i really loved the whole historical aspect of this book aswell and 1969 has got to be one of the perfect years to write about. From the clothes described to the many monumental occasions that are legendary to this day and also the classic bands and singers that get put throughout the book is just amazing to read about it definitely transports u back to the year of 1969.

Overall this book was such an amazing read and for Elin Hilderbrand’s first historical fiction this was soooooo good and like I just said being able to be transported back to 1969 was so cool and a very cool and the 60’s a very cool time to read about. The perfect summer read and if u haven’t picked this book up yet you sure need to.

4.5/5 stars

Summer of salt by Katrina Leno (spoiler warning)

Review

TW – sexual assault,rape, animals death, drug use

I picked this book up on a whim as I have been interested in this book for a long while now, and I needed something either quick or fast paced for me to read. as this was under 300 pages It was a super fast read but the book inside is definitely full of happy times but also some very emotional and upsetting times as well.

this book is a magical realism story which follows Georgina and Mary two twin sisters who live in a small town called by the sea which is set on a island, this island holds the legacy of the fernweh family who Mary and Georgina are apart of and they all have a reputation of possessing magical powers such as, telepathy, flying, floating and so much more. every summer by the sea becomes a tourist attraction for a lot of people as 300 years ago a woman named Annabelle who is also from the feenweh ancestry line turned into a bird and every year people called birdseeds come and visit the Island to find Annabelle and to make sure the rumours are true. This year however something strange has happened and for some unknown reason Annabelle hasn’t turned up, so after a few days of lots of people worrying and birdseeds becoming impatient they go out on the hunt to try ad find Annabelle all over the island. until one night Georgina is told that they have found Annabelle but dead.

as everyone sees the body over the next couple of days the birdheads/ most of the island turn the accustorary finger onto Mary one of the Fernweh twins, but Georgina deep down knows that Mary could never harm a bird or even one as legendary as Annabelle. Georgina starts to second guess herself though because when Annabelle’s corpse was found Mary all of a sudden started to act strange and hide a secret that Mary would not tell anyone about. so Georgina makes it her mission to find out the whole truth.

in the background of this story we see a beautiful romantic relationship start to take shape with Georgina and Prue who arrived on the island with her brother Harrison at the start of the summer. Prue is also a birdied and is very fascinated about the bird as most of the island. Prue and Georgina I really just loved the dynamic of these two together and as it was not the forefront of the story would love to have seen even. more scenes with these two together if the book was longer but overall it was so cute.

Overall this book was such a fantastic read and for me very fast paced. I loved the atmosphere, the magical abilities of the women and the friendships and F/F romance that were really great. my only little bit of criticism is that I wish the book was longer because I could read about these characters for a while or even if Justin a whim if Katrina Leno brought back this story and make a second book that would be amazing. at parts near the end I did feel like everything happened very quickly but overall thumbs up for and I would definitely recommend to people.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨