Hello Friends!
I hope you are all doing well this Friday. I’m on vacations now, waiting for my internship grade, so I’m just enjoying reading books and enjoying my time with my best friends.
Today I’m here with a review of an amazing and emotional Historical Fiction book, “Arlette’s Story“, by Angela Barton, as part of Rachel’s Rachel’s Random Resources blog tour.
About the author:
Angela Barton was born in London and grew up in Nottingham. She is married with three grown up children. Passionate about writing both contemporary and historical fiction, Angela loves researching for her books and is an avid reader. Having signed publishing contracts for three of her completed novels with Ruby Fiction, Angela is excited to be working alongside such a friendly and supportive publishing team. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and Nottingham Writers’ Studio.
Having recently moved to France, Angela (alongside her husband, Paul) is now a lavender farmer, creating products from the oil that’s distilled. Angela says she’s looking forward to spending more time writing in the company of her two spaniels while sitting on her veranda overlooking the breath-taking countryside of Charente.
And don’t forget to follow Angela Barton’s Twitter, Facebook and Website pages to get news about new books.
Blurb:
One woman’s struggle to fight back against the enemy in order to protect the ones she loves.
When Arlette Blaise sees a German plane fly over the family farm in 1940, she’s comforted by the fact that the occupying forces are far away in the north of the country. Surely the war will not reach her family in the idyllic French countryside near to the small town of Oradour-sur-Glane?
But then Saul Epstein, a young Jewish man driven from his home by the Nazis, arrives at the farm and Arlette begins to realise that her peaceful existence might be gone for good …
Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arlettes-Story-Angela-Barton-ebook/dp/B07D4L74LP/
My Review:
With a stunning cover, “Arlette’s Story” is an amazing and heartbreaking novel set in France during World War II. It’s about Arlette, her family and friends and how their lives changed by the events caused by the war and German occupation of France. It’s about how they pulled together and tried to survive despite everything they witnessed and were subjected to.
I don’t think I have ever read that many stories set during WWII, but I have read a lot of articles and seen documentaries, plus my brother has always had a fascination with that time period so we sometimes talk about it.
[Reading this story played with my feelings a bit. Especially because my grandparents were immigrants in France and dad and some of his sisters and brother were born there, and I still have family there, which means I feel a connection with France. So, reading this book made me think about that, about every family living in fear and just trying to survive. Portugal managed to remain neutral throughout the war despite extraordinary pressures from both sides, so I can’t fulling understand the struggles, but we were ruled by a dictatorship, and about that I know a lot of stories of trying to survive, stay out of prison and having no freedom of speech. Plus a lot of people were able to escape to Portugal during WWII.]
That’s why this book was kind of heartbreaking and amazing uplifting to me. It made me thing about all the History classes I had about WWII and about Portuguese history at that time. Even though it’s a historical fiction novel, I know that this story could be real, because terrible things have happened during that time.
This story is about Arlette Blaise, her family, friends and neighbors. It’s about everything change from the moment Nazis arrive to the small-town Arlette, family and friends lived in, and how the peace they felt they had, just disappears.
Another reason why I was touched by this story and I it made me remember all the stories I had listen to and think about World’s History, and Portugal’s too, is because Angela Barton knows how to capture the emotion not only in the way the characters act but in the descriptions. The hardship, the lack of food, the fear, the struggles to survive and the secrets… The constant threat of exposure made me stay at the edge of my seat, read to jump or to just scream.
My heart was going crazy sometimes and I almost couldn’t put the book down and go to sleep, and when I finally could open my eyes enough I decided to just sleep, and in the morning, I woke up ready to go back to reading.
Not only was the suspense and the emotions one of the things I loved, but also the moments of love, friendship, family strength and faith, those were some of the uplifting moments that made me love the story even more.
I totally recommend this book to everyone that likes to read historical fiction and have an interest in the WWII period.
Giveaway (UK Only)
You can Enter Here to get a chance to win this beautiful notebook
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time I will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
Also… Don’t forget to check out all the other blogs that are a part of this blog tour.
Don’t forget to comment, don’t be stranger. If you have any book recommendation you can leave a message using the form on my Contact Me page.
If you are an author and want me to do a review of your book you can go check out my Request Review page.
I always welcome new books to add to my list and I’m always excited to do reviews and read books.
Love,
Jess
Jess Bookish Life 