The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah-440 pages

 Two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France.  Two different paths are chosen, and yet both of them are so brave.  The choices that a mother makes for the survival of her children, the choice a single, independent woman makes to assure that pilots are allowed to fight another day.  I LOVE this book.

 

Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin

Until Leaves Fall in Paris by Sarah Sundin 403 pages I love reading about World War II. This book took an unexpected turn because both of the main characters were from America but living in France, and met through a bookstore. The widower and the owner of the bookstore were both working for the resistance without the other one knowing. Their escape from France was very hard and kept me on the edge of my seat. I won't spoil the ending by telling you what happens and who makes it back to America. As the Nazis march toward Paris in 1940, American ballerina Lucie Girard buys her favorite English-language bookstore to allow the Jewish owners to escape. Lucie struggles to run Green Leaf Books due to oppressive German laws and harsh conditions, but she finds a way to aid the resistance by passing secret messages between the pages of her books. Widower Paul Aubrey wants nothing more than to return to the States with his little girl, but the US Army convinces him to keep his factory running and obtain military information from his German customers. As the war rages on, Paul offers his own resistance by sabotaging his product and hiding British airmen in his factory. After they meet in the bookstore, Paul and Lucie are drawn to each other, but she rejects him when she discovers he sells to the Germans. And for Paul to win her trust would mean betraying his mission. Master of WWII-era fiction Sarah Sundin invites you onto the streets of occupied Paris to discover whether love or duty will prevail.

A Crash of Fate (Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, #1) by Zoraida Cordova

A Crash of Fate (Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, #1) by Zoraida Cordova-348 pages

Galaxy's Edge recently opened at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World and I can hardly wait to visit-maybe next year or sometime soon (also, I can hardly wait for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but that's beside the point). In the meantime, I wanted to read this to get a feel for Batuu and the Black Spire Outpost. I enjoy anything Star Wars and this book is no different. I am enjoying the new locations and characters in the Disney Star Wars Canon. I would recommend this to any Star Wars fan, especially to the younger audience (teens and young adults).

Kiss and Spell by Shanna Swendson

Kiss and Spell by Shanna Swendson - 300 pages
An Enchanted Inc. Novel #7

Katie is just getting used to having magic when she and Owen are caught up in the Elf Lord's latest plot to take control of the magical world.  This time their sent to another dimension where they have forgotten everything about their former lives.  In fact, it almost seems as if Katie is in a romantic movie -- complete with its own soundtrack.

As of this time, the author claims this is the final book in the Enchanted Inc series.  I liked the book as a part of the series.  However, I was disappointed with it as a finale.  The ending and final relationships seemed tacked on to make it "happy" enough for the final ending of the series.  If you left off the final chapter, it was a great addition to the series with an interesting plot and quite a bit more character development than had been in the last few books.