Book Description:
In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.
FRANCE, 1939
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another.
Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real–and deadly–consequences.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah takes her talented pen to the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of 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–a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
So many emotions going on after finishing this book and none of them are bad! I felt every emotion as I read this story; hope, fear, sadness (it brought me to tears in parts), love, determination, courage, and more. This is not a book I would typically read, but I had heard about it and wanted to read it and I saw there was a giveaway on GoodReads and I entered, never thinking I would win it. Then one day I got a package and opened and there it was! I hadn’t even saw in my email I had won so it was a great surprise.
Let me tell you I am so glad I won this book and that I read it. I thought the writing was great, I felt like I was there in the story with Vianne and Isabelle and experiencing what they went through. I thought they were both well written characters who I cared about and that you just rooted for in the story. I thought the other characters in the book were well written as well, they all played off each other nicely. This being historical fiction and written about WW2 just makes you realize how crazy it was back then. I know this isn’t a true story, but instead was inspired but a bunch of stories of women during WW2 and what they did. So the author did her research and really brought it to life.
I liked how the book was broken up where you see the present and then it delves into the past and stays there awhile and then you get a glimpse back to the present. I liked that not every chapter was back and forth, it was that you were getting the full story and seeing how it effected the characters in the present. The book progressed nicely, you got detail but not too much to make it drag on. I thought the plot was amazing and what these women did in this book was just outstanding. It makes me want to find the stories she found for inspiration and read them to see what else women did in WW2.
All that being said I definitely recommend this so go get a copy and start reading!
Book Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
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