Books of the Year – Emma's Biblio Treasures

Published January 29th, 2015 by Pan Macmillan
Historical Fiction, Romance Novel, War Story, Historical Romance

Today I’m sharing my thoughts on this masterpiece. Thank you to BookBreakk and Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Bestselling Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick

Soon to be a major motion picture, Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale has captured the hearts of millions of readers becoming a number one bestseller across the world. It is a heart-breakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the endurance of women.

This story is about what it was like to be a woman during World War II, when women’s stories were all too often forgotten or overlooked . . . Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac are two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals and passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path towards survival, love and freedom in war-torn France.

It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

‘A rich, compelling novel of love, sacrifice and survival’ – Kate Morton, author of Homecoming

‘Movingly written and plotted with the heartless skill of a Greek tragedy, you’ll keep turning the pages until the last racking sob’ – Daily Mail

‘I loved The Nightingale . . . great characters, great plots, great emotions, who could ask for more in a novel?’ – Isabel Allende, bestselling author of The House of the Spirits

‘A griping tale of family, love, grief and forgiveness’ – Sunday Express

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MY REVIEW:

Astonishing, breathtaking, phenomenal, heart-rending, courageous and powerful, The Nightingale, is an unforgettable masterpiece. Like most of Kristin Hannah’s novels, this book had been languishing on my shelf for far too long when I finally decided to pick it up on a whim this month. Why did I wait so long?

The story explores what it means to be a woman during war, telling the story through the eyes of sisters Vivianne and Isabelle as they live through World War Two. The pair are separated and have very different experiences but each possess strength, an unbreakable determination to survive, and a strong moral compass that sees them taking huge risks in order to help others.

A tearjerker that is filled with kindness, joy, connection and bravery, I was an empty shell when I finished this book. Masterfully told, hauntingly evocative and devastatingly real, it is easy to see why this story is considered a modern classic and so highly recommended. Rating this is one of the easiest five stars I’ve ever given. It left me with the biggest book hangover and even now, over a week after finishing it, the characters and story are still with me and I think about it daily. It has taken a place in my heart and on my list of favourite books of all time. And that final line! Oh, my heart 💔😭

When the year started I had a number of Kristin Hanah’s books on my TBR but hadn’t read any of them. Now, as it ends, I’ve read two of them, they are both in my list of favourite books this year. Ms. Hannah is undoubtedly now one of my favourite authors and I will be prioritising her backlist in 2025.

I can’t recommend this magnificent story enough. If you haven’t read it, please do ASAP. Just clear your schedule first because once you start you’ll not be doing anything else.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

*I listened to this on Bookbeat. You can listen for 60 days free by clicking my affiliate link here*

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

From Kristin’s Website: Kristin Hannah is the award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels including the international blockbuster, The Nightingale, which was named Goodreads Best Historical fiction novel for 2015 and won the coveted People’s Choice award for best fiction in the same year. Additionally, it was a selection of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club in 2023. It was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, Paste, and The Week. In 2018, The Great Alone became an instant New York Times #1 bestseller and was named the Best Historical Novel of the Year by Goodreads.

The Four Winds was published in February of 2021 and immediately hit #1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Indie bookstores’ bestseller lists. Additionally, it was selected as a book club pick by the both Today Show and the Book Of the Month club, which named it the best book of 2021.

The Nightingale is currently in production at Tri Star, with Dakota and Elle Fanning set to star. Tri Star has also optioned The Great Alone and it is in development. Firefly Lane, her beloved novel about two best friends, was the #1 Netflix series around the world, in the week it came out. The popular tv show stars Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke and Season Two is currently set to conclude the series on April 27, 2023.

A former attorney, Kristin lives in the Pacific Northwest.

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BUY THE BOOK:

Bookshop.org* | Waterstones* | Amazon*
*These are affiliate links

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Thanks for reading, Bibliophiles xxxx

2019 has been a great reading year for me. I read 150 books, surpassing my goal of 100 by fifty percent. Most of these were rated four stars but there were an incredible forty-four books that I gave a five star rating. Needless to say, all of this made it very hard to choose what I had originally planned to be my top ten books of the year. Instead, I decided to see how many favourites I had, which is how I’ve ended up with a list of twenty books of the year. Here they are in the order I read them:

Verity by Colleen Hoover
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
Little by Edward Carey
The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald
The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin
The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
Here To Stay by Mark Edwards
The Woman Who Wanted More by Vicky Zimmerman
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Familiars by Stacey Halls
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
I Wanted You To Know by Laura Pearson
The Blossom Twins by Carol Wyer
Seven Days by Alex Lake
The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis
Gone by Leona Deakin
The Home by Sarah Stovell
The 24-Hour Cafe by Libby Page

My overall favourite read this year was the phenomenal historical fiction novel The Familiars by Stacey Halls. Coincidentally, this was also my 100th read back in August. The Vanished Bride by Bella Edward is the one I’d say came a close second.

So which books almost made the cut? Below is a list of books I loved and highly recommend that narrowly missed being in my top books list:

The Binding by Bridget Collins
Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts
Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce
The Whisper Man by Alex North
Columbine by Dave Cullen
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
After The End by Clare Macintosh
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
Take It Back by Kia Abdullah
The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay
Postscript by Cecelia Ahern
The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey
The Lost Ones by Anita Frank
Hold Your Tongue by Deborah Masson

Are any of these in your top books of the year? What books were your favourite in 2019? Comment below and tell me.