Add This RomCom Book To Lighten the Two Heavy Ones

GG Books

Sep 27

The Alice Network, RomCom book in Book Lovers

Closing out September with two GG books set during wartime {have a strong red wine handy for them} and one happily-ever-after romcom book.

1/ The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

GG Rating:: 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 out of 5

First off, I’m addicted to historical fiction books. They are a fictional puzzle with historical facts wrapped into one page-turning story. You sit down to read, and by the end {or in the middle sometimes}, you’re looking up the inspiration for the historical side {oorrrr maybe that could be the history teacher in me coming out}.

Even if you have no intention of looking past these pages, you’’ll be in for a wild ride.

The set-up

The set-up of this book took time to get me onboard. The story starts with Charlie St Clair on a trip with her mother to take care of a “problem”. That problem: Charlie is a pregnant, unwed, 19-year-old socialite. We hear her story in the first person post-WWII, in 1947.

Soon enters Evelyn Gardiner, the not-so-young, belligerent, gun-pointing, and very hostile recluse. We hear most of her story as a retelling of her past, where we learn she was recruited as a spy in WWI for the Alice Network.

The Real Part

I became intrigued with the spy angle and wanting to know where Quinn got her inspiration for this book.

Growing up, how many books did you read where the hero –ah-hemm, heroine– was a badass women who wanted a life like this AND WAS CHOSEN because of her stuttering?

For me, that was exactly ZERO BOOKS read.

True, this book follows the trope of LOVE and WAR, along with guilt, redemption, and finding peace with a broken life.

But past those common themes, it’s based on women who choose to walk a different path than the one society set for them. A true “You Go-Girl!” kinda book.

Yep, these kind of stories suck me in every. single. time!

The first half of the book keeps you wondering how these two women are connected. Think of it as putting together a puzzle! First, you fit the border pieces together.

Charlie and Evelyn {Eve} tell their stories in two different time periods. {Charlie is in the present day of 1947, and Eve’s from 1914-1919}.

About halfway through, you’ll start to see all the middle pieces snap into place for the picture Quinn created in her 500-piece puzzle {which is about how many pages are in the book😉}.

The female spies and the Alice Network were based on real WWI female spies, and this novel gives readers a glimpse of their sacrifices.

But also, the tenacity, brilliance, and strength they had to turn skills {and a perceived disability} into one of the best secret weapons. Use it if you’ve got it!

{If you’ve never read a book from Reese’s Book Club, all of her picks are based on building the narrative of women and placing them at the center of the story. “Only the best book club ever.” }

2/ RomCom, Book Lovers by Emily Henry

GG Rating:: 🍷🍷🍷🍷.8 out of 5 {pretty close to perfect}

A cutthroat heroine goes from big city New York to small town Sunshine Falls, North Carolina with her sister, and finds a town is so much smaller when you’re in it with New Yorker Charlie.

Nora, our heroine and literary agent, is talked into taking the month of August off for a vacation with her younger sister Libby.

Nora doesn’t vacation.

If she were to vacation, it wouldn’t be to Sunshine Falls, the backdrop for her best client’s book.

Only, she does vacation there, because Libby asked her to. And she’ll do anything for Libby.

I loved this romcom for the twists it takes - just when I started thinking I had the story figured out, I got proven wrong. Book Lovers didn’t follow the typical Hallmark movie storyline of boy-meets-girl.

Actually, girl hates boy in their first meeting. Maybe “despises” is a better choice.

Meeting up by chance years later in Sunshine Falls, Nora starts to see the brooding, self-righteous, and overconfident Charlie much differently {okay, so that part was a common romcom trope. But Henry writes it much better, and it doesn’t seem so common😉}.

Nora has a record of being dumped by boyfriends for being more into her job than her relationships.

Relationships are complicated for Nora {aren’t they for all of us sometimes}. She and Libby lose their mom early in life, and Libby becomes Nora’s priority and whole world. Nora’s boyfriend issues also stem from right around the time her mom died.

Nora is unpacking a lot in small town life.

I loved the idea of leaving a busy city and all the noise {which Nora loved, since it made it easier to block her thoughts} for a small town that slows everything wayyyyy down.

*The 4.9 instead of 5/5 comes only from the sex scenes. I’m a BIG romantic, but sometimes the romcom books spend too many pages on the smut and don’t leave anything, nothing, nada, to the imagination.

3/ The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

GG Rating:: Too sad to rate, but very well written

I almost stopped reading this book two, maybe three times.

It’s a love story in the middle of unimaginable conditions. I skipped to the after-notes the first time I stopped reading so I could get a glimpse into a possible “happy” ending.

Heather Morris weaved this story from the interviews she had with Holocaust survivor Ludwig Sokolov and transformed it into a love story that I never saw possible for anyone imprisoned in the concentration camps.

There are some books that you set down and don’t finish. Others, you set down and take awhile to go back to. This one took time to pick up again. Unlike Hamilton - skip that book and go to the musical instead –way better!–

This one deserved to be finished. Sokolov’s kindness, love, intelligence, and quick wit saved him many times {along with the help of others}.

These historical retellings from a personal perspective are important to read and teach more about history, but having a new RomCom book on your nightstand to follow these two with is a brighter idea.

How ‘bout a post + list for other good RomCom books::

What is your favorite way to “read” a book {paper, digital, audio}?

💖xo Andrea

P.S. I love paper books + audio books {perfect for when I’m editing photos + long drives}. If you’re an auditory “reader” also, have you tried Amazon Audible before?