The Nightingale

What a ride this story is! This author shows such a beautiful development of the characters from beginning to end, emphasizing this concept of growth through tough wartime, the maturing of naive girlhood to womanhood through necessity, the premature maturing of childhood to adulthood through trauma, the growth of maternal and paternal love and sacrifice through time and forced reflection.

While initially it may seem to be just another war love story, it definitely is not! It is such a stronger, far more important story of women and the many secretive ways they fought in the war from home. They weren't the ones getting the medals and accolades from returning from the war but they fought thanklessly from behind closed doors.

Although the book is quite large, the first half beautifully sets the scene and introduces to you the broken and naive characteristics of the characters that enable them to play the important roles they do throughout the war. Then comes the second half, which absolutely flies by! I was at the edge of my seat throughout the rest of this book constantly playing emotional catch up and coming to terms with the inevitable continuous loss for all of the characters throughout their horrific situations.

I also couldn't pick a more beautiful, conclusive and tear-inducing end to this story. It is everything I wanted it to be yet I couldn't stop myself from bawling all the way through it.

Historical fiction is new to me, so for anyone on the fence about it, absolutely give it a read and stick with it!! It turns into an incredible read!