The Brown Review

Author: Emily Houghton Rating: 4.5/5 Recommend:  This is the kind of book that you finish in a single read. When you're feeling at your worst, like nothing in life is going according to plan, it's the kind of book that will show you how little your problems are compared to others. Emily Houghton's novel will then teach you how to stand up again. A beautiful read. Alice has had an accident. Due to a mishap at work, she is now the recovering survivor of a raging fire - but, at a steep cost. Alfie was in an accident too - but, after months spent recovering, he is finally close to being released from the hospital's rehabilitation ward. When Alice is shifted to the bed next to Alfie, the pair strike a bizarre friendship... but, can you be friends with someone you have never even seen? How much does appearance matter really? I loved the dynamic between Alice and Alfie! As the interactions between them grew, and they each slowly began to open up about the grief and loss in th...

  Author: Kristin Hannah  Rating: 5/5  Recommend: A book that will make you weep in grief, scream in anger, and question every single belief you have. Be prepared to stay up all night reading. This is the second historical fiction novel I have read upon the Occupation; the first being The Diary of Anne Frank of course. About 20 different people had recommended Kristin Hannah’s gut-wrenching book, The Nightingale, to me in 2018 and to be honest I was really skeptical in the beginning thinking how the novel will ever live to such high expectations – boy was I proved wrong.  The Nightingale deserves every single ounce of the praise it has received and more. Kristin Hannah has superbly managed to weave a heart-breaking and suspenseful storyline in the backdrop of the devastating history of 1945. She had me so immersed in the plot and so involved with the characters that I was in tears by the last page and just about ready to meet these characters i...

Letters to the Lost Author: Brigid Kemmerer Rating: 5. 100. 1000. Infinity. I can’t rate this. I can only ask you, request you, implore you to read it. Recommend: If I can reach even one person and convince them to read this – this mind-blowing, addictive, insanely compelling gem of a book – then, I will go to my grave knowing that I did at least one good thing in this life. Highly, highly recommended. After finishing Letters to the Lost, I was overcome by an overwhelming, consuming need to write. I needed an outlet, somewhere I could express the intensely powerful emotions the book had caused in me, someone to express my thoughts to. Unfortunately, I don’t have a Declan, or The Dark in my life to whom I can talk to; for now, this blog is my outlet. The Dark and The Cemetery Girl ;) This is a novel about a girl who has lost her mother, and a boy who has lost his sister. Juliet leaves letters on her mother’s grave and one day Declan stumbles across one – ...