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New Geronimo Reads

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys | Book Review

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Released on February 2, 2016
Genre: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, War
Pages: 391

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Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.

As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.

Yet not all promises can be kept.

Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope. 

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I honestly don't know how I'm going to talk about this book. It completely tore my heart into pieces and I'm not sure if I'll ever recover.

Ok, so I'm exaggerating just a little but seriously. This book was phenomenal. 

Salt to the Sea is a historical fiction novel set during World War 2. The novel follows 4 very different teenagers who are trying to survive on their journey to a ship named the Wilhem Gustloff, and also while aboard the ship. The book was told in different perspectives of the 4 main characters. Sepetys had this amazing way of connecting each person's story-line so you fully get the whole story of each character. 

I ended up becoming extremely attached to the characters -- or well, 3 of the 4. There was one character who got on my last nerve. I don't think I've ever hated a character more than this one. However, this character was extremely necessary for this novel and their bastardness was amazingly written. You know it's a good author if she can make you hate this person ALMOST more than Umbridge. Almost. 

What broke my heart about this book was how realistic the settings were. I personally could never imagine having to go through what people had to go through during this war and it makes me extremely grateful for the life that I was born into. You could tell that Sepetys really researched this topic thoroughly and it shows tremendously in this novel. 

 I literally could not put this book down because it just had me so entranced with the story and the setting and the characters. Also, since it's told in different perspectives, each chapter is quite short -- no more than 5 pages each, so this is a relatively quick read. 

This book was pretty much an amazing, hauntingly beautiful masterpiece. 

5/5 stars.

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I'm sorry this review was quite short, choppy and unhelpful, but I honestly have no clue how to describe my love for this book. I just can't quite get the right words. I highly, highly recommend everyone to pick this up.

<3

March Wrap-Up

Hey everyone! March was a bit of a slumpy reading month for me, but I did still manage to get 7 books in. One of them ended up becoming one of my favorite books!

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I really don't know what to say about this book other than it's incredible, gorgeous, heart-wrenching, etc. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin follows the title character who owns a bookshop and is a recent widower. He's depressed and lonely and his business is slowly losing all of it's money and customers. One day, he receives a life-changing package on his front door and from there you witness A.J. develop into a better version of himself. I got really attached with these characters. Not gonna lie, I totally shed a few tears towards the end. I absolutely love Zevin's writing and can't wait to read more from her. 5/5 stars.

I have had Turning Tables by Heather & Rose MacDowell on my shelf for at least 5 years and never picked it up until this month. I posted a full review for this which I'll link here. It was a fun read and I'm really happy that I finally got around to reading it. Better late than never, huh? 3/5 stars.

I have mixed feelings on this book. Landline by Rainbow Rowell was my 2nd Rowell book. While it was definitely not my favorite, it could've been worse. I just got extremely annoyed with the characters and the pacing of the story. I have a full review here if you'd like to check it out. 3/5 stars. 

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell was one of my most anticipated reads for 2016. I love Peter Pan and have been extremely interested in re-tellings of it recently. While I did enjoy most of the book, I think it just fell a bit flat for me towards the end. I really did enjoy the writing style and the world-building in the story. I did have some issues with the characters, though, and you can check out my thoughts on them on my review here. 3/5 stars. 

This book was so damn cute. The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West was my 2nd read by her and definitely my favorite so far. I wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I did, and I even read it in one sitting. If you're looking for a cute, fun contemporary, please check out this book or any West's books! You can find my review for this book here. Warning: I gush a lot about Hayden.

 I finally finished this damn book. It only took me over a month -- literally. I don't know what it was about it, but it just didn't captivate me like Legend did. Maybe it was the pacing of the book? I'm not sure. It took until the last 50 pages for me to really be interested in what's going on in the world and actually caring about the characters. Harsh, I know. I'm hoping to pick up Champion sometime in April. Hopefully that one will be a little better than Prodigy by Marie Lu. 3/5 stars. 

I honestly wasn't expecting to finish Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys this month, but I was hooked on it immediately and read it in 2 days. It was really interesting to learn about a WW2 tragedy that I have never heard of before. I really loved the characters. Albeit, one character did drive me completely up the wall, though he was definitely a necessity for the story. I grown to become really attached to the them. I'll be having a review for this soon. 5/5 stars. 

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Though this has been my slowest reading month, I'm still pretty much happy with reading 7 books! I had my GoodReads goal originally at reading 30 books this year, but it seems like I'll be surpassing that goal in April. I upped it to 50 books, but I'm definitely going to try and see if I can reach at least 75... I think I can do it. I might be able to fly through my TBR if I can keep this up.

Have you read any of the books that I mentioned? If so, let me know what you thought about them! I'd love to know your opinions. Link down your March wrap-ups below if you'd like for me to give them a look.

As always, till next time.

<3