Author: whatcathyreadnext

My Week in Books – 21st June 2020

whatcathyreadnext6 Comments

MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday –  I shared my review of One Day in Summer by Shari Low as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books On My Summer 2020 TBR.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…and have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.

Thursday – I published my review of Then We Take Berlin by John Lawton.

Saturday –  I shared my review of The Traitor by V. S. Alexander.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media this week.

New arrivals

Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession (paperback)

Leonard and Hungry Paul are two quiet friends who see the world differently. They use humour, board games and silence to steer their way through the maelstrom that is the 21st century.

It is the story of two friends trying to find their place in the world. It is about those uncelebrated people who have the ability to change the world, not by effort or force, but through their appreciation of all that is special and overlooked in life.

Saving Lucia by Anna Vaught (paperback)

How would it be if four lunatics went on a tremendous adventure, reshaping their pasts and futures as they went, including killing Mussolini?

What if one of those people were a fascinating, forgotten aristocratic assassin and the others a fellow life co-patient, James Joyce’s daughter Lucia, another the first psychoanalysis patient, known to history simply as ‘Anna O,’ and finally 19th Century Paris’s Queen of the Hysterics, Blanche Wittmann?

That would be extraordinary, wouldn’t it? How would it all be possible? Because, as the assassin Lady Violet Gibson would tell you, those who are confined have the very best imaginations.

The Moss House by Clara Barley (paperback)

Two hundred years ago, neighbouring Yorkshire landowners Miss Lister and Miss Walker find their lives become entwined in a passionate, forbidden relationship and retreat to the Moss House, their private sanctuary away from an unaccepting world. Their tranquillity does not last long as they are drawn into the turmoil of a changing society and a divided family, testing their love for each other, eventually driving them from their home.

The world was not yet ready for the likes of Miss Lister. Landowner, scholar, traveller, mountaineer and non-conformist, in The Moss House we discover her lifelong battle to be her true self as she finds Ann Walker and together they try to live life on their own terms.

20200613_094957
New arrivals from Bluemoose Books

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

 

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Colours by Juliet Bates
  • Top Ten Tuesday Turns Ten: Thankful For…Lovely Author Feedback
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The English Wife by Adrienne Chinn
  • Book Review: Homilies and Recreations by John Buchan

The Traitor by V. S. Alexander #BookReview

whatcathyreadnext4 Comments

The Traitor by V.S. AlexanderAbout the Book

“Someone had to make a start’”, Sophie Scholl, leader of the White Rose, 21 February 1943 at her trial in Munich.

Munich, 1942. As war rages across Europe, a series of anonymous leaflets, criticizing the brutal Nazi regime, appear on the streets of Germany. Their message, written in secret, is a daring act of defiance.

Natalya Petrovich, a student, knows more than she should. As a member of the secret resistance group, the White Rose, Natalya is risking everything. But even among those she trusts most, there is no guarantee of safety. The Gestapo are everywhere and Natalya knows that falling into the hands of the secret police means torture – and almost certain death.

A page-turning and heart-breaking historical novel about the daring White Rose group who stood up to the Nazis … and paid the ultimate price.

Format: ebook (400 pages)                 Publisher: One More Chapter
Publication date: 12th March 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Find The Traitor on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Traitor is set during a dark period of Germany’s history. It shows, through the characters of Natalya and her friends, that not all Germans were Nazis and that some, like her, had the courage to resist despite the risk to them and their families. Those risks become all too evident as the book progresses as well as the desperately difficult moral choices they face.

The book’s title raises the question who exactly is the “traitor”? Is it Natalya and her companions, as the German State would have it, for challenging the word of the Fuhrer? Is it those who inform on others, even if only to save themselves? Is it those in authority who participate in show trials, knowingly compromising their integrity? Is it those who profess allegiance to the Reich whilst in their hearts believing something else?

Personally I would have liked a little more information about the White Rose group, knowing nothing about it before starting the book. For example, how many members it had and how wide was its reach. Having said that, there are more details in the informative Author’s Note, as well as suggestions for further reading and an example of a White Rose leaflet.

I confess I found it hard to understand Natalya’s attraction to the character with whom she gets involved and who becomes a recurring – and influential – presence in her life. He seemed to me to have few redeeming qualities even at the beginning. The opposite applies to Natalya who throughout demonstrates remarkable courage and resilience, even during the darkest of times.

The Traitor vividly conveys the oppressive atmosphere of the time, the constant fear of informers, the brutal treatment meted out to those who dared to defy the Reich and the courage of those who aided the resistance groups.

My thanks to One More Chapter for my review copy via NetGalley.

In three words: Dramatic, emotional, chilling

Try something similar: People Like Us by Louise Fein

Follow this blog via Bloglovin

About the Author

V. S. Alexander (the pen name of Michael Meeske) is the author of The Traitor, The Magdalen Girls, Her Hidden Life, and The Irishman’s Daughter. He is an ardent student of history with a strong interest in music and the visual arts. Some of V.S.’s writing influences include Shirley Jackson, Oscar Wilde, Daphne du Maurier, or any work by the exquisite Bronte sisters.

Connect with V. S. Alexander
Website | Twitter | Facebook