📖 Book Tour Book Review 📖
Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks
“It is a precious treasure trove of knowledge and imagination. Books have the power to change the very course of history, and they will help us win this war, you mark my words.”
Set along the back drop of WWII in London, The Air Raid Book Club is an all the feels story of grief, found family, friendships, love, and best of all making connections through books. Losing yourself in a book when you so desperately need to escape the world around you.
Told in a three part story, we begin in 1938 and meet the lovely Gertie Bingham, a bookstore owner, who is grieving the loss of her husband, Harry. Together with Harry their shop, Bingham Books, was a dream they shared together. Without Harry, Gertie is just not sure she can go on. While Gertie is making plans for possible retirement, Hitler in on the rise in Germany and Jewish families are making the gut wrenching decision to send their children away. Gertie decides to take in a teenage girl name, Hedy.
“Why on earth have I been given a brain if not to use it?”
Hedy is headstrong and fearless; she reminds Gertie or herself as a child. However, they don’t hit it off right away. I mean Gertie is sixty and poor Hedy misses her family and worries for them. How do they finally communicate and understand each other!? Books!
“All we can do is offer an escape to ourselves and one another.”
When the Blitz begins and bombs are falling all over London, Gertie and Hedy have the idea to start the ‘Air Raid Book Club’. While down in the shelters they talk about books! Gertie hasn’t been able to do this since Harry died and she stopped doing ‘Bingham Book Club’. This is a big step for her. It was so special to see these books bring the community together and watch Gertie heal bit by bit.
"She lay down and closed her eyes, wondering at how strange it was to find peace among the horror, but perhaps that was the only way to survive in life.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 While this was a beautiful all the feels story, I don’t want to paint it all rosy because their is quite a bit of tragedy is this one. War is ugly! I absolutely adored Gertie and Hedy. They were two special characters with a special relationship that I won’t soon forget. There is quite a cast of secondary characters in this one and each one just jumps off the page. I loved the little boy Billy, especially. I can’t recommend this book enough!
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