YA Review and Giveaway: Traitor Angels by Anne Blankman

ABOUT TRAITOR ANGELS:

Six years have passed since England’s King Charles II returned from exile to reclaim the throne, ushering in a new era of stability for his subjects.

Except for Elizabeth Milton. The daughter of notorious poet John Milton, Elizabeth has never known her place in this shifting world—except by her father’s side. By day she helps transcribe his latest masterpiece, the epic poem Paradise Lost, and by night she learns languages and sword fighting. Although she does not dare object, she suspects that he’s training her for a mission whose purpose she cannot fathom.

Until one night the reason becomes clear: the king’s man arrive at her family’s country home to arrest her father. Determined to save him, Elizabeth follows his one cryptic clue and journeys to Oxford, accompanied by her father’s mysterious young houseguest, Antonio Vivani, a darkly handsome Italian scientist who surprises her at every turn. Funny, brilliant, and passionate, Antonio seems just as determined to protect her father as she is—but can she trust him with her heart?

When the two discover that Milton has planted an explosive secret in the half-finished Paradise Lost—a secret the king and his aristocratic supporters are desperate to conceal—Elizabeth is faced with a devastating choice: cling to the shelter of her old life or risk cracking the code, unleashing a secret that could save her father…and tear apart the very fabric of society.

LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository

Review:
Once again, Anne Blankman has blown me away with her fascinating historical fiction tale.  With her other series, Prisoner of Night and Fog, I was totally grabbed by the version of Hitler told from kind of the other side, the Germans, the ones who did want him to be in charge, at least at first.  Traitor Angels brings me to a period of history that for the most part, I didn't know much about.  I'd heard of the poet John Milton, but never read much by him.  What I was most familiar with in this story was all of the scientists that were talked about.  I knew about Galileo and how he was in trouble with the church for his theories.  As a science teacher, those science bits really intrigued me and were part of what I loved about the story.  I didn't actually know much about the state of England at that time, and what was going on with their monarchs.  But the way this author tells a story, I know that I will now be researching and looking for other books or information on the history in this story.  

Not only is the story great, she really writes characters that just jump off the page.  That you can grow to love, and then to feel betrayed by or for.  The main character, Elizabeth Milton, well, she was a really strong character to follow and have lead us through this time in history.  Antonio, the Italian apprentice, how could anyone not fall in love with him?!  Then there was the king's illegitimate son, Robert.  He came into help them, but would he want to use the secrets to only help himself, or would he see the sense in what both Antonio and Elizabeth feel needs to be done.  And in the end, will it be Antonio or Robert who will still be on Elizabeth's side, or will one or both of them betray her?  

And remember how I said that Blankman's stories make me want to go learn about the history in them?  I also want to go read John Milton's works now, to know something more about them.  Another great historical fiction, by an author that I believe is one of the best, if not the best, in the historical fiction genre.  I cannot wait till I have budget money to purchase this and put in my school library for my students to read.  Thanks to Balzer and Bray and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this. 

ABOUT ANNE BLANKMAN: 

Anne Blankman may have been meant to be a writer because her parents named her for Anne of Green Gables. She grew up in an old house with gables (gray, unfortunately) in upstate New York. When she wasn't writing or reading, she was rowing on the crew team, taking ballet lessons, fencing and swimming. She graduated from Union College with degrees in English and history, which comes in handy when she writes historical fiction.

After earning a master's degree in information science, Anne began working as a youth services librarian. Currently, she lives in southeastern Virginia with her family. When she's not writing young adult fiction, she's playing with her daughter, training for races with her husband, working at her amazing library branch, learning to knit (badly), and reading.

LINKS: Website | Twitter | Facebook

Giveaway:

• 3 Finished Copies of TRAITOR ANGELS (US Only)  

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:
Week 1:
4/25: Love At First Page - Guest Post
4/26: Paperback Princess - Review
4/27: Live Love Read - Playlist
4/28: Supernatural Snark - Review
4/29: No BS Book Reviews - Q&A

Week 2:
5/2: The Irish Banana Review - Top 10
5/3: Lisa Loves Lit - Review - *You are here*
5/4: Alexa Loves Books - Q&A
5/5: The Petite Book Blogger - Review
5/6: A Book & A Latte - How I Write

YA Review: The Shadow Queen by CJ Redwine

I was lucky enough to get this book through the booksfortrade deal with another blogger, although I also originally downloaded it as an e-galley from Edelweiss thanks to Balzer and Bray.  It's one I was really excited for.  I finally got around to reading it a little late though, I got behind on some review books. But when I finally picked it up I really did end up enjoying it.  It's the first book I've read by this author, and I'm also excited that there will be a sequel.  I do enjoy fairy tale retellings and I liked this one that was inspired by Snow White. 

There are two main characters in this.  First is Lorelai, who should really be the princess, but she had to run away to escape her stepmother, the queen, before she was killed.  Along with her brother Leo, and Gabril, the head of the palace guard before her father was killed by her stepmother Irina, she has been on the run.  Trying to stay safe, but also to come up with a way to get back and take her kingdom back, Lorelai is trying to learn how to use magic in a way she can defeat Irina, and along the way she is trying to help out her subjects, hoping to get them on her side when she needs them.

The other main character is Kol, or you could go by his full name, Kolvanismir Arsenyevnek, I think I'll stick with Kol.  He is a prince in the kingdom of Eldr.  His lands are being overrun by ogres.  When we meet him, Kol has just been kicked out of school for a prank.  He's at home partying with his friends, waiting for his father, mother and older brother to return from the battle front where their army is fighting the ogres.  Now there is something unusual about Kol, you see his people are dragons.  At some times they're human, other times they're dragons.  Their bodies change back and forth.  They have two hearts, one for the dragon and one for the human part of them.  Kol gets bad news, and he must now take over as the king of his land.  He can't seem to think of a way to get rid of the ogres without magic, and so he feels he must go and try to make a deal with Irina, her magic for food that his land can provide for her people.

Kol and his two best friends head into Lorelai's land.  They get into one small village, and their nice clothing sets the villagers after them, being poor, they can only see what they might be able to get from these strangers.  Lorelai and her brother and friend just happen to be in the same village, and they end up saving Kol and his friends from the angry villagers.

When Kol gets to Irina, he finds that instead of wanting his food, alls he wants is him to find Lorelai and bring her heart back.  Now Kol never got Lorelai's name, so it isn't until they attack and cause a major tragedy for Lorelai, that he soon learns who she is, and that he cannot kill her.

But Irina has built in wards for just this type of betrayal situation.  And it will be those things that will cause Lorelai and Kol to fight both for their own lives, as well as each other.

There was a very interesting take on the fairy tale in this story.  The dragon parts actually made me think a bit about the Sleeping Beauty Disney movie.  But other than that, Kol became the perfect huntsman for the Snow White story.  Irina was a perfect wicked stepmother/evil queen.  Lorelai was a Snow White more like Snow in the tv show Once Upon a Time, than like the one in the Disney story, because she was pretty kick-ass.  There are some very sad parts, a bit of a love story, but not too much over the story, I like how the author wove the romance through the story. 

Promo Post and Giveaway: Bluescreen by Dan Wells

Bluescreen (Mirador #1)
by Dan Wells
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Release Date: February 16th 2016
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy, Action, Teen

Synopsis:

Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni—a smart device implanted right in a person’s head. In a world where virtually everyone is online twenty-four hours a day, this connection is like oxygen—and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it.

Marisa Carneseca is one of those people. She might spend her days in Mirador, the small, vibrant LA neighborhood where her family owns a restaurant, but she lives on the net—going to school, playing games, hanging out, or doing things of more questionable legality with her friends Sahara and Anja. And it’s Anja who first gets her hands on Bluescreen—a virtual drug that plugs right into a person’s djinni and delivers a massive, non-chemical, completely safe high. But in this city, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and Mari and her friends soon find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy that is much bigger than they ever suspected.

Dan Wells, author of the New York Times bestselling Partials Sequence, returns with a stunning new vision of the near future—a breathless cyber-thriller where privacy is the world’s most rare resource and nothing, not even the thoughts in our heads, is safe.

Follow the Bluescreen by Dan Wells Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Dan Wells is a thriller and science fiction writer. Born in Utah, he spent his early years reading and writing. He is he author of the Partials series (Partials, Isolation, Fragments, and Ruins), the John Cleaver series (I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and I Don't Want To Kill You), and a few others (The Hollow City, A Night of Blacker Darkness, etc). He was a Campbell nominee for best new writer, and has won a Hugo award for his work on the podcast Writing Excuses; the podcast is also a multiple winner of the Parsec Award.

Giveaway:

• Prize: Win (1) of (2) copies of BLUESCREEN by Dan Wells (US Only) 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Balzer and Bray for allowing me to read an egalley of this one.  In the end I'd kind of classify this as a bit of a steampunk type of story, as well as western and fantasy.  And while I'm not normally a fan of steampunk, the way it was done in this story, well it just fit perfectly for the whole tale.  This was really quite an original story, can't quite compare most of it to anything I can think of.  All in all it was a good book, and I really enjoyed it, can't wait to bring it to my students at school to read!

The main character is Westie.  Westie lost her family to cannibals when she was little.  Not only did they take her family, they also took her arm.  She was found by one of the native tribes, who took her to a man in town, Nigel Butler, who was able to save her arm. Well, he saved it by giving her a mechanical/robotic arm.  Nigel is an inventor.  I believe this is where I felt the steampunk bit came into the story.  But Westie isn't the only orphan that Nigel took in, there is also Alistair, who also had a run-in with cannibals.  Only it is his face that is scarred. And so he either wears a mask with a robotic voice that Nigel created, or else he wears a scarf to cover his lower face, and uses sign language.  Westie has been a bit of a wild child, she is not lady-like in any way, no matter how hard her adoptive father tries to get her to be.  She used to be best friends with Alistair, but something happened that made him start distancing himself from her.  And really, Westie is now on a one-track plan to find the cannibals who killed her family and bring them to justice. 

But when Nigel invents a great machine, and he tries to bring in sponsors to help him get it up and going, these strangers throw a bit of a wrench into Westie's plans.  First there is their young nephew, James, who she first meets when he is getting into a fight outside a saloon in town, with a troll I think.  He kind of flirts with Westie, and seems so much different from the rest of the family of investors.  The biggest issue here though, is that Westie is sure the investors are the same people who killed her family.  Now she is on a mission to prove they are who she thinks they are.  When weird things start happening in town, a prostitute gets bitten by a women, and not just love bites, but take a bite out of her! 

This story did have a little bit of everything.  I mentioned trolls already, but there were vampires, one named Costain who seemed to have a bit of a thing for Westie, something I do kind of wish maybe there had been more about that in the story.  So many different kinds of characters.  But not in a bad way.  Although I'd have liked maybe some more with some of them, it worked fine for me.

A very unique tale as I mentioned.  There is a lot of action and mystery and wondering how will Westie prove what she thinks.  And then, the twist at the end, whoa, I didn't see that coming!  I definitely think it is worth a read.  While I can see how it might seem slow at the beginning, Westie's foul-mouthed, sarcastic character  really grabbed me and drew me in.

Review: Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

First, thanks to Balzer and Bray as well as Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this.  Let me say that I just loved this.  I would pick it up to read, and hate every time that I had to put it down to do anything else.  I would think about when the next time I could pick it up to read would be.  I totally connected with the main character in so many ways.  Although in high school I was not overweight, I have spent a majority of my adult life that way, and so there were many things I identified with.  But even if I wasn't overweight in high school, until my Junior year I wore glasses, and it wasn't until I got contacts that I started feeling any confidence whatsoever, and even then, it really didn't kick in until college.  I've had issues with friends like in the book, and while some have come back in ways that are like what you'd want, not all have. 

The main character is Willowdean Dickson.  She is a little overweight, enough so that she is insecure about it to a point. But not a lot. She's got a best friend named Ellen, who is very pretty, but also very nice.  Most of the time Will is comfortable with herself, although most often a kind of 3rd wheel in a way to El and her boyfriend Tim.  Will works at a restaurant called Harpy's.  There's a cute private school boy named Bo that works there.  Will has kind of had a crush on him, and he's always just been kind of friendly.  Until one night that summer when he kisses her.  And then they keep kissing.  But it's always when they're somewhere alone, and Willow wonders if that means he doesn't want anyone to know.  At the same time El has decided it is time to go all the way with Tim.  Will feels a bit left behind, and it is even worse because El is now hanging out with a girl named Callie from the clothing store where she works.  Soon Will is keeping the secret about Bo, and El seems to not be talking to Will about everything, telling Callie more, and they kind of drift apart. 

Now I didn't mention that Will's mom runs the big annual beauty pageant in town, something she's never really acted like Will, or Dumplin' as her mom calls her, should try to be a part of.  NOt only that, but her aunt Luce has recently passed away, partly because of being very obese, and Will had always felt closest to her, closer than to her mom.  Soon Will decides she is going to enter the pageant, to make a statement. And from there, all kinds of hell breaks loose.

As I read through the book I just knew at first that there was no way Bo could really be such a cute guy, and really be attracted to her.  Like Will I just knew there had to be something wrong with him, he had to be playing her or something.  But I wanted so bad for him to really be the guy he seemed to be.  And then there was the horrible fight that Will has with El. And while I understood somewhat why Will didn't want El to be in the pageant, I also didn't understand.  I mean how much better to have your best friend in something so scary?  But again, the reasons behind why she said what she did, and the way they all acted, to me they seemed very realistic. 

In the end I was happy with how it went, I won't tell you exactly what happens, who ends up with who, etc.  I will just tell you  it is a good ending, a happy one. 

Review: Get Dirty (Don't Get Mad #2) by Gretchen McNeil

First, thanks to Balzer and Bray and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an egalley of this title.  I love reading this author, and really liked the first book, Get Even.  So as soon as I saw this available I immediately requested it.  I don't know that I loved this one as much as I loved the first one, but it was definitely still very suspenseful and kept me on the edge of my seat.

Our same characters are back from the first book.  Bree, who took the fall for everyone and ended up in Juvie.  Kitty, who is feeling bad for one of the first things DGM (Don't Get Mad) did, and wants to try to help fix something for that girl.  Olivia, the popular girl, who is trying to keep all of it a secret when around her mean girl friends.  And then there is Margot, who is in the hospital in a coma.  They've of course stopped doing all the pranks.  Not after the deaths and kind of being caught.  But there seems to be a new group or a copycat DGM now.  Starting with pranks on some of the more popular people, leading to new deaths.  They've had to swear in some of the guys who have been there to help, Ed the Head, Logan, and John.  Kitty's boyfriend Donte and best friend Mika seem to have a secret from her, and that is making her worried.  Olivia's mom seems to be getting worse, with some different medications that have shown up, and quitting her job to take an acting job that is just out of nowhere offered.  Bree is on house arrest, with her mother and a big Thor-like bodyguard named Olaf, and this also means no cell phone or internet to even try to figure out with her friends what is going on.  She even runs into another former DGM victim, and sees that while what they did in school was horrible, but they were coming from a horrible home life.  And still, there are manila envelopes showing up, leading them all to what may be a big finale.  We're given some hints into one of the new members that may either be clues to the new DGM, or maybe just clues to the real killer.

It was a bit of a switcheroo towards the end, the author set that up well.  A great story that also tells how sometimes bullies have reasons, not good ones, but reasons in their home life that may be what has led them to what they've done.  A great suspenseful read, another great mystery from McNeil, with great characters, ones that you can see both sides, and even root for those bullies when it might be the right thing to do. 

Review: The Cage by Megan Shepherd

First, thanks to Balzer and Bray for approving me for the e-galley of this title from Edelweiss.  I also won an ARC that I actually ended up reading for the most part.  This is my first book by the author.  I have a copy of The Madman's Daughter and its sequel, but haven't gotten around to them yet.  I'm even more eager to read them now that I have finished this one though.  I have to say I really enjoyed this book. 

It's a kind of new type of story,  or at least compared to the majority of what is out there at the moment.  The main character is Cora.  She is the daughter of a politician, and she just recently got out of juvenile detention for a wreck that killed a woman.  She wakes up in the desert.  She has no idea where she is or how she got there.  Only that the last thing she remembers is being in a car with her brother on the way to spend time with all of her family together. Something that hasn't happened since before her mother and father got divorced.  But now she's somewhere strange.  Alone she thinks, until she runs into a boy her age.  A cute boy, named Lucky.  Lucky knows Cora, even if she doesn't know him.  He knows about the accident that sent her to the Juvenile detention center, and he has a part in what got her sent there.  He feels guilty for it when he gets to know her.  They find a dead girl by the ocean that is strangely right on the edge of the desert.  They also find tattoos of strange patterns on each other's necks.  They begin to explore the area and find there are all kinds of different environments right next to each other, pretty much in impossible ways. They find what looks like a town from far away, but when they get up closer, it is one, but it is all different kinds of mismatched buildings. And when you go inside there are not normal interiors.  They also run into three more people their age. There's a big strong boy named Leon, a nerdy boy named Rolf, and a very skinny, pretty girl named Nok.  They soon find out they are not on Earth anymore. They have been taken by aliens.  The aliens are not really as different or strange as could be imagined. They are somewhat human like in their body forms, although their skin color is way different, their eyes are different, and they are bigger.  Plus they are psychic. They don't think humans are as "advanced" as they are.  They call themselves "The Kindred".  And supposedly they keep humans in little environments like this, for observation.  There were supposed to be 6, three girls and three boys.  Matched by the little marks on their necks. 

But while the other four seem to be settling in and accepting that this is their new home, Cora wants only to escape. Even as one of the aliens, the Caretaker, seems to be showing her favoritism.  She can't believe how easily the others are falling into what the aliens want them to do. But there is only a 21 day limit, and the caretaker shows Cora what will happen to them if they don't follow the directions and rules.  But she still wants to try to escape.  A new human girl named Mali is brought in to replace the girl who died, and she has lived with the aliens since she was 4 years old.  Cora hopes to convince her to help her with her plan.

The end will not go quite as expected, there will be a twist in who really is what they say they are, and what the aliens have been telling them will seem not so real. 

Honestly this is one that is hard to explain.  I just know that it was a very interesting story, some parts that were things I had thought about as a possible story in the past, but all put into the story in a very unique and new way.

Review: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Balzer and Bray/HarperTeen for allowing me to read an egalley of this book.  I actually have an ARC of the book before, Cruel Beauty, and for some reason I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet.  But after reading this one, I'm really looking forward to getting it out and reading it as soon as I can.  This is another fairy tale retelling, although it is a combination of two according to the author, one that I haven't read.  The two she lists are Red Riding Hood and The Girl With No Hands, which the second one I haven't actually read, although I've heard of it more lately, so I should probably find the original tale and read it.

The main character is Rachelle.  The Red Riding Hood part is that she apprentices for her aunt, and when she goes to visit her she is stopped by what is called a forestborn.  She thinks that she has to give into him in order to save her aunt or her family, but instead it doesn't work.  Once you are marked by a forestborn you must kill within three days or you will die.  She gets back to her aunt's place to see that she has already been almost killed by the forestborn, and so she chooses to put her aunt out of her misery, and that in turn saves her own life.  But she must leave now, as a bloodbound she is a threat, and most people will kill her, especially once they know she killed her own aunt.  She leaves and is taken into the army that serves the King, they are all bloodbound, but their job is to search out and kill the monsters, and the other bloodbound that refuse to serve the king and keep the people safe.  Rachelle hates this.  All she can do is try to make up for the horrible thing she's done.  And she feels working for the king will do this.  Or is the closest thing to it that she can do.  She works with her captain, Erec, who also seems to want her more than just as one of his soldiers.  But she doesn't want to be just another girl on his long list.  And then comes Armand.  Armand is an illegitimate son of the King.  He claims to have been attacked by the forestborn, been marked, but refused to kill anyone.  And so they took his arms, but somehow he survived. Because of this the people think he is a saint, that he was able to escape death.  And the King seems to want him around, possibly as the future heir to the throne.  Somehow Rachelle ends up having to guard him.  When she learns of a a sword that might be able to end the Devourer, the evil master of all forestborn, she decides to go ahead and try to find it and kill him.  Unfortunately it seems the King and Erec, are set on having her guard Armand.  Fortunately, she soon learns Armand may have some knowledge that will help her find the sword.  And it may even be at the place they are traveling.

Rachelle must fight her disbelief of Armand's story, along with the feelings that are growing the more time she spends with him.  And then there is Erec, always there trying to wile his way into her life as more than a friend.  In the end she will have to decide who she can really trust, and it may not be who she thinks.

I loved the mythology of the story, and I grew to really like the characters.  I don't feel there was insta-love, so that is a bonus for some I know.  The love developed more likely, even though there is a point when they feel it may have just to do with the danger of the situation.  And it is such a neat setting and a neat way to wrap up the story.  A great fairy tale, or two, retelling once again. 

Review: Get Even by Gretchen McNeil

First I must say thank you to Harper Collins and Balzer and Bray for allowing me to read an e-galley of this from Edelweiss.  Gretchen McNeil is an author that I heard lots of buzz about with her book Ten, before I even read any of her books.  So far 3:59 is my favorite of her books, but Get Even is a close 2nd!  At first as I was reading I though, oh, it's going to be a contemporary romance type of book.  But of course, it was more, and boy did it even get to be more than I'd expected. 

There are four main characters:  Kitty, Olivia, Bree, and Margot.  They aren't friends in "real" life, no one has ever really seen them together.  But ever since a project their 9th grade year, they decided to form a group called DGM for short, or Don't Get Mad.  All of them have dealt with bullying in some way in their past.  Margot used to be overweight, and was bullied, so badly that she tried to kill herself.  Kitty knew about it from a friend who got kicked off their volleyball team.  Olivia is one of the popular girls, and so is around friends who do it all the time.  And Bree's best friend is a boy named John, who gets teased a lot, because his last name could rhyme with a bad term for gay people.  They all go to a Catholic school where the bullying seems to be rampant, to the point that the adults often ignore name calling and even somewhat support the bullies at times.  DGM has a goal to stop the bullying.  They don't make stuff up, they only take what is already out there about these bullies and make it clear to everyone else.  The other students for the most part are fans of the DGM.   But not the administrator, Father Uberti, or F.U. as the girls call him snidely.  And also not one of the teachers, Coach Creed, who is really a big bully himself.

Something has changed now, someone is sending the four girls manila envelopes with pictures and other clues in them.  They are being led to a military school where the Coach used to be. And then one of their new students, a douche-bag type of guy named Ronny dies.  Right after DGM gets things to try to humiliate him for what he's done.  Some of the clues paint their fellow DGM members in a suspicious light, taking away what trust they have for each other.  Secrets start being kept from each other, while other secrets from the past start to get revealed.  The girls of DGM must decide if they can still trust each other to do what is right, the mission of DGM, or if the person behind all the secretive notes is one of them. 

Let me just say this ended on such a HUGE cliffhanger!  I had to go to the author's Facebook page and tell her that there was no way I'd be able to wait a whole year to know what happens next.  She said next summer is when the next book comes out, and that ARCs could be out as soon as December.  Believe you me, I'll be keeping my eyes wide open for it on both Netgalley and Edelweiss, as well as possibly researching to see who the publicity person is that I might be able to talk to so that I can make sure to get this read as soon as possible.  What a great mystery that totally kept me guessing, and with that ending, left me guessing still!

Review Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

First, thanks to Edelweiss and Balzer and Bray for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  I always am intrigued and fascinated by stories about World War II.  Actually this book is pre-World War II.  It is from Hitler's rise.  And what was so interesting about the premise of this book is that it is from the viewpoint of a girl who has grown up in the favor of Hitler.  In fact she has grown up calling him Uncle Dolf.

Gretchen is our main character.  Her father died when he threw himself in front of Hitler and took the bullets meant for him.  Since then Hitler has tried to treat Gretchen and her family as his own family.  He was friends with Gretchen's father from World War I.  Like most Germans during this time, her family is struggling.  Since her father's death they've lived in a boarding house where her mother does the cooking and Gretchen helps.  Gretchen's brother Reinhard also lives in the boarding house, only he is a soldier for Hitler.  It is soon made evident that Gretchen fears her brother, that he will play such cruel tricks on her that she will hook a chair under the doorknob at night to keep him out.  You see Reinhard is the violent type of man many think of when they think of Nazis.  He has no problem with punching his sister, or setting up a wire on the stairs that would trip her.  Their mother doesn't seem to be willing to do anything about Reinhard.  We even begin the story as Reinhard and his friend Kurt almost run over a Jew, and then they jump out of the car and chase him down an alley to beat him up.  Even though Gretchen has been brought up to dislike Jews, there is something that gets to her.  The fear in the man's eyes.  So she tries to use something that Hitler once mentioned, that the street brawls should stop as they only give Hitler a bad name.  She finally gets her brother to leave him alone, mainly because the police are coming, and at this time, the police are not owned by Hitler yet.  But her brother tells her not to come to the dinner with Uncle Dolf that they were planning to go to.  So she and her friend Eva will have to go home on their own. But before Gretchen gets back to Eva, another Jewish man stops her.  This one is young, and attractive quite to Gretchen's surprise.  And he says that it is possible there was something strange about her father's death.  That maybe he didn't mean to get in front of Hitler, that maybe he was murdered.  Which Gretchen did notice a bullet hole in the back of her father's shirt, which doesn't make sense unless someone in the group he was marching with shot him too.

Gretchen's world begins to fray at the edges, she doesn't quite know what to believe anymore.  And as she learns more about her father's past, as well as learning more about exactly what Hitler is actually talking about doing to the Jews, she finds her life getting more and more dangerous.  Her brother is still a danger, and becomes even more so as he finds her spending time with a Jew.  Not only that, Uncle Dolf will disappoint her, and she will see that maybe she can't trust him anymore either, giving more credence to the bad things she is learning.

While the main characters may be fictional for the story, there are all the actual historical figures within the story.  Including Eva, Hitler's mistress, his niece, and all his fellow party members.  I really love how the author tied all these things together in such a creative way, and a really great story.  I had to know what would happen, and how Gretchen put together the pieces about what her whole life has really been hiding.  And I was pleased to read in the notes at the end that there will be a sequel.  While the book definitely left off at a perfectly good ending, there is so much more that could be done as we haven't even reached the actual WWII yet.  It's not up on Goodreads yet, but I'll be keeping my eyes on that so I can put it on my TBR list!