Review: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Review: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The Nightingale
Book Info

Released: February 3, 2015
Length: 17 hrs and 26 mins
Pages: 449
 

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“This story is vivid and real in the most heart breaking sense.” ~ Under the Covers

I’ve been seeing this book around the blogosphere a lot lately and I have a soft spot for the WWII period.  I mean, probably one of my favorite movies of the nineties was Life is Beautiful and to this day I can probably quote parts of it.  I guess I have a thing for having my heart ripped out.

So I decided to take the dive into this world, having never read anything by Kristin Hannah before, but also hearing she’s a wonderful author.  And let me tell you…. this book. THIS. BOOK!  THE NIGHTINGALE was an all consuming read from start to finish.  It hits you right in the feelings!  I got lost in its pages and its words as if I was transported to the world Ms. Hannah was narrating.  And it felt as real to me as if I was watching a movie or the real thing unfold in front of my eyes.  This story is vivid and real in the most heart breaking sense.

utc-top-pickWe all know how the story goes in a way, the horrors and devastation brought on by WWII, and going in you know to be prepared for some heart break.  I just wasn’t prepared for the range of emotions this book brought out in me.  What a life and what a story!  I had ups and I had downs.  My heart broke a little each time something was revealed.  Something about the past, something about the present.  I was probably a sobbing  mess towards the end when we face the present and the reunion.

The story of these two French sisters will probably go sit right along Life is Beautiful as one of my favorite fiction works about the period.  If you are up for a powerful book that will move you to the core and stay with you, then THE NIGHTINGALE is that book!

Favorite Quotes:

(Too many to list them all here!)

But when he looked at her—and she looked at him—they both knew that there was something worse than kissing the wrong person. It was wanting to.

You are my sunlight in the dark and the ground beneath my feet.

Some stories don’t have happy endings. Even love stories. Maybe especially love stories.

Love. It was the beginning and end of everything, the foundation and the ceiling and the air in between.

 

About Kristin Hannah

Kristin Hannah is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels including Winter Garden, True Colors, and the blockbuster Firefly Lane.

Her novel Home Front has been optioned for film by 1492 Films (produced the Oscar-nominated The Help) with Chris Columbus attached direct.

Kristin’s next release is the highly anticipated The Nightingale, which will be in stores on February 3, 2015.

Kristin was born in September 1960 in Southern California and grew up at the beach, making sand castles and playing in the surf. When she was eight years old, her father drove the family to Western Washington which they called home.

After working in a trendy advertising agency, Kristin decided to go to law school. "But you're going to be a writer" are the prophetic words she would never forget from her mother. Kristin was in her third-and final-year of law school and her mom was in the hospital, facing the end of her long battle with cancer. Kristin was shocked to discover that her mother believed she would become a writer. For the next few months, they collaborated on a novel. After her mom's death, she packed up all those bits and pieces of paper and research they'd collected and put them in a box in the back of her closet. Kristin got married and continued practicing law.

Then Kristin found out she was pregnant and was on bed rest for five months. By the time she'd read every book in the house and started asking her husband for cereal boxes to read, she knew she was a goner. That's when her husband reminded her of the book she'd started with her mom. Kristin pulled out the boxes of research material, dusted them off and began writing. By the time their son was born, she'd finished a first draft and found an obsession.

The rejections came, of course, and they stung for a while, but each one really just spurred her to try harder, work more. In 1990, Kristin got "the call," and in that moment, she went from a young mother with a cooler-than-average hobby to a professional writer, and has never looked back. In all the years between then and now, she has never lost her love of, or her enthusiasm for, telling stories. Kristin feels truly blessed to be a wife, a mother, and a writer. Her novel, Firefly Lane, became a runaway bestseller in 2009, a touchstone novel that brought women together.

 

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3 Comments

  1. Thanks for the review, I’ve read Night Road by this author and it was such an emotional roller coaster.

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