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kriste's review against another edition
5.0
Epistolary, I didn't even know this term! I loved the German and Japanese aspects of this story as well as loved the heroine!
gretchenlouise's review against another edition
5.0
In her debut novel, Amy Lynn Green creates an epistolary masterpiece that places you in the heroine's shoes as she struggles to balance duty and empathy.
There's dry humor. Small town drama. Historical insight. And delicious tidbits such as these: "Real life is dreadfully tedious, the way it interrupts reading."
There's also relational tension between former best friends and roommates. Racial prejudice against Japanese American soldiers and German POWs. And a very personal struggle with selfishness, pride, and bitterness.
Read compassion, love, and patriotism between the lines in this riveting epistolary novel by Amy Lynn Green.
There's dry humor. Small town drama. Historical insight. And delicious tidbits such as these: "Real life is dreadfully tedious, the way it interrupts reading."
There's also relational tension between former best friends and roommates. Racial prejudice against Japanese American soldiers and German POWs. And a very personal struggle with selfishness, pride, and bitterness.
Read compassion, love, and patriotism between the lines in this riveting epistolary novel by Amy Lynn Green.
bigskybooks's review against another edition
4.0
Title: Things We Didn’t Say
Author: Amy Lynn Green
Publisher: Bethany House
@bethanyhousefiction
Genre: Historical Fiction (Christian)
Thank you @uplitreads + author Amy Lynn Green (@amygreenbooks) for this #gifted copy. Things We Didn’t Say is such a fresh and unique take on the historical fiction genre because the entire book in written in letter format.
“We can do anything we must. How we do it, though, is up to us.”
Johanna Berglund is a headstrong and determined linguistic student with very definite plans for her future. These plans absolutely do not involve returning to her small hometown. Small towns are nothing but secrets and headaches and she’s left all the behind! But sometimes to get what we want, we have to do things first that we don’t want to… So, Jo returns to her sleepy Minnesota town to be a translator for a German POW camp.
Johanna has no idea the amount of hostility that will be waiting for her when she arrives to her new job. Her town wants noting to do with these German POW soldiers. Her biggest champion is friend, Peter Ito, a language instructor for intelligence officers. He encourages her to give the town that rejected her a second chance.
As Johanna interacts more with these prisoners with one of her jobs being to censor their letters for home, she begins to see them in a more sympathetic light and finds herself advocating better treatment making her even more an enemy within the community.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It taught me a lot about stateside POW camps that I wasn’t aware of. Johanna is definitely going on my favorite character list. Oh how I adored her intelligence and wit!There are a lot of funny parts in this book. I laughed when the German soldier was saying how disgusting American chocolate was! My only complaints was that the book felt just a tad long at times and the ending was wrapped up too quickly!
Author: Amy Lynn Green
Publisher: Bethany House
@bethanyhousefiction
Genre: Historical Fiction (Christian)
Thank you @uplitreads + author Amy Lynn Green (@amygreenbooks) for this #gifted copy. Things We Didn’t Say is such a fresh and unique take on the historical fiction genre because the entire book in written in letter format.
“We can do anything we must. How we do it, though, is up to us.”
Johanna Berglund is a headstrong and determined linguistic student with very definite plans for her future. These plans absolutely do not involve returning to her small hometown. Small towns are nothing but secrets and headaches and she’s left all the behind! But sometimes to get what we want, we have to do things first that we don’t want to… So, Jo returns to her sleepy Minnesota town to be a translator for a German POW camp.
Johanna has no idea the amount of hostility that will be waiting for her when she arrives to her new job. Her town wants noting to do with these German POW soldiers. Her biggest champion is friend, Peter Ito, a language instructor for intelligence officers. He encourages her to give the town that rejected her a second chance.
As Johanna interacts more with these prisoners with one of her jobs being to censor their letters for home, she begins to see them in a more sympathetic light and finds herself advocating better treatment making her even more an enemy within the community.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It taught me a lot about stateside POW camps that I wasn’t aware of. Johanna is definitely going on my favorite character list. Oh how I adored her intelligence and wit!There are a lot of funny parts in this book. I laughed when the German soldier was saying how disgusting American chocolate was! My only complaints was that the book felt just a tad long at times and the ending was wrapped up too quickly!
beachbookbabe's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
donnagrayce's review against another edition
5.0
Ah hah! Success! My quest to locate contemporary books worth reading that are written by Christians has finally got a winner! My method for searching for material is to read whatever falls in the middle of the Venn diagram between book bloggers recommendations and what my library stocks. Out of my last batch of five tries, this is the only keeper.
This novel was witty, touching, real, intriguing, well-crafted, charming, thought-provoking. I liked it a lot! I tend to avoid novels of WWII--really, I only have maybe 2 Nazi books in me per decade--but the home-front setting of this didn't trigger my sensitivities around the holocaust and war violence. It was realistic about the conflicts in individuals and society in America during the war, but had ultimately a hopeful arc for most characters.
This is an author to watch.
This novel was witty, touching, real, intriguing, well-crafted, charming, thought-provoking. I liked it a lot! I tend to avoid novels of WWII--really, I only have maybe 2 Nazi books in me per decade--but the home-front setting of this didn't trigger my sensitivities around the holocaust and war violence. It was realistic about the conflicts in individuals and society in America during the war, but had ultimately a hopeful arc for most characters.
This is an author to watch.
saracook's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
mskristi4's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
4.75
sierradummitt's review against another edition
5.0
*Gifted*
I loved this book. There were a few times I honestly wanted to throw it out the window, but only because the author did that well of a job enticing those feelings with her writing.
WWII books are plentiful, and many are the same but I can honestly say that I haven’t ever read one like this. Written in the format of letters and “evidence” threw me off at first, but I ended up enjoying how it moved the story along. I also didn’t even know that there were German POW camps in America.
It was a fascinating read and is definitely a reread in the future.
I loved this book. There were a few times I honestly wanted to throw it out the window, but only because the author did that well of a job enticing those feelings with her writing.
WWII books are plentiful, and many are the same but I can honestly say that I haven’t ever read one like this. Written in the format of letters and “evidence” threw me off at first, but I ended up enjoying how it moved the story along. I also didn’t even know that there were German POW camps in America.
It was a fascinating read and is definitely a reread in the future.