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jenlouisegallant's review
5.0
Hit close to my heart as I have a brother named Lucas, who is part of the Canadian Forces. Loved the journey that Seth and Gabi went on. Makes me want to walk the Camino de Santiago.
khairun_atika's review
4.0
Beneath Wandering Stars was such a joy to read. It makes you feel awed yet sympathetic towards army brats, children to those who serve in the Army and the psychological effects it has on them. The army brat of this story, Gabi Santiago is a feisty soccer player with a fiery personality, whose life comes crashing down when her brother, a soldier, gets wounded in action. His many messages in the war epics he sent her conveys that he wishes for Gabi, their father and his best friend Seth Russo to walk the camino to Santiago on his behalf. Gabi finds herself on an almost month-long walking expedition with the boy she held a grudge for, but learns more about what it really means to serve in the Army. More importantly, she discovers her true purpose in walking the camino - to walk for her brother and praying for his recovery along the way, alongside his best friend. The depictions of the many inspiring characters Gabi and Seth met along the way makes this an enjoyable, heartwarming read, a beautiful story of hope, redemption and ultimately, love.
brokenrecord's review
3.0
3.5 stars. This was a falling-for-your-brother’s-best-friend/road trip/enemies-to-lovers romance, which are 3 things I absolutely adore, so this should've been perfect for me, but for some reason I never really got into the story. There were parts I liked, but other parts fell flat. Also, there was a bit where Gabi’s ex-boyfriend wrote a letter to her that was like, “I got into UC Fresno so I’m moving to CA after graduation since I can’t pass up this opportunity to make it big in the SoCal music scene!” which like, ignoring the fact that UC Fresno does not exist, FRESNO IS NOT IN SOCAL. IT IS NOWHERE NEAR SOCAL. THE MEXICAN BORDER IS CLOSER TO LOS ANGELES THAN FRESNO IS. And if you wanted him to go to school in SoCal, there are literally 800,000 colleges you could’ve chosen from??? I recognize that this is a SUPER minor nitpick, and it certainly didn’t like ruin my enjoyment of the book, but it definitely took me out of the story and was just bizarre. And when I'm not invested in a story, little details like that one end up being a lot more irritating and harder to wave off.
lovegirl30's review
5.0
This is one of my favorite YA novels I have ever read. I know I say that I loath young adult novels, this book might have just made me change my mind. The writing this book is spectacular. I am unsure words can express my feelings about this wonderful novel.
This is a novel that is centered around being a military brat. I love this concept because I like near bases and have friends that were military brats. This books starts out with the pain of having a loved one in a coma. The main characters brother is fighting for his life and may not make it. With her family completely falling apart one girl is on a mission to save her family. She is just about to break out into the unknown adult world and is fighting against her father.
The book is a great example of the joinery in life. Aren’t we all on one amazing journey to find our selves? The book is thought provoking on a number of levels. This book will make you question exactly who you are, and what that means.
The pilgrimage of el camino de Santiago is a concept that I knew a little about, although the author really capture the meaning behind this spiritual journey.
I will recommend this book to all readers, even those that hate ya. Pick it up and prepare to go on a similar journey with the characters.
Disclaimer, I received this book from the publisher (Merit Press) in exchange for my honest and 100% unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are solely my own.
This is a novel that is centered around being a military brat. I love this concept because I like near bases and have friends that were military brats. This books starts out with the pain of having a loved one in a coma. The main characters brother is fighting for his life and may not make it. With her family completely falling apart one girl is on a mission to save her family. She is just about to break out into the unknown adult world and is fighting against her father.
The book is a great example of the joinery in life. Aren’t we all on one amazing journey to find our selves? The book is thought provoking on a number of levels. This book will make you question exactly who you are, and what that means.
The pilgrimage of el camino de Santiago is a concept that I knew a little about, although the author really capture the meaning behind this spiritual journey.
I will recommend this book to all readers, even those that hate ya. Pick it up and prepare to go on a similar journey with the characters.
Disclaimer, I received this book from the publisher (Merit Press) in exchange for my honest and 100% unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are solely my own.
msethna's review
5.0
I picked up this book from the library strictly based on the cover and the brief description inside. I hadn't heard anything about it from other bloggers beforehand and that is surprising. This book is beyond beautiful. Once I started it, I could not put it down.
The word "home" is has different meanings for different people. For me, home is where I grew up and where I now raise my own family. For those in the military, "home" takes on it's own meaning. Home = family - where ever that may be. Beneath Wandering Stars gives us a glimpse of how important family is for those in the military and the importance of believing that they will come home.
I loved delving into the internal struggles that both Gabi and Seth dealt with as they pilgrimaged across Camino de Santiago in honor of Gabi's brother, Lucas who was wounded in Afghanistan. Gabi struggled finding her way in their newest home on a military base in Germany. Leaving behind her boyfriend and many close friends. Seth had his own inner demons too - fighting memories of the war and what happened to Lucas. Not only did I learn about the lives of children in military families, but I also was able to see in the window of a soldier returning home from the war just trying to fit back in.
Beneath Wandering Stars is a #mustread2017! I can't recommend this book enough.
The word "home" is has different meanings for different people. For me, home is where I grew up and where I now raise my own family. For those in the military, "home" takes on it's own meaning. Home = family - where ever that may be. Beneath Wandering Stars gives us a glimpse of how important family is for those in the military and the importance of believing that they will come home.
I loved delving into the internal struggles that both Gabi and Seth dealt with as they pilgrimaged across Camino de Santiago in honor of Gabi's brother, Lucas who was wounded in Afghanistan. Gabi struggled finding her way in their newest home on a military base in Germany. Leaving behind her boyfriend and many close friends. Seth had his own inner demons too - fighting memories of the war and what happened to Lucas. Not only did I learn about the lives of children in military families, but I also was able to see in the window of a soldier returning home from the war just trying to fit back in.
Beneath Wandering Stars is a #mustread2017! I can't recommend this book enough.
mazza57's review
3.0
The blurb in GR is just wrong this is not a promise she made for an "in the event situation" but one extracted from her after the event. It has some "tweeness" about it but this came together in the latter half.
liralen's review
4.0
I miss the Camino—I miss the friends I made walking it, I miss having nothing to do but walk, I miss the satisfaction of throbbingly sore feet at the end of the day. But it'll be a while before I can do anything like it again, so in the meantime...books.
Beneath Wandering Stars is one of the few fictional accounts I've found of the Camino. Here, Gabi takes to the road in the name of her older brother, Lucas, who has been severely wounded in Afghanistan. (The cover copy says that she's honouring a vow, but that's not true—prior to her brother's injury, Gabi had heard of the Camino, but that's it. She learns from Lucas's best friend, Seth, that Lucas wanted them to do the Camino if he were to be injured or killed.) She's accompanied by Seth, who is also a soldier and served with Lucas in Afghanistan.
As a book, separate from my personal knowledge of the Camino, I appreciate that Cowles brings a lot more in here that the Camino itself—there are layers of story. The Camino does not much matter to Gabi except that it gives her some tenuous connection to her brother and lets her hope that, just maybe, she's doing something that will help him.
The way the Camino is depicted here...I'm not sure. Gabi and Seth have a lot more excitement along the way than I'd expect, although nothing impossible and I suppose fiction does tend to up the ante when it can. It's not clear exactly when this is set, but presumably within the last few years, and some of the details are off. For example: to the best of my knowledge, there isn't a direct train from Paris to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port (a very very common starting point for the Camino, and where Gabi and Seth get started) (53). A French man will not address a girl as 'mon chéri' (58); the appropriate French would be 'ma chérie' (or, more likely, 'ma chère'). The albergue at Roncesvalles is no longer 'a dank and drafty monastery' (62)—I cannot find exact details on the whens and hows, but the present-day albergue has been functioning since 2011 and is clean and modern. I never saw an Internet café that charged 2€ for ten minutes (77)—more like 2€ for an hour. (My personal info is from 2015—I didn't have a smartphone and was reliant on coin-operated computers for email and the like—but posts on Camino forums from earlier years say pretty much the same thing.) Gabi's knowledge of the Camino (and the cathedral in Santiago) is really scattered—she knows what, and where, the Tree of Jesse is, and calls the Pórtico da Gloria by name (230), but has never heard of the botafumeiro (231)...which, I guess so. Maybe. (Not really.)
That's all splitting hairs, I know, and it doesn't really matter except that it's little mismatched details that tend to take me out of a story. A bigger question: Gabi and Seth, due to time constraints, bus through the meseta (a dry, flat stretch of walking—about a week's worth—between Burgos and León). It's not uncommon—a lot of pilgrims choose to skip the meseta, and it's not a 'wrong' thing (to do or to write about), but to me it's a slightly puzzling choice for a fictional narrative, simply because it's such a rich landscape for tension. I rather wonder whether that was a portion of the Camino that Cowles did not walk, and thus a portion that she did not write about?
But. All that being said: This steps outside the bounds of both standard YA and standard Camino memoir, and it's the better for it. Worth the read.
Beneath Wandering Stars is one of the few fictional accounts I've found of the Camino. Here, Gabi takes to the road in the name of her older brother, Lucas, who has been severely wounded in Afghanistan. (The cover copy says that she's honouring a vow, but that's not true—prior to her brother's injury, Gabi had heard of the Camino, but that's it. She learns from Lucas's best friend, Seth, that Lucas wanted them to do the Camino if he were to be injured or killed.) She's accompanied by Seth, who is also a soldier and served with Lucas in Afghanistan.
As a book, separate from my personal knowledge of the Camino, I appreciate that Cowles brings a lot more in here that the Camino itself—there are layers of story. The Camino does not much matter to Gabi except that it gives her some tenuous connection to her brother and lets her hope that, just maybe, she's doing something that will help him.
The way the Camino is depicted here...I'm not sure. Gabi and Seth have a lot more excitement along the way than I'd expect, although nothing impossible and I suppose fiction does tend to up the ante when it can. It's not clear exactly when this is set, but presumably within the last few years, and some of the details are off. For example: to the best of my knowledge, there isn't a direct train from Paris to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port (a very very common starting point for the Camino, and where Gabi and Seth get started) (53). A French man will not address a girl as 'mon chéri' (58); the appropriate French would be 'ma chérie' (or, more likely, 'ma chère'). The albergue at Roncesvalles is no longer 'a dank and drafty monastery' (62)—I cannot find exact details on the whens and hows, but the present-day albergue has been functioning since 2011 and is clean and modern. I never saw an Internet café that charged 2€ for ten minutes (77)—more like 2€ for an hour. (My personal info is from 2015—I didn't have a smartphone and was reliant on coin-operated computers for email and the like—but posts on Camino forums from earlier years say pretty much the same thing.) Gabi's knowledge of the Camino (and the cathedral in Santiago) is really scattered—she knows what, and where, the Tree of Jesse is, and calls the Pórtico da Gloria by name (230), but has never heard of the botafumeiro (231)...which, I guess so. Maybe. (Not really.)
That's all splitting hairs, I know, and it doesn't really matter except that it's little mismatched details that tend to take me out of a story. A bigger question: Gabi and Seth, due to time constraints, bus through the meseta (a dry, flat stretch of walking—about a week's worth—between Burgos and León). It's not uncommon—a lot of pilgrims choose to skip the meseta, and it's not a 'wrong' thing (to do or to write about), but to me it's a slightly puzzling choice for a fictional narrative, simply because it's such a rich landscape for tension. I rather wonder whether that was a portion of the Camino that Cowles did not walk, and thus a portion that she did not write about?
But. All that being said: This steps outside the bounds of both standard YA and standard Camino memoir, and it's the better for it. Worth the read.
amanda1620's review
2.0
When I read the synopsis of this book, I was quite excited and have high expectations for this book. The main character, is quite bratty, despite being a military brat. She's too naive and seems to be very flippant about her problems regarding her brother and the boyfriend and her brother's best friend. It also feels like a travel book, instead of a story.
hazelstaybookish's review
4.0
Actual rating: 4.5 (though I'm super tempted to rate this up)
This is the YA travel book I've been craving since I finished Gayle Forman's Just One Day duology! And omg there's love-hate girl+brother's best friend romance okayyyy
This is the YA travel book I've been craving since I finished Gayle Forman's Just One Day duology! And omg there's love-hate girl+brother's best friend romance okayyyy
patsaintsfan's review
5.0
This might be the first YA labeled book that reads much more maturely. It was a complete surprise, and a delight. I connected with this book in a lot if levels, and I have no doubt those similarities solidified the 5 stars from me! Having a father who is retired from the Army, I spent a lot of time on bases, experiencing the "brat" life. I love hiking, and everything one learns during those personal adventures... For a debut, Ms. Cowles told a beautiful story!