Written In My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon - Reviewed


J.T. Salrich - 2014
    Salrich.Written In My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon is finally here! After waiting for 5 years, fans of Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander series" can finally return to the characters they know and love. Written In My Own Heart's Blood picks up where "An Echo In The Bone" left off and gets right into the action. If you’d like to enhance your experience while reading Written In My Own Heart's Blood then this book review and study guide is perfect for you! Yes, in Written In My Own Heart's Blood, Diana Gabaldon once again takes us on an action packed roller coaster ride that you’re sure to enjoy. Follow along with Jamie, Claire, Roger, Buck, Brianna, Jem, Mandy and all the rest as Diana Gabaldon weaves their stories through the past and present and all over the world. When you read Written In My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon - Reviewed you will get a deeper understanding of the characters and plot found in the original book, Written In My Own Heart's Blood as well as the themes and symbolism included in the novel. You also get a detailed chapter by chapter breakdown and analysis of the events as they unfold along with a glossary of the important characters and terms used in the original book. Just in case that’s not enough for you I’ve also included a list of possible study questions (book club discussions topics) and quotes from the book that I found interesting. Wrapping it all up is a discussion of the critical reviews for Written In My Own Heart's Blood as well as my overall opinion of the book. Plus much more! Whether you’re reading this for a book club, school report, or just want to catch up with your favorite characters and find out what happens before diving into the full length book, you can use this book review and study guide to get most out of your experience reading Written In My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon.

Daisy Chain War


Joan O'Neill - 1998
    Book one in a compelling trilogy set in in the Irish "emergency" during the Second World War, in which young Lizzie Doyle comes to term with living with her fiesty English cousin Vicky, and the effects of the war on an impoverished Ireland in the 1940s.

Molly


Teresa Crane - 1982
    Fleeing her fanatical republican family, Molly O’Dowd arrives nearly penniless in London at the end of the nineteenth century. Plunged into the world of East End gambling houses and brothels, Molly invests what little money she has in a typing course, her only way out. This investment will lead her on the path to establishing herself as a woman of power and means.From the rough-and-tumble world of the London docks to the luxurious hotels and restaurants of the fashionable West End, Molly captures the temper of the times – the unrest of the labouring classes, the courage of the suffragette movement, the ravages of the First World War. Molly wins and loses in the tempestuous world of the capital but her energy and determination never flag and tides change when she meets a man who could match her in business… and in love. This rags-to-riches historical romance is perfect for fans of Lily Graham, Natalie Meg Evans and Fiona McIntosh.

A Most Precious Gift


Jacqueline Freeman Wheelock - 2014
    Having never cooked a day in her life, she is terrified of being found out and banished to the cotton fields as was her mother before her. But when she accidentally burns the freedom papers of Jonathan Mayfield, a handsome free man of color to whom she's attracted, her fear of the fields becomes secondary.A gifted cabinetmaker, Jonathan Mayfield's heart is set on finally becoming a respected businessman by outfitting a bedroom at the palatial Riverwood—until a beautiful new slave destroys his proof of freedom and his fragile confidence along with it. When the mistress of Riverwood orders Dinah to work alongside the sullen Mr. Mayfield, sparks fly setting the two on a collision course. Is their mutual love for God strong enough to overcome deep-seated insecurities and set the couple on a path toward self-acceptance and love for each other?

Lone Eagle


Alfred Dennis - 2008
    William and his sister Virginia are found by a passing army patrol but Phillip is missing. Eighteen years later at the Fort Laramie Treaty Council a close family friend sees a warrior identical in looks to William. Follow the Lane's west as a courageous family seeks the missing twin, Phillip.

Unfinished Symphony


Bernard Hellreich Ingram - 2012
    This is not a book about survival in a concentration camp. It is a book about "ordinary" people, maybe like you & me, on the peripheries of the Holocaust. It is a book about an ordinary man who is a young Polish Jewish doctor & it tells of the discrimination he faced leading up to WWII. It tells how his comfortable Polish middle class life is shattered first by the 1939 Soviet invasion showing the real face of the Stalinist regime & then by the Nazis in 1941 who are bent on exterminating a people merely because of their religious background. What to do? I ask myself how I would have reacted & I asked my father how he had the courage to choose to walk the line of a Jew hiding as a Christian. How brave was he? "Not brave at all" was his reply, "I just did what I had to do". It is also the story of two brave Christians, the doctor's girlfriend & a friend of hers, & how they chose to risk their lives & those of their families to prevent the unjust murder of another human being whose only crime was his ethnic background. I ask myself could I now do the same if this situation arose. The book is priced as low as possible to encourage people to read about an amazing account of survival through the love & selflessness of others in a very dark time of man's recent history. Two of the central figures of this book, Marian Golebiowski & Irena Szumska-Ingram have been honored by Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum with the Righteous Among the Nations award. See the Yom Ha’atzmaut 2010 speech by Dor Shapira of the Israeli Embassy to the Sydney NSWJBD in relation to Irena Sumska's award: http://www.google.com.hk/url?sa=t&... It is a story of love, adventure & human values, the fugitive "Jew in a Christian skin", under constant threat of exposure, precariously maintaining his false identity in a tiny rural community. finally we see Hellreich the penniless refugee, still supported by his faithful Irena, rebuilding his shattered career in Australia - a chapter of heartbreaking difficulties & heartwarming satisfaction. "...as gripping and human a story as any told about this tragic period in the history of man's inhumanity to man. I couldn't put it down. That it is told without bitterness and rancour makes it all the more powerful ... simply yet eloquently written." - Barry Cohen (former Australian Minister for the Arts, Heritage and the Environment) "... incredible faith and courage ... one of the most amazing stories to emerge from the wreckage and despair of the Holocaust." - L E Freeman in The Newcastle Herald Publisher's Note: My father, the author, passed from this world of natural causes in 2008 after what he described as a very interesting life. My hope in publishing his story is to document what happened to one man during these dark times & let him tell his story to all of you & not let it die with him. My father did not speak of his war years until I was 8, after many requests. It took him a lot longer to agree to write his story for the public. He was a modest man & did not think his story on the Holocaust's edges would be of interest, as per his Preface. All the Holocaust books I have read are valuable not for their literary merit but for the story they tell of barbarism, heroism, selfless help by others while endangering their own lives, & the wonderful strength & purity of th

Doctor Rose and the Outlaw


R.O. Lane - 2020
    She sets up her medical practice there. One night she's called out to help a gang of outlaws that have been shot to pieces while trying to rustle cattle. One of the outlaws is a young man that she develops feelings for, but he's in and out of her life for months on end. The outlaw attempts to change his life and go straight. It's a challenge that Rose encourages. It's the tale of two people who grow to care deeply for each other, and when Rose is kidnapped, the outlaw, now her husband, rides out to save her. Another novel of the Old West from the pen of R. O. Lane.

The Locket


Mike Evans - 2012
    That teenage boy was Adolf Eichmann. It all seemed innocent and nice until Sarah’s grandmother died, and then nothing was ever the same again.Set in Europe during World War II, The Locket follows Sarah’s journey from adolescence to adulthood, as she and her family endure the horrors of the Final Solution. Forced from their home into a Vienna ghetto, and later to the Nazi death camps, Sarah watches helplessly as her family and friends are murdered. She is marked for death, too, until Eichmann intervenes. When Sarah rebuffs Eich- mann’s romantic advances, she is arrested and sent to the camps. Can Sarah escape and survive long enough to find justice for the atrocities she was forced to endure? Will evil prevail and consign her to a life of fear and terror? Observe Sarah on her journey from the darkest days of the Holocaust to the day she enters a Jerusalem courtroom to face Adolf Eichmann.The Locket by Mike Evans is a suspense-filled and captivating novel. It will keep you on the edge of your seat. It is a book you will not be able to put down. Dr. Evans’ great-grandfather, a rabbi, perished in Minsk, Russia, during the pogroms. He and his congregation were boarded up in their synagogue and burned to death by Orthodox Christians who cried, “Christ killers” as the fire consumed the building. Others of his family perished at Auschwitz. More than twenty-five million copies of Dr. Evans’ books are in print, and he is the award-winning producer of nine documentaries based on his books. Dr. Evans is considered one of the world’s leading experts on Israel and the Middle East, and is one of the most sought-after speakers on that

Tamar


Mal Peet - 2005
    Out of the past, another Tamar emerges, a man involved in the terrifying world of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Holland half a century before. His story is one of passionate love, jealousy, and tragedy set against the daily fear and casual horror of the Second World War -- and unraveling it is about to transform Tamar’s life forever. From acclaimed British sensation Mal Peet comes a masterful story of adventure, love, secrets, and betrayal in time of war, both past and present.

Slow John


C.J. Petit - 2017
    But when he rode to the family home, he made two shocking discoveries: his family was gone, and he had been declared dead by the army four years earlier. He left to cross the plains of Nebraska to find his family, but would find so much more.

Emmy's Journey (Two Feather's Legacy Book 2)


Lila M Beckham - 2015
    Determined to do exactly what she sets her mind to, she explores the mountains and valleys around her home with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a keen eye that misses nothing. When her mother dies, Emmaline, Emmy for short, is thrust into the mystical, spiritual world of her mother’s native peoples, the Tsalagi, better known as the Cherokee. Given the power of observation and shape shifting by her immortal g-great-grandfather Two Feathers, who is the keeper of the Sacred Fire’s Ashes, Emmy is told that she must carry on her mother’s duties and is charged with the task of becoming the family “Ka no he ha Ka no Ge sdi,” the Storyteller. She is supposed to remember and pass down her family’s history and tell about their ancestors. As Emmy grows older and matures, her explorations become more advanced. She discovers a hidden path that takes her beyond an ancient willow tree to a layer of the world that at first seems much like her own, but she soon discovers that it is quite different… When she stays longer than allowed a mortal, she discovers that her grandfather can travel between space and time and communicate with all peoples between the layers of her world. Emmy’s Journey is a voyage through time and into the mysterious spiritual and mystical realms of the Cherokees and a world that most never knows exists.

Angeline


Karleen Bradford - 2004
    Only a short time ago she left her small village in France to follow Stephen, a shepherd boy whose vision led him to mount a children's Crusade to the Holy Land. But they were decieved by those who offered to help. Now it seems they are doomed to a life of slavery in a foreign land and even Stephen has lost all hope.Somehow, Angeline mist find the strength to survive, as well as to help Stephen overcome his despair. But first she must learn to understand and respect the ways of a culture so very different from her own.

Eleven Miles to Oshkosh


Jim Guhl - 2018
    His father, a deputy sheriff, has been murdered by the unknown "Highway 41 Killer." His mom has unraveled. And a goon named Larry Buskin has been pummeling Minnow behind Neenah High.Minnow finds support in the company of his roguish grandfather, his loyal pal Mark, and beautiful Opal Parsons, who has her own worries as the first African American student in their school. When the sheriff seems in no hurry to solve the murder, Minnow must seek justice by partnering with unlikely allies and discovering his own courage.

Girl in the Blue Coat


Monica Hesse - 2016
    Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person - a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action. Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary, gripping novel from a bright new voice.

Kitty McKenzie: Victorian saga: Book 1


AnneMarie Brear - 2014
    Evicted from their resplendent home in the fashionable part of York after her parents’ deaths, Kitty must fight the legacy of bankruptcy and homelessness to secure a home for her and her siblings. Through sheer willpower and determination she grabs opportunities with both hands from working on a clothes and rag stall in the market to creating a teashop for the wealthy. Her road to happiness is fraught with obstacles of hardship and despair, but she refuses to let her dream of a better life for her family die. She soon learns that love and loyalty brings its own reward.