Kristin Hannah: The Nightingale

This book is highly recommended online and from some of my book club friends. It's taken me months to get through this, but I ended up enjoying it.

The Nightingale follows the story of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle. Vianne is the older sister, married with a daughter, Sophie. Isabelle is a beauty, but a wild spirit. Never one to follow the rules, Isabelle frequently shows up where she's not supposed to be. As the war breaks out, Isabelle finds herself disobeying everyone's expectations again, and throwing herself into the resistance. With her husband gone, Vianne is forced to billet a German officer. This only gets more complicated as Isabelle's resistance life clashes with Vianne's attempts to protect her family.

I loved this book, but I also hated it.

I struggle a bit with violence against children, and while it is historically accurate, I really had a hard time with that aspect of the novel.

The characters were interesting, though I was a bit annoyed by both of the main characters. Vianne and Isabelle both have their flaws, and I got tired of them being unable or unwilling to talk to each other like adults. In the end they do realize that this is their flaw and they move on.

The pacing of the novel is probably what bugged me the most. This novel dragged for the first 40% of the book, and I really almost DNF'd it at that point. I'm glad I persisted.

This book made me cry so much, particularly at the end. I rated this book

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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