Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 I've read both of the other books in this series and loved both of them. I was excited to get a story that was completely about Julie. The Pearl Thief  takes place about five or six years before the start of Code Name Verity  when Julie is just a teenager. The book starts with her arriving at her grandparent's Scottish castle for holiday sooner than anticipated. After visiting an old friend in the village near the estate, Julie is knocked unconscious by the river that runs on the estate, a river famous for its pearls. After she is discovered and taken to the hospital, Julie is determined to find out who hit her and solve the mystery of the missing pearls from the estate. I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I love Julie and her character. I loved her in Code Name Verity , and her voice is sarcastic, witty, and intelligent. All of that carries into The Pearl Thief  as well, with an added sense of aristocracy that the younger Julie obviously harbored. The plot was...

 I love Elizabeth Wein and Code Name Verity (see my post here ). Since reading Verity , I discovered that there are more books in the series, and while not completely related (you can read them in any order), I've been excited to read them all. Rose Under Fire has been on my tbr list for AGES, and I finally got around to it. Rose Under Fire  by Elizabeth Wein shines a light on the darkness of Ravensbruck, the Nazi prison camp for political prisoners (at least at first). Rose Justice was an American who went to Britain to help with the war effort. While there, she met Maddie (one of the perspectives of Code Name Verity ), a pilot for the civilian ATA. After a ferry trip over France, Rose is intercepted by Nazi fighters and is forced to fly deep into Germany. Once there, she's sent to Ravensbruck, the infamous work camp for political prisoners. Wein spares no details in showing the horrific conditions of prisoners in the camp. What will happen to Rose and her friends, the Rabbit...

This post is a book that I've read a couple of times because I read it with my seniors. It's one of my favorites, but I'll get into that more later. Code Name Verity  by Elizabeth Wein is about a British spy, code-named Verity who crash-landed in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. She is arrested soon after her landing while attempting to carry out her mission. While in prison, the Gestapo show her pictures of the plane wreck, leading her to believe that her best friend, Maddie Brodatt, the pilot, is dead. Ultimately, Verity begins working with the Gestapo and giving them sets of wireless code which would allow the Gestapo to intercept Allied communications. They also ask her to write her confession: a document with as much information as she knows about Allied plans, bases, and planes. However, knowing that she's going to die no matter what she tells them, Verity takes her time with her tale, instead telling the story of how she met Maddie and how she ended up...