Hello everyone!

I can honestly say I failed in completing my TBR, but that’s okay as no one is forcing me to finish it. I had a hard time getting into Her Secret War by Pam Lecky and I decided to just push through it instead of marking it as a DNF. As a result, I did not finish my March TBR, so this will be a short blog. I have about 127 pages left to read of the book. Note: I am not one to start a second book while currently reading one or leaving one unfinished (unless necessary, as I will learn in the future).

Her Secret War by Pam Lecky

Pages: 372

Published by AVON in January 2022

Genre(s): historical fiction

star rating: ★★★★☆ (rating may change in April when I finish the book)

Before I get into my review, Her Secret War ties one life-changing moment, one heart-breaking choice, and one dangerous mission altogether. In May 1941, Germany bombs Dublin, Ireland taking Sarah Gillespie’s home and family from her. Days later, the man she walked away from but still loves enlists with the Royal Air Force (RAF). She later makes the decision to leave Ireland with a burning desire to help the war effort. While living with her relatives, she is tasked with a mission in which the end result will be saving lives while risking her own.

I will say this first, I sometimes find the first book in a series to be very difficult to get through. I have found that some authors tend to include a lot of filler before you get to the climax and that can be boring for me. For example, while I did find the information or background of Sarah Gillespie in the beginning of the book to be useful, I also felt that it would be better it it were included in flash backs. There are some chapters where the information from the beginning of the book is constantly repeated and I can tell Sarah just doesn’t want to relive it. I also felt like I was thrown into the middle of the story on the first page. There was no context at the beginning and I felt the timeline was a little confusing, which I had to reread some parts of the first chapter. Overall, the book is enjoyable and I now have the urge to finish the book. However, the first half of the book was just not interesting to me. Based on what I have read, I feel this was a 4-star read, but I may change the rating when I finish the book.

April TBR

As I did not complete my March TBR, I decided to add the remaining books to my April TBR, and just make it a goal to complete as much as I can. However, I won’t force myself to read everything on the list. I plan to read the following books:

Again, I will most likely not read everything and that’s okay. I may randomly select these books or select them based on mood. I will try more reading challenges this month - starting with switching iPad screen time with reading and reading a certain number of chapters based on how many times I picked up my phone or number of notifications. As per usual, feel free to send me book recs, ideas for reading challenges, and ideas for future reading blogs at blueoceans.sanddollar@gmail.com or comment down below.

See you next blog.