Alice Payne Arrives by Kate Heartfield

Reviewed by:  Sarah Baker, Circulation Assistant

Genre: Fantasy

Suggested Age:  Adult

What is this Book About?  Two women are trying to change their futures. One is Alice Payne, living in 1788; she moonlights as The Holy Ghost, a feared highwayman, to pay off her father’s debts. The other is Major Prudence Zuniga; originally from 2140, trying again and again to change history in 1889 and to avoid any assignment in 2016. Because 2016 is where so much goes wrong, but it’s bigger than one person. And it ultimately leads to war between two factions known as Farmers and Guides.  But Prudence thinks she can end the war before it begins. She just needs to find a person willing to change that future and resolve the war before it happens. She aims at 1788, but grabs the wrong woman. Or so she thinks. It may just be that Alice Payne can save them all.

My Review:  I feel like I need the next part of this series to give a comprehensive review. Book one ends on a cliffhanger, and a lot happens very quickly that doesn’t fully make sense because time travel is a sneaky thing. And because the reader is yo-yo’d through time, keeping cause and effect straight is harder than you’d believe. Thankfully, there is a timeline in the back of the book to help you keep it all straight.

I appreciated the fact that Alice wasn’t a “typical” protagonist – she’s 32 and of mixed race; her father claims her, which is unusual for 1788; and she’s bisexual. She’s strong willed and willing to do what it takes to keep her life however she can. I enjoyed how she tackled her problems head on and didn’t hesitate to get her hands dirty. Or to pull a gun on someone to get her point across. Prudence is of a similar nature – an immigrant in time and woman obsessed with finding an answer. Her tour with Alice through various points in time is fascinating. One action here watersheds into so many others; preventing this war leads to other wars or riots, some as bad and others worse. And it begs the question – can changing history ever be for the better?

Three Words That Describe This Book: Unusual, Intriguing, Unresolved

Give it a Try if You Like:   Time-travel episodes of Star Trek, Alternate history like Harry Turtledove, The Edge of Tomorrow

Rating: 3/5

Find it at the library!

About FDL Reads

FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.

The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos

Reviewed by:  Becky Houghton, Reference Assistant

Genre: Historical Fiction

Suggested Age: Teens, Adults

What is this Book About?   It is 1941 in Bucharest Romania and the government has collapsed. Romanian Jews are being rounded up, tortured and murdered by the thousands.  A young Jewish couple is forced to make the heart-wrenching decision to leave their three year old daughter behind in order to save her as they flee this humanitarian crisis.  This young girl was the author’s mother.  What follows is a fictionalized version of Veletzos’ mother’s life although the basic story is true.  The child, Natalia, was adopted and named by Christian parents in Romania and raised as their daughter during the second World War, the later Russian occupation,  and Romania’s transition to communism. This book is an eye-opening look into the lives of Romanians during this tumultuous period.

My Review:  I actually liked this book.  Roxanne Veletzos is good storyteller and her personal involvement in her tale gives it a poignancy that is not always present in historical fiction.  Woven together are actual facts and an embellished version of the early life of her mother.  Natalia was left by her fleeing Jewish parents on a doorstep during the January 1941 Bucharest Pogrom. After spending a brief time in a Romanian orphanage, she was adopted by Anton and Despina Goza who were desperate for a family following several miscarriages.  Natalia became the most cherished of daughters in a reasonably prosperous Romanian family.  She had an almost luxurious life during the war years and became a talented and skilled pianist in spite of her young age.  She had dreams of studying music and making that a career, but post-war Romania and the Russian occupation ended those dreams.  Her father, Anton, was considered an “enemy of the state” since he was not a member of the Communist Party.  The family business, home and possessions were seized by the government and the family was forced into a communal living situation where they shared a small apartment with several other families. Natalia became a factory worker in her late teenage years.  A man named Victor, who her father had assisted as a youth during the war, reappears outside the factory and becomes involved in Natalia’s life again.  It is at this point that Veletzos departs from her mother’s actual history into a fictionalized version of the story.  Although her mother did not leave Romania in the way that Natalia does, many Romanian Jews did have their freedom “bought” by clandestine transactions with the Romanian government and were resettled in Israel and the United States, making the ending consistent with history.  I learned a great deal about World War II and the spread of communism behind the Iron Curtain through reading this well written book.

Three Words That Describe This Book:  Poignant, Gripping, Insightful

Give it a Try if You Like:   The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, War Brides by Helen Bryan or Stolen Beauty by Laurie Lico Albanese

Rating: 5/5

Find it at the library!

About FDL Reads

FDL Reads is a series of weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library.