Book Thoughts: Code Name Verity

Title: Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth Wein
*Imported from tumblr*

Holy freaking cow. This book. I don’t know where to start.

Code Name Verity is one of those books that made me giggle and then tore my heart to shreds and now I want to share it with absolutely everybody, because it’s so beautiful and heartbreaking and real and ugh I’m about to cry again.

Code name “Verity" has been taken prisoner by the Gestapo. This book is her story — her story, and the story of her best friend Maddie. A spy and a pilot, two girls in an unlikely and heartbreaking situation during World War II, and the story of how they find, and re-find, each other.

The Nazis’ treatment of POWs is handled tactfully and without being overly gruesome while at the same time being hauntingly honest. And the realities of war become far too real in the pages of this book. But the girls’ friendship, and the kindness of strangers, and the often-forgotten humanity of even the enemy soldiers — those are equally powerful and real. And basically, you should DEFINITELY read this book.

Book Thoughts: Heist Society

Title: Heist Society
Author: Ally Carter
Series: Heist Society #1

I read (and fell in love with) Ally Carter's newest book, HEIST SOCIETY, this afternoon. The writing style is quite different from her (equally awesome) Gallagher Girls series; it's in third person, not first, and while the Gallagher Girls audience would certainly appreciate it just as much, I feel like it's aimed at and appeals to a wider and maybe a little bit older audience.

HEIST SOCIETY follows the story of Katarina "Kat" Bishop, a fifteen-year-old girl who comes from a family of thieves. She's been helping her dad with heists for as long as she can remember, but now, Kat is walking away from a life of crime. She's conned her way into one of the country's best boarding schools, and she's done with thievery. At least, that's what she thought.

When five valuable paintings go missing, Kat's dad is the entire suspect list. Interpol is watching him closely...and so is the man who the paintings belonged to, Arturo Taccone. Taccone is even more dangerous than Interpol, and if Kat is going to save her dad's life, she's going to have to do the craziest thing she's ever done. With a little help from her friends, she's going to have to steal the paintings back.

Kat is a wonderful character - as are Hale, Gabrielle, and the rest. (Hale may have a place in the lineup of Amazing Fictional Guys now. More on that later.) All of them are so real, the story is just so engaging, bits and pieces are laugh-out-loud funny and other bits have you sitting on the edge of your seat thinking "AHH!" I would definitely recommend this book.

Book Thoughts: Etiquette & Espionage

Title: Etiquette & Espionage
Author: Gail Carriger
Series: Finishing School #1

I have never seen steampunk, high society, espionage, and paranormalcy (vampires and werewolves, anybody) all combined before -- especially not so artfully. The writing style threw me for a loop at first and I'm still not sure how to pronounce half of the names, but the story is engaging and the world is well-crafted, if a bit strange, and what really kept me reading were the characters. They're just fun! Sophronia and her friends get up to some truly hilarious shenaniganry and I need a second book to see how all of this with the prototype turns out! Even though it's the first in a series, though, the story was pretty well-contained. I do hope book two contains more of Soap and Vieve - they're easily my favorite characters. E&E is a very quirky read that may take you some time to get into, but give it the benefit of the doubt, because once you do get into it, it's a couple hundred pages of great fun.