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By Kristin Hannah
ISBN: 0312577222
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: 02/03/2015
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 5 Stars

A special thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.   Beautiful Front Cover.

The bar is set high for award winning best-selling author, Kristin Hannah’s upcoming THE NIGHTINGALE. The author delivers her “best” yet, with a poignant and compelling historical fiction, of two strong and courageous sisters faced with challenges, and choices of love, life and survival.

“Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain.”

As the book begins, in 1995, an elderly widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home, pushed by the controlling son and surgeon, Julien. However, she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony of those honored, aiding those during the war where we are transported to 1940s.

From US present day to France in the 1940s WWII, we read about two sisters; a novel of love and war, and the secret lives of those who live in a small French town.

There are two sisters – one who follows the rules and one, not so much. Living in a small village, Vianne is content living in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and her daughter. Antoine is leaving for the war to fight, and she does not want to think the Nazis will invade France. However, when the unspeakable happens, she must survive by making difficult choices.

When World War II strikes and Antoine is sent off to fight, Viann and Isabelle’s father sends Isabelle to help her older sister cope. As the war progresses, it’s not only the sisters’ relationship that is tested, but also their strength and their individual senses of morals -right and wrong.

Her sister, Isabelle lives in Paris. A rebellious girl full of passions and meets a partisan, Gaetan who believes in fighting the Nazis and falls in love. However, all does not turn out the way she planned—now she must risk her life to save others.

Master storyteller, Kristin Hannah delivers an emotional, intense, and riveting tale, starting with the two sisters with vivid settings and impeccable research of the turbulent and devastating times during the war, the Germans, Nazis, and risks taken in order to survive; extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.

Beautifully written, a heartbreaking story of two sisters during the French Resistance and their loves, family, passion, losses, and triumph over tragedy. A gem you will not want to miss!

I enjoyed reading about the inspiration behind THE NIGHTINGALE. In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are. And sometimes, perhaps, we don’t want to know what we would do to survive.

In war, women’s stories are all too often forgotten or overlooked. Women tend to come home from the battlefield and say nothing and go on with their lives. The Nightingale is a novel about those women and the daring, dangerous choices they made to save their children and their way of life.

I have read twenty-two of Kristin’s books, and an avid fan for a number of years. Fans of Diane Chamberlain, Karen White, Jane Green, and Sarah Jio will enjoy Hannah’s style; an author and book, you cannot miss - one of the top historical fiction books of the year!