Took me forever to decide to scratch this one off my list. The cover was so gorgeous! But I lost interest in the story early on, because of some content, and for more than four years, I’ve dreaded returning to this story, so it’s off my list now.

Content: alcohol, sexual innuendo, expletives, sexual immorality

Thank you for the ARC of this book! I really wanted to like this but it moved too slowly for me and did not keep my attention. Unfortunately it was a DNF for me.

Thank you Netgalley, Amberjack Publishing and Carrie Callaghan for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

American journalist Milly Bennett finds herself in the Soviet Russia in early 1930s with a goal to observe a construction of a new society. She is quite young, naive and full of hopes.

I was sold for this book by its cover (my home town most famous cathedral) and a promise of some Soviet drama. I still love the cover and I did get a fair share of Soviet drama, however, I am mostly disappointed in Salt The Snow. I quickly realized that the novel was a character-based, which creates a different vibe, and there is usually not much need for a proper story line as long as the character is fully evolved and matured. I even prefer character-based stories because they seem deeper and profound, I found I ma learn more in these kind of novels. Milli is based on the real female journalist, who seem brave and adventurous in men worlds of mid-20s century, however, I feel like the author fell short in grasping and creating a fictional Milli. All fictional Milli seems to think of it men and how to get into a relationship, even after her husband's arrest. She is way to naive to believe in building new socialistic society for that long without seeing the obvious troubles. She is too shallow for the journalist.

I did hope I enjoyed the novel more than I did.

I wasn't able to download and read this book due to a bad flare up of lyme disease. I apologize to Netgalley and the publisher and author.

In Salt the Snow, we read the story of Milly an American journalist living in Moscow during the 1930s. She is there to write about the early stages of Socialism that the country is experiencing. Along the way she meets people, both Russian and other nationalities, that help her to understand her experiences and what that means to the country. Milly has a colorful past both personally and professionally, and it only gets more colorful during her years in Russia.
I wish this book had captivated me more than it did. It was a decent enough read, but I feel it was lacking in excitement. I felt that the last third of the story fell flat. That last portion is written much differently than the rest of the book. There were a different flow and tone coming from the writer.
Also, I wish I knew how the title connects with the story. Salt is mentioned within the story twice, but not in any way that can circle it around to the title. Honestly, trying to find that connection is what kept me reading all the way through.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own.

This book was beautiful and broke my heart. It sucked you in from the start . I enjoyed finding out it is based on a real woman and her story.

Milly is a tough and hard character to like at first but as the story unfolds you see why she is the way she is., Being the first female war correspondent is no easy task. She has seen so much and experienced so much and when allegations come against her husband everything she stands and works for is torn apart. It is hard to recover from all of that pain and as she sees the errors in her political thinking and striving. A great read on the realities of socialist or communist russia. I'd recommend it for sure!

I had really high hopes for this book but it just didn't do it for me. At all. I gave it a good go and go about 30% through before I gave up and deleted it from my Kindle. I appreciate the chance to read it!

This book was not my kind of book after all. I got about halfway through and I had to set it down and didn't pick it up again for a month. Trying again, I finished it but sloughing through it was a difficult thing.

I thought this book sounded really interesting but it didn’t grab me like I’d hoped. It seemed a bit slow in spots. Subject matter is certainly interesting and I liked reading about Milly, a journalist trying to make her way in a male-dominated field at that time.

I started this book a while back and just could not get into it! I usually love books during this time period, but it was so slow and the protagonist was a bit unlikeable. I might try to get back into it, but I am setting it aside for now.

SALT THE SNOW

This is a true story of American born Milly Bennett and her time as a journalist and war correspondent in Moscow and Spain in the 1930s. She was an editor for the Moscow Daily Times as well as a free-lance reporter. Later she covered the Spanish Civil War for the London Times and the U.S. wire services.

Milly in many ways seemed very naïve, especially in her marriage to Zhenya and in her support of socialism and communism. She was outspoken, self derogatory, intelligent, and socially unsure. But I admired her independence and guts for traveling and living alone in some very difficult places during difficult times. I get the impression from this book that she was both irritating and fascinating in her exploits; both romantically, and professionally as a journalist. A very independent woman for those times.

I thought the author’s descriptions of Moscow during the mid-1930s, of food shortages, strict laws, surveillance, and the prison conditions in Siberia, were very informative. The time Ms. Bennett spent covering the Spanish Civil War was also vividly presented.

Kind of like the person Milly Bennett herself, I found this book both a little irritating and endearing. I was pleased to learn in the endnotes that Milly Bennett was a real life person. I ended up enjoying this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Carrie Callaghan, and Chicago Review Press Incorporated for the opportunity to read and review this book.

4 stars: 4/5 star rating
I was shocked and surprised as I read this novel. It hits right to the core. I did think that it could have been a bit more exciting in parts though. Some parts could have been more descriptive and dramatic to help set the stage.
I really enjoyed the book though and had to do some research of my own after reading the novel to learn more about the time period in history and in Russia, China, and Spain. So the book spurred me to examine history further.
The main character had more spunk than I have. I think I would have run from Russia at the first hint of trouble. Milly stayed firm though and did not waver in her resolve to do her job.
I received a digital ARC of this book from netgalley and Amberjack Publishing in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Carrie Callaghan for my copy of: Salt The Snow.
Milly Bennett was an American journalist in the 1930's, she covered stories about murders in San Francisco, fires in Hawaii and the civil war in China. During the American depression she moved to Russia to work for the Moscow Daily News, here she spends most of her trying to keep warm, drinking lots of vodka, trying not to be noticed by the NKVD and marries her second husband Evgeni Ivanovich or he's know as Zhenya.

Most of Salt The Snow takes part in Russia, life is hard, it's freezing cold, living conditions are packed, shared bathrooms and horrible food. When Milly's husband Zhenya is arrested and convicted of engaging in immoral behavior and homosexuality. Milly continues to work at the paper, the rest of her time is spent waiting in endless lines, trying to find out where her husband is being kept, hoping he gets the food she delivers and keeping his mum Olga informed of how her son is faring in such a terrible circumstances. He's finally sentenced to three years of hard labour in a camp called Novosibirsk, at first Milly is hopeful, three years isn't that long, then his mail gets less and less? When her most recent letter arrives back it's marked return to sender and no such person? Milly is very upset, she knows for sure she will never see Zhenya again, she's fired from her job and she's decides to leave Russia.

Milly nervously caught a train, she leaves Moscow, makes her way to Leningrad, then once she gets past the Finnish border she's safe and she arrives in France. After spending three weeks in France she decides to go to Spain and continue working as a war correspondent. In Madrid she witnesses heavy fighting, soldiers dying, their terrible wounds and suffering of the local people. While at the hospital she meets Dr Hermann Muller again, he's a doctor of genetics but during a war it's all hands on deck. Milly used two things to make herself feel better, one was booze and the other was sex! Of course she has an intimate relationship with Dr Muller, it ends badly and he thinks it's just another fling?

Milly was a woman before her time in more ways than one, she drank way too much, she slept with a lot of men, some were married and I lost track of how many times she was legally married.
Salt The Snow is a very different book to what I normally read, I found Milly rather annoying, reading about her living in Russia dragged and I was glad when she left. I found the second half of the book about the Spanish Civil War for more interesting, I wish the story focused more on this and less of what she did in Russia!
That's only my opinion about Russia and Salt The Snow, sorry I didn't like the book and I gave it two stars.

Set against the political repression and social unrest of the burgeoning Soviet Union, author Carrie Callaghan’s Salt the Snow points the spotlight on a little-known female journalist and her experiences as an independent foreign correspondent on the eve of WWII.

Taking inspiration from the life of Mildred Jacqueline Bremler, known professionally as Milly Bennett, Callaghan’s novel proves a unique biographic piece. Though centered on an individual, I found myself fascinated by the lifestyle Milly embraced. Milly is adventurous, independent, politically-minded, and uninhibited. She bucks social norms and I liked how this novel explored her on both the personal and professional levels.

Having said that, I admit to being distracted by the massive political scope of the narrative and fractured timeline. Callaghan covers a lot of historical ground in this piece and while I liked the material, I felt the presentation dry, something not helped by the non-chronological nature of the text.

Firstly I do not feel that the illustration on the cover really matches with the content of this book! It is a beautiful picture and drew me to it as did the description but the actual writing and content does not marry with what first appears. I found this book tough to read, as much as anything for the erotic descriptions and unpleasant characters (in my opinion) portrayed. The style of writing is rather flat and too descriptive ie the pace needs to pick up at times. Sorry I personally cannot recommend this one.

Unfortunately, the description of this book leaves out a lot of what it is truly about and embellishes things I couldn’t find. I won’t give any spoilers but I do feel you need to know about and be prepared for the homosexual relationships and multiple sexual scenes. If those bother you, I would skip this one.
Once I start a book, I don’t like to stop in the middle but I just could not get past 50% of this one. I kept waiting for the story to take off, that didn’t happen and I could not go thru one more sex scene. Not that I am averse to reading a sexually charged tale, but poor Milly’s personality did not have what it takes for me to care enough to stay with her. The story is told in two-time frames of Milly “before” and Milly “after” her marriage and her husband’s arrest, switching between the two was sometimes confusing.
Unfortunately, this was not what I had expected.
I was given an advance copy from Amberjack Publishing through Net Galley for my honest review, this one gets 2 stars.

I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

"American journalist Milly Bennett has covered murders in San Francisco, fires in Hawaii, and a civil war in China, but 1930s Moscow presents her greatest challenge yet. "

An okay read. It kind of wandered around and I had to read some portions twice to remember what was happening.

2.5☆

I loved everything about Salt the Snow. Author Carrie Callaghan does a fantastic job bringing one of the first American war correspondents, Milly Bennett, to life and also bringing Russia and Spain in the 30's and 40's, into vivid relief. Having just recently read A Gentleman in Moscow, the Hotel Metropol and Secret Police were fresh in my memory. Although Milly herself suffered from so many personal heartbreaks, and frequently came close to giving up on herself and the world, her hope to help make people"s lives better, kept her spirit alive and ultimately kept her going.
Thank you @carrie.callaghan and #netgalley for #saltthesnow. 5 stars! I highly recommend it!

A great historical fiction tale involving female journalists. This was a great read and am recommending for purchase.

I wish to thank Net Galley and Amberjack Publishing for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is the true story of American journalist Milly Bennett. She was living in Moscow in the 1930’s and the time frame continues through the Spanish Civil War. Milly was one of the front runners of women war correspondence and the book gives us a glimpse of what life in Russia at the time was like for her and those around her. The characters are well defined if not terribly interesting.

I found the book hard to read and hard to stay with but continued on to the end. I give it two stars because the writer tried to make it something her audience would enjoy.