A great page turner in the covid era... a great escape for an afternoon, a day at the beach, a vacation or plane read to divert ones thoughts from everyday life. Wow, we thought our lives were difficult...

I enjoyed this interesting work of historical fiction that tells the alternating and interconnected stories of a librarian serving in France during WWI and one of the first women to be accepted into the US Naval Academy in the mid-1970’s. The story was well researched and well paced. I was a huge fan of this author’s first book, The Light of Luna Park, and will look forward to her future books!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the advanced reader’s copy of this book.

An astounding story!

This book left me broken in the best way.
From the very beginning you find yourself completely immersed into a world so beautifully well described; you will almost believe you are there.

Have tissues handy, for this five star read will have you feeling all the feels.

I loved this one! I was intrigued from the prologue Alonso The two timelines worked really well together, I liked how they reflected one another although vastly different.

I’ve read many historical fictions from both World Wars and this one definitely stands out as a favorite.

As the author stated, reading is as necessary as breathing for some. This book was one of those books. The history of war and the importance of reading to all is completely written about here. Emma lines journey and her grandaughters of present time are remarkable. The injustice done to Kathleen as a women at the Naval Academy shows the powerful efforts to bring honor to all future women at the academy. I absolutely didn't want to put the book down. Censorship of books given to soldiers is unbelievable. Thank you to Net galley for the precopy,the author for the heartwarming story and the publisher,Putman. Wise choice of a book!

Probably the best historical fiction I’ve read in ages. Loved the duality of time and narrative, such a quick but deliciously good read!

Duel timelines, duel storylines! Not typically my thing, but Addison Armstrong makes it work EXTREMELY well here! This will be one for my bookclub, and will be a fantastic easy sell to our customers! Excellent work!

In 1918, Emmaline Balakin lives more in books than her own life. Then an envelope crosses her desk at the Dead Letter Office bearing a name from her past, and Emmaline decides to finally embark on an adventure of her own—as a volunteer librarian on the frontlines in France. But when a romance blooms as she secretly participates in a book club, Emmaline will need to find more courage within herself than she ever thought possible in order to survive. In 1976, Kathleen Carre is eager to prove to herself and to her nana that she deserves her acceptance into the first coed class at the United States Naval Academy. But not everyone wants female midshipmen at the Academy, and after tragedy strikes close to home, Kathleen becomes a target. To protect herself, Kathleen must learn to trust others even as she discovers a secret that could be her undoing.

I really enjoyed reading the author's first book, The Light of Luna Park, so when I saw her second book, I requested it. It takes two women in two time periods and weaves their stories together. I begin to see the connection about half way through the book, but was totally not expecting the twist at the end! The author did a lot of reading and research into the two time periods, and the characters were very well drawn. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read stories about strong women. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting my request to read this book.

I recieved an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I read this book in three days and would have read it straight through if I had the time. Two women each with different stories, one set in 1918 and the other in 1976 come together through courage and perseverance. Excellent story, great characters, though I would like to know what if anything happened to the pleb who made Kathleen's life so difficult.

I had never read anything by this author before, but I am very glad I was able to read this! I always love learning something new, and I hadn't known there were volunteer librarians during WWI!! That part of the story was fascinating to me, and being a bookworm myself made me relate to Emmeline easily. The other part of the book didn't captivate me like the WWI thread, but it was still good and I really enjoyed this! I recommend this to all historical fiction and women's fiction book lovers!