A terrific grandmother/grandaughter dual time period historical novel. In the more modern day story, it’s 1999 and 25 year old Lia has left her architecture job under mysterious circumstances and moved back to her parents’ house the small town in Texas where she grow up, where she becomes closer to her 70-something grandmother Mineko, who has also moved in with Lia’s parents after a fire at her house. We also hear Mineko’s story as she shares it with Lia, from her childhood in Japan in the 1930s through WWII and the post-war period, and in the US from the 1950s up to 1999, and Lis slowly shares with us and her grandmother in flashbacks what led her to move back home as well.

The writing in this book was really evocative, with great characters and settings you can really picture. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a book set in Japan during that time period, so that was really interesting and often sad, as were Mineko’s experiences as a war bride. And I just loved the intergenerational granddaughter-grandmother relationship, and how they both helped each other. And a great and emotional ending where I had to pause at one point to get a tissue because I was crying! A great debut and I look forward to seeing what Amanda Churchill writes next.

I knew I had to read this book when I heard that the author is local and the setting of the modern day portions is in Texas. I loved everything about it: the dual timelines and settings, the sweet and funny relationship between Lia and Mineko, the adversity both had to overcome, and the desire each had to help the other heal. It left me wanting to know more about WW2 Japan after reading about Mineko’s early life.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

The Turtle House travels from Japan during WW2 to present day Texas. Along the way, Mineko shares her story with her granddaughter, Lia. The two share struggles, conspire to solve their problems and grow closer.
This story reveals a lot about Japan pre and post war that was new to me. I enjoyed reading the story when it moved to Texas. The early days are so well written I felt like I could have been there. The present day captures current events very well.
The ties between the two characters are funny and poignant.
I enjoyed this book.

Thanks to CindyBurnett @Thoughts from a Page, Early Reads Program , Net Galley and Harper

This was a lovely story about the meaning of home, i found the grandmothers side more engaging than the granddaughters

The Turtle House has so much to love–beautiful writing, moving story, and informative history.

Opening in Texas in 1999, this dual timeline novel follows Lia and her grandmother, Minnie (born Mineko). As an adult in her 20s fleeing her problems and returning to her childhood home, Lia finds herself bunking with her grandmother whose house has recently burned down. This opportunity leads to a new closeness developing between Lia and her grandmother, who was born and raised in Japan. Minnie shares stories of her past, including the impact of coming of age during World War II. The lasting effects of the war include the many boys who did not come home and the damage to the village and the complete change in course of the lives of many, including Minnie’s.

“Mineko would never dissolve into America like sugar” is one of many powerful lines in this novel that depict Mineko’s experience moving from Japan to Texas as a young mother. The reader learns about the experience of Japanese war brides, a topic I found very interesting. I felt so much tenderness reading about Minnie immersing herself in caring for her children in order to survive the challenges of her transition from Japan to America.

The idea of home is explored in this novel. What is home for Mineko? Neither the US nor Japan feels like home as war, loss, time, and, later, modernization changed her original home forever.

The Author’s Note tells the reader of the author’s personal connection to this story, so be sure to read the note at the end.

This cover is just beautiful, too. I highly recommend this historical fiction.

This was a good historical fiction, however ,I prefer mine with magical realism or folk lore thrown in. That's just a personal preference. The characters were great, and the story solid.

I am not a big fan of historical fiction that changes timeline chapter-by-chapter, but this style worked for me in THE TURTLE HOUSE because I loved the settings in both of the timelines. The book follow Grandminnie and her grandaughter, Lia, as they live in 1999 in Curtain, Texas. I love the Texas setting and the focus on the granddaughter/grandmother relationship when the granddaughter is in her 20s. It reminded me of my own relationship with my grandmother. Grandminnie and Lia are living together in Lia’ parent’s home. Grandminnie’s house recently burned down. Lia left college after she was targeted by an unsavory professor and doubts her ability to become an architect.

The second time line follows Grandminnie when she was a young woman in Japan during the War. This storyline started slower for me, but I grew to enjoy it the most. I loved the setting from Grandminnie’s town to Tokyo to a US Air Force base.

This book is a wonderful debut and I am excited to read whatever Amanda Churchill writes in the future. I wish I could buddy read it with my Grandmother!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Thank you @harper and @netgalley for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A multi generational story featuring the grandmother who moved from Japan to Texas after WWII as a new bride and the granddaughter who left her on-the-way-to-successful career in architecture and refuses to say why.
I loved this story for a few reasons. The depiction of the beauty of Japan - so many things I found myself researching and being enchanted by the beauty of as I read - and the central focus on home vs. location. The storytelling of Mineko - the grandmother; Churchill used a lot of her own grandmother's stories coupled with research to form Mineko's narrative. The rich history I feel like we can never know enough about. Watching Lia heal through building her relationship with her grandmother.
The one thing I didn't love was, in Lia's chapters, it would be present time, but also jumping back to a few years prior when she was a college student. Just felt a little hard to keep track of (and definitely would have been confusing in an audiobook form).

4.5⭐️

The Turtle House is a beautiful dual-timeline tale, full of love and loss and self-discovery and complicated family dynamics. The first storyline centers around Mineko in 1940s and 50s Japan, and the second, in Texas in the late 1990s, is built around Lia, as well as her relationship with Mineko, her grandmother. I found the former more compelling, built as it was around issues of war and the immigrant experience and abuse and inequality- and love and the titular turtle house as well. The latter thread took quite awhile to become more than mere support to the former, but it did develop into something more in the end. It also helped to show the similarities and differences between Mineko and Lia’s experiences- and just how much has changed over time for women - and how much hasn’t.

What a lovely and poignant tale.

Thank you Amanda Churchill, Harper, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

I enjoy learning about history and time periods through historical fiction and this book was excellent in that regard! It highlighted small-town Japan during WW2, Toyko right after the war, and what it was like for those still alive in Japan after the war. There was a lot of suffering and surviving and they did what they had to in order to get by.

The story of Japanese women marrying American military men and their journey to the US was fascinating and heartbreaking. They gave up so much in the hopes of a better life. In some aspects of their lives, they gained so much, but in others, they lost a lot. They left behind their homeland, culture, language, family, and friends.

This book was well-paced and beautifully written. The descriptions were thorough without being too much and the story was captivating and kept me wanting to read to find out what was going to happen next. The parallel lives of grandmother and granddaughter were nicely laid out and there were so many commonalities and themes between the two stories.

An excellent first novel by Amanda Churchill and I look forward to more of her books.

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy of this book!

The Turtle House
Author - Amanda Churchill
Pages - 304
Publish Date - 02/20/2024

Dual POV
Dual Timeline
General Fiction

This book was a lot different than most books I’ve read. It’s about two women, a grandmother and her granddaughter, that are reflecting on different points in their lives. Mineko, grew up in Japan and during the war, after a series of events, married an American man from Texas. You journey with her from the 1940s to 1999 and learn about how she handled coming to a new country with her family. Then in 1999 you meet her granddaughter Lia who has mysteriously left her life in Austin and refuses to tell anyone why. As Mineko tells Lia her story she starts to accept what has happened to her and begins her own journey of healing.

What I really liked about this book was the relationship between Lia and Mineko. It’s a silent yet stable support between the two of them. As Mineko takes Lia (and you) through her life, you hear her sacrifices and struggles and Lia really comes to understand and respect her grandmother more; more importantly that she can choose to not what happened to her become her identity. This story was heartbreaking and inspiring.

I was given this book by the publisher, Harper Collin’s and am leaving this review voluntarily.

I love historical novels and this one met my expectations. Set in Japan (during and after WWII) and Texas, the reader meets Mineko and her granddaughter Lia. Through heartbreaking stories told by Mineko, we learn of her past life in Japan and her connection to the Turtle House . Past loves, historical events and family relationships all make for a fascinating read. I learned so much about Japan and the lives of the Japanese women who married G.I. Soldiers and relocated to this country. Highly recommended for readers of historical fiction.

Great book! I loved following Mineko from her life in Japan as a pre-teen to her life in Curtain, Texas as a Japanese war bride, mother and grandmother.. Two timelines include Mineko in pre-WWII Japan and her granddaughter, Lia, in 1999. I must say that I loved Mineko's journey but felt that Lia's timeline bogged down a bit. I would love to know Mineko, though. She is a character!
The two women drew close and found love, identity, belonging and peace through their shared experiences and deep conversations. Both women have secrets and heartbreak to navigate. Amanda Churchill (debut author) describes both settings (Japan & Texas) so well that you feel like you have been there. She writes with a sense of place that is truly beautiful. I am definitely looking forward to her next book!
Thank you to @thoughtsfromapage Early Reads program for the opportunity to review this book through Cindy Barnett's Patreon program. Thanks also to Harper Collins publisher and NetGalley. I enjoyed the early read opportunity!

The Turtle House is a moving historical novel spanning Japan leading up to and during World War II and the late 1990's in the US. The narration is split between Mineko, who was born in Japan and her granddaughter in the US, Lia. Mineko is the eldest daughter in her family, with a mother who appears to disregard her, in favor of her younger sister, though she is close with her father. Mineko does not have many prospects, and enjoys exploring her small town, where she encounters an abandoned large house, which has a pond that contains many turtles, which she feeds. Mineko loves swimming and agrees to help teach a new friend Akio how to swim before he leaves for school. While she finds herself falling in love with Akio, he comes from a wealthy family and is promised to another woman.

In the 1990's, Minnie is now living with her son and his wife after her house catches fire. Minnie's granddaughter Lia is also home after leaving her job as an architect under circumstances she will not discuss. Lia, like Minnie is also closer to her father than mother. Lia's reasons for being at home are slowly rolled out (though it isn't hard to figure out why). I found Minnie's backstory much more interesting, and in the later timeline, I really enjoyed the budding closeness between the two women. This was a moving multi-generational tale.

Fans of Thao Thai's Banyan Moon that also focused on the close relationship between granddaughter and grandmother and familial secrets would probably enjoy this one as well!

Thank you to Harper via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

Set against the backdrop of World War II Japan and modern rural Texas, "The Turtle House" weaves together the stories of Mineko and Lia. Mineko's journey from her childhood in Japan to becoming a war bride in Texas is contrasted with Lia's struggles in architecture school and her return to Curtain with undisclosed reasons. Through Mineko's captivating history and the evolving relationship between Lia and her grandmother, the novel explores themes of family, identity, love, and the search for belonging in a multigenerational saga that delves into hidden lives and the concept of home.

In a dual narrative that navigates between Mineko's past and Lia's present, "The Turtle House" offers a poignant reflection on change, sacrifice, and resilience. As Mineko recounts her life to Lia, detailing her experiences in pre-WWII Japan and her adaptation to life in rural America, the complexities of their family history unfold. Amidst cultural challenges and personal growth, Mineko emerges as a compelling character, anchoring the story with her richly depicted experiences. Through the lens of Mineko's life and Lia's architectural journey, the novel prompts readers to contemplate the enduring impact of the past on the present and the profound quest for understanding and connection.

I enjoyed the multiple points of view and the character development of Minnie and Lia. I would have liked more character development of Lia's parents. Typically, I don't enjoy historical fiction, but really enjoyed this story.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you for allowing me to read this book. I was often engaged in the narrative as it followed grandmother Mineko's story both in Japan and in the United States. The possibility of connecting grandaughter Lia's own story lurked in the background but never quite happened for me. It could have been drawn together at the close, but instead the story just stopped without giving closure for either woman. I was disappointed in that the book had a great deal of promise that never materialized.

The Turtle House is a story of intergenerational friendship, family, identity, and love.

I'm sad to say I wasn't as enchanted by The Turtle House as other reviewers have been. The book constantly flipped back and forth in time and I found Mineko's story far more compelling than her granddaughter's. I lost a bit of interest every time I read a Lia chapter.

I liked The Turtle House but I didn't love it.

Many thanks to both #Harper and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of The Turtle House. The expected publication date is February 20, 2024.

I very rarely give up before finishing a book but this one was one of those that I just could not slog through to the end. I think I made it about 1/4 of the way through. I believe that the story itself is very interesting but I just could not get past all the Japanese words thrown into the sentences in place of the corresponding English word. I know the characters are Japanese and I am fine with that. My issue was that since I didn't know what the Japanese word meant, I found myself stopping to try to look up the meaning so I could understand what the character was doing or going or saying. It was very disruptive to the flow of the story. I am disappointed I didn't get to finish the book because the story sounded like I one would have enjoyed.

This book centers around Mikeko and Lea. It is dual time lines. Mikeko's story was more developed than Lea's. It began with a young Mikeko who does not have a happy childhood. Her mother and sister were not kind people and her only ally (not a strong or courageous one) was her dad. She discovers the Turtle House, abandoned and derelict and this is her happy place. She lost her happy place when WWII came along and the Japanese men were drafted. Interesting to read about WWII from the Japanese perspective. I felt Mikeko was very self sacrificing most of her life but became selfish towards the end. I can't say I blame her.
Lea's story has a secret that is only revealed towards the end of the book. It was predictable and I lost patience with Lea because she would not speak up or take action. I received a complimentary digital ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This opinion is my own.

I thought this was a beautiful story! This is a really great debut novel. I have a feeling a lot of book clubs will be discussing this.