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ClareR (6037 KP) rated The Great Alone in Books

Feb 6, 2018

The Great Alone

Kristin Hannah | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Romance

8.5

(13 Ratings)

Book Rating

This was my second Kristin Hannah book, and it is set in very different circumstances to the last one (the last one was The Nightingale, set during World War 2). This is set during the 1970s in Alaska, in the back of beyond.
This is a story of survival: Leni and her mother survive the violence of Leni's Vietnam War vet father (who is suffering from PTSD after being held as a prisoner by the enemy). Cora, Leni's mother, will not leave him, saying that she loves him and needs him, and repeatedly pays the price. Leni loves Alaska and her boyfriend Matthew, but tragic circumstances take her away from both for a number of years. Many years later, under different circumstances, she is able to return.
I think I really like Kristin Hannah books. The way she describes the surroundings in Alaska: the wildness, the beauty, the unpredictability. I've read a couple of books recently set in the cold, snowy arctic circle, and this only made me want to actually see it myself even more!
I know I'm only two books in to my Kristin Hannah experience, but I can't say as there is anything about either of them that I didn't like. I'll be hunting down more!

Kudos

David McK (3649 KP) rated Blood's Campaign in Books

Mar 5, 2020

Blood's Campaign

Angus Donald | 2020 | Fiction & Poetry

6.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Third entry in Angus Donald's Holcroft Blood series (after Blood's Game and Blood's Revolution), with this one set in Ireland.

Which is where I live (well, in Northern Ireland).

Living, as I do, not that far from Carrickfergus in Belfast I was aware of the siege of Carrickfergus, and (of course) of the Battle of the Boyne - it's impossible not to be, living here! With William's victory celebrated by a section of the community every 12th of July - although the subjects were never really taught at all in my school days; seemingly more concerned with the Norman conquest or with the English Civil War or World War 2 than with 'local' history. In retrospect, I think that might be because local history is (still) a touchy subject: what is one man's hero, for example, is another man's villain in this country!

Anyway, I've gone off topic: Blood's Campaign.

An interesting read, with Holcroft Blood still an unusual protagonist (hinted as being on the autistic spectrum?), with - even for someone born and raised in Northern Ireland - some fascinating history thrown in, although (I have to say), that this one didn't quite grip me as much as Angus Donald's 'Outlaw' (Robin Hood) series.