#BookReview: Girl in the Blue Coat by @MonicaHesse @TheNovl #Giveaway

This cover is so pretty! I loved the story and can't wait to share it with you!  I am so sorry that this didnt post at the time it was supposed to. With preperations for the storm and that migraine I had last week I was just reading it.  I will be posting this one as well as the other two shortly!     Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days finding and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the German army invaded. Her illegal work keeps her family afloat, and Hanneke also likes to think of it as a small act of rebellion against the Nazis.

On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman’s frantic plea to find a person: a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such a dangerous task but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations—where the only way out is through.

Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary, unforgettable story of bravery, grief, and love in impossible times.

Monica Hesse is an author and journalist with The Washington Post. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and their dog.

It seems that I love historical fiction! Who knew? This one surprised me because when I started it I thought the main character Hanneke was the girl in the blue coat and that is not the case.  You find out early on (so I am not considering it a spoiler) that she is not this girl and she is looking for her.  The author did a wonderful job with the history of this one. It pulled me into the story and enveloped me within its pages. The time frame for this one was a little wonky. I wish that it would have had date headings to give a better idea on how long the story went.  You do find out via the note/letter in the back of the book about the history. Which I was very happy that the author added that, it gives you information that you may not know. 

The flow of this one worked out wonderfully I was never lost and I didn't feel like it dragged or speeded up too much. Each character was original and full of life.  I really liked Hanneke and her will to do what she could. She grew as a character during this title and although this one was not full of hope like others of its kind. It was full of wonderful characters who you couldn't help but want to help. 

As for the story, I thought it was very interesting that this book didn't focus on the end of the war. Other titles of its kind that deal with WWII usually always work their way up to the end of the world and this one didn't do that. It focuses primarily on Hanneke finding the girl in the blue coat and her job of finding the items on the black market and learning out to move on. 

The ending of this one worked out well. I do kind of wish that we would have gotten an epilogue that was based after the war ended maybe 10 or 20 years later. I would have loved to know who Hanneke ended up with as well if any of the children found their families and what happened to the town and the rest of the characters.  But other than that the book ended in a good place and it felt like a real ending. 

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Posted in: 5 Stars, Events, Jessica P., Little Brown for Young Readers, Review, Young Adult