Reviews

The Secret History of Audrey James by Heather Marshall

kaleys23's review

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emotional informative sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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flowersfavouritefiction's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

hayleym24's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Another amazing novel by Heather Marshall!  This is one of my most anticipated reads for 2024.  This book drew me in quickly and kept me wanting to pick it up again.  There is so much depth to the characters and character development.  Audrey’s story is the main focus of the novel but having Kate’s interwoven in there and eventually being the one recording it really helped develop the story further.  I got really attached to each of the characters in this story.  The ending was perfect, exactly what it needed!  

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC.

kimb2's review

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dark emotional informative reflective sad tense

4.0

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read yet another World War II book.  For the first several pages, it seemed like there was nothing that hadn’t been told before, but then the story took a turn and it became something else entirely.  I should have known.  This is the second novel from this author who focuses on fictionalized accounts of the real life plights of women.  This one is based on the true story of Mona Parsons, a Canadian Nazi resister and a network called the Red Orchestra.  I had never heard of either.

It is very evident that a lot of research went into writing this book to create the atmosphere, vividness and the emotions that exude from the pages.

This story focuses a lot on chance and its effect on the events that happen in our lives.  It’s an exploration of guilt and how we deal with it.  Told in a dual timeline, Audrey and Kate have both suffered in life’s game of chance and have blamed themselves for what transpired.  This is their story of resilience.
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