Esme's Wish by Elizabeth Foster, 2017

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When fifteen-year-old Esme Silver objects at her father’s wedding, her protest is dismissed as the action of a stubborn, selfish teenager. Everyone else has accepted the loss of Esme’s mother, Ariane – so why can’t she?

But Esme is suspicious. She is sure that others are covering up the real reason for her mother’s disappearance – that ‘lost at sea’ is code for something more terrible, something she has a right to know.

After Esme is accidentally swept into the enchanted world of Aeolia, the truth begins to unfold. With her newfound friends, Daniel and Lillian, Esme retraces her mother’s steps in the glittering canal city of Esperance, untangling the threads of Ariane’s double life. But the more Esme discovers about her mother, the more she questions whether she really knew her at all.

(252 pages) 

What a nice, cozy book to read at the start of my winter vacation. Esme's Wish features enough popular elements (girls with missing mothers, portals to secret magical lands, magic connected to water, special magical powers, a trio of friends, etc.) to feel familiar and cozy, but Foster somehow managed to combine them in a grabbing and interesting way. Once the story really got rolling, I never got bored or experienced deja-vu from other books. I was entranced.

One of my favorite aspects was the way Esme discovered more about her mother as the story went on: as new developments occurred in her investigation, not only did she gain an increasingly nuanced and complex understanding of who her mother was as a person (moving beyond the hazy memories of a cheerful and idealized mother she had clung to for so long), but she also gained new information about the fantastical world she had just discovered.

I have to say, though, that possibly my least favorite part of the book is the component that has to do with her life back in the "normal" world. There's one scene with her father which seems to show that he loved her mother, and still loves her, very much, but that doesn't negate the fact that he is marrying a Cinderella's stepmother-type woman who wishes Esme didn't exist. He then leaves on an extremely long honeymoon without even telling her that his new sister-in-law will be staying with her . . . and that new step-aunt then proceeds to tear down every familiar item in their entire house in order to do away with reminders of Esme's mother.

It's just . . . painful. Painful to read, and painful to imagine happening. I can't believe Esme's father is otherwise depicted as a loving man and a good husband in her memories/her mother's writings, because he seems quite selfish to me. But anyway, that's a relatively small component of this book so it's not a big drawback. And I'm actually looking forward to seeing how Foster expands on these characters in future books.

Because that's right, there are more Esme books on the way. And this is awesome news, because I can't wait to read them! Esme's Wish was a beautiful, fun book to read, and I can't wait to dive back into her world. In the meantime, if you're in the mood for a book like Esme's Wish, then by all means do give it a try–and comment below to let us know what you think!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Catching the Wind by Melanie Dobson, 2017

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What happened to Brigitte Berthold?

That question has haunted Daniel Knight since he was thirteen, when he and ten-year-old Brigitte escaped the Gestapo agents who arrested both their parents. They survived a harrowing journey from Germany to England, only to be separated upon their arrival. Daniel vowed to find Brigitte after the war, a promise he has fought to fulfill for more than seventy years.

Now a wealthy old man, Daniel's final hope in finding Brigitte rests with Quenby Vaughn, an American journalist working in London. He believes Quenby's tenacity to find missing people and her personal investment in a related WWII espionage story will help her succeed where previous investigators have failed. Though Quenby is wrestling her own demons--and wary at the idea of teaming up with Daniel's lawyer, Lucas Hough--the lure of Brigitte's story is too much to resist. Together, Quenby and Lucas delve deep into the past, following a trail of deception, sacrifice, and healing that could change all of their futures.

(416 pages)

Of all the many WWII books I've read over the years, I can't even think of any that split the narrative between the war-time era and modern day the way Catching the Wind does. I really love the way we discover Brigitte's story alongside Quenby, as the modern-day reporter is hired to track down leads about her aged employer's childhood best friend lost during the tumult of emigrating from Germany to England. I got just as swept up in the investigation as Quenby did, and I was impressed by the way Dobson managed to incorporate pieces of Brigitte's story into letters and the like so that Quenby could mostly stay on the same page as the reader (without the benefit of chapters dedicated to telling her tale!), and to do so in a way that didn't make things redundant.

If I'm really nitpicking this aspect of the story, though, I do have to admit that I can't really believe that none of the other searchers found the trail of clues that Quenby does. A well-trained investigator should have been able to find all the same leads, yet everyone else Daniel hired couldn't. That didn't quite add up to me, because he was supposed to have been hiring the very best people for the search. An everyday journalist does not have the experience or training to beat out a real investigator, I don't care how passionate and empathetic she may be about the case. This is no dig to Quenby, of course, because she does make some incredible discoveries–I'm just saying there must have been something wrong with Daniel's hiring process before.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. It's extremely dramatic–some might even say melodramatic–but in a way that still seems almost possible. Plus, the most unbelievable stuff happens during WWII, a time period known for incredible happenings, so I can mostly buy all the plot twists that happen throughout the course of the book. Except possibly the last one. I totally saw that one coming but I still think it's just too much of a coincidence.

Basically, I highly recommend Catching the Wind. It's a fast-paced and engaging read split between the challenges and deceits of WWII and a modern-day pursuit for truth (sprinkled with a just-right amount of romantic tension, to boot!). While it does skate close to becoming ridiculous a few times, Dobson keeps ahold of the story and manages to steer it safely into port. I do wish the characters had debriefed a little more, because I felt like a lot of relationship issues were brushed past a little too quickly for my liking, but I suppose that just leaves more room for the imagination. Anyway, I hope you like Catching the Wind! Have you read it? If so, let us know in the comments what you thought of it!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.