Painter's Daughter Review

"The Painter's Daughter" by Julie Klassen follows Sophie Dupont, a painter's daughter and a painter in her own right who is swayed from her own better judgment to comply with the whims of Wesley Overtree.  Wesley is a fellow painter and rich gentleman with suiting himself and his own desires playing first on his mind.  Eventually Sophie finds herself pregnant and abandoned.  When Wesley's brother, Stephen, comes looking for him and finds Sophie in dire straits, he offers to marry her and make her child legitimate. 
The story is kind of predictable.  You know exactly how it will end up.  However, it is told well, the characters are amusing and it is a great read to pass the time.  I would recommend this novel to women who are busy and wanting to read, but not be to into it; still able to pay attention to her surroundings.  I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Bethany House. 

The truth may or may not be out there

In celebration of the Season 10 finale on television, I am giving a review of "X-Files: Season 11, Volume 1,"  a graphic novella based on the show written by Joe Harris.  The comic and novel series are not hand in hand books with the show.  What happens in one does not necessarily pertain to the other.  More of a parallel universe thing.  In Season 11, Mulder is once again on the loose with the government on his tail while Scully is chasing after him, saving his butt.  A satellite has been shot down/fallen and being searched for.  The Peacock family, remember the family that inbred for generations and lived separated from the world, makes an appearance.  Gibson, kid with glasses that reads minds, also makes a come back.  He is all grown up and somehow involved with the FBI and/or talking animals.  Maybe he is the animals, I'm not sure.  As per usual when it comes to the X-Files, the reader/viewer is usually confused and yet intrigued.  Writing part of the story in their own head to fill in the blanks.  The novel is a little hard to follow since it jumps around in storyline and in time, but once the reader becomes accustomed to the flow, it becomes more comfortable.  I received this e-graphic novel from www.netgalley.com. 

A different girl that rides a train

"The Girl from the Train" (not to be confused with the other train/girl novel) was written by Irma Joubert and is about a young girl who escapes from a train headed for Auschwitz in Nazi governed Poland.  Gretl Schmidt has been living in the ghetto when she is moved by train to Auschwitz.  Her grandmother helps her and her sister to escape and Gretl is later found by Jakob, a Polish resistance fighter who takes her in with his family.  He comes to learn of a movement getting pure Aryan children of Protestant faith out of Europe and into South Africa.  The only problem being Gretl is 1/4 Jewish and being brought up in the Catholic faith with Jakob's family. 
The book reads like two novels.  The first half takes place in Europe during the war with Jakob fighting for Poland and Gretl being a child.  The second half takes place in South Africa during the 1950s with Jakob being an engineer and Gretl being a 20 year old college student.  It is a rather long book, however, the writing is done well.  Joubert deals with the Post traumatic stress of Gretl and the weaving of different cultures well.  Gretl's world is very interesting with all of the languages and cultures mixing and relating.  Especially how the races can see the difference in each other, when they are all the same color.  In America the colors are rather vague.  White is white, black is black.  The Europe that Joubert describes has so much detail in the people's race.  They are white, but this one is white like this and this one is white like that, making them very different.  Which is kinda baffling.  I give this book 4 stars.  Very good.  I received this book in exchange for an honest review from www.booklookbloggers.com.