You guessed it, another book review! I am having so much fun doing these. 

Must.

Do.

Something.

Else.

No, I'll keep reading :) Maybe have a life update sometime soon. 

I have read so much fiction in 2016 and don't want to stop. I fell deeply in love with reading again. Fiction is my happy place. Few fantasies have fallen into that for me. This one is a fantasy and it is written by a Christian author. 

Wha...? (I thought that was just Narnia and Lord of the Rings)

Guys, it is SO GOOD. Now, don't get me wrong she is a Christian but does not badly incorporate it into the book at all. You really have to look for deeper meaning in what she writes to see any Christian symbolism. For those that would scare away. On the other hand its not filled with weird romance scenes or excessive magic. It's just a great fantasy novel.

Here is the description:
"Eliyana can’t bear to look at her own reflection. But what if that were only one Reflection—one world? What if another world exists where her blemish could become her strength?
Eliyana is used to the shadows. With a birthmark covering half her face, she just hopes to graduate high school unscathed. That is, until Joshua hops a fence and changes her perspective. No one, aside from her mother, has ever treated her like he does: normal. Maybe even beautiful. Because of Joshua, Eliyana finally begins to believe she could be loved.
But one night her mother doesn’t come home, and that’s when everything gets weird.
Now Joshua is her new, and rather reluctant, legal Guardian. Add a hooded stalker and a Central Park battle to the mix and you’ve gone from weird to otherworldly.
Eliyana soon finds herself in a world much larger and more complicated than she’s ever known. A world enslaved by a powerful and vile man. And Eliyana holds the answer to defeating him. How can an ordinary girl, a blemished girl, become a savior when she can’t even save herself?"
 I honestly don't know if the book description even gives it justice. It is so much more then that! This whole new world she finds is incredible with everyones unique gifts and not to mention the way they transport from one land to another. 

This book kept me on edge majority of the time, I think I finished it in about three days. Which is saying alot with me being pregnant, taking care of my other three kiddos ages six and under all day then working 30+ hours during the week as a freelancer. But, it was that good. Little did I know this novel is the first in the series. I cannot wait for the second one to come out! Sadly, that isn't until this summer. (Which is near my birthday, Happy Birthday to me :) )

I would highly recommend this novel for anyone that loves fiction and would love to dabble in some fantasy reading. 

Go.

Read it.

I feel odd even writing this post because I didn't particularly like it.

I graciously received this book to review from Blogging for Books. 

I know most people really enjoyed Avenue of Spies right off the bat. I was not able to follow along very easily when I first started. It seemed like the story would switch back and forth to quickly or I just could not get the names familiarized in my mind. After I say all that, the story itself (once I got familiarized with it) was about an great unsung hero during WWII.

"The leafy Avenue Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris's hotbed of daring spies, murderous secret police, amoral informers, and Vichy collaborators. So when American physician Sumner Jackson, who lived with his wife and young son Phillip at Number 11, found himself drawn into the Liberation network of the French resistance, he knew the stakes were impossibly high. Just down the road at Number 31 was the "mad sadist" Theodor Dannecker, an Eichmann protégé charged with deporting French Jews to concentration camps. And Number 84 housed the Parisian headquarters of the Gestapo, run by the most effective spy hunter in Nazi Germany. 

From his office at the American Hospital, itself an epicenter of Allied and Axis intrigue, Jackson smuggled fallen Allied fighter pilots safely out of France, a job complicated by the hospital director's close ties to collaborationist Vichy. After witnessing the brutal round-up of his Jewish friends, Jackson invited Liberation to officially operate out of his home at Number 11--but the noose soon began to tighten. When his secret life was discovered by his Nazi neighbors, he and his family were forced to undertake  a journey into the dark heart of the war-torn continent from which there was little chance of return.

Drawing upon a wealth of primary source material and extensive interviews with Phillip Jackson, Alex Kershaw recreates the City of Light during its darkest days. The untold story of the Jackson family anchors the suspenseful narrative, and Kershaw dazzles readers with the vivid immediacy of the best spy thrillers. Awash with the tense atmosphere of World War II's Europe, Avenue of Spies introduces us to the brave doctor who risked everything to defy Hitler." -Book Description

The history of the story seemed to have accurately match what I have learned about this era before. It's a great book about the unsung hero. It just takes some time to really get into it.