Along A Breton Shore Review

  

 

 About the Book

A soldier and a young woman, on opposite sides of the revolution, must run for their lives across a war-torn France in this gripping novel of friendship, love, and survival.

France, 1794

Maxence Étienne, a soldier for the République, believes fiercely in the revolution that is bringing liberty to France. But even though the monarchy has fallen and Maxence is part of a great cause, he is still searching for a place to belong.

Armelle Bernard is a young woman from Breton whose father was sentenced to death for hiding counterrevolutionaries. She decides to confront the priest who betrayed her father, and as the conflict escalates, she herself is ordered to be executed—an order to be carried out by Maxence.

Maxence has seen his share of violence and bloodshed, but he also carries a tragic secret and can’t bring himself to carry out his assignment. In allowing Armelle to escape, he is forced to combat a fellow soldier, who dies in the struggle.

Though Armelle and Maxence are strangers and on opposite sides of the revolution, they find themselves united as fugitives of the new republic. Now they must find a way to trust each other as they search for a path to peace, and to freedom. (Goodreads)

Releases June 6th! Pre-Order HERE!

My Thoughts

 

 Oh my goodness I loved this book. I was very thankful I had read Beyond the Lavender Fields prior to this one as there is a lot of back story and characters that tie together. While this can be read as a stand alone, I really do recommend reading the other book first. I went into this story not a big fan of the main character and I couldn't fathom a way that the author was going to redeem him in my mind. The thing about Arlem Hawk's writing is that she gives the reader the history, the setting, the common people at the time, and then lets the reader discover good things from both sides. She has written from both perspectives of the French Revolution and it is completely fascinating to me. I know very little of this time in history so that has been fun to learn. There is also a list of French Terms at the start of the book and I referred to it A LOT.  All that to say, I ended up loving the main character and enjoying the journey that Maxence and Armelle embark. There is a love story and I thought it was well written. There is also a gut punch of grief and emotion that hits in the latter half of the book that I couldn't believe the author wrote in. She did it in such a realistic way, I really appreciated it because it spoke to the reality of the times. You will have to read the book to understand.

I loved this book and I can't wait for her next book! 

Five Stars! 

 

"I received this book from Shadow Mountain Publishers for free. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review."