Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

Beckford, UK a place with many, many deaths relating to their river. Starting back in the ages of witchcraft and misunderstanding...

Like the movement of a river, this books takes twists, turns and definitely has it's depths of danger and intrigue. Below is a little introduction of some of the characters in the story and I don't think any spoilers. I hope you enjoy this review and intro. 😁

I read Girl on the Train and thoroughly enjoyed it. When I found out, through Booksparks, that Paula Hawkins had written the book Into the Water I knew I had to read it!  I really liked the character development from the very start of the story. I liked that we were able to meet each person in their own words in their own time. I thought I knew what was happening and who "did the murders, but I was WRONG.  Yes, I admit it, I guessed wrong! That is the sign of a good writer in my opinion.

Jules Abbott, hasn't talked to her sister Nel for a very long time and now she will never be able to talk to her again. Nel died falling off a cliff at the infamous river's Drowning Pool, the one place that she swam in every day since she was a child. Jules didn't think that Nel would commit suicide, but what did she know? She didn't know who Nel was as an adult, did she?  Now,  Jules is going home to Beckford to take care of details of Nel's funeral and become Nel's daughter, Lena's guardian.

Lena's best friend Katie, died a few months before her mother, also committing suicide. Now she really had no one except for Jules. Lena doesn't know know her aunt, actually she hates her, because she never answered her mother's calls, never spent any time with her mother or her, and still, the nerve of her! She thought she could just come and take over, go through her mother's things and insert herself into Lena's life, like she had been around since Lena was little. Who did Jules think she was?

Detective Inspector Sean Townsend and Detective Sergeant Erin Morgan, are trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of why so many woman have died around the Beckford river. will they find answers?  Sean's mother herself committed suicide in the river. He has zoned it all out of his mind just like his father told him to, so why does he feel as if everything is all wrapped up together in a tight little package?

Have you ever read a book that you just didn't know how it was going to end?  That is that book!  Did she or didn't she? Did he or didn't he?  Only one in town knew all the secrets and no one, not a single person, but partly Nel listened to her. IS that why Nel died?  Well, you won't find out until you read Into the Water! 😉

I give Into the Water: 5 stars!

Q:  Have you read Into the Water yourself?  What did you think?

If you are local and would like to read it, I have a copy you can borrow. Just let me know.

The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa

Who would've known that some German refugee's fleeing during WWII would have gone to Cuba?  I sure didn't. This Historical Fiction book is about a girl, Anna who receives a packed of pictures from her father's aunt Hannah. Without realizing what the connection between the little girl and her great aunt is, she starts looking into the life of a father she never knew.

Anna Rosen's dad disappeared while her mother was pregnant with her. Her mother can't tell her much about him as she hadn't been married to her for very long herself when he disappeared.
Her mother struggles with missing him, raising Anna and moving on with life without her husband.

We meet Hannah Rosenthal first though, the year of her 12th birthday. She lives in the middle of Berlin with her mother and father in an apartment her family owns. She is contemplating killing her parents as a protection of herself: "I was Almost Twelve Years Old when I decided to kill my parents." Her best friend Leo is the only person she knows that views life honestly and openly. She loves her father and puts up with her mother whom she calls, "The Goddess". Her family is wealthy. It is a few weeks after Kristalnatch and the threat from the "Ogres" is more dire than ever. She doesn't look Jewish and while wandering around town gets photographed by a man who puts her on the cover of Das Deutsche Madel. She becomes the image of the perfect German Girl. Ironic as she is Jewish.

I won't give away anymore of the story. You will just have to read it to find out "the rest of the story". I have read many, many books on WWII, the Holocaust and Jewish treatment in Germany, but this book was a new perspective for me. I didn't know that Jewish refugees went anywhere but to the US, Canada or other parts of the European nations. I was drawn in from the first paragraph and couldn't put it down.

All the women involved in this story had their own levels of strength, but I was impressed most of all by Hannah and her desire to honor her parents, Leo and the life she once had. It did hurt my heart that she stuck around Cuba, a place she never thought her family would permanently reside.  Living in one country that stifled peoples freedoms and having to leave that birthplace to be forced to live in another stifling country is beyond my comprehension. It also hurts that Canada and the US didn't even attempt to take the St. Louis's passengers into their countries. It is unfathomable to me, that they would rather have these poor people head back to Germany instead of protection them from the horrific situation of concentration camps.


Mr. Correa shows through his novel that he has researched in depth the passengers of the St. Louis and what it was like in Germany and Cuba at the time of the story. I once again felt like I was part of the story. Fantastic read.

I rate this 5 star for character development, and topic.