Friday, August 16, 2013

All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry

Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever. This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.


Set in Puritan times in historical New England, Roswell Station is a small town where everyone knows your name and missing church could get you time in the stocks. Judith and another young girl, Lottie, went missing four years ago. Two years ago, Judith came back, mute. Her tongue had been cut out to protect her, but against what, she doesn't know. The town believes her cursed, so Judith spends her time alone, watching and listening to all of those around her.

She's also been in love with Lucas since they were children. Now, he's to be married to another. Judith's heart aches for it, but she just wants him to be happy. But when war breaks out and Lucas leads the charge, Judith knows she will have to do something desperate to save him. She runs back to her captor and sacrifices herself to him if he will help Lucas and the others win the war. Although he does, he's killed during the attack and Judith doesn't have to hold up her end of the bargain and Lucas lives.

But at what cost? As the story continues to unfold, the reader is given glimpses of Judith's past with Lucas, her time with her captor and what really happened. As this transpires, the reader is also given the present day, where Judith is making a friend, helping her brother and still having an eye on Lucas, while also trying to make plans for her own future.

Berry has created a very mufti-dimensional heroine with Judith and the way that her story unfolds had me up late turning the pages. It was like a small tear that got larger and larger until I could unravel the whole. Mystery, romance, and great historical fiction with a heroine who will tug on your heart strings, All the Truth That's In Me is superb! 


 
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.

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