Freebie Friday #21

My bookish dilemma this week is the guilt I get when I’m so hyped to read a book, but end up not connecting with the characters whatsoever. Which, in my case, it was nearly 500 pages of something, isn’t what I feel like reading anytime soon, so I removed it from my TBR, which in my mind makes sense, but I still get that gut feeling.

Hey Everyone

As you know, I’ve been trying a new thing for me, where I share a book I love and provide a free ebook link to it, if possible.

As I was about to start telling you about this novel, this question came to mind. Why is there still a need for WWII Historical Fiction, and nonfiction still need to be written? The cord answer is simple. We humans don’t learn from our mistakes. Anyway, the novel I’m talking about is The Last Bookshop in Prague by Helen Parusel, where Jana is a bookshop owner, a bookshop that her family has owned for generations, that saves lives one book or bookmark at a time. Would falling in with the enemy put her in danger? This sentence from the blurb touched me. The banned books club was only the beginning; a place for the women of Prague to come together and share the tales the Germans wanted to silence.

First Lines:

The bookshop was Jana’s refuge. Here she could shut herself away from reality and choose to enter any world she chose. Adventure, travel or romance was just a book away.

She ran her fingertips along the spines, breathing in the scent of paper and the wood of the old bookcases that ran down one side of the wall. Opposite, shelves displayed the hand-carved puppets her father crafted, dressed in clothes Jana had sewn. She had taken over the dressmaking from Mama, who’d died whilst Jana had been studying at university. And now she ran Mama’s beloved bookshop too; the ache from losing her mother two years ago was a constant companion. She was alone in the bookshop, except for the small boy who sat on a stool in the children’s section at the back. Five-year-old Michal came here after school most afternoons. Jana wasn’t sure if his visits were due to his love of books or his desire to escape bullying on the streets; most probably a mixture of both. She watched his narrow, earnest face bowed over a book, deep in concentration

Goodreads Blurb:

Was she incredibly brave or incredibly stupid? Neither. Just a bookshop girl doing what she could against her country’s oppressors.

The banned books club was only the beginning; a place for the women of Prague to come together and share the tales the Germans wanted to silence.

For bookshop owner, Jana, doing the right thing was never a question. So when opportunity comes to help the resistance, she offers herself – and her bookshop. Using her window displays as covert signals and hiding secret codes in book marks, she’ll do all in her power to help.

But the arrival of two people in her bookshop will change everything: a young Jewish boy with nowhere else to turn, and a fascist police captain Jana can’t read at all. In a time where secrets are currency and stories can be fatal, will she know who to trust?

Download Link Here

Goodreads Link Here

Alex