From the Grace Hospital used book sale.

When I picked this book up from the hospital book sale, I recalled that there had been very positive reviews. So I was rather pleased with my purchase. But now, having read the book, I'm not sure what all the hype was about. There are, however, more than 18,000 copies of the book registered on BookCrossing, so I'm guessing that I wasn't the only one influenced by the fact of positive reviews.

I'm not sure that I liked this book all that much. And I don't really know why that is. It was quite readable. The story is told by Daisy, who at the beginning is a 15 year old motherless anorexic girl from New York sent by her father (presumably at the insistence of the evil stepmother) to live with her maternal aunt and cousins that she's never met in rural England. At first life on the farm is quite idyllic. She's surrounded by cousins who seem to like her, dogs and goats and lambs. But, then war breaks out when England is taken over by some unnamed enemy. At first the children are fairly removed from the war, insulated by their rurality on the farm. When the British army takes over the farm though, sending Daisy and her young cousin Piper one way and the boy cousins (including 14 year-old Edmond with whom Daisy has fallen in love) another way to work on other farms, their lives change drastically and their carefree existence becomes one of physical and emotional survival. They witness the horror of war in the most brutal and affecting ways.

I did not like Daisy at the beginning of the book and thought her unbearably self-absorbed. I warmed to her once the war began and she was thrust into looking after Piper and herself. Yet, I was left scratching my head by the ending, which I won't spoil here for whoever gets this book next but which I thought to be most unsatisfactory.

I'm taking this book to our meeting tonight at the OBCZ. If no one takes it home, I'll leave it on the shelf to await its next reader.

To the finder of this book:
I hope you enjoy your new read.

Welcome, also, to the wonderful and wacky world of BookCrossing! Here you'll find a unique and worldwide community of book lovers sharing their books. This book is now yours! Read it, enjoy it. Keep it or pass it on to someone you know, return it to any Little Free Library or even release it into the wild. It is all up to you.

If you make a journal entry (you can do it anonymously or as a BookCrossing member) all previous readers of this book will be notified by e-mail and can follow this book on its travels. BookCrossing is free to join, completely confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your email address) and it's a whole lot of fun!

I received this book at our monthly Bookcrossers' meeting. Perhaps I may read this on the long weekend.

I found this book to be entertaining, probably because it fits into the genres that I enjoy the most: apocalyptic end of the world type stuff. There were parts I felt were a little rushed like the author was just anxious to wrap up storylines.

I’ll be sending this out into the world to find new readers.

I’ll take this to our monthly meetup for release to the OBCZ shelf.

This book is currently sitting on the Winnipeg Official Bookcrossing Zone bookshelf in Second Cup, 254 Edmonton St., Winnipeg MB.

It is waiting there for a new reader to take home, read, and release back into the wild!

This book has left the OBCZ shelf. Here's hoping the new reader will let us know about its journey.