Andrea’s Book Nook: Four emotional book recommendations you won’t be able to put down

By Andrea Silva Santisteban Fort, March 29 2022—

With this article, I wanted to provide a few recommendations for readers seeking a well-delivered emotional storyline. Most of these are war-based, nevertheless, a contemporary romance can also be found in these reading suggestions. These are the types of books that will engage, invest and fully immerse the reader in the story told.  

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer: 

This historical fiction is composed of  two storylines: one based on Alina, a girl living in Nazi-occupied Poland and the other on Alice, Alina’s granddaughter, who tells her perspective from the present time. 

In Alina’s section, we get to know her family’s and fiancé, Tomasz, story as they struggle to survive the war. The uniqueness of this story is based on the fact that the reader gets to reconstruct what happened during this dark period with Alice, who is asked by her beloved grandmother to travel to Poland to get information that will give her elderly family member the closure she needs.

Alice is challenged by this request as she is needed by her two kids, one of them on the autism spectrum. The Things I Cannot Say is a tragic tale of sacrifice, loss and bravery that I am sure will keep you invested.

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover:

This book is extremely popular but I still want to recommend it in case you haven’t read it yet. It Ends with Us, tells the story of Lily, a young woman who moves to Boston and meets Ryle, a handsome and successful neurosurgeon, one night on a rooftop. They fall in love, she builds her dream business and moves past a traumatic childhood. 

But, as their relationship progresses, Lily gets to know the dark side of Ryle — a part of him that reminds her a lot about a past she promised herself to avoid. The readers get a glance at Lily’s diary, which mainly tells the story of her and Atlas, a homeless boy she fell in love with and gave shelter to in high school. This book is emotional, intense and a read you won’t be able to put down.

Three Sisters, from The Tattooist of Auschwitz series by Heather Morris: 

With this book, Heather Morris delivers a great historical fiction novel based on the testimonies of three sisters that survived the holocaust. Cibi, Madga and Livia made a promise to their father — to always stay together, no matter what. So, when Livia is sent to a Nazi concentration camp, Cibi follows her. Magda stays in their Slovakian village and hides as more Jewish people are being prosecuted. 

She is eventually captured and sent to a concentration camp where she’s reunited with her sisters. The reader gets to follow the sisters through their survival of the death camps, their return home and their eventual journey to a new territory.

Three Sisters, is the third instalment of The Tattooist of Auschwitz series and this is shown as their stories are interviewed with characters from the other books, that I also recommend checking out. This book was a gripping story of survival and the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood, as a testimony of those who endured the unthinkable.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys: 

Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys, is a young adult historical fiction novel of four people running away from the horrors of war. As Florian, Joana, Emilia and Alfred travel through the dangerous, war-torn landscapes and more refugees join their group, we learn a little bit more about each of the characters and their secrets.

Each one of them has a story and reason to be running away, seeking to return to their homeland or what is left of it. This book also refers to  Wilhelm Gustloff, a German military transport ship that  was tragically sunk by a Soviet submarine. Overall, this read is filled with interesting characters, full of twists and unexpected discoveries.