Tuesday Reviews: Front Lines by Michael Grant

Title: Front Lines (Soldier Girl #1)

Author: Michael Grant

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Release Date: January 26, 2016

Format Read: ARC

Rating:

Description from Goodreads: Perfect for fans of THE BOOK THIEF and CODE NAME VERITY, New York Times Bestselling author Michael Grant unleashes an epic, gender-bending, and transformative new series that reimagines World War II with girl soldiers fighting on the front lines.

World War II, 1942. A court decision makes women subject to the draft and eligible for service. The unproven American army is going up against the greatest fighting force ever assembled, the armed forces of Nazi Germany.

Three girls sign up to fight. Rio Richlin, Frangie Marr, and Rainy Schulterman are average girls, girls with dreams and aspirations, at the start of their lives, at the start of their loves. Each has her own reasons for volunteering: Rio fights to honor her sister; Frangie needs money for her family; Rainy wants to kill Germans. For the first time they leave behind their homes and families-- to go to war.

These three daring young women will play their parts in the war to defeat evil and save the human race. As the fate of the world hangs in the balance, they will discover the roles that define them on the front lines. They will fight the greatest war the world has ever known.

Somehow, I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC of FRONT LINES, which absolutely rocked my world, as I loved the Goodreads Description and was super excited to read it. I find WW II fascinating, and a gender-bending version of it entices me like nothing else.

Generally, the way reading works for me, is if I start out liking the book, I'll probably end up disliking it by the last page. If I start out disliking the book, I'll probably like it by the last page. There are rare chances, generally the books that receive five star reviews from me, that I start out liking and end the book loving. 

FRONT LINES was one of those books. I was hooked from Chapter One, and tearing me away from this novel was nearly impossible. I sped through it, and never have I ever been so emotionally exhausted after reading something. Exhausted, and with much more respect for our service men and women.

Pivoting pov's between three very different ladies with diverse backgrounds and nationalities, FRONT LINES follows Rio Richlin, Frangie Marr, and Rainy Schusterman as they enlist and make their way into the depths of war. You experience their struggles both within the military and their personal lives; each and every one of them feeling as real as they possibly could.

This is a book that WILL offend some people. There will be people that read this and take offense to terms used t describe some characters, but you have to remember that this book is set in the 1940's. Race was an issue. Gender was an issue. Things were said that, if said today, they would be made into a major problem. Do not take offense to these things. Fictional the book may be, but it IS Historical Fiction, which means that dialogue and culture and every-day life is accurate. 

Please remember this as you read.

I give FRONT LINES  five polished brass stars, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys war stories, historical fiction, and WW II. This is going to be the book that 2016 releases are going to have to beat out for my number one release of the year, I already know.

If you read FRONT LINES, I want to know! Tell me what you think!

Happily,

Stephanie