Bringing Down the Duke

Bringing Down the Duke- Evie Dunmore
Berkley/Penguin Group
Release Date: September 3, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚

Synopsis: England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women's suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain's politics at the Queen's command. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can't deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.

Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his ducal home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for green-eyed beauty Annabelle. He is looking for a wife of equal standing to secure the legacy he has worked so hard to rebuild, not an outspoken commoner who could never be his duchess. But he wouldn't be the greatest strategist of the Kingdom if he couldn't claim this alluring bluestocking without the promise of a ring...or could he?

Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke....

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Annabelle Archer, destitute and living on her cousin's charity as an unpaid house drudge, gets the opportunity to become one of the first women accepted to Oxford.  She is offered a stipend to attend in exchange for supporting a women's suffrage movement.  When handing out pamphlets causes her to meet Sebastian, Duke of Montgomery, things quickly spiral out of control.  Trying to convince Montgomery to support the movement brings her into a world of house parties, Christmas dinners, and high company she isn't sure how to handle- and a stubborn, blue-blooded duke she knows she shouldn't fall in love with.  When they keep getting thrown together, can passion overcome society's obstacles or will they both be restricted by their duties?

Bringing Down the Duke is a debut novel by Evie Dunmore and has been getting a lot of advance hype.  I have to admit it's a hard book for me to review because I'm not really sure how I felt about it- or whether I even liked it.  It has some of the standard tropes I count on to make a good plot/conflict: our hero is a duke on a mission to get back his ancestral home and rebuild the fortunes that his father gambled away, our heroine is a poor commoner trying to earn independence.  He instantly misjudges her as an opportunist out to get money and/or marry into the nobility.  She has some baggage about nobility in her past and isn't very impressed by overbearing men.  He expects to say 'jump' and have people ask 'how high?' while she is more likely to look him in the eye and ask 'why should I?'  The book also focuses on a time period and subject that don't usually get highlighted in romance novels: the 1879 women's suffrage movement and attempting to repeal the Married Women's Property Act. Annabelle is a smart woman who (rightfully) resents having to live off the charity of her stupid cousin- especially when that charity means she's allowed to live in his house and work as an unpaid servant and have no life of her own. She sees the chance to go to Oxford and study ancient Greece as a step towards gaining independence.  So far, so good. It's after that that things got a little shaky for me.

For one thing, it was hard for me to get a good idea of what Annabelle wanted with her life.  Ok, she doesn't want what she has now and she wants to be treated with some respect and have a say in her own life.  But I never got a real sense that she had a goal past that. She studied ancient Greece because that's what her father studied and taught her and she was good with Latin and Greek.  Was it fascinating to her? Did she have a drive to go to archaeological sites and do her own research and present her own theories? I don't know.  Was she interested in getting an education so she could go back home and be a paid governess of the local gentry? That's what she says in order to go, but probably wasn't really the plan. I never got a sense she had a goal in mind.  Did she really care about the suffrage movement? You get the feeling at first that the answer is no: she participates because that's what it takes to keep her stipend.  Was she interested in the movement and applied because of that? Where did she hear about the stipend in the first place? Maybe not important things but it all made me question how deeply we were getting to see her.  She does argue the logic of why a woman should be able to keep her property on marriage and gets in the face of anyone who suggests that she isn't a man's intellectual equal but takes that as a personal attack instead of for women in general.  

Sebastian is pretty closed off for the whole book.  You know what he wants: to get his ancestral seat back, to restore his family's good name and fortune, to have his younger brother do what he's told, and to have Annabelle as a mistress.  The more time he spends with her, the more he wants her- probably because she is one of those rare people who treats him as a person and not a duke.  He admits if she were more his social equal he'd marry her, but sees nothing wrong or insulting with saying that since that isn't the case, she should be his mistress.  He's insulted she doesn't see this as a great opportunity, since she clearly is attracted to him.  It's an attitude he carries through pretty much the whole book and with all his interactions with everyone: I know best, I am the best, don't question me. That makes it really hard to like him.  

There is a lot of angst and longing because of the obstacles in the way of Sebastian and Annabelle's happily ever after.  Secondary characters are mostly flat and unknowable.  Some, like Sebastian's brother Peregrine, are completely unlikable (he's the party-going frat boy type who rebels against the idea of taking up any responsibility by acting like a spoiled brat of 5 and running away from home when his brother signs him up for the Navy at the rather improbable age of 19). 

The writing is choppy, especially in the beginning. Things would go from fine to awkward: Sebastian would be getting address as Your Grace and then suddenly getting called "Duke", Annabelle would suddenly be speaking or thinking far too modernly, and (while I'm no expert) her clothing styles seemed to me more 1812 than 1879.  Maybe these are mistakes that could be explained away as being a writer's first novel, but they made things jarring for me.  On the other hand, I did keep reading and hoping for some kind of a happy ending.  And (spoiler alert) while it happens far too fast and improbably conveniently, in the end our heroes do get there.  Whether I liked the journey enough to read the next book in the series Dunmore comes up with, I'm not sure.

I was up and down on this book, but there is potential in it.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Securing Piper

Securing Piper (SEAL of Protection: Legacy Series)- Susan Stoker
Amazon Digital Services
Release Date: August 20, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: What started as an adventure, soon became hell. Piper Johnson’s thrilled to spend time in Timor-Leste with her best friend, a Peace Corps volunteer…until civil unrest erupts throughout the countryside, including an attack at the orphanage the women were visiting. With the aid of a SEAL team sent to extract the government employee, Piper flees with the only other known survivors—three young orphan girls. Piper wasn’t able to save her friend, but she’ll be damned if she leaves the girls to the mercy of child traffickers in the country’s impoverished capital. However, taking them with her to the States requires something drastic, something crazy…something she can’t do alone.

What started as a mission, soon becomes fate. Since nearly dying on a previous op, Beckett “Ace” Morgan has no time for regrets. Life is far too short. So when he learns the brave, beautiful, selfless woman he’s rescued has a better chance of getting three orphans out of the country if she’s married, he doesn’t hesitate. Ace marries her then and there, instantly gaining the family he’s always wanted. With time, he knows his respect for Piper can grow into love, and meanwhile, he’s saved both her and their new daughters from a fast-spreading rebel incursion.Protecting his girls on foreign soil turns out to be the easy part of the team’s mission. Protecting them from a threat waiting at home may be the biggest fight of Ace’s life. 

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Piper joined her best friend Kaylee in Timor-Leste for what was supposed to be a nice vacation. Kaylee would show Piper the villages she worked at for Peace Corps, they'd catch up, and Piper would get a break from work.  What neither expected was for that to be when rebellion erupts across the country and the orphanage they were visiting gets attacked.  Kaylee hid Piper with three girls and went to find more. She never returned. Ace's SEAL team went into Timor-Leste to find Piper and Kaylee- and found Piper with three girls instead.  They may think they've seen some of the worst the world has to offer, but in the midst of darkness, these girls show them trust and love they didn't expect.  Ace marries Piper to help her adopt the girls and bring them to America, but danger isn't exclusive to foreign countries.

Securing Piper gives a modern (and lovely) twist to the marriage of convenience trope. In this case, it ensures Piper can adopt all three girls before leaving the country (some Tex computer magic may also have helped). Piper and Ace have seen the situation the girls will be in if they stay and that, plus the bond they've already developed with the girls, means neither of them are willing to leave them behind.  It's an eye opening situation, both for them and for the reader, and instead of yelling that they are crazy you're cheering it all along. 

Piper and Ace connect from the beginning- they are a relationship that highlight how well Stoker can make chemistry sizzle between two people without being near a bed. The connection between the team members is great, and despite not really being a fan of kids, I ended up enjoying how Rani, Sinta, and Kemala touch everyone on the team, not just Ace and Piper.  Stoker also does a fantastic job balancing suspense, menace, danger, and forgiveness when it comes to her bad guy.  Without giving it away, this is a book of love and forgiveness even when something seems unforgivable.  Which is a theme that may come back and haunt all of these characters in a future book. Instead of giving the reader hints for just the next book in the series, Stoker also sets up the last book in the series- and while there is no cliff-hanger to Piper and Ace's story, I for one found myself yelling at the end of the book: how can you make us wait a whole year until that story!! The answer of course, is that Stoker is a prolific enough writer that she's keeping busy with several other series for the reader to enjoy while waiting- and that she probably secretly enjoys a bit of maniacal laughter at stringing along the readers as much as she does her heroes.

Securing Piper keeps up the best of Susan Stoker (Securing Caite) traditions: jungle rescues, hot-yet- compassionate heroes, and relatable could-be-you heroines.  A must read for fans of Stoker and her series, or for those just discovering the author.

I received an ARC of this book from BookSprout in exchange for an honest review

Syria's Secret Library

Syria's Secret Library: Reading and Redemption in a Town Under Siege- Mike Thomson
PubcliAffairs/Hachette Book group
Release Date: August 20, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Daraya lies on the fringe of Damascus, just southwest of the Syrian capital. Yet for four years it lived in another world. Besieged by government forces early in the Syrian Civil War, its people were deprived of food, bombarded by heavy artillery, and under the constant fire of snipers. But deep beneath this scene of frightening devastation lay a hidden library. While the streets above echoed with shelling and rifle fire, the secret world below was a haven of books.

Long rows of well-thumbed volumes lined almost every wall: bloated editions with grand leather covers, pocket-sized guides to Syrian poetry, and no-nonsense reference books, all arranged in well-ordered lines. But this precious horde was not bought from publishers or loaned by other libraries--they were the books salvaged and scavenged at great personal risk from the doomed city above.

The story of this extraordinary place and the people who found purpose and refuge in it is one of hope, human resilience, and above all, the timeless, universal love of literature and the compassion and wisdom it fosters.

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How do people cope with disaster, war, hunger, and despair?  How do they live day after day in circumstances that no one who hasn't lived it can ever really imagine?  Syria's Secret Library offers readers a glimpse of hope for humanity in war-ravaged Syria.  When Assad's regime began cracking down, and then bombing, regions that protested his dictatorship, one of those towns hoping for change in Syria was the ancient town of Daraya.  Home to students and engineers, families and generations of farmers, Daraya had long been known for peaceful protests in favor of human rights and democracy.  When Assad struck back, Daraya became a besieged town regularly bombed and cut off from the rest of Syria.  Those who lived there rarely-if ever- had contact with families outside Daraya, either because of poor communications or because of the fear that their calls would be monitored and the families considered political enemies of the regime.  Children no longer had schools to go to, and people soon were limiting their rations to one bowl of watery soup per day to try and stretch out what little food they had while waiting for outside help to rescue them.

It is in this terrifying world that BBC journalist Mike Thomas began making his connections, and talking to a few of the brave people of Daraya through often erratic internet communications.  And while he discovers the terrible situation they are in, he also learns about how they retain hope for the future: their secret library.  A core group of locals began rescuing books from bombed and abandoned houses and, while carefully keeping track of the books in hopes that one day their owners would be able to return to Daraya and claim them, these brave men carried the books off to a relatively secure basement.  Over time a library system developed: people could check books out and return them, lecture series on a wide variety of subjects were held, and men, women, and children were able to escape the stresses of daily life into the safety of a beloved library and books for a few hours each day.  

Throughout Syria's Secret Library we come to care about the individuals Thomson talks to, we admire their courage and their strength in the face of overwhelming circumstances.  And there is nothing more courageous than their belief that books and knowledge will be what not only eventually topples the regime, but what truly rebuilds Syria.  That books are food for the soul, their stories and words as essential to human beings as oxygen. And we can all hope that books will triumph in the end, and creation and hope will overcome destruction and hatred. 

This is a highly emotionally impactful story of people the Western world has seen and understood only briefly from snippets on the nightly news. Thomson clearly cares for each of these people, not as interview subjects, but as friends- and hopes to reach out to the rest of us to show us the civilians beneath the rhetoric.  A story combining the terrors and tragedy of war with the hopes and indomitable spirit of people, this is a true-life story of everyday people showing humanity at its inspiring best.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Agrippina

Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman in the Roman World- Emma Southon
Pegasus Books
Release Date: August 6, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Sister of Caligula. Wife of Claudius. Mother of Nero. The story of Agrippina, at the center of imperial power for three generations, is the story of the Julio-Claudia dynasty―and of Rome itself, at its bloody, extravagant, chaotic, ruthless, and political zenith.

In her own time, she was recognized as a woman of unparalleled power. Beautiful and intelligent, she was portrayed as alternately a ruthless murderer and helpless victim, the most loving mother and the most powerful woman of the Roman empire, using sex, motherhood, manipulation, and violence to get her way, and single-minded in her pursuit of power for herself and her son, Nero.

This book follows Agrippina as a daughter, born in Cologne, to the expected heir to Augustus’s throne; as a sister to Caligula who raped his sisters and showered them with honors until they attempted rebellion against him and were exiled; as a seductive niece and then wife to Claudius who gave her access to near unlimited power; and then as a mother to Nero―who adored her until he had  her assassinated.

Through senatorial political intrigue, assassination attempts, and exile to a small island, to the heights of imperial power, thrones, and golden cloaks and games and adoration, Agrippina scaled the absolute limits of female power in Rome. Her biography is also the story of the first Roman imperial family―the Julio-Claudians―and of the glory and corruption of the empire itself.

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Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman in the Roman World gives readers something that is hard to find: a biography of a Roman woman.  Agrippina: sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius, mother of Nero.  She was loved and reviled, praised and curse- both today and during her lifetime. Agrippina created new roles for imperial women, and pushed (or outright broke) the accepted role of women in Roman life.

 Emma Southon looks at Agrippina's life as it can be pieced together from ancient sources, but she also gives readers perfect examples of why those sources can't necessarily be trusted.  She immerses the reader in the culture of the Roman world so we can see how our modern views on women, politics, and life in general were not those of Tacitus, Seutonius, and the histories they wrote.That True History can't always be discovered and sometimes the historian has to make their best assumptions- but should also be willing to admit that they are assumptions.

It is clear that Southon is an expert in all things Aggripina and ancient Rome and has done her research.  But her writing style isn't designed to overwhelm the reader with how much she knows or how amazingly academic she is.  Instead, Southon writes as if she is a friend trying to describe Agrippina's life to you over a pint at the local pub.  She is in full casual, brilliant,  story-telling mode; she shreds her original sources for their clear prejudices and unreliability; and presents it all with sparkling English humor, wit, and occasional vulgarity that left me laughing at many of her opinions and insights.  Southon reconstructs Agrippina's life through ancient sources, gives her views on what was mostly likely to happen when Agrippina wasn't being written about, and does a wonderful job of explaining why she thinks that way while reminding the reader when something is only herl speculation or opinion.     

If you only read one book in your life on Agrippina, or the Roman Empire as a whole, it needs to be Emma Southon's Agrippina: The Most Extraordinary Woman in the Roman World. It is a book for people who love history and are looking for a more feminist light to be shone on ancient sources, for those who love history and want to celebrate powerful women the Romans tried to hide in the shadows.  It is also a book for people who think they don't like history and that history is boring.  Just a few pages into Agrippina will convert even the most hardened "history isn't for me" believers. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Gods of Jade and Shadows

Gods of Jade and Shadows- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Del Ray
Release Date: July 23, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own. 

Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather’s room. She opens it—and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea’s demise, but success could make her dreams come true.

In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

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Casiopea Tun is the poor relation of the wealthiest family in a small town in southern Mexico.  She resents every cruelty aimed at her, and dreams of escaping to live a life of her own.  What she doesn't expect is to accidentally free a trapped god and travel with him on a cross-country quest to return him to the throne stolen by his brother.  From small dusty towns in the Yucatan to the bright lights of Mexico City to the shadowy realm of the Mayan underworld, Casiopea's greatest journey may be the realm of the mortal, and immortal, heart.

Gods of Jade and Shadow is a book for anyone who loves fantasy and loves to imagine the crossing paths of ancient gods and the modern world.  Here the modern world is Jazz Age Mexico, with short hair, fast cars, and bright lights; while the ancient world is Xibalba, the Mayan Underworld, and the struggle between twin brothers Hun-Kamé and Vucub-Kamé, the Gods of Death.  Moreno-Garcia uses a beautiful, almost lyric, style of writing that reminded me of hearing classic myths and fairy tales spoken aloud.  She paints the world in brilliant colors of jewels and shadows and you can feel the heat of the sun and the dust of Casiopea's travels on your skin.  Casiopea delights in seeing the exciting world outside of her tiny village and the reader- and Hun-Kamé- cannot help but share in her innocent delight.  We also easily share in her terror as Hun-Kamé draws her further in his quest to regain his throne and she faces sorcerers and ghosts straight out of horror stories.

Above all, Gods of Jade and Shadow is a story about building your own world and choosing your own path, even when you are sure that you have no choices.  Casiopea learns who she is and her own inner strength in ways that are both heart-breaking and heart-filling.  A story full of duality every step of the way, it had me smiling and crying, fearful and hopeful, and seeing the characters and their worlds change along with the adventure was completely wonderful.  

It would not be wrong to call this a modern classic, and a must-read tale for fantasy lovers, those who love myths and legends, from Beauty and the Beast to The Odyssey to Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Work of Art

The Work of Art- Mimi Matthews
Perfectly Proper Press
Release Date: July 23, 2019

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: An Uncommon Beauty…

Hidden away in rural Devonshire, Phyllida Satterthwaite has always been considered more odd than beautiful. But in London, her oddity has made her a sensation. Far worse, it’s caught the eye of the sinister Duke of Moreland—a notorious art collector obsessed with acquiring one-of-a-kind treasures. To escape the duke’s clutches, she’s going to need a little help.

An Unlikely Hero…

Captain Arthur Heywood’s days of heroism are long past. Grievously injured in the Peninsular War, he can no longer walk unaided, let alone shoot a pistol. What use can he possibly be to a damsel in distress? He has nothing left to offer except his good name.

Can a marriage of convenience save Philly from the vengeful duke? Or will life with Arthur put her—and her heart—in more danger than ever?

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Phyllida Satterthwaite's uncle has swept her away from rural Devonshire and to London, promising her a season and a chance at an advantageous marriage.  Little does she know, he has already chosen her husband: the rich and sinister Duke of Moreland.  When neither her uncle nor Moreland are willing to take no for an answer, Philly turns to the one friend she has managed to make in London: Captain Arthur Heywood.  But can even a marriage of convenience save her from an unhinged madman?

Like Matthews' earlier Holiday by Gaslight, The Work of Art is a beautifully written and emotionally satisfying story of two people who discover that they are their best selves when together.  Philly is innocent and trusting, yet not in an obnoxious too-stupid-to-live way.  She has a soft spot for injured creatures, whether animals or people, and is willing to look beyond a person's exterior to see the hurt beneath- making her far more understanding of some of the cruelty the London elite can dish out than Captain Heywood is!  She's patient and kind, and turns out to be exactly who Arthur needs to help him become himself again.  Arthur returned from the Peninsular Wars injured both physically and mentally. He retreats into a reclusive life in the country to handle the nightmares that followed him home and can't imagine being good for anything now that he's permanently injured. When he offers to marry Philly to protect her, it's because he can't challenge the other men to duels and kill them. 

 Philly much prefers marrying the man she has already fallen for to a pile of dead bodies, and it is her sweetly understanding manner, and her love,  that slowly begin to heal Arthur.  I loved how she is always willing to talk to Arthur about what bothers her, and that the frequent misunderstandings they have due to inexperience and poor self esteem get solved without allowing them to build up into weeks-long dramas. The emotional bonds between Philly and Arthur are palpable from the first and Matthews did a wonderful job of strengthening them in natural ways.  Matthews also does an excellent job balancing romance and menace with her villains and the danger hanging over Philly's head throughout the book.  The reader gets to enjoy seeing a beautiful romance unfolding while still feeling on the edge of danger the entire time.

A definite must read for romance lovers, and one of the best Mimi Matthews books I've read in ages!        

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Fire and Fortitude

Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941-1943- John C. McManus
Dutton Caliber
Release Date: July 30, 2019

Rating:
📚📚

Synopsis: John C. McManus, one of our most highly acclaimed historians of World War II, takes readers from Pearl Harbor—a rude awakening for a military woefully unprepared for war—to Makin, a sliver of coral reef where the Army was tested against the increasingly desperate Japanese. In between were nearly two years of punishing combat as the Army transformed, at times unsteadily, from an undertrained garrison force into an unstoppable juggernaut, and America evolved from an inward-looking nation into a global superpower.
 At the pinnacle of this richly told story are the generals: Douglas MacArthur, a military autocrat driven by his dysfunctional lust for fame and power; Robert Eichelberger, perhaps the greatest commander in the theater yet consigned to obscurity by MacArthur's jealousy; "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell, a prickly soldier miscast in a diplomat's role; and Walter Krueger, a German-born officer who came to lead the largest American ground force in the Pacific. Enriching the narrative are the voices of men otherwise lost to history: the uncelebrated Army grunts who endured stifling temperatures, apocalyptic tropical storms, rampant malaria and other diseases, as well as a fanatical enemy bent on total destruction. 

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Reading about World War II generally begins with the European theater: Normandy, the Battle of Britain, Dunkirk, etc. For Americans, Pearl Harbor may be as far into the Pacific theater as they go.  Further reading generally focuses on the Navy and sea battles.  So I was very interested to read John C. McManus' Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941-1943 and learn more about the early Pacific war and the army.

Spoiler alert: for readers like me who know very little going in, Fire and Fortitude is not the book for you.  After reading the "Prologue" I almost decided not to continue reading the book. Written as if a college professor is giving a lecture, it put me off the author and made me worry the book was going to be written in the same style: McManus seems to want to show the reader that he knows his military history and compares World War II Pacific army work with both historic and modern day situations.  He 'talks' down to the reader, trying to impress them (one assumes) with his knowledge and the introduction to the book and its topics felt almost secondary to me.  

If you can make it past the prologue and still want to read the book, the writing style at least gets better.  There are fewer comparisons to situations past and future to distract from the present of the 1940s.  Beginning at Pearl Harbor and going to Makin in 1943, McManus provides carefully researched minute details to make the reader feel as if they are experiencing every hardship alongside the soldiers.  For anyone wanting to find out about the intense miseries of jungle warfare, this is your book. From marches along ridges to the psychological terror of being in foxholes at night, Fire and Fortitude had you covered.  It makes you wonder how anyone experiencing it (on both the American and Japanese side) came out even halfway sane.  

What Fire and Fortitude didn't do was give you the bigger picture of the Pacific theater.  When you do get some of the overall plans and decision making from the generals, it quickly gets buried again in the tiny details.  I know I read about McArthur's experiences in the Philippines and why he was obsessed with returning there after evacuating, but after a few chapters I was so bogged down in minutiae that I couldn't remember his reasons for the rest of the book.  As much as I appreciated the miseries that the soldiers went through, I could have handled fewer of the repetitious details of those miseries on every island fight and more of the big picture on why they were fighting on the islands to come away with a better understanding of the war in the Pacific.

Overall, Fire and Fortitude is not a book for a reader new to the Pacific theater.  From ship tonnage to what each soldier carried to the specific divisions and regiments who went to different places, this is a book for historians who already know an enormous amount about this theater and are looking for even more details. For the beginner, like me, McManus spends so much time focusing on the details that the bigger picture is completely lost on you.  Because of this, I found the book an ordeal to get through, and not an author I would go back to for future reading.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review