Finished The Guernsey Literary Club and Potato Peel Pie Society just a few days ago. It was a quick, funny, sad, enlightening and all around a great read. I would recommend it to anyone that wants a good story.

I felt like I was a part of the crew that made up the Guernsey Literary Club and Potato Peel Pie Society. Without giving away the details, it’s a small group of folks who started their society as a way to avoid the interruption of their life during the German Occupation. You can read that on the back of the book, so I think I’m safe in saying it.

The story is told by Juliet and a bit by Isola. You’ll see why and when she jumps in. The writing was beautiful and I could imagine the geography, the feel and strength in the island and its inhabitants.

It’s a bit of a love story, but more than just a romantic love. There is parental, friendship and kindredship that will last well beyond the circumstances in which they’d all found themselves.

The authors did a fantastic job overall and I highly recommend reading it.

My biggest struggle with this book was right at the beginning. It has a very unique style (you’ll see when you start) that threw me. I couldn’t quite grasp who was talking, nor why. I didn’t connect with the names and very nearly put the book down three or four times thinking I was never going to get it.

While I’m very happy to say I did finally catch on, it felt like it took too long to have to do so … catch on that is. I had to reread the first ten pages or so to get it. Usually, if that’s the case, I quit, but something in there caught my attention enough to keep going and I’m very glad it did.

The story flowed well, from one perspective to another filling in gaps and details as it went through. There was a lot of underlying story — between the lines stuff that in the end was the finale. That caught me of guard, not in a bad way just in a — it ended so abruptly kind of way. Once you read the end, you might disagree, but I felt like it couldn’t end the way it did — that to do so, it would need at least another chapter or two’s worth of information before the story could evolve to that point.

But who am I to say? I’m just the reader.

Definitely worth your reading time.

Enjoy!