The Huntress by Kate Quinn.
I really enjoyed this fictional story of the night witches under Stalin’s reign. I first heard about these women who flew bombers in the war from Comedy Central’s show, Drunk History. If you have not watched it, I highly recommend giving it a go if you’re not offended by drunk people talking about history.
The Huntress is told from first person POV through Jordan, the young woman who’s life is interrupted by a seemingly wonderful new step-mother and step-sister. Nina who is, in fact, a Russian pilot, cast out due to her father speaking out against Stalin. And, Ian the Nazi hunter hellbent on finding the woman who killed his brother along with many other innocent people. We get the back story of each character and the book eventually weaves these three together in America.
What l liked! The author does a great job showing character development and growth for all three main POVs. Jordan is a young girl, skeptical and eager to be something more than what her father has planned for her. Nina grew up in Siberia tough as nails, but her heart isn’t as cold as she lets on to be. We see her love, hate, fight dirty, and warm up to those close her. Her heart belongs to one person, she can’t change that. Ian plays by the rules and is haunted by his brother’s decisions. We follow him through grief to triumph. I also enjoyed the flying scenes with Nina, she is truly a badass.
Meh, what I didn’t like so much? Sometimes the dialogue was long-winded and took me away from the story. I don’t want to hear people talk about baseball for three pages.
Overall, this was a fun book. We read it for book club and everyone enjoyed it.
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Melisa Peterson Lewis 