Thursday 1 March 2018

Front Lines, Silver Stars and Purple Hearts by Michael Grant (Trilogy review)

Front Lines 

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 467
Publisher: Electric Monkey 
Released: 28th of January 2018

1942. The fate of the world rests on a knife’s edge. And the soldiers who can tip the balance . . . are girls.

Set in an alternate World War II where young women are called up to fight alongside men, this is the story of Rio Richlin and her friends as they go into battle against Hitler’s forces.

But not everyone believes that they should be on the front lines. Now Rio and her friends must fight not only to survive, but to prove their courage and ingenuity. Because the fate of the world is in the hands of the soldier girls.

Silver Stars 

Synopsis (from Goodreads

Pages: 496 
Publisher: Electric Monkey 
Released: 9th of February 2017 

Summer 1943. The enemy has been bloodied, but Nazi Germany is very far from beaten. Now the American army is moving on to their next target: the Italian island of Sicily.

With heavy memories of combat, the three young soldier girls – Rio, Frangie and Rainy – now know what they are willing to do to save themselves, and understand the consequences of those actions. On the front lines, they will again come face to face with the brutality of war until they win or die, while simultaneously fighting their own personal battles. No one will emerge unscathed. 

Purple Hearts 

Synopsis (From Goodreads

Pages: 480
Publisher: Electric Monkey 
Released: 8th of February 2018 

It's 1944, and it feels to everyone like the war will never end. Rio Richlin, Frangie Marr and Rainie Shulterman have all received accolades, been 'heroes', earned promotion - in short, they've all done 'enough' to allow them to leave this nightmare and go home. But they don't.

D-Day, June 6th 1944. On that day, many still doubted the American soldier.

By June 7th no one did.

What I Have to Say 


I liked this series. I really did. But all through reading it and even now, I just can't help wondering why. Why write an alternative history? Why set it in WW2? As books like Code Name Verity have showed, there are so many women who were brave and worked hard as spies or resistance workers or pilots during WW2. And if you want female soldiers, why not look at the real integration of women into the military? It's an interesting concept, but it feels like it's undermining a lot of the real women who put themselves in danger to stop Hitler. 

That and the swearing are the problems I have with it really. I know it's the way publishing does it but I don't see how putting the word "fug" in everywhere is any different than actually using the word. We all know it's the word. All the kids know it's the word. Just let the authors say fuck. 

The characters and the friendships formed throughout the book was really what made the series worth it for me. These characters are the sort that I'm going to miss. I really liked seeing Frangie making something of herself as a black woman in the army. All the emphasis on keeping each other alive and how close the girls got to one another despite being in different units was amazing as well. 

Rio Richlin will be my hero for a while I think. Though Frangie was my favourite. I'm a bit sad to have no more books about Rio, Frangie and Rainy to read. 


My thanks go to Electric Monkey for providing me with a copy for Purple Hearts for review 

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