Amy’s Diary by Maureen Lee – Mini Review

So today I read Amy’s Diary by Maureen Lee. Considering the book only being 105 pages this book was a very quick and easy read. Devoured while transporting myself to and from training.
I am currently (im)patiently waiting for two books (Emergency Contact and The Exact Opposite of Okay) to arrived from Book Depository. I have determinately set my mind to read these two books and I could not get myself to start a book that wasn’t one of them… However today I felt so restless and had serious reading abstinences that I just had to read something. Luckily I found this book, Amy’s Diary, on my shelf. I decided to read it since I felt confident that I would finish it today, and I did 🙂
I got this book as a gift from my mom when my family and I were travelling the UK the summer of 2012, feeling nostalgic *.  Enough with the babbling here are my thoughts on Amy’s Diary.

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Amy’s Diary
By Maureen Lee
105 pages
My rating ★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:
On 3rd September 1939 Amy Browning started to write a diary. It was a momentous day for so many reasons. It was Amy’s 18th birthday and the day her sister gave birth to a baby boy. It was also the day that Amy heard the news on the radio: Great Britain was at war with Germany.
Living with her family in Opal Street, Liverpool, Amy and her friend got jobs at a factory, and to begin with life went on much the same as before. Then the bombs began to fall on Liverpool, and Amy’s fears grew. Her brother was fighting in France, her boyfriend had joined the RAF and they all lived in a very dangerous world.

I quite liked this book and I really enjoyed reading it. I really liked the historical aspects. (maybe I should read more historical fiction?) The setting of WW2 was entertaining and severe. I found it interesting reading about how it was like being a young woman in the UK during the war.

The name of this book implies that it has the literary form of a diary. However, I found it to be more of a novel of remembrance than a diary. I would have loved to see some dates and other historical references.

I think the story was limited by the length of the book. Amy’s Diary belongs to the Quick Reads series and the book, therefore, has to be short. I felt though that Amy’s story and character had way more potential, like 300 pages or something! I sometimes felt the story was a bit rushed and/or that the time went too fast. But then again that is the circumstances.

Regardless of this I really enjoyed Amy’s story which was sweet but tough and informative. I will definitely recommend this book to anyone who needs a quick but good reading-fix!

Nicoline <3

What are your experiences with diaries and historical fiction? Any recommendations? 

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