The Relentless Reader

Safekeeping by Jessamyn Hope

Publication Date: June 9, 2015

From the publisher’s description: It’s 1994 and Adam, a drug addict from New York City, arrives at a kibbutz in Israel with a medieval sapphire brooch. To make up for a past crime, he needs to get the priceless heirloom to a woman his grandfather loved when he was a Holocaust refugee on the kibbutz fifty years earlier.

You may have noticed that book reviews have become quite scarce here on The Relentless Reader. I have found that chatting about books on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and on The Socratic Salon to be a more fun and effective way for me to evangelize.

But this book? This book won’t leave my mind. The moment it arrived in the mail I was taken in by its looks. Do you see that cover? I know it’s tawdry to be swayed by the outsides of something. I couldn’t help it. The insides were just as lovely, thankfully.

Safekeeping is filled with the things that I love most in books. The time period is one that is close to my heart, the characters are beautifully dangerous, and the setting is incredibly alive in Hope’s hands.

Hope has created a world, a story, a place that I want to go back to again. Now, I’m off to badger her on Twitter because I cannot get the ending out of my head.(Sequel, please??) And you? You’re off to get your hands on a copy of this book.

Seriously. Go do it.

Read:

I finished Misery by Stephen King. To my readalong cohorts: thanks for making this the best way to start off summer.

Tried to Read:

I made it through nearly three-quarters of The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch. Since I made it that far you’d think I’d be able to power through the rest, wouldn’t you? Nope. It started out as interesting, turned pompous, and then devolved further into simple depravity. I’m out.