The Burning Heart of the World

Based on the description of this book I thought I would love it, especially being historical fiction but it didn’t make me feel anything. I think it had the potential to be something great, but it feels more like a first draft than a completed novel. I wish it would’ve been longer, with more charact......more

Thank you Red Hen Press and NetGalley for this Advanced Reader's Copy. This was a quick, mostly straightforward read with themes of war's effects over generations. I like the details on main character Vera's anxiety, both around 9/11 as an adult and in Beirut as a pre-teen. I got the impression she......more

Thank you to Red Hen Press and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title! It’s truly difficult to know where to start this review. We’re given two deeply unique viewpoints into Vera’s life, firstly when we see how she struggles in a post 9/11 world, and then earlier in her life w......more

Others have written better reviews of this book, so I’ll leave it to them. I’ll give you a brief, honest impression. The story did not draw me in at first. I found it hard to figure out who the reader was supposed to identify with. As I read on, the characters came into focus and I became much more......more

The tragedy of the Twin Towers takes the protagonist back in time, first to when her family fled war-torn Beirut, and then further back, to the heart of all the evil suffered by the Armenian people, whose suffering is still easily forgotten today. The protagonist's memories take the reader through t......more