At the Water's Edge || Sara Gruen

Title: At the Water's Edge

Author: Sara Gruen

Length: 348 pages

Publication date: January 1, 2015

Genre: Adult historical fiction

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Madeline Hyde, a young socialite from Phiadelphia, reluctantly follows her husband and their best friend to the tiny village of Drumnadrochit in search of a mythical monster - at the same time that a very real monster, Hitler, wages war against the Allied Forces. What Maddie discovers - about the larger world and about herself - through the unlikely friendships she develops with the villagers, opens her eyes not only to the dark forces that exist around her but to the beauty and surprising possibilities. (summary from Netgalley)

I am a sucker for fiction set in WWII, so this sounded like it would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, it didn't really do the trick for me. For the majority of the book, it felt like nothing was happening. It felt like the author didn't know what kind of book she wanted to write, so she mixed a few different books together, which made things feel disconnected at times. The characters felt flat for me for most of the book as well. The last third of the book vastly improved, and I actually started to care about what was going on, but it couldn't redeem the rest of the reading experience that much. I've never read anything else by Sara Gruen, but if you like her previous books, you might like this one as well. Overall, I would give this a pass. There are a lot of great books out there more worth your time.


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.