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February 20 #LuckyInLove Pink Stack The only two books I have that have a hint of pink. @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Wow 😔

The first half of this was slow and I wasn‘t engaging with the characters. Slowly however it did draw me in; it‘s a very sad story yet one that needs to be told. I loved that the intention was that we only discovered the story of Nisha - a domestic worker in Cyprus, working to support her daughter in Sri Lanka - through those that hadn‘t taken the time to know her, but by necessity were having to find her story.

This was simple and sometimes preachy, not as good as Beekeeper of Aleppo, but I still enjoyed it. It felt like a book with an overstated purpose, which in the end took away from the story resulting in the purpose having less impact.

As with ‘The Beekeeper of Aleppo‘, this book touched my heart. Lefteri writes so beautifully about heartbreaking subjects, in a way that gives us what we need to know to step into someone else‘s life, to understand it, and to try and see the pain of their situation. She draws her characters together by what they don‘t know about each other, and so skilfully.

I really liked that it was set in Cyprus as my sister lives there and I could visualise the scenery and places.
I liked the alternating narrators and how it flowed, with uncertainty and first person perspective.
I found it got quite dark, though this was definitely necessary.
A sad yet uplifting story, which is so relevant in today's world.

Finding it a challenge to get I to this but have high hopes...

I‘m giving this a pick for the poetry of the writing and need for awareness about the lives of migrant domestic workers.

My nitpick is how s l o w l y the narrative plods along. Sorry! I feel squeamish typing that because Lefteri has such beautiful writing voice.

Beautifully written, and hauntingly sad.

Petra has employed Nisha to lolok after her daughter, Aliki.
As a foreign domestic worker Nisha is just one of thousuands of such ladies.
Nisha works hard, tries to keep her romance with Yiannis a poacher a secret.
Then one day she goes missing and as just one of many the local police just don't care.
When they give up and investigate the case on their own they find the truth more devastating and dark than they could have imagined.

This is a very sad story about migrant workers who work abroad to make a better life for their families back home.

https://discover.hubpages.com/literature/A-Sad-Story-Called-Songbirds

#migrants
#workers
#sadness

Just a soft pick for me, unfortunately. I loved Lefteri‘s first book and had just as high hopes for this one. Whilst it‘s beautifully written it felt as though the author was on her soapbox about the issue of migrants in Cyprus so the novel lost all of the subtlety of Beekeeper.

Also one of the MCs trapped and killed migrant birds for a living - not pleasant to read about.

Oooh.... look what I got approved for on #netgalley!

I loved The Beekeeper of Aleppo so have high hopes for this.

Published in a month‘s time (in the UK anyway - not sure about elsewhere).