A Fire Sparkling by Julianne Maclean, Lake Union Publishing, August 2019.

I’m sure the above is not the correct way to cite a book, but what the heck, it tells you what you need to know.

I’ve been a Kindle Fire user for over five years. In fact, I’m on my 4th Kindle Fire. My first one still works and I think my second one does too, but my third one apparently has a broken USB port and consequently would no longer charge. From what I read this not an common problem with the Kindles. But for the price, I didn’t have any qualms about buying another one.

I’ve gotten so accustomed to reading on my Kindle that I find it difficult and cumbersome to actually read a hardback book. Don’t get me wrong, I still buy them, it just takes a while for me to decide to read one.

As I ramble on, the purpose of this post is to recommend to you the book, A Fire Sparkling. This is a book I got for free on one of the several websites I belong to that offer free books. Some of those books have been real dogs, but this book, this book is a gem.

The first question in the Topics for discussion page reads “The title of the book is drawn from a line in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. “Love is a smoke rais’d with fume of sighs; being purg’d, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes.” I’m not sure exactly what that means, but since I like Romeo and Juliet, I kind of liked the correlation.

Set in London just prior to the beginning of World War II, it follows the dual story line of Gillian, a present day mid–thirties woman who has just been devasted by the death of her romance, and her ninety-something year old Grandmother who it is discovered was working with the French Resistance during the war.

I’m not going to go into any more of the story line, because I’m not good at doing that, but suffice it to say, this book is well worth your time especially if you are a history buff. I usually read at night before I go to bed, mostly to make my eyes tired enough to close. This story was one that forced me to put it down so I would go to sleep.