Shelter is very much not what I expected and I feel bad that I didn't particularly enjoy it because I received two electronic ARC's as well as a paperback ARC. The universe really wanted me to read this work. Initially, I really enjoyed the idea. It's such a fresh take on a very well covered area of history but there was just some vital spark that was missing. It felt as though I was being held at arm's length when I should have been in amongst the trees. I also found Seppe to be the more interesting character even though both he and Connie fell flat. I would definitely pick up another book by Franklin.

In 1944, Connie Granger needs to escape from Coventry, England, which has been hit by a number of German bombing runs. She takes a position with the Women’s Timber Corp., and it’s here in the relative peace and quiet of the forest, that she seems able to put her past behind her. Seppe is an Italian P.O.W. working in the same forest and the two young people find themselves drawn together despite their disparate backgrounds. Is there any chance of them having any sort of future together? Even the present seems precarious as the world goes mad around them. Franklin creates amazingly realistic characters, so realistic, that at times they are hard to like, but then, that is the author’s talent, creating characters that behave like real people in intolerable situations

This is a fantastic read. Its a captivating, it swipes you from this world back to a small rural place during WW2. I was oblivious that these lumberjils existed and what they contributed to the war effort.



This debut (I love discovering a new talent to add to my reading repoirtoie) is the tale of a male & female thrown together after both having horrific experiences. I found the female protagonist, hard to warm to, but this didn't hinder my enjoyment from the book, and think her jarsh character was developed from her experiences previous.



I would highly recommend this to any reader of womens fiction, not sure it can be defined to a narrow genre, but it's gripping and unputdownable. Also I enjoyed the fact there wasn't an abrupt ending... Not saying any more as you need to read it.