The Bungalow by Sarah Jio

Confession: I sort of cheated.


It was three in the morning, I'd been reading for two hours straight, my eyelids were heavy...

But I knew I would not be able to sleep until I knew how this book ended...so with a quarter left to go, I skipped to the ending to assure my wildly beating heart it would end in a way I wanted it to.

I was finally able to get some shut-eye and I went back and read the entire last quarter  the next day and even knowing how it would end, I actually got tears in my eye when it read again anyway.

Sarah Jio is just that kind of writer. This story is well done, engrossing, and totally transports the reader to another place and time. It's one of those books in which as you're reading, you believe you ARE the heroine.

Even though it's 300 pages, I devoured this in a day and a half. It's just that hard to put down.

In a nutshell: It's Bora Bora during WWII. The heroine and her best friend are nurses. There's love, heartache, doubts about an engagement, war, bloodshed, murder, secrets, and the timeless, age-old emotion that seems to ruin all: JEALOUSY.

It all seems to center around a bungalow, where it all happens or begins. I confess, I find some things preposterous: a bungalow remaining practically untouched a hundred years, and then 70 more? No... Nobody sees this place? With a base full of people right next door? Also, the knife...buried 70 years and easily found again? Her very first day back, she just happens to run into the people who can help her during her very first walk on the beach?

I didn't buy some of it and that's that only thing keeping this from being a five-bike book. I also saw the twist with the evil, slutty Kitty coming a mile away. I didn't find that very original.

But I gotta say, I did love this book. If you're looking for a historical fiction about timeless love, about how we lose our path but find it again...this one is for you. Despite my quibbles, it all came together beautifully in the end.