Review: Front Lines by Michael Grant

Title: Front Lines

Author: Michael Grant

Publication Date: 1.26.2016

Series: Solider Girl #1

Source:  ARC from publisher

Purchase: Amazon

Rating: 5 Stars

Summary (from Goodreads):

World War II, 1942. A court decision makes women subject to the draft and eligible for service. The unproven American army is going up against the greatest fighting force ever assembled, the armed forces of Nazi Germany.

Three girls sign up to fight. Rio Richlin, Frangie Marr, and Rainy Schulterman are average girls, girls with dreams and aspirations, at the start of their lives, at the start of their loves. Each has her own reasons for volunteering: Rio fights to honor her sister; Frangie needs money for her family; Rainy wants to kill Germans. For the first time they leave behind their homes and families—to go to war.

These three daring young women will play their parts in the war to defeat evil and save the human race. As the fate of the world hangs in the balance, they will discover the roles that define them on the front lines. They will fight the greatest war the world has ever known.

Review:

Yes, this is the book I have been raving about for months. And once you read it, you'll be raving, too.

FRONT LINES is a brand new series from versatile author Michael Grant. Taking off from the idea that girls and women could be drafted and be allowed to enlist in the military in World War II, FRONT LINES explores issues like sexism, racism, religious discrimination, and confronts the lofty ideals of war with the gritty, dark truth of what it is to find yourself under siege, under fire, and expected to kill other human beings.

Told in alternating POVs, you meet Rio (who is destined for the front lines), Frangie (who's gender is eclipsed only by her race, thus making her have to fight even harder to prove herself), and Rainy (who is brilliant, but female and Jewish) as they each join different sects of the military. It shows these women as girls before they enlisted through the first battle, weaving a rich story with constantly overlapping layers.

Look, this is a BIG book. I know we all like to chant, "I like big books, and I cannot lie..." but when you feel the heft of this book and see the size of it, it's easy to be a little intimidated. I was. I figured they entire war was covered in the book (it's not - we've barely scratched the surface), so I was even more unnerved by the fact that it's the first in a series. But let me tell you, by the time I read the halfway mark, I was engrossed and never wanted it to end. By the last page, I wanted to binge the entire series. I wanted 1,000 more pages in this world with these women.

I need to know how their journey ends. You need to know how it begins. So snag FRONT LINES ASAP!