Happy 10th Birthday to Top Ten Tuesday!
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic Top Ten Tuesday Turns 10! Option 1: pick a past TTT topic you’ve done and re-do/update it (Perhaps you’d remove certain books you put on the list back when you first wrote it, or perhaps you have 10 MORE books you’d add to that list now. You could also re-visit TBR posts, whether seasonal or series you need to finish, etc., and tell us if you’ve read them yet or not. Any variation of this idea works. Feel free to be creative.) Option 2: pick a past TTT topic you wish you’d done, but didn’t get a chance to do.
I decided to revisit a recent topic where we had to share books with numbers in the title. This time around, however, I tried to find ten covers that actually had the number 10 in it in homage to Top Ten Tuesday turning 10 years old this week. This was a little more challenging than I thought it would be, to be honest, and you’ll notice I cheated with a couple of Ten Thousand titles, haha.
In all seriousness though, Happy Birthday to Top Ten Tuesday. This has been my favorite bookish meme since I started blogging. The topics are always fun, and I love that so many members of the bookish community take part each week. It has been the greatest way to meet fellow book lovers, and I hope it will be around for many years to come.
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Books That Feature the Number 10 in their Titles
(in no particular order)
THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 by Ruth Ware
TEN TINY BREATHS by K. A. Tucker
THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY by Alix E. Harrow
THE TENTH MUSE by Catherine Chung
TEN THOUSAND SKIES ABOVE YOU by Claudia Gray
10 BLIND DATES by Ashley Elston
THE TEN YEAR NAP by Meg Wolitzer
THE TENTH CIRCLE by Jodi Picoult
TEN BIG ONES by Janet Evanovich
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Have you read any of these?
Review: REBEL SPY by Veronica Rossi
Rebel Spy by Veronica Rossi 
Published by Delacorte Press on June 23, 2020
Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 368
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
I was drawn to Veronica Rossi’s new novel Rebel Spy because although I love historical fiction and read it often, I’ve not read much in the way of fiction that focuses on the American Revolution. I was especially intrigued by Rebel Spy because the rebel spy in question is actually a woman, which was definitely new information to me. Aside from those who went on to become First Ladies, the only other female figure that even comes to mind when I think of the Revolutionary War is Betsy Ross. Needless to say, I was thrilled to learn that there were actually female spies in George Washington’s intelligencer networks and that they played a vital role in the war.
Rossi’s novel follows a woman identified in our historical records only as Agent 355 “Lady.” Agent 355’s true identity remains unknown to this day and all we know of her is that she was a woman of high society in New York and that she worked as a part of Washington’s Culper spy network. In her novel, Rossi has used her imagination to fill in the gaps and reimagine Agent 355’s life.
In Rossi’s reimagining, Agent 355 is Frannie Tasker, an orphaned young woman who lives on Grand Bahama Island with her abusive stepfather. Frannie dreams of a new life free from his abuse, and when her stepfather announces that he wants to marry her, Frannie becomes all the more desperate to get away from him. A timely storm, a devastating shipwreck with no survivors, and the body of a young woman who drowned in the wreck and bears a striking resemblance to Frannie provides her the escape she has been looking for. With her quick thinking, Frannie switches places with the young woman, thus assuming her identity. She learns that the young woman has lost her entire family in the shipwreck and the plan is now to put her on the next ship to New York, where her new guardian is located. The story follows Frannie as she takes on this new identity, learns to behave like a proper lady of society, and begins her life anew in New York City. It is while she is on the journey to New York that Frannie meets a young man who puts the idea of rebelling against the Crown into her head and sets into motion her journey to joining a spy ring. Frannie’s new position as a lady of society in New York gives her a prime vantage spot for intelligence as there are constantly British soldiers milling around at events she attends.
Rebel Spy is definitely a character driven story in the sense that while we do see Frannie in action as a spy, the spy ring and the Revolutionary War itself are very much in the background. This is a story about Frannie, the life she has left behind, the new life she embraces in New York, the new friends and more-than-friends she meets along the way, and then finally her introduction to the world of spying. As much as I enjoyed reading about Frannie’s life and what a resourceful and principled young lady she was, I would have rated this book even higher if we had gotten to see a little more of the actual spying and the war up close.
Even with that little quibble, I still found Rebel Spy to be a quick and satisfying read and one that has definitely made me want to learn more about the women who played a role in the American Revolution.
About Veronica Rossi
Veronica Rossi is a best selling author of fiction for young adults. Her debut novel, UNDER THE NEVER SKY, was the first in a post-apocalyptic trilogy, and was deemed one of the Best Books of Year by School Library Journal. The series appeared in the NY Times and USA Today best seller lists and was published in over 25 foreign markets.
Her second series for young adults began with RIDERS and tells the story of four modern day teens who become incarnations of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and the prophetic girl who brings them together. SEEKER completes the duology.
Veronica completed her undergraduate studies at UCLA and then went on to study fine art at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She is a lifelong reader and artist. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she has lived in Mexico, Venezuela, and all over the United States, to finally settle in Northern California with her husband and two sons.
When not writing, Veronica enjoys reading painting, hiking, and running. She does not like anything involving numbers, the addition of them, subtraction of them, you name it. They terrify her. Her obsessions generally lead to fictional works. Currently, she has just finished delving into New York City during the Revolutionary War.
Review: THE LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST by Chanel Cleeton
The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton 
Published by BERKLEY on June 16, 2020
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 320
Source: Netgalley
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
Set in the Florida Keys during the Great Depression, Chanel Cleeton’s latest novel, The Last Train to Key West is a heart-stopping read that follows three young women whose lives are forever changed when a devastating hurricane strikes.
Helen has lived in the Keys all her life. She is nine months pregnant and married to an abusive man whose abuse has only gotten worse as times have gotten more desperate. When we first meet Helen, she is daydreaming about what life could be like if her husband were to die. Helen captured my heart right from that scene because imagine being in such a bad situation that trying to make it alone in the world with an infant in the middle of the Depression is preferable to living with your own husband.
Mirta, a young woman from Cuba, has come to the Keys with her new husband. Her marriage is an arranged marriage to pay off her family’s debts and all Mirta knows about the man she has married is that he is from New York and that he appears to be involved in an unsavory and potentially dangerous line of work. As they arrive in the Keys on their honeymoon before heading home to NYC, Mirta is feeling incredibly anxious, having been forced to leave her family and the only home she has ever known to go with this man who is a stranger to her. As with Helen, I immediately became invested in Mirta and her well being.
The last young woman we meet is Eliza, a native New Yorker who has traveled to the Keys. She tries to play it cool and be coy about why she’s traveling so far alone, but the truth is that she’s desperately searching for a long-lost family member. Eliza has heard rumors that he may be at a work camp in the Keys, which is what has brought her to Florida. Eliza is determined to find him and bring him home because he’s the only one who can save her from a future she does not want and a man she does not love. I admired Eliza right away because of her spunk and determination, so as with both Helen and Mirta, I was immediately hoping that Eliza would find her happy ending.
Cleeton’s storytelling just pulled me in right away. I loved the way the story unfolds through alternating chapters from Helen, Mirta and Eliza and how their journeys eventually become intertwined with one another. The characters are so complex and beautifully drawn, and all three of them possess an inner strength and sense of resiliency that made me love them all the more. Their stories were all so compelling that I just couldn’t put the book down.
It wasn’t just these wonderful characters that made The Last Train to Key West such a fantastic read, however. The story is also fraught with danger, suspense, and mystery, and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading. As if these women didn’t already have enough to contend with, there are also potential dangers with the mob afoot as well as a deadly hurricane bearing down on the island contrary to weather reports that had the storm taking a different path. I don’t want to say anything else for fear of spoiling but, just wow! I devoured this book in a couple of sittings and still wanted more when I finished the final page!
These characters and their lives grabbed hold of my heartstrings and didn’t let go, which just made for a perfect read for me. I also didn’t realize when I first started reading that the hurricane in the book is also based on an actual catastrophic storm that struck the Keys back in 1935. Cleeton made that whole experience feel so real and so devastating that I shed tears when I realized it was based on an actual event. The Last Train to Key West is, by far, one of my favorite reads of 2020 thus far and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and stories that feature women trying to make their own happy endings.
About Chanel Cleeton
Chanel Cleeton is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick Next Year in Havana and When We Left Cuba. Originally from Florida, Chanel grew up on stories of her family’s exodus from Cuba following the events of the Cuban Revolution. Her passion for politics and history continued during her years spent studying in England where she earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Richmond, The American International University in London and a master’s degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics & Political Science. Chanel also received her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law. She loves to travel and has lived in the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.