Beware of the spoilers to Front Lines and Silver Stars that lurk beyond this message...
This is the powerful and epic conclusion to the Front Lines series. Rainy, Rio, and Frangie have been through a lot. In North Africa and Sicily, they feared, they braved, they sacrificed, and they fought for their lives. Their mission is far from over because June 6th, 1944 is approaching. The three of them must prepare to fight the deadliest battle of their lives as they descend onto Omaha Beach with thousands of Allied soldiers to fight for their countries and their lives. Frangie, Rainy, and Rio are no longer green soldiers, they are the most experienced ones. They are battle-hardened Silver Star recipients and the other soldiers now look up to them for confidence, guidance, and support. But this is the worst war in human history, millions of lives will be lost, bodies and limbs will pile, flesh will turn into charcoal, and blood will run freely. The girls, Rio, Frangie, and Rainy will have to find a way to survive, lead, and thrive this all the while holding onto the shreds of their humanity as well as their belief in humanity.
I... What can I say? How can I put together words to describe this book...
The blurb says that this book is a powerful ending to the Front Lines trilogy. The blurb is 1000% accurate. This book and the series is the most powerful piece of writing that I have ever read about WWII. I have always rationally understood the devastation and horror of the war, the deaths, and the struggles. But this series truly helped me understand it emotionally. The toll that it must have taken on the soldiers to see so many of their friends as well as people they barely knew disappear, die. All of a sudden the bleakness described in All Quiet on the Western Front makes sense to me. The scariest part is that Michael Grant has done his best to make sure that this series is as accurate as possible. I can not praise Michael Grant enough or rave about this series enough. This is definitely a top ten series.
There are a few things that bothered me but I accept because they are accurate. Michael Grant was more trigger happy in this book which initially made me mad because I didn't understand the point of killing characters we didn't know that well. It was hard for me to see such great characters get introduced and then cease to exist because I could see the potential in them and I really wanted to see them interact and bond with the main characters. But after thinking about it, I understood the reason that so many characters were killed. It makes sense because Michael Grant was trying to show the devastation of the war. Did you know the death toll of the Second World War is about 85 million people? It is not unrealistic then that many soldiers that were in that war didn't even have a chance to fight properly before their lives were over. Thus, I accept that he needed to be more trigger happy, but the irrational and emotional part of me is screaming, “They didn’t deserve it, why would you do that? WHY?”
On the flip side, I think more characters that we were well acquainted with should have died to drive the point home that people die in a war. I feel like it would have had a much better emotional impact if more characters that we have read about for a while had died. After all, it is war, and no one is as safe as they think they are. Another thing that bothered me was that I was able to figure out who was writing the story which I didn't like because I would have preferred it to be a bit of a curveball. I called the who the narrator was going to be from the middle of Silver Stars. It was a little too obvious for my taste. The same goes for the epilogue. The epilogue played out exactly the way that I thought it was going to. I would have liked a little bit of variety in there.
However, I am willing to forget about the obviousness of the ending, as well as the trigger-happiness because the rest of the book more than made up for it. If it isn’t obvious by now, I don’t know how else to explain this to you: I’m wholeheartedly giving this book 5 stars. This book (and series) is amazing! I am probably going to be recommending this series to every single person that I meet. If I had to rate the series on the same scale that I rate books, I would easily give it 5 stars. The best book in the series was Purple Hearts, followed by Front Lines, and last but not least Silver Stars. Also I sense a huge book hangover coming on… Wish me luck!
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