I thought this was a great YA WWII novel. The usual WWII books I read are all set overseas in Europe, but this one was set stateside and showed the horrors of Manzanar, an American concentration camp holding evacuated Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor.

This book would be great in a classroom setting. I didn't know much about this aspect of the war and you can tell Morrill did her research and she even used names of some real people. I do wish there was some kind of historical note at the end though.

I was slightly disappointed because I wanted more romance. The book opens with Evalina and Taichi already dating and in love. It is heartbreaking to see them separated, but I like more tension in my books when it comes to relationships. This book focuses slightly more on the war than the couple.

I loved the characters, a LOT. Evalina was the kind of girl I feel like doesn't show up enough in fiction--her fiery, compelling spirit was amazing and her love of political science and desire to seek justice made her very relatable for me. She's the kind of girl I am. And then there was Taichi, who was really just the sweetest guy. I approved of him very much.

Other than them, I really liked James, and I liked Evalina's parents. I thought I would like Aiko more than I did, but she turned out to have a smaller part than I'd anticipated and so I didn't feel I'd gotten to know her as well as I might have hoped. The rest of the side characters, while compelling, were kind of basic.

I really liked the story, but therein lies my biggest quibble: This story felt sort of disjointed.

There were a LOT of big moments, and big decisions, and plot twists, but I kept feeling like I was missing something. And finally, I figured out why: it's because the story kept skipping those beats. Something big would happen and we'd find out after the fact. Within these Lines jumped over the important moments a bit too much in my opinion, which is disappointing, because I would have LOVED to feel just the tiniest bit more emotion within the story. The disjointedness was rather disconcerting.

Other than that quibble--which may be a Faith quibble and not one that concerns anyone else--I really enjoyed this one! The characters were compelling, and so were their struggles; the epilogue made me super happy. I can definitely recommend this one. :) 3.5 stars!

This book is both beautiful and heart wrenching. I loved the characters, and I enjoyed learning about the Japanese camps, though my heart broke for the people imprisoned in them. So well done, and I highly recommend.

Within These Lines was such a unique and powerful story. I enjoyed the protagonist and antagonist; overall the story was absolutely amazing.

This book was archived before I was able to download it. I appreciate the opportunity to review though!

This was a solid historical fiction with amazing in-depth characters and a story I really connected with. I love Stephanie Morrill's historical fiction and can't wait to get more from her :)

This book is set during WW2 and follows Eva and Taichi. Eva is an Italian American and Taichi is the son of Japanese immigrants so their love is forbidden because at the time interracial marriages were illegal. Following the attack on Pearl Harbour, there is a lot of resentment towards the Japanese and Taichi and his family end up in an internment camp. The only way that they can stay in touch is via letters.

I found the premise of this book to be very interesting. I have read lots of WW2 fiction but haven't read anything that covers this period in America and isn't something I was aware of. I always appreciate reading historical fiction books that highlight events that I wasn't previously aware of because I then go on to do further reading.

It did take me some time to get into this story as it moved quite slowly. I also didn't feel invested in the romance between the two characters. I felt that the characters were slightly underdeveloped so I didn't feel connected to them.

Overall this was an ok read for me. Whilst I appreciated the setting and how the story opened a new area for me to do further reading I felt a little underwhelmed with the story.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill.

Evalina and Taichi are two teens in love, but during a very dangerous time. The nation is still reeling from Pearl Harbor, and now Japanese people are being taken to work camps. From a distance, Taichi tries to put on a good face for Evalina, but finds the camps to be demoralizing and hard. Perhaps a relationship with an Italian girl isn't such a good idea, especially since interracial relationships are still illegal in California...

I don't feel like we talk enough about what happened to the Japanese people during the war, especially since so many of their prisoners were natural born citizens. I thought that this was a great YA book to introduce people to that side of WWII. It was well written with complex, fleshed out characters.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Within These Lines

I am a total sucker for anything historical fiction. I absolutely love them and I especially love them when they are YA. Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill captured my heart and my attention immediately. Prior to reading this book, I was not familiar with how Japanese Americans were treated after Pearl Harbor.

In this 2 person POV we follow Evalina and Taichi. Evalina is an Italian American and her family owns a restaurant. She knows Taichi because they get some of their produce from Taichi and his family. Evalina and Taichi are secretly dating. Evalina isn’t sure if her parents would understand their relationship since he is Japanese. Taichi and his family end up having to leave their home and go to a camp where they keep all the Japanese people. He and Evalina write to each other as much as they can. Taichi makes sure to paint the picture of the camp as a good place where they are treated well, but that is far from the truth.

This story was so heart wrenching. I knew that after Pearl Harbor the Japanese were not treated well, but I had no idea how bad it was for them. It’s sad how people treated them and how they were thrown into camps where no one should live. Although this story was sad it was definitely eye-opening and hope was written all throughout it.

If you love historical fiction, this book is for you. Once you’ve read it come back and let’s chat!!!

A solid YA novel that was a good purchase for my library. Students have read and enjoyed it, and I purchased it because of this review copy.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a historical fiction novel, but WWII centric stories seem to be the most popular nowadays. I’ve never read a book centered around this side of WWII before, particularly that of the Japanese internment camps across the United States. It’s pretty obvious why there probably aren’t as many books about this subject, considering how shameful this period is, but perhaps it’s important to have a book such as this one when xenophobia is still a very rampant issue across the world.

The story follows the relationship between Evalina, an Italian-American teen, and Japanese-American Taichi. When Taichi and his friends and family are forced into internment camps, the couple attempt to communicate via letters. This story details the atrocities of these camps while highlighting the strength of those subjected to such hard conditions without any reasonable justification for doing so.

I really liked this book. I felt so emotionally invested the entire time, caring about each and every one of the characters, which is a testament to how well-developed the ensemble as a whole is. The plot grabs you from the very beginning and doesn’t let you go until the very end. I think the writing lends itself very well to this as well, painting a grim picture of what it was like during this terrible time in history.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for the next great historical romance.

This story takes place back in 1941 when the Japanese are being rounded up and interned. Evalina is an Italian American who falls in love with Taichi who is the son of Japanese immigrants. During this time interracial marriages are still against the law. Taichi and his family are sent to an internment camp and Evalina can only contact him through letters and speaking out. They hold on to their love through the course of this. The characters are remarkable and really make you think about this era in our not so great history. It is a heart wrenching tale of love and separation and racism within America.

Please note: I was provided an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It has taken me a while to review this book because I have picked it up and put it down several times in the hopes I just wasn’t in the mood to read it when I started. I am an avid enthusiast and lover of historical fiction, and the idea behind this novel sounded both brutal and beautiful. I hadn’t read a book about this part of the war before, and I was extremely excited to see a new perspective and learn more.

However, I did not finish this book. I read around half, then skimmed. I wanted to go ahead and write a review in the hopes that it would be helpful to the author or publisher to see why I wasn’t able to get into the book.

The reason I was not drawn in is that I feel like the book was started in the wrong place. By the time the reader is introduced to the story, Taichi and Evalina have already met and have secretly been seeing each other. This story would have had so much more of an impact if it had started at a point when they first were grappling with these feelings and how to proceed with them in the world they lived in. Instead, the reader was introduced once their relationship was already established, but they were still grappling with these feelings. I feel like with the book starting at the point it did, we missed out on part of the story that would have made the rest of the book have more of an impact.

Continuing with this thought, Evalina learning about the treatment of the families with Japanese ancestry would have been a great way for the reader to learn as well. As we didn’t get to learn about it with Evalina though, most of it was explained rather than shown. This made it a little more dry and harder to pick up on, rather than engaging and informative.

I never felt a real connection the characters, and again I believe it is because I wasn’t introduced to them when their story really began in earnest. Because I am a very character oriented reader and writer, I was never able to focus on the rest of the novel.

I think focusing on the Japanese-American families during the war was unique and very needed among the genre of YA Historical Fiction. But that being said, it felt like it lacked a bit of punch and didn’t deliver what I was anticipating. I think with a few tweaks this story would have been extremely impactful. But since it was started a bit on the wrong foot for me, it missed the mark a bit.

Wow. Just wow. I loved this book. I have yet to read any book with this content as a focus, and it gave insight into a situation I had previously not thought about much. Great read!

First, a big thank you to Blink YA, a division of Harper Collins, for publishing books that appeal to kids who don't want sex, violence, and bad language, but do want gritty plots that aren't saccharine sweet. Morrill delivers in this story of a multi-ethnic romance between an Italian American girl and a Japanese American boy during World War II. Well-researched, truly showing the shamefulness of the Japanese-American internment camps - and the various ways the inhabitants responded. Morrill wrote a book that had me crying in an airport - high praise. Highly recommended for middle and high school readers.
Review based on an ARC from NetGalley.

This was a wonderful book that touches on a difficult subject that I'm not sure I've seen very much in the YA area (or in adult lit for that matter). Many people like to forget what went on during WWII on US soil, and it's something no would should be ignorant to anymore. Evalina and Taichi’s story and relationship was beautiful and painful to watch grow and develop, knowing in hindsight what they were about to experience. Definitely recommended for anyone who enjoys history and romance, especially in combination.

This was such a fantastic book! The characters were very well developed and that made it so easy to sympathize with their struggle. I loved how Evalina never gave up on Taichi even when he was distancing himself from her. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time to come.

I haven’t known about the Japanese American concentration camps in the US for very long. Several years ago, I came across a book about it, but I never finished it—probably because I didn’t find it all that interesting. However, my curiosity about the history surrounding that has been somewhat piqued since then, so when I saw this book coming out, I was excited to read it to learn what I could!

I instantly fell in love with Evalina and Taichi’s story. Seeing these two friends trying to make the best out of life—and fight for each other—was pretty special. I sympathized with Evalina’s feelings of helplessness, and Taichi’s just wanting to make the best of the situation, but most of all, I appreciated the resilience shown here.

It was also special to watch Evalina and Taichi’s relationship grow during the story. They both learned lessons about how to treat others and love others even in difficulty, and how to forgive and keep loving even when it seems hopeless.

It’s challenging to read stories about people who are put in difficult situations who do the best they can with what they have. Where I would be tempted to complain, they just dug in and did what needed to be done, and I really appreciate that sort of commitment!

In all, this was a great story! Perhaps not the nicest happening in America’s history, but I’m thankful people are willing to talk about the not-so-great aspects as well as the good ones. War is awful, no matter how one looks at it, but stories like this—while they may be fictitious—still speak of the brave men and women who lived for others as much as they could even in hardship. A good book!

I requested a free review copy of this book from Netgalley, and this is my honest opinion of it.

I have REALLY got to stop reading WWII books back-to-back...My heart can't handle it anymore lol. That is one reason why this review has had to just marinate in my heart and brain.

Evalina and Taichi's story pulled at my heartstrings so very much. Living in such a dark time in history, the perseverance, the tenacity, the strength, and the power of love, is overwhelmingly beautiful. Morrill brought the injustice and sorrow that we, as a nation, like to gloss over. I am so glad that authors are tackling this topic that has been long looked over.

Morrill's descriptions were so tangible that I could hear the sounds, see the street market, and feel the wind and dust from Manzanar. I learned so much about history and culture while reading this book. Different details and conversations sparked my interest and of course, I had to go look things up. As you can see from these pictures it's easy to see why society thought that everything was cupcakes and rainbows at these camps. The media's agenda to shed the camps in a positive light was far from the truth as we now know.

But this is a review, not a history lesson lol! I do highly encourage you to read Within These Lines let your heart and eyes be opened to a new side of WWII history through this story of love, hope, and faith.

I received a complimentary copy of Within These Lines from the publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.