Michael Grant is a great author. I read the first book in this series, which I did enjoy but not enough to continue with the series. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

Really interesting to see where Rio and the rest of the cast of characters ended up in this sequel from Grant.

This story of three women struggling through hellish parts of a hellish war which the Nazis are going to lose - but not before battling on in as best they can against the might of Uncle Sam and the Soviets.
Some of the scenes are deeply disturbing as they recount the abuse of African American service personnel.

The 'war is hell' and 'racism is evil' message is thrown in the reader's face too obviously for me. Not the worst WW2 tale but not in the same league as Robert Harris.

An absolutely riveting book about the 2nd World War from a female point of view, which is very rare!
It explores different ethnic backgrounds, views, religions, and how women from these backgrounds navigated this gruesome time in our history.
The battles were described in great detail and gave you a real sense of the grittiness and horror that was this war.
I don't normally read this type of genre but found myself drawn back to the story and found it incredibly hard to put down!
Highly recommend this book!

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An incredible story line with a killer hook! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the soldier girls once more!

Didn’t take long to finish this book, it was interesting and kept my interest. It wasn’t a real page turner for me but still enjoyable.

Finished this book in one day due to the story being so intense and my feeling for the characters. Really felt as if the characters grew up overnight in this book and the horrific events that they overcome really filled me with a sense of pride despite it being a fiction story. The big issue of this book is prejudice and violence towards women and black women most of all. Frangie's story really stood out to me above the others. However, I felt like these were now women who had flaws, made mistakes and still rose above - characters that are entirely believable. As this is based in real life historical war settings, I know that the next book will almost certainly take me to the end of the war and the final push so I can't wait to find out what happens to them after war is done.

This is a brilliant book about an alternate universe where women fought alongside men during the second world war.

I started reading it one evening and that was a definite mistake as I couldn't put it down. I ended up reading the whole book in two sittings as it kept me entranced throughout.

It is book two of a three book series but I hadn't read book one before this and it didn't detract from it at all.

I would highly recommend this to everyone

The historical facts behind this novel - the role of women, including black women, in the army during the Second World War are really interesting. Unfortunately I don't think Grant did justice to the lives of the fictional women he presented, or their real life counterparts. My main issue was the style of writing/narrative voice, which was unconvincing and irritating. I'm sure some of Grant's YA readers will enjoy it, but I really didn't.

A book that immediately engages your mind and emotions.
As this book begins we read a letter from someone who is in hospital recovering from being shot in the chest.
It is WW2 in an alternate Earth where there are women soldiers fighting on the front line. The letter’s author tells us about the experiences of 3 of the women who each have different roles. There is a white girl from small ‘c’ conservative USA heartlands, who is in the infantry; there is a New York Jewish girl who works for Army intelligence; and there is a coloured girl from Oklahoma working as a medic. They had met before 1943 – which is where this story is set, but this fact only comes to light late in the book, unless you have read the first book in this series. The series has a short novella that follows and a further book not yet published which tells of the war from where this book finishes.
The war, as it is told in this story, is very similar to the one we know from our Earth, with just a few changes, but not enough to notice unless you happen to be an expert.
In this world’s army – if the men did it, then the women did also. From digging trenches and latrines, to shooting to kill, even sharing their accommodation with the men in their unit. Your gender is relevant here – only your army role counts – unless you are coloured in which case you will be I a special unit and have your own tents and so on. Just as we did in our version of WW2.
So we hear about each girl and how their war unfolds.
The white girl goes through the infantry hell of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. The Jewish girl becomes a spy ina complicated sub-plot which involves the Mafia and the Gestapo. And the coloured girl demonstrates her heroism in the trenches and how she treats those under her charge.
The book is frank about sexism, racism and the brutalities of war and how it hardens the mentions of those who go through it. It tells how human comfort is offered and accepted at unlikely times and how friendships are formed under conditions of duress. Torture is not missed but not in every bloody d3tail but much is told often in remembrances which make it a little less stark which must help the audience at which this series is targeted – the older YA including 6th forms. There is plenty of swearing but whilst there is no bowdlerisation the sear words are change to make them acceptable to libraries etc.
As a reflection for the YA audience on how fighting a war is less than heroism but more about dirt; disease; the randomness of death and injury and sheer bloodiness; trench foot; cold; wet; and awful food, it gets its message across.

Book Review Summary:

Front Lines was one of my favourite books of last year, and Silver Stars does not disappoint. The characters are developed, the world is dangerous, and the harm is around every corner. It makes for a tense and enjoyable read, and I will continue to love it. It is fair to say that I can't wait for the next book.

Book Review:

Silver Stars as previously stated is the sequel to Front Lines, an alternative WWII novel where women, soldier girls, can serve in the US army. The book follows Rio, a soldier, Frangie, the medic and Rainy, the intelligence as they go through the ordeals of war.

OK so I'm just going to say it, I loved this book. I am always slightly scared when reading sequels because most of them often act for filler books, this is obviously not the case for Silver Stars. Silver Stars packs the same punch that Front Lines have but the stakes are so much higher.

We see the true casualties of war and this is not shied away from with descriptions of how these come to be. Although this was an element that I enjoyed, those who don't like gory details may find this slightly off-putting although this does not cover a large amount of the book if you were worried about this.

Character development has also a massive part that I loved this book especially seeing more about Frangie and Rainey whose stories are developed in this book. We get to seen the fire of Rainy who has a very important mission in this book which shows the strength of her character showing that women are just as brave as men and are equally as capable.

Frangie also is developed as a character and knowing more about her past and her relationship with her brother was nice to see in this book. Although we do see her develop in Silver Stars, I would love to see more of her character in Purple Hearts so if I had any complaints about this book then it would be more Frangie. I think using Frangie's character to see racism at the time is something that I also really like about this series, because to just ignore it would be ignoring a part of history that needs to be told. So this is something that I also like.

Rio is a massive part of the series and again we see massive development from her especially about the effect that war can have on people. She is such a determined and likeable character that I can't help not but like her. Rio's relationship with Jenou is just wonderful. I like that in times of war, a female friendship can still be developed and be complicated as this is something that you still don't see in YA books but you should. I also love Jack so much and his relationship with Rio but something in my head tells me that it will not end well so I feel like Purple Hearts will probably make me cry.

Basically, I loved Silver Stars and can't wait for Purple Hearts and if you haven't read this series yet you should!

The Verdict:

Silver Stars is a wonderful sequel to one of my favourite books of last year and to beat this is a massive task in itself. But Silver Stars did and it too is one of my favourite books. I highly recommend this series being a highly unique twist on WWII literature with a feminist touch.

If you thought Front Lines was good then you've honestly not seen anything yet because Silver Stars ups the stakes in every way possible, the danger is greater than ever and the characters have completely come into their own. If you're new to this series then I'd recommend reading the books in order but to give you a brief recap this is an alternative history of WWII imagining one major change - that female soldiers were recruited into the American army and served alongside the men on the front lines. Pretty much everything else is accurate to what really happened and these books are so well written and believable that you actually feel like you could be reading someone's personal diary as they tell you their own life story.

We continue to follow the stories of the three main characters introduced in the first book. First you have Rio Richlin who joined the army with her best friend Jenou after finding out her sister was killed in action. Then there is Frangie Marr who signed up as a medic mainly because her family needed the money, she faces even more prejudice than the others because not only is she a woman she's also black and racism was very prevalent during this time. The third main character is a young Jewish woman Rainy Schulterman who joined the army with the intention of shooting nazis but was quickly recruited into the intelligence community. Each girl has a separate story to tell but there are times when their stories link and I love getting to see the war through their very different experiences.

Rio has been fighting on the front lines for a long time now and she's rising up through the ranks because of her experience. She's become quite a ruthless fighter and has had to try and lock her emotions away but she feels a growing distance between her and her best friend and she's struggling to cope with everything that she's seen and done. As a medic Frangie is right there at the front too tending to wounded soldiers who wouldn't have much of a chance without immediate treatment. Her job definitely isn't a risk free one and she constantly finds herself facing danger while trying to protect others. Rainy has the most dangerous job of all though and is sent on an undercover mission to Italy, she has no backup and not much of a plan on how she's supposed to get herself home again so her story is fraught with danger and she suffers badly when she's captured along the way.

I have totally fallen in love with all three of these girls, I feel their pain and suffer alongside them and I'm desperately hoping they'll all make it through the war alive but we're constantly being shown how much danger they're facing and I'm worried that at least one of them won't survive it. I don't think I can praise this series highly enough, it's dark and can be quite painful at times but it's also totally addictive and utterly absorbing. Michael Grant has done a stellar job with these books, you can tell they're meticulously researched and they really are a must read.

Source: Received from Egmont in exchange for an honest review

What if American women were allowed to fight during WWII? Grant continues to provide an answer to this in the second book of the Front Lines series. We’re back following soldier Rio, medic Frangie and Intelligence officer Rainy who each have a part to play in the defeat of the Germans. In Silver Stars, the girls appear far more jaded after the events of the first book-the realities of war have hardened them, and that’s reflected in the narrative tone, particularly in Rio’s portion of the text. Their innocence has left them and the focus is on survival. The interstitials provide an overview of the war and how our characters fit into the massive jigsaw being played out across the world. We don’t know who the voice is but I have my suspicions!
Despite pulling no punches in the scenes of warfare, I was thoroughly captivated by this book-more so than the first- and couldn’t tear my eyes from the page. The characters, including those on the periphery, are so well drawn, I really feel as if I know them and was desperate to find out what happened next. As in the first book, the 3 central characters do converge, in a lovely scene towards the end that made me smile. I’m already looking forward to the third in the series.

Silver stars is the second book in a series of 3.
However I wasn't fortunate to of read the first book so I found it a little bit daunting. The characters had allready developed and their journey began so it was a little confusing to start with until I got the gist of it.

This book is very well researched and I felt the emotions and rawness of the war and it has been portrayed very well.
I can feel the characters pain and how the war has changed each women.

It's nice to read a book that shows what it was like for women in the war as they played a huge part but it isn't always mentioned. So I applaud Michael for this.

Rainy, Frangie and Rio are the three main characters and we see their journey progress throughout the army and different jobs within the army.
It's not an easy journey and we witness the sexism and racism within that era.

I would recommend reading Silver Stars, but I highly recommend reading the first book.
I did enjoy reading this book as I have always been fascinated with the history of the war. If I had of read the first book I'm sure I would of enjoyed this more as I wanted to get to know the characters more.

I found this a very uncomfortable read which I never really got into. I didn't realise it was a sequel so maybe if I had read the other one first it would have been more successful a read.

Perhaps because I've read a lot of more traditional views of WWII, but this one never really clicked with me and reading it was more of a chore than a pleasure.

However, I'm sure it will appeal to other readers.

The explosive sequel to Front Lines throws us straight back into the action as Frangie, Rio and Rainy tackle the next part of the War. This book is just as impressive as the first, but cranks up the grim realities of War just that little bit further; there are some pretty horrific moments in this book from some messed up front line action, to more personal interrogations and tortures.

So the girls are in Tunisia, 1943, and Grant really sets the scene beautifully - I felt like I was Jenou and Rio sunbathing in the height of summer in the desert! Only instead of discussing boys they're now discussing kills - how times change in a war! The world-building is really convincing in fact, filled with the horrific deaths of their comrades and terrifying bullets everywhere you look. I can't even begin to imagine what the reality of a war must be like, but this story makes me feel like I'm seeing a tiny portion of it; it's definitely an eye opener. There's something about Grant's writing that makes me feel like I could be any one of the girls, facing the unimaginable, and I can't let go until I know what becomes of each of them.

Rainy has perhaps the most difficult time as she travels to Italy, with a gangster alongside her whom she must trade for information. But her mission goes a little awry, because gangsters are gangsters for a reason, and her story becomes truly horrible to read about - we know her to be a pretty strong cookie, full of intelligence and initiative, and this second book really shows that off when she is faced with some hard times. It's apparent Grant has played around a little with the truth, relative to her story anyway, but I think it's really powerful and I have no doubt many soldiers went through similar ordeals and didn't make it out.

Frangie continues to battle against the prejudice of her skin colour. I both love and hate her storyline. It's so powerful, particularly as this is probably quite a soft look at the true prejudices faced at this time - her ability to overcome some nasty people, and help them regardless, really resonates with me; it's both frustrating and hopeful all rolled into one, and I absolutely love her. I especially liked that Grant has demonstrated that black soldiers were often delayed care purely due to the colour of their skin - and this often resulted in a massive detriment to their health and chances of survival. There's a lot more to consider in this story, more so than in Front Lines, if you take the time to look.

Rio has become so tough - almost cold, in fact. I like how she is shown to be becoming distant to her comrades (although there is still that sense of family throughout the troops which is great). I think Grant shows really nicely that soldiers had to face the realities of death head-on, particularly of their comrades rather than of their own potential death, and that sometimes the only way to do this was to shut down their emotions. Rio is inherently a really emotional, sensitive character so it's interesting that she would be the one to become a bit more hard-faced. Of course this resolve cracks now and then, and this vulnerability was interesting to read about. I also liked that Rio, and her friends to some extent, had to come to terms with the fact that she is unquestionably a killer. Her character continues to have the largest development, and the sniff of more romance in this second book added an extra dynamic without being overwhelmed by a love story.

An amazing second instalment - I'm so utterly sucked in to this horrific, brutal world and I felt myself rushing through each page hoping Grant won't kill off any of my favourites! I can't wait to see what happens next for the killer milkmaid and her friends.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing this copy in exchange for an honest review.

t's WWII but not as you know it from school. This time the girls are on the Front Lines and not on the Home Front. Summer 1943. The enemy has been bloodied, but Nazi Germany is very far from beaten. Now the American army is moving on to their next target: the Italian island of Sicily.

With heavy memories of combat, the three young soldier girls – Rio, Frangie and Rainy – now know what they are willing to do to save themselves, and understand the consequences of those actions. On the front lines, they will again come face to face with the brutality of war until they win or die, while simultaneously fighting their own personal battles. No one will emerge unscathed.

Having read a few of Mr Grants previous books and not really liked them I have to say this one surprised me - an enjoyable book and I look forward to any further books in the series.