Daughters of the Wreckage by Stephanie Koens // Review

My Review: 

A dual timeline novel that digs into the history of the 1628 tragedy of the Batavia mutiny and wreck. 

 A slow-moving novel, that started to pick up at the halfway point. The story follows Saskia, Aris, and then Tess in the present day. Tess is an English teacher who takes time off after the death of her father to finish his last work. She spends time on the dig site and draws close to one of her guides, Drew. Saskia is travelling with her aunt and cousin for Batavia to meet up with her uncle, while Aris is the talent young under surgeon aboard the ship. 

 This was a slow and difficult read for me, there wasn't much character interaction between Saskia and Aris until quite a ways into the book. The modern-day thread following Tess didn't really catch my attention, as it was pretty slow moving and I wasn't sold on the romance between Tess and Drew. It was nice getting to know the characters, and I liked the gritty realistic nature of the recounting of the event and faith journey. The second half of the book was quite gruesome, and sad, while things were not happening explicitly on page, it was talked about and we had an idea of what was happening and the horrors being faced.

 In the end, it was interesting to learn about a historical even that I had known very little about prior to reading this book, and it inspired me to look into it more on my own. I appreciated Saskia's faith and her friendship with Lucretia. But it was a hard read. Sad. Tragic. Horrible. Slow in the first half of the book and in Tess's parts of the story. This was just not a book that fit my personal tastes, and that happens sometimes. 

 I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.