Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop Blog Tour

Today is my turn on the blog tour for Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop, please check out the other stops as we all offer different content.








Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned Greek leprosy colony, Victoria Hislop wrote The Island in 2005. It became an international bestseller and a 26-part Greek TV series. She was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards and is now an ambassador for Lepra. The Island has sold over 1.2million copies in the UK and more than 5 million worldwide. Her affection for the Mediterranean then took her to Spain, which inspired her second bestseller The Return, and she returned to Greece to tell the turbulent tale of Thessaloniki in The Thread, shortlisted for a British Book Award and confirming her reputation as an inspirational storyteller. It was followed by her much-admired Greece-set short story collection, The Last Dance and Other Stories. The Sunrise, a Sunday Times Number One bestseller about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, was published to widespread acclaim in 2014. Victoria’s most recent book, Cartes Postales from Greece was a Sunday Times Number One bestseller and one of the Top Ten biggest selling paperbacks of 2017. Her novels have sold 10 million copies worldwide.





Find Victoria on Twitter: @VicHislop •

www.facebook.com/OfficialVictoriaHislop •

www.victoriahislop.com

Those Who Are Loved by Victoria Hislop
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - as able over 4 days

Pages - 480

Publisher - Headline

Source - ARC

Blurb from Goodreads

Those Who Are Loved is set against the backdrop of the German occupation of Greece, the subsequent civil war and a military dictatorship, all of which left deep scars.

Themis is part of a family bitterly divided by politics and, as a young woman, her fury with those who have collaborated with the Nazis, drives her to fight for the communists. She is eventually imprisoned on the notorious islands of exile, Makronisos and Trikeri, and has to make a life or death decision. She is proud of having fought, but for the rest of her life is haunted by some of her actions. Forty years after the end of the civil war, she finally achieves catharsis.

Victoria Hislop sheds light on the complexity of Greece’s traumatic past and weaves it into the dynamic tale of a woman who is both hero and villain, and her lifelong fight for justice.


My Review

Themis Stavridis is our main character, we open at a family meal and Themis is in her latter years of life, a long existence that has experienced and survived more than most read about. Themis gives the gift of her history, family secrets and survival during some of Greece's horrendous and bloody history.

I have read Hislop quite a few times and I do love her writing style, she covers history of the country but brings passion and devastation through the lives of her characters who live it. Themis has a turbulent childhood, poverty, war, terror and internal issues growing up in a family with so much emotional issues, sibling rivalry and parental issues.

There are so many aspects to this story as is Hislop's signature, she is so talented and really pulls the reader into the time, conditions and emotive challenges the characters face. There is a strong focus on the family dynamics, war is affecting them all, politics and how it divides them. Then the aspect of living during a war, how it affects them day to day, personal growth, survival and the consequences of decisions.

A very emotive book at times and always makes me want to read about the history of a place, it always sparks the need to learn more about what/where inspires her to write with such passion. 4.5/5 for me this time, I have another one or two of hers on my tbrm mountains, I need to bump them up!



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The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop

The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Publisher - Headline Review

Pages - 406

Blurb from Goodreads

In the summer of 1972, Famagusta in Cyprus is the most desirable resort in the Mediterranean, a city bathed in the glow of good fortune. An ambitious couple are about to open the island's most spectacular hotel, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots work in harmony. Two neighbouring families, the Georgious and the Özkans, are among many who moved to Famagusta to escape the years of unrest and ethnic violence elsewhere on the island. But beneath the city's façade of glamour and success, tension is building.

When a Greek coup plunges the island into chaos, Cyprus faces a disastrous conflict. Turkey invades to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority, and Famagusta is shelled. Forty thousand people seize their most precious possessions and flee from the advancing soldiers. In the deserted city, just two families remain. This is their story.



My Review

It is 1972, set in Famagusta in Cyprus, hot spot for tourists and flourishing for the locals. Aphroditi & her husband Savaas are already proud hotel owners but Savvas has his sights set even higher and wants to build a bigger lavish hotel for the creme de la creme. Everything looks to be going well when Turkey invades, the unrest had warned it would lead to this but some of the locals refused to believe it. Forty thousand flee from the soldiers but a few refuse to leave their homes, this is the story of a handful of people before and after the invasion.

My lack of knowledge on history is really quite shocking and I am the first to admit I don't willingly pick up books like this. However fiction based on fact I really enjoy as you get involved in the characters and learn about historical events and the impact of them. I went on to read up on this and see some of the pictures, it is a shame this place is still abandoned, guarded and left uninhibited.

This story creates a powerful vision of what this beautiful island was like and the version of the book I received came with some black and white photographs on the pages and a map of Cyrpus in 1972. There are some characters that you can invest in, some you like and some I came to loathe, the book also highlights the destruction an invasion and civil unrest can have. There is a focus on relationships, how some can form, be destroyed or strengthen when put under so much pressure. Marital affairs, murder, brutality and rape are some of the topics covered, not in excessive minute detail but they are mentioned. I think, for some books like this it can make for really uncomfortable reading, however the main focus I felt was on the impact of these events rather than lots of hard to read details. I have read this author before and I would read her again, 3/5 for me this time. Thanks to BookBridgr for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

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