Shelter Me by Alex McAulay

****Shelter Me by Alex McAulay****

Originality- 18/20
Characters- 18/20
Remembrance- 9/10
Quote-ability- 7/10
Entertainment- 19/20
Ending- 10/10
Recommend to read- 9/10
TOTAL- 90
Grade- A

Maggie Leigh just wants to be a normal teenager, but when German bombs tear apart London during World War II, her ultra-religious mother sees the destruction as divine punishment. She sends Maggie to a remote boarding school in coastal Wales, supposedly to keep her safe, but also to keep her in line. The school is creepy, the headmistress is a lunatic, and the students range from spoiled rich girls to speechless trauma victims. But when a tragic accident happens on the beach, Maggie and three friends are forced to flee the school, plunging into the nightmarish world of Europe during wartime. Now every decision Maggie makes is fraught with danger, and living to see another day depends on how quickly she can think and act...and how far she's willing to go.

I didn't have very high expectations while reading Shelter Me because I don't have a very high interest in books taken place in past time periods. But after Maggie saw she was being tricked I couldn't help but feel her emotions of betrayal and anger. The beginning started out a little slow for me and was a hard to get into, but it eventually picked up pace and I finished it in one sitting. Maggie is now one of my favorite female characters. She wasn't fake sounding or mean. As a character she was very believable. I hated Maggie's mom because of how she treated Maggie and because she was forcefully religious. I thought I was going to read about the hard times in the war, but I ended up reading so much more. Overall I think that Shelter me was a well crafted story with trickery. I'd reccommend Shelter Me to anyone who likes a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat.