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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