Review: The Year of Necessary Lies by Kris Radish

The Year of Necessary Lies

by Kris Radish

Publisher: Spark Press

Pages: 350

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  One amazing year in a remarkable woman's life journey becomes the inspiration for generations when she takes a huge risk, follows her heart, embraces forbidden love, and unwittingly becomes the champion of a winged world that is on the brink of extinction. It’s 1903, the world is poised for drastic change, and Julia Briton is a naive, beautiful Boston socialite who suffers a series of devastating losses and discovers that her beloved husband is involved in the plume trade—the massive slaughter of birds for use in the fashion industry. When Julia is secretly ushered into the early 20th century by a group of brazen female activists, she boldly risks everything and embarks on a perilous journey to the wilds of untamed Florida, a place of great danger where men will stop at nothing to get what they want and where one man, and a faithful friend, force her to make yet more life-changing decisions. Years later, when Julia’s great-granddaughter, Kelly, discovers some hidden tape recordings in her famous great-grandmother¹s dresser and learns the real truth about Julia’s year, a year that changed the course of history, she must decide what to do with her grandmother¹s incredible legacy. Will she keep the real “secret of the year”, or will she be brave enough to follow her own heart?


Kritters Thoughts:  With two semi plotlines going on at the same time, one took over a little and I was so glad!  The main plotline is fiction, but felt like truth throughout the whole book (and I liked it) was set in 1904 and are actually recorded tapes from a great grandmother reliving a major year in her life as she leaves her privileged life in Boston and goes to Boston to help fight against plume hunters who are killing birds for their feathers for fashion.  The secondary plotline is the great grand daughter who finds the tapes and when she first finds them is going through a hard moment in her life and finds comfort in the tapes with her great grand mother's life story unfolding in the tapes.

This was a great concept.  Although I absolutely adored one plotline over the other, I still appreciated the inclusion of the secondary plotline.  

As I said before there were many moments where I had to remind myself that this was historical fiction instead of historical fact.  I absolutely loved reading about famous historical figures as they wove through this book and their impact on this woman as she is trying to find her place in the Audobon society and trying to change society's view on the inclusion of feathers in fashion.

I definitely liked this book, it had a great pace from the halfway point to the end as the reader gets more into Julia's story.  Once I got really into Julia's story, I couldn't put it down!


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Ebook 2015 Challenge: 44 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Booksparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.