The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn on March 29, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Biographical, Fiction / Family Life / General, Fiction / Friendship, Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / World War II, Fiction / War & Military, Fiction / Women
Pages: 448
Format: Audiobook
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This is a WWII story based on a true story that reads like fiction. This is about a quiet book worm type of woman who becomes a famous sniper with a kill record of over 300 kills. This story will suck you in and the details will have you shaking your head in surprise and excitement.
Mila Pavlichenko is the heroine of this great story. It starts out in 1937 when she begins to transform herself from a mother and history student, to Lady Death. When Hitler’s Nazis invade Russia and the Ukraine, Mila decides to join her country in service to the war effort. She knows how to use a gun so she doesn’t want to be sent to the medical unit. She is handed a rifle and ends up being a sharp shooter.
There is a lot going on in her life. She was forced into marriage at 15 because she was pregnant. Her “husband” is never there for her and so she is basically a single mother. She does have the help of her parents because her husband is off doing his thing. She is going to school and also trying to be the “dad” her son needs. So she has to leave her son with her parents to go off to fight the Nazi’s.
Then she deals with men not believing she can shoot or thinking she is there for their sexual needs. But she is more than just beauty, she is tough. She ends up with enemy blood on her numerous times and also ends up wounded herself too a few times. And after all her kills she gains fame, which she never asked for.
The army sends her on a trip to Washington DC to gain support and she ends up running into her husband again. But she also makes an unlikely friend in the President’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. She also has the friendship and love of her old partner and I loved this part of the story as well. But she finds out that enemies are closer than she thought. Lady Death didn’t realize that the ultimate fight was going to be the fight for her own life.
I loved all the action in this one. The story moved so quickly that it was over before I was prepared for it to be done. And the characters that Quinn writes are just amazing. She can make you care for these people and want to hug them. If you like strong women you can root for and historical fiction this one is for you!