Well, that was a magical adventure, but that ending!!!! There I was, some tears escaping my eyes, and then that's all Locke gave me. Well done, Katherine Locke. You have left me totally wanting. Kudos to you.
My little outburst after reading that last sentence.
I shelved this book on my fantasy shelf, because it involved time travel, but with any time travel book, we also have some historical content. Most of the story takes place in East Berlin, and I was in love with this idea of the balloonmakers helping East Germans over the wall, because my family, who were in West Germany, actually offered their home to those escaping the East.
"If you give a girl a magic balloon, she'll rage against the machine."
But, Locke didn't just focus on the oppression of those behind the Iron Curtain, she also wove in the genocide of the European Roma and Jews during the Nazi regime of World War II. The character, Benno, was a Jewish teen, who was relocated from Berlin to the Łódź Ghetto in Poland during WWII, and the chapters that were from his point of view, were often painful. They tell starvation, slave labor, sickness, death, and despair, but there were also these shreds of hope and beauty too.
"If you give a girl a red balloon, she'll believe in magic and memory."
I totally fell in love with Ellie, Kai, and Mitzi. Each character was individually strong, but they were even better together. I adored the dynamic between Mitzi and Kai, and I immediately shipped Ellie and Kai. I found myself very invested in their relationship. I don't know if it was this idea of trans-temporal romance or that I, myself, was so in love with Kai. He was so complicated, loyal, brave. He risked his life, so that others could enjoy freedom. He gave up his wants and desires, and assumed a life behind the Iron Curtain, in order to protect his sister. Just, wow!
"If you give a girl a red balloon, she'll never want to let go."
This book took me on a historical journey with a magical twist. It made me laugh, cry, swoon, and smile. I rooted for good, raged against evil, and was left curious for the next book.
**I would like to thank the publisher for the advanced copy of this book
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