Salt to the Sea Review

Hello readers!
I'm sorry I randomly fell off the Earth for a few months. I did exactly what I was afraid I would do and got completely caught up in college and 1) had barely any time to read and 2) didn't have time to blog. But I am finally back home and am ready to jump back into reading and my blog! I just finished Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, and LOVED it. Andddd, it's a signed copy which just makes it all the better!! Here are the details:

Author: Ruta Sepetys

Title: Salt to the Sea 

Publisher: Philomel Books

Pages: 400

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

  Salt to the Sea is a novel following four teens/young adults in World War II who are all trying to evacuate Germany to flee from the Russians. Each of them has a secret of some kind, and they must carry those secrets with them as they make their way across Germany to reach the Baltic Sea to hopefully board an evacuation ship. Ruta Sepetys shines a light on a piece of history that most people do not know ever happened, but was actually one of the greatest tragedies in maritime history.
    The novel is written from four points of view which I thought was really awesome. In my opinion, Ruta Sepetys did a great job of making each character feel very separate and like they had their own unique voice and motivations. I absolutely love Ruta Sepetys' writing style in all of her books because it doesn't even feel like I am reading. After I have read a few pages, it feels like I am just watching a movie playing before me because her writing is just so smooth and easy to read.I also loved her characters. I had some sort of connection to each one of them. I pretty much loved all of them except for Alfred to be honest. He just got on my nerves. But other than him I fell in love with the characters, even then supporting characters like the wandering boy, Klaus, and the Shoe Poet. Each one felt so real and alive to me, as if they were real people that were telling me their story. However, overall I have to say that Emilia was my very favorite character. She was so young to have gone through all that she had and to carry the secrets she carried. I found her young, quiet bravery to be so heartwarming and special.
   I thought that this novel was very well written overall, however my one problem with it would have to be the ending. In fairness, I did have to read this book in chopped up sections instead of in a couple of long sittings like I would have preferred, but the ending felt very abrupt to me. I felt like there was a little bit of a disconnect in my brain to where I had to realize that we had skipped some time between where we were and where we ended the book. Maybe this was just me being weird, but that is how I felt when reading the book.

Let me know if you read this book if you felt the same way and some of your other thoughts!