Review of The Queen's Sacrifice

[Kutloano Makhuvhela]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Queen's Sacrifice" by LeBron Sims.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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The Queen’s Sacrifice by LeBron Sims is a historical fiction novel that follows a Jewish family in Hungary from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. It covers such an extensive period to show what hardship this family had to endure The author is described as a since-retired professional nurse. This book is his first, and it was shocking to learn of this after being so impressed by it. It is a poignant book that will leave you with a bag of mixed emotions that will take you a while to sort through after finishing it.

Jamos David Kovac was born in Budapest in 1888 into a hard-working, modest family. Although his parents are not rich, they make sure that he and his two elder brothers grow up having everything they can ever need. He, alongside his brothers, is taught the value of hard work, dedication, discipline, and honour by his father. Jamos loves his life at the farm since it is the only life he knows. Everything around the farm works like a well-oiled machine. When another person is milking the cows, another is feeding the chickens, etc. The relationship the children have with animals is a heart-warming one.

While the family are caught up in their simple lifestyle, a lot of big things are happening to the other countries that will come and threaten their livelihoods. While Jamos is going to school and preparing to pass and make it to be a doctor, the continent of Europe explodes into a Great War, and the Kovacs are forced to participate like their peers. But how will it affect them? Will all of them come out alive? If so, at what cost? Is the Great War the last thing that they will ever have to experience, or is there more?

To find the answers, read this historical fiction novel, and you will not regret it. The last question posed above is easy to answer if you are already familiar with world history. That is what I liked the most about this book: mixing real history in this tale to deliver a very powerful story that will have you enthralled from start to finish. The history made it come alive. It rejuvenated what was otherwise a simple story into something upbeat and alive with a strong pulse. When you followed the characters, knowing what was happening thousands of kilometres away from them, you would start to feel for them and wish you could help them prepare for what was to come. This made the story more believable than anything.

What I liked again were the characters. They were not just another set of characters confined to the pages of a book. They were hauntingly real people whom I felt I knew intimately. The author achieved this by slowing the pace at the beginning. By doing so, the author focused on developing each character; this made them realistically detailed. The book was not that long, but the author managed to fit the backstory of each character in it. From how Jamos’s father, Lukacs, met his wife, Lili, to the latter’s relative and Jamos’s colleague and lover. All of this was made without making any of the storylines clash or cause confusion for me as a reader. Each character’s storyline was independent of the other character, but all were tied together with great skill.

I could say the book was not plot-orientated but rather more character-orientated. Not to say it was pointless. Far from it. Because the fictitious storyline was fused with real-life history, it was easy for a well-learnt reader to know what would happen after the Great War. But you didn’t know how the characters were going to react to what was about to come. This made the book slightly amazing to read.

The writing was the only thing I disliked because I found errors. Most were in the speech, where certain punctuation marks were left out. This made the reading a bit challenging. Other than that, the writing was good. I loved how the dialogue complemented the narration when it was bordering on tediousness, especially when providing contextual historical information.

With everything I have said, I rate this book four out of five stars. I took down the other star because of the errors. I recommend the author use professional editors to polish it. Other than that, I would recommend it to people who love historical fiction, especially those set in Europe in the 20th century. The suitable audience would be the mature young adults, as there are sensitive scenes here that might be overwhelming for a younger audience. The author’s penmanship impressed me, and I can’t wait to be on the lookout for his future offerings.

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The Queen's Sacrifice
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[Yasmine Zaki Muhieddine]

I enjoyed reading this review, it gave a deep insight into the craftsmanship of the book.
It seems that the author took a different and fresh approach to narrates the events around the Great War. Indeed there are so many story around the war, but this author was smart to focus more on the characters. As mentioned in the review, we might all know what happens after the Great War, but don't know how these characters would react to it.

[Gerry Steen]

I would love to read about Jamos David Kovac, his family, and the Great War. I am a fan of historical fiction, so this book is right up my alley. Thank you for this well-written review. It has piqued my interest in this story.