So yeah the beginning of this book sucked. Lots of things happened but the story flowed slowly and the pieces of the story didn't fit together well at all. However once Maggie finally reaches St Garan's things start to pick up and get interesting. Too bad it takes half a book for that to happen. Any way, as the story moves on there is betrayal suspense and action galore. The twist were good and I must say I never saw some of them coming. ( )

Shelter Me was, quite possibly, one of the WORST YA novels I have ever read. The premise of this book had you thinking this was going to be a gripping historical WWII novel told through the eyes of a young protagonist. The synopsis was the best part of the story and was the most misleading to the reader.

The writing was poorly done, neither the characters nor the dialog fit into the period of WWII. The characters in Shelter Me would have fit better in a reality show on MTV. More troubling was the plot surrounding Maggie-- I understand that in order for a character to experience peril there must be conflict and intense drama but what I found disturbing was that the peril and every circumstance the characters faced had a creepy sexual undertone. ( )

I had such high hopes for this book. I read the blurb online and immediately had to have it so it actually saddened me when I didn’t like it. Like, at all.

Could my expectations being so high have influenced that? No question. But regardless of that the reality of the matter is the book fell short for a variety of reasons outside of that.

The first being that the story was fairly predictable. I can think of only one element (and giving the author his due it was a very big element) that actually caught me off guard. For the most part, however, I knew what was going to happen before it did. I wasn’t even surprised when the end turned out exactly as I anticipated it would from around the second chapter in.

Another aspect that didn’t work for me were the characterizations. Outside of the fact that we never really delved deep enough into any of the characters to begin with, the readers were faced with a series of cliched characters that didn’t have any overwhelmingly unique qualities from any other story of this nature. Those who were disguised as good but were really bad were not disguised well enough. I figured them out pretty much from the chapter each was introduced in.

Lastly, for such a short book there was so very much happening. The reader zoomed from one plot element to another (none of which I want to give away in case you want to read it and maybe be surprised) in a matter of a chapter or two. In the end, the book did portray the elements outlined in the blurb, but again, my expectations were that it would have focused more on Maggie’s journey on a more personal level than the superficial way it did. So perhaps it wasn’t the book as much as it was me. ( )

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Maggie Leigh is a teenager growing up in war torn London in 1941. So far, Maggie and her mom have avoided any of the bombing raids over the city. But she is used to the blackout curtains and the warning sirens. It isn't until she ventures into another part of the city with her world-traveled Aunt Joan that the reality sets in. Maggie and her aunt are shopping in an exotic fabric shop when the unmistakable sound of a low-flying plane is heard overhead. In a matter of moments, the street outside is destroyed, and debris flies into the shop. As the plane passes, Aunt Joan grabs Maggie and runs for the underground station. They've been taught that the underground stations are deep enough to protect from the bombs above.

Unfortunately, the underground isn't as safe as they'd hoped, and the ceiling is about to cave. Protecting Maggie over everything else, Aunt Joan forces Maggie up the stairway. Maggie makes it back out safely, but Aunt Joan is left in a coma. It's from here that Maggie's mother decides that the best and safest place for Maggie to shelter is on the coast at her Uncle Harold's. Maggie doesn't have much say in the matter, and within two days, she finds herself on a train headed towards Carmarthen, with a letter from her mother stashed in her pocket.

It's only when the train arrives late at night at a deserted station that Maggie starts to worry. A lone car pulls up and a nun steps out. Maggie is confused, until Sister Bramley has Maggie retrieve the letter. The letter wasn't for her Uncle Harold, but for herself! Her mother is sending her to St. Garan's for the next three months. It's a convent in the middle of nowhere. Her mother is overly religious and was afraid that Aunt Joan's influence was corrupting Maggie.

Life at St. Garan's starts out miserably, and goes from bad to worse. It's only when she is befriended during the night by Kate that there is any bright spot for Maggie. Kate knows how to work the convent and helps Maggie to survive.

But a horrible event occurs on the beach below the rocky cliffs of St. Garan's. Maggie knows she will be blamed and life will become intolerable. Kate rescues her and the two decide to run away in the middle of the night. The duo turns into a foursome before the night is over, and they do their best to escape from St. Garan's.

It's at this point that I can't give anything else away. It would spoil the rest of the story!! I have to give the author kudos for writing a book that didn't give anything away before it was necessary. I could anticipate Maggie wanting to leave St. Garan's but did not plan on how it would turn out. I was kept turning pages from the initial bombing until the last page.

The story is dark, set in a desperate time in history, but Maggie's spirit and perseverance keeps the novel from becoming too depressing. The situations felt real and the horrors Maggie endured were traumatic, but she was a strong character able to persevere. This is yet another novel by Alex McAulay that I was relieved to end because of the constant suspense, but sad to see end because I was so caught up in the entire story. ( )

When the Nazi bombings of London badly injure Maggie's aunt, her mother decides to send her to Wales where she thinks she will be safe. Maggie ends up in the hands of nuns who have strayed from the church and after an incident that will result in brutal punishment, she and 3 other girls flee.

I love reading about this time period, but while the ending was hopeful, what happened to Maggie after her escape from the nuns seemed a little too far-fetched. ( )