The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck has several parts and it covers several years, before, during, and after World War II.

Marianne is the main character. She is a woman who's husband is a resister of Hitler's, and when he and a few other resisters fail in their mission, Marianne is tasked with finding other lost wives and children of other resisters.

This novel followed three women, Marianne, Ania, and Benita. Marianne is stubborn in her ways, but she also wants to see everyone succeed. She is a stubborn and strong character, everything is black or white. Ania is a woman with a secret, and she is unwilling to tell anyone because it might affect her safety and the safety of her two sons. She is a strong woman, and is willing to help Marianna as much as she can, however, it might only be because she doesn't want anyone to find out the truth she is keeping hidden. Benita is a young woman, who depends too much on her looks and smarts to get and keep men. She doesn't really know how to protect herself, even though later in the book we find that in certain instances she isn't the weak little girl she often appears to be.

I, overall, liked this book. I thought it was interesting and a deep read. Being about the different sides of Germany and the reaction people had to Hitler was thought provoking. Of course this is a fiction book, so you can take from it what you wish.

My complaints are small. I wanted more women in the castle. I wanted to see a wider variety of women who had survived as well as they could have. I wanted to see more from people who had different experiences. I also wanted to see a little more development in some of the characters, or at least hear more about their experiences. We don't get too into depth with Marianne, and I feel that her character should have had more change and development. There were some horrifying parts, but I feel like some of it could have been explored more. Most of us know what happened in WWII, and this could have gone a little deeper into the experiences (even as fiction) of the women, and other people they had met.

My other minor complaint was the children seemed inconsequential. There was a part in the beginning when you thought Marianne's daughters would have more to do with the story than they did. I wanted to hear more from them, and more from Ania's sons. I feel that there could have been more written from the different point of views of the children.

This was not a bad book. I did enjoy it. I thought it was a little too long, and at times a little too slow, so it could have been edited down a little bit. That being said, I do recommend this book. It was pretty good and mostly kept my interest.

The Toll by Cherie Priest is about a couple, Titus and Melanie Bell, who are traveling to their honeymoon destination, a campsite near a swamp for a canoe trip. As they get closer to the campsite strange things start to happen and Titus finds himself on a single lane bridge that seems unsafe for travel. Later Titus wakes up in the middle of the road, unsure of how he got there, his new wife missing. In a town not far away lives a cast of characters, Jess, Dave, Cameron, Daisy, Claire, and a crazy old woman (which every small town has).

There aren't many characters in this book who are likeable, and the ones who are, Daisy, Claire, and Dave, aren't used to their full advantage. I would have liked to see a little more development with them, and at least a little more in Dave's backstory since he is not only important to Jess, but Cameron and Titus as well.

Titus is a very unlikable man, and as we meander through the book it often seems as if he doesn't like his new bride. Melanie and him don't seem to get along from the beginning, which is not only uncomfortable, but it makes the reader not really care what has happened to Melanie. The reader doesn't really get to know her, so in the end we don't care what has happened because we don't get much personality. Jess is underdeveloped as well. She could have been much stronger and used better than she was. As she was there was very little to her. As Dave's girlfriend and Cameron's crush she could have been a key plot device, and yet she herself really wasn't.

I was expecting more from this book than I got. After the first chapter I became confused, and I am really getting a little tired of chapters that switch from one character or setting or even timeline to another. Can we just have one timeline? One character, even two is okay, but five is too many. Can we have strong, interesting characters?

The story didn't seem complete. There wasn't enough information for me to feel fear or scared for the characters. There was a big bad something, but since it was never defined, and it was only repeated that every few years the "something" caused people to disappear, there wasn't a defined thing to be afraid of, or scared for the characters.

I'm not sure that horror is Cherie Priest's genre. After reading Boneshaker I feel she should stick to steampunk. This was not the best novel I've read recently, and I personally don't feel that it really fits in the horror genre. I'm not sure I, personally, will read any more of Priest's novels. I wanted more, so much more.

This book was a chore to read. I had to force myself to read it over several weeks, and I am generally a fast reader.