Book Review: Out of the Easy

TITLE: Out of the Easy
AUTHOR: Ruta Sepetys
PUBLISHED: February 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PREMISE: In 1950s New Orleans, Josie is doing her best to make a future for herself despite several obstacles in her way.
MY REVIEW: I actually have never read Between Shades of Gray. It's been one of those that I've made a note of and said "oh yeah, need to read that one" but have never gotten around too. After this read, I think I'll definitely get around to it this year. Sepetys is a great writer.
For one it's great reading a book set in a time period not often written about. Most YA fiction does the Victorian era, or the thirties, and occasionally you'll see a book in the medieval times and quite often during war periods. Never during quiet times (by history standards anyway) like the nineteen fifties. Sepetys's research shows brilliantly here and it's woven into a great story about a girl trying to get out of the lot in life that she was thrown into. I'm sucker for stories like these. Josie is a underdog and you root for her.
If you love historical fiction of any kind, this is a great read. True, there are some tropes in here that kind of make me roll my eyes (forced love triangle is forced) but for the most part, this was a nice and solid historical fiction read. Between Shades of Gray is definitely on the list now.
WHO SHOULD READ: Fans of Between Shades of Grey, historical fiction fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five sassy Madams