Browsing Tag

WWII

reviews March 5, 2017

Corpus by Rory Clements

1936.
Europe is in turmoil.
The Nazis have marched into the Rhineland.
In Russia, Stalin has unleashed his Great Terror.
Spain has erupted in civil war.

In Berlin, a young Englishwoman evades the Gestapo to deliver vital papers to a Jewish scientist. Within weeks, she is found dead in her Cambridge bedroom, a silver syringe clutched in her fingers.

In a London club, three senior members of the British establishment light the touch paper on a conspiracy that will threaten the very heart of government. Even the ancient colleges of Cambridge are not immune to political division. Dons and students must choose a side: right or left, where do you stand?

When a renowned member of the county set and his wife are found horribly murdered, a maverick history professor finds himself dragged into a world of espionage which, until now, he has only read about in books. But the deeper Thomas Wilde delves, the more he wonders whether the murders are linked to the death of the girl with the silver syringe – and, just as worryingly, to the scandal surrounding King Edward VIII and his mistress Wallis Simpson…

Set against the drumbeat of war and moving from Berlin to Cambridge, from Whitehall to the Kent countryside, and from the Fens to the Aragon Front in Spain, this big canvas international thriller marks the beginning of a major new series from bestselling author Rory Clements. (publisher)

Thomas Wilde is a history professor at Cambridge University who gets himself drawn into a murder investigation. When a young woman is found dead, Lydia Morris doesn’t believe her friend’s death was just an overdose. She thinks it was a murder. When parents of Lydia’s other friend are murdered, Wilde can’t but wonder if the deaths are somehow connected.

Meanwhile, King Edward VIII is determined to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Both are known Nazi sympathizers and the Nazis want to keep Edward on the throne. The whole country is divided; left or right.

This is my first Rory Clements book even though I’ve owned Martyr for some time… And I’m glad I finally read his book!

I loved Wilde. I mean history professor as the main character, what’s not to like? He’s bit of an outsider; American, widower, hasn’t been to war and isn’t a fan of Cambridge traditions or politics. He’s studied Francis Walsingham so he knows something about spies and espionage.
It was interesting to see what might have happened during the Abdication. Politicians and Nazis all wanting their best choice on the throne. Conspiracies and espionage everywhere.

I really enjoyed this and now I have to start reading those John Shakespeare books.

4/5

Published: Zaffre (February 21, 2017)
Format: ebook
Source: Netgalley

reviews February 28, 2017

Munich Girl by Phyllis Edgerly Ring

The Munich Girl: A novel of the legacies that outlast war.

The past may not be done with us. What secrets is a portrait of Eva Braun hiding?

Anna Dahlberg grew up eating dinner under her fatherís war-trophy portrait of Eva Braun. Fifty years after the war, she discovers what he never didóthat her mother and Hitlerís mistress were friends.

Plunged into the world of the ìordinaryî Munich girl who was her motherís confidanteóand a tyrantís loveróAnna uncovers long-buried secrets and unknown reaches of her heart, to reveal the enduring power of love in the legacies that always outlast war.

After Anna Dahlberg’s mother dies, she finds her old diary and learns that her mother and Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun were friends. She learns how the painting of Eva, that has hung in their dining room, came into her father’s possession.

This was an interesting read since there is so little written about Eva Braun. This book certainly made me want to learn more of her.

I had some difficulties connecting with Anna. Even in her fifties she was so weak and bit childish. My favorite parts were chapters with Peggy, Anna’s mother, and her time during the war. It would have been interesting to have her POV after the war too. How she managed the life after it since she had to make hard decisions leaving Germany behind.

Even if I had some troubles with the book, I did enjoy it very much. You can see that the author has done her research well.

3,5/5

Published: Whole Sky Books (November 14, 2015)
Format: ebook
Source: Premier Virtual Author Book Tours

About Phyllis Edgerly Ring

Author Phyllis Edgerly Ring lives in New England and returns as often as she can to her childhood home in Germany. Her years there left her with a deep desire to understand the experience of Germans during the Second World War. She has studied plant sciences and ecology, worked as a nurse, been a magazine writer and editor, taught English to kindergartners in China, and served as program director at a Bahaíi conference center in Maine.

She is also author of the novel, Snow Fence Road, and the inspirational nonfiction, Life at First Sight: Finding the Divine in the Details. Her book for children, Jamila Does Not Want a Bat in Her House, is scheduled for release by Bellwood Press in early 2017.

Blog: http://phyllisedgerlyring.wordpress.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PhyllisEdgerlyRing?ref=hl
Twitter: http:// www.twitter.com/phyllisring

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Munich Girl by Phyllis Edgerly Ring

reviews October 24, 2016

An Address in Amsterdam by Mary Dingee Fillmore

Rachel Klein hopes she can ignore the Nazis when they roll into Amsterdam in May 1940. She’s falling in love, and her city has been the safest place in the world for Jewish people since the Spanish Inquisition. But when Rachel’s Gentile boyfriend is forced to disappear rather than face arrest, she realizes that everything is changing, and so must she—so, although she is often tired and scared, she delivers papers for the underground under the Nazis’ noses. But after eighteen months of ever increasing danger, she pushes her parents to go into hiding with her. The dank basement where they take refuge seems like the last place where Rachel would meet a new man—but she does. An Address in Amsterdam shows that, even in the most hopeless situation, an ordinary young woman can make the choice to act with courage—and even love. (publisher)

Rachel is 18 when the Nazis invade Holland. Soon after she joins the Dutch resistance by delivering letters and false documents. She tries to change her father’s mind about going into hiding but he doesn’t believe Nazi’s would actually harm people, especially German born like himself.
When the war breaks out, Rachel falls in love with Michel who turns out to be a resistance member. She wants to marry him but doesn’t believe that her parents would approve her relationship with a Gentile.

I liked to see how Rachel changed from a rather naïve schoolgirl into a resistance member living a dangerous life. At the start we see the Nazis behaving quite well but the situation started to worsen suddenly. I haven’t read books where it’s been told that things were moderately ok at first. Then there was this huge change in the attitude of all people.

I didn’t get Rachel’s father who just refused to see what was going on. I mean the situation had been horrible for some time before he even started to think about going into hiding.

The first half of the book is told from Rachel’s point of view but then it changed in the second half. In there we have Rachel’s, her parents and, if I remember correctly, Rolf’s. Rolf was Michel’s friend who also worked in the resistance and came into hiding with them. I didn’t see the point of that but oh well.

I would have liked to know what happened to them. I didn’t see the point of getting invested in these people and then not to know if they made it through the war.

Overall I enjoyed the book and I liked to read about the resistance work.

3/5

Published: She Writes Press (October 4, 2016)
Format: ebook
Source: Netgalley

reviews September 13, 2016

Karolina’s Twins by Ronald H. Balson

From the author of Once We Were Brothers comes a saga inspired by true events of a Holocaust survivor’s quest to fulfill a promise, return to Poland and find two sisters lost during World War II.

Lena Woodward, an elderly woman, enlists the help of both lawyer Catherine Lockhart and private investigator Liam Taggart to appraise the story of her harrowing past in Nazi occupied Poland. At the same time, Lena’s son Arthur presents her with a hefty lawsuit under the pretense of garnering her estate—and independence—for his own purposes. Where these stories intersect is through Lena’s dubious account of her life in war-torn Poland, and her sisterhood with a childhood friend named Karolina. Lena and Karolina struggled to live through the atrocity of the Holocaust, and at the same time harbored a courageous, yet mysterious secret of maternity that has troubled Lena throughout her adult life. In telling her story to Catherine and Liam, Lena not only exposes the realities of overcoming the horrors of the Holocaust, she also comes to terms with her own connection to her dark past.

Karolina’s Twins is a tale of survival, love, and resilience in more ways than one. As Lena recounts her story, Catherine herself also recognizes the unwavering importance of family as she prepares herself for the arrival of her unborn child. Through this association and many more, both Lena and Catherine begin to cherish the dogged ties that bind not only families and children, but the entirety of mankind. (Goodreads)

Lena Woodward is a Holocaust survivor who wants to fulfill a promise she made to her friend over 70 years ago. She wants to find her friends twins that were lost during the war in a Nazi occupied Poland. She hires Liam Taggert and Catherine Lockhart to solve the case but Lena’s son isn’t happy about the plan. He thinks his mother is delusional and senile and wants guardianship over Len’s matters.

Even though this is the third book in a series, it works fine as a stand-alone. It was a sad book but also very good. I didn’t want to put the book down but keep reading!
We have two timelines: Modern day where Lena tells the story to Catherine and Liam, and past where we follow Lena during the war. I thought it was easy to follow what timeline we were but I’ve read that many thought was messy.

I liked Lena, Catherine and Liam but Lena’s son Arthur was a jerk. He was just concerned with his inheritance and not his mother’s wellbeing.

I loved this and I’ll have to read the previous books soon.

5/5

Published: St. Martin’s Griffin (September 6, 2016)
Format: ebook
Source: Netgalley

reviews April 14, 2016

Galerie by Steven Greenberg

Every family has secrets, but some are far darker, reach deeper, and touch a rawer nerve than others.

For Vanesa Neuman, the past is a closed book. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, her childhood in the cramped intimacy of south Tel Aviv is shadowed by her parentsí unspoken wartime experiences. But when her father passes away, the closed book falls literally open. Vanesa decides to unravel the mystery of the diary she has received, and strange symbol in it, at all costs.

Set against the backdrop of the Jewish Museum of Prague during the Nazi occupation – Adolf Eichmann’s “Museum of an Extinct Race” – Galerie is fast-paced historical fiction in the tradition of Tatiana De Rosnayís Sarahís Key. From Jerusalemís Yad VíShem Holocaust research center, to the backstreets of Prague, and into the former ìparadise ghettoî of Theresienstadt ñ Vanesaís journey of understanding will reveal a darker family past than she ever imagined and a secret kept alive for over half a century.

When Vanesa Neuman’s father dies, she gets her father’s old diary from the World War II time. Her parents were Holocaust survivors but never spoke about their past and Vanesa feels like she never really knew her parents. She wants to learn more about her family’s history so she travels to Prague with her father’s old diary, which has an odd symbol in it.

The book divides between 1970’s and 1990’s as present day setting place in Israel, Prague and USA. While I liked the book I wasn’t fan of the format. It jumps between different decades with different people telling the story and I was so confused much of the time. I got used to it with time though. The narrator, Vanesa’s husband, isn’t actually present in almost any of the events and seemed like he told what Vanesa had told him. At times he wasn’t sure if things had gone as he thought they had and that was little annoying.

It was interesting to read how Holocaust had such strong effects even to the survivor’s children and we also see how the survivors are treated after the war. I haven’t read much about the survivors in Israel after the war and this gave some light on that.

3,5/5

Published: Evolved Publishing (October 26, 2015)
Format: ebook
Source: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours

About the Author

Steven Greenberg is a professional writer, as well as a full-time cook, cleaner, chauffeur, and work-at-home Dad for three amazing young children, and the lucky husband of a loving and very supportive wife. Born in Texas and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Steven emigrated to Israel only months before the first Gulf War, following graduation from Indiana University in 1990. In 1996, he was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, where he served for 12 years as a Reserves Combat Medic. Since 2002, Steven has worked as an independent marketing writer, copywriter and consultant.

You can find more information at Steven Greenberg’s website. You can also find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Blog Tour Schedule

Tuesday, April 5
Review at Library Educated

Wednesday, April 6
Review & Giveaway at Man of la Book
Interview at Library Educated

Thursday, April 7
Review at With Her Nose Stuck in a Book
Review & Giveaway at The Maiden’s Court

Friday, April 8
Review & Giveaway at Singing Librarian Books

Monday, April 11
Guest Post & Giveaway at Teddy Rose Book Reviews

Tuesday, April 12
Review at Eclectic Ramblings of Author Heather Osborne

Wednesday, April 13
Review at Flashlight Commentary

Thursday, April 14
Review at Bookramblings
Interview at Flashlight Commentary

Friday, April 15
Review at Book Nerd

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