A SPARROW IN TEREZIN - A Hidden Masterpiece Novel #2 By Kristy Cambron

Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date:  April 7, 2015
Pages:  353
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Format:  Kindle
My Rating: 4+ Stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


About the Book: 
Bound together across time, two women will discover a powerful connection through one survivor's story of hope in the darkest days of a war-torn world. Present Day--With the grand opening of her new art gallery and a fairy tale wedding just around the corner, Sera James feels she's stumbled into a charmed life--until a brutal legal battle against fiancé William Hanover threatens to destroy the perfectly planned future she's planned before it even begins. Now, after an eleventh-hour wedding ceremony and a callous arrest, William faces a decade in prison for a crime he never committed, and Sera must battle the scathing accusations that threaten her family and any hope for a future.

1942--Kája Makovsky narrowly escaped occupied Prague in 1939, and was forced to leave her half-Jewish family behind. Now a reporter for the Daily Telegraph in England, Kája
discovers the terror has followed her across the Channel in the shadowy form of the London Blitz. When she learns Jews are being exterminated by the thousands on the continent, Kája has no choice but to return to her mother city, risking her life to smuggle her family to freedom and peace.

Connecting across a century through one little girl, a Holocaust survivor with a foot in each world, these two women will discover a kinship that springs even in the darkest of times. In this tale of hope and survival, Sera and Kája must cling to the faith that sustains and fight
to protect all they hold dear--even if it means placing their own futures on the line.

Wanda's Thoughts: 
The marriage of William and Sera is hindered by William's past. He is being charged of felony grand theft and forgery, and is facing prison time for crimes he didn’t commit. But Sera is determined to face the humiliation because she trusts her husband, and believes in his innocence.

Kaja fled Nazi-occupied Prague in March of 1939, leaving her half Jewish parents behind, with a promise from them that they would be on the next train. Kaja’s parents had sent her away because things had begun to turn bad in Prague, but they had no way of knowing that their daughter was now in the most dangerous place in the world. War had chased her to an ARP Shelter in the heart of London – she was living in the Blitz, caught up in another nightmare.

Kaja read that the Nazis were killing Jews, rounding them up and sending them away where many of them were never heard from again. The camps in the East were killing centers where the Jews, along with women and children, were murdered with bullets and by gas. Kaja makes the decision to return to Prague to rescue her parents.

Liam Marshall, a reporter assigned to the war beat, meets Kaja in London, and is immediately attracted to her. A romance soon blossoms between them. Liam knew there was no way of stopping Kaja from returning to Prague. He understood Kaja’s heart and used his connections to help her in her quest. Kaja was a woman of incredible will, and astounding courage, who was about to embark on a harrowing journey of great sadness.

And the story unfolds as Kaja returns to Prague and ends up in Terezin, a halfway point – a holding pen for Jews that was a combined ghetto and concentration camp. Between 1942 – 1944 more than 15,000 children passed through Terezin, living in horrific conditions, while they awaited to be transported from the ghettos to one of the Nazi killing centers.

The author cleverly weaves together two storylines that are compelling and beautifully written. The characters are strong and unique, and the engrossing story that takes place during WWII is vividly described – quite captivating.

A slight negative comment – I couldn’t become fully engaged with the story of William and Sera, and I did read the first book in the series, The Butterfly and the Violin. My rating is 4.5 stars.

Prepare to lose yourself in this thrilling novel, beautifully crafted, by an extraordinary author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for and honest review.  

About the Author: 

I'm active on social media - stop by Twitter @kcambronauthor and Facebook to say Hello! https://www.facebook.com/KCambronAuthor

Jesus follower. Wife & mom. Author of THE BUTTERFLY AND THE VIOLIN and A SPARROW IN TEREZIN. Love all things vintage. Not a fan of cancer. Friend to coconut mocha lattes the world over. KristyCambron.Com TheGROVEstory.com

THE PLUM TREE By Ellen Marie Wiseman

Publisher:  Kensington
Release Date: 2012
Pages: 387
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Format:  Kindle
My Rating: 5+ Stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

About the Book:  A deeply moving and masterfully written story of human resilience and enduring love, The Plum Tree follows a young German woman through the chaos of World War II and its aftermath."Bloom where you're planted," is the advice Christine Bölz receives from her beloved Oma. But seventeen-year-old domestic Christine knows there is a whole world waiting beyond her small German village. It's a world she's begun to glimpse through music, books--and through Isaac Bauerman, the cultured son of the wealthy Jewish family she works for. 

Yet the future she and Isaac dream of sharing faces greater challenges than their difference in stations. In the fall of 1938, Germany is changing rapidly under Hitler's regime. Anti-Jewish posters are everywhere, dissenting talk is silenced, and a new law forbids Christine from returning to her job--and from having any relationship with Isaac. In the months and years that follow, Christine will confront the Gestapo's wrath and the horrors of Dachau, desperate to be with the man she loves, to survive--and finally, to speak out. 

Set against the backdrop of the German homefront, this is an unforgettable novel of courage and resolve, of the inhumanity of war, and the heartbreak and hope left in its wake.

Wanda's Thoughts: 
This was not an easy read, and certainly not for the faint of heart, but an incredible story about the Holocaust, that was just heart wrenching. WWII and the Holocaust was a horrible time in our history that brought great sadness to the Jewish people. But this is the story of survival, and the misery of six years, told from a German girl’s perspective.

Details of WWII are woven together with a romance between a seventeen–year-old German girl, Christine, and a German Jew, Isaac, who were from two different worlds. Isaac was the son of a wealthy lawyer, and Christine was the daughter of a poor mason. As a result of their forbidden love, they found themselves in a boxcar, headed to Dachau, crushed like kindling, filling every square inch of space. It was dark and stifling hot, the stench unbearable – a harrowing and devastating experience.

From the book – “War makes perpetrators of some, criminals of others, and victims of everyone. Not all of the soldiers on the front are fighting for Hitler and his ideals. Just because a soldier is in the battle, doesn’t mean that he believes in the war.”

“They’re murdering thousands of people. Along with Jews, they’re killing Gypsies, the crippled, the feeble minded, the elderly. They’re gassing them and burning the corpses in giant ovens. Unless prisoners can be of some use, and then they’ll work them until they die.”

The writing and plot are solid, the in-depth storyline intriguing, and the characters are captivating. I can’t imagine anything more horrific than WWII and the Holocaust. This is a story you’ll not soon forget. I highly recommend. 5+ stars.

About the Author:  Ellen Marie Wiseman's debut novel, The Plum Tree, was released by Kensington Publishing on December 25th, 2012. Set in Nazi Germany, The Plum Tree is an epic story of human resilience and enduring hope that follows a young German woman through WWII as she struggles to survive poverty and Allied bombs, finds the courage to outwit SS officers, and risks everything trying to save the love of her life, a Jewish man. Find Ellen on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?i... or like The Plum Tree at: www.facebook.com/ThePlumTreeNovel Fan Page: www.Facebook.com/EllenMarieWisemanAuthor

CIRCLING THE SUN By Paula McLain

Publisher:  Ballantine  Books
Expected Release Date: July 28, 2015
Pages: 368
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating:  4 Stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

About the Book:  Paula McLain, author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Paris Wife, takes readers into the glamorous and decadent circle of British expats living in Kenya in the 1920s. Circling the Sun tells the story of the beautiful young horse trainer, adventurer, and aviator Beryl Markham, from her childhood in British East Africa to her relationship with hunter Denys Finch Hatton and rivalry with Out of Africa author Karen Blixen—a notorious love triangle that changed the course of Beryl’s life.

Wanda's Review: 
Paula McLain certainly created an interesting cast of eccentric characters, bringing them to life, and the writing is both beautiful and descriptive. I was immediately pulled into the storyline.

Beryl Markham emerges as a strong and determined woman, but also a very complicated woman with an adventurous spirit. She becomes a horse trainer, stepping into her father’s shadow, and is granted an English trainer’s license at a young age. It was a dream - come true. Later, she becomes an aviator, where the challenges of flying brought her alive, giving her a feeling of freedom.

Beryl struggled with one failed relationship after another, many of them poor choices, and seemed to be at the center of many scandals and gossip. She becomes friends with Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa, but soon betrays her by becoming romantically involved with Denys Finch Hatton, and a love triangle evolves. Karen and Beryl both loved Denys, but Denys belonged to no one and never had. Denys was perhaps the only man Beryl ever truly loved, and their relationship changed the direction of her life over and over again.

The beautiful and bold Beryl Markham was certainly ahead of her time, led an adventurous life, a life that never lacked confidence. A great read! 4 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Goodreads as a first-reads-winner.

About the Author:  Paula McLain has published two collections of poetry, “Less of Her” and “Stumble, Gorgeous,” both from New Issues Poetry Press, and a memoir entitled “Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses” (Little, Brown, 2003). “A Ticket to Ride,” is her debut novel from Ecco/HarperCollins. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996, and has since been a writer-in-residence at Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and The Ucross Foundation Residency Program, and received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. Individual poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including the Gettysburg Review, Antioch Review, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. As well as teaching part-time at John Carroll University, she is a core faculty member in the low-residency MFA Program in Poetry at New England College.

Hausfrau: A Novel by Jill Alexander Essbaum

Publisher:  Random House LLC
Release Date:  March 17, 2015
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
My rating:  2 Stars⭐️⭐️

About the Book: 
Anna Benz, an American in her late thirties, lives with her Swiss husband Bruno and their three young children in a postcard-perfect suburb of Zürich. Though she leads a comfortable, well-appointed life, Anna is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with the emotionally unavailable Bruno or even with her own thoughts and feelings, Anna tries to rouse herself with new experiences: German language classes, Jungian analysis, and a series of sexual affairs she enters into with an ease that surprises even her. Tensions escalate, and her lies start to spin out of control. Having crossed a moral threshold, Anna will discover where a woman goes when there’s no going back.

Wanda's Thoughts:  Switzerland never felt like home to Anna Benz, a housewife and mother of three. She had been living in Switzerland, having arrived from America nine years earlier, and felt confined to a small area because she did not drive, not having a license. Her life consisted of using locomotives, or by the willingness of Bruno, her husband, or Bruno’s mother, Ursula, driving her to her destination. Anna was a language student and became sexually involved with Archie Sutherland, also a language student. Anna had a desire to be wanted, but she really couldn’t differentiate between need and want. She felt she was neither plain or pretty – just irrevocably average and mediocre.

And the story unfolds as this complex and desperate woman, ‘a good wife, mostly,’ searches for meaning to her life. The story is packed with graphic sex, infidelity, and betrayal. It was clear early on that this book and I were not meant to be. With very explicit sexual scenes and profanity, this book had no appeal to me. Most of the characters were shallow and I never felt any empathy or connection to them. The storyline was strange and dark, with a disturbing topic, and never pulled me in.

But ---- on a positive note – The author wrote in a meticulous and descriptive way – very lyrical.

My rating is 2 stars. I bought this book on impulse and obviously it was a mistake on my part.

About the Author:  Jill Alexander Essbaum's publications include the full-length collections Heaven, Harlot, and Necropolis, and a chapbook of sonnets, Oh Forbidden. Her poems have appeared in religious journals, hoity-toity journals, online journals, formalist journals, and erotic publications. She is obsessed with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, her five cats, puns, sex, Old Time Radio, and God. And: Words. An associate editor for the online journal Anti-, and a blogger for the Best American Poetry blog, she's presently at work on a novel vaguely based on the time she spent living in Zürich, Switzerland. She believes most firmly that wit trumps irony, clever beats disaffected, and, in all things, sincerity is key.

DEVOTIONS FROM THE GARDEN: Finding Peace and Rest from Your Hurried Life By Miriam Drennan

Publisher:  Thomas Nelson
Release Date:  March 31, 2015
Pages:  224
Rating:  5 Stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book Description: 
Come to the garden alone, and fill your soul with His presence.

There's nothing on earth like the peace and loveliness of a magnificent garden. It's the place where Adam and Eve first fellowshipped with God, and where you, too, can escape from this chaotic world into His loving arms of beauty and serenity."Devotions from the Garden" takes you to that place where senses are restored as dewdrops settle and butterflies gather to witness the miracles of God's creation bloom and grow. These ninety devotions explore the parallels of life with the elements of the garden to help you see God, to sense His presence, to soothe your soul, and to rest in knowing He is with you throughout each day. Included are striking photographs with a fresh, contemporary design for timeless appeal.

Wanda's Thoughts:  Rich in content and elaborately designed, Devotions from the Garden is absolutely one of the most beautiful devotionals I’ve ever used. What a great way to enhance your Scripture readings! The beauty of flowers, one of God’s many blessings, will simply lift your spirits and refresh you soul.

There are 90 devotions that include Scripture, and each ends with a prayer, and many are illustrated with photos of flowers and garden designs. The daily readings cover many aspects of gardening and weave them together with the uplifting Scripture, giving a refreshing perspective to your daily spiritual needs. A perfect way to start the day! My rating is 5 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this devotional from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author: 
Miriam Drennan is the author of Devotions for the Beach and the Days You Wish You Were There and Soar Above the Madness: Surviving Office Politics Without Losing Your Mind, Your Job, or Your Lunch. She currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she enjoys gardening and playing with words. Drop her a line at www.that-writer.com.

SECRETS FROM THE PAST By Barbara Taylor Bradford

Publisher:  St. Martin's Press
Release Date:  2013
Pages: 368
Genre:  Women's Fiction
Rating:  3 Stars

Book Description: 
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a powerful and emotional novel about one woman’s quest to uncover long-buried secrets about her family--secrets she will stop at nothing to uncover, no matter the consequences. At thirty, American photojournalist Serena Stone has already made a name for herself with her unique and dramatic coverage of wars in the Middle East, following in her famous father’s footsteps.  But after his unexpected death in France, she ends her job at the renowned photo news agency, weary of years of danger.  Leaving the front lines behind, Serena returns to New York where she starts work on a biography of her celebrated father.  When Serena discovers that her former lover Zachary North is in trouble overseas, she's forced to leave the safety of her new life, and head back to a place she was trying to escape...and her life will never be the same again. As she brings Zac back to health in Venice, she discovers a shocking secret in the archives of her late father’s work.  It is a secret that will propel her back to war-torn Libya, risking her life looking for clues that she hopes will piece together the mystery surrounding her parents’ marriage and the part of their life together that she never knew.

Well-kept secrets, passionate love, obsession, betrayal, redemption, and the power of the past to control the future propel Secrets from the Past, the explosive new novel from The New York Times bestselling author Barbara Taylor Bradford

Wanda's Thoughts: 
As with the author’s other novels, Secrets from the Past has a strong and determined woman as the central character, with some family drama, but this one just didn’t measure up. The characters were flat, relationships felt forced, and the shallow storyline being rather predictable, had little to draw me in – very few unexpected twists.

A few positive notes – the descriptive writing is beautiful and is still what you’d expect from this writer. Also, a part of the story takes us to war torn Libya that adds credibility and some interest to the storyline.

Unfortunately there were too few redeeming qualities and I found this book to be just lukewarm. My rating is 3 stars.

About the Author: Barbara Taylor Bradford is the author of 25 bestselling novels, including Playing the Game, Breaking the Rules, and The Ravenscar Dynasty. She was born in Leeds, England, and from an early age, she was a voracious reader: at age 12, she had already read all of Dickens and the Brontë sisters. By the age of twenty, she was an editor and columnist on Fleet Street. She published her first novel, A Woman of Substance, in 1979, and it has become an enduring bestseller.

Barbara Taylor Bradford’s books are published in over 90 countries in 40 languages, with sales figures in excess of 82 million. Ten of her novels have been adapted into television mini-series starring actors including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Liam Neeson, Deborah Kerr and Elizabeth Hurley. She has been inducted into the Writers Hall of Fame of America, and in June of 2007, Barbara was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to Literature.

She lives in New York City with her husband, television producer Robert Bradford, to whom all her novels are dedicated, and their Bichon Frise dogs, who sit under her desk while she writes.

THE MAPMAKER'S CHILDREN: A Novel By Sarah McCoy

Publisher:  Crown
Expected Release Date:  May 5, 2015
Pages:  320
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Rating:  5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book Description:  When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.
   Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance. 
   Ingeniously plotted to a riveting end, Sarah and Eden’s woven lives connect the past to the present, forcing each of them to define courage, family, love, and legacy in a new way.

Wanda's Thoughts:  1859 – Harpers Ferry - A Negro insurrection has taken place where wagonloads of rifles were seized, with plans to distribute weapons to slaves for a national mutiny. Captain John Brown had been arrested as the leader of this uprising and was convicted of treason, murder, and conspiracy. 

Sarah Brown, daughter of John Brown, has a deep determination to follow the path of her father. She knows how deeply invested her father was in the Great Abolition calling. She would prove herself a significant contributor to the Underground Railroad by drawing maps. She was a talented artist who would be very useful to the cause. 

21st Century – New Charlestown, West Virginia – Eden Anderson finds a porcelain-doll’s head, with no body attached, in a root cellar. It appears to have been purposely removed. Why would someone remove a doll’s head?

And the story unfolds as these two stories come together and the author weaves true historical facts into fiction. 

Sarah McCoy’s captivating writing style is simply superb as she paints a picture with her words. The story is thoroughly researched and beautifully written, giving you a good feel for the time and place. My rating is 5 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

About the Author:  SARAH McCOY is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of the novels The Baker's Daughter, The Time It Snowed In Puerto Rico and Grand Central. 

The Baker's Daughter was praised as "a beautiful heart-breaking gem of a novel" by Tatiana de Rosnay and "a thoughtful reading experience indeed" by Chris Bohjalian. The Baker's Daughter was a Doubleday/Literary Guild Book Club selection and a GoodreadsChoice Award Nominee for Best Historical Fiction in 2012. Sarah has taught writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso. The daughter of an army officer, her family was stationed in Germany during her childhood. She currently lives with her husband and dog, Gilbert, in El Paso, Texas, where she is working on her next novel (releasing in Summer 2015 from Crown).


For more information on Sarah and her writing, visit her website:http://sarahmccoy.com