As one giveaway ends it's now time for the final giveaway of 2024 which once again has been generously donated by Emma who is offering one follower the chance to win a £10 Amazon voucher to treat yourself to a book or 2 for Christmas. Emma has singlehandedly been holding the fort on the blog for most of the year as 2024, especially the last 4 or 5 months, has been a real struggle for me reading wise so I'd like to say a huge thank you for her friendship and support.
I can't believe it's 1st December already! Personally this year has seen my reading slump continue although I'm slowly getting my reading mojo back so hoping to resume reading for reviews in the new year.
To say thank you for your continued support of the blog I have two bundles of goodies to give away so there will be two winners selected when the giveaway ends. As an element of surprise, I have wrapped up the prizes apart from the sweets.
Bundle 1 consists of:
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Poland, 1944 When twelve-year-old Marta and her little sister Joanna are snatched while out shopping for food and pushed into an army truck with a swastika on the door, they are heartbroken. Terrified they will never see their mother again, the little girls cling to each other as the truck full of stolen children rumbles through the countryside.
But worse is yet to come. When they arrive at their strange new home, tears streaming down their cheeks, Marta is sent into a separate room. As she is measured, her blonde hair and blue eyes exclaimed over, she doesn’t realise she has seen her sister for the last time. Later, as she sobs alone in the chilly dormitory, her only crumb of comfort is the memory of a kind German nurse who took a photo of the two sisters, and promised Marta she will do what she can to find Joanna.
Berlin, 2005 In her cosy sitting room, seventy-year-old Marta freezes. The woman on her television talking about lost children is someone she could never forget. Margarete Weiss is the nurse who took the photo of her and Joanna, the photo with the secret message on the back…
Marta has never been able to find her younger sister and has buried herself in work so as not to be haunted by the ghosts of her past. But, seeing Margarete’s blue eyes again, a shoot of hope takes root in her heart. Margarete may not have been able to prevent the sisters being separated during the war. But might she be able to help Marta find out what happened to Joanna now?
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Paris, 1940. As Nazi soldiers march down the Champs Elysees, Noor’s heart is shattered. Her family is forced to flee their home to the safety of England, and as Noor watches the French coast disappear in the distance, she vows to do everything she can to stop Germany from devouring her beloved country.
Training as a wireless operative in England, Noor’s perfect French makes her the ideal candidate for undercover work in her beloved Paris, and she is soon assigned to an illustrious spy network led by a mysterious man named Prosper.
Day after day, Noor walks the treacherous streets of Paris looking for safe places to broadcast messages to London. But Nazi officers lurk around every corner, and Noor’s heart thunders in her chest as she evades detection, tightly clutching the briefcase containing her radio equipment. She knows it would take just one stop and search for her life to be over.
With each passing day her mission becomes more lethal as, one by one, her fellow agents are captured. Someone is betraying them, but who? And when Noor becomes the last agent in the network, can she keep the links with England alive, to help win the war?
Reviewed by Emma Crowley
As the smell of smoke drifts through the air, Jewish people lock their doors. They no longer feel welcome in their home city, and while some mothers hide their children, others take them, clad in dark threadbare coats, to the crowded train station and the hope of a new life.
Rosa has feared for her twins since they were born two weeks ago. As she huddles in her filthy house, crammed in with her neighbours, she sees children growing weaker. It may be too late for her and her seven-year-old daughter Therese. But can she find a way out for her precious babies?
Dora scans the desperate crowd on the platform, despairing as she knows there isn’t room for all of them on the train to England. And when a woman thrusts a basket containing newborn twins into her arms, a shiver of dread slides down her spine. Babies aren’t authorised to travel – how can she keep them hidden from the cold-eyed soldiers?
She knows this mother wants the same thing she does – safety for these innocent children. But will she be able to help this brave woman before it is too late?
