Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Margot has spent most of her life at St Agnes’ Orphanage with her little sister Lucie. She does her best to care for all the children, cradling them under the stars when Sister Helen can’t get them to sleep. But she knows that when the Nazis reach the gates of Paris, the Jewish orphans will be in terrible danger. She must help them escape…
Holding on tightly to Lucie as they all scramble into a truck bound for the countryside, Margot cannot prevent her hands from shaking. Then one night, by the flickering light of the makeshift fire, Sister Helen tells Margot she has found a rich family to take Lucie in. But there will be no safety for the other children – unless Margot can lead them to the French coast for a ship destined for America.
Looking from her sister’s bright blue eyes to the little patchwork teddy the children share, Margot realises she must trust someone else with the only family she has left. But as soon as the wrought-iron gates of Lucie’s new home slam shut, Margot knows she’s made a mistake. Devastated at being left behind with strangers, Lucie runs away.
Margot knows the only place Lucie will run to is the high stone walls of the orphanage, where she last knew warmth and food and comfort. With fear in her heart, Margot is faced with an impossible choice. Should she race to save her sister from a terrible fate, or make sure the other orphans escape?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Home for War Orphans to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Home for War Orphans is the first book in a new series by Jenna Ness and quite simply it was brilliant from start to finish and you must read this as soon as you possibly can. There was a very brief prologue which gave the reader a few titbits of information but nothing really concrete. I’m not saying this in a negative way but really it could have been left out as not all books need to have a prologue and if this hadn’t been there I don’t think I would have guessed at certain things as I was reading and therefore I would have been completely shocked at some of the twists and turns here. As a result I felt the impact on me with some things wasn’t as significant as it could have been. But look that’s just a minor grumble from me and not even a grumble more of an observation. For truly this was an amazing and powerful book from the get go.
The chapters alternate between Helen who runs St.Agnes’ orphanage as a school in Paris and one of her orphans Margot who herself is quite nearly on the cusp of adulthood. This worked really well throughout the book as the reader could read of the same situation but from different perspectives and it really helped the story as a whole come together. I can’t say I favoured one of the main female characters over the other as they both had their positives and negatives. Each doing brave, courageous and daring things but then at other times you questioned their actions and thought processes. But this is what made the book exciting as well as the fantastic writing throughout.
It’s June 1940 and the Germans are marching on Paris. People who can are fleeing the city for the coast and there is a sense of urgency for Helen and her small band of charges to leave the place they have called home especially as some of the younger girls are Jewish. Helen has secured passage on a boat to America which will leave from Portugal but first they must reach Marseilles. The odds are stacked against them that they will get their safely and without much trouble along the route as hundreds of thousands of people are in the same situation. There is an increasing sense of desperation, struggle, conflict and unimaginable choices which they will face along the way but throughout it all both Helen and Margot show that they are made of strong stuff and they won’t go down without a fight.
Helen was an interesting and complex character whose full history we are not privy to even though there are significant pieces that are revealed along the way and they are certainly crucial/vital to the overall story but still the author has kept things in reserve for future books and I genuinely have no clue as to what will be revealed, which is brilliant as it really makes you want the next book immediately. Helen is a forthright person, practical, caring, with a no nonsense, sensible attitude. She is in control of the situation and has every step planned out but I don’t think she bargained for the obstacles their little group would encounter. Partly because of the situation with the Germans and midway through the journey France is split into northern western section where the south would be controlled by the French.
This really put a further sense of urgency upon their journey. But also the girls themselves threw plenty of spanners into the works and you couldn’t blame them some were very young and innocent and the older two Margot and Josette were older and had minds and opinions of their own which needed to be heard.Not to mention they could both be very stubborn. There is a history surrounding Helen which is having a deep impact on her present and she is constantly worrying over this and she also feels at times lost, unloved and wanted. But why? I am being purposefully vague regarding Helen and the journey undertaken to Marseille as to mention specifics would give too much away and just ruin what was an incredible and impactful story.
Margot came across as very with it and she was there side by side with Helen and wanted to reach Marseille but yet she stood firm with her younger sister Lucie. Margot has a plan in her mind that she wishes to see come to fruition as it would mean security for herself and Lucie but there are innumerable twists and turns that come in their direction which see these plans derailed and so the author sets the reader off on another track. Curveball after curveball was thrown in and I was loving every moment of it. Margot was stubborn and fought against Helen over some things but I thought more power to her. I can’t not mention the sublime writing and descriptions of travelling along the roads with so many refugees trudging alongside them, the sense of futility and panic that they were feeling. The journey seemed endless as day after day passed and I thought god they are not going to make it and what would become of them all. I was literally urging them on from the comfort of my couch thankful it wasn’t me in that situation.
The title suggested to me that this book would have been in a similar vein to Lizzie Page’s, Shillings Grange Children’s Home series so therefore I was expecting an easy non taxing pleasant enough read set during World War Two. Well boy was I completely wrong and in the best way possible because within the first few chapters I found myself deeply invested in the characters, their unimaginable situation and how they would endure what was to come. There was no messing about with filler in chapters or just scenes there for the sake of it. Instead it was straight down to business and once the action started in chapter one it never stopped until I reached the final page. I was taken on an unforgettable and exhilarating ride that was one of the best historical fiction books that I have read in quite some time.
Anything we needed to know was presented as and when necessary. There were no drawn out scenes that conveyed more or less nothing and didn’t move the story on or chapters that took forever to get to the point. In fact it was the opposite with great tension and suspense and plenty of mystery although I did guess at certain things but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story at all. I was just rather smug with myself that I had guessed things correctly. I would say initially I did question whether things regarding Helen were revealed too soon but the further I delved into the book this was quashed and I knew the author had everything so expertly and cleverly plotted out. There is still so many intriguing things to discover about Helen. She is certainly a woman who has lived her life several times over I can tell you.
The Home for War Orphans is Jenna Ness’ first foray into historical fiction and all I can say is Jenna where have you been all this time? I can’t believe that you haven’t written heaps of books in this genre. This was a well-paced story with finely drawn characters with clear in-depth research which brought everything to life so vividly and the fact I read it in two sittings says it all considering my attention has been all over the place for ages. I could see this as a Netflix drama series which I would be glued to so good was it. The ending oh that ending it has left the reader with so many questions but set us up perfectly for book two which if it is anything as good as book one, I know I am in for a real treat. I’ll wait impatiently wait for the next book. Fingers crossed we might get it before the end of the year. But I definitely have no hesitation in recommending as it was a book that really reminded me just how much I love reading.
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