Emma's Review: The Secret Locket by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

When Pascal kisses Noemi and presses his mother’s silver locket into her hands, it is a moment she has been longing for her whole life. Growing up they were fearless, exploring the wild mountains in the Bavarian countryside together. But when war is declared, overnight their love becomes forbidden – Noemi is Jewish, while Pascal is being pressured to become a Hitler Youth officer by his father.

When Noemi’s parents are captured and taken to Dachau, she knows her hometown is no longer safe. With time running out, Pascal smuggles her onto a train, praying she will survive until the war is over. Devastated, he watches the train leave, promising himself that one day he will find the girl who took his heart and locket.

Noemi’s life on the run plunges her into new dangers, but she never loses hope that one day she will make her way home to her family again. She tells herself that family can never now include Pascal, but still she remembers the pendant he gave her, and hope flickers in her chest like a flame, that one day somehow they might reunite…

But as the world burns around her, will she have the strength to find and forgive him? And if she does, will their love last – or will the war’s shadows tear them both apart forever?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Train that Took You Away by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Ever since the Nazis came to power, violence has spread through the city Esther Spielmann once called home. Each night she prays her family will be spared. But when her husband and father are murdered alongside fellow Jews during Kristallnacht, she has no choice but to send her beloved son, Sascha, to safety.

Esther’s heart breaks as she watches his thin legs trembling in the cold as he is ushered with the other crying children towards the Kindertransport. As the train leaves in a cloud of smoke, she thinks of the painting of the two of them hanging in their house. In it, they are tightly embracing and laughing, everything just as it should be. She vows that she will hold him like this once again. But has Esther made a promise she can’t possibly keep?

Each day the hope of finding Sascha burns like a flame in Esther’s chest. The war has taken everything from her, including the painting of her and her beloved son. Then one day the guards come. This time it is Esther who must get on a train. But unlike Sascha, Esther is not being carried to safety. She has heard whispers of the horrors of the concentration camps. But knows she must do everything in her power to survive…

When Esther hears word that her painting might have been found, hope of finding Sascha blooms once more in her chest. In the ashes of war, can she make her way back to her beloved son? And if they do meet again, will either of them be prepared for what they find?

Book Links: Kindle or Papberback

Emma's Review: The Secret Hotel in Berlin by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Lili Rodenberg and her husband Marius run the Edel, Berlin’s most glamorous hotel. For its wealthy guests, it is an escape from the destruction outside, with its elegant piano bar and fine amber brandy. But Lili is Jewish, a secret she is terrified will end in tragedy for her and their beloved little girl.

Lili’s only choice is to hide in plain sight, her heart racing each time uniformed officers step through the Edel’s grand entrance. As Berlin becomes a more frightening place, Lili pleads with her husband to help shelter those in danger but Marius is adamant: he will not risk the lives of his wife and daughter. Until the day he is called to the front – and goes missing in action.

Left in sole charge of the Edel, a heartbroken Lily fixes her smile as she serves men who would have her killed in an instant if they knew the truth. She decides she must fight back, hiding Jews in the hotel’s wine cellar before moving them to safety. Though she is seized with terror, it gives her the strength to carry on.

But her courage catches the attention of the Resistance. What they ask of her is impossible.

Lili has protected her daughter by living a life full of secrets. Can she risk it all now and put her child in danger for the sake of her country? 

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The German Child by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

She lies unmoving on the threadbare cot, her throat hoarse from long hours of screaming but her tears keep falling. Her heart has been cleaved in two, now the Nazis have taken the only thing she has left – her child. She is utterly powerless against them. But as Annaliese cries herself to sleep, she makes a vow - she will find her precious baby again. Whatever it takes.

Berlin, 1979. Lawyer Evie has come to the city to investigate the horrifying stories of infants torn from their mothers during the war. One of the cases is Sebastian, whose yellowing birth certificate tells a heartbreaking tale. Evie is drawn to this lost man, and vows to do all that she can to help him.

But poring through old records, it is Evie who recognises the faded photo in a newspaper article. Her heart stops as she realises her whole life has been a devastating lie – and that her and Sebastian’s pasts are impossibly, unimaginably connected…

Book Links: Kindle 

Emma's Review: Her Last Promise by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Berlin, 1938.When Hanni’s beloved sister suddenly vanishes in the middle of the night, Hanni knows her high-ranking Nazi father, Reiner, is not telling her the whole truth and may hold the key to her disappearance.

Years later, after finally learning how to live with her troubled past, Hanni dedicates herself to raising her teenage son, Leo, but her sister is never far from her mind. But when Leo begins to share Reiner’s pro-Nazi views and runs away from home to meet his grandfather, Hanni’s world collapses in an instant. She is determined not to lose her son to her father’s cruelty, like she lost her darling sister all those years ago…

Hanni has tried to stop her father before and nearly lost her life. Now she is fighting for Leo too and the stakes are higher than ever. She can’t lose him to the Nazis. She won’t let her father take her son away from her. Hanni knows this is her last chance to bring her father to justice. With her son’s life hanging in the balance, Hanni knows this will be her toughest battle yet. But with Reiner’s popularity stronger than ever, will she succeed? 

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback 

Emma's Review: The Pilot's Girl by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

‘Smile, nod, and don’t breathe a word of what happens here. Or I’ll put you on the next train to Auschwitz myself.’

Four years later.Hanni Winter shivers in her thin coat as she hurries through the empty Berlin streets to her job. Despite the freezing winter and poverty all around, her cheeks flush when she meets the man she is photographing today, charismatic Tony Miller, the American pilot risking his life to bring food and provisions to the starving people of the city. But her rush of joy turns to ash as she sees the man behind him…

It’s been years since Hanni fled her terrible past, but seeing Reiner Foss now brings back harrowing memories of the man they called The Showman,and of the concentration camp he commanded. The last time she tried to expose him, Hanni almost died, can she dare to try again? Or should she seize the chance she sees in Tony’s sparkling eyes to leave the horrors of the war behind?

Hanni is no longer the frightened child she was when the Nazis devastated her life beyond repair. She vows to avenge every person who suffered at Reiner’s hands. But does her attraction to Tony leave her vulnerable? Can Hanni protect her loved ones from her past, or will the cost of fighting her demons ultimately prove more than she can pay?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Commondant's Daughter by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

1933, Berlin. Ten-year-old Hanni Foss stands by her father watching the celebrations marking Adolf Hitler as Germany’s new leader. As the torchlights fade, her safe and happy childhood changes forever as Reiner, the father she adores, is corrupted by his new position as commandant of an infamous concentration camp…

Twelve years later. As the Nazi regime crumbles, Hanni hides from her father on the outskirts of Berlin. In stolen moments, she develops the photographs she took to record the horrors of the camp – the empty food bowls and desperate faces – and vows to get justice for the innocent people she couldn’t help as a child.

But her carefully constructed new life is threatened when Hanni discovers a body hidden in a bombed-out building, and meets Freddy, the tortured young detective in charge of the case. Could the fierce emotion in his brown eyes distract Hanni from her quest for atonement?

Or will Reiner stop her himself? Because on the day she plans to deliver her damning photographs to the Allies, Hanni comes face to face with her father again. Reiner Foss has a powerful new identity and he makes it clear just how dangerous it will be to expose him. Now she faces a devastating choice, between the past which haunts her, and the chance of a future with Freddy…

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Secretary by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Germany 1940. As secretary to the leader of the SS, Magda spends her days sending party invitations to high-ranking Nazis, and her evenings distributing pamphlets for the resistance. But Magda is leading a dangerous double life, smuggling secrets out of the office. It’s a deadly game, and eventual exposure is a certainty, but Magda is driven by a need to keep the man she secretly loves safe as he fights against the Nazis…

Forty years later. Nina’s heart pounds as she steps into an uncertain future carrying a forged passport, a few bank notes, and a scribbled address for The Tower House taken from an intricate drawing she found hidden in her grandmother’s wardrobe. Separated from her family and betrayed by her country, Nina’s last hope is to trace her family’s history in the ruins of the past her grandmother ran from. But, when she finally finds the abandoned house, she opens the door to a forgotten story, and to secrets which will change everything: past, present, and future…

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Lost Mother by Catherine Hokin

 Reviewed by Emma Crowley

She looked at the empty cradle where her baby had been. Her heart felt tattered and empty, like the hollow streets of Berlin after its people began to live in fear.

Berlin, 1934. Homes once filled with laughter stand empty as the Nazi party’s grip on the city tightens. When Anna Tiegel’s beautiful best friend catches Reich Minister Goebbels’ special attention, an impulsive act to save her brings Anna under his unforgiving scrutiny. First, she loses her job, then slowly, mercilessly, she finds her life stripped away. After her father is killed by the Nazis, Anna’s final hope is to escape to America with her boyfriend Eddy, but when she reaches his apartment on the agreed date, she finds it deserted. Alone and pregnant, the future feels terrifying, but she must try to protect the life inside her.

Rhode Island, 1957. Peggy Bailey stares in shock at the faded photograph of two laughing women which her beloved adoptive mother struggled to pass on to her before she died, whispering ‘It was inside your baby blanket when we brought you home’. As Peggy continues to stare, she realises that she has seen one of the girls before, in the most unlikely of places… Bursting at the realisation, she embarks on a mission which takes her across America to find the truth behind her heritage. Nothing, however, could prepare her for the tragic story her actions uncover…

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: What Only We Know by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

A door slammed and the unmistakable sound of boots came crashing up the hall. Liese held her little daughter’s hand so tightly, the tiny fingers had turned purple. The SS officer’s hand was at Liese’s throat before she saw him move. ‘I can kill you easily, then I can kill your daughter.’ He relaxed his grip a little. ‘Or perhaps I could kill her first?’

England, forty years later. When Karen Cartwright is unexpectedly called home to nurse her ailing father, she goes with a heavy heart. The house she grew up in feels haunted by the memory her father’s closely guarded secrets about her beautiful mother Elizabeth’s tragic death years before.

As she packs up the house, Karen discovers an old photograph and a stranger’s tattered love letter to her mother postmarked from Germany after the war.

During her life, Karen struggled to understand her shy, fearful mother, but now she is realising there was so much more to Elizabeth than she knew. For one thing, her name wasn’t even Elizabeth, and her harrowing story begins long before Karen was born.

It’s 1936 in Berlin, and a young woman called Liese is being forced to wear a yellow star…

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Emma's Review: The Fortunate Ones by Catherine Hokin

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

Every day he stood exactly where he was directed. He listened for his number, shouted his answer in the freezing cold. He was ragged and he was starving, but he was alive. He was one of the fortunate ones whom fate had left standing. And he needed to stay that way. For Hannah.

Berlin, 1941. Felix Thalberg, a printer’s apprentice, has the weight of the world on his shoulders. His beloved city is changing under Nazi rule and at home things are no better – Felix’s father hasn’t left the house since he was forced to wear a yellow star, and his mother grows thinner every day.

Then one night, Felix meets a mysterious young woman in a crowded dance hall, and his life is changed forever. Hannah is like a rush of fresh air into his gloomy, stagnant life and Felix finds himself instantly, powerfully infatuated with her. But when he tries to find her again, she’s vanished without a trace.

Was Hannah taken away by the Gestapo and held prisoner… or worse? When Felix himself is imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, his thoughts are only for her safety. And when a life-threatening injury lands him in the ward of Dr Max Eichel – a Nazi medical officer with a sadistic reputation – his love for his lost Hannah sees him through the pain.

Until one day Dr Eichel brings his pretty young wife to tour the camp and Felix’s world is thrown off-kilter. Framed in the hospital window he sees – impossibly – the same girl he met that fateful night… her wrist in the vice-like grip of the deathly calm SS Officer. And it’s clear Hannah recognises him at once – there is no mistaking her expression, she has been dreaming of him too...

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The Write Stuff with... Catherine Hokin

It's time for the second of what I hope will be regular The Write Stuff with... features so today I'm handing the reins over to author Catherine Hokin who has written a piece on marketing entitled Can You Hear Me at the Back?

Entering the world of publishing as a new author is a strange experience, a bit like putting Alice in Wonderland in the middle of The Hunger Games. Getting a novel published has been brilliant and my adventures in Authorland don’t seem to be stopping just yet but, twelve months on from the launch of Blood and Roses, I’ve been reflecting on the skills that I’ve had to fast-track to stay afloat – strangely enough marketing, not writing, is at the top of the list.

Post-publication, you are an author but, far more importantly, you are a Marketing Director and I use that term intentionally. Every year sees thousands of new books appear and, unless you’re a top 5 author with a top 5 publishing house (and probably still then based on what I’ve seen) what happens to your book (traditional or self-published) is entirely dependent on you. That makes sense, nobody cares about it the way you do, but marketing and promotion can be a huge challenge for many writers. I’m fortunate that I worked in marketing for years before I was published - my novel hasn’t set the world on fire but it’s had a bit of a voice and that’s been down to a lot of graft so I’d like to share some of the things that have been useful over the last 12 months. It’s fun, I promise…

1. Set up a website, long before publication date. It’s a place to feature the interviews and promotional articles from your Blog Tour, cover reveals, any great bits of research or teasers about your book and, primarily, to let people see how interesting you are. There are lots of ways to do it but I swear by GoDaddy – it’s cheap, easy to evolve and their customer service is amazing. They don’t speak IT. 
2. Make connections, make them early and turn them into relationships. As a writer, networks are your life blood. Other authors are wonderful but its book bloggers who are going to make your author life worth living. They are the people who will host your blog tour (a series of articles for the 2 weeks round publication hosted on different sites), do reviews and cover reveals and widen your audience. Treat them with respect! Don’t ever ask for a review before checking their policy, follow their blogs and understand their style, ask (and I mean ask) about blog tours well before you need them and provide the content well before they need it. If you have a publicist, make sure they are behaving well – some of them don’t.  
3. Do engage with social media. People moan about it but, used properly, it can be a lot of fun and is another way to build networks that don't consist of the cat and that nice Lauren Laverne on the radio. Choose your platforms and make them manageable - I use Facebook and Twitter and have dipped a tentative toe into Instagram as I take a lot of photos for research purposes. Join groups and, again, make relationships - some of my connections such as the wonderful Book Connectors have moved from online to the real world and saved my sanity.