Emma's Review: The Family Behind the Walls by Shari J. Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Poland: Day in and day out, fifteen-year-old Jordanna holds tight to the hands of her siblings as they’re forced into back-breaking labor. They’ve been transported to a camp for Polish orphans, but at night, Jordanna weeps silently, clinging to the hope that they’re not actually orphans. That when they finally escape, their mother Dalia will be waiting with open arms. But the only thing she knows for sure is that to survive, she cannot let the cruel guards discover they are not just Polish, they are Jewish…

Auschwitz: More than a hundred miles away, Dalia shivers in her tattered striped uniform, wary eyes darting around for any sign of trouble. She’s seen other women lost to the bitter sting of the frozen air and the brutal regime and she can’t let it be her. Every day, Dalia prays that her husband will find a way to save their children. But when another prisoner approaches her about joining their secret resistance, Dalia decides to take rescuing her family into her own hands—despite the terrible danger it puts her in…

The only thing keeping Jordanna and Dalia’s spirits alive in the darkest of places is the hope that they will one day be reunited. But will Dalia fight her way out to cradle her daughter in her arms once more—or will she die trying?

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Emma's Review: The Nurse Behind the Gates by Shari J. Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Emilie’s heart stops as she takes in her childhood sweetheart hunched in a tattered prisoner’s uniform, the light lost from his face. Her new husband, Otto, said this was a camp for criminals. He should know, he’s the doctor. But Danner would never have broken the law.

As she looks into Danner’s beautiful brown eyes, she's transported back to their happy childhood in Munich. The friendship they shared. The way her heart once felt like it beat only for him. Before the Jewish laws were enforced and Danner pushed Emilie away to protect her, breaking her heart.

Now, Emilie rushes to find Otto, desperate for answers. But when she discovers him waiting with confidentiality papers for her to sign, she realizes her husband has been lying. This isn’t a place to treat sick criminals, but to murder the innocent. And Otto tells her if she doesn’t help, they'll both die.

Her hands shake as she receives her instructions. But as she rushes back to the sickbay, searching for a way to escape, her gaze lands on Danner once more. In his eyes, she can see something that almost looks like hope…

The thought of losing her first love again tears Emilie’s heart in two. She's determined to keep him alive, and perhaps she can alter the fate of more than just one prisoner. But can she save Danner? Or will she die trying to rescue the man she’s never stopped loving?

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Emma's Review: The Glovemaker's Daughter by Shari J. Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

Raya bends over a delicate glove in her beloved shop in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. It’s the only place she still feels safe. When the Nazis snatched control of Paris, Raya knew she had to fight to protect the few things she had left. And so far, her support of the resistance has gone undetected.

But now, the door bangs open and three German soldiers lunge towards her. Raya’s blood turns to ice. Hauled onto the cobbled street, she struggles against their rough hands as they accuse her of organizing meetings in the tunnels below her shop.

Raya can think only of her baby daughter Amalia, hidden beneath the shop’s front desk. She has a heart-wrenching choice to make. Reveal Amalia’s existence and risk her life, or leave her behind and pray someone protects her. It’s the hardest decision she’s ever faced…

Transported to Ravensbruck concentration camp, every day is a desperate battle for survival. The only thing that keeps Raya going is the thought of being reunited with her blue-eyed, innocent baby girl.

But did someone with a kind soul uncover Amalia’s hiding place and keep her safe? And in the darkest of places, is the power of a mother’s love enough to keep Raya alive until she can see her daughter again?

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Emma's Review: The Stolen Twins by Shari J. Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

The cattle car is dark, except for the light filtering through the boarded windows. There are too many of us to count, crushed up against each other. The air is stuffy, carrying the scent of our terror—none of us know what awaits us when this train stops. I cling onto Mama’s hand and Nora, my twin sister, clutches Papa’s.

After what feels like forever, the train stops. We spill out of the carriage, the sun blinding us after being imprisoned in darkness for so long. There are people everywhere, soldiers separating children from their parents, husbands from wives.

We’re in some sort of queue, and a man in a dark-green SS uniform walks by, glancing at everyone he passes. “Twins, twins,” he shouts. My heart falls into the pit of my stomach.

“Right here,” says Mama, hesitation in her voice. “My daughters are twins.” My eyes widen, and Nora trembles. Papa tries to tell Mama to be quiet, but it’s too late.

The Nazi catches sight of us. “Twins,” he says again, pausing to inspect Nora and me. “Yes, you are, aren’t you? You two are going to come along with me.”

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Emma's Review: The Maid's Secret by Shari. J Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

In the middle of the night, while I am curled in Ben’s arms, there is a harsh knock on the door. My blood turns to ice. The love of my life is Jewish, and I am a Romany gypsy maid; every second that we exist in Hitler’s Europe, we are in danger. Every day, we have been huddling around a crackling radio, listening for news of this evil war. Every night, we have feared we won’t live till dawn.

The banging continues, and we leap out of bed. I can hardly breathe as I open the door, seeing Nazis standing before us. My heart cracks as the soldiers grab Ben. I’m powerless to stop them from shoving him into a wagon, bound for the place of no return.

The love of my life is now imprisoned in wire with thousands of other innocent inmates. For every moment he is trapped behind the gates of hell, he gets closer to death—surviving on scraps of food, and forced to work in gruelling conditions.

The soldiers haven’t arrested me yet, but it’s only a matter of time. I vow to stay alive for Ben, not to give up hope. I’ll stop at nothing to escape the enemy as they hunt me down.

With our fate in the hands of monsters, will we ever see each other again? And will our love for one another save us—or kill us?

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Emma's Review: The Girl with the Diary by Shari J. Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

The worn leather-bound diary, tied with a red ribbon, has hidden the truth for seventy years. The spine crackles as she opens it, reading the long-forgotten words of her grandmother. “What if you never come back? What if you die trying?”

Nazi-occupied Prague,1942: Amelia is hiding in her closet when flashlights blind her and she’s captured by the SS. Out on the cobblestone street, her heart shatters as her mother is shot before her eyes. She is shoved onto a freight train with hundreds of others—hours pass as they travel in darkness.

Arriving in a concentration camp, Amelia fears for her life when she is led to a block by a soldier. He is her enemy, yet he secretly passes her a piece of bread; an act that saves her.

They are meant to despise one another, but Amelia and Charlie are powerfully drawn to each other. Amelia sees how Charlie risks everything to save prisoners from deportation—and she sees the kindness in his eyes.

Amongst so much tragedy, falling in love is a miracle. Yet, one day, Charlie utters those miraculous words. “I’m in love with you. To everyone else, we’re wrong, but what does that matter when nothing in this world is right?”

But under the all-seeing gaze of the guards and endless watchtowers, there is only so long they can keep their secret—and the very act of loving each other endangers their lives. Will they remain loyal to each other in the face of death? And when they finally say goodbye, will it be by choice or by force? 

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Emma's Review: The Doctor's Daughter by Shari J Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

Auschwitz, 1941: It was her father’s job to save the lives of the SS. But she chose to risk everything and save the lives of prisoners.

In Nazi-occupied Poland, Sofia cannot look her father in the eye. Sofia’s mother, her papa’s cherished wife, is Jewish—how dare he work as a doctor for the SS? She cannot forgive him, even if the bargain was made to spare their lives.

In the middle of the night, Isaac emerges from a packed train with hundreds of others. Beneath Auschwitz’s barbed wire, soldiers surround them, and gunshots pierce the dark sky. The SS decide prisoners’ fates on the spot—and Isaac is chosen to work, rather than to die.

Every day, Isaac and his fellow inmates are sent to a nearby farm. From sunup to sundown, they toil the land with barely a scrap to eat. Every breath feels like it could be Isaac’s last, so when he sees a beautiful auburn-haired girl peering out of the farmhouse window, it feels like a dream…

Sofia refuses to accept what she is seeing. Disobeying her father and evading the guards, she risks her life to sneak a letter to the green-eyed boy outside. She explains that she has hidden them food, and that she’ll do everything in her power to save them.

This secret exchange sparks an escape that should have been impossible—and a love story that is unforgettable. But is love enough in the face of evil? And when Sofia and Isaac are concealed underground, holding their breath as the Nazis hunt them, will they survive?

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Emma's Review: Hidden in the Shadows by Imogen Matthews

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Nazi-occupied Holland, 1943: In a makeshift village in the middle of the woods, hiding from Nazi soldiers determined to find them, a beautiful young Jewish woman named Laura thought she was safe. By day she remained silent and out of sight, but as darkness fell, she began to fall in love with a resistance fighter named Wouter. Until everything changed, on the day the village was stormed…

Desperate to protect the six small and terrified children in her care, Laura races towards the church spires of the nearest town in the distance and just manages to escape from the soldiers.

Wouter is stuck on the other side of the village when the German officers start shooting. As he desperately scrambles through the dark, dense woodland, he has no idea whether Laura has made it out alive.

Devastated that he hadn’t tried to save her, Wouter spends his days delivering food and transporting people to safety, determined to help those most in peril. But he never gives up hope of finding the woman he loves.

Even when he hears the rumours about the Nazis cramming Jews onto cattle trains for deportation to brutal work camps, he can’t believe she’s gone forever. How could he live if Laura was amongst them? And if he does find her, will their love have survived the ravages of everything they’ve been through, together and apart?

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Emma's Review: The Bookseller of Dachau by Shari J. Ryan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

In Nazi Germany, innocent people vanish every day, torn mercilessly from their homes and loved ones. When Matilda’s childhood sweetheart Hans is in danger, she doesn’t hesitate to hide him in her attic. Neighbors their whole lives, and desperately in love with one another, she’ll do anything to protect him. For months, they exist by candlelight, smuggling food and communicating in whispers. But, in the end, nothing can stop the soldiers charging in…

America, 2018: Grace opens a mustard-yellow envelope, and her world unravels. She has inherited a bookstore in the small town of Dachau from the grandmother she had no idea existed. Her mom, adopted as a baby, spent her life searching for her biological parents––and died without ever knowing.

Grace visits her legacy––a bookshop on a cobbled lane filled with lost memories. She combs through handwritten letters, unearthing the story of her grandmother Matilda. A woman whose one true love was locked within the barbed wire of Dachau––a woman who never gave up hope…

As Grace pieces together her family’s heartbreaking past, she discovers the long-buried secret of her own identity. But when she learns the truth, will she ever be the same again?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback