Review: Hitler’s Secret by William Osborne

Source: Personal library
Rating: ★★★★★

But then, as MacPherson had said, their job was to carry out the mission and not concern themselves with anything else.  Was that right?  How could that be right?  If he thought that way, he would be no different from the Nazis who had taken his family.  They had just been obeying orders, but what they had done was wrong.  Deeply wrong.

(from Hitler’s Secret, page 257)

My daughter always does a fantastic job selecting books for me as gifts, and she hit a home run with Hitler’s Secret, which she bought me for Christmas from the Scholastic book fair at her school.  William Osborne’s novel centers on two teenagers who escaped the Nazis and are safe in England, only to be recruited as spies for the British government in 1941 and tasked with a mission so important, it just might end the war.

Otto fled Germany in 1940 after the Nazis took away his family because his father was a Communist.  Leni is an Austrian Jew who escaped the Nazis with her mother and sisters in 1938, leaving behind her father and brothers.  Both immediately agree to help Admiral MacPherson of the Royal Navy despite the dangers involved.  Otto will do anything to leave the boarding school where he is bullied for being German, and Leni takes the mission on behalf of her father and brothers.

They are given new identities and tasked with kidnapping a young girl from a convent, getting her over the Swiss border, and turning her over to the British government.  They have no idea why this child is so important to the Third Reich and how knowledge of her existence could end the war.  Despite being well equipped for the mission, their youth means they are bound to make mistakes.  But they are strong and resourceful and accomplish more than I could have in their situation.  It’s not long before the Nazis are after them in search of the girl.  But Angelika is so important to the Third Reich that Reinhard Heydrich, Lieutenant General of the SS and chief of the Reich Main Security Office, is hunting them down himself.  He is ruthless and has no qualms about killing children.

Otto and Leni are such delightful characters.  Their actions and emotions are exactly as they should be for teenagers, but the troubles they endured because of the Nazis forced them to grow up too soon.  They want to do something to avenge their families, but they didn’t expect to bond with Angelika.  As they pose as a family to make their way to Switzerland, they actually become a family — and when they learn the truth about Angelika and the British government’s plans for her, they are forced to question whether carrying out their orders is really the right thing to do.

Hitler’s Secret is a fantastic novel for young readers and adults alike.  There is a lot of action, suspense, and even some bloody violence, which isn’t overdone and completely fits the story line.  Osborne definitely doesn’t sugarcoat the dangers of the mission, which makes it feel authentic even though it is completely fiction.  (There is an author’s note at the end that separates the fact from the fiction and even explains more about the historical figures who make appearances in the novel.)

I loved so many things about this novel, from the well-developed characters and the sheer excitement of the mission to the fact that it both kept me on the edge of my seat and gave me a lot to think about.  I finished Hitler’s Secret months ago and am just getting around to reviewing it, but the characters and the plot are still fresh in my mind, which to me is the sign of a great book.  I can’t wait to see what book my daughter chooses for me next!

Book 12 for the War Challenge With a Twist (WWII)

Book 13 for the Historical Fiction Challenge

Book 5 for the European Reading Challenge (Switzerland)

Disclosure: Hitler’s Secret is from my personal library.

© 2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: For Such a Time by Kate Breslin

Source: Review copy from Bethany House
Rating: ★★★★★

Home . . . Leaving behind the lofty slopes to descend the mountains into Czechoslovakia, Stella looked out at the patchwork swells of white amidst evergreens that swept past the car.  She was reminded of the quilt she’d made, a surprise birthday gift for her uncle.  That was before the Nazis destroyed it along with the rest of their possessions — before they took Morty away.

Lord, why don’t you hear me?  Why have you taken away my joy?

Anger battled her exhaustion with the drowsing lull of the car’s motion.  Home was a place that, even if she lived, would never be the same.

(from For Such a Time, page 27)

Kate Breslin’s debut novel, For Such a Time, is a retelling of the biblical story of Esther set in Czechoslovakia during World War II.  It is the story of 23-year-old Hadassah Benjamin, whose blond hair and blue eyes allowed her to pass as an Aryan, Stella Muller, until an encounter with the Gestapo lands her in Dachau.  Rather than be shot by the firing squad, she is whisked away to Theresienstadt by SS Kommandant Colonel Aric von Schmidt to serve as his secretary.

From the very beginning, Stella and Aric’s relationship is complex.  He is a Nazi, but new to the SS, having served as a Wehrmacht officer until an injury ended his career on the front lines.  He is drawn to Stella and vows to protect her, but his conscience and sense of duty are in constant battle — especially when Stella urges him to help the weak, starving, bedraggled prisoners in the ghetto.  Aric isn’t aware of Stella’s true identity, but she sees the compassion he has for his houseboy, Joseph, an orphan from the ghetto whom Stella treats like a son.  He also goes out of his way to protect her from the lecherous, scheming Captain Hermann.

Their relationship seems doomed from the start, especially when Stella learns that the “paradise ghetto” is a transit camp and that the prisoners await further horrors at Auschwitz, and Aric is tasked with making the camp look like a resort to fool the Red Cross delegation that is soon to arrive.  With danger coming from all directions, Stella and Aric must keep faith in God and each other in order to survive.  But survival isn’t good enough for Stella unless her people can be saved, too.

I think novelists take a risk when they write about the Holocaust.  How do they convey the hopelessness, the horror, the evil, and the magnitude of the Holocaust and, at the same time, approach it from a new angle?  How do they rewrite a part of history and fictionalize the events without dishonoring those who lived it?  In For Such a Time, Breslin changes timelines and facts in order to mirror the events in the biblical story of Esther.  For the most part, I think she was successful.  Breslin does a wonderful job capturing the conflicting emotions and actions of the main characters, and her descriptions of the squalid conditions in the ghetto and the horrible way its inhabitants were treated are believable.  At times I thought Aric and Stella’s romance was a bit overdone, but Breslin enabled me to know and understand them enough that I could believe it.

However, I struggled with how to rate this novel based on the believability of the plot.  I appreciated the author’s note at the end where Breslin clearly separates the fact from the fiction, but in this case, it’s mostly fiction.  But I reminded myself that it is a novel, after all, and a page-turner at that.  Life has been so busy and stressful these last several months, and it’s been hard finding the time and energy to read.  For Such a Time was the first book in a long time that I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to read, and for that alone it deserves 5 stars.  It was an enjoyable novel (or as enjoyable as a novel about the Holocaust can be), and it read like a thriller toward the end.  I just got lost in the story and followed the characters through times of despair, hope, bravery, sorrow, and joy.  Even if I couldn’t believe the outcome, I wanted to, and I applaud Breslin for taking a chance and telling a story about hardship and courage, love and faith, and a fight for freedom.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for having me on the For Such a Time tour.  To check out the rest of the tour, click here.

Book 10 for the War Challenge With a Twist (WWII)

Book 11 for the Historical Fiction Challenge

Book 4 for the European Reading Challenge (Czechoslovakia)

Disclosure: I received For Such a Time from Bethany House for review.

© 2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: Dominion by C.J. Sansom

Source: Review copy from Mulholland Books
Rating: ★★★★☆

Jim spoke then: “In the trenches, at night, sometimes it could get really quiet.  People don’t realize that.  Then the big guns would start up over on the German side, somewhere down the line.  And I used to sit there, wondering if the sound would get closer, if the shells would maybe land on us.  I used to think, there’s some young fellow just like me over there, sweating to load one big shell after another.  Just a young chap like me.  It was nights like that which made me understand that war is totally wrong.  Not in the heat of battle, but during the quiet moments when you had a chance to think.”

(from Dominion, page 93)

In Dominion, C.J. Sansom reimagines the events of World War II after 5 p.m. on May 9, 1940.  Imagine a world where Lord Halifax became prime minister instead of Winston Churchill, a world where people feared a repeat of the bloodshed of World War I, so much so that World War II never happened, with the Nazi invasion of Norway and the retreat of the British troops putting a stop to the fighting.  This is a world where Britain signed a peace treaty with Germany, under which Britain would keep its Empire, Hitler would take the rest of Europe, and Churchill, correct in the assumption that the treaty would lead to German dominion over Britain, goes underground to stir up resistance.

The novel is set in 1952, with Germany still at war with Russia and Britain suffering from rampant unemployment and poverty.  The novel focuses on four characters: David Fitzgerald, a veteran of the 1939-40 war and a civil servant in the Dominions Office who hides his mother’s Jewish ancestry and works as a spy for Churchill’s Resistance; Sarah, David’s wife, who is unaware of her husband’s Resistance ties and thinks he is having an affair, as the accidental death of their toddler son has taken a toll on their marriage; Frank Muncaster, a geologist at Birmingham University and an old friend of David’s who was sent to a mental hospital after an altercation with his brother; and Gunther Hoth, a Gestapo agent known for his success in tracking down hidden Jews who feels worn out and hopes a new assignment will give him the opportunity to do something important with his life.

Gunther is tasked with finding out what Frank knows about his brother’s work in America on the atomic bomb — intelligence that the SS wants in order to further its nuclear program and ultimately win the war against Russia.  David, however, has been given the task of rescuing Frank, which puts both him and his wife on Gunther’s radar.  Meanwhile, Sarah, the daughter of a WWI veteran and staunch pacifist, witnesses violence in the streets and the relocation of London’s Jews, forcing her to question her beliefs.

At more than 600 pages, Dominion is a novel that takes a bit of effort to get through.  It was hard to push all that I’ve learned about WWII over the years out of my mind and suspend disbelief, but it really is a novel where you have to go with the flow.  I had some trouble following all the politics and understanding how this alternate world came about, but Sansom doles out plenty of details as you go along.  Because so many details have to be given in order for readers to buy into this version of events, the story starts off slow, and in the end, is probably longer than it needs to be.

However, there were a lot of things I liked about this novel.  Sansom does a great job developing his characters.  I felt like I really understood them and their motivations.  There are many references to the London fog, or the Great Smog of 1952, which helps evoke a dreary atmosphere that is perfect for a dark, suspenseful novel.

Overall, I enjoyed Dominion for provoking much thought about what could have happened had Hitler’s Reich lasted longer than it did.  I appreciated the author’s notes at the end, where Sansom explains his ideas for the book and the vast amount of research that went into its creation.  Ultimately, it’s a novel that is a bit scary in contemplating how many more lives could have been lost but also hopeful in realizing that, regardless of the scenario, there always will be courageous men and women willing to resist and fight back.

Thanks to Amy of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for having me on the tour for Dominion.  Click the image below for more information about the book and to follow the tour.

Book 7 for the War Challenge With a Twist (WWII)

Book 9 for the Historical Fiction Challenge

Book 3 for the European Reading Challenge (United Kingdom)

Disclosure: I received Dominion from Mulholland Books for review.

© 2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: Sophia’s War: Lies and Allies by Stephanie Baumgartner

Source: Review copy from author
Rating: ★★★★☆

She had been naive before, not to see what was happening in Germany.  All things that were considered noble — mercy, Christian verities, altruism — had been distorted into forms of weaknesses.  Power was not found in love, but in might, in hostility…

In Nazism.

(from Sophia’s War:  Lies and Allies, page 182)

[Please note that this book is the second in a series.  It is not a standalone book, and while my review will not contain spoilers for the second book, there could be spoilers from the first book.]

Sophia’s War:  Lies and Allies is the second book in Stephanie Baumgartner’s series about a young American woman living in Germany during World War II, and it picks up right where the first book, Sophia’s War:  The End of Innocence leaves off.  Sophia left her home in Virginia to help her great aunt build a library in her home in a small German village, and now that Marelda is gone, Sophia feels it is her duty to make sure the library is successful.

However, without any money of her own, Sophia is beholden to her cousin, Diedrich, who used to be like a brother to her but in the midst of his grief has become cold, unreachable, and even sinister.  In order to remain in Germany, Sophia must pose as Marelda, albeit a younger version, speak only in German, and break off her friendship with soldier and war photographer, Adrian.  Sophia is willing to comply with the whole Marelda charade, but Adrian was the first person to befriend her in Germany.  And as the attraction between them grows, she is unwilling to end their relationship — even when Diedrich’s threats rise to a new level.

Sophia must contend with feelings of isolation, with Diedrich often leaving for long stretches of time without notice; her meddling neighbor, Wilhelmina, who reports a mysterious man peeping in Sophia’s windows; and anger, uncertainty, and fear, as she learns more about Nazism and begins to see it as a real danger.  She also struggles for a way to get through to Diedrich, to show that she loves him, even when he is being unreasonable.

Sophia’s War: Lies and Allies is an exciting second book in a series that I hope will continue to be enthralling as the war begins to have more of an impact on Sophia and her new home.  I like that Sophia is such a well-drawn character; she’s naive and overly optimistic, but she’s also strong and intuitive.  I did want to shake some sense in her when it came to the bargain she made with Diedrich; even when she seemed torn about lying about her identity, she still didn’t seem to understand how dangerous doing such a thing would be in Nazi Germany.  I also was surprised that, being an American, no one questioned her accent.

I am really enjoying this series so far.  Baumgartner does a great job letting readers into Sophia’s head so they can understand her feelings and motivations.  Not only does she explore more deeply the characters that intrigued me the first time around, but she also introduces an assortment of new and interesting characters — from a little boy with cerebral palsy forced to leave his parents to Rolf, Adrian’s soldier friend who seems taken with Sophia and makes me worried for her.  Baumgartner leaves enough unanswered questions that I can’t wait to pick up the latest book in the series, Sophia’s War: Stalemate, yet I feel satisfied with how the story progressed in this installment.

Sophia’s War: Lies and Allies is just what the title implies:  a tale of the alliances and lies that are forged in the midst of war.  But these books are more than just Sophia’s experiences during war.  There is a war being fought between her beliefs and those of her cousin and a war within her soul as she struggles with her expectations for romance and the reality of her relationship with Adrian.  Baumgartner has only scratched the surface of Sophia’s wartime trials, and the longer she stays in Germany, the more entangled she will become.  Sophia is torn between familial and romantic love, and I can’t wait to see where Baumgartner takes her next.

Book 5 for the War Challenge With a Twist (WWII)

Book 6 for the Historical Fiction Challenge

Book 2 for the European Reading Challenge (Germany)

Disclosure: I received Sophia’s War: Lies and Allies from the author for review.

© 2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: Last Train to Paris by Michele Zackheim

Source: Review copy from Europa Editions
Rating: ★★★★★

I’ve experienced more than thirty killing frosts in my mountains.  And each time, I think of that night on the train.  It’s become a ritual for me.  I now understand that each year, a part of us dies.  Our leaves and flowers are absorbed into the earth.  But our roots are still here, dormant, waiting out the cold time.  Some of us blossom again.  Some do not.

(from Last Train to Paris, page 174)

Last Train to Paris is a beautifully written novel set mainly in Paris and Berlin in the years leading up to World War II.  Michele Zackheim’s haunting prose tells the story of Rose “R.B.” Manon, a journalist from Nevada who is on the front lines during Hitler’s rise to power and march toward war.  The novel is narrated by 87-year-old Rose as she goes through her notes from that tumultuous time when a trunk she never thought she’d see again arrives on her doorstep.

Zackheim originally set out to write a nonfiction book about a distant cousin who was kidnapped in Paris in 1937, and that storyline is worked into the novel, as Rose covers the case.  The plot isn’t told in a linear fashion, which makes sense when the narrator is an elderly woman thinking back on the moments that defined her and kept her searching for closure for years.  I never had trouble following the story and just sat back and enjoyed the ride as Rose’s past unfolded, from her troubled relationship with her selfish mother to her passionate love affair with a Jewish artist in Berlin forced to work for the Third Reich.

I was fascinated by Zackheim’s portrayal of Paris before and after the Occupation, contrasted with the atmosphere of doom in Berlin before and especially after Kristallnacht — especially as seen through Rose’s eyes.  Rose is half-Jewish, but her American citizenship and press credentials give her a certain level of protection that wasn’t granted to European Jews.  The fact that she is an American and doesn’t identify herself as Jewish, given that her mother’s family history was hidden from her for much of her childhood, Rose views the pre-war breakdown of society as an outsider and feels removed from the antisemitism she witnesses first-hand.

I loved Zackheim’s writing from the very first page.  Her descriptions are rich and vivid without being overly detailed, and she moved between the past and the present so seamlessly that I hardly noticed the transition.  Zackheim also keeps the story in the past for the most part, with the only present-day details being those about the person Rose became and her reflections on life as she nears its end.  The use of hindsight in the narrative packed a heavy punch, showing that the consequences of what happened at the train station in Berlin were just as painful to Rose five decades later.  Rose’s journalistic talents are on display in her observations of the people around her and especially herself, and there were several poignant passages that nearly had me in tears.

Last Train to Paris is a fascinating portrayal of a young woman who spends much of her life feeling small and invisible and finds herself within the enormity and loss of war.  Zackheim perfectly captures the chaos and helplessness as the Nazis take over every facet of society and shows the fragility of relationships forged during such a time.  I felt the excitement, hopelessness, fear, and grief right alongside Rose as she came to terms with the what-ifs and the might-have-beens that accompany such introspection.  It’s a thoughtful novel with undertones of guilt, regret, sadness, and anger that left me both hurting for Rose and satisfied with the ending.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for having me on the Last Train to Paris tour.  To follow the tour, click here.

Book 1 for the War Challenge With a Twist (WWII)

Book 1 for the Historical Fiction Challenge

Book 1 for the European Reading Challenge (France)

Disclosure: I received Last Train to Paris from Europa Editions for review.

© 2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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2014 Reading Challenges: War Through the Generations and More

I’m really excited about the challenges I’m participating in this year.  I’m probably being overly ambitious, so wish me luck!

January 1 – December 31

Serena and I are doing things a bit differently this year on War Through the Generations.  We’re calling it the 2014 War Challenge With a Twist, and instead of focusing on a single war for the whole year, we’ll be posting a review linky for a different war every two months (though you can read from any war throughout the year and add your review links later).

Here’s the schedule:

January/February: Gulf Wars (Gulf War/Operation Desert Storm and Iraq War/Operation Iraqi Freedom)
March/April: French and Indian War
May/June: Korean War
July/August: World War I (100th Anniversary)
September/October: World War II
November/December: Vietnam War

There are different levels of participation; I signed up for the Intermediate Level, which involves reading 2+ books on one war and at least 1 book on all the others.

If you’re interested in participating, we’d love to have you join us.  For more information and to sign up, click here.

January 1 – December 31

I’m signing up for the Ancient History level of at least 25 books for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2014 at Historical Tapestry.  I originally wanted to sign up for the highest level of 50+ books, but I think it’s safer to shoot for 40, given that I read 37 books for this challenge last year.

January 1 – December 31

I’m also signing up for the Dive Into Poetry Challenge 2014, hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.  I’m going to commit to the Dip Your Toes level and read up to 2 poetry books this year.  There are several options for this challenge, so I hope you’ll see how easy it is to get your feet wet in terms of reading poetry.

January 1, 2014 – January 31, 2015

I’m also signing up for the 2014 European Reading Challenge, hosted by Rose City Reader.  I’m going for the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage) level, which calls for at least 5 books by different European authors or books set in different European countries.

January 1 – December 31

I’m signing up for the Dilettante level for the Nonfiction Reading Challenge 2014, hosted by The Introverted Reader.  That means I will read 1-5 memoirs or other nonfiction books.

Literature and War Readalong 2014

I plan to participate in 6 of the monthly discussions of war-related books hosted by Beauty Is a Sleeping Cat.

April: Toby’s Room by Pat Barker (WWI)
May: Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo (WWI)
July: The Lie by Helen Dunmore (WWI)
August: Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden (WWI)
October: Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey (WWI)
December: Letters From a Lost Generation by Vera Brittain and Four Friends (WWI)

January 1 – December 31

Finally, I decided to create My Personal Jane Austen Challenge for myself.  In 2012, I really enjoyed participating in the Exploring the Many Genres of Jane Austen Challenge, hosted by the late Shanna of Existing’s Tricky.  I decided to revisit her challenge and create different categories.  So I plan to read at least 14 Austen and Austen-inspired books in the following categories:

Books by Jane Austen
Modern Adaptation
Graphic Novel
Mystery
Jane Austen as a Character
Sequel
Retelling
Minor Character in Lead Role
Short Stories
From the Hero’s POV
Paranormal
Young Adult
Alternate Setting
Outside the Box

What challenges are you committing to in 2014?

©2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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