Thank you all who mentioned the Type/font selections. I wear glasses and read small print on my iPhone all the time but this cursive tiny print almost made me put the book aside. I checked to see how many letters there were and decided I could read it. I'm glad I did! However, I have many friends that I cannot recommend this book to in this current format - they could not read the print. Too bad - hope that gets corrected and fast!!!

As to the book / story - I loved it. I am not inclined to read stories of Nazi Germany as they depress me very much. I found this book surprisingly enlightened - sad, yet filled with hope. Maybe the Reba story helped me get through the awful realizations that yes, these things did happen! I knew Elsie survived and I wanted to know the rest of her story. Reba provided a believable way to get her story. It was fitting for Riki to be on the Border Patrol. Too much of a coincidence - maybe but in El Paso - believable.

I think the Reba part was a bit weaker then the Elsie part but look at the setting & time. Hard to make Reba's story as compelling. However I never once needed to skim through Reba's part. I've skimmed many other books using this technique. The letters between sisters was totally effective - showed more of life during those years.

I loved Elsie, her family, Tobias and the town folks coming to the bakery. Josef could be seen as a good man - he was tormented to death by his evil deeds. He was certainly not one-dimensional & hated by me, the reader. I saw more of a connection in story line with Josef & Riki than the women. Reba was just lost & struggling. Elsie knew her role & was doing it as best she could - her decision to give up Tobias in order to save herself & family was the only thing she could do. And yet, they would have all died if the Americans had not come at that moment. As many books do - this one also collapsed in the end - but kinda had to. The story was getting Elsie through the war years - and the telling of that story through Reba. The post war years, her marriage & getting El Paso were summed up a bit too tidy but author Sarah McCoy did such a wonderful job with the story she told.

I cried at the end - not so much at Elsie's funeral but for the ending of a good book with lots of emotional tugs of heart for the rose-colored glasses ending. I liked that. Yes, convenient loose ends being tied up but I did not feel manipulated by the author. She got her points across with a good story that allowed the reader to feel good about some of the resolutions. It was believable and ended well.

Change the font/type! my only real criticism !

I really enjoyed the multiple story lines, but the tiny print of the letters was irksome. The WWII sections were more interesting to me; I kept hoping to hear about Tobias's fate in particular. The least interesting character, to me, was Reba; don't know how the author could have made her more interesting, but then, I'm not a writer. She was quite successful, considering how many balls she was juggling writing this story! Basically, I felt I was reading a book about Germany in WWII; the present day events were less important to me, and, I believe, to the author. Why she left out so much of Elsie's life is kind of a puzzle, and Jane seems to have known very little about her own mother - weird.

I felt sympathy for Elsie as a young girl during WWII and empathy for Josef who I felt was basically a good man, caught between loyalty to his country and his better instincts that something was greatly amiss with the Nazi government. I didn't feel as engaged with the current characters.

The Elsie/Tobias story really grabbed me. I really felt for the conflicts that Elsie had to deal with. I also enjoyed the Jane/Sergio storyline. But the Reba/Rikki storyline was, for me, very weak and a bit contrived. Rikki's situation, I felt, was better suited to the story, but I just never felt connected to Reba.

BTW, my book club is meeting on this one today.

Hi BettyT - would love to know what your book club think of the book!

Hi Davina -- My book club is primarily a Jewish group. In fact, all those that attended Sunday were Jewish ladies. Everyone LOVED the book. We enjoyed reading about what life was like during that time for the average German family. Everyone agreed that the book was really well written. We always enjoy strong female characters so Elsie was loved. This was a young girl that fortunately had a skill and used it to her advantage. She got the job with the Americans and came to the US at a time when Germans were not all that well received. But she became a well-loved member of her community. We went nearly two hours talking about this book!

Hi Betty, certainly sounds like a winning discussion - thanks so much for sharing your book club's experience!

It has been over a month now since I read this book. I still think about Hazel and how difficult it must have been for her to give away her children to a cause she no longer believed in and how sad she must have been when her beloved died and left her in that untenable situation. I remember Reba as unable to grow beyond her feelings of inadequacy until she met someone as needy as herself and their journey together. I think she and Riki finally found self worth and fulfillment in a new life. I remember Elsie who was much stronger than anyone gave her credit for. I tried the recipes which were as wonderful as the book. My favorites were the Brotchen (a simple, easy to make roll) and the Schwartzwalder Kirschtorte (a delicious, wonderful cake well worth the time and trouble!).

It seems a lot of people disliked the font used for the letters. I also found it more difficult to read than the regular print.

The older I get the more closely I examine a book's print before I buy it. That never used to be a problem! Electronic readers are an advantage in that way as you can adjust the font size and change the color, as well. When I read at night I use a white font on a black background, which emits less light and doesn't bother my husband. During the day I can switch but I'm used to it the other way around now.