Roberta_Winchester

I wanted to like this book, but I found the characters lacking in depth. I just didn't care about them. On the positive side, there was some beautiful writing in it. But two weeks after reading this book, I can't even remember it.

I loved this book. It is the story of three widows whose lives become intertwined during WWII in Germany. They are brought together as a result of the failed resistance plot to assassinate Hitler in July 1944. Marianne von Lingenfels promises one of the resisters that she will find and protect the other wives. She brings them together and from then on we learn about their joint and individual past and present struggles.

For me this book was deeply personal. My mother was a German war refugee and at so many points in the book I was reminded of her "story". Millions of Germans had similar stories and I was once again reminded of their suffering and the atrocities of war.

I also loved that this story was about and told by women. Their experiences and the ripple effects of war as well as their own actions and decisions makes this narrative even more compelling.

I do have some minor criticisms. The narrative goes back and forth in time and sometimes it is confusing to keep track of what has or has not happened as you read it. (Why are so many authors using this technique these days?) And there is a chapter after the book ends that the author did not include in the main narrative. I think it should have been included.

I highly recommend this book.

The author does a good job with a familiar plot line. Man returns to his childhood town for the funeral of a friend. Secrets from the past dog him as he is called on to help solve a present day murder. The story shifts from past to present as all is revealed. I enjoyed this book.

I was excited to read this book because of all the buzz about it. The first third of the book was gripping and wonderful, but when I finished it I found that I was furious and disappointed. At the end I wondered: Is this really how a 14 year old behaves and talks, even if raised as a survivalist? Did the author want to impress us with his knowledge of guns that we had to have repeated laborious passages of guns being taken apart, cleaned, put back together? Did the book have to have so much violence in it? Did it have to end the way it did? After I finished it, I kept wondering how the book could have been written to make it live up to the hype. Sadly, I don't recommend this book.