Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelley. Five stars

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

For anyone who loved Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale or Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, Lilac Girls is a perfect book. Told from the perspective of three women during WWII with unique and important perspectives, The Lilac Girls will give you an understanding of how life continued in three very different ways.  I thought there had been enough WWII books for a while, but this one was well worth the time and impossible to put down.

Caroline Ferriday is a member of the New York aristocracy working as a volunteer in the French Embassy assembling comfort packages for French orphans when she meets handsome and charming French actor Paul Rodierre.  Though Paul is married, the two fall in love and much of Caroline’s story revolves around finding Paul again after he’s returned to Paris. In the process, she learns of the Rabbits, Polish prisoners at Ravensbrück, Hitler’s only major all female concentration camp upon whom some of the horrible medical experiments were conducted.

One of the Rabbits is Kasia, who was arrested as a young teen for helping her would be boyfriend in the Polish Resistance.  Kasia’s story from before the war through the trials after the war is as mesmerizing as they are awful. 

Perhaps the most original perspective comes from Herta, though. A German patriot, and gifted surgeon, Herta found herself closed out of the male-only community of physicians in Germany.  Even after passing all the tests, she was only able to find part time work as a dermatologist, and thus was unable to support herself or her mother, who depended on her.  When offered the opportunity to serve as a full physician at Ravensbrück, she reluctantly agrees. The progression from compassionate physician to puppet of the Third Reich is heartbreaking, and if it were possible, almost understandable.

This fascinating book is made even more so by the Author’s notes, where we learn not only that these women were real people, (though some conglomeration and literary license added to bring the story together. I won’t spoil the story by adding more facts here, but will just say that the author’s journey alone, finding the facts and putting them together is enthralling.  One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

I received this book from NetGalley for this review. For more information, contact Random House Publishing. This book will be released on April 5, 2016.

AT Water's Edge, by Sara Gruen 4 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed Like Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, so when given the opportunity to read an advance copy of her new novel, I jumped at the chance. 

Once again, Ms. Gruen takes her readers inside a place and time in history and brightens it up with magical or at least mystical intervention.  The story is set in WWII Scotland, in a little town near Loch Ness.  The protagonist, Maddie, is a young woman traveling with her new husband and his best friend on their mission to find the Loch Ness monster and redeem their society position with family and friends after having been rejected to serve their country in the war.  Of course, nothing is as these pampered and protected travelers expect and they find themselves in a barebones inn where rations, blackouts, bombings put their expectations in perspective.  Only Maddie sees the injustice and foolishness of their lifestyle, and the story follows her discoveries of the special history of the place, the people and her own courage. 

            This book felt like a blend of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, a bit of Julian Fellows Downton Abbey and traditional romance.  The characters are well developed; (you will learn to really hate the husband!) and, as in Like Water for Elephants, lends a sympathetic setting for the abused and helpless, but strong, smart female characters.    My only complaint was that it wrapped up a little to quickly and tidily for such a complicated plot.  It was a quick and easy read though, and I enjoyed learning about wartime Scotland. 

I received this ebook  review copy from NetGalley.  The book is available for pre-order now, for release on March 31,2015.