The Woman With The Blue Star: A Novel by Pam Jenoff

(Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!

 

about book:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris comes a riveting tale of courage and unlikely friendship during World War II.
1942. Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents in the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous tunnels beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.
Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother, who has developed close alliances with the occupying Germans. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street. Upon closer inspection, she realizes it’s a girl hiding.
Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds. Inspired by incredible true stories, The Woman with the Blue Star is an unforgettable testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive.

my thoughts:

Wow. What a story. Talk about an emotional and beautiful must-read book. The Woman With The Blue Star by Pam Jenoff is just excellent and I am wholeheartedly recommending it to everyone. 

Its WWII and Sadie is living with her parents. She's eighteen years old. The Nazis are terrifying everyone and people are being taken from their homes. One night, Sadie's father wakes her up and rushes her and his pregnant wife to a safe place - the sewers below the streets.  Yep, they are to take refuge with another family beneath the city, surrounded by waste and rats.  It's the only way they can survive.  Ella is rich. She lives with her stepmother. Her father has left.  No one talks to her anymore, because her stepmother has sided with the occupying Germans. This connection allows Ella to wander freely.  It's during one of her trips into town that she sees Sadie beneath the grate in the street.  From that moment, their lives are never the same. And, that is all I will write about this amazing and important book. You MUST read it for yourself to experience it all - it is worth it! This is one book you will not want to miss out on. 

The writing is top notch - the descriptions, the history, the characters, all of it will just hook you from the start. And the story itself will have you reading faster and faster to find out what will happen next. You'll be crying one minute and smiling the next. The Woman With The Blue Star is historical fiction at its finest. 

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!