Tropical Girl Reads

Russia has been trying to wipe Ukraine off the world map for thousands of years. They haven’t succeeded yet. Now, I’m picking up my stone and throwing it at Goliath. I want people to understand. I want to save this country.’ Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger, March 2022

Larissa is a renowned embroiderer, surviving in occupied Ukraine during World War II as a seamstress in her ruin of a workshop. Surrounded by enemies, she expresses her defiance by threading history into her garments. But at what cost?

Mykhailo is a soldier on leave, returning to Ukraine from the front on Christmas Eve. As he travels through his country, he is confronted by the hardship the war has brought to his fellow countrymen. Will what he sees this Christmas change the course of his life forever?

Marusia and her family are woken early one morning by the arrival of the Nazis, who have come to search for her partisan brother. As the soldiers move through their house, her family has just moments to make choices that will determine their survival.

Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger’s stories bring to life the true history of her Ukrainian family who fought to survive World War II. Laced with hope, Souvenirs from Kyiv celebrates the endurance and resilience of the human spirit.

Souvenirs from Kyiv was awarded 2nd Place in the 2014 HNS International Short Story Award and the collection won the silver medal in the IPPY Book Awards 2020 for Military and Wartime fiction.

This is such a beautiful story–of heartbreaking experiences of Ukrainian families during WW2. The author herself belongs to the Ukrainian-American generation and these stories are based on the stories of her own grandparents and relatives in Ukraine, during the Nazi rule. This story was written in the light of the Ukrainian-Russian war that is happening right now.

Each of these stories tells a story about bravery and courage. Larissa sews clothes, Mykhailo is a soldier, Marusia and her family are approached by the Nazis, all these stories are touching tales of how a person survived living under the Nazi regime. A heartbreaking story. The author does a good job of transporting the readers into the story, making the readers feel like they are also a part of the story. I actually enjoyed reading all the stories and felt touched by those stories.

Overall, this is an emotional heartbreaking stories of brave Ukrainian people on how they survived WWII. Worth five stars,

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Auschwitz, 1941: It was her father’s job to save the lives of the SS. But she chose to risk everything and save the lives of prisoners.

In Nazi-occupied Poland, Sofia cannot look her father in the eye. Sofia’s mother, her papa’s cherished wife, is Jewish—how dare he work as a doctor for the SS? She cannot forgive him, even if the bargain was made to spare their lives.

In the middle of the night, Isaac emerges from a packed train with hundreds of others. Beneath Auschwitz’s barbed wire, soldiers surround them, and gunshots pierce the dark sky. The SS decide prisoners’ fates on the spot—and Isaac is chosen to work, rather than to die.

Every day, Isaac and his fellow inmates are sent to a nearby farm. From sunup to sundown, they toil the land with barely a scrap to eat. Every breath feels like it could be Isaac’s last, so when he sees a beautiful auburn-haired girl peering out of the farmhouse window, it feels like a dream…

Sofia refuses to accept what she is seeing. Disobeying her father and evading the guards, she risks her life to sneak a letter to the green-eyed boy outside. She explains that she has hidden them food, and that she’ll do everything in her power to save them.

This secret exchange sparks an escape that should have been impossible—and a love story that is unforgettable. But is love enough in the face of evil? And when Sofia and Isaac are concealed underground, holding their breath as the Nazis hunt them, will they survive?

After reading Shari J Ryan’s book, The Bookseller from Dachau which actually captivated me, I was happy that I got this ARC.

The story this time sets in Poland, during the Nazi occupation and WWII. The story is told from the perspectives of Sofia–whose mother is Jewish and whose father, a doctor work with the Nazis and Issac, a Jew who moves to the Warsaw ghetto with his parents and his sister, Olivia. Isaac’s parents dies and both Issac and Olivia are separated when they reach the concentration camp, Auschwitz, where Olivia, with her ability to sew works in Kanada where they sort the items of the people who come to the camp. Issac starts to work in the garden owned by Sofia’s family and the two become friends with Sofia determined to save Isaac’s life.

The author must have done tremendous research about the life in a Warsaw Ghetto and the conditions of being in Auschwitz concentration camp. Despite the fact that the story is fictional, the events that occur in the story are real and you couldn’t imagine that these types of horror did occur in real life. The writing was good, the author doing a good job of drawing the reader into the story, making the reader feel like they are part of the story. It is interesting to read both Sofia’s and Isaac’s views and I like how the friendship between them developed. There were some emotional moments and heartbreaking moments although the ending was good and expected.

Overall, if you like a heartbreaking emotional historical fiction, then this one is for you–worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

1944

LEO STERN arrives at the Nazi camp at Borek with his wife Irena and his two daughters. The Sterns are spared from the gas chamber when they witness a murder. But in a place that humanity has deserted, Leo is forced to make unimaginable choices to try to keep his family alive.

1961

For seventeen years, Hanna has been unable to remember her identity and how she was separated from her family at the end of the war, until the discovery of a letter among her late uncle’s possessions reveals her real name – HANNA STERN – and leads her to Berlin in search of her lost past.

Helped by former lover Peter, Hanna begins to piece together the shocking final days of Borek. But Hanna isn’t the only one with an interest in the camp, and lurking in the shadows is someone who would prefer Hanna’s history to remain silent.

Based on in-depth research and beautifully written, this a novel of memory and identity, and the long shadow of war.

Any book that is based on WWII and Holocaust will catch my eye and I was over the moon when I got this ARC.

This is actually an unusual setting which I actually enjoyed reading.

In 1941, Leo Stern arrives to the camp with his wife Irena and their two children. In order to survive he was forced to do unimaginable things in order to survive his family.

In 1961, Hanna wants to find her real identity and while going through her uncle’s possession, she finds that she is Hanna Stern. Along with her friend Peter, they travel to Berlin to find the truth about Hanna’s family but there’s someone who didnt want her to find the truth.

I was actually engrossed into the story. What interested me most in the story was background of WWII and the Holocaust–the brutal treatment of Jews by the Nazis in the camps was too unbearable and emotional to read that at times, you still couldn’t believe that these things did happen in real life. I am guessing the present day is mostly based on Nuremberg trials when the Nazi soldiers were put on trial for their crimes but maybe I was wrong. The past, set in 1940’s was the one that was heartbreaking and emotional to read. The author has done tremendous research about the war, the conditions of the camps, the brutal treatment of Jews by the Nazis and did a good job of drawing the reader into the story. I actually enjoyed reading this book and was glad I requested the ARC!

Overall, if you love a historical fiction with an emotional and heartbreaking story that will bring tears, then this book is one for you–worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.