Brought to you by OBS reviewer Jeanie

Many tragedies occurred during World War II, not the least of which was how Japanese and German immigrants were treated because of fear of people in government. Even if they maintained legal U.S. resident status, if they were not already naturalized, their lives were no longer their own and, by relationship, the lives of their children. Elise Sontag and Mariko Inoue are but two teens of thousands affected by the changes begun across the ocean in Germany or, in the opposite direction, Japan. At times heartbreaking and at times exhilarating, the author gifts us with a historical novel about two best friends and their lives since their first meeting as told by one of the women.

Elise Sontag’s parents, Freda and Otto, immigrated from Germany before she and younger brother Max were born. After many years in the United States, the Sontag’s had not applied for citizenship until the Nazi party rose to power in Europe. When the Alien Registration Act was put into place, they declared their intent to be naturalized. Unknown to the Sontag’s, a file was started on Otto that would be added to during WWII. After an eventful day at school, Elise arrived home to find men searching their home. The FBI was there and took photo albums, family correspondence, his father’s WWI military medals, and Otto, afraid that he might be loyal to the Nazi party. Another day she arrives home to find that Otto was sent to an internment camp near Bismarck, North Dakota and that their assets had been frozen, so they couldn’t even buy food or pay the rent. Eventually, Otto and his family are sent to a family camp in Crystal City, Texas.

Mariko’s parents immigrated from Japan as newlyweds and settled in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles. She has a brother and sister, twins, who are three years older than her. The teens met on Elise’s first day at the school. The classrooms are progressively more segregated between German and Japanese as the children grow older. The only seat open in the classroom was next to Mariko, and they did their homework assignment together, becoming fast friends. Mariko is writing a book about a warrior-princess named Calista, who lives in a land called Ankara. The girls are fast friends despite the pressure on them by their respective German or Japanese peers, and Mariko and Elise frequently talk about Calista and how to proceed with the story.

The internment camps sound like prisons with the fencing, razor wire, head counts, and various rules and requirements. Otto will teach chemistry at the German School but will not be allowed chemicals to teach with. Mariko’s father is a beekeeper. The girls’ friendship allows them the only sense of normalcy and teenage dreams they can eke out in their grim surroundings. They make plans for when the war is over, then when they turn 18. Their world would change hundreds of times before WWII ends, however, and the wisdom they gain is beyond what their parents’ American dreams wanted for their children.

Elise comes to life under the talented hand of the author, and I could share her emotions through the ups and downs of her life. There were times I wondered if she would ever find joy, and at least two of the wishes I had for her came true. Elise’s parents are well defined, as is Mariko. Elise’s mother’s fragility contributed to her having to grow up as a young teen, but rather than be a bitter woman, she grew into a strong woman. We hear little about Mariko for many years, since this is primarily Elise’s story to tell.

This novel drew me in from the beginning and held my attention throughout. It was a mixed blessing to learn more about the history of our country during these years. While I understand the concerns of those in power in the U.S., it is hard for me to understand how events escalated that badly. Had the teens’ parents know how their decisions affected them, there are many things they would go back and change, but overall, they did the best they knew how to make better lives for them. This is a unique work of women’s fiction; I highly recommend it for those who appreciate novels about WWII and the resulting lives of women and families.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

Once again, Ms. Meissner brings to life an uncomfortable and unforgettable time in history. She centers her tale on Elise, a young German-American girl from Davenport, Iowa. Through Elise, we see her harrowing experiences of the last year of the war and how those experiences changed her life.

**Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.**

From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager, during World War II. In Susan Meissner's novel, THE LAST YEAR of the WAR (BerkleyBooks) her life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp.  

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943—aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

THE LAST YEAR of the WAR tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our times. It challenges the very notion of who we are, when who we’ve always been is called into question.

The Last Year of the War is a refreshingly different and welcome addition to the popular women's fiction subgenre that focuses on WWII.

Set mostly in America, The Last Year of the War is split into two sections, one set atound 2010, and the other spanning 1943(ish) to 1945. This allows readers to glimpse the mc and narrator. Elise, at two very different but important periods of life.

The sections set in 2010 revolve around Elise, who is slowly succumbing to Alzheimers, traveling to visit an old friend, Mariko. Elise fears that her internal nemesis, Alice (she's named her increasingly frequent periods of forgetting who she is and where she is and other Alzheimer triggered memory issues after a girl she remembers as being cruel to her in junior high) will prevent her from doing so, but takes every precaution she can to make sure she sees Mariko, up to and including labeling herself, to make sure she gets there. These sections are interesting and quite well written, but with the exception of the final section, they are primarily an introduction to and transition within the bulk of the main story.

The primary portion of The Last Year of the War is about Elise's childhood and early teen years in Iowa, the arrest of her German born chemist father as the United States enters WWII, the family's time in an internment camp in Texas, and their repatriation to Germany in late 1944.

I knew of the American internment camps that were established during WWII, but I didn't realize that they held people of Italian descent in addition to Getman and Japanese, and I had no idea that some South American countries sent citizens who were Japanese to these camps as well, leaving their citizens in camps where they were as much trapped by the remote Texas camp as they were by their inability to speak English. (They spoke both Spanish and Japanese)

Elise, who is in her mid teens when her family is imprisoned in Texas, quickly becomes friends with Mariko, an outgoing girl who loves Twinkies and dreams of moving to Manhattan when she's eighteen and becoming a writer. Mariko is lively and lives as joyfully as she can, and Elise, who has struggled to keep her family and herself going as her life has become smaller and pain filled, is enchanted by her. They quickly become best friends and eventually decide that at 18, when the United States will allow them conditional release, to move to Manhattan together.

But then Elise and her family are repatriated to Germany in exchange for wounded soldiers, and Elise is forced to live in a country that she doesn't know with a language she doesn't speak during the final days of WWII. It's wrenching for Elise, and bitter too, and she vows to do what she has to in order to return to America and hopefully still move to Manhattan with Mariko.

Mariko and her family are repatriated to Jaoan, and within months Elise is no longer able to write to her. Foundering in Germany, and still desperate to return to the United States, Elise vows that no matter what, she'll find a way home.

One of the things I liked best about The Last Year of the War is how Elise actually behaves and thinks like a teenage girl. It's so refreshing to read a WWII area novel with a teen narrator who actually feels like a teenager and not a thirty something. Elise is by turns pragmatic and impulsive, prone to age appropriate (and honestly, when in Germany, era appropriate given the things she witnesses) reactions. I loved that not every decision Elise made was perfect, I believed in the sudden friendship with Mariko and I was fascinated by the many twists and turns her life took.

An well written look at a part of WWII history that isn't written about enough, with the bonus of having an engaging, actual teenager who acts like a teen narrator in Elise. Definitely recommended, and The Last Year of the War will also appeal to YA readers who like historical fiction.

2.5 stars rounded up

I don’t know exactly what went wrong with this book for me. I adored the blurb and setting felt very unique, but the book fell flat. I didn’t really get drawn in to the story. It was well written and obviously well researched but it was missing that magic that transports me to another world.

I loved Susan Meissner’s As Bright as Heaven: https://drbethnolan.com/2018/07/11/as-bright-as-heaven-by-susan-meissner/

so I was excited to get her new novel, The Last Year of the War. This story was so interesting to me, because while I knew about the relocation of Japanese Americans into war camps, I had no idea that our government also rounded up and interred German nationals and German American citizens, too. This touching novel tells the story of two girls, one German and one Japanese, who become friends in the camp during 1944.

Description via NG
From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager whose life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp during World War II.

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943–aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her.

The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy WWII novels! Thank you for my review copy!

As she does in As Bright as Heaven, Meissner explores an intriguing and lesser-known tidbit of a popular historical era in this book. Enough WWII novels exist that one could read World War II novels their entire life, but you might not come across one like this. The author has a gift for exposing the dark places that others have not noticed.

Our protagonist is German, but she is American. Her best friend is Japanese, but she is American. The US government decides that neither of them can be trusted and sets their lives on an irreversible course. Was it reasonable for the US to imprison immigrants of German and Japanese descent? I could probably find opposing views on this to this day, so it is easy to understand how it became policy during a time of fear and war. This is the world that molded Elise Sontag.

When the story begins, Elise is elderly and chasing after memories before they are stolen away by dementia. The distant past comes to mind easier than the reason she recently entered a room, so that is what the reader explores with her. The shock, the disbelief, the helplessness when her innocent father is arrested for being a German. The evidence that leads to his arrest is innocuous during times of peace but suspicious during a time of unparalleled war.

I do not wish to reveal the winding path this event sets Elise upon, but it is dramatic and unpredictable. There are no heroes in this story. Elise makes mistakes. Her mother is "a tender soul, my father used to say, whose gentleness and honesty made you want to be gentle and honest." Unfortunately, war does not call for gentleness and the inability to take charge of family circumstances carries severe consequences. Elise is forced to be the strong one when her mother cannot be. Then she finds refuge in her best friend, Mariko, and believes she can do no wrong, but painful truths are discovered about their relationship too.

It is surreal going back and forth between Elise's modern day, elderly self and her tragic, teenage self. When we are going through tragedy (even those less momentous than WWII), we feel as though normalcy is gone, future is forever altered, and in a way they are, but Elise's story reminds us that we endure. We grow, and we even find fulfillment and love despite the worst of circumstances.

"Maybe being brave is different from being unafraid. If you're not afraid, what is there to be brave about?"

I love historical novels. I love Susan Meissner’s books. And I love WW II novels. Yet this one fell a little flat to me. Was it about internment camps? Was it about Elise and Mariko’s friendship? The war in Europe? Elise’s marriages? It’s hard to say. I think the problem was the story was all over the place. Focusing on one or a few of the story lines would have made it more impactful.

Despite some flaws, there are some really powerful takeaways, particularly the treatment of German and Japanese aliens and citizens in internment camps, and the atrocities in Germany during the war. Elise’s marriage to Ralph is too contrived, and her second marriage deserved more attention. Worth reading, although it drags in spots.

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner was an enjoyable read about Elise Sontag, a young German-American teenager whose family is sent to an internment camp during WWII. I have read many internment camp books about Japanese-Americans, but this is a first.

At the camp, Elise befriends Mariko, a Japanese-American from L.A. Their friendship helps them cope with the challenges of being taken from all they knew and having to adapt to life in confinement and the effects on the members of the family. The book respectfully shares the cultural differences and the shared experience. Meissner's telling of the story brings many new details I had not know before about life in the interment camps.

The story is told from Elise's perspective which makes it appropriate for young adults, while it is still interesting for adult readers. I strongly recommend this book.

Thank you to #netgalley and #berkleypublishinggroup for an eARC in exchange for providing an unbiased review.

Elise Sontag, the American-born daughter of German immigrants, has been raised in Iowa. She is peripherally aware of the war, but doesn’t give it much thought until her father is arrested on suspicion (based on circumstantial evidence) that he’s a Nazi sympathizer. Although he’s innocent, the country is looking for people to blame for the tragedy of Pearl Harbor and the U.S.’s entry into the war. So, the family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, separated from everything that’s familiar and living under armed guard, Elise begins to lose her identity as an American. When she meets fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, she finally has a friend who she can compare stories with and plan a future together in New York City when they both turn 18. Unfortunately, neither anticipates that their families will be repatriated to their parents’ native countries, leaving behind everything they know and facing great danger as the Allies advance and the war winds down. Will they survive the war and, if so, will they ever make it back home?

Unlike Susan Meissner’s three other 5* books I’ve read (As Bright as Heaven, Secrets of a Charmed Life, and A Fall of Marigolds), this one was a disappointment. The premise was intriguing, but the execution was too much narrative and too little dialogue. It read more like a history book than historical fiction and, as such, characters weren’t well-developed and the emotions felt muted. It is a first-person narrative from Elise’s point of view as an old woman with worsening Alzheimer’s, so the focus is on herself with very little of Mariko’s story since she was unaware of what happened to her friend after the war. Meissner clearly did her research and, for those not familiar with the history, it is interesting to learn of the fate of German Americans during WWII and the depiction of life and death in Germany near the end of the war. It is also surprising to learn that prejudice amongst internees was just as fierce as it was outside the barbed wire fences. Unfortunately, the descriptive narrative bogged down the story and, without Mariko’s backstory, the brief reunion of the two friends after many decades didn’t make much sense or pack the emotional wallop one would expect. Overall, not a bad story, but not on a par with her other novels.


I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Berkley Publishing Group through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Elise Sontag is a 14 year old girl living in Iowa. Her German father is arrested for being a Nazi sympathizer and sent to an internment camp in Texas. Elise Sontag, her brother and mother later join him at the camp. Elise becomes friends with Mariko, a Japanese American from Los Angeles. When Elise and her family are sent back to Germany in exchange for American prisoners Elise faces the real challenges of the war.

Last Year of the War is one of the best historical fiction books I have read. You know a book is good when you Google search for more information like I did for the German and Japanese interment camps. Susan Meissner did her homework when writing this book. The characters are interesting and well developed and I was emotional reading this book. A must read especially if you love historical fiction. Thank you to the author, Netgalley, and the publisher for giving me an ARC of the book and this is my honest review.

I enjoyed this story and liked that it was from a perspective that I haven't really seen before. My one complaint is that it was a slow read and seemed to drag at times.

Once I started this book, I could not put it down. Emotions ran high as the family was seperated and moved from their comfortable home and life in Iowa. When the family gets back together in the interment camp, I learned so much about that part of the war life that I did not know. Then emotions went high again as the family gets sent back to Germany. A wonderful story about friendship, hope and love. I loved it until the very last page!!

When I was studying at U.C. Davis in the late 1970s-early 1980s, one of my absolute favorite classes was an English Lit class that met twice a week: on Tuesdays we would discuss a book, and on Thursdays we would either have the author of that book as a guest speaker or we would go on a field trip related to the author/book (Jack London’s Wolf House in Glen Ellen, CA was my favorite Thursday class that quarter!). One of the authors who came to speak with us ­was Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, whose book Farewell to Manzanar (co-written with her husband, James Houston) tells the story of her family being sent to the Manzanar “War Relocation Center” (concentration camp) in in the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California when she was seven years old. That book and her story have stayed with me for 40 years (and even prompted a weekend drive to see Manzanar), so when I had an offer of Susan Meissner’s book The Last Year of the War, which also deals with a girl whose family is sent to a camp during WWII, I was eager to receive it in exchange for my honest review.

In Ms. Meissner’s fictional book, the girl whose story is told is Elise Sontag, a German-American teenager living in Iowa during World War II. Although her parents have been in the U.S. for some twenty years, they are not legal citizens. So when her father is arrested and charged with being a Nazi sympathizer, the family is interned at a government camp in Crystal City, Texas.

Elise becomes friends with Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American girl from California, and together they dream of living in New York City some day. When Elise’s family is sent to back to Germany in a prisoner exchange, their friendship is broken, but Elise never forgets the close friend who helped her during a difficult time. As the book begins, Elise is an older woman dealing with what seems like early signs of dementia, but she is determined to make one last effort to rekindle their friendship.

As was true with Jeanne Houston’s book, The Last Year of the War relates the feelings of loss and displacement well. It was heartbreaking to see what happened to so many German, Japanese and Italian families, all of whom were uprooted from their homes. Elise’s family had it even worse, as they were sent back to Germany in the middle of the war as part of a prisoner exchange. Elise has only ever known the feeling of being someone born in America, and she suffers a loss of self, as she feels she doesn’t really belong there (even though she was with family). Another reason it was affecting was the parallel to the thousands of children being detained and held in cages due to immigration issues in 2019.

Ms. Meissner does her usual job of presenting well-developed characters with feelings and problems that may not parallel those of the reader, but that are still relatable. I didn’t feel the emotions between the individual characters as strongly in this book as in Manzanar (or Snow Falling on Cedars, another book dealing with this topic), but I enjoyed the experience of reading it. Wished there had been a bit more about what happened to Mariko and her family, but perhaps that would have made it just too much (?). Four stars, with thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley.

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner is likely to be in my top reads of 2019. This is the first book I have read by Meissner and I am eager to read more. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, especially during the World War II period.

Elise and Mariko meet at an interment camp and instantly become best friends. Little do they know how that time spent at the interment camp will forever shape their lives. The story goes back and forth between the present and past. Elise is the voice behind the story in the book. She is very eager to find Mariko before she forgets who she is. This is very emotional book. Elise’s journey will make you want to weep at times so have a box of tissues handy.

I could not imagine having to go through what these characters went through. We never hear real details about the interment camps. It definitely makes you think because American born citizens were in some of those camps just because where their original family came from. Meissner had me hooked within the first chapter. The Last Year of the War is definitely worthy of a 5 ⭐️ rating!

I've read most of Susan Meissner's books and have enjoyed them and learned a lot. So I knew that she wouldn't disappoint with her latest, and I was right!

The Last Year of the War was a really good story overall and well told throughout. At first, I was annoyed at how plush the internment camp seemed in comparison to concentration camps, but then later appreciated Elise for acknowledging how sheltered she was and what had happened during the Holocaust. There was still a lot of hardship in Elise's life and some parts of the story were really heavy. The descriptions really brought this novel to life and I could picture all the details so vividly. I really enjoyed reading about Elise's friendship with Mariko and I even felt I was coming of age with Elise in some ways.

Certain aspects of the story felt predictable toward the end, but I also like what happened. I think the predictability factor comes from being an avid reader and others might not easily pick up on what was about to happen. I felt there was some foreshadowing that wasn't even needed, as I liked just letting things unfold.

Overall, this was one of Susan's best novels and I hope she continues to write interesting and poignant historical fiction.

Movie casting ideas:
Elise: Nell Tiger Free
Mariko: Mika Dela Cruz
Ralph: Luke Bilyk
Hugh: Beau Mirchoff
Irene: Willa Holland
Papa: James D'Arcy
Mommi: Genevieve O'Reilly

A Beautifully written gentle story about true friendship. It is also a very different perspective on WWII. Parts of it are hard to read because of things going on, but over all a wonderful read for those WWII buffs

I loved her last book, but will this one I had trouble.

What I liked

It started out strong, an elderly Elise, suffering from Alzheimers, gives it a name. Thought that was inventive.
The way she found with said issue.
The description of the family relocation camping in Texas during WWII.
The history behind the camp.
The friendship between the two girls.

What I wish had been better

The connection i couldn't feel, always felt I was viewing the story from a distance.
Too much tell and not enough show.
Sometimes felt like I was reading a YA novel, which I don't have a problem with, but was not expecting.
Would have liked to hear more of Mirankos story, what happened to her in the interval.
The length was way to long, and at times it dragged and I skimmed.

So a mixed bag. Many readers did not have the same problems I did, and you may be one of them. Sometimes I think I'm getting too fussy. Other times I think if you read many books as I do, your expectations are sometimes too high. That may also be the case here.

ARC from Netgalley.

WHAT DID I THINK OF THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR BY SUSAN MEISSNER?
The Last Year Of The War by Susan Meissner really hit the historical fiction craving spot for me. Last year I listened to Stars Over Sunset Boulevard and hoped that if I was going to get to this one late, that I’d at least experience it via audiobook. Thank goodness. I was the first person to place a hold on the audiobook for The Last Year Of The War and yes, that is the way you need to read this book.

So, The Last Year Of The War starts out in modern day. Elise, the main character, is suffering from Alzheimer’s. However, she has also learned a new skill – how to use the Google. There, she finds the whereabouts of her best friend from one year of her girlhood, Mariko. As it turns out, Mariko is in the United States, in California. Elise figures out the hotel that Mariko’s daughter is manager of and makes plans to stay there. The book then bounces between present and past.

When we get to the past, the year is 1943. Elise’s family lives in Iowa. Her parents have been in America for twenty years and things have been mostly just fine. Except, well, it’s 1943 and America is in the grips of World War II. So, Elise’s father is arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. Fast forward a little and Elise and her family are placed in an internment camp in Texas along with people of Japanese descent as well. To make matters even worse, Elise’s family has been selected for repatriation. That means they are forced to go back to Germany (while the war is still on) in exchange for American citizens. Meanwhile, Mariko’s been told she’s not allowed to contact Elise again.

The years pass and the two fall out of touch. We learn all about Elise’s life back in Germany, after the war, and how she eventually makes her way back to America. It’s a story filled with love and emotions and some drama too. Of course, I was very engaged in this audiobook. I think that when I need a fix for historical fiction, I am going to pursue more of Meissner’s books.

HOW’S THE NARRATION?
The audiobook of The Last Year Of The War is narrated by Kimberly Farr who is also a completely new narrator to me. The audiobook is 16 hours and 30 minutes long, but honestly it goes by fast. I think that Farr does a good job narrating as both a woman at the end of her life and a young girl. She never comes across as overwrought or cliche. I’d say this audiobook makes for a good introduction to Meissner’s work.

A story of friendship, love, loss, and finding out who you really are. Susan Meissner’s latest novel The Last Year of the War follows two American girls who are from German and Japanese descent respectively, and find themselves an enemy of the country they love as WWII breaks out around them. It covers a dark and heartbreaking part of American history that many would like to pretend didn’t happen. And perhaps this is the most important reason this story needs to be told. Beautiful and gripping!

Reflection

I must confess that this is a part of American history I didn’t know much about. Not our role in WWII or the fallout in terms of international relations, that part I knew. I didn’t know much about how we treated Americans on our own soil at the time that had immigrated from Germany and Japan but living here for many years. It’s such a sad part of our history, and it honestly doesn’t feel so long ago if I think about it. Less than 100 years ago, actually. There are probably still Americans alive who were treated this way, so that resonated and I was grateful to learn more about this.

The writing in this historical fiction novel was fantastic, I actually had to double check that it was fiction and not narrative non-fiction! A very authentic story with tons of details about the intricacy of war and life for German- and Japanese-Americans in the 1940s.

The book begins in 2010 as Elise is traveling to find her friend Mariko. They met at an internment camp in Texas, and though they know each other for only one year, they form a lifelong friendship. But the two girls lost touch after leaving. Elise and her family are sent to Germany, and Mariko and her family are sent to Japan. Their friendship was such a realistic and wonderful part of this book. Though the book centers on Elise and her life, with much of it occurring after she and Mariko are separated, their friendship is an always-present backdrop to Elise’s life.

I found this to be an incredibly important novel, because it really helped me gain insight into what people may have experienced at that time, for no other reason than where they were born or even where their parents were born. Elise is condemned in America for her German heritage, but things are not necessarily easier in Germany where she is viewed as an American.

This is a rare book that will appeal to so many different audiences. Fans of historical fiction will obviously love it, but I also think many fans of women’s fiction and YA will enjoy it. Elise and Mariko are quite progressive for young girls in the 1940s, and they are fantastic characters. There is even a bit of romance that will make a lot of readers happy!

Thank you to Berkley for my copy. Opinions are my own.