Just WOW! I loved the first book - The Tattooist of Auschwitz but this one ... I have no words except - READ IT! This is one you can't put down until it's finished. You will not be disappointed.

Thank you #netgalley and #stmartinspress for the eARC.

When I heard that Heather Morris had written a sequel to The Tattoist of Auschwitz, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

Cilka, who we meet in Lale and Gita’s story, trades one hell for another as she is liberated by Soviet troops but accused of collaborating with the Nazis and sent to an infamous gulag in Siberia. There she faces the same obstacles she did in Auschwitz: how to survive at all costs without sacrificing her humanity.

Morris does an amazing job at bringing her characters vividly to life. The book moves at a fast pace, and I stayed up way too late finishing it last night. I was thoroughly invested in each character and the story was emotionally wrenching.

But there were some flaws. I felt that a few of the minor characters and their story lines were underdeveloped, and the dialogue was anachronistic at times. But, the positives significantly outweighed the negatives. I also loved how Morris showed us that rape is rape, even if the man perpetrating it isn’t as monstrous as the other men.

Once again, I feel like the book read at times more like a screenplay than a novel. But I don’t think this is a bad thing, just an interesting style. I would love to see a miniseries based on these books. Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for my free digital copy!

Cilka's Journey is the 2nd book written by Heather Morris. In her first book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz we are introduced to Cilka Klein. After her release from Auschwitz-Birkenau Cilka is convicted of working with the enemy and is sentenced to a 15 year prison sentence in Siberia. Cilka does what she has done since she was 16 years old and finds a way to survive. I really enjoyed reading Cilka's perspective and found the characters she encountered to be deep and beautifully written, even the villains of the story. Cilka's Journey is a must read for the fall!

Cilka’s Journey is even more compelling than Lale’s story. (The Tattooist of Auschwitz) The Russians of Stalin’s regime did a very poor job of liberating Auschwitz. Cilka was a real person sentenced to 15 years in the Siberian labor camps after spending 3 years in a concentration camp doing what she had to do to survive. The horrors of Auschwitz were unimaginable. Life in the Russian labor camps was harsh and cruel too. Yet Cilka kept her humanity and heart for helping others. Her story is one to be remembered.
Advanced reader copy courtesy of the publishers at NetGalley for review.

This was a difficult book to read, but it tells about a fascinating woman, Cilka Klein, who was a survivor in more ways than one. Cilka was only 16 when she and her family were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. After managing to survive Auschwitz, Cilka was then sent to the forced labor camp at Vorkuta. She was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for being a "collaborator." While some aspects of Cilka's life were fictionalized in this book, Cilka Klein was a real person.

I have read many books set during and after World War II, but this was the first one that dealt with Vorkuta. It is appalling to think that someone could survive one death camp, only to be immediately sent to what was essentially another death camp. It was so hard being confronted with so much violence and hatred throughout this book, but it was also a testament to the triumph of the human spirit.

I have not read Heather Morris's book that preceded this one, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but I plan to read it soon. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.

Clika's Journey by Heather Morris

This story shows the preserving spirit of a young girl to survive horrifying circumstances and make a new life for herself as she faces the loss of family and friends along the way.

I found this book to be very interesting and informative. It showed the inhumanity of man against man. Clika was definitely a heroine by the way she survived her ordeal and helped others along the way. I had never considered the Nazis keeping a Jewish woman for their own pleasure. Then when the camp is liberated, finding out you are a criminal for sleeping with the enemy (against your will) and sentenced to Siberia. Tragedy upon tragedy, but there is always hope.

A novel about Cilka, one of the characters in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, loosely based on a true story. After the war is over and Auschwitz is liberated, Cilka is sent to a Siberian prison camp where she faces more challenges. It is hard to imagine how anyone could continue to survive in such harsh conditions. This is truly a story of perseverance. The plot moved along at a better pace in this second novel in the series. Review based on an ARC provided by NetGalley.

This new novel from the author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz follows a secondary character from that book, Cilka Klein.

She was only a teenager when she was taken from her home in Czechoslovakia and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Her youth and beauty caught the attention of Nazi officials there. Although she's powerless against their sexual assaults, she finds that their attention does give her a certain power. She gets warmer clothes, better food and a less dangerous work assignment.

But when Soviet forces liberate the camp, Cilka is considered a collaborator and sent to a gulag in Siberia. That's the main setting of the novel – her experiences in the concentration camp are visited in flashbacks.

Author Heather Morris grapples with a serious issue: When the rules of humanity are suspended, what blame can we attach to the actions of those who survive?

Although this is a novel, Cilka was a real person and Morris has some research to guide her. Without a doubt, Cilka was an extraordinary person who showed tremendous bravery. I couldn't help but feel, though, that Morris had stripped the character of some complexity. Cilka's actions are always cast in the most favorable, even heroic light. Surely we could forgive a traumatized teenager who vented her rage the only way she could?

Nevertheless, fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz will want to add this to their reading list.

I received an early review copy of this book.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
I was so excited for this one after having read and thoroughly enjoyed The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Heather Morris is a beautiful writer and I appreciate her taking the time to tell stories needing remembered. Obviously books from this horrific time period are heavy reads; however, I think the story of relationship and the human condition made up for any intensity I experienced while reading.

The sheer amount of abuse, atrocity, and indifference in this book is staggering. The sheer amount of perseverance, heart, and resilience in this book is staggering. And to know that this book is based on a true story and a part of history. Don't neglect to read the notes by the author at the end of the book. They are integral in realizing how the book came about and the historical research that was the foundation for this story.

As other reviews have mentioned, the main character in this book was in the author's first book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz. While I have not had the opportunity to read the first book, it didn't hinder my understanding of reading this title. I'm sure it would definitely be beneficial and add more to the story to read The Tattooist of Auschwitz first. Cilka's Journey includes flashbacks to the previous story that played out in The Tattooist of Auschwitz, but the main focus is centered on Cilka's time in a Siberian prison camp. This story leaves you asking yourself a lot of hard questions. What would I have done in those situations? It's easy to speculate what noble, fair decisions you would have made when you've never been put in such heartrending, unfair circumstances.

This story leaves you emotionally drained reading about all of the depraved acts that humanity can bring about in the world. It also leaves you hopeful that even in such depths a light can shine to cut through the darkness. Regardless of all the incessant abuse and horrific situations that are thrown at Cilka, she persists. Even when she thinks she has no more left to give, that she will always be cursed to walk with death around her, she finds a way to keep taking a step forward. I rated this five stars. I normally rate a book five stars if I would be willing to read it again. I don't know that I will read this title again, but I don't think you would have to read this title again to refresh your memory. The author does a more than adequate job of leaving this story seared into your memory long after you've finished the last chapter. I will definitely be recommending this title for the library collection.

This is a heavy read. It is not a happy story. The storyline covers a young Jewish woman’s time in a concentration camp during WWII and her imprisonment post war, in a gulag by the Soviets, Amidst brutality both received and observed by the protagonist Cilka, one wonders how she manages to sustain any semblance of humanity. The author does not skirt the violence and evil of the story, but I do not feel there is any gratuitousness. Underneath the veneer of toughness Cilka projects and the compromises she makes to keep herself alive is a woman capable of compassion and sacrifice. The fact that Cilka manages in the end to find love and happiness, and apparently some measure of emotional health based on interviews by the author, of people who knew her post war/gulag is astounding. The post story pages are fascinating and I wish I had actually read them first.

I continually return to WWII books. I'm drawn to the epic ordinariness of the people who responded to their horrific circumstances with extraordinary bravery and ingenuity. It serves as a reminder to me what can happen to any people that are not vigilant in preserving their human rights and that of others. I especially love novels that are based on actual events or people. Cilka's Journey is one such a book. But there is such a moral twist to this story that sets the heart to breaking. What would you be willing to do to survive while watching all those you love die?
Cilka is pulled from her idyllic youthful life and lands in Auschwitz/Birkenau at 16 years old where she finds herself traded between two of the Commandants of the camp and thus spared the death sentence reserved for Jews. The pain of that life follows her upon her liberation from the concentration camp only to find herself a prisoner, sentenced to 15 years hard labor in a Siberian Gulag.
What follows is Cilka's life in the prison camp and her desperate need to make up for surviving the concentrations camps. Trading one hell for another, Cilka tries her best to suppress her past in her own mind and fearful it will be exposed to her new fellow prisoners.
I originally thought the ending was quite abrupt but realized everything that happened to Cilka since turning 16 years old was of an abrupt nature and one she had no control over. Ultimately, it was a perfect ending. This books is for anyone that loves to see triumph over tragedy.

From the author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz comes another poignant read.
When I received an email that Heather Morris was releasing another book and it was available on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to review it. I had read The Tattooist of Auschwitz and it hit me like a ton of bricks, so I knew if she was writing another, I HAD to get it.
Cilka's Journey follows Cilka Klein to the Vorkuta Gulag after the liberation of Auschwitz. Sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor for her actions while imprisoned in Auschwitz, Cilka is put on another cattle train and shipped to Siberia to repent and assist Mother Russia. Three years in Auschwitz-Birkenau didn't break Cilka, and she vows that neither will this. Though she refuses to believe that she will fall in love and have a family, she firmly repeats to herself that she will get through this. Despite the humiliation of yet another place that has stripped her of her identity and assigned her an identification number, despite still wearing the identity of a prisoner of Auschwitz (which she refers to only as "the other place"), Cilka will not be broken. She understands how these camps works, knows there is a hierarchy, and in giving her body to Boris, the man who has chosen her, she has been granted a reprieve from gang rape and harassment from the the other male prisoners.
When she is offered a position as a trainee nurse, Cilka realises that this job will not only help her, but also her hutmates, as it offers an increase in food, which she can smuggle back to keep them, and their Brigadier Antonina Karpovna better fed, and therefore less likely to toss their hut looking for contraband. Boris' protection doesn't extend to Hannah, one of her hutmates, who has found out about why Cilka was sentenced to Vorkuta. Taking full advantage of Cilka's position as a nurse, Hannah extorts her for pills in exchange for her silence about Cilka's previous life.
As the weeks turn into years, Cilka's life of imprisonment continues on. Using her friendly relationship with doctor Yelena Georgiyevna, CIlka is able to secure indoor jobs for several of her hutmates, including young Jozefina. Cilka and Josie have had a tumultuous friendship, but Cilka hopes that she will be able to keep a better eye on Josie working in the same area.
When a Commandant's daughter is brought in with a broken arm, Cilka makes an impression on the girl's mother and father with her gentle manner of tending to the child. Several years later, Cilka has become an ambulatory nurse and is called to a Commandant's home to transport a child to the hospital for medical attention. On arrival, the child is Katya, the same one to whose arm she previously tended. After an appendectomy, Katya's mother approaches Cilka to thank her and offer her a favor. Not for the first time, Cilka refuses assistance for herself, instead trading her freedom for a friend's.
Told with interspersed flashbacks of her time in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Cilka's story is one of heartbreak, and loss, and a spirit so unbreakable in a time when there seemed to be no hope. Cilka Klein is a woman who helped many, but whose name is not well known. Cilka didn't deserve the life she was given, but she found a way to make the most of it. Convinced she was an angel of death and that everyone who got close to her died, she turned to nursing in a wide capacity to try to make a difference. She worked in surgery, maternity, infectious disease (typhoid ran rampant through Vorkuta for several months - and her own sister died of it in Auschwitz-Birkenau), and riding in the ambulance to transport injuries prisoners to the hospital.
Morris has done yet another fantastic job in telling the unknown story of a Jewish prisoner during, and after, Hitler's reign of terror. The history we are taught overlooks these people, the ones who did what they had to in order to survive, to keep death at bay for just one more day. Stories like Cilka's, and Lale's, and Gita's, are not unique. They are the stories of the fighters, the ones who refused to let the German's, or the Russians break them. Stories like Cilka's need to be told, and Heather Morris does her due diligence in her research in order to do just that.
The biggest of thank you's to Heather Morris for telling the forgotten stories.

I am in awe! Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris is a beautiful book.

If you read the Tattooist of Auschwitz, you will love Cilka’s Journey. We met Cilka in the Tattooist of Auschwitz and as you can guess this is her story. I fell in love with Cilka as she is such a warm, kind person. Reading what she went through will break your heart.

I am not going to tell you anything about the book because I want you to discover her and her journey on your own. This book was a little easier to experience than the Tattooist of Auschwitz. I am not sure if it was because I thought I knew the horrors that would be coming or if this was truly a more gentle story just as Cilka is.

Please don’t miss reading Cilka’s Journey!

I actually loved this book more than the first one. The story follows Cilka after WWII ends when she is convicted of sleeping with the enemy (the Nazis) and sent to a prison in Siberia. What follows is a fasincating tale of human survival and friendship again. After coming out of the concentration camps and into a prison, her resolve to continue to exist and be successful in the prison is amazing. The writing is great, the story is interesting. I actually finished it in basically one sitting. Loved this book!

This was a beautiful and inspiring story, based on fact. Cilka, at the young age of 16, in 1942, was sent to a concentration camp. She was beautiful and noticed by the higher authority. She survived by doing whatever she had to do because it also gave her a chance to help the other women in the camp. After the end of the war, she was not freed as she was accused of being a collaborator with the enemy and was sent to serve 15 years hard labor. Cilka proved to be selfless, always looking to serve others who were suffering. She gave up many chances to be better off in order to make things better for someone else.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Cilka‘s Journey by Heather Morris is Historical Fiction based on fact. When I first started reading this book I thought when does this woman’s torture end. Will I be able to finish reading this book? My next thought was if she could endure the daily persecution by Nazi Socialists and by Soviet Socialists surely I can read about her life. What kind of people treat others in this manner and how are they given the power to do such atrocities? Gulag residents had lives of nightmares, constant fear, horror, degradation, deprivation and depravity. It is a heartbreaking story but then the story changes. A pervasive evil surrounds her but Cilka endures and more. A woman who thinks she cannot love, seems to love everyone even her enemies. It becomes a story of hope because of one person who touched and changed so many lives. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history because of the factual details in the story, notes and the afterword. For everyone else the portrayal of a life well lived.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I appreciate the opportunity and thank the author and publisher for allowing me to read, enjoy and review this book.

More historical than fiction according to the author this book is a must read. I read it as much as I could without wanting to out it down. The courage and strength of Cilka is unbelievable. To share how she survived would spoil the book. I fortunately my copy of The first book was loaned to someone and not returned yet so it will not be read until later. Heather Morris states in her notes, Lale, the Tattooist, gave her so much of the information and resources that there is more fact in this book than fiction. It is considered The Tattooist of Auschwitz #2.
I recommend this highly.

I enjoyed this book. I didn't read Heather's previous book, and I will go read that book next as I want to know Cilka's life before Siberia. I didn't really know about the prisoners being sent there from the concentration camps so that was a piece of history that I would like to explore more. The character of Cilka although based upon a true person made me question how someone going through so much pain could willingly pass on opportunities to better her personal life situation for eg, not moving to the nurse's quarters earlier than she did.

The one problem I had is there were some relationships that ended without explanation. The man who visited her - did he ever look for her? Did she ever see any of the other prisoners once they were released? And although I hope it happened, the ending seemed as if it was tied up with a ribbon too quickly. I guess my issue is that I want to know more about her life.

I would recommend this book. It held my attention, and I couldn't wait to get back to it to see what happened next.

Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris
Is a very heartbreaking novel of how some of the prisoners were treated by the Russians after the war was over. They didn’t have a choice, but to do as the Nazi leaders wanted them to do.
Cilka was sentenced to 15 years at a work camp in Siberian prison.
Cilka was made a prostitute at the age of 16 and her life continued as one in the work camp. She is a very kind person who puts her friend’s needs ahead of hers. Her journey is one that is so unbelievable and how she survived I do not know.
Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Heather Morris and Net Galley for this ARC for my honest review.