Having read 'The Tattooist of Auschwitz' in just a few hours, I had very high hopes of this book. It did not disappoint and I think I read it quicker! Beautifully written on such a sad subject, Would recommend to anyone and will be purchasing a copy when it is released in October.

This is such a wonderful book! So many emotions and you will never really realize what this girl goes through just to try to stay alive! The characters they are so real,the story plot you will think on this way after you have read this book! I received a paperback copy of this and It's so nice holding the book in your hand to read! The tears,the laughs so many emotions you will feel! Even some of the bad guys at the prison help the prisoners the best they can! All the books you read you shake your head on how humans can treat humans the way they did! Like to see this in a movie! There is some happiness in all of this unhappiness along the way!!

The sequel to "The Tattooist of Auschwitz", this book illustrates the journey of a young girl, Cilka, through the concentration camps of Auschwitz where her job, her way to stay alive, was to sleep with the enemy - literally.

After the war, Cilka is convicted of giving aid and comfort to the enemy during her time at Auschwitz, and is sentenced to fifteen years at a labor camp in Siberia.

I was prepared to think of this book as one more story of the Holocaust, but it isn't. This is a story of perseverance, of wanting to live against steep odds and unthinkable cruelty.

Cilka wants to make up for her political crimes by helping as many people as she can, within the bounds of the barbed wire of the Vorkuta Gulag, a concentration camp in Siberia. She learns to give medical care in the hospital building, and she works in the maternity ward, and as an ambulance nurse. She gains a reputation as a caring and able nurse under the tutelage of kindly Dr. Yelena Georgiyevna, a volunteer at the camp. Cilka does for others and sacrifices for the comfort of others, at her own expense. Friends come and go in and out of her life, sometimes the only thing they have in common is being held captive in the horrible Gulag.

This is a heart-rending story of a young woman who does whatever she must to stay alive.

I grew attached to each of the characters in the first book and was glad to hear there was going to be a book about Cilka. Her journey is incredibly heartbreaking but her strength and resilience is admirable. The author does an amazing job telling the story for those who cannot tell it themselves.

I’d like to thank the publisher for allowing me to read this book through Netgalley for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for accepting my request to read this advanced copy. When I requested this title I knew it was by the same author as The Tattooist of Auschwitz. I had not read it but knew it was a favorite read of many. Cilka's story is based on a real life woman who survived Auschwitz by becoming the mistress to a high ranked leader. After she is liberated she is deemed a criminal for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a prison in Siberia. Cilka, once again, has to do whatever she can to survive her sentence. This is an unforgettable story of courage, love and the undying willingness to survive. Heather Morris research and beautiful writing opens our eyes and hearts to the survivors of the Holocaust.

Another 5 stars for this extraordinary written work of historical fiction by Heather Morris! Whether or not readers have picked up Morris’s first novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, historical fiction lovers will not be able to Cilka's Journey down until they reach the final page. Morris enables her reader to travel back in time to the years of 1939-1945 to witness through the eyes of her protagonist, Cilka as she is forced to endure and survive the most notorious and lethal of the concentration camps, Auschwitz. Even after the camp is liberated, Morris transports her reader to the Siberian work camp, where Cilka must find the strength inside herself to overcome the physical and psychological deprivations she cannot escape. A truly inspiring novel that memorializes an extraordinary woman!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Publishing for the privilege of reading this advanced digital copy! Most importantly, thank you Heather Morris! I cannot wait to see where you take your readers next!

I have a real interest in World War II books and this book did not disappoint. While the subject matter is heartbreaking, it is nice to know that there were still people who cared for each other during very horrible circumstances. It was very interesting and a lot of research had to have gone in to writing this book as the narrative really made you feel like you knew how things looked. It was the first time reading a book by this author, and I will look forward to reading mores titles by Ms. Morris.

I liked this book and I recommend it. That said, it is another novel set during World War II. What makes this book special is the title character, Cilka.
This is not a spoiler, but Cilka is Jewish and goes from Auschwitz during the war to a Russian gulag after the war. Her life is one of hardship. She also carries a kind of survivor's guilt. That's all I'll say about the plot.
The other characters are very well drawn as well. You do feel that you know them, especially the ones she lives with.
And the cold; you feel the cold and the hunger of the gulag as well.
Overall, I thought it was well-written, it drew you in to the place and time, and it told a story I hadn't heard before.

I didn't read the Tattooist of Auschwitz but I understand it to be the first in this series. That book doesn't have to be read to understand this, but if this author is anything to go by, I'd highly recommend both. The painstaking research and emotional journey that Morris had to have gone through in the writing of this book, it rips at the heart.

TW - discussion of sexual assault. Cilka is a Jewish woman from Slovakia who, along with her entire family, were placed in camps during the Holocaust. She made it out, but at a cost that would land her in a Russian Gulag for a decade because of "collaboration." Who can say what they would have done in her position? Can you call what happened to her anything other than rape by Nazis? As Morris says in the book, it's so rarely ever discussed, but why would those monsters be the first to not engage in what is a common oppressive tactic during times of war? Of course they brutalized those women, and in so doing marked them with a lifetime of internalized shame that many would never speak to their families about.

Cilka's story isn't just one of abuse though. It's one of perseverance, overcoming through the extremes of adversity, caring for others in the so limited ways that she had available to her, and ultimately, survival. This book wrung tears out of me by the end. There are no words to describe the depths of sorrow and rage at what occurred to these people. This is an excellent, and timely book and one I can't recommend enough.

Well Heather Morris has manged to blow me away again with her fantastic writing. Cilka's Journey is heartbreaking, harrowing but also a story of hope and friendship. It has given me a small insight as to what went on during those horrific year of imprisonment. The bravery shown by many during what must have been a living hell just amazes me. Brilliant, brilliant read

Cilka's Journey is a terrific novel based on actual events. Picking up from a character in her precious novel, Morris highlights the experience of young Cecilia, Cilka. She exchanged one hell for another after having been liberated from a concentration camp, but then sentence to a Soviet gulag. I enjoyed reading this story. It was horrifying real and heartbreaking. Anyone who experienced the trauma Cilka did had an incredibly strong constitution. I appreaciated the epilogue and the aithor's note at the end that not only explained the real Cilka's life, but also the history of the gulag where she was resided.

I often find it wrong to say that I “enjoyed” books like these, as what these people went through cannot even be put into words and can even be imagined. However, I enjoyed reading this book and reading of Cilka’s story and fight for survival. Although I am not entirely sure which parts of the book are fiction as true, having read other survivors stories, I feel that the book was superbly written and gave a wonderful insight into people’s lives and journeys throughout the Second World War and concentration camps
The author did this book so much justice and despite the harrowing tale, it was a great read. The book deserves nothing but five stars.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Heather Morris' first novel I was thrilled to read her second work featuring one of her secondary characters. Although calling Cilka a secondary character is an incredible injustice. This was a difficult book to read mainly because it is based on a particularly dark period of history. Having survived the horrors of Auschwitz, Cilka finds herself sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in the Gulag. Her supposed crime, consorting with the enemy. Based on historical research of the period, Heather Morris has written a moving novel concerning what women such as Cilka experienced during their imprisonment. While the fictional Cilka is a combination of many different women, she is based on a real woman that featured prominently in interviews of survivors of Auschwitz. If you've read the Tattooist of Auschwitz, this is a must read book. While I have read numerous works centered around World War II, I have never read anything concerning the Gulags or even the Soviet experience after the war. I must say the book was well written and informative as much as making you think what became of the people as they were liberated from one camp only to find themselves in a different one.

This continues Cilka's story from the Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka's Journey continues after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau only she isn't liberated she is charged as a collaborator and sent to a Siberian gulag. Now she is might be lucky again and taken under the wing of one of camps doctors and is asked to help in the hospital but can she do it, to save her life?

This book is fiction, but it is so easy to see it really happening to some of the women of that era, and how horrible it must have been for them. This book is such a powerful book to tell what happened to this one woman after the supposed liberation, and how she had to keep her hope alive even longer when it would have been so much easier to just give up. This is a not to be missed book of the year, and would also make a great book club book as well. It is one of those books you can not say enough about as Cilka is one of the strongest women I know, she is a hero.


This review will appear on my blog on 1 Oct

Another amazing novel by this author!! Cilka's Journey is about a Jewish Holocaust survivor who is liberated out of Auschwitz but then imprisoned in a Siberian work prison. It is a sad story overall, but it is infused with hope and love and one woman's strength.

Saturday, I was checking e-mail and opened one from Netgalley...to my surprise, it was Cilka's Journey; read now, it said. So, Saturday evening and Sunday I was reading Cilka's Journey on my phone (gotta get a Kindle).

I have been anticipating this book since I saw some hype on Instagram! But I figured I would be the first to get it in October (when it comes out)! After reading it, I would have to say it is definitely one of my top five of this year! I even think that I liked it better than the Tattooist!

Cilka was a friend of Gita and Lane's in The Tattooist of Auschwitz. So, from Auschwitz we follow her 'journey'...and what a path it was!

I read this book "blind" (if you will) going into this book not knowing if it was going to be her journey TO Auschwitz or after the camp was released (for lack of a better word). And, I'm not going to say anything or give anything away because it is such an impactful story.

Suffice it say Cilka is one of the most captivating, heartfelt and brave women of her time. Enduring horrific atrocities, Cilka survives her untoward situations the best way she knows how, becoming blank in her soul in order to live.

However, Cilka has a compassion for others that exceeds the human heart! Taking care of others often gets her into trouble...but can help others in many ways! She is a beacon of light in this dark time.

This book may be about a dark time in history, but this book serves as a lovely show of endurance, friends who become family, so much compassion for your fellow man and love. Love is the biggest strength we are gifted with in this life.

I hope that everyone feels the same as I do about this book... but, I know that may not be the case. However, in my humble opinion, I give this book the shiniest 5 stars!!!!

I just finished an advanced copy from NetGalley of Heather Morris’ “Cilka’s Journey”. This book is the sequel to “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”. It is a fictional novel based on factual information about Cilka and her release from Auschwitz and subsequent imprisonment in a forced labor camp in Russia. If you read the first novel then you know who Cilka was. She was a prisoner of Auschwitz who was abused and mistreated and forced to do unimaginable things to live.

The story is an eye opening lesson in the atrocities so many people had to experience. The amazing gratefulness of being freed from a concentration camp to the unbelievable reasoning as to why the Russians felt Cilka belonged in a gulag.

Heather Morris did an amazing job putting you there with Cilka inside the prison. Her strength, compassion and resilience are incredible.I have not read much about the labor camps in Russia and now I want to know more.

Lastly the author notes at the end were a great way to complete the story and to understand where she got her information to develop the book.

Fantastic book and strongly recommend!!

Another fantastic book from Heather Morris. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Cilka, although it was heartbreaking. I loved this book just as much as The Tattooist Of Auschwitz. Heather Morris’s writing style is fantastic and has a big emotional impact on the reader. I loved the characters in this one and like that most of them are based on real people. It’s obvious that a lot of research has been done which makes me love this book more. At no point did I feel like this book was exaggerated or false. I like the factual side, although it does make it a hard-hitting read. I think books like this, that focus on a hard topic, are extremely important and should be read by everyone. Although it feels weird saying it due to the topic of this book, I did love it and I recommend it to everyone!

A sequel to the Tattooist of Auschwitz, this book follows Cilka's journey. As a young girl surviving the holocaust the horror for Cilka is only beginning. The story details the the remaining years of Cilka's life and her incredible desire to once again survive. This will be one of the best books of the year. Hard to believe, but this story needs to be told so that people never forget.

This book covers a very important piece of history but does not really work as a follow up to The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Any mentions of the characters from that book seem forced and gratuitous. The story of Cilka would have been sufficient without trying to tie it to the other book. This period of time and place--a WW2 concentration camp--is horrible and unfortunately all too real. The author addresses both with tact and sincerity. I felt for the characters and wanted to know what happened to them.