I really don't know how to rate this one! It gave me book hangover two days in a row so I went up with my stars (ha!). At first as kept thinking this is preposterous! There's no way this could have happened! I've read a ton of historical fiction and much of it set in WWII but this was from a perspective that I hadn't read and I just thought the author was tapping too far into the fiction aspect. Then...I just got swept away with the story! Izzy is so brave but reckless to continue to follow Bill. I really thought Bill was selfish, he should have insisted she leave with Berta or never set out in the first place. I had a warm spot in my heart for Max and Ralph and Scotty. This one will sit with me for awhile.

The Prisoner’s Wife
Maggie Brookes


Based on a true story told to novelist/poet Maggie Brookes in 2007 by a former POW, she first published it in 2009 as a long narrative poem but also knew the story wasn’t done with her so off to Eastern Europe she went to research what Izzy, Bill and the men with them may have experienced. What she ended up with is a poignant, one-of-a-kind WWII war story of travails and triumphs of good and evil and most of all of love. Featuring stars, Bill and Izzy, Bill is the ultimate protector and becomes more so when he and Izzy enter the POW camps but it’s Izzy that takes the trophy for her resilience, her strength her ingenuity and by the end of the novel readers will want to help carry her frail body. But Bill and Izzy aren’t the only stand outs in this show, some of the POWs trusted with Izzy’s secret are equally unforgettable characters. Fans of WWII stories of the novels of Pam Jenoff, Kristina McMorris or Kristin Harmel will not be able to put this book down.

In 1944 on a Czechoslovakian farm Bill a captured British solider part of a POW work detail to help with harvest and Izzy the farmer’s daughter meet and fall in love. They eventually convince the local Priest to marry them in secret and then plan and execute an escape. They decide it’s safer if Izzy travels as man and that decision may have saved their lives when they are caught by the Nazis and put into a POW camp in Lamsdorf Czechoslovakia. They have a dangerous situation in front of them and decide they must tell Izzy’s secret to a select few trustworthy fellow POWs. But that’s just the beginning of their one-of-a-kind love story and epic journey through multiple war-torn European countries all in the name of love.

Author Maggie Brookes has taken a tale she was told by a WWII prisoner of war and fleshed it out into a full-fledged novel of love, courage, and survival. When a small group of British prisoners of war are assigned to help bring in the crops of a small Czech farm, the lives of one soldier and the farmer's daughter are changed forever. Soon their love leds them to a secret marriage, an escape with hopes to join the Czech resistance. But to travel, Izzy must disguise herself as a boy. There is so much more to tell but that would mean spoiling the story. While the love story and the subterfuge are compelling, it is the detail of the prison camp life that makes this book one to remember. I received a copy of this title from Netgalley and all opinions are mine.

Historical fiction is my favorite genre to read and Maggie Brookes’ The Prisoner’s Wife is a great one. I was immersed in the characters love, risks, and determination from the beginning. I appreciate the research involved in the novel but was hoping for more facts than fiction. I hope on day we learn about Izzy’s and Bill’s real story.

I really enjoyed this one. It was a good WW2 historical fiction novel surrounding prisoners of war, which was a new aspect to me. I have provided the link for my full Goodreads review.

The Prisoner's Wife By maggie Brookes is a beautifully written heartbreakingly sad story. If you are looking for a World War II story of love and heartbreak this is a wonderful choice. I could not put it down! Happy Reading!

This one did not work for me. I am super picky about my WWII type of historical fiction stories, and this just didn't work for me. I am not sure I liked the inspiration either, since the author didn't have a lot of testimony and research to back up the person's claims.

This was just not for me at the moment. I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t for the first person POV. I think it would have benefited from Bills POV being added as well.

I really wanted to love this one based on the description but I found the characters really lacking any depth. It also said it was based on true events but after my own research couldn’t find those characters. I also found some of the things discussed a bit disturbing. Overall I would skip this one

Having never read anything by Brookes, this was a new experience.

Izabela is a local Czech girl who lives on a farm, stuck in the middle of a neutral country, during WWII that the Nazis have overtaken. One days Nazis come to her families farm with a contingent of British soldiers -POWS -to work the farm. There, Izzie meets Bill and they fall in love. Bill is a British POW though and Izzie knows she'll lose him if she doesn't make a choice. They marry in secret and leave the Czech Republic, trying to help Bill escape from becoming a POW again. Soon after, they are recaptured and they fight to find a way to escape.

I found that I was really intrigued by the ability of Izzie and Bill to pull off Izzie surviving the camps. Honestly that was one of the most compelling parts of this book. I mean a woman surviving in an all men's camp, I think would be almost unheard of. So the fact that she did and went through such harrowing experiences is amazing. I did find it hard to continuously read about the camps and everything that they had to go through to keep Izzie alive. I had to skim a lot to get through the camps sections to just keep reading.

I do think that that some of the characters and how they are developed is really well done. Izzie's voice is the character that I found myself most drawn to. She was well plotted, she grew as a character. You really rooted for her.

Overall, I think this did add to the genre of historical fiction during this time. However, I just really struggled to finish it.

This was a lovely story! Well... as lovely as a book about WWII can be. Izzy and Bill are on the run and to keep her safe, Izzy is dressed as a man. They get along okay but eventually find they can't do it all on their own, and a group of fellow prisoners bands together to keep her safe. I love that this was based on a true story. I found this to be a great balance of tense and heartfelt, and I found myself genuinely caring about their well being. A nice addition to the WWII genre.

It took me a while to get into this story but I eventually was hooked on it. I was rooting for Izzie and Bill to make it through the war. I worried that Issie would be found out and something horrible would happen to her. The descriptions of their lives as they were marching from location to location was so detailed. I felt for them all the time. I could not imagine the pain they went through on a daily basis. Great detail and great story telling.

A different take on the WWII story. The characters are well drawn and their experiences leave one cringing and cheering at the same time. Finding out the story was based on a true story made it even more heartwarming and heartrending. Having the story told from the 2 different perspectives gave it even more depth. An excellent addition to the shelves of WWII literature.

A harrowing tale set in World War II. Izzy and Bill are in love in impossible circumstances: Bill is an English POW and Izzy is a Czech farm girl. Together they hatch a plot to escape and find Izzy's father and brother who are a part of the resistance, but are quickly caught and sent to a POW camp. Izzy now becomes Algernon and they have to enlist other prisoners to keep the secret. It's an impossible story with every page tense.

I don't normally read a lot of historical fiction and I think I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. The story was interesting enough and I like that it has some base in real life but I just found it difficult to connect to the characters.

The subject matter of Maggie Brookes' The Prisoner's Wife drew my attention the moment I stumbled across it. I expected the narrative to be stark, but few authors of my experience have tackled WWII POW camps, and I couldn't help being intrigued by the thoughts and experiences of those imprisoned in these facilities.

The Prisoner's Wife is Brookes' debut fiction and while I loved the author's decision to write about largely overlooked details of the war, I think Brookes' journalism background evident. The straight-forward, matter-of-fact tone of the novel played to the hardship experienced by civilians and prisoners in Central Europe, but I felt it hindered character development, particularly where Izzy was concerned.

I can only speculate, but Brookes is the daughter of a POW, and I think that fact, paired with the inspiration for the novel coming from the recollections of Sidney Reed, a veteran who witnessed an unnamed couple during his own imprisonment, made Bill easier to write. Though fictional, one can argue Bill drawn from tangible models and feel might explain why I found his character less wooden than his bride.

The novel's measured pacing tempered much of the urgency, but once I settled into it, I liked how Brookes' structuring of the story mirrored the realities of camp life. Brookes doesn't force anything outlandish, choosing instead to allow the material to speak for itself. This approach resonated with me, but I think my favorite aspect of the story is how it ends. Brookes does not offer insight into the future of her surviving cast, and while I understand the frustration that might inspire in other readers, I think it a beautiful ode to Reed's incomplete recollections and all those who disappeared into the settling dust of the conflict.

World war 2 historical fiction is an automatic request for me on netgalley. Romance element? Not really. So I was surprised I loved this story!

I simply could not get into this book. However, judging from other reviews, mine may be a minority experience. The characters never came alive for me, and I chose to stop reading.

The Prisoner’s Wife had all the makings of a spectacular premise. I adore books where women have no other choice than to assume the identity of a man. Women will do this for survival, for going to battle, for their safety, or as this book intends, for escaping a prison camp as a married couple.

This one started with a bang and I couldn’t wait to get completely lost in the story. There were many times I was loving the plot and commiserating with the both the major and minor characters. With that being said, the book also had some problems, thus my rating. I didn’t feel the attraction between Izzy and Bill. So as much as I found their escape, heroism and fear in the prison camps to be a good storyline, the driving force: their fast and furious romance, was lost on me. I also thought there were too many fortunate coincidences that grated on me.

This book doesn’t come out until next year and I’m definitely in the minority with my review. Many reviewers loved it, so you may still want to check it out.

The author, a BBC researcher, discovered the basis of this story when she shared an elevator with Sidney Reed, an elderly man who had been a Lance Corporal in WWII, and imprisoned in Lansdorf StalagVIIIB (or Stalag 344) camp in Poland. The places are real, but the names of the characters are not.
With 20 year old Izzy's father and older brother away fighting in the Resistance, she, her mother, and younger brother have been running the farm Vrazne in Occupied Czechoslovakia. In June of 1944, five POWs from the local work camp are sent to help on farm. One is Bill King, and he an Izzy share a mutual attraction, which turns into love, a secret marriage, and a detailed escape plan which involves Izzy disguising herself as a man, and assuming the identity of Private Cousins, a shell shocked mute. They hope to join the resistance and find Izzy's father. Unfortunately, they are captured, and sent to Lansdorf POW Camp in Poland, where Bill realizes he needs help in protecting the identity Private Cousins. He admits the ruse to Ralph, the head of their hut, who in turn holds a meeting of the hut's occupants. After the initial shock, there is agreement to keep the secret. Max, Scotty, and Ralph are especially inspired by Izzy's courage, and have personal reasons for wanting to protect her. When the situation becomes to dangerous at Lansdorf, the cohort of five volunteer for a work assignment and are assigned to Saubsdorf Quarry E111 in the Czech Republic, where they stay until the Russians are knocking at the door. They are sent back to Lansdorf where they quickly prepare the Long March, which was very similar to the Bataan Death March. This is a page turner of a survival and love story. I found myself looking up the locations, caring about the characters, and wanting to know what happened to everyone after the war. Sidney Reed couldn't remember the names of the young couple but he thought they got to England. The author harbors the wish that someone somewhere, maybe a relative, will recognize the story and step forward with a the details. So do I.