Marie-Claire a flirtatious young woman from Alsace, France is forced to marry Kurtz, who has raped her. Kurtz is a Nazi commander in charge of one of the most brutal labor/ concentration camps in France, Natzweiler-Struthof. This is the story of her family and her sister Victoire and their interactions with the Nazi’s. There is an intriguing plot regarding family relationships as a side line. This was a great historical novel with interesting characters. The story is narrated by Marie-Claire and Victoire.

It's a beautifully descriptive read that made me feel as if I was standing on the sideline watching the story play out until the end which was just a bit rushed so hopefully there will be a sequel to finish the story. I did enjoy reading it and I would like to thank the publishers and netgalley for letting me have the book to review and the opinions expressed are entirely my own views and are completely unbiased.

Thank you to Sharon Maas, Bookouture and NetGalley for this ARC.

I love historical fiction, and I really enjoyed this. It's my first novel by Sarah Maas, and it definitely won't be my last. The story is beautifully written, and I love how some of the chapters are told by different characters. I really liked Victoire's character, and thought it played nicely against the vapid, at times annoying character of Marie-Claire. The ending was a nice surprise, but I thought there could've been a little more expansion on that ending.

Overall, this was a great book that tells the story of how one French town was affected by the horrors of WWII.

Historical fiction takes many different routes to get you to the end.  This book is more of a tear jerker than any of the others I have read.


It is hard to put into words this type of book because it affects everyone differently.  I must say though it was very well written. It left a warm feeling playing over my entire body when reading this book.


This type of book is why I read.  The writing and characters were simply put great.  The pace was excellent and i really like how there isn't a lot of unneeded information.


It shows such great depth as this author writes so much in historical fiction and all so completely different from each other

WW II era historical fiction is one of my favourite genres of fiction so I was excited to read this.

The first few pages were so wordy. Overly flowery and descriptive. I actually thought "where was the editor to make this more concise?" at one point. I remembered that I was reading an ARC (advanced reader copy) and I decided to keep reading. I am glad I did. The writing suddenly changed and the book started to flow.

I have not read any other books by this author but it seems some of her characters appear in her other books. Perhaps that would make them more likable (especially Jacques). I really enjoyed most of the characters but I felt that they could have been better developed for sure.

I read why the author left out most of the details about the work camp and did not situate any of her story there. I can respect that but I would have liked more backstory on Marie Claire's husband's involvement. Yes he was a villain and we found out a few details about what was happening at that camp but I wanted more.

I finished the book feeling unsatisfied. It seemed to have a lot of detail in the first half of the book and the last few years seemed rushed to me. I liked the story but never really connected with the characters. The only exception being Victorie..

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the advanced copy of this book.

I loved this novel, with its wonderful cast of characters and gorgeous prose. The storyline was engaging and flowed seamlessly.
Highly recommended!

I would like to begin by thanking NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Sharon Maas for the opportunity to read this book. I have read numerous books centred on WWII and it was refreshing to read one that was centred on one city, giving me insight on how the war affected Alsace. I did not know how much Alsace suffered during WWI and how they had been forced to become German instead of French. To lose your identity not only once but yet again during WWII must have been horrible. I found many of the characters in this book difficult to like. Marie-Claire appeared to be shallow in the beginning but her character didn’t seem believable as the book wore on, she couldn’t have been that shallow to not believe or recognize the harm the Nazis were doing. Further on she became more realistic but I found the author didn’t go in-depth enough with her or describe her well enough to make me feel for her. Jacques was also another character that seemed noble but was, in reality, an uncaring man. The characters simply lacked depth and I couldn’t feel for them. The book seemed to jump from one event to another without giving anything the proper closure. In my opinion it seemed that the author had a list of events she wanted to include in the book and shoved them in without blending it. Jumping though two years was another point that bothered me. I feel if each chapter simply went from one character to another it workday have made a better book. The idea was great but the follow through was not there. When I read a book I want to feel for the characters, I want to be able to place myself there and I couldn’t with this book.

I adore, admire and look up to this author. She is one of my absolute favourite writers - I read anything and everything she writes and needless to say she never disappoints. I know I always say this with every one of her books that I read and I always mean it but this is definitely her best book yet. Beautiful and powerful, heartbreaking and empowering. Just amazing. Very few authors have the ability to tell a wonderful story as well as teach you something but with Sharon's books I always come away having learned so much. Especially hard to do when there are so many war stories and documentaries out there but Sharon does it effortlessly and with aplomb telling a stunning story and relaying a powerful message. Everyone needs to read this book now more than ever. If you are going to read one book during these strange extraordinary times we are all living through make it this one.