I don't typically reach for historical stories. This story has love as well as tragedy. The journey of the main characters and their stories is incredible. Overall an enjoyable book.

"The Note Through the Wire" by Doug Gold is a remarkable memoir that seamlessly weaves together history, love, and courage, earning it a well-deserved five-star rating. Gold's attention to historical accuracy is impeccable, transporting readers to the heart of World War II-era Europe with vivid detail and precision. His writing style is both engaging and evocative, capturing the emotions and experiences of the characters with depth and sensitivity.

The pacing of "The Note Through the Wire" is expertly handled, keeping readers engaged and invested in the story from beginning to end. Gold masterfully balances moments of intrigue and suspense with poignant reflections on love and loss, creating a narrative that is as gripping as it is moving. The relationships depicted in the memoir are beautifully rendered, offering readers a profound and intimate glimpse into the human spirit's capacity for resilience and connection.

Overall, "The Note Through the Wire" is a captivating and unforgettable memoir that will resonate with readers long after they've turned the final page. Gold's skillful storytelling, historical accuracy, and heartfelt exploration of love and courage make for an immensely enjoyable reading experience. Whether you're a fan of nonfiction or simply appreciate a well-told story of triumph against adversity, "The Note Through the Wire" is a must-read that is sure to leave a lasting impression.

Moving biography of a woman from Slovenia who worked for the resistance during WW2 and a New Zealand soldier who was held as a POW for much of the war. The true story chronicles their experiences during the war and their chance meeting that resulted in a lifetime romance. The difficulties endured by both and their friends and families, as well as the obstacles faced to be together both during and after the war are sobering and described in great detail. While a biography, the book is well written and reads like a novel. I would have liked he ending to have been expanded a bit more into their lives after they were reunited.

This was a really interesting book that was a combination of biography and novel. It’s based on the author’s own family but seems to be as close to actual events as possible. It is so fascinating and amazing that love can blossom even in the darkest of situations, and this book is a testimonial to that. I really enjoyed it! I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoy reading historical fiction books set in WWII. This one was different than my typical read in that it was set in Slovenia. You are also exposed to some of the battles that occurred in Greece. There are two main characters…Bruce and Josefine. The way they met and their lives because connected was interesting. I continue to be appalled at the atrocities people had to endure under Hitler’s regime. But in doing so, I am touched by their resilience, strength, and the courage they demonstrated. I strongly encourage you to get involved in the story of Bruce and Josefine.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

This is a historical fiction book based on true story and real people. Its an unforgettable story that tells of courage, bravery and of underground resistance soldiers. Of a love that blooms between a POW and a resistance soldier named Josephine. A love story

This is an intriguing true love story. It tells the story of Bruce Murray, a New Zealand prisoner of war and Josefine Lobenik, an underground resistance fighter. The author did an excellent job providing the reader with background information on Bruce and Josefine. Bruce came to fight the Germans, but Josefine was fighting for her home and her people. Her story is more compelling that Bruce's because you can feel her need to save her homeland and her friends.

There were many historical facts and tidbits that made the reading interesting. I found the love story between Bruce and Josephine quite lovely even through the traumatic times depicted in the historical retelling.

I was provided a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.

A WWII love story with a unique back drop of Slovenia. I always a appreciate a very well researched true story that makes me want to research more about what I just read! I loved that it was set in a country many of us know little about and how well it portrayed the challenges of war. Two people from different corners of the world showed how love can help and enable you to survive. Their story stayed with me for a long time after reading it. Highly recommend this book!

This is such an amazing story! It starts with the first meeting of Josephine and Bruce, when she brings a note to the POW camp where Bruce is being held prisoner, in hopes that someone can give her information about her brother who'd been missing since he was taken away by the Nazis occupying her town. Then the book alternates between both of their backstories to show the reader how brave and determined they are in the face of terrible hardships before telling the incredible story of their wartime romance that flourished against all odds. There are so many WWII stories, but The Note Through the Wire stands out to me mainly because Bruce and Josephine were real people in the author's family and not just characters based on real people. I had never read anything set in this time period from the POV of a Slovenian or a New Zealander so that was a new and interesting perspective on the war. I would definitely recommend The Note Through the Wire for history buffs and historical fans alike.

Excellent, compelling book. The story takes place during World War II and flows Bruce a prisoner of war and Josefine, a partisan. It not only tells of their activites, but also of their experiences. It’s at times a harrowing tale. The notes and appendix at the end are very helpful.

When I requested this book, I didn't realize it was nonfiction. Once I started reading and realized it, I was thinking, "Ugh, I"m going to hate this." But I was pleasantly surprised! I enjoyed the pace of the story line and appreciated that it did not read too much like a textbook. I also enjoyed the fact that the author is the son-in-law of the couple. It added a really nice personal touch to the book.

This was different from what I thought it was going to be. It's not my typical historical fiction story but it is very good. It held my attention and made me want to keep reading. It was very realistic and heartbreaking in many places. It was a love story but much more.

This is the story of Bruce and Josefine. Two people in very different places in life. One a POW and the other a Parisian. One a soldier and the other a daughter, sister, friend, fighter.

This story starts out with a man seeing an old woman outside the fence of the prison camp he is assigned too. She's trying to tell him something but neither understand the other. She slips a note through the wire and runs off, promising to return the following Sunday. Then it goes to Bruce's life and all he does and goes through to end up in the prison camp. Also Josefine's life as she lives daily. All the things a girl her age does and hopes for in life. When the war breaks out each story takes a different turn than I thought. I thought this was just going to be a love story of a man and woman during the war in a POW camp. It's so much more than that.

Alternating between these two characters as the months go by and telling what leads up to their first meeting you will learn so much about them. The terrors of war. Of losing your friends. Seeing then die on the battlefield. Going over such horrid things and making you feel the pain and desperation of a soldier. Helping prisoners during a horrific war to escape and feel safe again. Feeding and hiding them. Both of these characters had a job to do and they did it well.

This book truly does make you feel like you are watching a war movie. Seeing bombs drop or bullets flying. Seeing a person killed. A town ravaged. Destruction all around. What a person goes through and then expected to just pick up and live like nothing happened. Trying to get back to the person you love most in the world and finding how hard it is. When that moment finally happens and the feeling of happiness felt. This book does give you many feelings.

The author's note at the end is worth reading too. You will learn a lot about this book and the research put into it. The part About the Author at the end is well worth reading also. Doug Gold is the son in law of Bruce and Josefine. How awesome is that.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #DougGold, #williammorrowandcustomhouse for this ARC.. This is my own true feelings about this book.

4/5 stars. I recommend it if you like a very descriptive story of war, love, loss, finding your way.

This was an interesting book, and I think it gave a very good sense of the deprivations of war, for both civilian and soldier. I think, however, that the author got confused about whether he was writing a love story that takes place during war, or a war story with a love story imbedded. It often read like a cross between a novel and a text book. The author writes well, but I believe that this is his first novel. It’s not bad for a debut piece, and definitely worth the time.

The author is married to one of Bruce and Josefine’s daughters. He used letters and stories told by Bruce and Josefine as the foundation for this book. In addition, it appears that Mr. Gold put a great deal of time into researching the events and history of his inlaws background. He writes incredibly riveting battle scenes.

I did find this a bit of a slow read. The book is told in alternating chapters between New Zealand soldier, Bruce Murray, and Slovenian partisan, Josefine Lobnik. It’s sad and at times shows the brutality of war. Mostly, it’s a tender look at how love can find you at the oddest times.

One thing that bothered me, and that I hope they fixed during the final editing process, it the constant repetition of how fastidious Bruce was about his hygiene and dress. I got that after the third or fourth mention. I didn’t need the author telling me this over and over again. There were places where it made sense, but many were just gratuitous.

While the book rarely becomes graphic, it does discuss some brutal moments, both battle and Nazi retaliation actions. Bruce suffers the loss of several of his close friends. Bruce, as a prisoner of war, is not treated with particular care or concern. He’s beaten and punished, but he’s tough, and he survives. Some of his fellow POWs go out of their way to tend him and offer distractions to help keep him alive. I particularly liked the relationship between Bruce and Frank.

Bruce and Josefine, their friends and family, suffered tremendously during the years of the war. That was clear. Still, they persevered. They took risks; they put their necks on the line; they did everything they could to combat the horror the Nazis (referred to as Švabi by the Slovenians). While Bruce, as a POW, was limited in his methods of impeding the Germans, Josefine managed to move about more, crossing between Slovenia and Austria, where she had family. She transported documents, transmitted important information, and helped Allied prisoners escape. She and her family did all they could to derail the Švabi’s efforts to win.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley. I thank them for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

What a wonderful book! This true story of love blossoming during the war and all the obstacles during and everything it took to be together afterwards was amazing to read. Love beats all! Would definitely read this one again

This is a touchingly written, beautiful account of love developing in perhaps one of the most unlikely places. I was thoroughly impressed with the author's ability to tell the story in such a way that it was not only memorable, but made me, as the reader, feel close to the people involved.

This is one of those books that is simultaneously haunting and charming. Knowing what the main characters went through in order to just survive the ware, let alone to eventually be together made me stop and appreciate just how easy our lives are now when held in comparison. We all complain about various things, but never having lived through worse, I think we tend to forget just how good we have it.

This is a book that I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in World War II, and even if you don't anyone interested in love stories or in real life stories of faith and endurance would certainly enjoy this. I love this book and looking forward to reading it again in the future.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Set in Europe during WWII, Bruce, a New Zealand soldier, and Josefine, a Slovene partisan, fall in love during the most unimaginable times. Bruce ends up in a POW camp while Josefine helps many escape to safety. Soon after they are separated while trying to escape themselves. Will they both survive the war and find their way back to each other?
While very well written, I found that this just wasn’t the book for me. There were parts that read quickly and many more that dragged on. Perhaps I’ve read too many WWII in the last few months? If you enjoy war history and love stories intertwined, this book may be more for you.

The Note Through the Wire by Doug Gold is a different kind of World War II novel. It is about the romance between two people: a New Zealand soldier, and a Slovenian woman. They met when Josefine passed a note through a barbed wire fence to Bruce, who was a prisoner of war at the time, asking him to enquire about the whereabouts of her brother who had been arrested by the Nazis. This is a true story plenty of detail about the daily life of those in war-torn nations as well as the life of a soldier in the middle of the war. It is a true war novel. Josefine and her brother and sister were all working with the partisans. There were brutal descriptions of their activities as well as what happened to them when they were caught.

Gold did a wonderful job of making this story readable to the ordinary person, although the pacing could have been better. It is written almost as if it were a novel, yet it is not. Their trials were real, and horrifying. Even at the end, when the war was over, the time and paperwork it took to reunite them gives us a glimpse into the times, and what bother governments and individuals were facing. Stories like this one, which are real, are the ones the human race needs to cling to and learn from. The people who died in the war are one thing, but stories of the stories of the people that survived are the important ones. I recommend this book.

I was invited to read a free ARC of The Note Through the Wall by Netgalley. All opinions and thoughts are my own. #netgalley #thenotethroughthewire

Happy #pubday to #douggold ! His new book releases today, and it is the real-life story of his in-laws, a resistance fighter and prisoner of war set in World War II Europe. This book has hard content, but is suffused with hope and joy in the midst of sorrow.
.
.
From the publisher:
“Praised as an “unforgettable love story” by Heather Morris, New York Times bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, this is a true love story that defies all odds, and follows Josefine Lobnik, a Yugoslav partisan heroine, and Bruce Murray, a New Zealand soldier.

In the heart of Nazi-occupied Europe, two people meet fleetingly in a chance encounter. One an underground resistance fighter, a bold young woman determined to vanquish the enemy occupiers; the other a prisoner of war, a man longing to escape the confines of the camp so he can battle again. A crumpled note passes between these two strangers, slipped through the wire of the compound, and sets them on a course that will change their lives forever.”
.
Thank you to @williammorrowbooks , @netgalley , and @bookclubgirl for the opportunity to read this book ahead of publication!

The Note Through the Wire by Doug Gold is a memoir that mixes the POW experience with finding the love of your life. Bruce Murray leaves New Zealand to join the army in the fight against Hitler. Josefine Lobnik is a young woman who becomes a resistance fighter in her small corner of Yugoslavia. Their paths cross when Bruce finds himself a prisoner at a nearby camp and Josefine approaches the wire to try to see if her brother is a prisoner as well. As the war continues, Bruce and Josefina meet again and feel an instant connection, despite differences in culture and language. As their love grows, they promise each other to find their way back to each other after the war ends.

The first half of the book alternates between Josefine’s story and Bruce’s story, but it started out with their chance encounter of the note passing at the wire. Then all of a sudden it goes back to where they came from, which was a little confusing to me. But about halfway through, the stories come together and it moved quicker for me after that. Overall, I enjoyed the story. It was interesting for both the war aspect and the romantic storyline. I also enjoyed that the story was set in an area of the war that I haven’t read much about—Yugoslavia. If you are interested in the personal stories of World War II, this is a good one!

I was drawn to this book because it is based on a true story of the author’s in-laws. An unlikely couple, a partisan Yugoslav woman and a Kiwi POW meet during WWII and end up marrying after surviving the war. It is certainly a combination you wouldn’t expect and interesting to read about the war from a different perspective.