If you're a fan of historical fiction, this is a book you will want to check out. it is not an easy read, but it is an important one.

I was familiar with some of the details in this book, but the author did a wonderful job of detailing the horrors associated with living in the Warsaw ghetto without the basic necessities of life, including food and water. This is an emotional tale. The reader can feel the characters anger, fear, and desperation. It is obvious that a lot of research went into this book. the political information was a bit overwhelming at times, but it did serve its purpose in the story.

Rimmer does it again with a great WW2 novel set in Poland. It follows Tomaz's sister from the previous book The Things We Cannot Say. I just felt like the last few pages could've been better and I really wanted an epilogue.

Rimmer delivers an intense story. A small enclave forms a family unit through external losses, pain, and war. The Warsaw Orphan runs the gamut of WWII in Poland: the ghetto, transports, resistance, Soviet payback, and communistic takeover. All the main characters play powerful roles and readers will feel the intensity of emotions. I thought, initially, the author was too ambitious with the range of time and events, but it all works. Although historical fiction, it depicts a terrible time in Poland’s history. The struggle to survive and also rebuilt courses through the narrative. Don’t miss this one.

A part of history I knew of, but I learned so much more.

Ms. Rimmel detailed the horrors of living in the Warsaw Ghetto with no food, no water, or the necessities of life.

Elzbieta and her family are well off if you can say that, and she begins working with Sara a nurse and social worker who lives upstairs. They also have been smuggling children out of the Ghetto.

Roman lives in the Warsaw Ghetto and is tired of what is going on but most tired of his family having to starve and dig through the trash for morsels of food so he begins to help with the cause.

We follow these characters throughout the war and after.

You will feel the terror, the anger, the desperation, and at times some hope that the characters are dealing with.

THE WARSAW ORPHAN is very heart wrenching but very well written, researched, and educational.

The political information became a bit much, but the story line still held my interest because I wanted to see how the lives of the characters turned out.

If you are a fan of historical fiction during this time period, you will be drawn in as well. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for sharing the story of Emilia, Tomasz' little sister from "All The Things We Cannot Say". If you haven't read anything about the Jewish ghettos established by the Nazis, you need to know some of what happened in Warsaw. I found myself cringing at the depravations and degradations that the Jewish people endured while trapped in those ghetto prisons. If' it's hard to read about, I can't imagine having to live it. The story of Emilia and her relationship with Roman, who lived with his family in the ghetto, is heart-wrenching and uplifting. I was just reading a fictional account of life in Warsaw during WWII and I was horrified, encouraged, sad, happy, etc. A gamut of emotions observing the indomitable human spirit in the face of unspeakable cruelty. Read it!

This book is scheduled to be published June 1, 2021. Be watching for it. Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Books for an advanced copy. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

This review is posted to Goodreads.

war-is-hell, world-war-2, Poland, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, based-in-truth, family, family-dynamics, friendship, Warsaw, real-horror, childhood-trauma, children-in-peril*****

The beginning is so stark it could be a documentary. This is a truth-based representation of the ugliness of that time and place and the desperately hopeful actions by the few motivated by hope in a time of inhumanity. It is the tale of two teens from opposite sides of the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto and how, despite their own hardships, they were able to make a difference as the spectres of the death camps loomed. The descriptions are all too clear and the horrors all too real. Never again.
I requested and received a fee temporary Ebook from HARLEQUIN/Graydon House via NetGalley. Thank you.

The Warsaw Orphan is a gripping story of survival during the Second World War, The first page captured my attention until the last page of the book. I would highly recommend this book as Kelly Rimmer is an excellent storyteller.

5 stars. Kelly Rimmer has written another great historical fiction set in WW2 Poland about the unbreakable spirit of humans under extraordinary circumstances.

The Warsaw Orphan is a heart wrenching story about two teenagers growing up in Warsaw, Poland in the 1940s, trying desperately to survive the severity of the Nazi occupation. Fourteen year old Elzbieta is a girl living just outside the ghetto. She meets Sara, a nurse living in her apartment building. Soon she learns from Sara about what's happening inside the ghetto and is compelled to help. That's where she meets 16 year old Roman. They instantly bond.

Inspired by the real life Polish nurse, Irena Sendler (Kryzyzanowska) who smuggled thousands of Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, this story is filled with love and hope. I've read many WW2 books but this one has a different bent as we see what life is like through the eyes of young people. In short, life becomes more and more fragile as the war drags on especially inside the walled off ghetto. I won't reveal all the horrors but living in cramped quarters, starving and foraging for foodscraps become everyday realities. If you ever get the chance to visit Old Town in Warsaw you will see it has been restored but the sewer covers are still there - where resistance fighters crawled to make their escape. The hardships endured there should never be forgotten.

As the world currently confronts a global pandemic that forces us all to remain isolated and masked I think about those that lived through WW2, like these characters, and my own relatives.. It's really not that difficult to mask up and stay your distance! There's no comparison to what Roman and his family, and others in the ghetto had to face daily.

Have your tissues at the ready. This one is not an easy read but it's worth it.

Many thanks to Kelly Rimmer for another winner and to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. #NetGalley #TheWarsawOrphan

Wow. Anger, tears, heartbreak, horror. And finally, hope. Ronan, a teenager, lives inside the Warsaw Ghetto. He is able to work and tries to provide food for his family. Sara, a nurse, lives outside the ghetto, and she has a passion for helping children. Elzbeita, also a teen lives outside the ghetto. She is not Jewish, but she too has secrets. These stories come together in the weeks before the uprising. Ronan helps in the organization of the uprising, then when the ghetto is destroyed he is involved in the last ditch effort to take Warsaw itself. I strongly recommend this book both for adults and teens as we need to remember the horrors of World War II.

Even the hardest heart could hardly fail to be moved by Kelly Rimmer’s The Warsaw Orphan. It is the kind of book that can grab you from the very beginning and keep you reading as quickly as you can until it is done and even then, it leaves you with lots of food for thought. I had the pleasure of reading it recently in advance of its publication.

Many novels have been written about the rebellion which took place in the Warsaw Ghetto starting April 19th, 1943. The first one that comes to mind for me is Mila 18 by Leon Uris. I most recently re-read it while touring Warsaw and was able to see the places in modern day Warsaw that Uris was describing. It is a powerhouse of a novel, and Rimmer's book moves me in a similar way. Her novel, however, covers a broader time period. It begins in the Warsaw Ghetto and the reader learns what life is like from the voice of Roman, a young boy in his mid-teens who lives with his mother, step-father, younger brother, and infant sister in the ghetto. Roman was baptized Catholic at the wish of his Catholic father and was not circumcised. He could have passed quite easily as “Aryan” and stayed out of the ghetto, but his family meant everything to him and so he stayed and did his best to help provide for them.

Throughout this novel we follow Roman and his participation not just in the rebellion of April 19th to May 16th 1943, but also in the later Warsaw Uprising in the summer of 1944 which was led by the Polish Underground Resistance Army, but on through the end of the War and the arrival of the Russians. One can take walking tours of the Old Warsaw area even today (It underwent massive reconstruction in the post war to make it as close in appearance as it could to what the Germans had destroyed.) and see the sewer covers where resistance members were able to escape using the sewers as a means of transit away from the Germans.

As I am writing, people globally are becoming increasingly angry and upset about the many ways in which the pandemic is affecting our lives. What we are facing now is nothing compared to what Roman, his family and so many others faced while living in the ghetto, where even a tiny scrap of bread could make the difference between life and death. Life for one, and death for another. As Roman described it: “If my time in the ghetto had taught me anything, it was that life might deliver blessings, but each one would have a sting in its tail. God might deliver us fortune, but never without a cost.”

Outside the ghetto, life moves on in its own fashion with both the good and the bad happening. It was still under Nazi control, but the ghetto was walled off and for your average Polish resident it was possible to look the other way and pretend that life really wasn’t so awful. Rimmer next introduces us to “Emilia”, a young adolescent living in Warsaw with her foster parents Truda and Mateuz, far from the tiny village where she was raised by loving parents. She was exposed to the horrors of war far too young and was forced to change her name and move to Warsaw in the hopes that her family history would not follow her and cause her to lose her life. Emilia is a curious girl, but wartime conditions mean that she has to stay pretty much confined to their apartment and as with young teens even today, this is a very hard thing to do. Emilia rebels in many different ways – not with any intent to harm, but out of frustration. Mateuz realizes “It is one thing to keep her safe, but surely our goal should be to keep her safe and sane.” (Oh, this could so easily be written for today!) And so Emilia is given the freedom to visit the courtyard for a brief time each evening.

Unbeknownst to Truda and Mateuz, she has made one friend, Sara, a nurse and social worker whose apartment is on their floor. Instead of going to the courtyard, Emilia goes to see Sara. It gave Emilia one small thing that she felt she could control. Ultimately, her visits were discovered. Over time, Emilia’s relationship with Sara leads her into the ghetto – almost as a student doing a co-op work experience, but not your typical work experience at all. It is horrifying and leads Emilia to connect with Roman and with many other children in the ghetto but there is something about Roman that seems to speak to her and they somehow forge a bond that will connect them throughout the rest of the war.

As a reader, I felt completely drawn into everything the author exposed me to through the eyes and voices of Roman and Emilia. I felt as if I was right there watching things happen. Their lives became more and more difficult as time passes and yet they went on. At the beginning of the book Roman is quoted as saying, “The Human spirit is a miraculous thing. It is the strongest part of us – crushed under pressure, but rarely broken. Trapped within our weak and fallible bodies, but never contained.” This was a huge take-away for me with this book.

Roman and Emilia face horrible things, torture for one and rape for the other and Rimmer captures the essence of what so many women through the centuries have sadly experienced as they live with the aftereffects of such horrors. I could go on and on, but one needs to read the book and discover it for themselves. There is so much deep content here and the book would be a wonderful one for book club discussion.

As advance reader, I typically have access to the author’s note and some historical reference. This was not present in the ARC which I read but I gather that it will be there in the published novel. I look forward to reading it as I feel it adds an extra level to my enjoyment and understanding.

Many thanks to #NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House and the author for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

This was a well-written book based on real events. However, due to the horrific truth of life in the Warsaw Jewish ghetto during WW2, it was so depressing I could barely make myself pick it up again. A word of warning: you need to be in an emotionally stalwart place to endure this. The whole book is basically a description of one catastrophe after the other.

Also, I never truly connected with the characters. Emilia was just an average girl who did the best she could in the circumstances. As for Roman, I found him intensely unlikeable. I get that he was grief-stricken and lashing out because he was powerless to change the situation he found himself in. But in my opinion, men of this sort (with their aggression and barely suppressed anger at the whole world) often resort to domestic violence in later life, when they are safely married. Ugh. The ending did address the issue, but I'm not sure if I buy this neat resolution.

All in all, this was a good WW2 book, but it was hard work for me to finish it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin for giving me a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book was hauntingly amazing and beautiful. It will stay with you long after you read it!!

Full review to come on my blog on June 1st. www.sleeplessreadmore.wordpress.com

I will be going back to read All the Things We Cannot Say to see if the character development from the first one gives me a better background in order to get the full effect of this book. There was something lacking. I can’t really say what, it just felt like this one was so much like several others I’ve read about the saving of the children and unfortunately it never took hold enough to draw me in and to get me completely engaged. Maybe reading All the Things will give me the missing pieces.
If you enjoy WWII books and have not read about the brave souls that risked their lives for saving the Jewish children, this may be one you will find entertaining.
I want to thank Harlequin along with NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC. This one receives 4 stars.

In the spring of 1942, young Elzbieta Rabinek is aware of the swiftly growing discord just beyond the courtyard of her comfortable Warsaw home. She has never given much thought to what goes on behind the walls that contain her Jewish neighbors. She knows all too well about German brutality--and that it's the reason she must conceal her true identity. But in befriending Sara, a nurse who shares her apartment floor, Elzbieta makes a discovery that propels her into a dangerous world of deception and heroism. Using Sara's credentials to smuggle children out of the ghetto brings Elzbieta face-to-face with the reality of the war behind its walls, and to the plight of the Gorka family, who must make the impossible decision to give up their newborn daughter or watch her starve. For Roman Gorka, this final injustice stirs him to rebellion with a zeal not even his newfound love for Elzbieta can suppress. But his recklessness brings unwanted attention to Sara's cause, unwittingly putting Elzbieta and her family in harm's way.

I had read Things We Cannot say by Kelly Rimmer but did not realize that this book was a continuation of that story until I read the author's comments at the end of the book. It is based on the real life heroine who saved thousands of children from the ghetto during WWII. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this awesome book.

In 1942 Poland we meet Elzbieta, a 14 year old girl living in a crowded home just outside the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. When Elzbieta befriends Sara, a nurse living in the apartment upstairs, she uncovers the truth of what lies inside the Ghetto and unable to turn a blind eye, she makes the brave decision to venture inside the Ghetto with Sara to help. It is there that she meets 16 year old Roman, rebellious by nature and intent on fighting the Nazis until his dying breath. His need tor vengeance endangers everyone in his life, but Elzbieta can’t bring herself to turn her back on him.

This book is a parallel story to the one told in The Things We Cannot Say and if you have not read that yet, please do yourself a favor and order it right now. It is one of my favorite books of all time and I can’t say enough good things. You don’t need to read that one in order to read this one, but on a scale of 1-10 it’s a 27, so you should.

Five heart wrenching stars to this one. If you love historical fiction, read this. If you need a good cry, read this. If you just love good books in general, read this. I haven’t had a good cry from a book in a while so I was definitely due for one and this book had me wrecked. I felt everything - sad, mad, happy, you name it. Please just read it, and have the tissues nearby.

I love Kelly Rimmer. She knows how to write a book that is going to crush and break you, but also make you feel inspired and hopeful. If you haven't read The Things We Cannot Say, you absolutely, 100% HAVE to read it. Her newest book, The Warsaw Orphan, is technically a sequel to that one, but can be read as a standalone. It comes out June 1st, so that gives you time to read The Things We Cannot Say (and also pick up another one of her amazing books that I loved, Before I Let You Go). 

Quick Synopsis:

Elzbieta just moved to Warsaw with her adoptive parents, Truda and Matuesz. The Nazis have occupied the city and her parents try everything in their power to keep her inside the apartment and away from the turmoil and horrors that occur everyday on the streets. As she starts to feel helpless, she befriends her neighbor Sara, a social worker and nurse. Once Elzbieta learns that Sara is going past the wall to help Jewish families, she finds her purpose. While in the ghetto she meets Roman, a courageous, angry young man who will do anything to protect his siblings and family. Their paths become entangled and they both struggle to survive through the terrible times. 

This one was told from the perspectives of both Elzbieta and Roman. While they went through different experiences, one of the main things they both learned was that your "family" doesn't only include those you are related to by blood. And as is a theme in a lot of WWII books, there were so many everyday people who became heroes during that time. This story was inspired by real-life heroines who saved thousands of Jewish children during the Holocaust. I love that Kelly travelled to Poland and did tons of research to make sure these stories were as authentic as possible. The Warsaw Orphan feels very timely, as they spoke a lot about how inaction against hatred and racism can be just as horrible as the crime itself. 

I highly recommend this one to my fellow historical fiction lovers. 5 huge stars from me!! Thank you @@kelrimmerwrites and @netgalley for the #arc! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

There definitely is an over abundance of historical fiction books out there that are written about World War II and the holocaust. This is one of the best ones I’ve read and should be on everyone’s TBR list! Special thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for a free electronic ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The author of this book, Kelly Rimmer, does a magnificent job of researching and writing this masterpiece. The story centers on two Polish teenagers - Elzbieta and Roman. Roman is Jewish and forced to live in the Warsaw ghetto with his family while Elzbieta is Christian and lives outside the ghetto with her adoptive parents. The hardships and injustices forced on the Jews spur Elzbieta to take action and she starts working with a group who is dedicated to rescuing as many Jewish children as they can. It is on one of her trips into the ghetto that she meets Roman and his family and develops a lasting bond with him. When tragedy strikes, Roman joins a resistance group and becomes involved in the ghetto uprising. The lives of these two teens takes very different paths during and after the war but it’s their lasting bond that perseveres.

The author of this book is an amazing storyteller and I was captivated from the very first page! Just when I would think things couldn’t get any worse for the main characters, the author would throw in a new dilemma for them to face. From start to finish this story is one of hope in the face of overwhelming devastation and a true testimony to the strength of the human spirit.

Kelly Rimmer’s eagerly anticipated novel, “The Warsaw Orphan,” is inspired by Irena Sendler (Kryzyzanowski), a real-life Polish nurse and heroine, who smuggled thousands of Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Meticulously researched and stuffed with heart-rendering emotion, this is more than a story about survival during Nazi-occupied Poland. It’s a call to arms. Not by taking up guns and ammunition, but to dig deep and find love, generosity, and kindness then openly and lavishly share it with others. We see how 14-year-old Elzbieta Rabinek, despite losing everyone dear to her, knew that courage was in her blood. She had inherited it at birth. She had learned it from the legacy of those she’d lost. Armed with that knowledge, she reached deep within and accessed it. Under disguise as a social worker’s aid, she gained access to the Warsaw Ghetto, saw the horror behind the walls and was impelled to give over 2000 children a chance at a better life. An orphan herself and searching for her place in this world, she helped give defenseless young people a second chance. We may not have the chance to be an inspiring humanitarian and save thousands of lives, but we have option of using the 86,400 seconds we are blessed with every day to share a smile, pay it forward with a coffee, offer a stressed mother a hand, or help an elderly person. Instead of fingering someone who carelessly cut us off, budged in line, or failed to be a decent human being, we could fight it with kindness.

“I need to believe that there is some hidden depth of grace within these men who torture us, because if there isn’t, then all hope is lost. And it’s not just lost for us, Roman, but for humanity, because even once all this is over, this evil could emerge from the souls of men again and again and again.”

Like Elzbieta, let’s fight against this evil in human nature so that hope for humanity isn’t lost. It has and will emerge, but if enough of us are fighting it, we can give hope and love room to blossom. Rimmer’s book reminds us to choose kindness.

I think the two things that I’ll remember most about this book, besides Rimmer’s message between the pages, are firstly, Rimmer’s juxtaposition of events throughout. For example, the Spring flowers and Elzbieta’s elation at riding the Ferris wheel in the square with the gunshot and silence and then bookended with the man working the ride audaciously uttering “Have a lovely day.” How? Secondly, I won’t forget the difference a timely hand up would have meant to the little girl in the alley and to Sarah’s child.

Rimmer’s rich characters and haunting setting take backseat to her ability to immerse the reader into the plot. The use of first person and alternating points of view added to this superb story. Rimmer wrote to my five senses: I smelled the sewer clothing on the steps, I heard the baby in the handbag, I saw the gaunt people, I fingered the soil under the apple tree and I tasted the state, stodgy birthday cake. I strongly urge you to purchase Rimmer’s historical fiction masterpiece come June 1, 2021.

Extreme gratitude to Kelly Rimmer, Graydon House, and NetGalley for the gift of my advance reading copy. I received it for free and was under no obligation to provide a review.

A survey published in 2020 shows that 63% of young adults in American grossly underestimate the horror and magnitude of the extermination of Jews by the Nazis during WWII. What’s even more shocking is the number of those surveyed who said they believed the Holocaust was a myth. This book will put those doubts to rest. A magnificently researched and well written piece of historical fiction, it should be mandatory reading in all American schools.
Set in Warsaw, Poland, this is the story of the Warsaw Uprising as told through the eyes of two teenagers, one who lived in the ghetto and took and active part in the ghetto uprising. The other who lived outside the ghetto walls but went inside and was instrumental in secretly escorting children out of the ghetto before they could be “relocated” and face certain death at the hands of the Nazis. Although fictionalized, the author based one of the main characters on an actual historical person who secretly and successfully removed thousands of children from the Warsaw ghetto. A tale of cruelty, sacrifice, uprising, greed, courage, and love, the story pulls no punches. It highlights the worst of humanity during the Nazi occupation, but also offers a glimpse into the best of humanity as it wrestles with everyday survival during the most trying of times. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.