I don’t even know how to describe this book. Yes, it’s a WWII novel but it’s unlike any I’ve read before. There’s a sense of mysticism - Yona has intense premonitions and intuition. There’s a longing to be of service - to use her skills to help the Jews in hiding stay alive. There’s a bit of a love story - and survivors guilt for being able to love again when your whole family has been killed.

Yona was two years old when she was kidnapped from her German parents and raised in the forest learning all sorts of skills necessary for survival. When she discovers an encampment of Jews escaping the ghettos, she immediately knows her purpose in life - to help them survive. There is one passage where the people hiding decide they must attack a German convoy in order to collect more supplies. Opposed to killing unnecessarily, they begin to name who they are fighting in honor of -they list off the names of family members they lost. Wives, husbands, children, I was sobbing. This book is so beautiful. I highly recommend for fans of historical fiction, WWII fiction and anyone looking for beautiful writing and gorgeous storytelling.

Outstanding Survival in WWII Europe
This book is what I like to call likely fiction. The author certainly did her research with those who actually survived the atrocities, some in the great forests. I noticed the similarities between this book and the real-life story shown in the book and movie, Defiance. It is very easy for the reader to put themselves into the life these survivors led in the forest. The fear, hunger, and depression, are tangible when reading their story. I highly recommend this book. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

This is the story of a young German girl Inge who is kidnapped when she is 2 years old by an old woman who does so in order to protect her form her evil parents and the evil in the world that is to come,
She becomes known as Yona and she is raised in the forest with only the old woman for company. It isn't until the old When her kidnapper is dying she tells Yona who her parents were and where they lived and she tells Yona she will live to be 100 if she doesn't forget .all that she has been taught.
When she is twenty she sees more planes overhead and hears explosions and gunfire,,a young Jewish girl appears in the forest :: she is running away for the Nazis who have shot her father.. Yona promises to try and help heal her father.
Yona comes across a group of Jewish refugees fleeing Germany and she teaches them how to survive in the forest. However there isa woman i the group who doesn't trust Yona and is resentful of her presence She betrays Yona who leaves the group and goes back to live in the forest alone..
Yona starts thinking of her parents and tries to go to find where they once lived. She comes upon a village and a group of nuns who are helping Jewish people and it is there that she sees her father who has become an important Nazi officer.
He fails to keep the nuns from being shot so Yona flees back to the forest where she meets the group of refugees once more. The group decides to ambush a German convoy truck to get food they need for the oncoming winter.
Yona is tracked down by her father who shoots her when she tries to protect the man she loves from her father's intent to kill him and she kills her father.

Yona lives to be the agehker kidnapper had foretold and she becomes a legend.

I've had The Book of Lost Names on my TBR forever, but when my favorite virtual book club (Peloton Moms Book Club) announced an author chat with Kristin Harmel for her upcoming novel, The Forest of Vanishing Stars, I knew that would jump to the top of my TBR stack!

I appreciated that this was a different story from the many WWII historical fiction books I've read. Yona is stolen from her German parents when she is a toddler. She is snatched from her crib by a witchy woman, named Jerusza, who felt compelled to kidnap Yona based upon a vision/premonition. Together they spend the next 20+ years in the forest together where the young girl is taught self-defense, languages, religious studies, and how to survive solely based on what the land provides. When Jerusza dies of old age at 102, Yona is left behind to fend for herself which she is completely capable of doing. Her whole life experience up until this point has prepared her for what is to come.

When Yona comes across a small camp of Jewish people fleeing to the forest to escape the Nazis she makes it her mission to teach them how to survive. Upon hearing the atrocities that are happening to the Jews, she cannot fathom what the outside world has become. Using her skills to navigate the forest and her sixth sense to stay ahead of the Germans seeking to recapture the Jews, this is a slower paced story about perseverance, family being what you make it, and faith. At times it felt a bit repetitive ,but overall I still enjoyed the book.

Definitely read the author's note at the end of the book where Kristin details her research process and the real life inspiration for this story! The Forest of the Vanishing Stars is set to publish on July 6, 2021. Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an electronic ARC to read and review, but all thoughts/opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an e ARC of this book.
A different approach to yet another story about World War Ii. The forests of Eastern Europe are filled with Jews who are trying to avoid capture by the Germans. Tons has lived her life in the forests and knows how to survive. I mostly love the story and found the characters believable and likeable. Draggy in a few places but truly a wonderful book.

At the age of two, a young girl with a dove on her wrist and two different colored eyes is stolen from her crib by a harsh old women. She is raised along the trees in the forest, protected by nature, with no other interaction to people. Finding herself alone in the middle of a war torn country, Yona must decide to continue by yourself or teach others to survive not only the Nazis but the brutal wild.

This is like no other World War 2 book I have devoured. It is a true book of survival. It is a slow burn but the amazing story of bravery of Yona and the Jewish people makes you want to keep reading. I loved that the focus was more directed to the history and devastation of the time then the drama and romance, reading more like a nonfiction.

I loved Kristin Harmel's last historical fiction book and was totally blown away at the end when I discovered that most of the characters had been real people and circumstances. I guess I was expecting the same with this book, but the book started out almost as a fantasy (unexplainable things taking place). It starts out with an eighty year old woman who has lived in a forest her entire life going to Berlin because something is telling her to steal a two year old from her home. The old woman "sees and hears" things about what is going to happen. It had me shaking my head a little.

The book got much better as the story progressed and got more into the actual happenings around World War II. Yona is grown and the old woman has died, but taught Yona how to survive in the forest. As Yona encounters Jewish people in the forest trying to escape the Nazis, she feels the need to try to ensure that they know how to survive and goes about sharing her knowledge.

The story involves several encounters of Yona with different groups of people trying to live through the war. The ending was a surprise to me and I found it to be very satisfying. The unexplainable things in the beginning of the book and Yona's being able to feel when something bad was about to happen still has me a bit skeptical, but the book was well written and very enjoyable.!

I was given a complimentary copy via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

An amazing, powerful and emotional read about WW2. I didn’t realize when I requested this that it was based on a true story, but when I found out, that fact made the story even more meaningful to me.

These days people throw the term “resilience” around a lot, and I’m sure they believe they are, or maybe they hope to be. What Yona and others like her endured goes so far beyond a catchy phrase, beyond imagination really.

I’m not shying away from re-telling the plot, I’m purposely not doing so. I hope you take the time, reserve some emotional bandwidth for this book because you’ll need it. Highly recommend.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book, but my opinions are my own.

I struggled at the beginning with the fantasy aspects of Jerusza and Yona's connection with each other and the forest. (I also don't think the cover is a good representation of the story). Yet, this fantasy aspect wasn't very prominent through most of the book, and I was hooked by page 50.

Overall, I love historical fiction, and Kristin Harmel clearly does lots of research before writing. I loved learning about the people who survived WW2 by living in the forests of Poland/Belarus. I especially appreciated the historical information woven into the story about the surrounding towns and ghettos as well as the information about how groups were able to survive in the forests without being found. The main characters are well-developed, and the supporting characters enhance the story nicely. Furthermore, the narratives about "good" and "evil" really enhanced the story, and the discussions on the impact/importance of "family" were well done.

So many horrors in the world to bear witness to, and I will do my part to read about as many as I can. I loved that this book acknowledged how hand-in-hand good and evil are ... how we need the darkness to appreciate the light.

I give this one 4 stars. It does hook you very quickly, and you stay invested in the stories. There are also some elements of fantasy included, which I am still unsure if I enjoyed.

Jerusza an 82 year old Jewish Woman German steals a 2 year old baby Inge from her parent’s Berlin home. Why? Because Jerusza has a gift from God and she knows things. She knows that Inge must not be allowed to stay with her Nazi parents because Inge is important to the future. Inge’s fate is that she was born to repair the world, for the sake of tikkun alam. Jerusza takes the baby to her forest home and renames her Yona. Jerusza begins training Yona for her fated greatness. At 8, Jerusza begins teaching Yona things such as how to kill a man. She also taught her how to heal. Then In 1942 at the age of 102, Jerusza dies, leaving a 22 year old Yona all alone in the forest. Until she finds a child hurt wandering alone with a yellow star sewn on her sweater. Then everything changes and Jersuza’s teachings make sense.

This was a great book. There was a sense of magic that surrounds Yona and the forest. Her courage and strength to help the Jews she finds is amazing. Not all battles are fought with weapons, some our fought by defying what is expected. Watching Yona’s growth as a person was an incredible journey to join her on. This was well written and the language was beautiful. The story came to life in my minds eye. This book is full of love and hate, courage and fear, selfishness and sacrifice. It is beautiful and I highly recommend it
Spoiler: In the afterwards Kristen Harmel tells us she interviewed a leader of the Bielski group. And although this isn’t their story, it is loosely based on some of their methods and experiences. So fiction based rooted in facts.

*I received this book as an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) through NetGalley. I received this copy free in exchange for my honest review.*

I love WWII setting for books. I try to find some that will give me a different different story from the book before. The Forest of Vanishing Stars did not disappoint. I am always amazed to learn how people survived the war. They truly survived against all odds. Yona is a great character and you can’t help but love her for her grit, heart and vulnerability. I loved having a strong female character that knows the forest better than anybody else. Could it have been a little boy who grew up and learned to be one with the forest? Yes, but it is a stronger book with a main female character. This book is fictional but Kristin Harmel did a lot of research to make parts of this story close to actual events. Please make sure to read the Author’s Notes at the end. Thank you Netgalley for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars is an objectively good book that worked for me in some ways, but didn’t work in others. Kristin Harmel clearly knows her stuff about World War II and the Holocaust, from her family history to the number of sources she cited in her research while working on this book.

The setting is well-realized and immersive. I feel like I’ve read more World War II fiction set in Western Europe. So, by contrast, I really liked the way the Eastern European wilderness setting was realized through textual descriptions.

And in some ways, I did enjoy the connection to folklore, with some light mystical elements. I didn’t expect it at first, but it worked out pretty well.

I did struggle to connect the characters somewhat. Yona saving people was great, but I didn’t feel super connected with her.

And the book dragged a lot, pacing wise. I found myself bored a lot of the time. Some of the other positive elements kept me going, but it still impacted my experience overall.

I really enjoyed this different take on World War II and the Holocaust, and even with the issues, I’m interested in reading more from Kristin Harmel. If you love World War II historical fiction, but are looking for something a bit different, you might like this.

Dus zent ir

Yona was two years old when she was taken from her Berlin home by an 82-year-old woman named Jerusza. The woman claimed she was saving Yona from her 'bad' parents. The woman teaches Yona how to live off the land, to survive and endure.

When Jerusza dies in 1941, Yona believes she will be alone forever. When she finds a group of Jews fleeing the Nazis, she is stunned to hear what is happening in the world. She has been raised to not trust, to avoid people, to live and to stay safe. Yona decides to help them. They do not have the skills to survive in the wild, she is determined to teach them and in return, they become her family. Reeling from a betrayal, Yona ventures into a nearby German occupied village and her past collides with her present in devastating ways.

"In the times of greatest darkness, the light always shines through, because there are people who stand up to do brave, decent things."

I have a family member who was in Auschwitz. So many aspects of this book resonated with me - surviving against all odds, the beauty and strength in people, the cruelty in others, grief, loss, survivors’ guilt and the desire to live, to give and to love. Ma was the strongest woman I ever knew. She had PTSD and tremendous survivor's guilt. Yet she had a strength inside her that was unparalleled.

"-home is not a place, but the people you choose to love."

The characters in this book had incredible strength as well. How do you survive the unthinkable? Yona was a unique character and I enjoyed watching her grow, learn and find her way. To learn the meaning of family and what it felt to be a part of one. Jerusza was a gem. I was hoping for more of her, for more of her backstory. Yes, she was a kidnapper, but she was also a tough lady and I instantly was captivated by her character. I also enjoyed how she 'knew' or 'sensed' things'. I enjoyed the magical realism part of the book, it really added to the story for me.

I found this book to be beautifully written and moving. It evokes emotion and has several tense moments. I was engrossed in the story and went back and re-read several passages and found myself highlighting sections which spoke to me.

The Author's note at the end should be mandatory. It in moving. Harmel shares the research she did in writing this book, the people she spoke to, and her inspiration for writing it.

Riveting, Emotional and Engrossing.

A MUST read!

***Inspired by true stories of survival.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

At age 2, Inge Juttner is kidnapped by an 82 year old woman, Jerusza, and brought to the forests in Poland where she raised to survive on whatever the forest can offer. In 1941, Jerusza dies at the age of 102 and Inge, who only knows her name as Yona, is all alone. But her solitary existence comes to an abrupt end when she encounters a small group of Jews who have escaped the ghetto where the Nazis had resettled them. Up to then, Yona was unaware of what was happening in the world, and she soon becomes part of a family that must adapt to this simple but dangerous life in order to survive. A captivating read, although I must confess that I wondered if this was truly historical fiction or just fiction set at the low point of WWII. The author’s note at the end of the book definitely puts in the former. While Harmel takes plenty of leeway in telling her story, the fact remains that there are/were survivors who lived to tell their stories. Despite all we know about the horrific years of the war and its effect on certain populations, stories such as this are for the most part unknown and show the amazing resilience of the human spirit. My thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review the ARC of this book.

Wow. The Forest of Vanishing Stars has gotten some great reviews on bookstagram and Goodreads, and I totally agree with them. Thank you to Gallery Books for my ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!.

Pub date: July 6th

I love WWII historical fiction, and I’m always looking for a new kind of story from the time period. Kristin Harmel told a beautiful and poignant story that was so different from the historical fiction I normally read. The story centers on protagonist Yona helping Jews survive in the forests of Eastern Europe during WWII. Yona is a wonderful character who will stick with me a long time - some reviewers have compared her to Kya from Where the Crawdads Sing, and the two are definitely similar.

I loved how Yona used forest’s gifts to keep the group of Jews safe - she was such an impressive character. I was hooked by this novel from the beginning, and I highly recommend it to historical fiction readers. Definitely don’t skip the author’s note - there’s a lot of detail about the real life story of the Bielski brothers that inspired the book, as well as Harmel’s research into the forest flora.

Review posted to Goodreads and Instagram 7/3/21.

Oh my, this book was so wonderful. I loved it so much, even though it broke my heart over and over. I will never get over the way my favorite WWII historical fiction novels remind me of how determined the human spirit is to survive, and how beautiful it is when people work together to overcome something meant to destroy them. This book is now one of my favorite in the genre.

Yona was born to a German family in Berlin, but is kidnapped as a toddler and raised by her kidnapper in the Forest. Her kidnapper and her both possess an innate sense about their surroundings, leaning on intuition, visions, and listening the voice of spirits or God that guide them to get through life in the wilderness. Yona is eventually alone when the woman who took her dies, and relies on her training to fulfill her calling by helping many Jewish refugees live in the forest until the war is over.

I really appreciated the interesting take on a WWII story and all of the extensive research that went into the book (the writer’s notes were so interesting). The highs and lows of the novel were perfect - horrifying and so sad, and then victorious, joyous and hopeful.

This is a great book with a lot of outstanding details about the time period as well as wonderful descriptions of living in the forests. I really loved it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced e-copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

ARC review! Thanks to @netgalley and @gallerybooks for an early copy of this! 

Synopsis: 2-year-old Yona is kidnapped from her bed in 1920s Germany and raised in the wilderness. Her kidnapper/guardian dies twenty years later, leaving her completely alone but with all sorts of survival skills. These skills come in handy as she helps Jews fleeing a Nazi-occupied Polish (Belarussian?) village survive in the forest. 

This was good, I really liked the story, and it was interesting to learn this is (loosely) based on a true story. I liked reading about Yona's attempts to find herself, understand her identity, and whether that is based on who gave birth to her or who raised her (although I didn't really like how that came together at the end). 

The last chapter was also very powerful, briefly touching on what survival really meant at this time, that there was no going back to how things were. 

But overall I liked the story better than I liked the execution. I never really felt emotionally connected to any of the characters, perhaps because Yona comes across as too perfect. 

I think I would have preferred a story that was more directly focused on the true story, instead of getting at it from such a peripheral angle. 

So this was good, but I don't think it stands out among all the amazing WWII historical fiction out there.

Such a different account of WWII than most. A child is kidnapped at age 2 by a forest witch, Jerusza,who imparts so much knowledge of survival and human instinct that makes Yona a resilient woman and leader in her future.
As WWII unfolds Yona is often tested in her life to not trust outsiders, but also to help all humans. Several times she is betwixed from lessons learned by Jerusza and follows her instincts.
Death, loneliness, betrayal and love are interwoven throughout the novel.

“Home is not a place but the people you choose to love”

There are multiple meanings to the title, the Germans trying to extinguish the Jews, who wear stars, but more beautifully as the book indicates the forest was so deep and impenetrable that the Jewish Stars vanished as they were so well hidden that they often couldn’t see the actual stars in the sky

I have read many WWII novels and am always inspired by the strength and resilience of so many.

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Kristen Harmel for providing me an ARC of this novel. I have ordered my own copy as well.
#ForestofVanishingStars
#NetGalley

I'm amazed when authors can write about the same time period and have sobmany different takes on it. I've read other Kristin Harmel books and she always has a fresh take.  While this one started slow, once it picked up it didn't stop. I read 60% in one evening because I had to know what happened. The ending seemed a little rushed but overall I enjoyed this. ⭐⭐⭐💫
Check this out if you like the WWII time period.