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I absolutely love historical fiction and Kristin Harmel books! I was so excited to be approved for an ARC of this book but my opinions are my own.

This story centers on the life of one girl kidnapped from her crib at the age of 2 who grows up in the woods with the old woman that took her. After the girl grows up and the woman passes away, she helps a group of people who flee Jewish ghettos during WW2.

I love all the research into real stories that goes into Kristin’s books. I almost enjoy the acknowledgments and references at the end.

This book is historical fiction from a different perspective. Narrated by Yona a young girl taken from her parents at a very young age.Raised totally in the forest and learning the ways to live using resources found in the forest. This story takes place during WWII. I found the very begining a bit slow but keep reading it gets good. Well worth reading, I thought I knew alot of the history of that period but this was area I did not know about. This was an important part of history and this book covers all the feels and many themes. Survival,Love,Community,Revenge,Forgiveness and so much more.

What an amazing book! It tells a story of people who fled the Nazis by living in the forest. The lengths the people went to in orders to survive is unbelievable. I loved how Yona maintained her humanity even living in forest away from others for so long. She has a strong desire to help others when she has nothing to gain and everything to lose.

I loved this book and could not read it fast enough.

Outstanding! When I finished this book, I had tears rolling down my cheeks and all I could say was WOW!
This is a book like no other. Ms. Harmel takes you on a journey with Yona a young woman with endless knowledge of the wilderness and how she helps Jewish refugees escape the vicious Nazi regime. One day when things seem to be looking up for Yona and her community, a secret from her past comes to threaten the lives of those she loves. I could write on and on but I do not want to insert spoilers. This story made me reflect on the importance of following your heart and instincts and the importance of helping others.
The author's explanation of her story is important to read at the end. It will bring you joy, tears, and lasting words of wisdom. I could not put this book down and I would highly recommend it to others.
I want to thank Netgalley, Simon & Schuster, and Kristin Harmel for the opportunity to read this beautiful advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A young woman is stolen as a baby from a German family and raised alone in the forest with her elderly kidnapper. As World War 2 begins, she is isolated from the danger. Until she meets and assists Jews fleeing in the woods.

If you’re a World War Two historical fiction fan, here’s another one to add to the TBR! It is a unique read and different than most of the genre. A majority of the book takes place in the forest. There’s a lot of information about survival in the forest, natural remedies, etc. I found it a little unbelievable how socially apt Yona was,
given how she was raised. I did enjoy the reveals in the story, but the survival and forest portion wasn’t really for me.

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

The Forest of Vanishing Stars comes out 7/6.

An emotionally charged story about the horror and devastation wrought by the German occupation of Poland in World War II and the courage of the few Jews who escaped death by hiding in the forest. Set in the Naliboki Forest, Yona is a young girl who was kidnapped as a baby, raised in the forest by an outdoor savvy Jewish woman and never introduced to any structured society. Having lived in the forest all of her life,, Yona is well versed to fulfill her eventual role as teacher to the Jews who fled the ghettos of Poland.

This is an extremely well researched, although fictional, account of actual events that transpired during the Nazi occupation of Poland and Belarus. The depth of emotion experienced by each character is so well construed that the reader also deeply feels each loss. Kudos to Kristin Harmel for another book about this time in the history of mankind that should never be forgotten.

With her last several books, Kristin Harmel has become one of the top authors of WWII historical fiction. She always writes well researched books with strong and resilient women and leaves her readers with stories that they won't forget. She has become one of the few authors that I will her books without knowing anything about them because I know that I'll be getting a fantastic book.

In 1922, Jerusza, a wizened old lady, steals two year old Yona from the home of her wealthy German parents. She raises Yona deep in the woods of eastern Europe. She brings Yona up to understand nature and to protect herself from the outside world. When Jerusza dies in 1941, Yona has never been to a village or talked to anyone. Her 'alonenness' is gone when she decides to help a Jewish family who are in the woods to try to escape from the Nazi soldiers. They tell her what is going on in the world and about the persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazis. She vows to herself to keep the group safe and teach them all that she knows about life in the forest and how to avoid capture and certain death. In turn, Yona learns a lot, too - she learns what it's like to be part of a family and learns to love and care about other people.

The part of the book when Yona is in the woods with this group is suspenseful. There is infighting within the group even as they all struggle to stay hidden from the soldiers. There is a problem finding food for all of the group and occasional trips to a village are filled with danger. This is a book about love and family and working together to take care of each other.
Be sure to read the author's notes at the end of the book to learn more about her research and the real people that inspired this story.

This is another powerful, beautifully written novel that you don't want to miss.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review.

My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the chance to review this much more than 5 stars book!

2 year old Inge is kidnapped from her parents by an old woman that lives in the forest. She raises the child teaching her how to live off the land and survive in the forest. The old woman dies and leaves Inge (renamed Yona) alone. Yona meets groups of Jewish refugees and teaches them the same things she learned as a child and helps them to survive and defeat the Germans.

I LOVED this book! You FEEL for these characters, you want to see them succeed, you want to see them survive. You them grow and develop their layers. I would give this book 20 stars. So good and well researched

An astounding story of human resilience. The book was really well written and realistic. The writing was beautiful.

One of the most unique WWII stories I’ve ever read. I loved the magical elements and I loved the character development of the MCs. I felt like aside from Yona, Jeruzsa, and maybe Zus, the rest of the characters were underdeveloped. BUT I think that speaks to the sheer number of people who were affected. There were too many to focus too much on any of them. It was such an intense and beautiful story.

I was immediately lost inside this story in the best way. It drew me in and I didn’t want to leave. The last book that drew me in like this was Where the Crawdads Sing. I don’t know what it is about both of these books but maybe the nature and the survival elements in both stories .

Synopsis:
Yona is a young women who lives deep within the forest in Eastern Europe. She was taken from her parents at a young age by the women who is raising her in the woods. She doesn’t know it but all the survival training and living off the land that she learns will become vital to many. Yona’s captor dies and she is roaming the woods oblivious to the outside world when she happened across Jews fleeing the Nazis. She learns of the horrors happening in the outside world and she knows it’s her destiny to help these fleeing people survive. Survival is difficult but things from Yona’s past come back to haunt her. This riveting tale is a book you don’t want to miss! Mark your calendars it is our July 6th!

"It's the cracks in us that make us who we are", Kristin Harmel
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Y'all, there were so many quotes I highlighted in this book. This is the one though. The one that spoke to me. The one that summed up this title perfectly. It is in fact the cracks in us that make us who we are.
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Look, I love Kristin Harmel. She writes the most original Historical Fiction. She brings the stories, we have not all read over and over. Do not get me wrong. I love a good WWII story.... but Kristin brings the uncommon stories. The triumph over this awful, awful war. The women you do not hear about. The places. I just love it every time.
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The Forest of Vanishing Stars is my favorite Hist Fiction for 2021. Mark my words. It was amazing. Based on true events this story captured me from page 1. The mystical feel intertwined with this story made it somewhat blurred around the edges to bring this fantastic point of view. I felt almost as if I was in a dream state, but no. True events. Mind blown.
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You can read the synopsis for the general spiel. All I am going to say.... pick this title up. Sincerely. If you are a fan of historical fiction. This one will be a standout. I promise you.

I really loved this book -- especially for the historical aspects. The main character was intriguing and her struggles were believable and engaging. The cast of characters were well rounded and kept the story going. The setting was incredibly depicted with great detail, which was so important for this novel. Very well written and the content/story is something that will stick with me.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars tells the story of a band of eastern European jews who fled persecution to live in the deep forest with Yona. Yona, formerly Inge, was stolen from her wealthy German family at a very young age and raised in the wilderness. Her knowledge of the woods provides the necessary skills to help them survive the four seasons and most importantly the Nazis.

This is not your typical WWII book, as it has adventure deep in the unforgiving woods. It has a love-story for the ages filled with the raw emotion of finding the one who truly sees you. The Forest of Vanishing Stars will vividly transport the reader into the cover of the forest to feel the deeply gutting nightmares within the group young men, fathers, mothers, children and the elderly survivors.

The authors note reflects on Harmel's research, and an interview with a 93-year-old survivor who lived in the forest. Shared is the startling fact that 3.3 million jews lived in Poland on the eve of WWII, more than any other country in Europe (10% of Polands population). During the war, roughly 2.8 million and 3 million Polish jews were murdered during the war - between 84 to 91% of the entire jewish population of the country, whole generations lost. Jewish casualties in Poland far outweighed those in any other country, and yet people miraculously found ways to survive against such staggering odds.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for the complimentary copy for an honest review.

Unique and captivating. Harmel has delivered a WW2 tale unlike any other I’ve read. This is a story of survival in the most dire of situations- against both harsh elements and the harshest of enemies. It’s a story of human resilience and fighting against the odds.

What matters more: who you are born to be or who you become? This question plagues our main character. Yona, born Inge, was stolen away from affluent German parents to a meager life in the forest and taught to survive on what the forest alone provides.

Seeking any possibility of survival, a group of Polish Jews flee into the dense forest hoping to evade their oppressors and defy the odds. After living a solitary life, Yona stumbles upon this group and realizes fate has brought them together.

Yona is a character you root for. She is distinct and strong. She could kill a man with her bare hands, delicately care for a child lost from her parents, and feed starving strangers with fish she caught from the nearest stream. But her outer strengths are met with an inner struggle to determine who she is. As she teaches these Jews how to survive in the elements, they teach her to listen to her own heart and forge her own destiny.

Harmel’s depth of research, both of the history and forest, is obvious. While the characters in the story are completely fictitious, they are based upon the Belieski Camp in the Naliboki Forest. From the food they foraged to the necessary preparations for winter to the attacks they waged on German soldiers, the meticulous research of historic fact is evident.

However, at times this book felt a bit like a mix of historic fiction and fantasy. There are some quirky, mystical elements to the story, especially early on. And the way Yona approaches certain scenarios often requires the reader to suspend plausibility. In my opinion, with a historic basis as unique and dynamic as this plot is, no supernatural elements were needed and may have in fact detracted from the overall spectacular nature of this history.

Thank you Kristin Harmel, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book.

3.5 I've read so many WWII historical fictions that I can honestly say I have quite a good grip on literature set during this timeframe. This book was different with some supernatural vibes though not unpleasant, uncommon for this type of historical fiction, The book is centered around Yona, a girl kidnapped as a toddler by an elderly woman who taught her to survive in the forest. These skills later on serve her well to help a group of Jews fleeing the nazis. Harmel takes inspiration from the true story of the Naliboski survivors. The book is a little slow-paced in the beginning, the kidnapping reason was not fully developed but it did then turn into a heartwarming tale of hope and resilience with some religious elements and a bit of romance. Overall, it was a refreshing take on a topic that is well worn. For me it was more 3.5 but I rounded up to 4 because lowering it to 3 felt less fair.

Thank you to #NetGalley for a #gifted e-arc.

This book was so different from Harmel’s earlier books that I was a bit disappointed. This starts as a fantasy, an old lady abducts a sleeping child and takes her to live in the forest. Yona is taught about the secrets of the forest, and all the survival skills.

Based on true tales, the book transports the reader to the dangerous forests of Nazi occupied Europe. Yet, in this strange environment Yona saves lives and falls in love. She also learns about her true heritage. This brings closure and understanding of why Yona was selected by the old lady.

Despite my love for her earlier novels, I did not love this book.

Thank you Netgalley for this opportunity.

This is my first and definitely not my last book by Kristin Harmel. Wow! It was incredibly well written.

Be prepared for your heart to be ripped out in all the best ways as you follow Yona through the forest in Poland during WWII. This is very different than any other WWII historical fiction novel I’ve read because of the setting, so if you have WWII burnout, don’t let that stop you from reading this one.

I love historical novels and this wonderful story by Kristen Harmel was riveting in the uniqueness of the subject. It was based on true events of WWII and Jews in Poland, that fled their ghetto’s to escape the brutality and killings by the Nazis.
An old Jewish woman kidnaps a 2 yr old German girl from her bed in Berlin, and eventually takes her to a forest in Poland, where she is taught to live off of the land, and how to prepare and survive the long cold winters. She names her Yona, but doesn’t really love the girl, just passes on her psychic skills, because she believes the child was born to carry them on.After the old woman’s death, Yona is alone, never meeting another human other than a chance meeting of a young boy that was in the area.
This is a story of survival, the need for human contact and the fact that anyone can be family. Yona comes across a Jewish family and attempts to help them in their quest for survival in the woods, and begins to find other groups that also need her knowledge and help to survive.
This was a tragic gripping tale of people hunted by those wanting to kill them and a young German girl, that works to save their lives.
My thanks to NetGalley, Kristen Harmel and Gallery Books for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I read that The Forest of Vanishing Stars was a WWII novel for fans of Where The Crawdads Sing.  That description was just too intriguing to pass up.  A two year old German girl is taken from her bed and raised in the forest by the old lady who kidnapped her.  Years later, after the old lady’s death, the girl ends up helping a group of Jews, hiding in the forest from the Nazis, learn how to survive in the forest.  I read a lot of WWII stories and this one was truly unique. With believable characters and a story line you just can’t put down, I would say this is a MUST READ.  A little bit romance, a little bit inspirational, a little bit suspense,  it has something for everyone.  I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for something exceptional to read.