Germany 1945: Under the rule of the Nazi’s, surviving this volatile time is getting harder and harder. Miriam’s daughter Rosa marries Daniel for the convenience of escaping to England in order to survive. Miriam tried to get her son, Willi, onto the kindertransport train but he wasn’t allowed to board because there was a mistake in his paperwork. They try to flee but they are caught by the Nazi’s and are sent back to the concentration camp. Miriam survives and makes it to the checkpoint at the border. She must clear the checkpoint to get into England in order to finally find Rosa. While at the checkpoint she meets Jack, an English Officer and sympathetic after hearing Miriam’s story. There is something very familiar to him about Rosa and her husband Daniel. With Jack’s help Miriam finally makes it to London. Miriam searches for Rosa, all the while Rosa is searching for her parents, wondering if they have survived the horrific camps in Germany. This story was so unbelievably amazing. I was so enthralled and inspired by the courage and the will to survive portrayed in this story. This story was one of a mother’s love and sacrifice to do whatever is necessary to save her family. It’s a story of families torn apart and doing everything they possibly can to reunite with each other. This is a definite five star, must read novel. Keep the Kleenex nearby as this one hits all the feels. Amazing, amazing, amazing…I absolutely loved it!!!

Thank you Liz Trenow for such a wonderful and inspiring book. I was so captivated by this story and found it to be unputdownable. I highly recommend this book.

Again I have to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and Liz Trenow for approving and giving me this beautifully written book.

An emotional, heart-broken and full of love historical fiction set in the darkest period of time in Germany and UK.

I read lots of historical fiction set before, during and after WW2. This is the only one I could not keep my tears. Through the title you can tell it’s about a mother who was searching for her daughter, desperately for 7 years. An emotional ride before the declaration of the war, trying to escape to save the children, being betrayed, disappointment, false documents, new identity and so on.

By interweaving relationship between family, friends and marriage, my heart tightened throughout the whole story. I loved the story and I loved the way Liz’s structure - clear but hooking. This book is suitable for non=native English speakers in Hong Kong and I will recommend this to all my bookwormer friends.

What a beautiful an compelling story. So rare are there historical fiction stories in the immediate aftermath of concentration camp liberation and survivors making their way into an unfamiliar world they had been torn from nearly a decade before. So many tales of wartime fiction recount similar stories of the death camps and Jews being rounded up tortured under the Nazi regime that they tend to all blend together after a while. But SEARCHING FOR MY DAUGHTER offers something completely different.

July 1945: Beginning in the months after the liberation of the camps, a lone woman old before her time joins the long queue outside the British border station, just beyond Russian territory. Miriam Kauffman has trekked for hundreds of miles for two weeks with little food and water in the hope that she may be granted a visa to travel to England so she can begin her search for her daughter Rosa. Just as all hope appears to be lost, she meets Captain Jack Preston who upon taking her details recognises her daughter's name. Can Jack help her get to England? And will she be finally reunited with Rosa after seven years?

Miriam has not seen her daughter since 1938 when she married Daniel Levy and gaining refuge in England prior to the war just as life for Jewish people was becoming more difficult under Hilter's new Nazi regime. It seemed to be the safest option for Rosa when Daniel proposed and whisked her away under the sponsorship of a family who will house them and employ Daniel in the Preston factory manufacturing fans for aircraft. But life in England, although it holds the promise of a fresh start, does not go too smoothly for the couple and before long are left to fend for themselves. However, being German in Britain at a time when the country is at war with theirs is not a friendly place to be. Apart from the fact that they are Jews who have been persecuted by the Nazi's, the fact remains that they are German. And no one is sympathetic to their cause.

When the war comes to an end in May 1945, Rosa longs to find out what became of her family. Daniel had promised that he would try and organise visas for them to join them in England but war broke out before that could happen and her family disappeared into the ether. She contacts the Jewish Information centre and the Red Cross in the hope that they may be able to trace her family and what became of them...but it seems the information she receives is a dead end.

Just as Rosa begins her search, Miriam embarks on her own journey to find her daughter with Jack Preston's help. It seems both women are at cross purposes throughout as so often they are close and yet so far from one another. In a city of millions in the wake of a debilitating war, can mother and daughter find each other against all odds? Can the promise of new life give them both hope?

Told in three parts, SEARCHING FOR MY DAUGHTER is a story of survival, of hope and of never giving up. It is not one woman's journey, but both women's journeys to new life and hopefully back to each other. So many stories focus on the horrors of the death camps, the hiding and persecution of the Jews and high-handedness of the Nazi rule. This story is different in that it's focus is on the aftermath. Both Miriam and Rosa's stories were unique and heartbreaking, so have your tissues handy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. It is compelling, heartbreaking and poignant...but it is also hopeful and inspiring. I would love to see more stories like this as those about life in the camps and so forth have flooded the market that readers are drowning in them. SEARCHING FOR MY DAUGHTER offers something different.

Overall, an engrossing read that is a poignant tear-jerker with a hopeful ending. One of the best I have read in a long time.

I would like to thank #LizTrenow, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #SearchingForMyDaughter in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

I’ve read many of Liz Trenow’s books and enjoyed them but this one was not for me. I struggled to engage with the characters or feel any empathy for them.

5/5 stars!

What an absolutely beautiful and brilliant story! I could not put this book down.

This story follows one woman’s journey to finding her daughter after the war along with her daughters journey before the war began and her journey to finding out what happened to her family.

Both women’s story’s are equally captivating and heartbreaking. I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend!

Searching for my Daughter by Liz Trenow is an inspiring story about a mothers determination to find her daughter after the events of The Holocost. Miriam was one of the few Jews to survive the concentration camps while her husband and son were not as fortunate, however they were able to send their daughter, Rosa away to England to marry. With the camps liberated Miriam has no family left in Gemery, so she embarks on a journey to find her daughter. With only the knowledge that her daughter was sent to England during the beginning of the War Miriam makes her way to the immigration border to begin her journey. While at the border Miriam meets an English officer Jack who choses to listen to her story and begins to remember secret panics and to a love that could never be. Will Jack be willing to risk everything in order to help Miriam reunite with Rosa?
Liz Trenow was able to write a book about The Holocaust that showed what the Jews went through after the liberation of the concentration camps. Most historical fiction books that I have read on this topic are more focused on people who hide Jewish families. I was very impressed about how Trenow was able to also incorporate Miriam’s journey that she embarked on after she was freed from the concentration camp. While at the same time, showing what Miriam and her family went through leading to when they were escorted to the concentration camps. Trenow was able to show exactly what Miriam's family went through - trying to send their children away, family struggles, etc. I feel as though I was given a complete story of Miriam's journey throughout the entire war. I really enjoyed reading about the aftermath of The Holocaust as well as what Rosa went through when she was sent away to England. Trenow also was able to show how the decisions that were made affected everyone in the family and how it impacted them specifically. It is clearly shown that Trenow did her research when writing this book.
Trenow's book was written in three parts - the first part told from Miriam's perspective while the second part is told from Rosas’ and the third part is told in the third perspective. This was very well thought out and really helped me to connect to each of the characters as I was getting the story from both Rosa and Miriam's perspective. In addition to this, at the start of each new part there was a reference for a place and time for that section. However, as I read further into each section there would sometimes be flashbacks that I was unaware were flashbacks until after reading a little more or towards the end. Through the characters' journeys they were traveling to other countries and cities. I think that having the city name would be helpful in keeping track of the journey that each character took and how it related to the other characters. While this did create some sections that were hard to get through they were not enough to make me want to stop reading the story. Trenow had me intrigued and invested in these characters from the beginning.
Each character in Searching for my Daughter had their own personalities that resembled the various types of people during World War II and The Holocaust. While I do not think that any character's major changes, all the characters were true to themselves. Characters who stayed strong willed usually made decisions that a character with this attribute would make. In addition to this Miriam did have some small character development - as she became more determined as she was looking for her daughter. While reading, I also appreciated that each of the major characters - Miriam, Rosa, Jack, and Steiner - had important roles in regards to the plot of the novel. I enjoyed reading about each of these characters' story arcs and how they all intertwined with each other. The interactions that these characters had with each other were written in such an accurate way that they had me feeling the feelings that Trenow wanted her readers to feel.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading Searching for my Daughter as it had everything that I expected from a Holocaust book and more. I would love to see more books written about how the surviving families each dealt with the camp's liberation. I think that anyone with an interest with World War II and The Holocaust would enjoy reading this book and following these characters on their journeys. I would like to thank Liz Trenow, Bookouture, and Netgalley for the chance to read an advanced copy of this book.

A good read about the direct aftermath of WWII, when people started to look for their missing family members again. Miriam prisoner of Auschwitz, is alive at the end of the war. Her daughter, Rosa is the only one who could escape to England before the Nazi's raids. Miriam will relentlessly search for her.... However, the book is not only about Miriam and the search for her daughter, it is a also story of love, friendship and vengeance.
I read this novel very quickly as I wanted to know its conclusion! What I did not like, is the too unsubtle (and unnecessary for this light read) way of describing too explicitly some of the characters' violence. It did not work for me in this novel whose plot relies quite a lot on coincidences and pure luck making this novel an easy and light read.
I read this entertaining novel as an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Yet another fantastic read from Liz Trenow.

Initially set in Hamburg, the Kauffman family life a settled life, and then Hitler starts his persecution of the Jews.

Rosa has her university place withdrawn, her father is 'arrested, Rosa takes a job with Eric Steiner to look after his children while his wife is recuperating in a sanatorium in Switzerland . Once he discovers Rosa is a Jew, he rapes and abuses her, and when she tells him of her impending marriage he threatens and stystematically try and destroy her family.

Rosa and her husband Daniel are fortunate to escape the horrors of Hitler and his persecution thanks to a sponsorship by a company who Daniel's father trades with in England.

The story follows their life, and also the miracle of her mother surviving the camps.

A great read, exciting and a tear jerker.

I really enjoyed the storyline and the flashbacks to previous years as the story gets told, the characters are lovely and the way the story is told you have to keep reading to find put what happens, set in Germany and England it's descriptive as to what life must have been like for the family, highly recommended

The Journey

An enduring story of a mother's search for her lost daughter. Her miraculous escape from death at the hands of the Nazi's and her journey to a life of freedom.

As the rules of the Nazi's worsen and it becomes clear that her family is no longer safe, Miriam sees her daughter Rosa marry Daniel in order to immigrate to England and escape the danger and the cruelty of the Nazi she has been working for as a housekeeper. Miriam desperately tries to get her son on the kinder transport, but there is an error in his paperwork and he is not allowed to board the train.

They flee to the countryside, but the Germans find them and send them to the concentration camp. By a miracle Miriam survives and manages to make her way to the checkpoint at the border. She finds the guard Jack who is sympathetic to her journey to find her daughter and allows her to cross. When he questions her they find that Jack knows her daughter Rosa as his was the family that sponsored Rosa and her husband when they went to England.

With Jack's help, Miriam makes it to London. She never gives up searching for her daughter Rosa. This is a story of Miriam's journey searching for Rosa. It is also Rosa's story of coming to London and searching to find if her parent's survived after the war.

Much is written about life in the concentration camps, but this story is about a survivor and what happens afterward. Of parents doing what they must to ensure the safety of their children. Of families torn apart and lives spent searching for each other.

It was a very inspirational story of a mother's courage and the everlasting love for her daughter. I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it.

Thanks to Liz Trenow for writing another great story, to Bookouture for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available for me.

Searching for My Daughter offers a slightly different story of post WWII. Miriam survived the camps, but is searching fir her daughter, Rosa, who escaped to England before the war. The first part is told from Miriam’s perspective, then the second half is from Rosa’s voice. Together they provide an emotional read as a fractured family re-knits itself and the character juggle all the repercussions from long made decisions.

At the end of WWII a women who has survived the camps searchers for her daughter. Refusing to believe that she has lost her. I will admit that this one had me crying from the first page.

This book went straight to my heart. The title tells you straight away what it is about. Some very disturbing incidents, that need a box of hankies. I read it in one day, just could not put it down. Greatful for the opportunity to read it.

First off like always I want to say a huge thank you to the publisher Bookouture , the author Liz Trenow, and to the wonderful ladies of the Bookouture Anonymous Facebook group without them and their hard work and efforts I wouldn't knew about these books . and to NetGalley for the invite to join this blog tour as well as letting me read and review it. Just like so many of the historical fiction stories I've read based on WW2 this one was just as gripping and emotional ,and showed true bravery, enduring love and keeping hope alive in the darkest of times, as well as the uncertainty of what the futures holds, of found family and justice bought to the ones who need to pay for their crimes against all of living or past lives that was lost.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was a little confusing with the different flashbacks and different characters, but all in all a good book. Thank you to Net Galley for the early read.

An utterly gripping and emotional novel about bravery, enduring love and keeping hope alive in the darkest of times. Totally gripped from the beginning… Grab yourself a copy of this book! I absolutely loved this! I read this book within a day, I couldn’t put it down. I loved the characters and the way I had to keep asking myself if I was right in how I thought the storyline was turning out!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a quick read that I finished in almost one sitting. It is well written with a compelling and interesting storyline and well developed charcaters that were relatable and loveable. There were some heart-warming and heart-wrenching moments. I would recommend it,

“My recovery will be complete when I find Rosa.”

In recent days I’ve read about a female Russian fighter ace in WW2, Stalin’s past oppression of the Ukrainian people and now a similar topic of contemporary resonance, sending children away from their war-torn homeland to ensure survival in the hopes of one day reuniting with them.

Rarely done in historical fiction is the immediate aftermath of camp liberation and prisoners making their way in an unfamiliar world; whether it be back ‘home’ or on to a new life. This fresh perspective adds to Trenow’s success.

I was in awe of Trenow’s storytelling! She had the ability to place me right in the setting and I love when that happens. The serendipitous moment at the border checkpoint almost had me in tears. Her characters are crafted to perfection and I truly cared what happened to them - some of the best characters I’ve read this year! The tension and mystery were fantastic and kept me turning pages. This was a five-star read up until Rosa took employment at the Steiner home.

Since a big part of a book review is the reader's reaction to what they read, I feel validated in expressing my disappointment. I’ve thought about it for days and although I understand Steiner’s role in the book, I can’t help but wonder if there had been a different way to portray how despicable he was. It left me feeling disgusted that it had to be included in an otherwise 5-star book. Such a shame. Perhaps it wasn’t only the act itself, but rather the manner in which it was portrayed or written. Please familiarize yourself with trigger warnings prior to reading.

Trenow deftly explores the strength of a mother’s love and the lengths she’ll go to protect her own. They say a mother’s love knows no bounds….Trenow taps into that knowledge.

The author was inspired by a story her uncle told from his time in Germany as an intelligence officer post WW2. He was tracking down escaping Nazis and helping to manage the tide of desperate refugees.

I was gifted this advance copy by Liz Trenow, Bookouture and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

A good quick fun read for an afternoon escape, a weekend at the beach, a long plain ride etc. It will take you away and won't disappoint.