I’ve always wondered how my Basque paternal family survived WWII. While I’m still avoiding asking my grandfather so he doesn’t relive the trauma on my account, I greatly appreciated this novel. Surviving meant different paths to so many families. I immensely enjoyed this historical fiction account.

This is one of my favorite WWll stories that I have read. I loved learning about what happened in Guernica through the eyes of Sibi. Sibi and her sisters are fantastic characters. I also really liked Griff. This story made me laugh and cry. I could not put this book down. I received a copy of this book from Harlequin for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

Set during the Spanish Civil War and WW11, The Girl From Guernica by Karen Robards is fast-paced, page-turning, riveting, and unputdownable.

Welcome to my stop on the Fall 2022 Harlequin Trade Publishing Blog Tour for Historical Fiction. Thank you #NetGalley @HTPBooks @HarlequinBooks @MiraEditors for a complimentary e ARC of #TheGirlFromGuernica by @TheKarenRobards upon my request. All opinions are my own.

This story is inspired by Picasso’s great masterpiece, Guernica.

In April of 1937, the small town of Guernica, Spain was bombed. Robards writes the imagined story of seventeen-year-old Sibi, her siblings, and her mother who lived there at the time. Grif, an American military attaché rescues Sibi from the rubble. Sibi knows aircraft and recognizes that it was the Germans who bombed their town. This knowledge puts her in danger as she and two surviving siblings make their way to Germany to live with their father. As WW11 rages, Sibi joins the resistance movement and works with Grif.

If you’re a fan of Kate Quinn’s work and appreciate a side of thriller with your historical fiction, you will love The Girl From Guernica. From surviving the bombing to living in Germany and working with the Resistance Movement to the heart-stopping conclusion, the writing of Karen Robards had me turning pages with bated breath from the first page.

Histic authors use different approaches when writing historical fiction stories. Some authors tell the stories of real people living through a historical event or time period, and others use a historical setting or event and imagined characters.

In this story, Robards uses a real event and time period and imagined characters. I read historical fiction to learn something, and I appreciate reading more about the Spanish Civil War, Picasso’s famous painting, and the endurance of one imagined family. One disheartening fact I learned (during a google search) is that the bombing of Guernica was the first incident of bombing civilians in an attempt to win a war (the current bombing of Ukraine’s civilian population comes to mind).

Some of you might remember that I love a story with a perfect character-driven and plot-driven balance. The Girl From Guernica is an excellent example.

This new-to-me author constructs an exciting story filled with vivid descriptive details and well-drawn main characters that we grow to love and admire. The story is compulsively readable and tension filled.

I love wonderful characters. Sibi is brave, independent, and responsible. Grif is protective, courageous, smart, respectful, and loyal. Together they make an incredible team in their espionage attempts. And, yes, there is a sweet romance brewing, but it doesn’t overwhelm the story.

“As the eldest, upon whose thin shoulders the cares of the family consistently fell, Sibi never had the luxury of being shy or frail.”

Important and thoughtful themes abound in this story and include loyalty, family relationships, truth, survival, trust, determination, bravery, hope, rescue, endurance, siblings, and deception.

This riveting story is already on my best-of-year list! You know that my 5 Star books must have that WOW factor! I’m enthusiastically recommending this amazing story for fans of histfic with a side of thriller, for readers who love page-turning narratives, for those who admire brave, inspiring, and independent female leads, and for book clubs, The Girl From Guernica is unputdownable and compulsively readable. I devoured it in one day.

(contains spoilers) Content Consideration: a town is bombed with many casualties, death of a parent and sibling, gun violence

This was a great historical fiction read that gave me some more insight to a time period that I love learning about and the story was perfectly woven into the reality.

Sad to report that this book was just not for me. From the pacing to the lack of character development it failed to keep me engaged and while I love the ideas and time period set forth in the story, I couldn’t connect with it much at all.

In general it was difficult to get immersed in the book simply because I didn’t like the characters, sad as that is to say. Sibi as a heroine isn’t wholly believable and she doesn’t seem to change much throughout the book. Even at the beginning she came across as older so there wasn’t this transition from her being a teenager to an adult that should’ve helped to make her come across in a mature way or show growth. She also is distinctly modern in ways, being the “strong woman” archetype and other instances that make her not fit in with her time period, which distances her from the rest of what’s happening. Unfortunately, after the beginning events in Guernica, there’s not much in her life that really creates interest. I was hoping that her being a spy would fuel some suspenseful moments but most of it is isn’t substantial enough to stir real emotion or suspense until just at the end. For believability we’re given the excuse that her connections with her father and life circumstances allow her access to places others wouldn’t have but at the ages she is during the book, her knowledge of events doesn’t seem credible or her demeanor in situations accurate to the situation. Her inner monologue is different from the seeming detachment she is able to display outwardly, again because of her supposed maturity, and we are meant to buy that others (even Nazi officials) would deem her believable when she hasn’t had any training and is only given cursory instructions on how to carry out her spy duties. Over the course of the book, Sibi merely becomes a two dimensional character without much interesting about her to either make her likable or relatable.

Griff was even worse. For all that we’re meant to see him as this amazing man who rescued Sibi and has become such a part of her life, he’s barely even there. He appears not even a handful of times before near the end of the book. The most I came to know about him is he’s attractive, he frowns a lot and he wants to protect Sibi. He doesn’t ever develop much of his own personality. He ended up being the cardboard picture of a brooding male soldier with a heart of gold that could’ve come from the pages of any generic romance novel.

Speaking of romance, the romance in this book didn’t work for me. Honestly it didn’t even begin until the book was practically over and only then did it start because of a kiss out of desperation. I mean that was a pretty disappointing way to kickstart a romance. Fine if you want to have the “we’re about to be discovered” tension but don’t have the romance begin on the back of that, poor timing in my opinion. I get it war time sucks and things were different but the whole buildup behind these two getting together didn’t fuel any sense of connection between them at all beyond mere circumstance. For one their age gap is troubling, 9 years is a big difference and it is insinuated early on that Sibi has feelings for Griff when she’s still a teenager, his reciprocation was only mildly in question. Then there’s the fact that Griff barely appears in the book, understandable since he’s a spy, yet at the same time if we’re meant to believe a connection between the two and don’t get to ever see them interact the bond becomes intangible. Griff wasn’t even showing interest until Sibi brought it up so for him to switch to being an amorous lover like he felt that way all along with no explanation wasn’t a clean transition. Not to mention that after they finally do admit feelings he only seems to be interested in kissing her, not really a relationship. It felt as if the author tried to pack a books worth of romance into the last few chapters, managing to cheapen it in the process.

It’s a shame really because I loved Robard’s other historical novel, The Black Swan of Paris but this one did not pack the same emotional punch. It may have leaned heavier on the toll of war and brutality of civilian death in the beginning to pull you into the story but it’s characters were hollow and the overall narrative read as a historical recounting rather than a drama. I’m okay with books that want to take a slower pace and really develop the lives of their characters but I think this one took too long drawing out Sibi’s young life before creating any drama at about 75% in and by then I’m not as invested anymore. This book kind of dragged along until the last parts where it finally introduced some action and tension into the plot. At that point though it felt too late to try and develop what needed more attention earlier. It also seemed to rely too heavily on lucky coincidence to move along certain points in the plot. Sibi would just “happen” to be somewhere where Nazi officials were or “happen” to see important files so she didn’t do much actual spy work, she was only in the right place at the right time. To me this just seemed like lazy plot work. The rest of Sibi’s spy activity is told only through her second-hand narration of explaining what she has learned and sent as messages or told to Griff, which isn’t interesting since we don’t get to see it.

The two redeeming aspects of this book are the dog, Ruby, and Sibi’s relationship with her family. I think by the end I was more invested in the fate of that dog than anything else. And while I wasn’t always a fan of how she compromised what she knew to be right or took advantage of Griff’s kindness to help her family, Sibi’s unfailing loyalty to her siblings and even Father, who she wasn’t that close to in the beginning, was something worth liking. Her willingness to step into the mother role for her sisters while trying to maintain that sister bond was admirable. That family bond stayed true throughout the book and was the one enjoyable thread I felt the story stayed connected to from beginning to end.

Better character development and some pacing tweaks could’ve made this into a stellar book. Overall it was an easy read, just not an immersing one. This book really is for readers who like historical narratives that are a slow build with little tension in between.

I've been interested in what happened in Guernica during the Spanish Civil War since high school when we discussed Picasso's painting Guernica and I remember getting to see the massive painting when I was in Spain so when I saw this book I was immediately intrigued!

The Girl From Guernica isn't just about the Spanish Civil War but it starts with it and continues to follow 17 year old Sibi. Sibi and her family are caught up in the horror of the bombing of Guernica and when she's pulled from the rubble by an American military attaché. As war starts to rage across Europe Sibi joins the underground resistance and exchanges information with Griff. As she's drawn deeper into a web of secrets will she be able to survive?

I liked the first third of the book with the bombing of Guernica and that experience but when it moved to Germany it didn't feel like the same book to me. The ending was a little unbelievable and I wish it would have been more on Guernica/Spanish Civil War. I knew the Germany/Spanish connection and can see why the author took it that way but I didn't enjoy that aspect of the book.

THE GIRL FROM GUERNICA by Karen Robards is an emotional and suspenseful historical fiction with romantic elements story from beginning to end. This standalone novel follows a young female protagonist and her family from the first unprovoked aerial bombing of civilians at Guernica which shocked the world in 1937 through the end of WWII.

Sibil “Sibi” Helenger, her mother and three younger sisters are in the Basque city of Guernica. They were taking care of their grandmother in her last days while their father, a German rocket scientist remained in Germany. With the Spanish Revolution raging around them, Sibi wants to return to Germany, but her mother wants to stay. On a normal day in April, Guernica was suddenly attacked from the air with bombs dropping and machine gun aerial strafing from German planes.

Griff, an American military attaché pulls Sibi and her youngest sister from the wreckage. As Sibi attempts to get a hold of her father, she learns that her knowledge that the planes were German and not Spanish revolutionaries, puts her and her sister’s lives all in danger from the Nazi regime. Their father finds them and takes them back to Germany, but Sibi is still in danger, not only as she lies for the Nazi’s, but also because she continues to give Griff secret information to use against them.

As the war rages on, Sibi, known as “The Girl from Guernica” is committed to outwitting the Nazi’s who threaten her family while she does everything in her power to assist the allies in defeating them.

This is my favorite historical fiction book so far this year! It is riveting and I was unable to put it down. Ms. Robards does an amazing job of researching an often-forgotten war crime in the years leading up to WWII. Sibi’s resilience and strength while still being so young herself makes her an unforgettable character that I became invested with from page one. There are times when the story brought me to tears and others when I felt such happiness for Sibi, her family, and the mysterious Griff. All the characters and the historical references and locations are realistically written and believable.

I highly recommend this historical fiction read!

4.5 stars!

Karen Robards has been a recognizable name in romance since I began reading it when I was way too young to do so. I’m not a big fan of historical romance, but it’s Karen Robards. After reading the history surrounding Picasso’s painting and the attack on the city, I was curious as to where Ms. Robards would take this tale. It took a couple of chapters for the story to really hook me (again…not a big historical romance fan), but putting it down was a struggle once it did. While there were portions where I skimmed more than I read, those were fewer than I’d anticipated. (This is not a reflection of the author’s style or talent and is truly my own issue. There’s no doubt regarding her skill and ability to weave a riveting tale.) Sibi’s terror was palpable, and her strength and bravery were admirable. I cried over her losses and cheered when she triumphed over evil. While Sibi’s journey was entirely fictional, there was a lot of actual history in the story that had me diving back into the WWII era and studying it more from this character’s perspective. I’m in awe of the author’s ability to weave such an epic tale, all from her curiosity over Picasso’s work. As she cemented her place in romance years ago, I’ll continue to enjoy her books for as long as she writes them.

Sibi, her sisters and her mother have been in Guernica, Spain visiting family for quite a while. Sibi has been wanting to return to Germany because a civil war is raging around them. Her mother refuses. She is happy back home. This decision changes all of their lives.

Sibi is a young lady which stole my heart. After the tragedy at Guernica, she had to step up and be everything to her sisters. Then there is Griff! He actually saved Sibi in Guernica from a collapsed building. So, you can guess these two have a past and a future!

I love the history in this book. I had never heard about the attack on Guernica. I certainly didn’t know that the Germans did it! So, this book really had me researching! And if y’all follow this blog you know that I love a book that has me looking stuff up!

Now, that being said…I did feel this book was too long. This novel could’ve been shortened by maybe 50 pages. And the first half of the book was more captivating than the second half. And that could be because I was more fascinated with the Guernica section. This novel does have a little bit of everything…romance, war, espionage. I mean, what’s not to like!

Need a new take on a WWII novel…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

This was really outstanding – definitely 5*!!

The novel begins with the horrors of the unprovoked attack on Guernica, a Basque village in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War where 1600 unarmed civilians were killed, first by being bombed and then by strafing. Additionally, fire bombs were used to burn anything that was left. This was memorialized by Picasso in a painting that was finished just in time for the Paris Exhibition where it became world famous overnight.

The story takes us from Spain to Germany where the Nazis are in control and where they are gearing up for their assault on Europe.

Our heroine, Sibil, is the oldest of 4 daughters of a German rocket scientist and a Spanish woman. The mother and one of the daughters are both killed in the attack on Guernica. Sibi and the other 2 daughters are saved by an American officer attached to the Embassy in Spain. He makes sure that they get to their father who is in Germany.

This recounts 8 years of both the Spanish Civil War and World War II where the father is forced to join the Nazi party and work for the war machine.

I loved the way Robards worked the various elements of the war into this family saga, always keeping the humanity of the family in tact. I loved the way Robards worked Griff, the American, into their lives. It was her characterization which made the story come alive. Her situations were right out of history books, but her characters’ reactions to and within those situations were what gave the story life.

This was my first novel by Robards, but it sure won’t be my last!!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and from the publisher, Harlequin, in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate this early read. It is my extreme pleasure to recommend this book highly.

Title: The Girl from Guernica
Author: Karen Robards
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

On an April day in 1937, the sky opens and fire rains down upon the small Spanish town of Guernica. Seventeen-year-old Sibi and her family are caught up in the horror. Griff, an American military attaché, pulls Sibi from the wreckage, and it’s only the first time he saves her life in a span of hours. When Germany claims no involvement in the attack, insisting the Spanish Republic was responsible, Griff guides Sibi to lie to Nazi officials. If she or her sisters reveal that they saw planes bearing swastikas, the gestapo will silence them—by any means necessary.

As war begins to rage across Europe, Sibi joins the underground resistance, secretly exchanging information with Griff. But as the scope of Germany’s ambitions becomes clear, maintaining the facade of a Nazi-sympathizer becomes ever more difficult. And as Sibi is drawn deeper into a web of secrets, she must find a way to outwit an enemy that threatens to decimate her family once and for all.

I was hooked on this from the very first page! All the characters were so vivid and so believable, and the author did such a great job with them that I felt like I was right there with Sibi through everything, grieving and struggling and determined to do what was right—no matter what. I cannot recommend this highly enough!

Karen Robards is a bestselling author. The Girl from Guernica is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/MIRA in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 9/10.)

Karen Robards’ riveting new historical novel, The Girl From Guernica, takes the reader inside the horror of the Spanish civil war in April 1937 when the residents of the small town of Guernica in Spain are terrorized by an air raid that drops bombs on the city setting it ablaze. Residents who try to flee are shot dead in the streets.

Sixteen year old Sibi wakes up trapped under the rubble of a building and is rescued by Griff, an American military attaché . Sibi tells Griff that the planes were German planes, a fact she knows because her German father helped design them. When Sibi tells a reporter the same thing, that the planes were German not Spanish as thought, that leads to trouble for Sibi.

Sibi’s father comes to Spain to take her and her sisters back to their home in Berlin where he continues his work on rockets. When the Nazi leaders read the reporter’s account of German planes bombing Guernica, suspicion falls on Sibi as the person who spoke to the reporter.

In order to save her family, Sibi lies and becomes a tool of propaganda for the Nazis. She is forced to speak to reporters and make filmed statements stating that it was Spanish planes who reigned terror on their own countrymen.

When Griff reconnects with Sibi, she offers to spy on her father and his colleagues for the Allies. Griff reluctantly agrees, knowing that Sibi will be putting her life in danger, but as Sibi says, her life is already in danger.

The Girl From Guernica is a riveting, thrilling novel. Robards doesn’t let up on the tension from the horror of the bombing of Guernica to Sibi’s meetings with Nazi leaders to her attempts to get information to Griff to the suspenseful conclusion, and my heart was in my throat the entire time.

As someone who knew little about Guernica outside of the famous Pablo Picasso painting of the same name, I found the premise of the story fascinating. Sibi and her family are characters that work their way into your heart as you root for them to survive “by whatever means necessary.” Fans of WWII historical fiction like The Nightingale and All The World You Cannot See will want to put The Girl From Guernica on their TBR list.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on their Fall 2022 Historical Fiction Blog Tour.

A terrific, albeit tough in spots, read about Sibi, a 17 year old whose life is turned upside down by the attack on Guernica, where she has been living with her mother and sisters Luiza, Johanna, and Margrit. Her mother Marina had moved the girls to her Basque homeland while their father, an eminent physics professor, remained in Germany but now Sibi, who is rescued from under a building by Griff, an American military attache, must help her sisters not only survive but heal. A return to Berlin and their father should help but it doesn't because Sibi is forced to recant an interview she gave to a journalist and to become a part of the Nazi propaganda machine. But then she demands a chance to make a difference- at huge personal risk. No spoilers from me. Robards has terrific storytelling skills and I found myself swept into the story, which has so many ups and downs. You'll find yourself gripping the kindle or book. Great characters and wonderful (albeit horrible) atmospherics, and Ruby the dog, made this a great one. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. For fans of historical fiction.

In 1937, Pablo Picasso expressed his outrage against war with his enormous painting, Guernica, displayed at the Paris World’s Fair. In the many years since, it has become the 20th century’s most powerful statement against war. It’s classified as one of the ten most famous paintings in the world. In fact, author Karen Robards was so inspired by this piece of art that it lead to researching first person accounts from survivors of the unprovoked April 27, 1937 Nazi bombing of the small Basque town of Guernica and then writing this powerful book.

Like the painting, this novel is not something you can read with spatial detachment. The author’s words wrap around you and immerse you in the action much like the larger than life figures in the mural. Both challenge the notion of war as heroic. Robards explores the civil war in Spain between the Republican government and Franco’s fascist forces and highlights (like Picasso) the German air force’s bombing of the village of Guernica in northern Spain.

Finding parallels between what is now happening in Ukraine, Robards introduces us to 16 year old Sibil Helenger who lived through what Picasso captured and immortalized on canvas. It’s raw. It’s emotional. Readers will be swept up in Sibil’s first hand experience of what it was like to get caught up in the attack and will cheer alongside her in the aftermath. I didn’t know anything about this attack prior to reading this book. I now feel like I’ve lived through it with Sibil and experienced the rage that I’m sure prompted Picasso to take action.

I challenge you to read this novel that will make you uncomfortable and push you to do something. Anything. Why not reach out and use your resources in a positive way for Ukraine aid?

Did you read The Black Swan of Paris? Love a story inspired by true events? You won’t regret the imprint this book will leave on your heart and mind.

I was gifted this advance copy by Harlequin Trade Publishing, MIRA, and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Thank you very much to the publisher and Netgalley, because what a treat! Karen Robards gets better and better with each book and I have never been disappointed. Not many books these days are written about the Spanish Civil War, so it was a breath of fresh air to read a story set in this time period. Her attention to historical detail always impresses me, and the depth of her characters and their nuances make them seem incredibly real. Overall, I highly recommend this book to ALL historical fiction lovers!

I appreciate NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Karen Robards' The Girl from Guernica. I really enjoyed it. Seventeen year old Sibi, her mother, and three sisters are living in Guernica, Spain. Sibi and her sisters are half-German and half-Spanish, coming to Guernica to visit their grandmother on her deathbed. On a terrible day in 1937 bombers appear. The people of Guernica scatter, thinking it was Franco's army attacking during the Spanish Civil War. Sibi notices something about the planes that most people don't. Many are killed and the city is left in shambles. Sibi and two of her sisters are returned to her father in Germany only to be caught up in a web of lies dealing with the Nazi propaganda machine and who really was behind the bombing of civilians. What can Sibi do about it? I couldn't put it down and read it over two evenings, staying up later than I intended.

This story is set in WWII. It is the story of a young girl who becomes a spy. She is part of the underground passing messages to a US Soldier who rescued her and her sisters when their town was bombed. Sibi has put her and her families lives on the line if she is caught but her hatred for the Germans bombing her town compels her to act. I couldn’t put this book down. I was rooting for Sibi, her family and the soldier who rescued them from the rubble of their town. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

This book grabbed me from the very start. It’s the story of Sibil and her sisters and the challenges they faced during war. If you love history and romance you will love this book.

Sibi is the oldest of 4, with a German scientist father, a Basque mother and WWII on the horizon. Surviving the distraction of Guernica, she returns to Germany and a political system she hates.

Robards makes a departure from her usual domestic thrillers to pen this nail biting historical saga. It’s 1937 in the Spanish town of Guernica when the world catches fire. Sibi and her family are caught up in the destruction and Sibi is saved by an American military attache named Griff, when he rescues her from the rubble. While Sibi and her sisters know the Nazis were behind the attack, Germany is denying any involvement. Griff convinces Sibi and her sisters to play dumb; if they identify the aircraft involved in the deadly airstrike as German, they will be silenced, permanently. Caught between her family and country and the love she feels for an American, Sibi will have to decide what matters most