Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres to read, but every time I pick up one that is about WWII I always think I can't learn much more or anything new about it. Or if I do, I'm sure it won't affect me how it has with other books in the past...WRONG!

V.S. Alexander taught me a lot that I had never known nor heard of before, such as the Special Operations Executive in England, among others. I love that the author "shows and doesn't tell" so that the reader can visualize what is happening due to Alexander's descriptions and story-telling.
And I thought the characters were so well-written and their voices distinct.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the audio version. Wow what a very emotional book. It was well written, and if you love WWII history you might want to check this book out. For me it was an emotional rollercoaster. So make sure you have some tissues handy.

I love Historical Fiction, and have read many books based in WWII, but this was a refreshing story and I really enjoyed it!

THE WAR GIRLS follows the story of two sisters during WWII who are both involved in the war, but set in different locations. The characters were well rounded , and I really loved Hanna. She is smart and loves her family, and wants vengeance on Hitler.

The audiobook was well done, narrated by Kelli Tager, which really helped set the tone and emotion of the story.

*many thanks to Highbridge Audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

After enjoying V.S. Alexander’s The Taster, I wanted to read his newest. Thank you to @kensingtonbooks for kindly sending me a copy! The War Girls follows three brave women based on true life stories of the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland during WWII. The countless stories of cruelty and inhumanity is absolutely devastating, yet the stories must be told. The courage to fight for survival and the protect the ones you love is so inspirational! The book keeps a steady pace throughout till the end. I do wish there was a bit more of a conclusion to all that was built. The War Girls is a must read for WWII readers! ⁣
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• historical fiction, WWII, Poland, espionage ⁣
• 4 ⭐️

Thank you to Net Galley for a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review.
The War Girls tells the story of two sisters during WWII who are in different locations during the war. The two-person perspective allows the reader to have an idea of what is happening in Poland and England simultaneously. The sisters have limited communication with each other, but when their paths finally cross they are both determined to help the allies.
What I liked most about this book was the development of the secondary characters and how important their roles within the sisters lives were. I thought difficult subjects were adequately addressed, such as isolation, depression, and survivors guilt.
If you enjoyed The Rose Code and The Nightingale, I think you would really enjoy this book.

The War Girls is set in Poland from September 1939 until May 1946. We meet the Majewski family, a Jewish family that is in danger now that the Nazis are moving into Poland. We also meet their neighbour, Janke, a Catholic woman who hates what is happening to friends and neighbours because of their religion. Hannah Majewski left Poland and her family when she refused to marry the man her father picked out for her. She moved to London to live with her aunt and uncle. The rest of the family: her mother, father, sister Stefa and younger brother, have been moved into the Warsaw Ghetto, where you either work or are sent away. Stefa's boyfriend, Daniel, gets a job with the Jewish Police and her father works in a gentile restaurant so they are better off than others, but still starving and constantly dangerous. Janke tries to help them when she can delivering mail and messages, but is constantly at risk as her husband is a Nazi and an abusive man. Meanwhile in London, the blitz has destroyed homes and businesses and killed Hanna's aunt and uncle. She is recruited by the SOE and trained to become a spy, where she hopes to return to Poland and see if her family is still alive. The War Girls is the story of both of these courageous women.

This is a long story, that does bog down at times, but it still held my interest. The characters were sympathetic and my heart broke many times during this story. Hanna is a great character. She is smart, a quick learner, loves her family, and wants to make Hitler and the Nazis pay. Her training was extremely interesting and if it really happened that way, I am amazed that she made it at all. The storyline set in Poland was difficult to read. I had not read anything from the viewpoint of a Jewish Police Officer. They are normally vilified, but The War Girls gives another perspective. I have read other books by V.S. Alexander and find the author to be an great storyteller, with a lot of detail and well developed characters. Many themes are touched upon such as courage, hatred, propaganda, friendship, family, grief, faith, hope, and sacrifice. As I said earlier, this is a longer book at almost 500 pages and the audiobook was over 16 hours, but this is a well told story that I do recommend. I did a read/listen with The War Girls and enjoyed both formats. Kelli Tager narrates the audiobook and does a great job. The majority of the characters are women, and she is able to give them great voice with expression and emotion that made them feel real to me. I recommend this book in either format.

One of my favorite genres to read is historical fiction. I choose to listen to via Audiobook and didn’t want the story to end. Reading The War Girls was not like a lot of the other historical fiction I have read. The War Girls shows life in Poland and the UK for 2 Jewish sisters and a Catholic family. I really like how we got to see both the Jewish perspective and the Catholic one. As the reader I got to see how it wasn’t only the Germans who were doing atrocities during this period of World War II. As a young person I used to wonder how people could let this kind of genocide happen, and through some of the characters I saw people that were trying to help and others who thought that the Jews had it coming (and anyone who would help them). I think one of the interesting perspectives in this book is that one of the Jewish sisters had chosen to marry a non-Jew, and was living away from the family in Poland. The story did show that this was challenging (and would have been in the best of circumstances). At the end of the story, I was sat there wanting there to be a sequel to see the remainder of the family’s story.

I wanted to thank NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for accepting my request to read and review The War Girls.

I really tried with this book. I got almost 20% in and I can not force myself to continue. Overall I found the book slow and I had trouble following all the characters and who was who. I wish I would have liked this more.

Another WW-II historical fiction book, however, it strayed from camps to the Ghetto. In addition to knowing there is a war, and Jews are being persecuted, food and the lack of is a focus in this story. The author has taken a part of history and inserted unknown people i.e. The War Girls into recruitments. Help is needed in the Ghettos.

The story does slow in spots. The need for food and the loss of strength and energy that comes from not having the nutrients is shown. There are more implied abuses than graphic physical visuals painted.

The narrator was a good choice for me.

This was a good change from traditional concentration camp books. There were people who tried to help before that point, and this is one of those stories. I would rate this 3.5 stars, there are some really slow moving pages. I am rounding up, I think the pacing is important to digest the information being given.

Thank you NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for accepting my request to read and review The War Girls.

The War Girls

Author: V.S. Alexander
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 3/5
Release date: 26 Jul 2022

Strong Women ~ Warsaw Ghetto ~ Danger ~ Friendship ~ Family ~ WWII ~ Love ~ London Blitz ~ Well-written characters ~ Judaism ~ SOE ~ Sisters ~ Women’s Fiction ~ Well-Researched ~ Audiobook

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

i like to read about WWII and learn all I can about the different sides of what people went through. This book brought a new view of what families went through and what they did as their part of the war efforts. I believe everyone should read this to help understand another view of the war.

Very engaging story. I like the two different perspectives, the sister in London and the sister in Poland. Sometimes audiobooks are not well served by the narrator, in this case the narrator seems like she has the appropriate change in voice/dialect without being comical or annoying.

3.5⭐️

The War Girls follows the lives of three women in WWII who worked with the Allies as agents and spies.

Hanna left home and her Jewish tradition for a life in London. In 1940, she barely escapes with her life during bombing raids. She is recruited as a spy and sent back to help the people of Warsaw.

Stefa was once just a teenager only worried about teenage things like boys. Then her family is forced to move into the ghettos of Warsaw. Her and her family strive to survive starvation, disease and death at the hands of Nazi Germans.

Hanna, Stefa and Janka(an Aryan friend living outside the ghetto) work to rescue their loved ones before it’s too late.

I feel like we were missing part of the story of the work that these women did for the Resistance. Definitely told about daily life in the ghettos but I guess I expected there to be more of the heroics of helping people, especially from Hanna’s story.

I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion

I received this as an audio ARC through Netgalley. When the story first got going, it was a little hard to follow with all the different characters being introduced and trying to keep the family units in order. I almost DNF'd at 10%. I am sooooo happy I kept on listening. This is one best WWII historical fiction books I have read in a while. V.S. Alexander tells a story you think you're going to know if you're heaving into WWII historical fiction (like me) only for her to focus on parts of history that others haven't told. With War Girls you get an in depth look as to how the Jewish Ghetto was created in Poland and how it affected both Jews and non-Jews. The struggles that both groups had to deal with and how to do the right thing in a time of so much wrong.

Would highly recommend! And for sure would do the audio book, so much emotion as put into the production.

I read a lot of historical fiction, and especially WWII, but there haven’t been many that focus specifically on the events in Poland. I appreciated the slightly different perspective than the majority of books in this genre which are set in Germany.

I always love books that have strong female protagonists, I keep trying to get my classroom library more balanced, so was excited by the title of the novel and the concept.

However, this had such a long, slow beginning, that it wasn’t until halfway through the concept of the “War Girls” was even introduced.

The eponymous women are three very different women with three very different experiences, and three very different stories. Yeah, they all blend together beautifully.

I listened to the audiobook, and although I liked the narration most of the time, I felt like the accents were sometimes too forced or fake sounding, especially when it was Hannah/Greta or one of the men.

Although I always like a happy ending, I understand that that’s just not the reality in Holocaust stories. Therefore, I especially appreciated that although there was a lot of tragedy, some of the characters do have a happy ending, a couple have hopefully rekindled a spark, and there is still a slight glimmer of hope about a couple left behind in Warsaw.

Another novel set during World War II involving women caught my eye just when I thought I'd had my fill of that genre. "The War Girls" follows the lives of three women — Stefa, a young Jewish woman living in Warsaw, Poland; her sister Hanna, who lives in England; and Janka, a Polish Catholic woman. It was a challenge to listen to this novel at times because of the violence, loss and awful things the characters endure, but the bravery, compassion, love and hope all three women exhibit balanced it out. This is my second book by V.S. Alexander — I also enjoyed "The Taster" — and I might just read another novel by this author ... even if it's about WWII.?

In a lot of ways, this is a very typical contemporary historical fiction novel focused on the Second World War. Our three main protagonists are women, they all play some sort of role in the war effort (hence the apt title), and there are many of the elements that one has come to expect from novels set during this era.

The romance theme is very light, there but not strong, and instead, it really is a focus on the war work, the family, the lives of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto that is the focus of this novel.

I listened to an audio book version of the novel and it was very long but I did enjoy it and the narrator did a great job. The occasional phrases in German, Polish and Yiddish really add to the authentic nature of the story. It's incredibly well-researched, the setting is described eerily well, and the love and loss depicted is no short of five stars worthy.

I simply can't put everything here, but suffice to say that the story of the three women, often aided by resourceful men (we can't forget them!), is not all good news. And this also lends authenticity to the story. I grew up reading a lot of books about concentration camps and the experience of Jews in post-war Europe. I had never spent so much time in the Ghetto - had never really grasped the severity of life prior to resettlement to the east. This is a key part of the history that I think as a westerner who has visited sparsely and read much, a novel that allows one to fill in some gaps in their imagined knowledge / headspace about what was happening in Warsaw prior to (let's say) 1942./1943. It's tragic yet there are glimmers of hope.

And 5/5 for the epilogue - thanks to the author for not spoiling the nature of the book with a cheesy and unlikely ending.

I really wanted to like this book. It had a lot of potential. The story of a family of Jews and a women who wanted to help them provides plenty of fodder for a good book. I kept reading feeling certain that it would get better. Don't get me wrong, it is not a bad story, it just doesn't seem to go anyway. Throughout, I kept thinking about the old adage "Show, Don't Tell." With that thought in mind, the author could have written a very good story. Unfortunately, what would have been exciting scenes were condensed to. "The Nazi's were here this afternoon. We hid in the attic." Disappointing.


I received an ARC from HighBridge Audio through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

The War Girls by V.S. Alexander is a riveting story about Warsaw and the devastating treatment of the Jews there during World War II. Stefa and her family are Jewish and living a contented life when the Germans invade Poland. Life becomes unbearable for them but it is only the beginning. As the war progresses, she, her brother, and her parents must relocate to the ghetto, where thousands upon thousands of Jews are being caged in like animals. In the ghetto, sickness and death reign. There is constant worry and suffering. As they try to survive, they have a friend on the outside of the wall. Her name is Janka. Janka is the wife of a Nazi supporter, but she has no interest in the Nazis. Her sympathies lie with the Jews and she tries to find ways to help. Also on the outside of the wall is Hannah, Stefa's older sister who moved to London before the war. Now she is trained as a special operations executive and she will do whatever she can to help free her family. I have read many books about the horrors of WWII, and it never gets easier to understand the tragedy. I am continuously learning more about that time and the extensive strength and will to live that carried people through it. This story of the War Girls of Warsaw will move you and teach you and remind you about how important it is to love with all you have.
Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and listen to this story. The narrator did a great job. And I was enthralled by the story.

The War Girls
Author, V.S. Alexander
Audio narrator, Kelli Tager
16h 24min

Thank you @highbridgeaudio, @kensingtonbooks, and @netgalley for my audio arc of this powerful historical fiction novel!

Jewish sisters, Hanna and Stefa Majewski, are living very different lives as the German Occupation begins to bomb, kill, and displace thousands of innocent lives. Hanna chose to leave her family in Warsaw behind and live an independent life without an arranged marriage with her aunt and uncle in London, but London is being bombed by the Germans and it appears no one is safe. After a bombing leaves her quite injured, she is recruited to become a SOE operative, a "war girl."

Meanwhile, Stefa, her brother, and parents are forcibly removed from their home into the Warsaw Ghetto that becomes a prison for so many who are struggling to survive. I have read many historical fiction novels that take place during WWII, but none describing the devastating experiences of the Warsaw Ghetto so vividly. The threats of disease, starvation, violence, and deportation to work camps are constant and absolutely heartbreaking.

Janka, a Polish Catholic woman and the Makewski's neighbor, is appalled by the treatment of her neighbors by the Germans and even by her own husband, a cruel alcoholic man with whom she despises. She simply can't sit back and watch without helping her neighbors.

The connection and alternating point of view between the three women and their bravery in fighting for each other and for their families is inspirational and hopeful. Kelli Tager narrated Alexander's story beautifully and allowed the listener to follow along seamlessly between characters and settings.

It certainly is a challenge to read this emotional novel filled with fear, violence, and loss, but also brimming with love, courage, and hope. These three women are heroes and I absolutely recommend you add their powerful story to your historical fiction shelf!

4.5 stars!
5-star narration by Kelli Tager!