What a powerful book. There are so many heroic people with powerful stories that I never dreamed existed and I love learning about these small pieces of history.

With WWII in abundance, I need a different part of the war showcased to compel me to pick up the book. And this one delivered. A group of women in a Japanese POW camp that gather and sing to help everyone endure the nightmare they are living. With dire conditions, connecting and having something enjoyable helped spark some hope and happiness.

Such a heartfelt tale that had me tearful so many times as I read. I connected with the characters and their hardships.

And if the story of women using friendship to survive wasn’t enough, the author’s notes and acknowledgements brought even more to her words. I appreciate the research she did and that she based on real world people that lived through this nightmare.

I learned so much from this book. I’m embarrassed to say I knew little about Japanese POW camps during WWII before reading this book. The women whose stories were told were all so amazingly strong and heroic. I highly recommend reading the notes from the author at the end of the book as well. Heather Morris is an incredibly gifted storyteller, and one of my favorite historical fiction writers.

A sincere thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this electronic arc. All views are entirely my own.

Oh how I loved the Tattooist series! ❥ Sisters Under the Rising Sun is a surprise departure from those novels as it follows two sisters alongside Australian Army nurses while captured by the Japanese during World War ll. The setting is a remote island in the South Pacific where men, women and children (whom were lucky enough to survive a deadly attack while aboard their merchant ship) reached shore after their ships sinking by the Japanese. Upon first glance the island looked to be a jungle paradise until they find it had been taken over by the Japanese and they become POW’s for the next 3.7 years.

Life in a concentration camp is punishing and brutal, yet these women showed invaluable strength to help those in need for survival. They shared their gift of song, singing to uplift their fellow women and to bring forth much needed solidarity. This is a heartbreaking, yet inspirational, true-to-life story of how these women shared the deepest bonds of friendship, and had the adaptability to survive through catastrophic events of war. It is crushing to think of the physical and emotional suffering these survivors went through whilst also losing so many family and friends, it’s unimaginable. The book includes a prologue into the authors research with various family interviews and photos. Highly recommend. ❥ 4.5 stars — Pub. 10/24/23

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the complimentary eARC. All opinions are my own.

I loved this book. I will say- you must listen to it. The narrator (Laura Carmichael of Downton Abbey fame-Lady Edith Crawley) is fantastic and we get the advantage of hearing the music being sung in the audio book, which just elevates the story. I loved the afterward, the music, the letters from family members. I was sobbing at the end of this story over hope and loss. As with all of Morris' books, it was beautifully written and evoked so much emotion about a blip in time I knew nothing about. Highly recommend.

In this book we follow multiple women from multiple countries as they are taken prisoner by the Japanese during WWII. I didn't know anything about this part of history and feel blessed to now know these women and see how they found beauty in such a dark place.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

💻Check out my website for easy access to book reviews by genre or author. Latishaslowkeylife.com

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝕊𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕌𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕊𝕦𝕟
𝗛𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘀
WWll Historical Fiction
400 pages

Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs

Several people try to escape Singapore on a merchant ship as the Japanese army is headed their way.

After being capsized by the Japanese army, some of the people on board survive after a day in the water, making their way to an island.

Sadly, they are captured and spend several years in a Japanese POW camp. The focus is on the years in this camp and how they were treated there.

Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs

I am astounded as I read more and more about WWll. Sisters Under the Rising Sun dialed in on what it was like in a women’s POW camp and how strong these women were. This is a topic I hadn’t read about before, and it was eye-opening.

Norah and Nesta are the main characters who work tirelessly to care for others and improve life while living in dire circumstances. Norah Chambers had a musical background, which she used to bring music and a touch of joy to the camp. Sister Nesta James was a Welsh Australian nurse who cared for the women the best she could with their few supplies.

These women lived an atrocious life for almost four years. Some survived to tell this story, starved, sick, and weak but alive. Others were buried on the outskirts of the various camps they lived at. It's such a sad story, but I’m glad I could hear it.

In the back of the book, the author included information about the real women this book was written about. I love reading a little extra about the characters when the story is based on actual events. I was happy to see some of the survivors lived a long life after being rescued.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review. 💕

Sisters Under the Rising Sun
A Novel
by Heather Morris

Sisters Under the Rising Sun is a very well researched and well written book. Although fictionalized, it is an accurate depiction of the experiences as Prisoners of War in Japanese Concentration camps.

This story focuses on two real life women, nurse Nesta James and a passenger Norah Chambers as they fight to survive after fleeing Singapore and their ship goes down. I enjoyed this book by Heather Morris, and highly recommend this book for HF fans with a different view point on wWII fiction novels.

I found this book a little difficult to follow initially due to so many different characters, but since it was based on true events it was worth the time it took to “get to know” the characters in the story. Such a great story of sisterhood, sacrifice, and working together through hardships. I loved the unique angle, different from the many other books from this WW2 era.

Heather Morris is one of the best voices in historical fiction at the moment in my personal opinion. I find she is able to take such a small instance or tidbit of history and turn it into a spellbinding heart wrenching story. I will admit to not having as much knowledge about this even then I should and what a way to learn about it.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Sisters Under the Rising Sun is a very well informed and well written book. Although fictionalized, it is an accurate depiction of the experiences many women went through as Prisoners of War in Japanese Concentration camps. The western theater served as a backdrop to many inhumane treatments of American, British and Australians as they were captured. This story focuses on two real life women, nurse Nesta James and a passenger Norah Chambers as they fight to survive after fleeing Singapore and their ship goes down. I enjoyed this book by Heather Morris, but struggled a bit for it to get going. I received an ARC of this book, all opinions are my own. 3.5 Stars

Amazing story by Heather Morris where she kept us scared and even in suspense at every single moment, is the story of Nora James a young woman who made the sad and terrible decision to send her daughter away to be saved from the evilness of the war..

Nora is now living a different kind of fate joining forces with sister Nesta an Australian woman who becomes a close friend and ally of Nora.

Captured in one of the worst camps in history, Nora and Nesta are determined to survive the harsh treatments and conditions they're facing in this POW camp.

Overall it was a great book, I enjoyed the story the characters, and the strength of these women

Thank you, NetGalley and, St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy of Sisters Under the Rising Sun in exchange for my honest review.

I was honored to have the publisher offer me an early copy through NetGalley, but due to the length of it I waited for the audiobook to become available. Good choice since the audiobook had some really beautiful choral renditions. The chorus was formed in a Japanese prison camp for women, which included some nurses and sisters who were captured while escaping Singapore in 1942. The women were at the mercy of their captors but still had the wherewithal to fathom some truly creative ways to pass the time and keep their sanity. The story is inspiring. The Epilogue gave me a big ole lump in my throat.

Based on real women and their experiences over 3+ years in the camp. Real heroines now gone - bravo to them.

This was such a different historical fiction novel as it was set in Singapore and Japan. It was beautifully written and told a story I wasn’t as familiar with. It was hard reading about the POW camp in Japan and what these ladies had to do to survive and how they tried to amuse themselves with their singing.

I enjoy historical fiction more when I find it’s based on a true story like this was. The stars of the story were a bunch Australian nurses who helped all the woman the best way they could during this experience. Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Back again with one of my favorite authors of historical fiction. This time Heather Morris is bringing us the story of women held prisoners by the Japanese during World War II.

The story begins with Norah Chambers placing her daughter Sally on a ship leaving Singapore. She doesn’t know if she’ll ever see her again, but with the Japanese taking over Singapore, she has no choice.

She eventually finds herself crammed on a boat, with her sick husband, also trying to leave for safety. On board is a group of Australian nurses, led by Sister Nesta James.

Their ship is bombed and they end up in a prisoner-of-war camp run by the Japanese.

The women struggle to survive while trying to make the camp as livable as possible. They form make-shift hospitals, sharing whatever they have with each other. Norah, with her musical background, creates a choir to help lift the spirits of the women.

This novel really makes you think about how people cope and the will to survive. Be sure and read the epilogue as you learn about the real women behind the story.

Heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced digital copy.

I enjoyed the historical aspect of this story- but struggled with all the characters. This is such a different story from the WW2 stories we are used to. Loved that this was primarily a story about women - and the strength and resilience they have.

The story of these women and how they survived and endured camp life is quite amazing. I just wish I could have connected with the characters.

I am a big fan of Heather Morris and have read many of her books - so was elated to receive an early ebook and audio of Sisters Under the Rising Sun. Morris is excellent at taking war and creating a story that leaves you in all your feels. If you’re a historian fiction fan (with a lot of her stories stemming from real people) you will enjoy this book. I like that this book also is WWII but takes it out of Europe which is so rare for a WWII book.

Singapore is no longer a safe place, and Norah Chambers and her husband John decide to send their daughter to safety. Norah and John then board a boat with nurses from Australia. Unfortunately, the boat is attached by Japan enemies, and those that did survive are taken to Japanese POW camps. Norah and her sister Ena, Nesta St. James and her remaining nursing colleagues begin what becomes a 3.5 year internment. Disease, starvation, depression, and cruelty become harsh realities. The women will come to rely on each other for help and hope. They use what little resources they have to lift one another up during the darkest of times – music, food, community, and friendship.

This is a story of heartbreak, perseverance and true grit. Another winner from Morris that I highly recommend

I absolutely adored Sisters Under the Rising Sun, a WWII historical fiction novel by the talented Heather Morris! This book had all the makings of the perfect read - a captivating storyline that had me engrossed from start to finish, well-crafted characters that I loved accompanying, and an immersive setting that drew me right in. The novel explores the experiences of a group of women who were held in a Japanese POW camp and beyond. I appreciated the fresh perspective that this story offered in a saturated genre as it delved into a piece of WWII history that is often overlooked. This book was truly enlightening and provided me with a newfound understanding of the struggles and hardships faced during the war. It's a story that emphasizes the power of friendship during even the toughest times, with themes of family, sisterhood, resilience, and survival. I can't recommend this book enough - add it to the top of your TBR list! You won't regret it!

I've read many books about WWII so I'm always pleasantly surprised when I read a story about an aspect that I hadn't read about before. While this story has a lot of characters (sometimes I confused a few of them) it shows you just how much these women relied on the strength of each other to help them through the horrific experience of being held in a Japanese POW camp. This story is the epitome of the power of friendships and survival.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, I could not get in to the book. With many other books to read, I decided to dnf for now.

Wow! I absolutely loved this incredible WWII historical fiction novel by the talented Heather Morris! Sisters Under the Rising Sun had all of the markings of a perfect read. It had a compelling storyline that had me hooked from beginning to end, wonderful characters that I enjoyed coming alongside, and an atmospheric setting that drew me right in. The book delves into the lives of a group of women and what they experienced having been held in a Japanese POW camp and much more thereafter. I'm grateful for the fresh perspective this story offered in this saturated genre as it explored a piece of WWII history that isn't always looked at. There was truly so much here and that I walked away with, especially as I got a greater understanding of what was endured during the war. This is a story that shows the power of friendship during even the most tumultuous times with themes themes of family, sisterhood, resilience, and survival. I cannot say enough good things here and will leave you with this. Add this book to the top of your TBR! You won't regret it!!

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the gifted e-copy!

This book tells the story of two sisters Norah and Ena along with A group of Australian Nurses headed by Sister Nesta James as they are captured trying to flee Singapore; the group of women are then held in captive for the next three and half years by the Japanese Army in Indonesia. While the group of women endure hardship, loss, starvation, and emotional trauma, their spirit of hope and life continues. This book shows what the power of women’s friendship can do to bring people through the most difficult circumstances. It's also lovely to read a historical WWII fiction book about the Pacific theater, which is often overlooked