I Wanted to love but could not get into. Great topic, poor writing sadly. Couldn’t get through it overall which is really disappointing

I enjoy reading historical fiction books and especially enjoy when they occur during the WWII time period. And if it is a dual timeline book, I am even more invested. This particular story focuses on the years between 1940 and 1946 and then 1968 and 1969. I did learn a lot from the story of the time during and after WWII. I had never heard of the Youth Aliya which was a program that rescued Jewish children before, during, and after the Holocaust or the disappearance of the submarine and crew in 1968. The primary characters are well developed and you will become emotionally invested in their lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

Fiction
France
Historical
Historical Fiction
Holocaust
Israel
Jewish
War
WWII

This was absolutely an emotional read and a different spin on the WW2 stories (of which I have read many). We have 3 points of view told at various periods of time. We have Claudette during WW2 France, Loire Valley, Uzi Yarden After WW2 France and Sharon in 1969 in Tel Aviv and then France.

This was a very different take on the war, and provided some interesting view points of life in Israel and the 6 days war. It was refreshing to hear about people like Uzi Yarden who travelled Europe searching for Jewish orphans to bring them to Israel and raise them as Jewish seeing as many were being absorbed in to Christian families. The more modern story of Sharon 1968 also focused the preparation of the escape of a number of newly build boats in Cherbourg, France in 1969. Boats that Israel desperately needed to defend itself.

It was really interesting to learn about aspects of history I didn't previously have any knowledge about. This is not a book focused on the fighting in France or the Holocaust but rather people, and the fight to save any Jews remaining. It touches on the how these displaced persons were brought to Israel to live. As with many historical fiction books we have love, loss and a little mystery too.

The Boy with the Star tattoo was beautiful written and I will look to read more books by this author in the future. Thank you to William Morrow for providing me a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a good one!! I really loved the overall story of it and the different characters. I was hooked early on. I will need to be sure I keep this author on my radar.

What an amazingly touching story. This was not what I was expecting but was a good adventure about the lives of the children after the war. Interesting perspective.

I loved this dual timeline novel set during WWII and two decades later. As the Nazis invade France, Claudette finds herself in the employ of a chateau as a seamstress. Unable to get many jobs due to her disability, Claudette is glad for a job and refuge. She doesn't quite understand the hatred toward Jews and befriends many of them and one of them becomes the father of her child. Claudette is forced to leave her baby behind with a wet nurse as they flee France but prays she will be reunited with him someday. Several decades later, Sharon gets the opportunity to go to France for a clandestine operation and hopes that she is able to find out more about her deceased mother. Raised by her grandparents, Sharon knows very little about her mom outside of the fact that she was originally from France and smuggled into Israel. This book perfectly blends two stories together of resilience, survival, and determination. I enjoyed this book and recommend it for lovers of historical fiction.

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This was exactly the book I was in the mood for! After a series of boring historical fictions I was happy to come across one that grabbed my attention! Would recommend!

The Boy with the Star Tattoo

by Talia Carner

I was unable to put this book down, different yes, fast, if you like stories about history you will love this book. It takes you back to post World War 2 as well as the late 1960’s when Israel was building its naval fleet. It brings to light the Youth Aliyah movement to bring Jewish orphans to Israel to have a new life. It catches the life, before, during and after. I absolutely loved this book and will be looking for other books by Talia Carner.

I am not a huge fan of historical fiction, especially holocaust stories, just based on the fact that sometimes themes in those books hit too close to home. But I felt it important to read this one, especially after seeing some of the hate it was getting online just for being written by a Jewish author focusing on Jewish stories.

The good - I really enjoyed the multiple timelines and perspectives. I loved the story that Talia created with this book.

The not so good - it was really hard for me to get through this read purely based on the fact that these kinds of books are just hard for me in general.

Highly recommend reading it if you are a fan of historical fiction. Its an important book that is written very well. Talia did a fantastic job handling the strong themes in this book with care.

I enjoyed this book but there were some things I was less enthusiastic about. I wasn’t a huge fan of Talia’s writing style and felt it was difficult to get into this book.

I really enjoyed this story. With the multiple time lines, it took me to events that I had not heard of before.

I used to read a lot of WWII historical fiction when I was younger and have since moved away from the genre, but I really enjoyed this book. The triple timeline was executed well and I loved the history of how Israel was established. The story Talia Carner created was truly full of hope, heartbreak, and resilience. Wonderfully written and a powerful story.

I love historical fiction inspired by true stories and about Jewish history so I enjoyed this book which weaves together stories about orphaned Jewish children in post WW2 France as well as the bravery of of Israeli naval officers in the 1960s.

The story is told from three perspectives and timelines. In the "present day", we follow a young Israeli woman named Sharon who grew up with her grandparents after her parents were killed in Israel's War of Independence. Although she knows all about her father's family, all she knows about her mother is that she came to Israel from France as a teenager after she lost her whole family in the Holocaust. When she has an opportunity to work for the Israeli navy in France she uses it as an opportunity to learn more about her mother and her ancestors.

The second timeline takes place during WW2 in the Loire Valley. It follows the story of a young, disabled, Christian woman named Claudette who falls in love with a young Jewish man hiding from the Nazis. Their brief time together has a massive impact on her life.

The third perspective/timeline takes place in 1946 when a young Jewish man named Uzi searches the French countryside for orphaned Jewish children to bring them to Eretz Israel as part of the Youth Aliyah initiative that rescued thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis and from post-WW2.

I was most interested in Claudette and Uri's plots and kept wanting to get back to their chapters. Although I found Sharon's story interesting, I wasn't that invested in the intrigue and details of the secret naval operation in Cherbourg, France.

This is a sad story about families torn apart but a hopeful one as well. It's also a powerful reminder of why Israel is so important to the Jewish people. As the author states: "Her arc of belonging....comes from [her] national spirit, one defined not by the Holocaust but by the common destiny of connecting with the past, present, and future of the Jewish people. Belonging to Israel is central to their identity".

At a time where people are questioning Israel's right to exist and/or telling Israelis and Jews to "go back to where they came from", this type of book is an important read.

Several stories, one in WWII, one in 1969 France and Israel, one in 1946 France, all intertwined to tell the stories of two people who fall in love, the story of France during WWII, the story of the experiences and rescue of Jewish orphans, and the story of the founding of Israel. I learned some interesting history, about how the British blockaded entry to Israel and an organization, Youth Aliyah, had to sneak orphaned children in at night; about the Six Day War in 1967 in response to pogroms; and the 1969 sneaking of boats out of Cherbourg.

I would have liked the epilogue to finish up the personal stories of the characters rather than being merged with the author's note; the book feels a little incomplete.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

Wow, what a book! I’ve been saying that there are things I’m STILL learning to this day about historical events surrounding the Holocaust/WWII. I never knew about the Cherbourg Project AND Youth Aliyah. There are three stories intertwined in this book. An Israeli woman who is on a secret mission with the Cherbourg Project. A Youth Aliyah agent is looking for orphaned Jewish kids in France. A French mother who helped to hide a Jewish father & son from the Nazis only to get pregnant with a half-Jewish baby. Carner did a great amount of researching and transform these events into a beautifully written historical fiction read. The Boy with the Star Tattoo is a must read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I tend to avoid “Holocaust Books”, but I am so glad I didn’t skip this one. (So, thanks to all you who objected to the existence of a book of historical fiction reflecting actual historic events, I guess.)

Three stories in three times intertwine: Sharon, an Israeli woman in 1968, mourning the (assumed) death of her fiancé, asked to go to France to take part in a secret mission; Claudette, a French woman in 1940, a seamstress with a disability trying to support herself even as Nazis invade France; and Uzi, a Youth Aliyah agent in 1946, searching for orphaned Jewish children in the French countryside.

Everyone is carrying secrets. Everyone is coping with grief and pain. Everyone is trying to find their way forward in a world full of tragedy and the weight of history. Questions about identity weave throughout the novel: What is a family? What is a community? If you don’t know where you come from, do you know who you are? Does it matter?

As tragic as events are, though, I was struck by the threads of hope and determination woven throughout. People facing terrible events, who have lost so much, keep moving forward, keep finding the strength within themselves that they need to help others and survive together.

This book was beautiful, and painful, and it made me cry, and it made me smile, and it broke my heart, and it put it back together again. It is the Jewish story that I, at least, needed right now.

I first heard about a daring naval operation, the Cherbourg Project, last year while vacationing in Normandy with my sister and brother-in-law. My brother-in-law told us about the project when we saw the signs for Cherbourg. The story immediately sparked my interest. When I discovered that a historical fiction book was being published about it, I immediately added it to my TBR.

The Boy with the Star Tattoo tells three intertwined stories inspired by Jewish and French history. In 1942-1945 occupied France, we follow a French woman, Claudette, who helps Jewish father and son hide from the Nazis. In 1946, we follow Uzi, a young Jewish man from Eretz Israel, who arrives in France to help rescue hidden and displaced Jewish orphans to bring them to Israel/British-mandated Palestine. This rescue program is known as Youth Alliya. And in 1969, we follow Sharon, a young Israeli woman recruited to assist in the Cherbourg Project in Normandy. While working on the project, she meets a naval officer, Danny, an orphan who came to Israel from France with the Youth Alliya program.

The Boy with the Star Tattoo is an incredibly well-written and well-researched book about lesser-known post-WW2 historical events. I enjoyed reading about the Cherbourg Project because it is what drew me in first. But I was moved by other themes in the book. One of the themes is the collective trauma that Jewish people experienced during and after the Holocaust. I understood it in the abstract but hadn't thought about it deeply before. The Boy with the Star Tattoo changed that. It hammered it into my psyche. In Uzi, Sharon, and Danny, Talia Carner embodies the Jewish nation and how the collective trauma drove Jewish people to build a country where Jews would be safe.

Currently, we are seeing an unprecedented rise in antisemitism that echoes 1930-1940. It's important, now more than ever, to read Jewish stories and listen to Jewish voices. The Boy with the Star Tattoo is a must-read for readers who want to learn more about post-WW2 history and the history of Israel.

A huge thanks to Wiliam Morrow for an advanced copy of The Boy with the Star Tattoo which comes out today - January 30th!

I learned so much from this book. This historical fiction spans World War II and postwar France to 1968 in Israel and France. A lot is happening and while a little confusing at first trying to keep up with the 3 storylines, they all converge beautifully in the end. I read a lot of WWII Historical Fiction and I want to see more stories like this about the children of the Holocaust and what happened post-war or more post-war historical fiction in general.

I read historical fiction to learn more which is why I enjoyed this book.
I want to learn more about the Youth Aliyah and what they did to bring orphaned Jewish children to what would become Israel. I'm still learning about many of the conflicts in the Middle East and found the secret Israeli naval operations in Cherbourg, France really interesting.

The research and and care the author put into this book was incredible. I am so glad I read this book and hope more people read it.

The Boy with the Star Tattoo by Talia Carner is a timely historical fiction novel, which switches between three separate timelines--during World War 2, immediately after the war, and twenty years later, shortly after the Six-Day War. I don't read a ton of historical fiction, but I requested the book after dozens of people review-bombed it on Goodreads, even though they'd obviously not even read the book.

The simple fact that this book delves into Israeli history was enough to brand it Zionist propaganda. Which it isn't. Any more than a novel about colonial America is "settler-colonial propaganda."

Is this my favorite book? No. But is it a bad book? Absolutely not. It took a period of history I know a lot about (1942-1945) and looked at it from a different angle. Instead of focusing just on the Jews in concentration camps or just on the French resistance, or just "one thing"--the author tried to make it personal--the story of a young unmarried Christian girl who births a Jewish baby, but has to give him up to protect him. To honor his Jewishness, she has a star of David tattooed on his heel. I liked learning more about the Jews who literally had to sneak into the British-ruled Palestinian territories because of the restrictions placed on Jewish immigrants. It was also interesting to read about young people who had served in the IDF in and around the Six-Days War.

I DNF-ed at 54% just because I'm not in the right headspace for a historical fiction that is this involved. I just came off an epic fantasy novel, and I'm in a totally different gear at the moment. But I may come back and finish it when I'm in a different head space.

Overall, a good plot with enchanting characters, but the pace was unstable and remarkably slow throughout. I would only recommend if you enjoy reading about this period in history.