This is the story of a young girl, of surviving the war, of falling in love and of living life the best you can. This is Maya's story and a story that is intriguing, a story that is based on true events and real people.

Maya lives a lovely life, she loves to dance and loves her family. But suddenly her life changes when she and her family are sent to a labour camp. This is that story and they story of how her life unfolds. This is a dual timeline story and it works well and flows easily. We go back and forth from the war period (starting in 1939) to a more present time starting in 1995 where Maya tells her story to a journalist (Kate Young) in the hopes she can find her lost love, a Polish guard, Jan, who help her escape and promised to find her when the war was over.

There really are two stories going on here but the main one is about Maya, but a back story of a young girl (Kate) is easily and successfully inserted into this story and I think it works very well. It is well written but I must say I felt at times it did drag on a little bit. But it had everything from tragedy, loss, heartache, heart-break and happiness. It is a book that is emotional yet there are some happy times as well.

I enjoyed reading the information provided at the end about the true story which made the story come to life even more.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Extremely emotional and eye opening, Maya’s Dance tells the story of a young Jewish girl, Maya, who is forced to live in a Nazi labour camp with her family in Poland, 1942. Faced with so much adversity, torment, loss and heartbreak, she clings to her love for dancing and this leads her to Jan, an officer whom she immediately falls in love with, and later helps her escape to freedom.

Several decades later in Sydney, Australia, Maya connects with Kate Young, a journalist who is looking for her ‘big break’ and agrees to help locate Jan and reconnect two former loves.

This was an enjoyable read! I found Maya very inspiring, strong and resilient. I appreciated how she approached life after the war, and despite all of her hardship, it didn’t harden her spirit or diminish her love for life. This story was a good reminder to cherish your friends, relish in laughter and hold onto the hope that dark days are not permanent.

Kate and Maya’s blossoming friendship was really nice to see, and a perfect example of someone entering your life at the right time and for the right reason.

Overall, a well written story that addresses such a tragic and dark period in History, but balances it with so much hope, love and life.

Thank you to netgalley and Simon and Schuster Australia for my advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

In 1939, Maya is living with her grandmother, mother and stepfather in Brno Czechoslovakia. By 1942, Maya, is doing all she can to survive the labour camp in Sawin.

One day, the people of the camp are allowed to perform for the guards and Maya is able to take flight and dance in a way that sets her heart free.

Along with the camp commanders, a Polish worker, Jan, is also watching and falls in love with Maya and the way she’s able to move. Jan ultimately helps Maya escape and with promises to meet after the war, he lets her go.

Fifty years on, in Sydney, journalist Kate Young happens upon Maya and her story and aims to help her locate Jan who went missing after the war. As their friendship grows, Kate does all she can to help locate Jan and his family who helped her escape and saved her life.

I’m always a little cautious when reading stories about the holocaust, it’s hard to get the balance right with the atrocities that occurred there and the hope that helped so many survive.

While the story does include some romance between Jan and Maya, it doesn’t shy away from the horrors of the labour camp in Sawin and it was very true to the survivor’s story the book is based on (I suggest reading the authors notes at the end).

I thought this book was beautifully written and the relationship between Maya and Kate is wonderfully done!

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Australia and the authors for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

1939, Maya Schulze is thirteen and she lives with her mother Rosa and stepfather Franz and grandmother Omi in Brno Czechoslovakia, her stepfather assures the ladies they are safe and despite the bad news on the radio. By 1943, the family have had their business and grandmother’s apartment taken and are told they must report to a school and are send to a work camp called Sawin, fourteen kilometres from Chelim and in Eastern Poland.

On arrival, men, women and the elderly are separated, and Maya and her mother Rosa stay together. Their given two meagre meals twice a day and are made to work building drainage ditches in swampy land and so the Germans can grow wheat. Teodor Ondyt is the commandant of the camp, and he's a bully and a narcissist.

Maya tries to stay hopeful, she studied three forms of dance before the war, she still finds the energy to dance, and it makes her feel free and it's something that can’t be taken from her. Jan Novak is a member of the Polish Guard and he was studying to be an engineer before the war started and he’s assigned to the camp to oversee the building of the drainage channels, he notices Maya dancing and they develop feelings for each other.

Maya lives for their stolen moments together, Jan makes her heart and soul sing. Jan knows everyone’s days in the camp are numbered, he works out a way for Maya to escape and promises he will find her when the war is over and that’s easier said than done.

The story has a dual timeline and is told from the two main characters points of view Maya and Kate and it’s extremely easy to follow.

1995, Kate Young is an English journalist, she’s been working in Sydney, Australia for six months when she's sent to cover the ceremony for 50th anniversary of the Holocaust and here she meets Maya, and she asks Kate to help her find Jan and she has no idea where to start. Maya has dementia and it’s getting worse, at times Maya lives in her own world, and Kate has to sort fact from fiction and try to locate Jan Novak and it turns out to be a very common name in Poland.

I received a copy of Maya’s Dance by Helen Signy, from Simon & Schuster Australia and in exchange for an honest review. The author was inspired to write her book after hearing about a Jewish teenager who escaped Sawin Concentration Camp, she fell in love with a Polish engineer, he hid her and she lived undercover.

The well written and thoroughly researched narrative is a story about war, love, hardship, survival, friendship, dementia and how it affected Holocaust survivors in different ways. Four stars, the important message I got from this book is dance like no one is watching, live and enjoy life and especially for those who no longer can.