Wonderful blend of a compelling plot, believable characters, good writing, and well-researched history!
Hold Strong tells the story of Sam Carlson, an ordinary guy who is sent to fight in the Philippines during WWII, captured by the Japanese, and subjected to horrific conditions and personally directed cruelty. Meanwhile, his math-whiz sweetheart, Sarah Haber, is recruited to serve as a codebreaker for the US, and her efforts could have a very personal effect on Sam. The book nicely portrays a real ethical problem Sarah faces while engaged in her cryptanalytic efforts and made me think about what it would be like to be in her situation. Sam and Sarah both definitely had to “hold strong”.
Sam and Sarah are very believable, sympathetic characters, and I found myself very immersed in their experiences. Sam’s treatment as a POW was so harsh that I might not have finished the book if it were not so compelling. Sarah did not suffer the physical distress that Sam did, but her mental anguish as she worked to save both her country and the man she loved was very believable. I could imagine myself being in the shoes of the women cryptanalysts doing their part for the war effort. Other characters are also nicely drawn, such as Father Tom, a cleric who is Sam’s fellow POW and strives to help his compatriots find some serenity despite the conditions of their imprisonment.
The book description says the book is “anchored in an extraordinary true story”, but I did not realize until I read the Afterword and looked through the notes just how thorough the research was and how closely the story follows history. The treatment of the POWs that I found so distressing was not, unfortunately, fiction, such as the telegram from the Japanese Minister of Defense instructing the POW camps to execute all POWS if Allied troops were approaching and might liberate the POWs to rejoin the fighting. I do NOT recommend that you read the Afterword until you finish the story to avoid spoilers. There was little or no mention, though, even in the Notes, of the technical problems Sarah encountered while trying to decrypt the Japanese messages, a mild disappointment to me.
I have enjoyed books by Robert Dugoni in the Tracy Crosswhite and Keera Duggan series, so I thought I would find a good read in Hold Strong, and I did, but this book is rather different from those series, so do not expect a thriller. DO expect an equally engrossing portrayal of the effects of war on ordinary people.
I received and advance review copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher.

I thought going into this book that I would have a little bit of trouble with it with the content and being written by three different authors, that was not the case at all! This book is based on real life events from World War II
Robert Dugoni is not a new author to me. I happen to have loved his previous two books, I’m still new to him, so I’m getting through all his works, the other two authors were new to me, but this book was about love, and heroism and I truly enjoyed it.

*Hold Strong* is a gripping WWII historical fiction that blends real events with a compelling story. It follows Sam Carlson, a soldier captured in the Philippines, and his fiancée Sarah, who becomes a codebreaker to help with the war effort. The book is well-researched, heart-wrenching, and shows the strength of the human spirit in the face of extreme hardship.

As with other Robert Dugoni books, this one is extraordinary. The collaboration with Langholz and Crabtree has produced an exciting, extremely well- researched historical fiction WWII book. There are lots of wonderful WWII stories but this is a refreshing change with some unique settings and perspectives. It is very much a love story but is also a beautiful tale of perseverance and maintaining focus on what is important in order to survive.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Hold Strong by Robert Dugoni along with Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree
This is such a good read. I had to slow down so I could devour it better. Sam and Sarah are finished with school and hope to get married in the very near future but WWII comes along and Sam joins the Army and is sent to Japan and while there he is captured by the Japanese. Meanwhile Sarah is home trying to find a good job – she is a math whiz – and decides to join and is accepted in a group who are Codebreakers so she can help the war effort. This is a very thought provoking story. It will keep you in suspense until the very last page. I have read almost of @Robert Dugoni’s books and I look forward to his next one. You might also want to check out a few of his other stand alone books as well. You will want to read all of his other books. Thank you @NetGalley and @Lake Union Publishing for allowing me the opportunity to read this great story. I always recommend Mr Dugoni's books.

First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and authors Robert Dugoni; Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree, for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review. Publication date is currently set for January 28, 2025.

Any truly inspiring historical tale always has a kernel of truth, and this story has it in spades.

Familiar with some of this author’s (Dugoni) work through his Tracy Crosswhite and Keera Duggan series of crime novels, I was expecting something similar. So going in blind to Hold Strong I was (pleasantly) surprised to realise that this was a standalone novel – but not crime genre, this was historical fiction.

So the first thing I want to emphasize is – if, as a reader, you’ve never read anything by Dugoni and want to start – this would be a terrific introduction.

The second is, I don’t think I’ve ever read an historical novel that has a more comprehensive Afterword/Bibliography/Notes section than Hold Strong. The list is exhaustive and is a testament to the authors’ meticulous attention to detail and thorough research.

Third – is the setting – the Philippines, 1942 - when the Japanese Imperial Army invades with lightning speed and devastating results. As part of the Clark Field and Pearl Harbour attacks, the Japanese also struck other sites across the Pacific. They immediately followed their Pearl Harbor assault with attacks against US and British bases in the Philippines, Guam, Midway Island, Wake Island, Malaya, and Hong Kong and within days, were the masters of the Pacific.

Hold Strong is a story which is based on real events, and Dugoni and his co-authors: Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree have taken these factual accounts and created a compelling and powerful fictional narrative about the Japanese invasion of the Philippines; the Battle of Bataan; and the POWs who were incarcerated by the Japanese soldiers into places like Camp O’Donnell in Luzon.

[History Lesson On 9 April 1942, in the face of overwhelming disadvantage caused by hunger and disease, Major Gen. Edward P. King, Jr. was forced to surrender the tens of thousands of USAFFE soldiers defending the Bataan Peninsula to the besieging Imperial Japanese Army. The Bataan Death March followed, as most of the Filipino and American prisoners of war were forced to walk under tortuous conditions for about 100 kilometres from Bataan to San Fernando Pampanga, where they then boarded tight box cars towards Capas, Tarlac. Around 10,000 American soldiers and an estimated 50,000 Filipino servicemen ended up in Capas, Tarlac in Central Luzon.]

Camp O’Donnell, originally a Philippine army training camp, was under construction when the war started, it had little shelter and no sanitary facilities, but the Japanese Imperial Army filled the camp with thousands of POWs (about 1,600 Americans and some 26,000 Filipinos). Some of the most horrific war crimes were committed here during this period of time – it’s not something to be proud of. Prisoners of war were forced to march through tropical conditions, enduring heat, humidity and rain without adequate medical care. They suffered from chronic starvation. Their physical surroundings were harsh. Prisoners were beaten, killed, and sometimes beheaded.

The narrative is told through the eyes of Sam Carlson. Sam lives in a small town in Minnesota with his family, and college sweetheart, Sarah Haber. When he finished school, Sam joined the National Guard – remember, this was before the war and he had no idea of what the future held. When war began, and America declared it was joining, the Government declared that members of the National Guard were to be requisitioned into service in the US Army. As a consequence, Sam was sent to the Philippines and was subsequently captured as a POW.

Sam, along with thousands of other enlisted men were sent to POW camps for the duration of the war. Many were transported off the island on what the prisoners called “hell ships” – these ships were requisitioned merchant vessels that the Japanese navy overloaded with POWs who were being relocated to internment on the Japanese Home Islands or elsewhere in the empire. The holds were floating dungeons, where inmates were denied air, space, light, bathroom facilities, and adequate food and water—especially water. Thirst and heat claimed many lives in the end, as did summary executions and beatings, yet the vast majority of deaths came as a result of so-called “friendly fire” from U.S. and Allied naval ships, submarines, and aircraft. As in the case of Sam’s ship, the Arisan Maru, which was torpedoed by a US submarine and sank. Out of the 1,800 POWs crammed into the hold of the ship, there was only one survivor – Sam Carlson.

Despite this book being a collaboration between three authors, the writing is absolutely seamless. I couldn’t put my finger on who wrote what and, despite its many horrendous chapters (and there are a few), I found myself being drawn back into the story as soon as I put it down. And that’s the reason this is going onto my favourites list.

To all those people who are presently serving or have served in the past, I thank you for your service, and it is my fervent hope that history doesn’t repeat.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Lake Union Publishing for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This is an amazing story of bravery, hardship, heroism and love. It is based on little-known, true events that transpired during World War II.

Sam Carlson enlists in the military, leaving behind his family and his one true love, Sarah. After Pearl Harbor is attacked, he is sent to the Phillipines and becomes a prisoner of war. He and his comrades are brutalized and starved and eventually hauled onto a cargo ship with another 1800 prisoners. In this below-deck virtual prison, the soldiers are starved and given only a teaspoon of water per day. These cargo ships were eventually called hellships for the conditions these men had to endure.

Sam’s “sweetheart”, Sarah, decides she needs to find ways to help bring him and the others home quicker, so she gets trained as a code breaker and works tirelessly to help end this war.

This book is well researched, very well written and absolutely heart-wrenching. I highly recommend this book and wish I could rate it more than 5 stars. Thank you, NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the eARC.

Based on real events Robert Dugoni and his co-authors Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree have told the harrowing story, based on real facts of what happened to American POWs who were captured by the Japanese after the fall of the Philippines in 1942. It tells of their capture and the brutal treatment they received by the Japanese guards who refused to recognise the Geneva Convention for the treatment of POWs.

The story is told through the eyes of Sam Carlson from a small town in Minnesota. After school he joined the National Guard with no idea that they would be requisitioned into joining the US Army sent overseas to fight. Sam represents the many young men captured in the Philippines who were brutally treated physically and psychologically in Japanese POW camps.

Starvation, beatings, random killings and absence of medical treatment for the dysentery and other diseases that spread through the camps left them all in poor physical condition. Sam survived the brutal Bataan March where so many American and Filipino prisoners died but worse was to come when he and his fellow POWs were packed like sardines into the hold of what became known as the Japanese “Hellships”.

I had never heard about these ships before, so I was blown away by the authors’ afterword where they tell us that 50,000 POWs were packed into these ships to sail around the empire as part of convoys of battleships. They were not marked as containing POWs and so could be subject to bombing by allied submarines and planes like any other Japanese ship. Over 21,000 POWs died on the hellships making them deadlier than any other WW2 event.

The description of what the POWs went through in the camps and on the ships, the deprivation and brutality the men suffered was hard to read about and initially I found myself needing to take a break from the book now and again. However, around the halfway mark I was totally gripped by Sam’s story and determined to see his journey through to the end.

The novel is lightened by the inclusion of a second thread detailing what Sam’s high school sweetheart Sarah was doing during the war. She initially attended college to train as a maths teacher, but later took on a new role in Washington where she could utilise her math skills in the Pacific war effort. This proved to be something else I didn’t know much about and added another layer to Sam’s ordeal on the hellships.

As I’ve said, I found this a tough book to read and think it must also have been difficult to write about, but I found it well worth the read. Extremely well written with excellent historical detail it tells a heartbreaking account of how inhumane man can be but also how tough the human spirit can be under the very worst conditions. It’s a story that needed to be told and the authors have excelled.

Five big stars and one of my favorites of 2024.
Hold Strong is co-written by Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree. Based on true events, it tells of a young man sent to fight in the Philippines during WWII who is captured by the Japanese. Meanwhile, his fiancée uses her math skills to be a code breaker.
This is such a well done historical fiction. I love it when I learn something new. For example, I had no idea the US had anticipated the war and had begun requisitioning National Guard troops into the US Army and training them a year before Pearl Harbor. Of course, it was still a case of too little, too late. But there was so much that I learned here.
The writing was so seamless, I couldn’t tell that there were multiple authors. The plot is straight forward but engrossing, with three dimensional characters. The scenes are realistic and graphic and I felt like I was there. This is not a book for those with weak stomachs. But while it shows the depths that humanity can sink to, it also shows those who truly are heroes. Father Tom will inspire us all (and was a real person).
The two storylines worked well. While Sarah’s wasn’t quite as engrossing as Sam’s, it helped to provide relief from the constant darkness of his story. It was also equally informative.
To tell you how well researched this book is, there are over 500 pages of notes. The Afterword was fabulous. I was shocked to see one of the most unbelievable parts of the story actually happened. Truly miracles.
In a weird twist, I was reading this while I listened to Code Talker, the memoir of Chester Nez. So, I learned about both code breakers and code talkers in the Pacific arena.
My thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advance copy of this book.

I finished Hold Strong earlier this week. Definitely an important book to read and shouldn't be missed. The notes and additional reading material is well done and I'm interested to read more on this topic, prisoners left in the Philippines in WWII.
 
From my calculation, approximately 14% of this book contains notes. I've started reading a couple chapters and then switching and reading the notes, then reading some more. It seems that the main character (Sam) is a composite character ... based on so many accountings and accumulated information from many sources. Some sources I've read before. Tough material. I'm at approximately 59%.

When I’m reading an incredible book, I will post comments as I’m reading. I’m only at 25%. In the middle of the night I had to google to see if Hold Strong was based on actual events. Yes. It is. Classified as Historical Fiction, but the author tried to hold true to as many facts as possible. Definitely 5 star so far. Will continue to update.

Many, many thanks to Robert Dugoni. I try to read all of his books. One of my favorite authors. Written with Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for approving my request to read the advance read copy of Hold Strong in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is Jan 28, 2025. Approx 543 pages. (again, roughly 14% of the book is notes, but don't miss them. I highly recommend reading them as you read the book.)

This book is historical fiction based on facts that occurred during WW2. Unlike many novels this book focused on the US/Japanese actions during the war.

This is a difficult book to read with quite a lot of graphic violence depicted. I knew nothing about many of the events covered in this novel.

In a small town in Minnesota, Sam Carlson is the projectionist at the local cinema. He is in a happy place as he and Sara Haber have been seeing each other. They spend endless hours talking and eating popcorn in the projection room. They even make plans for the future. Theirs is a true love story.

All of this changes when America goes to war and Sam is sent to the Philippines and then captured and detained as a POW. He suffered terrible and brutal conditions, always hopeful for an Allied victory and release from his misery.

Instead he is one of the men who ends up a prisoner in what are described as “hellships” that left the Philippines. The Japanese weren’t willing to leave the Americans behind so instead they were forced into the holds of ships. The men were starved and tortured and many did not survive.

Sara is in college and is a math major, she is recruited as a code breaker and sent to Washington to help decode the Japanese orders.

This novel is incredibly well researched with a lot of information in the Afterword. It’s an absolute must read in order to understand the gravity of these acts. I was left to wonder why this is the first time that I’ve learned of the hellships and how many American POWs died???

*This was a Witches Words buddy read and I’m so fortunate to be able to discuss this historical novel with others. Be sure to read their excellent reviews.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to read and review this title.

Heartbreaking, gripping, thought provoking, and tense, Hold Strong is based on real events which occurred during WWII. This book shows not only the horrors of war, but it also shows bravery, courage, and sacrifice. I struggled initially with this book initially but by the 50% mark, I was fully invested, moved, and in awe at the amount of research that went into the writing of Hold Strong. I love books that are about real events and show ordinary people placed in extraordinary situations. I also love books that not only teach me something new but evoke emotion and Hold Strong did that and then some.

Sam Carlson and Sarah Haber were high school sweethearts. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Sam was sent to the Philippines and captured as a POW. While Sarah is recruited to Washington where her math skills will be used in code breaking. Sam is brutalized and beaten yet survives the Bataan Death March and becomes one of the men who became prisoners on the Japanese ship Arisan Maru.

Whew! I found myself thinking about this book long after I finished it. There is so much about WWII that I was not taught in school; the Japanese prisoner hell ships being one of the things about the war I did not know. I learned even more by reading the author's note at the end. DO NOT MISS THIS SECTION - it is a must read!

This book shows the horrors of war, the barbaric treatment of POW's and the triumph of the human spirit. I could not help but feel for the characters, the situations in which they were in, the decisions that they had to make, and the suffering that many endured.

Wonderfully written, heartbreaking, vividly detailed, well thought out, and inspired by true events.

4.5 stars

Coming out in January Robert Dugoni has a new book that is also written by Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree, authors I am unfamiliar with. A departure from his usual courtroom drama books that I have read in the past Hold Strong takes place before, during and after the war.

Beginning in a small town in Minnesota, high school sweethearts, Sam and Sarah's lives changes when Sam enlists and Sarah goes off to college. What follows is a gritty story, especially for Sam as a Japanese POW. I already knew that that is almost a death sentence and for some that survived wish that it had been. It is vivid, descriptive and heartbreaking, to the point that I put the book down for a few days.

For Sarah back home she is getting involved in the war effort herself.

This was a well written story that was rich in history to the point that the author notes were very descriptive in telling where they got their information to make this a story as authentic as possible. Hold Strong is a story of perseverance, survival and heartache. I loved the conclusion, it just felt authentic.

Hold Strong is still a story I think about a month have finishing, it emotional and gripping. You can find it on shelves the end of January.

My thanks to Lake Union Publishing for a digital arc in exchange for a honest review.

Hold Strong, the latest standalone novel from Robert Dugoni with co-authors Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree, brings the reader face to face with the horrors of WWII as lived by two main characters.

The book takes us through the Bataan Death march, endurance of the Japanese POW camps in the Philippines, and the unthinkable brutality that man inflicts upon man. Sam endures all, holding onto the image of a life with his one true love, Sarah. Through Sam’s eyes we witness the bonds of brotherhood, the loss experienced, and what one man holds onto in order to survive the horrors of war.

The other side of the story, the struggle of Sarah. Her drive to do all to see an end to the war and be near to the man she loves. Sarah forges a path unheard of for the time and joins the WAVES. She becomes a code breaker and must come to grips with the reality that her actions may not only have grave implications for the man she loves, but for thousands of POWs.

The novel continues past the end of Sam and Sarah’s story with a chapter titled, Afterword. This chapter provides some of the actual events that Hold Strong is based upon. The circumstances and the actions taken, the information released by and the spin of the American government, calls to mind narratives we see in today’s headlines.

I have read a number of Mr. Dugoni’s standalone novels. Each, I believe are wonderfully written and imaginative. The same holds true here but also brings to mind two questions. At what point does the good of the many outweighs the good of the one, and does our government have an obligation to be transparent and truthful to its citizens?

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of Hold Strong.

Hold Strong by Robert Dugoni, Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree

War, bravery, survival and even some romance, this story has it all. A little too sappy for me at the start, it picked up considerably about halfway.

Enlisting in the armed forces was a way for a young man to escape the dust bowl of the 1930s in the US Midwest, get some food and clothing and maybe send some money home to the folks. Our hero Sam Carlson did all that and more. Sweetheart Sarah Haber makes the most of his absence and becomes more than she ever dreamed.

According to the Afterword-which I strongly suggest you read- the characters are composites of the many researched by the authors. This is as historical fiction should be. The book could do with trigger warnings for some of the POW torture that went on at length. Some was very upsetting.

The ending was very good and helped me bump this review to four stars.

A historical piece of fiction that is loosely based on true events, Hold Strong takes place at the beginning of and during World War Two. Unlike a lot of its contemporaries, this doesn’t focus on the war in Europe but the war with Japan.

It’s also a love story, the story of Sarah and Sam, young sweethearts from a small American town who both contribute hugely in their own way to winning the war.

If you like Dugoni as an author( he is one of my favourites) then you will love this. Despite it being a collaboration, it has Dugonis writing style and storytelling fingerprints all over it. There is also a huge amount of historical detail in the book which must have taken huge amounts of research, which I can only guess were the contributions of the two other authors.
When you finish the book, take the time to read the very sizeable notes section at the end. I hope you will be as amazed as I was how many of the events that happen in the book were actually real. It was a real eye opener for me. While I know a huge amount about the war in Europe I knew little beyond the dropping of the atomic bombs, of the war in the far east.

This, like all Dugoni books, is incredibly readable. It’s fantastically structured and plotted with some hugely vivid characters that will stay with me for a long time.

An easy five stars for me. The book is both harrowing and heartwarming. It’s a tour de force.

Many thanks to the author for the ARC through Netgalley.

Thank you for the Advanced Readers Copy of Hold Strong.

I love that this story was based on true life events. It was a fast paced, page turner that I could not put down. I highly recommend if you are a sucker for historical fiction. Truly a fantastic read.

I could not put this book down! I’ve read a few of Dugoni’s books, but this is by far one of his best. I read "Unbroken", which is non-fiction about the Japanese POW camps and this book delves more into to the atrocities American prisoners had to endure - there were many times I forgot I was reading a story & felt a part of it. To make the story even more interesting is having the main character’s girlfriend working as a decoder of Japanese codes for the American government. PHENOMENAL book! Thanks for the advanced copy!

This historical fiction book is awesome! It is based on true events of WWII. From The Nightingale, I learned things about the war in France that no history book ever taught. In this book, I learned a ton about the war in the Philippines and China from this book. So much research was put into this book. It follows the fictional love story of Sarah and Sam while giving us in depth detail of Sam's experience in the war. Sarah also got to contribute her talents to the war effort in a very worthy way. I love Robert Dugoni books. They are so well written and I have learned so much. Thanks to @NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

Robert Dugoni's latest historic fiction book proves he's a master storyteller! Co-authored by Jeff Langholz and Chris Crabtree, who have. both researched and had first-hand knowledge of some of the characters, this retelling of the plight of the POWs who were held in Japanese prison camps in the Philippines and on board the Japanese vessel Arisan Maru will keep you reading well into the night!

Dugoni gives life to two young people from a small Minnesota town (named Sam and Sarah for the story) who each fight their own battles during WW2.

I would have liked to have known Sarah better, but Sam's trip through hell is as poignant as it gets!! Reading the end notes as you go validifies the story. It isn't a story -- real people lived this horror!!

Carefully researched, Sam embodies actual WW2 survivors. He doesn't just live facts; we see his tortured mind!!

In some ways the story made me angry, but probably not angry enough! I realized that I have no idea of the horrors others went through to allow me to live in a free America. I don't fully understand the military's no-win decisions or what the men were really like who made those decisions. Did they have any idea about the Sams and Sarahs their decisions would impact??

This story has never been told in its entirety before. Readers will appreciate the story; historians will put a person with the facts and unless you don't have any compassion, you will be thinking about this and its implications for a long time!!