In the fourth and final book in the Emerald Sisters series, readers follow Rachel Blau and her husband Franz as they attempt to escape Nazi Germany only to arrive in the Netherlands knowing no Dutch. Having been imprisoned in Dachau, Franz is a shadow of himself, so Rachel must gather her strength for the both of them by hiding with Corrie ten Bloom until the Nazis, inevitably, find them and place them in separate camps. When her choices become harder and fewer, Rachel’s strength and her love of her husband must be enough to keep her going even in the darkest hours of their relationship. With a series of complicated challenges and powerful historical details, this is a powerful and emotional conclusion to this brilliant World War II historical fiction series, bringing the final member of the group, Rachel, to life. As she copes with the challenges of the occupation of the Netherlands and the struggles of being Jewish during the Second World War, Rachel deals with realistic historical circumstances and interactions which really impact her character development and her relationship with the other girls and Franz. Brilliantly written and emotional, this is a great conclusion to a unique and dynamic historical fiction series.

The focus is on Rachel Blau and her husband Franz and the horrors they faced at the hands of the Nazis. After being released from Dachau, Franz is a shadow of his former self but Rachel is determined to get through to him. Having been sent to Cuba on the SS St Louis, where she met the other the women and agreed to meet up after the end of the war, Rachel and Franz were sent back where they found some solace in Hamburg. It wasn't long before the Nazis moved in and they were both captured and sent to different concentration camps. When Rachel discovers she is pregnant, she has to do the hardest thing a mother can imagine, for her child safety! All the while determined to find and reunite with Franz.

The Girl Who Never Gave Up is the fourth and final novel in the Emerald Sisters series by fabulous author, Kate Hewitt. Kate has a remarkable ability to capture you and keep you engaged; be prepared for some intense moments that may require tissues. I was so captivated that I finished it in a single day — I couldn't set it down until I turned the last page, as the story flowed effortlessly. Although I hadn't read the earlier books in the series, I didn't feel lost, thanks to the helpful snippets of information provided. That said, I’ll definitely be downloading the previous installments!

Grab your tissues for this incredible historical fiction! This story was incredible and kept me wanting more. It will stick with me forever. I tried to read slowly but I just needed to know what happened next. Well done and thank you for this ARC

1939 Germany not a very secure place for Jews and when Fran’s returns from Dachau he is not the same man he was before. A flight to Holland to escape the persecution is strife with tension with Rachel making every effort to make some sort of family life. The odds are stacked heavily against them because Hitler is steadily advancing into Europe. The unthinkable happens and both of them are sent to Auschwitz. Franz never to return and Rachel scarred but triumphant with the baby she was able to save from the wardens at Auschwitz.

The backdrop of four girls forging a friendship when they faced such an uncertain future and all going separate ways reunited again was a marvelous tribute to determination to survive and a will to never give up. This period in history churns out courageous stories, each one similar and different too. The long haul to Cuba hoping for refuge, then the traumatic return to Europe not knowing what their future would be, the ability of those who were rich enough to pay their way to a secure future, whilst those who were penniless had to rely on luck and their wits.

Very emotional and heart breaking this was a beautiful story very well told.

Setting sail on the SS St Louis from Hamburg to Havana was supposed to be the start of a new life for Rachel Blau and her husband Franz getting away from Germany and the persecution of Jews, but it never happened instead they found themselves being sent to the Netherlands, neither spoke Dutch and their hopes for a bright future were squashed especially when not long after the Nazis crossed the border, will Rachel ever meet up with the friends she made on the ship in Paris after the war?

Their life in The Netherlands is fraught with danger and uncertainty, Rachel and Franz are having their problems, Rachel gets a job firstly in a bakery then as a teacher of two small girls but as the Nazis take over the town, they make friends with Corrie Ten Bloom and her family and when the time comes they help them be safe for a short while but sadly they soon end up being taken captive and end up at Auschwitz, separated, Rachel is heartbroken, will they ever make it out safe and what about the baby she is carrying?

This last book in the series is a story that was heart-wrenching to read but the strength and courage that is shown by Rachel had me cheering her on in such difficult circumstances, what she and Franz went through not to mention the other characters as well, but I loved this story and the finish of the series, will all of The Emerald Sisters make their rendezvous at Henri’s Café in Paris?

This is one story and series that I highly recommend, yes I cried lots of tears but there were also lots of cheers and smiles, thank you Kate Hewitt for and another fabulous story and series.

My thanks to Bookouture and Netgally for my copy to read and review.

This was a heart wrenching and extremely difficult read but difficult to put down. The characters were awe inspiring despite the tremendous difficulties they faced their strength of character was quite simply amazing. It brought tears to my eyes at times.

The Girl Who Never Gave Up by Kate Hewitt is the next in the Emerald Sisters series, the story of four young women who met on the ill-fated voyage of the St. Louis. After they were turned away in the Americas, they were returned to Europe where each of them was sent to a different county. This is the story of Rachel BlAu and her husband, Franz, who had been released from Dachau and as a condition of his release he had to leave Germany. This was the chance that they saw dwindling in front of their eyes. Well, Rachel did. Franz had not recovered from his time in the camp and the burden was on Rachel. They ended up in the Netherlands and for a while life was bearable, sometimes even good, for them. Then, of course, the Nazis came and despite the neutrality of the Netherlands, Rachel and Franz were eventually included in a roundup and sent to Auschwitz where they were separated. Amazing things happened in the ensuing time.

Rachel was a good character. She was strong and carried her mother’s messages with her as she tried to navigate this strange world in which she found herself. Franz did finally break out of his stupor but it did him very little good at that point. We end up at the meeting place in Paris the women had agreed upon and Sophie was missing. She had escaped several times, had Auschwitz finally killed her? An emotional story showing multiple viewpoints of these women who were little more than girls when they met and now, years later, were women, for better or worse. As always, an amazing story.

I was invited to read The Girl Who Never Gave Up by Bookoutre. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #Bookoutre #KateHewitt #TheGirlWhoNeverGaveUp

The Girl Who Never Gave Up by Kate Hewitt

This is the last book in the Emerald Sisters series. After reading all the installments in this series, it makes me empty now. However, The Girl Who Never Gave Up has ended at the highest and brightest point.

The story bought the girls back together. This time was the story about Rachel. The struggle, the love, the motherhood, all these challenges in the darkest time in their lives - world war 2. I enjoyed much about to see how determined Rachel was to survive. The bitterness and the sweetness parts were presented in an impressive way by the author.

I’m looking forward to reading more books from Kate!

Many thanks to Netgalley, bookouture and the author for my copy.

This beautiful series has been touching & heart wrenching. I’ve loved getting to know each of the Emerald Sisters in their individual stories. I felt a lot of timely comparisons to horrific events that are part of these heartbreaking World War 2 novels.

This final book in the Emerald Sisters series tells the story of the power of a mother’s love, even in the darkness of the Second World War. Rachel’s story is riveting with all she goes through hiding from the Nazis & in the traumatic concentration camp. It was wonderful getting to see Sophie, Rosa, & Hannah again, in this final installment.

Thank you, Kate Hewitt, Bookouture, & netgalley, for my early gifted copy! All opinions are my own.

The Girl Who Never Gave Up is the fourth and final instalment in the Emerald Sisters series by Kate Hewitt. I’ve loved this series since the very beginning and this story provided me with all the answers to the burning questions which have only increased with each book. It was a brilliant and fitting conclusion to what has been a well-developed and well written series based on four young women who shared their intriguing and at times heart-breaking life experiences during World War Two. Each book can be read as a standalone but I would suggest to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the work gone into the overall series start with book one and work your way through them.

This story opens as the women gather in June 1946 to meet at a café in Paris, a year after the war had ended. It was a promise the four had made to each other after meeting on the SS. St Louis which left Hamburg in 1939 bound for the safety of Cuba. As the women gather after being through such turbulent times over the last seven years they are keen to share their stories but there are a few shocks and surprises in story. One big question is will all the women make the meeting that has been set in stone for so long?

I enjoyed how there wasn’t a specific overly long and detailed rehash of the women’s time on the ship. I’d read this before and knew what had happened so I really wanted to get stuck straight into Rachel’s story. But suffice to say enough of an explanation is given so that readers new to the series will understand what has already occurred. The promise of a haven in Cuba for so many Jewish people wishing to evade persecution in Germany did not materialise and the ship is forced to turn back with Sophie, Rachel, Rosa and Hannah all scattered to different parts of the world. Before they separate they break an emerald into four pieces and this becomes their talisman which they cling to through the good times and the bad. On that designated day in Paris hopefully all four shards will be placed together. But before that can happen there are a lot of trials, tribulations, suffering, uncertainty and dark times to get through.

Rachel is a German Jew married to Franz. She has left behind her mother and grandmother who were not able to travel and this is one thing that she will always regret. She wishes desperately that they were by her side but she must traverse her path with Franz. Although a lot of the time I felt she was flying solo as Franz was and could not be the husband she wanted him to be. Franz is recently released from Dachau having spent seven months at the internment camp. He is a shell of his former shelf and no longer the man Rachel married but she clings to the hope that she will be able to penetrate the walls he has established around himself and she will find the Franz that she fell in love with. Franz was once reckless, passionate, defiant, brave and had fierce convictions but now he barely speaks or interacts with Rachel and is in a state of just existing rather than living. Rachel is despondent and struggles to deal with this new Franz but she knows that her loyalty always lies with her husband and that when they married it was for better for worse, in sickness and in health and that she must never give up on him. She is the strength and pillar now of the relationship. She has taken over the role that a man usually occupies and without Rachel by his side he would quite simply cease to exist and go down without a fight.

Rachel tries everything to get through to him whilst on board the boat and when they are shipped back to a quarantine camp in the Netherlands. She is persistent and loyal despite the lack of interaction, support, affection and encouragement that a spouse should offer. I admired how she kept going and never gave up on him. I understand why he acted the way he did, for God knows what he must have witnessed and experienced in the camp but at the same time I thought should he not have been grateful that he was still alive and back in the arms of somebody who had missed and loved him very much? I wanted him to step up and shoulder the burden with Rachel. She couldn’t do everything on her nor should she have had to. Rachel kept trying with him, for if you don’t with regards to both Franz and their deteriorating situation there is no other choice but to curl up and die.

I found the chapters set in the Netherlands detailing Rachel and Franz’s new challenging life very well written, interesting and absorbing. I didn’t feel the chapters going by and the way the years slipped by too felt right and the pacing was good. Sometimes when there is a jump forward in years in a book or months moving by very quickly it can feel jarring to the story but here it felt natural and fitting. The themes of survival and resilience start coming to the fore as war is declared and over time Hitler extends his power and soon the Netherlands finds itself invaded and times grow ever more precarious for Rachel and Franz. I felt they were living on the edge all the time. That they could never fully relax because there was always the threat that they would be detained and shipped off to a concentration camp. Rachel had done her best to create some sort of life for them in the town of Haarlem and the new characters at this point added to her story especially the Ten Boom family whom I only discovered were real people when I read the historical notes at the end. I can’t imagine how it must have been living your life on your nerves in daily fear that at any time the Nazi’s would come for you and then what fate would await you.

The later half of the book was fantastic despite its harrowing nature. As mentioned in the blurb as the Nazi’s draw ever nearer and Rachel and Franz are discovered hiding along with others they are taken away on a cattle train. Their destination being Auschwitz. Here is where I felt Franz truly changed and a glimmer of his former self was beginning to make itself known. So cruel that just when their relationship was softening and maybe could get on track the gates of hell opened up and swallowed them. Whether they would emerge unscathed remained to be seen.

Rachel thought she had been through it all but little did she realise that her strength, bravery, courage and her power of endurance would be tested more than ever within the walls of the camp. She has a secret that she is holding close to her heart and she hopes that given it is late 1944 and there are rumours of the Soviets advancing through Germany that both herself and Franz might survive. But there are a lot of harrowing things to go through and I was glad the author did not spare any details when it came to describing what went on at the camp and to specifically Franz and Rachel. An outstanding picture as built by the author that only had my compassion and admiration growing by the page for Rachel. Dare I say it I think she was my favourite woman out of all four even though at the time of reading each book it was that woman that I liked. But Rachel was a standout character and I crossed my fingers that she would be one of the women that would be there on the right date at the café in the City of Lights.

Kate Hewitt has done herself proud with this series. It seemed slightly ambitious in its scope at the beginning and I wondered would it hold my attention throughout given some of the story had to be repeated with each book as it was necessary to do so. But I needn’t have worried at all, the characterisation, the settings and all the plotlines were superb all combining to make the series as a whole and in particular The Girl Who Never Gave up is an unmissable read that will leave every reader deeply satisfied.

I’ve loved this series and I’m sorry to see it come to an end. Kate did a great job telling the stories of Hannah, Rosa, Sophie and Rachel. They were four unlikely friends who survived unthinkable odds to make it back to each other.

This is Rachel’s story. From when she first meets the girls, then everything her and her husband went through, all the way until the girls are all together again in Paris. They escape Germany only to be left in the Netherlands and they end up in the camps anyway. A good chunk of the story is how Rachel survives Birkenau.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC of this book.

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How can this be the last book in the series?!?! I have come to know all of these girls and as much as I wanted to see how the story played out, I didn’t want it to end!!! Get the tissues ready with this one.
Four young women become friends aboard the SS St. Louis, a ship that was supposed to take Jews out of Europe, but it had no intention of stopping in Havana. First we had Sophie’s story, then Hannah, Rosa and now Rachel. I love how Kate Hewitt put so much history into this series.
Rachel and her husband wind up in the Netherlands and they hide from the Gestapo with the brave Corrie ten Boom and her family. I like how this amazing family was intertwined into the story. Rachel’s story was heartbreaking, but she still held onto hope. I don’t want to give away too much but the ending was satisfying.
Kate Hewitt is an “automatic” read for me. I hope she writes another saga like this. Many thanks to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
#TheGirlWhoNeverGaveUp #KateHewitt #NetGalley #Bookouture #BooksOnTour #BookLove #Bookstagram #NewBook #ILoveBooks #BooksSetDuringWWII

The Girl Who Never Gave Up is the final book of WWII Series The Emerald Sisters by Kate Hewitt. While the story begins with the girls meeting in 1946,the story quickly turns to Rachel and Franz boarding the ill-fated SS St Louis in 1939. They settle in the Netherlands which is a difficult place to be. Be sure to have a tissue handy for this story is a heart-wrenching tale of wartime suffering, spirit, and love with such sadness but also some wonderful surprises. Many in the Netherlands may agree with the Nazis concerning Jew but not all. It is the few who did not that stand out in Rachel’s story.

Of the four stories this was the hardest for me to read. The horrors seen, experienced and so few surviving it is heart breaking. Still there is hope. It is important for us today as readers and thinkers to know so hat history does not repeat itself. The Girl Who Never Gave Up is an inspirational story that is part of a stirring series.

Germany 1939, World War II rages on across Europe and Franz Blau is released from Dachau. Franz and his wife Rachel, know that they have to leave their homeland, Germany, if they want any chance at all of survival. Franz is weak from Dachau and Rachel is his strength and hope.

They seek solace in the Netherlands and without knowing the language, they see the Germans getting closer and closer to the border. They don’t think they have anywhere to go until Corrie ten Boom and her family help them hide in order to survive.

Once again Franz and Rachel are captured and they are separated from each other and sent to different camps. It’s not long before Rachel discovers she is expecting, and now her focus is not only to find Franz but now she must risk her life to save her baby.

The Girl Who Never Gave Up, written by author Kate Hewitt, is an amazing story of courage and never giving up hope. I loved this book from cover to cover. What a phenomenal storyline, incorporating the amazing Corrie ten Boom into the book.

This wonderful story had me in tears quite a few times, but I was also cheering on Franz, Rachel and their baby. I loved the faith they had in each other, and they never, ever gave up. As difficult as it was they still held on to the hope of making it through. This heartbreaking and unputdownable story is one that I highly recommend.

My Review:
It was wonderful to return to the Emerald Girls, this time the focus on Rachel Blau, wife of Franz and their journey post SS St Louis. For me this was the best out of the 4 experiences and believe me they are all wonderfully written. If you are just joining the girls now, you are lucky you can get all four experiences now. Franz remains dazed from his experience at Dachau and its so hard for Rachel to reach him, her faith in getting her husband back rarely wavers as they navigate their way through living in Holland, reconnecting with an old friend of Franz’s and Rachel finding a job to help pay for food and rent. As the Nazi’s draw closer and closer their lives become ever more restricted, along the way they meet some incredibly brave souls to support them no matter what risks they may face themselves, and some who turn their back on them as soon as the threat becomes more real.
Their story is hard, lonely, strong and I was totally in awe so have the ten Booms woven into the story. It’s also nice to meet characters such as Jakob. Will they make it to meet the others in Paris? A recommended 5 star read.

No one writes WWII saga series like Kate Hewitt!
This is the concluding book of four friends on the doomed St. Louis ship, sent back to Europe and how they all fared.
For most of the book Franz was just a hollow shell and I felt sorry for Rachel.
I loved how Hewitt inserted the ten Boom family into this book and how they played an integral role.
Rachel endures must about every facet of persecution.
Ultimately, the book ends on a high note although Hewitt makes readers think something else for most of the book.
Hope can be a powerful motivation.

Rachel Blau and her husband Franz had managed to survive through the torments that dogged them both. They'd arrived in Haarlem after disembarking from the SS St Louis and then leaving the quarantine camp. The little apartment had been lent to them by a friend of Franz's, but as the Germans came closer, Rachel and Franz hid, first in one house and then another. Dutch people who had sympathy for the Jewish people and risked their own lives to keep them safe. But finally their luck ran out, and the cramped and overcrowded train took them to Auschwitz/Birkenau, where they were separated. Because of her work in Haarlem, Rachel could confidently say she worked in a bakery, so her job in Auschwitz was in their bakery, cooking bread for the Nazis.

As Rachel's pregnancy progressed, the terror of knowing her baby would die once born in the camp, saw her planning for the safety of her child. A kind midwife, as well as one of her old friends, performed a miracle, and Rachel's baby girl, Corrie, was taken to safety. But would Rachel find her after the war was over? All the while, Rachel had kept her sliver of the emerald they all had - when they met again in Henri's in Paris, once the war was over, would they all be there, reunited again?

The Girl Who Never Gave Up is the 4th and final episode in The Emerald Sisters series by Kate Hewitt and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Rachel's story was as harrowing as the rest, but maybe moreso as the brutality of the Germans overruled it all. I have loved this series, and look forward to more stories by Ms Hewitt in the future. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley & Bookouture for my digital ARC to read and review.

First time reading a Kate Hewitt book and I can honestly say im going back to read the first 3 books of The Emerald Sister Series. This telling of Rachel’s story was Heartbreaking, with her still holding onto so much hope and grace. The emotional journey we go on with many members of the Jewish community.

Publication date: 30th January, 2025
Read dates: 21st January – 28th January 2025

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which kept me turning the pages and unable to put it down.

It’s the story of Rachel and her husband Franz, and what happened to them during WW2 as they were Jews.

Some parts were really sad, reading about their ordeal by the German soldiers. When they were on a boat heading to Cuba, they are sent back, but on that boat Rachel befriends other girls and they make a plan to meet up when and where after the war.

But, it’s not certain who will be there when that time comes.

I highly recommend this book.

This is a very compelling story that made me tear up because it is brutally honest and detailed. Every page was gut wrenching and I will be reading the prior stories of this series. It’s a reminder of how much effort it takes to make a marriage work and how difficult it can be. It is a story of survival and growth. It was beautifully written. I will be recommending it to my friends.