Roseanna M. White delivers again. I read her last book, An Honorable Deception, earlier this fall, and it became one of my favourite books of all time. The Collector of Burned Books was a wonderful story of hope, triumph and bookish delight. I love books, writing, librarys, and the name Christian, so a book with ALL those things!? Vunderbar!

I loved Corinne and Christian. Their very human approach to life was well done, and Christian's story was so, so good. His backstory tugged at my heartstrings. I love a good book-loving professor, and I also like seeing the reality that not all Nazis believed Hitler's lies.

Corinne was a very interesting character as well. I loved the depth of spiritual growth portrayed in this novel. Overall, I thought it was a great story!

I received a complimentary copy of this book; all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I absolutely love historical fiction books but unfortunately I really did not enjoy this book. I found the plot weak and couldn’t engage with any of the characters.

This is historical fiction set in France during WW II. I had a hard time getting involved in the story but about a third of the way in it captured my interest. It is about a professor from Germany sent by Nazi Germany to Paris where he develops a relationship with a female literary professor. I did enjoy it although it was not my favorite of this authors books. Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Set during WWII, this story shows the war from the perspective of intellectuals from both sides, the Allies and the Resistance.

The recollections of hope in the face of atrocity are well written and thought provoking.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in return for my honest review.

This novel sweeps away the reader to the days when WW2 was just getting real for French denizens. History buffs - especially WW2 researchers such as yours truly have read from multiple sources about how Nazi Germany did their best to propagate their fascist ideologies into their expansionist exploits abroad.

This story literally puts you in that realm and shows the war through the lens of intellectuals from both sides of the coin - the Axis as well as the Allies and the Resistance. The author beautifully weaves her narrative using the most exquisite prose, and her attention to detail is fantastic! Imagining the proceedings of the story was easy, as we borrowed images from our recollection of so many great movies made about that timeline. I often found myself putting the book down for a moment just to savor some brilliant parallels the author draws in many scenes. Many of these are so thought-provoking that one wonders why we let such a catastrophic event happen in the first place.

The stories of strife yet hope, desolation yet tenacity, and sanity in the face of atrocity are the stronghold of The Collector of Burned Books. I often found myself getting transported in color to black and white as I remembered similar scenes from movies like The Train (1964), The Imitation Game (2014), and All the Light We Cannot See (2023).

There were just some parts that I found challenging. Often there is a dialog that has sometimes three full sentences of a back story before the character's response. Despite adding value to the conversation, I felt it caused more distraction and made me exasperated a couple of times, to be honest.

Roseanna M. White provides suspense and heart-pounding thriller moments throughout the book that left me gasping about what might happen next. Often just a subtle hint about the consequences of getting caught by the Nazis. I loved that aspect of her narration because we all know about the ghastly past and the fact that the author avoided the gore just showed how deftly she steers clear of reminding us about the horrors of war & leaves it to our imagination to build the tension.

Thank you, NetGalley for allowing me to preview the book. I can't wait for it to be released and follow other readers' reviews & opinions for it.

THE COLLECTOR OF BURNED BOOKS by ROSEANNA M WHITE is a beautifully written WW11 novel which takes place in Paris from the start of the Nazis’ occupation. It is a book about ideas and words, restoration, unconditional love, forgiveness and family relationships. There is also an impossible romance………..
The characters are well portrayed as they show great courage in standing against the destruction of freedom of thought and try to save, not only the books written by enemies of the Reich, but also some of the writers, mostly Jewish, who escaped Germany and whose lives are now threatened in Paris.
Corinne Bastien is a feisty woman, a professor at the Sorbonne who feels strongly about the arrival of Christian Bauer in his Nazi uniform who has been ordered by Goebbels to sort through the Paris libraries, including The Library of The Burned Books in which she has a special interest, destroying all those deemed dangerous by the Reich. Christian was chosen for this task because he is a professor from the Berlin university as well as being in charge of the university library. Drawn to each other by their love of books and thrown together by Christian’s mandatory search for missing library books in her flat, they gradually uncover each other’s secrets……..
This is a book that I could not put down and will not forget in a hurry! It is an excellent and inspirational read and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I was given a free copy of the book by NetGalley from Tyndale Hoise Publishers. The opinions in this review are completely my own.