In Kristin Harmel's When We Meet Again, Emily is a thirty-six-year-old freelance journalist living alone in Orlando, Florida. Having lost her mother when she was a teenager, she spent the remainder of her childhood and early adulthood with her grandmother Margaret. When Margaret dies, Emily writes an article about her grandmother's life and the love she lost when she was very young. Emily is then shocked when a beautiful painting of her grandmother arrives at her front door with the message that "he never stopped loving her." This mysterious note leads Emily to embark on a journey to discover the identity of the love of her grandmother's life and to understand what could possibly have separated them.

Alternating between the present and the late-1940s and early-1950s, When We Meet Again brings the reader to a time when German prisoners of war were put to work in labor camps. Margaret meets a man she will love her whole life while he is toiling away the days in one such camp in the sugar cane fields of Florida. I wasn't even aware such camps existed, but it turns out there were 700 such camps that imprisoned 425,000 Germans in 46 different states. Overseen by the Geneva Convention, the United States was required to provide living conditions comparable to those provided to US military personnel as well as sufficient food and comparable pay for labor rendered.
I found this element of the story fascinating.

Mostly a quick read that dances lightly on the border of historical fiction and chick-lit, this book was sweet, soft and engaging. It wasn't too long before I had worked out the twists in the story, but they were fun to read, nonetheless. If you need something light, but still with a bit of depth, I would recommend you read When We Meet Again by Kristin Harmel.

This book was so powerful. It was as if my heart was taking a trip back in time. The characters, the history, this incredible story are sure to grip you at your core. Definitely a book you won't soon forget.

Thank you for the opportunity read and review this title! I didn't enjoy it as much as I"d hoped, and rather than post a negative review, I chose to not feature it on my blog. I look forward to seeing what new releases you have in store!

This is the first of Kristen Harmels books I have read. I received a copy, from the publisher via Net Gallery in return for a fair and honest review.

Oh my, when Kirsten's books have been described as engaging, absorbing and enthralling I now know why after reading this.

It gets you hooked from the first chapter until the end and ca easily be read in one sitting.

Emily finds herself alone, she has lost her job, her grandmother died when she was 17, her mother died earlier and her father left when she was a child.

She receives a painting with a note "he always loved her". She recognises the figure as her grandmother and there the story starts. She decides to find out more about her family history which leads to pow camps and war times.

Exceptional and well worth reading.