Under Almond Blossoms

Love the cover photo!
Hmmm, what to say about this book? The writing style was very unusual and not one I liked overly much. The premise of the story is good. At times, the writing and characters comes across as very childish.
There is certainly lots going on within the story....so much that it’s a struggle to keep track of everyone and everything going on.
Overall, I have to say......I really wanted to shake some sense in the characters as I was reading! Just so much unnecessary drama that dragged on and on.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion. All opinions expressed are my own.

I liked the concept of this book, a woman travelling to another country to find answers about her family. And I liked the final result regarding that quest. But sadly that is where my positive experience with this novel ends. I simply could not warm to the characters. They seemed quite two dimensional and I had no empathy for any of them. The main characters had poor judgement and seemingly fell head over heels with someone the minute they met them. There was not a lot of lead up to some of their feelings, not enough depth or fleshing out of developments.

I found a lot of Milla's story to be repetitive as she kept loving/hating her choices and feelings.

The language itself was quite corny at times. Maybe something was lost in translation but this will not be on my buying list.

Under the Almond Blossoms is an inspiring story of Milla who out of the blue finds out that her grandmother, Abigail whom she thought passed on many years ago was, in fact, alive until recently. Abigail had left her souvenir shop in Mallorca and her wish was that Milla not sell the shop away.

The two main characters in the story Milla, who is engaged to get married to Paul and Abigail. The story travels back to the time, Abigail operated the souvenir shop single-handedly and the choices she was forced to make in order to protect and uphold her family's honor.

I found the author's writing style unique and refreshing. I look forward to reading the other books written by that Anja Saskia.

I would like to thank Anja Saskia Beyer, Amazon Publishing UK, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Summary:
A beautiful love story that will warm your heart.

All stories are journeys. Some in to the past and some into the future. This story of Milla and her mother Sarah is both. Milla must look into her past to find her future.

Milla has inherited a shop in Majorca from her grandmother who she thought had been dead all her life. This betrayal by her mother, prompts her to go to Majorca days before her wedding to Paul, She meets Leandro and his girlfriend Diana, next door to her grandmother’s gift shop, and very keen on buying the shop from her.

She decides to stay and find out what had happened in the past to result in estrangement of mother and daughter across two generations. She is sure that the unraveling of her grandmother’s life’s mystery will also explain the distance between Milla and her own mother.

Its a love story and a self discovery. A journey where women discover their own strength and their truth. I enjoyed reading this book even though there had been some predictability to the eventual turn of events.

I read this book as an ARC thanks to Netgalley.

I was instantly drawn to the book's cover, it's so pretty! I liked the setting of the book in Mallorca and how the author weaved in the 1950's into the story with POV switching between Milla and her grandmother. The author did bring the island to life.

However, I found it hard to relate to several of the relationships, both family and romantic, which made the story sometimes hard to believe in. Everything happened very fast with a lot of plot points.

I want to thank Anja Saskia Beyer, Netgalley and Amazon Publishing for an ARC of this book for a fair and honest review.

This is a beautiful story of undying love between two people who could never be together. Taking place in breathtakingly beautiful Mallorca this story is a lovely yet heartbreaking. Beginning after WWII it shows how harsh the Nazi’s were and how the after effects of the war continued for many years. Milla has to delve into her grandmothers past to help her and her mother learn to love each other completely. The characters are well developed and easy to picture in my mind. Switching from the 50’s to present day was done well and did not feel jumpy, it flowed wonderfully. This book is simply a beautiful love story intermixed with great tragedy.

Pour a velvety café cortado and get a slice of decadent gato d’ametlla (famous Majorcan almond cake) and make yourself comfortable because Anja Saskia Beyer is going to whisk you off to the sun-drenched island of Majorca in, Under Almond Blossoms, to be published December 8, 2020. With travel restricted worldwide, this is a perfect armchair travel!

Milla Stendal, an only child of a single emotionally devoid mother, receives word that her grandmother has recently died and left Milla her beloved souvenir shop in Majorca. Having grown up without grandparents and completely confused, she decides to visit the island in hopes of learning more about her past. Most surprising to Milla is the fact that her mother wants to join her on the quest. Leaving Berlin behind, Milla and her mother arrive just as the almond trees are in blossom and Milla instantly feels like she belongs. Digging into her grandmother’s past is just what she needs. At 30 years old Milla finally gains a sense of belonging, questions whether her fiancé is the right choice, and learns the importance of taking time to make choices from her heart.

I’m so glad that I continued reading after deciding twice that I wasn’t going to finish this book. It was so worth trudging through the awkward prose created through translation from German. The characters were believable, the storyline seamless, and the surprises along the way kept me interested. This dual timeline historical fiction read will transport you to Majorca in the 1950s where you will learn about what it was like for a Jewish girl to fall in love with a German man. Central to the theme is the importance of finding facts rather than assuming, following your heart, the danger of ‘settling for’ and the rippling effect of past choices on one’s future. I felt like I was with Milla on her quest and wished I could have sat with her at Johann’s finca while she learned more about her Grandma Abbigail. My heart was full as I turned over the last page.

I love to learn as I read and was grateful for Beyer’s vivid descriptions of Majorca, the descriptions of the typical food, and the history of the island.

Thank you to Anja Saskia Beyer, Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

A lovely story spanning 1950's and present day Mallorca and follows Milla as she searches to uncover the reasons behind her mother's reluctance to discuss her grandmother. Set amongst the almond blossoms Milla unravels the tales of the past whilst reconnecting with her mother and discovering herself in the process.

This is such an interesting and complex novel of how influences and events of the past temper and often define events in the future. It is a lovely novel of search of discovery, of tragedy, and of resolution.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Nice light reading. This love story is set in Berlin and on the island of Mallorca. Some of the backstory involves a group of Jews forced to convert to Catholicism on Mallorca, along with other interesting historical facts about this island. Since I knew very little about this part of Spain, I found the setting intriguing. The story also explores life in Europe after WWII, which is a little explored - but fascinating - topic in historical fiction.

The love story itself seems geared towards young people. This would be a great historical novel for teens.

Love this book!!!

Ich liebe dieses Buch!!! Von Anfang an war ich von der Geschichte gefesselt und konnte das Buch nicht aus der Hand legen.
Milla erbt von ihrer Oma einen Souvenirladen auf Mallorca. Auf der Insel erfährt sie viel über das Leben ihrer Oma in den 50er Jahren auf Mallorca. Auch ich konnte hier noch viel lernen.
Im Buch erzählen die Kapitel abwechselnd von der Vergangenheit und der Gegenwart. Das hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Der Schreibstil der Autorin ist sehr angenehm und flüssig. Außerdem beschreibt sie Mallorca so bildhaft, dass man das Gefühl hat dabei zu sein.
Die Geschichte hat mich sehr berührt.

Das Cover finde ich wunderschön!!!

Fazit: Ich liebe diese Buch und empfehle es sehr gern.

A story about love and family. I loved the title and old Palma is beautiful. Milla and her mum come to Palma after her grandmother leaves her a shop in her will. They discover family secrets and so much more.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Under Almond Blossoms by Anja Saskia Beyer is a duel time line novel. Milla Stendal was left a shop in Majorca by a grandmother she had been told was dead. She travels from Berlin to the island, along with her mother, to find out more about the family secrets that had been kept from her. I felt the book was slow going at first but was worth sticking with. This was a very enjoyable book. Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The synopsis of this sounded great, just what I wanted to read while the weather outside is dark and gloomy. Unfortunately, the book fell quite short for me. I did not like the writing style, it was a lot of telling and not showing and the characters were very one-dimensional, I could not warm up to any of them. Not sure if this is because of the translation, but couldn't say because I haven't read the author's work in German.
The Mallorca setting was interesting, but that is pretty much the only thing that worked for me.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy.

This book is terrible. Some of the issues may be attributed to a bad translation but the book is bad. Here are some of the most heinous crimes:

- The characters' thought processes, reactions, and conversations are mystery to me. Everything they do comes out as rash and out of nowhere. For example Milla meets someone who knew her grandmother and without any preamble asks about things her GM may have said. See also, anything that Milla does.

- The research was bad. The timelines between the story and world history don't match up. The names of most of the Mallorcan characters make no sense, especially if they were Xuete and lived in Mallorca: Rachel, Sarah, Abbigail, Noah, Baruch? None of those are names that would have been common in the island. And I doubt there were many Xuetes or descendants of conversos named Baruch Bonnin.

- Between the Holocaust and other things that happen in the book, it would seem like the author looked up "terrible things that can happen in a book" and just added them all.

- The author also seems to have googled "foods/drinks that people consume in Mallorca" and repeated the same 5 dishes over and over. Once can play a drinking with "cafe solo" and would be drunk by the end of the book. Yet at no time the author realized the plural is "cafeS soloS".

Perhaps the most disgusting part for me was this whitewashed side story of Milla's grandmother facilitating a friendship between a Nazi officer and a Jewish woman. This shows a terrible lack of understanding about the ramifications Holocaust and the dynamics of oppressed and oppressor. I was very surprised to see this coming from a German author as Germany has done a lot of work in acknowledging their role during the Holocaust.

I received this book to read and review on Netgalley. This is my honest review with no spoilers.

The book opens with Milla, a young German woman, at a crossroads in her relationship and life. She loves her fiance but has questions about his fidelity, and she's just inherited her grandmother's souvenir shop on the island of Mallorca in Spain. Her mother never talked about her own life or introduced Milla to her grandmother, so she's surprised to receive a letter describing her inheritance and love from her grandmother. Milla's mother accompanies her to Mallorca and their journey involves interviews with her grandmother's friends and discoveries about post-WWII treatment of Jews by island natives. Milla also meets and begins a friendship with Leandro, a handsome shop owner across the street, who helps her discover details about her own history and offers her an option for a completely different life than she envisioned for herself.

I liked the premise of this book, but Milla as a character was not my cup of tea. She was constantly changing her mind and opinion, even seconds after making what seemed like a good decision. Her inconsistency and waffling between two men was almost infuriating, and negated her seeming care for her heritage. Lastly, she put a lot of stock in the last words of grandmother and, in my opinion, completely misinterpreted them. Other characters in the book were inconsistent as well. On the whole the dialogue in the book was very stilted and unrealistic. The descriptions of the island scenery were fairly well written, and the book as a whole is a good idea! But the characters didn't hold up.

Thank You Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book! This review is based on my complete honest opinion.

The story starts with Millie, who is getting married to Paul and who seemed to be having a not so good relationship with her own mother, Sarah. Until one day, she gets an unexpected letter from a notary about a grandmother named Abbie, whom Millie never knew about leaving behind a souvenir shop in Mallorca as the inheritance. Millie then sets off to Mallorca and finds out that she has Jewish roots and about her grandmother's story during the 1950's...

The story changed from present to 1950's--present Millie where she is investigating about her grandmother, getting to know about her and 1950's about Abbigail who owns a souvenir shop living under discrimination for the fact that she has Jewish ancestry. It is a bit interesting to know a little about history during the 1950s at the time. The writing was good and the author did a good job engaging the reader into the story. I also like how the relationship between Millie and Sarah, her mother improved over their time in Mallorca. However, the story was a bit predictable but other than that, the story talked about friendship, relationships and of course about love.

Overall, this is a good book--I enjoyed reading the book. Worth four stars!

What a tremendous journey this book has been!

This is the story of Milla, a German woman, as she discovers the souvenir shop her grandma has left her in Palma de Majorca and so much more: her roots, her family's history and her love. This is a heroine journey that heals the feminine line of her ancestry.

It all feels like a movie, it's pretty cinematic. At the beginning it felt a little like Letters to Juliet, but there is much more depth here and more important than anything, what sets it apart and gives it its unique character is the picture it creates of the extremely harsh conditions that Jews had to endure even in a small, dreamy, place as Palma and how it affected women's lives and their daughters and granddaughters.

This for me was a 4.5 stars as the romance part was my least favorite. I came to this book for the romantic story and because of it, I didn't like the relationships happening. I also didn't like the real feel of the story, the hurtful moments. It was a bit too much drama for me, but the end was so beautiful it shone a very bright light on the whole story. As a scholar of Jewish culture and history and as someone who treasures deeply the feminine line this book has been absolutely precious. As human lives see so much misery, approaching our parents and grandparents' lives with a searching eye, with empathy and understanding is one recipe to heal ourselves and our relationships.

I highly recommend this book for anyone searching for a moving women's fiction. It's nourishing, it's empathetic, it's touches one heart deeply. Not to mention #almondeverything, which made me adore this nature's gift and how beautifully the author has built the pages around this symbol.

I really enjoyed the storyline in 'Under Almond Blossoms' although I didn't understand initially it was an English translation of a book originally written in German. Milla travels to Mallorca after her Grandmother left her a shop on the island in her will. Thinking there must be another reason that her Grandmother left her the shop and explain why her own mother has been so distant Milla starts asking questions about her own family history. The books alternates between present day and the 1950s explaining more about Milla's Grandmothers life in a way that kept me turning the pages wanting to find out more. Some of the characters did frustrate me slightly - Paul seemed very one dimensional and I don't know how Leandro fell in love with Milla so suddenly. Overall, it was a lovely read and I was pleased with the ending which wasn't too predictable.

While the backstory of the main character's grandmother was interesting, the weird love triangle in present-day was a bit much for me. It seemed very unnecessary. Also, there were still several unanswered questions, and the "reunion" at the end seemed rushed and stilted.

Under Almond Blossoms by Anja Saskia Beyer is a beautiful story about finding your true self. Milla discovers she has inherited a shop on Mallorca Island from a grandmother she didn't know she had. Milla's mother has always been distance, and she wants to learn more about her grandmother. When she lands on the Island, she is attracted to the shop's owner next door, Leandro, even though she has a fiance back home. This book was translated to English from German, so it doesn't always read smoothly, and it has a fairy tale quality, but I enjoyed it. I highly recommend this sweet romance.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a really interesting story providing an insight into a history and prejudices that I didn't realise existed. However I felt as I was reading the book that the characters and story lines could do with more description and depth and that the language didn't flow as smoothly as I would expect. When I realised at the end of the story that this is a translation the lack of depth and beauty in the language made more sense. I don't know if it is just in the quality of the translation or the difference in use of descriptive language in writing within German. I enjoyed reading this but felt as though it could be so much better if it was more developed.

A great easy to read book about two mother-daughter relationships; both very strained, both surrounded by secrets. Can Milla find out the truth before it's too late?

On the verge of marriage, an uncertain woman suddenly finds herself the heiress of a small shop left to her from a grandmother that she had thought long-dead. When confronting her distant mother gives her few answers, Milla finds herself traveling to her inheritance. There, she is able to find threads of her family history, given to her by those who knew her grandmother and her reluctant mother, which she must weave together to fully understand both herself and her mother.
A beautifully written tale, alternating between the present and a past that Milla is trying to discover.

I loved the premise of this book but I could not get into the story and sadly did not finish the book

not very well done. was a pain to sit through it. i would say its the translation but i don't think there was much to work with in the first place. the cover was enticing though.

2.5 stars.
It is a really nice cover, that is a plus - but i didn`t find the book enjoyable it wasn`t anything wrong with the book, it was just boring for me.

I was disappointed by this, I really liked the sound of the book, but sadly expectation didn’t live up to reality. I found the characters and writing style to be flat, no connection or anything I could relate to and just a bit soulless. Unfortunately not for me at all.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I was drawn in looking at the beautiful cover.Loved the story the setting the characters.This was a warm wonderful book that I enjoyed from beginning to end.An authorI will follow and a book I will be recommending.#netgalley #amazonuk

This is a light read about a woman uncovering her past. Milla lives in Germany and is soon to be married. She receives a letter in the post to say that she has inherited a gift shop in Mallorca left to her by her Grandmother. Milla was told from an early age that her Grandmother had died. Intrigued she sets out to discover her history.
This is a translated novel and tells of the horrors of living as a Jew in Mallorca in the 1950s.
I enjoyed all of the history of life in Mallorca - some of it was hard to read - but in the end it was a lovely story and I enjoyed how it ended .

This is the story of Milla, a German woman, as she discovers the souvenir shop her grandma has left her in Palma de Majorca and so much more: her roots, her family's history and her love. This is a heroine journey that heals the feminine line of her ancestry. This was interwoven with social expectations of what it meant to be a woman, as well as the roles of men. It also included racial bias, sexual abuse, domestic violence, aging in society, and end of life. This love story is set in Berlin and on the island of Mallorca. Some of the backstory involves a group of Jews forced to convert to Catholicism on Mallorca, along with other interesting historical facts about this island. Since I knew very little about this part of Spain, I found the setting intriguing. The story also explores life in Europe after WWII, which is a little explored - but fascinating - topic in historical fiction.

The premise of the story is good and it has huge potential. Family secrets and a woman searching for answers under the shadow of some very interesting political history. However, the writing falls short of the mark. It reads as though it was written by a child, although the subject matter is far from childish. This book is translated from German and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether it was badly written or simply an awful translation, which distracted me from the story.

Under Almond Blossoms, by Anja Saskia Beyer, is a strong and touching tale that tells the story of Milla as she discovers her past. I enjoyed reading this book, although struggled to digest the historical back story.

I opted to read this book mainly because I was taken in by the beautiful cover and the premise sounded promising. In the end it was just an alright book.

The story is told in dual timelines: one in the present covering Milla's journey to Mallorca Island after she comes to know that she had a grandmother whose existence was hidden from her and who has bequeathed her souvenir shop to Milla and the other covering the backstory of Milla's grandmother as a young woman with Jewish roots living in Mallorca. Although the grandmother's story was interesting enough, Milla's was quite clichéd. I couldn't relate to the characters and for me that is an important factor when I read any book. The book is a translation from the German original. I have read a few translated fiction novels and have enjoyed them but the writing was just okay with this book . I completed it but can't say I enjoyed it very much.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publishers Amazon Publishing UK / Lake Union Publishing and the author for the e-Arc of the book.

I start this review by saying what a beautiful book this is.
Milla lives in Germany with her fiancé Paul when she receives a letter to say her Grandmother Abigail has died and left her precious Shop to her. This comes as a massive shock as Milla mother Sarah also told her that she had died years ago.
Milla has a very strained relationship with sarah as sarah did with Abigail so she decides to travel to Mallorca when her grandmother lived to find answers to why her mother lied to her. Sarah decided to go with Milla and together they meet with friends and neighbours of Abigail to see if they can uncover the truth.
The story is told in the past and present learning about Abigail’s life as a young woman and of the man she loved johann.
I enjoyed reading this beautiful book from the very first chapter. I couldn’t wait to see what the outcome was going to be.
Thank you NetGalley and Lakeunion Publishing for this lovely book.

Found this to be slow and dry... Could've come from a 'lost in translation' perspective, but the impetus to read the words felt lacking, no real flow to them, and the characters themselves felt a tad lacklustre. Unfortunately, did not enjoy