I really like this book, my only trouble was that 1. It was hard to track the passage of time, the author did not make this very clear, and 2. The author had a really hard time keeping the right voice for the narrator. Sometimes the younger Ricky was too adult and the older Ricky was too childish.

I want to give this book 3.5 stars. It was hard to put down and the story of the Holocaust in Poland was well done. I really got a sense of how awful life was and the cruelty of the Germans. also how big a role fate played and how individuals end up on their particular roles, good and bad. The downside was that I didn't find the characters' voices to be very sophisticated, they were a bit too predictable. but overall,enjoyed the book and would read this author again.

I wasn't sure about starting yet another WWII book, but I didn't regret it. I think the reason this book was better than the last one I read is because I learned about something new that happened during the war. It's also an easy read.

I thought this was well-written and I cared a lot about Henrik and really was rooting for him. If anything I found myself wanting a little more at times...a little more explanation, a little more time spent resolving a scenario, etc. Overall, I really enjoyed this book.

Wow. I couldn't put this book down. I genuinely couldn't stop reading this book. The characters are enthralling and you get easily drawn into the story!

3.5

This novel is set in WWII Germany & Poland and tells the story of Nazis taking "Aryan" looking children from ANY family to create the perfect Nazi family or the Nazi program of Germanization. In this story, the Nazis take a blue-eyed, blonde half-German, half-Jewish girl, Greta, to a Polish orphanage for "retraining and wiping the slate clean' and later she is adopted by a Nazi officer and his wife. History says about +200,000 kids were snatched and this book is probably the 3rd I've read fictionalizing a story to depict this abomination. I think I'm dumbstruck as to how many kids did not "return home" after WWII & who don't know they were kidnapped. But now that the age of DNA genetic testings like 23&me.com is here....what will we learn now as we go forward.

Back to the story...Greta's teenage brother, Henrick, is determined to rescue his sister & return to their mother and Germany all the while trying to not be killed or captured himself. Most of the story is centered on what Henrick experiences as he searches to discover why Greta was "stolen", the Nazi's plot in order to find Greta as he becomes involved with a sympathetic German boy soldier, a Jewish resistance group, another teen girl, Rebekah, and Jewish people passing as German or Aryan who are secretly thwarting the extermination of Jews.

Great narrative to historical insight into the lives of mixed religions aspects as well as the lives of children caught up in Germanization. Tho the story is fictional and maybe a tiny far-reaching, it's probably a fever dream that some poor Polish kid truly had to find a "stolen" family member. I saw it as the ultimate Superman theme story.

I am fascinated by WWII storylines of Jewish children taken by the Nazis or hidden/adopted by non-Jewish families for their safety. In this novel, the child is returned to the Jewish family but what about those who were/could not - were they ever told??

Highly recommend the audiobook - the narrators, Whitney Dykhouse, Nick Podehl, Amy McFadden are spectacular storytellers.

I feel bad being in the minority on this one, but it was just a bad read for me. It took me 9 days to finish this book, because I just had no interest in returning to the story. It was written simply, which made sense in the beginning, but even as a teen Henrik's language didn't advance much. There were parts of the story, especially at the beginning, that were extremely interesting but the middle just dragged on and on. They traveled through that forest seemingly endlessly, with not much happening. It wasn't so bad that I didn't finish, but I confess to skimming the last hundred pages. I was glad to find out what happened but it was an odd and unsatisfying ending. I have her other book, and will give that one a try eventually. Hopefully it is much better.

I enjoyed this story a lot. Definitely a different take on WWII. I will say I found the writing on the whole to be rather bland, given the urgency of the situation, but I loved the ending.