Words cannot express how much I despise Hermann Rod. The overall writing style is ok but my one star is because of how much I can't stand him. Hermann questions himself and asks 'Am I being a selfish coward?' Yes, Hermann. Yes, you are, you are the worst. ( )

I had such high hopes for this book but it didn't do much for me. I went fully expecting a naïve MC but hoped for a good outcome by the end. By good outcome I mean some character growth but I was just left feeling like she never really learned anything and the flash forward led me to believe she didn't learn much from her experience. Oh well, not every book is a hit. ( )

I love historical fiction and will read any WW2 books I can get my hands on...
With that being said, this one wasn't as good as others I've read. While I enjoyed the book a lot, it didn't feel complete to me. There were so many perspectives that it came off a bit scattered. Like I get Hermann and Ilse's parts, but the family ones were built up to go no where... I think maybe if the book was longer and better developed I would have appreciated those parts more.

What I did love about this book though were the lessons that were so intricately weaved into the story. The words taught us that time is precious and to never hold back. It also gave us a great perspective of what survival looks like.

I'm torn. I keep going back and forth between 3 and 4 stars... On one hand it's history and that's important, but on another I craved more of that raw emotion that comes with war. I wanted to feel like the characters were in desperate situations and instead I felt like they were just going through the motions... riding the boat, sitting on the bed, stripping down... Where were the heart breaking scenes of turmoil? And also, why didn't we get more info on the paper that Hermann worked at... I guess looking at the book as a whole I just need to settle on a 3. I wanted to love this one, but it needed better execution. ( )