In the final days of
Nazi Germany, the strength of one woman’s heart will determine the fate of a
family.
Prussia, 1945. The fall of the Third Reich is imminent. As the merciless Red Army advances from the
East, the German people of Prussia await
the worst.
Among them is twenty-year-old Gisela Cramer, an American living in Heiligenbeil with her cousin Ella and their ailing grandfather. When word arrives that the Russians will invade overnight, Ella urges Gisela to escape to Berlin – and take Ella’s two small daughters with
her.
Among them is twenty-year-old Gisela Cramer, an American living in Heiligenbeil with her cousin Ella and their ailing grandfather. When word arrives that the Russians will invade overnight, Ella urges Gisela to escape to Berlin – and take Ella’s two small daughters with
her.
The journey is miserable
and relentless. But when Gisela hears the British accent of a phony SS officer,
she poses as his wife to keep him safe among the indignant German refugees. In
the blink of an eye, Mitch Edwards and Gisela are Herr and Frau Joseph Cramer.
Through their tragic and
difficult journey, the fabricated couple strives to protect Ella’s daughters,
hoping against hope for a reunion. But even as Gisela and Mitch develop
feelings beyond the make-believe, the reality of war terrorizes their makeshift family.
With the world at its darkest, and the lives of two children at
stake, the counterfeit couple finds in each other a source of faith, hope, and the love they need to
survive.
I have this (bad) habit of peeking at the end of a book before digging into the beginning. So, when I first picked up Liz Tolsma’s Daises Are Forever, I found “The Story Behind the Story,” which explains the basis for the events of the novel on the harrowing World War II experiences of two very real and very courageous women. Wow. Knowing this made Tolsma’s narrative all the more realistic and shocking. Page after page, Tolsma’s words capture the horrors experienced by civilians during World War II, and I couldn’t stop reading, waiting for the glimmer of hope amidst the bleak hopelessness. Before Daisies Are Forever, I hadn’t read a book that dealt with the realities of the war along the German-Russian front, so I appreciate the new, vivid perspective Tolsma provided. I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone interested in historical fiction, especially within the World-War-II era, and I cannot wait to read more from Liz Tolsma. Thanks to BookLook Bloggers, I received a copy of this novel free in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own. (I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)
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